Evidence of niche partitioning among bacteria living on plastics, organic particles and surrounding seawaters

Plastic pollution is widespread in ocean ecosystems worldwide, but it is unknown if plastic offers a unique habitat for bacteria compared to communities in the water column and attached to naturally-occurring organic particles. The large set of samples taken during the Tara-Mediterranean expedition revealed for the first time a clear niche partitioning between free-living (FL), organic particle-attached (PA) and the recently introduced plastic marine debris (PMD). Bacterial counts in PMD presented higher cell enrichment factors than generally observed for PA fraction, when compared to FL bacteria in the surrounding waters. Taxonomic diversity was also higher in the PMD communities, where higher evenness indicated a favorable environment for a very large number of species. Cyanobacteria were particularly overrepresented in PMD, together with essential functions for biofilm formation and maturation. The community distinction between the three habitats was consistent across the large-scale sampling in the Western Mediterranean basin. 'Plastic specific bacteria' recovered only on the PMD represented half of the OTUs, thus forming a distinct habitat that should be further considered for understanding microbial biodiversity in changing marine ecosystems.

[Paleopathology of deafness: skulls of the Dupuytren Museum]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Dupuytren Museum was indispensable for the knowledge of pathological anatomy for physicians and surgeons. Nowadays, it is more a museum than a learning unit, but it provides an opportunity to understand through numerous scientific studies the origin of diseases, injuries mechanism and the functional consequences of which could suffer some patients. This study illustrates the interest of the study on pieces in pathological anatomy's museums, this time across selected skulls which belonged to hearing loss people. bizarre.

[Clinical trial of bromazepam in hospital psychiatry (author's transl)]

Bromazepam (6 to 18 mg/day in 3 divided doses) was administered during 28 days to 30 patients, (most of them admitted to hospital) presenting with neurotic, psychotic or depressive anxiety. The effects of the drug, as assessed with the Hamilton scale, were satisfactory in 29 out of 30 cases, irrespective of the nature of the anxiety. Bromazepam was well tolerated; the only side-effects recorded were daytime drowsiness in 2 cases, tremor in 2 cases and excitement in 1 case.