A survey of owners' perceptions of fear of fireworks in a sample of dogs and cats in New Zealand

AIMS: To establish reliable information regarding the behavioural responses of dogs and cats to fireworks in New Zealand; record interventions used by owners, and their perceived efficacies; and establish the prevalence of firework-related injury, and quantify owners' attitudes towards fireworks. METHODS: A questionnaire targeting dog and cat owners was distributed via the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Animals Voice magazine and 25 veterinary clinics. The questionnaire covered demographics of animals, fear of fireworks, severity of the fear, and behaviours exhibited. Also included were treatments tried, source and perceived efficacy, prevalence of injury, and owners' attitudes towards the sale of fireworks for private use. RESULTS: From a total of 8,966 questionnaires distributed, 1,007 valid questionnaires were returned, representing 3,527 animals. Of these 1,635 (46%) animals displayed a level of fear of fireworks recognisable to their owners. Owners of dogs identified a significantly higher fear response than owners of cats but the duration of these fear responses did not differ between species. Fear of fireworks frequently resulted in dogs exhibiting active fear behaviours, whereas cats were more likely to exhibit hiding and cowering behaviours. A significantly increased severity and duration of fear response over time in dogs and cats was associated with owners who comforted them when they displayed a fearful response. Only 141/890 (15.8%) of owners sought professional treatment from a veterinarian, animal behaviourist or animal trainer for their animals, with variable efficacy. Six percent (51/923) of animals had received physical injuries from fireworks. The majority (837/1,007; 83%) of respondents, regardless of whether they owned a fearful animal or not, supported a ban on the sale of fireworks for private use. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide valuable information that is, as yet, unsubstantiated in New Zealand, although potential biases exist due to the non-random selection of respondents. Differences between dogs and cats were likely due to differing responses to fear-provoking stimuli between the species. Owner-reported increase in fearful response over time for comforted animals may indicate a negative impact on the longer-term psychological welfare of their animal. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The greater the awareness of effective treatment plans for animals that suffer from a fear of fireworks, the greater the possibility that this fear can be reduced. Wider dissemination of effective owner behaviour and treatment programmes for firework fears is needed to improve levels of professional treatment for dogs and cats

Protection from the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Influenza by an Antibody from Combinatorial Survivor-Based Libraries

Influenza viruses elude immune responses and antiviral chemotherapeutics through genetic drift and reassortment. As a result, the development of new strategies that attack a highly conserved viral function to prevent and/or treat influenza infection is being pursued. Such novel broadly acting antiviral therapies would be less susceptible to virus escape and provide a long lasting solution to the evolving virus challenge. Here we report the in vitro and in vivo activity of a human monoclonal antibody (A06) against two isolates of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus. This antibody, which was obtained from a combinatorial library derived from a survivor of highly pathogenic H5N1 infection, neutralizes H5N1, seasonal H1N1 and 2009 “Swine” H1N1 pandemic influenza in vitro with similar potency and is capable of preventing and treating 2009 H1N1 influenza infection in murine models of disease. These results demonstrate broad activity of the A06 antibody and its utility as an anti-influenza treatment option, even against newly evolved influenza strains to which there is limited immunity in the general population

Identification and characterization of microRNAs expressed in the African malaria vector Anopheles funestus life stages using high throughput sequencing

Background: Over the past several years, thousands of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been identified in the genomes of various insects through cloning and sequencing or even by computational prediction. However, the number of miRNAs identified in anopheline species is low and little is known about their role. The mosquito Anopheles funestus is one of the dominant malaria vectors in Africa, which infects and kills millions of people every year. Therefore, small RNA molecules isolated from the four life stages (eggs, larvae, pupae and unfed adult females) of An. funestus were sequenced using next generation sequencing technology. Results: High throughput sequencing of four replicates in combination with computational analysis identified 107 mature miRNA sequences expressed in the An. funestus mosquito. These include 20 novel miRNAs without sequence identity in any organism and eight miRNAs not previously reported in the Anopheles genus but are known in non-anopheles mosquitoes. Finally, the changes in the expression of miRNAs during the mosquito development were determined and the analysis showed that many miRNAs have stage-specific expression, and are co-transcribed and co-regulated during development. Conclusions: This study presents the first direct experimental evidence of miRNAs in An. funestus and the first profiling study of miRNA associated with the maturation in this mosquito. Overall, the results indicate that miRNAs play important roles during the growth and development. Silencing such molecules in a specific life stage could decrease the vector population and therefore interrupt malaria transmission.IS

