Effect of route of administration of lasalocid on response of young dairy calves

Forty newborn bull calves were assigned to one of four feeding groups. The feeds either contained lasalocid in milk (M), prestarter (PS), and starter (S); lasalocid in PS and S; lasalocid in S only; or no lasalocid. Calves were fed M at 8% of birth weight (bw) daily and offered PS to a maximum of 0.5 lb daily. When 0.5 lb of PS was consumed in one day the calves were fed M at 4% of bw daily. They were weaned when they consumed dry feed at the rate of 1.3% of bw. Daily feed intake and weekly weight gains of calves were evaluated. Blood serum samples were used to evaluate blood metabolites at wk 4, 8, and 12. We concluded that lasalocid in M, PS, and S supported greater feed efficiency and allowed earlier weaning with less animal variation than when lasalocid was delivered in PS and S, only in S, or not at all

Reliability and validity of the Persian version of the spinal cord injury lifestyle scale and the health behavior questionnaire in persons with spinal cord injury

Study design: Cross-sectional psychometric study. Objective: To evaluate the reliability and validity of a spinal cord injury lifestyle scale (SCILS) and Health Behavior Questionnaire (HBQ) in the Persian language for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Setting: Participants were selected among those referred to health centers and the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center. Method: In accordance with standard procedure for translation, two questionnaires, the SCILS and HBQ, were translated using a forward and backward translation approach by professional translators. Face validity of the questionnaires was assessed by ten persons with SCI and content validity was agreed upon by 12 professors from health care teaching universities. To test the final versions of both questionnaires, 97 persons with SCI were included using a consecutive sampling method. Other questionnaires were used to assess concurrent validity (secondary impairment checklist, as well as SCILS and HBQ) and convergent validity (impact of event scale revised, brief symptom inventory, beck depression inventory, and functional independence measure). Results: Internal consistency of SCILS and HBQ, assessed by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.75 for SCILS and 0.85 for HBQ. Test-retest reliability intraclass correlations were 0.86 and 0.92 for SCILS and HBQ, respectively. The number of current secondary impairments had a significant and negative correlation with SCILS (r =-0.22, P < 0.001), but it was not correlated with HBQ. SCILS had a significant and strong correlation with HBQ (r = 0.65, P < 0.001). Conclusion: SCILS and HBQ can be used for measuring the health behavior of persons with SCI in Iran. © 2018 International Spinal Cord Society

Family-centered empowerment process in individuals with spinal cord injury living in Iran: a grounded theory study

Study design: This was a qualitative study using grounded theory method. Objectives: To explain the process of family-centered empowerment in a population of individuals with SCI living in Iran. Setting: Brain and SCI Research Center, Social Welfare Center, and SCI Association of Tehran; Iran. Methods: Participants were 19 persons with traumatic SCI, 13 family member caregivers, and 11 health care providers selected through purposeful sampling. Data were collected using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, which were continued until data saturation. The interview data were methodically collected and analyzed using Strauss and Corbin�s (1998) recommended method for grounded theory. Constant comparative analysis was simultaneously conducted through reviews of the interview statements, observations of behavior, interviewer field notes, and interviewer memos. The analysis was managed in MAXQDA software version 10. Results: The process of family-centered empowerment following SCI included five categories: (1) disruption in the existential integrity of the individual; (2) constructive life recovery; (3) inhibitors of family-centered empowerment; (4) facilitators of family-centered empowerment, and (5) back on track. Constructive life recovery was selected as the core variable using the grounded theory method. This core variable identified the strategies most frequently used by the participants to cope with the challenges of SCI-related impairment, disability, and overall life management. Conclusions: Family-centered empowerment process in individuals with SCI living in Iran emerged from the data. The model includes early disruptions in the bio-psycho-social and vocational lives of individuals with SCI and their families, strategies for recovery post injury, inhibitors and facilitators of family-centered empowerment, the gradual return to work and daily activities, and the expected social roles for individuals with SCI. © 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International Spinal Cord Society

Modern genome annotation: The BioSapiens network

In order to maximise our understanding of biology and evolution, gained from the large scale sequencing projects of the current era, it is necessary to be able to assign detailed biochemical, cellular and developmental functions to as many protein sequences as possible. More than five million distinct proteins can be found in the major public repositories, i.e., UniProt &amp; RefSeq (Pruitt et al. 2007; UniProt Consortium 2007), but detailed laboratory investigations have only been carried out for a tiny fraction. For instance, only ~ 25,000 proteins have solved structures in the international protein structure repository, the worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB, Berman et al. 2003)