Health Planner Pigs as an Instrument for Monitoring and Evaluation of Animal Health Care on Pig Farms

In order to support animal health care on pig farms a Health Planner Pigs has been developed. In 1998 the practical value of the system was tested under field condition on pig farms. The Health Planner proved to be a valuable instrument for monitoring and evaluating animal health on pig farms. Due to the promising results of the field experiment, the Dutch Farmers Organisation (LTO-Nederland) in 1999 adopted the system and coordinates its adaptation and introduction into practice. In 2001, veterinarians and farm advisers has been educated in using the Health Planner. Some parts of the Health Planner will be automised and linked to existing farm management information systems. In 2002, farmers will be educated in the use of it.Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

Homozygous whole body Cbs knockout in adult mice features minimal pathology during ageing despite severe homocysteinemia

Deficiencies in Cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) lead to hyperhomocysteinemia (HHCy), which is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular, bone and neurological disease. Moreover, CBS is important for the production of cysteine, hydrogen sulfide (H2 S) and glutathione. Studying the biological role of CBS in adult mice has been severely hampered by embryological disturbances and perinatal mortality. To overcome these issues and assess the effects of whole-body CBS deficiency in adult mice, we engineered and characterized a Cre-inducible Cbs knockout model during ageing. No perinatal mortality occurred before Cbs-/- induction at 10 weeks of age. Mice were followed until 90 weeks of age and ablation of Cbs was confirmed in liver and kidney but not in brain. Severe HHCy was observed in Cbs-/- (289 ± 58 µM) but not in Cbs+/- or control mice (<10 µM). Cbs-/- showed impaired growth, facial alopecia, endothelial dysfunction in absence of increased mortality, and signs of liver or kidney damage. CBS expression in skin localized to sebaceous glands and epidermis, suggesting local effects of Cbs-/- on alopecia. Cbs-/- showed increased markers of oxidative stress and senescence but expression of other H2 S producing enzymes (CSE and 3-MST) was not affected. CBS deficiency severely impaired H2 S production capacity in liver, but not in brain or kidney. In summary, Cbs-/- mice presented a mild phenotype without mortality despite severe HHCy. The findings demonstrate that HHCy is not directly linked to development of end organ damage

The High-redshift Clusters Occupied by Bent Radio AGN (COBRA) Survey: Investigating the Role of Environment on Bent Radio AGNs Using LOFAR

© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Bent radio active galactic nucleus (AGN) morphology depends on the density of the surrounding gas. However, bent sources are found inside and outside clusters, raising the question of how environment impacts bent AGN morphology. We analyze new LOw-Frequency Array the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) Data Release II observations of 20 bent AGNs in clusters and 15 not in clusters from the high-z Clusters Occupied by Bent Radio AGN (COBRA) survey (0.35 1.2 Mpc) or bent AGNs in weaker groups rather than the field.Peer reviewe

The Novel Compound Sul-121 Preserves Endothelial Function and Inhibits Progression of Kidney Damage in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Mice

Diabetic nephropathy is still a common complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and improvement of endothelial dysfunction (ED) and inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are considered important targets for new therapies. Recently, we developed a new class of compounds (Sul compounds) which inhibit mitochondrial ROS production. Here, we tested the therapeutic effects of Sul-121 on ED and kidney damage in experimental T2DM. Diabetic db/db and lean mice were implanted with osmotic pumps delivering Sul-121 (2.2 mg/kg/day) or vehicle from age 10 to 18 weeks. Albuminuria, blood pressure, endothelial mediated relaxation, renal histology, plasma creatinine, and H2O2 levels were assessed. Sul-121 prevented progression of albuminuria and attenuated kidney damage in db/db, as evidenced by lower glomerular fibronectin expression (~50%), decreased focal glomerular sclerosis score (~40%) and normalization of glomerular size and kidney weight. Further, Sul-121 restored endothelium mediated vasorelaxation through increased production of Nitric Oxide production and normalized plasma H2O2 levels. Sul-121 treatment in lean mice demonstrated no observable major side-effects, indicating that Sul-121 is well tolerated. Our data show that Sul-121 inhibits progression of diabetic kidney damage via a mechanism that involves restoration of endothelial function and attenuation of oxidative stress

Final 5-Year Report of the Randomized BIO-RESORT Trial Comparing 3 Contemporary Drug-Eluting Stents in All-Comers

