A Procedure to Measure the in-Situ Hygrothermal Behavior of Earth Walls

Rammed earth is a sustainable material with low embodied energy. However, its development as a building material requires a better evaluation of its moisture-thermal buffering abilities and its mechanical behavior. Both of these properties are known to strongly depend on the amount of water contained in wall pores and its evolution. Thus the aim of this paper is to present a procedure to measure this key parameter in rammed earth or cob walls by using two types of probes operating on the Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) principle. A calibration procedure for the probes requiring solely four parameters is described. This calibration procedure is then used to monitor the hygrothermal behavior of a rammed earth wall (1.5 m × 1 m × 0.5 m), instrumented by six probes during its manufacture, and submitted to insulated, natural convection and forced convection conditions. These measurements underline the robustness of the calibration procedure over a large range of water content, even if the wall is submitted to quite important temperature variations. They also emphasize the importance of gravity on water content heterogeneity when the saturation is high, as well as the role of liquid-to-vapor phase change on the thermal behavior.     

Prevalence of Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms in Patients with Degenerative Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: Results from the Prospective ACTA Study

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Characterization and Management of Arrhythmic Events in Young Patients With Brugada Syndrome

Background

Information on young patients with Brugada syndrome (BrS) and arrhythmic events (AEs) is limited.

AC133+ umbilical cord blood progenitors demonstrate rapid self-renewal and low apoptosis

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) provides immediate access to haemopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC) but low cell number restricts use in full adult bone marrow reconstitution. This study investigated early ex vivo expansion kinetics of UCB AC133+ cells (2-4 x 10(4)/ml), mononuclear cells (MNC, 1-2 x 10(6)/ml) and AC133negative cells (AC133(neg), 2-4 x 10(4)/ml) in stroma-free 8 d liquid culture (fetal bovine serum-supplemented Iscove's-modified Dulbecco's medium (IMDM) with either 'K36EG'[c-Kit ligand, interleukin 3 (IL-3), IL-6, erythropoietin, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor] or 'TPOFL' (thrombopoietin, Flt-3 ligand). Cell enumeration, apoptosis assay and AC133/CD34/CD38 antigen immunophenotyping were performed at d 0, 3, 5 and 8. All three cell populations went through a proliferation lag phase between d 3 and d 5. AC133+ cells recovered better from lag phase with significantly higher fold increase (FI) when compared with MNC and AC133(neg) populations (K36EG FI: 15.04 +/- 5.46; TPOFL FI: 8.59 +/- 2.92, P < 0.05). After 8 d, populations lacking AC133+ cells were significantly more inclined to undergo apoptosis under proliferative conditions (P < 0.01). Also, when compared with K36EG, 8 d TPOFL-expanded AC133+ cells encompassed a significantly higher percentage of AC133+ and CD34+ early HSPC (K36EG: 20.50 +/- 2.36; TPOFL: 47.00 +/- 7.69; P < 0.05). In conclusion, TPOFL synergism demonstrated the potential for AC133+ HSPC ex vivo expansion inducing self-renewal, early HSPC maintenance and promoting cell survival status.     

Precision medicine in chronic disease management: The multiple sclerosis BioScreen

We present a precision medicine application developed for multiple sclerosis (MS): the MS BioScreen. This new tool addresses the challenges of dynamic management of a complex chronic disease; the interaction of clinicians and patients with such a tool illustrates the extent to which translational digital medicine—that is, the application of information technology to medicine—has the potential to radically transform medical practice. We introduce 3 key evolutionary phases in displaying data to health care providers, patients, and researchers: visualization (accessing data), contextualization (understanding the data), and actionable interpretation (real‐time use of the data to assist decision making). Together, these form the stepping stones that are expected to accelerate standardization of data across platforms, promote evidence‐based medicine, support shared decision making, and ultimately lead to improved outcomes. Ann Neurol 2014;76:633–642     

Interval breast cancer risk associations with breast density,family history and breast tissue aging

