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Objectives: To evaluate the prescription of lipid-lowering therapy in nursing home residents aged 80 and older. Design: Observational descriptive study, led in Brest, France, between February and May 2017. Setting: 15 nursing homes in Brest, France. Participants: Nursing home residents, aged 80 and older, treated with a lipid-lowering therapy for primary and / or secondary prevention. Measurements: The primary endpoint was to observe the frequency of prescription of lipid-lowering therapy at the time of the study. The secondary endpoints were to analyse the relevance of these prescriptions regarding the latest French recommendations and current literature data and to evaluate the monitoring of treatment. Results: 213 of the 1121 included residents (19%) were treated with a lipid-lowering drugs. A total of 141 prescriptions (66.2%) were considered irrelevant. In the past 12 months, monitoring of lipids, liver and muscle enzymes was observed respectively in 41.3%, 60.1% and 9.4% of residents. Conclusion: lipid-lowering prescription was not optimal in nursing homes. The results highlighted inadequate treatment monitoring and a gap between the French National Authority for Health (HAS) recommendations and actual practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the variation and short-term evolution of the selfing rate and inbreeding depression (ID) across three generations within a cedar forest that was established from admixture ca 1860. The mean selfing rate was 9.5%, ranging from 0 to 48% among 20 seed trees (estimated from paternally inherited chloroplast DNA). We computed the probability of selfing for each seed and we investigated ID by comparing selfed and outcrossed seeds within progenies, thus avoiding maternal effects. In all progenies, the germination rate was high (88-100%) and seedling mortality was low (0-12%). The germination dynamics differed significantly between selfed and outcrossed seeds within progenies in the founder gene pool but not in the following generations. This transient effect of selfing could be attributed to epistatic interactions in the original admixture. Regarding the seedling growth traits, the ID was low but significant: 8 and 6% for height and diameter growth, respectively. These rates did not vary among generations, suggesting minor gene effects. At this early stage, outcrossed seedlings outcompeted their selfed relatives, but not necessarily other selfed seedlings from other progenies. Thus, purging these slightly deleterious genes may only occur through within-family selection. Processes that maintain a high level of genetic diversity for fitness-related traits among progenies also reduce the efficiency of purging this part of the genetic load.