Anthropometry for children's clothing: difficulties and limitations

Children's wear lacks an anthropometric study to better fit clothes on the body of the child, providing greater comfort for users. Initially, this thesis project in fashion design intended to measure Portuguese children between the ages of 2 to 10 years, enrolled in primary schools in the region of Minho in Portugal. During the data gathering, held in the months of June, July, October and November 2016, about 600 children were scanned and measured using a 3D body scanner. The purpose of this paper is to report the difficulties and limitations experienced during data collection of the anthropometric study and the adjustments that were needed, as well as discuss some of the data collected.This work is supported by FEDER funds through the Competitive Factors Operational Program (COMPETE) POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136 and by national funds through Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the project UID/CTM/000264.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Campylobacter infection in adult patients with primary antibody deficiency

International audienceNo abstract availabl

Campylobacter infection in adult patients with primary antibody deficiency

International audiencePrimary antibody deficiency (PAD) is characterized by a defective immunoglobulin production and recurrent infections, mostly involving respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. Chronic or recurrent diarrhea is reported in up to 23%. Campylobacter infection is a common cause of infectious diarrhea, reported in 1.2% to 7.5% of patients with common variable immunodefi-ciency (CVID), the most frequent PAD. The aim of this study was to describe Campylobacter infection in patients with PAD included in a large nationwide study and analyze factors associ-ated with susceptibility to this pathogen. The DEFI (DEFicit Immunitaire) study is an ongoing large cross-sectional French multicentric study of adults with PAD, with retrospective collection of clinical data. All patients with a history of bacteriologically documented Campylobacter infection were identified, and clinical data were collected for each episode. Factors associated with recurrent infection were assessed as oddsratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI), calculated by means of simple regression analysis. In patients with available material, strains of each episode were characterized using molecular analysis and compared (Table E1, available in this article’s Online Repository at www.jaci-inpractice.org). A com-parison of immunodeficiency-related characteristics of patients with and without Campylobacter infection was performed in the homogeneous group of patients with CVID. The control group included patients with CVID from DEFI centers who confirmed that patients did not develop Campylobacter infection after enrollment (Figure E1, available in this article’s Online Repository at www.jaci-inpractice.org). After correction for multiple comparisons, P<.016 was considered significant. Since 2004, 790 patients with PAD were included in the DEFI study, and 51 presented with Campylobacter infection (6.5%). Medical chart was available for review in 45 patients. Characteristics of these patients at the time of enrollment in the DEFI study are detailed in Table E2 (available in this article’s Online Repository at www.jaci-inpractice.org). A total of 97 episodes were recorded (Table I). The overall distribution of Campylobacter species was unremarkable. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed a higher resistance rate than in the general population for each antibiotic tested (see Figure E2, available in this article’s Online Repository at www.jaci-inpractice.org). A comorbidity was present in 55% of Campylobacter episodes, and a coinfection by other enteropathogens in 10%. Most patients were receiving concomitant therapy at the time of episode. One patient with end-stage cirrhosis died with Campylobacter bacteremia. Overall, bacteremia was observed in 24 episodes (13 patients) and was associated with extraintestinal complication in 10 episodes. Nineteen patients (42%) presented with recurrent (2-11) episodes. Factors associated with recurrent episodes were the presence of comorbidity (OR, 3.7 [95% CI, 1.1-13.1]) and undetectable serum IgA (OR, 8.6 [95% CI, 1.1-21.2]). None of these factors remain significant in multivariate analysis. A mo- lecular study of a subset of 18 strains from 5 patients with recurrent infections demonstrated that all strains were different, even when the antimicrobial susceptibility testing was similar and when the episodes occurred closely over time (Figure E3, available in this article’s Online Repository at www.jaci-inpractice.org). Compared with 288 patients with CVID without Campylobacter infection, patients with CVID with Campylo-bacter infection presented a higher prevalence of consanguinity and a more severe CVID phenotype, with more frequent disease- related complications, lower serum immunoglobulin levels, lower B and natural killer (NK) cells, and a trend for lower naive CD4þT cell at the time of enrollment in the DEFI study (Table II). This study is the first description of a large series of patients with PAD and Campylobacter infection. The 6.5% prevalence was probably underestimated because of the retrospective nature of the clinical data collection. In this population, symptoms were mostly restricted to an isolated, frequently severe, chronic watery diarrhea, with associated malnutrition, leading to repeated hospitalizations and impaired quality of life. Other digestive symptoms and fever were less frequent than those observed in the general population. In contrast, bacteremia and extra- digestive localizations were more frequent (25% vs 0.15% to 2%, and 22% vs 7%, respectively). Despite frequent hospitalizations, the overall prognosis was good. Recurrence rate was high (42%) compared with 1.2% in the general population, and was associated with extraintestinal comorbidity and unde- tectable IgA level in univariate analysis. Although limited by the number of available strains, molecular profiles of strains from patients with recurrent infections were all different. Thus, we could hypothesize that reinfection is more likely than persistent colonization, although colonization with multiple strains cannot be excluded. Conditions associated with the occurrence of Campylobacter infection were described in an analysis restricted to a large ho- mogeneous group of 325 patients with CVID. The present data suggest that hypochlorhydria, either proton pump inhibitor (PPI)-induced or associated with autoimmune gastritis, might play an important role in the pathogenesis of this infection. Almost all CVID-associated complications, particularly liver and gastrointestinal disease, were more frequent in patients with Campylobacter infection. A more severe immune deficiency at CVID diagnosis, with a lower serum immunoglobulin level, was also observed. Even in patients with immunoglobulin replacement therapy, IgM and IgA levels remain very low. IgA and IgM, almost absent in immunoglobulin batches, are more important than IgG in Campylobacter immunity. B-cell and specifically switch memory B-cell deficiency was also more severe in patients with CVID with Campylobacter infection than in patients without Campylobacter infection. This is in line with the high prevalence of Campylobacter infection observed in Good syndrome and X-linked agammaglobulinemia, 2 conditions associated with no circulating B cells (Figure E1, available in this article’s Online Repository at www.jaci-inpractice.org). B cells are also known to be important for the dialogue between the immune system and gut microbiota, whose composition is important for Campylobacter immunity. T cells may also play an important role, with a trend for decreased naive T cells. Indeed, 15 patients (40%) presented with a severe associated T-cell defect and could be considered as late-onset combined im-munodeficiency (data not shown). In patients with PAD, Campylobacter infection is quite frequent and seems to be related to various factors adding up together: severity of the immune deficiency, PAD complication, and associated antibiotics, immunosuppressive therapies, and PPI. It is characterized by a high frequency of recurrence and bacteremia. Recurrence is associated with the presence of comorbidity and IgA defect, and turned out to be due to rein- fection more than to persistent colonization, suggesting a specific susceptibility despite immunoglobulin substitution

