Human-animal relationship dysfunction: A case study of animal hoarding in italy

“Animal hoarding” or “compulsive hoarding of animals” is a psychiatric disease, which has important social implications and a profound influence on animal welfare. To date, this phenomenon has been little investigated and largely unexplored. The present study aims to systematically describe a case of animal hoarding, which remains unresolved. The report refers to a case of a woman suffering from animal hoarding that emerged in 2005. From March 2014 to December 2019, 450 animals were seized over nine different occasions. This disease had significant implications on the welfare of the animals collected, which lived in poor housing and hygiene conditions that frequently led to their death. Since animal hoarding cases involve sanitary, legal, and veterinary aspects, we believe that a multidisciplinary approach is necessary in order to prevent a recurrence and a new accumulation of animals. A holistic approach should be taken according to the One Health principle that involves different stakeholders at every level in order to adopt an efficient solution

Airway Remodeling in Feline Lungs

Airway remodeling encompass structural changes that occur as the result of chronic injury and lead to persistently altered airway structure and function. Although this process is known in several human respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), airway remodeling is poorly characterized in the feline counterpart. In this study, we describe the spontaneous pulmonary changes in 3 cats paralleling the airway remodeling reported in humans. We observed airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) hyperplasia (peribronchial and interstitial), airway subepithelial and interstitial fibrosis, and vascular remodeling by increased number of vessels in the bronchial submucosa. The hyperplastic ASMCs co-expressed α-SMA, vimentin and desmin suggesting that vimentin, which is not normally expressed by ASMCs, may play a role in airway thickening, and remodeling. ASMCs had strong cytoplasmic expression of TGFβ-1, which is known to contribute to tissue remodeling in asthma and in various bronchial and interstitial lung diseases, suggesting its involvement in the pathogenesis of ASMCs hyperplasia. Our findings provide histologic evidence of airway remodeling in cats. Further studies on larger caseloads are needed to support our conclusions on the value of this feline condition as an animal model for nonspecific airway remodeling in humans

ANALYSIS OF LAMINAR FORCED CONVECTION INSIDE A SQUARE VENTILATED CAVITY USING THE OPENFOAM®

Laminar forced convection inside a square cavity with inlet and outlet ports was numerically analyzed. The positions of the inlet and outlet ports were fixed and the ports sizes were equal 25% of the side wall. The influence of the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers on the flow and temperature fields inside the cavity was verified for nine cases, with Re = 50, 100 and 500 and Pr = 0.7, 3 and 5. The heat transfer process in the cavity was analyzed from obtained values for the average Nusselt number and the local Nusselt number on the walls. The open source computer package OpenFOAM® was used for simulations considering a two-dimensional flow. For all tested Prandtl numbers, there is a growth in the rotating vortex regions as Reynolds number is increases. The temperature fields are directly related to the presence of the rotating vortices and the temperature gradient is more noticeable at the interface sections of the throughflow stream with the neighboring vortices and the next to the walls for greater Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. It was verified that the local Nusselt number on the walls varies radically with minimum and maximum points and it is dependent on the flow and temperature fields adjacent to the respective wall. The results for average Nusselt number per wall indicated that the bottom wall is the most susceptible to variations in its average Nusselt number and that the top wall present higher values of this parameter for all tested cases. Finally, the average Nusselt number was increased with increasing the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers indicating the enhanced thermal exchange

DIMENSIONLESS PHYSICAL-MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF TURBULENT NATURAL CONVECTION

Natural convection heat transfer is present in the most diverse applications of Thermal Engineering, such as in electronic equipment, transmission lines, cooling coils, biological systems, etc. The correct physical-mathematical modeling of this phenomenon is crucial in the applied understanding of its fundamentals and the design of thermal systems and related technologies. Dimensionless analyses can be applied in the study of flows to reduce geometric and experimental dependence and facilitate the modeling process and understanding of the main influence physical parameters; besides being used in creating models and prototypes. This work presents a methodology for dimensionless physical-mathematical modeling of natural convection turbulent flows over isothermal plates, located in an “infinite” open environment. A consolidated dimensionless physical-mathematical model was defined for the studied problem situation. The physical influence of the dimensionless numbers of Grashof, Prandtl, and Turbulent Prandtl was demonstrated. The use of the Theory of Dimensional Analysis and Similarity and its application as a tool and numerical device in the process of building and simplifying CFD simulations were discussed

