La forêt méditerranéenne : une forêt ou un décor ?

A l'occasion de la publication du n°100 de la revue Forêt Méditerranéenne, il a été demandé aux grandes institutions nationales qu'elles nous présentent leur vision des espaces forestiers méditerranéens "depuis Paris". Cet article nous donne le regard porté par les historiens sur la forêt méditerranéenne

Interstitial lung diseases in children

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) in infants and children comprises a large spectrum of rare respiratory disorders that are mostly chronic and associated with high morbidity and mortality. These disorders are characterized by inflammatory and fibrotic changes that affect alveolar walls. Typical features of ILD include dyspnea, diffuse infiltrates on chest radiographs, and abnormal pulmonary function tests with restrictive ventilatory defect and/or impaired gas exchange. Many pathological situations can impair gas exchange and, therefore, may contribute to progressive lung damage and ILD. Consequently, diagnosis approach needs to be structured with a clinical evaluation requiring a careful history paying attention to exposures and systemic diseases. Several classifications for ILD have been proposed but none is entirely satisfactory especially in children. The present article reviews current concepts of pathophysiological mechanisms, etiology and diagnostic approaches, as well as therapeutic strategies. The following diagnostic grouping is used to discuss the various causes of pediatric ILD: 1) exposure-related ILD; 2) systemic disease-associated ILD; 3) alveolar structure disorder-associated ILD; and 4) ILD specific to infancy. Therapeutic options include mainly anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, and/or anti-fibrotic drugs. The outcome is highly variable with a mortality rate around 15%. An overall favorable response to corticosteroid therapy is observed in around 50% of cases, often associated with sequelae such as limited exercise tolerance or the need for long-term oxygen therapy

Le groupe d’histoire des forêts françaises

Le groupe d’histoire des forêts françaises (GHFF) vient de fêter ses vingt années d’existence : il fonctionne depuis 1980 et ses statuts ont été déposés en 1982. Il est logé, depuis le premier jour, au 45 de la rue d’Ulm, dans les locaux de l’École normale supérieure, plus précisément dans les bureaux de l’Institut d’histoire moderne et contemporaine (IHMC), laboratoire du CNRS associé à cet établissement d’enseignement et de recherche. Le groupe, fondé par cinq historiens français, d’où son ..

Learning disease progression models with longitudinal data and missing values

International audienceStatistical methods have been developed for the analysis of longitudinal data in neurodegenerative diseases. To cope with the lack of temporal markers-i.e. to account for subject-specific disease progression in regard to age-a common strategy consists in realigning the individual sequence data in time. Patient's specific trajectories can indeed be seen as spatiotemporal perturbations of the same normative disease trajectory. However, these models do not easily allow one to account for multimodal data, which more than often include missing values. Indeed, it is rare that imaging and clinical examinations for instance are performed at the same frequency in clinical protocols. Multimodal models also need to allow a different profile of progression for data with different structure and representation. We propose to use a generative mixed effect model that considers the progression trajectories as curves on a Rieman-nian Manifold. We use the concept of product manifold to handle multimodal data, and leverage the generative aspect of our model to handle missing values. We assess the robuste-ness of our methods toward missing values frequency on both synthetic and real data. Finally we apply our model on a real-world dataset to model Parkinson's disease progression from data derived from clinical examination and imaging

Forêts et troupeaux

On a l'habitude d'associer « forêts et troupeaux » dans l'iconographie, qu'il s'agisse des Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry ou d'un autre, des tableaux de l'Âge d'or hollandais ou de leurs remakes du XIXe siècle. Les bestiaux semblent nombreux, quoiqu'en diminution du Xve au XIXe siècle. Les représentations contemporaines les évoquent peu en matière picturale, davantage sous forme photographique et surtout pour les pays du Tiers-Monde. Dans le cadre des représentations anciennes, le ..

