Intervention précoce en Guidance Interactive et modification de la réactivité neuroendocrinienne chez l'ancien grand prématuré âgé de 12 mois et sa mère

L'étude a pour objectif de mettre en évidence les effets d'une intervention précoce inspirée des thérapies en Guidance Interactive sur la qualité de l'attachement ainsi que sur la réactivité neuroendocrinienne de stress chez des grands prématurés âgés de 12 mois ainsi que chez leurs mères. La population étudiée comprend 48 grands prématurés (<33 semaines de gestation) et leurs mères. Un programme d'intervention précoce a été proposé aléatoirement à la moitié des dyades incluses dans l'étude. Des mesures de cortisol salivaire ont été effectuées à 12 mois lors d'un épisode de stress modéré (la Situation Étrange) tant chez la mère que chez l'enfant. Les mères ayant bénéficié de l'intervention précoce montrent des taux de cortisol plus élevés que celles n'ayant pas bénéficié de l'intervention. Les auteurs font l'hypothèse que ces mères ont pu développer leur sensibilité envers leur enfant et se montrent, par conséquent, plus concernées lors de l'épisode de stress modéré. The present project aims to assess the effects of an early intervention inspired from Interactive Guidance therapy, on later attachment quality and stress reactivity of prematurely born infants and their mothers. The studied population contends 48 preterm born infants (< 33 weeks og gestational age). Half of the dyads receive an intervention program aiming at promoting the parents' responsivity-sensitivity to infant's cues. Infant's and mother's stress reactivity (salivary cortisol) to mild stressors (Strange Situation) will be assessed at 12 months. Mothers with intervention program show higher cortisol levels than the others. The authors postulate that these mothers enhance their caregiving quality and, subsequently, are more prone to be sensitive to infant's cues and to be concerned during the mild stress episode.

MyHits: improvements to an interactive resource for analyzing protein sequences.

The MyHits web site (http://myhits.isb-sib.ch) is an integrated service dedicated to the analysis of protein sequences. Since its first description in 2004, both the user interface and the back end of the server were improved. A number of tools (e.g. MAFFT, Jacop, Dotlet, Jalview, ESTScan) were added or updated to improve the usability of the service. The MySQL schema and its associated API were revamped and the database engine (HitKeeper) was separated from the web interface. This paper summarizes the current status of the server, with an emphasis on the new services.

Thyroid hormone in biodegradable nerve guides stimulates sciatic nerve regeneration: a potential therapeutic approach for human peripheral nerve injuries.

It has been already demonstrated that thyroid hormone (T3) is one of the most important stimulating factors in peripheral nerve regeneration. We have recently shown that local administration of T3 in silicon tubes at the level of the transected rat sciatic nerve enhanced axonal regeneration and improved functional recovery. Silicon, however, cannot be used in humans because it causes a chronic inflammatory reaction. Therefore, in order to provide future clinical applications of thyroid hormone in human peripheral nerve lesions, we carried out comparative studies on the regeneration of transected rat sciatic nerve bridged either by biodegradable P(DLLA-(-CL) or by silicon nerve guides, both guides filled with either T3 or phosphate buffer. Our macroscopic observation revealed that 85% of the biodegradable guides allowed the expected regeneration of the transected sciatic nerve. The morphological, morphometric and electrophysiological analysis showed that T3 in biodegradable guides induces a significant increase in the number of myelinated regenerated axons (6862 +/- 1831 in control vs. 11799 +/- 1163 in T3-treated). Also, T3 skewed the diameter of myelinated axons toward larger values than in controls. Moreover, T3 increases the compound muscle action potential amplitude of the flexor and extensor muscles of the treated rats. This T3 stimulation in biodegradable guides was equally well to that obtained by using silicone guides. In conclusion, the administration of T3 in biodegradable guides significantly improves sciatic nerve regeneration, confirming the feasibility of our technique to provide a serious step towards future clinical application of T3 in human peripheral nerve injuries.

