[EASYSCAN: French pilot study for securing drug administration by barcode reading]. / EASYSCAN : étude pilote française pour la sécurisation de l'administration des médicaments par lecture code-barres.

OBJECTIVES: Medication errors are common at the time of administration. To prevent them, technologies allowing consistency check by bar code technology at bedside have been developed. Our study focuses on the evaluation of a BarCode Medication Administration (BCMA) called EASYSCAN with Electronic Medication Administration Record (e-MAR) to verify both patient's identity and medication to be administrated. METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted during seven weeks in a French medicine ward. The performance of the system was evaluated by the success rate of BCMA and by the average time for administration with and without EASYSCAN. A satisfaction questionnaire about BCMA was proposed to nurses. RESULTS: We observed 182 administrations including 87 (48%) with EASYSCAN. The verification of the patient's identity was successful in 77% of administrations and 65% of the drugs were scanned successfully. The main causes of check failures were the lack of datamatrix on the drug (81%), error messages (14%) and the lack of system functionality (5%). The average time for administration per patient was significantly increased: 4.68min/patient with versus 2.87min/patient without EASYSCAN. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows the EASYSCAN's performance in its first version. Material and software evolutions and an increase of nurses'pratices will be necessary to continue the experimentation of this system still unpublished in France.

Combined SERS/DFT studies of push-pull chromophore self-assembled monolayers: insights into their surface orientation.

Having clear and deep information on the surface/interface of deposited molecules is of crucial importance for the development of efficient optoelectronic devices. This paper reports on a joint experimental/theoretical hybrid approach based on Raman spectroscopy in order to provide information on the orientation of push-pull chromophores deposited onto a gold surface. In addition, several parameters can strongly control or impede the orientation of such molecules on the surface such as: the molecular structure, the surface itself, the method of deposition and the solvents used. From this approach, additional information has been highlighted such as perpendicularly depositing the molecule on the surface, the bithiophene compounds displaying more solvent effects compared to terthiophene molecules and so on. According to the results, the joint SERS/DFT study proves to be an effective tool for probing the arrangement of push-pull chromophores and selecting the right experimental conditions to tune the surface properties.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of fumonisins in the gastrointestinal tract of broiler chickens.

Fumonisins (FB) are among the most frequently detected mycotoxins in feedstuffs and finished feed, and recent data suggest that the functions of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) in poultry species might be compromised at doses ranging from 10 to 20 mg/kg, close to field incidences and below the US and EU guidelines. Strategies are therefore necessary to reduce the exposure of poultry to FB. In the present study, we assessed the efficacy of fumonisin esterase FumD (EC 3.1.1.87, commercial name FUMzyme®) to cleave the tricarballylic acid side chains of FB, leading to the formation of non-toxic hydrolyzed fumonisins in the GIT of broiler chickens. Broiler chickens were fed for 14 d (7 to 21 d of age) 3 different diets (6 birds/cage, 6 cages/diet), i) control feed (negative control group), ii) feed contaminated with 10 mg FB/kg (FB group), and iii) feed contaminated with 10 mg FB/kg and supplemented with 100 units of FUMzyme®/kg (FB+FUMzyme® group). To determine the degree of reduction of FB in the GIT, 2 characteristics were analyzed. First, the sphinganine-to-sphingosine ratio in the serum and liver was determined as a biomarker of effect for exposure to FB. Second, the concentration of fumonisin B1 and its hydrolyzed forms was evaluated in the gizzard, the proximal and distal parts of the small intestine, and the excreta. Significantly reduced sphinganine-to-sphingosine ratios in the serum and liver of the FB+FUMzyme® group (serum: 0.15 ± 0.01; liver: 0.17 ± 0.01) compared to the FB group (serum: 0.20 ± 0.01; liver: 0.29 ± 0.03) proved that supplementation of broiler feed with FUMzyme® was effective in partially counteracting the toxic effect of dietary FB. Likewise, FB concentrations in digesta and excreta were significantly reduced in the FB+FUMzyme® group compared to the FB group (P < 0.05; up to 75%). FUMzyme® furthermore partially counteracted FB-induced up-regulation of cytokine gene expression (IL-8 and IL-10) in the jejunum. The FB group showed significantly higher gene expression of IL-8 and IL-10 compared to the negative control group (IL-8: fold change = 2.9 ± 1.1, P < 0.05; IL-10: fold change = 3.6 ± 1.4, P < 0.05), whereas IL-8 and IL-10 mRNA levels were not significantly different in the FB+FUMzyme®® group compared to the other 2 groups. In conclusion, FUMzyme® is suitable to detoxify FB in chickens and maintain gut functions.

