Surgical correction of nonsyndromic craniosynostosis (NSC) aims to restore cranial shape. Reossification of bone defects is paramount for the best aesthetic prognosis. However, the literature on the ...quantitative evaluation of bone defects after NSC surgery is scarce. This study aimed to quantify and analyze the surface area of bone defects after NSC surgery and establish a threshold value for predicting persistent defects.
We conducted a systematic review and a prospective study of 28 children undergoing surgical treatment for NSC. We analyzed 426 defects on the first computed tomography scan (1 year postoperative) and 132 defects on the second computed tomography scan (4.6 years postoperative). Statistical analysis was performed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and Youden's J statistic.
Our systematic review identified three studies reporting on bone defects' surface area and reossification rate. In our study, we found no statistically significant differences in the number or size of defects between sex or type of NSC. The threshold value for the surface area of bone defects above which there was a higher probability of persistent defects was 0.19 cm2 (Youden point), with an 89.47 % probability of persistence. Defects with a surface area below 0.19 cm2 had a considerably lower probability, only 15.07%, of persistence over time.
Our study provides valuable quantitative data for managing bone defects after NSC surgery. Defects with a surface area above 0.19 cm2 should be monitored with radiological imaging because of the risk of persistence. Our findings highlight the importance of developing robust and reproducible methods for the quantitative analysis of bone defects after NSC surgery.
Sophysa SM8 is widely used by neurosurgeons in France. Published studies report shunt malfunction rates in adults between 18% and 29%. However, these studies included multiple valve types and thus ...entailed a serious confounding factor.
To ascertain the incidence the Sophysa SM8 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt malfunctions in adults.
We present a retrospective series of adult patients who underwent CSF shunt placement between 2000 and 2013 with Sophysa SM8.
In total, 599 patients (329 males and 270 females) were included. The mean age at surgery was 64.15 years (19-90) (SD 16.17; median 68.0). The causes of hydrocephalus were normal pressure hydrocephalus (49%), traumatic hemorrhages (26.5%), tumors (15.7%), cerebral aqueduct stenoses (3%), and arachnoid cysts (2%). The mean follow-up was 3.9 years (0-16) (SD 4.10; median 3 years). The rate of complications was 22.04% (132 of 599). Most frequent causes of complications were disconnection (25%), migration (12.9%), overdrainage (9.1%), and proximal obstruction (6.8%). In 17 cases (12.9%), no failure was diagnosed during revision. Seven infections (5.3%) were reported. The mean delay for the first revision was 1.70 years (0-13.93) (SD 2.67, median 0.35). The risk of shunt failure was 36% at 10 years. Seventeen percent of revisions occurred during the first year after shunt placement.
Disconnections are a very frequent complication of Sophysa SM8 valve. They are related to the 2-connector system of this valve. Based on these results, we recommend using 1-piece valves.
EOMES and T-BET are related T-box transcription factors that control natural killer (NK) cell development. Here we demonstrate that EOMES and T-BET regulate largely distinct gene sets during this ...process. EOMES is dominantly expressed in immature NK cells and drives early lineage specification by inducing hallmark receptors and functions. By contrast, T-BET is dominant in mature NK cells, where it induces responsiveness to IL-12 and represses the cell cycle, likely through transcriptional repressors. Regardless, many genes with distinct functions are co-regulated by the two transcription factors. By generating two gene-modified mice facilitating chromatin immunoprecipitation of endogenous EOMES and T-BET, we show a strong overlap in their DNA binding targets, as well as extensive epigenetic changes during NK cell differentiation. Our data thus suggest that EOMES and T-BET may distinctly govern, via differential expression and co-factors recruitment, NK cell maturation by inserting partially overlapping epigenetic regulations.
The failure of a stay cable on the Saint-Nazaire bridge is investigated in detail. In 2000, fatigue cracks that had cut many wires led to a first replacement, alike to the initial, of the H32 stay ...cable. Examination of the deposited locked coil strand showed that fretting fatigue was involved in the wire breaks. The cause of the failures at the anchorages is discussed/studied in depth in the paper. Bending moments of the rigid cable, at its exit from the anchorage socket were proven to be the source of the fatigue stress due to vibrations induced by vortex detachments (VIV: Vortex Induced Vibrations).
As wires ruptures occurred again in 2017 in the new H32 stay cable at the same place, further studies on dampers were carried out. After numerical simulations, the “Stockbridge” damper became a good candidate for attenuating the amplitude of vibrations. It could indeed be designed to fit the required frequency range between 30 and 35 Hz.
T cell development proceeds under the influence of a network of transcription factors (TFs). The precise role of Zeb1, a member of this network, remains unclear. Here, we report that Zeb1 expression ...is induced early during T cell development in CD4
CD8
double-negative (DN) stage 2 (DN2). Zeb1 expression was further increased in the CD4
CD8
double-positive (DP) stage before decreasing in more mature T cell subsets. We performed an exhaustive characterization of T cells in Cellophane mice that bear Zeb1 hypomorphic mutations. The Zeb1 mutation profoundly affected all thymic subsets, especially DN2 and DP cells. Zeb1 promoted the survival and proliferation of both cell populations in a cell-intrinsic manner. In the periphery of Cellophane mice, the number of conventional T cells was near normal, but invariant NKT cells, NK1.1
γδ T cells and Ly49
CD8 T cells were virtually absent. This suggested that Zeb1 regulates the development of unconventional T cell types from DP progenitors. A transcriptomic analysis of WT and Cellophane DP cells revealed that Zeb1 regulated the expression of multiple genes involved in the cell cycle and TCR signaling, which possibly occurred in cooperation with Tcf1 and Heb. Indeed, Cellophane DP cells displayed stronger signaling than WT DP cells upon TCR engagement in terms of the calcium response, phosphorylation events, and expression of early genes. Thus, Zeb1 is a key regulator of the cell cycle and TCR signaling during thymic T cell development. We propose that thymocyte selection is perturbed in Zeb1-mutated mice in a way that does not allow the survival of unconventional T cell subsets.
