A patient-mounted robotic platform for CT-scan guided procedures

In this paper, we present a novel robotic assistant dedicated to medical interventions under computed tomography scan guidance. This compact and lightweight patient-mounted robot is designed so as to fulfill the requirements of most interventional radiology procedures. It is built from an original 5 DOF parallel structure with a semispherical workspace, particularly well suited to CT-scan interventional procedures. The specifications, the design, and the choice of compatible technological solutions are detailed. A preclinical evaluation is presented, with the registration of the robot in the CT-scan.     

The complete sequence of a 6794 bp segment located on the right arm of chromosome II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Finding of a putative dUTPase in a yeast

The DNA sequence of a 6794 bp fragment located at about 100 kb from the right telomere of chromosome II from Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been determined. Sequence analysis reveals five open reading frames. One is the ARO4 gene encoding the 3-deoxy-D -arabinoheptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase. Another presents strong homology with the S5 ribosomal protein from bacteria. The open reading frame YBR1705 shows significant homology with dUTPase, suggesting for the first time the existence of such an enzyme in S. cerevisiae.     

Reduction electro-chimique a l'electrode de mercure de composes α hydroxycarbonyles en solution aqueuse—III. composes du type R-CO-C(OH)2-R′, cas de la ninhydrine

At the dme, the first step of the reduction (2F mol^?1) of dihydroxy 2,2 indanedione 1,3 (ninhydrin $\text{1}$) consists in the reduction of the CO group adjacent to the aromatic nucleus in α position and yields tryhydroxy 1,2,2 indanone 3 ($\text{2}$).

$\text{2}$ is furthermore reduced according to an original pathway: the second two electrons transfer implies the cleavage of a C-O bond of the gem-diol group in β position. It results in the formation of the enediol tautomer reversibly oxidized according to the gross reaction:

Cyclic voltammetry enables the determination of ε′^o (ε′^o = ?190 mV at pH = 3.00).A similar process was previously observed in the case of phenyl glyoxal and rhodizonic acid. So it can be concluded that the reduction of organic compounds bearing a —COC(OH)₂— group involves the same process.Whenever introduction of a third carbonyl group (—COC(OH₂CO—) results in change of mechanism. The presence of such a group increases the reactivity of the median carbonyl to nucleophilic addition, in particular to hydration, and then the CO bond cleavage cannot occur.     

RGD1 genetically interacts with MID2 and SLG1, encoding two putative sensors for cell integrity signalling in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The RGD1 gene was identified during systematic genome sequencing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To further understand Rgd1p function, we set up a synthetic lethal screen for genes interacting with RGD1. Study of one lethal mutant made it possible to identify the SLG1 and MID2 genes. The gene SLG1/HCS77/WSC1 was mutated in the original synthetic lethal strain, whereas MID2/SMS1 acted as a monocopy suppressor. The SLG1 gene has been described to be an upstream component in the yeast PKC pathway and encodes a putative cell surface sensor for the activation of cell integrity signalling. First identified by viability loss of shmoos after pheromone exposure, and since found in different genetic screens, MID2 was recently reported as also encoding an upstream activator of the PKC pathway. The RGD1 gene showed genetic interactions with both sensors of cell integrity pathway. The rgd1 slg1 synthetic lethality was rescued by osmotic stabilization, as expected for mutants altered in cell wall integrity. The slight viability defect of rgd1 in minimal medium, which was exacerbated by mid2, was not osmoremediated. As for mutants altered in PKC pathway, the accumulation of small-budded dead cells in slg1, rgd1 and mid2 after heat shock was prevented by 1 M sorbitol. In addition, the rgd1 strain also displayed dead shmoos after pheromone treatment, like mid2. Taken together, the present results indicate close functional links between RGD1, MID2 and SLG1 and suggest that RGD1 and MID2 interact in a cell integrity signalling functionally linked to the PKC pathway.     

A structured light vision system for out-of-plane vibration frequencies location of a moving web

In this paper, we address the problem of the detection of out-of-plane web vibrations by means of a single camera and a laser dots pattern device. We have been motivated by the important economical impact of web vibrations phenomena which occur in winding/unwinding systems. Among many sources of disturbances, out-of-plane vibrations of an elastic moving web are well-known to be one of the most limiting factors for the velocity in the web transport industry.The new technique we proposed for the contact-less estimation of out-of-plane web vibration properties and during the winding process is the main contribution of this work. As far as we know, this is the first time a technique is proposed to evaluate the vibrations of a moving web with a camera. Vibration frequencies are estimated from distance variations of a web cross-section with respect to the camera.Experiments have been performed on a winding plant for elastic fabric with a web width of 10 cm. Distances from the web surface to the camera have been estimated all along an image sequence and the most significant frequencies have been extracted from the variations of this signal (forced and free vibrations) and compared to those provided with strain gauges and also with a simple elastic string model, in motion.     

