Fecal concentration of Rhodococcus equi determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction of rectal swab samples to differentiate foals with pneumonia from healthy foals.

Background: Diagnostic accuracy of real-time, quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays to quantify virulent Rhodococcus equi using rectal swab samples has not been systematically evaluated.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of qPCR of rectal swab samples to differentiate foals with pneumonia from healthy foals of similar age from the same environment.

Animals: One hundred privately owned foals born in 2021 from 2 farms in New York.

Partial to complete suppression of unilateral noise-induced tinnitus in rats after cyclobenzaprine treatment.

Some forms of tinnitus are believed to arise from abnormal central nervous system activity following a single or repeated noise exposure, for which there are no widely accepted pharmacological treatments. One central site that could be related to tinnitus awareness or modulation is the locus coeruleus, a brainstem structure associated with stress, arousal, and attention. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of cyclobenzaprine, a drug known to act on the rat locus coeruleus, on noise-induced tinnitus using Gap Prepulse Inhibition of the Acoustic Startle (GPIAS).

Introducing the standard days method: expanding family planning options in Rwanda.

The Standard Days Method is a simple fertility awareness-based method of family planning that helps women identify the days each cycle when they are most likely to conceive. Couples who wish to prevent pregnancy avoid unprotected intercourse on these days. The method was introduced in 13 sites in Rwanda, a nation with a high level of unmet need for family planning.

Quality of delivery of the Standard Days Method as compared with contraceptive pills in Rwanda.

Background And Methodology: Replicating a Peruvian study, this research introduced the Standard Days Method (SDM) into Rwanda Ministry of Health clinics and evaluated client counselling on the new method against that given for contraceptive pills. Providers received technical reinforcement concerning established methods in addition to SDM training. To evaluate their quality of care, simulated clients implemented a service test in visits to 20 clinics.

Improving the recognition of depression in adolescence: can we teach the teachers?

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a schools-based psychoeducational intervention designed to help teachers recognize the symptoms of clinical depression in their adolescent pupils. Around 151 teachers in eight high schools in Scotland, UK were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and all received training on depression. The ability of the experimental teachers to report which pupils were depressed was compared with the control group whose reporting task occurred before they had received training.

Core domain interactions in full-length p53 in solution.

The tumor suppressor p53 consists of four 393-residue chains, each of which has two natively unfolded (N- and C-terminal) and two folded (core and tetramerization) domains. Their structural organization is poorly characterized as the protein tends to aggregate, has defied crystallization, and is at the limits of NMR studies. We first stabilized the protein by mutation to make it more suitable for extended study and then acquired NMR spectra on full-length protein and various combinations of shorter domain constructs.

Structures of p53 cancer mutants and mechanism of rescue by second-site suppressor mutations.

We have solved the crystal structures of three oncogenic mutants of the core domain of the human tumor suppressor p53. The mutations were introduced into a stabilized variant. The cancer hot spot mutation R273H simply removes an arginine involved in DNA binding without causing structural distortions in neighboring residues.

Structural distortion of p53 by the mutation R249S and its rescue by a designed peptide: implications for "mutant conformation".

Missense mutations in the DNA-binding core domain of the tumour suppressor protein p53 are frequent in cancer. Many of them result in loss of native structure. The mutation R249S is one of the six most common cancer-associated p53 mutations ("hot-spots").