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Urinary cystatin B differentiates progressive versus stable IRIS Stage 1 chronic kidney disease in dogs
No full textBackground
Early identification of dogs with progressive vs stable chronic kidney disease (CKD) might afford opportunity for interventions that would slow progression. However, currently no surrogate biomarker reliably predicts CKD progression.
Hypothesis/Objectives
Urinary cystatin B (uCysB), a novel kidney injury biomarker, predicts progressive disease in International Renal Interest Society (IRIS) CKD Stage 1.
Animals
Seventy-two dogs, including 20 dogs from 4 university centers with IRIS CKD Stage 1, with IDEXX symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) concentration up to 17 μg/dL and no systemic comorbidities, and 52 clinically healthy staff-owned dogs from a fifth university center.
Methods
A multicenter prospective longitudinal study was conducted between 2016 and 2021 to assess uCysB concentration in IRIS CKD Stage 1 and control dogs. Dogs were followed to a maximum of 3 years (control) or 25 months (CKD). Stage 1 IRIS CKD was classified as stable or progressive using the slope of 1/SDMA, calculated from 3 timepoints during the initial 90-day period. Dogs with slope above or below −0.0007 week × dL/μg were classified as stable or progressive, respectively. Mixed effects modeling was used to assess the association between uCysB and progression rate.
Results
Estimates of first visit uCysB results predictive of active ongoing kidney injury based on the mixed effects models were 17 ng/mL for control, 24 ng/mL for stable CKD, and 212 ng/mL for progressive CKD (P < .001)
Book review of Higher education in the era of migration, displacement and internationalization
No full textThis is book review of a timely publication on addressing social justice issues unique to migrant and refugee learners, a vulnerable yet underserved population in global higher education systems. It examines how higher education institutions globally can increase access, participation, and success of displaced people in the global context. It fills a gap in the current literature on international higher education. This book summarizes the existing body of knowledge on international migration, students' voices and experiences from different nations and continents, and higher education policy, leadership, programs, and services for displaced students. Through presenting cutting-edge scholarship on diversity, equity, and inclusion in global higher education, the book exemplifies critical scholarship and innovative practices in improving atypical students' access to higher education in the global context
A case study: revising and humanizing the high school English language arts program in Prince Edward Island, Canada
No full textWith the renewal of the grades 10-12 English language arts program, Prince Edward Island renewed curriculum guides, implemented new resources such as classroom libraries, and provided additional graduation pathways for students in English language arts. This ultimately changed government policy with respect to how streaming is approached in high school English language arts in Prince Edward Island. Positioned in both Vygotsky’s (1971) dialectic and Bakhtin’s (1985) dialogical social constructivist theories, this case study first examines the social, economic, and political factors that have reinforced streaming in English language arts at the high school level. Overrepresentation of poor and marginalized students in applied programs is noted within Canada and the United States illustrating the historical trend of public education not meeting the needs of students from marginalized backgrounds. Through narrative writing, analysis of teacher evaluation forms of curriculum implementation, and interviews with students and teachers, this case study examines how students and teachers experienced this program renewal. The importance of choice, agency, and teacher collaboration are notable findings in this study.
