Towards the modeling of mucus draining from human lung: role of airways deformation on air-mucus interaction

Chest physiotherapy is an empirical technique used to help secretions to get out of the lung whenever stagnation occurs. Although commonly used, little is known about the inner mechanisms of chest physiotherapy and controversies about its use are coming out regularly. Thus, a scientific validation of chest physiotherapy is needed to evaluate its effects on secretions. We setup a quasi-static numerical model of chest physiotherapy based on thorax and lung physiology and on their respective biophysics. We modeled the lung with an idealized deformable symmetric bifurcating tree. Bronchi and their inner fluids mechanics are assumed axisymmetric. Static data from the literature is used to build a model for the lung's mechanics. Secretions motion is the consequence of the shear constraints apply by the air flow. The input of the model is the pressure on the chest wall at each time, and the output is the bronchi geometry and air and secretions properties. In the limit of our model, we mimicked manual and mechanical chest physiotherapy techniques. We show that for secretions to move, air flow has to be high enough to overcome secretion resistance to motion. Moreover, the higher the pressure or the quicker it is applied, the higher is the air flow and thus the mobilization of secretions. However, pressures too high are efficient up to a point where airways compressions prevents air flow to increases any further. Generally, the first effects of manipulations is a decrease of the airway tree hydrodynamic resistance, thus improving ventilation even if secretions do not get out of the lungs. Also, some secretions might be pushed deeper into the lungs; this effect is stronger for high pressures and for mechanical chest physiotherapy. Finally, we propose and tested two adimensional numbers that depend on lung properties and that allow to measure the efficiency and comfort of a manipulation

Subjective Evaluation of Discomfort in Sitting Positions

International audienceWe study the modelling of the subjective sensation of discomfort for subjectsseated during a long time, in terms of local discomforts. The methodology usesfuzzy measures and integrals in a multicriteria decision making process,which enables the modelling of complex interaction between variables. Resultsof the experiment are detailed, giving models with respect to different kindsof discomfort, and to different macro-zones of the body

Le travail en réseau - Au-delà de l'organisation hiérarchique et des technologies de demain

L'ouvrage est structuré sur la base de témoignages d'entreprises, soit à partir des principales fonctions des systèmes d'information (animation active de réseaux, gestion des expertises, travail coopératif…), soit à propos des grandes catégories de technologies (intranet, groupware, progiciels…). Plusieurs de ces expériences sont reprises de façon synthétique dans ce texte. Plus que de simples illustrations des arguments soutenus, ces mises en situation permettront au lecteur d'élaborer sa propre analyse de ces phénomènes resitués, ici, dans l'ensemble de leurs dimensions. Les réflexions permettent de dégager les lignes de force des évolutions en cours ; mais elles illustrent également l'appropriation progressive de ces nouveaux outils par le monde des organisations. Non seulement le travail en réseau s'impose désormais comme une évidence économique, mais il est devenu une dimension et un enjeu dominant de l'organisation du travail

Study of inter- and intra-individual variations in the salivary microbiota

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Oral bacterial communities contain species that promote health and others that have been implicated in oral and/or systemic diseases. Culture-independent approaches provide the best means to assess the diversity of oral bacteria because most of them remain uncultivable.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The salivary microbiota from five adults was analyzed at three time-points by means of the 454 pyrosequencing technology. The V1-V3 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA genes was amplified by PCR using saliva lysates and broad-range primers. The bar-coded PCR products were pooled and sequenced unidirectionally to cover the V3 hypervariable region. Of 50,708 obtained sequences, 31,860 passed the quality control. Non-bacterial sequences (2.2%) were removed leaving 31,170 reads. Samples were dominated by seven major phyla: members of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and candidate division TM7 were identified in all samples; Fusobacteria and Spirochaetes were identified in all individuals, but not at all time-points. The dataset was represented by 3,011 distinct sequences (100%-ID phylotypes) of ~215 nucleotides and 583 phylotypes defined at ≥97% identity (97%-ID phylotypes). We compared saliva samples from different individuals in terms of the phylogeny of their microbial communities. Based on the presence and absence of phylotypes defined at 100% or 97% identity thresholds, samples from each subject formed separate clusters. Among individual taxa, phylum Bacteroidetes and order Clostridiales (Firmicutes) were the best indicators of intraindividual similarity of the salivary flora over time. Fifteen out of 81 genera constituted 73 to 94% of the total sequences present in different samples. Of these, 8 were shared by all time points of all individuals, while 15-25 genera were present in all three time-points of different individuals. Representatives of the class Sphingobacteria, order Sphingobacteriales and family Clostridiaceae were found only in one subject.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The salivary microbial community appeared to be stable over at least 5 days, allowing for subject-specific grouping using UniFrac. Inclusion of all available samples from more distant time points (up to 29 days) confirmed this observation. Samples taken at closer time intervals were not necessarily more similar than samples obtained across longer sampling times. These results point to the persistence of subject-specific taxa whose frequency fluctuates between the time points. Genus <it>Gemella</it>, identified in all time-points of all individuals, was not defined as a core-microbiome genus in previous studies of salivary bacterial communities. Human oral microbiome studies are still in their infancy and larger-scale projects are required to better define individual and universal oral microbiome core.</p

