A Ground Penetrating Radar and Electrical Resistivity Tomography Prospection for Detecting Sterile Bodies in the Phosphatic Bearing of Sidi Chennane(Morocco)

In Sidi Chennane deposits (Morocco), the phosphatic series is composed of regular interbedded phosphatic and marly limestone layers. Exploitation of the phosphate in these deposits collides frequently with problems bound to the existence, in this series, of sterile bodies qualified as derangements. They cause two kinds of problems: 1) as they are hard, compact and masked by a Quaternary cover, they disturb the exploitation in some yards and give bad reserve calculation;2) even the use of wells and mechanical boreholes did not evidence their delimitation. Our study shows that these bodies can be detected and delimited using ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography methods. It is based on the acquisition and the interpretation of series tests using these methods carried out above visible sterile bodies in a trench of exploitation in order to have geologically valid information. The article concerns to the analysis of the results and of the proceeding for a possible large geophysics survey.

Disease activity and cancer risk in inflammatory bowel disease associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis

AIM: To investigate the phenotype of inflammatory bowel disease associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC-IBD). METHODS: Data from 75 PSC-IBD patients evaluated in our tertiary center between 1963 and 2006 were collected and compared to 150 IBD patients without PSC, matched for sex, birth date, IBD diagnosis date and initial disease location regarding ileal, different colonic segments, and rectum, respectively. RESULTS: While PSC-IBD patients received more 5-aminosalicylates (8.7 years/patient vs 2.9 years/ patient, P < 0.001), they required less immuno-suppressors (24% vs 46% at 10 years; P < 0.001) and less intestinal resection (10% vs 44% at 10 years, P < 0.001). The 25-year cumulative rate of colectomy was 25.1% in PSC-IBD and 37.3% in controls (P = 0.004). The 25-year cumulative rate of colorectal cancer was 23.4% in PSC-IBD vs 0% in controls (P = 0.002). PSC was the only independent risk factor for the development of colorectal cancer (OR = 10.8; 95% CI, 3.7-31.3). Overall survival rate without liver transplantation was reduced in PSC-IBD patients (67% vs 91% in controls at 25 years, P = 0.001).CONCLUSION: This study confirms that patients with PSC-IBD have a particular disease phenotype independent of the initial disease location. Although their disease is less active and they use more 5-aminosalicylates, they present a higher risk of colorectal cancer.

New tools for optimizing fluid resuscitation in acute pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis(AP)is a frequent disease with degrees of increasing severity responsible for high morbidity.Despite continuous improvement in care,mortality remains significant.Because hypovolemia,together with microcirculatory dysfunction lead to poor outcome,fluid therapy remains a cornerstone of the supportive treatment.However,poor clinical evidence actually support the aggressive fluid therapy recommended in recent guidelines since available data are controversial.Fluid management remains unclear and leads to current heterogeneous practice.Different strategies may help to improve fluid resuscitation in AP.On one hand,integration of fluid therapy in a global hemodynamic resuscitation has been demonstrated to improve outcomein surgical or septic patients.Tailored fluid administration after early identification of patients with high-risk of poor outcome presenting inadequate tissue oxygenation is a major part of this strategy.On the other hand,new decision parameters have been developed recently to improve safety and efficiency of fluid therapy in critically ill patients.In this review,we propose a personalized strategy integrating these new concepts in the early fluid management of AP.This new approach paves the way to a wide range of clinical studies in the field of AP.

Defect of insulin signal in peripheral tissues: important role of ceramide

In healthy people,balance between glucose production and its utilization is precisely controlled.When circulating glucose reaches a critical threshold level,pancreaticβcells secrete insulin that has two major actions:to lower circulating glucose levels by facilitating its uptake mainly into skeletal muscle while inhibiting its production by the liver.Interestingly,dietary triglycerides are the main source of fatty acids to fulfill energy needs of oxidative tissues.Normally,the unconsumed fraction of excess of fatty acids is stored in lipid droplets that are localized in adipocytes to provide energy during fasting periods.Thus,adipose tissue acts as a trap for fatty acid excess liberated from plasma triglycerides.When the buffering action of adipose tissue to store fatty acids is impaired,fatty acids that build up in othertissues are metabolized as sphingolipid derivatives such as ceramides.Several studies suggest that ceramides are among the most active lipid second messengers to inhibit the insulin signaling pathway and this review describes the major role played by ceramide accumulation in the development of insulin resistance of peripherals tissues through the targeting of specific proteins of the insulin signaling pathway.

IMPROVED RATE OF CONVERGENCE FOR THE MODIFIED SZASZ-MIRAKYAN OPERATORS

For some locally bounded function f measurable on the interval [0,∞) we have estimated the rate of convergence of the modified Szasz-Mirakyan operators Mnf at those points x∈[0,∞) at which one sided limits f(±) exist. We have used the Chanturiya's modulus of variation. Our result improves the estimate of [1], [3], [4], [5], [6] and [9].