Cortisol levels of shelter dogs in animal assisted interventions in a prison: An exploratory study

Previous studies regarding the Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI) have mainly focused on the beneficial effects of human–animal interactions on human health; whereas the impact of such activities on the welfare of the animals involved has received limited attention. So far, few studies have addressed this issue by evaluating the physiological and behavioral reactions of therapy dogs during the interventions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential effect of AAI on the cortisol levels of shelter dogs. Five dogs participated in weekly AAI working activities with adult inmates held at a prison of the South of Italy for two months. Saliva samples were collected every two weeks in three conditions: at the kennel (baseline), after transportation and at the end of the working sessions. The results revealed a significant decrease in the cortisol baseline at the end of the AAI program, suggesting that the activities carried out with humans and in a different environment could improve the welfare of dogs housed in kennels. Moreover, we found that transportation significantly increased subjects’ cortisol levels, suggesting that it is a critical phase that deserves particular care

Role of polymeric coating on metallic foams to control the aeroacoustic noise reduction of airfoils with permeable trailing edges

Studies on porous trailing edges, manufactured with open-cell Ni-Cr-Al foams with sub-millimeter pore sizes, have shown encouraging results for the mitigation of turbulent boundary-layer trailing-edge noise. However, the achieved noise mitigation is typically dependent upon the pore geometry, which is fixed after manufacturing. In this study, a step to control the aeroacoustics effect of such porous trailing edges is taken, by applying a polymeric coating onto the internal foam structure. Using this method, the internal topology of the foam is maintained, but its permeability is significantly affected. This study opens a new possibility of aeroacoustic control, since the polymeric coatings are temperature responsive, and their thickness can be controlled inside the foam. Porous metallic foams with pore sizes of 580, 800, and 1200 μm are (internally) spray-coated with an elastomeric coating. The uncoated and coated foams are characterized in terms of reduced porosity, average coating thickness and air-flow resistance. Subsequently, the coated and uncoated foams are employed to construct tapered inserts installed at the trailing edge of an NACA 0018 airfoil. The noise mitigation performances of the coated metal foams are compared to those of uncoated metal foams with either similar pore size or permeability value, and both are compared to the solid trailing edge reference case. Results show that that the permeability of the foam can be easily altered by the application of an internal coating on the metallic foams. The noise reduction characteristics of the coated foams are similar to equivalent ones with metallic materials, provided that the coating material is rigid enough not to plastically deform under flow conditions

Dupilumab ocular side effects in patients with atopic dermatitis: a systematic review

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, inflammatory skin disorder that most frequently occurs in children, but it can also affect adults. Even though most AD cases can be managed with topical treatments, moderate-to-severe forms require systemic therapies. Dupilumab is the first human monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of AD. Its action is through IL-4 receptor alpha subunit inhibition, thus blocking IL-4 and IL-13 signaling pathways. It has been shown to be an effective, well-tolerated therapy for AD, as well as for asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP), and eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). However, an increasing incidence of dupilumab-induced ocular surface disease (DIOSD) has been reported in patients treated with dupilumab, as compared to placebo. The aim of this study was to summarize scientific data regarding DIOSD in AD patients treated with dupilumab. A search of PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov databases was performed. There was no limit to study design. All AD cases were moderate-to-severe. DIOSD was either dermatologist-, allergist-, or ophthalmologist-assessed. Evidence shows that DIOSD occurs most frequently in patients with atopic dermatitis and not in other skin conditions, neither in patients with asthma, CRSwNP, nor EoE who are on dupilumab treatment. Further studies are warranted in order to establish a causal relationship between dupilumab and ocular surface disease. Nevertheless, ophthalmological evaluations prior to dupilumab initiation can benefit AD patients with previous ocular pathology or current ocular symptomatology. Also, patch testing for ocular allergic contact dermatitis might be advantageous in patients with a history of allergic conjunctivitis. Furthermore, TARC, IgE, and circulating eosinophils levels might be important biomarkers for a baseline assessment of future candidates to dupilumab treatment. However, TARC measurements should be resumed for research purposes only

Redescription of Cardiosporidium cionae (Van Gaver and Stephan, 1907) (Apicomplexa: Piroplasmida), a plasmodial parassite of ascidian haemocytes

Cardiosporidium cionae (Apicomplexa), from the ascidian Ciona intestinalis L., is redescribed with novel ultrastructural, phylogenetic and prevalence data. Ultrastructural analysis of specimens of C. intestinalis collected from the Gulf of Naples showed sporonts and plasmodia of C. cionae within the host pericardial body. Several merogonic stages and free merozoites were found in the pericardial body, together with sexual stages. All stages showed typical apicomplexan cell organelles, i.e. apicoplasts, rhoptries and subpellicular microtubules. Merogonic stages of C. cionae were also produced inside haemocytes. A fragment of the rSSU gene of C. cionae was amplified by PCR using DNA extracted from the pericardial bodies. The amplified product showed closest affinity with other apicomplexan representatives and a 66 bp unique insertion, specific for C. cionae, at position 1644. Neighbour-joining phylogenetic analysis placed C. cionae in a clade with other piroplasm genera, including Cytauxzoon, Babesia and Theileria spp. The parasite was found in different populations of C. intestinalis with highest prevalence in October–November. Ultrastructural and DNA data showed that the organism, described in 1907 from the same host but not illustrated in detail, is a member of a novel marine apicomplexan radiation of tunicate parasites

Antioxidants in assisted reproductive technologies: An overview on dog, cat, and horse

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are widely used as a tool to improve reproductive per- formance in both humans and animals. In particular, in the veterinary field, ARTs are used to improve animal genetics, recover endangered animals, and produce offspring in the event of sub- fertility or infertility in males or females. However, the use of ARTs did not improve the fertilization rate in some animals due to various factors such as the difficulty in reproducing an anatomical and humoral substrate typical of the natural condition or due to the increase in catabolites and their difficult elimination. The in vitro environment allows the production and increase in the concentration of substances, including reactive oxygen species (ROS), which could be harmful to gametes. If produced in high concentration, the ROS becomes deleterious, both in vitro and in vivo systems. It has been seen that the use of antioxidants can help neutralize or counteract the production of ROS. The present study aims to report the latest findings regarding the use of antioxidants in ARTs of some domestic species, such as dogs, cats, and horses, compared to other animal species, such as cattle, in which ARTs have instead developed more widely

Apoptosis during chick inner ear development: some observations by TEM and TUNEL techniques.

In order to clarify the occurrence, distribution and possible role of apoptosis during inner ear development, the ultrastructural aspects (by TEM) (at 9-19 incubation day and 1 day after hatching) and the distribution of the apoptotic phenomenon (by the TdTmediated dUTP nick end-labeling technique), were studied in the crista ampullaris of chick embryo at 5-19 days of incubation to hatching and of postnatal 1-day old chick. We found, in the sensorial epithelium, dark supporting cells in chick embryos and mainly dark hair cells in postnatal chicks, both with ultrastructural features consistent with those of apoptosis. The presence of apoptotic phenomena was confirmed by the TUNEL technique. According to our findings, it is hypothesized that apoptosis in the inner ear may be involved: 1) at first, in macroscopic remodelling of the membranous labyrinth in early developmental stages, 2) later, in the correct differentiation of the hair and of the supporting cells, leading to characteristic cellular pattern formation and 3) finally, in physiological cell turnover of the postnatal chicken sensorial epithelium of the crista