Cancers du larynx etude retrospective à propos de 90 cas

Objectif : Le cancer du larynx est parmi les premiers cancers de la sphère oto-rhino laryngée. La dysphonie constitue le maître symptôme révélateur et peut être associée à une dyspnée selon la localisation tumorale. Il s’agit essentiellement d’un carcinome épidermoide. L’alcoolo-tabagisme joue un rôle important dans la genèse de ce cancer.Matériel et méthodes: Notre étude est rétrospective à propos de 90 cas colligés sur une période de 18 ans (1990-2007).Résultats : La prédominance du sexe masculin est nette avec une seule femme dans notre série. Le pic d’âge est entre 60 et 70 ans. 98,9% de nos patients sont des fumeurs chroniques. 14,4% ont été suivis pour une laryngite chronique. La dysphonie a été retrouvée chez tous nos patients. Le délai de consultation moyen est relativement long avec une moyennede 8 mois. Le point de départ de la tumeur a été le plan glottique dans 72,2% et sus glottique dans 23,4%. Le type histologique le plus fréquent est le carcinome épidermoïde dans 92,2%. Le bilan d’extension a systématiquement comporté une endoscopie sous anesthésie générale avec une tomodensitométrie. La majorité de nos malades ont été classésT3-T4 et ceci dans 31,4%. Le taux de survie globale à 5 ans a été de 57,1%.Conclusion : Le cancer du larynx est un cancer du sujet de sexe masculin surtout alcoolo-tabagique. Le bilan endoscopique et radiologique essentiellement scanographique va permettre un bilan d’extension et guider ainsi la conduite thérapeutique. Le traitement est essentiellement chirurgical, couplé parfois à une radiothérapie ou une chimiothérapie.Le pronostic est le plus fréquemment favorable surtout si le diagnostic est précoce.Mots-clés : Larynx, Cancer, Tomodensitométrie,Traitemen

Le mal de pott sous occipital révélé par un abcès rétro pharyngien a propos d’un cas

Introduction : Pott's disease is the most frequent localisation of osteo-articular tuberculosis. The suboccipital localisation remains rare. Case report : A 12-years old boy, admitted for cervicalgy and dysphagia. His clinical exam revealed a swelling of posterior pharyngeal wall associated with a basicervical tumefaction fistulased to the skin. Cervical spine MRI and cervico-thoracic tomodensitometry show a retro-pharyngeal collection associated with necrosed mediastinal adenopathies and apical pulmonar retractile lesion. The patient underwent, in emergency, an incision of the retro-pharyngeal abscess. The biological assessment revealed an inflommatory syndrom. A tuberculine intra dermo-reaction was negative whereas the BK research were positive. The diagnosis of suboccipital Pott's disease associated with pulmonar tuberculosis was done. The anti-tuberculosis drug was mentained for 11 months with a good recovery. The follow-up was 6 years. Discussion : The sub occipital pain Pott localisation was rare. The cervicalgy was the important clinical sign of consultation. Whearas, the dysphagia and retro-pharyngeal abscess could be revealing. The MRI was necessary for an early diagnosis. The diagnosis confirmation was made by the presence of Mycobacterium Koch in the pottic lesion. The treatment was based on the anti-tuberculosis drugs for a period of 11 months completed with an orthopedic or surgical stabilisation of cervical occipital jonction.Keywords : Pott’s disease, tuberculosis, cervical spine, MRI, Mycobacterium Koch

Reproductive cycle of Bolinus brandaris (Gastropoda: Muricidae) in the Gulf of Gabes (southern Tunisia)

The reproductive cycle of the purple dye murex (Bolinus brandaris) from the Gulf of Gabes was studied through gonad histology and calculation of bio-physiological indices (general condition index - K and gonadosomatic index - GSI). The shell length at first sexual maturity (SL50) of B. brandaris was also investigated using a macroscopic maturation scale. The population's sex ratio was statistically skewed (M:F = 1:1.5), with a significant dominance of females over males. Monthly variations in the maturation stages of gonads, K and GSI showed that B. brandaris has an annual reproductive cycle, a long period of gonadal activity and a slight asynchronicity between the sexes. The spawning season comprised the period between April and July, with a clear spawning peak from May to June. The SL50 was reached at 56.4 mm in females and 54.6 mm in males. Although at present B. brandaris has no commercial value in Tunisia, it is predictable to become a fishery-exploited species in the near future. The present data, particularly the timing and duration of the spawning season and the size of individuals of both sexes at first sexual maturity, provide baseline information to propose the early adoption of fishery management measures, aimed at ensuring sustainable exploitation and long-term preservation of this alternative fishing resource, once commercial exploitation of this species commences.We are grateful to the technical staff of INSTM (Centre of Sfax) for their assistance during field surveys and laboratory procedures. Thanks are also due to Mr. Tarek Rebai (Medicine University, Sfax) and Mr. Mohamed Salah Romtdane (National Agronomic Institute, Tunis) for their valuable help during histological analyses. Paulo Vasconcelos is funded by a post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/ 26348/2006) awarded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT - Portugal). Finally, the authors acknowledge the valuable comments and suggestions provided by two anonymous reviewers and by the Editor-in-Chief of Mediterranean Marine Science.publishe

