Addressing Adversities in Caring for Mental Health in Rural Settings: A Conversation with Rural Mental Healthcare Practice Co-founder Dr. Taryn S. Van Gilder-Pierce

Due to lack of mental healthcare facilities in rural areas, the population often resorts to private practice practitioners to address their need for mental health services. Dr. Taryn S. Van Gilder-Pierce and her husband, Dr. William D. Pierce founded their private practice in Yankton, SD in 2001. She has more than 25 years of training and experience treating individuals, married couples, families, and groups in rural South Dakota. The interview delves into the challenges faced by early career professionals in building a practice in remote areas and extends into the room for expansion within the field of rural mental health provision of services

Lickometry: A novel and sensitive method for assessing functional deficits in rats after stroke

The need for sensitive, easy to administer assessments of long-term functional deficits is crucial in pre-clinical stroke research. In the present study, we introduce lickometry (lick microstructure analysis) as a precise method to assess sensorimotor deficits up to 40 days after middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. Impairments in drinking efficiency compared to controls, and a compensatory increase in the number of drinking clusters were observed. This highlights the utility of this easy to administer task in assessing subtle, long-term deficits, which could be likened to oral deficits in patients

Geographical Modules of COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh: Social Response and Action Taken

Objectives: This research attempts to figure out a comparative pattern of the social response from the peoples of Bangladesh as well as different communities and regarding actions taken by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Else, this study also investigates the shortcomings of the different wing authorities of the Bangladesh Government to reach people of every corner of this country. Methods: In this research, different facts are analyzed from a statistical point of view. Authentic sources like reputed national and international newspapers, governmental release documents, release notes of WHO, etc. were considered for data collection to realize this country’s preparations against the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: From the statistical analysis, this study found that different government authorities partially failed to communicate the measures of the government to the wider public audience. This study has shown that having more tests could have prevented the spread of the virus in Bangladesh. The strong lockdown measures taken by the government were not enough as the population of this country is huge and it is really difficult to maintain social distance in a densely populated country like Bangladesh. Conclusions: The socio-economic condition and decision-makers’ shortcomings could have been overcome if the right plan and action had been taken at the right time. Until the vaccine is available it is recommended that people should keep social distance while going outside, using masks and protection should be mandatory. Furthermore, more health care professionals should be hired and trained to fight this virus.   Doi: 10.28991/SciMedJ-2021-03-SI-4 Full Text: PD

Recommendations for measuring whisker movements and locomotion in mice with sensory, motor and cognitive deficits.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have measured whisker movements and locomotion to characterise mouse models of neurodegenerative disease. However, these studies have always been completed in isolation, and do not involve standardized procedures for comparisons across multiple mouse models and background strains. NEW METHOD: We present a standard method for conducting whisker movement and locomotion studies, by carrying out qualitative scoring and quantitative measurement of whisker movements from high-speed video footage of mouse models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Cerebellar Ataxia, Somatosensory Cortex Development and Ischemic stroke. RESULTS: Sex, background strain, source breeder and genotype all affected whisker movements. All mouse models, apart from Parkinson's disease, revealed differences in whisker movements during locomotion. R6/2 CAG250 Huntington's disease mice had the strongest behavioural phenotype. Robo3R3-5-CKO and RIM-DKOSert mouse models have abnormal somatosensory cortex development and revealed significant changes in whisker movements during object exploration. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD(S): Our results have good agreement with past studies, which indicates the robustness and reliability of measuring whisking. We recommend that differences in whisker movements of mice with motor deficits can be captured in open field arenas, but that mice with impairments to sensory or cognitive functioning should also be filmed investigating objects. Scoring clips qualitatively before tracking will help to structure later analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Studying whisker movements provides a quantitative measure of sensing, motor control and exploration. However, the effect of background strain, sex and age on whisker movements needs to be better understood

