French Research Group Research Articles

Le groupe FRANCOGYN : bilan et avenir

ObjectivesDescribing the constitution of the FRANCOGYN group (a national French research group in Oncological and Gynecological Surgery) and present its current and future development. MethodsLiterature review using PUBMed database with the keyword “FRANCOGYN”. ObjectivesDescribing the constitution of the FRANCOGYN group (a national French research group in Oncological and Gynecological Surgery) and present its current and future development. ResultsThe FRANCOGYN group was formed in December 2015, bringing together over the years more than 17 gynecological and oncological surgical department in France. The group carries out clinical research on gynecological pelvic cancers by constituting retrospective cohorts. Its legitimacy allows it to lead or co-lead the drafting of recommendations for clinical practice in the field of gynecological cancers. It now offers prospective randomized research funded by national grants. ConclusionThe FRANCOGYN network allows us to propose a national reflection on the surgical management of pelvic cancers in women, resulting in numerous international reference publications.

Results of a 2021 French National Survey on Management of Patients with Advanced Stage Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess current French practices in the management of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer. Method: a 58-question electronic survey was distributed anonymously to the members of the SFOG (French Society of Gynaecological Oncology), GINECO-ARCAGY (National Investigators Group for Ovarian and Breast Cancer Studies in France) and FRANCOGYN (French research group in oncological and gynaecological surgery). Initial diagnostic workup and staging, pathological data, surgical data, treatments and follow-up strategies were assessed. Results: a total of 107 participants responded to emailed surveys. Most of the respondents were obstetrician-gynaecologists (37.4%), surgical oncologists (34.6%) and medical oncologists (17.8%). According to most (76.8%) participants, less than 50% of patients were eligible for primary debulking surgery (PDS). The LION study criteria were applied in 69.5% of cases during PDS and 39% after chemotherapy. The timing of BRCA testing was very heterogeneous and ranged from 1 to 6 months. The use of bevacizumab as an adjuvant schedule was lower in cases of no residual disease (for 54.5% of respondents) compared to cases of residual disease (for 63.6% of respondents). In cases of BRCA1-2 mutations, olaparib was given by 75.8–84.8% of respondents, whereas niraparib was given in cases of BRCA wild-type diseases. Conclusion: this survey provides an extensive and a unique review of current French practices in the management of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer in 2021.

Preface

The Summer Workshop on Interval Methods (SWIM) is an annual meeting initiated in 2008 by the French MEA working group on Set Computation and Interval Techniques of the French research group on Automatic Control. A special focus of the MEA group is on promoting interval analysis techniques and applications to a broader community of researchers, facilitated by such multidisciplinary workshops. Since 2008, SWIM has become a keystone event for researchers dealing with various aspects of interval and set-based methods.
 In 2019, the 12th edition in this workshop series was held at ENSTA Paris, France, with a total of 25 talks.
 Traditionally, workshops in the series of SWIM provide a platform for both theoretical and applied researchers who work on the development, implementation, and application of interval methods, verified numerics, and other related (set-membership) techniques.For this edition, given talks were in the fields of
 
 the verified solution of initial value problems for ordinary differential equations, differential-algebraic system models, and partial differential equations,
 scientific computing with guaranteed error bounds,
 the design of robust and fault-tolerant control systems,
 the implementation of corresponding software libraries, and
 the usage of the mentioned approaches for a large variety of system models in areas such as control engineering, data analysis, signal and image processing.
 
 Seven papers were selected for submission to this Acta Cybernetica special issue. After a two turn peer-review process, six high-quality articles were selected for publication in this special issue. Three papers propose a contribution regarding differential equations, two papers focus on robust control, and one paper considers fault detection.

