Three-chamber chest drain system in the COVID-19 era: is there a risk of further transmission?

We discuss the hypothesis that common Chest Drain Systems collected to a COVID-19 patient, could be a possible source of contamination for health care staff in a Thoracic Surgery ward and we propose an alternative way to minimize this further risk of transmission

Intravital imaging reveals p53-dependent cancer cell death induced by phototherapy via calcium signaling.

One challenge in biology is signal transduction monitoring in a physiological context. Intravital imaging techniques are revolutionizing our understanding of tumor and host cell behaviors in the tumor environment. However, these deep tissue imaging techniques have not yet been adopted to investigate the second messenger calcium (Ca2+). In the present study, we established conditions that allow the in vivo detection of Ca2+ signaling in three-dimensional tumor masses in mouse models. By combining intravital imaging and a skinfold chamber technique, we determined the ability of photodynamic cancer therapy to induce an increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentrations and, consequently, an increase in cell death in a p53-dependent pathway

Effect of Water on a Hydrophobic Deep Eutectic Solvent

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) formed by hydrogen bond donors and acceptors are a promising new class of solvents. Both hydrophilic and hydrophobic binary DESs readily absorb water, making them ternary mixtures, and a small water content is always inevitable under ambient conditions. We present a thorough study of a typical hydrophobic DES formed by a 1:2 mole ratio of tetrabutyl ammonium chloride and decanoic acid, focusing on the effects of a low water content caused by absorbed water vapor, using multinuclear NMR techniques, molecular modeling, and several other physicochemical techniques. Already very low water contents cause dynamic nanoscale phase segregation, reduce solvent viscosity and fragility, increase self-diffusion coefficients and conductivity, and enhance local dynamics. Water interferes with the hydrogen-bonding network between the chloride ions and carboxylic acid groups by solvating them, which enhances carboxylic acid self-correlation and ion pair formation between tetrabutyl ammonium and chloride. Simulations show that the component molar ratio can be varied, with an effect on the internal structure. The water-induced changes in the physical properties are beneficial for most prospective applications but water creates an acidic aqueous nanophase with a high halide ion concentration, which may have chemically adverse effects.</p

Structured reporting for fibrosing lung disease: a model shared by radiologist and pulmonologist

Objectives: To apply the Delphi exercise with iterative involvement of radiologists and pulmonologists with the aim of defining a structured reporting template for high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of patients with fibrosing lung disease (FLD). Methods: The writing committee selected the HRCT criteria\ue2\u80\u94the Delphi items\ue2\u80\u94for rating from both radiology panelists (RP) and pulmonology panelists (PP). The Delphi items were first rated by RPs as \ue2\u80\u9cessential\ue2\u80\u9d, \ue2\u80\u9coptional\ue2\u80\u9d, or \ue2\u80\u9cnot relevant\ue2\u80\u9d. The items rated \ue2\u80\u9cessential\ue2\u80\u9d by &lt; 80% of the RP were selected for the PP rating. The format of reporting was rated by both RP and PP. Results: A total of 42 RPs and 12 PPs participated to the survey. In both Delphi round 1 and 2, 10/27 (37.7%) items were rated \ue2\u80\u9cessential\ue2\u80\u9d by more than 80% of RP. The remaining 17/27 (63.3%) items were rated by the PP in round 3, with 2/17 items (11.7%) rated \ue2\u80\u9cessential\ue2\u80\u9d by the PP. PP proposed additional items for conclusion domain, which were rated by RPs in the fourth round. Poor consensus was observed for the format of reporting. Conclusions: This study provides a template for structured report of FLD that features essential items as agreed by expert thoracic radiologists and pulmonologists

Genome-wide Analyses Identify KIF5A as a Novel ALS Gene

To identify novel genes associated with ALS, we undertook two lines of investigation. We carried out a genome-wide association study comparing 20,806 ALS cases and 59,804 controls. Independently, we performed a rare variant burden analysis comparing 1,138 index familial ALS cases and 19,494 controls. Through both approaches, we identified kinesin family member 5A (KIF5A) as a novel gene associated with ALS. Interestingly, mutations predominantly in the N-terminal motor domain of KIF5A are causative for two neurodegenerative diseases: hereditary spastic paraplegia (SPG10) and Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2 (CMT2). In contrast, ALS-associated mutations are primarily located at the C-terminal cargo-binding tail domain and patients harboring loss-of-function mutations displayed an extended survival relative to typical ALS cases. Taken together, these results broaden the phenotype spectrum resulting from mutations in KIF5A and strengthen the role of cytoskeletal defects in the pathogenesis of ALS.Peer reviewe

Three-Chamber Chest Drain System in the COVID-19 Era: Is There a Risk of Further Transmission?