Refining behavioural analysis to promote the use of a milder model of stroke

The intraluminal filament model is the most commonly used model of stroke and has been imperative to our understanding of this disease. Nonetheless, this model has several disadvantages, such as high variability and poor animal welfare. An alternative model that could be useful is the distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (dMCAO) of stroke, which produces far more reproducible lesions and better animal welfare. This model could be useful for preclinical stroke studies whilst addressing the 3R’s; the refinement, reduction and replacement of animals for scientific purposes. The caveat is that the dMCAO model is mild and primarily affects the somatosensory cortex (including the barrel cortex, primary forelimb and hindlimb areas and the secondary somatosensory cortex) whilst leaving the motor cortex mostly spared. Therefore, detection of functional deficits is difficult and because of this the dMCAO model is seldom used. The overall aim of this thesis was to develop methods to improve the detection of functional deficits in the dMCAO model. A meta-analysis was conducted with the aim of systematically identifying the different functional assessments used following dMCAO to assess which tests could consistently detect functional deficits. Relevant publications were identified and behavioural and infarct data were extracted. Following this a meta-analysis was conducted using a random effects model to estimate the effect sizes of the various functional assessments. In mice, the adhesive removal test, cylinder test and ladder test produced large effect sizes. In rats, the staircase paw reaching task produced large effect sizes. In addition assessment of a number of tests was carried out within the laboratory. A pilot study was conducted with the aim of clarifying which were the most and least useful tests in the dMCAO model from tests that are commonly use in the field. In addition, several novel tests were piloted. 15 mice underwent either dMCAO (n = 8) or sham surgery (n = 7) before undergoing testing with a battery of tests, including: grip strength, corner test, cylinder test, adhesive removal test, peri-oral stimulation, rotarod and staircase paw reaching. In addition, we piloted two novel tests; whisker discrimination and lickometry. Testing was conducted from 24 hours to 9 weeks post-surgery. Deficits were only seen with the adhesive removal test (at 24 hours and 7 days post-surgery) and staircase paw-reaching (4-7 weeks post-surgery). However, there were other promising results could have been useful with optimisation, such as lickometry. Therefore the following experiment focused on optimising these. A larger scale study was then carried out (dMCAO, n = 13; sham, n = 12), focusing on the most promising tasks (adhesive removal, paw-reaching and lickometry) and those commonly used in the field (cylinder test, grip strength and neuroscore). Additional optimisations to these tasks were examined. Testing was conducted from 24 hours to 14 weeks post-surgery. However, no deficits were seen in any of the tests, except the adhesive removal test at 28 days post-surgery. With these findings we began to question whether refining behavioural analysis was the most appropriate approach and instead investigated if the model itself could be refined to suit the current behavioural assessment methods by increasing the lesion volume. The approach used combined dMCAO with either permanent ipsilateral common carotid artery occlusion (CCAO) or permanent ipsilateral internal carotid artery occlusion (ICAO). Lesion volume was assessed at 24 hours post-surgery. A total of 25 mice were used (dMCAO only, n = 9, dMCAO + CCAO, n = 8, dMCAO + ICAO, n = 8) and this data was compared to historical data in our laboratory from mice that underwent middle cerebral artery occlusion via the intraluminal filament model (n = 8). We found that dMCAO with tandem occlusion of either the CCA or ICA resulted in significantly increased infarct volume when compared to dMCAO only. There was no significant difference in infarct volume between the dMCAO + CCAO model and dMCAO + ICAO occlusion model. However, the dMCAO + CCAO model produced more reproducible infarcts with a co-efficient of variation of 17.75% compared to 25.35% in the dMCAO + ICAO model. The next step was to characterise functional outcome in the dMCAO + CCAO model, whilst providing a more comprehensive characterisation of welfare. For the final experiment, we carried out dMCAO + permanent ipsilateral CCAO (n = 18) or sham surgery (n = 15) before assessing welfare by neuroscore, mouse grimace scoring and assessment of 7-day post-surgery weight-loss and recovery. In addition, we assessed functional outcome with a large battery of tests, mostly including those tests used in experiments 1 and 2 with the addition of “whisker tracking” as part of the CRACKIT challenge. Whisker tracking uses high-speed cameras to track whiskers to detect subtle changes in whisking behaviours. Testing was conductd from 24 hours to 9 weeks post-surgery. We found no significant differences between dMCAO + CCAO and sham mice for neuroscore and grimace score. For weight-loss, both groups lost weight at 24 hours before recovering to pre-surgery weight at 48 hours and beyond, suggesting weight-loss was independent of the infarct. No functional deficits were seen with any of the tests, except lickometry; consumption per 1000 licks was significantly lower in the dMCAO + CCAO group at 1-month post-surgery. Overall, the results demonstrated that there is good welfare with the dMCAO model even when infarct volume is increased by tandem occlusion of the CCA. However, functional deficits are very difficult to detect in this model even with the use of novel and sensitive behavioural assays, such as lickometry and whisker tracking. With the good welfare seen in the dMCAO model, other stroke researchers should adopt this model when functional outcome is not being assessed in their studies. However, when functional outcome being assessed, researchers should look to other models, such as the photothrombotic model or intraluminal filament model. Future research can focus on developing more sensitive functional assessments that are appropriate for mild models of stroke, further exploration of the dMCAO + CCAO model (i.e. by combination with aged or co-morbid animals) and improving welfare and reproducibility in the intraluminal filament model

Refining behavioural analysis to promote the use of a milder model of stroke

The intraluminal filament model is the most commonly used model of stroke and has been imperative to our understanding of this disease. Nonetheless, this model has several disadvantages, such as high variability and poor animal welfare. An alternative model that could be useful is the distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (dMCAO) of stroke, which produces far more reproducible lesions and better animal welfare. This model could be useful for preclinical stroke studies whilst addressing the 3R’s; the refinement, reduction and replacement of animals for scientific purposes. The caveat is that the dMCAO model is mild and primarily affects the somatosensory cortex (including the barrel cortex, primary forelimb and hindlimb areas and the secondary somatosensory cortex) whilst leaving the motor cortex mostly spared. Therefore, detection of functional deficits is difficult and because of this the dMCAO model is seldom used. The overall aim of this thesis was to develop methods to improve the detection of functional deficits in the dMCAO model. A meta-analysis was conducted with the aim of systematically identifying the different functional assessments used following dMCAO to assess which tests could consistently detect functional deficits. Relevant publications were identified and behavioural and infarct data were extracted. Following this a meta-analysis was conducted using a random effects model to estimate the effect sizes of the various functional assessments. In mice, the adhesive removal test, cylinder test and ladder test produced large effect sizes. In rats, the staircase paw reaching task produced large effect sizes. In addition assessment of a number of tests was carried out within the laboratory. A pilot study was conducted with the aim of clarifying which were the most and least useful tests in the dMCAO model from tests that are commonly use in the field. In addition, several novel tests were piloted. 15 mice underwent either dMCAO (n = 8) or sham surgery (n = 7) before undergoing testing with a battery of tests, including: grip strength, corner test, cylinder test, adhesive removal test, peri-oral stimulation, rotarod and staircase paw reaching. In addition, we piloted two novel tests; whisker discrimination and lickometry. Testing was conducted from 24 hours to 9 weeks post-surgery. Deficits were only seen with the adhesive removal test (at 24 hours and 7 days post-surgery) and staircase paw-reaching (4-7 weeks post-surgery). However, there were other promising results could have been useful with optimisation, such as lickometry. Therefore the following experiment focused on optimising these. A larger scale study was then carried out (dMCAO, n = 13; sham, n = 12), focusing on the most promising tasks (adhesive removal, paw-reaching and lickometry) and those commonly used in the field (cylinder test, grip strength and neuroscore). Additional optimisations to these tasks were examined. Testing was conducted from 24 hours to 14 weeks post-surgery. However, no deficits were seen in any of the tests, except the adhesive removal test at 28 days post-surgery. With these findings we began to question whether refining behavioural analysis was the most appropriate approach and instead investigated if the model itself could be refined to suit the current behavioural assessment methods by increasing the lesion volume. The approach used combined dMCAO with either permanent ipsilateral common carotid artery occlusion (CCAO) or permanent ipsilateral internal carotid artery occlusion (ICAO). Lesion volume was assessed at 24 hours post-surgery. A total of 25 mice were used (dMCAO only, n = 9, dMCAO + CCAO, n = 8, dMCAO + ICAO, n = 8) and this data was compared to historical data in our laboratory from mice that underwent middle cerebral artery occlusion via the intraluminal filament model (n = 8). We found that dMCAO with tandem occlusion of either the CCA or ICA resulted in significantly increased infarct volume when compared to dMCAO only. There was no significant difference in infarct volume between the dMCAO + CCAO model and dMCAO + ICAO occlusion model. However, the dMCAO + CCAO model produced more reproducible infarcts with a co-efficient of variation of 17.75% compared to 25.35% in the dMCAO + ICAO model. The next step was to characterise functional outcome in the dMCAO + CCAO model, whilst providing a more comprehensive characterisation of welfare. For the final experiment, we carried out dMCAO + permanent ipsilateral CCAO (n = 18) or sham surgery (n = 15) before assessing welfare by neuroscore, mouse grimace scoring and assessment of 7-day post-surgery weight-loss and recovery. In addition, we assessed functional outcome with a large battery of tests, mostly including those tests used in experiments 1 and 2 with the addition of “whisker tracking” as part of the CRACKIT challenge. Whisker tracking uses high-speed cameras to track whiskers to detect subtle changes in whisking behaviours. Testing was conductd from 24 hours to 9 weeks post-surgery. We found no significant differences between dMCAO + CCAO and sham mice for neuroscore and grimace score. For weight-loss, both groups lost weight at 24 hours before recovering to pre-surgery weight at 48 hours and beyond, suggesting weight-loss was independent of the infarct. No functional deficits were seen with any of the tests, except lickometry; consumption per 1000 licks was significantly lower in the dMCAO + CCAO group at 1-month post-surgery. Overall, the results demonstrated that there is good welfare with the dMCAO model even when infarct volume is increased by tandem occlusion of the CCA. However, functional deficits are very difficult to detect in this model even with the use of novel and sensitive behavioural assays, such as lickometry and whisker tracking. With the good welfare seen in the dMCAO model, other stroke researchers should adopt this model when functional outcome is not being assessed in their studies. However, when functional outcome being assessed, researchers should look to other models, such as the photothrombotic model or intraluminal filament model. Future research can focus on developing more sensitive functional assessments that are appropriate for mild models of stroke, further exploration of the dMCAO + CCAO model (i.e. by combination with aged or co-morbid animals) and improving welfare and reproducibility in the intraluminal filament model