Ostracodes(Crustacea) Witnesses of Paleoenvironmental Changes During Permian-Triassic Boundary Events in South China and Turkey

The transition between Permian and Triassic(252.4 Ma) is marked by the most devastating extinction the biosphere ever went through.Although its cause stays unclear,it is admitted that this mass extinction originated in the conjunction of several global events: tectonic(Pangaea closing),volcanic(Siberian traps), magnetic(reversal of superchron),climatic(end of Permian glaciation) and eustatic(tecto-and ther-

Distinct profiles of systemic biomarkers of oxidative stress in chronic human pathologies:Cardiovascular,psychiatric,neurodegenerative,rheumatic,infectious,neoplasmic and endocrinological diseases

Oxidative stress is involved in chronic and acute pathologies: cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, neoplastic, inflammatory and infectious diseases. Clinical trials focused on prevention of cardiovascular and neoplastic diseases involving antioxidant supplementation have however provided predominantly negative obserations in large-scale studies. Screening of patient cohorts to assess baseline oxidative stress on the basis of a biomarker profile is decisive but lacking. For the first time, we evaluated the level of oxidative stress, testing more than 10 established biomarkers, in a comprehensive initial survey of 617 patients displaying chronic human pathologies. Multiple diseasespecific abnormalities were identified in plasma, whole blood and/or urine. This is the case for vitamins and oligo elements, vitamin C, vitamin E, β-carotene, selenium, zinc and copper;endogenous antioxidants such as reduced and oxidised glutathione, thiols, urate, and glutathione peroxidase activity, and a biomarker of oxidative DNA damage (8-hydroxy-2’-deoxy guanosine). The distinct biomarker profiles suggest the involvment of multiple forms of oxidative insults which arein some way partially specific to each pathological condition. This finding is in favor of the determination of an integrated score to combine contributions of distinct biomarkers, in order to screen patients presenting elevated levels of oxidative stress.

Synthesis of two mono-deoxy β-cyclodextrin derivatives as useful tools for confirming DIBAL-H promoted bis-de-O-methylation mechanism

Diisobutylaluminium hydride （DIBAL-H） promotes secondary rim regioselective bis-de-O-methylation of permethylated β- cyclodextrin （β-CD） to give diol 2. To gain an insight into the mechanism of this remarkable regioselective behavior, two corresponding permethylated β-CDs with an alcohol function at either 2- or 3-position were synthesized in our previous study. As a step further to this work, the two compounds were subjected to deoxygenation reaction with tributyltin hydride in the present of 2,2＇- azobisisobutyronitrile affording the corresponding 2- and 3-deoxy permethylated β-CD derivatives （19 and 16）. The structures of these two compounds were characterized by 1D and 2D NMR and HRMS. Compounds 16 and 19 were unable to react with DIBAL- H which suggests that O-2A and O-3B are necessary for DIBAL-H promoted bis-de-O-methylation reaction of permethylated β-CD.

Modeling the antigen recognition by B-cell and T-cell receptors through thermostatted kinetic theory methods

The activation and the resulting response of the immune system to antigens comprise different complex processes and cells. This paper aims at modeling the processes of recognition and learning of the immune system by means of the thermostatted kinetic theory methods. Specifically, the thermostatted kinetic framework is firstly generalized for taking into account that in some processes of proliferation of the cells, the rate is also function of the degree of information exchanged amongst cells. In particular, within the new framework, a mathematical model is proposed for miming the recognition process of the immune system through the definition of interactions between the cytoto^ic and humoral components of the adaptive immune system via T- and B-cells. The model validation is obtained by performing a sensitivity analysis on the parameters which depicts the main emerging phenomena and the different phases of the recognition and learning of the immune system.

HPLC Fingerprint and LC-TOF-MS Analysis on Extract from Roots of Gentiana macrophylla

Objective Establishing a fingerprint method to identify the characteristic chemicals in the roots of Gentiana macrophylla and evaluate their quality. Methods RP-HPLC was developed for fingerprint analysis and determination of four ingredients in G. macrophylla roots from different sources. LC-ESI-TOF-MS was employed to identify the chromatographic peaks of the fingerprint. Results Five common peaks were identified by comparing their retention time with reference secoiridoid glucosides. Eight major peaks in chromatographic fingerprint were analyzed by on-line LC-ESI-TOF-MS. Four secoiridoid glucosides were identified based on their MS data. Conclusion The method is specific and could be served for the quality identification and comprehensive evaluation of G. macrophylla.