Sliding Mode Control with Application to Fault-Tolerant Control: Assessment and Open Problems

This paper is prepared within a collaboration between the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, which is a Mexican research institute that manages research on sliding-mode control theory, and the ARIA research team of the Intégration du Matériau au Système Lab., a French research group that engages research on model-based fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control theories. The paper reviews the application of sliding mode control techniques to fault tolerant control and provides perspectives leading to posing some open problems. Operating principles, definitions of the basic concepts are recalled along with the control objectives and design procedures. The evolution of the sliding mode control technique through five generations (as classified by Fridman, Moreno and co-workers) is reviewed. Their respective design procedures, limitations, and robustness properties are also highlighted. The application of the five generations of sliding-mode controllers to fault-tolerant control is discussed. The focus is on some open problems that are judged to commonly be overlooked. Some applications in real-world systems are also presented.

A contribution to the debate on tinnitus definition.

Tinnitus is generally defined as an auditory perception in the absence of environmental sound stimulation. However, this definition is quite incomplete as it omits an essential aspect, the patient's point of view. This point of view constitutes, first and foremost, a global and unified lived experience, which is not only sensory (localization, loudness, pitch and tone), but also cognitive (thoughts, attentiveness, behaviors) and emotional (discomfort, suffering). This experience can be lived in a very unpleasant way and consequently have a very negative impact on quality of life. This article proposes and justifies a new definition for tinnitus elaborated by a group of French clinicians and researchers, which is more in line with its phenomenology. It also provides a minimum knowledge base, including possibilities for clinical care, hoping to eradicate all misinformation, misconceptions and inappropriate attitudes or practices toward this condition. Here is the short version of our definition: Tinnitus is an auditory sensation without an external sound stimulation or meaning, which can be lived as an unpleasant experience, possibly impacting quality of life.

Gerda Walther’s Phenomenology of Sociality, Psychology, and Religion edited by A. Calcagno

This book is part of a Springer series on Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences that attempted to balance sexism in science and the so-called “Matilda” effect (denial or minimization of the scientific contribution of women researchers to the benefit of their male colleagues). I’m clearly not a specialist in the deep philosophical work discussed by the contributors of this book, and thus will not give a fully technical review, but I was strongly curious to learn more about Gerda Walther (1897-1977). Indeed, she was for me the famous “secretary of the Baron von Schrenck-Notzing” (1862-1929), one of the main psychical researchers of the modern era (Mulacz, 2013; Sommer, 2012; Wolffram, 2006). For my own historical research (Evrard, 2016), I read a lot of correspondence between Walther and members of the Institut métapsychique international in the archives of this French research group and in the archives of the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene in Freiburg-im-Breisgau. But I didn’t have any clue about the wide dimension of this character and her importance for the history of philosophy as a brilliant student and continuator of Edmund Husserl. The book provides probably the best overview of her life and philosophy. In the first part “The life and work of Gerda Walther”, Rodney Parker gives “a sketch of her life” (3-9); and Marina Pia Pellegrino writes about the general orientation of her phenomenological approach of “traces of lived experiences” (11-24).

The effects of publishing processes on scientific thought: Typography and typology in prehistoric archaeology (1950s-1990s).

In the last decades, many changes have occurred in scientific publishing, including online publication, data repositories, file formats and standards. The role played by computers in this process rekindled the argument on forms of technical determinism. This paper addresses this old debate by exploring the case of publishing processes in prehistoric archaeology during the second part of the twentieth century, prior to the wide-scale adoption of computers. It investigates the case of a collective and international attempt to standardize the typological analysis of prehistoric lithic objects, coined typologie analytique by Georges Laplace and developed by a group of French, Italian, and Spanish researchers. The aim of this paper is to: 1) present a general bibliometric scenario of prehistoric archaeology publishing in continental Europe; 2) report on the little-known typologie analytique method in archaeology, using publications, archives, and interviews; 3) show how the publication of scientific production was shaped by social (editorial policies, support networks) and material (typography features and publication formats) constraints; and 4) highlight how actors founded resources to control and counterbalance these effects, namely by changing and improving publishing formats.

