A story of two transitions: From adhesive to abrasive wear and from ductile to brittle regime.

Atomistic simulations performed with a family of model potential with tunable hardness have proven to be a great tool for advancing the understanding of wear processes at the asperity level. They have been instrumental in finding a critical length scale, which governs the ductile to brittle transition in adhesive wear, and further helped in the understanding of the relation between tangential work and wear rate or how self-affine surfaces emerge in three-body wear. However, so far, the studies were mostly limited to adhesive wear processes where the two surfaces in contact are composed of the same material.

Gene expression in thyroid autonomous adenomas provides insight into their physiopathology.

The purpose of this study was to use the microarray technology to define expression profiles characteristic of thyroid autonomous adenomas and relate these findings to physiological mechanisms. Experiments were performed on a series of separated adenomas and their normal counterparts on Micromax cDNA microarrays covering 2400 genes (analysis I), and on a pool of adenomatous tissues and their corresponding normal counterparts using microarrays of 18,000 spots (analysis II). Results for genes present on the two arrays corroborated and several gene regulations previously determined by Northern blotting or microarrays in similar lesions were confirmed.

Absence of a specific radiation signature in post-Chernobyl thyroid cancers.

Thyroid cancers have been the main medical consequence of the Chernobyl accident. On the basis of their pathological features and of the fact that a large proportion of them demonstrate RET-PTC translocations, these cancers are considered as similar to classical sporadic papillary carcinomas, although molecular alterations differ between both tumours. We analysed gene expression in post-Chernobyl cancers, sporadic papillary carcinomas and compared to autonomous adenomas used as controls.

Nephritic factor of the classical pathway of complement: immunoglobulin G autoantibody directed against the classical pathway C3 convetase enzyme.

A factor, functionally characterized by its capacity to stabilize the normally labile classical pathway C3-converting complex of the classical pathway of complement, has been isolated from the serum of one patient with a case of acute glomerulonephritis, subsequent to a cutaneous infection. The factor confers long-lived stabilization of classical pathway C3 convertase complexes formed both in the solid (sensitized sheep erythrocytes bearing activated C1 and the classical pathway C3 convertase) and fluid phase. The half-life of such stabilized C3-cleaving enzymes extended beyond several hours at 37 degrees C.