Dexamethasone serum concentrations after intravenous administration in horses during race training

Dexamethasone (DXM) sodium phosphate is a widely used corticosteroid for inflammatory conditions in horses, regulated in racing jurisdictions in the USA by a 0.005 ng/ml serum/plasma threshold. This study seeks to describe serum concentrations of DXM at 48 and 72 h after intravenous administration of 20 mg DXM sodium phosphate over 1 to 5 days, and to identify a possible source of DXM overages. 74 horses (39 Thoroughbreds, 13 Standardbreds, 22 Quarter Horses) in active race training received 20 mg DXM sodium phosphate. Serum was collected before injection, at 48 and 72 h post last injection, and analysed by LC/MS-MS (limit of quantification (LOQ) = 2.5 pg/ml). No differences were identified by ANOVA (P≤0.05) for racing breeds, age, gender or the number of days of DXM sodium phosphate administration, so data were pooled for each time point. The DXM serum concentration at 48 h (mean ± standard deviation, range) was 2.18±1.56 pg/ml (&&2.5 to 40 pg/ml). Summary statistics could not be derived for 72 h DXM serum concentration data owing to censored data, but ranged from &2.5 to 95.8 pg/ml. There was one extreme outlier (Tukey) at 48 h, and two extreme outliers at 72 h. A separate study was conducted using sedentary experimental horses to determine the likelihood that positive DXM samples could result from environmental transfer. Urine was collected from a mare 2 to 3 h post administration of 20 mg DXM. Hay with 100 ml of the DXM (17 ng/ml) containing urine was offered to each of six experimental horses and blood was collected at 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 h. All six horses had plasma DXM concentration above the limit of detection and five of six had plasma DXM concentrations above the LOQ for at least one sample time

Dissolved Microcystin Release Coincident with Lysis of a Bloom Dominated by Microcystis spp. in Western Lake Erie Attributed to a Novel Cyanophage

Western Lake Erie (Laurentian Great Lakes) is prone to annual cyano- bacterial harmful algal blooms (cHABs) dominated by Microcystis spp. that often yield microcystin toxin concentrations exceeding the federal EPA recreational con-tact advisory of 8 μg liter-1. In August 2014, microcystin levels were detected in fin-ished drinking water above the World Health Organization 1.0 μg liter-1 threshold for consumption, leading to a 2-day disruption in the supply of drinking water for \u3e400,000 residents of Toledo, Ohio (USA). Subsequent metatranscriptomic analysis of the 2014 bloom event provided evidence that release of toxin into the water sup-ply was likely caused by cyanophage lysis that transformed a portion of the intracel-lular microcystin pool into the dissolved fraction, rendering it more difficult to elimi-nate during treatment. In August 2019, a similar increase in dissolved microcystins at the Toledo water intake was coincident with a viral lytic event caused by a phage consortium different in composition from what was detected following the 2014 To-ledo water crisis. The most abundant viral sequence in metagenomic data sets was a scaffold from a putative member of the Siphoviridae, distinct from the Ma-LMM01-like Myoviridae that are typically documented to occur in western Lake Erie. This study provides further evidence that viral activity in western Lake Erie plays a signifi-cant role in transformation of microcystins from the particulate to the dissolved frac-tion and therefore requires monitoring efforts from local water treatment plants. Ad-ditionally, identification of multiple lytic cyanophages will enable the development of a quantitative PCR toolbox to assess viral activity during cHABs. IMPORTANCE Viral attack on cHABs may contribute to changes in community com-position during blooms, as well as bloom decline, yet loss of bloom biomass does not eliminate the threat of cHAB toxicity. Rather, it may increase risks to the public by delivering a pool of dissolved toxin directly into water treatment utilities when the dominating Microcystis spp. are capable of producing microcystins. Detecting, characterizing, and quantifying the major cyanophages involved in lytic events will assist water treatment plant operators in making rapid decisions regarding the pool of microcystins entering the plant and the corresponding best practices to neutralize the toxin

