Determining mycotoxins and mycotoxigenic fungi in food and feed:Developing biomarkers of human exposure to mycotoxins

Exposure assessment is a critical part of epidemiological studies into the effect of mycotoxins on human health. Whilst exposure assessment can be made by estimating the quantity of ingested toxins from food analysis and questionnaire data, the use of biological markers (biomarkers) of exposure can provide a more accurate measure of individual level of exposure in reflecting the internal dose. Biomarkers of exposure can include the excreted toxin or its metabolites, as well as the products of interaction between the toxin and macromolecules such as protein and DNA. Samples in which biomarkers may be analysed include urine, blood, other body fluids and tissues, with urine and blood being the most accessible for human studies. Here we describe the development of biomarkers of exposure for the assessment of three important mycotoxins; aflatoxin, fumonisin and deoxynivalenol. A number of different biomarkers and methods have been developed that can be applied to human population studies, and these approaches are reviewed in the context of their application to molecular epidemiology research.

The Right to a Fair Fight: Sporting Lessons on Consensual Harm

This article critically assesses the criminal law on consensual harm through an examination of the legality of fighting sports. The article begins by considering fighting sports such as bare-fisted prize fighting (dominant in the nineteenth century). It then, in historical chronology, examines the legality of professional boxing with gloves (dominant in the twentieth century). Doctrinally, the article reviews why and how, in a position adopted by the leading common law jurisdictions, fighting sports benefit from an application of the “well-established” category-based exceptions to the usual bodily harm threshold of consent in the criminal law. Centrally, fighting sports and doctrinal law on offenses against the person are juxtaposed against the theoretical boundaries of consent in the criminal law to examine whether and where the limit of the “right to be hurt” might lie. In sum, this article uses fighting sports as a case study to assess whether the criminal law generally can or should accommodate the notion of a fair fight, sporting or otherwise, predicated on the consent of the participants to the point that the individuals involved might be said, pithily, to have extended an open invite to harm.

Considering the impact of the 'Right to Bargain' Legislation in Ireland: A Review

Ireland is rare among advanced economies in not having statutory trade union recognition legislation for collective bargaining purposes. The matter has been a source of policy contention over the years with attempts to resolve it encapsulated in the so-called ‘Right to Bargain’ legislation, introduced in 2001. This legislation has sought to circumvent statutory recognition in Ireland by putting in place an alternative mechanism for unions to represent members in non-union firms where collective bargaining is not practiced. This review, based on a mixture of empirical and documentary evidence, demonstrates that this legislation was moderately successful for a short period in generating pay rises, improved employment conditions and better access to procedures for union members in non-unionised firms. Indeed, in some respects, it was a superior institutional mechanism to a statutory recognition regime.

Challenging conventional risk assessment with respect to human exposure to multiple food contaminants in food: A case study using maize

Mycotoxins and heavy metals are ubiquitous in the environment and contaminate many foods. The widespread use of pesticides in crop production to control disease contributes further to the chemical contamination of foods. Thus multiple chemical contaminants threaten the safety of many food commodities; hence the present study used maize as a model crop to identify the severity in terms of human exposure when multiple contaminants are present. High Content Analysis (HCA) measuring multiple endpoints was used to determine cytotoxicity of complex mixtures of mycotoxins, heavy metals and pesticides. Endpoints included nuclear intensity (NI), nuclear area (NA), plasma membrane permeability (PMP), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and mitochondrial mass (MM). At concentrations representing legal limits of each individual contaminant in maize (3. ng/ml ochratoxin A (OTA), 1. μg/ml fumonisin B1 (FB1), 2. ng/ml aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), 100. ng/ml cadmium (Cd), 150. ng/ml arsenic (As), 50. ng/ml chlorpyrifos (CP) and 5. μg/ml pirimiphos methyl (PM), the mixtures (tertiary mycotoxins plus Cd/As) and (tertiary mycotoxins plus Cd/As/CP/PM) were cytotoxic for NA and MM endpoints with a difference of up to 13.6% (. p≤. 0.0001) and 12% (. p≤. 0.0001) respectively from control values. The most cytotoxic mixture was (tertiary mycotoxins plus Cd/As/CP/PM) across all 4 endpoints (NA, NI, MM and MMP) with increases up to 61.3%, 23.0%, 61.4% and 36.3% (. p≤. 0.0001) respectively. Synergy was evident for two endpoints (NI and MM) at concentrations contaminating maize above legal limits, with differences between expected and measured values of (6.2-12.4% (. p≤. 0.05-. p≤. 0.001) and 4.5-12.3% (. p≤. 0.05-. p≤. 0.001) for NI and MM, respectively. The study introduces for the first time, a holistic approach to identify the impact in terms of toxicity to humans when multiple chemical contaminants are present in foodstuffs. Governmental regulatory bodies must begin to contemplate how to safeguard the population when such mixtures of contaminants are found in foods and this study starts to address this critical issue.

