Gastrointestinal helminths in calves and cows in an organic milk production system

The main aim of this study was to determine the distribution of populations of gastrointestinal helminths in lactating crossbred cows and calves during the grazing season in an organic milk production system. In addition, the potential importance of the peripartum in relation to the parasite load was examined. Between January 2007 and December 2008, parasitological fecal examinations were performed on cattle belonging to the Integrated Animal Production Program of Embrapa Agrobiology. The cows' parasite load remained low during the study period, and there were no statistical differences (p > 0.05) in comparisons between the seasons. The average egg count showed a positive correlation (0.80) with the peripartum, such that egg elimination per gram (p < 0.05) was higher during the week of labor than during the pre and postpartum periods. Calves showed low parasite loads, with significantly higher egg elimination (p < 0.05) during the winter. The study indicated that infection with gastrointestinal helminths was not a limiting factor for milk production in the organic system. Specifically, it was concluded that the nematode load can be maintained at moderate levels throughout the production system, even in the absence of anthelmintic treatment

Development and Validation of a Composite Programmatic Assessment Tool for HIV Therapy

Background We developed and validated a new and simple metric, the Programmatic Compliance Score (PCS), based on the IAS-USA antiretroviral therapy management guidelines for HIV-infected adults, as a predictor of all-cause mortality, at a program-wide level. We hypothesized that non-compliance would be associated with the highest probability of mortality. Methods and Findings 3543 antiretroviral-naive HIV-infected patients aged ≥19 years who initiated antiretroviral therapy between January 1, 2000 and August 31, 2009 in British Columbia (BC), Canada, were followed until August 31, 2010. The PCS is composed by six non-performance indicators based on the IAS-USA guidelines: (1) having &lt;3 CD4 count tests in the first year after starting antiretroviral therapy; (2) having &lt;3 plasma viral load tests in the first year after starting antiretroviral therapy; (3) not having drug resistance testing done prior to starting antiretroviral therapy; (4) starting on a non-recommended antiretroviral therapy regimen; (5) starting therapy with CD4 &lt;200 cells/mm3; and (6) not achieving viral suppression within 6 months since antiretroviral therapy initiation. The sum of these six indicators was used to develop the PCS score - higher score indicates poorer performance. The main outcome was all-cause mortality. Each PCS component was independently associated with mortality. In the mortality analysis, the odds ratio (OR) for PCS ≥4 versus 0 was 22.37 (95% CI 10.46–47.84). Conclusions PCS was strongly associated with all-cause mortality. These results lend independent validation to the IAS-USA treatment guidelines for HIV-infected adults. Further efforts are warranted to enhance the PCS as a means to further improve clinical outcomes. These should be specifically evaluated and targeted at healthcare providers and patients

Peripheral vasoconstriction influences thenar oxygen saturation as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy

Purpose: Near-infrared spectroscopy has been used as a noninvasive monitoring tool for tissue oxygen saturation (StO2) in acutely ill patients. This study aimed to investigate whether local vasoconstriction induced by body surface cooling significantly influences thenar StO2 as measured by InSpectra model 650. Methods: Eight healthy individuals (age 26 ± 6 years) participated in the study. Using a cooling blanket, we aimed to cool the entire body surface to induce vasoconstriction in the skin without any changes in central temperature. Thenar StO2 was noninvasively measured during a 3-min vascular occlusion test using InSpectra model 650 with a 15-mm probe. Measurements were analyzed for resting StO2 values, rate of StO2 desaturation (RdecStO2, %/min), and rate of StO2 recovery (RincStO2, %/s) before, during, and after skin cooling. Measurements also included heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), cardiac output (CO), stroke volume (SV), capillary refill time (CRT), forearm-to-fingertip skintemperature gradient (Tskin-diff), perfusion index (PI), and tissue hemoglobin index (THI). Results: In all subjects MAP, CO, SV, and core temperature did not change during the procedure. Skin cooling resulted in a significant decrease in StO2 from 82% (80-87) to 72% (70-77) (P\0.05) and in RincStO2 from 3.0%/s (2.8-3.3) to 1.7%/s (1.1-2.0) (P\0.05). Similar changes in CRT, Tskin-diff, and PI were also observed: from 2.5 s (2.0-3.0) to 8.5 s (7.2-11.0) (P\0.05), from 1.0 (-1.6-1.8) to 3.1 (P\0.05), and from 10.0% (9.1-11.7) to 2.5

Chromosome analysis of five Brazilian species of poison frogs (Anura: Dendrobatidae)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Dendrobatid frogs have undergone an extensive systematic reorganization based on recent molecular findings. The present work describes karyotypes of the Brazilian species Adelphobates castaneoticus, A. quinquevittatus, Ameerega picta, A. galactonotus and Dendrobates tinctorius which were compared to each other and with previously described related species. All karyotypes consisted of 2n = 18 chromosomes, except for A. picta which had 2n = 24. The karyotypes of the Adelphobates and D. tinctorius species were highly similar to each other and to the other 2n = 18 previously studied species, revealing conserved karyotypic characteristics in both genera. In recent phylogenetic studies, all Adelphobates species were grouped in a clade separated from the Dendrobates species. Thus, we hypothesized that their common karyotypic traits may have a distinct origin by chromosome rearrangements and mutations. In A. picta, with 2n = 24, chromosome features of pairs from 1 to 8 are shared with other previously karyotyped species within this genus. Hence, the A. picta data reinforced that the C-banding pattern and the NOR location are species-specific traits in the genus Ameerega. Moreover, the Ameerega monophyletism proposed by previous phylogenetic studies indicates that the karyotypic differences among species in this genus result from a long divergence time.9013137Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FAPESP [02/12139-9, 05/05132-6]CNPq [300660/2005-7

Trace anomalies in chiral theories revisited

Motivated by the search for possible CP violating terms in the trace of the energy-momentum tensor in theories coupled to gravity we revisit the problem of trace anomalies in chiral theories. We recalculate the latter and ascertain that in the trace of the energy-momentum tensor of theories with chiral fermions at one-loop the Pontryagin density appears with an imaginary coefficient. We argue that this may break unitarity, in which case the trace anomaly has to be used as a selective criterion for theories, analogous to the chiral anomalies in gauge theories. We analyze some remarkable consequences of this fact, that seem to have been overlooked in the literature