Upravljanje silom mišićno-koštanog manipulatora pogonjenog spiralnim motorom

This paper presents force control of musculoskeletal manipulator driven by spiral motors. The kinematic and dynamic properties are shown to address the presence of ennvironmental contact with the manipulator. From this contact, the force control schemes were explored, by comparing between monoarticular-only structure and biarticular structure manipulator. Force control schemes were divided into independent muscle control, end effector step force command, and muscular viscoelasticity control. The results show advantages of biarticular actuation compared to monoarticular-only actuation in the feasibility of magnetic levitation (gap) control alongside force control.U ovome radu predstavljeno je upravljanje silom mišićno-koštanog manipulatora pogonjenog spiralnim motorom. Kinematička i dinamička svojstva prikazuju prisutnost kontakta manipulatora s okolinom. Na temelju kontakta istraženo je upravljanje silom usporedbom jednozglobne i dvozglobne strukture manipulatora. Upravljanje silom podijeljeno je u neovisno upravljanje mišićima, upravljanje alatom manipulatora (eng. end effector) i upravljanje mišićnom viskoelastičnosti. Rezultati pokazuju prednost dvozglobne strukture u odnosu na jednozglobnu u smislu izvedivosti upravljanja magnetskom levitacijom pored upravljanja silom

Budd-Chiari syndrome in a 25-year-old woman with Behçet's disease: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The risk that patients with Behçet's disease will develop thrombotic complications has been previously described. Although it is distributed worldwide, Behçet's disease is rare in the Americas and Europe. Even though the pathogenic mechanisms of vascular complications of Budd-Chiari syndrome in patients with Behçet's disease are unknown, severe vascular complications of Budd-Chiari syndrome associated with Behçet's disease seem to affect mainly young men.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a case of Budd-Chiari syndrome, a severe vascular complication that developed in a 25-year-old Afro-Brazilian woman with Behçet's disease.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Severe vascular complications of Budd-Chiari syndrome in patients with Behçet's disease are much more common in young adult male patients; we present a rare case of Budd-Chiari syndrome in a young Afro-Brazilian woman with Behçet's disease.</p

LAL Regulators SCO0877 and SCO7173 as Pleiotropic Modulators of Phosphate Starvation Response and Actinorhodin Biosynthesis in Streptomyces coelicolor

LAL regulators (Large ATP-binding regulators of the LuxR family) constitute a poorly studied family of transcriptional regulators. Several regulators of this class have been identified in antibiotic and other secondary metabolite gene clusters from actinomycetes, thus they have been considered pathway-specific regulators. In this study we have obtained two disruption mutants of LAL genes from S. coelicolor (Δ0877 and Δ7173). Both mutants were deficient in the production of the polyketide antibiotic actinorhodin, and antibiotic production was restored upon gene complementation of the mutants. The use of whole-genome DNA microarrays and quantitative PCRs enabled the analysis of the transcriptome of both mutants in comparison with the wild type. Our results indicate that the LAL regulators under study act globally affecting various cellular processes, and amongst them the phosphate starvation response and the biosynthesis of the blue-pigmented antibiotic actinorhodin. Both regulators act as negative modulators of the expression of the two-component phoRP system and as positive regulators of actinorhodin biosynthesis. To our knowledge this is the first characterization of LAL regulators with wide implications in Streptomyces metabolism

Genome-Wide and Phase-Specific DNA-Binding Rhythms of BMAL1 Control Circadian Output Functions in Mouse Liver

Temporal mapping during a circadian day of binding sites for the BMAL1 transcription factor in mouse liver reveals genome-wide daily rhythms in DNA binding and uncovers output functions that are controlled by the circadian oscillator

Dusty: an assistive mobile manipulator that retrieves dropped objects for people with motor impairments

People with physical disabilities have ranked object retrieval as a high priority task for assistive robots. We have developed Dusty, a teleoperated mobile manipulator that fetches objects from the floor and delivers them to users at a comfortable height. In this paper, we first demonstrate the robot's high success rate (98.4%) when autonomously grasping 25 objects considered important by people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We tested the robot with each object in five different configurations on five types of flooring. We then present the results of an experiment in which 20 people with ALS operated Dusty. Participants teleoperated Dusty to move around an obstacle, pick up an object, and deliver the object to themselves. They successfully completed this task in 59 out of 60 trials (3 trials each) with a mean completion time of 61.4 seconds (SD=20.5 seconds), and reported high overall satisfaction using Dusty (7-point Likert scale; 6.8 SD=0.6). Participants rated Dusty to be significantly easier to use than their own hands, asking family members, and using mechanical reachers (p < 0.03, paired t-tests). 14 of the 20 participants reported that they would prefer using Dusty over their current methods

Fourier descriptors and handwritten digit recognition

This paper presents the results of a comparative study of various Fourier descriptor representations and their use in recognition of unconstrained handwritten digits. Certain characteristics of five distinct Fourier descriptor representations of handwritten digits are discussed, and illustrations of ambiguous digit classes introduced by use of these Fourier descriptor representations are presented. It is concluded that Fourier descriptors are practically effective only within the framework of an intelligent system, capable of reasoning about digit hypotheses. We describe a hypothesisgenerating algorithm based on Fourier descriptors which allows a classifier to associate more than one digit class with each input. Such hypothesis-generating schemes can be very effective in systems employing multiple classifiers. We compare the performance of the five Fourier descriptor representations based on experiment results produced by a particular hypothesis-generating classifier for a test set of 14000 handwritten digits. It is found that some Fourier descriptor formulations are more successful than others for handwritten digit recognition.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46057/1/138_2005_Article_BF01212429.pd