Advanced colonic cancer with clinically suspected bladder invasion: Outcomes and prognosis from a multicentric study of 117 patients from the FRENCH research group

BackgroundBladder invasion by colon cancer is rare; however, its management is still controversial. Our objective was to report outcomes and identify risk factors for local recurrence in colon cancer with clinically suspected bladder invasion. MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study in 23 centers in France. All patients who underwent colon surgery with bladder resection (2010–2017) were included. Metastatic and recurrent colon cancers were excluded. ResultsOne hundred and seventeen patients (men = 73) were included. Partial cystectomy occurred in 108 patients (92.3%), with a total cystectomy occurring in 9 patients (7.7%). Neoadjuvant treatment was given to 31 patients (26.5%). Major morbidity was 20.5%. R0 resection rates were 87.2%. Histologically confirmed bladder invasion was present in 47%. Thirty-four patients were pN+, while 60 patients (51.3%) received adjuvant chemotherapy. Mean follow-up was 33.8 months. Three-year overall survival and disease-free survival were 82.9% and 59.5%. Rates of local recurrence and distant recurrence were 14.5% and 18.8%, respectively; the local recurrences (11/17; 65%) were in the bladder, while 4 of these patients had a bladder recurrence despite not having histologically confirmed bladder invasion at the index surgery. The rate of bladder recurrence after histologic bladder invasion was 13% (7/55), while the rate of bladder recurrence without primary bladder invasion was 7% (4/62) (P = .343). Neoadjuvant therapy, type of cystectomy, and adjuvant therapy did not influence local recurrence (P > .445 each). R1 bladder resections, when compared with a R0 bladder resections, were associated with an increased rate of local recurrence (63% vs 10%; P < .0001). ConclusionClinically suspected bladder invasion increases local recurrence even in the absence of histologically confirmed bladder invasion. Only complete resections with R0 margins decrease local recurrence. Careful, detailed postoperative surveillance is required, even without pathologic bladder invasion.

Characteristics of patients with systemic sclerosis suffering from a lower limb amputation: Results of a French collaborative study.

Systemic sclerosis mainly affects the microvascular network. However, macrovascular manifestations have been reported. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of systemic sclerosis patients with an amputation of a lower limb segment. We designed a retrospective, case-control, multicentric study on systemic sclerosis patients with amputation of a lower limb segment secondary to critical ischemia via the French Research Group on Systemic Sclerosis. For each case, a control (systemic sclerosis patient without lower limb symptom) was matched with sex, age (±5 years), and cutaneous subset of systemic sclerosis. In total, 26 systemic sclerosis patients (mean age of 67.2 ± 10.9 years, 20 females, 21 limited cutaneous forms) with a lower limb amputation and 26 matched controls (mean age of 67.3 ± 11.2 years, 20 females, 22 limited cutaneous forms) were included. At the time of amputation, the mean disease duration was 12.8 (±8.6) years. In comparison to controls, systemic sclerosis patients with amputation had more digital ulcers (p = 0.048), history of digital ulcers (p = 0.026), and a higher prevalence of pulmonary arterial hypertension (p = 0.024). Systemic sclerosis patients with amputation were more often smokers (p = 0.008) and under corticosteroids (p = 0.015). In the multivariate model, pulmonary arterial hypertension, smoking status, and corticosteroids were independent markers associated with lower limb amputation in systemic sclerosis. In the follow-up, 10 patients (38.5%) had recurrent ischemia requiring a new limb amputation, and five patients (19.2%) had an amputation of the contralateral limb. This study identifies some markers associated with lower limb amputation in systemic sclerosis such as digital ulcers and pulmonary arterial hypertension and points out the high risk associated with tobacco consumption and corticosteroid use.

