Vitamin A deficiency and nocturnal vision in teenagers with cystic fibrosis

The aim of this study was to document plasma retinol status and nocturnal vision in ten eutrophic adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) receiving daily retinol supplementation. Plasma retinol, alpha and beta carotenes and retinol binding protein were measured in ten clinically stable CF patients (mean age: 14.3 years; Shwachman score: 80-100). Nocturnal vision evaluation was performed with a Beyne optometer. Plasma retinol (mean 0.42 +/- 0.16 mg/l), alpha carotene and beta carotene levels were below the lower limit of normal in all but one patient. Five out of ten patients with normal standard opthalmological examination presented a poor (n = 3 patients) or a pathological (n = 2) dark adaptation test. These two patients showed a dramatic increase in nocturnal vision after 1 year of adapted retinol supplementation. CONCLUSION: Low vitamin A levels occur frequently in clinically stable, eutrophic and retinol supplemented CF adolescents. Since vitamin A deficiency is associated with poor nocturnal vision and since this pattern can be reversed by adapted retinol supplementation, we recommend monitoring plasma vitamin A levels in CF patients and evaluation of dark adaptation in retinol deficient patients.     

High-speed tandem of MQW modulators for coded pulse generation with 14-dB fiber-to-fiber gain

We report on a tandem of electroabsorption modulators integrated with an amplifier by the identical active layer (IAL) approach. A 14 dB fiber-to-fiber is obtained by the use of constant As-P ratio MQW active layer and operation at 10 Gb/s is demonstrated. A record modulator saturation power of 35 mW is also reported.     

Mapping the elicitor and necrotic sites of Phytophthora elicitins with synthetic peptides and reporter genes controlled by tobacco defense gene promoters

Elicitins are 10-kDa proteins secreted by Phytophthora and Pythium fungi that elicit a hypersensitive-like necrotic reaction, leading to resistance against fungal and bacterial plant pathogens. Induction of necrosis and resistance were previously shown to be borne by different sites of the molecule. Furthermore, sequence comparison indicated several potential residues necessary for necrosis. The role of one of these residues was previously evidenced with site-directed mutagenesis. In order to locate other necrosis-determining sites and reveal the defense-eliciting sites, we synthesized a series of synthetic peptides. Tests were performed on two types of transgenic tobacco plants, both transformed with a construction containing the beta-glucuronidase reporter gene, in one case controlled by the promoter of the multiple stimulus response gene str 246C and in the other by the promoter of the pathogenesis-related gene PR1a. We report that only certain peptides were found to be active. Whereas PR1a induction was consistently correlated with induction of necrosis, four peptides were observed to induce only str 246C expression without necrosis, which led to differentiate the defense-eliciting sites from the necrotic sites. From the structure-function relationship thus obtained, two different defense pathways were inferred to be independently induced by elicitins.     

On the automatic online collection of training data for visual event modeling

The last decade has witnessed the development and uprising of social media web services. The use of these shared online media as a source of huge amount of data for research purposes is still a challenging problem. In this paper, a novel framework is proposed to collect training samples from online media data to model the visual appearance of social events automatically. The visual training samples are collected through the analysis of the spatial and temporal context of media data and events. While collecting positive samples can be achieved easily thanks to dedicated event machine-tags, finding the most representative negative samples from the vast amount of irrelevant multimedia documents is a more challenging task. Here, we argue and demonstrate that the most common negative samples, originating from the same location as the event to be modeled, are best suited for the task. A novel ranking approach is devised to automatically select a set of negative samples. Finally the automatically collected samples are used to learn visual event models using Support Vector Machine (SVM). The resulting event models are effective to filter out irrelevant photos and perform with a high accuracy as demonstrated on various social events originating for various categories of events.     

Dynamic behaviour of an electrolyser with a two phase solid-liquid electrolyte Part II: Investigation of elementary phenomena and electrode modelling

The dynamic behaviour of an electrolyser with a two phase solid-liquid electrolyte was investigated. In a previous paper some results were obtained with high particle concentrations by means of spectral analysis of the electrolyte resistance fluctuations and of the potential fluctuations. Here low bead concentrations were used. This allows potential and electrolyte resistance transients to be well separated and to be studied in the time domain. This analysis gives a detailed view of the approach and residence of the beads near the collector, and a quantitative estimation of the ohmic drop effect for insulating and conductive beads. Ohmic drop fluctuations account for the potential fluctuations for insulating glass beads. Zinc beads behave as insulating particles in the low frequency range and generate a similar ohmic drop effect. They behave as conducting particles in the high frequency range and the fast charge exchange induces depolarizing pulses which favour the formation of compact zinc deposits on the current collector. From the analysis of both transients and PSDs of the electrolyte resistance and potential fluctuations, the mean percentage of the particles colliding with the collector has been estimated even for high bead concentrations.     

Do older adults underestimate their actual computer knowledge?

This work examined the hypothesis that elderly people are less confident than young people in their own computer knowledge. This was done by having 49 young (M = 22.6 years) and 42 older (M = 68.6 years) participants to assess their global self-efficacy beliefs and to make item-by-item prospective (feeling-of-knowing: FOK) and retrospective (confidence level: CL) judgments about their knowledge in the two domains of computers and general knowledge. The latter served as a control domain. Item difficulty was equated across age groups in each domain. In spite of this age equivalence in actual performance, differences were found in FOK and CL ratings for computers but not for general knowledge, with older people being less confident than young people in their own computer knowledge. The greater age difference in ratings observed in the computer domain, as compared with the general domain, was even greater for the FOK than for the CL judgments. Statistical control of age differences in global self-efficacy beliefs in the computer domain (poorer in the older participants, but not in the general domain), eliminated age differences in FOK and CL judgments in the same domain. These findings confirm earlier ones. They suggest that underconfidence in their relevant abilities is one possible source of the difficulties that the elderly may encounter in mastering new computer technologies.     

Analysis of DNA Replication by Optical Mapping in Nanochannels

DNA replication is essential to maintain genome integrity in S phase of the cell division cycle. Accumulation of stalled replication forks is a major source of genetic instability, and likely constitutes a key driver of tumorigenesis. The mechanisms of regulation of replication fork progression have therefore been extensively investigated, in particular with DNA combing, an optical mapping technique that allows the stretching of single molecules and the mapping of active region for DNA synthesis by fluorescence microscopy. DNA linearization in nanochannels has been successfully used to probe genomic information patterns along single chromosomes, and has been proposed to be a competitive alternative to DNA combing. Yet this conjecture remains to be confirmed experimentally. Here, two complementary techniques are established to detect the genomic distribution of tracks of newly synthesized DNA in human cells by optical mapping in nanochannels. Their respective advantages and limitations are compared, and applied them to detect deregulations of the replication program induced by the antitumor drug hydroxyurea. The developments here thus broaden the field of applications accessible to nanofluidic technologies, and can be used in the future as part for molecular diagnostics in the context of high throughput cancer drug screening.     

Long-Term Measurements of Equilibrium Factor and Unattached Fraction of Short-Lived Radon Decay Products in a Dwelling - Comparison with Praddo Model

According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR 1993), the dose due to the inhalation of radon decay products represents almost 50% of the total natural radiation dose to the general population. The scientific community is interested in the assessment of the risk induced by domestic radon exposure. The dosimetric models used to estimate the dose are very sensitive to unattached fraction and size distributions, which makes the characterization of the indoor radon decay products aerosol necessary. For this purpose, longterm measurements of unattached fraction (f_p ) and equilibrium factor (F) were taken in a dwelling under typical indoor domestic aerosol conditions. An original device consisting of an annular diffusion channel set in parallel with an open filter was developed and calibrated to continuously measure the unattached fraction. Moreover, radon activity concentration and particle concentration were simultaneously monitored. With aged aerosol, particle concentration was found to be very low (between 500 and 5000 cm^-3), radon activity concentration ranged from 240 to 2800 Bq m^-3, and the mean values of f_p and F were, respectively, 0.31 (0.08-0.67) and 0.16 (0.04-0.45). With aerosol sources, the high increase in particle concentration led to a negligible unattached fraction and raised the equilibrium factor. A correlation relationship was determined between these two parameters under different aerosol conditions. Finally,our experimental results were compared to results obtained with the PRADDO model; this comparison showed a good agreement between these two different approaches.     

