Exploratory serosurvey for antibodies to avian pathogens in backyard chickens from a satellite community of Jalapa City, Guatemala

An exploratory serosurvey was conducted to determine the presence of circulating antibodies to avian pathogens in backyard chickens from Los Achiotes (LAC), a satellite community of Jalapa City, located in eastern Guatemala. Blood samples from 51 adult chickens belonging to 51 households were taken and investigated for the presence of antibodies to Avian Influenza (AI), Newcastle Disease (ND), Infectious Bronchitis (IB), Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD), Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) and M. synoviae (MS). Antibodies for AI, ND, were investigated by Hemagglutination Inhibition, for IB and IBD by ELISA (BioChek®) and for MG and MS by a rapid serum plate agglutination test. The cut-off point for positive titers was 1:4 for AI and ND and a 0.2 S/P ratio for IB and IBD. All sampled chickens were positive for concomitant antibodies to various pathogens. Over half of the chickens were positive reactors to antibodies to all six tested pathogens; about a third carried antibodies to five and the rest to four or three. The frequencies of positive reactors were: AI = 27 (53%); ND = 49 (96.1%); IB = 50 (98%); IBD = 51 (100%); MG = 45 (88%) and MS = 48 (94%). The results show that the dynamic population of backyard chickens in LAC could be a potential threat to backyard poultry, farm poultry, wild birds and human population. The need to develop interventions and policies following the One Health approach (animal health to achieve human health) is stressed

Early Pension Withdrawals in Chile During the Pandemic

Chile, with one of the largest and best funded defined contribution programs in Latin America, held over USD $200 bn in assets at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, or more than 80$50 bn from the system. This paper explores several hypotheses regarding why people withdrew their pension money early, and it also presents evidence regarding the likely impact of this short-term policy on long-term retirement wellbeing. We conclude with lessons for global policymakers seeking to protect pension assets critical for retirement security

Case-Based Asynchronous Interactive Modules in Undergraduate Medical Education.

Undergraduate medical education traditionally consists of 2 years of lecture-based courses followed by 2 years of clinical clerkships. However, over the past couple decades, undergraduate medical education has been evolving toward non-lecture-based integrated curriculums, requiring a collaborative curriculum. Additionally, e-learning platforms have become efficacious and essential to delivering education asynchronously to students. At Thomas Jefferson University, the Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology departments collaborated to create a pilot series of case-based asynchronous interactive modules to teach gynecologic pathology in a clinical context, while interweaving other educational components, such as evidence-based medicine, clinical skills, and basic sciences. The case-based asynchronous interactive modules were given to third-year medical students during their obstetrics and gynecology clerkship. Students interpreted histologic and clinical images while being evaluated on clinical management skills, gynecologic diagnoses, general principles of population health and pathology. Sixty-eight students from 3 blocks completed a pre and posttest. All participants showed improvement in interpreting gynecologic pathology in routine clinical scenarios as well as improved case-based decision-making, with an average score increase by 5.7%. Learner feedback was positive, with suggestions to apply this method to other medical specialties, particularly radiology. Asynchronous interactive modules are an efficacious and popular method of pathology education

Tritordeum breads are well tolerated with preference over gluten-free breads in non-celiac wheat-sensitive patients and its consumption induce changes in gut bacteria

BACKGROUND The ingestion of wheat and other cereals are related to several gut disorders. The specific components responsible for non-celiac wheat-sensitivity (NCWS) may include gluten and other compounds. Tritordeum is a new cereal derived from crossing durum wheat with a wild barley species, which differs from bread wheat in its gluten composition. In the present work, we examined the response of NCWS patients to tritordeum bread Gastrointestinal symptoms as well as tritordeum acceptability, gluten immunogenic peptides excretion, and the composition and structure of the intestinal microbiota were evaluated. RESULTS Gastrointestinal symptoms of the subjects showed no significant change between the gluten-free bread and the tritordeum bread. Participating subjects rated tritordeum bread higher than the gluten-free bread. Analysis of the bacterial gut microbiota indicated that tritordeum consumption does not alter the global structure and composition of the intestinal microbiota, and only a few changes in some butyrate-producing bacteria were observed. CONCLUSIONS All the results derived from acceptability, biochemical and microbiological tests suggest that tritordeum may be tolerated by a sub-set of NCWS sufferers who do not require strict exclusion of gluten from their diet. (c) 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

Immunometabolism modulation in therapy

The study of cancer biology should be based around a comprehensive vision of the entire tumor ecosystem, considering the functional, bioenergetic and metabolic state of tumor cells and those of their microenvironment, and placing particular importance on immune system cells. Enhanced understanding of the molecular bases that give rise to alterations of pathways related to tumor development can open up new therapeutic intervention opportunities, such as metabolic regulation applied to immunotherapy. This review outlines the role of various oncometabolites and immunometabolites, such as TCA intermediates, in shaping pro/anti-inflammatory activity of immune cells such as MDSCs, T lymphocytes, TAMs and DCs in cancer. We also discuss the extraordinary plasticity of the immune response and its implication in immunotherapy efficacy, and highlight different therapeutic intervention possibilities based on controlling the balanced systems of specific metabolites with antagonistic functions

An approach to assess flooding and erosion risk for open beaches in a changing climate

This paper examines the vulnerability to flooding and erosion of four open beach study sites in Europe. A framework for the quantitative estimation of present and future coastal flood and erosion risks is established using methods, data and tools from across a range of disciplines, including topographic and bathymetric data, climate data from observation, hindcast and model projections, statistical modelling of current and future climates and integrated risk analysis tools. Uncertainties in the estimation of future coastal system dynamics are considered, as are the consequences for the inland systems. Different implementations of the framework are applied to the study sites which have different wave, tidal and surge climate conditions. These sites are: Santander, Spain—the Atlantic Ocean; Bellocchio, Italy—the Adriatic Sea; Varna, Bulgaria—the Black Sea; and the Teign Estuary, UK—the northern Atlantic Ocean. The complexity of each system is first simplified by sub-division into coastal "impact units" defined by homogeneity in the local key forcing parameters: wave, wind, tide, river discharge, run-off, etc. This reduces the simulation to that of a number of simpler linear problems which are treated by applying the first two components of the Source–Pathway–Receptor–Consequence (S–P–R–C) approach. The case studies reveal the flexibility of this approach, which is found useful for the rapid assessment of the risks of flooding and erosion for a range of scenarios and the likely effectiveness of flood defences

Optimized detection of homologous recombination deficiency improves the prediction of clinical outcomes in cancer

Peer reviewe