Using in vitro data to derive acceptable exposure levels: A case study on PBDE developmental neurotoxicity.

Background: Current acceptable chemical exposure levels (e.g., tolerable daily intake) are mainly based on animal experiments, which are costly, time-consuming, considered non-ethical by many, and may poorly predict adverse outcomes in humans.

A secure future? Human urban and agricultural land use benefits a flightless island-endemic rail despite climate change.

Identifying environmental characteristics that limit species' distributions is important for contemporary conservation and inferring responses to future environmental change. The Tasmanian native hen is an island endemic flightless rail and a survivor of a prehistoric extirpation event. Little is known about the regional-scale environmental characteristics influencing the distribution of native hens, or how their future distribution might be impacted by environmental shifts (e.

Characterization of Domestic Violence among Patients Consulting a French Psychiatric Emergency Department.

The aim of the present study was to identify the prevalence of domestic violence among patients attending a French psychiatric emergency department and its association with psychiatric disorders. This retrospective study was performed, including all patients examined in the psychiatric emergency department of the Lapeyronie University Hospital of Montpellier (France) in the daytime from 1 July 2021 to 31 October 2021. A total of 152 patients were eligible during this study period.

Water eDNA metabarcoding is effective in detecting non-native species in marinas, but detection errors still hinder its use for passive monitoring.

Marinas are high-priority targets for marine non-indigenous species (NIS), where they compose a large portion of the biofouling communities. The practicality of water samples collection makes environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding an interesting tool for routine NIS surveys. Here the effectiveness of water-eDNA-metabarcoding to identify biofouling NIS, in 10 marinas from western France, was examined.

Characterizing the spatio-temporal threats, conservation hotspots and conservation gaps for the most extinction-prone bird family (Aves: Rallidae).

With thousands of vertebrate species now threatened with extinction, there is an urgent need to understand and mitigate the causes of wildlife collapse. Rails (Aves: Rallidae), being the most extinction-prone bird family globally, and with one-third of extant rail species now threatened or near threatened, are an emphatic case in point. Here, we undertook a global synthesis of the temporal and spatial threat patterns for Rallidae and determined conservation priorities and gaps.

Comparative study of the methodologies used for subjective medical image quality assessment.

Healthcare professionals have been increasingly viewing medical images and videos in their routine clinical practice, and this in a wide variety of environments. Both the perception and interpretation of medical visual information, across all branches of practice or medical specialties (e.g.

[Eating better to improve resistance to sars-Cov-2].

Eating habits are evolving. In a public health context, guidelines are regularly updated according to the nutritional status and health of the French population, but some of these recommendations go unheeded. In the context of the current epidemic, nutritional care must be provided to high risk populations as well as to patients presenting, or having presented, COVID-19, in order to favour immunity and recovery.

[COVID-19 and micronutrients to regulate the immune response].

Our social environment shapes our eating habits, notably our consumption of fruit and vegetables rich in micronutrients (vitamins and trace elements), essential for regulating the immune system. Ensuring a balanced intake of micronutrients could prove to be particularly beneficial for patients with severe forms of COVID-19 suffering from critical immune dysregulation.

Population genomics of the introduced and cultivated Pacific kelp : Marinas-not farms-drive regional connectivity and establishment in natural rocky reefs.

Ports and farms are well-known primary introduction hot spots for marine non-indigenous species (NIS). The extent to which these anthropogenic habitats are sustainable sources of propagules and influence the evolution of NIS in natural habitats was examined in the edible seaweed , native to Asia and introduced to Europe in the 1970s. Following its deliberate introduction 40 years ago along the French coast of the English Channel, this kelp is now found in three contrasting habitat types: farms, marinas and natural rocky reefs.

The influence of gate start position on physical performance and anxiety perception in expert BMX athletes.

The critical importance of the start phase in bicycle motocross (BMX) racing is increasingly acknowledged. Past experiments underlined that the internal lane of the starting gate provides a strong positional advantage. However, how lane position affects start performance and cognitive and somatic state anxiety remains unexplored.

Do settlement dynamics influence competitive interactions between an alien tunicate and its native congener?

Variation in density of early stages, that is, larvae and juveniles, is a major determinant of the distribution and abundance of the adult population of most marine invertebrates. These early stages thus play a key role in competitive interactions, and, more specifically, in invasion dynamics when biologically similar native and non-native species (NNS) come into contact in the same habitat. We examined the settlement dynamics and settlement rate of two important members of the fouling community that are common on human-made infrastructures around the world: (formerly known as type A) and (formerly known as type B).

[Digoxin-related leukocytoclastic vasculitis in a very elderly woman: A case report].

Even though digoxin causes many side effects, few cases of skin involvement are recorded in the French Pharmacovigilance Database. We report a case of leukocytoclastic vasculitis (LV) very probably due to digoxin. A 91-year-old woman, hospitalized following a fall, presented cardiac decompensation in a context of rapid atrial fibrillation requiring treatment with digoxin.

Canopy interactions and physical stress gradients in subtidal communities.

Species interactions are integral drivers of community structure and can change from competitive to facilitative with increasing environmental stress. In subtidal marine ecosystems, however, interactions along physical stress gradients have seldom been tested. We observed seaweed canopy interactions across depth and latitudinal gradients to test whether light and temperature stress structured interaction patterns.

Repeated rapid assessment surveys reveal contrasting trends in occupancy of marinas by non-indigenous species on opposite sides of the western English Channel.

Rapid assessment surveys of non-indigenous species (NIS) of sessile invertebrates were made at seven marinas in NW France and 10 marinas in SW England in 2010, and repeated in 2013. Fourteen NIS were recorded, 12 of which were seen on both coasts. Site occupancy differed between the opposite sides of the western English Channel.

Autophagy and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) represents the only curative therapy for the majority of bone marrow-derived cancers. Unfortunately, HSCT can result in serious complications such as graft-versus-host disease, graft failure and infection. In the last decade, there have been major advances in the understanding of the role of autophagy in many diseases and cellular processes.

Feto-maternal allo-immunity, regulatory T cells and predisposition to auto-immunity. Does it all start in utero?

During gestation, maternal cells traffic to the fetus leading to the natural phenomenon of microchimerism. Although their persistence in offspring has been associated with several autoimmune disorders, the precise role of maternal cells in these disorders remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate whether alloreactive maternal T cells could directly trigger a graft-vs.

Cross-dressing by donor dendritic cells after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation contributes to formation of the immunological synapse and maximizes responses to indirectly presented antigen.

The stimulation of naive donor T cells by recipient alloantigen is central to the pathogenesis of graft-versus-host disease after bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Using mouse models of transplantation, we have observed that donor cells become "cross-dressed" in very high levels of recipient hematopoietic cell-derived MHC class I and II molecules following BMT. Recipient-type MHC is transiently present on donor dendritic cells (DCs) after BMT in the setting of myeloablative conditioning but is persistent after nonmyeloablative conditioning, in which recipient hematopoietic cells remain in high numbers.

Modification of T cell responses by stem cell mobilization requires direct signaling of the T cell by G-CSF and IL-10.

The majority of allogeneic stem cell transplants are currently undertaken using G-CSF mobilized peripheral blood stem cells. G-CSF has diverse biological effects on a broad range of cells and IL-10 is a key regulator of many of these effects. Using mixed radiation chimeras in which the hematopoietic or nonhematopoietic compartments were wild-type, IL-10(-/-), G-CSFR(-/-), or combinations thereof we demonstrated that the attenuation of alloreactive T cell responses after G-CSF mobilization required direct signaling of the T cell by both G-CSF and IL-10.

Selective organ specific inflammation in offspring harbouring microchimerism from strongly alloreactive mothers.

The origins of autoimmunity are not yet understood despite significant advances in immunology. The trafficking of maternal cells to the offspring represents the very first immunological event in foetal life and is reinforced during lactation. The persistence of maternal cells in offspring's tissues and circulation has been associated with several autoimmune disorders.

Induced regulatory T cells promote tolerance when stabilized by rapamycin and IL-2 in vivo.

Natural regulatory T cells (nTregs) play an important role in tolerance; however, the small numbers of cells obtainable potentially limit the feasibility of clinical adoptive transfer. Therefore, we studied the feasibility and efficacy of using murine-induced regulatory T cells (iTregs) for the induction of tolerance after bone marrow transplantation. iTregs could be induced in large numbers from conventional donor CD4 and CD8 T cells within 1 wk and were highly suppressive.