Comic Book (Extended Intellectual Output 2 of Blurred Lives Project: a Cross-National Co-Participatory Exploration of Cyberbullying, Young People and Socio-Economic Disadvantage)

Pupils aged 14-16 years from all over Europe have developed a comic book on the impact of cyberbullying and how to act against it. The comics are developed by the pupils and redrawn by a professional illustrator. Each story is aimed at raising awareness among young people of your age regarding the problem of cyberbullying and offers tools to combat it. In addition, the comic books include reflective questions and assignments to help you to better understand cyberbullying and think of effective solutions

Coping with cybervictimization: The role of direct confrontation and resilience on adolescent wellbeing

Background. Recent studies have consistently identified the negative consequences of cyberbullying on adolescent mental health. Nevertheless, not all cybervictims are alike, and in the last few years some evidence has appeared indicating that faced with cyberbullying, victims may manifest different emotional outcomes. In this study, we explored whether cybervictim resilience fully or partially mediates the effects of cybervictimization and whether a confrontational coping strategy impacts emotional symptoms. Methods. The study was carried out with a sample of 474 high school students equally distributed between males and females. Data were collected using a questionnaire comprising four measures assessing cybervictimization, direct confrontation coping strategy, resilience and emotional symptoms. Results. Structural equation modelling indicated that the effects of cybervictimization and confrontational coping strategy on emotional symptoms were mediated by resilience, with cybervictimization showing a positive effect while direct confrontation a negative effect. Cybervictimization also showed a positive direct effect on emotional symptoms. Conclusions. These results are presented in light of their implications for designing effective interventions able to protect and promote adolescents\u2019 psychological wellbeing

Consumption of carotenoids not increased by bacterial infection in brown trout embryos (Salmo trutta).

Carotenoids are organic pigment molecules that play important roles in signalling, control of oxidative stress, and immunity. Fish allocate carotenoids to their eggs, which gives them the typical yellow to red colouration and supports their resistance against microbial infections. However, it is still unclear whether carotenoids act mainly as a shield against infection or are used up during the embryos' immune defence. We investigated this question with experimental families produced from wild-caught brown trout (Salmo trutta). Singly raised embryos were either exposed to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas fluorescens or sham-treated at one of two stages during their development. A previous study on these experimental families reported positive effects of egg carotenoids on embryo growth and resistance against the infection. Here, we quantified carotenoid consumption, i.e. the active metabolization of carotenoids into compounds that are not other carotenoid types, in these infected and sham-infected maternal sib groups. We found that carotenoid contents mostly decreased during embryogenesis. However, these decreases were neither linked to the virulence induced by the pathogen nor dependent on the time point of infection. We conclude that egg carotenoids are not significantly used up by the embryos' immune defence

Maternal allocation of carotenoids increases tolerance to bacterial infection in brown trout.

Life-history theory predicts that iteroparous females allocate their resources differently among different breeding seasons depending on their residual reproductive value. In iteroparous salmonids there is typically much variation in egg size, egg number, and in the compounds that females allocate to their clutch. These compounds include various carotenoids whose functions are not sufficiently understood yet. We sampled 37 female and 35 male brown trout from natural streams, collected their gametes for in vitro fertilizations, experimentally produced 185 families in 7 full-factorial breeding blocks, raised the developing embryos singly (n = 2960), and either sham-treated or infected them with Pseudomonas fluorescens. We used female redness (as a measure of carotenoids stored in the skin) and their allocation of carotenoids to clutches to infer maternal strategies. Astaxanthin contents largely determined egg colour. Neither egg weight nor female size was correlated with the content of this carotenoid. However, astaxanthin content was positively correlated with larval growth and with tolerance against P. fluorescens. There was a negative correlation between female skin redness and the carotenoid content of their eggs. Although higher astaxanthin contents in the eggs were associated with an improvement of early fitness-related traits, some females appeared not to maximally support their current offspring as revealed by the negative correlation between female red skin colouration and egg carotenoid content. This correlation was not explained by female size and supports the prediction of a maternal trade-off between current and future reproduction