Understanding the importance of sediments to water ouality in coastal shallow lagoons

The undesirable enrichment of water by nutrients may be a problem, especially in areas with restricted exchange with the sea. The tidal regime flushes the system and contributes for the removal of phytoplankton, favouring phytobenthos as the target of enhanced nutrients. Water samples were collected during the years of 2006 and 2007-08 for nutrients, chlorophyll a and dissolved oxygen. Sediment sample s were also collected for pore water nutrients and benthic chlorophyll a. From comparison with previous work, a decrease in the nitrogen concentration in the water column can be pointed out, which may indicate an improvement of the water quality. Pore water DAIN represents approximately 75% of the total DAIN of the whole lagoon. Benthic chlorophyll a concentrations were much larger than in the water column, representing around 99% of the total chlorophyll existent in the lagoon. Benthic microalgae play a relevant role in this system and therefore standard monitoring programs of the WFD, which do not consider this component, may fail to track nutrient-driven changes in primary producers. Dissolved oxygen concentration could be near critical levels during the summer (early in the morning), especially in the inner channels.

Diallelic analysis to obtain cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) populations tolerant to water deficit.

The purpose of this study was to identify parents and obtain segregating populations of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) with the potential for tolerance to water deficit. A full diallel was performed with six cowpea genotypes, and two experiments were conducted in Teresina, PI, Brazil in 2011 to evaluate 30 F2 populations and their parents, one under water deficit and the other under full irrigation.

Pathogen-induced hatching and population-specific life-history response to water-borne cues in brown trout (Salmo trutta)

Hatching is an important niche shift, and embryos in a wide range of taxa can either accelerate or delay this life-history switch in order to avoid stage-specific risks. Such behavior can occur in response to stress itself and to chemical cues that allow anticipation of stress. We studied the genetic organization of this phenotypic plasticity and tested whether there are differences among populations and across environments in order to learn more about the evolutionary potential of stress-induced hatching. As a study species, we chose the brown trout (Salmo trutta; Salmonidae). Gametes were collected from five natural populations (within one river network) and used for full-factorial in vitro fertilizations. The resulting embryos were either directly infected with Pseudomonas fluorescens or were exposed to waterborne cues from P. fluorescens-infected conspecifics. We found that direct inoculation with P. fluorescens increased embryonic mortality and induced hatching in all host populations. Exposure to waterborne cues revealed population-specific responses. We found significant additive genetic variation for hatching time, and genetic variation in trait plasticity. In conclusion, hatching is induced in response to infection and can be affected by waterborne cues of infection, but populations and families differ in their reaction to the latter.

The Foreigner and the Right to Justice in the Aftermath of September 11th

Breakfast on the Hill Lecture Series, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Parliamentary Restaurant, Ottawa, 19 mai 2005

The right to be forgotten under European Law: a Constitutional debate

Cet article met en lumière la perspective européenne sur un des plus importants défis que l’Internet et le Web 2.0 présente pour la vie privée et le droit à la protection des données. L’auteur y soulève des problématiques liées à la mémoire numérique et distingue à partir de plusieurs cas où les individus seraient intéressés de réclamer l'oubli tant dans les réseaux sociaux, les journaux officiels des gouvernements et dans les bibliothèques médiatiques numériques. Il trace l’histoire de l’identification du droit à l’oubli dont les fondements ont été définis par les agences françaises, italiennes et espagnoles de protection des données. En conclusion, il pose son regard sur un nouveau cadre européen de la protection des données comprenant le droit individuel à voir leurs données supprimées lorsqu’elles ne sont plus nécessaires à des fins légitimes.