The acute phase protein, haptoglobin : a potential parameter in welfare assessment?

Physiological parameters are important measures in animal welfare assessment. To assess the amount of stress an animal experiences, stress hormones like cortisol are frequently used. However, measuring cortisol has major disadvantages due to its rapid reactivity and decline and many influencing factors. Other potential alternative markers are acute phase proteins, since stress is known to affect the immune system. A pilot study was conducted to investigate the response of the acute phase protein, plasma haptoglobine (HP), in pigs subjected to a stressor (food deprivation) and to examine the correlation between HP levels and average daily growth (ADG). Forty grower pigs (25.1 ± 4.4 kg, mean ± SD) (sex and former pen mates balanced), were allocated to 4 conventional pens, 2 treatment (T) and 2 control (C) groups (10 pigs per pen). After 10 days of adaptation the experiment started and ran for 3 weeks. In the 2nd week, T groups were repeatedly subjected to an 8-hour food deprivation (day 1, 3, 5 and 7 of week 2), C groups had normal, unrestricted, access to food. Pigs were weighed twice a week and blood was collected once a week (every 5th day). Mean levels of plasma HP of C and T groups showed large variation between individuals (C groups, week 2: 1.84 ± 3.11 mg/ml; T groups, week 2: 1.40 ± 1.16 mg/ml). No significant differences (Kruskal-Wallis test) in HP levels or growth were found between the C and T groups or between the different weeks within the T groups. Significant negative weak to moderate correlations were found between ADG and HP levels (HP week 1 and ADG week 1: rs = -0.47, p=0.005; HP week 2 and ADG total; rs= -0.60, p=0.015; HP week 3 and ADG total: rs = -0.43, p=0.025; average HP total and ADG total: rs= -0.41, p=0.017). Large variations in HP levels between individuals were shown and no effect of treatment on HP levels or growth was found. Possibly, food deprivation had no apparent stress eliciting effect. Despite these results, interesting correlations between the level of HP and ADG were found, corroborating the inverse relationship between the acute phase response and growth. To further investigate the relation of the acute phase response and stress a successive experiment will be conducted in which we apply a stronger stressor (mixing pigs) and combine the physiological data with behavior

Patricia S. Draper v. Emmert S. Draper : Reply Brief

Case No. 940137-CA APPELLANT\u27S REPLY BRIEF APPEAL FROM AN ORDER OF THE SIXTH JUDICIAL DISTRICTCOURT OF SEVIER COUNTY, THE HONORABLE LOUIS G. TERVORT FAILII16 TO AWARL THE DEFENDANT ANY PORTION OF THE IRA RELATED ACCOUNTS ACCRUED DURING THE PARTIES\u27 MARRIAG

Revision of the EU Green Public Procurement Criteria for Street Lighting and Traffic Signals - Preliminary Report

Lighting is used on more than 1.6 million km of roads in EU28 countries, accounting for some 35 TWh of electricity consumption (1.3% of total electricity consumption) and costing public authorities almost €4000 million each year. A broad review of relevant technical, policy, academic and legislative literature has been conducted. This report examines the current market situation and the potential for reducing environmental impacts and electricity costs by assessing the recent developments in road lighting technology, particularly LEDs. Particularly important areas identified relate to energy efficiency, light pollution, product durability and, specifically for longer lasting and rapidly evolving new LED technologies, reparability and upgradeability. The information in this report shall serve as a basis for discussion with stakeholders about the further development and revision of EU GPP criteria for street lighting and traffic signals.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

A trial like ALIC4E: why design a platform, response-adaptive, open, randomised controlled trial of antivirals for influenza-like illness?

