A visual motor psychological test as a predictor to treatment in nocturnal enuresis

Background and Aims: The neurological control of bladder function and the ability to be dry at night involves not only the acquisition of normal daytime control, but also the establishment of a circadian rhythm in vasopressin release and the ability to arouse to a full bladder during sleep. We postulated that in some children there might be a delay in maturation of the normal neurological pathways involved in establishment of nocturnal continence and examined this by using a specific neuropsychological test. Methods: Children attending an established nocturnal enuresis clinic were examined using the Rey–Osterrieth test to assess the presence or absence of boundary errors in both copy and memory reproductions. The results of the test were scored independently and blind to the response to treatment with the vasopressin analogue DDAVP. Results: A significant association was found between boundary type errors and response to DDAVP, with non-responders making significantly more errors. No child with three or more errors responded to DDAVP. Using this test, the ability to predict response to treatment was 70%. Conclusions: It is postulated that the Rey–Osterrieth test, through the presence or absence of boundary errors, reflects a delay in maturation and/or a disorganisation of the retinal-hypothalamic-cortical pathways in the brain. The association previously described with growth hormone neurosecretory dysfunction syndrome would be compatible with this

Les glaciers enterrés du vallon des Jovet

Au cours de l'été 2009, le travail de terrain et la ténacité d'un étudiant de l'Université de Lausanne ont permis une découverte étonnante sur le territoire de la réserve Naturelle des Contamines-Montjoie, dans le secteur minéral dominant les lacs Jovet, au sud du massif du Mont-Blanc

Growth after the storm: cognitive processing and social support as mediators of the relation between religious coping and posttraumatic growth in hurricane-affected women

Although many studies have detailed the maladies imposed by Hurricane Katrina, little work has examined potential benefits gleaned in the wake of the storm. Posttraumatic growth, a construct receiving increased attention in the literature, describes personal betterment or development following a traumatic event in areas such as perceived changes in self, a changed sense of relations with others, and a changed philosophy of life. Researchers have demonstrated a relation between posttraumatic growth and varying factors, including religious coping. The current study established a relation between religious coping and posttraumatic growth in a sample of hurricane-exposed women in Southeastern Louisiana and attempted to identify mediators of that relation. Results indicated that social support was not related to religious coping or posttraumatic growth and therefore did not mediate the relation between the two. However, in the final model, cognitive processing fully mediated the relation between religious coping and posttraumatic growth, such that religious coping would have no effect on posttraumatic growth were it not for its relation to cognitive processing

Understanding Cu2ZnSnS4 as a Photovoltaic Absorber for the Future of Solar Electricity

The world needs solar electricity to replace a large fraction of traditional, fossil-fuel-generated electricity over the coming decades if it is to avoid the worst effects of climate change and continue to meet the needs of an increasingly energy-dependent society. This transition is currently well underway. The installed generating capacity of solar electricity continues to grow exponentially, having reached 307 GW in 2016 (2 % of average global electricity demand), which means that replacing a large majority of fossil fuel use, requiring several terawatts of capacity, in the coming decades is entirely realistic. Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a potential material for the absorber layer in photovoltaic solar cells. It has the advantages over silicon, which currently provides 95 % of the solar electricity market, of lower processing costs and a direct band gap, which means much less material is required. Most other alternative absorber materials will ultimately be limited by high material costs, low elemental abundances, or toxicity, but CZTS has none of these problems, making it a very promising material indeed. However, its record photovoltaic efficiency (11.0 %) is well below those of some other materials (>20 %) because of low open-circuit voltage. The outstanding areas of current CZTS research are the absorber-buffer interface, band gap fluctuations caused by point defects, and secondary phases. This thesis presents work investigating the latter two, primarily using bulk samples fabricated by solid-state reaction. Firstly, compositional, structural, and optoelectronic analysis techniques were used to study the effect of composition on material properties. It was found that the quasi-ternary phase diagram commonly used for CZTS is incorrect; and that no common analysis technique can quantify cation disorder in CZTS, despite Raman spectroscopy commonly being used to do so. Secondly, neutron diffraction was used to study the order-disorder phase transition at around 550 K. It was found that the transition temperature is dependent on elemental composition; and that Cu-Zn disorder is present on all cation lattice sites, not merely the 2c and 2d sites of the kesterite crystal structure as has previously been assumed. Thirdly, anomalous X-ray diffraction was used to study cation disorder further. It was found that two distinct phases of CZTS can be present in the same sample, with different elemental compositions resulting from the prevalence of different point defect complexes; two new such types of CZTS were identified; and a mechanism of phase formation was proposed. Finally, a fabrication route for thin-film CZTS by sputtering and sulphurisation annealing was established

