Donor-substituted triaryl-1,3,5-triazinanes-2,4,6-triones: octupolar NLO-phores with a remarkable transparency-nonlinearity trade-off

International audienceWe report in this letter the measurement of the hyperpolarizabilities of a series of donor-substituted triaryl-1,3,5-triazinanes-2,4,6-triones by hyper Rayleigh scattering (HRS). A remarkable transparency-nonlinearity trade-off is evidenced for these octupolar NLO-phores which might be accessed in a straightforward synthetic way and in a few steps from commercial isocyanates

A stochastic automaton shows how enzyme assemblies may contribute to metabolic efficiency

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The advantages of grouping enzymes into metabolons and into higher order structures have long been debated. To quantify these advantages, we have developed a stochastic automaton that allows experiments to be performed in a virtual bacterium with both a membrane and a cytoplasm. We have investigated the general case of transport and metabolism as inspired by the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS) for glucose importation and by glycolysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that PTS and glycolytic metabolons can increase production of pyruvate eightfold at low concentrations of phosphoenolpyruvate. A fourfold increase in the numbers of enzyme EI led to a 40% increase in pyruvate production, similar to that observed <it>in vivo </it>in the presence of glucose. Although little improvement resulted from the assembly of metabolons into a hyperstructure, such assembly can generate gradients of metabolites and signaling molecules.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>in silico </it>experiments may be performed successfully using stochastic automata such as HSIM (Hyperstructure Simulator) to help answer fundamental questions in metabolism about the properties of molecular assemblies and to devise strategies to modify such assemblies for biotechnological ends.</p

Factors Contributing to the Delay in Diagnosis and Continued Transmission of Leprosy in Brazil – An Explorative, Quantitative, Questionnaire Based Study

Leprosy is a leading cause of preventable disability worldwide. Delay in diagnosis of patients augments the transmission of infection, and allows progression of disease and more severe disability. Delays in diagnosis greater than ten years have been reported in Brazil. To reduce this delay, it is important to identify factors that hinder patients from presenting to doctors, and those that delay doctors from diagnosing patients once they have presented. This study aimed to explore factors associated with the delayed diagnosis of leprosy in Brazil.This is an exploratory study using a self-constructed questionnaire delivered to patients attending three leprosy referral clinics across three states in Brazil. Data were analysed to determine associations between variables and the time taken for participants to present to the health-service, and between variables and the time taken for doctors to diagnose participants once they had presented. Participants who suspected they had leprosy but feared community isolation were 10 times more likely to wait longer before consulting a doctor for their symptoms (OR 10.37, 95% CI 2.18-49.45, p = 0.003). Participants who thought their symptoms were not serious had a threefold greater chance of waiting longer before consulting than those who did (OR 3.114, 95% CI 1.235-7.856, p = 0.016). Forty-two point six per cent of participants reported initially receiving a diagnosis besides leprosy. These had a three times greater chance of receiving a later diagnosis of leprosy compared to those not misdiagnosed or not given a diagnosis (OR 2.867, 95% CI 1.288-6.384, p = 0.010).This study implies a need for patient education regarding leprosy symptoms and the reduction of stigma to encourage patients to present. The high rate of misdiagnosis reported suggests a need to increase clinician suspicion of leprosy. Further education regarding disease symptoms in medical school curriculums may be advisable

Modelling of complex biological systems in the context of genomics: an account of a multidisciplinary thematic seminar held in Montpellier (France) in April 2005

International audienceno abstrac

Computing with bacterial constituents, cells and populations: from bioputing to bactoputing

The relevance of biological materials and processes to computing—aliasbioputing—has been explored for decades. These materials include DNA, RNA and proteins, while the processes include transcription, translation, signal transduction and regulation. Recently, the use of bacteria themselves as living computers has been explored but this use generally falls within the classical paradigm of computing. Computer scientists, however, have a variety of problems to which they seek solutions, while microbiologists are having new insights into the problems bacteria are solving and how they are solving them. Here, we envisage that bacteria might be used for new sorts of computing. These could be based on the capacity of bacteria to grow, move and adapt to a myriad different fickle environments both as individuals and as populations of bacteria plus bacteriophage. New principles might be based on the way that bacteria explore phenotype space via hyperstructure dynamics and the fundamental nature of the cell cycle. This computing might even extend to developing a high level language appropriate to using populations of bacteria and bacteriophage. Here, we offer a speculative tour of what we term bactoputing, namely the use of the natural behaviour of bacteria for calculating

