External load application in gait and posture reeducation after diffuse axonal injury of the corpus callosum. A case report

Traumatic brain injury caused car accidents is the one of the most common causes of diffuse axonal injury typically located at the grey-white matter junction, in the corpus callosum. A 58-year-old female patient Caucasian race was admitted to the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Unit with head injury, broken right ulnar bone, numerous broken ribs and broken right iliac crest. Neurological examination resulted in right-sided hemiparesis. There were also coordination and balance disorders while sitting and standing. The patient was unable to walk. After physiotherapy treatment included external load application (ankle weights and rucksack with weights) in gait and posture reeducation, patient has improved balance, locomotion and body posture. However, application of external loads during walk and posture reeducation needs to be further investigated with greater number of participants and control group

Investigation of candidate genes for metabolic disorders expressed in liver and pituitary gland by comparing the RNA-seq data of Polish-HF and Polish-Red cattle

Background: Metabolic disorder is a major health problem in dairy cattle, particularly to high milk producing dairy cattle. It is worthily emphasized that metabolic diseases have a very complex etiology and pathogenesis, and the impact of these diseases on hepatic and pituitary gland gene expression and organism oxidative balance is not fully described. The presented study was aimed to determine and predict the hepatic and pituitary gland expression of potential candidate genes in context to maintenance of oxidative balance, negative nitrogen balance, as well as ketosis in Polish HF and Polish Red cattle.Methods: Based on the RNA-seq experimental data, we investigated the candidate genes (SOD1, SOD2, SOD3, GPx2, GPx3, GPx5, GPx6, GPx7, GPx8, BDH1, FN1, ACSL3, HMGCL, HMGCS2, BDH2, ACSL6, ACAT2, IDH3B, ACAT1, HMGCS1, ACSL4, ACSL1, PC, CPT1A, OXCT1 and ACSL5 respectively) expressions in liver and pituitary gland tissues of Polish HF and Polish Red cattle. The RNA-seq experimental design comprised of young bulls aged between 6 to 12 months were investigated. For each breed, six liver and six pituitary gland tissues were sequenced using Next-seq 500 illumina platform. The RNA-seq expression data were normalized by the reads per kilobase of exon per million reads mapped (RPKM) method.Results: By comparing the RNA-seq data of liver and pituitary gland tissues, the investigated candidate genes were highly expressed in the hepatic tissues than to pituitary gland in investigated cattle breeds. However, by comparing the Polish HF and Polish Red cattle breeds, results revealed a similar trend of gene expression profiling of all investigated candidate genes for both metabolic tissues. In case of hepatic gene expression profiling, the SOD1, FN1, HMGCL, HMGCS2, ACAT2, ACAT1, HMGCS1, ACSL1 and ACSL5 were highly expressed (FPKM values of >40), followed by SOD2, GPX3, IDH3B, PC and BDH2 as moderately expressed (FPKM values: >10 to <40), and averagely expressed SOD3, GPX5, GPX6, GPX7, GPX2, GPX8, BDH1, ACSL3, ACSL6, ACSL4, CPT1A and OXCT1 respectively, in Polish HF and Polish Red breeds. In case of pituitary gland gene expression profiling, the SOD1 and GPx3 were highly expressed (FPKM values of >40), followed by SOD2, GPX8, IDH3B, ACAT1, ACSL4 and PC as moderately expressed (FPKM values: >10 to <40), and averagely expressed SOD3, GPX3,GPX5, GPX6, GPX7, GPX2, BDH1, BDH2, ACSL3, ACSL6, CPT1A, OXCT1, FN1, HMGCL, HMGCS2, ACAT2, ACAT1, HMGCS1, ACSL1 and ACSL5 respectively, in Polish HF and Polish Red breeds.Conclusions: Based on this presented results on hepatic and pituitary gland gene expression, a further research plan is an essential pre-requisite to validate the identified candidate genes. Study indicated the understanding the genetic factors that predispose metabolic disorders in cattle would benefit the dairy industry as a whole by providing producers, breeding services, and veterinarians a tool to forecast a cow’s susceptibility to metabolic disorders

Quality control assessment of the RNA-Seq data generated from liver and pituitary transcriptome of Hereford bulls using StrandNGS software

