Computer‐based teaching and evaluation of introductory statistics for health science students: Some lessons learned

In recent years, it has become possible to introduce health science students to statistical packages at an increasingly early stage in their undergraduate studies. This has enabled teaching to take place in a computer laboratory, using real data, and encouraging an exploratory and research‐oriented approach. This paper briefly describes a hypertext Computer Based Tutorial (CBT) concerned with descriptive statistics and introductory data analysis. The CBT has three primary objectives: the introduction of concepts, the facilitation of revision, and the acquisition of skills for project work. Objective testing is incorporated and used for both self‐assessment and formal examination. Evaluation was carried out with a large group of Health Science students, heterogeneous with regard to their IT skills and basic numeracy. The results of the evaluation contain valuable lessons

Plasma and urine pharmacokinetics of intravenously administered flunixin in greyhound dogs

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Medication control in greyhound racing requires information from administration studies that measure drug levels in the urine as well as plasma, with time points that extend into the terminal phase of excretion. To characterize the plasma and the urinary pharmacokinetics of flunixin and enable regulatory advice for greyhound racing in respect of both medication and residue control limits, flunixin meglumine was administered intravenously on one occasion to six different greyhounds at the label dose of 1mg/kg and the levels of flunixin were measured in plasma for up to 96hr and in urine for up to 120hr. Using the standard methodology for medication control, the irrelevant plasma concentration was determined as 1ng/ml and the irrelevant urine concentration was determined as 30ng/ml. This information can be used by regulators to determine a screening limit, detection time and a residue limit. The greyhounds with the highest average urine pH had far greater flunixin exposure compared with the greyhounds that had the lowest. This is entirely consistent with the extent of ionization predicted by the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation. This variability in the urine pharmacokinetics reduces with time, and at 72hr postadministration, in the terminal phase, the variability in urine and plasma flunixin concentrations are similar and should not affect medication control

Efficacy and safety of sarolaner (Simparica®) in the treatment and control of naturally occurring flea infestations in dogs presented as veterinary patients in Australia

Abstract Background The efficacy and safety of a novel isoxazoline compound, sarolaner (Simparica®, Zoetis) and spinosad (Comfortis®, Elanco) as a positive control were evaluated for the treatment and control of natural flea infestations on dogs in two randomised, blinded, multi-centric clinical trials conducted in 11 veterinary clinics in northeastern and southeastern states of Australia. Methods A total of 162 client-owned dogs (80 in northern study and 82 in southern study) from 105 households were enrolled. Each household was randomly allocated to receive either sarolaner (Simparica®, Zoetis) or spinosad (Comfortis®, Elanco). Dogs were dosed on Days 0, 30 and 60 and physical examinations and flea counts were conducted on Days 0, 14, 30, 60 and 90. Efficacy assessments were based on the percentage reduction in live flea counts post-treatment compared to Day 0. Results In the northern study, at enrolment, primary dogs had flea counts ranging from 5 to 772. At the first efficacy assessment on Day 14, sarolaner resulted in 99.3% mean reduction in live flea counts relative to Day 0, compared to 94.6% in the spinosad group. On Day 30, the sarolaner-treated group had mean efficacy of 99.2% compared to 95.7% in the spinosad-treated group, and on days 60 and 90, both groups had mean efficacies of ≥ 98.8%. In the southern study, at enrolment, primary dogs had flea counts ranging from 5 to 156. Both sarolaner and spinosad resulted in ≥ 96.7% mean reduction in live flea counts on Day 14. On Day 30, the sarolaner-treated group had mean efficacy of 99.5% compared to 89.7% in the spinosad-treated group, and on days 60 and 90, both groups had mean efficacies of ≥ 98.6%. No treatment-related adverse events were observed in either study. Conclusions A single monthly dose of sarolaner (Simparica®) administered orally at 2–4 mg/kg for three consecutive months was well tolerated and provided excellent efficacy against natural infestations of fleas under a range of Australian field conditions including different climatic and housing conditions. Similar efficacy was observed with spinosad (Comfortis®) after the second and third monthly treatments

Recombinant monoclonal antibody yield in transgenic tobacco plants is affected by the wounding response via an ethylene dependent mechanism

