Temporomandibular joint injections in dogs with temporomandibular joint pain : 11 cases (2015-2019)

OBJECTIVES : To describe and evaluate the clinical application of temporomandibular joint injections using betamethasone and ropivacaine in German Shepherd dogs suffering from non-odontogenic orofacial pain due to temporomandibular dysplasia and/or osteoarthritis. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Outcomes in dogs presented with clinical signs of non-odontogenic orofacial pain associated to temporomandibular joint dysplasia and/or arthritis and treated with a temporomandibular joint injection were retrospectively-prospectively evaluated. RESULTS : The overall clinical signs free period ranged between 25 to 1579 days, with an average of 461 days. The clinical signs free period for temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis scores 1, 2 and 3 were on average 659 days (180-1579 days), 134 days (42-355 days) and 723 days (25-1377 days), respectively. Similarly the temporomandibular dysplasia scores 1, 2 and 3 were on average 306 days (26-1579 days), 1377 days and 669 days (25-1429 days) respectively. Those dogs in which only one side was injected the clinical signs free period average was 639 days (25-1578 days), compared with dogs in which both temporomandibular joints were injected showing a clinical signs free period average of 378 days (42-1377 days). CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE : The temporomandibular joint injection technique proved to be feasible with a decent outcome in dogs suffering from non-odontogenic orofacial pain associated with temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis and/or dysplasia. Further randomised studies are required to confirm the effectiveness of this intervention.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17485827hj2022Companion Animal Clinical Studie

Micro-anatomy of the ear of the southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum)

The white rhinoceros is the largest of the five extant rhinoceros species. The population is declining rapidly because of intense poaching. However, normal anatomical descriptions in this species are lacking. The purpose of this study is to describe the osseous anatomy of the middle and inner ear of the southern white rhinoceros using micro‐focus X‐ray computed tomography imaging. Four temporal bones obtained from two 1‐day old southern white rhinoceros preserved in 10% formalin were scanned. Tri‐dimensional reconstructions were obtained and volumes of the middle ear ossicles and inner ear structures were calculated. Excellent high spatial resolution 3D images were obtained for all samples and virtual models of the auditory ossicles and bony labyrinth were generated. Visualization of the tympanic membrane, middle ear and inner ear structures was possible in all samples. Whereas the stapes and incus had a shape similar to their human or equine counterparts, the malleus showed a unique appearance with a long rostral branch projecting latero‐distally to the manubrium. The cochlea described 2 turns rostro‐laterally around its axis, with a medial direction of rotation. However, identification of the soft tissue structures of the middle ear was sometimes difficult and visualization of the small structures of the membranous labyrinth was not possible using this formalin fixation and alternative techniques should be investigated. Further investigations are needed in order to provide a complete virtual model including both soft and bone tissues of this difficultly accessible region.The DST‐NRFhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/143902642021-11-11hj2021Companion Animal Clinical Studie

Characterization of host-specific genes from pine- and grass-associated species of the Fusarium fujikuroi species complex

