Detection of Prions in Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa) from Areas with Reported Chronic Wasting Disease Cases, United States.

Using a prion amplification assay, we identified prions in tissues from wild pigs (Sus scrofa) living in areas of the United States with variable chronic wasting disease (CWD) epidemiology. Our findings indicate that scavenging swine could play a role in disseminating CWD and could therefore influence its epidemiology, geographic distribution, and interspecies spread.

Role of forelimb morphology in muscle sensorimotor functions during locomotion in the cat.

Previous studies established strong links between morphological characteristics of mammalian hindlimb muscles and their sensorimotor functions during locomotion. Less is known about the role of forelimb morphology in motor outputs and generation of sensory signals. Here, we measured morphological characteristics of 46 forelimb muscles from six cats.

Neuromechanical Circuits of the Spinal Motor Apparatus.

The evolution of mechanisms for terrestrial locomotion has resulted in multi-segmented limbs that allow navigation on irregular terrains, changing of direction, manipulation of external objects, and control over the mechanical properties of limbs important for interaction with the environment, with corresponding changes in neural pathways in the spinal cord. This article is focused on the organization of these pathways, their interactions with the musculoskeletal system, and the integration of these neuromechanical circuits with supraspinal mechanisms to control limb impedance. It is argued that neural pathways from muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs form a distributive impedance controller in the spinal cord that controls limb impedance and coordination during responses to external disturbances.

"We Were Just so Sad and Devastated": NICU Nurses' Stories of Caring for Families With Substance-Exposed Pregnancies.

This secondary analysis re-examined stories of caregiving told by NICU nurses in the southeast US through a trauma theory lens expanding on research surrounding substance-exposed pregnancies. Narrative analysis identified distress-related experiences of nurses related to child custody decisions and outcomes, suggesting traumatic stress within this caregiving dynamic. Four distinct story types and three themes were identified across 23 stories, highlighting similarities and differences and illustrating how distress and trauma were experienced and may be manifested in care practices.

Accelerating Heritability, Genetic Correlation, and Genome-Wide Association Imaging Genetic Analyses in Complex Pedigrees.

National and international biobanking efforts led to the collection of large and inclusive imaging genetics datasets that enable examination of the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to human brains in illness and health. High-resolution neuroimaging (~10 voxels) and genetic (10 single nucleotide polymorphic [SNP] variants) data are available in statistically powerful (N = 10) epidemiological and disorder-focused samples. Performing imaging genetics analyses at full resolution afforded in these datasets is a formidable computational task even under the assumption of unrelatedness among the subjects.