European anchovy's abundance, more affected by climatic conditions than fishing activities in the northwest African waters.

The marine waters off the coast of northwest Africa are known for being highly productive upwelling regions in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. The present study evaluated the combined effects of climate change and sustainable fishing levels on the long-term sustainability of European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), a target pelagic species found along the West African coastal waters. The present study used survey biomass time series from survey vessels and species catch time series from commercial fisheries operating in the region.

The response to substandard and falsified medical products in francophone sub-Saharan African countries: weaknesses and opportunities.

Assuring the quality of medical products manufactured, imported or distributed in francophone sub-Saharan Africa remains a challenge, despite positive signals like the growing engagement in the benchmarking of regulatory authorities and -particularly- in the establishment of the African Medicines Agency. In this short report, we describe the existing activities to prevent, detect and respond to substandard and falsified products (SF) in this region, either through African multilateral organizations and initiatives led by the World Health Organization, or through the contribution of other stakeholders, such as local universities and procurement agencies. We underline that these emerging local stakeholders may play a pivotal role to guide and inform the national regulatory authorities about the prevalence and patterns of SF medical products, complementing the market surveillance and control, and building awareness of the importance of pharmaceutical quality assurance for public health.

A simulation-based option to assess data-limited fisheries off West African waters.

Most sophisticated stock assessment models often need a large amount of data to assess fish stocks, yet this data is often lacking for most fisheries worldwide, resulting in the increasing demand for data-limited stock assessment methods. To estimate fish stock status, one class of these data-limited methods uses simply catch time series data and, in other instances, life history information or fishery characteristics. These catch-only methods (COMs) built differently are known to make assumptions about changes in fishing effort and may perform differently under various fishing scenarios.

High maternal adiposity during pregnancy programs an imbalance in the lipidome and predisposes to diet-induced hepatosteatosis in the offspring.

Background: Exposure to high maternal adiposity in utero is a significant risk factor for the later-life development of metabolic syndrome (MetS), including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We have previously shown that high pre-pregnancy adiposity programs adipose tissue dysfunction in the offspring, leading to spillover of fatty acids into the circulation, a key pathogenic event in obesity-associated MetS. Herein, we hypothesized that programming of adipose tissue dysfunction in offspring born to overweight dams increases the risk for developing NAFLD.

An Integrated Multi-OMICS Approach Highlights Elevated Non-Esterified Fatty Acids Impact BeWo Trophoblast Metabolism and Lipid Processing.

Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are linked with impaired placental function and early onset of non-communicable cardiometabolic diseases in offspring. Previous studies have highlighted that the dietary non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) palmitate (PA) and oleate (OA), key dietary metabolites associated with maternal obesity and GDM, are potential modulators of placental lipid processing. Using the BeWo cell line model, the current study integrated transcriptomic (mRNA microarray), metabolomic, and lipidomic readouts to characterize the underlying impacts of exogenous PA and OA on placental villous trophoblast cell metabolism.