Plasma Angiotensins, Renin, and Blood Pressure During Acute Renin Inhibition by CGP 38 560A in Hypertensive Patients

The new renin inhibitor CGP 38560A has been shown to block angiotensin (ANG) production in healthy volunteers. In order to determine its potential antihypertensive effect, the compound was administered in a 30-min infusion, in 12 hypertensive patients (mean blood pressure (BP): 112.8 ± 3.5 mm Hg). These patients were selected for their sensitivity to Captopril: a single oral dose of 50 mg Captopril lowered their mean BP by 8.8 ± 2.2 mm Hg after 30 min and by 15.3 ± 1.5 mm Hg after 90 min. At the end of the renin inhibitor infusion, mean blood pressure decreased by 5.7 ± 2.2 mm Hg in the six patients infused with the dose of 0.125 mg/kg and by 6.0 ± 1.8 mm Hg in the six patients infused with 0.250 mg/kg. The fall in blood pressure was correlated to the initial plasma renin activity (PRA) (r = 0.61, P < .05). A dose-dependent effect was observed on plasma ANG I which fell by 74% with 0.125 mg/kg and by 94% with 0.250 mg/kg. Identical falls were found for plasma ANG II (72% and 94%, respectively) and ANG I and ANG II were well correlated (r = 0.91, P < .001). The fall in BP was correlated to the fall in plasma ANG I (r = 0.77, P < .01). The time-course of the BP changes was parallel to the changes in plasma angiotensins, as were the slightly delayed rise and fall in active renin measured by a direct immunoradiometric assay. When measured by the conventional ANG I radioimmunoassay, PRA values indicated a long-lasting inhibition. The arte- factual nature of the latter result is demonstrated by the different results obtained with an ANG I antibody-trapping radioimmunoassay, which followed more closely plasma ANG I levels. Am J Hypertens 1989; 2:819-82

Role of the ERK pathway in psychostimulant-induced locomotor sensitization

BACKGROUND: Repeated exposure to psychostimulants results in a progressive and long-lasting facilitation of the locomotor response that is thought to have implications for addiction. Psychostimulants and other drugs of abuse activate in specific brain areas extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), an essential component of a signaling pathway involved in synaptic plasticity and long-term effects of drugs of abuse. Here we have investigated the role of ERK activation in the behavioral sensitization induced by repeated administration of psychostimulants in mice, using SL327, a brain-penetrating selective inhibitor of MAP-kinase/ERK kinase (MEK), the enzyme that selectively activates ERK. RESULTS: A dose of SL327 (30 mg/kg) that reduced the number of activated ERK-positive neurons by 62 to 89% in various brain areas, had virtually no effect on the spontaneous locomotor activity or the acute hyperlocomotion induced by cocaine or D-amphetamine. Pre-treatment with SL327 (30 mg/kg) prior to each drug administration prevented the locomotor sensitization induced by repeated injections of D-amphetamine or cocaine. The SL327 pre-treatment abolished also conditioned locomotor response of mice placed in the context previously paired with cocaine or D-amphetamine. In contrast, SL327 did not alter the expression of sensitized response to D-amphetamine or cocaine. CONCLUSION: Altogether these results show that ERK has a minor contribution to the acute locomotor effects of psychostimulants or to the expression of sensitized responses, whereas it is crucial for the acquisition of locomotor sensitization and psychostimulant-conditioned locomotor response. This study supports the important role of the ERK pathway in long-lasting behavioral alterations induced by drugs of abuse

Flagellin concentrations in expectorations from cystic fibrosis patients.

International audienceBACKGROUND: The aim was to measure flagellin concentrations in the expectorations of CF patients and to examine whether there are correlations with the level of respiratory insufficiency and inflammation. METHODS: Sputum samples from 31 adult patients chronically colonized with P. aeruginosa were collected and analysed for their content of flagellin and IL-8. Clinical data were extracted from patient files. RESULTS: Regardless of whether patients are colonized with mucoid strains or not, they carry clones of P. aeruginosa that express flagellin. While flagellin was present in airways of all of our CF patients, it is difficult to ascertain its contribution to inflammation (IL-8) and lung function deterioration. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first demonstration that flagellin is present in the sputum of patients. Thus, attempts to down regulate inflammation by the use of TLR5 (flagellin receptor) antagonists remain a possibility. However, this result needs to be extended to a larger number of patients to validate it for future research on this subject