Soins palliatifs chez les patients présentant un trouble psychiatrique sévère et persistant

PARIS7-Xavier Bichat (751182101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Optimisation de sources XUV générées par l'intéraction d'un laser sub-picoseconde avec un gaz rare

Ce travail de modélisation/simulation concerne l'étude d'un laser XUV généré par le schéma OFI dans des cibles gazeuses (krypton a 32.8 nm et xenon a 41.8 nm) étudié expérimentalement de façon intensive au LOA (ENSTA, Palaiseau). Le milieu amplificateur est créé dans un état fortement hors équilibre suite a l'interaction avec un laser infra-rouge de haut flux et très bref. L'examen des étapes de la création et de l'évolution de la cinétique atomique a permis de caractériser le plasma et d'envisager l'étude de l'amplification et le transport du rayonnement XUV. Ce dernier point a été considéré en fonction de différents paramètres (pression du gaz, intensité de pompe, ... ). Un accent particulier a été mis sur l'influence de la dynamique des ions sur la raie d'émission. En effet, la composante ionique du plasma génère par OFI est initialement fortement couplée. Le modèle OCP applique a ce cas prédit des températures ioniques de quelques eV. L'étude des propriétés du laser a la sortie du plasma a montré que le chauffage ionique peut accroitre l'énergie du laser jusqu'a 20% dans le domaine des pressions d'intérêt pratique. D'autre part, des simulations basées sur des équations Maxwell-Bloch ont permis la comparaison entre les cas de très faible cohérence spatiale (ASE) et celui de forte cohérence spatiale (injection des harmoniques dans un amplificateur OFI). Dans ce dernier cas, l'approximation semi-adiabatique peut décrire l'amplification sur de longues distances. Aussi, l'approche semi-adiabatique, permet, même dans le cas injecté, de retrouver les caractéristiques des valeurs moyennes du signal XUV, mais pas celles du profit temporel ou spectral a forte saturation.Ce travail de modélisation/simulation concerne l'étude d'un laser XUV généré par le schéma OFI dans des cibles gazeuses (krypton a 32.8 nm et xenon a 41.8 nm) étudié expérimentalement de façon intensive au LOA (ENSTA, Palaiseau). Le milieu amplificateur est créé dans un état fortement hors équilibre suite a l'interaction avec un laser infra-rouge de haut flux et très bref. L'examen des étapes de la création et de l'évolution de la cinétique atomique a permis de caractériser le plasma et d'envisager l'étude de l'amplification et le transport du rayonnement XUV. Ce dernier point a été considéré en fonction de différents paramètres (pression du gaz, intensité de pompe, ... ). Un accent particulier a été mis sur l'influence de la dynamique des ions sur la raie d'émission. En effet, la composante ionique du plasma génère par OFI est initialement fortement couplée. Le modèle OCP applique a ce cas prédit des températures ioniques de quelques eV. L'étude des propriétés du laser a la sortie du plasma a montré que le chauffage ionique peut accroitre l'énergie du laser jusqu'a 20% dans le domaine des pressions d'intérêt pratique. D'autre part, des simulations basées sur des équations Maxwell-Bloch ont permis la comparaison entre les cas de très faible cohérence spatiale (ASE) et celui de forte cohérence spatiale (injection des harmoniques dans un amplificateur OFI). Dans ce dernier cas, l'approximation semi-adiabatique peut décrire l'amplification sur de longues distances. Aussi, l'approche semi-adiabatique, permet, même dans le cas injecté, de retrouver les caractéristiques des valeurs moyennes du signal XUV, mais pas celles du profit temporel ou spectral a forte saturation.ORSAY-PARIS 11-BU Sciences (914712101) / SudocSudocFranceF

HSIM: a simulation programme to study large assemblies of proteins

International audienceTo study the assembly, the movements and the dissociation of large numbers of molecules in a virtual cell, a simulation program, HSIM, has been developed. The simulator is driven using a description of the model system written in a language we have also developed that does not limit the simulation program to a particular model. We present here the simulation of two completely different models: the growth of actin-like filaments in a prokaryotic cell, and the association and dissociation of proteins into large assemblies