Piscirickettsiosis causes the highest mortality in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) farming, and prophylactic treatment has not provided complete protection to date. In this study, we analyzed the immune and metabolic responses of Atlantic salmon inoculated with live and inactivated Piscirickettsia salmonis, monitoring plasma markers related to immune and stress responses. The fish were inoculated with inactivated P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe discovery that the lung harbors a diverse microbiome, as revealed by next-generation sequencing, has significantly altered our understanding of respiratory health and disease. Despite the association between the lung microbiota and disease, the nature of their relationship remains poorly understood, and culture isolation of these microorganisms could help to determine their role in lung physiology. Current procedures for processing samples from the lower respiratory tract have been shown to affect the viability of microorganisms, so it is crucial to develop new methods to improve their survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe increase in urinary tract infections (UTI) caused by antibiotic-resistant requires the development of new therapeutic agents and prophylactic vaccines. To evaluate the efficacy of new lead candidates, we implemented a cynomolgus macaque UTI challenge model that mimics human uncomplicated cystitis in response to transurethral challenge with a multidrug-resistant (MDR) serotype O25b ST131 isolate. fimbrial adhesin FimH and O-antigens are separately under clinical evaluation by others as vaccine candidates to prevent UTI and invasive urosepsis disease, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare the impact of a commercial "sleep lotion" versus a placebo control lotion on salivary melatonin and sleep quality.
Methods: The presence of melatonin in the lotion was confirmed and quantitated with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). In this randomized, controlled, double-blind crossover trial, undergraduate student participants applied lotions on two separate nights and we quantitated melatonin in saliva samples with enzyme linked immunosorbent assays.
Visual recognition is largely realized through neurons in the ventral stream, though recently, studies have suggested that ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) is also important for visual processing. While it is hypothesized that sensory and cognitive processes are integrated in vlPFC neurons, it is not clear how this mechanism benefits vision, or even if vlPFC neurons have properties essential for computations in visual cortex implemented via recurrence. Here, we investigated if vlPFC neurons in two male monkeys had functions comparable to visual cortex, including receptive fields, image selectivity, and the capacity to synthesize highly activating stimuli using generative networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancers (Basel)
August 2024
(1) Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has low survival rates despite treatment advancements. Aim: This study aims to show how molecular profiling could possibly guide personalized treatment strategies, which may help improve survival outcomes in patients with PDAC. (2) Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of 142 PDAC patients from a single academic center was conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: While graphics are commonly used by clinicians to communicate information to patients, the impact of using visual media on surgical patients is not understood. This review seeks to understand the current landscape of research analyzing impact of using visual aids to communicate with patients undergoing surgery, as well as gaps in the present literature.
Design: A comprehensive literature search was performed across 4 databases.
Inspired by Giommoni's assessment of the Cunningham precursor control scholarship, we propose two concepts to help drug policy scholars think through the mechanisms that operate when market participants are faced with a change in precursor availability. The first is the concept of restrictive deterrence, that emphasizes risks mitigation strategies such as looking into changes in the frequency, methods, markets that may occur after different types of interventions. While restrictive deterrence is an improvement over current approaches in thinking through adaptations, it falls short in its narrower focus on the individual, rather than organizations or the market as a collective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLiquid-liquid interfaces hold the potential to serve as versatile platforms for dynamic processes, due to their inherent fluidity and capacity to accommodate surface-active materials. This study explores laser-driven actuation of liquid-liquid interfaces with and without loading of gold nanoparticles and further exploits the laser-actuated interfaces with nanoparticles for tunable photonics. Upon laser exposure, gold nanoparticles were rearranged along the interface, enabling the reconfigurable, small-aperture modulation of light transmission and the tunable lensing effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite the established National Institute of Health Revitalization Act, which aims to include ethnic and racial minority representation in surgical trials, racial and ethnic enrollment disparities persist.
Objective: To assess the proportion of patients from minority races and ethnicities that are included in colorectal cancer surgical trials and reporting characteristics.
Data Sources: Search was performed using MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central.
Comprehending symbiont abundance among host species is a major ecological endeavour, and the metabolic theory of ecology has been proposed to understand what constrains symbiont populations. We parameterized metabolic theory equations to investigate how bird species' body size and the body size of their feather mites relate to mite abundance according to four potential energy (uropygial gland size) and space constraints (wing area, total length of barbs and number of feather barbs). Predictions were compared with the empirical scaling of feather mite abundance across 106 passerine bird species (26,604 individual birds sampled), using phylogenetic modelling and quantile regression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic opioid intake leads to several brain changes involved in the development of dependence, whereby an early hedonistic effect (liking) extends to the need to self-administer the drug (wanting), the latter being mostly a prefrontal-striatal function. The development of animal models for voluntary oral opioid intake represents an important tool for identifying the cellular and molecular alterations induced by chronic opioid use. Studies mainly in humans have shown that polydrug use and drug dependence are shared across various substances.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParacoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a systemic fungal infection caused by Paracoccidioides spp. It can occur as an acute/subacute form (A/SAF), a chronic form (CF) and rarely as a mixed form combining the features of the two aforementioned forms in an immunocompromised patient. Here, we report a 56-year-old male patient with CF-PCM who presented with atypical manifestations, including the development of an initial esophageal ulcer, followed by central nervous system (CNS) lesions and cervical and abdominal lymphatic involvement concomitant with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To understand medical interpreters' perspectives on surgical informed consent discussions and provide feedback for surgeons on improving these conversations.
Background: Informed consent is a critical component of patient-centered surgical decision-making. For patients with limited English proficiency, this conversation may be less thorough, even with a medical interpreter, leaving patients with an inadequate understanding of their diagnosis or treatment options.
Background: Morphine is an opiate commonly used in the treatment of moderate to severe pain. However, prolonged administration can lead to physical dependence and strong withdrawal symptoms upon cessation of morphine use. These symptoms can include anxiety, irritability, increased heart rate, and muscle cramps, which strongly promote morphine use relapse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Inadequate endoscopic assessment of disease activity might lead to suboptimal treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Aims: We aimed to determine if the implementation of an educational mobile app could help improving the quality of colonoscopy reports in patients with IBD.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a consecutive series of colonoscopy reports in patients with IBD during the period 2016-2023.
Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is a vascular tumor of low malignancy. Lesions may vary in shape, color, and size. Angiogenesis, spindle-shaped cells, and inflammatory infiltration are the main histologic features of the condition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvasive alien species have widespread impacts on native biodiversity and ecosystem services. Since the number of introductions worldwide is continuously rising, it is essential to prevent the entry, establishment and spread of new alien species through a systematic examination of future potential threats. Applying a three-step horizon scanning consensus method, we evaluated non-established alien species that could potentially arrive, establish and cause major ecological impact in Spain within the next 10 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: In recent years, general hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-prolyl hydroxylase (PHD) enzyme inhibitors have been developed for the treatment of anemia due to renal disease and osteoporosis. However, it remains a challenge to target the HIF signaling pathway without dysregulating the skeletal and hematopoietic system. Here, we examined the effects of deletion in bone by performing longitudinal analyses of cKO mice at 3, 6, 10, and 24 weeks of age, where at 10 and 24 weeks of age, high bone mass and splenomegaly are present.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFruit development involves exocarp color evolution. However, signals that control this process are still elusive. Differences between dark-red and bicolored sweet cherry cultivars rely on MYB factor gene mutations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: COVID-19 pandemic disturbed mental health of healthcare personnel. Residents of the specialization programs could be at risk, since they were reassigned in their functions.
Aim: To describe the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on symptoms of depression, stress, anxiety and resilient coping in residents of Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine Material and Methods: Residents were invited to answer an online survey containing the DASS-21 scale for anxiety, stress and depression symptoms and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) for resilience skills.