Variability in recombinant IgG yield in transgenic tobacco plants has previously been observed in relation to leaf position, and is interpreted as a function of ageing and the senescence process, leading to increasing protein degradation. Here, similar findings are demonstrated in plants of different ages, expressing IgG but not IgG-HDEL, an antibody form that accumulates within the endoplasmic reticulum. Antibody yields declined following wounding in young transgenic plants expressing IgG but not in those expressing IgG-HDEL. However, in mature IgG plants, the opposite was demonstrated, with significant boosts in yield, while mature IgG-HDEL plants could not be boosted. The lack of response in IgG-HDEL plants suggests that the changes induced by wounding occur post-translationally, and the findings might be explained by wounding responses that differ in plants according to their developmental stages. Plant mechanisms involved in senescence and wounding overlap to a significant degree and compounds such as ethylene, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid are important for mediating downstream effects. Treatment of transgenic plants with ethylene also resulted in a decrease in recombinant IgG yield, which was consistent with the finding that wounded plants could induce lower IgG yields in neighbouring non-wounded plants. Treatment with 1-MCP, an ethylene antagonist, abrogated the IgG yield drop that resulted from wounding, but had no effect on the more gradual IgG yield loss associated with increasing plant age

Evaluation of the effectiveness of a novel oral formulation of sarolaner (Simparica™) for the treatment and control of fleas on dogs

AbstractThe efficacy of a single oral dose of a novel isoxazoline, sarolaner (Simparica™, Zoetis), for the treatment and control of flea infestations on dogs was confirmed in five laboratory studies. The studies were conducted using adult purpose-bred Beagles and/or mixed breed dogs. All animals were individually identified and housed, and were allocated randomly to treatment with either placebo or sarolaner (eight to 10 per group) based on pretreatment parasite counts. Three studies used cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis felis) strains recently isolated from the field from the US, EU, or Australia; in the fourth study a laboratory strain (KS1) with documented tolerance to a number of insecticides such as fipronil, imidacloprid, and permethrin was used. In the fifth study, dogs were infested with dog fleas, Ctenocephalides canis. Dogs were treated orally on Day 0 with a placebo or a sarolaner tablet providing a minimum dose of 2mg/kg. Dogs were infested with approximately 100 unfed, adult fleas prior to treatment and at weekly intervals post-treatment. Comb counts were conducted to determine the numbers of viable fleas at 24h after treatment and after each subsequent infestation. Efficacy against C. felis and C. canis was 99.8–100% from treatment through Day 35. In all five studies, elimination of existing infestations was achieved within 24h after dosing, with only a single live C. felis found on one dog on Day 1. Similarly, control of flea challenges was achieved within 24h after infestation throughout the 35day study periods, with only single live C. felis found on two dogs on Day 28 in one study, and on a single dog on Day 35 in another study. There were no adverse reactions to treatment with sarolaner. These studies confirmed that a single oral dose of sarolaner at 2mg/kg provided highly effective treatment of existing C. felis infestations and persistent control of C. felis on dogs for 35days after treatment. Efficacy equivalent to that seen with C. felis was confirmed against C. canis and a known insecticide-tolerant strain of C. felis

Optimisation of contained Nicotiana tabacum cultivation for the production of recombinant protein pharmaceuticals

Nicotiana tabacum is emerging as a crop of choice for production of recombinant protein pharmaceuticals. Although there is significant commercial expertise in tobacco farming, different cultivation practices are likely to be needed when the objective is to optimise protein expression, yield and extraction, rather than the traditional focus on biomass and alkaloid production. Moreover, pharmaceutical transgenic tobacco plants are likely to be grown initially within a controlled environment, the parameters for which have yet to be established. Here, the growth characteristics and functional recombinant protein yields for two separate transgenic tobacco plant lines were investigated. The impacts of temperature, day-length, compost nitrogen content, radiation and plant density were examined. Temperature was the only environmental variable to affect IgG concentration in the plants, with higher yields observed in plants grown at lower temperature. In contrast, temperature, supplementary radiation and plant density all affected the total soluble protein yield in the same plants. Transgenic plants expressing a second recombinant protein (cyanovirin-N) responded differently to IgG transgenic plants to elevated temperature, with an increase in cyanovirin-N concentration, although the effect of the environmental variables on total soluble protein yields was the same as the IgG plants. Planting density and radiation levels were important factors affecting variability of the two recombinant protein yields in transgenic plants. Phenotypic differences were observed between the two transgenic plant lines and non-transformed N. tabacum, but the effect of different growing conditions was consistent between the three lines. Temperature, day length, radiation intensity and planting density all had a significant impact on biomass production. Taken together, the data suggest that recombinant protein yield is not affected substantially by environmental factors other than growth temperature. Overall productivity is therefore correlated to biomass production, although other factors such as purification burden, extractability protein stability and quality also need to be considered in the optimal design of cultivation conditions