Verbal Fluency in a National Sample: Telephone Administration Methods

Objectives: Describe novel methods for ascertaining verbal fluency in a large national sample of adults, examine demographic factors influencing performance, and compare scores to studies using in-person assessment. Methods/Design: Participants were from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, a national, population-based, longitudinal study of stroke in adults aged 45 years an older. Letter and semantic fluency were gathered, using Letter “F” and Animal Naming, via a telephone-based assessment with computer-assisted scoring of digital recordings. Results: Initial letter and semantic fluency scores were obtained on 18,505 and 18,072 participants, respectively. For both fluency tests, scores were normally distributed. Younger age and more years of education were associated with better performances (p<0.0001). The mean and standard deviation for matched subgroups, based on age, gender, and education, were quite comparable to scores reported out of samples using an in-person administration format. Telephone-based assessment also allowed for a level of quality control not available via in-person measurement. Conclusions: Telephone-based assessment of verbal fluency and computer-assisted scoring programs designed for this study facilitated large scale data acquisition, storage, and scoring of protocols. The resulting scores have similar characteristics to those obtained by traditional methods. These findings extend validation of cognitive assessment methods, using survey research staff and computer-assisted technology for test administration

Performance of the NINDS-CSN 5-Minute Protocol in a National Population-Based Sample

Background In 2006, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-Canadian Stroke Network (NINDS-CSN) Vascular Cognitive Impairment Harmonization Standards recommended a 5-Minute Protocol as a brief screening instrument for vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). We report demographically adjusted norms for the 5-Minute Protocol and its relation to other measures of cognitive function and cerebrovascular risk factors. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of 7,199 stroke-free adults in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study on the NINDS-CSN 5-Minute Protocol score. Results Total scores on the 5-Minute Protocol were inversely correlated with age and positively correlated with years of education, and performance on the Six-Item Screener, Word List Learning, and Animal Fluency (all p-values<0.001). Higher cerebrovascular risk on the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (FSRP) was associated with lower total 5-Minute Protocol scores (p<0.001). The 5-Minute Protocol also differentiated between participants with and without confirmed stroke and with and without stroke symptom histories (p<0.001). Conclusions The NINDS-CSN 5-Minute Protocol is a brief, easily administered screening measure that is sensitive to cerebrovascular risk and offers a valid method of screening for cognitive impairment in populations at risk for VCI

Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law

Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe

Anadromy and residency in steelhead and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): a review of the processes and patterns

Oncorhynchus mykiss form partially migratory populations with anadromous fish that undergo marine migrations and residents that complete their life cycle in fresh water. Many populations’ anadromous components are threatened or endangered, prompting interest in understanding ecological and evolutionary processes underlying anadromy and residency. In this paper, we synthesize information to better understand genetic and environmental influences on O. mykiss life histories, identify critical knowledge gaps, and suggest next steps. Anadromy and residency appear to reflect interactions among genetics, individual condition, and environmental influences. First, an increasing body of literature suggests that anadromous and resident individuals differ in the expression of genes related to growth, smoltification, and metabolism. Second, the literature supports the conditional strategy theory, where individuals adopt a life history pattern based on their conditional status relative to genetic thresholds along with ultimate effects of size and age at maturation and iteroparity. However, except for a generally positive association between residency and high lipid content plus a large attainable size in fresh water, the effects of body size and growth are inconsistent. Thus, individuals can exhibit plasticity in variable environments. Finally, patterns in anadromy and residency among and within populations suggested a wide range of possible environmental influences at different life stages, from freshwater temperature to marine survival. Although we document a number of interesting correlations, direct tests of mechanisms are scarce and little data exist on the extent of residency and anadromy. Consequently, we identified as many data gaps as conclusions, leaving ample room for future research

The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey I: Design and First Results

The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) is the first large-area survey to be conducted with the full 36-antenna Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. RACS will provide a shallow model of the ASKAP sky that will aid the calibration of future deep ASKAP surveys. RACS will cover the whole sky visible from the ASKAP site in Western Australia, and will cover the full ASKAP band of $700-1800$ MHz. The RACS images are generally deeper than the existing NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS) radio surveys and have better spatial resolution. All RACS survey products will be public, including radio images (with $\sim 15$ arcsecond resolution) and catalogues of about three million source components with spectral index and polarisation information. In this paper, we present a description of the RACS survey and the first data release of 903 images covering the sky south of declination $+41^\circ$ made over a 288 MHz band centred at 887.5 MHz.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables. For associated data see https://data.csiro.au/collections/domain/casdaObservation/results/PRAS110%20-%20The%20Rapid%20ASKAP%20Continuu