Online collaborative research on seasonal work. Collective capabilities to resist on precarious work and living conditions.

Background: The number of seasonal workers in the agricultural sector in France is increasing and their working conditions are difficult and disgraceful. While they have been shown in various studies to be subject to processes that result in them being unable to act on occupational health, some of them, mobilized online, have formed a collective whose is permitted them to develop collective actions.

Objectives: Our article aims to describe this online collective and how the power to act emerged from the discussions.

High incidence of clinical fragility fractures in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. A case-control study.

Objectives: To estimate the incidence of clinical fragility fractures in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and analyze risk factors for fracture.

Methods: Incidence of clinical fragility fractures in 330 postmenopausal women with RA was compared to that of a control population of 660 age-matched postmenopausal Spanish women. Clinical fractures during the previous five years were recorded.

Metabolic engineering of Aspergillus niger to enhance production of ethanol.

This work describes the genetic transformation of a strain of Aspergillus niger with five different constructs containing 16 different heterologous genes, coding for four oxidoreductases, two cellobiohydrolases, one endoglucanase, one β-glucosidase, six enzymes involved in xylose metabolism, and two enzymes involved in fermentation. The aim was to try and engineer a consolidated bioprocessing in A. niger.

Injustices Implied in the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Market.

This article critiques the current theological basis that deems assisted reproductive technologies (ART) as immoral, namely that it dissociates the unitive act from procreation, and that it violates the dignity of the embryo. It is argued that notwithstanding the validity of these moral truths, these issues are of little relevance to couples facing childlessness. Three alternative views are then presented, all based on the injustices related to the ART market: (a) injustices that directly affect the couple and their offspring, (b) unfairness related to the commercial aspect of ART markets, and (c) the overall effects that impinge on society at large.

Social media, advertising, and internet use among general and bariatric surgeons.

Introduction: The use of the internet and technology has increased, and its implication with medicine is inevitable. Along with these technologies, social media platforms have changed the interaction between peers, forcing an evolution on medical activities and patient relationship. There is no clear information on how surgeons interact with these platforms within their daily practice.

Infectious complications related to external ventricular shunt. Incidence and risk factors.

Objective: Infectious complications related to external ventricular shunt (ICREVS) are a main problem in neurocritical intensive care units (ICU). The aim of the review is to assess the incidence of ICREVS and to analyse factors involved.

Methods: Retrospective analysis, adult polyvalent ICU in a third level reference hospital.

Gross Olfaction Before and After Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass.

Background: Obesity leads to olfaction alterations, and this can further impact food choices, appetite, and nutritional status. Bariatric procedures induce weight loss and change in taste and smell perception, but more information is needed, especially using objective olfaction tests.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted during 6 months, with candidates to laparoscopic gastric bypass at a single institution.

A Rapid In-Clinic Test Detects Acute Leptospirosis in Dogs with High Sensitivity and Specificity.

A rapid IgM-detection immunochromatographic test (WITNESS® Lepto, Zoetis) has recently become available to identify acute canine leptospirosis at the point of care. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the test were evaluated by comparison with the microscopic agglutination assay (MAT), using a positive cut-off titer of ≥800. Banked serum samples from dogs exhibiting clinical signs and suspected leptospirosis were selected to form three groups based on MAT titer: (1) positive (n = 50); (2) borderline (n = 35); and (3) negative (n = 50).

[For an open-door, more comfortable and humane intensive care unit. It is time for change].

The Intensive Care Unit is a wonderful place where lives are saved, but it is also a very harsh and unpleasant place where critically ill patients face terrible diseases in very adverse environmental conditions. We must change the design of the ICU and its organization; we must improve privacy, welfare and comfort of patients and families, following their personal and emotional demands. To free up the visiting hours and to improve family care are among our most urging matters, which we should delay no further.

Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome in a patient with Down syndrome.

We report a patient with Down syndrome, under treatment with carbamazepine, levopromazine and clonazepam. After urinary infection he developed glans necrosis requiring excision of prepuce. Six hours post surgery he presented right-hand ischemia followed by arterial and venous thrombosis of the right thoracic extremity.

Clinical significance of antiphospholipid syndrome nephropathy (APSN) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Unlabelled: Antiphospholipid syndrome nephropathy (APSN) is now a well recognized vaso-occlusive renal lesion associated with acute thrombosis and chronic arterial and arteriolar lesions, leading to zones of cortical ischemic atrophy. Our objective was to evaluate the prevalence and clinical significance of APSN in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).

Methods: Kidney biopsy specimens obtained from 162 patients with lupus glomerulonephritis were retrospectively examined for the presence of APSN.

Genetic and pharmacological evidence that a retinoic acid cannot be the RXR-activating ligand in mouse epidermis keratinocytes.

Using genetic and pharmacological approaches, we demonstrate that both RARgamma/RXRalpha heterodimers involved in repression events, as well as PPARbeta(delta)/RXRalpha heterodimers involved in activation events, are cell-autonomously required in suprabasal keratinocytes for the generation of lamellar granules (LG), the organelles instrumental to the formation of the skin permeability barrier. In activating PPARbeta(delta)/RXRalpha heterodimers, RXRalpha is transcriptionally active as its AF-2 activation function is required and can be inhibited by an RXR-selective antagonist. Within repressing RARgamma/RXRalpha heterodimers, induction of the transcriptional activity of RXRalpha is subordinated to the addition of an agonistic ligand for RARgamma.

The Bispectral Index Scale: its use in the detection of brain death.

Objective: To evaluate the Bispectral Index Scale (BIS) monitor as a method of brain death (BD) detection.

Patients And Methods: We performed an observational prospective study in an intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital of 19 patients hospitalized nonconsecutively in the ICU with serious neurologic pathology and evolution toward BD. A BIS monitor, XP model, and the sensor "BIS Quatro" were used to continuously record values: suppression ratio (SR), quality of the signal index, and electromyographic (EMG) activity.

Transcriptional modulations by RXR agonists are only partially subordinated to PPARalpha signaling and attest additional, organ-specific, molecular cross-talks.

Nuclear hormone receptors (NR) are important transcriptional regulators of numerous genes involved in diverse pathophysiological and therapeutic functions. Following ligand activation, class II NR share the ability to heterodimerize with the retinoid X receptor (RXR). It is established that RXR activators, rexinoids, transactivate several peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) target genes in a PPARalpha-dependent manner.

Effect of breed and gender on bovine liver cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) expression and inter-species comparison with other domestic ruminants.

The cytochrome P450 (P450) superfamily represents a group of relevant enzymes in the field of drug metabolism and several exogenous or constitutional factors contribute to regulate its expression. Cattle represent an important source of animal-derived food-products and studies concerning the P450 expression are needed for the extrapolation of pharmacotoxicological data from one species to another and for the evaluation of the consumer's risk associated with the consumption of harmful residues found in foodstuffs. In the present study, possible breed-, gender- and species-differences in P4503A (the P450 subfamily more expressed in the human liver) expression were studied in vitro in Piedmontese (PDM) and Limousin (LIM) meat cattle breeds of both sexes and in domestic Ruminants (cattle, sheep and goats).

Beneficial effect of retinoic acid on the outcome of experimental acute renal failure.

Background: Retinoic acid (RA) exerts beneficial effects on vascular remodelling and experimental nephritis, and plays a role in kidney development. Pathological changes caused by acute renal failure (ARF) result in high mortality. We determined whether RA ameliorates ARF-induced pathology caused by potassium dichromate (PD).

A directional strategy for monitoring Cre-mediated recombination at the cellular level in the mouse.

Functional redundancies, compensatory mechanisms, and lethal phenotypes often prevent the full analysis of gene functions through generation of germline null mutations in the mouse. The use of site-specific recombinases, such as Cre, which catalyzes recombination between loxP sites, has allowed the engineering of mice harboring targeted somatic mutations, which are both temporally controlled and cell-type restricted. Many Cre-expressing mouse lines exist, but only a few transgenic lines are available that harbor a reporter gene whose expression is dependent on a Cre-mediated event.

[Genetic dissection of retinoic acid function in epidermis physiology].

The active metabolite of vitamin A (retinoic acid, RA) acts through the nuclear receptors RARalpha, beta and gamma and RXRalpha, beta and gamma. These receptors form RAR/RXR heterodimers, which bind to genetic regulatory DNA sequences and activate transcription of RA target genes. As RXR form heterodimers with a number of other nuclear receptors, such as the vitamin D3 receptor (VDR) and are involved in several signaling pathways.

Physiological and retinoid-induced proliferations of epidermis basal keratinocytes are differently controlled.

To investigate the roles of retinoic acid (RA) receptors (RARs) in the physiology of epidermis that does not express RAR beta, conditional spatio-temporally controlled somatic mutagenesis was used to selectively ablate RAR alpha in keratinocytes of RAR gamma-null mice. Keratinocyte proliferation was maintained in adult mouse epidermis lacking both RAR alpha and RAR gamma, as well as in RAR beta-null mice. All RAR-mediated signalling pathways are therefore dispensable in epidermis for homeostatic keratinocyte renewal.

Comparison of hepatic and renal drug-metabolising enzyme activities in sheep given single or two-fold challenge infections with Fasciola hepatica.

The activity of drug-metabolising enzymes was compared in liver and kidneys of adult sheep given single or two-fold fluke infection. Fascioliasis was induced by oral administration of 200 metacercariae of Fasciola hepatica to female sheep either 10 or 20 weeks (mono-infections) or 10 and 20 weeks (bi-infection) before killing. The parasitic pathology was ascertained at autopsy and by clinical observation of animals.