Implication du polymorphisme d’enzymes de métabolisation et/ou de réparation dans le suivi de travailleurs exposés au styrène, à des solvants, des pesticides ou à l’arsenic

Les cancérogènes environnementaux sont convertis, par des enzymes de métabolisation dits de phase I ou de fonctionnalisation) et des enzymes de phase II ou de conjugaison), en métabolites réactifs pouvant se fixer à l’ADN. La plupart de ces enzymes sont polymorphes : le polymorphisme1 génétique est la base de la susceptibilité individuelle. Il est défini comme une différence par rapport au gène de référence, observée chez au moins 1 % des individus. Pour des expositions équivalentes, deux individus de même poids, même âge, même sexe peuvent avoir des taux plasmatiques2 de toxiques ou de métabolites variant de 1 à 1000 s’expliquant par des capacités d’absorption, de métabolisation et d’élimination différentes régulées génétiquement. La réponse toxique d’un individu vis-à-vis d’un contaminant va dépendre de ses capacités à transporter la substance, à la métaboliser et à réparer les lésions initiales sur l’ADN. Les enzymes de réparation sont aussi polymorphes. L’identification de certains variants alléliques3 de gène comme marqueurs de susceptibilité4 peut constituer un outil précoce de diagnostic et de pronostic

Exposition à des moisissures dans le milieu hospitalier et dans des usines de production de biogaz-Intérêt des protections individuelles et collectives

Les champignons filamenteux se développent de manière ubiquitaire sur de nombreux substrats organiques. Les spores se retrouvent dans les poussières et sont souvent inhalables. De plus en plus de données scientifiques pointent l’inhalation de moisissures comme cause d’allergie respiratoire ou cutanée aussi bien dans l’environnement (maisons insalubres) que dans le milieu du travail, notamment dans les industries de compostage de matière organique ou de fabrication de bioéthanol. La contamination peut aussi avoir lieu via les systèmes d’air conditionné. Les spores par elles-mêmes engendrent des effets toxiques à l’origine d’allergie. De plus, elles produisent des toxines. Les risques de développement de moisissures dans l’air inspiré sont bien connus en milieu hospitalier et plus particulièrement chez les personnes immunodépressives. Néanmoins, la présence des ces éléments fongiques en milieu de travail est responsable de rhinites, toux et problèmes dermatologiques, chez les travailleurs non immunodéprimés. Notre note portera sur la contamination de l’air en milieu hospitalier et dans un laboratoire de mycologie ainsi que sur les risques liés à l’air conditionné. Le dernier article relatera les effets subis par les travailleurs lors du compostage et de la fabrication de bioéthanol

Critical Wetting of a Liquid/Vapor Interface by Octane

The wetting of the planar interface between air saturated with octane vapor and an aqueous solution by octane is investigated by ellipsometry and interfacial tension measurements. The interfacial interactions are varied through the concentration of the uncharged solute (glucose). We observe abrupt and continuous increases of the octane coverage with growing solute concentration. This we attribute to short- and long-range (dispersion) interactions, respectively. The continuous thickness growth is analyzed as a critical wetting transition

Cyclophosphamide removal from water by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membrane

The rejection of cyclophosphamide (CP) by nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes from ultrapure (Milli-Q) water and membrane bioreactor (MBR) effluent was investigated. Lyophilization–extraction and detection methods were first developed for CP analysis in different water matrices. Experimental results showed that the RO membrane provided excellent rejection (>90%) under all operating conditions. Conversely, efficiency of CP rejection by NF membrane was poor: in the range of 20–40% from Milli-Q water and around 60% from MBR effluent. Trans-membrane pressure, initial CP concentration and ionic strength of the feed solution had almost no effect on CP retention by NF. On the other hand, the water matrix proved to have a great influence: CP rejection rate by NF was clearly enhanced when MBR effluent was used as the background solution. Membrane fouling and interactions between the CP and water matrix appeared to contribute to the higher rejection of CP

Calibration, handling repeatability, and the Maximum Permissible Error of single-volume glass instruments

The influence quantities for the uncertainty of a volumetric operation with glass instruments are calibration, repeatability and temperature. In the literature, measurement uncertainty budgets can be found, which count all three quantities separately although calibration and repeatability are merged in tabulated data to the Maximum Permissible Error. We propose that this error should be handled as a rectangular distribution in order to get a standard uncertainty. For the daily use in an analytical laboratory, the combined standard uncertainty of a volumetric operation is thus calculated from the Maximum Permissible Error plus the uncertainty of the temperature influenc

Creating Fair Models of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Guidelines for the management of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) recommend the use of risk stratification models to identify patients most likely to benefit from cholesterol-lowering and other therapies. These models have differential performance across race and gender groups with inconsistent behavior across studies, potentially resulting in an inequitable distribution of beneficial therapy. In this work, we leverage adversarial learning and a large observational cohort extracted from electronic health records (EHRs) to develop a "fair" ASCVD risk prediction model with reduced variability in error rates across groups. We empirically demonstrate that our approach is capable of aligning the distribution of risk predictions conditioned on the outcome across several groups simultaneously for models built from high-dimensional EHR data. We also discuss the relevance of these results in the context of the empirical trade-off between fairness and model performance

Formation of Actin Networks in Microfluidic Concentration Gradients

The physical properties of cytoskeletal networks are contributors in a number of mechanical responses of cells, including cellular deformation and locomotion, and are crucial for the proper action of living cells. Local chemical gradients modulate cytoskeletal functionality including the interactions of the cytoskeleton with other cellular components. Actin is a major constituent of the cytoskeleton. Introducing a microfluidic-based platform, we explored the impact of concentration gradients on the formation and structural properties of actin networks. Microfluidic-controlled flow-free and steady-state experimental conditions allow for the generation of chemical gradients of different profiles, such as linear or step-like. We discovered specific features of actin networks emerging in defined gradients. In particular, we analyzed the effects of spatial conditions on network properties, bending rigidities of network links, and the network elasticity

Cyclophosphamide removal by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes - effect of water matrix properties

The rejection of cyclophosphamide (CP) by nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes from ultrapure (Milli-Q) water and membrane bioreactor (MBR) effluent was investigated. Experimental results showed that the RO membrane provided excellent rejection (>90%) under all operating conditions. Conversely, efficiency of CP rejection by NF membrane was poor: in the range of 20-40% from Milli-Q water and around 60% from MBR effluent. Trans-membrane pressure, initial CP concentration and ionic strength of the feed solution had almost no effect on CP retention by NF. On the other hand, the water matrix proved to have a great influence: CP rejection rate by NF was clearly enhanced when MBR effluent was used as the background solution. Membrane fouling and interactions between the CP molecule and water matrix appeared to contribute to the higher rejection of CP