2,374 research outputs found
Asp Viper (Vipera aspis) Envenomation: Experience of the Marseille Poison Centre from 1996 to 2008
A retrospective case review study of viper envenomations collected by the Marseilleâs Poison Centre between 1996 and 2008 was performed. Results: 174 cases were studied (52 grade 1 = G1, 90 G2 and 32 G3). G1 patients received symptomatic treatments (average hospital stay 0.96 day). One hundred and six (106) of the G2/G3 patients were treated with the antivenom Viperfav* (2.1+/-0.9 days in hospital), while 15 of them received symptomatic treatments only (plus one immediate death) (8.1+/-4 days in hospital, 2 of them died). The hospital stay was significantly reduced in the antivenom treated group (p < 0.001), and none of the 106 antivenom treated patients had immediate (anaphylaxis) or delayed (serum sickness) allergic reactions. Conclusion: Viperfav* antivenom was safe and effective for treating asp viper venom-induced toxicity
3D LTE spectral line formation with scattering in red giant stars
We investigate the effects of coherent isotropic continuum scattering on the
formation of spectral lines in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) using 3D
hydrodynamical and 1D hydrostatic model atmospheres of red giant stars.
Continuum flux levels, spectral line profiles and curves of growth for
different species are compared with calculations that treat scattering as
absorption. Photons may escape from deeper, hotter layers through scattering,
resulting in significantly higher continuum flux levels beneath a wavelength of
5000 A. The magnitude of the effect is determined by the importance of
scattering opacity with respect to absorption opacity; we observe the largest
changes in continuum flux at the shortest wavelengths and lowest metallicities;
intergranular lanes of 3D models are more strongly affected than granules.
Continuum scattering acts to increase the profile depth of LTE lines: continua
gain more brightness than line cores due to their larger thermalization depth
in hotter layers. We thus observe the strongest changes in line depth for
high-excitation species and ionized species, which contribute significantly to
photon thermalization through their absorption opacity near the continuum
optical surface. Scattering desaturates the line profiles, leading to larger
abundance corrections for stronger lines, which reach -0.5 dex at 3000 A for Fe
II lines in 3D with excitation potential 2 eV at [Fe/H]=-3.0. The corrections
are less severe for low-excitation lines, longer wavelengths, and higher
metallicity. Velocity fields increase the effects of scattering by separating
emission from granules and intergranular lanes in wavelength. 1D calculations
exhibit similar scattering abundance corrections for weak lines, but those for
strong lines are generally smaller compared to 3D models and depend on the
choice of microturbulence.Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 529, 05/201
The stellar atmosphere simulation code Bifrost
Context: Numerical simulations of stellar convection and photospheres have
been developed to the point where detailed shapes of observed spectral lines
can be explained. Stellar atmospheres are very complex, and very different
physical regimes are present in the convection zone, photosphere, chromosphere,
transition region and corona. To understand the details of the atmosphere it is
necessary to simulate the whole atmosphere since the different layers interact
strongly. These physical regimes are very diverse and it takes a highly
efficient massively parallel numerical code to solve the associated equations.
Aims: The design, implementation and validation of the massively parallel
numerical code Bifrost for simulating stellar atmospheres from the convection
zone to the corona.
Methods: The code is subjected to a number of validation tests, among them
the Sod shock tube test, the Orzag-Tang colliding shock test, boundary
condition tests and tests of how the code treats magnetic field advection,
chromospheric radiation, radiative transfer in an isothermal scattering
atmosphere, hydrogen ionization and thermal conduction.
