Business-centric data solutions for safeguarding animal agriculture in the United States of America.

Business-centric solutions to data-related problems often yield the greatest positive impacts and improvements for private enterprises but are challenging to design and implement at scale within government agencies. The core mission of the Veterinary Services of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal Plant Health Inspection Service is to safeguard animal agriculture in the United States of America, and effective data management underpins these efforts. As this agency works to assist data-driven decision-making in animal health management, it continues to use a blend of best practices from Federal Data Strategy initiatives and the International Data Management Association framework.

A meta-analysis of the associations between insufficient sleep duration and antibody response to vaccination.

Vaccination is a major strategy to control a viral pandemic. Simple behavioral interventions that might boost vaccine responses have yet to be identified. We conducted meta-analyses to summarize the evidence linking the amount of sleep obtained in the days surrounding vaccination to antibody response in healthy adults.

Optimizing surveillance for early disease detection: Expert guidance for Ostreid herpesvirus surveillance design and system sensitivity calculation.

To keep pace with rising opportunities for disease emergence and spread, surveillance in aquaculture must enable the early detection of both known and new pathogens. Conventional surveillance systems (designed to provide proof of disease freedom) may not support detection outside of periodic sampling windows, leaving substantial blind spots to pathogens that emerge in other times and places. To address this problem, we organized an expert panel to envision optimal systems for early disease detection, focusing on Ostreid herpesvirus 1 (OsHV-1), a pathogen of panzootic consequence to oyster industries.

Isolated From Austrian Soil With High Potential for Biotechnological Application.

Fungi of the genus are of high importance for biotechnological applications, in biocontrol and for production of homologous and heterologous proteins. However, sexual crossing under laboratory conditions has so far only been achieved with the species , which was so far only isolated from tropical regions. Our isolation efforts aimed at the collection of strains from Austrian soils surprisingly also yielded 12 strains of the species , which was previously not known to occur in Europe.

Transportation noise impairs cardiovascular function without altering sleep: The importance of autonomic arousals.

Aims: Chronic exposure to nocturnal transportation noise has been linked to cardiovascular disorders with sleep impairment as the main mediator. Here we examined whether nocturnal transportation noise affects the main stress pathways, and whether it relates to changes in the macro and micro structure of sleep.

Methods And Results: Twenty-six young healthy participants (12 women, 24.

Transboundary animal diseases as re-emerging threats - Impact on one health.

Transboundary animal diseases are those that can move through a population of animals and cause considerable economic and societal harm. Many have high mortality, and in low-income areas, can quickly destroy herds and flocks of agricultural animals. Although much of One Health, which sits at the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health, focuses on the zoonotic diseases, in fact transboundary animal diseases can harm both humans and the environment through robbing communities of livelihoods and nutrition, and creating environmental contamination through extensive carcass disposal requirements.

The socioeconomic factors surrounding the initial emergence of peste des petits ruminants in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania from 2006 through 2008.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a devastating disease of small ruminants that significantly hinders productivity in endemic areas. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania reported their first cases in each country between 2006 and 2008 despite the disease being present in the region (Ethiopia and Sudan) since the 1990s. The time leading up to the outbreaks involved refugee movements, drought, civil unrest, and resulted in increased animal mingling, movement and density in these regions.

Adverse impact of nocturnal transportation noise on glucose regulation in healthy young adults: Effect of different noise scenarios.

Background: Epidemiological evidence indicates an association between transportation noise exposure and a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Sleep disturbances are thought to be one of the mechanisms as it is well established that a few nights of short or poor sleep impair glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in healthy good sleepers.

Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the extent to which exposure to nocturnal transportation noise affects glucose metabolism, and whether it is related to noise-induced sleep alterations.

Tagging of Weakly Expressed Toxoplasma gondii Calcium-Related Genes with High-Affinity Tags.

Calcium ions regulate a diversity of cellular functions in all eukaryotes. The cytosolic Ca concentration is tightly regulated at the physiological cytosolic concentration of 50-100 nm. The Toxoplasma gondii genome predicts the presence of several genes encoding potential Ca channels, pumps, and transporters.

Effects of Insufficient Sleep on Pituitary-Adrenocortical Response to CRH Stimulation in Healthy Men.

Study Objectives: Severe sleep restriction results in elevated evening cortisol levels. We examined whether this relative hypercortisolism is associated with alterations in the pituitary-adrenocortical response to evening corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) stimulation.

Methods: Eleven subjects participated in 2 sessions (2 nights of 10 hours vs.

Depression Symptoms in Chronic Left Hemisphere Stroke Are Related to Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Damage.

Damage to the brain's mood regulation systems may contribute to poststroke depression. This study examines relationships between depression symptoms and psychosocial factors and then uses multivariate lesion-symptom mapping to localize depression symptoms in people with chronic left hemisphere stroke. Depression symptoms relate inversely to education and directly to physical disability.

Thinking Cap Plus Thinking Zap: tDCS of Frontopolar Cortex Improves Creative Analogical Reasoning and Facilitates Conscious Augmentation of State Creativity in Verb Generation.

Recent neuroimaging evidence indicates neural mechanisms that support transient improvements in creative performance (augmented state creativity) in response to cognitive interventions (creativity cueing). Separately, neural interventions via tDCS show encouraging potential for modulating neuronal function during creative performance. If cognitive and neural interventions are separately effective, can they be combined? Does state creativity augmentation represent "real" creativity, or do interventions simply yield divergence by diminishing meaningfulness/appropriateness? Can augmenting state creativity bolster creative reasoning that supports innovation, particularly analogical reasoning? To address these questions, we combined tDCS with creativity cueing.

