Composition minérale du lait de femme en milieu rural au Cameroun : apports en minéraux chez le nourrisson de un à neuf mois

La composition minérale (P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn) de 357 échantillons de lait collectés au cours des neuf premiers mois de lactation a été déterminée au cours d'une enquête longitudinale chez 27 femmes primipares allaitantes. La concentration en calcium et en zinc ne varie pas au cours de la journée. Il existe une baisse significative, au cours de la lactation, du contenu du lait en phosphore et en calcium; la chute est moins sensible pour le magnésium, le fer et le zinc. Ainsi entre le premier et le dernier trimestre de lactation, les teneurs en phosphore, calcium, magnésium sont respectivement de 12.4-11.4, 20.7-17.1 et 2.53-2.0 mg/100 ml; celles en fer et en zinc, 65.1-54.8 et 283.7-233.1 microgr/100 ml. Des relations entre l'état nutritionnel des mères allaitantes, apprécié par le pourcentage du standard de Harvard du rapport poids-taille, et le contenu minéral de leur lait ont été démontrées. Les carences d'apports journaliers en ces différents minéraux sont importantes au cours de la lactation chez le nourrisson alimenté exclusivement au lait maternel. (Résumé d'auteur

Reaction of calcium phosphate with textile dyes for purification of wastewaters

International audienceWhen unsintered hydroxyapatite (HA) is dissolved in acidic solution (pH less than 3), the calcium salt dissolves readily and may be re-precipitated at neutral pH values by neutralization with base. Maturation of this precipitate eventually leads to the neo-formation of calcium phosphates similar to HA. HA is a stable solid under neutral or basic conditions and has interesting adsorption properties. Particularly, textile dyes can be adsorbed on HA particles. Thermal treatment below 800 degrees C degrades adsorbed organic matter and generates mineral HA. Such HA can be recovered and reused by re-dissolution in acidic water. We have experimented with such recycled HA the co-precipitation of textile dyes and found that HA can be reused several times. For most textile dyes, a very high level of color removal was observed (above 98%), with a small loss of HA during the recycling process (12%). This makes the treatment of textile dye polluted waters by HA co-precipitation feasible and sustainable

Development of a new yarn supply for weft knitting machines to produce innovative knitwear

The increasing demand for technical textiles makes innovations and acceleration of processes necessary. This research paper presents an innovative knitting technology. The technology, which was funded by the European Regional Development Fund as an R&D-project (EFRE-0400310), reduces production time and creates completely novel innovative knitting structures. This paper introduces the validation process of the innovative technology and therefore brings the theoretical considerations into a practical application. The yarn supply technology enables the production of an innovative double-layered fabric on flat and circular knitting machines. This double-faced fabric consists of two single-faced fabric sides which are knitted by a first yarn in the front needle bed and a second yarn in the rear needle bed. These two fabrics are joined by a third yarn knitting in both needle beds in the same carriage stroke. The method ensures that up to three yarns knit in one system pass. Furthermore, a fourth yarn can be implemented to insert a weft yarn. Additionally, the two single-faced fabrics can be produced simultaneously in the same carriage stroke in the front and rear needle beds. In this case, fewer carriage strokes are required for knitting standard structures such as Milano Rib. This structure can be produced one third faster than with conventional methods. The results show that the technology on the circular knitting machine produces good quality knitted fabrics. On the flat knitting machine, however, further research and development are needed to validate the technology

Efficacy of RTS,S/AS01E vaccine against malaria in children 5 to 17 months of age.

BACKGROUND: Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a pressing global health problem. A previous study of the malaria vaccine RTS,S (which targets the circumsporozoite protein), given with an adjuvant system (AS02A), showed a 30% rate of protection against clinical malaria in children 1 to 4 years of age. We evaluated the efficacy of RTS,S given with a more immunogenic adjuvant system (AS01E) in children 5 to 17 months of age, a target population for vaccine licensure. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind, randomized trial of RTS,S/AS01E vaccine as compared with rabies vaccine in children in Kilifi, Kenya, and Korogwe, Tanzania. The primary end point was fever with a falciparum parasitemia density of more than 2500 parasites per microliter, and the mean duration of follow-up was 7.9 months (range, 4.5 to 10.5). RESULTS: A total of 894 children were randomly assigned to receive the RTS,S/AS01E vaccine or the control (rabies) vaccine. Among the 809 children who completed the study procedures according to the protocol, the cumulative number in whom clinical malaria developed was 32 of 402 assigned to receive RTS,S/AS01E and 66 of 407 assigned to receive the rabies vaccine; the adjusted efficacy rate for RTS,S/AS01E was 53% (95% confidence interval [CI], 28 to 69; P<0.001) on the basis of Cox regression. Overall, there were 38 episodes of clinical malaria among recipients of RTS,S/AS01E, as compared with 86 episodes among recipients of the rabies vaccine, with an adjusted rate of efficacy against all malarial episodes of 56% (95% CI, 31 to 72; P<0.001). All 894 children were included in the intention-to-treat analysis, which showed an unadjusted efficacy rate of 49% (95% CI, 26 to 65; P<0.001). There were fewer serious adverse events among recipients of RTS,S/AS01E, and this reduction was not only due to a difference in the number of admissions directly attributable to malaria. CONCLUSIONS: RTS,S/AS01E shows promise as a candidate malaria vaccine. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00380393.