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS : FIGURE S1. Phylogenetic relationship of paralogs with regards to the respective host-range-associated gene. FCIR = Fusarium circinatum; FFRAC = Fusarium fracticaudum; FPIN = Fusarium pininemorale; FSUB = Fusarium subglutinans; FIGURE S2. Host-range-associated genes with ancestral origins that emerged within the FFSC. The investigated host-range-associated genes are highlighted in yellow; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum; FIGURE S3. Host-range-associated genes with ancestral origins that emerged within the FFSC and FOSC. The investigated host-range-associated genes are highlighted in yellow; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum; FIGURE S4. Host-range-associated genes with ancestral origins that emerged within the broader Fusarium outside the FFSC and FOSC. The investigated host-range associated genes are highlighted in yellow; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum; FIGURE S5. Host-range-associated genes with less than 10 ancestral origin hits and mostly Fusarium. The investigated host-range-associated genes are highlighted in yellow; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum; FIGURE S6. Host-range-associated genes with ancestral origins hits and mostly not Fusarium. The investigated host-range-associated genes are highlighted in yellow; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum; FIGURE S7. Host-range-associated genes with ancestral origins outside Fusarium but in the Ascomycetes. The investigated host-range-associated genes are highlighted in yellow; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum; FIGURE S8. Host-range-associated genes with ancestral origins outside Fungi. The investigated host-range-associated genes are highlighted in yellow; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum; FIGURE S9. The distribution of host-range-associated genes from pine-host-associated Fusarium species and conservation of synteny across and between chromosomes and genomes. Pine-host-associated genes distribution across each of the chromosomes as indicated by the blue lines. The conservation of synteny and inversion between the relevant genomes are indicated in the brown blocks and red lines. FCIR = F. circinatum; chromosome size is given in kbp; FIGURE S10. The distribution of hostrange- associated genes from Poaceae-host-associated Fusarium species and conservation of synteny across and between chromosomes and genomes. Poaceae-host-associated gene distribution across each of the chromosomes as indicated by the blue lines. The conservation of synteny and inversion between the relevant genomes are indicated in the brown blocks and red lines. FTEMP = F. temperatum; chromosome size is given in kbp; FIGURE S11. The syntenous relationship between genes from F. circinatum versus F. temperatum; FIGURE S12. The syntenous relationship between genes from F. temperatum and F. circinatum; TABLE S1. BUSCO results for the relevant Fusarium genomes; TABLE S2. The size difference between the chromosomes of four of the six Fusarium species; TABLE S3. Presence of telomeres at chromosomal ends for the two representative Fusarium species examined; TABLE S4. The Blast2GO data for the 72 unique pine-host-associated genes specifically for (A) Fusarium circinatum, (B) F. fracticaudum and (C) F. pininemorale; TABLE S5. The Blast2GO data for the 47 unique Poaceae-host-associated genes, specifically for (A) Fusarium konzum, (B) F. subglutinans and (C) F. temperatum; TABLE S6. The Fischer exact test data for (A) the 72 unique pine-host-associated genes and (B) the 47 unique Poaceae-host-associated genes; TABLE S7. The EST and RNA-seq data for F. circinatum, obtained from Wingfield et al. [52] and Phasha et al. [53], respectively; TABLE S8. The placement of host-range-associated genes in groups that infer their evolutionary origins; TABLE S9. The gene information for the unique F. circinatum genes, in terms of chromosome location, subtelomeric placement, ancestral origin and BLAST description; TABLE S10. The gene information for the unique F. temperatum genes, in terms of chromosome location, subtelomeric placement, ancestral origin and BLAST description; TABLE S11. The host-range-associated gene density for both F. circinatum and F. temperatum; TABLE S12. The SynChro data for genes downstream and upstream of the host-rangeassociated genes of both the pine- and Poaceae-host-associated Fusarium species; FCIR = Fusarium circinatum and FTEMP = Fusarium temperatum.The Fusarium fujikuroi species complex (FFSC) includes socioeconomically important pathogens that cause disease for numerous crops and synthesize a variety of secondary metabolites that can contaminate feedstocks and food. Here, we used comparative genomics to elucidate processes underlying the ability of pine-associated and grass-associated FFSC species to colonize tissues of their respective plant hosts. We characterized the identity, possible functions, evolutionary origins, and chromosomal positions of the host-range-associated genes encoded by the two groups of fungi. The 72 and 47 genes identified as unique to the respective genome groups were potentially involved in diverse processes, ranging from transcription, regulation, and substrate transport through to virulence/pathogenicity. Most genes arose early during the evolution of Fusarium/FFSC and were only subsequently retained in some lineages, while some had origins outside Fusarium. Although differences in the densities of these genes were especially noticeable on the conditionally dispensable chromosome of F. temperatum (representing the grass-associates) and F. circinatum (representing the pine-associates), the host-range-associated genes tended to be located towards the subtelomeric regions of chromosomes. Taken together, these results demonstrate that multiple mechanisms drive the emergence of genes in the grass- and pine-associated FFSC taxa examined. It also highlighted the diversity of the molecular processes potentially underlying niche-specificity in these and other Fusarium species.The South African Department of Science and Innovation’s South African Research Chair Initiative, the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Plant Health Biotechnology at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, the Food Safety National Program at the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pathogensam2023BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog

Cross-National Measurement Invariance of the Teacher and Classmate Support Scale

The cross-national measurement invariance of the teacher and classmate support scale was assessed in a study of 23202 Grade 8 and 10 students from Austria, Canada, England, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia, participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2001/2002 study. A multi-group means and covariance analysis supported configural and metric invariance across countries, but not full scalar equivalence. The composite reliability was adequate and highly consistent across countries. In all seven countries, teacher support showed stronger associations with school satisfaction than did classmate support, with the results being highly consistent across countries. The results indicate that the teacher and classmate support scale may be used in cross-cultural studies that focus on relationships between teacher and classmate support and other constructs. However, the lack of scalar equivalence indicates that direct comparison of the levels support across countries might not be warranted

The Impact of Brand Quality on Shareholder Wealth

This study examines the impact of brand quality on three components of shareholder wealth: stock returns, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. The study finds that brand quality enhances shareholder wealth insofar as unanticipated changes in brand quality are positively associated with stock returns and negatively related to changes in idiosyncratic risk. However, unanticipated changes in brand quality can also erode shareholder wealth because they have a positive association with changes in systematic risk. The study introduces a contingency theory view to the marketing-finance interface by analyzing the moderating role of two factors that are widely followed by investors. The results show an unanticipated increase (decrease) in current-period earnings enhances (depletes) the positive impact of unanticipated changes in brand quality on stock returns and mitigates (enhances) their deleterious effects on changes in systematic risk. Similarly, brand quality is more valuable for firms facing increasing competition (i.e., unanticipated decreases in industry concentration). The results are robust to endogeneity concerns and across alternative models. The authors conclude by discussing the nuanced implications of their findings for shareholder wealth, reporting brand quality to investors, and its use in employee evaluation

Broadband Multi-wavelength Properties of M87 during the 2017 Event Horizon Telescope Campaign

Abstract: In 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration succeeded in capturing the first direct image of the center of the M87 galaxy. The asymmetric ring morphology and size are consistent with theoretical expectations for a weakly accreting supermassive black hole of mass ∼6.5 × 109 M ⊙. The EHTC also partnered with several international facilities in space and on the ground, to arrange an extensive, quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength campaign. This Letter presents the results and analysis of this campaign, as well as the multi-wavelength data as a legacy data repository. We captured M87 in a historically low state, and the core flux dominates over HST-1 at high energies, making it possible to combine core flux constraints with the more spatially precise very long baseline interferometry data. We present the most complete simultaneous multi-wavelength spectrum of the active nucleus to date, and discuss the complexity and caveats of combining data from different spatial scales into one broadband spectrum. We apply two heuristic, isotropic leptonic single-zone models to provide insight into the basic source properties, but conclude that a structured jet is necessary to explain M87’s spectrum. We can exclude that the simultaneous γ-ray emission is produced via inverse Compton emission in the same region producing the EHT mm-band emission, and further conclude that the γ-rays can only be produced in the inner jets (inward of HST-1) if there are strongly particle-dominated regions. Direct synchrotron emission from accelerated protons and secondaries cannot yet be excluded

Geoengineering: Methods, Associated Risks and International Liability

Climate change arguably constitutes one of the greatest risks to the long-term health of the world’s environment. In 2015, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted that the Earth’s climate system has consistently been warming since the 1950s and that a “large fraction of anthropogenic climate change resulting from CO2 emissions is irreversible on a multi-century to millennial time scale, except in the case of a large net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere over a sustained period”. Initial responses to climate change revolved around States attempting to reduce, rather than remove, greenhouse gas emissions. However, as the global economy expands, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise and cooperative arrangements aimed at reducing emissions have had limited, if any, impact. If recent predictions are to be believed, the remaining “carbon budget” needed to prevent average global temperatures from increasing by more than 1.5 °C may be exhausted by 2030. Climate Analytics estimates that the current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) made by States under the Paris Agreement indicate that average global temperatures will rise by 2.8 °C by 2100—almost double the stipulated efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels mentioned in Article 2(1)(a) of the Paris Agreement. The recent IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C Global Warming concludes that without “increased and urgent mitigation ambition in the coming years, leading to a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, global warming will [cause] irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies”