Determination of new types of DNA lesions in human sperm

International audienceSummary Careful attention has been focused recently on DNA quality in human IVF. Therefore a variety of methods has been developed to evaluate DNA integrity, especially concerning fragmentation. Using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) for our best sperm samples, we have established reference values for several oxidative lesions, in order to gain insights into the cause of DNA lesions. Besides 8-oxodeoxyguanosine, we found rather high levels of two ethenonucleosides: 1,N 6 -ethenoadenosine and 1,N 2 -ethenoguanosine. These compounds probably arise from a reaction with 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, the main aldehyde compound released during lipid peroxidation, or after occupational exposure to vinyl chloride. The quantity of chlorinated bases detected is low. All of this decay has to be repaired by the oocytes at the time of fertilization or immediately after. This aspect should not be overlooked in assisted reproductive technology, in order to understand risks and limitations

An Emerging EU Strategic Narrative? Twitter Communication during the EU’s Sustainable Energy Week

This article approaches the subject of the global recognition of the term ‘Normative Power Europe’ in external energy governance by engaging with the concept of strategic narratives. The article considers reactions to the European Union (EU) as a normative energy actor within a tripartite scheme of strategic narrative formation, projection and reception. The definition of a narrative suggests the presence of an actor, an action, a goal or intention, a scene and instrument. Those were identified for the emerging ‘Sustainable Energy Europe’ narrative and tested in one empirical case study: Twitter communications surrounding the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2013. In its method, our analysis is among the first to explore empirically the EU’s social media communication efforts. Answering a call for richer methodologies, which view social media data not as ‘quantitative data, rather qualitative data on a quantitative scale’, our analysis uses an original methodology and codes the Twitter data using a nuanced qualitative framework