Capnocytophaga canimorsus endocarditis with root abscess in a patient with a bicuspid aortic valve

Infective endocarditis caused by a zoonotic micro organism is a rare clinical condition. Capnocytophaga canimorsus is a commensal bacterium living in the saliva of dogs and cats which produces rarely reported endocarditis whose incidence may be underestimated, considering its failure to grow on standard media. We reported the case of a 65-year-old man with bicuspid aortic valve endocarditis and multiple abscesses of the aortic wall caused by the canine bacteria C. canimorsus

Human Muscle Satellite Cells as Targets of Chikungunya Virus Infection

BACKGROUND: Chikungunya (CHIK) virus is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that causes in humans an acute infection characterised by fever, polyarthralgia, head-ache, and myalgia. Since 2005, the emergence of CHIK virus was associated with an unprecedented magnitude outbreak of CHIK disease in the Indian Ocean. Clinically, this outbreak was characterized by invalidating poly-arthralgia, with myalgia being reported in 97.7% of cases. Since the cellular targets of CHIK virus in humans are unknown, we studied the pathogenic events and targets of CHIK infection in skeletal muscle. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Immunohistology on muscle biopsies from two CHIK virus-infected patients with myositic syndrome showed that viral antigens were found exclusively inside skeletal muscle progenitor cells (designed as satelllite cells), and not in muscle fibers. To evaluate the ability of CHIK virus to replicate in human satellite cells, we assessed virus infection on primary human muscle cells; viral growth was observed in CHIK virus-infected satellite cells with a cytopathic effect, whereas myotubes were essentially refractory to infection. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This report provides new insights into CHIK virus pathogenesis, since it is the first to identify a cellular target of CHIK virus in humans and to report a selective infection of muscle satellite cells by a viral agent in humans

Vaccine breakthrough hypoxemic COVID-19 pneumonia in patients with auto-Abs neutralizing type I IFNs

Life-threatening `breakthrough' cases of critical COVID-19 are attributed to poor or waning antibody response to the SARS- CoV-2 vaccine in individuals already at risk. Pre-existing autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing type I IFNs underlie at least 15% of critical COVID-19 pneumonia cases in unvaccinated individuals; however, their contribution to hypoxemic breakthrough cases in vaccinated people remains unknown. Here, we studied a cohort of 48 individuals ( age 20-86 years) who received 2 doses of an mRNA vaccine and developed a breakthrough infection with hypoxemic COVID-19 pneumonia 2 weeks to 4 months later. Antibody levels to the vaccine, neutralization of the virus, and auto- Abs to type I IFNs were measured in the plasma. Forty-two individuals had no known deficiency of B cell immunity and a normal antibody response to the vaccine. Among them, ten (24%) had auto-Abs neutralizing type I IFNs (aged 43-86 years). Eight of these ten patients had auto-Abs neutralizing both IFN-a2 and IFN-., while two neutralized IFN-omega only. No patient neutralized IFN-ss. Seven neutralized 10 ng/mL of type I IFNs, and three 100 pg/mL only. Seven patients neutralized SARS-CoV-2 D614G and the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) efficiently, while one patient neutralized Delta slightly less efficiently. Two of the three patients neutralizing only 100 pg/mL of type I IFNs neutralized both D61G and Delta less efficiently. Despite two mRNA vaccine inoculations and the presence of circulating antibodies capable of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2, auto-Abs neutralizing type I IFNs may underlie a significant proportion of hypoxemic COVID-19 pneumonia cases, highlighting the importance of this particularly vulnerable population

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P < 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men

A GRASP Heuristic for the Minimum Binary Cost Tension Problem

Hypermedia documents are composed of media objects (audio, video, text...), connected by a set of temporal constraints. The Minimum Binary Cost Tension Problem consists in maximizing the number of objects set at their ideal duration. We propose a hybrid GRASP / VND heuristic and a Path Relinking strategy to compute near-optimal solutions

Etude sur le pronostic à 3 ans de l'atteinte du ventricule droit lors d'un infarctus myocardique inférieur

CAEN-BU Médecine pharmacie (141182102) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF

Aggregation Approach for the Minimum Binary Cost Tension Problem

International audienceThe aggregation technique, dedicated to two-terminal series-parallel graphs (or TTSP-graphs) and introduced lately to solve the minimum piecewise linear cost tension problem, is adapted here to solve the minimum binary cost tension problem (or BCT problem). Even on TTSP-graphs, the BCT problem has been proved to be NP-complete. As far as we know, the aggregation is the only algorithm, with mixed integer programming, proposed to solve exactly the BCT problem on TTSP-graphs. A comparison of the efficiency of both methods is presented here

Hypermedia Synchronization: Modeling and Optimization with Graphs

This article presents the modeling and optimization methods for a new kind of synchronization problems arising in the field of hypermedia presentations. It is shown that they can be seen as tension problems in graphs. Two of them are described in detail: the minimum cost tension problem and its discrete cost counterpart. The former is solved with pseudo-polynomial or polynomial methods. The latter is NP-complete and we discuss ways to improve its minimal and maximal objective bounds

A Model for Scheduling a Fleet of Autonomous Electric Agricultural Robots

International audienceAutonomous and electric robots appeared in agriculture to perform activities on the fields. The management systems dedicated to farms thus need to integrate software for the scheduling of a fleet of such robots. As agricultural systems are by nature subject to unpredictable events, it seems necessary to provide a solution for online scheduling. As a first step toward a global solution, we propose a model for a sub-problem that targets to provide the next route of each robot of the fleet in order to satisfy a subset of the demands for activities on fields emitted by the farmers. In this work, we present a mixed integer linear programming formulation for the sub-problem using the prize-collecting concept called here Prize-Collecting Robot Scheduling Problem with Time Window and Precedence Constraints. Specific constraints are introduced to ensure that PC-RSP provides viable solutions for the targeted online process