A biotic support during pregnancy to strengthen the gastrointestinal performance in puppies

Up to 60% of neonates can be affected by gastroenteritis due to specific pathogens or aspecific polymicrobial interactions. The present study evaluated if a dietary supplementation with MOS, FOS, E. faecium and L. acidophilus in pregnancy may reduce gastroenteritis in puppies. Fifteen Great Danes were divided in 3 groups. The control group (CG) ate a standard diet. In 2 study groups, the diet was supplemented with pre-and probiotics during the last (1WG) and the last 4 pregnancy weeks (4WG). Up to 9 weeks, puppies were checked daily to identify first-or second-presentation gastroenteritis. Data were processed by χ2 (P < 0.05). First-presentation gastroenteritis was more frequent in CG than in 1WG than in 4WG. Second-presentation gastroenteritis was more frequent in CG than in 1 and 4WG. Puppies from pre-and probiotics supplemented bitches were less prone to gastroenteritis. 1 or 4WG equally reduced second-presentation gastroenteritis in puppies, but 4WG was better than 1WG on first-presentation gastroenteritis. By entero-mammary link, supplemented bitches produced higher immune quality colostrum, thus puppies faced immunitary challenges better; moreover, maternal microbiota, positively altered by supplementation, was transferred to newborns, becoming more resistant to gastroenteritis. This information can be useful in clinical practice with the goal of preventing gastroenteritis in puppies and reducing its prevalence and severity

Case of Anorchia in a Mixed-Breed Dog

Anorchia is a rare and often poorly understood disorder of sexual development. In the present case report, we used a multidisciplinary approach to diagnose a case of anorchia in a 30-month old dog. The diagnostic process began with gathering the dog medical history followed by a clinical visit with the patient, which included a general wellness examination as well as an examination of the genital system. As suggested in the relevant literature, the dog underwent an ultrasound and then computed tomography (CT) of the genital system, which confirmed the diagnosis of testicular agenesis. Genetic testing confirmed the male XY karyotype. Hormone testing also supported the diagnosis: testosterone and anti-M€ullerian hormone levels were below their reference ranges, and luteinizing hormone (LH) was above 1 ng/mL. Following the diagnostic procedures suggested in the relevant literature, the present study confirms anorchia in the dog and describes a case of testicular agenesis in the canine species

Salts of S-(+)-Ibuprofen Formed via Its Reaction with the Antifibrinolytic Agents Aminocaproic Acid and Tranexamic Acid: Synthesis and Characterization

The paucity of multi-component compounds containing the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) S-(+)-ibuprofen (S-IBU) in combination with other drugs prompted the present study, which describes 1:1 salts of this active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) with the two most widely used antifibrinolytic APIs, namely 6-aminohexanoic acid (aminocaproic acid, ACA) and tranexamic acid (TXA), which are zwitterions in the solid state. Since NSAIDs are known to cause adverse side effects such as gastrointestinal ulceration, the presence of ACA and TXA in the salts with S-(+)-ibuprofen might counter these effects via their ability to prevent excessive bleeding. The salts were prepared by both the liquid-assisted grinding method and co-precipitation and were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and single-crystal X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and solubility measurements. The X-ray analyses revealed a high degree of isostructurality, both at the level of their respective asymmetric units and in their extended crystal structures, with charge-assisted hydrogen bonds of the type N-H...O and O-H.. O featuring prominently. The thermal analysis indicated that both salts had significantly higher thermal stability than S-(+)-ibuprofen. Solubility measurements in a simulated biological medium showed insignificant changes in the solubility of S-(+)-ibuprofen when tested in the form of the salts (S-IBU) (TXA)

Ejaculation effect on canine prostatic specific esterase serum concentration

Canine prostatic diseases are usually asymptomatic in their onset and often identified in advanced stages. Canine prostatic specific esterase (CPSE) represents an early serum marker for prostatic diseases, also in asymptomatic dogs. The present study aimed to identify the effects of ejaculation on serum CPSE. Twenty adult intact male dogs were enrolled. Blood samples were collected to measure CPSE concentrations before (T0), immediately after (T1), and 24 h post (T2) ejaculation. Data were compared within and between groups by ANOVA (p < 0.05). Dogs were divided in two equal groups: A (healthy: CPSE ≤ 52.3 ng/mL at T0) and B (suspected for prostatic disorders: CPSE > 52.3 ng/mL or diagnosed with symptoms of prostatic diseases: CPSE > 90 ng/mL). CPSE was shown to be statistically higher in group B than A at any time point. In both groups, CPSE showed a significant increase at T1, and no significant differences between T0 and T2. This study demonstrates a definite effect of ejaculation on CPSE concentration. Twenty-four hours post-ejaculation, CPSE returns to basal values. Such physiological effects of ejaculation should be considered when planning analyses of CPSE concentrations, i.e., by respecting a proper sexual rest

Article influence of the casein composite genotype on milk quality and coagulation properties in the endangered agerolese cattle breed