Background: Quality control (QC) assessment is the most critical step in the high-throughput RNA-seq data analysis to characterize the in-depth understanding of genome and transcriptome assembling to a given reference genome. It provides not only a quick insight into the RNA-seq data quality to allow early identification of good or bad RNA-seq data samples, but also to verify the alignment QC checks for further essential high-throughput bioinformatics analysis such as, identification of novel genetic variants, differentially expressed genes (DEGs), gene network and metabolic pathways.Method: After isolation of total RNA from liver (n=15) and pituitary gland (n=15) tissues of young Hereford bulls, the pooled total RNA (n=30) were fragmented using GeneRead rRNA depletion kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) and cDNA library preparation were preformed using ScriptSeqTM v2 RNA-Seq library preparation kit (Epicentre, illumina, USA), followed by high-throughput sequencing of combined liver and pituitary transcriptome using MiSeq reagent kit v2 (illumina, USA) to obtain high quality of paired-end RNA-seq reads of 251 base-pairs (bps). In this paper, the QC assessment of obtained RNA-seq raw data as well as post-alignment QC of processed RNA-seq data of combined liver and pituitary transcriptome (n=30) of Hereford bulls were performed using the strand NGS software v1.3 (Agilent; http://www.strand-ngs.com/) data analysis package. The reads were aligned with Bowtie using default settings against both Bull and Cow genome assembly.Results: Using two runs of MiSeq platform, a total of over 60 million paired-end RNA-seq reads were successfully obtained and submitted to NCBI SRA resources (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra?linkname=bioproject_sra_all&from_uid=312148). Library complexity plot results revealed 72.02% of duplicate reads with a low library complexity value of 0.28. The pre-alignment QC analysis of raw RNA-seq data revealed the sequence read lengths ranged from 35-251 bp size with more than 50% of all reads with length over 200bp and 10% of reads below 100bp.Conclusion: By testing the RNA-seq methodology on Illumina platform, two MiSeq sequencing runs yielded significantly high quality of 30 million sequencing reads per single MiSeq run. Our initial pre-alignment and post-alignment analysis of RNA-seq data analysis revealed that mapping of the Hereford liver and pituitary gland transcriptome to reference Bos taurus genome was successfully performed, however, more than 50% of all reads with length over 200bp were recovered. Therefore, obtained results concludes that liver and pituitary transcriptome sequencing with rRNA depletion method is less effective than mRNA RNA-seq method

Thermographic evaluation of the sinus areas of selected groups of students - pilot study

Thermal imaging technique is a sufficiently precise tool by which you can evaluate the condition of the blood supply of various areas of the body. Blood supply is connected with physiological functional status or ongoing pathological processes such as inflammation. The study was conducted on 40 volunteers - randomly selected students. The results are characterized by a slight standard deviation in maximum and minimum temperatures in the maxillary sinus area and the minimal difference between these results. On the basis of studies, the range of values of the reference temperature of the maxillary sinus. This range was isolated based on the results of a group of 39 individuals. It has been shown that in case of one person the results were not within the range of reference values indicating the presence of chronic inflammatory sinusitis

A summary of new findings on the biological effects of selenium in selected animal species: a critical review.

Selenium is an essential trace element important for many physiological processes, especially for the functions of immune and reproductive systems, metabolism of thyroid hormones, as well as antioxidant defense. Selenium deficiency is usually manifested by an increased incidence of retention of placenta, metritis, mastitis, aborts, lowering fertility and increased susceptibility to infections. In calves, lambs and kids, the selenium deficiency demonstrates by WMD (white muscle disease), in foals and donkey foals, it is associated with incidence of WMD and yellow fat disease, and in pigs it causes VESD (vitamin E/selenium deficiency) syndrome. The prevention of these health disorders can be achieved by an adequate selenium supplementation to the diet. The review summarizes the survey of knowledge on selenium, its biological significance in the organism, the impact of its deficiency in mammalian livestock (comparison of ruminants vs. non-ruminants, herbivore vs. omnivore) and possibilities of its peroral administration. The databases employed were as follows: Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE and Google Scholar

Does Application of Lymphatic Drainage with Kinesiology Taping Have Any Effect on the Extent of Edema and Range of Motion in Early Postoperative Recovery following Primary Endoprosthetics of the Knee Joint?

