An unusual pituitary pathology

peer reviewe

Examining the international bushmeat traffic in Belgium: A threat to conservation and public health.

peer reviewedThe carriage of bushmeat into the European Union is an infringement of EU Animal Health and Wildlife Trade legislation and poses a threat to biodiversity and public health. To explore the nature and scale of the international bushmeat trade, seized leaking luggage and passengers arriving at Brussels Zaventem airport from sub-Saharan Africa between 2017 and 2018 were searched for "meat" (bushmeat and livestock) by border control authorities. Visual identification, radiography and genetic analysis were applied to derive information from seized specimens, including at least ten CITES-listed species. We estimate that an average of 3.9 t of bushmeat is smuggled monthly through Brussels. The average consignment of meat seized per passenger was 2.8 kg and 4 kg of bushmeat or domestic livestock meat, respectively. The international trafficking of bushmeat is evidently active, yet penalties are rarely enforced; hence we provide suggestions to simplify law enforcement procedures

The impact of human activities and lifestyles on the interlinked microbiota and health of humans and of ecosystems

Plants, animals and humans, are colonized by microorganisms (microbiota) and transiently exposed to countless others. The microbiota affects the development and function of essentially all organ systems, and contributes to adaptation and evolution, while protecting against pathogenic microorganisms and toxins. Genetics and lifestyle factors, including diet, antibiotics and other drugs, and exposure to the natural environment, affect the composition of the microbiota, which influences host health through modulation of interrelated physiological systems. These include immune system development and regulation, metabolic and endocrine pathways, brain function and epigenetic modification of the genome. Importantly, parental microbiotas have transgenerational impacts on the health of progeny. Humans, animals and plants share similar relationships with microbes. Research paradigms from humans and other mammals, amphibians, insects, planktonic crustaceans and plants demonstrate the influence of environmental microbial ecosystems on the microbiota and health of organisms, and indicate links between environmental and internal microbial diversity and good health. Therefore, overlapping compositions, and interconnected roles of microbes in human, animal and plant health should be considered within the broader context of terrestrial and aquatic microbial ecosystems that are challenged by the human lifestyle and by agricultural and industrial activities. Here, we propose research priorities and organizational, educational and administrative measures that will help to identify safe microbe-associated health-promoting modalities and practices. In the spirit of an expanding version of "One health" that includes environmental health and its relation to human cultures and habits (EcoHealth), we urge that the lifestyle-microbiota-human health nexus be taken into account in societal decision making. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Primary temporal bone angiosarcoma: a case report.

We present a rare case of temporal bone angiosarcoma diagnosed in a 26-year-old female patient at 36 week of pregnancy. The patient was referred with a 2 months history of left otalgia and tinnitus with a tender swelling above the mastoid. Cranial imaging studies showed a 7 x 5 x 4 cm hypervascularized mass located in the left middle fossa with lysis of the temporal bone and extension to the subcutis. After the baby was delivered by caesarean section, the patient entered the oncology protocol. Selective embolization of the feeding vessels was followed by gross total surgical resection using a combined supra- and infra-tentorial approach. Pathological findings were those of a poorly differentiated, highly malignant sarcoma with a large epitheloid component and immunohistochemical evidence of endothelial differentiation (CD31, Factor VIII related antigen, CD34), consistent with an angiosarcoma with epitheloid features. No extra-cranial tumor was found after extensive staging. The patient received adjuvant radiotherapy followed by a course of chemotherapy consisting of 6 cycles of paclitaxel. At 15 months follow-up, she developed multiple distant metastasis to a left postauricular lymph node and to the lungs and ribs. The patient was given a second line chemotherapy using doxorubicine and ifosfamide. Despite an initial good response, she died with metastatic disease 26 months after diagnosis. We present a rare case of primary temporal bone angiosarcoma and report our experience with a multimode therapeutic approach combining surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.Peer reviewe

Distinctive features of spatial planning nearby estuaries – an exploratory analysis of water-related rules in municipal master plans in Portugal

