Blood immune profiles reveal a CXCR3/CCR5 axis of dysregulation in early sepsis.

We report on a pilot study exploring whether blood immune signatures can reveal early specific indicator profiles for patients meeting sepsis criteria upon hospital admission. We analysed samples of sepsis-suspected patients (N=20) and age-spanning healthy controls (N=12), using flow cytometry-based assays. We measured inflammatory markers from plasma fractions, and immunophenotyped freshly isolated unfixed PBMCs for leukocytes subsets representation and expression of activation markers, including chemokine receptors.

Ensemble learning in fixed expansion layer networks for mitigating catastrophic forgetting.

Catastrophic forgetting is a well-studied attribute of most parameterized supervised learning systems. A variation of this phenomenon, in the context of feedforward neural networks, arises when nonstationary inputs lead to loss of previously learned mappings. The majority of the schemes proposed in the literature for mitigating catastrophic forgetting were not data driven and did not scale well.

Effects of parasitism on cellular immune response in sheep experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus.

This work aimed to study the possible relationships among the magnitude of abomasal worm burden and the proliferation of globular leucocytes and mucosal mast cells in the abomasal mucosa, and the white blood cell count. Eighteen Suffolk × Greyface lambs were infected with Haemonchus contortus, and 12 were kept free of nematodes. Blood samples were collected on days 0, 30, and 57 post-infection (p.

Rapid improvement of immunity to Teladorsagia circumcincta is achieved through a reduction in the demand for protein in lactating ewes.

Protein supplementation can improve the resistance to parasites of periparturient ewes, as indicated by reduced nematode egg excretion and worm burdens. However, the rate at which this improvement can occur is largely unknown. We investigated the rate of improvement by assessing temporal changes in faecal egg counts after we experimentally reduced nutrient demand.

Interactions between nutrition and gastrointestinal parasitism in sheep.

Effects of gastrointestinal nematode infection on metabolism and nutrient utilisation in sheep are reviewed. Infection induces protein deficiency by increasing the demand for amino acids in the alimentary tract while reducing supply through depression of appetite. Mechanisms through which improved protein nutrition could improve the performance of the host are then discussed.