Femina chez Sénèque : apports et limites de la statistique textuelle

Conference (2013, February 21)

In Terra Incognita. The Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of Central Asia: New data from Uzbekistan.

Scientific conference (2013, February 20)

Participation à la Table ronde autour du livre de Denis Seron Ce que voir veut dire

Conference (2013, February 20)

Quelle place pour la viande rouge dans nos assiettes ?

Conference given outside the academic context (2013)

La lutte contre le racisme et le Centre pour l’égalité des chances : défis et perspectives

Conference (2013, February 15)

Development of an analytical method to detect metabolites of nitrofurans. Application to the study of furazolidone elimination in Vietnamese black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon)

in Aquaculture (2013), 376-379

Nitrofurans, banned antibiotics in European Union (EU), have often been found in imported aquaculture products in the past and are still found nowadays according to the Rapid Alert System for Feed and ... [more ▼]

Nitrofurans, banned antibiotics in European Union (EU), have often been found in imported aquaculture products in the past and are still found nowadays according to the Rapid Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF) of the European Commission. A quantitative method based on liquid chromatography coupled to isotopic dilution tandem mass spectrometry (LC–IDMS/MS) was developed for the determination of the residues of four nitrofuran antibiotic residues in shrimps. The experimental protocol consisted of an acid-catalysed release of protein-bound metabolites, followed by derivatisation with 2-nitrobenzaldehyde (NBA). Then, a double liquid–liquid extraction with ethyl acetate was performed before LC–IDMS/MS analysis by positive electrospray ionisation (ES+) with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) of two transitions per compound. An “in-house” validation of the method for shrimp analysis was conducted according to the EU criteria for the analysis of veterinary drug residues in foods. The decision limits (CCalpha) were 0.08–0.36 µg kg -1 and the detection capabilities (CCbeta) were 0.12–0.61 µg kg-1, which are both below the minimum required performance limit (MRPL) set at 1 µg kg -1 by the EU. The developed method was applied to evaluate the elimination of furazolidone residues in shrimp muscles after a contamination experiment. After 28 days of decontamination, a concentration of 115 µg kg-1 of furazolidone metabolite 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ) was still measured in shrimp muscle. [less ▲]

On the Relevance of Sophisticated Structural Annotations for Disulfide Connectivity Pattern Prediction

in PLoS ONE (2013), 8(2), 56621

Disulfide bridges strongly constrain the native structure of many proteins and predicting their formation is therefore a key sub-problem of protein structure and function inference. Most recently proposed ... [more ▼]

Disulfide bridges strongly constrain the native structure of many proteins and predicting their formation is therefore a key sub-problem of protein structure and function inference. Most recently proposed approaches for this prediction problem adopt the following pipeline: first they enrich the primary sequence with structural annotations, second they apply a binary classifier to each candidate pair of cysteines to predict disulfide bonding probabilities and finally, they use a maximum weight graph matching algorithm to derive the predicted disulfide connectivity pattern of a protein. In this paper, we adopt this three step pipeline and propose an extensive study of the relevance of various structural annotations and feature encodings. In particular, we consider five kinds of structural annotations, among which three are novel in the context of disulfide bridge prediction. So as to be usable by machine learning algorithms, these annotations must be encoded into features. For this purpose, we propose four different feature encodings based on local windows and on different kinds of histograms. The combination of structural annotations with these possible encodings leads to a large number of possible feature functions. In order to identify a minimal subset of relevant feature functions among those, we propose an efficient and interpretable feature function selection scheme, designed so as to avoid any form of overfitting. We apply this scheme on top of three supervised learning algorithms: k-nearest neighbors, support vector machines and extremely randomized trees. Our results indicate that the use of only the PSSM (position-specific scoring matrix) together with the CSP (cysteine separation profile) are sufficient to construct a high performance disulfide pattern predictor and that extremely randomized trees reach a disulfide pattern prediction accuracy of on the benchmark dataset SPX+, which corresponds to +3.2% improvement over the state of the art. A web-application is available at http://m24.giga.ulg.ac.be:81/x3CysBridge​s. [less ▲]

A cross-sectional study to assess knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention measures in company workers in Ecuador

in BMC Public Health (2013), 13

Background: HIV/AIDS was first reported in Ecuador in 1984 and its prevalence has been increasing ever since. In 2009, the National AIDS Program reported 21,810 HIV/AIDS cases and confirmed that the ... [more ▼]

