Le rire et l'humour dans l'apprentissage et l'enseignement d'une langue seconde

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

The use of personalized medicine for patient selection for renal transplantation: Physicians' views on the clinical and ethical implications

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The overwhelming scarcity of organs within renal transplantation forces researchers and transplantation teams to seek new ways to increase efficacy. One of the possibilities is the use of personalized medicine, an approach based on quantifiable and scientific factors that determine the global immunological risk of rejection for each patient. Although this approach can improve the efficacy of transplantations, it also poses a number of ethical questions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The qualitative research involved 22 semi-structured interviews with nephrologists involved in renal transplantation, with the goal of determining the professionals' views about calculating the global immunological risk and the attendant ethical issues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results demonstrate a general acceptance of this approach amongst the participants in the study. Knowledge of each patient's immunological risk could improve treatment and the post-graft follow-up. On the other hand, the possibility that patients might be excluded from transplantation poses a significant ethical issue. This approach is not seen as something entirely new, given the fact that medicine is increasingly scientific and evidence-based. Although renal transplantation incorporates scientific data, these physicians believe that there should always be a place for clinical judgment and the physician-patient relationship.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The participants see the benefits of including the calculation of the global immunological risk within transplantation. Such data, being more precise and rigorous, could be of help in their clinical work. However, in spite of the use of such scientific data, a place must be retained for the clinical judgment that allows a physician to make decisions based on medical data, professional expertise and knowledge of the patient. To act in the best interests of the patient is key to whether the calculation of the global immunological risk is employed.</p

Quantification of short and long asbestos fibers to assess asbestos exposure: a review of fiber size toxicity.

International audienceThe fibrogenicity and carcinogenicity of asbestos fibers are dependent on several fiber parameters including fiber dimensions. Based on the WHO (World Health Organization) definition, the current regulations focalise on long asbestos fibers (LAF) (Length: L ≥ 5 μm, Diameter: D  3). However air samples contain short asbestos fibers (SAF) (L < 5 μm). In a recent study we found that several air samples collected in buildings with asbestos containing materials (ACM) were composed only of SAF, sometimes in a concentration of ≥10 fibers.L-1. This exhaustive review focuses on available information from peer-review publications on the size-dependent pathogenetic effects of asbestos fibers reported in experimental in vivo and in vitro studies. In the literature, the findings that SAF are less pathogenic than LAF are based on experiments where a cut-off of 5 μm was generally made to differentiate short from long asbestos fibers. Nevertheless, the value of 5 μm as the limit for length is not based on scientific evidence, but is a limit for comparative analyses. From this review, it is clear that the pathogenicity of SAF cannot be completely ruled out, especially in high exposure situations. Therefore, the presence of SAF in air samples appears as an indicator of the degradation of ACM and inclusion of their systematic search should be considered in the regulation. Measurement of these fibers in air samples will then make it possible to identify pollution and anticipate health risk

Modular Medical Imaging Agents Based on Azide-Alkyne Huisgen Cycloadditions:Synthesis and Pre-Clinical Evaluation of(18)F-Labeled PSMA-Tracers for Prostate Cancer Imaging

Since the seminal contribution of Rolf Huisgen to develop the [3+2] cycloaddition of 1,3-dipolar compounds, its azide–alkyne variant has established itself as the key step in numerous organic syntheses and bioorthogonal processes in materials science and chemical biology. In the present study, the copper(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition was applied for the development of a modular molecular platform for medical imaging of the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), using positron emission tomography. This process is shown from molecular design, through synthesis automation and in vitro studies, all the way to pre-clinical in vivo evaluation of fluorine-18- labeled PSMA-targeting ‘F-PSMA-MIC’ radiotracers (t1/2=109.7 min). Pre-clinical data indicate that the modular PSMA-scaffold has similar binding affinity and imaging properties to the clinically used [68Ga]PSMA-11. Furthermore, we demonstrated that targeting the arene-binding in PSMA, facilitated through the [3+2]cycloaddition, can improve binding affinity, which was rationalized by molecular modeling. The here presented PSMA-binding scaffold potentially facilitates easy coupling to other medical imaging moieties, enabling future developments of new modular imaging agents

La correction et la révision de l’écrit en français langue seconde: médiation humaine, médiation informatique Correcting and editing texts written by FSL students: human mediation vs. computer-assisted mediation

L’apprentissage de la correction / révision de l’écrit par les apprenants de français langue seconde peut-elle tirer profit des correcteurs orthographiques et grammaticaux des traitements de texte ou des correcticiels spécialisés ? La nature de la médiation informatique permet-elle aux apprenants de corriger de façon efficace leurs textes et comment se compare-t-elle avec la correction humaine ? Qu’est-ce qui différencie ces deux médiations ? Des textes rédigés par des anglophones ont été soumis aux deux types de corrections, humaine et informatique, soit deux enseignantes ayant vingt ans d’expérience et la correction informatique effectuée par le correcteur orthographique et grammatical de Word et les deux correcticiels canadiens, Le correcteur 101 et Antidote. Les résultats montrent que la nature de ces médiations n’est pas comparable et que la médiation informatique, pour être efficace, nécessite la participation active, intelligente et instruite de l’utilisateur et que les correcticiels ne peuvent pas corriger efficacement des textes d’étudiants de niveau intermédiaire.<br>Can spellcheckers or grammar correctors, be they part of a word processor or stand-alone programs, help FSL students become more adept at correcting or editing the written texts they produce? Does computer-assisted mediation enable learners to correct their work efficiently and how does it compare with human mediation? What differentiates them? Texts written by anglophone students were corrected using both methods, i.e., on the one hand, by two teachers with 20 years experience and, on the other hand, using the specialized tools available with MSWord as well as two Canadian text correction programs, Le Correcteur 101 and Antidote. It turns out that the two methods are of very different natures ; computer-based correction can only give some positive results if the users have received appropriate training enabling them to actively and knowledgeably participate in the correcting process, and software programs cannot on their own be relied upon to correct efficiently texts written by intermediate level students

Thrombus de l'oreillette droite simulant un myxome au cours d'un syndrome primaire des antiphospholipides

Various thrombo-embolic complications have been related to the antiphospholipid syndrome. The authors report the case of a patient with a primary antiphospholipid syndrome associated with a right auricular mass highly suggesting a myxoma by both echocardiography and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Meanwhile, the histological examination of the operative specimen showed a well organized and calcified thrombus. Intracardiac thrombus has been rarely reported as a complication of the antiphospholipid syndrome. The preoperative investigations can't differenciate such a thrombus with a myxoma and the diagnosis is usually made postoperatively