Allelic imbalance and somatic mutations in folate pathway genes in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

ABSTRACT Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the commonest of the childhood cancers, but thankfully responds well to chemotherapeutic agents, with 80% of children achieving long-term survival. However, for the remaining 20% who relapse, outcome is bleak. Increasing knowledge and understanding of pharmacogenetics indicates that constitutive or acquired resistance to the drugs used in the treatment of cancer contribute to relapse. Methotrexate (MTX) is one of the most important drugs used in the treatment of ALL and the work presented here contributes to the body of knowledge relevant to the understanding of resistance to this drug. The aim of this research is to determine if changes in genes involved in folate metabolism contribute to methotrexate resistance and subsequent relapse of childhood ALL. The reduced folate carrier (RFC) is required to transport methotrexate into the cell where it competitively inhibits dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and other key enzymes of folate and 1-carbon metabolism. Following the design of primers and optimisation of PCR amplification, the entire coding regions of both RFC and DHFR were screened for novel SNPs or mutations using denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) on genomic DNA from 40 normal and 40 relapse childhood ALL patients. Ethical approval for use of the samples was granted under WCRLEC no347 and reference 2002/111 for normal and relapse samples respectively. The relapse group was made up of 29 males and 11 females with an average age of 6.59 years (range 0.8-14.1) and was made up of 5 T-cell; 30 B-cell; 4 mixed lineage; and 1 null classification. The screening method was shown to be sufficiently sensitive to detect single base changes. Several of the exons in both genes have a high G-C content and required destabilisation agents and/or use of a new DNA polymerase (OptimaseTM) to achieve sufficient PCR amplification. Dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and betaine were shown to be effective agents which did not interfere with subsequent DHPLC. The results show that somatic mutations in the coding sequences of RFC and DHFR are rare in relapsed ALL and that while it is recognised as a mechanism of methotrexate resistance in vitro, it is unlikely to contribute to relapse in children with ALL. However, for one patient who suffered multiple relapses, a novel acquired mutation was identified in the 5'-UTR of the RFC-1 gene (C-37T). The significance of the C-37T mutation on RFC transcription requires further study, but it may decrease RFC mRNA quantity or stability and thus protein levels. DHPLC analysis also detected common SNPs. In terms of frequency, there were no significant differences between relapse and normal samples for the genotypes; RFC G80A (38.3% G/G; 49.4% G/A; 12.3% A/A in 81 normal samples; 31.8%; 56.8%; 11.4% respectively in 44 relapse samples; x2 p = 0.656); RFC C696T (97.8% C/C; 2.2% C/T; 0% T/T in 45 normal samples; 92.5%; 5%; 2.5% respectively in 40 relapse samples; x2 p = 0.458). However, there was a significant difference in the 5'-UTR -19 base pair deletion in the DHFR gene between the normal and relapse groups (0% WT/WT; 100% WT/-19 or -19/-19 in 45 normals; 26.7% and 73.3% respectively in 15 relapse samples; Fisher's exact probability p = 0.017) and needs to be confirmed in a larger cohort. Estimated copy number and the probability of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) were generated from the Affymetrix 50K SNP microarray for the RFC, DHFR and other genes involved in folate metabolism using gDNA from 73 presentation and 20 relapse childhood ALL cases. Mann-Whitney non-parametric comparison of the presentation and relapse data showed that for estimated copy number, statistically significant differences were seen for MTHFR (p = 0.0072), MS (0.0025), FPGS (0.00048), TS (0.00046), CBS (0.0002) and RFC (0.0001). When the data at the nearest SNP location to the gene was presented as a scatterplot, the difference in each case was due to a bimodal distribu..

Interactive Chemical Reactivity Exploration

Elucidating chemical reactivity in complex molecular assemblies of a few hundred atoms is, despite the remarkable progress in quantum chemistry, still a major challenge. Black-box search methods to find intermediates and transition-state structures might fail in such situations because of the high-dimensionality of the potential energy surface. Here, we propose the concept of interactive chemical reactivity exploration to effectively introduce the chemist's intuition into the search process. We employ a haptic pointer device with force-feedback to allow the operator the direct manipulation of structures in three dimensions along with simultaneous perception of the quantum mechanical response upon structure modification as forces. We elaborate on the details of how such an interactive exploration should proceed and which technical difficulties need to be overcome. All reactivity-exploration concepts developed for this purpose have been implemented in the Samson programming environment.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figure

Multiple functions of inositolphosphorylceramides in the formation and intracellular transport of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins in yeast

