L'évaluation des relations parents-enfants.

Parents have an influence on the evolution of their child and his/her successes in school, sports or music. Their support by example is critical. Some of their behaviours can also have a negative impact. Research aiming at better defining parents/child relations and their influence on the successes and the well-being of the child is needed. To this end, the use of a questionnaire is profitable. But there are few valid tools available in French. The existing tools do not focus on the evaluation of essential dimensions of child development. To palliate this deficiency, this article aims at validating the QéRPE (Questionnaire d'évaluation des relations parents/enfant), the French translation of the EMBU (Egna Minnen Betr?ffende Uppfostran, Perris et al., 1980). It underscores the level of support, overprotection and reject felt by the child by his parents. It is applied here in a relation parents/sport. The factor pattern (exploratory and confirmatory analysis) and the internal consistency of the QéRPE have been tested, and an external validation has been made. Results show that the psychometrics quality of the QéRPE is very acceptable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heterogenous response of B lymphocytes to transforming growth factor-beta in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: correlation with the expression of TGF-beta receptors

We investigated the potential role of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) on spontaneous and cytokine-induced proliferation of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (B-CLL) cells in vitro. Purified B lymphocytes from 21 B-CLL patients were cultured for 5 d in the presence of medium alone, IL-2 and/or IL-10, in the presence or absence of TGF-beta, and proliferation was measured by 3H-thymidine incorporation. TGF-beta inhibited B-cell proliferation in the majority of patients (15/21) but no inhibition was detected in 6/21 patients whatever the type of stimulant used. Addition of neutralizing antibodies to TGF-beta increased spontaneous and cytokine-induced proliferation; this effect was dose dependent and specific because addition of an irrelevant chicken IgG had no effect on B-CLL proliferation. In resistant patients, neutralizing antibodies to TGF-beta did not increase the proliferation. The expression of TGF-beta receptors on B-CLL cells was significantly lower than the one observed on normal CD5+ B lymphocytes for which the sensitivity to TGF-beta inhibition was more marked than in CLL. In addition, we found a strong correlation between the response of leukaemic B cells to TGF-beta inhibitory action and the expression of TGF-beta receptors on these cells. In summary, TGF-beta appears to function in CLL as a negative regulator of B lymphocytes but loss of responsiveness to this factor accompanied by a decrease of TGF-beta receptor expression, might provide a selective advantage to B-CLL lymphocytes.     

Comments on "Controllability, Observability and Structural Identifiability of Multi Input and Multi Ouput Biological Compartmental Systems"

In a recent paper,1 a criterion of structural identifiability for a system of biological compartments was given. Two comments are here made which show, in particular, that the proposed criterion is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a finite number of solutions (not necessarily just one).     

On the use of the norm-coerciveness theorem in the identifiability problem of linear compartmental models

The identifiability of parameters in a model with known structure and no noise is the problem of accurate determination of the number of parameter space points which are solutions to the identification problem. Using the norm-coerciveness theorem, we demonstrate a result on global identifiability. We introduce the idea of a strong separator of the parameter space, which divides this space into various connected domains; in each of these domains there is one and only one solution to the problem of identification of parameters. To simplify the presentation, notations and examples of linear compartmental models are used here, but the main result (Theorem 3) is valid for all linear systems. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to use this result because the assumptions of this theorem are strong.     

Le questionnaire d'évaluation des relations parent/enfant (QéRPE): Une validation fran?aise de l'Egna Minnen Betr?ffende Uppfostran (EMBU).

Parents influence a child's development and his or her success in academic, sports or musical matters. Their support is essential for success. However, some of their behaviours may also have a negative impact. We need to better define parent/child relationships and their influence on the success and well-being of the child. Questionnaires are helpful in this respect, but few valid tools in French exist. Those available do not focus on evaluating dimensions central to child development. This article is aimed at validating the French translation of the EMBU questionnaire (Egna Minnen Betr?ffende Uppfostran, Perris, Jacobsson, Lindstr??m, von Knorring & Perris, 1980), the Questionnaire d'évaluation des relations parents/enfant (QéRPE), Questionnaire to Evaluate Parent/Child Relationships. It assesses the levels of parental support, overprotection and rejection experienced by children. We applied it to relationships between parents and sports-lovers. We tested the factorial structure (exploratory and confirmatory analyses) and the internal consistency of the QéRPE, and conducted external validation. Our results demonstrated that the psychometric qualities of the QéRPE are very acceptable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increased myocardial muscarinic receptor density in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy: an in vivo PET study

BACKGROUND: Congestive heart failure is associated with decreased stimulated myocardial adenylate cyclase activity, increased Gi-binding protein, attenuated parasympathetic tone, and increased modulation of beta-adrenergic inotropic left ventricular stimulation by parasympathetic agonists. Despite these abnormalities, changes in the density or affinity of ventricular muscarinic receptors have not been demonstrated in patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: The density and affinity constants of myocardial muscarinic receptors were evaluated noninvasively by means of positron emission tomography with 11C-MQNB (methylquinuclidinyl benzilate), a specific hydrophilic antagonist, in 20 patients with congestive heart failure due to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (mean left ventricular ejection fraction, 22+/-9%) and compared with values in 12 normal subjects. The mean receptor concentration was significantly higher in patients than in control subjects (B'max, 34.5+/-8.9 versus 25+/-7.7 pmol/mL, P<.005), with no changes in affinity constants. The change in heart rate after injection of 0.6 mg of cold MQNB was lower in patients than in control subjects (34+/-20% versus 55+/-36%, P<.05), and receptor density correlated negatively with maximal heart rate in the patients (r=.45, P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Congestive heart failure is associated with an upregulation of myocardial muscarinic receptors. This may be an adaptive mechanism to beta-agonist stimulation and should increase the number of potential targets for pharmacological intervention.     

Reactivation of hepatitis B after transplantation in patients with pre-existing anti-hepatitis B surface antigen antibodies: report on three cases and review of the literature

The authors report the case of a 34 year old woman, admitted to hospital because of myocardial infarction two months after delivery of her fifth child. The infarction was caused by spontaneous dissection of the left main coronary and left anterior descending arteries. Twenty-three months later, the patient was well with medical therapy. This case is an example of spontaneous post-partum coronary dissection which is the commonest cause of infarction occurring in that period. The physiopathology of this complication is not fully understood. The prognosis is poor, lethal in two thirds of cases. However, it must be emphasised that coronary dissection may regress spontaneously. Patients were previously referred systematically for surgery, but now it is usually reserved for cases with persistent myocardial ischaemia despite medical therapy. Angioplasty may be preferred despite the risks and may be successful in some cases.     

An unusual case of clear-cell carcinoma of the pancreas

This case of clear-cell carcinoma of the pancreas was a rare for three reasons: a) discovery: the investigation was indicated after sudden digestive hemorrhage revealed by melena and anaemia; b) morphology: the tumour began in the head with a spheric tumoural bud and a pediculated extension into the duodenum; c) pathology a clear-cell tumour similar to the type seen in renal localizations. Only one other case of such a primitive tumour was found reported in the literature.