Preface

The Summer Workshop on Interval Methods (SWIM) is an annual meeting initiated in 2008 by the French MEA working group on Set Computation and Interval Techniques of the French research group on Automatic Control. A special focus of the MEA group is on promoting interval analysis techniques and applications to a broader community of researchers, facilitated by such multidisciplinary workshops. Since 2008, SWIM has become a keystone event for researchers dealing with various aspects of interval and set-based methods.&#x0D; In 2018, the 11th edition in this workshop series was held at the University of Rostock, Germany, with a focus on research topics in the fields of engineering, computer science, and mathematics. A total of 31 talks were given during this workshop, covering the following areas:&#x0D; &#x0D; verified solution of initial value problems for ordinary differential equations, differential-algebraic system models, and partial differential equations,&#x0D; scientific computing with guaranteed error bounds,&#x0D; design of robust and fault-tolerant control systems,&#x0D; modeling and quantification of errors in engineering tasks,&#x0D; implementation of software libraries, and&#x0D; usage of the aforementioned approaches for system models in control engineering, data analysis, signal and image processing.&#x0D; &#x0D; After a peer-review process, 15 high-quality articles were selected for publication in this special issue. They are roughly divided into two thematic groups: Uncertainty Modeling, Software, Verified Computing and Optimization as well as Interval Methods in Control and Robotics.&#x0D; The first part, Uncertainty Modeling, Software, Verified Computing and Optimization, contains methodological aspects concerning reliable modeling of dynamic systems as well as visualization and quantification of uncertainty in the fields of measurement and simulation. Moreover, existence proofs for solutions of partial differential equations and their reliable optimal control synthesis are considered. A paper making use of quantifier elimination for robust linear output feedback control by means of eigenvalue placement concludes this section.&#x0D; The second part of this special issue, Interval Methods in Control and Robotics, is focused on the design as well as numerical and experimental validation of robust state observation and control procedures along with reliable parameter and state estimation approaches in the fields of control for thermal systems, robotics, localization of drones and global positioning systems.

Elective surgery for tumours of the splenic flexure: a French inter-group (AFC, SFCD, FRENCH, GRECCAR) survey.

In an elective setting, there is no consensus regarding the type of colectomy that is best for patients with tumors of the splenic flexure: segmental left colectomy (or splenic flexure colectomy), left hemicolectomy or subtotal colectomy (or extended right hemicolectomy). In the United Kingdom, extended right hemicolectomy is preferred by surgeons. The aim of the present survey was to report on the practices in France for this particular tumor location. Between 15/07/17 and 15/10/17, members of two French surgical societies [the French Association of Surgery (AFC) and the French Society of Digestive Surgery (SFCD)] and two French surgical cooperative groups [the French Federation of Surgical Research (FRENCH) and the French Research Group of Rectal Cancer Surgery (GRECCAR)] were solicited by email to answer an online anonymous questionnaire. A total of 190 out of 420 surgeons participated in this study (response rate 45%). The preferred procedure was splenic flexure colectomy (70%), followed by left hemicolectomy (17%) and subtotal colectomy (13%). The most used surgical approach was laparoscopy (63%), followed by laparotomy (31%) and hand-assisted laparoscopy (6%). Lymph node dissection was extended to the middle colic artery in 29% of splenic flexure colectomies and in 33% of left hemicolectomies. Twenty-nine percent of responders thought that tumors of the splenic flexure had a worse prognosis in comparison with other colonic sites, because of insufficient lymph node dissection (73%) or a more advanced stage (50%) at diagnosis. However, this opinion did not change the type of colectomy performed. There is a strong consensus in France to operate tumors of the splenic flexure with a splenic flexure colectomy and lymph node dissection limited to the left colic artery.