The mature sphingolipids of yeast consist of IPCs (inositolphosphorylceramides) and glycosylated derivatives thereof. Beyond being an abundant membrane constituent in the organelles of the secretory pathway, IPCs are also used to constitute the lipid moiety of the majority of GPI (glycosylphosphatidylinositol) proteins, while a minority of GPI proteins contain PI (phosphatidylinositol). Thus all GPI anchor lipids (as well as free IPCs) typically contain C₂₆ fatty acids. However, the primary GPI lipid that isadded to newly synthesized proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum consists of a PI with conventional C₁₆ and C₁₈ fatty acids. A new class of enzymes is required to replace the fatty acid in sn-2 by a C₂₆ fatty acid. Cells lacking this activity make normal amounts of GPI proteins but accumulate GPI anchors containing lyso-PI. As a consequence, the endoplasmic reticulum to Golgi transport of the GPI protein Gas1p is slow, and mature Gas1p is lost from the plasma membrane into the medium. The GPI anchor containing C₂₆ in sn-2 can further be remodelled by the exchange of diacylglycerol for ceramide. This process is also dependent on the presence of specific phosphorylethanolamine side-chains on the GPI anchor

Evaluation of systems for piperun installation

The purpose of this thesis project was to analyse and evaluate different systems for installation of piperun in ceilings. Main focus lay on how the systems influence the installer from an ergonomic point of view as well as productivity in terms of installation time. Several studies have been performed during this project using a variety of methods such as observations, interviews, questionnaires and hierarchical task analysis. The results from these studies showed that often a variety of different systems for pipe installations are used. The working conditions of Plumbing and Heating (P&H) installers are very demanding and the categories working postures/loads/space, climate and lighting conditions are most unsatisfactory. Furthermore 60% of the participants of the questionnaire study had Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) and believed it to be work-related. These results led to the design of a test named Posture and Time study. During the Posture and Time study three systems for pipe installation were evaluated. System 1 represented a more traditional and inexpensive system, system 2 was intermediate and system 3 represented the most modern and expensive version. The systems were analysed using two methods for posture analysis, Hand Arm Risk assessment Method (HARM) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). A time study was also conducted in order to define the installation times for both systems. The time study showed that systems 2 and 3 were about equally fast to install while system 1 took about 30 % longer. HARM and REBA both turned out to be to unspecific to define which system was better from an ergonomic aspect although they gave valuable insight to the importance of choosing good working postures. To get objective results of how the systems affect the P&H installer perhaps methods such as Electromyography or Inclinometry could be used. Even though the work posture analysis did not show a clear difference between the three systems, observations and interviews with P&H installers made it clear that they found system 1 to contain too many small parts and operations and therefore found this system harder to install. All studies performed during this thesis project have been very small in terms of number of participants. The project is therefore to be seen as a pilot study of how an investigation like this could be executed. Results from the studies have, when possible, been compared to statistic data in order to increase the reliability. However if more generalizing results are preferred, the studies need to be larger in scale

La professionnalisation dans l’enseignement universitaire : un processus dialogique ?

National audienceProfessionalization in higher education in France is the subject of many debates about the goals and purposes of university degrees. This leads to a wide range of plans and actions, but the mechanisms behind have rarely been studied. After reviewing the questions raised by the main scientific approaches dealing with professionalization, this article analyses how it is implemented for professional bachelor degrees and what professors and programme directors think of, and do about it. Drawing on theory of activity - and in particular directed activity -, our conclusions emphasize the "dialogical universe" of activities, from course design to evaluation. In the same way, most of the activities offered to the students are designed in order to encourage them to analyse situations from different points of views. Professionalization can therefore be regarded as a dialogical process.La professionnalisation des études supérieures constitue, en France, l’objet d’un débat sur les finalités des cursus. Elle se met en place au travers d’un éventail de dispositifs mais alimente encore peu de travaux de recherche lorsqu’il s’agit d’en étudier les processus. Après une revue de questions portant sur les principales approches scientifiques de la professionnalisation, cet article analyse la mise en œuvre de la professionnalisation dans les licences professionnelles, telle que conçue et réalisée par les concepteurs et responsables pédagogiques de ces diplômes. Lus au moyen du modèle de l’activité dirigée, les résultats mettent en évidence l’ « univers dialogique » qui trame toutes les activités des responsables des formations, depuis la conception de la formation jusqu’à l’évaluation finale. En écho, les activités proposées aux étudiants visent pour beaucoup d’entre elles à leur permettre de multiplier les points de vue sur les situations rencontrées. La professionnalisation peut ainsi s’entendre comme un processus dialogique