Obesity is positively associated with dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate concentrations at 7 y in Chilean children of normal birth weight.

BACKGROUND: In low-birth-weight girls, obesity increases the risk of premature adrenarche and metabolic complications. However, the consistency of this association in normal-birth-weight children and its potential mediators remain unknown. OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to assess the associations between obesity indicators and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) at 7 y of age and to evaluate the role of hormonal markers on these associations. DESIGN: We assessed in 969 participants (6.9 y; 48% girls; all Tanner I) in the Growth and Obesity Chilean Cohort Study the associations between DHEAS and weight, BMI, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio, skinfold thickness, and percentage total fat (bioimpedance) and determined whether these associations were related to insulin, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), and leptin. We also compared BMI and height growth from 0 to 7 y of age in nonobese and obese children with normal and high DHEAS (≥75th percentile) at 7 y. RESULTS: DHEAS concentrations were similar between girls (30.3 ±1.86 μg/dL) and boys (29.4 ±1.73 μg/dL) (P > 0.05); 17.3% of children were obese (BMI-for-age z score ≥2 SD). Adiposity indicators were positively and similarly associated with DHEAS [ie, BMI, β standardized regression coefficient: 0.23 (95% CI: 0.17, 0.29); WC, β standardized regression coefficient: 0.23 (95% CI: 0.16, 0.30)]; these associations were only partially related to IGF-I and leptin. Obese children had twice the risk of high DHEAS (OR: 2.16; 95% CI: 1.51, 3.09); at 7 y, obese children with high DHEAS were fatter and more centrally obese than their counterparts (P 0.05). None of the results differed by sex (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: In children of normal birth weight, obesity is positively associated with DHEAS at 7 y of age

Étude rétrospective sur les radiographies du service des urgences de l'ENVT entre 2016 et 2019 : étude lésionnelle sur 1114 cas

La radiographie constitue une aide importante dans l’établissement rapide d’un diagnostic pour un animal présenté en urgence. Cette étude rétrospective s’intéresse aux chiens et chats admis aux urgences du CHUVAC de l’ENVT entre 2016 et 2019, et ayant bénéficié d’un examen radiographique. Il a été recensé 1114 animaux, dont 615 chiens et 499 chats, ainsi que les 2029 observations qui ont été réalisées sur ces radiographies. Les chiens sont légèrement plus fréquents que les chats et présentent autant de lésions thoraciques qu’abdominales, alors que les chats ont le plus souvent des lésions thoraciques. Ces lésions thoraciques sont principalement pulmonaires, alors que les lésions abdominales concernent majoritairement la cavité péritonéale. Les lésions osseuses concernent plus fréquemment le squelette appendiculaire que le squelette axial

Approche intégrée du dessalement d'eau de mer :\ud Distillation membranaire sous vide pour la réduction des rejets salins et possibilités de\ud couplage avec l'énergie solaire

