[Dengue virus: viral targets and antiviral drugs]. / Le virus de la dengue : cibles virales et antiviraux.

This work reviews the opportunities and scientific bases in the development of anti-dengue drugs. The timeliness of anti-dengue drug development is addressed in the context of the growing impact of dengueworldwide and existing strategies to fight the virus. The antiviral approach in therapy or prophylaxis during an epidemic as well as the impact of recent technological advances in drug-discovery and antiviral chemotherapy on the development of anti-dengue drugs are discussed. An analysis of current sources of synthetic or natural drugs is provided. Finally, we summarize the current knowledge on dengue virus proteins, which are currently considered the most viable as drug targets, as the envelop protein E and non-structural proteins NS3 and NS5 carrying protease, helicase, RNA triphosphatase, methyltransferase and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase activities. Other viral proteins proposed to be part of the replication complex and the complex itself are considered as potential targets of anti-dengue drugs. State-of-the-art methods are listed, that are expected to allow the discovery, design, and characterisation of anti-dengue drugs effective against the four serotypes.

Expecting a break in time estimation: attentional time-sharing without concurrent processing.

The interference from nontemporal processing on concurrent time estimation is usually attributed to disruption in timing caused by attentional requirements of nontemporal processing. Here, we examined interruption in timing without concurrent nontemporal processing. Empty breaks of various durations, during time-interval production, lengthened produced intervals. Moreover, an effect of break location was observed: Intervals lengthened proportionally to prebreak duration. When cued and uncued uninterrupted trials were introduced, the lengthening was proportional to the duration for which a break was expected. It was concluded that attentional time-sharing between time estimation and expectation of its interruption contributed to the interference effect in time-estimation research, independently of any concurrent processing requirements during time estimation.

Optimizing culture of Chlamydia pneumoniae by using multiple centrifugations.

Three methods for the recovery of Chlamydia pneumoniae from spiked nasopharyngeal and blood specimens, including extended culture and additional centrifugations, were compared. Additional centrifugations and a 7-day culture time resulted in a 500- to 5, 000-fold increase in the number of detectable inclusion-forming units.

Order information in short-term memory and time estimation.

In previous experiments, the amount of interference between time production and visual or memory search tasks was shown not to be related to the level of difficulty of the search task per se, but instead to the amount of processing in short-term memory required in the search task. The first experiment of the present study verified whether the amount of interference between time production and a short-term memory task may be related to the level of difficulty of the short-term memory task. Two versions of a memory task, with and without processing of order information, were combined with a temporal interval production task in a concurrent processing condition. As is shown in a control reaction time task, processing order information increased the level of difficulty of the memory search task. In the concurrent processing condition, the interference between short-term memory processing and time production was stronger when the level of difficulty of the short-term memory search task was increased by requiring that order information be processed. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the amount of interference between a similar short-term memory task and time production seems not to be related to the amount of order information that must be maintained during the time production task. This dissociation between the effects of processing and the maintenance of order information is compatible with a similar dissociation, observed in previous experiments, between the effects of processing and those of maintaining item information in short-term memory on concurrent time production.

Child development indicators and public health.

PIP: Measurements of physical development - height, weight, cranial circumference, and arm measurements - are called better predictors of nutritional and developmental status than mortality and morbidity figures. Low birth weight is directly associated with poor maternal nutrition while poor development is associated with malnutrition or undernutrition of the child. There is a critical period from Month 6 of pregnancy to about Year 2 of life when brain cells develop; poor nutrition during this critical period will result in permanent lack of mental capacity. Studies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia all point out the extremely damaging effects of poor nutrition during this critical period. Malnutrition or undernutrition occuring later in life can be reversed with proper feeding. The problems of obesity are as serious as those of malnutrition. The baby who collects a surplus of fat cells under the skin during the 1st year of life is likely to be overweight most of the rest of his life. Lowering age of maturation is another indication of improving nutrition. This phenomenon has been observed in all industrialized countries and is the basis of much of the adolescent PROBLEM. Child development indicators should be used to point out areas of a country or sectors of the population in need of additional health or nutritional aid.^ieng