Les proximités mobilisées par un méga-système de panier halieutique, l’AMAP Poisson Yeu-Nantes

The aim of this contribution analyses how mains collective organizations territorialized forms (COTF) in farming and fishing supply chains participates in a more sustainable relocation of food systems in Pays de la Loire region. More exactly, we try to show how proximity supply chains are building crossing of organizational and spatial logics. To do this, our reflexion leans on two COTF cases. The first case named Bio Loire Ocean, joins about sixty organic farmers engaged in an organic fruits and vegetables supply chain structuring. The second case, a community support fishing between Yeu-Nantes, organizes a short food supply chain between Yeu’s island fishermen and Nantes’ city consumers

Development of ClearPEM-Sonic, a multimodal mammography system for PET and Ultrasound

International audience; ClearPEM-Sonic is an innovative imaging device specifically developed for breast cancer. The possibility to work in PEM-Ultrasound multimodality allows to obtain metabolic and morphological information increasing the specificity of the exam. The ClearPEM detector is developed to maximize the sensitivity and the spatial resolution as compared to Whole-Body PET scanners. It is coupled with a 3D ultrasound system, the SuperSonic Imagine Aixplorer that improves the specificity of the exam by providing a tissue elasticity map. This work describes the ClearPEM-Sonic project focusing on the technological developments it has required, the technical merits (and limits) and the first multimodal images acquired on a dedicated phantom. It finally presents selected clinical case studies that confirm the value of PEM information

Towards sustainable agricultural landscapes: Lessons from an interdisciplinary research-based framework applied to the Saint Lawrence floodplain

Abstract Floodplains are unique environments that provide a dynamic link between terrestrial and aquatic systems. Intensification of human activity – particularly agriculture and urbanisation – has resulted in the degradation of floodplains worldwide. Restoration and sustainable management of floodplains requires holistic assessment and compromise between stakeholders to successfully balance environmental, economic, and social benefits. Yet, understanding these complex systems sufficiently to provide evidence-based recommendations is a challenge. We present the lessons learned from establishing an interdisciplinary research-based framework on the agricultural floodplain of Lake Saint Pierre, Québec, Canada, whose mandate was to a) understand and define key environmental, agricultural, and socioeconomic attributes of the landscape, b) quantify the trade-offs and synergies between these attributes across different agricultural practices, regions, and land uses, and c) explore novel agri-environmental management practices to assess their role in sustainable floodplain management. Within this manuscript, we explore the benefits that such an approach offers in evaluating sustainable floodplain land use. We found that an interdisciplinary research-based approach demonstrated important benefits such as knowledge transfer, more efficient use of resources (e.g., personnel, funding), and a flexible yet robust research framework. A framework of individual research projects connected to broader interdisciplinary themes allowed a more holistic synthesis of the floodplain systems and assessment of agri-environmental practices. By implicitly considering spatial and social scales, we conceptualised not just how redistribution of the land use types can meet sustainable management objectives, but also explored how compromises within existing uses can optimise socio-economic, agricultural and environmental dimensions and move towards a sustainable multifunctional landscape

Aquaponics and global food challenges

As the world’s population grows, the demands for increased food pro- duction expand, and as the stresses on resources such as land, water and nutrients become ever greater, there is an urgent need to find alternative, sustainable and reliable methods to provide this food. The current strategies for supplying more produce are neither ecologically sound nor address the issues of the circular econ- omy of reducing waste whilst meeting the WHO’s Millennium Development Goals of eradicating hunger and poverty by 2015. Aquaponics, a technology that integrates aquaculture and hydroponics, provides part of the solution. Although aquaponics has developed considerably over recent decades, there are a number of key issues that still need to be fully addressed, including the development of energy-efficient systems with optimized nutrient recycling and suitable pathogen controls. There is also a key issue of achieving profitability, which includes effective value chains and efficient supply chain management. Legislation, licensing and policy are also keys to the success of future aquaponics, as are the issues of education and research, which are discussed across this book

The V471A polymorphism in autophagy-related gene ATG7 modifies age at onset specifically in Italian Huntington disease patients

The cause of Huntington disease (HD) is a polyglutamine repeat expansion of more than 36 units in the huntingtin protein, which is inversely correlated with the age at onset of the disease. However, additional genetic factors are believed to modify the course and the age at onset of HD. Recently, we identified the V471A polymorphism in the autophagy-related gene ATG7, a key component of the autophagy pathway that plays an important role in HD pathogenesis, to be associated with the age at onset in a large group of European Huntington disease patients. To confirm this association in a second independent patient cohort, we analysed the ATG7 V471A polymorphism in additional 1,464 European HD patients of the “REGISTRY” cohort from the European Huntington Disease Network (EHDN). In the entire REGISTRY cohort we could not confirm a modifying effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism. However, analysing a modifying effect of ATG7 in these REGISTRY patients and in patients of our previous HD cohort according to their ethnic origin, we identified a significant effect of the ATG7 V471A polymorphism on the HD age at onset only in the Italian population (327 patients). In these Italian patients, the polymorphism is associated with a 6-years earlier disease onset and thus seems to have an aggravating effect. We could specify the role of ATG7 as a genetic modifier for HD particularly in the Italian population. This result affirms the modifying influence of the autophagic pathway on the course of HD, but also suggests population-specific modifying mechanisms in HD pathogenesis