Metformin for Depression

The frequent comorbidity of diabetes and depressive disorders led a French research group to study in rodents the potential neurobiological and

Numerical study into horizontal tidal turbine wake velocity deficit: Quasi-steady state and transient approaches

The results of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of a three-bladed horizontal axis tidal turbine (HATT) using both quasi-steady and transient numerical approaches are presented. The wake from the turbine is studied numerically and compared to experimental results carried out by a French research group at IFREMER. All results provided incorporate the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model. Simulations cover a range of tip speed ratios (TSR = 0.5–8) with a constant inflow velocity of 0.8 m/s. The resulting power and thrust coefficients, Cp and Ct, are compared to experimental results for validation purposes. The results show a good level of agreement with further discussions of differences addressed herein. In order to garner meaningful information on which numerical methods should be used for wake studies, two families of simulations are performed at TSR = 3.67, using either the frozen-rotor quasi-steady approach, or the fully transient one. For both approaches, near and far field wake propagation is investigated and discussed. Results from both series of simulations are compared to experimental ones.

Management of rectal cancer: the 2016 French guidelines.

Rectal cancer is a malignant disease requiring multidisciplinary management. In view of the increasing number of studies published over the past decade, a comprehensive update is required to draw recommendations for clinical practice mandated by the French Research Group of Rectal Cancer Surgery and the French National Coloproctology Society. Seven questions summarizing the treatment of rectal cancer were selected. A search for evidence in the literature from January 2004 to December 2015 was performed. A drafting committee and a large group of expert reviewers contributed to validate the statements. Recommendations include the indications for neoadjuvant therapy, the quality criteria for surgical resection, the management of postoperative disordered function, the role of local excision in early rectal cancer, the place of conservative strategies after neoadjuvant treatment, the management of synchronous liver metastases and the indications for adjuvant therapy. A level of evidence was assigned to each statement. The current clinical practice guidelines are useful for the treatment of rectal cancer. Some statements require a higher level of evidence due to a lack of studies.

Future Industrial Systems: Best Practices of the Intelligent Manufacturing and Services Systems (IMS2) French Research Group

Development of future industry has become an active research area in the recent years. A structured national workgroup, called IMS2, has emerged in France over the last decade. The aim of this paper is, regarding four highlighted general research topics (namely agility, new technologies, sustainability, and industrial dissemination), to synthetize the general research works on intelligent manufacturing and to demonstrate the principal contributions developed within the framework of this national workgroup. After a critical evaluation of the proposed approaches toward alternative solutions, this paper suggests a 2030 roadmap for the workgroup.

What Is Philo-Performance? A roundtable

This article is an edited transcript of the roundtable entitled “What is Philo-Performance?” that took place in Paris on 28 June 2014, within the framework of the “Theatre, Performance, Philosophy International Conference: Crossings and Transfers in Anglo-American Thought”. The conference was organized by Julien Alliot, Flore Garcin-Marrou, Liza Kharoubi and Anna Street from the LAPS, a French research group on performance philosophy.

Changes of color and water-absorption of Hungarian porous limestone due to biomineralization

Bacteria induced calcium carbonate precipitation nowadays is a widely examined process being a possible alternative for traditional stone conservation methods. While research has been mostly limited to laboratory measurements, application connected, further in situ experiments should be performed in order to evaluate the applicability of the method. In our experiment, several bio-based treating compounds were compared, which have already been analyzed in different laboratories. Method for the treatment was based on the treatment of a French research group, and the compounds were applied on Hungarian porous limestone slabs, in situ. For inoculation bacteria strains Bacillus cereus and Myxococcus xanthus were used, and non-inoculated compounds were also analyzed. After the treatment, specimens were analyzed by means of discoloration effect, water absorption and migration characteristics. Almost all the treating compounds gave favorable or acceptable results for the examined properties, comparing to the properties measured in the non-cured state. Measurements on the chromatic- and on the water absorption aspects gave significant results, while further measurements are running for the more exact evaluation of the migration characteristics, i.e. effective migration depth and wetted volume.