Land-use types and related intensities are often associated with pressures and disturbances on estuarine envi- ronmental values and ecosystem services provided by water. Although with varied legal frameworks across countries, broadly, spatial planning has been expected to contribute to the protection of environmentally sen- sitive areas, such as estuaries. Among the various planning tools are the plan’s land-use control rules. This article studies the incorporation of water-related terms in the regulations of municipal master plans to assess if land-use rules established on estuarine areas are significantly different from others, such as in upstream areas. It does so by developing a content analysis of a set of plans’ regulations located in estuarine and upstream areas of two river basins of Mainland Portugal. The results show greater incorporation of water-related terms in plans’ reg- ulations located in estuarine areas. Moreover, they show a greater diversity of water-related topics, types, and focus of rules on estuarine areas, whereas on upstream areas the regulatory approaches look poorer. Although the incorporation of water-related terms is globally higher in younger plans, and to a certain extent, in more arti- ficialized and dense territories, a clear distinctiveness of water-related concerns in land-use regulations of municipal plans on estuarine areas remains visible. Surprisingly, the results bring to the fore fragilities of land- use regulations on upstream areas worthy of attention in future studies. The methodology used for content analysis disclosed a valuable path for future research as it is easily expandable to take into consideration different land-uses or to be applied to different regions, to further refine if the distinctive features are explicitly related with estuarine areas or with other types of water problems.publishe

The importance of the exposome and allostatic load in the planetary health paradigm

In 1980, Jonas Salk (1914-1995) encouraged professionals in anthropology and related disciplines to consider the interconnections between "planetary health," sociocultural changes associated with technological advances, and the biology of human health. The concept of planetary health emphasizes that human health is intricately connected to the health of natural systems within the Earth's biosphere; experts in physiological anthropology have illuminated some of the mechanisms by which experiences in natural environments (or the built environment) can promote or detract from health. For example, shinrin-yoku and related research (which first emerged from Japan in the 1990s) helped set in motion international studies that have since examined physiological responses to time spent in natural and/or urban environments. However, in order to advance such findings into planetary health discourse, it will be necessary to further understand how these biological responses (inflammation and the collective of allostatic load) are connected to psychological constructs such as nature relatedness, and pro-social/environmental attitudes and behaviors. The exposome refers to total environmental exposures-detrimental and beneficial-that can help predict biological responses of the organism to environment over time. Advances in "omics" techniques-metagenomics, proteomics, metabolomics-and systems biology are allowing researchers to gain unprecedented insight into the physiological ramifications of human behavior. Objective markers of stress physiology and microbiome research may help illuminate the personal, public, and planetary health consequences of "extinction of experience." At the same time, planetary health as an emerging multidisciplinary concept will be strengthened by input from the perspectives of physiological anthropology.Peer reviewe

Can bacterial indicators of a grassy woodland restoration inform ecosystem assessment and microbiota-mediated human health?

Understanding how microbial communities change with environmental degradation and restoration may offer new insights into the understudied ecology that connects humans, microbiota, and the natural world. Immunomodulatory microbial diversity and ‘Old Friends’ are thought to be supplemented from biodiverse natural environments, yet deficient in anthropogenically disturbed or degraded environments. However, few studies have compared the microbiomes of natural vs. human-altered environments and there is little knowledge of which microbial taxa are representative of ecological restoration—i.e. the assisted recovery of degraded ecosystems typically towards a more natural, biodiverse state. Here we use novel bootstrap-style resampling of site-level soil bacterial 16S rRNA gene environmental DNA data to identify genus-level indicators of restoration from a 10-year grassy eucalypt woodland restoration chronosequence at Mt Bold, South Australia. We found two key indicator groups emerged: ‘opportunistic taxa’ that decreased in relative abundance with restoration and more stable and specialist, ‘niche-adapted taxa’ that increased. We validated these results, finding seven of the top ten opportunists and eight of the top ten niche-adapted taxa displayed consistent differential abundance patterns between human-altered vs. natural samples elsewhere across Australia. Extending this, we propose a two-dimensional mapping for ecosystem condition based on the proportions of these divergent indicator groups. We also show that restoring a more biodiverse ecosystem at Mt Bold has increased the potentially immune-boosting environmental microbial diversity. Furthermore, environmental opportunists including the pathogen-containing genera Bacillus, Clostridium, Enterobacter, Legionella and Pseudomonas associated with disturbed ecosystems. Our approach is generalizable with potential to inform DNA-based methods for ecosystem assessment and help target environmental interventions that may promote microbiota-mediated human health gains.Craig Liddicoat, Philip Weinstein, Andrew Bissett, Nicholas J.C.Gelliea, Jacob G.Mills, Michelle Waycotta, Martin F.Bree

Contribution à l'étude de la signification biologique des variations de taux en nucléotides cycliques, principalement en cGMP, induites par les oestrogènes dans l'utérus de rat

Doctorat en Sciencesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe