Spatio-Temporal Transmission Patterns of Black-Band Disease in a Coral Community

Transmission mechanisms of black-band disease (BBD) in coral reefs are poorly understood, although this disease is considered to be one of the most widespread and destructive coral infectious diseases. The major objective of this study was to assess transmission mechanisms of BBD in the field based on the spatio-temporal patterns of the disease

R++, User-Friendly Statistical Software

Part 9: Industry Case StudiesInternational audienceStatistical analysis is gradually entering all areas of society, be in academia or in the private sector. Statistical software is used by statisticians but also by non-experts (medical doctors, psychologists...). Unfortunately, this kind of software is integrated into obsolete interfaces that completely ignore the principles of HCI and are poorly adapted to non-expert users.R++ project aims to develop a modern statistical analysis software program integrated into a user-friendly interface. In this paper, we present the methodology that led us to the design of R++. We also give two examples that this methodology allowed us to achieve

Graphical exploration of gene expression data: a comparative study of three multivariate methods

This article describes three multivariate projection methods and compares them for their ability to identify clusters of biological samples and genes using real-life data on gene expression levels of leukemia patients. It is shown that principal component analysis (PCA) has the disadvantage that the resulting principal factors are not very informative, while correspondence factor analysis (CFA) has difficulties interpreting distances between objects. Spectral map analysis (SMA) is introduced as an alternative approach to the analysis of microarray data. Weighted SMA outperforms PCA, and is at least as powerful as CFA, in finding clusters in the samples, as well as identifying genes related to these clusters. SMA addresses the problem of data analysis in microarray experiments in a more appropriate manner than CFA, and allows more flexible weighting to the genes and samples. Proper weighting is important, since it enables less reliable data to be down-weighted and more reliable information to be emphasized.status: publishe

The effect of maternal betamethasone and fetal tracheal occlusion on pulmonary vascular morphometry in fetal rabbits with surgically induced diaphragmatic hernia: a placebo controlled morphologic study

Objectives We Studied the vascular effects of betamethasone (BM) and/or tracheal occlusion (TO) in fetal rabbits with surgically induced congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Methods At day 23 (pseudoglandular phase; term = 31 d). 54 ovarian-end fetuses from 27 does underwent induction of CDH. Thirteen did receive either 0.05 mg/kg BM, on days 28 and 29 with a 24-h interval. or 14 saline [controls (CTR)]. At clay 28, one ovarian-end fetus Underwent TO and harvesting was at term. In total, we compared (ANOVA) lung-to-body weight ratio (LBWR) and vascular morphometric indices in survivors from the following groups (n - number alive at delivery): CDH (9); CDH + TO (10); unoperated controls (14); CDH + BM (10): CDH + TO (9): controls CTR + BM (13). Results Maternal BM had no effect on LBWR. LBWR was comparable to normal in CDH fetuses undergoing TO. Both TO and BM have an effect on medial thickening due to CDH which is larger when both interventions are combined. Conclusions Both TO and BM lessen peripheric muscularization present in CDH lungs and their effect is cumulative. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Evolution of anti-HIV drug candidates. Part 3: Diarylpyrimidine (DAPY) analogues

The synthesis and anti-HIV-1 activity of a series of diarylpyrimidines (DAPYs) are described. Several members of this novel class of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) are extremely potent against both wild-type and a panel of clinically significant single- and double-mutant strains of HIV-1.status: publishe

Evolution of anti-HIV drug candidates. Part 2: Diaryltriazine (DATA) analogues

A synthesis program directed toward improving the stability of imidoyl thiourea based non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) led to the discovery of diaryltriazines (DATAs), a new class of potent NNRTIs. The synthesis and anti-HIV structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies of a series of DATA derivatives are described.status: publishe