Specificity of serological screening tests and reference laboratory tests to diagnose gambiense human African trypanosomiasis: a prospective clinical performance study.

Background: Serological screening tests play a crucial role to diagnose gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT). Presently, they preselect individuals for microscopic confirmation, but in future "screen and treat" strategies they will identify individuals for treatment. Variability in reported specificities, the development of new rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) and the hypothesis that malaria infection may decrease RDT specificity led us to evaluate the specificity of 5 gHAT screening tests.

Impact of parental lifestyle patterns in the preconception and pregnancy periods on childhood obesity.

Introduction: High prevalence of overweight and obesity already observed in preschool children suggests the involvement of early-life risk factors. Preconception period and pregnancy are crucial windows for the implementation of child obesity prevention interventions with parental lifestyle factors as relevant targets. So far, most studies have evaluated their role separately, with only a few having investigated their potential synergistic effect on childhood obesity.

Child health screening program in French nursery schools: Results and related socioeconomic factors.

Objectives: The study aims to describe the output of routine health screening performed in French nursery schools by the maternal and child health services among children aged 3-4 years and to quantify the level of early socioeconomic health disparities.

Methods: In 30 participating , data on screening for vision and hearing impairments, overweight and thinness, dental health, language, psychomotor development, and immunizations were collected for children born on specific dates in 2011 and enrolled in nursery school in 2014-2016. Information was collected on the children, their socioeconomic characteristics and on the school attended.

Parental lifestyle patterns around pregnancy and risk of childhood obesity in four European birth cohort studies.

Background: A high prevalence of excess weight in children younger than 5 years suggests the involvement of early-life risk factors. The preconception and pregnancy periods are crucial stages for the implementation of interventions to prevent childhood obesity. Most studies so far have evaluated the effects of early-life factors separately, with only a few investigating the combined effect of parental lifestyle factors.

Sociodemographic and behavioural factors of adherence to the no-screen guideline for toddlers among parents from the French nationwide Elfe birth cohort.

Background: Excessive screen time in infancy and childhood has been associated with consequences on children's development and health. International guidelines call for no screen time before age 2 years, whereas in France, the most prominent guidelines recommend no screen before age 3 years. However, data are lacking on parental adherence to the no-screen guideline for toddlers and factors of adherence in France.

TV, computer, tablet and smartphone use and autism spectrum disorder risk in early childhood: a nationally-representative study.

Background: Screen media use in early childhood has largely increased in recent years, even more so during the COVID-19 epidemic, and there is much discussion regarding its influence on neurodevelopment, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Methods: We examined the relationship between use of TV, computer, tablet and smartphone at age 2 years and risk of ASD assessed in telephone-based questionnaires among 12,950 children participating in the nationally representative ELFE ('Etude Longitudinale Française sur les Enfants') birth cohort study in France.

Results: In inverse-probability weighted (IPW) multinomial regression analyses, children's weekly or daily screen media use was associated with an increased likelihood of an intermediate risk of ASD (IPW-controlled OR for weekly use:1.

[Care of covid-19 patients at the dermatology hospital of Bamako].

Aim: To assess the COVID-19 patients' treatment duration according to the place of treatment at the Dermatology Hospital of Bamako (DHB).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study comparing the management of COVID-19 PCR-positive patients in the hospital to that of those managed at home from March 2020 to April 2021 until two consecutive negative PCR 48 hours apart.

Results: Among the 1109 patients, 369 were hospitalized, 497 followed at home.

[Summary Of Admissions To The Bamako Dermatology Hospital].

Objective: It was to take stock of the dermatological conditions managed within the hospital over a period of five years.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective and descriptive study performed from January 2015 to December 2019 at the Bamako Dermatology Hospital, based on the records of patients received in consultation.

Results: During the period, 6,322 new consultations were recorded.

[Xerodermapigmentosum: Challenge of diagnosis in West Africa].

Xeroderma pigmentosum is related to a defect of the enzymes involved in repairing the oncogenic effects of ultraviolet exposure. The condition is found all over the world, in all ethnicities and races. This rare genodermatosis is often unknown in countries lacking specialist in dermatology.

