Active learning-assisted directed evolution.

Directed evolution (DE) is a powerful tool to optimize protein fitness for a specific application. However, DE can be inefficient when mutations exhibit non-additive, or epistatic, behavior. Here, we present Active Learning-assisted Directed Evolution (ALDE), an iterative machine learning-assisted DE workflow that leverages uncertainty quantification to explore the search space of proteins more efficiently than current DE methods.

Quality Assessment for Secondary Use of Imaging Trials.

Secondary use of health data has become an emerging topic in medical informatics. Many initiatives focus on clinical routine data, but clinical trial data has complementary strengths regarding highly structured documentation and mandatory data quality (DQ) reviews during the implementation. Clinical imaging trials investigate new imaging methods and procedures.

Correction to: Differential disruption of conditioned ejaculatory preference in the male rat based on different sensory modalities by micro-infusions of naloxone to the medial preoptic area or ventral tegmental area.

After publication of this paper, the authors determined an error in one of the author names: in PubMed Cionnaith CM should be Mac Cionnaith C.

Differential disruption of conditioned ejaculatory preference in the male rat based on different sensory modalities by micro-infusions of naloxone to the medial preoptic area or ventral tegmental area.

Rationale: Male rats trained to associate a neutral odor or rodent jacket on a female with their post-ejaculatory reward state display a preference to ejaculate with females bearing the odor or jacket. This conditioned ejaculatory preference (CEP) can be shifted by systemic administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone (NAL) during training, such that NAL-trained males distribute their ejaculations to females without the cue, relative to saline (SAL)-trained males.

Objective: The present study examined two brain sites, the medial preoptic area (mPOA) or ventral tegmental area (VTA), where the opioid reward state might be induced.

Conditioned partner preference in male and female rats for a somatosensory cue.

Male and female rats form a conditioned preference to copulate and/or mate with conspecifics bearing an odor that was paired with either the postejaculatory reward state in males, or paced sexual contact in females, making the odor act as a discrete partner-related cue. Here, we asked whether a somatosensory cue, a rodent jacket, could act as a discrete cue to establish a conditioned partner choice (CPC). In the first study, sexually naïve Long-Evans males and females underwent 14 copulatory conditioning trials for 30 min with their opposite sex partner in unilevel pacing chambers.

A prospective study of breed differences in the thermal pain sensitivity of dogs.

Objective: To compare the thermal nociceptive thresholds (TNTs) of dogs from three working/sport breeds.

Study Design: Experimental prospective study.

Animals: Thirty healthy adult dogs of mixed age, sex and reproductive status, 10 of each of three breeds: Harrier Hound, Greyhound and New Zealand Huntaway.

Sickness presenteeism: measurement and management challenges.

Since work can be restorative to health, attending work when unwell should not be viewed as an inherently negative phenomenon. However, the functional benefits are likely to depend on the health condition, and the psychosocial quality of the work provided. The current study used a workforce survey to explore differences in the pattern of presenteeism and absenteeism by health condition, the association of psychosocial work factors with presenteeism compared to absenteeism, and their interaction to predict health.

Quantification of the adenylate cyclase toxin of Bordetella pertussis in vitro and during respiratory infection.

Whooping cough results from infection of the respiratory tract with Bordetella pertussis, and the secreted adenylate cyclase toxin (ACT) is essential for the bacterium to establish infection. Despite extensive study of the mechanism of ACT cytotoxicity and its effects over a range of concentrations in vitro, ACT has not been observed or quantified in vivo, and thus the concentration of ACT at the site of infection is unknown. The recently developed baboon model of infection mimics the prolonged cough and transmissibility of pertussis, and we hypothesized that measurement of ACT in nasopharyngeal washes (NPW) from baboons, combined with human and in vitro data, would provide an estimate of the ACT concentration in the airway during infection.

Advances in the pre-operative planning of deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flaps: magnetic resonance angiography.

Imaging of the abdominal wall vasculature prior to deep inferior epigastric artery (DIEA) perforator (DIEP) flaps has been shown to significantly improve surgical outcomes. Although computed tomography angiography (CTA) has been shown to be highly accurate, it is associated with radiation exposure, and as such modalities without radiation exposure have been sought. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) has been proposed as such an option.