Avian erythrocytes have functional mitochondria, opening novel perspectives for birds as animal models in the study of ageing.

BACKGROUND: In contrast to mammalian erythrocytes, which have lost their nucleus and mitochondria during maturation, the erythrocytes of almost all other vertebrate species are nucleated throughout their lifespan. Little research has been done however to test for the presence and functionality of mitochondria in these cells, especially for birds. Here, we investigated those two points in erythrocytes of one common avian model: the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). RESULTS: Transmission electron microscopy showed the presence of mitochondria in erythrocytes of this small passerine bird, especially after removal of haemoglobin interferences. High-resolution respirometry revealed increased or decreased rates of oxygen consumption by erythrocytes in response to the addition of respiratory chain substrates or inhibitors, respectively. Fluorometric assays confirmed the production of mitochondrial superoxide by avian erythrocytes. Interestingly, measurements of plasmatic oxidative markers indicated lower oxidative stress in blood of the zebra finch compared to a size-matched mammalian model, the mouse. CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, those findings demonstrate that avian erythrocytes possess functional mitochondria in terms of respiratory activities and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Interestingly, since blood oxidative stress was lower for our avian model compared to a size-matched mammalian, our results also challenge the idea that mitochondrial ROS production could have been one actor leading to this loss during the course of evolution. Opportunities to assess mitochondrial functioning in avian erythrocytes open new perspectives in the use of birds as models for longitudinal studies of ageing via lifelong blood sampling of the same subjects.

Régulation de la religion par l'Etat. Nouvelles perspectives

Analyser les modalités de la régulation de la religion constitue une étape importante pour expliquer la recomposition de la religion en modernité tardive. Face aux interprétations dérivées des concepts d'individualisation ou de privatisation, l'affirmation peut apparaître provocante, puisqu'elle met en question l'idée d'autonomie du sujet croyant et la pertinence de l'utilisation sociologique du terme privé. Le traitement de cette problématique est particulièrement adéquat pour évaluer le rôle de l'État. Même si ce dernier n'est qu'un des agents de régulation à côté des médias, des organisations religieuses..., il contribue de façon souveraine au filtrage de la religion « acceptable ». Son mode de gestion varie d'un pays à l'autre, allant du pluralisme libéral au pluralisme technocratique. L'élaboration d'une typologie de ces modes de gestion s'avère donc indispensable. Sa vérification peut s'opérer au travers de l'étude comparative de la place faite à la religion dans les programmes scolaires. Elle éclaire en particulier le caractère pluraliste des États démocratiques et leur capacité à articuler valeurs économiques et valeurs humanistes. An analysis of the ways in which religion is regulated constitutes an important step in understanding the reconstructions of religion in late modernity. Such a stance can appear provocative, especially if contrasted with explanations that derive from concepts such as individualisation or privatisation, since it puts into question both the autonomy of the individual believer and the aptness of the term "private" in sociological understanding. These issues are particularly relevant when it comes to evaluating the role of the state. It is true that the latter is but one source of control, alongside the media, or religious organisations...; its influence is, however, dominant when it comes to deciding which forms of religion are, or are not, "acceptable". The methods vary from one country to another, ranging from liberal pluralism to technocratic pluralism. Hence the need to elaborate a typology, illustrating the different ways of working. It can be tested by comparing the place given to religion in different school systems. Above all such an approach reveals the pluralist character of the democratic state and its capacity to articulate both economic and humanistic values.

Testing for anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangement to target crizotinib therapy: oncology, pathology and health economic perspectives.

Crizotinib is a first-in-class oral anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor targeting ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer. The therapy was approved by the US FDA in August 2011 and received conditional marketing approval by the European Commission in October 2012 for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. A break-apart FISH-based assay was jointly approved with crizotinib by the FDA. This assay and an immunohistochemistry assay that uses a D5F3 rabbit monoclonal primary antibody were also approved for marketing in Europe in October 2012. While ALK rearrangement has relatively low prevalence, a clinical benefit is exhibited in more than 85% of patients with median progression-free survival of 8-10 months. In this article, the authors summarize the therapy and alternative test strategies for identifying patients who are likely to respond to therapy, including key issues for effective and efficient testing. The key economic considerations regarding the joint companion diagnostic and therapy are also presented. Given the observed clinical benefit and relatively high cost of crizotinib therapy, companion diagnostics should be evaluated relative to response to therapy versus correlation alone whenever possible, and both high inter-rater reliability and external quality assessment programs are warranted.

