Lateralization of uric acid stones on the left side

The analysis of 35,087 kidney stones revealed that 60% of uric acid stones originate from the left kidney whereas other stones are homogeneously distributed ($p<0.001$). The analysis of (i) lateralized urine samples collected during ureteroscopy and (ii) urine from patients grafted with left or right kidney, did not reveal any difference in urine from left and right kidney. Patients affected by uric acid stones had significantly more cysts, predominating in the left kidney, than patients affected by calcium oxalate stones ($p<0.001$). This set of experiments suggests that renal cysts are associated to uric acid stone lateralization on the left side

Lateralization of uric acid stones on the left side

The analysis of 35,087 kidney stones revealed that 60% of uric acid stones originate from the left kidney whereas other stones are homogeneously distributed ($p<0.001$). The analysis of (i) lateralized urine samples collected during ureteroscopy and (ii) urine from patients grafted with left or right kidney, did not reveal any difference in urine from left and right kidney. Patients affected by uric acid stones had significantly more cysts, predominating in the left kidney, than patients affected by calcium oxalate stones ($p<0.001$). This set of experiments suggests that renal cysts are associated to uric acid stone lateralization on the left side

Normalisation to Blood Activity Is Required for the Accurate Quantification of Na/I Symporter Ectopic Expression by SPECT/CT in Individual Subjects

The utilisation of the Na/I symporter (NIS) and associated radiotracers as a reporter system for imaging gene expression is now reaching the clinical setting in cancer gene therapy applications. However, a formal assessment of the methodology in terms of normalisation of the data still remains to be performed, particularly in the context of the assessment of activities in individual subjects in longitudinal studies. In this context, we administered to mice a recombinant, replication-incompetent adenovirus encoding rat NIS, or a human colorectal carcinoma cell line (HT29) encoding mouse NIS. We used 99mTc pertechnetate as a radiotracer for SPECT/CT imaging to determine the pattern of ectopic NIS expression in longitudinal kinetic studies. Some animals of the cohort were culled and NIS expression was measured by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The radioactive content of some liver biopsies was also measured ex vivo. Our results show that in longitudinal studies involving datasets taken from individual mice, the presentation of non-normalised data (activity expressed as %ID/g or %ID/cc) leads to ‘noisy’, and sometimes incoherent, results. This variability is due to the fact that the blood pertechnetate concentration can vary up to three-fold from day to day. Normalisation of these data with blood activities corrects for these inconsistencies. We advocate that, blood pertechnetate activity should be determined and used to normalise the activity measured in the organ/region of interest that expresses NIS ectopically. Considering that NIS imaging has already reached the clinical setting in the context of cancer gene therapy, this normalisation may be essential in order to obtain accurate and predictive information in future longitudinal clinical studies in biotherapy

Contribution a la qualification experimentale de methodes de calculs des stockages de combustibles vierges des reacteurs de type PWR

Available from CEN Saclay, Service de Documentation, 91191 Gif-Sur-Yvette Cedex (France) / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueSIGLEFRFranc

Ec-Co-Gen : An evolutionary simulation assisted design tool for energy rating of buildings in early design stage to optimize the building form

International audienceIn the framework of the present study the software EcCoGen was developed from scratch, in order to assist the architects and engineers during the early design stages. More precisely, the environmental qualities of dynamic composite envelopes have been selected to guide the design through an evolutionary process. The main objective of the research presented here aims to attrack more interest in the initial phases of the design, seeking to specify a tool that facilitates and encourages the creativity in the framework of bioclimatic design. Having under consideration the established and structured knowledge about the design process, the thermal properties of composite dynamic envelopes and evolutionary methods, we propose a tool based on a Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA) that is implemented in the original modeller software. At this stage, regarding the energy consumption evaluation in the initial design phase the method that we used is developed based on common energy model simplifications, and original developed regression models; however, at this stage the evaluation is limited to simplified seasonal heat loss model. In addition, it takes into account the solar gains depending on the orientation and inclination of the dynamic envelope’s surfaces. Since this research focus on early design stages, the detailed description of the envelope is not possible. For this reason, the description of the inertia characteristics of the building remains approximate. Finally an original Graphical User Interface (GUI) is conceived

Ec-Co-Gen : An evolutionary simulation assisted design tool for energy rating of buildings in early design stage to optimize the building form

International audienceIn the framework of the present study the software EcCoGen was developed from scratch, in order to assist the architects and engineers during the early design stages. More precisely, the environmental qualities of dynamic composite envelopes have been selected to guide the design through an evolutionary process. The main objective of the research presented here aims to attrack more interest in the initial phases of the design, seeking to specify a tool that facilitates and encourages the creativity in the framework of bioclimatic design. Having under consideration the established and structured knowledge about the design process, the thermal properties of composite dynamic envelopes and evolutionary methods, we propose a tool based on a Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA) that is implemented in the original modeller software. At this stage, regarding the energy consumption evaluation in the initial design phase the method that we used is developed based on common energy model simplifications, and original developed regression models; however, at this stage the evaluation is limited to simplified seasonal heat loss model. In addition, it takes into account the solar gains depending on the orientation and inclination of the dynamic envelope’s surfaces. Since this research focus on early design stages, the detailed description of the envelope is not possible. For this reason, the description of the inertia characteristics of the building remains approximate. Finally an original Graphical User Interface (GUI) is conceived

L'éco-Conception Générative : Une illustration de la pensée complexe

International audienceNous présentons ici deux outils d’assistance à la conception architecturale créative. Ils s’appuient sur des logiques évolutionnaires et intègrent des algorithmes génétiques guidés par les qualités environnementales des analo-gons. Les dispositifs convoquent les notions de complexité à travers la mise en œuvre de processus computationnels tout en cherchant à stimuler une approche créative de la conception. Si notre première hypothèse autorise au concepteur une liberté de définition de son modèle paramétrique, la seconde hypothèse quant à elle autorise une interaction avec le moteur évolutionnair