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Genetic markers associated with bone strength and density in Rhode Island Red laying hens
Get PDFDamage to the keel bone in commercial laying hens represent one of the greatest welfare issues in laying hens. This study aims to identify the DNA markers and candidate genes for bone strength and density traits in a Rhode Island Red laying hen population. We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on bone quality traits using a sample of 925 Rhode Island Red laying hens genotyped with a genotyping array consisting of 60 000 DNA markers. With a univariate linear mixed model, we identified 52 suggestive genetic markers located within 28 candidate genes that are associated with the humerus, keel, and tibia strength and density. We also found overlaps between the GWAS results for medullary bone score and tibia strength and density with published quantitative trait loci (QTL) for eggshell effective layer thickness and abdominal fat weight, respectively. Heritability estimates for the humerus stiffness, tibia stiffness, medullary bone score and minor bone diameter ranged from 0.21 to 0.34. Annotation term enrichment analysis of genes within 2 Megabases of suggestive markers found that mTOR signalling pathway, tryptophan metabolism, TGF-β signalling pathway, and apoptosis were significantly enriched. These loci do not overlap previously published associations, and thus appear to be novel.</p
Intuitive judgements towards artificial intelligence verdicts of moral transgressions
Get PDFAutomated decision-making systems have become increasingly prevalent in morally salient domains of services, introducing ethically significant consequences. In three pre-registered studies (N = 804), we experimentally investigated whether people’s judgements of AI decisions are impacted by a belief alignment with the underlying politically salient context of AI deployment over and above any general attitudes towards AI people might hold. Participants read conservative- or liberal-framed vignettes of AI-detected statistical anomalies as a proxy for potential human prejudice in the contexts of LGBTQ+ rights and environmental protection, and responded to willingness to act on the AI verdicts, trust in AI, and perception of procedural fairness and distributive fairness of AI. Our results reveal that people’s willingness to act, and judgements of trust and fairness seem to be constructed as a function of general attitudes of positivity towards AI, the moral intuitive context of AI deployment, pre-existing politico-moral beliefs, and a compatibility between the latter two. The implication is that judgements towards AI are shaped by both the belief alignment effect and general AI attitudes, suggesting a level of malleability and context dependency that challenges the potential role of AI serving as an effective mediator in morally complex situations
Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor-induced acne in inflammatory bowel disease – an international, multicenter, retrospective cohort study:JAK inhibitor-induced acne
Get PDFBackground and Aims:JAK inhibitor-associated acne is a common but poorly understood adverse event. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and treatment outcomes of this condition in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).Methods:This international, multicenter, retrospective cohort study consecutively enrolled JAK-inhibitor-treated IBD patients who subsequently developed acne. The primary objective was to evaluate the clinical characteristics of acne. Secondary objectives included determining acne prevalence, impact on quality of life, and anti-acne treatment effectiveness.Results:Among 2,183 JAK inhibitor-treated patients with IBD, 272 developed acne. The crude prevalence rates of acne were 15.9% for upadacitinib, 4.3% for tofacitinib, and 1.9% for filgotinib, with dose-dependent relationships observed for upadacitinib and tofacitinib. Acne predominantly affected patients aged 30–50 years; most cases were mild-moderate in severity. A prior history of acne vulgaris was associated with significantly increased odds of developing severe JAK inhibitor–associated acne (OR 4.88, 95% CI 2.88–31.7;p=0.0003) and acne-related skin complications (OR 3.92, 95% CI 1.56–10.11;p=0.004). One-third of patients reported a negative psychosocial impact, and 40% received pharmacological intervention. Eighteen percent of patients who developed acne required JAK inhibitor dose reduction or discontinuation, although most did not have severe disease.Conclusion:This is the first study characterizing this adverse event in JAK inhibitor-treated IBD patients and presents the largest cohort of JAK inhibitor-induced acne cases across all immune-mediated diseases. Acne is a common adverse effect resulting in significant psychological burden. Early identification, proactive counseling, and timely interventions, such as dose reduction or referral to dermatology, are crucial in managing this side effect
