A Portal Technology to support European Organic Animal Production

Organic Agriculture (OA) is a reply to Global Society‘s interest in food safety and enviromental conservation. Many European countries have significantly developed the OA sector, where Organic Animal Farming (OAF) systems hold a major part. Since, OA principles, methods and products are constantly evolving, an increasing number of agricultural agencies are using Web sites or portals to provide OA information to stakeholders. However, finding trustworthy information on OA is still time consuming, fragmented and associated with linguistic obstacles. This paper reports a new on-line service that provides (a) access to multilingual, specialized, updated and certified on-line information covering all OA plant and animal production aspects, (b) access to electronic commerce and mobile services to all participants of the OA chain and (c) user-friendly access via various communication channels. The on-line services are implemented via a central portal at the European level, aiming to provide a single point access to vari-ous OA agents. The portal presented is the result of a research programme in the context of the European Union e-content project 11293 “BIO@GRO”. The http://bioagro.aua.gr portal is ambitious to cover all the information needs of the OA stakeholders

Membranous nephropathy and lupus-like syndrome after hematopoietic cell transplantation: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The kidney is increasingly recognised as a target organ of chronic graft-versus-host disease after hematopoietic cell transplantation in the context of the development of the nephrotic syndrome. Chronic graft-versus-host disease is associated with autoimmune phenomena similar, but not identical, to those observed in various rheumatologic disorders, implicating autoimmunity as an important component of the disease.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 57-year-old Caucasian man who developed the nephrotic syndrome due to membranous nephropathy in association with recurrent chronic graft-versus-host disease, along with a lupus-like syndrome manifested with pancytopenia, hair loss, positive anti-DNA antibodies and sub-epithelial and mesangial immune deposits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case reported in the literature. The nephrotic syndrome subsided soon after he was treated with a short course of cyclosporin with steroids. Unfortunately he died seven months later due to a relapse of leukemia.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our case report confirms the notion that chronic graft-versus-host disease is characterized by the appearance of autoimmune phenomena similar, but not identical, to those seen in autoimmune diseases. The decision for more immunosuppression has to be weighed against the need for preservation of the graft versus leukemia phenomenon.</p