Evaluation of ivermectin antiviral activity against avian infectious bronchitis virus using a chicken embryo model

Ivermectin is widely used in both animals and humans as an FDA-approved parasiticide. Ivermectin has also been reported to have antiviral activity against several viruses including coronaviruses. There are reports that indicate ivermectin may have some role in diminishing the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, but the evidence is inconclusive. The objective of this study was to determine if ivermectin was efficacious in inhibiting avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV, a coronavirus) replication in chicken embryos. Briefly, our approach was to use the Massachusetts vaccine strain of IBV in combination with various doses of ivermectin and then inoculate these preparations into chicken embryos to determine if IBV replication was inhibited. The embryos were examined for IBV lesions and samples of chorioallantoic fluid were collected for IBV RT-PCR analysis. Several trials were performed, and the results of our study indicate that ivermectin did not inhibit IBV replication in chicken embryos

What We Got Away With: Rochdale College and Canadian Art in the Sixties

This thesis examines the place and influence of Rochdale College within the Canadian, and more specifically Toronto, art milieu of the late sixties. Occupying an eighteen story concrete building just north of University of Toronto, Rochdale College was an unprecedented alternative living and learning environment. Following its opening in 1968 Rochdale and its community quickly came to be a major beacon for the counterculture attracting artists from across the country. Entirely student-run, Rochdale was a world-unto-itself with its own governing committees for administration, finance, and education. Divided into four chapters, “What We Got Away With” situates Rochdale College under an art historical lens. These chapters survey how artists experienced and interacted with Rochdale College and turn a critical eye toward the College’s printed ephemera as a means to better understand the cultural and socio-economic conditions surrounding the experiment. Chapter one inquires as to why certain artists chose to attend Rochdale instead of another Canadian art college. At the time many existing art colleges, as well as government committees on education, were also incorporating protocols of radical pedagogy into their curricula. This chapter explores how the socio-economic conditions of the late-sixties bore influence on arts education in Canada. Chapter two profiles a number of artists’ relations and interactions with the College, identifying artworks that can be traced back to the College either via aesthetic or historical avenues. Chapter three investigates how Rochdale’s print culture intersected with its actual built environment taking for its example the College’s first restaurant. The restaurant’s futuristic design was initially elaborated over numerous newsletters. Its final form acted as a clever retort to the College’s prescribed concrete architecture, drawing attention to a latent radicalism in the surrounding built environment. Chapter four is a study of the College’s infamous phony degrees. By closely examining their design, distribution, and resulting correspondence this chapter reassess the satire behind these novel documents and the role of the publics it assembled

Antibody Dependent Enhancement of Infectious Bronchitis Virus in Poultry

Avian infectious bronchitis (IB) is a coronavirus infection of chickens that causes respiratory disease and reproductive problems in chickens. Currently, there are vaccines that are effective against IB. However, new variants and strains of avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) routinely emerge. A vaccine that is not the same strain as the virus is not completely effective in protecting against other variants because the vaccine will not allow the host antibodies to completely neutralize the strain. This is a problem because it makes IB difficult to control and diagnose. Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is a phenomenon whereby non-neutralizing antibodies, or low levels of neutralizing antibodies, facilitate access into the host cell and allows either an enhanced viral infection or an increase in the severity of the clinical disease. This means the virus may create more variants that render current vaccines ineffective, created problems in diagnoses and may lead to more severity clinical disease. ADE has been found to occur with dengue virus and other viruses including some coronaviruses. This is a concern because COVID-19 is a human coronavirus and many vaccines have been developed, but variants routinely arise. ADE is thought to be a very important factor for developing new vaccines because vaccines that are not specific for a serotype could enhance viral infections. This would be the first work of looking at ADE on IBV to determine if ADE is occurring

Power in Exchange Networks: Critique of a New Theory

Markovsky et al criticize Yamaguchi\u27s (1996) theory of power in social exchange networks, revealing internal theoretical contradictions. Yamaguchi responds to the criticisms

The 18-Year Risk of Cancer, Angioedema, Insomnia, Depression, and Erectile Dysfunction in Association With Antihypertensive Drugs: Post-Trial Analyses From ALLHAT-Medicare Linked Data

PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine the 18-year risk of cancer, angioedema, insomnia, depression, and erectile dysfunction in association with antihypertensive drug use. METHODS: This is a post-trial passive follow-up study of Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) participants between 1994 and 1998 that was conducted by linking their follow-up data with Medicare claims data until 2017 of subjects who were free of outcomes at baseline on 1 January 1999. The main outcomes were the occurrence of cancer (among RESULTS: The 18-year cumulative incidence rate of cancer other than non-melanoma skin cancer from Medicare inpatient claims was 23.9% for chlorthalidone, 23.4% for amlodipine, and 25.3% for lisinopril. There were no statistically significant differences in the 18-year risk of cancer, depression, and erectile dysfunction among the three drugs based on the adjusted hazard ratios. The adjusted 18-year risk of angioedema was elevated in those receiving lisinopril than in those receiving amlodipine (hazard ratio: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.14-2.33) or in those receiving chlorthalidone (1.33, 1.00-1.79), whereas the adjusted 18-year risk of insomnia was statistically significantly decreased in those receiving lisinopril than in those receiving amlodipine (0.90, 0.81-1.00). CONCLUSIONS: The 18-year risk of angioedema was significantly higher in patients receiving lisinopril than in those receiving amlodipine or chlorthalidone; the risk of insomnia was significantly lower in patients receiving lisinopril than in those receiving amlodipine; and the risk of cancer, depression, and erectile dysfunction (in men) was not statistically significantly different among the three drug groups

γ-Hydroxybutyrate accumulation in Arabidopsis and tobacco plants is a general response to abiotic stress: putative regulation by redox balance and glyoxylate reductase isoforms

Enzymes that reduce the aldehyde chemical grouping (i.e. H-C=O) to its corresponding alcohol are probably crucial in maintaining plant health during stress. Succinic semialdehyde (SSA) is a mitochondrially-generated intermediate in the metabolism of γ-aminobutyrate (GABA), which accumulates in response to a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses. SSA can be reduced to γ-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) under oxygen deficiency and high light conditions. Recent evidence indicates that distinct cytosolic and plastidial glyoxylate reductase isoforms from Arabidopsis (designated hereinafter as AtGR1 and AtGR2, respectively) catalyse the in vitro conversion of SSA to GHB, as well as glyoxylate to glycolate, via NADPH-dependent reactions. In the present report, the responses of GHB and related amino acids, as well as NADP+ and NADPH, were monitored in leaves from Arabidopsis or tobacco plants subjected to various abiotic stresses (i.e. Arabidopsis during exposure to salinity, drought, submergence, cold, or heat; tobacco during exposure to, and recovery from, submergence). Time-course experiments revealed that GHB accumulated in both Arabidopsis and tobacco plants subjected to stress, and that this accumulation was generally accompanied by higher GABA and alanine levels, higher NADPH/NADP+ ratio, and lower glutamate levels. Furthermore, the analysis of gene expression in Arabidopsis revealed that the relative abundance of GR1 (salinity, drought, submergence, cold, and heat) and GR2 (cold and heat) transcripts was enhanced by the stress tested. Thus, GHB accumulation in plants is a general response to abiotic stress and appears to be regulated by both biochemical and transcriptional processes

Risk of Developing alzheimer\u27s Disease and Related Dementias in allhat Trial Participants Receiving Diuretic, ace-inhibitor, or Calcium-Channel Blocker With 18 Years of Follow-Up

BACKGROUND: There is no any large randomized clinical trial of antihypertensive drug treatment with 18-year passive follow-up to examine the risk of Alzheimer\u27s Disease (AD) or Related Dementias (ADRD). METHODS: Post-trial passive follow-up study of Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) participants in 1994-1998 by linking with their Medicare claims data through 2017 among 17,158 subjects in 567 U.S. centers who were free of ADRD at baseline on January 1, 1999. Main outcome was the occurrence of ADRD over 18 years of follow-up. RESULTS: The 18-year cumulative incidence rates were 30.9% for AD, 59.2% for non-AD dementias, and 60.9% for any ADRD. The 18-year cumulative incidence of AD was almost identical for the 3 drug groups (30.5% for chlorthalidone, 31.1% for amlodipine, and 31.4% for lisinopril). The hazard ratios of AD, non-AD dementias and total ADRD were not statistically significantly different among the 3 drug groups. The adjusted hazard ratio of AD was 1.04 (95% CI: 0.94-1.14) for chlorthalidone CONCLUSION: The risk of ADRD did not vary significantly by 3 antihypertensive drugs in ALLHAT trial participants with 18-years of follow-up. The risk of ADRD was significantly associated with age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and history of vascular diseases

The location of international practices: what is human rights practice?

