Association of paratuberculosis sero-status with milk production and somatic cell counts across 5 lactations, using multilevel mixed models, in dairy cows

The aim of this work was to investigate associations between individual cow Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) seropositivity, 305- d corrected milk production, and somatic cell count during 5 lactations lifespan in Portuguese dairy herds using multilevel mixed models. We used MAP serum ELISA (Idexx MAP Ac, Idexx Laboratories Inc., Westbrook, ME) results (n = 23,960) from all the 20,221 adult cows present in 329 farms and corresponding 47,586 lactation records from the National Dairy Improvement Association. Cows and farms were classified as positive or negative. Multilevel mixed models were used to investigate the association of cow MAP status with variation in milk production and somatic cell count. Cow MAP status, farm status, and lactation number were considered as independent variables. A quadratic function of lactation number was used to mimic the effect of lactation order on milk production. The models considered 3 levels: measurement occasion (level 1) within cow (level 2) and cow within farm (level 3). Four final models were produced, including all herds and cows, to address the effect of farm status (models 1 and 2) or the effect of cow status (models 3 and 4) on the outcome variables. Our results show that MAP status affects milk production. Losses are detectable from third lactation onward. During the first 5 lactations, positive cows accumulated an average loss of 1,284.8 kg of milk when compared with the negative cows. We also observed that somatic cell counts were higher in positive cows and a positive interaction occurs between cow status and lactation number, suggesting a positive association between MAP infection and increased so- matic cell counts. Our results are in line with previous studies, suggesting a possible positive relation between cow milk production and susceptibility to MAP infection

Ocular sequelae of congenital toxoplasmosis in Brazil compared with Europe

Toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis appears to be more severe in Brazil, where it is a leading cause of blindness, than in Europe, but direct comparisons are lacking. Evidence is accumulating that more virulent genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii predominate in South America

Effects of treadmill slip and trip perturbation-based balance training on falls in community-dwelling older adults (STABILITY): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: Falls among older adults are most frequently caused by slips and trips and can have devastating consequences. Perturbation-based balance training (PBT) have recently shown promising fall preventive effects after even small training dosages. However, the fall preventive effects of PBT delivered on a treadmill are still unknown. Therefore, this parallel-group randomised controlled trial aims to quantify the effects of a four-session treadmill-PBT training intervention on falls compared with treadmill walking among community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years or more. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: 140 community-dwelling older adults will be recruited and randomised into either the treadmill-PBT or the treadmill walking group. Each group will undergo three initial training sessions within a week and an additional ‘booster’ session after 26 weeks. Participants in the treadmill-PBT group will receive 40 slip and/or trip perturbations induced by accurately timed treadmill belt accelerations at each training session. The primary outcome of interest is daily life fall rates collected using fall calendars for a follow-up period of 52 weeks. Secondary outcomes include physical, cognitive and social–psychological fall-related risk factors and will be collected at the pre-training and post-training test and the 26-week and 52-week follow-up tests. All outcomes will be analysed using the intention-to-treat approach by an external statistician. A Poisson’s regressions with bootstrapping, to account for overdispersion, will be used to compare group differences in fall rates. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study protocol has been approved by the North Denmark Region Committee on Health Research Ethics (N-20200089). The results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and at international conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04733222

Improving healthcare delivery with new interactive visualization methods

Over the last years, the implementation and evolution of computer resources in hospital institutions has been improving both the financial and temporal efficiency of clinical processes, as well as the security in the transmission and maintenance of their data, also ensuring the reduction of clinical risk. Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human illness are some of the most information-intensive of all intellectual tasks. Health providers often do not have or cannot find the information they need to respond quickly and appropriately to patient’s medical problems. Failure to review and follow up on patient’s test results in a timely manner, for example, represents a patient’s safety and malpractice concern. Therefore, it was sought to identify problems in a medical exams results management system and possible ways to improve this system in order to reduce both clinical risks and hospital costs. In this sense, a new medical exams visualization platform (AIDA-MCDT) was developed, specifically in the Hospital Center of Porto (CHP), with several new functionalities in order to make this process faster, intuitive and efficient, always guaranteeing the confidentiality and protection of patients’ personal data and significantly improving the usability of the system, leading to a better health care delivery.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/CEC/00319/2019

