Noncontiguous finished genome sequences and descriptions of Actinomyces ihuae, Actinomyces bouchesdurhonensis, Actinomyces urinae, Actinomyces marseillensis, Actinomyces mediterranea and Actinomyces oralis sp. nov. identified by culturomics.

The taxonogenomic approach, including the culturomics techniques, is now currently used to isolate and characterize new bacteria. These approaches notably allowed us to discover six new species of the Actinomyces genus: Actinomyces ihuae strain SD1, Actinomyces bouchesdurhonensis strain Marseille-P2825, Actinomyces urinae strain Marseille-P2225, Actinomyces marseillensis strain Marseille-P2818, Actinomyces mediterranea strain Marseille-P3257 and Actinomyces oralis strain Marseille-P3109. Each is the type strain of the corresponding bacterial species. 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence comparison was used to classify these strains among the Actinomyces genus. These strains are all Gram positive, rod shaped and facultative aerobic. We describe the main characteristics of each bacterium and present their complete genome sequence and annotation.

'Urinacoccus massiliensis' gen. nov. sp. nov., identified in urine sample of a 7-year-old boy hospitalized for dental care under general anaesthesia.

We report here the main characteristics of 'Urinacoccus massiliensis' gen. nov. sp. nov., strain FC2 (CSURP1992). This strain was isolated from the urine of an asymptomatic 7-year-old boy.

Anaerococcus urinomassiliensis sp. nov., isolated from a urine sample of a 17-year-old boy affected by autoimmune hepatitis and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

We report the main characteristics of 'Anaerococcus urinomassiliensis' strain FC4(T) (CSURP2143) that was isolated from a urine sample of a 17-year-old boy affected by autoimmune hepatitis and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

Actinomyces urinae sp. nov., isolated from 13-year-old girl affected by nephritic syndrome.

Here, we report the main characteristics of Actinomyces urinae strain Marseille-P2225(T) (CSURP2225) isolated from a human urine sample.

[Preoperative factors of misdiagnosis of renal angiomyolipoma]. / Facteurs associés à l'échec du diagnostic préopératoire des angiomyolipomes rénaux.

OBJECTIVES: To explain the high incidence of misdiagnosis of angiomyolipoma (AML) prior to surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 1989 and 2007, 2,657 patients were operated for a renal tumor at Dupuytren hospital in Limoges and at Cochin hospital in Paris. In 85 cases (3.2%), tumors were AMLs on pathology. The group of patients in which the diagnosis was done preoperatively was compared to the one in which the diagnosis was missed. RESULTS: Mean age of patients was 57-years-old and the sex-ratio was five women for one man. The mean size of AMLs was 5.4 cm. The patients were symptomatic in 46% of cases (39/85). The diagnosis of AML was ignored preoperatively in 62 patients (73%). In multivariate analysis, the small size of the AML, low proportion of fat and male sex were significantly associated with misdiagnosis of AML (p<0.001, p<0.018 and p<0.008, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of misdiagnosis of AML preoperatively is high. The diagnosis seems particularly difficult when the tumor is small or contains a small proportion of fat. In addition, this study highlights that the diagnosis of AML is frequently ignored in men. The increased resolution of CTscan and the use of preoperative biopsies for tumors less than 4 cm could be helpful to decrease the incidence of useless surgery of AMLs.

van der Waals forces in presence of free charges: an exact derivation from equilibrium quantum correlations.

We study interatomic forces in a fluid consisting of a mixture of free charges and neutral atoms in the framework of the quantum many-body problem at nonzero temperature and nonzero density. Of central interest is the interplay between van der Waals forces and screening effects due to free charges. The analysis is carried out in a partially recombined hydrogen plasma in the Saha regime. The effective potentials in the medium between two atoms, or an atom and a charge, or two charges, are determined from the large-distance behavior of equilibrium proton-proton correlations. We show, in a proper low-temperature and low-density scaling limit, that those potentials all decay as r(-6) at large distance r, while the corresponding amplitudes are calculated exactly. In particular, the presence of free charges only causes a partial (nonexponential) screening of the atomic potential, and it does not modify its typical r(-6) decay. That potential reduces to the standard van der Waals form for two atoms in vacuum when the temperature is driven to zero. The analysis is based on first principles: it does not assume preformed atoms and takes into account in a coherent way all effects, quantum mechanical binding, ionization, and collective screening, which originate from the Coulomb potential. Our method relies on the path integral representation of the quantum Coulomb gas.

Charge renormalization and other exact coupling corrections to the dipolar effective interaction in an electrolyte near a dielectric wall.

The aim of the paper is to study the renormalizations of the charge and screening length that appear in the large-distance behavior of the effective pairwise interaction w(alphaalpha') between two charges e(alpha) and e(alpha') in a dilute electrolyte solution, both along a dielectric wall and in the bulk. The electrolyte is described by the so-called primitive model in the framework of classical statistical mechanics and the electrostatic response of the wall is characterized by its dielectric constant. In a previous paper [Phys. Rev. E 68, 022133 (2003)] a graphic reorganization of resummed Mayer diagrammatics has been devised in order to exhibit the general structure of the 1/y3 leading tail of w(alphaalpha') (x,x',y) for two charges located at distances x and x' from the wall and separated by a distance y along the wall. When all species have the same closest approach distance b to the wall, the coefficient of the 1/y3 tail is the product Dalpha(x)Dalpha'(x') of two effective dipoles. Here we use the same graphic reorganization in order to systematically investigate the exponential large-distance behavior of w(alphaalpha') in the bulk. (We show that the reorganization also enables one to derive the basic screening rules in both cases.) Then, in a regime of high dilution and weak coupling, the exact analytical corrections to the leading tail of w(alphaalpha'), both in the bulk or along the wall, are calculated at first order in the coupling parameter epsilon and in the limit where b becomes negligible with respect to the Debye screening length. (Epsilon is proportional to the so-called plasma parameter.) The structure of corrections to the terms of order epsilon is exhibited, and the scaling regime for the validity of the Debye limit is specified. In the vicinity of the wall, we use the density profiles calculated previously [J. Stat. Phys. 105, 211 (2001)] up to order epsilon and a method devised [J. Stat. Phys. 105, 245 (2001)] for the determination of the corresponding correction in the auxiliary screened potential, which also appears in the linear-response theory. The first coupling correction to the effective dipole Dalpha(x) is a function (not a mere exponential decay) determined by the nonuniformity of the density profiles as well as by three- and four-body screened interactions in w(alphaalpha'). Though the effective screening length (beyond the Debye value) in the direction perpendicular to the wall is the same as in the bulk, the bare solvated charges are not renormalized by the same quantity as in the bulk, because of combined steric and electrostatic effects induced by the wall.

Dipolar effective interaction in a fluid of charged spheres near a dielectric plate.

Static correlations in a classical fluid of charged spheres at equilibrium are studied in the vicinity of an insulating wall characterized by its dielectric constant. It is well known that the deformations of screening clouds induced by the presence of the wall result into an effective f(alphaalpha('))(x,x('))/y(3) interaction in the pair distribution function between two charges e(alpha) and e(alpha(')) located at distances x and x(') from the wall and separated by a large distance y along the wall. We investigate the structure of f(alphaalpha('))(x,x(')). The method is based on systematic resummations in the Mayer diagrammatics, which are valid both in the bulk and in an inhomogeneous situation. The screened potential phi arising in the formalism happens to coincide with the linearized mean-field approximation for the immersion free energy of two external unit charges. Phi is shown to decay as a repulsive f(phi)(x,x('))/y(3) interaction, whatever the density profiles may be. f(phi)(x,x(')) takes a factorized dipolar structure f(phi)(x,x('))=D(phi)(x)D(phi)(x(')) for distances x and x(') larger than the maximum of the closest approach distances b(alpha)'s to the wall for every species alpha. Moreover, we devise a reorganization of resummed diagrammatics, which is adequate for the determination of the large-distance behavior of correlations, and we prove that, when all species have the same approach distance b to the wall, f(alphaalpha('))(x,x(');b)=D(alpha)(x)D(alpha('))(x(')). In this case, the leading tail of the effective electrostatic interaction between two like charges at the same distance x from a single wall is repulsive. Results are independent of charge magnitudes, of excluded-volume sphere sizes, and of the existence of a surface charge on the wall. It holds whether charges are concentrated at sphere centers or uniformly spread over their surfaces. Comparison is made with an experiment about dilute colloids where the linearized mean-field approximation proves to be relevant. At equilibrium attraction between like charges in confined geometry might arise from purely electrostatic charge-charge interactions only through correlation effects not taken into account in the latter approximation.

External evaluation of LIAISON tumour marker assays on the fully automated chemiluminescent LIAISON immunoassay analyser.

The LIAISON immunoassay analyser was tested in a multicentre evaluation performed by 8 laboratories. The analytes evaluated were CA 15-3, CA 19-9, CA 125II, AFP, CEA, NSE and PSA. Excellent results were obtained for within-run and between-run precision with most assays showing within-run CVs < 5% and between-run CVs between 4 and 8%. The linearity of all assays was acceptable, however, for PSA, NSE and CA 19-9 a recovery > 110% was obtained for some of the samples tested. None of the assays revealed a high-dose hook effect. Method comparisons were performed by using the routine method of the respective study centre. Results generally showed an acceptable agreement between the LIAISON system and the different methods of comparison. The reference ranges for all assays were found to be in accordance with data known from the literature. All assays showed similar results for serum, heparinised plasma and EDTA plasma. Additionally, two experiments were performed with only one of the analytes tested: the sample-to-sample carry-over, using the CA 19-9 assay (3.3 x 10(-6)-2.3 x 10(-5)) and the functional sensitivity for the PSA assay (0.2 ng/ml).

[Gaucher's disease and enzyme replacement therapy]. / Maladie de Gaucher et traitement par enzymothérapie substitutive.

Gaucher disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterized by a deficiency in the glucocerebrosidase enzyme. Glucocerebroside then accumulates in macrophages (Gaucher cells), causing anemia, thrombocytopenia, organomegaly and major bone problems. Discovery of the enzyme deficiency by Brady in 1964, and subsequent extraction and partial deglycosylation of the native enzyme led to a treatment. 1,600 people out of 5,000 possible worldwide patients benefit from this drug. The 70 French treated patients (out of an estimated 200) show remarkable improvement.

Genomic organization of the human c-kit gene: evolution of the receptor tyrosine kinase subclass III.

The c-kit proto-oncogene encodes a transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor. It belongs to receptor tyrosine kinase subclass III, which also includes the colony-stimulating factor I receptor (c-fms), platelet-derived growth factor receptors A and B (PDGFRA and PDGFRB), as well as FLT1 and FLT3/FLK2. c-kit and PDGFRA, c-fms and PDGFRB, FLT1 and FLT3/FLK2 are grouped by pair in three clusters in man on chromosome 4 band q11-q13, chromosome 5 band q31-q33 and chromosome 13 band q12 respectively. Here, we report the genomic organization of the human c-kit gene, which is composed of 21 small coding exons, distributed over 80 kb. Comparison of the c-kit and c-fms oncogenes shows that they share identified exon/intron boundaries in their two kinase domains, as well as a similar exon/intron organization in the extracytoplasmic domain. Comparison with the kinase domains of tyrosine kinase genes not belonging to subclass III suggests that the exon/intron organization of c-kit and c-fms is a characteristic feature of subclass III. The genomic similarities between c-kit and c-fms, in conjunction with the location in pairs on different chromosomes of the subclass III genes, has led us to hypothesize that cis and trans duplications gave rise to this group of genes.

HLA typing in heavily transfused haemophiliacs with or without antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

HLA-A, B, DR antigens were determined in 46 patients, heavily transfused with blood products. Patients were 44 haemophiliacs, one case of afibrinogenemia and one case of von Willebrand's disease. Thirty-three patients had HIV antibodies. No significant difference for HLA antigen frequencies was observed in haemophiliacs with or without HIV antibodies, nor between haemophiliacs and a control population.