First report of multinodular pulmonary fibrosis associated with equine herpesvirus 5 in Belgium

A 20-year-old horse was evaluated for symptoms of weight loss, anorexia, fever and lethargy. Clinical examination revealed tachypnea, poor body condition and increased breath sounds on auscultation. Ultrasound showed multiple consolidations on the lungs. Thoracic radiography revealed a severe nodular pattern. The horse was treated with antibiotics, corticoids and supportive medication. Since no improvement was observed, the horse was euthanized. At necropsy, numerous coalescing fibrous nodules were present in the lungs. Histology revealed diffuse interstitial fibrosis and macrophages containing abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm and oval eosinophilic to amphophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies. Tissue samples tested positive for the presence of equine herpes virus 5 (EHV 5) on the basis of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. A diagnosis of equine multinodular pulmonary fibrosis (EMPF) was made. This is the first report of EMPF in Belgium. EMPF can be suspected based on the ultrasonographic, radiographic and histological changes. EMPF is associated with EHV 5, but the etiological role of EHV 5 still remains to be proven

Multi-task learning for joint weakly-supervised segmentation and aortic arch anomaly classification in fetal cardiac MRI

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is a group of cardiac malformations present already during fetal life, representing the prevailing category of birth defects globally. Our aim in this study is to aid 3D fetal vessel topology visualisation in aortic arch anomalies, a group which encompasses a range of conditions with significant anatomical heterogeneity. We present a multi-task framework for automated multi-class fetal vessel segmentation from 3D black blood T2w MRI and anomaly classification. Our training data consists of binary manual segmentation masks of the cardiac vessels' region in individual subjects and fully-labelled anomaly-specific population atlases. Our framework combines deep learning label propagation using VoxelMorph with 3D Attention U-Net segmentation and DenseNet121 anomaly classification. We target 11 cardiac vessels and three distinct aortic arch anomalies, including double aortic arch, right aortic arch, and suspected coarctation of the aorta. We incorporate an anomaly classifier into our segmentation pipeline, delivering a multi-task framework with the primary motivation of correcting topological inaccuracies of the segmentation. The hypothesis is that the multi-task approach will encourage the segmenter network to learn anomaly-specific features. As a secondary motivation, an automated diagnosis tool may have the potential to enhance diagnostic confidence in a decision support setting. Our results showcase that our proposed training strategy significantly outperforms label propagation and a network trained exclusively on propagated labels. Our classifier outperforms a classifier trained exclusively on T2w volume images, with an average balanced accuracy of 0.99 (0.01) after joint training. Adding a classifier improves the anatomical and topological accuracy of all correctly classified double aortic arch subjects.Comment: Accepted for publication at the Journal of Machine Learning for Biomedical Imaging (MELBA) https://melba-journal.org/2023:01

Towards an Energy-Aware Framework for Application Development and Execution in Heterogeneous Parallel Architectures

The Transparent heterogeneous hardware Architecture deployment for eNergy Gain in Operation (TANGO) project’s goal is to characterise factors which affect power consumption in software development and operation for Heterogeneous Parallel Hardware (HPA) environments. Its main contribution is the combination of requirements engineering and design modelling for self-adaptive software systems, with power consumption awareness in relation to these environments. The energy efficiency and application quality factors are integrated into the application lifecycle (design, implementation and operation). To support this, the key novelty of the project is a reference architecture and its implementation. Moreover, a programming model with built-in support for various hardware architectures including heterogeneous clusters, heterogeneous chips and programmable logic devices is provided. This leads to a new cross-layer programming approach for heterogeneous parallel hardware architectures featuring software and hardware modelling. Application power consumption and performance, data location and time-criticality optimization, as well as security and dependability requirements on the target hardware architecture are supported by the architecture

Grip Force Reveals the Context Sensitivity of Language-Induced Motor Activity during “Action Words

Studies demonstrating the involvement of motor brain structures in language processing typically focus on \ud time windows beyond the latencies of lexical-semantic access. Consequently, such studies remain inconclusive regarding whether motor brain structures are recruited directly in language processing or through post-linguistic conceptual imagery. In the present study, we introduce a grip-force sensor that allows online measurements of language-induced motor activity during sentence listening. We use this tool to investigate whether language-induced motor activity remains constant or is modulated in negative, as opposed to affirmative, linguistic contexts. Our findings demonstrate that this simple experimental paradigm can be used to study the online crosstalk between language and the motor systems in an ecological and economical manner. Our data further confirm that the motor brain structures that can be called upon during action word processing are not mandatorily involved; the crosstalk is asymmetrically\ud governed by the linguistic context and not vice versa

Anti-inflammatory phytotherapeutics: a valuable alternative to NSAID treatment in horses?

