Anti-reflux surgery in children with congenital diaphragmatic hernia: A prospective cohort study on a controversial practice.

Introduction: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the most frequent long-term morbidity of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) survivors. Performing a preventive fundoplication during CDH repair remains controversial. This study aimed to: (1) Analyze the variability in practices regarding preventive fundoplication; (2) Identify predictive factors for fundoplication.

Esophageal Atresia and Respiratory Morbidity.

Background And Objectives: Respiratory diseases are common in children with esophageal atresia (EA), leading to increased morbidity and mortality in the first year. The primary study objective was to identify the factors associated with readmissions for respiratory causes in the first year in EA children.

Methods: A population-based study.

Novel approach for parallelizing pairwise comparison problems as applied to detecting segments identical by decent in whole-genome data.

Motivation: Pairwise comparison problems arise in many areas of science. In genomics, datasets are already large and getting larger, and so operations that require pairwise comparisons-either on pairs of SNPs or pairs of individuals-are extremely computationally challenging. We propose a generic algorithm for addressing pairwise comparison problems that breaks a large problem (of order n2 comparisons) into multiple smaller ones (each of order n comparisons), allowing for massive parallelization.

Management of lower urinary tract fibroepithelial polyps in children.

Introduction: Fibroepithelial polyps (FEP) of the lower urinary tract are relatively common in adults but rare in children, with fewer than 250 cases reported in the literature to date.

Objective: The aim of this study was to address the experience of FEP management in children.

Study Design: A retrospective multicenter review was undertaken in children with defined FEP of the lower urinary tract managed between 2008 and 2018.

Monitoring of explosive residues in lake-bottom water using Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) and chemcatcher: determination of transfer kinetics through Polyethersulfone (PES) membrane is crucial.

Between 1920 and 1967, approximatively 8200 tons of ammunition waste were dumped into some Swiss lakes. This study is part of the extensive historical and technical investigations performed since 1995 by Swiss authorities to provide a risk assessment. It aims to assess whether explosive monitoring by passive sampling is feasible in lake-bottom waters.

From Optimization to Mapping: An Evolutionary Algorithm for Protein Energy Landscapes.

Stochastic search is often the only viable option to address complex optimization problems. Recently, evolutionary algorithms have been shown to handle challenging continuous optimization problems related to protein structure modeling. Building on recent work in our laboratories, we propose an evolutionary algorithm for efficiently mapping the multi-basin energy landscapes of dynamic proteins that switch between thermodynamically stable or semi-stable structural states to regulate their biological activity in the cell.

Computing energy landscape maps and structural excursions of proteins.

Background: Structural excursions of a protein at equilibrium are key to biomolecular recognition and function modulation. Protein modeling research is driven by the need to aid wet laboratories in characterizing equilibrium protein dynamics. In principle, structural excursions of a protein can be directly observed via simulation of its dynamics, but the disparate temporal scales involved in such excursions make this approach computationally impractical.

Long-term functional renal outcomes after retroperitoneoscopic upper pole heminephrectomy for duplex kidney in children: a multicenter cohort study.

Background: Retroperitoneoscopic upper pole heminephrectomy (RUHN) in duplex kidney in children remains a challenging procedure with a need for postoperative functional assessment of the remnant lower pole. We aimed to calculate the incidence of long-term functional renal outcomes in these children and examine the effect of age on those outcomes.

Methods: A multicenter retrospective cohort study of 9 years included all patients undergoing RUHN and evaluated by renal ultrasound (US) and dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scintigraphy pre and postoperatively.

Ant colony optimisation of decision tree and contingency table models for the discovery of gene-gene interactions.

In this study, ant colony optimisation (ACO) algorithm is used to derive near-optimal interactions between a number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This approach is used to discover small numbers of SNPs that are combined into a decision tree or contingency table model. The ACO algorithm is shown to be very robust as it is proven to be able to find results that are discriminatory from a statistical perspective with logical interactions, decision tree and contingency table models for various numbers of SNPs considered in the interaction.

Differential Involvement of the Dentate Gyrus in Adaptive Forgetting in the Rat.

How does the brain discriminate essential information aimed to be stored permanently from information required only temporarily, and that needs to be cleared away for not saturating our precious memory space? Reference Memory (RM) refers to the long-term storage of invariable information whereas Working Memory (WM) depends on the short-term storage of trial-unique information. Previous work has revealed that WM tasks are very sensitive to proactive interference. In order to prevent such interference, irrelevant old memories must be forgotten to give new ones the opportunity to be stabilized.

Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia Induces Chronic Low-Grade Neuroinflammation in the Dorsal Hippocampus of Mice.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) induces cognitive impairment that involves intermittent hypoxia (IH). Because OSA is recognized as a low-grade systemic inflammatory disease and only some patients develop cognitive deficits, we investigated whether IH-related brain consequences shared similar pathophysiology and required additional factors such as systemic inflammation to develop.

Design: Nine-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were exposed to 1 day, 6 or 24 w of IH (alternating 21-5% FiO2 every 30 sec, 8 h/day) or normoxia.

Management of simple renal cyst in children: French multicenter experience of 36 cases and review of the literature.

Objective: The widespread use of renal ultrasonography has resulted in simple renal cysts (SRC) being discovered with increasing frequency in routine pediatric urological practice. Management of SRC, however, remains controversial. Most SRC are asymptomatic, are diagnosed incidentally, and have no clinical consequence.

Animal models of REM dysfunctions: what they tell us about the cause of narcolepsy and RBD?

Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia characterized by the loss of muscle atonia during paradoxical (REM) sleep (PS). Conversely, cataplexy, one of the key symptoms of narcolepsy, is a striking sudden episode of muscle weakness triggered by emotions during wakefulness, and comparable to REM sleep atonia. The neuronal dysfunctions responsible for RBD and cataplexy are not known.

A methodology to event reconstruction from trace images.

The widespread use of digital imaging devices for surveillance (CCTV) and entertainment (e.g., mobile phones, compact cameras) has increased the number of images recorded and opportunities to consider the images as traces or documentation of criminal activity.

[Does prenatal diagnosis modify neonatal management and early outcome of children with esophageal atresia type III?].

Objective: Evaluate neonatal management and outcome of neonates with either a prenatal or a post-natal diagnosis of EA type III.

Study Design: Population-based study using data from the French National Register for EA from 2008 to 2010. We compared children with prenatal versus post-natal diagnosis in regards to prenatal, maternal and neonatal characteristics.

Inguinal hernia in premature boys: should we systematically explore the contralateral side?

Objective: Bilateral surgery has been largely advocated in premature boys with unilateral inguinal hernia owing to the high incidence of contralateral patent processus vaginalis. Recently, the potential morbidity of herniotomy in low birth-weight babies and the progress in pediatric anesthesia questioned this attitude. This study aims to evaluate the incidence of contralateral metachronous hernia in a large series of premature boys and to compare the morbidity of preventive versus elective surgery.

[Maternal-fetal surgery for spina bifida: future perspectives].

Open spina bifida or myelomeningocele (MMC) is a frequent congenital abnormality (450 cases per year in France) associated with high morbidity. Immediate postnatal surgery is aimed at covering the exposed spinal cord, preventing infection, treating hydrocephalus with a ventricular shunt. MMC surgical techniques haven't achieved any major progress in the past decades.

Unilateral pulmonary agenesis: a report of four cases, two diagnosed antenatally and literature review.

Pulmonary agenesis is a rare congenital malformation of lung development defined as complete absence of lung tissues, bronchi, and pulmonary vessels; it may be uni- or bilateral. The right-sided form carries the poorest prognosis due to severity of co-existent anomalies. Its diagnostic circumstances are variables: first reported cases were diagnosed at autopsy, but early postnatal as well as fortuitous discovery have been reported.

[Cryptorchidism: guidelines for surgical management].

Cryptorchidism is one of the commonest congenital anomalies in the male genitalia, affecting 3 to 5% of male full-term neonates. It is a known cause of infertility associated with a greater risk of development of germ cell tumor. The benefits of early orchidopexy include psychological affects, prevention of testicular degeneration and decrease in the risk of testicular cancer.

Esophageal atresia: data from a national cohort.

Purpose: A prospective national register was established in 2008 to record all new cases of live-birth newborns with esophageal atresia (EA). This epidemiological survey was recommended as part of a national rare diseases plan.

Methods: All 38 national centers treating EA participated by completing for each patient at first discharge a questionnaire validated by a national committee of experts.

The lateral hypothalamic area controls paradoxical (REM) sleep by means of descending projections to brainstem GABAergic neurons.

It has recently been shown that the ventrolateral part of the periaqueductal gray (VLPAG) and the adjacent dorsal deep mesencephalic nucleus (dDpMe) contain GABAergic neurons gating paradoxical sleep (PS) onset by means of their projection to the glutamatergic PS-on neurons of the sublaterodorsal tegmental nucleus (SLD). To determine the mechanisms responsible for the cessation of activity of these GABAergic PS-off neurons at the onset and during PS, we combined the immunostaining of c-FOS, a marker of neuronal activation, with cholera toxin b subunit (CTb) retrograde tracing from the VLPAG/dDpMe in three groups of rats (control, PS deprived, and PS hypersomniac). We found that the lateral hypothalamic area (LH) is the only brain structure containing a very large number of neurons activated during PS hypersomnia and projecting to the VLPAG/dDpMe.