Infraorbital nerve disturbance secondary to long-term cosmetic filler nodule migration at the lower eyelid

Background: Injectable fillers are widespread for antiaging non-invasive treatment. Whereas complications are difficult to manage, basically those of permanent fillers such as Bio-Alcamid. These complications could occur years later and far from the injected site, such as nodule migration. This article aims to highlight the delayed one-set nodules migration diagnosis for each patient with periorbital complaints when a history of cosmetic treatment such as polyalkylimide (Bio-Alcamid®) injection was reported. We also emphasize the knowledge of the product, sometimes given by the patient or predictable on ultrasound findings, to perform effective and efficient treatment. Case presentation: A 32-year-old woman had presented for paresthesia of the right cheek. The clinical examination revealed a palpable but not visible painless nodular and firm mass at the level of the infraorbital nerve emergence, and it was mobile and not pulsatile. A thorough medical history detected a malar injection about four years ago with polyalkylimid. Surgical treatment was performed to extract a well-encapsulated transilluminated lesion located beneath the orbicularis muscle without any adherence to adjacent structures, mainly the infraorbital nerve. Histopathological findings corroborated with a migrated nodule. Conclusion: Polyalkylimide injection in the cheek may give rise to leakage of hydrogel droplets in the lower eyelid, leading to nodule formation in the long term. The hardness of the capsule surrounding the hydrogel and the existence of these nodules between the infraorbital nerve and the orbicular muscle could lead to intolerable paresthesia. Corticosteroid injections are widely administered to manage delayed non-inflammatory granuloma related to filler injections. However, they are inefficient on polyalkylimide nodules where surgical excision remains the mainstay approach

Bilateral submandibular duct relocation for chronic sialorrhea: a 15 years of experience in children with a neurological disorder

Background: Chronic sialorrhea is a troublesome condition for children with neurological disorders that affect swallowing. Various surgical procedures for reflecting drooling cases are helpful. Some of them could be followed by complications or lead to over–dryness of the mouth. This article aims to highlight the safety and effectiveness of bilateral submandibular duct relocation (BSDR) on fifteen years of experience. Material and methods: A retrospective chart review identified 25 patients with chronic sialorrhea who underwent BSDR. Clinical and demographic data were reviewed. Surgical outcomes were assessed with both Wilkie and Brody's criteria and the Teacher drooling (TDS) scale. Results: The mean age of children was 11.7 years. They had neurological disorders and dribbled saliva with an average of 4.28 according to the TDS which falls to an average of 1.12 after surgery. By referring to Wilkie and Brody's criteria, 88% of the results have been labelled as excellent and good for the others. Conclusion: Our 15 years of experience in managing neurologically impaired children with profuse drooling illuminates and supports our trend for BSDR without sublingual gland excision. This surgical procedure is safe, and effective against drooling, protects oral health, and provides a high rate of success

Clinical characteristics and management of odontogenic necrotizing fasciitis: a retrospective study

Background: Life-threatening illnesses like necrotizing fasciitis (NF) from dental origin arise suddenly and unexpectedly as a result of the debilitating condition and frequent self-medicating behaviour. This article aims to report the medical and therapeutic characteristics of 15 patients while discussing risk factors, pathogenetic mechanisms and management of this disease. Method: From 2012 up to 2022, a retrospective chart study of patients with odontogenic NF was carried out. Demographic, medical and therapeutic data were collected and analysed, using the Excel program. Results: Fifteen patients were identified with retrievable medical records. There was a male predominance, and the age ranged from 13 to 82 years with a majority over 40 years. Preadmission delay was ≤4 days in 40% of patients with self-medication of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. 53.85% of patients had previous dental treatment without antibiotic coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis was the predominant comorbidity followed by diabetes mellitus and anaemia. Multispace involvement was found in 73.33% of patients. Preoperative computed tomography was performed for 60% of patients. Conclusion: Prompt and efficient treatment is required for NF, a polymicrobial odontogenic infection that is lethal even in healthy people. Self-medication and debilitating condition should be considered. Early diagnosis and therapy may reduce mortality and morbidity

