Body condition score (BCS) and metabolic status of shelter dogs

A group of 147 shelter dogs were weighted and assigned a body condition score (BCS) using a 9 point scale system, in order to evaluate the prevalence of obesity in the kennel. More than 60% of the animals showed a BCS³6 (overweight and obese) and this condition was mainly attributed to an excess of carbohydrates and fat in the diet. In 67/147 dogs, a blood sample was drawn and the effects of BCS, age and time spent in the shelter were evaluated on biochemical parameters. Obese dogs showed significantly higher levels of triglycerides (P<0.01), while increasing BCS determined only an increasing non significant trend on cholesterol values. Age influenced creatinine (P<0.05) and the oldest dogs scoring BCS³6 registered significant higher NEFA (P<0.05) and CK (P=0.01) levels. Time spent in the shelter did not affect any parameter. The dogs' metabolic condition reflects the need of taking more care of the quality of feed administered in the shelters to avoid the negative health effects caused by chronic obesity

Analgesia and/or anaesthesia during piglet castration&#8211;part I: efficacy of farm protocols in pain management

Pain alleviation associated with surgical castration of piglets is a debated welfare issue. The present study compares the effect of different protocols involving analgesia and/or anaesthesia or sedation suitable under field conditions, with the aim to alleviate pain due to castration in piglets. A randomised within-litter design, with 50 replicates, compared 7 treatments applied 10 min before castration: HAND: positive control, handling only; CTRL: negative control, physiological saline, i.m.; MEL: meloxicam, i.m.; AZA: azaperone, i.m.; PROC: local anaesthesia with procaine and adrenaline, subcutaneously; AZA-MEL: joint administration of azaperone and meloxicam; PROC-MEL: procaine and meloxicam. Efficacy of pain relief was assessed during a 180 min period after castration by serum cortisol and glycaemia, algometry and behaviour. CTRL, AZA, PROC and AZA-MEL piglets showed an increase in cortisol concentration 60 min after castration compared to HAND. Both groups with azaperone (AZA and AZA-MEL) developed concentrations even higher than CTRL (p .05). CRTL and PROC piglets reacted to the algometer at an average lower pressure than HAND (p =.03), differently to the other treatments that showed similar skin sensitivity to HAND (p >.05). No differences in glycaemia and behaviour were observed among treatments. The results suggest that using meloxicam alone might offer a promising option in reducing the expression of pain-related parameters in piglets after surgical castration, however, it appears more efficient when used alone than in association with the anaesthetic agents tested. Procaine administered alone and azaperone seems unsuited to the purpose considered.HIGHLIGHTS Meloxicam used alone is suggested for reducing the expression of pain-related parameters in piglets after surgical castration; When a protocol using procaine is used on the farm during piglets castration, the association with meloxicam reduces some pain-related indicators; Procaine administered alone and azaperone seems unsuited to manage pain after surgical castration of piglets

Identification and rejection of scattered neutrons in AGATA

Gamma rays and neutrons, emitted following spontaneous fission of 252Cf, were measured in an AGATA experiment performed at INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro in Italy. The setup consisted of four AGATA triple cluster detectors (12 36-fold segmented high-purity germanium crystals), placed at a distance of 50 cm from the source, and 16 HELENA BaF2 detectors. The aim of the experiment was to study the interaction of neutrons in the segmented high-purity germanium detectors of AGATA and to investigate the possibility to discriminate neutrons and gamma rays with the gamma-ray tracking technique. The BaF2 detectors were used for a time-of-flight measurement, which gave an independent discrimination of neutrons and gamma rays and which was used to optimise the gamma-ray tracking-based neutron rejection methods. It was found that standard gamma-ray tracking, without any additional neutron rejection features, eliminates effectively most of the interaction points due to recoiling Ge nuclei after elastic scattering of neutrons. Standard tracking rejects also a significant amount of the events due to inelastic scattering of neutrons in the germanium crystals. Further enhancements of the neutron rejection was obtained by setting conditions on the following quantities, which were evaluated for each event by the tracking algorithm: energy of the first and second interaction point, difference in the calculated incoming direction of the gamma ray, figure-of-merit value. The experimental results of tracking with neutron rejection agree rather well with Geant4 simulations

Optical parametric oscillation with distributed feedback in cold atoms

There is currently a strong interest in mirrorless lasing systems, in which the electromagnetic feedback is provided either by disorder (multiple scattering in the gain medium) or by order (multiple Bragg reflection). These mechanisms correspond, respectively, to random lasers and photonic crystal lasers. The crossover regime between order and disorder, or correlated disorder, has also been investigated with some success. Here, we report one-dimensional photonic-crystal lasing (that is, distributed feedback lasing) with a cold atom cloud that simultaneously provides both gain and feedback. The atoms are trapped in a one-dimensional lattice, producing a density modulation that creates a strong Bragg reflection with a small angle of incidence. Pumping the atoms with auxiliary beams induces four-wave mixing, which provides parametric gain. The combination of both ingredients generates a mirrorless parametric oscillation with a conical output emission, the apex angle of which is tunable with the lattice periodicity

CD32⁺ and PD-1⁺ Lymph Node CD4 T Cells Support Persistent HIV-1 Transcription in Treated Aviremic Individuals.

