128 research outputs found
Investigation of the clinical safety and efficacy of lyophilized platelets in the treatment of bleeding associated with thrombocytopenia in dogs
Introduction Platelets (thrombocytes) are an essential part of the mammalian haemostasis system. Platelets localise to sites of injury, adhere, activate and aggregate in a process termed primary haemostasis. Thrombocytopenia (a reduction in circulating platelets), can lead to an increased risk of bleeding and is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in dogs. Treatments for this condition are suboptimal and there is an unmet clinical need for superior therapies. Lyophilized platelet preparation involves freeze drying platelets that can be rehydrated and administered into patients intravenously. Despite the potential of lyophilized platelet products to improve the treatment of canine thrombocytopenia, the clinical efficacy of this product is not yet fully understood. AimsThe aim of this MSc was to undertake a veterinary clinical trial to examine the safety and clinical efficacy of lyophilized platelet products in the treatment of canine thrombocytopenia, using Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards utilized in human medical research. MethodsThe study was a prospective, multicentre, randomized, blinded, controlled trial comparing the administration of test (lyophilized platelets within a buffer) solution versus control (lyophilized buffer) solution, alongside medical treatment for underlying disease. Trial patients were evaluated over a 24-hour period after enrolment and followed up for 14 days. Nine UK veterinary centres enrolled dogs from July 2019 to July 2020 (ongoing) with a platelet count of <50 x 109/l and visible signs of bleeding. Aetiology of thrombocytopenia was not restricted, so long as study inclusion and exclusion criteria were met. The study was designed to evaluate for superiority between groups in primary endpoints and to analyse secondary endpoints. A power calculation determined that the study should enrol 40 patients, 20 to treatment and 20 to control, which represents 80% power to obtain a statistical difference between treatment groups at the 5% (p=0.05) significance level and takes into account up to 4 dropouts per group.ResultsWithin the MSc timeline, the study was designed and 20 dogs were enrolled, including 11 in the test group and 9 in the control group. This included 15 females and 5 males, mean age 6 years. A diagnosis of Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) was made in 19 of 20 cases. Interim analysis determined there were no significant differences between groups for the clinical endpoints. Three dogs, including two in the control group and one in the treatment group died within the 24-hour study period. Mean hospitalisation times in the test group was 4 (1-7) days and in the control group 5 (2-8) days. There were no adverse events associated with trial solution administration. Discussion and conclusionsThis study demonstrated the feasibility of undertaking an ambitious, multicentre study to assess the efficacy and safety of a novel therapy for a challenging clinical disorder. Whilst results are from an interim analysis, they reveal that lyophilized platelet administration was not related to any incidence of adverse event. No evidence was found that the novel therapy worsens clinical outcome. Additional recruitment will further define clinical safety and efficacy
Blockchain For Food: Making Sense of Technology and the Impact on Biofortified Seeds
The global food system is under pressure and is in the early stages of a major transition towards more transparency, circularity, and personalisation. In the coming decades, there is an increasing need for more food production with fewer resources. Thus, increasing crop yields and nutritional value per crop is arguably an important factor in this global food transition.
Biofortification can play an important role in feeding the world. Biofortified seeds create produce with increased nutritional values, mainly minerals and vitamins, while using the same or less resources as non-biofortified variants. However, a farmer cannot distinguish a biofortified seed from a regular seed. Due to the invisible nature of the enhanced seeds, counterfeit products are common, limiting wide-scale adoption of biofortified crops. Fraudulent seeds pose a major obstacle in the adoption of biofortified crops.