Coparenting and Toddler's Interactive Styles in Family Coalitions

The current study examined the coparenting and toddler's interactive styles in family coalitions. According to structural family theory, boundaries between generations are clear in alliances, but disturbed in coalitions: the parents look to the child to regulate their conflictual relationship and the child attempts to meet this need. In a normative sample studied longitudinally during the Lausanne Trilogue Play situation (LTP, N=38), 15 coalition cases were detected. Styles of coparenting and of child's interactions were determined and compared in coalition and alliance cases at 18 months. Findings confirm the structural family model by showing the specific ways in which the coparenting and the toddler's interactive styles are associated in 3 different patterns of coalitions: binding, detouring, and triangulation. They illustrate how the child's triangular capacity, or her ability to simultaneously communicate with both parents, is used to regulate the parents' relationship. They suggest that the LTP observational paradigm is a promising assessment method of early family interactions. They point to the importance of assessing early the child's contribution to family coalitions.

Implementing interactive computing in an object-oriented environment

Statistical computing when input/output is driven by a Graphical User Interface is considered. A proposal is made for automatic control ofcomputational flow to ensure that only strictly required computationsare actually carried on. The computational flow is modeled by a directed graph for implementation in any object-oriented programming language with symbolic manipulation capabilities. A complete implementation example is presented to compute and display frequency based piecewise linear density estimators such as histograms or frequency polygons.

Interactive local bandwidth choice

A tool for user choice of the local bandwidth function for a kernel density estimate is developed using KDE, a graphical object-oriented package for interactive kernel density estimation written in LISP-STAT. The bandwidth function is a cubic spline, whose knots are manipulated by the user in one window, while the resulting estimate appears in another window. A real data illustration of this method raises concerns, because an extremely large family of estimates is available.

Evaluation of an online, case-based interactive approach to teaching pathophysiology

Rapport de synthèse : L'article qui fait l'objet de ma thèse évalue une nouvelle approche pédagogique pour l'apprentissage de certains chapitres de physiopathologie. Le dispositif pédagogique se base sur l'alternance d'apprentissage ex-cathedra et de l'utilisation d'un site web comprenant des vignettes cliniques. Lors de la consultation de ces-dernières, l'étudiant est invité à demander des examens de laboratoire dont il pourrait justifier la pertinence selon le cas clinique étudié. La nouveauté du procédé réside dans le fait que, préalablement à son cours ex-cathedra, l'enseignant peut consulter les statistiques de demandes de laboratoire et ainsi orienter son cours selon les éléments mal compris par les étudiants. A la suite du cours ex-cathedra, les étudiants peuvent consulter sur internet la vignette clinique complète avec des explications. A l'issue de tout le cours, une évaluation auprès des étudiants a été conduite. Le procédé a été mis en place durant deux années consécutives et l'article en discute notamment les résultats. Nous avons pu conclure que cette méthode innovatrice d'enseignement amène les étudiants à mieux se préparer pour les cours ex-cathedra tout en permettant à l'enseignant d'identifier plus précisément quelles thématiques étaient difficiles pour les étudiants et donc d'ajuster au mieux son cours. Mon travail de thèse a consisté à créer ce dispositif d'apprentissage, à créer l'application web des vignettes cliniques et à l'implanter durant deux années consécutives. J'ai ensuite analysé les données des évaluations et écrit l'article que j'ai présenté à la revue 'Medical Teacher'. Après quelques corrections et précisions demandées par le comité de lecture, l'article a été accepté et publié. Ce travail a débouché sur une seconde version de l'application web qui est actuellement utilisée lors du module 3.1 de 3è année à l'Ecole de Médecine à Lausanne. Summary : Since the early days of sexual selection, our understanding of the selective forces acting on males and females during reproduction has increased remarkably. However, despite a long tradition of experimental and theoretical work in this field and relentless effort, numerous questions remain unanswered and many results are conflicting. Moreover, the interface between sexual selection and conservation biology has to date received little attention, despite existing evidence for its importance. In the present thesis, I first used an empirical approach to test various sexual selection hypotheses in a population of whitefish of central Switzerland. This precise population is characterized by a high prevalence of gonadal alterations in males. In particular, I challenged the hypothesis that whitefish males displaying peculiar gonadal features are of lower genetic quality than other seemingly normal males. Additionally, I also worked on identifying important determinant of sperm behavior. During a second theoretical part of my work, which is part of a larger project on the evolution of female mate preferences in harvested fish populations, I developed an individual-based simulation model to estimate how different mate discrimination costs affect the demographical behavior of fish populations and the evolutionary trajectories of female mate preferences. This latter work provided me with some insight on a recently published article addressing the importance of sexual selection for harvesting-induced evolution. I built upon this insight in a short perspective paper. In parallel, I let some methodological questions drive my thoughts, and wrote an essay about possible synergies between the biological, the philosophical and the statistical approach to biological questions.