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Contribution of F-18-FDG PET/CT on non-operated prosthetic valve infective endocarditis follow-up

International audienceIntroduction. - Prosthetic valve endocarditis is a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge; F-18-FDG PET/CT has seen increasing use and has been incorporated in the latest ESC endocarditis guidelines. Follow-up by PET/CT has never been studied. The aim was to study the use of PET/CT to help predicting recurrences after full antibiotic treatment. Methods. - From January 2011 to April 2016, all patients presenting with definite or possible prosthetic valve endocarditis were included and had a PET/CT after admission. After discharge, non-operated patients had a second PET/CT from 6 to 10 weeks after the end of intravenous antibiotic treatment, in addition to clinical and echocardiographic follow-up. Results. - Among 276 patients with prosthetic valve admitted for suspicion of infective endocarditis, 43 of them with an abnormal prosthetic uptake on the first PET/CT had a second PET/CT within a mean period of 67.3 days after the end of intravenous antibiotic treatment. The mean follow-up was 414 days. Five recurrences occurred among the 34 patients with persistent abnormal prosthetic uptake on second PET/CT, there was no recurrence among the nine patients who had no more abnormal prosthetic uptake. Conclusion. - This is the first study to evaluate the potential benefits of PET/CT for medically treated PVE follow-up. All recurrences occurred among patients with persistent abnormal prosthetic uptake on second PET/CT. An unexpected finding was the potential of bone-marrow and splenic uptake evolution, which is underused in IE and showed an interesting potential in the prognosis of these patients. (C) 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved

rTMS in fibromyalgia: a randomized trial evaluating QoL and its brain metabolic substrate

OBJECTIVE: This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study investigated the impact of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on quality of life (QoL) of patients with fibromyalgia, and its possible brain metabolic substrate. METHODS: Thirty-eight patients were randomly assigned to receive high-frequency rTMS (n = 19) or sham stimulation (n = 19), applied to left primary motor cortex in 14 sessions over 10 weeks. Primary clinical outcomes were QoL changes at the end of week 11, measured using the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Secondary clinical outcomes were mental and physical QoL component measured using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), but also pain, mood, and anxiety. Resting-state [(18)F]-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET metabolism was assessed at baseline, week 2, and week 11. Whole-brain voxel-based analysis was performed to study between-group metabolic changes over time. RESULTS: At week 11, patients of the active rTMS group had greater QoL improvement in the FIQ (p = 0.032) and in the mental component of the SF-36 (p = 0.019) than the sham stimulation group. No significant impact was found for other clinical outcomes. Compared with the sham stimulation group, patients of the active rTMS group presented an increase in right medial temporal metabolism between baseline and week 11 (p < 0.001), which was correlated with FIQ and mental component SF-36 concomitant changes (r = -0.38, p = 0.043; r = 0.51, p = 0.009, respectively). QoL improvement involved mainly affective, emotional, and social dimensions. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that rTMS improves QoL of patients with fibromyalgia. This improvement is associated with a concomitant increase in right limbic metabolism, arguing for a neural substrate to the impact of rTMS on emotional dimensions involved in QoL. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class II evidence that rTMS compared with sham rTMS improves QoL in patients with fibromyalgia

Assessing the sustainability of activity systems to support households' farming projects

Partie 2 "Multiple aspects to develop methodologies for sustainability assessment of farming systems"This chapter aims to introduce the setting up of an evaluation tool assessing the sustainability of activity systems and supporting farming households' projects at the establishment stage. This chapter analyses three methods used to appreciate the farm sustainability and identifies not only their limits but also their contributions to our own methodology, at the level of complex activity systems in which farming production is combined with transformation, sales or outside activities. We propose to recognise two different contributions to sustainable agriculture: a farm-focused sustainability and an extended sustainability, which means a contribution to the sustainable development at a regional scale. These theoretical elements were regularly confronted with the analysis of advisors' practices and comprehensive surveys with households in Southern France, where an analysis was carried through a partnership with researchers and local actors. It produced a tool to appraise agricultural projects, with pluriactivity or without, distinguishing farm-focused and extended sustainability