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Marine mammals accumulate alarming amounts of environmental pollutants and are thus the most contaminated group of animals in the world. Elevated pollutant exposure is of concern to marine mammals because of potential adverse effects on reproduction, endocrine disruption and immunity. In vitro techniques can be used to assess effects on specific health endpoints. To date, however, most studies focus on single compound exposures, rather than realistic complex mixtures, and little has been done to extrapolate molecular effects to higher levels of biological organization. The aim of my PhD was to use a unique combination of approaches, namely statistical meta-analyses, in vitro experimentation, analytical chemistry, and ecological modeling, to gain further insight into pollutant accumulation and effects at molecular and organism levels in North-Atlantic top predators.

Alcohol has potential deleterious effects on donor heart function. This study was conducted in rats to determine whether long-term alcohol ingestion produces impaired hemodynamic performance while maintaining a normal left ventricular ejection fraction in donor hearts before transplantation and whether donor cardiac function is affected after heart transplantation.Rats fed 30% alcohol in their drinking water for 12 weeks were compared with rats fed a normal diet. Left ventricular ejection fraction was measured by echocardiography with Simpson and single plane Dodge formulas in living sedated rats after 10 and 12 weeks of alcohol feeding. Explanted heart function was assessed before and 3 days after heterotopic heart transplantation (no immunosuppression) with a Langendorff preparation.Blood ethanol levels at 4 and 8 weeks were 0.08 +/- 0.04 and 0.08 +/- 0.09 gm/dl. Left ventricular ejection fraction was similar in the group fed an alcohol diet for 12 weeks when compared with the control group (65.4% +/- 1.6% vs. 66.5% +/- 2.9%, p = 0.33). Explanted alcohol-fed hearts before transplantation had significantly lower maximum and developed pressures and had a blunted response to 0.1 ml 10(-9) mol/L isoproterenol. After transplantation alcohol-fed hearts had significantly lower maximum and developed pressures and decreased maximum rates of pressure rise and pressure decline. Allografts (ACI to Lewis) exhibited decreased function in comparison with isografts (ACI to ACI).Alcohol feeding for 12 weeks in rats does not affect pretransplantation left ventricular ejection fraction, but it impairs explanted heart function, both before and after transplantation, resulting in a subclinical cardiomyopathy that is worsened by the presence of allograft rejection. Long-term alcohol exposure and rejection have independent, additive detrimental effects on left ventricular performance of the transplanted heart. Alcohol-exposed hearts may not be suitable donors.

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Estudis Internacionals de Pau, Conflictes i Desenvolupament (Pla de 2013). Codi: SBG120. Curs acadèmic: 2019/2020 Menstruation is a natural phenomenon in women and girl’s life and yet millions of menstruators are denied the right to manage their period in dignity and in a healthy manner around the world. From taboos within religious practices to the modern corporate taxes on menstrual products in the western world, menstrual health and hygiene is linked to gender inequality, discriminatory social norms, cultural taboos, poverty, conflicts, lack of basic services and access to health care and health products. Afghan women and girls are not spared from these insecurities, menstruation in the Afghan society is a subject that cannot be mentioned publicly nor privately. According to the available data, Afghan women do not have access to menstrual products due to poverty, market proximity, and lack of subject knowledge. In fact, it is sadly documented that a girl misses one week of school due to her menstruation. This pilot project aims to change the current approach on menstruation and accessibility of menstrual products through stakeholders and civil societies that run Human shelters, family guidance centers, family protection centers and other health facilities by awareness sessions within the community, trainings and economic empowerment on pads productions and various other menstrual products. The outcome of this pilot project is to give back the dignity to afghan menstruators by allowing them to have access to products but mainly to understand that menstruation is not a shame and also get familiar with what is available for them. The activities are carried out in socially acceptable manner in order to reach remote areas of Afghanistan once the pilot project becomes eventually a national project.

We have studied the effects of some H2-receptor antagonists (i.e., cimetidine, famotidine) taken with alcohol on lipid peroxidation (LP) in the erythrocyte membrane, liver and stomach tissue of rats in vivo. Rats were given ethanol after receiving cimetidine or famotidine for nine days. Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were determined with the thiobarbituric acid test procedure. Results were compared with the groups receiving only ethanol or nothing as control. MDA levels of the erythrocyte membrane and liver tissue increased significantly in the cimetidine group compared with the famotidine group (p 0.05). MDA levels of the stomach tissue decreased in both the cimetidene and famotidine groups compared with the ethanol group (p < 0.05). Our results suggest that some H2-receptor antagonists (i.e., cimetidine) increase LP levels in some body tissues if they are taken with acute alcohol. Furthermore, they can cause some unwanted harmful effects by increasing serum alcohol concentrations.

The invasion of multiple strains of the midge-borne bluetongue virus into southern Europe since the late 1990s provides a rare example of a clear impact of climate change on a vector-borne disease. However, the subsequent dramatic continent-wide spread and burden of this disease has depended largely on altered biotic interactions with vector and host communities in newly invaded areas. Transmission by Palearctic vectors has facilitated the establishment of the disease in cooler and wetter areas of both northern and southern Europe. This paper discusses the important biological and climatic processes involved in these invasions, and the lessons that must be drawn for effective risk management of bluetongue and other midge-borne viruses in Europe.

The impact of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) on survival in patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. We compared their efficacy in cirrhotics with single HCC ≤2 cm.Two hundred forty-four cirrhotics with single HCC ≤2 cm treated with PEI (108 cases) or RFA (136 cases) were enrolled in the study. Eighty-one patients in each group were selected for propensity score matching analysis.The five-year survival was not significantly different (64.7% in PEI and 72.9% in RFA group) but the 5-year recurrence (73.3% in PEI and 49% in RFA group, p=0.023) and local tumor progression (49% in PEI and 30.1% in RFA group, p=0.018) were higher in the PEI group.PEI and RFA are equally effective in treating HCCs smaller than 2 cm in terms of 5-year survival, despite higher cumulative and local recurrence rates, in patients treated with PEI.

Energy conservation is needed improved energy efficiency, improved insulation and heat recovery, effective energy usage, process change and improvement, and good maintenance of machinery and equipments. Efficiency is usually measured as the ratio of energy output and input. The development of energy-efficiency indictors, for any country, is limited by the availability of data. The main areas related to energy efficiency are buildings, transportation, industry and power. With the urbanization process constantly accelerated, it causes a lot of the traffic safety problems. It is a serious subject how to bring down the high rate of traffic accidents through the traffic safety management.

The effect of chronic ethanol feeding (3 weeks) on the phagocytic and the bactericidal activity of hepatic RES versus viable Escherichia coli was studied using the isolated rat liver perfused with a serum-containing medium. Controls or ethanol-fed animals were used as liver or serum donors. The bactericidal activity of serum from ethanol-fed rats was similar to controls and accounted for the disappearance of nearly one-tenth of the bacterial inoculum from the system. When control livers were perfused with a medium containing serum from ethanol-fed animals, phagocytosis was comparable to controls while intracellular killing was greatly reduced. When livers were isolated from ethanol-fed rats, phagocytosis was significantly depressed and no killing occurred, irrespective of the source of serum. Levamisole was able to restore the macrophage activity depressed by ethanol. Our data indicate that the direct effect of ethanol on hepatic macrophages plays a major role in reducing the bactericidal activity of hepatic RES, although alterations of serum factors may contribute to an ineffective preparation of bacteria for intracellular killing.

Human plasma albumin was incubated in 25 mM/l glucose at 37 degrees C for up to sevent days. Aliquots of this mixture were also incubated with alpha-tocopherol (Vitamin E) at 2 mg/dl, 4 mg/dl and 8 mg/dl, respectively. Vitamin E inhibited protein glycation and, furthermore, shows a dose-dependent effect. This report suggests the possibility of using Vitamin E, at therapeutic doses, to obtain the inhibition of non-enzymatic glycation.