This article opens up space to challenge state-centrism about human rights practice. To do so, it presents and critically assesses four methods that can be used to determine who and/or what counts as a part of any international practice: the agreement method, which locates a practice by referring to speech acts that define it; the contextual method, which locates a practice by referring to the actions, meanings, and intentions of practitioners; the value method, which locates a practice by identifying a value or principle that the practice reflects or instantiates; and the purpose method, which locates a practice by constructing an account of the sociopolitical reason(s) for a practice's existence. The purpose method, based on an interpretation of Rawls' constructivism, is developed, in a way that focuses on practitioners' judgement-based reasons to assign responsibility for human rights to any state or non-state actor

Mortality and Morbidity among individuals With Hypertension Receiving a Diuretic, ace inhibitor, or Calcium Channel Blocker: a Secondary analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial

IMPORTANCE: The long-term relative risk of antihypertensive treatments with regard to mortality and morbidity is not well understood. OBJECTIVE: to determine the long-term posttrial risk of primary and secondary outcomes among trial participants who were randomized to either a thiazide-type diuretic, calcium channel blocker (CCB), or angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor with up to 23 years of follow-up. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This prespecified secondary analysis of the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT), a multicenter randomized, double-blind, active-controlled clinical trial, followed up with participants aged 55 years or older with a diagnosis of hypertension and at least 1 other coronary heart disease risk factor for up to 23 years, from February 23, 1994, to December 31, 2017. Trial participants were linked with administrative databases for posttrial mortality (N = 32 804) and morbidity outcomes (n = 22 754). Statistical analysis was performed from January 2022 to October 2023. INTERVENTIONS: Participants were randomly assigned to receive a thiazide-type diuretic (n = 15 002), a CCB (n = 8898), or an ACE inhibitor (n = 8904) for planned in-trial follow-up of approximately 4 to 8 years and posttrial passive follow-up for up to 23 years. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary end point was mortality due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Secondary outcomes included all-cause mortality, combined fatal and nonfatal (morbidity) CVD, and both mortality and morbidity for coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, end-stage renal disease, and cancer. RESULTS: A total of 32 804 participants (mean [SD] age, 66.9 [7.7] years; 17 411 men [53.1%]; and 11 772 Black participants [35.9%]) were followed up for all-cause mortality and a subgroup of 22 754 participants (mean [SD] age, 68.7 [7.2] years; 12 772 women [56.1%]; and 8199 Black participants [36.0%]) were followed up for fatal or nonfatal CVD through 2017 (mean [SD] follow-up, 13.7 [6.7] years; maximum follow-up, 23.9 years). Cardiovascular disease mortality rates per 100 persons were 23.7, 21.6, and 23.8 in the diuretic, CCB, and ACE inhibitor groups, respectively, at 23 years after randomization (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR], 0.97 [95% CI, 0.89-1.05] for CCB vs diuretic; AHR, 1.06 [95% CI, 0.97-1.15] for ACE inhibitor vs diuretic). The long-term risks of most secondary outcomes were similar among the 3 groups. Compared with the diuretic group, the ACE inhibitor group had a 19% increased risk of stroke mortality (AHR, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.03-1.37]) and an 11% increased risk of combined fatal and nonfatal hospitalized stroke (AHR, 1.11 [95% CI, 1.03-1.20]). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial in an adult population with hypertension and coronary heart disease risk factors, CVD mortality was similar between all 3 groups. ACE inhibitors increased the risk of stroke outcomes by 11% compared with diuretics, and this effect persisted well beyond the trial period. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00000542