Beach memory

A new concept of beach memory is investigated in this research. Using a Beach Evolution Model developed for beach rotation, we define a function of beach memory able to describe the weight of the preceding wave conditions and their contribution in the current beach response. The time beach memory time is also defined as the period of time required for the beach memory function to be dissipated in the previous time to negligible values. The Beach Memory Function and the Beach Memory Time can be used to determine the influence of the preceding energy in the current coastal changes. Both new concepts were applied to quantify the Weighted Energy Flux Direction required for the beach planform to be estimated based on the parabolic approximations. Modeled results reproduce successfully observed planform positions

Tatouage pour le renforcement de la qualité audio des systèmes de communication bas débit

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier l'idée du tatouage dans le traitement du son.Les recherches en tatouage audio se sont principalement tournées vers des applications sécuritaires ou de transmission de données auxiliaires. Une des applications visées par ce concept consiste à améliorer la qualité du signal hôte ayant subi des transformations et ceci en exploitant l'information qu'il véhicule. Le tatouage audio est donc considéré comme mémoire porteuse d'informations sur le signal originel. La compression à bas débit des signaux audio est une des applications visée par ce concept. Dans ce cadre, deux objectifs sont proposés : la réduction du pré-écho et de l'amollissement d'attaque, deux phénomènes introduits par les codeurs audio perceptifs, en particulier les codeurs AAC et MP3; la préservation de l'harmonicité des signaux audio dégradée par les codeurs perceptifs à extension de bande, en particulier le codeur HE-AAC.La première partie de ce manuscrit présente les principes de base des systèmes de codage bas débit et étudie les différentes distorsions introduites par ces derniers. Fondées sur cette étude, deux solutions sont proposées. La première, visant principalement la réduction du pré-écho, consiste à corriger l'enveloppe temporelle du signal après réception en exploitant la connaissance a priori de l'enveloppe temporelle du signal original, supposée transmise par un canal auxiliaire à faible débit (< 500 bits/s). La seconde solution vise à corriger les ruptures d'harmonicité générées par les codeurs à extension de bande. Ce phénomène touche essentiellement les signaux fortement harmoniques (exemple : violon) et est perçu comme une dissonance. Une préservation de l'harmonicité des signaux audio par des opérations de translation spectrale est alors proposée, les paramètres étant là encore transmis par un canal auxiliaire à faible débit.La seconde partie de ce document est consacrée à l'intégration du tatouage audio dans les techniques de renforcement de la qualité des signaux audio précitées. Dans ce contexte, le tatouage audio remplace le canal auxiliaire précédent et œuvre comme une mémoire du signal originel, porteuse d'informations nécessaires pour la correction d'harmonicité et la réduction de pré-écho. Cette seconde partie a été précédée par une étape approfondie de l'évaluation des performances de la technique de tatouage adoptée en terme de robustesse à la compression MPEG (MP3, AAC et aacPlus).The goal of this thesis is to explore the idea of watermark for sound enhancement. Classically, watermark schemes are oriented towards security applications or maximization of the transmitted bit rates. Our approach is completely different. Our goal is to study how an audio watermarking can improve the quality of the host audio signal by exploiting the information it conveys. The audio watermarking is considered as a memory that carries information about the original signal.The low bitrate compression of audio signals is one of the applications covered by this concept. In this context, two objectives are proposed: reducing the pre-echo and the attack softening, two phenomena introduced by the perceptual audio coders, particularly AAC and MP3 encoders ; preserving the harmonicity of audio signals, distorted by coders with bandwidth extension, especially HE-AAC encoder. These coders are limited in the reconstruction of the high-frequency spectrum mainly because of the potential unpredictability of the fine structure of the latter, as well as imperfect indicators of tonal to noise.The first part of this manuscript presents the basic principles of low rate coding systems and studies the various distortions introduced by the latter. Based on this study, two solutions are proposed. The first one, principally aimed at reducing the pre-echo, consist in correcting the time envelope of the signal after reception by exploiting the prior knowledge of the temporal envelope of the original signal, which is assumed transmitted by an auxiliary channel at low bitrates (<500 bps). The second solution is to correct the harmonicity generated by coders with bandwidth extension. This primarily affects strongly harmonic signals (e.g. violin) and is perceived as a dissonance. We propose then to preserve the harmonicity of audio signals by spectral translations. The parameters being passed again by an auxiliary channel at low bitrates.The second part of this document is dedicated to the integration of audio watermarking techniques in the solution presented in the first part. In this context, the audio watermarking replaces the previous auxiliary channel and is regarded as a memory of the original signal, carrying information necessary for the correction of harmonicity and the pre-echo reduction.PARIS5-Bibliotheque electronique (751069902) / SudocSudocFranceF