Le problème de pénurie en eau potable se pose encore de nos jours dans de nombreux pays. Du fait\ud de l’importance de la ressource en eau présente dans les océans, la solution du dessalement de l’eau\ud de mer est en constant progrès. Ce dessalement se fait actuellement majoritairement par osmose\ud inverse. Cependant, ce procédé membranaire est limité en facteur de concentration en raison de la\ud pression osmotique de l’eau de mer qui augmente avec la concentration en sels. Il en résulte des\ud volumes importants de rejets salins dans l’eau de mer ce qui perturbe l’équilibre du milieu naturel. Une\ud approche originale a été proposée dans le cadre du projet européen MEDINA afin de réduire ces\ud rejets. Il s’agit de l’utilisation du procédé de distillation membranaire sous vide (DMV) au sein d’une\ud filière intégrée d’OI. En effet, la DMV permet d’opérer à de fortes concentrations en sels et elle peut\ud également être couplée avec l’énergie solaire dans un objectif d’économie d’énergie.\ud La démarche adoptée dans cette étude consiste à étudier l’utilisation de la DMV pour des eaux très\ud concentrées en sels, à la fois des eaux synthétiques mais aussi des eaux réelles (eaux de mer et\ud rétentats d’osmose inverse). Une double approche à la fois expérimentale (à l’aide d’un pilote à\ud échelle laboratoire) et théorique (par un outil de modélisation) a été utilisée.\ud Les résultats ont montré l’intérêt de la DMV pour la surconcentration des rétentats d’OI. En effet, la\ud DMV peut travailler à des fortes concentrations en sels jusqu’à 300 g.L-1 tout en maintenant des flux\ud de perméat encore importants (7 L.h-1.m-2) et un perméat avec une très faible salinité (taux de rejet en\ud sels de 99,96 %). Les volumes de rejets peuvent ainsi être réduits par 5 et le taux de conversion\ud augmente jusqu’à presque 90 %. Les phénomènes de colmatage (cristallin, organique et biologique)\ud sont également limités. Des dépôts de cristaux de sels ont pu être observés et analysés. Des\ud mécanismes de cristallisation ont été proposés mettant en évidence le rôle majeur du calcium.\ud Le couplage de la DMV avec des technologies solaires thermiques permet une réduction importante\ud de la demande énergétique. Les utilisations d’étangs solaires à gradient de salinité et de collecteurs\ud solaires thermiques ont été comparées et ont montré les potentialités intéressantes des collecteurs\ud solaires thermiques en termes de température atteinte et donc de flux de perméat. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The lack of potable water is still a problem in many countries. Considering the nearly endless water\ud resource in the oceans, seawater desalination is an increasing attractive solution. Reverse Osmosis\ud (RO) desalination is the main technology used nowadays. However, RO is limited in recovery factor\ud due to the osmotic pressure which increases with salinity. It results high brine volume rejected directly\ud in seawater which induces environmental perturbations. An innovative approach was proposed in the\ud frame of the European project MEDINA in order to reduce these brines: the use of vacuum membrane\ud distillation (VMD) in an integrated RO desalination process. Indeed, VMD allows operating at high salt\ud concentration and can be coupled with solar thermal energy in order to reduce energy requirement.\ud The present work consisted in studying use of VMD for highly salty concentrated waters, both for\ud synthetic and real waters (seawater and RO retentate). An experimental approach was used with a\ud lab-scale pilot plant completed by a theorical approach with a modelling tool.\ud Results show the interest of VMD for the overconcentration of RO retentates. Indeed, VMD can be\ud operated at high salt concentration up to 300 g.L-1 maintaining still high permeate fluxes (7 L.h-1.m-2)\ud and nearly pure permeate (salt rejection of 99.96 %). Brine volumes can so be reduced by 5 and\ud recovery factor increased up to nearly 90 %. Fouling (organic, scaling or bio-fouling) is limited. Salt\ud crystal deposit has been observed and analysed. Precipitation mechanisms have been proposed,\ud mainly with the crucial part of the calcium.\ud VMD coupling with solar thermal technologies allow an important reduction of the energy requirement.\ud Use of salinity gradient solar ponds and solar thermal collectors have been compared and have shown\ud the potentialities of using solar thermal collector in order to obtain high temperatures and so high\ud permeate fluxes\u

Polymeric membranes for treatment of produced water on offshore plateform

Introduction Phase separation using non-solvent coagulation of a polymer solution is the most widespread industrial process to manufacture membranes. Large solvent quantity is then use that it complicates the overall process and may lead to environmental and health problems. Knowing that polymer concentration is usually in the range 15-20 % and coagulation and washing baths require to be often renewed, large amounts of aqueous solutions must be treated. For instance 10 m2 of ultrafiltration membrane need about 1 to 1.5 kg of solvent. Our objective in this proposal is to develop a novel process for membrane mass production in agreement with the principles of green chemistry. The main technical and economic output of using water instead organic solvents should consist in a simplification of the manufacturing process by lowering wastes and recycling. Environmental outputs will be a safer process, more economic on atoms, limiting the wastes and applicable to renewable naturally-occurring polymers. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Novel loci and Mapuche genetic ancestry are associated with pubertal growth traits in Chilean boys