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO’s second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h95%0=3.47×10−25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering

All-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in the early O3 LIGO data

We report on an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the frequency band 20-2000 Hz and with a frequency time derivative in the range of [-1.0,+0.1]×10-8 Hz/s. Such a signal could be produced by a nearby, spinning and slightly nonaxisymmetric isolated neutron star in our Galaxy. This search uses the LIGO data from the first six months of Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's third observational run, O3. No periodic gravitational wave signals are observed, and 95% confidence-level (C.L.) frequentist upper limits are placed on their strengths. The lowest upper limits on worst-case (linearly polarized) strain amplitude h0 are ∼1.7×10-25 near 200 Hz. For a circularly polarized source (most favorable orientation), the lowest upper limits are ∼6.3×10-26. These strict frequentist upper limits refer to all sky locations and the entire range of frequency derivative values. For a population-averaged ensemble of sky locations and stellar orientations, the lowest 95% C.L. upper limits on the strain amplitude are ∼1.4×10-25. These upper limits improve upon our previously published all-sky results, with the greatest improvement (factor of ∼2) seen at higher frequencies, in part because quantum squeezing has dramatically improved the detector noise level relative to the second observational run, O2. These limits are the most constraining to date over most of the parameter space searched

First Measurement of the Hubble Constant from a Dark Standard Siren using the Dark Energy Survey Galaxies and the LIGO/Virgo Binary-Black-hole Merger GW170814

We present a multi-messenger measurement of the Hubble constant H 0 using the binary–black-hole merger GW170814 as a standard siren, combined with a photometric redshift catalog from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The luminosity distance is obtained from the gravitational wave signal detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)/Virgo Collaboration (LVC) on 2017 August 14, and the redshift information is provided by the DES Year 3 data. Black hole mergers such as GW170814 are expected to lack bright electromagnetic emission to uniquely identify their host galaxies and build an object-by-object Hubble diagram. However, they are suitable for a statistical measurement, provided that a galaxy catalog of adequate depth and redshift completion is available. Here we present the first Hubble parameter measurement using a black hole merger. Our analysis results in ${H}_{0}={75}_{-32}^{+40}\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$, which is consistent with both SN Ia and cosmic microwave background measurements of the Hubble constant. The quoted 68% credible region comprises 60% of the uniform prior range [20, 140] km s−1 Mpc−1, and it depends on the assumed prior range. If we take a broader prior of [10, 220] km s−1 Mpc−1, we find {H}_{0 {78}_{-24}^{+96}\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1} (57% of the prior range). Although a weak constraint on the Hubble constant from a single event is expected using the dark siren method, a multifold increase in the LVC event rate is anticipated in the coming years and combinations of many sirens will lead to improved constraints on H 0

Search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO–Virgo run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC–2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: a generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate

Elevated tissue plasminogen activator as a potential marker of endothelial dysfunction in pre-eclampsia: correlation with proteinuria

Objective To clarify the role played by endothelial cell production of fibrinolytic factors in normal pregnancy and pre- eclampsia. Design A longitudinal study performed during normal pregnancy and a cross sectional study performed in healthy and pre-eclamptic pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy. Setting Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital of S.Jodo, Porto, Portugal. Population Fourteen normal pregnant women followed through the three trimesters of gestation. Two groups of women (normal, n = 56; pre-eclamptic, n = 37) evaluated at the third trimester of gestation. Methods Measurement of platelet number, plasma levels of fibrinogen, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) antigen, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) activity, and fibrin fragment D-dimer. Main outcome measures Pre- eclampsia, proteinuria. Results All the substances, except platelet count, increased significantly throughout normal pregnancy. Comparison of the values in the third trimesters of normal and pre-eclamptic pregnancies showed similar values for the fibrinogen and platelet counts, and higher values of t-PA (almost twice normal median value; P lt 0.0001), PAI-1 and D- dimer in the pre-eclamptic women. t-PA cot-related positively and significantly with the degree of proteinuria in pre- eclamptic women (r = 0.575, P = 0.0002). Conclusion These findings suggest that elevated t-PA antigen may reflect endothelial disturbance in pre-eclampsia, and may be a potential biomarker of risk