BACKGROUND: In a previous trial, higher 5‐year mortality was observed following treatment with biodegradable polymer Orsiro sirolimus‐eluting stents (SES). We assessed 5‐year safety and efficacy of all‐comers as well as patients with diabetes treated with SES or Synergy everolimus‐eluting stents (EES) versus durable polymer Resolute Integrity zotarolimus‐eluting stents (ZES). METHODS AND RESULTS: The randomized BIO‐RESORT (Comparison of Biodegradable Polymer and Durable Polymer Drug‐Eluting Stents in an All Comers Population) trial enrolled 3514 all‐comer patients at 4 Dutch cardiac centers. Patients aged ≥18 years who required percutaneous coronary intervention were eligible. Participants were stratified for diabetes and randomized to treatment with SES, EES, or ZES (1:1:1). The main end point was target vessel failure (cardiac mortality, target vessel myocardial infarction, or target vessel revascularization). Five‐year follow‐up was available in 3183 of 3514 (90.6%) patients. The main end point target vessel failure occurred in 142 of 1169 (12.7%) patients treated with SES, 130 of 1172 (11.6%) treated with EES, versus 157 of 1173 (14.1%) treated with ZES (hazard ratio [HR], 0.89 [95% CI, 0.71–1.12], P (log‐rank)=0.31; and HR, 0.82 [95% CI, 0.65–1.04], P (log‐rank)=0.10, respectively). Individual components of target vessel failure showed no significant between‐stent difference. Very late definite stent thrombosis rates were low and similar (SES, 1.1%; EES, 0.6%; ZES, 0.9%). In patients with diabetes, target vessel failure did not differ significantly between stent‐groups (SES, 19.8%; EES, 19.2%; versus ZES, 21.1% [P (log‐rank)=0.69 and P (log‐rank)=0.63]). CONCLUSIONS: Orsiro SES, Synergy EES, and Resolute Integrity ZES showed similar 5‐year outcomes of safety and efficacy, including mortality. A prespecified stent comparison in patients with diabetes also revealed no significant differences in 5‐year clinical outcomes. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT01674803

Where the wild things are: galaxy evolution and radio source properties in the High-z COBRA survey

Galaxie

GOALS-JWST: Gas Dynamics and Excitation in NGC7469 revealed by NIRSpec

We present new JWST-NIRSpec IFS data for the luminous infrared galaxy NGC7469: a nearby (70.6Mpc) active galaxy with a Sy 1.5 nucleus that drives a highly ionized gas outflow and a prominent nuclear star-forming ring. Using the superb sensitivity and high spatial resolution of the JWST instrument NIRSpec-IFS, we investigate the role of the Seyfert nucleus in the excitation and dynamics of the circumnuclear gas. Our analysis focuses on the [Fe ii], H2, and hydrogen recombination lines that trace the radiation/shocked-excited molecular and ionized ISM around the AGN. We investigate the gas excitation through H2/Br{\gamma} and [Fe ii]/Pa\b{eta} emission line ratios and find that photoionization by the AGN dominates within the central 300 pc of the galaxy and together with a small region show ing signatures of shock-heated gas; these shock-heated regions are likely associated with a compact radio jet. In addition, the velocity field and velocity dispersion maps reveal complex gas kinematics. Rotation is the dominant feature, but we also identify non-circular motions consistent with gas inflows as traced by the velocity residuals and the spiral pattern in the Pa{\alpha} velocity dispersion map. The inflow is consistent with the mass outflow rate and two orders of magnitude higher than the AGN accretion rate. The compact nuclear radio jet has enough power to drive the highly ionized outflow. This scenario suggests that the inflow and outflow are in a self-regulating feeding-feedback process, with a contribution from the radio jet helping to drive the outflow.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

GOALS-JWST: Small neutral grains and enhanced 3.3 micron PAH emission in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 7469

We present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) integral-field spectroscopy of the nearby luminous infrared galaxy, NGC 7469. We take advantage of the high spatial/spectral resolution and wavelength coverage of JWST /NIRSpec to study the 3.3 um neutral polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) grain emission on ~60 pc scales. We find a clear change in the average grain properties between the star-forming ring and the central AGN. Regions in the vicinity of the AGN, with [NeIII]/[NeII]>0.25, tend to have larger grain sizes and lower aliphatic-to-aromatic (3.4/3.3) ratios indicating that smaller grains are preferentially removed by photo-destruction in the vicinity of the AGN. We find an overall suppression of the total PAH emission relative to the ionized gas in the central 1 kpc region of the AGN in NGC 7469 compared to what has been observed with Spitzer on 3 kpc scales. However, the fractional 3.3 um to total PAH power is enhanced in the starburst ring, possibly due to a variety of physical effects on sub-kpc scales, including recurrent fluorescence of small grains or multiple photon absorption by large grains. Finally, the IFU data show that while the 3.3 um PAH-derived star formation rate (SFR) in the ring is 8% higher than that inferred from the [NeII] and [NeIII] emission lines, the integrated SFR derived from the 3.3 um feature would be underestimated by a factor of two due to the deficit of PAHs around the AGN, as might occur if a composite system like NGC 7469 were to be observed at high-redshift.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, Submitted to ApJ