Unifying diseases from a genetic point of view: the example of the genetic theory of infectious diseases

In the contemporary biomedical literature, every disease is considered genetic. This extension of the concept of genetic disease is usually interpreted either in a trivial or genocentrist sense, but it is never taken seriously as the expression of a genetic theory of disease. However, a group of French researchers defend the idea of a genetic theory of infectious diseases. By identifying four common genetic mechanisms (Mendelian predisposition to multiple infections, Mendelian predisposition to one infection, and major gene and polygenic predispositions), they attempt to unify infectious diseases from a genetic point of view. In this article, I analyze this explicit example of a genetic theory, which relies on mechanisms and is applied only to a specific category of diseases, what we call "a regional genetic theory." I have three aims: to prove that a genetic theory of disease can be devoid of genocentrism, to consider the possibility of a genetic theory applied to every disease, and to introduce two hypotheses about the form that such a genetic theory could take by distinguishing between a genetic theory of diseases and a genetic theory of Disease. Finally, I suggest that network medicine could be an interesting framework for a genetic theory of Disease.

Psychiatrist Hunts for Evidence Of Infection Theory of Schizophrenia

Psychiatrist Hunts for Evidence Of Infection Theory of Schizophrenia

Old Drug May Find New Use as Autism Treatment

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Clinical & Research NewsFull AccessOld Drug May Find New Use as Autism TreatmentJun YanJun YanSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:18 Jan 2013https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2013.1b7AbstractA drug’s effectiveness in treating autism suggests that targeting the GABA system in the brain may be a viable therapeutic approach.A repurposed old drug known as bumetanide reduced key symptoms in children with an autism spectrum disorder, a group of French researchers reported in a study published online December 11, 2012, in Translational Psychiatry.Bumetanide is a loop diuretic commonly prescribed for fluid retention caused by heart failure or liver or kidney disease. In the brain, however, it also acts on a transporter protein embedded in cell membrane to allow the outflow of intracellular chloride ion, thus lowering the concentration of chloride inside the cell. Based on research into pediatric seizures, scientists believe that reducing intracellular chloride is important for GABA neurons’ inhibitory function in the brain. Therefore, bumetanide is being tested for the treatment of neonatal epilepsy as well as autism. In the French study, Professor Eric Lemonnier, a clinician at CHRU Brest Hospital in Bohars, France, and colleagues carried out a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 60 patients aged 3 to 11 who had been diagnosed with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Half of these children took placebo and half took 1 mg of bumetanide every day for three months. They were evaluated for autism symptoms by clinicians who did not know which treatment each patient had received. At the end of the three-month treatment period, children who took bumetanide showed an average reduction of 5.6 points on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), which was a statistically significant change when compared with an average reduction of 1.8 points among the children who took placebo. The CARS is a scale used to measure behavioral symptoms in autism spectrum disorders, and the assessments are usually made from a videotaped session of children playing and interacting with their caregiver and from directly questioning the children’s parents. The participating clinicians also rated their overall impression of the patients’ change in autistic symptoms. Fourteen of the 30 bumetanide-treated patients were rated as having had either significant or small improvement, compared with six of the placebo-treated patients. After digging more deeply into the data, the researchers concluded that among the five CARS subscales (designated A-E), the mean score in stereotyped behavior and restricted interest (subscale D) showed the largest difference between subjects who took bumetanide and those who took placebo. In addition, study patients with milder autism at baseline had a larger response to bumetanide than did those with more severe symptoms. The safety of bumetanide is well known, since the drug has been widely used for decades. Because of its risk for causing hypokalemia, the researchers closely monitored the patients’ serum potassium levels and provided potassium supplements to six bumetanide-treated children whose potassium level dropped to or below 3.5 mMol/L. One child was withdrawn from the study early because of hypokalemia. The researchers emphasized that bumetanide does not cure autism, as the patients’ severity of symptoms, measured by the CARS, went back up within one month after the end of study treatment. They also pointed out that larger clinical trials are needed to determine the right dosage of bumetanide and the types of patients most likely to benefit from this treatment. ■“A Randomized Controlled Trial of Bumetanide in the Treatment of Autism in Children” is posted at http://www.nature.com/tp/journal/v2/n12/full/tp2012124a.html. ISSUES NewArchived