Conditions and from factor of the five threatened fishes from the Jamuna (Brahmaputra River Distributary) River, Northern Bangladesah

The small indigenous species namely Ailiichthys punctata (Day 1871), Botia lohachata (Chaudhuri 1912), Chanda nama (Hamilton 1822), Laubuca laubuca (Hamilton 1822) and Mystus cavasius (Hamilton 1822) comprise an important component of riverine fisheries of Bangladesh. But the natural populations are decreasing fast due to high fishing pressure as well as environmental degradation. Therefore, data and information is needed to avert the alarming decline and initiate conservation measures for these important fishes of the Jamuna River. This study describes the condition- (Fulton’s and Relative weight) and form-factor (a3.0) of the five threatened fishes from the Jamuna River, a distributary of the Brahmaputra River in northern Bangladesh. A total of 919 specimens from five species in five families used for this study were caught by traditional fishing gear during March 2010 through February 2011. For each individual, the total (TL), fork (FL) and standard (SL) length were measured by digital slide calipers while individual body weight (BW) was measured using a digital balance. The Fulton’s condition factor (KF) showed significant variations (p0.05) indicating a balanced habitat with food availability relative to the presence of predators. The calculated minimum and maximum form factor (a3.0) was 0.0062 for A. punctata and 0.0158 for B. lohachata, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first reference on KF, WR and a3.0 factors for these threatened species in Bangladesh. The results would be useful for sustainable management and conservation of the limited stocks in the Brahmaputra River ecosyste

Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Nutrient Use Efficiency Traits, Using SNP Markers in an Early Backcross Population of Rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i> L.)

