Principles of appropriate antibiotic use for treatment of uncomplicated acute bronchitis: background.

The following principles of appropriate antibiotic use for adults with acute bronchitis apply to immunocompetent adults without complicating comorbid conditions, such as chronic lung or heart disease. The evaluation of adults with an acute cough illness or a presumptive diagnosis of uncomplicated acute bronchitis should focus on ruling out serious illness, particularly pneumonia. In healthy, nonelderly adults, pneumonia is uncommon in the absence of vital sign abnormalities or asymmetrical lung sounds, and chest radiography is usually not indicated. In patients with cough lasting 3 weeks or longer, chest radiography may be warranted in the absence of other known causes. Routine antibiotic treatment of uncomplicated acute bronchitis is not recommended, regardless of duration of cough. If pertussis infection is suspected (an unusual circumstance), a diagnostic test should be performed and antimicrobial therapy initiated. Patient satisfaction with care for acute bronchitis depends most on physician--patient communication rather than on antibiotic treatment

Assaying Environmental Nickel Toxicity Using Model Nematodes

Although nickel exposure results in allergic reactions, respiratory conditions, and cancer in humans and rodents, the ramifications of excess nickel in the environment for animal and human health remain largely undescribed. Nickel and other cationic metals travel through waterways and bind to soils and sediments. To evaluate the potential toxic effects of nickel at environmental contaminant levels (8.9-7,600 µg Ni/g dry weight of sediment and 50-800 µg NiCl2/L of water), we conducted assays using two cosmopolitan nematodes, Caenorhabditis elegans and Pristionchus pacificus. We assayed the effects of both sediment-bound and aqueous nickel upon animal growth, developmental survival, lifespan, and fecundity. Uncontaminated sediments were collected from sites in the Midwestern United States and spiked with a range of nickel concentrations. We found that nickel-spiked sediment substantially impairs both survival from larval to adult stages and adult longevity in a concentration-dependent manner. Further, while aqueous nickel showed no adverse effects on either survivorship or longevity, we observed a significant decrease in fecundity, indicating that aqueous nickel could have a negative impact on nematode physiology. Intriguingly, C. elegans and P. pacificus exhibit similar, but not identical, responses to nickel exposure. Moreover, P. pacificus could be tested successfully in sediments inhospitable to C. elegans. Our results add to a growing body of literature documenting the impact of nickel on animal physiology, and suggest that environmental toxicological studies could gain an advantage by widening their repertoire of nematode species

Association of Escherichia coli O157:H7 tir polymorphisms with human infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Emerging molecular, animal model and epidemiologic evidence suggests that Shiga-toxigenic <it>Escherichia coli </it>O157:H7 (STEC O157) isolates vary in their capacity to cause human infection and disease. The translocated intimin receptor (<it>tir</it>) and intimin (<it>eae</it>) are virulence factors and bacterial receptor-ligand proteins responsible for tight STEC O157 adherence to intestinal epithelial cells. They represent logical genomic targets to investigate the role of sequence variation in STEC O157 pathogenesis and molecular epidemiology. The purposes of this study were (1) to identify <it>tir </it>and <it>eae </it>polymorphisms in diverse STEC O157 isolates derived from clinically ill humans and healthy cattle (the dominant zoonotic reservoir) and (2) to test any observed <it>tir </it>and <it>eae </it>polymorphisms for association with human (vs bovine) isolate source.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Five polymorphisms were identified in a 1,627-bp segment of <it>tir</it>. Alleles of two <it>tir </it>polymorphisms, <it>tir </it>255 T>A and repeat region 1-repeat unit 3 (RR1-RU3, presence or absence) had dissimilar distributions among human and bovine isolates. More than 99% of 108 human isolates possessed the <it>tir </it>255 T>A T allele and lacked RR1-RU3. In contrast, the <it>tir </it>255 T>A T allele and RR1-RU3 absence were found in 55% and 57%, respectively, of 77 bovine isolates. Both polymorphisms associated strongly with isolate source (p < 0.0001), but not by pulsed field gel electrophoresis type or by <it>stx</it>1 and <it>stx</it>2 status (as determined by PCR). Two <it>eae </it>polymorphisms were identified in a 2,755-bp segment of 44 human and bovine isolates; 42 isolates had identical <it>eae </it>sequences. The <it>eae </it>polymorphisms did not associate with isolate source.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Polymorphisms in <it>tir </it>but not <it>eae </it>predict the propensity of STEC O157 isolates to cause human clinical disease. The over-representation of the <it>tir </it>255 T>A T allele in human-derived isolates vs the <it>tir </it>255 T>A A allele suggests that these isolates have a higher propensity to cause disease. The high frequency of bovine isolates with the A allele suggests a possible bovine ecological niche for this STEC O157 subset.</p

Analysis of parcel-based image classification methods for monitoring the activities of the Land Bank of Galicia (Spain)

[EN] The abandonment of agricultural plots entails a low economic productivity of the land and a higher vulnerability to wildfires and degradation of affected areas. In this sense, the local government of Galicia is promoting new methodologies based on high-resolution images in order to classify the territory in basic and generic land uses. This procedure will be used to control the sustainable management of plots belonging to the Land Bank. This paper presents an application study for maintaining and updating land use/land cover geospatial databases using parcel-oriented classification. The test is performed over two geographic areas of Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. In this region, forest and shrublands in mountain environments are very heterogeneous with many private unproductive plots, some of which are in a high state of abandonment. The dataset is made of high spatial resolution multispectral imagery, cadastral cartography employed to define the image objects (plots), and field samples used to define evaluation and training samples. A set of descriptive features is computed quantifying different properties of the objects, i.e. spectral, texture, structural, and geometrical. Additionally, the effect on the classification and updating processes of the historical land use as a descriptive feature is tested. Three different classification methodologies are analyzed: linear discriminant analysis, decision trees, and support vector machine. The overall accuracies of the classifications obtained are always above 90 % and support vector machine method is proved to provide the best performance. Forest and shrublands areas are especially undefined, so the discrimination between these two classes is low. The results enable to conclude that the use of automatic parcel-oriented classification techniques for updating tasks of land use/land cover geospatial databases, is effective in the areas tested, particularly when broad and well defined classes are required.The authors appreciate the collaboration and support provided by Xunta de Galicia, Sociedade para o Desenvolvemento Comarcal de Galícia, and Banco de Terras de Galicia. The financial support provided by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the framework of the projects CGL2010-19591/BTE and CGL2009-14220 is also acknowledged.Hermosilla, T.; Díaz Manso, J.; Ruiz Fernández, LÁ.; Recio Recio, JA.; Fernández-Sarría, A.; Ferradáns Nogueira, P. (2012). Analysis of parcel-based image classification methods for monitoring the activities of the Land Bank of Galicia (Spain). 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Calf health from birth to weaning. I. General aspects of disease prevention

Calfhood diseases have a major impact on the economic viability of cattle operations. This is the first in a three part review series on calf health from birth to weaning, focusing on preventive measures. The review considers both pre- and periparturient management factors influencing calf health, colostrum management in beef and dairy calves and further nutrition and weaning in dairy calves