Maternal levels of endocrine disruptors, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, in early pregnancy are not associated with lower birth weight in the Canadian birth cohort GESTE

Abstract: Background: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers are known endocrine disrupting environmental contaminants used as flame retardants. Their levels have increased in humans over the last ten years, raising concerns about their consequences on human health. Some animal studies suggest that PBDEs can affect fetal growth; however, the results of human studies are contradictory. This study evaluates the association between the most common PBDEs in maternal blood measured in early pregnancy and birth weight. Methods: BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100 and BDE-153 levels were measured in 349 women during their first prenatal care visit at the University Hospital Center of Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada). Birth weight and relevant medical information were collected from medical records. In contrast with previous studies, we examined the full range of clinical risk factors known to affect fetal growth as potential confounders, as well as other environmental pollutants that are likely to interact with fetal growth (polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, lead, cadmium and manganese). Results: There was no statistically significant relationship between PBDE levels in early pregnancy and birth weight in both unadjusted and multivariate regression models. Conclusions: Our results suggest that PBDEs in early pregnancy have little or no direct impact on birth weight, at least at the levels of exposure in our population

A global research priority agenda to advance public health responses to fatty liver disease

Background & aims An estimated 38% of adults worldwide have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). From individual impacts to widespread public health and economic consequences, the implications of this disease are profound. This study aimed to develop an aligned, prioritised fatty liver disease research agenda for the global health community. Methods Nine co-chairs drafted initial research priorities, subsequently reviewed by 40 core authors and debated during a three-day in-person meeting. Following a Delphi methodology, over two rounds, a large panel (R1 n = 344, R2 n = 288) reviewed the priorities, via Qualtrics XM, indicating agreement using a four-point Likert-scale and providing written feedback. The core group revised the draft priorities between rounds. In R2, panellists also ranked the priorities within six domains: epidemiology, models of care, treatment and care, education and awareness, patient and community perspectives, and leadership and public health policy. Results The consensus-built fatty liver disease research agenda encompasses 28 priorities. The mean percentage of ‘agree’ responses increased from 78.3 in R1 to 81.1 in R2. Five priorities received unanimous combined agreement (‘agree’ + ‘somewhat agree’); the remaining 23 priorities had >90% combined agreement. While all but one of the priorities exhibited at least a super-majority of agreement (>66.7% ‘agree’), 13 priorities had 90% combined agreement. Conclusions Adopting this multidisciplinary consensus-built research priorities agenda can deliver a step-change in addressing fatty liver disease, mitigating against its individual and societal harms and proactively altering its natural history through prevention, identification, treatment, and care. This agenda should catalyse the global health community’s efforts to advance and accelerate responses to this widespread and fast-growing public health threat. Impact and implications An estimated 38% of adults and 13% of children and adolescents worldwide have fatty liver disease, making it the most prevalent liver disease in history. Despite substantial scientific progress in the past three decades, the burden continues to grow, with an urgent need to advance understanding of how to prevent, manage, and treat the disease. Through a global consensus process, a multidisciplinary group agreed on 28 research priorities covering a broad range of themes, from disease burden, treatment, and health system responses to awareness and policy. The findings have relevance for clinical and non-clinical researchers as well as funders working on fatty liver disease and non-communicable diseases more broadly, setting out a prioritised, ranked research agenda for turning the tide on this fast-growing public health threat

HiPoLDS: A security policy language for distributed systems

Expressing security policies to govern distributed systems is a complex and error-prone task. Policies are hard to understand, often expressed with unfriendly syntax, making it difficult to security administrators and to business analysts to create intelligible specifications. We introduce the Hierarchical Policy Language for Distributed Systems (HiPoLDS ). HiPoLDS has been designed to enable the specification of security policies in distributed systems in a concise, readable, and extensible way. HiPoLDS's design focuses on decentralized execution environments under the control of multiple stakeholders. Policy enforcement employs distributed reference monitors who control the flow of information between services. HiPoLDS allows the definition of both abstract and concrete policies, expressing respectively high-level properties required and concrete implementation details to be ultimately introduced into the service implementation. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

HiPoLDS: A hierarchical security policy language for distributed systems

Expressing security policies to govern distributed systems is a complex and error-prone task. Policies are hard to understand, often expressed with unfriendly syntax, making it difficult for security administrators and for business analysts to create intelligible specifications. We introduce the Hierarchical Policy Language for Distributed Systems (HiPoLDS), which has been designed to enable the specification of security policies in distributed systems in a concise, readable, and extensible way. HiPoLDS design focuses on decentralized execution environments under the control of multiple stakeholders. It represents policy enforcement through the use of distributed reference monitors, which control the flow of information between services. HiPoLDS allows the definition of both abstract and concrete policies, expressing respectively high-level properties required and concrete implementation details to be ultimately introduced into the service implementation. \ua9 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Factors driving cereal response to fertilizer microdosing in sub‐Saharan Africa: A meta‐analysis

Fertilizer microdosing (FM) is being promoted in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to boost crop productivity on smallholder farms. However, yield response variability is a barrier to adoption. We conducted a meta-analysis to analyze the variability in cereal crop yield response to FM and to determine the main factors associated with this variability. Thirty publications pertaining to millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.], sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) or maize (Zea mays L.) were assessed. Factors analyzed were crop type, rainfall, soil texture, type and rate of fertilizer, and complementary practices. On average, FM improved millet, sorghum and maize crop yields by 68%. Yield response tended to increase with increasing rainfall and the largest yield gains were observed in medium-textured soils (81%), as compared to light (61%) and heavy-textured soils (30%). The combined application of N and P performed better than either element alone. Crop response tended to increase with increasing rates of N. In the case of P, this was true only on light textured-soils. On medium-textured soils, the response appeared independent of the rate of P. There was a synergetic effect of water conservation measures on the performance of FM, while combining FM with organic matter (OM) amendments decreased its performance. Results highlighted major trends in cereal crop response to FM that could be used to prioritize target areas. However, these may require additional, site-specific field experiments, especially for factors for which little data is currently available

At the century mark (messages celebrating the 100th issue of the journal)

International audienceno abstrac