A recent study conducted in blood has proposed CD32 as the marker identifying the "elusive" HIV reservoir. We have investigated the distribution of CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells in blood and lymph nodes (LNs) of HIV-1-uninfected subjects and viremic untreated and long-term-treated HIV-1-infected individuals and their relationship with PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells. The frequency of CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells was increased in viremic compared to treated individuals in LNs, and a large proportion (up to 50%) of CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; cells coexpressed PD-1 and were enriched within T follicular helper (Tfh) cells. We next investigated the role of LN CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells in the HIV reservoir. Total HIV DNA was enriched in CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells compared to CD32 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; and PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; cells in both viremic and treated individuals, but there was no difference between CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; cells. There was no enrichment of latently infected cells with inducible HIV-1 in CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; versus PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; cells in antiretroviral therapy (ART)-treated individuals. HIV-1 transcription was then analyzed in LN memory CD4 T cell populations sorted on the basis of CD32 and PD-1 expression. CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells were significantly enriched in cell-associated HIV RNA compared to CD32 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; (averages of 5.2-fold in treated individuals and 86.6-fold in viremics), CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; (2.2-fold in treated individuals and 4.3-fold in viremics), and CD32 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; (2.2-fold in ART-treated individuals and 4.6-fold in viremics) cell populations. Similar levels of HIV-1 transcription were found in CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; and CD32 &lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells. Interestingly, the proportion of CD32 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and PD-1 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; CD4 T cells negatively correlated with CD4 T cell counts and length of therapy. Therefore, the expression of CD32 identifies, independently of PD-1, a CD4 T cell population with persistent HIV-1 transcription and coexpression of CD32 and PD-1, the CD4 T cell population with the highest levels of HIV-1 transcription in both viremic and treated individuals.IMPORTANCE The existence of long-lived latently infected resting memory CD4 T cells represents a major obstacle to the eradication of HIV infection. Identifying cell markers defining latently infected cells containing replication-competent virus is important in order to determine the mechanisms of HIV persistence and to develop novel therapeutic strategies to cure HIV infection. We provide evidence that PD-1 and CD32 may have a complementary role in better defining CD4 T cell populations infected with HIV-1. Furthermore, CD4 T cells coexpressing CD32 and PD-1 identify a CD4 T cell population with high levels of persistent HIV-1 transcription

Evaluation of polyphenolic content and antioxidant activity in agri-food wastes and by-products using chemical and physiological extraction

EU-28 produces about 100 Mtonnes/year of food waste, of which 40% is generated from agri-food industries. Agri-food waste (AFW) and by-products may contain components that could be valorised for their bioactivity. However, the bioaccessibility of these products is highly variable and dependent on a wide range of factors, including food matrix characteristics. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the total phenolic content and the antioxidant capacity of some by-products and AFW using two different extraction methods. Twelve samples of by products (grape marc, Camelina sativa cake, olive pomace and whey) and 12 samples of AFW (fruits and vegetables waste FVW, citrus pulp, strawberry and orange dried) were processed using: methanol extraction (chemical procedure) and in vitro physiological extraction simulating pig gastro-intestinal tract adapted from Regmi et al., 2009. Soy and wheat were included as controls. Afterwards, the polyphenolic content was assessed by Folin\u2013Ciocalteu assay while antioxidant capacity was determined by 2,2-Azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic Acid (ABTS) assay. Results obtained showed that the chemical extracts of by-products and AFW contain different amount of polyphenols; in particular, as expected, the grape marc showed the highest significant (4.5% w/w; p&lt;.05) polyphenolic content compared to all samples considered. Of note, Camilina sativa cake, olive pomace, FVW, orange and strawberry dried showed a polyphenolic content of 1.3, 0.7, 1.3, 1.6 and 1.3% w/w, respectively. The antioxidant capacity of grape marc exhibited a higher (p&lt;.05) value of 573.6 mmol Trolox equivalent (TE)/g compared to the other samples considered. Camilina sativa cake, olive pomace, FVW, orange and strawberry dried showed an antioxidant capacity of 29.2, 11.0, 28.4, 16.3 and 31.0mmol TE/g. The physiological extraction of grape marcs, Camilina sativa cake, olive pomace, FVW, orange, strawberry dried yielded a polyphenolic content of 3.6, 1.8, 3.2, 3.6 and 2.3% w/w, respectively. The antioxidant capacity showed a similar trend to polyphenolic content after physiological extraction. The results obtained in this study indicate that AFW and by-products could be considered a promising bioaccessible source of antioxidants and phenolic compounds with industrial applications for the production of ingredients to functionalize feedstuffs for monogastric animal

The small GTPase Rab29 is a common regulator of immune synapse assembly and ciliogenesis

Acknowledgements We wish to thank Jorge Galán, Gregory Pazour, Derek Toomre, Giuliano Callaini, Joel Rosenbaum, Alessandra Boletta and Francesco Blasi for generously providing reagents and for productive discussions, and Sonia Grassini for technical assistance. The work was carried out with the financial support of Telethon (GGP11021) and AIRC.Peer reviewedPostprin

Developmental changes in the role of different metalinguistic awareness skills in Chinese reading acquisition from preschool to third grade

Copyright @ 2014 Wei et al. This 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.The present study investigated the relationship between Chinese reading skills and metalinguistic awareness skills such as phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness for 101 Preschool, 94 Grade-1, 98 Grade-2, and 98 Grade-3 children from two primary schools in Mainland China. The aim of the study was to examine how each of these metalinguistic awareness skills would exert their influence on the success of reading in Chinese with age. The results showed that all three metalinguistic awareness skills significantly predicted reading success. It further revealed that orthographic awareness played a dominant role in the early stages of reading acquisition, and its influence decreased with age, while the opposite was true for the contribution of morphological awareness. The results were in stark contrast with studies in English, where phonological awareness is typically shown as the single most potent metalinguistic awareness factor in literacy acquisition. In order to account for the current data, a three-stage model of reading acquisition in Chinese is discussed.National Natural Science Foundation of China and Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences