Controlling ligand surface density on streptavidin-magnetic particles by a simple, rapid, and reliable chemiluminescent test

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The Relation Between Temperature, Ozone, and Mortality in Nine French Cities During the Heat Wave of 2003

BACKGROUND: During August 2003, record high temperatures were observed across Europe, and France was the country most affected. During this period, elevated ozone concentrations were measured all over the country. Questions were raised concerning the contribution of O(3) to the health impact of the summer 2003 heat wave. METHODS: We used a time-series design to analyze short-term effects of temperature and O(3) pollution on mortality. Counts of deaths were regressed on temperatures and O(3) levels, controlling for possible confounders: long-term trends, season, influenza outbreaks, day of the week, and bank holiday effects. For comparison with previous results of the nine cities, we calculated pooled excess risk using a random effect approach and an empirical Bayes approach. FINDINGS: For the nine cities, the excess risk of death is significant (1.01%; 95% confidence interval, 0.58–1.44) for an increase of 10 μg/m(3) in O(3) level. For the 3–17 August 2003 period, the excess risk of deaths linked to O(3) and temperatures together ranged from 10.6% in Le Havre to 174.7% in Paris. When we compared the relative contributions of O(3) and temperature to this joint excess risk, the contribution of O(3) varied according to the city, ranging from 2.5% in Bordeaux to 85.3% in Toulouse. INTERPRETATION: We observed heterogeneity among the nine cities not only for the joint effect of O(3) and temperatures, but also for the relative contribution of each factor. These results confirmed that in urban areas O(3) levels have a non-negligible impact in terms of public health

Helical peptides from VEGF and Vammin hotspots for modulating the VEGF-VEGFR interaction

The design, synthesis, conformational studies and binding affinity for VEGF receptors of a collection of linear and cyclic peptide analogues of the N-terminal α-helix fragments 13-25 of VEGF and 1-13 of Vammin are described. Linear 13(14)-mer peptides were designed with the help of an AGADIR algorithm and prepared following peptide solid-phase synthetic protocols. Cyclic peptide derivatives were prepared on-resin from linear precursors with conveniently located Glu and Lys residues, by the formation of amide linkages. Conformational analysis, CD and NMR, showed that most synthesized peptides have a clear tendency to be structured as α-helices in solution. Some of the peptides were able to bind a VEGFR-1 receptor with moderate affinity. In addition to the described key residues (Phe17, Tyr21 and Tyr25), Val14 and Val20 seem to be relevant for affinity.Peer Reviewe

PRÉVISION DE L’INCIDENCE DES CANCERS DANS LE BAS-RHIN. APPROCHE BAYÉSIENNE. PRINCIPES ET APPLICATIONS

Cancer is the cause of a large number of deaths. Predicting its evolution is important in Public Health. Theobjective of this work is to predict the trend in the incidence and in number of incident cases of cancer amongpopulation in the Bas-Rhin and to assess a Bayesian approach.The method is based on an age-period-cohort model analysed by a Gibbs sampler. The number of incident caseswas provided by the Bas-Rhin Tumour Registry. The population of the Department was estimated by the INSEE.Four cancers are studied : breast, cervix, lung and colorectal cancer. Trends are projected to 2009.Incidence of invasive cancer of breast and in situ tumours of cervix are predicted to increase. Incidence ofinvasive cancer of cervix is predicted to decrease. Lung and colorectal cancers and rectum cancer in womenincrease in the two sexes but rectum cancer decrease in males.Le cancer mobilise d’importantes ressources sanitaires et pèse fortement sur la mortalité de lapopulation générale. Appréhender son évolution dans les années futures est donc essentiel pour lasanté publique. L’objectif de ce travail est d’estimer l’incidence et le nombre de cas incidents à venirpour les cancers dans le Bas-Rhin et de tester la validité d’une méthode d’analyse fondée sur uneapproche bayésienne.La méthode retenue se base sur un modèle âge-période-cohorte analysé grâce à un échantillonnagede Gibbs. Les nombres de cas incidents annuels, base de la prévision, sont extraits du registre descancers du Bas-Rhin qui existe depuis 1975. Les effectifs de populations actuels et futurs sont estiméspar l’INSEE. La méthode est explicitée puis appliquée à quatre des cancers les plus fréquents : cancerdu sein invasif, du col de l’utérus (in situ et invasif), du poumon et cancer colo-rectal, dans les deuxsexes selon le cas. Les prévisions, établies jusqu’en 2009 grâce à cette méthode, sont comparées auxrésultats obtenus par d’autres techniques.L’analyse met en évidence une croissance future de l’incidence des cancers invasifs du sein et destumeurs in situ du col. L’incidence du cancer invasif du col diminue. Une augmentation de l’incidencedu cancer du poumon et du côlon est prévue dans les deux sexes. Le cancer du rectum chez la femmeaugmente également ; chez l’homme, par contre, la prédiction va dans le sens d’une légère diminution