Advantage of a precurved fenestrated endograft for aortic arch disease: Simplified arch aneurysm treatment in Japan 2010 and 2011

ObjectiveWe evaluated the results of our previous study investigating a precurved fenestrated endograft treatment for thoracic aortic aneurysms and aortic dissection extended to the aortic arch.MethodsFrom February 2010 to December 2011 at 35 Japanese centers, 383 patients (mean age, 75.7 ± 9.4 years) who required stent-graft landing in the aortic arch were treated with a precurved fenestrated endograft. The device has 19 3-dimensional curved stent skeleton types similar to aortic arch configurations and 8 graft fenestration types and is 24 to 44 mm in diameter and 16 to 20 cm long. The endografts were fabricated according to preoperative 3-dimensional computed tomographic images.ResultsTechnical and initial successes were achieved in 380 and 364 cases, respectively. Device proximal end was at zones 0 to 2 in 363, 15, and 2 patients, respectively. Lesions' proximal end ranged from zone 0 to 3 in 16, 125, 195, and 44 patients, respectively. The mean operative and fluoroscopic times were 161 ± 76 and 26 ± 13 min, respectively. The complications included stroke (7 patients), permanent paralysis (3), and perioperative death (6). No branch occlusion or proximal migration of the device occurred during follow-up.ConclusionsA precurved fenestrated endograft for endovascular repair in aortic arch disease rendered catheter manipulation simple and minimized operative complication risks. Although most patients had inadequate proximal landing zone and severely angled complex configuration, low mortality and morbidity and satisfactory clinical success were early outcomes, suggesting that this simplified treatment may be effective for aortic arch disease

Study on the Throughput Limits over the HDLC Protocol

This paper describes the throughput evaluation of the high level data link control protocol. The analytical models are outlined and the throughput analysis is carried out under fully loaded condition for the following three error recovery schemes: (1)Checkpoint retransmission scheme, (2)SREJ recovery scheme and (3)REJ recovery scheme. We derive the optimal packet text length which achieves the maximum throughput for each error recovery scheme. Also we denote the optimal window size for the checkpoint retransmission scheme

Etude système de diodes lasers à verrouillage de modes pour la radio-sur-fibre en bande millimétrique

Ce travail de thèse s inscrit dans la recherche des solutions économiquementviables pour des réseaux personnels à hauts débits (plusieurs Gbps à plusieursdizaines de Gbps) opérationnels en bande millimétrique autour de 60 GHz. Aucas où ces réseaux servent un nombre élevé d utilisateurs, ils comprendront unemultitude d antennes afin d assurer l accès sans fil rapide. Afin de réduire aumaximum le coût d un module d antenne, les réseaux doivent fournir un signalanalogue à des porteuses millimetriques. Une solution prometteuse pour les systèmesde distribution qui correspond à ces besoins sont des structures à fibreoptique, laquelle permet une transmission à faibles pertes et à haute bande passante.On parle de l approche "radio-sur-fibre" (en anglais, radio-over-fiber). Laproblématique est de pouvoir générer et moduler un signal aux fréquences millimétriqueslors de la transmission optique - et ce avec des composant bas coûts.La technique utilisée dans le cadre de cette thèse est l emploi des diodes laser àverrouillage de modes. Ces derniers vont pouvoir générer des hautes fréquencestout en ne nécessitant qu une alimentation continue, et ils peuvent être modulésde manière directe ou externe. Les lasers à semi-conducteurs employés ici sontd une génération encore à l état d étude puisqu il s agit des lasers à boites (ouîlots) quantiques. Ces lasers ont montrés de très bonnes capacités à générer dessignaux électriques aux fréquences autour de 60 GHz, bien qu ayant encore, pourl instant, à une stabilité de fréquence (ou de phase) limitée. Dans le cadre des systèmesde communication opto/micro-ondes, peu de travaux approfondis ont étémenés sur ces structures.Au cours de cette thèse, plusieurs études ont été effectuées. La première portesur les propriétés générales d un système construit à partir de ce type de laser(puissances disponibles, figure de bruit, linéarité etc.). Une deuxième étude aété consacrée aux effets de la propagation des signaux dans les systèmes baséssur les lasers à verrouillage de modes, notamment de la dispersion chromatiquelaquelle a un effet considérable sur les distances de transmission. Les deux étudesmettent en avant l importance d une limitation du nombre de modes générés parla diode laser afin d optimiser non seulement le gain du lien et la puissance RFrécupérée, mais aussi la figure de bruit du système. Lors d une troisième étude, lastabilité en fréquence/phase s est révélée critique, car le bruit de fréquence/phaselimite la qualité de la transmission en introduisant un plancher d erreur mêmepour des rapports signal-a-bruit très élevés. Des différentes générations de lasersà boites (îlots) quantiques et à verrouillage de modes ont été testées. Le problèmedu bruit de fréquence et de phase persiste et ne peut pas être résolu en utilisantles techniques classiques comme les boucles à verrouillage de phase conventionnelles.Une solution pour ce problème a été développée pour les systèmes detransmission; elle permet simultanément un ajustement de fréquence supérieure(précision de quelques Hz à quelques kHz) à celle donnée par le processus de fabricationdes diodes lasers (précision de quelques GHz), ainsi qu une stabilisationde fréquence et de phase.This dissertation is related to the search for an economically sustainable solutionfor high data rate (several Gbps to several tens of Gbps) personal area networksoperating in the millimeter-wave region around 60 GHz. If such networks supplya large number of users, they need to encompass a multitude of antenna pointsin order to assure wireless access to the network. With the aim of reducing thecost of an antenna module, the networks should at best provide quasi "readyto-radiate" signals to the modules, i.e. at millimeter-wave carrier frequencies.Thanks to their low transmission loss and their high bandwidth, optical fiber distributionarchitectures represent a promising solution. The technique is referredto as the so-called "radio-over-fiber" approach whereby the analog radio signalwill be transported to the access point by an optical wave. The challenge herebyis the generation and modulation of an optical signal by a millimeter-wave radiosignal using preferably cost-efficient system components. The technique proposedherein is based on the use of mode-locked laser diodes which can generatesignals at very high frequencies under the condition of continuous current supply.Mode-locked laser diodes can be modulated both directly and externally. Thediodes employed in this work are based on so-called quantum dots (or quantumdashes); these are material structures which are themselves still subject to intensivephysical research. Signals at millimeter-wave frequencies (around 60 GHz)can easily be generated by such lasers. However, their frequency and phase stabilityis as yet limited. In the context of radio-over-fiber communication systems,these structures have not yet been studied in detail.In the course of this dissertation, several aspects are considered. A first systemstudy treats the basic properties of a system built from this type of laser source(available signal power, system noise figure, linearity etc.). A second study isdevoted to an investigation of propagation effects like dispersion, which considerablyinfluence the attainable transmission distances. An essential result of bothstudies is the importance of limiting the laser spectrum to a small number of lasermodes for an optimization of link gain, generated RF power, and system noisefigure. A third study deals with the limited frequency and phase stability whichturn out to be critical factors for transmission quality. The study of several generationsof quantum dot/dash lasers has revealed that the problems of frequencyand phase noise persist and cannot be solved using classical techniques involvinge.g. conventional phase-locked loops. In this dissertation, a solution is presentedwhich not only allows a more precise adjustment of the laser frequency (precisionin the order of Hz to kHz) than that given by the manufacturing process of thelaser (precision in the order of GHz), but also enables a stabilization of frequencyand phase.SAVOIE-SCD - Bib.électronique (730659901) / SudocGRENOBLE1/INP-Bib.électronique (384210012) / SudocGRENOBLE2/3-Bib.électronique (384219901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Sequence Heterogeneity in NS5A of Hepatitis C Virus Genotypes 2a and 2b and Clinical Outcome of Pegylated-Interferon/Ribavirin Therapy