Superconductivity in doped sp3 semiconductors: The case of the clathrates

We present a joint experimental and theoretical study of the superconductivity in doped silicon clathrates. The critical temperature in Ba-8@Si-46 is shown to strongly decrease with applied pressure. These results are corroborated by ab initio calculations using MacMillan's formulation of the BCS theory with the electron-phonon coupling constant lambda calculated from perturbative density functional theory. Further, the study of I-8@Si-46 and of gedanken pure silicon diamond and clathrate phases doped within a rigid-band approach show that the superconductivity is an intrinsic property of the sp(3) silicon network. As a consequence, carbon clathrates are predicted to yield large critical temperatures with an effective electron-phonon interaction much larger than in C-60

Computation of eddy currents in highly conductive particles dispersed in a moderately conductive matrix

In this article, we report 3D numerical simulations of highly conductive non-magnetic particles dispersed in a moderately conductive matrix, subject to an AC magnetic field in a range of several hundred kHz. We address the issue of the scaling of current loops and heating power with respect to the volume fraction of the dispersed phase. Simulations are performed in two steps. First, a static electric potential gradient is imposed between two opposite faces of the simulation domain and an effective conductivity is computed in good agreement with percolation models. Second, the particles are constrained in a spherical sub-region and an AC magnetic field is imposed at the boundary of the domain. For small volume fractions, the induced Joule power is in good agreement with an analytical model of dilute dispersions. As the volume fraction increases, wider current loops form, until the percolation threshold is reached. Then the induced power in the spherical aggregate is well described by the power induced in an equivalent sphere with a volume-fraction-dependent conductivity

Molecular analysis of NDM-1-producing enterobacterial isolates from Geneva, Switzerland

Objectives To analyse the mechanisms responsible for decreased susceptibility or resistance to carbapenems in several enterobacterial isolates recovered in 2009-10 in Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland. Methods PCR and sequencing were used to identify β-lactamases, 16S RNA methylases and plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes. The transferable properties of the plasmids were analysed, as well as their plasmid type. The strains were typed by multilocus sequence typing. Results Three patients were found to be positive for NDM-1-producing enterobacterial isolates (one with Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, one with K. pneumoniae only and one with Proteus mirabilis), where NDM-1 stands for New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1. The blaNDM-1 carbapenemase gene was detected in all isolates in addition to genes encoding narrow-spectrum β-lactamases (TEM-1, SHV-11, OXA-1, OXA-9 and OXA-10), extended-spectrum β-lactamases (CTX-M-15, CMY-16 and CMY-30), ArmA and quinolone resistance determinants (Qnr). The blaNDM-1 gene was located on conjugative IncA/C- or IncF-type plasmids. Upstream of the blaNDM-1 gene, part of ISAba125, previously identified in NDM-1-negative Acinetobacter baumannii, was found. Downstream of the blaNDM-1 gene, variable sequences were found. Conclusions This work constitutes the first identification of NDM-1 producers in Switzerland. Interestingly, patients from whom these NDM-1-producing isolates were recovered had a link with the Indian subcontinent or the Balkan

Machine learning techniques to identify putative genes involved in nitrogen catabolite repression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for all life forms. Like most unicellular organisms, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae transports and catabolizes good nitrogen sources in preference to poor ones. Nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR) refers to this selection mechanism. All known nitrogen catabolite pathways are regulated by four regulators. The ultimate goal is to infer the complete nitrogen catabolite pathways. Bioinformatics approaches offer the possibility to identify putative NCR genes and to discard uninteresting genes.Journal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Peroxide grafted PDMS: hydrosilylation reaction study and thiol-ene chemistry as an alternative pathway

International audiencePeroxide containing PDMS were synthesized according to a new pathway. Although hydrosilylation is one of the main reaction carried out in silicone chemistry, the catalysts used are very sensitive to the chemical nature of the reactants and remained inefficient to graft allylic peroxide. Radical catalyzed thiol-ene chemistry was involved for the first time to yield an initiator group containing polymer. Peroxide grafted polysiloxane structure and decomposition were characterized using 1H, 13C and 29Si NMR, FT-IR and RAMAN spectroscopies, SEC and DSC. These macroinitiators can be used to obtain polysiloxane able to undergo cross-linking