FOCUS--Development of a Global Communication and Modeling Platform for Applied and Computational Medicinal Chemists.

Communication of data and ideas within a medicinal chemistry project on a global as well as local level is a crucial aspect in the drug design cycle. Over a time frame of eight years, we built and optimized FOCUS, a platform to produce, visualize, and share information on various aspects of a drug discovery project such as cheminformatics, data analysis, structural information, and design. FOCUS is tightly integrated with internal services that involve-among others-data retrieval systems and in-silico models and provides easy access to automated modeling procedures such as pharmacophore searches, R-group analysis, and similarity searches.

Adverse effects of two nights of sleep restriction on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in healthy men.

Context: Insufficient sleep is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk. Alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis may underlie this link.

Objective: Our objective was to examine the impact of restricted sleep on daytime profiles of ACTH and cortisol concentrations.

The important role of sleep in metabolism.

Both reduction in total sleep duration with slow-wave sleep (SWS) largely preserved and alterations of sleep quality (especially marked reduction of SWS) with preservation of total sleep duration are associated with insulin resistance without compensatory increase in insulin secretion, resulting in impaired glucose tolerance and increased risk of type 2 diabetes. When performed under rigorously controlled conditions of energy intake and physical activity, sleep restriction is also associated with a decrease in circulating levels of leptin (an anorexigenic hormone) and an increase in circulating levels of ghrelin (an orexigenic hormone), hunger and appetite. Furthermore, sleep restriction is also associated with a stimulation of brain regions sensitive to food stimuli, indicating that sleep loss may lead to obesity through the selection of high-calorie food.

Impact of obesity in children with narcolepsy.

Aims: To evaluate the impact of obesity on clinical and sleep characteristics in a population of narcoleptic children.

Methods: Data from the children diagnosed with idiopathic narcolepsy in the National Reference Centers for Narcolepsy were collected between 2008 and 2011. Clinical and electrophysiological characteristics were compared between obese (body mass index [BMI] greater than P97) and nonobese children.

Phase I trial of split-dose induction docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (TPF) chemotherapy followed by curative surgery combined with postoperative radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (TISOC-1).

Background: Induction chemotherapy (ICT) with docetaxel, cisplatin and fluorouracil (TPF) followed by radiotherapy is an effective treatment option for unresectable locally advanced head and neck cancer. This phase I study was designed to investigate the safety and tolerability of a split-dose TPF ICT regimen prior to surgery for locally advanced resectable oral and oropharyngeal cancer.

Methods: Patients received TPF split on two dosages on day 1 and 8 per cycle for one or three 3-week cycles prior to surgery and postoperative radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy.

A phenomenological model for circadian and sleep allostatic modulation of plasma cortisol concentration.

Both circadian rhythmicity and sleep play significant roles in the regulation of plasma cortisol concentration by the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Numerous studies have found links between sleep and changes in cortisol concentration, but the implications of these results have remained largely qualitative. In this article, we present a quantitative phenomenological model to describe the effects of different sleep durations on cortisol concentration.

Quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer receiving targeted or multimodal therapy--update of the EORTC QLQ-H&N35, Phase I.

Background: The objective of this study was to identify relevant quality of life (QOL) issues in patients with head and neck cancer receiving multimodal and/or targeted therapies.

Methods: The literature was searched for QOL issues reported after multimodal and/or targeted therapies resulting in a list of potentially relevant issues. These were discussed within a multiprofessional expert group, revised, and subsequently rated for relevance by patients and health care providers.

Childhood dental caries and childhood obesity. Different problems with overlapping causes.

Purpose: To review and summarize the current literature on the issues contributing to the increased prevalence of childhood obesity and dental caries and to provide direction and guidelines for dental practitioners as well as other health professionals for interventions that may help stem the tide of both conditions.

Methods: Through a review of the recent literature, the most recent research on the nutritional issues in common to both childhood caries and childhood obesity are reported, as well as clinical interventions which are considered appropriate in dental practice.

Results: Factors contributing to both childhood caries and childhood obesity are psychosocial as well as nutritional.

Sleep and metabolic function.

Evidence for the role of sleep on metabolic and endocrine function has been reported more than four decades ago. In the past 30 years, the prevalence of obesity and diabetes has greatly increased in industrialized countries, and self-imposed sleep curtailment, now very common, is starting to be recognized as a contributing factor, alongside with increased caloric intake and decreased physical activity. Furthermore, obstructive sleep apnea, a chronic condition characterized by recurrent upper airway obstruction leading to intermittent hypoxemia and sleep fragmentation, has also become highly prevalent as a consequence of the epidemic of obesity and has been shown to contribute, in a vicious circle, to the metabolic disturbances observed in obese patients.

[Current developments in measuring quality of life with instruments of the European organisation for research and treatment of cancer (EORTC)].

Since many years, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group develops and validates measures for the assessment of quality of life in cancer patients, using high standards of methodology. These questionnaires are meant to be used primarily in clinical trials.As treatment strategies are changing and because of some -methodological criticism, the head and neck module EORTC QLQ-H&N35 is currently being revised and updated.

Imaging of tuberculosis of the breast: 21 cases and a review of the literature.

This study was conducted to assess the mammographic and sonographic features of tuberculosis (TB) of the breast seen at the Helen Joseph Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa. The study is a retrospective review of patients who presented to the mammography department with breast symptoms subsequently diagnosed as TB or 'highly suspicious for TB'. The search of records extended over a period of 6 years (2002-2008).