Intranasal melanoma treated with radiation therapy in three dogs

Three dogs were investigated for chronic unilateral nasal discharge. In all cases CT imaging showed an intranasal mass causing turbinate lysis and no evidence of metastasis. Cytology in cases 1 (a 14-year-old neutered male crossbreed dog) and 2 (a five-year-old neutered male German Shepherd dog) demonstrated a pleomorphic cell population with variable intracellular pigment suspicious of melanocytic neoplasia. Histopathology with immunohistochemistry (Melan-A and vimentin, plus PNL-2 in one case) confirmed the diagnosis of melanoma in all dogs. All dogs were treated with megavoltage radiotherapy using linear accelerators. Cases 1 and 3 (a nine-year-old neutered female beagle dog) received a hypofractionated (4 × 8 Gy) protocol and case 2 received a definitive (12 × 4 Gy) protocol. Complete remission was demonstrated on repeat CT scan five months after diagnosis in case 1 and seven months in case 2. Stable disease was documented on CT at four months for case 3; however, clinical signs in this dog remained controlled for 10 months in total. Case 1 died of unrelated causes five months after diagnosis, case 2 was euthanased due to the development of seizures 13 months after diagnosis, and case 3 was lost to follow-up 12 months after diagnosis. Melanoma should be considered as a rare differential diagnosis for primary nasal neoplasia in the dog and radiation therapy can be used as effective local therapy

Study of star-forming galaxies in SDSS up to redshift 0.4: I. Metallicity evolution

The chemical composition of the gas in galaxies versus cosmic time provides a very important tool for understanding galaxy evolution. Although there are many studies at high redshift, they are rather scarce at lower redshifts. However, low redshift studies can provide important clues about the evolution of galaxies, furnishing the required link between local and high redshift universe. In this work we focus on the metallicity of the gas of star-forming galaxies at low redshift, looking for signs of chemical evolution. To analyze the metallicity contents star-forming galaxies of similar luminosities and masses at different redshifts. With this purpose, we present a study of the metallicity of relatively massive (log(M_star/M_sun)>10.5) star forming galaxies from SDSS--DR5 (Sloan Digital Sky Survey--Data Release 5), using different redshift intervals from 0.04 to 0.4. We used data processed with the STARLIGHT spectral synthesis code, correcting the fluxes for dust extinction, estimating metallicities using the R_23 method, and segregating the samples with respect to the value of the [NII]6583/[OII]3727 line ratio in order to break the R_23 degeneracy selecting the upper branch. We analyze the luminosity and mass-metallicity relations, and the effect of the Sloan fiber diameter looking for possible biases. By dividing our redshift samples in intervals of similar magnitude and comparing them, significant signs of metallicity evolution are found. Metallicity correlates inversely with redshift: from redshift 0 to 0.4 a decrement of ~0.1 dex in 12+log(O/H) is found.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Axial Multicentric Osteosarcoma in an English Cocker Spaniel

No abstract available

Liquid hot water pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis as a valorization route of Italian green pepper waste to delivery free sugars

In this work, liquid hot water pretreatment (autohydrolysis) was used to improve enzymatic hydrolysis of a commonly consumed vegetable waste in Spain, Italian green pepper, to finally produce fermentable sugars. Firstly, the effect of temperature and contact time on sugar recovery during pretreatment (in insoluble solid and liquid fraction) was studied in detail. Then, enzymatic hydrolysis using commercial cellulase was performed with the insoluble solid resulting from pretreatment. The objective was to compare results with and without pretreatment. The results showed that the pretreatment step was effective to facilitate the sugars release in enzymatic hydrolysis, increasing the global sugar yield. This was especially notable when pretreatment was carried out at 180 °C for 40 min for glucose yields. In these conditions a global glucose yield of 61.02% was obtained. In addition, very low concentrations of phenolic compounds (ranging from 69.12 to 82.24 mg/L) were found in the liquid fraction from enzymatic hydrolysis, decreasing the possibility of fermentation inhibition produced by these components. Results showed that Italian green pepper is an interesting feedstock to obtain free sugars and prevent the enormous quantity of this food waste discarded annually

Modeling the variance-covariance matrix of genetic and residual effects in a Panicum maximum genome wide selection experiment.

