Too early initiation of renal replacement therapy may be harmful

In an observational multicenter study, Elseviers and colleagues report that renal replacement therapy (RRT) in acutely ill patients treated for acute kidney injury is an independent risk factor for death. This result may question the benefit of the current practice of early RRT initiation

Microbial stabilization of grape musts and wines using coiled UV-C reactor

UV-C light is well known for its germicidal properties and is widely used for water disinfection. However, its low penetration into absorbing liquids, such as wines and musts, reduces drastically the microbial inactivation effectiveness. Additionally, wines require UV-C doses to be as low as possible to avoid any possible light-struck flavors. In order to add to the technologies that allow the reduction of SO2 use, a coiled UV-C reactor was designed to inactivate microorganisms in wines and musts. Due to its unique hydrodynamic characteristics, this design could improve the exposure probabilities of the microorganisms to the UV-C light in absorbing liquids. In a first step, theoretical and measured fluid dynamics parameters such as Dean number were employed to improve the operating conditions of the reactor. The higher the Dean number, the higher the UV-C dose delivery efficiency in this reactor, and thus the lower the dose required to inactivate a given load of microorganisms. The second step investigated the impact of different wines on microbial inactivation efficiency and the UV-C doses required to inactivate microorganisms frequently found in wines. White and rosé wines, with low absorbances at 254 nm, required lower doses (≈ 600 J/L) than red wine (≈ 5000 J/L) because their absorption coefficient is ten times lower. The tolerance of microbial strains to UV-C treatments was variable, with higher resistance observed for yeast than for bacteria. In the third step, treatments conducted at semi-industrial scale showed that physicochemical and sensorial properties of wines and musts were not altered, highlighting the possible relevance of such a reactor on an industrial scale. Highlights: • Design of a coiled UV-C reactor for microbial stabilization of wines and musts• Focus on inactivation efficiency in multiple strains and wine varieties• Chemical and sensorial analyses to ensure treatment does not affect the organoleptic properties of the produc

Des guides touristiques pour le peuple et par le peuple

Le Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) constitua l’un des quatre programmes « culturels » lancés par l’administration du New Deal en 1935 en vue de résorber le problème du chômage parmi les professions dites « en col blanc ». Il employa de 1935 à 1943, entre quatre et six mille chômeurs par an, tous membres des « professions de l’écrit » — les « écrivains », au sens large que l’administration fédérale donnait à ce terme : romanciers, poètes, dramaturges, mais aussi journalistes, enseignants, cherc..

Des guides touristiques pour le peuple et par le peuple

Le Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) constitua l’un des quatre programmes « culturels » lancés par l’administration du New Deal en 1935 en vue de résorber le problème du chômage parmi les professions dites « en col blanc ». Il employa de 1935 à 1943, entre quatre et six mille chômeurs par an, tous membres des « professions de l’écrit » — les « écrivains », au sens large que l’administration fédérale donnait à ce terme : romanciers, poètes, dramaturges, mais aussi journalistes, enseignants, cherc..

La qualité d'image dans le contexte de la numérisation de livres anciens

The goal of this thesis is to add some tools in order to upgrade image quality when scanning with book digitization.First Chapter talks about image scanner whitout lighting control. This problem focuses to document camera. The goal is to correct lighting. We will see some corrections and we will suggest our method. For this part, we detect pixel's background document and we will rebuild the background of the image by them. With this information, we can correct lighting.Second chapter presents some way to do quality control after digitization, specially out of focus problem. We will enumerate different point of view to analyse and to estimate this information. To validate descriptors, we suggest to blur any picture and to compute blur estimation in order to evaluate precision. After that, we propose to combinate descriptors by machine learning.Third chapter mentions color management problem. Every image devices need to be calibrated. This chapter will expose how to calibrate scanner and explain it. We will see that L*a*b* color space is the connection profil space. To calibrate color, we must transform scanner color space to L*a*b*. We will see, in order to convert information, solution depends color chart used but we show a link between the function and thenumber of patch.L'objectif de cette thèse est de proposer des méthodes ou des outils de calibration permettant d'améliorer la qualité d'image dans le cadre de la numérisation de livres anciens.Le premier chapitre concerne la mise en oeuvre d'un "scanner sans éclairage". Ce scanner est matriciel et il ne contrôle pas la lumière via un éclairage artificiel. L'objectif du projet est de pouvoir corriger, par calibration ou par la mise en place d'un traitement d'image les défauts d'éclairage apparaissant sur le document. Nous verrons dans un premier chapitre les solutions possibles pour y répondre. Nous y proposerons également un moyen de segmenter le fond du document en se basant sur des pixels caractérisants le fond du document. Ce résultat permettra de reconstruire le fond puis de corriger les non-uniformités.Le deuxième chapitre concerne la mise en place d'un contrôle qualité de numérisation de livres anciens. Effectivement, la manipulation du matériel dans le contexte de la numérisation industrielle engendre des erreurs possibles de réglage. De ce fait, nous obtenons une numérisation de moindres qualités. Le contrôle se focalisera sur le flou de focus qui est le défaut le plus présent. Nous proposons dans ce chapitre de combiner différentes approches du problème permettant de le quantifier. Nous verrons que la combinaison de ces informations permet d'estimer avec précision la qualité de netteté de l'image.Le troisième chapitre évoque les problématiques de la gestion de la couleur. Pour avoir une homogénéité colorimétrique entre tous les appareils, il est indispensable que la calibration soit inférieure à un seuil visuel. Les contraintes industrielles ont de nombreux critères et il est difficile de tous les respecter. L'objectif de ce chapitre est de récapituler comment mettre en place un système permettant de calibrer la couleur avec toutes ces contraintes. Puis, il s'agit de comprendre comment créer une transformation entre l'espace de couleur de l'appareil et l'espace de couleur de connexion (l'espace L*a*b*). Nous verrons que la solution de ce problème se résout par une régression polynomiale dont le degré du polynôme varie en fonction du nombre de mesures faite sur la mire colorimétrique