Key Words: curriculum, streaming, narrative, case study, English language art
Embracing co-design: A case study examining how community partners became co-creators
No full textCo-design increases the number of voices in a design project, which enhances the experience for all co-creators and produces a better product. A case study is presented of a ten-month co-design project-based learning experience between two engineering design students and two community partners during a first-year engineering design course, which resulted in the implementation of the device across campus. This paper evaluates the elements of co-design in the design process that was employed, documents the design product that was produced, and examines the experience of the community partners through a qualitative study. Through a retrospective examination of artifacts and files, the design process demonstrated an increase in the amount of collaboration between co-creators as the project progressed and identified 15 iterations of the design. Comparing the experience of community partners throughout the design process, five themes emerged from the semi-structured interviews: (1) emotional effects, (2) physical and mental effects, (3) productivity, (4) safety, and (5) job satisfaction. Documenting the experience of community partners throughout the design project can encourage educators to adopt co-design practices in project-based learning
Time flies: A history of Prince Edward Island from the air
No full textTime Flies offers an unprecedented view of one island province’s journey into modernity through a unique blend of aerial photography and historical synthesis. The book presents images of iconic landscapes on Prince Edward Island, and traces how those communities and natural ecosystems have changed over 85 years (1935-2020). Each site history illustrates and reflects on the nature of modern land use and land cover change in one of four chapters organized around primary resource economies, rural communities, urban development, and islands and coastal change. Time Flies offers a visually rich discussion of one island as the world and offers lessons that we can learn from the social and ecological transformation of PEI.Federation for the Humanities and Social SciencesUniversity of Prince Edward Islan
Evaluation of an educational program for nurses providing cancer symptom management: The pan-Canadian Oncology Symptom Triage and Remote Support Online Tutorial
No full textPurpose: To evaluate the acceptability of the pan-Canadian
Oncology Symptom Triage and Remote Support (COSTaRS)
open-access online tutorial and its impact on nurses’ knowledge
and perceived confidence in symptom management.
Methods: Retrospective pre-/post-test evaluation of nurses who completed the tutorial knowledge test and/or acceptability survey. The
tutorial was modeled after the previously evaluated in-person workshop to prepare nurses providing cancer symptom management
using COSTaRS practice guides.
Results: From 2017–2021, 743 nurses completed the knowledge test,
and 749 nurses evaluated the tutorial. Mean knowledge score was
4.4/6 and 83% of participants achieved passing scores. Compared
to pre-tutorial, nurses improved their perceived confidence in assessing, triaging, guiding patients in self-care (p<0.001), and ability to
use the COSTaRS guides (p<0.001). Nurses rated the tutorial as
easy to understand (95%), just the right amount of information
(92%), providing new information (75%), overall good to excellent
(89%), and would recommend it to others (83%).
Conclusions: More than 700 nurses accessed the tutorial. After
completion, nurses demonstrated good knowledge and improved
perceived confidence in cancer symptom management.Gail Macartney is part of the COSTaRS research group in Acknowledgments of the articl
Reasons to be skeptical about sentience and pain in fishes and aquatic invertebrates
No full textThe welfare of fishes and aquatic invertebrates is important, and several jurisdictions have included these taxa under welfare regulation in recent years. Regulation of welfare requires use of scientifically validated welfare criteria. This is why applying Mertonian skepticism toward claims for sentience and pain in fishes and aquatic invertebrates is scientifically sound and prudent, particularly when those claims are used to justify legislation regulating the welfare of these taxa. Enacting welfare legislation for these taxa without strong scientific evidence is a societal and political choice that risks creating scientific and interpretational problems as well as major policy challenges, including the potential to generate significant unintended consequences. In contrast, a more rigorous science-based approach to the welfare of aquatic organisms that is based on verified, validated and measurable endpoints is more likely to result in “win-win” scenarios that minimize the risk of unintended negative impacts for all stakeholders, including fish and aquatic invertebrates. The authors identify as supporters of animal welfare, and emphasize that this issue is not about choosing between welfare and no welfare for fish and aquatic invertebrates, but rather to ensure that important decisions about their welfare are based on scientifically robust evidence. These ten reasons are delivered in the spirit of organized skepticism to orient legislators, decision makers and the scientific community, and alert them to the need to maintain a high scientific evidential bar for any operational welfare indicators used for aquatic animals, particularly those mandated by legislation. Moving forward, maintaining the highest scientific standards is vitally important, in order to protect not only aquatic animal welfare, but also global food security and the welfare of humans