Puberty is a complex developmental process that varies considerably among individuals and populations. Genetic factors explain a large proportion of the variability of several pubertal traits. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of variants involved in traits that result from body growth, like adult height. However, they do not capture many genetic loci involved in growth changes over distinct growth phases. Further, such GWAS have been mostly performed in Europeans, but it is unknown how these findings relate to other continental populations. In this study, we analyzed the genetic basis of three pubertal traits; namely, peak height velocity (PV), age at PV (APV) and height at APV (HAPV). We analyzed a cohort of 904 admixed Chilean children and adolescents with European and Mapuche Native American ancestries. Height was measured on roughly a 6−month basis from childhood to adolescence between 2006 and 2019. We predict that, in average, HAPV is 4.3 cm higher in European than in Mapuche adolescents (P = 0.042), and APV is 0.73 years later in European compared with Mapuche adolescents (P = 0.023). Further, by performing a GWAS on 774, 433 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, we identified a genetic signal harboring 3 linked variants significantly associated with PV in boys (P <5×10−8). This signal has never been associated with growth-related traits

Autosomal dominant hypoparathyroidism associated with short stature and premature osteoarthritis

Familial hypoparathyroidism is an unusual and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders that may be isolated or may be associated with congenital or acquired abnormalities in other organs or glands. We have evaluated a family with a novel syndrome of autosomal dominant hypoparathyroidism, short stature, and premature osteoarthritis. A 74-yr-old female (generation I) presented with hypoparathyroidism, a movement disorder secondary to ectopic calcification of the cerebellum and basal ganglia, and a history of knee and hip replacements for osteoarthritis. Two members of generation II and one member of generation III were also documented with hypoparathyroidism, short stature, and premature osteoarthritis evident as early as 11 yr. Because of the known association between autosomal dominant hypoparathyroidism and activating mutations of the calcium-sensing receptor (CaR) gene, further studies were performed. Sequencing of PCR-amplified genomic DNA revealed a leucine to valine substitution at position 616 in the first transmembrane domain of the CaR, which cosegregated with the disorder. However, this amino acid sequence change did not affect the total accumulation of inositol phosphates as a function of extracellular calcium concentrations in transfected HEK-293 cells. In conclusion, a sequence alteration in the coding region of the CaR gene was identified, but is not conclusively involved in the etiology of this novel syndrome. The cosegregation of hypoparathyroidism, short stature, and osteoarthritis in this kindred does suggest a genetic abnormality involving a common molecular mechanism in parathyroid, bone, and cartilage

Functionally compromised CHD7 alleles in patients with isolated GnRH deficiency

Inactivating mutations in chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 7 (CHD7) cause CHARGE syndrome, a severe multiorgan system disorder of which Isolated gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) deficiency (IGD) is a minor feature. Recent reports have described predominantly missense CHD7 alleles in IGD patients, but it is unclear if these alleles are relevant to causality or overall genetic burden of Kallmann syndrome (KS) and normosmic form of IGD. To address this question, we sequenced CHD7 in 783 well-phenotyped IGD patients lacking full CHARGE features; we identified nonsynonymous rare sequence variants in 5.2% of the IGD cohort (73% missense and 27% splice variants). Functional analyses in zebrafish using a surrogate otolith assay of a representative set of these CHD7 alleles showed that rare sequence variants observed in controls showed no altered function. In contrast, 75% of the IGD-associated alleles were deleterious and resulted in both KS and normosmic IGD. In two families, pathogenic mutations in CHD7 coexisted with mutations in other known IGD genes. Taken together, our data suggest that rare deleterious CHD7 alleles contribute to the mutational burden of patients with both KS and normosmic forms of IGD in the absence of full CHARGE syndrome. These findings (i) implicate a unique role or preferential sensitivity for CHD7 in the ontogeny of GnRH neurons, (ii) reiterate the emerging genetic complexity of this family of IGD disorders, and (iii) demonstrate how the coordinated use of well-phenotyped cohorts, families, and functional studies can inform genetic architecture and provide insights into the developmental biology of cellular systems