Age Determination of the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis, using Wing Pigmentation

A red pigment is contained in the wing veins of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). This insect is the main vector of the plant-pathogenic bacterium Xylella fastidiosa Wells (Xanthomonadales: Xanthomonadaceae), the causal agent of Pierce's disease of grapevines. Over the course of the H. vitripennis lifespan, the red pigment darkens and eventually becomes brown/black in color. These pigments are believed to be pheomelanin and eumelanin, respectively. The age of H. vitripennis can be determined by calculating the amount of red pigment found in the wings by analyzing high resolution wing photographs with image analysis software. In this study, a standard curve for the age determination of H. vitripennis was developed using laboratory—reared insects of known ages varying from 1 to 60 days. The impact of three environmental conditions on these readings was also investigated and found to have little effect on the age determination, and could be easily accounted for. Finally, field collected insects from several Central Texas vineyards were successfully analyzed for age determination suggesting that the annually reported influx of H. vitripennis was composed almost entirely of older insects

Immediate remote ischemic postconditioning after hypoxia ischemia in piglets protects cerebral white matter but not grey matter

Remote ischemic postconditioning (RIPostC) is a promising therapeutic intervention whereby brief episodes of ischemia/reperfusion of one organ (limb) mitigate damage in another organ (brain) that has experienced severe hypoxia-ischemia. Our aim was to assess whether RIPostC is protective following cerebral hypoxia-ischemia in a piglet model of neonatal encephalopathy (NE) using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) biomarkers and immunohistochemistry. After hypoxia-ischemia (HI), 16 Large White female newborn piglets were randomized to: (i) no intervention (n = 8); (ii) RIPostC - with four, 10-min cycles of bilateral lower limb ischemia/reperfusion immediately after HI (n = 8). RIPostC reduced the hypoxic-ischemic-induced increase in white matter proton MRS lactate/N acetyl aspartate (p = 0.005) and increased whole brain phosphorus-31 MRS ATP (p = 0.039) over the 48 h after HI. Cell death was reduced with RIPostC in the periventricular white matter (p = 0.03), internal capsule (p = 0.002) and corpus callosum (p = 0.021); there was reduced microglial activation in corpus callosum (p = 0.001) and more surviving oligodendrocytes in corpus callosum (p = 0.029) and periventricular white matter (p = 0.001). Changes in gene expression were detected in the white matter at 48 h, including KATP channel and endothelin A receptor. Immediate RIPostC is a potentially safe and promising brain protective therapy for babies with NE with protection in white but not grey matter

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk–outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk–outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk–outcome associations. Methods We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk–outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017. Findings In 2017, 34·1 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 33·3–35·0) deaths and 1·21 billion (1·14–1·28) DALYs were attributable to GBD risk factors. Globally, 61·0% (59·6–62·4) of deaths and 48·3% (46·3–50·2) of DALYs were attributed to the GBD 2017 risk factors. When ranked by risk-attributable DALYs, high systolic blood pressure (SBP) was the leading risk factor, accounting for 10·4 million (9·39–11·5) deaths and 218 million (198–237) DALYs, followed by smoking (7·10 million [6·83–7·37] deaths and 182 million [173–193] DALYs), high fasting plasma glucose (6·53 million [5·23–8·23] deaths and 171 million [144–201] DALYs), high body-mass index (BMI; 4·72 million [2·99–6·70] deaths and 148 million [98·6–202] DALYs), and short gestation for birthweight (1·43 million [1·36–1·51] deaths and 139 million [131–147] DALYs). In total, risk-attributable DALYs declined by 4·9% (3·3–6·5) between 2007 and 2017. In the absence of demographic changes (ie, population growth and ageing), changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs would have led to a 23·5% decline in DALYs during that period. Conversely, in the absence of changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs, demographic changes would have led to an 18·6% increase in DALYs during that period. The ratios of observed risk exposure levels to exposure levels expected based on SDI (O/E ratios) increased globally for unsafe drinking water and household air pollution between 1990 and 2017. This result suggests that development is occurring more rapidly than are changes in the underlying risk structure in a population. Conversely, nearly universal declines in O/E ratios for smoking and alcohol use indicate that, for a given SDI, exposure to these risks is declining. In 2017, the leading Level 4 risk factor for age-standardised DALY rates was high SBP in four super-regions: central Europe, eastern Europe, and central Asia; north Africa and Middle East; south Asia; and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania. The leading risk factor in the high-income super-region was smoking, in Latin America and Caribbean was high BMI, and in sub-Saharan Africa was unsafe sex. O/E ratios for unsafe sex in sub-Saharan Africa were notably high, and those for alcohol use in north Africa and the Middle East were notably low. Interpretation By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Isoflurane Exposure Induces Cell Death, Microglial Activation and Modifies the Expression of Genes Supporting Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Function in the Male Newborn Piglet Brain

Exposure of the brain to general anesthesia during early infancy may adversely affect its neural and cognitive development. The mechanisms mediating this are complex, incompletely understood and may be sexually dimorphic, but include developmentally inappropriate apoptosis, inflammation and a disruption to cognitively salient gene expression. We investigated the effects of a 6h isoflurane exposure on cell death, microglial activation and gene expression in the male neonatal piglet brain. Piglets (n = 6) were randomised to: (i) naive controls or (ii) 6h isoflurane. Cell death (TUNEL and caspase-3) and microglial activation were recorded in 7 brain regions. Changes in gene expression (microarray and qPCR) were assessed in the cingulate cortex. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded throughout. Isoflurane anesthesia induced significant increases in cell death in the cingulate and insular cortices, caudate nucleus, thalamus, putamen, internal capsule, periventricular white matter and hippocampus. Dying cells included both neurons and oligodendrocytes. Significantly, microglial activation was observed in the insula, pyriform, hippocampus, internal capsule, caudate and thalamus. Isoflurane induced significant disruption to the expression of 79 gene transcripts, of these 26 are important for the control of transcription and 23 are important for the mediation of neural plasticity, memory formation and recall. Our observations confirm that isoflurane increases apoptosis and inflammatory responses in the neonatal piglet brain but also suggests novel additional mechanisms by which isoflurane may induce adverse neural and cognitive development by disrupting the expression of genes mediating activity dependent development of neural circuits, the predictive adaptive responses of the brain, memory formation and recall

Immediate remote ischemic postconditioning after hypoxia ischemia in piglets protects cerebral white matter but not grey matter

Remote ischemic postconditioning (RIPostC) is a promising therapeutic intervention whereby brief episodes of ischemia/reperfusion of one organ (limb) mitigate damage in another organ (brain) that has experienced severe hypoxia-ischemia. Our aim was to assess whether RIPostC is protective following cerebral hypoxia-ischemia in a piglet model of neonatal encephalopathy (NE) using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) biomarkers and immunohistochemistry. After hypoxia-ischemia (HI), 16 Large White female newborn piglets were randomized to: (i) no intervention (n = 8); (ii) RIPostC - with four, 10-min cycles of bilateral lower limb ischemia/reperfusion immediately after HI (n = 8). RIPostC reduced the hypoxic-ischemic-induced increase in white matter proton MRS lactate/N acetyl aspartate (p = 0.005) and increased whole brain phosphorus-31 MRS ATP (p = 0.039) over the 48 h after HI. Cell death was reduced with RIPostC in the periventricular white matter (p = 0.03), internal capsule (p = 0.002) and corpus callosum (p = 0.021); there was reduced microglial activation in corpus callosum (p = 0.001) and more surviving oligodendrocytes in corpus callosum (p = 0.029) and periventricular white matter (p = 0.001). Changes in gene expression were detected in the white matter at 48 h, including KATP channel and endothelin A receptor. Immediate RIPostC is a potentially safe and promising brain protective therapy for babies with NE with protection in white but not grey matter

Histology of TUNEL, CCasp-3, Iba-1 and GFAP.

<p>Representative photomicrograpths of TUNEL and CCasp-3 in the external capsule and the Iba-1 and GFAP in the thalamus of naïve (left column) and isoflurane exposed (right column) piglets. Arrows indicate TUNEL and CCasp-3 positive cells. CCasp-3 and Iba-1 are counterstained with cresyl violet. Inserts highlight cell activation and morphology (scale bar = 50μm).</p

Physiological variables for piglets at 1h intervals during the 6h exposure to isoflurane anaesthesia.

<p>Physiological variables for piglets at 1h intervals during the 6h exposure to isoflurane anaesthesia.</p