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This paper contributes to documenting a change in the distribution of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis (NARWs) that occurred in the 2010s, when the whales largely abandoned their traditional summering grounds in the Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy/Scotian shelf. Data from a year-round passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) network in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were exploited to build the time series of NARW incursions into this inland sea of the Northwest Atlantic, from June 2010 to November 2018. NARWs visited the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence every year from June to January, until ice freeze-up. The earliest detections were made at the end of April and the latest in mid-January. Call occurrence peaked between August and the end of October. NARW contact calls were not detected at the most upstream station at Les Escoumins, in the Lower St. Lawrence estuary, or at the northeastern connection of Belle Isle Strait with the Atlantic, which was monitored from November 2010 to November 2011. The mean daily occurrence of NARWs in the feeding grounds off Gaspé quadrupled after 2015 compared to 2011-2014. Long-term continuous PAM data provided invaluable information to document this marine mammal distribution shift.

Abstract The oral and gastrointestinal mucosae represent the main targets of the toxic effect of chemo and/or radiotherapy administered during the conditioning regimen before hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). These harmful consequences and the immunological complications that may occur after the transplant (such as Graft versus Host Disease, GvHD) are responsible for the clinical symptoms associated with mucositis during the aplasia phase, like pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. These toxicities could play a critical role in the oral and gastrointestinal microbiomes during the post-transplant phase, and the degree of microbial dysbiosis and dysregulation among different bacterial species could also be crucial in intestinal mucosa homeostasis, altering the host’s innate and adaptive immune responses and favoring abnormal immune responses responsible for the occurrence of GvHD. This prospective pediatric study aims to analyze longitudinally oral and gut microbiomes in 17 pediatric patients who received allogeneic HSCT for malignant and non-malignant diseases. The oral mucositis was mainly associated with an increased relative abundance of Fusobacteria, and Prevotella species, while Streptococcus descendants showed a negative correlation. The fecal microbiome of subjects affected by cutaneous acute GvHD (aGvHD) correlated with Proteobacteria. Oral mucosal microbiota undergoes changes after HSCT, Fusobacteria, and Prevotella represent bacterial species associated with mucositis and they could be the target for future therapeutic approaches, while fecal microbiome in patients with acute GvHD (aGvHD) revealed an increase of different class of Proteobacteria (Alphaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria) and a negative correlation with the class of Gammaproteobacteria.

We describe a 17-year-old girl with haemolytic anaemia as presentation of Wilson disease. The diagnosis was based on the findings of < 20 mg/dl ceruloplasmin serum level, Kayser-Fleischer ring and Coombs-negative haemolytic anaemia. Genetic testing revealed the presence of the H1069Q heterozygous mutation. The patient was treated with Zinc acetate monotherapy, with good response, maintened after 22 months. This case emphasizes the importance of recognizing atypical clinical presentation of Wilson disease, which must always be considered in patients with Coombs-negative haemolytic anaemia. The good clinical response to treatment with zinc acetate monotherapy in our case might lend to consider the use of zinc monotherapy as initial therapy also in symptomatic patients with Wilson disease under close clinical observation. Clinical trials are needed to provide evidence for use of zinc monotherapy as first-line therapy in symptomatic patients with Wilson disease.