Background: The surgery of knee replacement due to degenerative changes is the last step of the treatment. After surgery, a major problem in patients is pain, swelling, intraarticular hematoma, and the restriction of the mobility of the joint. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of Kinesio Taping (KT) on reducing edema of the subcutaneous tissue and improving the range of motion in the joint. Methods: 82 patients were qualified for the study. After surgery, 42 patients received postoperative edema treatment with KT bands, and 40 patients did not receive the treatment. The swelling thickness and range of mobility were measured on the third and eighth days after the operation. Results: A statistical difference between the longitudinal measurements of the KT group and the group without KT application was shown at the level of the fibula head, 25 mm below the fibula neck, and 50 mm below the fibular neck. There were no statistically significant differences in the change in knee angle between the applied and non-applied patients. Conclusion: The lymphatic application technique KT influences the absorption of subcutaneous edema after primary knee joint replacement surgery but has no influence on mobility

The use of Kinesio Taping in edema treatment after primary knee arthroplasty. A case study

A knee joint is one of the most exposed to the degenerative injuries causing pain and reducing motion abilities. In case of ineffective conservative treatment and advanced degenerative changes, a patient may be referred for knee arthroplasty. This surgery is often followed by pain and limb edema. Postoperative treatment can be supported by the Kinesio Taping. This paper aims to present the Kinesio Taping as a supportive post-surgery pain and edema treatment after knee arthroplasty. The 67-year-old-patient has been treated conservatively for the last 7 years. Due to the deteriorating changes and increasing pain the patient had been referred for the left knee arthroplasty procedure. After the surgery, the patient was stable, therefore the standard post-surgery procedures were implied. On the 3rd day, the lymphatic technique of the Kinesio Taping was added. After the end of the therapy (10th day after the surgery) the tests have shown a significant decrease of subcutaneous tissue swelling, pain relief, and knee joint circumference reduction

Does Application of Lymphatic Drainage with Kinesiology Taping Have Any Effect on the Extent of Edema and Range of Motion in Early Postoperative Recovery following Primary Endoprosthetics of the Knee Joint?

Background: The surgery of knee replacement due to degenerative changes is the last step of the treatment. After surgery, a major problem in patients is pain, swelling, intraarticular hematoma, and the restriction of the mobility of the joint. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of Kinesio Taping (KT) on reducing edema of the subcutaneous tissue and improving the range of motion in the joint. Methods: 82 patients were qualified for the study. After surgery, 42 patients received postoperative edema treatment with KT bands, and 40 patients did not receive the treatment. The swelling thickness and range of mobility were measured on the third and eighth days after the operation. Results: A statistical difference between the longitudinal measurements of the KT group and the group without KT application was shown at the level of the fibula head, 25 mm below the fibula neck, and 50 mm below the fibular neck. There were no statistically significant differences in the change in knee angle between the applied and non-applied patients. Conclusion: The lymphatic application technique KT influences the absorption of subcutaneous edema after primary knee joint replacement surgery but has no influence on mobility

Comparative Analysis of the Liver Transcriptome among Cattle Breeds Using RNA-seq

