Bacterial urinary tract infection and subclinical bacteriuria in dogs receiving antineoplastic chemotherapy

Background: Immunosuppressive treatment with glucocorticoids and cyclosporine increases the risk for positive urine cultures (PUCs) in dogs. Objective: To investigate the prevalence and incidence of PUC in dogs diagnosed with cancer and treated with antineoplastic chemotherapy while distinguishing between subclinical bacteriuria (SB) and urinary tract infection (UTI). Animals: Forty-six client-owned dogs with nonurogenital cancer treated with anti- neoplastic chemotherapy. Methods: Prospective observational longitudinal clinical study. Dogs in which a urine culture was performed before the start of and at least once during antineoplastic chemotherapy were included. A McNemar's test was used to investigate if the preva- lence of PUC increased during antineoplastic chemotherapy. Positive urine cultures were categorized into SB and UTI and multiple PUCs from the same dog and cate- gory were grouped together as 1 episode of PUC. Results: Urine culture was positive in 21/185 urine samples in 8/46 dogs. Antineo- plastic chemotherapy did not influence the prevalence of PUC (P = 1.00), which was 11% (5/46 dogs; 95% confidence interval: 5-23%) before the start of and 13% (6/46 dogs; 95% confidence interval: 6-26%) during antineoplastic chemotherapy. Eight dogs had 10 episodes of PUC; 7/10 episodes were classified as SB, and in 3/10 epi- sodes UTI (chronic prostatitis, prostatic abscess, and emphysematous cystitis) was diagnosed. Escherichia coli was the most common pathogen, isolated in 9/10 episodes. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: We did not find evidence that antineoplastic chemotherapy is a major predisposing factor for the development of PUC. Most dogs with PUC had SB

Fan-Shaped Bracket Sets and Their Application in Religious Timber Architecture of Shanxi Province

The dissertation challenges one of the most distinctive features in traditional Chinese architecture, the bracket set known as dougong 斗栱, and discusses diverging stylistic variations that actually existed in Shanxi province 山西省 between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries against the background of official-style building. The key challenge was to see beyond the long lasting stereotypes in China that did not allow full acknowledgement of the wide range of corbelled clusters with bracket-arms projecting at acute or obtuse angles to the wall plane i.e. xiegong 斜栱, and the importance of such non-conformity. The scope of research was limited to the extant pool of timber structures in Shanxi officially designated as key national heritage conservation units between 1961 and 2006. Through visual and textual study and especially through on-site field work the author collected quantitative and qualitative data with regard to the possible containment of fan-shaped bracket sets, hereafter named shanshi dougong 扇式斗栱, and the tightly spaced, grid-like scepter bracketing known as ruyi dougong 如意斗栱. As a result, the thesis formulates the necessary nomenclature and appropriate methodology along with proper guidelines for discussing the rich pool of xiegong-architecture in the future. With special emphasis on the Jindongnan area in southeast Shanxi, it proves the highly flexible, underlying concept of yielding to different regional and local construction methods, and to environmental and economical conditions

Unravelling population genetic structure with mitochondrial DNA in a notional panmictic coastal crab species: sample size makes the difference

Background: The extent of genetic structure of a species is determined by the amount of current gene flow and the impact of historical and demographic factors. Most marine invertebrates have planktonic larvae and consequently wide potential dispersal, so that genetic uniformity should be common. However, phylogeographic investigations reveal that panmixia is rare in the marine realm. Phylogeographic patterns commonly coincide with geographic transitions acting as barriers to gene flow. In the Mediterranean Sea and adjoining areas, the best known barriers are the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition, the Siculo-Tunisian Strait and the boundary between Aegean and Black seas. Here, we perform the so far broadest phylogeographic analysis of the crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus, common across the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black seas. Previous studies revealed no or weak genetic structuring at meso-geographic scale based on mtDNA, while genetic heterogeneity at local scale was recorded with microsatellites, even if without clear geographic patterns. Continuing the search for phylogeographic signal, we here enlarge the mtDNA dataset including 51 populations and covering most of the species' distribution range. Results: This enlarged dataset provides new evidence of three genetically separable groups, corresponding to the Portuguese Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea plus Canary Islands, and Black Sea. Surprisingly, hierarchical AMOVA and Principal Coordinates Analysis agree that our Canary Islands population is closer to western Mediterranean populations than to mainland Portugal and Azores populations. Within the Mediterranean Sea, we record genetic homogeneity, suggesting that population connectivity is unaffected by the transition between the western and eastern Mediterranean. The Mediterranean metapopulation seems to have experienced a relatively recent expansion around 100,000 years ago. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the phylogeographic pattern of P. marmoratus is shaped by the geological history of Mediterranean and adjacent seas, restricted current gene flow among different marginal seas, and incomplete lineage sorting. However, they also caution from exclusively testing well-known biogeographic barriers, thereby neglecting other possible phylogeographic patterns. Mostly, this study provides evidence that a geographically exhaustive dataset is necessary to detect shallow phylogeographic structure within widespread marine species with larval dispersal, questioning all studies where species have been categorized as panmictic based on numerically and geographically limited datasets

Dynamics of virological and immunological markers of HIV persistence after allogeneic haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation in the IciStem cohort: a prospective observational cohort study

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