A canine model to evaluate the effect of exercise intensity and duration on olfactory detection limits: the running nose.

Detection canines serve critical roles to support the military, homeland security and border protection. Some explosive detection tasks are physically demanding for dogs, and prior research suggests this can lead to a reduction in olfactory detection sensitivity. To further evaluate the effect of exercise intensity on olfactory sensitivity, we developed a novel olfactory paradigm that allowed us to measure olfactory detection thresholds while dogs exercised on a treadmill at two different exercise intensities.

Functional measurement of canine muscular fitness: refinement and reliability of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center Sprint Test.

Working, sporting, and companion dogs require muscular fitness to perform their daily tasks, competitive activities, and operational functions effectively and with a low risk of injury. There are currently no methods to measure the muscular fitness of dogs who are not debilitated. Sprint performance is highly correlated with muscular fitness in humans, and various sprint assessments are used to measure performance for sporting and tactical athletes.

Risk Factors for Adverse Outcomes in Term Infants with CHD and Definitive Necrotising Enterocolitis.

Objectives: To define the incidence of definitive necrotising enterocolitis in term infants with CHD and identify risk factors for morbidity/mortality.

Methods: We performed a 20-year (2000-2020) single-institution retrospective cohort study of term infants with CHD admitted to the Boston Children's Hospital cardiac ICU with necrotising enterocolitis (Bell's stage ≥ II). The primary outcome was a composite of in-hospital mortality and post-necrotising enterocolitis morbidity (need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, multisystem organ failure based on the paediatric sequential organ failure assessment score, and/or need for acute gastrointestinal intervention).

Rehabilitation to Return-to-Work for Working Dogs.

This article highlights the differences between working dog careers, unique protocols associated with health care of a working dog and provides a practical guide to creating and managing a return-to-work program. The rehabilitative approach to a working dog consists of four distinct sequential phases: activity restriction, rehabilitation, return-to-work, and maintenance. The timeline through each phase is dependent on the degree of injury, treatment intervention, prior health status of the dog, and compliance of the handler.

Bio-impedance spectroscopy for total body water assessment in pediatric surgical patients: A single center pilot cohort study.

Background: Excess peri‑operative fluid administration is associated with higher morbidity and mortality. We aimed to examine the feasibility of bio-impedance spectroscopy (BIS) to record serial peri‑operative fluid volumes in the pediatric surgical population.

Methods: Children who underwent major elective general surgery from March 2019 to March 2020 were included.

New mental health diagnoses in parents of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit-a retrospective review of the Military Health System database.

Objective: Studies suggest that parents of NICU infants are at increased risk of mental health disorders. We sought to characterize this risk using a large database.

Study Design: The Military Health System was used to retrospectively link records between parents and infants admitted to a NICU over 5 years and were matched to similar families without NICU exposure.

A Formalized Method to Acclimate Dogs to Voluntary Treadmill Locomotion at Various Speeds and Inclines.

The land treadmill is a multipurpose tool with a unique set of behavioral and physical benefits for training and assessing active dogs. Habituation to voluntary treadmill locomotion is crucial for training a dog or accurately assessing a dog's fitness on a treadmill. Therefore, a treadmill acclimation program was developed and evaluated with working dogs in training or working dogs performing detection research.

Feasibility of bioimpedance spectroscopy and long-term functional assessment in critically ill children.

Background & Aims: Lean body mass loss due to critical illness in childhood could be detrimental to long term outcomes, including functional status and quality of life. We describe the feasibility of body composition assessment by bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and functional status and quality of life assessments up to 6 months following admission in a cohort of mechanically ventilated, critically ill children.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, observational pilot study in a multidisciplinary PICU.

Expert Perspectives on the Performance of Explosive Detection Canines: Performance Degrading Factors.

The explosive detection canine (EDC) team is currently the best available mobile sensor capability in the fight against explosive threats. While the EDC can perform at a high level, the EDC team faces numerous factors during the search process that may degrade performance. Understanding these factors is key to effective selection, training, assessment, deployment, and operationalizable research.

Expert Perspectives on the Performance of Explosive Detection Canines: Operational Requirements.

Explosive detection canines (EDC) play an important role in protecting people and property. The utilization of and research on EDCs is often based on personal experience or incomplete knowledge. EDC practitioners (handlers, trainers, and leaders) possess the institutional knowledge necessary to understand EDC operational requirements.

Geographic Distance to Extracorporeal Life Support Centers for Pediatric Patients Within the Continental United States.

Objectives: Distance to subspecialty surgical care is a known impediment to the delivery of high-quality healthcare. Extracorporeal life support is of benefit to pediatric patients with specific medical conditions. Despite a continued increase in the number of extracorporeal life support centers, not all children have equal access to extracorporeal life support due to geographic constraints, creating a potential disparity in healthcare.

Constraints on Cosmic Strings Using Data from the Third Advanced LIGO-Virgo Observing Run.

We search for gravitational-wave signals produced by cosmic strings in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo full O3 dataset. Search results are presented for gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loop features such as cusps, kinks, and, for the first time, kink-kink collisions. A template-based search for short-duration transient signals does not yield a detection.

Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in Working Dogs.

Canine sports medicine and rehabilitation recently have evolved to embody the optimization of performance, injury prevention, and mitigation of musculoskeletal degeneration. This article discusses the diverse factors and considerations of working dog wellness and injury prevention and the importance of recognizing normal and abnormal posture and anatomic structure for performance evaluation and early indication of musculoskeletal injury. The importance of a canine physical fitness program is highlighted and the need for a 4-phase recovery plan to determine if a working dog can safely return to work after injury discussed.

Genetic perturbation of PU.1 binding and chromatin looping at neutrophil enhancers associates with autoimmune disease.

Neutrophils play fundamental roles in innate immune response, shape adaptive immunity, and are a potentially causal cell type underpinning genetic associations with immune system traits and diseases. Here, we profile the binding of myeloid master regulator PU.1 in primary neutrophils across nearly a hundred volunteers.

Contemporary management of pediatric open skull fractures: a multicenter pediatric trauma center study.

Objective: The authors sought to evaluate the contemporary management of pediatric open skull fractures and assess the impact of variations in antibiotic and operative management on the incidence of infectious complications.

Methods: The records of children who presented from 2009 to 2017 to 6 pediatric trauma centers with an open calvarial skull fracture were reviewed. Data collected included mechanism and anatomical site of injury; presence and depth of fracture depression; antibiotic choice, route, and duration; operative management; and infectious complications.

Reliable detection of somatic mutations in solid tissues by laser-capture microdissection and low-input DNA sequencing.

Somatic mutations accumulate in healthy tissues as we age, giving rise to cancer and potentially contributing to ageing. To study somatic mutations in non-neoplastic tissues, we developed a series of protocols to sequence the genomes of small populations of cells isolated from histological sections. Here, we describe a complete workflow that combines laser-capture microdissection (LCM) with low-input genome sequencing, while circumventing the use of whole-genome amplification (WGA).

A minimally invasive pilonidal protocol improves quality of life in adolescents.

Background: Pilonidal disease adversely affects the quality of life (QoL) of adolescents with this condition. We report the impact of minimally invasive care on the QoL of a series of adolescent patients in a dedicated Pilonidal Care Clinic.

Methods: Beginning in February 2019, all patients completed QoL surveys prior to each visit reporting current symptoms and their QoL impact.

When to take it out? Optimal timing of interval appendectomy in 500 consecutive children.

Purpose: While interval appendectomy following nonoperative management of perforated appendicitis is delayed until several weeks after presentation, the optimal time from presentation to interval appendectomy is unknown.

Methods: The data warehouse of a large children's hospital was queried for interval appendectomies from 2006 to 2019. Data extracted included demographics, initial and operative hospitalization details, and pathology findings.

Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA.

We present our current best estimate of the plausible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next several years, with the intention of providing information to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals for the third (O3), fourth (O4) and fifth observing (O5) runs, including the planned upgrades of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. We study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source for gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary systems of compact objects, that is binary neutron star, neutron star-black hole, and binary black hole systems.