Audio encoding based on the empirical mode decomposition

National audienceThis paper deals with a new approach for perceptual audio encoding, based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). The audio signal is decomposed adaptively into intrinsic oscillatory components by EMD called Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs), which can be fully described by their extrema. These extrema are encoded after an appropriate thresholding scheme controlled by a psycho-acoustic model. The decoder recovers the original signal after IMFs reconstruction by means of spline interpolation and their summation. The proposed approach is applied to different audio signals and results are compared to wavelets and to MPEG1-layer3 (MP3)approaches. Relying on exhaustive simulations, the obtained results show that the proposed compression scheme performs better than the MP3 and the wavelet approach in terms of bit rate and audio quality

NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION AND RAINFALL VARIABILITY ON THE SOUTHERN COAST OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

Regions of the south-western Mediterranean basin were the focus of many studies since they have experienced a series of climate changes. The contribution of the North Atlantic Oscillation in precipitations is required to be analyzed with the aim to understand the possible hydrological changes. In this way, an analysis of precipitations along the coast of central Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) was carried. The present analysis was performed using (1) The graphical method of information processing and (2) wavelet transform technique. Results can be summarized as the following. Results show a high drought observed in all studied regions since the med-eighties and a return of the wet period since year 2003. Moreover, we demonstrate significant links of precipitations with the North Atlantic Oscillatio

Identification of candidate regions for a novel Usher syndrome type II locus

PURPOSE: Chronic diseases affecting the inner ear and the retina cause severe impairments to our communication systems. In more than half of the cases, Usher syndrome (USH) is the origin of these double defects. Patients with USH type II (USH2) have retinitis pigmentosa (RP) that develops during puberty, moderate to severe hearing impairment with downsloping pure-tone audiogram, and normal vestibular function. Four loci and three genes are known for USH2. In this study, we proposed to localize the gene responsible for USH2 in a consanguineous family of Tunisian origin. METHODS: Affected members underwent detailed ocular and audiologic characterization. One Tunisian family with USH2 and 45 healthy controls unrelated to the family were recruited. Two affected and six unaffected family members attended our study. DNA samples of eight family members were genotyped with polymorphic markers. Two-point and multipoint LOD scores were calculated using Genehunter software v2.1. Sequencing was used to investigate candidate genes. RESULTS: Haplotype analysis showed no significant linkage to any known USH gene or locus. A genome-wide screen, using microsatellite markers, was performed, allowing the identification of three homozygous regions in chromosomes 2, 4, and 15. We further confirmed and refined these three regions using microsatellite and single-nucleotide polymorphisms. With recessive mode of inheritance, the highest multipoint LOD score of 1.765 was identified for the candidate regions on chromosomes 4 and 15. The chromosome 15 locus is large (55 Mb), underscoring the limited number of meioses in the consanguineous pedigree. Moreover, the linked, homozygous chromosome 15q alleles, unlike those of the chromosome 2 and 4 loci, are infrequent in the local population. Thus, the data strongly suggest that the novel locus for USH2 is likely to reside on 15q. CONCLUSIONS: Our data provide a basis for the localization and the identification of a novel gene implicated in USH2, most likely localized on 15q

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century