The Intestinal Microbiota Contributes to the Ability of Helminths to Modulate Allergic Inflammation

We thank Manuel Kulagin for technical help, Pierre Bonnaventure for portal vein blood sampling, Francisco Sepulveda for technical assistance in GS-MS acquisition, and Dorothee Hahne (Metabolomics Australia, University of Western Australia) for human samples SCFA isolation, acquisition, and analysis. We also thank Cristina Cartoni (Phenotyping Unit, EPFL) for Milliplex analysis, Jessica Dessimoz and her team from the Histology Core Facility (EPFL), Miguel Garcia and his team from the Flow Cytometry Core Facility (EPFL), and staff from the EPFL CPG animal house for excellent animal care. The computations were partially performed at the Vital-IT Center for high-performance computing of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (http://www.vital-it.ch). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. 310948. Funding for A.W.W. and a subset of the 16S rRNA gene sequencing was provided by the Wellcome Trust (grant number WT 098051). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Illegals abortions and utero-digestives lesions: retrospective study of 12 cases in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Treichville teaching hospital (Abidjan, Cote D’ivoire)

Background: Traumatic intestinal digestive damage after abortion by endo-uterine manoeuvres are not uncommon. The purpose of this study is to describe the diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic aspects of these lesions.Methods: This is a retrospective study of 3 years on patients with a uterine lesion associated with a digestive traumatic injury during illegal abortions endo-uterine manoeuvres.Results: 12 patients with a median age of 23, 9 are included. The clinical manifestations are not specific: impairment of the general condition 33.3%; hyperthermia 83.3% (or 10 cases); digestive disorders such as diarrhoea 25%, vomiting 33.3%; abdominal pain 100%; occlusive syndrome 16.7%; acute abdominal syndrome 75%. The seat of traumatic injuries is variable. The lesions were for hail alone in 4 cases (33.3%), colon alone for 2 cases (16.7%), rectum 1 case and epiploon 2 cases. In these 3 cases, the lesions were associated, sitting on both the hail and the colon at a time. All these lesions were associated with uterine perforation of variable siege. The therapeutic management consisted of a small bowel resection with ileostomy in 5 cases or 41.7%; colon resection with colostomy 3 cases or 25%; suture lesions after beveling beiges 5 cases either 41, 7 in 2 cases, we performed haemostasis on the bleeding epiploon. Treatment of the uterine lesion was conservative 75% of the time. The evolution on the 10 patients was favorable, 83.3%. Two patients died early in the operative course after septic shock.Conclusions: The digestive lesions are a factor aggravating the prognosis of post-abortion uterine manoeuvres. Their management must be rapid and requires close collaboration between the digestive surgeon and the Gynecologist

Using the quality circle approach to empower disadvantaged youth in addressing cyberbullying: an exploration across five European countries

Digital communication technologies play an important role in the social development of young people, but can create vulnerabilities to cyberbullying and other negative online experiences. The Blurred Lives project aimed to tackle cyberbullying innovatively using a co-participatory approach, collaborating with 14–16-year olds living in areas of socio-economic disadvantage in five European countries. In phase one, 2,658 teenagers were surveyed on their internet use and any unpleasant online experiences. This data informed the second phase where the participating countries worked together with 237 adolescents across 10 schools with adult facilitators to create original anti-cyberbullying resources for teachers, parents/carers, peers, and social media providers using the Quality Circle approach. This methodology adopts an ethos of working together to solve a problem in small, peer-led groups. Each group was tasked with creating a resource for one of the target audience groups. The final resources comprise a rich variety of different formats including videos, comic strips, a board game, leaflets, posters, and newsletters. The pupil feedback highlights, for most but not all participants, an increased knowledge of cyberbullying and e-safety skills, as well as enhanced problem-solving skills, levels of confidence, and group work skills. Several operational challenges are also discussed, including the importance of school-level support, planning, staffing, and finding an appropriate balance between facilitator support and pupil agency