Dynalets: A new method for modelling and compressing biological signals. Applications to physiological and molecular signals

The biological information coming from electrophysiologic sensors like ECG, pulse sensor or from molecular signal devices like NMR spectrometry has to be visualized and manipulated in a compressed way for an efficient medical use by clinicians, if stored in scientific data bases or in personalized patient records repositories. Here, we define a new transform called Dynalet based on Liénard ordinary differential equations susceptible to model the mechanism at the source of the studied signal, and we propose to apply this new technique first to the modelling and compression of real biological periodic signals like ECG and pulse rhythm. We consider that the cardiovascular activity results from the summation of cellular oscillators located in the cardiac sinus node and we show that, as a result, the van der Pol oscillator (a particular Liénard system) fits well the ECG signal and the pulse signal. The reconstruction of the original signal (pulse or ECG) using Dynalet transform is then compared with that of Fourier, counting the number of parameters to be set for obtaining an expected signal-to-noise ratio. Then, we apply the Dynalet transform to the modelling and compression of molecular spectra obtained by protein NMR spectroscopy. The reconstruction of the original signal (peak) using Dynalet transform is again compared with that of Fourier. After reconstructing visually the peak, we propose to periodize the signal and give it to hear, the whole process being called the protein “stethoscope”.     

Sequence analysis of a Dictyostelium discoideum gene coding for an active dihydroorotate dehydrogenase in yeast

A Dictyostelium discoideum DNA fragment isolated on the basis of its ability to complement the ural mutation of yeast, codes for a dihydroorotate dehydrogenase activity. The complete nucleotide sequence of this 1898 bp fragment has been determined and reveals an open reading frame capable of coding for a 369 amino acid polypeptide of molecular mass 47.000. The gene shows preferential use of codons with weak pairing forces. Eleven codons, mainly those with a G in the third position, are absent. The flanking sequences are unusually rich in A + T (80%). Several direct and inverted repeats exist in the 5' flanking sequence.     

Etude de la dynamique des populations de cilies d'un torrent experimental pendant deux annees

The sampling of Ciliates performed in a little experimental torrent through two years, showed a great similarity of the two annual cycles. This similarity concerns both the species composition as well as the dynamics of the Ciliates populations. The basic species which affect the community structure are as follows: Ctedoctema acanthocrypta, Mesodinium acarus, Cyclidium glaucoma, Cinetochilum margaritaceum, Pleuronema coronatum, Lacrymaria pupula, Aspidisca costata and Holosticha vernalis. The dynamics of the ciliated Protozoa living in this environment seem to be influenced by the speed of the current, the temperature and the amount of dissolved organic matter in the water.

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Etude de la dynamique des populations de cilies d'un torrent experimental pendant deux annees

     

Die Auferstehung Christi aus medizinischer Sicht

Did Jesus Christ die on the cross? It has been repeatedly speculated that Jesus of Nazareth did not really die on the cross when he was crucified. The spear thrust into his side and the flow of blood and water when pierced with a spear suggests that Jesus must have had some sort of hydrothorax and/or haemothorax at the time he was crucified. Management of hydrothorax and/or haemothorax in modern medicine is the establishment of chest drains. Further one might speculate that the thrust of the spear on the side, carried out to ensure the death of Jesus, may have had, in fact, an opposite effect, namely relief of hypoxemia, which might have been followed by recovery of consciousness after he was taken down from the cross.     

Adaptation to bipedal gait and fifth metatarsal structural properties in Australopithecus,Paranthropus, and Homo

Humans, unlike African apes, have relatively robust fifth metatarsals (Mt5) presumably reflecting substantial weight-bearing and stability function in the lateral column of the former. When this morphological difference emerged during hominin evolution is debated. Here we investigate internal diaphyseal structure of Mt5s attributed to Australopithecus (from Sterkfontein), Paranthropus (from Swartkrans), and Homo (from Olduvai, Dmanisi, and Dinaledi) placed in the context of human and African ape Mt5 internal diaphyseal structure. ‘Whole-shaft’ properties were evaluated from 17 cross sections sampling 25% to 75% diaphyseal length using computed tomography. To assess structural patterns, scaled cortical bone thicknesses (sCBT) and scaled second moments of area (sSMA) were visualized and evaluated through penalized discriminant analyses. While the majority of fossil hominin Mt5s exhibited ape-like sCBT, their sSMA were comparatively more human-like. Human-like functional loading of the lateral column existed in at least some fossil hominins, although perhaps surprisingly not in hominins from Dmanisi or Dinaledi.     