Background: HIV/AIDS was first reported in Ecuador in 1984 and its prevalence has been increasing ever since. In 2009, the National AIDS Program reported 21,810 HIV/AIDS cases and confirmed that the worker population was amongst the most affected groups. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention measures in company workers in Ecuador. Methods: A cross-sectional survey based on a random sample of 115 companies (1,732 workers), stratified by three large provinces and working sectors (commerce, manufacturing and real estate) was conducted. A validated instrument developed by Family Health International was used to evaluate HIV prevention knowledge and common local misconceptions about HIV transmission. Descriptive statistics, chi square test and logistic regression analysis were performed using SAS. Results: Incorrect knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission were found in 49.1% (95% CI: 46.6-51.6) of subjects. Incorrect knowledge was higher among males (OR=1.73 [1.39 –2.15]), older subjects (OR=1.35 [1.02 – 1.77]), subjects with lower education (OR=3.72 [2.44 – 5.65]), manual labor workers (OR=2.93 [1.82 – 4.73]) and subjects without previous exposure to HIV intervention programs (OR=2.26 [1.79 – 2.86]). Incorrect knowledge about preventive measures was found among 32.9% (95%CI: 30.6-35.2) of respondents. This proportion was higher among subjects with lower education (OR=2.28 [1.52 – 3.43]), married subjects (OR=1.34 [1.07 – 1.68]), manual labor workers (OR=1.80 [1.34 – 2.42]), and subjects not previously exposed to HIV intervention programs (OR=1.44 [1.14 – 1.83]). Conclusions: HIV intervention programs targeting company workers are urgently needed to improve knowledge and reduce HIV transmission in Ecuador. [less ▲]

Random generation of dichotomous CAT response patterns with the R package catR

Conference (2013, February 14)

The purpose of this talk is to briefly introduce the R package catR that permits random generation of response patterns under a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) framework. First, an outline of the CAT ... [more ▼]

The purpose of this talk is to briefly introduce the R package catR that permits random generation of response patterns under a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) framework. First, an outline of the CAT is proposed, with emphasis on the main concepts (item bank, ability estimation, next item selection, stopping rule, item exposure and content balancing). Then, the performance of the catR package is described by making connections between the general CAT framework and the functionalities of the R functions within catR. An example will be displayed, either as a “live” demonstration of catR or as part of the talk. Potential extensions of catR will also be discussed. The catR package was jointly developed by Gilles Raîche (Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada). [less ▲]

Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation : The history of Surgical Techniques and immunosuppression

in current issues and future direction in kidney transplantation (2013)

Pancreas Transplantation aims at providing Beta cells replacement in diabetic patients, especially for type 1 diabetes recipients in whom Beta cells had been destroyed by an autoimmune process. The final ... [more ▼]

Pancreas Transplantation aims at providing Beta cells replacement in diabetic patients, especially for type 1 diabetes recipients in whom Beta cells had been destroyed by an autoimmune process. The final achievement is to restore a normal physiological control of glucose metabolism in order to halt or reverse the secondary complications of diabetes i.e. retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy, micro – and macro - angiopathy [1]. That can be achieved by a vascularised pancreas graft (referred as Pancreas Transplantation, PT) or by islet grafting (referred as Islet Transplantation, IT). The former PT includes transplanting 95% of unuseful cells, the exocrine part from one pancreas, while the last one IP, embolizing into the recipient liver, Islets of Langerhans after digestion and purification of several human pancreases. Three types of PT can be performed: the pancreas and a kidney are simultaneously transplanted with a single induction of immunosuppression (IS) therapy in hoping to correct both uremia and diabetes mellitus (SPK = Simultaneous Pancreas and Kidney Transplantation); the pancreas is transplanted after a successful kidney graft allowing two induction therapies along with the basic IS treatment (PAK = Pancreas After Kidney Transplantation) ; and finally the Pancreas can be transplanted alone in pre-uremic recipients with unawareness hypoglycaemic events or with rapidly evolving secondary complications of diabetes such as proliferative retinopathy, or advanced neuropathy (PTA = Pancreas Transplantation Alone) [1]. Moreover, in SPK, both organs the Pancreas and the Kidney are procured from the same deceased donor, either donor after brain death (DBD) or donor after cardiac death (DCD). In some US institutions, a segmental pancreas and the left kidney, are procured in a living donor [2], using a laparoscopic approach in the more recent year [3]. For PAK, in order to avoid an excessive IS load and two induction therapies, other institutions had proposed whenever possible to keep in stand-by the potential live kidney donor until a cadaver whole pancreatic compatible graft is available [1]. By contrast, the number of PTA remains limited in non uremic recipients with life-threatening complications of diabetes, in whom one might hope to avoid the hypoglycaemic events with a successful graft. That can also be achieved with IT. But except for rare cases, insulin independence with IT requires more than a single human pancreas and is limited over time [1]. Moreover, IT needs costly materials, chambers and rooms for preparation. That’s why IT will not be included in the present report. [less ▲]