Trauma Healing and Transformation in Higher Education:Exploring the Potential for Including Capacitar Practices in and out of the Classroom
Get PDFThe mental health crisis we face globally is inextricably entangled with the multiple planetary crises we face, including the climate and nature emergencies. This challenges us to recognise that we face a meta-crisis rather than a poly-crisis. This is increasingly recognised by the growing recognition of the role Quantum Social Science has to play in meeting these challenges. As part of any response, we need to learn to recognise how the world lands in us and collectively come together to work with a challenge that exceeds our individual capacities. Developments in the fields of collective trauma science and of wellness education have pushed trauma awareness, trauma healing and transformation to the fore as priorities in transformational learning. This poster (and accompanying workshop) explore the potential of Capacitar Trauma Healing and Transformation classes with their emphasis on somatic practice to support learning communities as they explore and come to grappling terms with challenge focussed education.<br/
PiVoT: Poisson Measurements-based Variational Multi-object Detection and Tracking
Get PDFAbstract—Existing trackers based on Poisson measurement process often struggle with efficiency and accuracy in large-scale tracking under heavy clutter. To overcome this, we introduce PiVoT, a scalable, robust multi-object tracker capable of efficiently detecting and tracking a large, varying number of objects, along with their shapes, existence probabilities, and measurement rates, even in heavy clutter. PiVoT employs a novel two-stage variational inference routine to achieve inference tractability and closed-form, parallelisable updates. Efficiency is further enhanced by early identification and removal of ineffective birth objects and designing highly simplified, much faster, yet equivalent variational updates. Additionally, PiVoT inherently offers efficient clutter-robust clustering, an innovation that can also enhance existing trackers that depend on supplementary clustering techniques. Experiments demonstrate PiVoT’s clear accuracy and efficiency gains over existing methods, while also highlighting its ability to track a thousand closely spaced objects in under a second on a standard laptop without gating
Insights into endometriosis symptom trajectories and assessment of surgical intervention outcomes using longitudinal actigraphy
Get PDFEndometriosis is a common, chronic condition associated with debilitating pain, fatigue, and heterogeneous symptom presentation. In this exploratory study, 68 participants with confirmed endometriosis were monitored for up to three 4–6-week smartwatch cycles. We collected daily self-reports of pain and fatigue as well as retrospective questionnaires assessing quality of life, and we extracted daily measures of physical activity (PA), sleep, and diurnal rhythms from wrist-worn actigraphy data. We found that daily PA was strongly negatively correlated with self-reported fatigue (repeated measures correlations ) and that participants with more severe or variable symptom trajectories displayed lower levels of PA, greater sleep disturbance, and more disrupted sleep and activity rhythms (Spearman’s ). Lastly, we found evidence of sleep and PA changes following surgery for endometriosis that reflected change in self-reported symptoms. Collectively, our findings suggest that passive data collection using wrist-worn wearables in endometriosis could facilitate individualized objective insights into symptom trajectories
Fundoscopy in cats: a practical guide and common findings
Get PDFPRACTICAL RELEVANCE: Comprehensive examination of the feline fundus should be in every clinician's arsenal. It is an integral part of both the physical and ophthalmic examination, especially in senior cats and in the presence of intraocular inflammation and visual impairment. Fundoscopy provides critical insight into a wide range of systemic diseases, often leading to quicker diagnoses and better treatment outcomes.CLINICAL CHALLENGES: Practice is needed to become proficient and take high-quality photos of the retina. Distinguishing between normal variants and pathological findings can be challenging initially.EVIDENCE BASE: This review includes information from published references of common retinal pathologies in cats, as well as the authors' extensive experience on performing fundoscopy.EQUIPMENT: The essential tools for fundoscopy include a direct and indirect ophthalmoscope, condensing lens and a focal light source. High-quality images of the fundus can be achieved with any smartphone.AUDIENCE: This review is aimed at veterinary clinicians and outlines all the steps and equipment needed to confidently perform fundoscopy. It also provides tips on how to capture photos of the fundus using a smartphone. Common findings are discussed in relation to different retinal pathologies.</p
Nest building and circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata
Get PDFDespite its fundamental importance for avian reproduction, the hormonal mechanisms supporting nest building remain poorly understood. While nest building by both male and female builders requires circulating sex steroids, it is not clear whether these steroids are required throughout building. We, therefore, sought to determine circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches during early breeding, specifically focusing on the nest building period. We collected plasma samples from two cohorts of birds at three of the following four timepoints: before (baseline), following pairing, during, and after nest building. To dissociate the end of nest building from incubation onset we daily removed any eggs laid and terminated nest building once we had sampled males during nest building. Male circulating testosterone levels remained stable following pairing with a female and throughout nest building. However, testosterone titers dropped once nest building had stopped. We also found evidence to suggest that, following pairing with a female, circulating testosterone titers can predict a male’s future readiness to build. Together, our data suggest that circulating testosterone is important throughout nest building, not decreasing until the 34 end of nest building activities, perhaps through a ‘self-feedback’ mechanism
Solid solubility in metallic hydrogen
Get PDFHydrogen in its metallic form is the most common material in our solar system, found under the extreme pressure and temperature conditions found in giant planets. Such conditions are inaccessible to experiments and, consequently, theoretical work has typically led experiments. Metallic hydrogen is also expected to exist in solid form at low temperatures and to have remarkable properties. It has been the subject of several controversial claims of synthesis. A curious feature is that solid metallic hydrogen is not expected to have a close-packed structure, even at extreme pressures. The predicted crystal structure has a packing fraction of only 0.44 compared with 0.74 for fcc. Alloying with other metallic elements can form compounds with atomic hydrogen and much reduced metallization pressure. Here we investigate the possible solid solubility of a representative range of elements (Be, B, Mg, S, Fe, La) in metallic atomic hydrogen near 500 GPa. We find that zero point energy is a highly significant feature in all cases. The metallic elements Be, Mg, Fe, and La have a well-defined clathrate-style first-neighbor shell at 300 K, while the nonmetallic B and S have more open arrangements. All the elements considered are soluble, in sites substituting for more than one hydrogen atom. The solid solubility of such a wide range of ambient bonding types - simple metals, covalent materials, transition metals, lanthanides - gives a strong indication that most elements will dissolve in solid metallic hydrogen. Atomic metallic hydrogen is far more aggressively corrosive than its molecular counterpart, which adds to the practical challenge for synthesis. Such doping raises the possibility of synthesizing I41/amd hydrogen at somewhat lower pressure.</p
People with long Covid and ME/CFS exhibit similarly impaired balance and physical capacity:A case-case-control study
Get PDFPurposePostural sway and physical capacity had not previously been compared between people with long COVID and people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Therefore, this study determined postural sway and physical capacity in people with long COVID (∼16-month illness duration; n = 21) and ME/CFS (∼16-year illness duration; n = 20), vs age-matched healthy controls (n = 20).MethodsPostural sway was during a 30-s static stand test. Physical capacity was determined using the Timed Up and Go test and 5 Times Sit to Stand test. Throughout, participants wore isoinertial measurement units.ResultsPostural sway was worse (ie, greater) in people with long COVID and ME/CFS than controls, but not different between long COVID and ME/CFS. Performance of the Timed Up and Go test and 5 Times Sit to Stand test were worse in long COVID and ME/CFS than controls, but not different between long COVID and ME/CFS. Of long COVID and ME/CFS participants, 87% and 13% exceeded the threshold for muscle weakness in the 5 Times Sit to Stand test and Timed Up and Go test, respectively.ConclusionsThese data suggest that both people with long COVID and people with ME/CFS have similarly impaired balance and physical capacity. Therefore, there is an urgent need for interventions to target postural sway and physical capacity in people with ME/CFS, and given the current pandemic, people with long COVID.<br/
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