Minimally invasive coronary bypass: experience at the Erasme Hospital in 1997-1998

Since the launching of cardiopulmonary bypass in 1952 the landscape of cardiac surgery has been marked by a major milestone every ten years. Though most of the cardiopathies can be surgically treated with satisfactory results in up to 90% of the cases, we must try to improve the existing results. That means--Can we do better, cheaper and less invasive? Several new surgical approaches aiming at so doing are discussed in the present report: Minimally invasive direct coronary arterial bypass (MIDCAB) which is performed through a small anterior thoracotomy; Beating heart revascularization through sternotomy; Heart Port approach; Trans Myocardial Laser Revascularization (TMLR). Those new technologies respectively offer specific advantages to the existing therapies thus represent promising alternatives in selected subcategories of patients.     

Functional diversity and clonal frequencies of reactivity in the available antibody repertoire

Our objective was to determine the effect of level and chemical form of dietary selenium on productivity of beef cows, concentrations of triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) in plasma, and immunoglobulins (IgG and IgM) in plasma and colostrum of cows. Pregnant cows (n = 60) were randomly allocated among four dietary treatments of 20, 60, or 120 ppm Se as selenite and 60 ppm as selenomethionine from selenized yeast (SeY) in salts offered free-choice. Treatments began 90 d prepartum and continued through the second parturition. Treatments did not affect the final body weights of cows or birth weights or weaning weights of calves. At parturition, cows given salt with 20 ppm Se as selenite had lower (P < . 05) concentrations of Se in blood than cows with access to higher-Se salts. Treatments affected (P < .01) the concentration of T3 and the ratio of T3:T4 in plasma of cows. The concentration of T3 in plasma of cows with access to salt with 20 ppm Se was 14% lower than that in cows supplemented with 60 ppm Se as selenite or SeY. Plasma IgG in cows and calves, colostrum, and Se concentrations in colostrum, casein, and whey were lowest (P < .01) for cows given salt with only 20 ppm Se. Thus, salts with concentrations of 60 and 120 ppm Se improved measures of Se status in cows and calves. Consideration should be given to the concentrations of T3 and IgG when determining the nutritional requirements for Se in cattle.     

Composition and antimalarial activity in vitro of volatile components of Lippia multiflora

The essential oil of Lippia multiflora was prepared by hydrodistillation of leaves and stalks and characterized by GC and mass spectroscopy. The oil was tested for antimalarial activity on in vitro cultures of Plasmodium falciparum (FcB1-Columbia chloroquine-resistant strain and F32-Tanzania chloroquine-sensitive strain). The dilutions inhibiting the in vitro growth of the parasite by 50% 24 and 72 hr after administration of the essential oil to the parasite culture were 1/12,000 and 1/21,000, respectively. When tested on a highly synchronized culture, the essential oil inhibited growth mostly at the trophozoite-schizont step, indicating a potential effect on the first nuclear division of the parasite.     

Trypanosoma cruzi genotypes associated with domestic Triatoma sordida in Bolivia

Triatoma sordida is the second species of Triatominae considered of epidemiological significance in Bolivia. Associated with Triatoma infestans in various regions, it is as yet the only triatomine species established in human dwellings in localities of Velasco province, Department of Santa Cruz. This domestication is considered as primary. Flagellate parasites were detected in 16.2% of domiciliary T. sordida and the kDNA-PCR confirmed the presence of Trypanosoma cruzi. Frequencies of T. cruzi clonets 20 and 39, common clonets in Bolivian domestic cycle (T. infestans), were established by their direct detection in feces using PCR and hybridization. These clonets present low frequencies in T. sordida and synanthropic mammals. Forty-six stocks were isolated and analysed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE). The MLEE showed a higher clonal diversity than in T. infestans domestic cycle and the genotypes were clustered in the two principal lineages of T. cruzi. Within each lineage, a broad variability was observed. Mixture of genotypes was mostly observed in mammals. The large diversity of T. cruzi in this cycle should be related to its sylvatic origin. Moreover, the current limited sample of stocks suggests a lineage association with specific hosts.     

What can you verify and enforce at runtime?

The underlying property, its definition, and representation play a major role when monitoring a system. Having a suitable and convenient framework to express properties is thus a concern for runtime analysis. It is desirable to delineate in this framework the sets of properties for which runtime analysis approaches can be applied to. This paper presents a unified view of runtime verification and enforcement of properties in the Safety-Progress classification. First, we extend the Safety-Progress classification of properties in a runtime context. Second, we characterize the set of properties which can be verified (monitorable properties) and enforced (enforceable properties) at runtime. We propose in particular an alternative definition of ??property monitoring?? to the one classically used in this context. Finally, for the delineated sets of properties, we define specialized verification and enforcement monitors.     

Deformation of NiO single crystals below room temperature: dislocation configurations

NiO single crystals prepared by two crystal growth techniques (zone melting in an arc-image furnace and Verneuil crystallization have been deformed by compression along 001 at temperatures as low as 4.2 K, and the dislocation substructure observed by transmission electron microscopy. The Peierls mechanism has been suggested as the mechanism controlling the mechanical behaviour at the lower temperatures. The dislocations generated at cavities found in the zone-melted crystals may be responsible for the increase of the flow stress of these crystals compared with the Verneuil ones.     

PGRP-LB: An Inside View into the Mechanism of the Amidase Reaction

Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) are ubiquitous among animals and play pivotal functions in insect immunity. Non-catalytic PGRPs are involved in the activation of immune pathways by binding to the peptidoglycan (PGN), whereas amidase PGRPs are capable of cleaving the PGN into non-immunogenic compounds. Drosophila PGRP-LB belongs to the amidase PGRPs and downregulates the immune deficiency (IMD) pathway by cleaving meso-2,6-diaminopimelic (meso-DAP or DAP)-type PGN. While the recognition process is well analyzed for the non-catalytic PGRPs, little is known about the enzymatic mechanism for the amidase PGRPs, despite their essential function in immune homeostasis. Here, we analyzed the specific activity of different isoforms of Drosophila PGRP-LB towards various PGN substrates to understand their specificity and role in Drosophila immunity. We show that these isoforms have similar activity towards the different compounds. To analyze the mechanism of the amidase activity, we performed site directed mutagenesis and solved the X-ray structures of wild-type Drosophila PGRP-LB and its mutants, with one of these structures presenting a protein complexed with the tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), a muropeptide derived from the PGN. Only the Y78F mutation abolished the PGN cleavage while other mutations reduced the activity solely. Together, our findings suggest the dynamic role of the residue Y78 in the amidase mechanism by nucleophilic attack through a water molecule to the carbonyl group of the amide function destabilized by Zn²⁺.     

“Modification V” of poly 4-methylpentene-1 from cyclopentane solutions and gels

A new crystalline structure of poly 4-methylpentene-1 (P4MP1), modiification named modification V, is obtained from cyclopentane solutions and gels, for polymer volume fractions between 0.01 and 0.10. The effect of the thermal history imparted to the solution is analyzed. The relation between gelation, polymorphism and existence of helical conformations of P4MP1 in solution is discussed. Modification V is tentatively indexed on the basis of an hexagonal unit cell with dimensions a = 22.17 ± 0.14 Å and c = 6.69 ±0.02 Å. The crystal transforms into modification I at 130 ± 5°C, the heat of transition being + 15 ±2 J.g^?1.     

SEM study of the growth of electrochemically obtained polyselenophene thin films. Effect of electrolyte and monomer concentration in acetonitrile

Summary The influence of electrolyte and monomer concentration on properties and morphology of electrochemically obtained polyselenophene films doped and undoped with hexafluorophosphate and tetrafluoroborate anions was analyzed. The films were deposited on SnO₂-coated glass in a classical three-electrode cell from the monomer and the electrolyte in anhydrous acetonitrile.The electrochemical growth of polyselenophene thin films was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The morphology study revealed different three- dimensional (3D) and bidimensional (2D) growth, depending on monomer and electrolyte concentration.