Legacy and emerging organic contaminants: Levels and profiles in top predator fish from the western Indian Ocean in relation to their trophic ecology.

Tuna and billfish are large pelagic fish of ecological importance in open oceans. As top predators with a long lifespan, they are prone to exposure to various contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and contaminants of emerging concern. In this study, three pollutant families were investigated, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorinated pesticides (OCPs) and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs). Contamination was investigated in individuals from three tropical tuna species, namely bigeye (Thunnus obesus), skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and yellowfin (Thunnusalbacares) tunas and the billfish swordfish (Xiphias gladius), collected from various areas of the western Indian Ocean (WIO) in 2013-2014. Contamination levels and profiles were examined in fish muscle, together with biological parameters (fish length / age, sex, lipid content) and ecological tracers (carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes). POP levels were low in all species in comparison to other locations worldwide, revealing a low impact of anthropogenic organic contaminants in the WIO. A predominance of OCPs (especially DDTs) versus PCBs was highlighted in all species; PFASs were predominant over chlorinated POPs in tunas. Among the studied PFASs, long-chain PFCAs were found to prevail over PFOS in all species. Organic contaminant profiles differed across species according to their foraging habitat; swordfish and bigeye tuna, which both feed in deep oceanic layers, showed similarities in their contaminant profiles. Geographically, the distinct DDT profiles of fish from the Mozambique Channel suggested an exposure to different DDT sources, in line with regional use of this insecticide and coupled with an extended residence time of fish in the Channel. To our knowledge, the data presented here are among the first obtained for legacy and emerging organic contaminants in various species of large pelagic predators from the WIO.

Efficacy and safety of hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy for brain metastases using three fractions: A single-centre retrospective study.

PURPOSE: Hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (HFSRT) has become a standard of care for patients with a limited number of brain metastases (BM). An increasing number of linear accelerators (LA) are able to accurately perform HFSRT including VersaHD® (Elekta®) LA. The main aim of this study was to report clinical outcomes of BM treated by HFSRT using 3×7.7Gy on 70% isodose line in terms of local control (LC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between November 2016 and October 2018, all patients suffering from histologically-proven primary with one or several newly diagnosed BM treated by HFSRT were retrospectively included and evaluated. Patients who had received prior treatment by neurosurgery or cerebral radiotherapy were excluded. RESULTS: Among 44 patients, 61 BM were treated. With a median follow-up of 31.9 months, LC rates at 6 and 12 months were 93.2% and 90.9, respectively. Single-BM was independently predictive of LC (P=0.025) and overall survival (P=0.013). Acute toxicity rates were acceptable: 65.9% of patients had grade 1 and 2 and no acute grade 3 toxicity according to the NCI-CTCAE (version 5.0). Regarding delayed toxicity, one case (2.3%) of radionecrosis was confirmed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. CONCLUSION: In our single-centre retrospective analysis, BM treatment by HFSRT delivered in three fractions showed a 12-month LC rate of 90.9% without major toxicities, which suggests safety and efficiency of this technique. However, longer-term follow-up and prospective studies are still needed to confirm these results.

Relationship among oral health status, bolus formation and food comfortability during consumption of model cheeses in elderly.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of oral impairment on chewing behaviour, food bolus properties and food comfortability during elderly consumption of model cheeses. Seventy-two elderly persons (aged 66 to 88) was recruited and classified into two groups according to dental status (poor vs. satisfactory). They showed a wide range of salivary flow rates whatever their dental status (stimulated: 0.2-3.8 mL min-1, resting: 0.1-0.8 mL min-1). Standardized bites of four model cheeses with an identical composition but different textures (soft, hard, processed and whipped) were tested. The time and number of chewing cycles required to form a bolus were measured. The rheological properties of the bolus were studied, as was saliva moistening. Food comfortability was assessed by means of a questionnaire composed of 5 sections (1-oral comfort, 2-bolus formation, 3-pain, 4-texture and 5-flavour perception). The chewing parameters measured were not modified by the oral health. However, elderly with poor dentition formed harder boluses than elderly with satisfactory dentition. Moreover, for elderly with poor dentition, the quantity of saliva incorporated into the bolus was correlated with the stimulated salivary flow rate, which was not the case for elderly with satisfactory dentition. General oral comfort and its different attributes were poorly associated with the oral health of the elderly. A multifactorial analysis performed on an average cheese showed that food comfortability is independent of changes in the hardness and moistening of the bolus, regardless of dental status. In particular, poor dental status increases the hardness of the bolus without modifying its comfortability.

Fruit juice authentication by 1H NMR spectroscopy in combination with different chemometrics tools.

To discriminate orange juice from grapefruit juice in a context of fraud prevention, (1)H NMR data were submitted to different treatments to extract informative variables which were then analysed using multivariate techniques. Averaging contiguous data points of the spectrum followed by logarithmic transformation improved the results of the data analysis. Moreover, supervised variable selection methods gave better rates of classification of the juices into the correct groups. Last, independent-component analysis gave better classification results than principal-component analysis. Hence, ICA may be an efficient chemometric tool to detect differences in the (1)H NMR spectra of similar samples, and so may be useful for authentication of foods.