Minimal power required to ascend a flight of stairs versus actual power measured with body-fixed sensors in adults aged 19-85 years.

A good stair-climbing (SC) ability is crucial for independent living in older adults. A simple formula that estimates the mean power needed to ascend a flight of stairs in a predetermined time (i.e.

Older adults' lower-limb muscle power production throughout a full flight of stairs: Reliability and comparison between different stair models.

Lower-limb muscle power should be closely monitored to prevent age-related functional ability declines. Stair-climbing (SC) power is a functionally relevant measurement of lower-limb muscle power. Body-fixed sensors can measure power production throughout the different steps of a flight of stairs to assess different aspects of performance.

Sensor- and equation-based sit-to-stand power: The effect of age and functional limitations.

Estimating lower-limb muscle power during sit-to-stand (STS) tests is feasible for large-scale implementation. This study investigated 1) whether age, functional limitations and sex have an influence on the movement strategy and power production during STS; and 2) potential differences between STS power estimated with either a simple equation or a sensor. Five-repetition STS data of 649 subjects (♂352 ♀297) aged 19 to 93 years were included.

Association of Sit-to-Stand Capacity and Free-Living Performance Using Thigh-Worn Accelerometers among 60- to 90-Yr-Old Adults.

Purpose: Five times sit-to-stand (STS) test is commonly used as a clinical assessment of lower-extremity functional ability, but its association with free-living performance has not been studied. Therefore, we investigated the association between laboratory-based STS capacity and free-living STS performance using accelerometry. The results were stratified according to age and functional ability groups.

Calibration of Pathogenicity Due to Variant-Induced Leaky Splicing Defects by Using Exon 3 as a Model System.

is a clinically actionable gene implicated in breast and ovarian cancer predisposition that has become a high priority target for improving the classification of variants of unknown significance (VUS). Among all VUS, those causing partial/leaky splicing defects are the most challenging to classify because the minimal level of full-length (FL) transcripts required for normal function remains to be established. Here, we explored exon 3 (e3) as a model for calibrating variant-induced spliceogenicity and estimating thresholds for haploinsufficiency.

Skipping Nonsense to Maintain Function: The Paradigm of Exon 12.

Germline nonsense and canonical splice site variants identified in disease-causing genes are generally considered as loss-of-function (LoF) alleles and classified as pathogenic. However, a fraction of such variants could maintain function through their impact on RNA splicing. To test this hypothesis, we used the alternatively spliced exon 12 (E12) as a model system because its in-frame skipping leads to a potentially functional protein.

Panton-Valentine leukocidin does play a role in the early stage of Staphylococcus aureus skin infections: a rabbit model.

Despite epidemiological data linking necrotizing skin infections with the production of Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), the contribution of this toxin to the virulence of S. aureus has been highly discussed as a result of inconclusive results of in vivo studies. However, the majority of these results originate from experiments using mice, an animal species which neutrophils--the major target cells for PVL--are highly insensitive to the action of this leukocidin.

Mixed Giardia duodenalis assemblage A, B, C and E infections in pet chinchillas (Chinchilla lanigera) in Flanders (Belgium).

Worldwide there is an increasing trend to keep exotic animals as pets. In contrast to domestic animals, few studies have addressed the importance of infectious diseases of these exotic animals harbor. Chinchillas are host to Giardia, but prevalence studies are scarce.

High and low virulence Staphylococcus aureus strains in a rabbit skin infection model.

In the present study, an in vivo rabbit skin infection model was developed to reproduce the lesions caused by high and low virulence Staphylococcus aureus strains from rabbits. "O"-shaped dermal skin lesions were induced on the shaved flanks of anaesthetised rabbits using a tattoo pin and pincers. The induced lesions on the flanks of four groups of 10 rabbits were then inoculated by topical application of 0.

Infectious agents associated with epizootic rabbit enteropathy: isolation and attempts to reproduce the syndrome.

Epizootic rabbit enteropathy (ERE), a highly lethal (30-80% mortality) disease of broiler rabbits aged 6-14 weeks, first appeared in 1997 in French intensive enclosed rabbitries and is of unknown aetiology. Bacteriological, virological and parasitical examination of the intestinal contents of rabbits that had died either in spontaneous field cases or after experimental reproduction of ERE, were undertaken in an attempt to identify infectious agents that may play a role in the disease. Two bacterial strains, Clostridium perfringens and non-enteropathogenic Escherichia coli were repeatedly isolated at high faecal counts from naturally infected animals.

Bacteria-host interactions of Salmonella Paratyphi B dT+ in poultry.

In recent years, a dramatic increase in incidence of the dextro-rotatory tartrate-positive variant (dT+) of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Paratyphi B has been observed in poultry and poultry products. In the present study the interactions of this bacterium with the host were studied in vivo and in vitro in an attempt to explain the preferential association of this serotype with poultry. The ability of this organism to invade and multiply in chicken intestinal epithelial cells and the intracellular behaviour in chicken macrophages was studied in vitro using chicken cell lines.

Detection of circulating galactomannan by Pastorex Aspergillus in experimental invasive aspergillosis.

The performance of Pastorex Aspergillus, a new latex agglutination test for the detection of circulating galactomannan in the serum of patients with invasive aspergillosis, was evaluated in a blind trial in standardized guinea-pig models of invasive aspergillosis and other invasive mycoses. In these animal models, the invasive nature of the fungal infection was confirmed by re-isolation of the etiologic agent from the organs of every animal. Ninety-two plasma samples from 42 animals with invasive aspergillosis were submitted to the test.