The aim of this study was the characterization of CSN1S1, CSN2 and CSN3 genetic variability in Agerolese cattle, and the investigation of the effect of casein composite genotypes (CSN1S1, CSN2 and CSN3) on quality and coagulation traits of the corresponding milk. To these purposes, blood and milk from 84 cows were sampled and analysed. Allele frequencies at CSN2 and CSN3 revealed no Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in the population with a prevalence of allele A2 for CSN2 and allele B for CSN3. BBA1A2AB and BBA2A2AB composite genotypes were the most common in the population. BBA1A2AB showed a higher total solids and fat content (12.70 ± 0.16 and 3.93 ± 0.10, respectively), while BBA2A2BB showed the best coagulation properties (RCT 12.62 ± 0.81; k20 5.84 ± 0.37; a30 23.72 ± 1.10). Interestingly, the A2 allele of CSN2 was very widespread in the population; thus, it will be intriguing to verify if A2A2 Agerolese cattle milk and the derived cheese may have better nutraceutical characteristics

3-(2-Benzamido­phen­yl)-4-(4-hydroxy­phen­yl)-5-methyl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-1-ium chloride

In the mol­ecule of the title compound, C22H19N4O2 +·Cl−, the 1,2,4-triazole ring is oriented at dihedral angles of 75.57 (14), 53.23 (13) and 68.11 (13)° with respect to the benzamide, aniline and phenol atomatic rings, respectively. An intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bond results in the formation of a non-planar ten-membered ring. In the crystal structure, inter­molecular O—H⋯Cl and N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules. There is a C—H⋯π contact between the methyl group and the phenyl ring, and a π–π contact between the hydroxy­phenyl and phenyl rings [centroid–centroid distance = 4.687 (2) Å]

Julia as a unifying end-to-end workflow language on the Frontier exascale system

We evaluate Julia as a single language and ecosystem paradigm powered by LLVM to develop workflow components for high-performance computing. We run a Gray-Scott, 2-variable diffusion-reaction application using a memory-bound, 7-point stencil kernel on Frontier, the US Department of Energy's first exascale supercomputer. We evaluate the performance, scaling, and trade-offs of (i) the computational kernel on AMD's MI250x GPUs, (ii) weak scaling up to 4,096 MPI processes/GPUs or 512 nodes, (iii) parallel I/O writes using the ADIOS2 library bindings, and (iv) Jupyter Notebooks for interactive analysis. Results suggest that although Julia generates a reasonable LLVM-IR, a nearly 50% performance difference exists vs. native AMD HIP stencil codes when running on the GPUs. As expected, we observed near-zero overhead when using MPI and parallel I/O bindings for system-wide installed implementations. Consequently, Julia emerges as a compelling high-performance and high-productivity workflow composition language, as measured on the fastest supercomputer in the world.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted at the 18th Workshop on Workflows in Support of Large-Scale Science (WORKS23), IEEE/ACM The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, SC2

Toxoplasma gondii infection in patients with hematological malignancies.

Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common parasitic infections in humans, but in most cases it does not cause serious illness; this protozoan can nevertheless cause devastating disease in immunocompromised hosts such as HIV-positive individuals. Only rarely is toxoplasmosis documented in hematological patients, and among them, those who undergo a transplant procedure are more frequently affected. In a retrospective multicenter survey, we collected data on six cases of toxoplasmosis in hematological patients. In the majority of cases, patients had undergone transplant procedures (five had undergone autologous or allogeneic transplantation). This complication needed special care in diagnosis, usually based on serology, neuroradiology, and PCR examination. However, in our experience the appropriate therapeutic approach was successful in the majority of cases

Bis(acetyl­acetonato-κ2 O,O′)(2-amino-1-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-κN 3)oxido­vanadium(IV)

The title mixed-ligand oxidovanadium(IV) compound, [VO(C5H7O2)2(C8H9N3)], contains a VIV atom in a distorted octahedral coordination, which is typical for such complexes. The vanadyl group and the N-heterocyclic ligand are cis to each other. The coordination bond is located at the endocyclic N atom of the benzimidazole ligand. Intra­molecular hydrogen bonds between the exo-NH2 group H atoms and acetyl­acetonate O atoms stabilize the crystal structure

Host erythrocyte polymorphisms and exposure to Plasmodium falciparum in Papua New Guinea

Contains fulltext : 69991.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: The protection afforded by human erythrocyte polymorphisms against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, has been proposed to be due to reduced ability of the parasite to invade or develop in erythrocytes. If this were the case, variable levels of parasitaemia and rates of seroconversion to infected-erythrocyte variant surface antigens (VSA) should be seen in different host genotypes. METHODS: To test this hypothesis, P. falciparum parasitaemia and anti-VSA antibody levels were measured in a cohort of 555 asymptomatic children from an area of intense malaria transmission in Papua New Guinea. Linear mixed models were used to investigate the effect of alpha+-thalassaemia, complement receptor-1 and south-east Asian ovalocytosis, as well as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and ABO blood group on parasitaemia and age-specific seroconversion to VSA. RESULTS: No host polymorphism showed a significant association with both parasite prevalence/density and age-specific seroconversion to VSA. CONCLUSION: Host erythrocyte polymorphisms commonly found in Papua New Guinea do not effect exposure to blood stage P. falciparum infection. This contrasts with data for sickle cell trait and highlights that the above-mentioned polymorphisms may confer protection against malaria via distinct mechanisms