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Ammonia and salinity tolerance of Penaeus monodon across eight breeding families
No full text© 2016 Chen et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.Ammonia nitrogen and salinity tolerance of Penaeus monodon from eight selected breeding families were evaluated
at the concentration of 67.65 mg L−1 ammonia-N and reducing salinity from 15 to 0 ‰. The final survival of family A
(88.67 ± 9.81 %) was highest, and the final survival of family B was lowest (24.33 ± 14.01 %) after the ammonia tolerance
test. Upon completing the sudden drop salinity test from 15 to 0 ‰, the highest survival was observed in family
B (98.00 ± 1.73 %), and the lowest survival was found in family H (18.00 ± 1.73 %). Family A showed the strongest
ability to tolerate ammonia stress, and family B showed the strongest tolerance to low salinity. This study suggests
that the tolerance of salinity and ammonia nitrogen varied between breeding families. Results from the present study
provide useful information towards selective breeding in shrimp in aquaculture for environmental tolerance
Epididymo-orchitis in an extremely preterm infant
No full textThis is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Epididymo-orchitis (EO) is a rare condition in the neonatal period. An underlying uropathy is variably
associated with EO in published cases and more frequently seen in older children. In this case report, a
male baby born at 26 weeks gestation had confirmed congenital Escherichia coli septicemia. The E. coli
was sensitive to gentamicin, and he was treated with 10 days of intravenous gentamicin and cefotaxime,
with normalization of markers of infection. He did not have a urinary catheter at any stage. He developed
recurrent E. coli septicemia 19 days after ceasing antibiotics, in association with a tender scrotal swelling.
A urine culture could not be obtained prior to commencing intravenous antibiotics. Surgical exploration
revealed a right pyocele and a viable right testis. He was treated with 2 weeks of intravenous piperacillin
and tazobactam and a further 2 weeks of oral amoxycillin and clavulanic acid. Urological investigations
were normal. No further episodes of EO occurred, and follow-up showed normal testicular growth. This
case adds weight to existing literature which suggests hematogenous spread as the most frequent cause
of neonatal EO, without urinary tract abnormality. EO as cause of recurrent sepsis in the neonate after
apparently adequate treatment of antecedent blood born infection is highlighted. Surgical exploration
confirmed diagnosis, and evacuation of the pyocele assisted resolution of systemic sepsis and decompressed
the testis
Development of South Australian-Victorian Prostate Cancer Health Outcomes Research Dataset
No full textOpen AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BACKGROUND:
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed and prevalent malignancy reported to Australian cancer registries, with numerous studies from single institutions summarizing patient outcomes at individual hospitals or States. In order to provide an overview of patterns of care of men with prostate cancer across multiple institutions in Australia, a specialized dataset was developed. This dataset, containing amalgamated data from South Australian and Victorian prostate cancer registries, is called the South Australian-Victorian Prostate Cancer Health Outcomes Research Dataset (SA-VIC PCHORD).
RESULTS:
A total of 13,598 de-identified records of men with prostate cancer diagnosed and consented between 2008 and 2013 in South Australia and Victoria were merged into the SA-VIC PCHORD. SA-VIC PCHORD contains detailed information about socio-demographic, diagnostic and treatment characteristics of patients with prostate cancer in South Australia and Victoria. Data from individual registries are available to researchers and can be accessed under individual data access policies in each State.
CONCLUSIONS:
The SA-VIC PCHORD will be used for numerous studies summarizing trends in diagnostic characteristics, survival and patterns of care in men with prostate cancer in Victoria and South Australia. It is expected that in the future the SA-VIC PCHORD will become a principal component of the recently developed bi-national Australian and New Zealand Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry to collect and report patterns of care and standardised patient reported outcome measures of men nation-wide in Australia and New Zealand
Etiologic Agents of Bacterial Sepsis and Their Antibiotic Susceptibility Patterns among Patients Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus at Gondar University Teaching Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia
No full textThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background. Bacterial sepsis is amajor cause of illness in human immunodeficiency virus infected patients. There is scarce evidence
about sepsis among HIV patients in Ethiopia. This study aimed to determine the etiologic agents of bacterial sepsis and their
antibiotic susceptibility patterns among HIV infected patients. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out from March 1
to May 2, 2013. One hundred patients infected with HIV and suspected of having sepsis were included. Sociodemographic data
were collected by interview and blood sample was aseptically collected from study participants. All blood cultures were incubated
aerobically at 35∘C and inspected daily for 7 days.The positive blood cultures were identified following the standard procedures and
antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using disk diffusion technique. Data was entered by Epi-info version 3.5.1 and
analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results. Of the study participants, 31 (31%) confirmed bacterial sepsis.The major isolates
were 13 (13%) Staphylococcus aureus, 8 (8%) coagulates negative staphylococci, and 3 (3%) viridans streptococci. Majority of the
isolates, 25 (80.6%), were multidrug resistant to two or more antimicrobial agents. Conclusions. Bacterial sepsis was a major cause
of admission for HIV infected patients predominated by Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative staphylococci species and
most of the isolates were multidrug resistant
A Syntenic Cross Species Aneuploidy Genetic Screen Links RCAN1 Expression to β-Cell Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes
No full textThis is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author and source are
credited.Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex metabolic disease associated with obesity, insulin resistance and hypoinsulinemia due to pancreatic β-cell dysfunction. Reduced mitochondrial function is thought to be central to β-cell dysfunction. Mitochondrial dysfunction and reduced insulin secretion are also observed in β-cells of humans with the most common human genetic disorder, Down syndrome (DS, Trisomy 21). To identify regions of chromosome 21 that may be associated with perturbed glucose homeostasis we profiled the glycaemic status of different DS mouse models. The Ts65Dn and Dp16 DS mouse lines were hyperglycemic, while Tc1 and Ts1Rhr mice were not, providing us with a region of chromosome 21 containing genes that cause hyperglycemia. We then examined whether any of these genes were upregulated in a set of ~5,000 gene expression changes we had identified in a large gene expression analysis of human T2D β-cells. This approach produced a single gene, RCAN1, as a candidate gene linking hyperglycemia and functional changes in T2D β-cells. Further investigations demonstrated that RCAN1 methylation is reduced in human T2D islets at multiple sites, correlating with increased expression. RCAN1 protein expression was also increased in db/db mouse islets and in human and mouse islets exposed to high glucose. Mice overexpressing RCAN1 had reduced in vivo glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and their β-cells displayed mitochondrial dysfunction including hyperpolarised membrane potential, reduced oxidative phosphorylation and low ATP production. This lack of β-cell ATP had functional consequences by negatively affecting both glucose-stimulated membrane depolarisation and ATP-dependent insulin granule exocytosis. Thus, from amongst the myriad of gene expression changes occurring in T2D β-cells where we had little knowledge of which changes cause β-cell dysfunction, we applied a trisomy 21 screening approach which linked RCAN1 to β-cell mitochondrial dysfunction in T2D.
Author Summary
Mitochondrial dysfunction and reduced insulin secretion are key features of β-cell dysfunction in Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder caused by trisomy of chromosome 21 that also displays β-cell mitochondrial dysfunction and reduced insulin secretion in humans. Given these similarities in β-cell dysfunction in T2D and DS, we developed a trisomy 21 screening method to identify genes that may be important in T2D. This approach used different DS mouse models combined with human gene expression data from T2D β-cells. From this we identified a single candidate, Regulator of calcineurin 1 (RCAN1). High RCAN1 expression occurs in human and mouse T2D islets. Increased RCAN1 expression in mice reduced β-cell mitochondrial function and ATP availability, and this has negative implications for multiple ATP-dependent steps in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion
Additional weekend therapy may reduce length of rehabilitation stay after stroke: a meta-analysis of individual patient data
No full textThis is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Questions: Among people receiving inpatient rehabilitation after stroke, does additional weekend
physiotherapy and/or occupational therapy reduce the length of rehabilitation hospital stay compared to
those who receive a weekday-only service, and does this change after controlling for individual factors?
