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Combining Cyfra 21-1, NSE and CEA correlated with prognosis in a significant and independent manner.

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are severe congenital malformations due to failure of neural tube formation in early pregnancy. The proof that folic acid prevents NTDs raises the question of whether other parts of homocysteine (Hcy) metabolism may affect rates of NTDs. This French case-control study covered: 77 women aged 17-42 years sampled prior to elective abortion for a severe NTDs (cases) and 61 women aged 20-43 years with a normal pregnancy. Plasma and erythrocyte folate, plasma B6, B12 and Hcy were tested as five polymorphisms MTHFR 677 C --> T, MTHFR 1298 A --> C, MTR 2756 A --> G, MTTR 66 A --> G and TCN2 776 C --> G. Cases had significantly lower erythrocyte folate, plasma folate, B12 and B6 concentrations than the controls, and higher Hcy concentration. The odds ratio was 2.15 (95% CI: 1.00-4.59) for women with the MTRR 66 A --> G allele and it was decreased for mothers carrying the MTHFR 1298 A --> C allele. In multivariate analysis, only the erythrocyte folate concentration (P = 0.005) and plasma B6 concentration (P = 0.020) were predictors. Red cell folate is the main determinant of NTDs in France. Folic acid supplement or flour fortification would prevent most cases. Increased consumption of vitamins B12 and B6 could contribute to the prevention of NTDs. Genetic polymorphisms played only a small role. Until folic acid fortification becomes mandatory, all women of reproductive age should consume folic acid in a multivitamin that also contains B12 and B6.

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Domain Decomposition methods often exhibit very poor performance when applied to engineering problems with large heterogeneities. In particular for heterogeneities along domain interfaces the iterative techniques to solve the interface problem are lacking an efficient preconditioner. Recently a robust approach, named FETI-Geneo, was proposed where troublesome modes are precomputed and deflated from the interface problem. The cost of the FETI-Geneo is however high. We propose in this paper techniques that share similar ideas with FETI-Geneo but where no pre-processing is needed and that can be easily and efficiently implemented as an alternative to standard Domain Decomposition methods. In the block iterative approaches presented in this paper, the search space at every iteration on the interface problem contains as many directions as there are domains in the decomposition. Those search directions originate either from the domain-wise preconditioner (in the Simultaneous FETI method) or from the block structure of the right-hand side of the interface problem (Block FETI). We show on 2D structural examples that both methods are robust and provide good convergence in the presence of high heterogeneities, even when the interface is jagged or when the domains have a bad aspect ratio. The Simultaneous FETI was also efficiently implemented in an optimized parallel code and exhibited excellent performance compared to the regular FETI method.

There has been little research on the determinants of Campylobacter coli infection, despite its contributing up to 10% of human Campylobacter infections. A case-control and two case-case study methods explored the aetiology of C. coli over a one year period across Scotland. The case-control multivariate model found an increased risk of C. coli infection in people older than 19 years (O.R. = 3.352), and during the summer months (O.R. = 2.596), while residing in an urban area decreased the risk (O.R. = 0.546). The first case-case study compared C. coli and C. jejuni cases and also showed a higher risk of C. coli during the summer (O.R. = 1.313) and in people older than 19 years (O.R. = 0.791). Living in an urban area was associated with a reduced risk of infection (O.R. = 0.769). Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) indicated that sheep and chicken C. coli sequence types (STs) were most frequently found in humans whilst those from cattle and pigs were rarer. MLST diversity was high in isolates from pigs and chicken, intermediate in human isolates, and low in ruminant isolates. The second case-case study used MLST data to ascribe putative sources of infection to the cases. The putative source for 40% of cases was chicken, with 60% acquired from other sources (ruminants 54% and pigs 6%). The case-case analysis also showed that female gender was a risk factor (O.R. = 1.940), which may be explained by females being more likely to prepare poultry in the home. These findings indicate differences between the aetiology of C. coli and C. jejuni infections: this should be taken into account by public health professionals when developing strategies to reduce the burden of human campylobacteriosis.

This study showed that alveolar procalcitonin performed by BAL does not help the clinician to identify VAP. It confirmed that serum procalcitonin is not an accurate marker of VAP. In contrast, microbiological resources available at the time of VAP suspicion (BAL gram staining, last available endotracheal aspirate) combined or not with CPIS are helpful in distinguishing VAP diagnosed by BAL from patients with a negative BAL.