Shellfish have the capacity to accumulate chemical contaminants found in their biotope and therefore present a potential risk for consumers. This study was conducted to assess the chemical risks associated with consumption of shellfish harvested on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River's lower estuary. A survey was carried out on 162 recreational harvesters, and shellfish were sampled for chemical contaminant analysis. We quantified 10 metals, 22 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 14 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and 10 chlorinated pesticides. We subsequently evaluated cancer and noncancer risks for four consumption scenarios based on our survey results and published results. Soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria) were by far the most consumed shellfish species. Of the 56 selected contaminants, 36 were detected in the 23 homogenates of soft-shell clam meat. None of the contaminants found in the soft-shell clams were associated with intakes that exceed the main exposure limit recommendations proposed to prevent noncancer effects. However, several limits must be considered before drawing conclusions about the relative safety of shellfish consumption regarding this end point. Furthermore, inorganic arsenic and PCBs were present in sufficient concentrations to lead to cancer risks exceeding the level often considered acceptable for environmental exposure (1 × 10 -4 to 1 × 10 -6 ) in each of the four scenarios, even for the lowest observed scenario of 15 meals of soft-shell clams per year. Table 2.We studied the following arsenic species: trivalent arsenic (As +3 ), pentavalent arsenic (As +5 ), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), and monomethylarsonic acid, as well as arsenobetaine and arsenocholine, two forms of dietary arsenic.Chemical analysis. Metals and organic compounds were analyzed by the toxicology laboratory of the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec, the former Quebec Toxicology Center, Quebec City, Canada. This laboratory is accredited under ISO 17025 by the Standards Council of Canada and participates in several external quality assurance programs. Internal quality assurance procedures include standard calibration curve, blanks, reference materials, and 10% of duplicates.For the metal determination, 1 g (wet weight) of shellfish homogenate was digested with 2 mL ultrapure nitric acid for 16 hr at 120°C in a closed vessel. Mercury was determined using the cold vapor generation method (Ebbestad et al. 1975). All other metals were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; Elan 5000; Perkin-Elmer Sciex Instruments, Concord, Ontario, Canada).Speciation of the various forms of arsenic was done on the seven homogenates with the highest arsenic concentrations. The homogenates were incubated at 37°C for 12 hr and centrifuged for 20 min to separate the aqueous and solid phases. The supernatant obtained was then filtered on 2.5-and 0.45-µm membranes, and the filtrate was diluted with the HPLC system's mobile phase. Chromatography was carried out by ion pairing using a ZORBAX C 1...

The Pediatric Genomics Discovery Program (PGDP) at Yale uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) and translational research to evaluate complex patients with a wide range of phenotypes suspected to have rare genetic diseases. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of 356 PGDP probands evaluated between June 2015 and July 2020, querying our database for participant demographics, clinical characteristics, NGS results, and diagnostic and research findings. The three most common phenotypes among the entire studied cohort (n = 356) were immune system abnormalities (n = 105, 29%), syndromic or multisystem disease (n = 103, 29%), and cardiovascular system abnormalities (n = 62, 17%). Of 216 patients with final classifications, 77 (36%) received new diagnoses and 139 (64%) were undiagnosed; the remaining 140 patients were still actively being investigated. Monogenetic diagnoses were found in 67 (89%); the largest group had variants in known disease genes but with new contributions such as novel variants (n = 31, 40%) or expanded phenotypes (n = 14, 18%). Finally, five PGDP diagnoses (8%) were suggestive of novel gene-to-phenotype relationships. A broad range of patients can benefit from single subject studies combining NGS and functional molecular analyses. All pediatric providers should consider further genetics evaluations for patients lacking precise molecular diagnoses.

Evoking the eighteenth-century sources of the idea of ‘negative community’, this article refers to Georges Bataille's attempt to create a new community, or secret society: Acéphale. For his part, and writing after Maurice Blanchot's The Unavowable Community and Jean-Luc Nancy's The Inoperative Community, Giorgio Agamben articulates the idea of a ‘coming community’, which he calls the ‘whatever singularity’. Doing so in the context of these influences, this article considers, particularly in its conclusion, the question of literature in the specific temporality brought by the potentiality of the negative.

Drawing on Aristotle's concepts of energeia, dunamis, and ergon, this article attempts to articulate a typology of the different works described in Édouard Levé’s Œuvres (2002 (French); 2014 (English)). This is carried out in the context of post-literary literature, i.e. following an aesthetics driven by the dismantling of ‘qualities’, understood as ‘accidents’, of literature's essence (literature's definition). It studies how Levé’s work, and particularly his opus magnum Œuvres (Works), displays a series of short descriptive texts that intend to remain in their potentiality, while, at the same time, actualising this very potentiality (a potentiality ‘in act’, by an operation triggered in the reader's imagination). The question is therefore less the nature of fiction or ‘what makes literature literature’ than ‘how does literature actualise its negation’.

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