Biogeochemical typology and temporal variability of lagoon waters in a coral reef ecosystem subject to terrigeneous and anthropogenic inputs (New Caledonia)

Considering the growing concern about the impact of anthropogenic inputs on coral reefs and coral reef lagoons, surprisingly little attention has been given to the relationship between those inputs and the trophic status of lagoon waters. The present paper describes the distribution of biogeochemical parameters in the coral reef lagoon of New Caledonia where environmental conditions allegedly range from pristine oligotrophic to anthropogenically influenced. The study objectives were to: (i) identify terrigeneous and anthropogenic inputs and propose a typology of lagoon waters, (ii) determine temporal variability of water biogeochemical parameters at time-scales ranging from hours to seasons. Combined ACP-cluster analyses revealed that over the 2000 km(2) lagoon area around the city of Nouméa, "natural" terrigeneous versus oceanic influences affecting all stations only accounted for less than 20% of the spatial variability whereas 60% of that spatial variability could be attributed to significant eutrophication of a limited number of inshore stations. ACP analysis allowed to unambiguously discriminating between the natural trophic enrichment along the offshore-inshore gradient and anthropogenically induced eutrophication. High temporal variability in dissolved inorganic nutrients concentrations strongly hindered their use as indicators of environmental status. Due to longer turn over time, particulate organic material and more specifically chlorophyll a appeared as more reliable nonconservative tracer of trophic status. Results further provided evidence that ENSO occurrences might temporarily lower the trophic status of the New Caledonia lagoon. It is concluded that, due to such high frequency temporal variability, the use of biogeochemical parameters in environmental surveys require adapted sampling strategies, data management and environmental alert methods.

Social Anxiety and Personality Traits

The prevalence of social anxiety is estimated of 7-12% of the general population and 18% of university student. Social anxiety has a high prevalence of psychiatry and personality comorbidity. At age of 18-25 years old 80% of social anxiety cases have onset. To detect social anxiety at that age maybe important to avoid chronicity of the illness.

Aims:

To study personality traits associated with social anxiety in university students.

Methods:

We designed a cross-sectional study at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Student were recruited by an advertisement. All student signed the informed consent. We collected: Socio-demographic data, personal and family psychiatry history, and the Liebowitz Anxiety Scale (LSAS) and the Temperament and Character Inventory of Cloninger. We defined as a social anxiety group a LSAS ≥50 total score.

Results:

Five hundred ninety-one students enter in the study. Final sample after excluded those who did not filled the rating scales was 574 participants: 75% were women, mean age (SD): 22.7 (5.3), 156 (124 women/32 men), 26% had social anxiety. Eighteen percent had family and 22% personal psychiatry history. The personality profile of the social anxiety group was: high harm avoidance (HA) (p< .001), low novelty seeking (NS) (p< .001), and low self-directedness (SD) (p< .001).

By logistic regression, after corrected by sex, age, personal and family psychiatry history, HA (OR=1.118; 95%CI=1.081-1.155), NS (OR=0.954;95%CI=0.927-0.982) and SD (OR=0.957;95%CI=0.930-0.985) predicted social anxiety. R2Nagelkerke=0.442. Hosmer-Lemeshow test (p>.05).

Conclusions:

A profile of high HA, low NS and SD personality dimensions may predict those university students with social anxiety.

Incidence and risk factors for tuberculosis in HIV-positive subjects by HAART status

OBJECTIVE

To estimate incidence rates and risk factors for tuberculosis (TB) in human immunodeficiency virus seroprevalent subjects.

METHODS

Multicentre, hospital-based cohort study of patients presenting to 10 Spanish hospitals from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2003. Poisson regression was used and highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) was modelled as a time-dependent covariate.

RESULTS

A total of 4268 patients were followed for a median of 3.8 years; 221 TB cases were diagnosed over 16 464 person-years (py). TB rates were higher in HAART-naïve subjects (1.56 per 100 py, 95%CI 1.36-1.79) than those on HAART (0.5/100 py, 95%CI 0.31-0.80). Among HAART-naïves, TB risk factors were: being male, being an injecting drug user (IDU) (RR 2.01, 95%CI 1.28-3.16), having low CD4 counts (P < 0.001) and high viral loads (P < 0.001). HAART was protective (RR 0.26, 95%CI 0.16-0.40) and reductions in TB rates were observed in the last calendar period (RR 0.74, 95%CI 0.55-1.00). For patients on HAART, no differences were observed by category of transmission. Low CD4 counts at entry were associated with higher TB rates (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

HAART was associated with lower TB rates, and TB risk factors differed according to whether or not patients had received HAART. To further reduce TB rates, additional strategies are needed, such as timely access and adherence to HAART, especially in IDUs.

Non-imported brucellosis outbreak from unpasteurized raw milk in Moroccan immigrants in Spain

Nine cases of brucellosis were identified in the city of Elche (Comunidad Valenciana, Spain) in two families of Moroccan immigrants. All of the patients had drunk unpasteurized raw milk from goats. Brucella melitensis biovar 3 was identified in clinical specimens. Preventive measures for brucellosis should be implemented among immigrant populations in Spain.

Successful stent-grafting for iatrogenic aortic rupture and life-threatening hemoptysis

Bronchiectasis presenting as massive hemoptysis and iatrogenic lesions of the thoracic aorta are life-threatening processes with very difficult management. We report a case of massive hemoptysis from bronchiectasis complicated with contained rupture of the descending thoracic aorta during bronchial artery embolization. Both lesions were confirmed by angiography and successfully treated by implantation of an endovascular stent-graft in the thoracic aorta. As far as we know, there are no previous reports of successful management of massive hemoptysis from bronchiectasis with an endovascular covered stent-graft prosthesis.

Patient doses from fluoroscopically guided cardiac procedures in pediatrics

Infants and children are a higher risk population for radiation cancer induction compared to adults. Although some values on pediatric patient doses for cardiac procedures have been reported, data to determine reference levels are scarce, especially when compared to those available for adults in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The aim of this study is to make a new contribution to the scarce published data in pediatric cardiac procedures and help in the determination of future dose reference levels. This paper presents a set of patient dose values, in terms of air kerma area product (KAP) and entrance surface air kerma (ESAK), measured in a pediatric cardiac catheterization laboratory equipped with a biplane x-ray system with dynamic flat panel detectors. Cardiologists were properly trained in radiation protection. The study includes 137 patients aged between 10 days and 16 years who underwent diagnostic catheterizations or therapeutic procedures. Demographic data and technical details of the procedures were also gathered. The x-ray system was submitted to a quality control programme, including the calibration of the transmission ionization chamber. The age distribution of the patients was 47 for <1 year; 52 for 1-<5 years; 25 for 5-<10 years and 13 for 10-<16 years. Median values of KAP were 1.9, 2.9, 4.5 and 15.4 Gy cm(2) respectively for the four age bands. These KAP values increase by a factor of 8 when moving through the four age bands. The probability of a fatal cancer per fluoroscopically guided cardiac procedure is about 0.07%. Median values of ESAK for the four age bands were 46, 50, 56 and 163 mGy, which lie far below the threshold for deterministic effects on the skin. These dose values are lower than those published in previous papers.

Theoretical Study of Ln(III) Complexes with Polyaza-Aromatic Ligands: Geometries of [LnL(H2O)n]3+ Complexes and Successes and Failures of TD-DFT

The accuracy and the usefulness of density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations for the theoretical study of Ln (La, Eu, Lu) complexes have been investigated. The geometries calculated at the DFT level for [Ln(H2O)nL]3+ complexes have been successfully compared with crystallographic data. TD-DFT is able to offer valuable insights into VUV spectra of lanthanide complexes. However, the results obtained on the largest ligand (i.e., 2,4,6-tri-(pyridin-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine (Tptz)) have to be considered as a failure of TD-DFT.

Aerobic biological treatment of leachates from municipal solid waste landfill

The main objective of the study was to improve chemical oxygen demand (COD) elimination by secondary biological treatment from leachate of municipal solid waste landfill. This effluent was a supernatant liquid obtained after physicochemical processes and coagulating with Al3+ followed by ammoniacal stripping. First, respirometric assays were carried out to determine the substrate biodegradability. Specific sludge respiration rate (R(s)) vs. concentration of substrate (S), showed an increasing specific rate of assimilation of substrate (Rs), which reached the highest value, when the substrate concentration (COD) was between 75 and 200 mg O2 L(-1). Second, continuous experiments were made in an aerobic digester to test the previous respirometric data and the results showed removal efficiency of COD between 83 and 69%, and a substrate assimilation rate between 1.3 and 3.1 g COD g(-1) volatile suspended solids d(-1).