Panicum maximum stands out among the tropical forage species due to its high biomass yield and excellent nutritional quality, providing high animal performance. The improvement of sexual plant population of P. maximum by recurrent selection increases the probability of releasing superior cultivars. In this work, we aimed to model variance-covariance matrices for genetic (G) and residual (R) effects in a spaced plant experiment to obtain adjusted means that will be used in a recurrent genomic selection program

Estimation of Molecular Pairwise Relatedness in Autopolyploid Crops

A suitable pairwise relatedness estimation is key to genetic studies. Several methods are proposed to compute relatedness in autopolyploids based on molecular data. However, unlike diploids, autopolyploids still need further studies considering scenarios with many linked molecular markers with known dosage. In this study, we provide guidelines for plant geneticists and breeders to access trustworthy pairwise relatedness estimates. To this end, we simulated populations considering different ploidy levels, meiotic pairings patterns, number of loci and alleles, and inbreeding levels. Analysis were performed to access the accuracy of distinct methods and to demonstrate the usefulness of molecular marker in practical situations. Overall, our results suggest that at least 100 effective biallelic molecular markers are required to have good pairwise relatedness estimation if methods based on correlation is used. For this number of loci, current methods based on multiallelic markers show lower performance than biallelic ones. To estimate relatedness in cases of inbreeding or close relationships (as parent-offspring, full-sibs, or half-sibs) is more challenging. Methods to estimate pairwise relatedness based on molecular markers, for different ploidy levels or pedigrees were implemented in the AGHmatrix R package

Clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors for canine multicentric non‐indolent T‐cell lymphoma: 107 cases

Canine lymphoma, as the most common haematopoietic malignancy, encompasses a group of heterogeneous diseases and even within the T-cell immunophenotype, differences in clinical presentation and responses to treatment exist. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine outcomes and prognostic factors of 107 dogs with multicentric non-indolent T-cell lymphoma (TCL) receiving lomustine-based (70%) and non-lomustine-based (30%) treatment. The majority were Labradors, Boxers, mixed-breed dogs and Dogue de Bordeaux. Eighty-six percent were substage b, 77% had mediastinal involvement, 15% had suspected bone marrow involvement and 12% had other extra-nodal sites of disease. The overall response rate to induction therapy was 80%; dogs receiving procarbazine in the induction protocol (P = .042), dogs with neutrophil concentration below 8.7 × 10e9 /L (P = .006) and mitotic rate below 10 per 5 high power field (P = .013), had greater response rates. Median progression-free survival (PFS) for the first remission was 105 days; lack of expression of CD3 on flow cytometry (P < .0001) and pretreatment with steroid (P = .012) were significantly associated with shorter PFS. Median overall survival time (OST) was 136 days; co-expression of CD79a (P = .002), lack of CD3 expression on flow cytometry, presence of anaemia (P = .007), and monocytopenia (P = .002) were predictive of shorter OST. Multicentric non-indolent TCL in dogs is an aggressive cancer with new possible prognostic factors

Riesgos del tratamiento crónico con ácido acetilsalicílico: comparación entre las prescripciones en prevención primaria y secundaria de enfermedades cardiovasculares.

Introducción El ácido acetilsalicílico (AAS) es el antiagregante de elección en el tratamiento de la enfermedad cardiovascular. Sus beneficios en prevención secundaria (PS) han sido claramente demostrados, pero existe controversia en su uso en prevención primaria (PP): los riesgos de sufrir eventos adversos, principalmente hemorragias, pueden superar a los beneficios potenciales del tratamiento. El farmacéutico dispone de las herramientas apropiadas para la detección de problemas relacionados con los medicamentos (PRMs) tanto en PP como en PS.   Objetivos Estimar la proporción de PP vs. PS en tratamientos con AAS. Evaluar el riesgo hemorrágico y otros PRMs en ambos casos.   Métodos Estudio observacional y prospectivo en dos farmacias comunitarias. Se registraron las prescripciones de AAS, variables demográficas y farmacoterapéuticas del paciente. Cada prescripción se asignó a PP o PS según la existencia de enfermedad cardiovascular (ECV) previa. Los PRMs se evaluaron con BOT Plus Web®.       Resultados 82 dispensaciones de AAS válidas, 47 (57%) correspondían a PP y 35 (43%) a PS. Se encontró asociación estadística entre las variables PP y diabetes. Se detectaron 67 PRMs de los que el 80% (53) suponían un aumento del riesgo hemorrágico. No se apreciaron diferencias significativas para el aumento de riesgo hemorrágico entre PP o PS.   Conclusiones Encontramos mayor prevalencia de prescripción para el tratamiento crónico con AAS en PP que en PS. Observamos asociación entre PP y diabetes y entre PS y total de PRMs. No se asociación entre el aumento de riesgo hemorrágico y PP o PS