Bridging the gap in African biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics:Open Institute of the African BioGenome Project:

The Open Institute of the African BioGenome Project empowers African scientists and institutions with the skill sets, capacity and infrastructure to advance scientific knowledge and innovation and drive economic growth

Potential implications of the climate crisis on diagnostics

Many countries, especially low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), have not planned for how the climate crisis will increase the need for diagnostics, even as environmental changes are accelerating expansion of human and animal disease. Diagnostics for human diseases are essential for anticipating and responding to health impacts of the climate crisis and play a fundamental role in identifying new infectious disease outbreaks, informing research and predictive models, monitoring the effectiveness of interventions, and spurring public health policy in diverse global settings. Enhanced human diagnostics will be important for public health, veterinary, public health, and environmental sectors. This Opinion uses a One Health approach to highlight the potential implications of the climate crisis on diagnostics and priorities for adaptation

Mammary stem cells have myoepithelial cell properties.

Contractile myoepithelial cells dominate the basal layer of the mammary epithelium and are considered to be differentiated cells. However, we observe that up to 54% of single basal cells can form colonies when seeded into adherent culture in the presence of agents that disrupt actin-myosin interactions, and on average, 65% of the single-cell-derived basal colonies can repopulate a mammary gland when transplanted in vivo. This indicates that a high proportion of basal myoepithelial cells can give rise to a mammary repopulating unit (MRU). We demonstrate that myoepithelial cells, flow-sorted using two independent myoepithelial-specific reporter strategies, have MRU capacity. Using an inducible lineage-tracing approach we follow the progeny of myoepithelial cells that express α-smooth muscle actin and show that they function as long-lived lineage-restricted stem cells in the virgin state and during pregnancy.This work was funded by Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign, the University of Cambridge, Hutchison Whampoa Limited, La Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer (Equipe Labelisée 2013) and a grant from Agence Nationale de la Recherche ANR- 08-BLAN-0078-01 to M.A.G.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature at http://www.nature.com/ncb/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ncb3025.html

Family Relationship, Water Contact and Occurrence of Buruli Ulcer in Benin

Mycobacterium ulcerans disease (Buruli ulcer) is the most widespread mycobacterial disease in the world after leprosy and tuberculosis. How M. ulcerans is introduced into the skin of humans remains unclear, but it appears that individuals living in the same environment may have different susceptibilities. This case control study aims to determine whether frequent contacts with natural water sources, family relationship or the practice of consanguineous marriages are associated with the occurrence of Buruli ulcer (BU). The study involved 416 participants, of which 104 BU-confirmed cases and 312 age, gender and village of residence matched controls (persons who had no signs or symptoms of active or inactive BU). The results confirmed that contact with natural water sources is a risk factor. Furthermore, it suggests that a combination of genetic factors may constitute risk factors for the development of BU, possibly by influencing the type of immune response in the individual, and, consequently, the development of BU infection per se and its different clinical forms. These findings may be of major therapeutic interest

Exome Chip Meta-analysis Fine Maps Causal Variants and Elucidates the Genetic Architecture of Rare Coding Variants in Smoking and Alcohol Use

BACKGROUND: Smoking and alcohol use have been associated with common genetic variants in multiple loci. Rare variants within these loci hold promise in the identification of biological mechanisms in substance use. Exome arrays and genotype imputation can now efficiently genotype rare nonsynonymous and loss of function variants. Such variants are expected to have deleterious functional consequences and to contribute to disease risk. METHODS: We analyzed similar to 250,000 rare variants from 16 independent studies genotyped with exome arrays and augmented this dataset with imputed data from the UK Biobank. Associations were tested for five phenotypes: cigarettes per day, pack-years, smoking initiation, age of smoking initiation, and alcoholic drinks per week. We conducted stratified heritability analyses, single-variant tests, and gene-based burden tests of nonsynonymous/loss-of-function coding variants. We performed a novel fine-mapping analysis to winnow the number of putative causal variants within associated loci. RESULTS: Meta-analytic sample sizes ranged from 152,348 to 433,216, depending on the phenotype. Rare coding variation explained 1.1% to 2.2% of phenotypic variance, reflecting 11% to 18% of the total single nucleotide polymorphism heritability of these phenotypes. We identified 171 genome-wide associated loci across all phenotypes. Fine mapping identified putative causal variants with double base-pair resolution at 24 of these loci, and between three and 10 variants for 65 loci. Twenty loci contained rare coding variants in the 95% credible intervals. CONCLUSIONS: Rare coding variation significantly contributes to the heritability of smoking and alcohol use. Fine-mapping genome-wide association study loci identifies specific variants contributing to the biological etiology of substance use behavior.Peer reviewe