EGFR is frequently overexpressed in cervical cancer, suggesting EGFR blockade as a promising treatment approach. Cetuximab, an anti EGFR antibody, used conjointly with radiochemotherapy, was feasible ...in first-line treatment of cervix carcinoma limited to the pelvis.
This randomized phase II trial enrolled 78 FIGO stage IB2-IIIB cervical cancer patients to either cisplatin-based radiochemotherapy alone (arm B, n = 38) or conjointly with a 6-week course of weekly cetuximab (arm A, n = 40). Brachytherapy was given to the pelvic mass. Primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS) at 2 years. EGFR expression and targeted sequencing were performed in 54 of 78 patients.
Cetuximab over a 6-week period did not improve DFS at 24 months. At 31 months median follow-up, DFS was not significantly different (P = 0.18). Complete response at 4 to 6 months was strongly predictive for excellent DFS (log-rank test; P < 0.001). PIK3CA, KRAS, and STK11 mutations were observed in 22%, 4%, and 2% of patients, respectively. No tumor with a PI3K pathway mutation showed complete response (0/8 in arm A and 0/6 in arm B), whereas 14 of 52 (27%) tumors without mutations did (P = 0.021). PI3K pathway-mutated tumors showed a trend toward poorer DFS (P = 0.06) following cetuximab (8/22) as compared with those following standard treatment only (6/18).
Similar to patients with head and neck cancer, patients with cervical cancer showed no gain in DFS at 2 years following a combined treatment of cetuximab with radiochemotherapy. Although treatment tolerance and compliance were satisfactory, it remains to be demonstrated whether maintenance therapy with cetuximab could be beneficial in selected patient groups.
Paleorecords are replete with examples of longterm biotic responses to past climate change, and disturbances such as fire, herbivores, insect outbreaks or ice storms. The now frequent challenges in ...palaeoecological studies are to better understand both the trends and the breaking points of biotic variables in response to disturbances. The aim of this article is to expand the capacity of new and existing methods to provide greater insight into ecosystem trajectories and functioning.Our analyses focus on biomes where fire is a key structural disturbance for vegetation establishment and evolution. We aim to determine: 1)explanative variances between biotic and abiotic variables at both short and millennial time scales, and 2) whether a temporal relationship exists between fire regimes and plant diversity change in both systems.Our statistical approach focused on PCA (Principal Component Analysis), co-inertia, MFA (Multiple Factor Analysis) and Hill & Smith methods, which provide us new information about our data, and bring new conclusions to the former studies.We advise to preferentially use the MFA when the environmental variables are numerous, while the co-inertia is a better tool to explain variance of the datasets.
Paleorecords are replete with examples of longterm biotic responses to past climate change, and disturbances such as fire, herbivores, insect outbreaks or ice storms. The now frequent challenges in ...palaeoecological studies are to better understand both the trends and the breaking points of biotic variables in response to disturbances. The aim of this article is to expand the capacity of new and existing methods to provide greater insight into ecosystem trajectories and functioning. Our analyses focus on biomes where fire is a key structural disturbance for vegetation establishment and evolution. We aim to determine : 1) explanative variances between biotic and abiotic variables at both short and millennial time scales, and 2) whether a temporal relationship exists between fire regimes and plant diversity change in both systems. Our statistical approach focused on PCA (Principal Component Analysis), co-inertia, MFA (Multiple Factor Analysis) and Hill & Smith methods, which provide us new information about our data, and bring new conclusions to the former studies. We advise to preferentially use the MFA when the environmental variables are numerous, while the co-inertia is a better tool to explain variance of the datasets.
The Front-End of the NOEMA Interferometer Chenu, Jean-Yves; Navarrini, Alessandro; Bortolotti, Yves ...
IEEE transactions on terahertz science and technology,
03/2016, Letnik:
6, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) is being upgraded to a new powerful millimeter-wave radio astronomy facility called the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) which will double the ...number of the 15-m diameter antennas from six to 12. All antennas will be equipped with a new generation of dual-polarization Front-End covering the 72-373-GHz frequency range with four independent receivers integrated into a single cryostat. All receivers utilize sideband separating (2SB) superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers, each of which delivers two ~7.7-GHz-wide intermediate frequency (IF) outputs per polarization channel, thus increasing the total IF bandwidth which can be processed with a single setting of the interferometer from 8 GHz (2 ×4 GHz delivered by the existing PdBI Front-End) to ~31 GHz (4 × ~ 7.7 GHz delivered by the NOEMA Front-End). The first of the new NOEMA antennas (Ant. 7) has recently been completed and the first NOEMA Front-End successfully developed and installed in it. For the coming years, our goal is to upgrade all of the Front-Ends currently installed on the six existing PdBI antennas to the new NOEMA standard and to build six additional ones (plus one spare) for the new NOEMA antennas. In this paper, we describe the design, fabrication, and assembly of the Front-End we have developed for NOEMA Antenna 7. The instrument has state-of-the-art performance and sets a new standard in the post-ALMA generation technology.
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