Pegylated-interferon plus ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV) therapy is a current standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C. We previously reported that the viral sequence heterogeneity of part of NS5A, referred to as the IFN/RBV resistance-determining region (IRRDR), and a mutation at position 70 of the core protein of hepatitis C virus genotype 1b (HCV-1b) are significantly correlated with the outcome of PEG-IFN/RBV treatment. Here, we aimed to investigate the impact of viral genetic variations within the NS5A and core regions of other genotypes, HCV-2a and HCV-2b, on PEG-IFN/RBV treatment outcome. Pretreatment sequences of NS5A and core regions were analyzed in 112 patients infected with HCV-2a or HCV-2b, who were treated with PEG-IFN/RBV for 24 weeks and followed up for another 24 weeks. The results demonstrated that HCV-2a isolates with 4 or more mutations in IRRDR (IRRDR[2a]≥4) was significantly associated with rapid virological response at week 4 (RVR) and sustained virological response (SVR). Also, another region of NS5A that corresponds to part of the IFN sensitivity-determining region (ISDR) plus its carboxy-flanking region, which we referred to as ISDR/+C[2a], was significantly associated with SVR in patients infected with HCV-2a. Multivariate analysis revealed that IRRDR[2a]≥4 was the only independent predictive factor for SVR. As for HCV-2b infection, an N-terminal half of IRRDR having two or more mutations (IRRDR[2b]/N≥2) was significantly associated with RVR, but not with SVR. No significant correlation was observed between core protein polymorphism and PEG-IFN/RBV treatment outcome in HCV-2a or HCV-2b infection. Conclusion: The present results suggest that sequence heterogeneity of NS5A of HCV-2a (IRRDR[2a]≥4 and ISDR/+C[2a]), and that of HCV-2b (IRRDR[2b]/N≥2) to a lesser extent, is involved in determining the viral sensitivity to PEG-IFN/RBV therapy

ヘイメン ノ セイソクブンカツ ニ モトズク ハーフトーンセル ノ セッケイ ： ドウブツ ノ ケイジョウ オ モツ モウテン ノ サクセイ

Halftone dots used in printing are usually square or circular. This paper describes a method to create halftone dots in the shape of a motif such as an animal. The method uses a tiling technique, which is based on four kinds of congruent transformation : translation, rotation, reflection and glide reflection. Tiling with quadrangle was examind and found to be divided into twelve groups. 0ne of the groups was selected for a design of a motif. In order to generate the motif a threshold matrix was used, which was designed so that a halftone dot appeared to be a different animal according to its tone value

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target