Results: Bifrost completes the tests with good results and shows near linear
efficiency scaling to thousands of computing cores
Corrigendum: Intrathecal drug delivery: Advances and applications in the management of chronic pain patient.
post-print4149 K
Bisectors of the HARPS Cross-Correlation-Function. The dependence on stellar atmospheric parameters
Bisectors of the HARPS cross-correlation function (CCF) can discern between
planetary radial-velocity (RV) signals and spurious RV signals from stellar
magnetic activity variations. However, little is known about the effects of the
stellar atmosphere on CCF bisectors or how these effects vary with spectral
type and luminosity class. Here we investigate the variations in the shapes of
HARPS CCF bisectors across the HR diagram in order to relate these to the basic
stellar parameters, surface gravity and temperature. We use archive spectra of
67 well studied stars observed with HARPS and extract mean CCF bisectors. We
derive previously defined bisector measures (BIS, v_bot, c_b) and we define and
derive a new measure called the CCF Bisector Span (CBS) from the minimum radius
of curvature on direct fits to the CCF bisector. We show that the bisector
measures correlate differently, and non-linearly with log g and T_eff. The
resulting correlations allow for the estimation of log g and T_eff from the
bisector measures. We compare our results with 3D stellar atmosphere models and
show that we can reproduce the shape of the CCF bisector for the Sun.Comment: 13 pages, 20 figures. Accepted by A&
Persistent Unresolved Inflammation in the Mecp2-308 Female Mutated Mouse Model of Rett Syndrome
Rett syndrome (RTT) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder usually caused by mutations in the X-linked gene methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2). Several Mecp2 mutant mouse lines have been developed recapitulating part of the clinical features. In particular, Mecp2-308 female heterozygous mice, bearing a truncating mutation, are a validated model of the disease. While recent data suggest a role for inflammation in RTT, little information on the inflammatory status in murine models of the disease is available. Here, we investigated the inflammatory status by proteomic 2-DE/MALDI-ToF/ToF analyses in symptomatic Mecp2-308 female mice. Ten differentially expressed proteins were evidenced in the Mecp2-308 mutated plasma proteome. In particular, 5 positive acute-phase response (APR) proteins increased (i.e., kininogen-1, alpha-fetoprotein, mannose-binding protein C, alpha-1-antitrypsin, and alpha-2-macroglobulin), and 3 negative APR reactants were decreased (i.e., serotransferrin, albumin, and apolipoprotein A1). CD5 antigen-like and vitamin D-binding protein, two proteins strictly related to inflammation, were also changed. These results indicate for the first time a persistent unresolved inflammation of unknown origin in the Mecp2-308 mouse model
Altered gut microbiota in Rett syndrome
Background
The human gut microbiota directly affects human health, and its alteration can lead to gastrointestinal abnormalities and inflammation. Rett syndrome (RTT), a progressive neurological disorder mainly caused by mutations in MeCP2 gene, is commonly associated with gastrointestinal dysfunctions and constipation, suggesting a link between RTTâs gastrointestinal abnormalities and the gut microbiota. The aim of this study was to evaluate the bacterial and fungal gut microbiota in a cohort of RTT subjects integrating clinical, metabolomics and metagenomics data to understand if changes in the gut microbiota of RTT subjects could be associated with gastrointestinal abnormalities and inflammatory status.
Results
Our findings revealed the occurrence of an intestinal sub-inflammatory status in RTT subjects as measured by the elevated values of faecal calprotectin and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. We showed that, overall, RTT subjects harbour bacterial and fungal microbiota altered in terms of relative abundances from those of healthy controls, with a reduced microbial richness and dominated by microbial taxa belonging to Bifidobacterium, several Clostridia (among which Anaerostipes, Clostridium XIVa, Clostridium XIVb) as well as Erysipelotrichaceae, Actinomyces, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Eggerthella, Escherichia/Shigella and the fungal genus Candida.
We further observed that alterations of the gut microbiota do not depend on the constipation status of RTT subjects and that this dysbiotic microbiota produced altered short chain fatty acids profiles.
Conclusions
We demonstrated for the first time that RTT is associated with a dysbiosis of both the bacterial and fungal component of the gut microbiota, suggesting that impairments of MeCP2 functioning favour the establishment of a microbial community adapted to the costive gastrointestinal niche of RTT subjects. The altered production of short chain fatty acids associated with this microbiota might reinforce the constipation status of RTT subjects and contribute to RTT gastrointestinal physiopathology
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