Environmental niche patterns of native and non-native fishes within an invaded African river system

To test ecological niche theory, this study investigated the spatial patterns and the environmental niches of native and non-native fishes within the invaded Great Fish River system, South Africa. For the native fishes, there were contrasting environmental niche breadths that varied from being small to being large and overlapped for most species, except minnows that were restricted to headwater tributaries. In addition, there was high niche overlap in habitat association among fishes with similar distribution. It was therefore inferred that habitat filtering-driven spatial organisation was important in explaining native species distribution patterns. In comparison, most non-native fishes were found to have broad environmental niches and these fishes showed high tolerance to environmental conditions, which generally supported the niche opportunity hypothesis. The proliferation of multiple non-native fishes in the mainstem section suggest that they form a functional assemblage that is probably facilitated by the anthropogenic modification of flow regimes through inter-basin water transfer. Based on the distribution patterns observed in the study, it was inferred that there was a likelihood of negative interactions between native and non-native fishes. Such effects are likely to be exacerbated by altered flow regime that was likely to have negative implications for native ichthyofauna.     

Interleukin 1 can replace monocytes for the specific human B-cell response to a particulate antigen

It is shown that the anti-trinitrophenyl (TNP) response of human B cells to trinitrophenyl polyacrylamide beads (TNP-PAA) is monocyte dependent. This response is abolished by extensive adherent cell depletion and restored by the addition of monocytes. The optimal response is obtained with 3% monocytes, higher numbers being suppressive. Supernatants from muramyl dipeptide (MDP)-activated monocytes can restore the response of monocyte-depleted preparations even when cells are cultured at suboptimal concentration. A partially purified preparation of interleukin (IL-1) has a comparable restorative ability. The following arguments suggest that monocytes do not function as antigen-presenting cells for this particulate antigen: (i) anti-genpulsed monocytes induce neither an anti-TNP response nor a specific T-cell proliferative response; (ii) allogeneic monocytes function as well as autologous monocytes to restore the response of nonadherent cells; (iii) HLA-DR-negative cells from the human leukemia cell line K562 can replace monocytes for this response. Monocyte supernatants do not replace T cells for the response of B-enriched lymphocytes, showing that T cells are directly involved in B-cell activation.     

Spatial organization of catalase proteins

The three-dimensional structure of the heme-containing fungal catalase fromPenicillium vitale (m.m. 2,80,000) has been studied by X-ray analysis at 2.0 A resolution. The molecule is tetramer, each subunit contains 670 aminoacid residues identified to construct “X-ray” primary structure. The subunit is built of three compact domains and their connections. The first domain of about 350 residues contains aβ-barrel flanked by helices, the second domain of 70 residues is formed by four helices and the third one is composed of 150 residues and is topologically similar to flavodoxin. The active site including heme is deeply buried near theβ-barrel. A comparison of the structure of catalase fromPenicillium vitale with that of beef liver catalase revealed very close structural homology of the first and the second domain, but the third domain is entirely absent in beef liver catalase. A catalase from thermophillic bacteriaThermus thermophilus (m.m. 2,10,000) has been first isolated, crystallized and studied by X-ray analysis. Crystals are cubic, space group is P2₁3, a = 133.4 Å. The molecule is a hexamer with trigonal symmetry 32. The electron density map at 3 Å resolution made it possible to trace the polypeptide chain. The main structural motif is formed by four near parallel helices. There is no heme inThermus thermophilus catalase, the active site is between the four helices and contains two manganese ions.     

Illustrations cliniques en oncologie

The examples and clinical cases presented in this section are not intended to be considered as absolute models in terms of image quality or device parameter settings. They must initiate an individual analysis according to CT parameters and image quality. Nevertheless, they present practically different CT levels, which can be used according to the clinical context and the type of device.