Real-time structured light coding for adaptive patterns

Coded structured light is a technique that allows the 3D reconstruction of poorly or non-textured scene areas. With the codes uniquely associated with visual primitives of the projected pattern, the correspondence problem is quickly solved by means of local information only, with robustness against disturbances like high surface curvatures, partial occlusions, out-of-field of view or out-of-focus. Real-time 3D reconstruction with one shot is possible with pseudo-random arrays, where the encoding is done in a single pattern using spatial neighbourhood. To correct more mismatched visual primitives and to get patterns globally more robust, a higher Hamming distance between all the used codewords should be suited. Recent works in the structured light field have shown a growing interest for adaptive patterns. These can account for geometrical or spectral specificities of the scene to provide better features matching and reconstructions. Up till today, such patterns cannot benefit from the robustness offered by spatial neighbourhood coding with a minimal Hamming distance constraint, because the existing algorithms for such a class of coding are designed with an offline coding only. In this article, we show that due to two new contributions, a mixed exploration/exploitation search behaviour and a O(n ²) to ～O(n) complexity reduction using the epipolar constraint, the real-time coding of patterns having similar properties than those coded offline can be achieved. This allows to design a complete closed-loop processing pipeline for adaptive patterns.     

XIV. Yeast sequencing reports. The sequence of a 44 420 bp fragment located on the left arm of chromosome XIV from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We have determined the complete nucleotide sequence of a 44 420 bp DNA fragment from chromosome XIV of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The sequence data revealed 23 open reading frames (ORFs) larger than 300 bp, covering 73·5% of the sequence. The ORFs N2418, N2441, N2474 and N2480 correspond to previously sequenced S. cerevisiae genes coding respectively for the mitochondrial import protein Mas5, the nucleolar protein Nop2, the outer mitochondrial membrane porin Por1, the cytochrome c oxidase polypeptide VA precursor CoxA and the yeast protein tyrosine phosphatase Msg5. Translation products of three other ORFs N2406, N2411 and N2430 exhibit similarity to previously known S. cerevisiae proteins: the ribosomal protein YL9A, the protein Nca3 involved in the mitochondrial expression of subunits 6 and 8 of the ATP synthase and actin; in addition N2505 presents strong similarity to an ORF of chromosome IX. The predicted protein products of ORFs N2417 and N2403 present similarities with domains from proteins of other organisms: the Candida maltosa cycloheximide-resistance protein, the human interleukin enhancer-binding factor (ILF-2). The 12 remaining ORFs show no significant similarity to known proteins. In addition, we have detected a DNA region very similar to the yeast transposon Ty 1–15 of which insertion has disrupted a tRNA^Asp gene. The sequence has been deposited in the GenBank database with the Accession Number U12141.     

A Vision-Based Technique for Edge Displacement and Vibration Estimations of a Moving Flexible Web

Web vibration phenomena that occur in winding/unwinding systems have a knock-on economical effect for the numerous firms that utilize this equipment. Among many sources of disturbances, out-of-plane and lateral displacements of a moving web are well known to be two main limiting factors of web transport velocity in the industry. To tackle this problem, we address, in this paper, a new approach for the detection and monitoring of the most significant web displacements encountered, which are the simultaneous edge web lateral displacements and out-of-plane web vibrations. This technique involves a fast vision system composed of two digital cameras $(geq 2 times 100 hbox{i/s})$ and a laser stripe lines pattern device. It is a contactless technique that allows catching out-of-plane web vibration properties during the winding process. Due to a well-known edge-tracking algorithm and fast but simple image segmentation algorithms in the field of binary machine vision, both edge web and out-of-plane vibration frequencies and magnitudes are estimated in real time. The latter are extracted from the analysis of the relative depth variations of the web surface with respect to the common camera frame. Experiments have been conducted on a winding plant for elastic fabric. Together with the 3-D displacements of the web edges, the two most significant frequencies of web vibrations have been estimated for a sequence of images and compared with those computed with a simple elastic string model in motion.      

II. Yeast sequencing reports. Sequence analysis of a 31 kb DNA fragment from the right arm of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome II

The nucleotide sequence of a 31 352 bp fragment from chromosome II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been determined and analysed. The fragment originates from the right arm of chromosome II, located between the GAL7,10,1 and the PHO3,5 loci, at a distance of about 130 kb from the centromere. The sequence contains a tRNA tandem repeat and 17 open reading frames (ORFs) larger than 100 amino acids. One of them extends into adjacent DNA and is incomplete. The two tRNA genes, coding for a tRNA^asp and a tRNA^arg, and three of the ORFs, had been sequenced previously, i.e. HSP26, SEC18, and UBC4. Four other ORFs showed similarity with yeast genes; amino acid transporter genes, the RAD54, SNF2 and STH1 family, the SPS2 gene and the bromodomain of SPT7, respectively. Two showed homology with sequences from other organisms, i.e. with a Plasmodium falciparum gene encoding a surface antigen and with a gene from Saimirine herpes virus respectively. Three ORFs, YBR0726, YBR0735 and YBR0740 are completely contained in YBR0727, YBR0734 and YBR0739 respectively, and thus probably do not represent real genes. Two ORFs, YBR0727 and YBR0745 most likely contain an intron. The sequences have been deposited in the EMBL data library under Accession Number X76294.