Global gene expression in liver transcriptome varies among cattle breeds. The present investigation was aimed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs), metabolic gene networks and metabolic pathways in bovine liver transcriptome of young bulls. In this study, we comparatively analyzed the bovine liver transcriptome of dairy (Polish Holstein Friesian (HF); n = 6), beef (Hereford; n = 6), and dual purpose (Polish-Red; n = 6) cattle breeds. This study identified 895, 338, and 571 significant (p < 0.01) differentially expressed (DE) gene-transcripts represented as 745, 265, and 498 hepatic DE genes through the Polish-Red versus Hereford, Polish-HF versus Hereford, and Polish-HF versus Polish-Red breeds comparisons, respectively. By combining all breeds comparisons, 75 hepatic DE genes (p < 0.01) were identified as commonly shared among all the three breed comparisons; 70, 160, and 38 hepatic DE genes were commonly shared between the following comparisons: (i) Polish-Red versus Hereford and Polish-HF versus Hereford; (ii) Polish-Red versus Hereford and Polish-HF versus Polish-Red; and (iii) Polish-HF versus Hereford and Polish-HF versus Polish-Red, respectively. A total of 440, 82, and 225 hepatic DE genes were uniquely observed for the Polish-Red versus Hereford, Polish-HF versus Hereford, and Polish-Red versus Polish-HF comparisons, respectively. Gene ontology (GO) analysis identified top-ranked enriched GO terms (p < 0.01) including 17, 16, and 31 functional groups and 151, 61, and 140 gene functions that were DE in all three breed liver transcriptome comparisons. Gene network analysis identified several potential metabolic pathways involved in glutamine family amino-acid, triglyceride synthesis, gluconeogenesis, p38MAPK cascade regulation, cholesterol biosynthesis (Polish-Red versus Hereford); IGF-receptor signaling, catecholamine transport, lipoprotein lipase, tyrosine kinase binding receptor (Polish-HF versus Hereford), and PGF-receptor binding, (Polish-HF versus Polish-Red). Validation results showed that the relative expression values were consistent to those obtained by RNA-seq, and significantly correlated between the quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) and RNA-seq (Pearson’s r  > 0.90). Our results provide new insights on bovine liver gene expressions among dairy versus dual versus beef breeds by identifying the large numbers of DEGs markers submitted to NCBI gene expression omnibus (GEO) accession number GSE114233, which can serve as useful genetic tools to develop the gene assays for trait-associated studies as well as, to effectively implement in genomics selection (GS) cattle breeding programs in Poland

Gender w podręcznikach Projekt badawczy. Raport TOM III

Projekt posiada stronę internetową, na której znajdują się informacje na temat badań, osób zaangażowanych oraz udostępnione wyniki badań: www.gender-podreczniki.amu.edu.plPublikacja stanowi podsumowanie badań zrealizowanych w ramach projektu badawczego „Gender w podręcznikach”. Celem projektu była rekonstrukcja i krytyczna analiza zawartości polskich podręczników oraz treści podstaw programowych pod kątem prezentowanych i promowanych w nich wzorców i idei dotyczących kobiecości, męskości oraz relacji między dziewczynkami/kobietami i chłopcami/mężczyznami. Zawarte w poszczególnych tomach analizy i studia przypadków stanowią wieloaspektową diagnozę, wskazującą zarówno pozytywne praktyki, jak i obszary, w których konieczne są zmiany w kierunku równościowej, demokratycznej i antydyskryminacyjnej edukacji. Analizą ilościową i jakościową objęto 25%, czyli 227 z 879 podręczników dopuszczonych przez MEN w 2013 roku do użytku szkolnego i przeznaczonych do kształcenia ogólnego w zakresie 28 przedmiotów, na wszystkich poziomach w różnych typach szkół, zgodnie z podstawą programową na dzień 01.10.2013. Analizie jakościowej poddana została również treść podstawy programowej do poszczególnych przedmiotów oraz dokumenty prawne dotyczące problematyki stereotypów i uprzedzeń związanych z płcią w edukacji szkolnej i samych podręcznikach. Raport składa się z trzech tomów. Pierwszy tom zawiera opis metodologii badań, analizy eksperckie dotyczące roli podręczników w reprodukowaniu/obalaniu stereotypów płciowych i innych aspektów edukacji w ramach przyjętych w projekcie założeń. Kolejne dwa tomy zawierają wyniki badań ilościowych i jakościowych podręczników do 27 przedmiotów, wraz z rekomendacjami, z których korzystać mogą zarówno przyszłe autorki i autorzy podręczników, ich wydawcy, recenzentki i recenzenci, osoby opracowujące podstawy programowe i materiały edukacyjne, pedagożki i pedagodzy, a także nauczycielki i nauczyciele.Ogólnopolski projekt badawczy „GENDER W PODRĘCZNIKACH” zrealizowany został przez Interdyscyplinarne Centrum Badań Płci Kulturowej i Tożsamości Uniwersytetu im. A. Mickiewicza w Poznaniu we współpracy z Fundacją Feminoteka w ramach projektu „Kobiety i mężczyźni, chłopcy i dziewczęta RAZEM przeciwko stereotypom płciowym” realizowanego w ramach Programu Obywatele dla Demokracji finansowanego z Funduszy EOG