Effective communication of coastal flood warnings: Challenges and recommendations
No full textWith the increasing risk of coastal flooding facing coastal communities due to climate change, coastal flood warnings (CFWs) are expected to play a critical role in the protection of people and property to ensure communities’ sustainable development. However, as destructive coastal flooding hazards have caused considerable damage in recent years, the effectiveness of coastal flooding warnings could be questioned considering their objective of disaster risk reduction. Here, we deliver a review investigation of the current CFWs in the USA and Canada based on their setup and dissemination, and a case study of two representative coastal flooding events. Through this review, we found that collaboration between multi-level administration regarding CFW mechanisms has the potential to strengthen these mechanisms, improving their efficacy. We also found that CFWs presented in the media often lacked consideration of public acceptance and practicability in their reports, which may have affected the performance of these CFWs. Meanwhile, the technological limitations and uncertain public acceptance may also reduce the CFWs’ effectiveness in application. Accordingly, the media should further consider the understandability of CFW-related reports. Moreover, emergency information channels should be set in both traditional media and social media for accessible use by residents with different customs. Lastly, starting from the normalized prevention of coastal flood disaster, a consensus of crisis awareness should be built with which the social aspects of the defense against coastal flooding can be established for future environmental sustainability
A Cdk5-derived peptide inhibits Cdk5/p25 activity and improves neurodegenerative phenotypes
No full textAberrant activity of cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk5) has been implicated in various neurodegenerative diseases. This deleterious effect is mediated by pathological cleavage of the Cdk5 activator p35 into the truncated product p25, leading to prolonged Cdk5 activation and altered substrate specificity. Elevated p25 levels have been reported in humans and rodents with neurodegeneration, and the benefit of genetically blocking p25 production has been demonstrated previously in rodent and human neurodegenerative models. Here, we report a 12-amino-acid-long peptide fragment derived from Cdk5 (Cdk5i) that is considerably smaller than existing peptide inhibitors of Cdk5 (P5 and CIP) but shows high binding affinity toward the Cdk5/p25 complex, disrupts the interaction of Cdk5 with p25, and lowers Cdk5/p25 kinase activity. When tagged with a fluorophore (FITC) and the cell-penetrating transactivator of transcription (TAT) sequence, the Cdk5i-FT peptide exhibits cell- and brain-penetrant properties and confers protection against neurodegenerative phenotypes associated with Cdk5 hyperactivity in cell and mouse models of neurodegeneration, highlighting Cdk5i’s therapeutic potential.NIH grant
Cytologic scoring of equine exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage: Performance of human experts and a deep learning-based algorithm
No full textExercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) is a relevant respiratory disease in sport horses, which can be diagnosed by examination of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells using the total hemosiderin score (THS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility of annotators and to validate a deep learning-based algorithm for the THS. Digitized cytological specimens stained for iron were prepared from 52 equine BALF samples. Ten annotators produced a THS for each slide according to published methods. The reference methods for comparing annotator’s and algorithmic performance included a ground truth dataset, the mean annotators’ THSs, and chemical iron measurements. Results of the study showed that annotators had marked interobserver variability of the THS, which was mostly due to a systematic error between annotators in grading the intracytoplasmatic hemosiderin content of individual macrophages. Regarding overall measurement error between the annotators, 87.7% of the variance could be reduced by using standardized grades based on the ground truth. The algorithm was highly consistent with the ground truth in assigning hemosiderin grades. Compared with the ground truth THS, annotators had an accuracy of diagnosing EIPH (THS of < or ≥ 75) of 75.7%, whereas, the algorithm had an accuracy of 92.3% with no relevant differences in correlation with chemical iron measurements. The results show that deep learning-based algorithms are useful for improving reproducibility and routine applicability of the THS. For THS by experts, a diagnostic uncertainty interval of 40 to 110 is proposed. THSs within this interval have insufficient reproducibility regarding the EIPH diagnosis.Dres. Jutta and Georg Bruns-Stifung für innovative Veterinärmedizi