Maternal interactive behaviour as a predictor of preschoolers' attachment representations among full term and premature samples.

BACKGROUND: Associations between maternal sensitivity and child attachment have been established in many samples, but the strength of the association varies across populations. The sensitivity-attachment link has never been examined at the level of representations nor among premature samples. OBJECTIVE: The present study is aimed at exploring associations between maternal interactive behaviour and children's attachment representations in a population of preterm and full-term infants. METHOD: Maternal interactive behaviour was assessed at 6 and 18 months (Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale & Care Index) and children's attachment representations were measured at 42 months (Attachment Story Completion Task) in a sample of preterm (N=48) and full-term (N=23) infants. RESULTS: Maternal unresponsiveness at 6 months and sensitivity at 18 months explained 54% of the variance of disorganized attachment representations in the full-term group but was not significantly related to attachment patterns in the preterm group. CONCLUSION: These results corroborate previous work on the causes of disorganized attachment and also point to the need to consider the development of attachment differently for children evolving in specific developmental contexts. They especially stress the importance of distinguishing between risk factors associated with the mother as opposed to the child.

ExpressionView--an interactive viewer for modules identified in gene expression data.

SUMMARY: ExpressionView is an R package that provides an interactive graphical environment to explore transcription modules identified in gene expression data. A sophisticated ordering algorithm is used to present the modules with the expression in a visually appealing layout that provides an intuitive summary of the results. From this overview, the user can select individual modules and access biologically relevant metadata associated with them. AVAILABILITY: http://www.unil.ch/cbg/ExpressionView. Screenshots, tutorials and sample data sets can be found on the ExpressionView web site.

Hierarchy of interactive functions in father-mother-baby three-way games

In developmental research, the family has mainly been studied through dyadic interaction. Three-way interactions have received less attention, partly because of their complexity. This difficulty may be overcome by distinguishing between four hierarchically embedded functions in three-way interactions: (1) participation (inclusion of all participants), (2) organization (partners keeping to their roles), (3) focalization (sharing a common focus) and (4) affective contact (being in tune). We document this hierarchical model on a sample of 80 families observed in the Lausanne Trilogue Play situation across four different sites. Hierarchy between functions was demonstrated by means of Guttman scalability coefficient. Given the importance of the child's development in a threesome, the pertinence of this model for family assessment is discussed.

The InterActive Choice Aid: A new approach to supporting online consumer decision making

Interactive Choice Aid (ICA) is a decision aid, introduced in this paper, that systematically assists consumers with online purchase decisions. ICA integrates aspects from prescriptive decision theory, insights from descriptive decision research, and practical considerations; thereby combining pre-existing best practices with novel features. Instead of imposing an objectively ideal but unnatural decision procedure on the user, ICA assists the natural process of human decision-making by providing explicit support for the execution of the user's decision strategies. The application contains an innovative feature for in-depth comparisons of alternatives through which users' importance ratings are elicited interactively and in a playful way. The usability and general acceptance of the choice aid was studied; results show that ICA is a promising contribution and provides insights that may further improve its usability.