Work and health : remodelling perspectives of working life research, as proposed by Järvholm et al. (2009)

Järvholm and Co-workers (2009) proposed a conceptual model for research on working life. Models are powerful communication and decision tools. This model is strongly unidirectional and does not cover the mentioned interactions in the arguments.With help of a genealogy of work and of health it is shown that work and health are interactive and have to be analysed on the background of society.Key words: research model, work, health, occupational health, society, interaction, discussion paperRemodellierung der von Järvholm et al. (2009) vorgeschlagenen Forschungsperspektiven in Arbeit und GesundheitJärvholm und Kollegen stellten 2009 ein konzeptionelles Modell für die Forschung im Bereich Arbeit und Gesundheit vor. Modelle stellen kraftvolle Kommunikations- und Entscheidungsinstrumente dar. Die Einflussfaktoren im Modell verlaufen jedoch nur in einer Richtung und bilden die interaktiven Argumente im Text nicht ab. Mit Hilfe einer Genealogie der Begriffe Arbeit und Gesundheit wird aufgezeigt, dass Arbeit und Gesundheit sich gegenseitig beeinflussen und nur vor dem Hintergrund der jeweiligen gesellschaftlichen Kontextfaktoren zu analysieren sind.Introduction : After an interesting introduction about the objectives of research on working life, Järvholm and Co-workers (2009) manage to define a conceptual model for working life research out of a small survey of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) definitions. The strong point of their model is the entity 'working life' including personal development, as well as career paths and aging. Yet, the model Järvholm et al. (2009) propose is strangely unidirectional; the arrows point from the population to working life, from there to health and to disease, as well as to productivity and economic resources. The diagram only shows one feed-back loop: between economic resources and health. We all know that having a chronic disease condition influences work and working capacity. Economic resources have a strong influence on work, too. Having personal economic resources will influence the kind of work someone accepts and facilitate access to continuous professional education. A third observation is that society is not present in the model, although this is less the case in the arguments. In fact, there is an incomprehensible gap between the arguments brought forth by Järvholm and co-workers and their reductionist model.Switzerland has a very low coverage of occupational health specialists. Switzerland is a long way from fulfilling the WHO's recommendations on workers' access to OSH services as described in its Global plan of action. The Institute for Work and Health (IST) in Lausanne is the only organisation which covers the major domains of OSH research that are occupational medicine, occupational hygiene, ergonomic and psychosocial research. As the country's sole occupational health institution we are forced to reflect the objectives of working life research so as not to waste the scare resources available.I will set out below a much shortened genealogy of work and of health, with the aim of extending Järvholm et al's (2009) analyses on the perspectives of working life research in two directions. Firstly towards the interactive nature of work and health and the integration of society, and secondly towards the question of what working life means or where working life could be situated.Work, as we know it today - paid work regulated by a contract as the basis for sustaining life and as a base for social rights - was born in modern era. Therefore I will start my genealogy in the pre-modern era, focus on the important changes that occurred during industrial revolution and the modern era and end in 2010 taking into account the enormous transformations of the past 20-30 years. I will put aside some 810 years of advances in science and technology that have expanded the world's limits and human understanding, and restrict my genealogy to work and to health/body implicating also the societal realm. [Author]

Untargeted profiling of urinary steroid metabolites after testosterone ingestion: opening new perspectives for antidoping testing.

AIM: Antidoping procedures are expected to greatly benefit from untargeted metabolomic approaches through the discovery of new biomarkers of prohibited substances abuse. RESULTS: Endogenous steroid metabolites were monitored in urine samples from a controlled elimination study of testosterone undecanoate after ingestion. A platform coupling ultra-high pressure LC with high-resolution quadrupole TOF MS was used and high between-subject metabolic variability was successfully handled using a multiblock data analysis strategy. Links between specific subsets of metabolites and influential genetic polymorphisms of the UGT2B17 enzyme were highlighted. CONCLUSION: This exploratory metabolomic strategy constitutes a first step toward a better understanding of the underlying patterns driving the high interindividual variability of steroid metabolism. Promising biomarkers were selected for further targeted study.

