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Lack of association between feline AB blood groups and retroviral status: A multicenter, multicountry study
No full textObjectives
The relationship between blood group antigens and disease has been studied in humans. Blood types have been associated with both decreased and increased rates of various infections. In addition, blood group expression has been shown to vary with some cancers and gastrointestinal diseases. The objective of this study was to explore whether there is a relationship between blood type and retroviral infections in cats.
Methods
Case records from a veterinary research laboratory, veterinary teaching hospitals and veterinary blood banks were retrospectively searched for cats where both blood type and retroviral status (feline leukemia [FeLV], feline immunodeficiency virus [FIV] or both) were listed (part 1). In addition, a sample of 33 cats with confirmed FIV infection was genotyped to determine blood groups (part 2).
Results
In part 1, 709 cats were identified, 119 of which were positive for retroviral infection. Among all cases, 621 were type A (87.6%), 68 were type B (9.6%) and 20 were type AB (2.8%). There was no relationship between overall retroviral status (positive/negative) and blood type (P = 0.43), between FeLV status and blood type (P = 0.86) or between FIV status and blood type (P = 0.94). There was no difference in the distribution of blood types between cats that were healthy and typed as possible blood donors vs sick cats that were typed prior to a possible transfusion (P = 0.13). In part 2, of the 33 FIV-infected cats, all blood group genotypes were identified, although this test did not discriminate type A from type AB.
Conclusions and relevance
No relationship was identified between feline retroviral status and blood type in this study. The relationship between blood type and other disease states requires further study in veterinary patients
Short- versus standard-course intravenous antibiotics for peri-prosthetic joint infections managed with debridement and implant retention: a randomised pilot trial using a desirability of outcome ranking (DOOR) endpoint
No full textBackground
Peri-prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a devastating complication of joint replacement surgery. Determining the optimal duration of intravenous (IV) antibiotics for PJI managed with debridement and implant retention (DAIR) is a research priority.
Methods
Patients undergoing DAIR for early and late-acute PJI of the hip or knee were randomised to receive 2 (short-course) or 6 (standard-course) weeks of IV antibiotics, with both groups completing 12 weeks of antibiotics in total. The primary endpoint of this pilot, open-label, randomised trial was a 7-point ordinal desirability of outcome ranking (DOOR) score, which accounted for mortality, clinical cure and treatment adverse events at 12 months. Duration of IV treatment was used as a tiebreaker, with shorter courses ranked higher. Outcome adjudication was performed by expert clinicians blinded to the allocated intervention (Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12617000127303).
Results
60 patients were recruited; 31 and 29 were allocated to short- and standard-course treatment, respectively. All had an evaluable outcome at 12 months and were analysed by intention-to-treat. Clinical cure was demonstrated in 44 (73%) overall; 22 (71%) in the short-course group and 22 (76%) in the standard-care group (P=0.77). Using the DOOR approach, the probability that short- was better than standard-course treatment was 59.7% (95% confidence interval 45.1-74.3).
