The extent of placental pathology is negatively correlated to birth weight in ewes infected with the wild-type strain of Chlamydia abortus

The placenta is the organ that allows the exchange of oxygen and nutrients between maternal and foetal blood, supplying the requirements of the growing foetus. Consequently, any factor that alters placental integrity may affect foetal nutrition, viability and lamb birth weight. Reproductive diseases, such as ovine enzootic abortion (OEA), impact on foetal viability due to the reduction in the functional area for maternofoetal exchange. This study aimed to consider the impact of pathological features of OEA placental lesions on lamb birth weight and indirectly on foetal viability. To investigate the relationship between birth weight and various OEA-related parameters, data from 562 lambs/foetuses from animals experimentally challenged with Chlamydia abortus strain S26/3 and from uninfected animals were analysed. The parameters investigated included the number of foetuses/lambs delivered (single/multiple), foetus/lamb sex, length of gestation, the proportion of placentas affected by lesions (percentage of gross placental pathology), foetal viability (live/aborted) and the number of C. abortus organisms shed in post-parturition vaginal excretions. The results suggest that the length of gestation and the proportion of placentas affected by lesions are the main contributors to birth weight variability, whereas the other factors, including foetal viability (live or aborted outcomes), were found to be less relevant co-variables. The study determined the strongest positive and negative correlations between birth weight were with the length of gestation and the extent of placental pathology, respectively. These results may indicate that economic losses associated with OEA infections result not only from aborted foetuses but also from the surviving lambs that are born weaker and consequently are more susceptible to diseases.EEA MercedesFil: Caspe, Sergio Gaston. Moredun Research Institute; Reino UnidoFil: Caspe, Sergio Gaston. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Mercedes; ArgentinaFil: Caspe, Sergio Gaston. University of Edinburgh. Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies; Reino UnidoFil: Palarea-Albaladejo, Javier. Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland; Reino UnidoFil: Palarea-Albaladejo, Javier. University of Girona. Deparment of Computer Sciences, Applied Mathematics and Statistics; EspañaFil: Livingstone, Morag. Moredun Research Institute; Reino UnidoFil: Wattegedera, Sean Ranjan. Moredun Research Institute; Reino UnidoFil: Milne, Elspeth. University of Edinburgh. Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies; Reino UnidoFil: Sargison, Neil Donald. University of Edinburgh. Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies; Reino UnidoFil: Longbottom, David. Moredun Research Institute; Reino Unid

The fables of pity: Rousseau, Mandeville and the animal-fable

Copyright @ 2012 Edinburgh University PressPrompted by Derrida’s work on the animal-fable in eighteenth-century debates about political power, this article examines the role played by the fiction of the animal in thinking of pity as either a natural virtue (in Rousseau’s Second Discourse) or as a natural passion (in Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees). The war of fables between Rousseau and Mandeville – and their hostile reception by Samuel Johnson and Adam Smith – reinforce that the animal-fable illustrates not so much the proper of man as the possibilities and limitations of a moral philosophy that is unable to address the political realities of the state

Gender Differences in S-Nitrosoglutathione Reductase Activity in the Lung

S-nitrosothiols have been implicated in the etiology of various pulmonary diseases. Many of these diseases display gender preferences in presentation or altered severity that occurs with puberty, the mechanism by which is unknown. Estrogen has been shown to influence the expression and activity of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) which is associated with increased S-nitrosothiol production. The effects of gender hormones on the expression and activity of the de-nitrosylating enzyme S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNO-R) are undefined. This report evaluates the effects of gender hormones on the activity and expression of GSNO-R and its relationship to N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH). GSNO-R activity was elevated in lung homogenates from female compared to male mice. Increased activity was not due to changes in GSNO-R expression, but correlated with GSNO-R S-nitrosylation: females were greater than males. The ability of GSNO-R to be activated by S-nitrosylation was confirmed by: 1) the ability of S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) to increase the activity of GSNO-R in murine pulmonary endothelial cells and 2) reduced activity of GSNO-R in lung homogenates from eNOS−/− mice. Gender differences in GSNO-R activity appear to explain the difference in the ability of NAC to induce PH: female and castrated male animals are protected from NAC-induced PH. Castration results in elevated GSNO-R activity that is similar to that seen in female animals. The data suggest that GSNO-R activity is modulated by both estrogens and androgens in conjunction with hormonal regulation of eNOS to maintain S-nitrosothiol homeostasis. Moreover, disruption of this eNOS-GSNO-R axis contributes to the development of PH

The Effects of Governmental Protected Areas and Social Initiatives for Land Protection on the Conservation of Mexican Amphibians

Traditionally, biodiversity conservation gap analyses have been focused on governmental protected areas (PAs). However, an increasing number of social initiatives in conservation (SICs) are promoting a new perspective for analysis. SICs include all of the efforts that society implements to conserve biodiversity, such as land protection, from private reserves to community zoning plans some of which have generated community-protected areas. This is the first attempt to analyze the status of conservation in Latin America when some of these social initiatives are included. The analyses were focused on amphibians because they are one of the most threatened groups worldwide. Mexico is not an exception, where more than 60% of its amphibians are endemic. We used a niche model approach to map the potential and real geographical distribution (extracting the transformed areas) of the endemic amphibians. Based on remnant distribution, all the species have suffered some degree of loss, but 36 species have lost more than 50% of their potential distribution. For 50 micro-endemic species we could not model their potential distribution range due to the small number of records per species, therefore the analyses were performed using these records directly. We then evaluated the efficiency of the existing set of governmental protected areas and established the contribution of social initiatives (private and community) for land protection for amphibian conservation. We found that most of the species have some proportion of their potential ecological niche distribution protected, but 20% are not protected at all within governmental PAs. 73% of endemic and 26% of micro-endemic amphibians are represented within SICs. However, 30 micro-endemic species are not represented within either governmental PAs or SICs. This study shows how the role of land conservation through social initiatives is therefore becoming a crucial element for an important number of species not protected by governmental PAs

Thermal Tolerance of the Coffee Berry Borer Hypothenemus hampei: Predictions of Climate Change Impact on a Tropical Insect Pest

Coffee is predicted to be severely affected by climate change. We determined the thermal tolerance of the coffee berry borer , Hypothenemus hampei, the most devastating pest of coffee worldwide, and make inferences on the possible effects of climate change using climatic data from Colombia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. For this, the effect of eight temperature regimes (15, 20, 23, 25, 27, 30, 33 and 35°C) on the bionomics of H. hampei was studied. Successful egg to adult development occurred between 20–30°C. Using linear regression and a modified Logan model, the lower and upper thresholds for development were estimated at 14.9 and 32°C, respectively. In Kenya and Colombia, the number of pest generations per year was considerably and positively correlated with the warming tolerance. Analysing 32 years of climatic data from Jimma (Ethiopia) revealed that before 1984 it was too cold for H. hampei to complete even one generation per year, but thereafter, because of rising temperatures in the area, 1–2 generations per year/coffee season could be completed. Calculated data on warming tolerance and thermal safety margins of H. hampei for the three East African locations showed considerably high variability compared to the Colombian site. The model indicates that for every 1°C rise in thermal optimum (Topt.), the maximum intrinsic rate of increase (rmax) will increase by an average of 8.5%. The effects of climate change on the further range of H. hampei distribution and possible adaption strategies are discussed. Abstracts in Spanish and French are provided as supplementary material Abstract S1 and Abstract S2

Worldwide clinical intensive care registries response to the pandemic : An international survey

Funding Information: Dr. Kumar is partially supported by Wellcome Trust grant (WT-215522) for his role as National Coordinator, IRIS. Funding Information: Dr. Martin Sigurdsson is supported by Landspitali Science Fund for COVID19 related projects. Funding Information: Drs. Salluh and Soares are supported in part by individual research grants from CNPq and FAPERJ.Peer reviewe

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Forward-central two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles in the forward pseudorapidity range (2.5 2GeV/c. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B. V.Peer reviewe

Event-shape engineering for inclusive spectra and elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV

Peer reviewe