094: Contribution of cardiac MRI to early evaluation and impact on the long term follow-up in myocarditis mimicking an acute coronary syndrome. A 43-cases prospective study

BackgroundAcute myocarditis (AM) diagnosis is a challenge to rule out an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). AM is thought to favour the evolution towards dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and the occurrence of severe arrhythmias. Three months after the acute episode, re-evaluation including cardiac MRI could help to identify patients at risk for unfavourable evolution. The use of MRI has rarely been investigated in AM prognosis stratification.Method and resultswe report a prospective series of 43 consecutive patients hospitalized for AM mimicking ACS: 36 men and 7 women, 32 years old on average, without sign of heart failure. All patients presented with troponine I elevation. Echocardiography showed moderate global left ventricular dysfunction in 6 cases and segmental wall motion abnormalities in 22. MRI performed early after admission never showed myocardial first-pass perfusion defect after gadolinium injection but subepicardial delayed-enhancement (DE) areas in 39 cases mainly located in lateral segments. Three months after the acute episode, no patient was symptomatic. Echocardiography, Holter monitoring and biological check-up were normal. MRI showed the persistence of DE in 23 cases without wall motion abnormality in the affected segments. The presence of these latter abnormalities led to effect an annually clinical examination with an ECG. One patient was lost at further follow-up. Among the other 22 patients, only one patient dysplayed heart failure revealing DCM with ventricular arrhythmias at 3 - year mean follow-up.Conclusionsat the time of admission, the absence of early perfusion defect at cardiac MRI after gadolinium injection and the subepicardial localization of the DE constitute reliable criteria in favour of AM diagnosis, allowing to rule out ACS. During the follow-up the persistence of a DE does not allow any prognosis stratification. In our series after a mean 3-year follow-up, it is not associated with any clinical and para-clinical disorder except in one case

Yeast and filamentous fungi microbial communities in organic red grape juice : effect of vintage, maturity stage, SO2, and bioprotection

Changes are currently being made to winemaking processes to reduce chemical inputs [particularly sulfur dioxide (SO2)] and adapt to consumer demand. In this study, yeast growth and fungal diversity were investigated in merlot during the prefermentary stages of a winemaking process without addition of SO2. Different factors were considered, in a two-year study: vintage, maturity level and bioprotection by the adding yeast as an alternative to SO2. The population of the target species was monitored by quantitative-PCR, and yeast and filamentous fungi diversity was determined by 18S rDNA metabarcoding. A gradual decrease of the α-diversity during the maceration process was highlighted. Maturity level played a significant role in yeast and fungal abundance, which was lower at advanced maturity, while vintage had a strong impact on Hanseniaspora spp. population level and abundance. The presence of SO2 altered the abundance of yeast and filamentous fungi, but not their nature. The absence of sulfiting led to an unexpected reduction in diversity compared to the presence of SO2, which might result from the occupation of the niche by certain dominant species, namely Hanseniaspora spp. Inoculation of the grape juice with non-Saccharomyces yeast resulted in a decrease in the abundance of filamentous fungi generally associated with a decline in grape must quality. Lower abundance and niche occupation by bioprotection agents were observed at the overripened stage, thus suggesting that doses applied should be reconsidered at advanced maturity. Our study confirmed the bioprotective role of Metschnikowia pulcherrima and Torulaspora delbrueckii in a context of vinification without sulfites

Acute kidney disease and renal recovery : consensus report of the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) 16 Workgroup

Consensus definitions have been reached for both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) and these definitions are now routinely used in research and clinical practice. The KDIGO guideline defines AKI as an abrupt decrease in kidney function occurring over 7 days or less, whereas CKD is defined by the persistence of kidney disease for a period of > 90 days. AKI and CKD are increasingly recognized as related entities and in some instances probably represent a continuum of the disease process. For patients in whom pathophysiologic processes are ongoing, the term acute kidney disease (AKD) has been proposed to define the course of disease after AKI; however, definitions of AKD and strategies for the management of patients with AKD are not currently available. In this consensus statement, the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) proposes definitions, staging criteria for AKD, and strategies for the management of affected patients. We also make recommendations for areas of future research, which aim to improve understanding of the underlying processes and improve outcomes for patients with AKD