Conclusions
In selected patients with early and late-acute PJI managed with DAIR, shorter courses of IV antibiotics may be appropriate. Due to small sample size, these data accord with, but do not confirm, results from other international trials of early transition to oral antibiotics
Analysis of the retrotransposon SINE-VNTR-Alu (SVA) polymorphisms in the genetics and pathophysiology of complex diseases
No full textTransposable elements (TEs) form a large proportion of many eukaryotic genomes and we are beginning to develop an understanding of their function. TEs are a large and diverse family of elements forming part of the repetitive genome or genomic dark matter that has not been addressed in detail in the majority of genetic studies. These repetitive and large elements are impossible to call from SNP-based genotyping data, and this is the main factor limiting research in this field thus far. However, the increasing availability of whole genome sequencing data provides the necessary data structure and quality needed for correct calling of TEs. Here we focus on the calling of variation of the composite element SINE-VNTR-Alu (SVA) which is the youngest TE family present in the human genome. Utilizing high-coverage whole genome sequencing data, we address the presence/absence and size variation of these elements. These data can be combined with whole transcriptome data to provide potential functional importance of SVAs in the regulation of the transcriptome and the pathophysiology of diseases. We recently applied this technology to analyze the effect of SVAs on the longitudinal course of Parkinson’s disease in the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative cohort. This chapter briefly describes the background of transposable elements with the emphasis on SVAs and the available methods to study SVAs in genetic analysis of complex diseases
Adversary distillation for One-Shot attacks on 3D target tracking
No full textConsidering the vulnerability of existing deep models in the adversarial scenario, the robustness of 3D target tracking is not guaranteed. In this paper, we present an efficient generation based adversarial attack, termed Adversary Distillation Network (AD-Net), which is able to distract a victim tracker in a single shot. In contrast to existing adversarial attacks derived from point perturbations, the proposed method designs a generative network to distill an adversarial example from a tracking template through point-wise filtration. A binary distribution encoding layer is specialized to filter points, which is modeled as a Bernoulli distribution and approximated in a differentiable formulation. To boost the performance of adversarial example generation, a feature extraction module is deployed, which leverages the PointNet++ architecture to learn hierarchical features for the template points as well as similarities with the search areas. Experimental results on the KITTI vision benchmark show that the proposed adversarial attack can effectively mislead popular deep 3D trackers
Factors determining the resistive switching behavior of transparent InGaZnO‐Based memristors
Get PDFThe overarching goal herein is to identify the factors dominating the performance of a-IGZO-based memristors. Despite the highest on/off ratio, greater than 104 with a preferred minimal set/reset bias achieved from a-IGZO-based memristors, it is observed that the switching performance and stability/reliability of the devices is significantly dominated by the VO·· density and metallization material, depending on their reactivity with IGZO. As the first governing factor, ensuring optimal VO·· concentration in the switching layer IGZO (VO··/OOx ratio 24.3% in this study) is crucial to obtain the tractable formation and rupture of conduction filament. Neither higher nor lower VO·· density than the optimized results in detrimental reliability issues, which may be ascribed to an uncontrollable filament in an abundant vacancy environment or a weak conducting path, respectively. As the second governing mechanism determining the memristor performance and reliability, it is suggested that metallization materials need to be carefully selected based on the thermodynamic redox potential and interfacial stability of the metallization material with IGZO. Metallization materials with larger reduction potential and interfacial stability are found to yield higher switching on/off ratio and greater device performance reliability
Retrospective stratification of cephalosporin allergy label risk using validated penicillin allergy frameworks
No full textDevelopment and initial test of the self-report grief and bereavement assessment
No full textImplementing evidence-based and cost-effective bereavement care is a challenge. A self-report measure could assist to identify caregivers at-risk of prolonged grief. We developed a new measure via five steps: identification of risk and protective factors for prolonged grief, item generation, consultation with an expert panel (n = 8), review by the academic team and expert panel, and a pilot test with family caregivers (n = 19) from three palliative care services. The Grief and Bereavement Assessment is a brief self-report measure that is theoretically and empirically grounded, acceptable to caregivers, feasible for use in palliative care, and requires psychometric validation
Vertical distribution patterns of early stages of mesopelagic fishes along 110 °E, south-east Indian Ocean