Once a chest tube is placed, during an emergency or after thoracic surgery, a Chest Drain System (CDS) is attached [...

La polizia fra controllo e consenso (etnografia della polizia di prossimità =)

Ce travail s intéresse à la police et pose la question des transformations des modes de production du contrôle et du consensus social dans les sociétés postmodernes. Quel est le rôle joué par la police de proximité dans ces transformations ? Comment participe la population au développement de ces nouvelles tendances ? Et dans quelle mesure la police va changer son rapport avec le pouvoir central pour devenir une véritable police citoyenne ? Les réponses s appuient sur un examen de la littérature théorique et sur une enquête de terrain menée essentiellement dans les villes de Paris et Milan. Les sources utilisées sont l observation directe, plus de 80 entretiens et un focus group. La recherche s est développée autour de trois phases successives. Premièrement, j ai examiné les sources théoriques, pour pouvoir définir les concepts de déviance et contrôle, et pour comprendre le rôle joué par la police dans les sociétés modernes. Deuxièmement, je me suis concentré sur la police de proximité, un modèle d approche policière qui récemment a été introduit dans les deux contextes étudiés. Enfin, j ai reconstruit les nouvelles tendances de l action de police autour les trois interrogatifs de recherche. Dans la conclusion je spécifie comment les deux piliers de l action de police (contrôle et consensus) sont traduit dans les sociétés postmodernes. Dans une façon à la fois nouvelles et ancienne, la police transforme son identité traditionnelle de pouvoir régalien, mais continue essentiellement à faire ce qu elle a toujours fait : une sélection entre individus à rassurer et protéger et individus à exclure et punir.This work addresses the issue of police and focuses on the problem of the new ways of production of social control and public consent in the post-modern societies. Which is the role of proximity police in these transformations? How does population participate to development of the new tendencies? And to what extent is police changing their connection with the central power, to become a real citizen police ? The answer is based on theoretical work and on fieldwork essentially carried out in Paris and Milan. The sources employed include direct observation, more than 80 interviews and a focus group. The research have been developed in three successive phases. First, I examined the theoretical sources to define the concepts of deviance and social control and to understand the role played by police in modern societies. Second, I concentrated on the proximity police, a model of policing approach early introduced within the two national contexts I have studied. Finally, I reconstructed the new tendencies of police action across the three starting questions. Within the conclusion I specify how the two pillars of police action (control and consent) are translated in the post-modern societies. In a way at the same time new and ancient, police is transforming his traditional identity of power dependent by State, but still does what she has always done: a social selection between individuals to reassure and protect and individuals to exclude and punish.PARIS-Fondation Sci.Politiques (751072303) / SudocSudocFranceF

Stacked Models for Efficient Annotation of Brain Tissues in MR VolumesXIII Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing 2013

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows the acquisition of high-resolution images of the brain. The diagnosis of various brain illnesses is supported by the distinguished analysis of the different kind of brain tissues, which imply their segmentation and classification. Brain MRI is organized in volumes composed by millions of voxels (at least 65.536 per slice, for at least 50 slices), hence the problem of labeling of brain tissue classes in the composition of atlases and ground truth references, which are needed for the training and the validation of machine-learning methods employed for brain segmentation. We propose a stacking classification scheme that does not require any other anatomical information to identify the 3 classes, gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and Cerebro- Spinal Fluid (CSF). We employed two different MR sequences: fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and double inversion recovery (DIR). The former highlights both gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM), the latter highlights GM alone. Features are extracted using a local multi-scale texture analysis, computed for each pixel of the DIR and FLAIR sequences. The 9 textures considered are average, standard deviation, kurtosis, entropy, contrast, correlation, energy, homogeneity, and skewness, evaluated on a neighborhood of 3x3, 5x5, and 7x7 pixels. A stacked classifier is proposed exploiting the a priori knowledge about DIR and FLAIR features. Results highlight a significative improvement in classification performance with respect to using all the features in a state-of-the-art single classifier