A Teledermatology Pilot Programme for the Management of Skin Diseases in Primary Health Care Centres: Experiences from a Resource-Limited Country (Mali, West Africa).

In sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in rural areas, patients have limited access to doctors with specialist skills in skin diseases. To address this issue, a teledermatology pilot programme focused on primary health centres was set up in Mali. This study was aimed at investigating the feasibility of this programme and its impact on the management of skin diseases.

Regulation of I-transposon activity in Drosophila: evidence for cosuppression of nonhomologous transgenes and possible role of ancestral I-related pericentromeric elements.

We have previously shown that the activity of functional I retrotransposons (I factors) introduced into Drosophila devoid of such elements can be repressed by transgenes containing an internal fragment of the I factor itself and that this repressing effect presents the characteristic features of homology-dependent gene silencing or cosuppression. Here we show that the same transgenes can induce silencing of a nonhomologous reporter gene containing as the sole I-factor sequence its 100-bp promoter fragment. Silencing of the nonhomologous reporter gene shows strong similarities to I-factor cosuppression: It does not require any translation product from the regulating transgenes, sense and antisense constructs are equally potent, and the silencing effect is only maternally transmitted and fully reversible.

Cosuppression of I transposon activity in Drosophila by I-containing sense and antisense transgenes.

We have previously shown that the activity of functional I elements introduced into Drosophila devoid of such elements can be repressed by transgenes containing an internal nontranslatable part of the I element itself and that this repressing effect presents features characteristic of homology-dependent gene silencing or cosuppression. Here we show that transgenes containing a fragment of the I element in antisense orientation induce I-element silencing with the same characteristic features as the corresponding sense construct: namely, repression takes several generations to be fully established, with similar rates for sense and antisense constructs, and it is only maternally transmitted, with reversal of the effect through paternal transmission. We also show that transcription of the transgenes is necessary to produce the silencing effect and that repression can be maintained for at least one generation following elimination of the transgenes, thus strongly suggesting that a transgene product and not the transgene per se is the essential intermediate in the silencing effect.

Taming of transposable elements by homology-dependent gene silencing.

Transposable elements can invade virgin genomes within a few generations, after which the elements are 'tamed' and retain only limited transpositional activity. Introduction of the I element, a transposon similar to mammalian LINE elements, into Drosophila melanogaster genomes devoid of such elements initially results in high-frequency transposition of the incoming transposon, high mutation rate, chromosomal nondisjunction and female sterility, a syndrome referred to as hybrid dysgenesis (for review, see refs 2-4); a related syndrome has also been described in mammals. High-frequency transposition is transient, as the number of I elements reaches a finite value and transposition ceases after approximately ten generations.

Defective I elements introduced into Drosophila as transgenes can regulate reactivity and prevent I-R hybrid dysgenesis.

The I-R hybrid dysgenesis syndrome is characterized by a high level of sterility and I element transposition, occurring in the female offspring of crosses between males of inducer (I) strains, which contain full-length transposable I elements, and females of reactive (R) strains, devoid of functional I elements. The intensity of the syndrome in the dysgenic cross is essentially dependent on the reactivity level of the R females, which is ultimately controlled by still unresolved polygenic chromosomal determinants. In the work reported here, we have introduced a transposition-defective I element with a 2.

Retrotransposition of the Drosophila LINE I element can induce deletion in the target DNA: a simple model also accounting for the variability of the normally observed target site duplications.

Retrotransposition of the Drosophila melanogaster LINE I element normally generates target site duplications of variable length, as classically observed for most LINE elements. Using an I element "marked" with an indicator gene for in vivo detection of transposition that we previously developed, we show that deletion in the target DNA can also take place, as a direct consequence of I element transposition. We propose a simple model accounting for the generation of both target site duplications of variable length and target DNA deletions, which relies upon template switching of the LINE-encoded reverse transcriptase between single-strand DNA at the target site and the LINE template.