CDS:A Fold-change Based Statistical Test for Concomitant Identification of Distinctness and Similarity in Gene Expression Analysis

The problem of identifying differential activity such as in gene expression is a major defeat in biostatistics and bioinformatics. Equally important, however much less frequently studied, is the question of similar activity from one biological condition to another. The fold- change, or ratio, is usually considered a relevant criterion for stating difference and similarity between measurements. Importantly, no statistical method for concomitant evaluation of similarity and distinctness currently exists for biological applications. Modern micro- array, digital PCR （dPCR）, and Next-Generation Sequencing （NGS） technologies frequently provide a means of coeff^cient of variation estimation for individual measurements. Using fold-change, and by making the assumption that measurements are normally distributed with known variances, we designed a novel statistical test that allows us to detect concomitantly, thus using the same formalism, differ- entially and similarly expressed genes （http：]]cds.ihes.fr）. Given two sets of gene measurements in different biological conditions, the probabilities of making type I and type II errors in stating that a gene is differentially or similarly expressed from one condition to the other can be calculated. Furthermore, a confidence interval for the fold-change can be delineated. Finally, we demonstrate that the assumption of normality can be relaxed to consider arbitrary distributions numerically. The Concomitant evaluation of Distinctness and Similarity （CDS） statistical test correctly estimates similarities and differences between measurements of gene expression. The imple- mentation, being time and memory efficient, allows the use of the CDS test in high-throughput data analysis such as microarray, dPCR, and NGS experiments. Importantly, the CDS test can be applied to the comparison of single measurements （N = 1） provided the var- iance （or coefficient of variation） of the signals is known, making CDS a valuable tool also in biomedical analysis where typically a single measurement per subject is available.

Synthesis of 3″-and 4″-deoxy-Lewis^x trisaccharides:A useful tool for study of carbohydrate-carbohydrate interaction

Synthesis of 3″-deoxy and 4″-deoxy Lewisx trisaccharides is described.Phenyl 2,3,6-tri-O-benzoyl-4-deoxy-1-thio-β-Dxylo-hexopyranoside was condensed with a diol of glucosamine to give regio-and stereo-selectively a disaccharide.Stereose-lective fucosylation of this disaccharide provided a protected deoxy Lewisx trisaccharide which was deprotected to give the 4″-deoxy Lewisx trisaccharide.Application of the similar synthetic sequence provided the 3″-deoxy Lewisx trisaccharide.

麻醉恢复室中出现严重手术后疼痛的预测因素

背景静脉内吗啡给药（IMT）广泛用于麻醉恢复室内患者镇痛。许多因素影响手术后疼痛程度或吗啡用量。本文前瞻性分析了严重手术后疼痛手术前和手术中的预测因素。严重手术后疼痛的定义是指IMT〉0．15mg／kg或IMT失败。方法我们分析了手术前疼痛、药物治疗作用以及手术中事件对手术后疼痛的影响。IMT后，患者被分为两组：严重疼痛组（SP）和非严重疼痛组。数据用均数±标准差表示。结果本次研究包括了342例患者，其中非严重手术后疼痛组有200例（58％），严重手术后疼痛组（SP组）有142例（42％）。单因素分析发现两组患者的既往手术史和疾病史没有显著差异，但是SP组手术前治疗更频繁（P〈0．05）。SP组的手术时间和麻醉时间显著长于非SP组（P〈0．001）。SP组的舒芬太尼用量较大，同时IMT结束前和结束时视觉模拟疼痛评分的分值较高（P〈0．001）。多因素分析发现手术中阿片类药物的用量高（舒芬太尼剂量〉0．6μg/kg）（比值比=2．68，P〈0．001）、全身麻醉（比值比=3．96，P=0．03）以及手术前使用镇痛药（比值比=1．91，P〈0．01）是与严重手术后疼痛相关的独立因素。结论严重手术后疼痛与手术中使用大剂量舒芬太尼，全身麻醉以及手术前使用镇痛药有显著关系。

手术后间断使用或持续长期使用斯达汀对大血管手术患者心脏转归的影响

背景斯达汀可降低非手术人群的心脏并发症，手术患者也可能受益。本研究旨在观察与间断使用者比较，大血管手术后持续使用斯达汀患者的心脏转归有无差异。方法对前瞻性收集的肾下型主动脉手术患者的资料进行研究，分析斯达汀治疗和围手术期心脏并发症的相关性。2001年1月至2003年12月，临床尚无围手术期持续使用斯达汀的指南（间断使用组，n=491）。2004年1月制定指南推荐手术后尽早开始斯达汀持续治疗（持续使用组，n=178）。分析心肌坏死（定义为肌钙蛋白Ⅰ增高〉99百分位数或0．2ng/ml）的发生情况。组内（倾向性评分）和组间（Lee评分）均进行风险调整。结果 间断使用组和持续使用组手术后重新使用斯达汀治疗的时间间隔中位数分别为4天和1天（P〈0．001）。采用倾向性评分对手术前斯达汀治疗的可能性进行匹配，结果显示，手术后早期使用斯达汀和未早期使用（持续使用组与间断使用组）对手术后心肌坏死风险的比值比（OR）分别为0．38和2．1（相对危险度降低5．4倍，95％可信区间：1．2—25．3，P〈0．001）。经Lee评分调整后OR在持续使用组为0．38，间断使用组为2．1（相对危险度降低5．5倍，95％可信区间：1．2～26．0，P〈0．001）。手术后斯达汀停药（〉4天）是手术后心肌坏死的独立预测因素（OR2．9，95％可信区间：1．6—5．5）。结论大血管手术后间断使用斯达汀与手术后心脏风险增高相关，建议大血管手术后尽早使用斯达汀。