ALIC4E is the first publicly funded, multicountry, pragmatic study determining whether antivirals should be routinely prescribed for influenza-like illness in primary care. The trial aims to go beyond determining the average treatment effect in a population to determining effects in patients with combinations of participant characteristics (age, symptom duration, illness severity, and comorbidities). It is one of the first platform, response-adaptive, open trial designs implemented in primary care, and this article aims to provide an accessible description of key aspects of the study design. 1) The platform design allows the study to remain relevant to evolving circumstances, with the ability to add treatment arms. 2) Response adaptation allows the proportion of participants with key characteristics allocated to study arms to be altered during the course of the trial according to emerging outcome data, so that participants' information will be most useful, and increasing their chances of receiving the trial intervention that will be most effective for them. 3) Because the possibility of taking placebos influences participant expectations about their treatment, and determining effects of the interventions on patient help seeking and adherence behaviour in real-world care is critical to estimates of cost-effectiveness, ALIC4E is an open-label trial

The PINE study: rationale and design of a randomised comparison of epidural injection of local anaesthetics and steroids versus care-as-usual to prevent postherpetic neuralgia in the elderly [ISRCTN32866390]

BACKGROUND: Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is by far the most common complication of herpes zoster (HZ) and one of the most intractable pain disorders. Since PHN is seen most often in the elderly, the number of patients with this disorder is expected to increase in our ageing society. PHN may last for months to years and has a high impact on the quality of life. The results of PHN treatment are rather disappointing. Epidural injection of local anaesthetics and steroids in the acute phase of HZ is a promising therapy for the prevention of PHN. Since randomised trials on the effectiveness of this intervention are lacking, the PINE (Prevention by epidural Injection of postherpetic Neuralgia in the Elderly) study was set up. The PINE study compares the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a single epidural injection of local anaesthetics and steroids during the acute phase of HZ with that of care-as-usual (i.e. antivirals and analgesics) in preventing PHN in elderly patients. METHODS / DESIGN: The PINE study is an open, multicenter clinical trial in which 550 elderly (age ≥ 50 yr.) patients who consult their general practitioner in the acute phase of HZ (rash < 7 days) are randomised to one of the treatment groups. The primary clinical endpoint is the presence of HZ-related pain one month after the onset of the rash. Secondary endpoints include duration and severity of pain, re-interventions aiming to treat the existing pain, side effects, quality of life, and cost-effectiveness. CONCLUSION: The PINE study is aimed to quantify the (cost-) effectiveness of a single epidural injection during the acute phase of HZ on the prevention of PHN

Report on the study of factors influencing the precision of single view metrology

Moons T., Van Rompay J., ''Report on the study of factors influencing the precision of single view metrology'', Internal report KUL/ESAT/PSI/0903, K.U.Leuven, ESAT, March 2009, Leuven, Belgium.status: publishe

3D reconstruction from multiple images - part 1: principles

This issue discusses methods to extract three-dimensional (3D) models from plain images. In particular, the 3D information is obtained from images for which the camera parameters are unknown. The principles underlying such uncalibrated structure-from-motion methods are outlined. First, a short review of 3D acquisition technologies puts such methods in a wider context and highlights their important advantages. Then, the actual theory behind this line of research is given. The authors have tried to keep the text maximally self-contained, therefore also avoiding to rely on an extensive knowledge of the projective concepts that usually appear in texts about self-calibration 3D methods. Rather, mathematical explanations that are more amenable to intuition are given. The explanation of the theory includes the stratification of reconstructions obtained from image pairs as well as metric reconstruction on the basis of more than two images combined with some additional knowledge about the cameras used. Readers who want to obtain more practical information about how to implement such uncalibrated structure-from-motion pipelines may be interested in two more Foundations and Trends issues written by the same authors. Together with this issue they can be read as a single tutorial on the subject. © 2010 T. Moons, L. Van Gool and M. Vergauwen.Moons T., Van Gool L., Vergauwen M., ''3D reconstruction from multiple images - part 1: principles'', Foundations and trends in computer graphics and vision, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 287-404, 2009.status: publishe

The importance of studying personality in individuals with congenital heart disease

status: publishe