Recent Progress and Perspectives in Digital Holographic Microscopy

Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM), is a new imaging technique allowing to provide quantitative phase images with a high accuracy and stability making possible to explore a large variety of relevant processes, occurring on the p.s to day time scale, in the fields including material research as well as cell biology. As a non invasive and real time imaging technique, DHM is particularly well suited for high throughput screening

Cannabis use in a Swiss male prison: qualitative study exploring detainees' and staffs' perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Several studies suggest a high prevalence of cannabis use before and during imprisonment, but subjective perspectives of detainees and staff towards its use in prison are lacking. This issue was explored in the framework of an observational study addressing tobacco use in three Swiss prisons in 2009 and 2010 that involved multiple strands (quantitative and qualitative components). This article presents qualitative data on cannabis use collected in one of the settings. METHODS: We used in-depth semi-structured interviews with both detainees and staff to explore their attitudes towards cannabis in one post-trial male Swiss prison. We performed specific coding and thematic analysis for cannabis with the support of ATLAS.ti, compared detainees' and staff's opinions, and considered the results with regard to drug policy in prison in general. RESULTS: 58 participants (31 male offenders, mean age 35 years, and 27 prison staff, mean age 46 years, 33% female) were interviewed. Detainees estimated the current use of cannabis use to be as high as 80%, and staff 50%. Participants showed similar opinions on effects of cannabis use that were described both at individual and institutional levels: analgesic, calming, self-help to go through the prison experience, relieve stress, facilitate sleep, prevent violence, and social pacifier. They also mentioned negative consequences of cannabis use (sleepiness, decreased perception of danger and social isolation), and dissatisfaction regarding the ongoing ambiguous situation where cannabis is forbidden but detection in the urine was not sanctioned. However, the introduction of a more restrictive regulation induced fear of violence, increased trafficking and a shift to other drug use. CONCLUSION: Although illegal, cannabis use is clearly involved in daily life in prison. A clearer and comprehensive policy addressing cannabis is needed, including appropriate measures tailored to individual users. To sustain a calm and safe environment in prison, means other than substance or medication use are required.

Le "Protévangile de Jacques" en latin. Etat de la question et perspectives nouvelles

Dans la première partie, on décrit et classifie les témoins qui contribuent à la connaissance du Protévangile de Jacques (PJ) en latin : 23 mss latins, les évangiles irlandais de l'enfance du Liber Flavus Fergusiorum (LFF) et du Leabhar Breac (LB). On clarifie dans une seconde partie plusieurs questions touchant à la diversité des formes textuelles du PJ en Occident, démontrant l'existence d'au moins deux traductions latines indépendantes. (I) L'une, plutôt littérale, est conservée en partie dans Montpellier 55 (M2) et Paris, n.a.l. 718 (S). (II) L'autre, caractérisée par des amplifications, est représentée par 4 témoins : Sainte-Geneviève 2787 (G; texte presque complet); l'homélie Inquirendum est (ch. 1-8, mss KPRBDO); l'Evangile latin de l'enfance combinant une partie du PJ, le Pseudo-Matthieu et une source inconnue, de coloration docète (compilation J, 8 témoins); le récit du LFF (ch. 1-16). Une troisième traduction indépendante est peut-être attestée (mss TUE). On montre ainsi l'existence de deux étapes successives d'amplification de la traduction II (IIa et IIb), illustrant le besoin d'expliciter la narration concise du PJ original. Cette traduction amplifiée a servi de modèle à l'auteur du remaniement latin du Pseudo-Matthieu. On éclaire enfin les antécédents, les caractéristiques et l'évolution de J, qui a vu le jour avant 800. La présente étude trouvera son prolongement dans l'édition critique des diverses formes du Protévangile latin