Changes in vaginal gene expression and anogenital distance during gilt reproductive development.

Early puberty is associated with improved long-term reproductive performance. Predicting who will achieve early puberty is limited to intensive, invasive serial blood collections for measurement of reproductive hormones. The vaginal genome during pubertal development has potential as biomarkers of early estrus in the pre-pubertal period.

Efficacy of pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib as first-line treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma with multiple brain metastases.

Introduction: Patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma have a poor prognosis and its specific pathogenesis remains unelucidated.

Case Presentation: At 78 years of age, a Japanese male patient was diagnosed with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (cT3N2M1 stage) and multiple brain metastases that were responsive to stereotactic radiation therapy followed by systemic combination induction therapy of pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib. Adverse events, including grade 3 hypertension, grade 2 eruption, and elevated grade 2 fever, were controlled by a dose reduction or suspension of drugs.

Evaluation of thermal effects of surgical energy devices: ex vivo study.

This study evaluated the direct and indirect thermal effects of various surgical energy devices using an ex-vivo model. Two types of three devices were evaluated: ENSEAL™ X1 Curved Jaw Tissue Sealer (X1) and ENSEAL™ G2 Curved Tissue Sealer (G2) as vessel sealing systems (VSSs), and HARMONIC HD1000i Shears (HA) as an ultrasonic activating device (USAD). Each device was activated once under DRY or WET conditions.

Learning curve of multiple surgeons for robot-assisted radical prostatectomy using the cumulative sum method: a retrospective single-institution study.

Prostate cancer (PC) is common among men and has become a significant societal issue. Localized PC has a good prognosis with appropriate treatment. Prostatectomy, particularly robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), has become a common treatment since the da Vinci prostatectomy was approved by the FDA in 2001.

Comparison of differences in performance between pigs whose sires were identified using different selection strategies after experimental infection with PRRSV.

The objective of this study was to evaluate differences in the performance of offspring of boars selected with an index emphasizing resilience and boars selected based on a traditional index, emphasizing feed efficiency and carcass quality (traditional) index vs. a customized (resilience) index. The resilience index was identical to the traditional index, except that extra emphasis was placed on piglet vitality (increased by 66%), growth rate (decreased by 14%), and feed intake (increased substantially by 5,157%).

Using fosfomycin to prevent infection following ureterorenoscopy in response to shortage of cephalosporins: a retrospective preliminary study.

Background: In 2019, the shortage of cefazolin led to the demand for cefotiam and cefmetazole exceeding the supply. The Department of Nephro-urology at Nagoya City University Hospital used fosfomycin as a substitute for perioperative prophylaxis. This retrospective preliminary study evaluated the efficacy of fosfomycin and cefotiam for preventing infections following ureterorenoscopy.

Experience and Prognostic Analysis with Avelumab Switch Maintenance Treatment in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma.

Introduction: Avelumab (Ave) is approved for metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) maintenance therapy and prolongs overall survival (OS). We explored trends related to Ave treatment of mUC patients.

Methods: A total of 72 patients with mUC treated with first-line chemotherapy, from January 2019 to November 2022, at our affiliated institutions, were analyzed.

Mitigating aflatoxin B1 in high-moisture sorghum silage: growth and aflatoxin B1 prediction.

(), a frequent contaminant in silage, is a significant producer of aflatoxins, notably the potent carcinogen aflatoxin B1. This contaminant poses a potential risk during the initial aerobic phase of ensiling. The present work studied the impact of temperature on growth and aflatoxin B1 production in laboratory-scale sorghum silos during the initial aerobic phase.

Successful cannulation of a difficult pancreatic duct using the uneven method.

Video 1Pancreatic cannulation via the uneven method.

Urothelial carcinoma occurring in a defunctionalized bladder after urinary diversion due to the bladder exstrophy-epispadias complex.

Introduction: The bladder exstrophy-epispadias complex is a rare congenital disease. Urothelial carcinomas rarely occur in patients with this disease, and there have been few reports on its treatment.

Case Presentation: We report the case of a 44-year-old man with a hemorrhage from the external urethral meatus.