Coupled size and boundary-condition effects in viscoelastic heterogeneous and composite bodies

Previous results of the author on the influence of size and boundary-conditions on the apparent properties of elastic heterogeneous materials are recalled and extended to the viscoelastic case. Materials with random microstructures, possibly with anisotropy, defects or damage, are considered. In place of the classical concept of effective properties, which holds for the representative volume only, the concept of apparent properties is recalled. It makes use of special kinds of boundary-conditions and appropriate stochastic averages for which the required Hill condition is still valid while the ergodic assumption – legitimating the use of the concept of equivalent homogeneous medium – is relaxed. Statistical apparent properties are defined on various partitions of a given initial specimen D₀ into a set of coarse specimens on the one hand, and of smaller specimens on the other hand. The boundary-condition and size-effects hierarchies derived in Huet (1990. Journal of Mechanical Physics and Solids 38, 813; 1997. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, (special issue) 58 (5–6) 459) are recalled. Examples of numerical verification by micromechanical simulations are shown using 3D finite element models of elastic granular composites. Some salient features of the viscoelastic behavior of non-metallic construction materials used in civil engineering are recalled. 3D simulations on viscoelastic micromechanical models are also shown, with results exhibiting trends similar to the elastic case and for which theoretical justification and generalisation is seeked in the paper. Use is made of a Statistical Continuum Thermodynamics approach through which the concept of equivalent homogeneous medium and effective properties is first discussed for materials with constituents having dissipative constitutive equations of any kind and from which natural definitions of dissipative potential and complementary energies are derived. Dissipative extensions of the so-called Hill condition are obtained. Then, new minimum theorems for viscoelasticity are derived from a slight modification of the pseudo-convolutive procedure used in Huet (1992. European Journal of Mechanics, A/Solids 5 (11) 653; In: Bazant, Z.P., Carol, I. (Eds.), Creep and Shrinkage of Concrete. Spon, London, pp. 189–200). From this, theoretical bounds and size-effect hierarchies on the statistical viscoelastic stiffness and compliance function tensors and their rates are obtained in the time domain. It is found that viscoelastic heterogeneous bodies smaller than the representative volume exhibit, for the two classes of uniform boundary-conditions, the same kind of size-effects as the elastic ones. Possible extensions to other kinds of time-dependent physical properties are quoted.     

Prevention of hypoxemia-induced renal dysfunction by perindoprilat in the rabbit

The role of angiotensin II, a potent postglomerular vasoconstrictor, in the hypoxemia-induced renal changes is still controversial. The ability of perindoprilat, an angiotensin converting-enzyme inhibitor, to prevent the acute renal effects of hypoxemia was assessed in 22 anesthetized-ventilated rabbits. In 8 untreated rabbits, hypoxemia induced a significant drop in mean blood pressure (MBP) (-12 +/- 2%), glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (-16 +/- 3%) and renal blood flow (RBF) (-12 +/- 3%) with a concomittant increase in renal vascular resistance (RVR) (+18 +/- 5%) and urine flow rate (+33 +/- 14%), and without any changes in filtration fraction (FF) (-4 +/- 2%). This suggests the occurrence of glomerular vasoconstriction during the hypoxemic stress. In 7 normoxemic rabbits, intravenous perindoprilat (20 microg/kg) induced an increase in urine flow rate (+17 +/- 4%) and RBF (+17 +/- 4%), and a decrease in MBP (-6 +/- 1%), RVR (-14 +/- 3%) and FF (-11 +/- 2%) without a significant change in GFR. The drop in FF and the increase in RBF suggests preferential postglomerular vasodilatation. In 7 rabbits, perindoprilat prevented the occurence of the hypoxemia-induced changes in RBF and RVR without improving MBP. FF decreased significantly (-18 +/- 2%), while the drop in GFR (-7 +/- 2%) was partially blunted and the increase in urine flow rate (+25 +/- 9%) was confirmed. These results could be explained by the inhibition of the angiotensin-mediated efferent vasoconstriction and by the inhibition of bradykinin degradation by perindoprilat. These data confirm the ability of converting-enzyme inhibitors to prevent the renal hypoperfusion induced by acute hypoxemia.