Does additional weekend therapy improve the ability to walk and perform activities of daily living,
measured at discharge? Does additional weekend therapy improve health-related quality of life,
measured 6 months after discharge from rehabilitation? Which individual, clinical and hospital
characteristics are associated with shorter length of rehabilitation hospital stay? Design: This study
pooled individual data from two randomised, controlled trials (n = 350) using an individual patient data
meta-analysis and multivariate regression. Participants: People with stroke admitted to inpatient
rehabilitation facilities. Intervention: Additional weekend therapy (physiotherapy and/or occupational
therapy) compared to usual care (5 days/week therapy). Outcome measures: Length of rehabilitation
hospital stay, independence in activities of daily living measured with the Functional Independence
Measure, walking speed and health-related quality of life. Results: Participants who received weekend
therapy had a shorter length of rehabilitation hospital stay. In the un-adjusted analysis, this was not
statistically significant (MD –5.7 days, 95% CI –13.0 to 1.5). Controlling for hospital site, age, walking
speed and Functional Independence Measure score on admission, receiving weekend therapy was
significantly associated with a shorter length of rehabilitation hospital stay (b = 7.5, 95% CI 1.7 to 13.4,
p = 0.001). There were no significant between-group differences in Functional Independence Measure
scores (MD 1.9 points, 95% CI –2.8 to 6.6), walking speed (MD 0.06 m/second, 95% CI –0.15 to 0.04) or
health-related quality of life (SMD –0.04, 95% CI –0.26 to 0.19) at discharge. Discussion: Modest evidence
indicates that additional weekend therapy might reduce rehabilitation hospital length of stay. Clinical
Trial Registration: ACTRN12610000096055, ACTRN12609000973213. [English C, Shields N, Brusco NK,
Taylor NF, Watts JJ, Peiris C, et al. (2016) Additional weekend therapy may reduce length of
rehabilitation stay after stroke: a meta-analysis of individual patient data. Journal of Physiotherapy
62: 124–129
Two colliding epidemics – obesity is independently associated with chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living in adults 18 years and over; a cross-sectional, population-based study
No full textOpen AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BACKGROUND:
Chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living is highly prevalent in the community. More than 600 million people worldwide are obese. The aim of this paper is to assess if such chronic pain is associated independently with obesity across the adult population, having controlled for other key factors.
METHODS:
The South Australian Health Omnibus is an annual, population-based, cross-sectional study. Data on 2616 participants were analysed for episodes of daily pain for three of the preceding six months. Obesity was derived from self-reported height and weight. Multivariable logistic regression analysed the associations between chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living, body mass index (BMI) and key socio-demographic factors.
RESULTS:
Chronic pain interfering with activities of daily living peaks in people ≥75 years of age while obesity peaks in the 45-54 age group. Pain and obesity together peak in the 55-74 year age group. In the adjusted multinominal logistic regression model, compared to those with no pain, there was a strong association between obesity and pain that interfered moderately or extremely with day-to-day activities (OR 2.25; 95 % CI 1.57-3.23; p < 0.001) having controlled for respondents' age, gender, rurality, country of birth and highest educational attainment. People over 65 years of age and those with lower educational levels were more likely to experience such chronic pain related to obesity.
CONCLUSION:
This study demonstrates a strong association between chronic pain and obesity/morbid obesity in the South Australian population. Prospective, longitudinal data are needed to understand the dynamic interaction between these two prevalent conditions
Edging ever closer to polio eradication [Comment]
No full textThis article is Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Pressure-Flow Analysis for the Assessment of Pediatric Oropharyngeal Dysphagia
Get PDFThis is the authors’ version of an article published in Journal of Pediatrics. The original publication is available by subscription at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.06.032 Licensed under the the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (1 Aug 2016) in accordance with the publisher's copyright policy.Objectives
Pharyngeal High Resolution Manometry with Impedance (HRIM) was performed in a heterogeneous group of children with signs of oropharyngeal dysphagia (OPD). The aim of this study was to determine which objective pressure-impedance measures of pharyngeal swallowing function correlated with clinically assessed severity of OPD symptoms.
Study Design
Forty five pediatric OPD patients and 34 non-OPD controls were recruited and up to 5 liquid bolus swallows were recorded using a solid state HRIM catheter. Individual measures of pharyngeal and upper esophageal sphincter (UES) function and a Swallow Risk Index composite score were derived for each swallow, and averaged data for OPD patients were compared against those of non-OPD controls. Clinical severity of OPD symptoms and oral feeding competency was based on the validated Dysphagia Disorders Survey (DDS) and Functional Oral Intake Scale.
Results
Those objective measures that were markers of UES relaxation, UES opening and pharyngeal flow resistance, differentiated patients with and without OPD symptoms. Patients demonstrating abnormally high pharyngeal intra-bolus pressures and high UES resistance, markers of outflow obstruction, were most likely to have overt DDS signs and symptoms (Odds Ratio 9.24, p=0.05, and 9.7, p = 0.016, respectively).
Conclusion
Pharyngeal motor patterns can be recorded in children using HRIM and pharyngeal function can be objectively defined using pressure-impedance measures. Objective measurements suggest that pharyngeal dysfunction is common in children with clinical signs of OPD. A key finding of this study was evidence of markers of restricted UES opening