Prevalence and effects of mycotoxins on poultry health and performance, and recent development in mycotoxin counteracting strategies.

Extensive research over the last couple of decades has made it obvious that mycotoxins are commonly prevalent in majority of feed ingredients. A worldwide mycotoxin survey in 2013 revealed 81% of around 3,000 grain and feed samples analyzed had at least 1 mycotoxin, which was higher than the 10-year average (from 2004 to 2013) of 76% in a total of 25,944 samples. The considerable increase in the number of positive samples in 2013 may be due to the improvements in detection methods and their sensitivity. The recently developed liquid chromatography coupled to (tandem) mass spectrometry allows the inclusion of a high number of analytes and is the most selective, sensitive, and accurate of all the mycotoxin analytical methods. Mycotoxins can affect the animals either individually or additively in the presence of more than 1 mycotoxin, and may affect various organs such as gastrointestinal tract, liver, and immune system, essentially resulting in reduced productivity of the birds and mortality in extreme cases. While the use of mycotoxin binding agents has been a commonly used counteracting strategy, considering the great diversity in the chemical structures of mycotoxins, it is very obvious that there is no single method that can be used to deactivate mycotoxins in feed. Therefore, different strategies have to be combined in order to specifically target individual mycotoxins without impacting the quality of feed. Enzymatic or microbial detoxification, referred to as "biotransformation" or "biodetoxification," utilizes microorganisms or purified enzymes thereof to catabolize the entire mycotoxin or transform or cleave it to less or non-toxic compounds. However, the awareness on the prevalence of mycotoxins, available modern techniques to analyze them, the effects of mycotoxicoses, and the recent developments in the ways to safely eliminate the mycotoxins from the feed are very minimal among the producers. This symposium review paper comprehensively discusses the above mentioned aspects.

Longitudinal and transverse Zeeman ladders in the Ising-like chain antiferromagnet BaCo(2)V(2)O(8).

We explore the spin dynamics emerging from the Néel phase of the chain compound antiferromagnet BaCo(2)V(2)O(8). Our inelastic neutron scattering study reveals unconventional discrete spin excitations, so-called Zeeman ladders, understood in terms of spinon confinement, due to the interchain attractive linear potential. These excitations consist of two interlaced series of modes, respectively, with transverse and longitudinal polarization. The latter, which correspond to a longitudinal fluctuation of the ordered moment, have no classical counterpart and are related to the zero-point fluctuations that weaken the ordered moment in weakly coupled quantum chains. Our analysis reveals that BaCo(2)V(2)O(8), with moderate Ising anisotropy and sizable interchain interactions, remarkably fulfills the conditions necessary for the observation of discrete long-lived longitudinal excitations.

Structural and functional development of small intestine in intrauterine growth retarded porcine offspring born to gilts fed diets with differing protein ratios throughout pregnancy.

Protein level in the maternal diet plays a crucial role in fetal programming during pregnancy. Low or high protein level increases the risk of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). The aim of this study was to investigate the structural and functional development of the small intestine in piglets from sows fed a control (C, 12.1% protein), a high protein (HP, 30% protein), or a low protein (LP, 6.5% protein) diet during pregnancy. Newborns were classified as IUGR (birth weight ≤1.18 kg) and non-IUGR (birth weight >1.18 kg). The piglets were euthanized on postnatal day (PD)1, PD28 and PD188. The LP diet in non-IUGR neonates resulted in decreased body weight on PD1. The LP and HP diets resulted in both decreased body weight and delayed catch-up growth in the IUGR piglets. The HP and LP-diets increased the length of villi on PD1 in non-IUGRs but not in IUGRs. At birth, the expressions of Ki67 and active caspase 3 in mid-jejunum epithelium of HP and LP non-IUGR neonates were significantly lower as compared to C non-IUGRs whilst in IUGRs the respective expressions were as high as in C non-IUGRs. The postnatal dynamics of brush border enzyme activities and vacuolated enterocytes disappearance showed significant drop in enterocyte maturation in IUGR as compared to non-IUGR neonates. In conclusion, both HP and LP diets led to retarded development of non-IUGR piglets. In IUGR piglets both HP and LP diets resulted in delayed catch-up growth, without adaptive changes in brush border digestive enzymes.

Coexistence and interplay of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in URhGe.

As ferromagnetism and superconductivity are usually considered to be antagonistic, the discovery of their coexistence in UGe(2), URhGe, UIr and UCoGe has attracted a lot of interest. The mechanism to explain such a state has, however, not yet been fully elucidated. In these compounds superconductivity may be unconventional: Cooper pairs could be formed by electrons with parallel spins and magnetic fluctuations might be involved in the pairing mechanism. URhGe becomes ferromagnetic below a Curie temperature of 9.5 K, with a spontaneous moment aligned to the c-axis. For temperatures below 260 mK and fields lower than 2 T, superconductivity was first observed in 2001. Recently, we discovered a second pocket of superconductivity. This new pocket of superconductivity appears at higher fields applied close to the b-axis, enveloping a sudden magnetic moment rotation transition at H(R) = 12 T. Detailed studies of the field induced metamagnetic transition and superconductivity are presented. The possibility that magnetic fluctuations emerging from a quantum critical point provide the pairing mechanism for superconductivity is discussed.

HOPE, an open platform for medical data management on the grid.

The paper describes a platform developed for the secure management and analysis of medical data and images in a grid environment. Designed for telemedicine and built upon the EGEE gLite middleware and particularly the metadata catalogue AMGA as well as the GridSphere web portal, the platform provides to healthcare professionals the capacity to upload and query medical information stored over distributed servers. A job submission environment is also available for data analysis. Security features include authentication and authorization by grid certificates, anonymization of medical data and image encryption. The platform is currently deployed on several sites in Europe and Asia and is being customized for applications in the field of telemedicine and medical physics.

Excitations from a Bose-Einstein condensate of magnons in coupled spin ladders.

The weakly coupled quasi-one-dimensional spin ladder compound (CH3)2CHNH3CuCl3 is studied by neutron scattering in magnetic fields exceeding the critical field of Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons. Commensurate long-range order and the associated Goldstone mode are detected and found to be similar to those in reference to spin-dimer materials. However, for the upper two massive magnon branches, the observed behavior is totally different, culminating in a drastic collapse of excitation bandwidth beyond the transition point.

Magnetic field-induced superconductivity in the ferromagnet URhGe.

In several metals, including URhGe, superconductivity has recently been observed to appear and coexist with ferromagnetism at temperatures well below that at which the ferromagnetic state forms. However, the material characteristics leading to such a state of coexistence have not yet been fully elucidated. We report that in URhGe there is a magnetic transition where the direction of the spin axis changes when a magnetic field of 12 tesla is applied parallel to the crystal b axis. We also report that a second pocket of superconductivity occurs at low temperature for a range of fields enveloping this magnetic transition, well above the field of 2 tesla at which superconductivity is first destroyed. Our findings strongly suggest that excitations in which the spins rotate stimulate superconductivity in the neighborhood of a quantum phase transition under high magnetic field.

Flux-line lattice distortion in PrOs4Sb12.

We report that the flux-line lattice in the cubic superconductor Pr(Os4Sb12 is strongly distorted from an ideal hexagonal lattice at very low temperatures in a small applied field. We attribute this to the presence of gap nodes in the superconducting state on at least some Fermi-surface sheets.

Cooperative ordering of gapped and gapless spin networks in Cu2Fe2Ge4O13.

The unusual magnetic properties of a novel low-dimensional quantum ferrimagnet Cu2Fe2Ge4O13 are studied using bulk methods, neutron diffraction, and inelastic neutron scattering. It is shown that this material can be described in terms of two low-dimensional quantum spin subsystems, one gapped and the other gapless, characterized by two distinct energy scales. Long-range magnetic ordering observed at low temperatures is a cooperative phenomenon caused by weak coupling of these two spin networks.

Ordering and excitations in the field-induced magnetic phase of Cs3Cr2Br9.