Interval breast cancers (those diagnosed between recommended mammography screens) generally have poorer outcomes and are more common among women with dense breasts. We aimed to develop a risk model for interval breast cancer. We conducted a nested case–control study within the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study involving 168 interval breast cancer patients and 498 matched control subjects. We measured breast density using the CUMULUS software. We recorded first-degree family history by questionnaire, measured body mass index (BMI) and calculated age-adjusted breast tissue aging, a novel measure of exposure to estrogen and progesterone based on the Pike model. We fitted conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratio (OR) or odds ratio per adjusted standard deviation (OPERA) and calculated the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The stronger risk associations were for unadjusted percent breast density (OPERA = 1.99; AUC = 0.66), more so after adjusting for age and BMI (OPERA = 2.26; AUC = 0.70), and for family history (OR = 2.70; AUC = 0.56). When the latter two factors and their multiplicative interactions with age-adjusted breast tissue aging (p = 0.01 and 0.02, respectively) were fitted, the AUC was 0.73 (95% CI 0.69–0.77), equivalent to a ninefold interquartile risk ratio. In summary, compared with using dense breasts alone, risk discrimination for interval breast cancers could be doubled by instead using breast density, BMI, family history and hormonal exposure. This would also give women with dense breasts, and their physicians, more information about the major consequence of having dense breasts—an increased risk of developing an interval breast cancer.     

APOBEC3H haplotypes and HIV-1 pro-viral vif DNA sequence diversity in early untreated human immunodeficiency virus-1 infection

We examined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the APOBEC3 locus on chromosome 22, paired with population sequences of pro-viral human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) vif from peripheral blood mononuclear cells, from 96 recently HIV-1-infected treatment-naive adults. We found evidence for the existence of an APOBEC3H linkage disequilibrium (LD) block associated with variation in GA → AA, or APOBEC3F/H signature, sequence changes in pro-viral HIV-1 vif sequence (top 10 significant SNPs with a significant p = 4.8 × 10(-3)). We identified a common five position risk haplotype distal to APOBEC3H (A3Hrh). These markers were in high LD (D' = 1; r(2) = 0.98) to a previously described A3H "RED" haplotype containing a variant (E121) with enhanced susceptibility to HIV-1 Vif. This association was confirmed by a haplotype analysis. Homozygote carriers of the A3Hrh had lower GA->AA (A3F/H) sequence editing upon pro-viral HIV-1 vif sequence (p = 0.01), and lower HIV-1 RNA levels over time during early, untreated HIV-1 infection, (p = 0.015 mixed effects model). This effect may be due to enhanced susceptibility of A3H forms to HIV-1 Vif mediated viral suppression of sequence editing activity, slowing viral diversification and escape from immune responses.     

IFIH1-GCA-KCNH7 locus is not associated with genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in French patients

A recent investigation reported, for the first time, an association between variants in the IFIH1-GCA-KCNH7 locus and multiple sclerosis (MS). We sought to replicate this genetic association in MS with a new independent MS cohort composed of French Caucasian MS trio families. The two most significant IFIH1 single nucleotide polymorphisms, rs1990760 and rs2068330, reported as involved in MS susceptibility, were genotyped in 591 French Caucasian MS trio families, and analyzed using the transmission/disequilibrium test. No association with MS was found (rs1990760, P=0.45 and rs2068330, P=0.27). Similarly, no significant association was detected after stratification for HLA-DRB1^*1501 carriers. Reasons that may explain this discrepancy between the original report and our study are discussed.     

Interest of alpha2-adrenergic agonists and antagonists in clinical practice: background, facts and perspectives

The family of alpha(2)-adrenergic receptors (alpha(2)-ARs) comprises three subtypes which are each endowed with specific functions. alpha(2)-agonists and alpha(2)-antagonists are part of the clinician armamentarium since several decades; however, none of the compounds so far available is subtype selective. For long, clonidine and yohimbine have been used for the treatment of hypertension and impotence respectively, but both have been superseded by newer drugs. This review attempts, by a comprehensive analysis of the literature, to cover the present clinical use and the potential therapeutic interest of alpha(2)-agonists or antagonists. From the clinical data, it is concluded that, with the exception of a few particular situations, alpha(2)-agonists are only of limited utility as a monotherapy. By contrast, they offer several powerful advantages when used in adjunctive therapy. In perioperative settings, alpha(2)-agonists are extremely valuable adjuncts to anesthetics and analgesics for the induction of anxiolysis, maintenance of sedation, management of pain and prevention of shivering. In the ophthalmic clinic, they are used to lower intra-ocular pressure during laser surgery of the eye. As a daily medication, alpha(2)-agonists are also of interest for the treatment of glaucoma, muscle spasticity, opiate withdrawal, and behavior disorders. The alpha(2)-antagonists are useful antidotes for reversing the threatening effects of agonist overdose, but currently there are very few indications. New applications are under investigation, and new molecules with more refined subtype-selectivity may emerge, so the clinical utility of both alpha(2)-agonists and antagonists will undoubtedly expand in the future.