Estimation of sensitivity and specificty of culture and Danish-mix ELISA for detection of Salmonella in swine using Bayesian methods

Both bacterial culture and serological assays, such as the Danish-mix ELISA for the detection of antibodies, are commonly used as tools for detecting and monitoring Salmonella in swine. The comparison and ultimate interpretation of results are made more difficult due to the absence of a gold standard

Quality of anticholinergic burden scales and their impact on clinical outcomes: a systematic review.

Older people are at risk of anticholinergic side effects due to changes affecting drug elimination and higher sensitivity to drug's side effects. Anticholinergic burden scales (ABS) were developed to quantify the anticholinergic drug burden (ADB). We aim to identify all published ABS, to compare them systematically and to evaluate their associations with clinical outcomes. We conducted a literature search in MEDLINE and EMBASE to identify all published ABS and a Web of Science citation (WoS) analysis to track validation studies implying clinical outcomes. Quality of the ABS was assessed using an adapted AGREE II tool. For the validation studies, we used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Cochrane tool Rob2.0. The validation studies were categorized into six evidence levels based on the propositions of the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine with respect to their quality. At least two researchers independently performed screening and quality assessments. Out of 1297 records, we identified 19 ABS and 104 validations studies. Despite differences in quality, all ABS were recommended for use. The anticholinergic cognitive burden (ACB) scale and the German anticholinergic burden scale (GABS) achieved the highest percentage in quality. Most ABS are validated, yet validation studies for newer scales are lacking. Only two studies compared eight ABS simultaneously. The four most investigated clinical outcomes delirium, cognition, mortality and falls showed contradicting results. There is need for good quality validation studies comparing multiple scales to define the best scale and to conduct a meta-analysis for the assessment of their clinical impact

Summarizing the evidence of the performance of diagnostic tests for Salmonella spp. in swine: A systematic review approach

A systematic review was undertaken in order to identify, critically appraise and synthesize the existing literature on the diagnostic performance (e.g. Se and Sp of the test) and agreement (e.g. kappa and correlation coefficients) of conventional bacterial culture, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and polymerase chain reaction assays used to detect and monitor Salmonella spp. in swine. 2110 citations were identified and 160 were relevant to the research objectives. Quality assessment is complete for 150 of these references; 73 were excluded due to estimates of test performance not being clearly reported and insufficient raw data available for post-hoc analysis. Although the review is still in progress, early experiences indicate problems with lack of standardization in the design, conduct and reporting of studies of diagnostic test evaluation in this area. This review will provide valuable information by identifying gaps in existing research and providing direction for future work on the standardization of tests examined in this review

Explanation and Elaboration Document for the STROBE-Vet Statement: Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology—Veterinary Extension

The STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) statement was first published in 2007 and again in 2014. The purpose of the original STROBE was to provide guidance for authors, reviewers and editors to improve the comprehensiveness of reporting; however, STROBE has a unique focus on observational studies. Although much of the guidance provided by the original STROBE document is directly applicable, it was deemed useful to map those statements to veterinary concepts, provide veterinary examples and highlight unique aspects of reporting in veterinary observational studies. Here, we present the examples and explanations for the checklist items included in the STROBE-Vet Statement. Thus, this is a companion document to the STROBE-Vet Statement Methods and process document, which describes the checklist and how it was developed

Soliton-Magnon Scattering in Two-Dimensional Isotropic Ferromagnets

It is studied the scattering of magnons by the 2d topological Belavin-Polyakov soliton in isotropic ferromagnet. Analytical solutions of the scattering problem are constructed: (i) exactly for any magnon wave vectors for the partial wave with the azimuthal number m=1 (translational mode), and (ii) in the long- and short-wave limits for the rest modes. The magnon mode frequencies are found for the finite size magnets. An effective equation of the soliton motion is constructed. The magnon density of states, connected with the soliton-magnon interaction, is found in a long-wave approximation.Comment: 4 pages, REVTe

Premature browning in cooked ground beef after modifying myoglobin

Some ground beef patties developed an internal, brown cooked color and looked well-done at temperatures as low as 131 ̊F, whereas normal patties were re d to pink. The premature brown color was not relate d to percent fat; patty compaction; animal source and maturity; pH (5.5 to 5.8); or concentrations of raw patty heme and nonhemeiron, myoglobin, and total pigment. Because oxidation-reduction potential and total reducing activities were higher (P<.05) and TBA numbers were lower (P<.05) in normal than prematurely brown patties, the brown color is apparently related to greater patty oxidation

Topological phase separation in 2D hard-core Bose-Hubbard system away from half-filling

We suppose that the doping of the 2D hard-core boson system away from half-filling may result in the formation of multi-center topological defect such as charge order (CO) bubble domain(s) with Bose superfluid (BS) and extra bosons both localized in domain wall(s), or a {\it topological} CO+BS {\it phase separation}, rather than an uniform mixed CO+BS supersolid phase. Starting from the classical model we predict the properties of the respective quantum system. The long-wavelength behavior of the system is believed to remind that of granular superconductors, CDW materials, Wigner crystals, and multi-skyrmion system akin in a quantum Hall ferromagnetic state of a 2D electron gas.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur