The incidence of reproductive disorders is constantly increasing and affects 15% of couples, with male's abnormalities diagnosed in almost half of the cases. The male gonads exert two major functions ...of the testis with the productions of gametes (exocrine function) and of sexual hormones (endocrine function). In the last decades, next to steroid receptors such as estrogen and androgen receptors, the involvement of other members of the nuclear receptor superfamily have been described such as Steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1), Nerve growth factor IB (NGFIB), Liver-X-Receptorα (LXRα) and Dosage-sensitive sex reversal, adrenal hypoplasia critical region, on chromosome X, gene 1 (DAX-1). The purpose of this review is to highlight the emerging roles of some members of the nuclear receptor superfamily among which the vitamin-D Receptor (VDR), Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor (PPAR), Farnesoid-X-Receptor-α (FXRα). We discuss how these receptors could participate to explain male fertility disorders; and their potential to be use as biomarkers or therapeutic targets for management of fertility disorders.
The differential diagnosis of acute cervical pain includes nonvascular and vascular causes such as carotid dissection, carotid occlusion, or vasculitis. However, some patients present with ...unclassified vascular and perivascular changes on imaging previously reported as carotidynia. The aim of our study was to improve the description of this as yet unclassified clinico-radiologic entity.
From January 2009 through April 2016, 47 patients from 10 centers presenting with acute neck pain or tenderness and at least 1 cervical image showing unclassified carotid abnormalities were included. We conducted a systematic, retrospective study of their medical charts and diagnostic and follow-up imaging. Two neuroradiologists independently analyzed the blinded image datasets.
The median patient age was 48 years. All patients presented with acute neck pain, and 8 presented with transient neurologic symptoms. Imaging showed an eccentric pericarotidian infiltration in all patients. An intimal soft plaque was noted in 16 patients, and a mild luminal narrowing was noted in 16 patients. Interreader reproducibility was excellent. All patients had complete pain resolution within a median of 13 days. At 3-month follow-up, imaging showed complete disappearance of vascular abnormalities in 8 patients, and a marked decrease in all others.
Our study improved the description of an unclassified, clinico-radiologic entity, which could be described by the proposed acronym: TransIent Perivascular Inflammation of the Carotid artery (TIPIC) syndrome.
The cascade model of cognitive control, mostly relying on functional neuroimaging studies, stipulates that the lateral frontal cortex (LFC) is organized as a cascade of executive processes involving ...three levels of cognitive control, implemented in distinct LFC areas from the premotor to the anterior prefrontal regions. The present experiment tested this model in patients with LFC lesions and studied the hierarchy of executive functions along the caudo-rostral axis, i.e. the respective roles of the different LFC areas in the control of behavior. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping and region of interest group analyses were conducted in 32 patients with focal LFC lesions who performed cognitive tasks assessing the cascade model. We first showed that three different LFC areas along the caudo-rostral axis subserved three distinct control levels, whose integrity is necessary for adaptive behavior. Second, we found that prefrontal cognitive control has an asymmetric organization: higher control processes involving more anterior prefrontal regions rely on the integrity of lower control processes in more posterior regions, while lower control processes can operate irrespective of the integrity of higher control processes. Altogether, these findings support a caudo-rostral cascade of executive processes from premotor to anterior prefrontal regions.
•Cognitive control is subserved by distinct frontal areas along a caudo-rostral axis.•Damages to distinct prefrontal areas disrupt different levels of cognitive control.•This lesion study supports the predictions of the cascade model of cognitive control.•Prefrontal cognitive control has an asymmetric organization.
Lineage conversion of one somatic cell type to another is an attractive approach for generating specific human cell types. Lineage conversion can be direct, in the absence of proliferation and ...multipotent progenitor generation, or indirect, by the generation of expandable multipotent progenitor states. We report the development of a reprogramming methodology in which cells transition through a plastic intermediate state, induced by brief exposure to reprogramming factors, followed by differentiation. We use this approach to convert human fibroblasts to mesodermal progenitor cells, including by non-integrative approaches. These progenitor cells demonstrated bipotent differentiation potential and could generate endothelial and smooth muscle lineages. Differentiated endothelial cells exhibited neo-angiogenesis and anastomosis in vivo. This methodology for indirect lineage conversion to angioblast-like cells adds to the armamentarium of reprogramming approaches aimed at the study and treatment of ischemic pathologies.
Abstract Background Depressed patients exhibit cognitive biases, including maladaptive self-focus. In a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, the dorsal medial prefrontal ...cortex (MPFC) activation during self-referential versus semantic processing was unique to patients, as was the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation. The aim of this pilot study was to examine whether this pattern was stable over the course of depression. Methods Sixteen participants (8 depressed inpatients, 8 healthy controls) viewed personality traits during fMRI and judged whether each trait described them or not (‘self’ condition), or whether it described a socially desirable trait or not (‘general’ condition). There were 2 scanning sessions with an interval of at least 6 weeks, in which patients received an antidepressant treatment. Results After a mean duration of 9 weeks, depressed patients displayed a more balanced activation of the left DLPFC but a greater activation of the dorsal MPFC in ‘self’ versus ‘general’ condition remained. Limitations The small sample size and heterogeneous clinical features prevented subgroups analyses between responders and non-responders. Conclusions The change of the left DLPFC activation suggests that antidepressants are associated with a more balanced allocation of cognitive control across self-referential and non-self-referential processes. The apparent lack of effect on the dorsal MPFC activity is consistent with the specific effects of antidepressants versus cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) previously demonstrated in depression. Future studies could examine the relationships between the dorsal MPFC activity in depressed patients and the need to reduce self-focus through CBT to achieve remission and prevent relapse.
•The polar GC-SAFT EOS is here applied to model/predict fluid phase equilibria of CO2+alkanol and CO2+alkanol+alkane systems.•The CO2 alkanol cross-association is taken into account explicitly. The ...corresponding parameters are predicted using CR1 mixing rules.•Binary parameters kij were correlated using a relation inspired from London dispersion potential.
A polar version of the group contribution PC-SAFT equation of state (GC-PPC-SAFT; Tamouza et al., 2004; NguyenHuynh et al., 2008) combined with a method for correlation/prediction of binary interaction parameters kij (NguyenHuynh et al., 2008) is here applied to model vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid and vapor–liquid–liquid phase equilibria of CO2+alkanol mixtures simultaneously.
A cross-association interaction between CO2 and alkanol had to be taken into account to model/predict the mixtures equilibria accurately. The cross-association parameters were evaluated using the so-called CR1 mixing rules supported by ab initio computations.
Extensive prediction tests on CO2+alkanol mixtures involving linear and branched alkanols are carried out. The results obtained showed that in most cases, the correlation and prediction calculations are qualitatively and quantitatively satisfactory: the overall deviations on liquid phase and vapor phase are respectively ΔX=3–4% and ΔY=1–2%.
Since the out-of-pile semi-integral tests performed at Studsvik in 2011 for the NRC 1 and the Halden Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) test series IFA-650 2, a major safety interest has raised for Fuel ...Fragmentation, Relocation and Dispersal (FFRD) during a LOCA sequence. In addition to the characteristics of the fuel ejected from the rod after the clad failure, the fuel behaviour before the clad failure is still to be investigated, especially its fragmentation and its possible relocation within the rod during the clad ballooning phase. Furthermore, the chronology and the sequencing of these phenomena is of particular interest.
For this purpose, the VINON-LOCA program, lying in the framework of a trilateral agreement between EDF, Framatome and CEA, is aimed at performing Out-Of-Pile heating tests on irradiated repressurized fuel rods, reproducing a typical Loss Of Coolant Accident thermal sequence. The VINON-LOCA experimental set-up is located in the so-called VERDON lab of the LECA-STAR hot cell complex. This lab was dedicated to the VERDON-ISTP program 3. The VINON-LOCA set-up is thus largely instrumented for addressing not only these FFRD topics, but also Fission Gas Release (FGR), combining both online measurement (gamma stations, gamma camera, acoustic sensor, pressure, temperatures, flow meters, microGC…), and preand post-test characterization (gamma scanning, tomography, metrology, fuel fragments weighing and sieving, gas analyses…).
An extensive and substantial qualification campaign has been performed to validate the furnace design regarding the desired test conditions, and to qualify the instrumentation. Following some preliminary modelling and calculations, it has included tests on an out-of-cell twin mockup and tests on dummy inactive rods in the hot cell. This allowed achieving successfully the first experimental qualification test of the program end of 2019 on an irradiated UO2 fuel rodlet. A second irradiated experiment is planned with increased instrumentation capabilities, notably a 2D gamma camera for online fuel motion detection.
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