The development of rice cultivars with nutrient use efficiency (NuUE) is highly crucial for sustaining global rice production in Asia and Africa. However, this requires a better understanding of the genetics of NuUE-related traits and their relationship to grain yield. In this study, simultaneous efforts were made to develop nutrient use efficient rice cultivars and to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) governing NuUE-related traits in rice. A total of 230 BC1F5 introgression lines (ILs) were developed from a single early backcross population involving Weed Tolerant Rice 1, as the recipient parent, and Hao-an-nong, as the donor parent. The ILs were cultivated in field conditions with a different combination of fertilizer schedule under six nutrient conditions: minus nitrogen (&#8315;N), minus phosphorus (&#8315;P), (&#8315;NP), minus nitrogen phosphorus and potassium (&#8315;NPK), 75% of recommended nitrogen (75N), and NPK. Analysis of variance revealed that significant differences (p &lt; 0.01) were noted among ILs and treatments for all traits. A high-density linkage map was constructed by using 704 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. A total of 49 main-effect QTLs were identified on all chromosomes, except on chromosome 7, 11 and 12, which are showing 20.25% to 34.68% of phenotypic variation. With further analysis of these QTLs, we refined them to four top hotspot QTLs (QTL harbor-I to IV) located on chromosomes 3, 5, 9, and 11. However, we identified four novel putative QTLs for agronomic efficiency (AE) and 22 QTLs for partial factor productivity (PFP) under &#8315;P and 75N conditions. These interval regions of QTLs, several transporters and genes are located that were involved in nutrient uptake from soil to plant organs and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Further, the validation of these potential QTLs, genes may provide remarkable value for marker-aided selection and pyramiding of multiple QTLs, which would provide supporting evidence for the enhancement of grain yield and cloning of NuUE tolerance-responsive genes in rice

Molecular Genetics and Breeding for Nutrient Use Efficiency in Rice

In the coming decades, rice production needs to be carried out sustainably to keep the balance between profitability margins and essential resource input costs. Many fertilizers, such as N, depend primarily on fossil fuels, whereas P comes from rock phosphates. How long these reserves will last and sustain agriculture remains to be seen. Therefore, current agricultural food production under such conditions remains an enormous and colossal challenge. Researchers have been trying to identify nutrient use-efficient varieties over the past few decades with limited success. The concept of nutrient use efficiency is being revisited to understand the molecular genetic basis, while much of it is not entirely understood yet. However, significant achievements have recently been observed at the molecular level in nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency. Breeding teams are trying to incorporate these valuable QTLs and genes into their rice breeding programs. In this review, we seek to identify the achievements and the progress made so far in the fields of genetics, molecular breeding and biotechnology, especially for nutrient use efficiency in rice

Mortality Outcomes in Therapeutic versus Prophylactic Anticoagulation in Obese Patients in Predominantly Hispanic Population

Introduction: As of January 26, 2021, there have been 1,988,063 confirmed cases with 34,701 fatalities from COVID-19 in the state of Texas. As the fatalities increased in Rio Grande Valley, there was overwhelming evidence that showed that obesity, an already hypercoagulable state, was a risk factor that contributed to the severity of COVID-19 infection (Sanchis-Gomar, et. Al. 2020). The prevalence of obesity amongst the population in in the RGV presents an opportunity to correlate trends in outcomes with the obese population that are admitted for inpatient management of COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study looks at patient’s electronic medical records who were admitted to Valley Baptist Medical Center patients at VBMC from February 28, 2020 to August 3, 2020. Results: Obese and overweight patients accounted for the majority of hospitalizations and fatalities from COVID-19. There were 12 different anticoagulation doses and 2 antiplatelet therapies used to manage these patients. Conclusion: Additional studies on anticoagulation therapy on COVID-19 patients are needed, particularly for obese patients