A system that could guarantee the origin of the biofortified seeds is therefore required to ensure widespread adoption. This trust-ensuring immutable proof for the biofortified seeds, can be provided via blockchain technology
Short term (14 days) consumption of insoluble wheat bran fibre-containing breakfast cereals improves subjective digestive feelings, general wellbeing and bowel function in a dose dependent manner
This study investigated whether increasing insoluble (predominantly wheat bran) fibre over 14 days improves subjective digestive feelings, general wellbeing and bowel function. A single centre, multi-site, open, within subjects design with a 14 day non-intervention (baseline) monitoring period followed by a 14 day fibre consumption (intervention) period was performed. 153 low fibre consumers (<15 g/day AOAC 985.29) completed a daily symptom diary for 14 days after which they consumed one bowl of ready-to-eat breakfast cereal containing at least 5.4 g fibre (3.5 g from wheat bran) for 14 days and completed a daily symptom diary. Significant improvements were demonstrated in subjective perception of bowel function (e.g., ease of defecation) and digestive feelings (bloating, constipation, feeling sluggish and digestive discomfort). Significant improvements were also found in subjective perception of general wellbeing (feeling less fat, more mentally alert, slim, happy and energetic whilst experiencing less stress, mental and physical tiredness, difficulty concentrating and fewer headaches). In general, improvements in study outcomes increased with increasing cereal/fibre consumption. However, consuming an additional minimum 5.4 g of fibre (3.5 g wheat bran) per day was shown to deliver measurable and significant benefits for digestive health, comfort and wellbeing. Encouraging consumption of relatively small amounts of wheat bran could also provide an effective method of increasing overall fibre consumption
Reassessing the association: Evaluation of a polyalanine deletion variant of RUNX2 in nonâsyndromic sagittal and metopic craniosynostosis
The RUNTârelated transcription factor RUNX2 plays a critical role in osteoblast differentiation, and alterations to gene dosage cause distinct craniofacial anomalies. Uniquely amongst the RUNTârelated family, vertebrate RUNX2 encodes a polyglutamine/polyalanine repeat (Gln23âGluâAla17 in humans), with the length of the polyalanine component completely conserved in great apes. Surprisingly, a frequent 6âamino acid deletion polymorphism, p.(Ala84_Ala89)del, occurs in humans (termed 11A allele), and a previous association study (Cuellar et al. Bone 137:115395;2020) reported that the 11A variant was significantly more frequent in nonâsyndromic sagittal craniosynostosis (nsSag; allele frequency [AF] = 0.156; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.126â0.189) compared to nonâsyndromic metopic craniosynostosis (nsMet; AF = 0.068; 95% CI 0.045â0.098). However, the gnomAD v.2.1.1 control population used by Cuellar et al. did not display HardyâWeinberg equilibrium, hampering interpretation. To reâexamine this association, we genotyped the RUNX2 11A polymorphism in 225 individuals with sporadic nsSag as parentâchild trios and 164 singletons with sporadic nsMet, restricting our analysis to individuals of European ancestry. We compared observed allele frequencies to the nonâtransmitted alleles in the parentâchild trios, and to the genome sequencing data from gnomAD v.4, which display HardyâWeinberg equilibrium. Observed AFs (and 95% CI) were 0.076 (0.053â0.104) in nsSag and 0.082 (0.055â0.118) in nsMet, compared with 0.062 (0.042â0.089) in nonâtransmitted parental alleles and 0.065 (0.063â0.067) in gnomAD v.4.0.0 nonâFinnish European control genomes. In summary, we observed a nonâsignificant excess, compared to gnomAD data, of 11A alleles in both nsSag (relative risk 1.18, 95% CI 0.83â1.67) and nsMet (relative risk 1.29, 95% CI 0.87â1.92), but we did not replicate the much higher excess of RUNX2 11A alleles in nsSag previously reported (p = 0.0001)
Protocol for a prospective observational cohort study collecting data on demographics, symptoms and biomarkers in people with mesothelioma (ASSESS-meso)
Introduction: Mesothelioma is a heterogeneous disease that can be challenging to monitor and prognosticate. ASSESS-meso is a multicentre, prospective, longitudinal observational cohort study of patients with mesothelioma. The primary aim is to describe different clinical phenotypes and investigate predictive and prognostic factors, including biomarkers from blood and pleural fluid. The secondary aim is to provide a resource for future trials and substudies.
Methods and analysis: We aim to recruit 700 patients with a histological, cytological or clinicopathological diagnosis of mesothelioma, at any anatomical site (pleural, peritoneal, pericardial, etc). Longitudinal data will be collected, including clinical information, radiological investigations, blood tests and patient-reported outcome measures for breathlessness, chest pain and sweats. Preplanned analyses will use Cox proportional hazards method to evaluate factors associated with survival, linear and logistic regression models to investigate associations with symptoms, and analysis of variance modelling to explore changes in symptoms over time.
Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval has been granted by the Research Ethics Committee South WestâCentral Bristol (17-SW-0019) and Health Research Authority (IRAS ID 220360). A study steering committee has been established and results will be published OpenAccess in peer-reviewed journals.
Trial registration number ISRCTN: 61861764
Patterns and Collective Behavior in Granular Media: Theoretical Concepts
Granular materials are ubiquitous in our daily lives. While they have been a
subject of intensive engineering research for centuries, in the last decade
granular matter attracted significant attention of physicists. Yet despite a
major efforts by many groups, the theoretical description of granular systems
remains largely a plethora of different, often contradicting concepts and
approaches. Authors give an overview of various theoretical models emerged in
the physics of granular matter, with the focus on the onset of collective
behavior and pattern formation. Their aim is two-fold: to identify general
principles common for granular systems and other complex non-equilibrium
systems, and to elucidate important distinctions between collective behavior in
granular and continuum pattern-forming systems.Comment: Submitted to Reviews of Modern Physics. Full text with figures (2Mb
pdf) avaliable at
http://mti.msd.anl.gov/AransonTsimringReview/aranson_tsimring.pdf Community
responce is appreciated. Comments/suggestions send to [email protected]
Crop Updates - 2003 Oilseeds
This session covers fifteen papers from different authors
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
VARIETIES
Large scale canola varietal evaluation in WA, Peter Nelson, Oilseeds WA
Performance of IT and TT canola varieties in the medium and high rainfall agzones of WA 2001-02, Graham Walton, Hasan Zaheer and Paul Carmody, Department of Agriculture
QUALITY
Reproductive biology, cotyledon development and oil accumulation in canola, J.A. Fortescue and D.W. Turner, School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia
Plant and environmental factors affecting oil concentration in canola â a mini-review, D.W. Turner, School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia
Potential benefits from interspecific crosses between canola and ânear canolaâ quality Indian mustard, Janet Wroth, School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia (UWA), Wallace Cowling, School of Plant Biology, UWA and CBWA Pty Ltd, Anh-Van Pham, School of Mathematics and Statistics, UWA
NUTRITION, AGRONOMY AND MACHINERY
Timing of nitrogen application for producing canola grain and oil, R. F. Brennan, Department of Agriculture
Managing canola for soil type and moisture stress, Paul Carmody and Hasan Zaheer Department of Agriculture
Machinery lessons from 2002 â canola establishment, Glen Riethmuller, Greg Hamilton and Jo Hawksley, Department of Agriculture
Machinery lessons from 2002 â harvesting short crops, Glen Riethmuller, Department of Agriculture
Does increasing canola seeding rate reduce the competitiveness of grass weeds? Zaicou-Kunesch, C.M., Zaheer, S.H. and Eksteen, D, Department of Agriculture
PESTS AND DISEASES
Aphid damage to canola â not all cultivars are equal, Françoise A. Berlandier and Christiaan Valentine, Department of Agriculture
Should we be worried about developing insecticide resistance in aphids? Owain Edwards, CSIRO Entomology
Benefits provided by treating canola seed with imidacloprid seed dressing, Roger Jones, Brenda Coutts, Lisa Smith and Jenny Hawkes, Department of Agriculture, and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture
Blackleg levels in canola in 2002, Ravjit Khangura1, Moin Salam1, Art J Diggle1 and Martin J Barbetti1,2 1Department of Agriculture, 2University of Western Australia
DBM in canola, Kevin Walden, Department of Agricultur
MyD88 provides a protective role in long-term radiation-induced lung injury
The role of innate immune regulators is investigated in injury sustained from irradiation as in the clinic for cancer treatment or from a nuclear incident. The protective benefits of flagellin signaling through Toll-like receptors (TLR) in an irradiation setting warrant study of a key intracellular adaptor of TLR signaling, namely Myeloid differentiation primary response factor 88 (MyD88). The role of MyD88 in regulating innate immunity and Nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-ÎșB)-activated responses targets this critical factor for influencing injury and recovery as well as maintaining immune homeostasis
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