Proton pump inhibitors and potassium competitive acid blockers decrease pembrolizumab efficacy in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

We elucidated the efficacy of gut microbiome-altering drugs on pembrolizumab efficacy in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC). Clinical data were analyzed retrospectively from 133 patients with mUC who received second-line pembrolizumab therapy between January 2018 and January 2021, following failed platinum-based chemotherapy. We evaluated the effects of gut microbiome-altering drugs (proton pump inhibitors [PPI]/potassium-competitive acid blockers [P-CAB], H2 blockers, antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs], metformin, antipsychotics, steroids, and opioids), taken by patients within 30 days before/after pembrolizumab treatment, on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

Impact of intratumoral microbiome on tumor immunity and prognosis in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that the presence of microbiome within human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tissue potentially influences cancer progression and prognosis. However, the significance of tumor-resident microbiome remains unclear. We aimed to elucidate the impact of intratumoral bacteria on the pathophysiology and prognosis of human PDAC.

Longevity in South African Afrikaner cows as assessed through survival analysis.

The Afrikaner breed of cattle is indigenous to South Africa and, due to their hardiness, was once the most popular breed amongst South African farmers, although in recent years their numbers have decreased. The goal of this study was to assess factors affecting length of productive life, defined as the interval between production of the first and last calf, in Afrikaner cattle using survival analysis. The data spanned 40 years with an observed measure of length of life for 29,379 cows from 374 herds.

Postoperative Bladder Neck to Pubic Symphysis Ratio Predictive for De Novo Overactive Bladder after Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy.

Background: The aim was to investigate the incidence and clinical predictive factors of de novo overactive bladder (OAB) after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), including a Retzius-sparing (RS) approach, in the same period at a single institution.

Methods: Of a total of 113 patients with localized prostate cancer, 81 received conventional RARP (CON-RARP) and 32 received RS-RARP at our institution. The basic characteristics data of patients and self-assessment questionnaires, including IPSS and OABSS, were obtained preoperatively and 1, 3, and 6 months after RARP.

The Effect of Copper and Zinc Sources on Liver Copper and Zinc Concentrations and Performance of Beef Cows and Suckling Calves.

To determine the influence of the source of gestational and postnatal Cu and Zn supplementation on cow and calf performance, cows ( = 287) were assigned to one of the following two treatments: (1) inorganic (INORG) treatment, in which cows were supplemented with 15 mg of Cu (as CuSO) and 15 mg of Zn (as ZnSO) per kg of diet DM, or (2) organic (ORG) treatment, in which cows were supplemented with 15 mg of Cu (as Cu proteinate; Bioplex Cu, Alltech, Inc., Nicholasville, KY, USA) and 15 mg of Zn (as Zn proteinate; Bioplex Zn, Alltech, Inc., Nicholasville, KY, USA) per kg of diet DM.

Beef color and tenderness response to production systems utilizing additive combinations of growth-promotant technologies.

The objective of this study was to compare the influence of beef production systems using additive combinations of growth-promotant technologies on meat quality. Steer calves ( = 120) were assigned to 1 of 4 treatments: 1) no technology (NT; control), 2) antibiotic treated (ANT; NT plus therapeutic antibiotics, monensin, and tylosin), 3) implant treated (IMP; ANT plus a series of three implants), and 4) beta-agonist treated (BA; IMP plus ractopamine-HCl). Muscle biopsy samples from the longissimus lumborum were extracted from a subset ( = 4 per treatment) of steers to evaluate expression of calpain-1, calpain-2, and calpastatin using real-time RT-PCR.

Benefits of pancreatic parenchymal endoscopic ultrasonography in predicting microscopic precancerous lesions of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer primarily arises from microscopic precancerous lesions, such as pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) and acinar-to-ductal metaplasia (ADM). However, no established method exists for predicting pancreatic precancerous conditions. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) can detect changes in pancreatic parenchymal histology, including fibrosis.

A comprehensive analysis of tumor-stromal collagen in relation to pathological, molecular, and immune characteristics and patient survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Background: Abundant collagen deposition is a hallmark of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs). This study clarified the interactive relationship between tumor-stromal collagen, molecular and immune characteristics, and tumor pr ogression in human PDAC.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive examination using an integrative molecular pathological epidemiology database on 169 cases with resected PDAC .

A narrative review of peripheral blood parameters for urothelial carcinoma treated with systemic antitumor drugs.

Background And Objective: The prognosis of advanced urothelial carcinoma (aUC) is poor. To date, the gold standard of treatment for patients with aUC has been cisplatin-based chemotherapy. More recently, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been widely used for such patients, which has led to an improvement in their prognosis.