Sequelae of Occult Aggression Disqualifying Young, Socially Housed, Female New Zealand White Rabbits () from Participation in Dermal Toxicology Studies.

International animal welfare organizations and federal, regional, and institutional oversight bodies encourage social housing of gregarious species, such as New Zealand white rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), to promote animal wellbeing in research, teaching, testing and farming settings. At our institution, 2 groups of female New Zealand white rabbits (approximate age, 11 wk; mean weight, 2.35 kg), compatibly paired at the vendor for 5 wk, were paired in caging or group-housed in a floor pen.

Two homolog wheat Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3/SHAGGY--like kinases are involved in brassinosteroid signaling.

Background: Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3/SHAGGY-like kinases (GSKs) are multifunctional non-receptor ser/thr kinases. Plant GSKs are involved in hormonal signaling networks and are required for growth, development, light as well as stress responses. So far, most studies have been carried out on Arabidopsis or on other eudicotyledon GSKs.

Identification and characterization of two wheat Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3/ SHAGGY-like kinases.

Background: Plant Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3/ SHAGGY-like kinases (GSKs) have been implicated in numerous biological processes ranging from embryonic, flower, stomata development to stress and wound responses. They are key regulators of brassinosteroid signaling and are also involved in the cross-talk between auxin and brassinosteroid pathways. In contrast to the human genome that contains two genes, plant GSKs are encoded by a multigene family.

Hemimandibulectomy after bisphosphonate treatment for complex regional pain syndrome: a case report and review on the prevention and treatment of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw.

Background: The increase in reported cases of osteonecrosis of the jaw has increased the clinical significance of bisphosphonate therapeutic agents in the dentistry field.

Methods: We present a rare and severe case of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw caused by medicamentous treatment of complex regional pain syndrome. This article reviews the current international prevention and treatment guidelines with regard to bisphosphonate treatment.

In vitro activities of faropenem, ertapenem, imipenem and meropenem against Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.

Little is known about the in vitro activity of penems and carbapenems against the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Here, faropenem, ertapenem, imipenem and meropenem as well as the third-generation cephalosporin ceftriaxone and tobramycin were tested in vitro against 11 isolates of the B. burgdorferi sensu lato complex.

The qualitative and time-dependent character of spatial relations in biomedical ontologies.

Motivation: The formal representation of mereological aspects of canonical anatomy (parthood relations) is relatively well understood. The formal representation of other aspects of canonical anatomy, such as connectedness and adjacency relations between anatomical parts, their shape and size as well as the spatial arrangement of anatomical parts within larger anatomical structures are, however, much less well understood and represented in existing computational anatomical and bio-medical ontologies only insufficiently.

Results: In this article, we provide a methodology of how to incorporate this kind of information into anatomical and bio-medical ontologies by applying techniques of representing qualitative spatial information from Artificial Intelligence.

Logical properties of foundational relations in bio-ontologies.

Objective: We compare the advantages of specifying the semantics of foundational relations in bio-medical terminology systems using different types of formal deductive systems: first-order logic (FOL) and description logics (DLs).

Method: As our focus example, we use a terminology whose basic terms are supposed to designate proper parthood relations, subdivision relations, and surrounded-by relations. Each type of relation captures an important and distinct aspect of the spatial organization of anatomical structures: the general part-whole structure (proper parthood), the division of salient anatomical objects into discrete, tree-like structures (subdivision-of), and the nesting of anatomical objects into containers (surrounded-by).

Granularity, scale and collectivity: when size does and does not matter.

Bridging levels of "granularity" and "scale" are frequently cited as key problems for biomedical informatics. However, detailed accounts of what is meant by these terms are sparse in the literature. We argue for distinguishing two notions: "size range," which deals with physical size, and "collectivity," which deals with aggregations of individuals into collections, which have emergent properties and effects.

Biomedical ontologies: what part-of is and isn't.

Mereological relations such as part-of and its inverse has-part are fundamental to the description of the structure of living organisms. Whereas classical mereology focuses on individual entities, mereological relations in biomedical ontologies are generally asserted between classes of individuals. In general, this practice leaves some basic issues unanswered: type constraints of mereological relations, e.

A formal theory for spatial representation and reasoning in biomedical ontologies.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how a formal spatial theory can be used as an important tool for disambiguating the spatial information embodied in biomedical ontologies and for enhancing their automatic reasoning capabilities.

Method And Materials: This paper presents a formal theory of parthood and location relations among individuals, called Basic Inclusion Theory (BIT). Since biomedical ontologies are comprised of assertions about classes of individuals (rather than assertions about individuals), we define parthood and location relations among classes in the extended theory Basic Inclusion Theory for Classes (BIT+Cl).

New real-time PCR-based method for in vitro susceptibility testing of Anaplasma phagocytophilum against antimicrobial agents.

Up to now, only a few isolates of Anaplasma phagocytophilum have been tested for their susceptibility against a small number of antimicrobial agents. In addition, as with other fastidious or intracellular bacteria, the test methods are laborious and neither minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) definitions, nor the test conditions and the inocula are standardised to date. A new 16S-rDNA-based real-time PCR assay has been developed and used under standardised conditions to analyse the activity of seven antimicrobial agents against two A.

Hermite acuity gratings and models of space-variant acuity.

A coherent mathematical framework for the psychophysics of contrast perception emerges when contrast sensitivity is posed as an eigenvalue problem. This more general mathematical theory is broad enough to encompass Fourier analysis as it is used in vision research. We present a model of space-variant contrast detection to illustrate the main features of the theory, and obtain a new contrast sensitivity function using acuity gratings based on the Hermite functions.