Evolution of a fungal ecosystem in a water distribution system to a positive bacterial biofilm subsequent to a treatment using essential oils

AbstractThe present study aims to demonstrate the direct link between the microbial ecosystem of drinking water distribution systems and animal health in pig breeding. Based on a survey over 18 months, a treatment using essential oils proved to be efficient in increasing piglet health and zootechnical performance. Water pipe biofilms were monitored by laser scanning confocal microscopy, while zootechnical performance and health cost data were collected from professional organisations. In two representative monitored herds, it was observed that the drinking water distribution pipes, initially fouled by fungi, were replaced by a bacterial film while both veterinary costs and the total feed conversion ratio decreased. Essential oils may thus provide an efficient and sustainable alternative to the massive use of antibiotics for transforming an initial detrimental ecosystem to a positive biofilm

Sustained Progression-Free Survival Benefit of Rituximab Maintenance in Patients With Follicular Lymphoma : Long-Term Results of the PRIMA Study

PURPOSE The PRIMA study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00140582) established that 2 years of rituximab maintenance after first-line immunochemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with follicular lymphoma compared with observation. Here, we report the final PFS and overall survival (OS) results from the PRIMA study after 9 years of follow-up and provide a final overview of safety. METHODS Patients (> 18 years of age) with previously untreated high-tumor-burden follicular lymphoma were nonrandomly assigned to receive one of three immunochemotherapy induction regimens. Responding patients were randomly assigned (stratified by induction regimen, response to induction treatment, treatment center, and geographic region) 1:1 to receive 2 years of rituximab maintenance (375 mg/m(2), once every 8 weeks), starting 8 weeks after the last induction treatment, or observation (no additional treatment). All patients in the extended follow-up provided their written informed consent (data cutoff: December 31, 2016). RESULTS In total, 1,018 patients completed induction treatment and were randomly assigned to rituximab maintenance (n = 505) or observation (n = 513). Consent for the extended follow-up was provided by 607 patients (59.6%) of 1,018 (rituximab maintenance, n = 309; observation, n = 298). After data cutoff, median PFS was 10.5 years in the rituximab maintenance arm compared with 4.1 years in the observation arm (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.52 to 0.73; P <.001). No OS difference was seen in patients randomly assigned to rituximab maintenance or observation (hazard ratio, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.77 to 1.40; P = .7948); 10-year OS estimates were approximately 80% in both study arms. No new safety signals were observed. CONCLUSION Rituximab maintenance after induction immunochemotherapy provides a significant long-term PFS, but not OS, benefit over observation.Peer reviewe

Deep-Learning Assessed Muscular Hypodensity Independently Predicts Mortality in DLBCL Patients Younger Than 60 Years.

[en] BACKGROUND: Muscle depletion (MD) assessed by computed tomography (CT) has been shown to be a predictive marker in solid tumors, but has not been assessed in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Despite software improvements, MD measurement remains highly time-consuming and cannot be used in clinical practice. METHODS: This study reports the development of a Deep-Learning automatic segmentation algorithm (DLASA) to measure MD, and investigate its predictive value in a cohort of 656 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients included in the GAINED phase III prospective trial (NCT01659099). RESULTS: After training on a series of 190 patients, the DLASA achieved a Dice coefficient of 0.97 ± 0.03. In the cohort, the median skeletal muscle index was 50.2 cm2/m2 and median muscle attenuation (MA) was 36.1 Hounsfield units (HU). No impact of sarcopenia was found on either progression free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS). Muscular hypodensity, defined as MA below the tenth percentile according to sex, was associated with a lower OS and PFS, respectively (HR = 2.80 (95% CI 1.58-4.95), p < 0.001, and HR = 2.22 (95% CI 1.43-3.45), p < 0.001). Muscular hypodensity appears to be an independent risk factor for mortality in DLBCL and because of DLASA can be estimated in routine practice

A Tale of Two Governments? Government Responses and Perceived Influence in the 2014 Protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina

© The Author(s) (2018). Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) experienced an unprecedented wave of non-sectarian anti-government protests in 2014. Although the key motivating factors generally highlighted such as economic marginalization and poor governance were common throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, the protests did not extend to all parts of the country. Notably, despite very similar initial conditions in the two jurisdictions of the country, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) saw major unrest with a large number of participants in many locations while subsequent protest mobilization was much more limited in the Republic of Srpska (RS). We take advantage of the variation in the responses from the two governments in the same country to evaluate how observed and anticipated government responses can shape the willingness to join dissident activity. We argue that variation in government responses and its impact on perceptions on prospects for successful collective action can help account for the differences in mobilization across the two entities. We test our expectations using a new data set on protest events, participants and government responses in BiH from January to April 2014. Our findings are consistent with the argument that coherent repressive government policies tend to suppress mobilization, while mixes of repressive responses and concessions from the government can encourage further mobilization. The results for FBiH show clear variation in protest following changes in government behavior, and are consistent the claim that repressive responses likely suppressed mobilization in the RS.European Research Council and the Research Council of Norwa

Flexibility of human estrogen receptors and stability of estrogen receptor-ERE : salt dependence

International audienc