No full textThis study examines vertical distribution of the early stages of mesopelagic fishes in the south-eastern Indian Ocean and oceanographic factors that may affect it. This investigation along the 110 °E transect formed part of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2). Depth-stratified samples to 500 m depth of early stages of mesopelagic fishes were obtained by means a multinet EZ-1 m2. This net captured larvae and transforming stages, but juveniles and adults were also caught, particularly at night. Diel vertical patterns of the different species and stages were analysed relative to the oceanographic conditions encountered at the 20 stations along the transect. This paper provides the ranges of vertical occurrence and weighted mean depth for larvae (135 taxa), and post-metamorphic stages (75 taxa) of fishes caught during the survey. Despite the varying vertical profiles of oceanographic parameters encountered, there were consistent patterns within species and families along the transect, with broader vertical distribution of larvae at the southern stations, where the upper mixed layer was deeper. During both day and night, larval stages of all the species were concentrated in the epipelagic zone, with some differences in terms of weighted mean depth (WMD) between taxa, but with no significant differences in vertical location between day and night. Transforming and juvenile-adult stages, however, presented a wider vertical distribution range than larval stages, and showed important differences among families and species. For example, Myctophidae and Phosichthyidae species presented the highest concentrations in the upper 50–100 m at night, and a much deeper distribution during the day, thereby indicating night vertical migration behaviour of transforming and juvenile-adult stages. By contrast, during these stages the Gonostomatidae Cyclothone spp. and the Sternoptychidae Argyropelecus spp. occurred deeper than the epipelagic layer during both day and night. Although these vertical patterns concur with results from other oceans, the WMD along 110 °E was slightly deeper than that observed in other areas, such as the eastern Atlantic, possibly related to water transparency in this oligotrophic part of the world's oceans
A case of coronavirus disease 2019 messenger RNA vaccine tolerance and immune response despite presence of anti-polyethylene glycol antibodies
No full textThe role of anti-polyethylene glycol (PEG) immunoglobulin (Ig)M, IgG, or IgE antibodies in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine anaphylaxis is unknown. We highlight a case with preexisting anti-PEG antibodies that tolerated vaccination.
A 60-year-old woman with debilitating gout experienced HLA-B*58:01-restricted allopurinol drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic syndrome. After 2 years, following therapeutic failure with febuxostat, pegloticase was trialed. After 12 days from initial infusion, she developed angioedema and a diffuse erythematous pruritic rash. She self-treated with diphenhydramine, but symptoms persisted for 2 days. She then developed shortness of breath and throat constriction, requiring antihistamines and systemic steroids from an outside emergency department. She was later discharged with steroids, and symptoms resolved after 7 days. After 7 months, she had negative results from skin prick test (SPT) and intradermal test (IDT) to PEG3350. She was not tested to higher molecular weight PEG at this time. Of note, we detected anti-PEG IgG and IgE antibodies using a previously reported dual cytometric bead assay,1 which had been negative when assessed from biobanked plasma 2 months after the drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic syndrome episode (Table 1). The target beads for the assay used high-affinity murine anti-PEG monoclonal antibody-conjugated cytometric bead array beads conjugated with pegloticase as the target antigen.1 The control beads were conjugated with the same anti-PEG antibodies without pegloticase.1 The positive signal criterion is defined as “target beads MFI (median fluorescence intensity) more than or equal to 1.2 times control beads MFI” and “free PEG inhibition reduces more than or equal to 50% of target beads MFI.”
Development of an Agrobacterium-mediated CRISPR/Cas9 system in pea (Pisum sativum L.)
No full textPea (Pisum sativum L.) is an annual cool-season legume crop. Owing to its role in sustainable agriculture as both a rotation and a cash crop, its global market is expanding and increased production is urgently needed. For both technical and regulatory reasons, neither conventional nor transgenic breeding techniques can keep pace with the demand for increased production. In answer to this challenge, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology has been gaining traction in plant biology and crop breeding in recent years. However, there are currently no reports of the successful application of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology in pea. We developed a transient transformation system of hairy roots, mediated by Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain K599, to validate the efficiency of a CRISPR/Cas9 system. Further optimization resulted in an efficient vector, PsU6.3-tRNA-PsPDS3-en35S-PsCas9. We used this optimized CRISPR/Cas9 system to edit the pea phytoene desaturase (PsPDS) gene, causing albinism, by Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation. This is the first report of successful generation of gene-edited pea plants by this route