Field-induced magnetic order has been investigated in detail in the interacting spin 3/2 dimer system Cs3Cr2Br9. Elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements were performed up to H=6 T, well above the critical field H(c1) approximately 1.5 T. The ordering displays incommensurabilities and a large hysteresis before a commensurate structure is reached. This structure is fully determined. Surprisingly, the lowest excitation branch never closes. Above H(c1), the gap increases slowly with the field. An analysis in terms of projected pseudospins is given.

[Pain and postoperative analgesia after craniotomy]. / La douleur après une craniotomie et l'analgésie postopératoire.

Neurosurgery has for a long time been considered as a minimal painful surgery. This explains why there are few references in the literature concerning postoperative neurosurgical pain. Recent papers have demonstrated that even if postoperative pain is less important than in other specialities, such pain exists and should be taken care of. Rapid neurological recovery is now possible because of the progress in the surgical techniques and the introduction of new anaesthetic drugs. This implies a strict postoperative analgesic strategy in order to avoid both direct and indirect complications associated with pain. In this respect, the use of remifentanil or other techniques like target-controlled injection of opioids should absolutely be considered. In most cases, class I and II analgesics seem to provide optimal pain relief. However, for some patients, the use of an opioid may be required.

Charge ordering and spin dynamics in NaV(2)O(5).

We report high-resolution neutron inelastic scattering experiments on the spin excitations of NaV(2)O(5). Below T(c), two branches with distinct energy gaps are identified. From the dispersion and intensity of the spin excitation modes, we deduce the precise zigzag charge distribution on the ladder rungs and the corresponding charge order: Delta(c) approximately 0.6. We argue that the spin gaps observed in the low-T phase of this compound are primarily due to the charge transfer.

[Comparison of two measurement methods: the Bland and Altman assessment]. / Comparaison de deux méthodes de mesure d'une même grandeur: méthode de Bland et Altman.

Bland-Altman analysis for comparison of two methods of clinical measurement is frequently used in scientific publications. This article is more appropriate than the conventional linear regression analysis. This paper gives an overview of the principles for the use of Bland-Altman analysis as well as the specific terminology attached to it. The Bland-Altman comparison analysis is mainly a tool for clinical interpretation. The bias and the agreement limits provide the variation of the values of the technique compared to the other. The difference between the two methods of measurement is plotted against the average obtained with each of the two techniques. Bland-Altman analysis can also be used to check the repeatability of a measurement technique within the same subject and to determine a repeatability coefficient. With an adaptation of the calculation of the agreement limits, the average of multiple measurements for each subject with two measurement techniques can be used for the Bland-Altman analysis.

Single-breath CO2 analysis as a predictor of lung volume change in a model of acute lung injury.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the utility of single-breath CO2 analysis as a measure of lung volume change in a model of acute lung injury. SETTING: Animal laboratory in a university-affiliated medical center. DESIGN: Prospective, animal cohort study comparing 21 variables derived from single-breath CO2 analysis with lung volume measurements determined by nitrogen washout. SUBJECTS: Seven lambs with saline lavage-induced acute lung injury. METHODS: Animals were treated with repetitive saline lavage to achieve a uniform degree of acute lung injury (PaO2 < 100 torr [13.32 kPa] on FiO2 of 1.0). Twenty-one derived components of the CO2 expirogram were evaluated as predictors of lung volume change. Lung volume was manipulated by 3-cm H2O incremental increases in positive end-expiratory pressure from 0 to 21 cm H2O and ranged between 90 and 765 mL. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Fifty-five measurements of lung volume were available for comparison with derived variables from the CO2 expirogram. Stepwise linear regression identified five variables that were most predictive of lung volume change: a) dynamic lung compliance; b) the slope of phase III; c) the slope of phase II divided by the mixed expired CO2 concentration; d) airway deadspace; and e) PaO2/FIO2 ratio. The multivariate equation was highly statistically significant and explained 94% of the variance (adjusted r2 = .94, p < .0001). The bias and precision of the calculated lung volume were 10.9 and 55.9, respectively. The mean percentage difference for the lung volume estimate derived from the single-breath CO2 analysis station was 3.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that analysis of the CO2 expirogram can yield accurate information about lung volume in animals with saline lavage-induced acute lung injury. Specifically, five variables derived from a plot of expired CO2 concentration vs. expired volume predict changes in lung volume in healthy lambs with an adjusted coefficient of determination of 0.94. We hope to further define the utility of this technique by prospective application of this methodology in the clinical setting.