Mycobacteriosis in the compromised host

The studies of rare genetic defects, the preliminary results of population-based studies, being validated by the experimental immunocompromised animal models and the current observations accumulated in immunocompromised patients with mycobacterial diseases provide us with insights into the importance of the macrophage activation pathway in controlling human infection with pathogenic and non pathogenic intracellular multiplying mycobacteria. Initial cytokine production by infected macrophages and/or dendritic cells could be crucial in the overall regulation of self cure, acquired protection or immunopathological sequelae expressing the disease. Knowledge of molecular and genetic cross-talks between phagocytic and specialized antigen presenting cells and different mycobacterial products associated with persistence or replication of the intracellular bacteria, could provide further informations on the global immune regulation of the early host responses to infection and the following events. It seems likely that the development of mycobacterial infections in humans will turn out to be as much dependent on the genetic make up of the host as or the virulence of the bacteria

Phobos photometric properties from Mars Express HRSC observations

International audienceThis study aims to analyze Phobos’ photometric properties using Mars Express mission observations to support the MartianMoons eXploration mission (MMX) devoted to the investigation of the Martian system and to the return of Phobos samples.Methods. We analyzed resolved images of Phobos acquired between 2004 and 2022 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)on board the Mars Express spacecraft at a resolution ranging from ∼ 30 m px−1 to 330 m px−1. We used data acquired with theblue, green, red, and IR filters of HRSC and the panchromatic data of the Super Resolution Channel (SRC). The SRC data areunique because they cover small phase angles (0.2-10o), permitting the investigation of the Phobos opposition effect. We simulatedillumination and geometric conditions for the different observations using the Marx Express and the camera spice kernels providedby the HRSC team. We performed photometric analysis using the Hapke model for both integrated and disk-resolved data.Results. The Phobos phase function is characterized by a strong opposition effect due to shadow hiding, with an amplitude and a half-width of the opposition surge of 2.28±0.03 and 0.0573±0.0001, respectively. Overall, the surface of Phobos is dark, with a geometricalbedo of 6.8 % in the green filter and backscattering. Its single-scattering albedo (SSA) value (7.2% in the green filter) is much higherthan what has been found for primitive asteroids and cometary nuclei and is close to the values reported in the literature for Ceres. Wealso found a surface porosity of 87%, indicating the presence of a thick dust mantle or of fractal aggregates on the top surface. TheSSA maps revealed high reflectance variability, with the blue unit area in the northeast Stickney rim being up to 65% brighter thanaverage, while the Stickney floor is among the darkest regions, with reflectance 10 to 20% lower than average. Photometric modelingof the regions of interest selected in the red and blue units indicates that red unit terrains have a stronger opposition effect and asmaller SSA value than the blue ones, but they have similar porosity and backscattering properties.Conclusions. The HRSC data provide a unique investigation of the Phobos phase function and opposition surge, which is valuableinformation for the MMX observational planning. The Phobos opposition surge, surface porosity, phase integral, and spectral slopeare very similar to the values observed for the comet 67P and for Jupiter family comets in general. Based on these similarities, weformulate a hypothesis that the Mars satellites might be the results of a binary or bilobated comet captured by Mars

Consistent transport properties in multicomponent two-temperature magnetized plasmas

Aims. We present a fluid model that has been developed for multicomponent two-temperature magnetized plasmas in chemical non-equilibrium for the partially to fully ionized collisional regimes. We focus on transport phenomena with the aim of representing the atmosphere of the Sun. Methods. This study is based on an asymptotic fluid model for multicomponent plasmas derived from kinetic theory, yielding a rigorous description of the dissipative effects. The governing equations and consistent transport properties are obtained using a multiscale Chapman-Enskog perturbative solution to the Boltzmann equation based on a dimensional analysis. The mass disparity between free electrons and heavy particles is accounted for, as well as the influence of the electromagnetic field. We couple this model to the Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic field and derive the generalized Ohm’s law for multicomponent plasmas. The model inherits a well-identified mathematical structure leading to an extended range of validity for the Sun’s atmospheric conditions. We compute consistent transport properties by means of a spectral Galerkin method using the Laguerre-Sonine polynomial approximation. Two non-vanishing polynomial terms are used when deriving the transport systems for electrons, whereas only one term is retained for heavy particles. Results. In a simplified framework where the plasma is fully ionized, we compare the transport properties for the lower solar atmosphere to conventional expressions for magnetized plasmas attributed to Braginskii, showing a good agreement between both results. For more general partially ionized conditions, representative of the lower solar atmosphere, we compute the muticomponent transport properties corresponding to the species diffusion velocities, heavy-particle and electron heat fluxes, and viscous stress tensor of the model for a helium-hydrogen mixture in local thermodynamic equilibrium. The model is assessed for the 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a pore at the Sun photosphere. The resistive term is found to dominate mainly the dynamics of the electric field at the pore location. The battery term for heavy particles appears to be higher at the pore location and at some intergranulation boundaries