ABSTRACT In equine practice, phytotherapy is meeting the increasing demand of horse owners for "natural", safe treatment methods. Long-term use of NSAIDs can cause severe adverse effects, hence the growing popularity of anti-inflammatory phytotherapeutics. At the current time, several different herbal mixes are being commercialized, which makes it difficult for horse owners and veterinarians alike to make a well-founded choice. Harpagophytum procumbens (devil's claw), Salix spp. (willow) and Ribes nigrum (blackcurrant), three plants that are often used in these mixes, have been evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. Based on published studies and the evaluation of these studies, for example by the Cochrane Collaboration, there seems to be some evidence for Harpagophytum procumbens and Salix spp. having a stronger analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect than placebos in humans. In horses, however, only one limited clinical study on Harpagophytum has been performed up until now, while no studies were found on the use of Salix in horses. More research is needed before any claims concerning efficacy or safety can be made regarding the use of these plants in treating horses. It has also been claimed that Ribes nigrum leaves have an anti-inflammatory effect, though this has not yet been clinically proven either in humans or in horses. Although veterinary phytotherapy is as old as animal husbandry itself, little scientific proof can be found regarding its uses. More research is needed before phytotherapy can be advertised as a valuable and safe alternative to the more conventional treatment protocols. SAMENVATTING In de paardengeneeskunde is fytotherapie een antwoord op de toenemende vraag van eigenaren naar "natuurlijke", veilige behandelmethoden. Het langdurig gebruik van NSAID's kan ernstige bijwerkingen geven, vandaar de groeiende populariteit van ontstekingsremmende fytotherapeutica. Momenteel zijn er meerdere kruidenpreparaten commercieel beschikbaar maar het is moeilijk voor de paardeneigenaar en de dierenarts om hier een verantwoorde keuze uit te maken. Harpagophytum procumbens (duivelsklauw), Salix spp. (wilg) en Ribes nigrum (zwarte bes of cassisbes), drie planten die veel gebruikt worden in de commerciële preparaten, werden zowel in vitro als in vivo geëvalueerd. Op basis van gepubliceerde studies en de beoordeling van deze studies door onder andere de Cochrane Collaboration zijn er aanwijzingen dat Harpagophytum procumbens en Salix spp. bij de mens een groter analgetisch en ontstekingsremmend effect hebben dan een placebo. Bij paarden is er echter slechts één beperkte klinische studie met Harpagophytum uitgevoerd, en het effect van Salix werd nog nooit onderzocht. Om de werkzaamheid en veiligheid van deze planten bij het paard te kunnen beoordelen, dient er meer onderzoek verricht te worden. De bladeren van Ribes nigrum zouden ook een ontstekingsremmende werking hebben, maar dit is momenteel noch bij de mens, noch bij het paard klinisch aangetoond. Hoewel de veterinaire fytotherapie al even lang bestaat als de dierhouderij, is er weinig wetenschappelijk bewijs omtrent een efficiënte werking ervan. Vooraleer men de fytotherapie kan aanraden als een waardevol en veilig alternatief voor de conventionele behandelmethoden, is er duidelijk nog meer onderzoek nodig

Epidermolysa bullosa in Danish Hereford calves is caused by a deletion in LAMC2 gene

BACKGROUND Heritable forms of epidermolysis bullosa (EB) constitute a heterogeneous group of skin disorders of genetic aetiology that are characterised by skin and mucous membrane blistering and ulceration in response to even minor trauma. Here we report the occurrence of EB in three Danish Hereford cattle from one herd. RESULTS Two of the animals were necropsied and showed oral mucosal blistering, skin ulcerations and partly loss of horn on the claws. Lesions were histologically characterized by subepidermal blisters and ulcers. Analysis of the family tree indicated that inbreeding and the transmission of a single recessive mutation from a common ancestor could be causative. We performed whole genome sequencing of one affected calf and searched all coding DNA variants. Thereby, we detected a homozygous 2.4 kb deletion encompassing the first exon of the LAMC2 gene, encoding for laminin gamma 2 protein. This loss of function mutation completely removes the start codon of this gene and is therefore predicted to be completely disruptive. The deletion co-segregates with the EB phenotype in the family and absent in normal cattle of various breeds. Verifying the homozygous private variants present in candidate genes allowed us to quickly identify the causative mutation and contribute to the final diagnosis of junctional EB in Hereford cattle. CONCLUSIONS Our investigation confirms the known role of laminin gamma 2 in EB aetiology and shows the importance of whole genome sequencing in the analysis of rare diseases in livestock

International Evidence Based Reappraisal of Genes Associated With Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy Using the Clinical Genome Resource Framework

Background - Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is an inherited disease characterized by ventricular arrhythmias and progressive ventricular dysfunction. Genetic testing is recommended and a pathogenic variant in an ARVC-associated gene is a major criterion for diagnosis according to the 2010 Task Force Criteria (TFC). As incorrect attribution of a gene to ARVC can contribute to misdiagnosis, we assembled an international multidisciplinary ARVC ClinGen Gene Curation Expert Panel to reappraise all reported ARVC genes. / Methods - Following a comprehensive literature search, six two-member teams conducted blinded independent curation of reported ARVC genes using the semi-quantitative ClinGen framework. /Results - Of 26 reported ARVC genes, only six (PKP2, DSP, DSG2, DSC2, JUP, TMEM43) had strong evidence and were classified as definitive for ARVC causation. There was moderate evidence for two genes, DES and PLN. The remaining 18 genes had limited or no evidence. RYR2 was refuted as an ARVC gene since clinical data and model systems exhibited a catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) phenotype. In ClinVar, only 5 pathogenic / likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants (1.1%) in limited evidence genes had been reported in ARVC cases in contrast to 450 desmosome gene variants (97.4%). / Conclusions - Using the ClinGen approach to gene-disease curation, only eight genes, (PKP2, DSP, DSG2, DSC2, JUP, TMEM43, PLN, DES) had definitive or moderate evidence for ARVC and these genes accounted for nearly all P/LP ARVC variants in ClinVar. Therefore, only P/LP variants in these eight genes should yield a major criterion for ARVC diagnosis. P/LP variants identified in other genes in a patient should prompt further phenotyping as variants in many of these genes are associated with other cardiovascular conditions