GERMINATION AND RE-INDUCTION OF DISSECATION TOLERANCE IN SEEDS OF Senna multijuga (RICH.) IRWIN ET BARN

O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar diferentes m\ue9todos de supera\ue7\ue3o de dorm\ueancia, condi\ue7\uf5es \uf3timas de germina\ue7\ue3o, tais como luz, temperatura, e poss\uedvel reindu\ue7\ue3o da toler\ue2ncia \ue0 desseca\ue7\ue3o em sementes de Senna multijuga . Foram testados dois m\ue9todos de supera\ue7\ue3o de dorm\ueancia: imers\ue3o em \ue1gua com temperatura inicial de 100\ubaC (\ue1gua quente) e imers\ue3o em \ue1gua com temperatura constante a 100\ubaC por 20 segundos (\ue1gua fervente), ambos os tratamentos seguidos de repouso fora do aquecimento por 24 horas. Para o teste de germina\ue7\ue3o, foram avaliados os regimes t\ue9rmicos 25\ubaC, 30\ubaC (constantes) e 20-30\ub0C (alternados), na presen\ue7a e aus\ueancia de luz. Para o teste de reindu\ue7\ue3o da toler\ue2ncia \ue0 desseca\ue7\ue3o, foram selecionadas sementes germinadas com 1, 2, 3 e 4 mm de comprimento radicular e submetidas aos tratamentos de desseca\ue7\ue3o: sem incuba\ue7\ue3o; com incuba\ue7\ue3o em solu\ue7\ue3o de polietilenoglicol (PEG6000) nas concentra\ue7\uf5es de -1,4; -1,7 e -2,0MPa; com incuba\ue7\ue3o em solu\ue7\ue3o de PEG -1,4MPa + ABA nas concentra\ue7\uf5es de 1, 10 e 100 \u3bcM. O delineamento inteiramente casualizado (DIC) foi utilizado em todos os experimentos com 4 repeti\ue7\uf5es de 25 sementes. A supera\ue7\ue3o de dorm\ueancia utilizando \ue1gua quente proporcionou germinabilidade superior a 65%. As sementes de Senna multijuga, apesar de n\ue3o serem fotobl\ue1sticas positivas obrigat\uf3rias, apresentaram maior porcentagem de germina\ue7\ue3o sob condi\ue7\uf5es de luz. Foi poss\uedvel observar a retomada do crescimento ap\uf3s a secagem em sementes germinadas com rad\uedculas de at\ue9 3 mm de comprimento.The aims of this study were to verify the effects of different tests in the overcoming dormancy, excellent germination terms, as light and temperature, and the possibility of re-induction of desiccation tolerance in Senna multijuga seeds. We evaluated two tests for overcoming dormancy: immersion in water with an initial temperature of 100\ubaC (hot water) and immersion in water at a constant temperature at 100\ubaC for 20 seconds (boiling water), both treatments followed by rest out of the heating for 24 hours. For the germination test, we evaluated 25\ubaC, 30\ubaC (constant) and 20-30\ubaC (alternate), in the presence and absence of light. For the reinduction of desiccation tolerance, we selected seeds germinated with 1, 2, 3 and 4mm of radicle length. We submitted the germinated seeds to the follow treatments: no incubation, incubation in polyethylene glycol (PEG6000) at the -1,4, -1,7 and -2,0MPa; incubation in PEG -1,4MPa + ABA at the concentrations of 1, 10 and 100\u3bcM. The tests followed a completely randomized design (DIC) using 4 repetitions of 25 seeds. The overcoming dormancy using hot water provided the best germination (65%). The Senna multijuga seeds are not photoblastic required, but in light conditions the germination was higher. We observed the resumption of the radicle growth in germinated seeds of up to 3mm length

Inflammatory cytokines and biofilm production sustain Staphylococcus aureus outgrowth and persistence: A pivotal interplay in the pathogenesis of Atopic Dermatitis

Individuals with Atopic dermatitis (AD) are highly susceptible to Staphylococcus aureus colonization. However, the mechanisms driving this process as well as the impact of S. aureus in AD pathogenesis are still incompletely understood. In this study, we analysed the role of biofilm in sustaining S. aureus chronic persistence and its impact on AD severity. Further we explored whether key inflammatory cytokines overexpressed in AD might provide a selective advantage to S. aureus. Results show that the strength of biofilm production by S. aureus correlated with the severity of the skin lesion, being significantly higher (P < 0.01) in patients with a more severe form of the disease as compared to those individuals with mild AD. Additionally, interleukin (IL)-β and interferon γ (IFN-γ), but not interleukin (IL)-6, induced a concentration-dependent increase of S. aureus growth. This effect was not observed with coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from the skin of AD patients. These findings indicate that inflammatory cytokines such as IL1-β and IFN-γ, can selectively promote S. aureus outgrowth, thus subverting the composition of the healthy skin microbiome. Moreover, biofilm production by S. aureus plays a relevant role in further supporting chronic colonization and disease severity, while providing an increased tolerance to antimicrobials