Diagnosis of concurrent Rhodococcosis and adenocarcinoma in a cat

Rhodococcus equi infection in a cat with tumor of maxilla was diagnosed as adenocarcinoma. Diagnostic cytology of discharges from tumor demonstrated numerous macrophages within intracellular basophilic coccobacilli organisms which heighten the diagnosis of R. equi. Bacteria culture and identification assays confirmed a pure isolation of R. equi. The association of neoplasia development and R. equi infection is still poor and further investigation on the epidemiology and evaluation of virulence factors of the organism in feline species is warranted

In Vitro Efficacy of Ionophores and Antimicrobial Adjuvants Against Planktonic and Biofilm Producing Pathogens Associated with Canine Otitis Externa

Antimicrobial resistance is an emerging global concern in human and veterinary medicine. Antibiotics that are critical for human health are also used in veterinary medicine, including for treatment of non-life threatening conditions such as otitis externa. Otitis externa is one of the most frequently diagnosed dermatological conditions in dogs with a prevalence of up to 20%, and it is traditionally treated with products containing antibiotics and antifungal agents. Though the use of antimicrobials can potentially contribute to the development of antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobials are an essential component to treat, manage and improve the welfare of dogs suffering from otitis externa. However, this may not represent good antimicrobial stewarship. One approach to minimising the use of critical or new antibiotics is to repurpose old drugs for new purposes. This approach has not yet been explored in the field of veterinary otology. The experiments in this thesis explored the efficacy of polyether ionophores and antimicrobial adjuvants against pathogens associated with canine otitis externa. Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, multidrug-resistant S. pseudintermedius, β-haemolytic Streptococcus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis and Malassezia pachydermatis clinical otic isolates, as well as Gram-positive and Gram-negative American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) reference strains, were used in minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing, checkerboard assays and biofilm assays in vitro. Narasin and monensin are polyether ionophores conventionally used as rumen modifiers in ruminants and as anticoccidial agents in avian and mammalian production animals. Both narasin and monensin were found to be effective against Gram-positive otic and ATCC strains, including the multidrug-resistant staphylococci. Gram-positive pathogens in the planktonic state were more susceptible to narasin than monensin, whereby the MIC50 and MIC90 of narasin were 32 times lower than those of monensin. Also, narasin had anti-yeast activity against M. pachydermatis otic isolates at higher concentration. However, both ionophores lacked activity against Gram-negative pathogens which would preclude their use as sole antimicrobial agents in cases of otitis involving rods or mixed infections. The non-antibiotic mucolytic agent, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), and two metal chelating agents, Tris-EDTA and disodium EDTA, were found to be promising adjuvants that had both intrinsic antimicrobial activity and the ability to enhance the efficacy of ionophores against Gram-negative bacterial infections. The combination of narasin with either Tris-EDTA or disodium EDTA produced additive effects against P. aeruginosa ATCC strains. An additive effect was also found against the Staphylococcus aureus ATCC strain when narasin or monensin was combined with NAC. The ability of otic pathogens to produce j is an increasing concern in chronic and relapsing cases of otitis externa in dogs. In our experiments, all S. pseudintermedius otic isolates (n=20) formed biofilms with an 80:20 ratio between weak and moderate biofilm production. 95% of P. aeruginosa otic isolates (n=20) were biofilm producers, evenly distributed amongst weak (30%), moderate (35%) and strong (30%) production. The presence of biofilms may play an essential role in the resistance of otic pathogens to antimicrobial agents. S. pseudintermedius otic isolates which were inherently susceptible to narasin and monensin in the planktonic state became resistant to them in the biofilm state. NAC was demonstrated to be an effective antibiofilm agent that eradicated preformed biofilms of S. pseudintermedius and P. aeruginosa otic isolates. The presence of Tris enhances the ability of disodium EDTA (Tris- EDTA) to eradicate preformed P. aeruginosa biofilms whereby disodium EDTA only reduced biofilms when used alone. In conclusion, the use of ionophores could represent a future strategy for the treatment of Gram-positive bacterial and Malassezia infections in canine otitis externa, and when combined with adjuvants, could be effective in Gram-negative infections. In addition, NAC and Tris-EDTA are potential antibiofilm agents for the treatment of biofilm-associated otitis externa. The study results have provided the basis for further development of these repurposed drugs which would represent an example of good antimicrobial stewardship.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, 201

Socially-enhanced variants of mobile bingo game: Towards personalized cognitive and social engagement among seniors

Elderlies often feel isolated or disregarded. This may lead to depression, lack of cognitive and social engagement. This project thus aims to engage the elderlies through three variants of a mobile bingo game application designed based on Norman’s usability principles. This paper presents the design and development of three variants of the mobile bingo game to suit the needs of senior citizens. User testing outcomes on user experience, usability and cognitive load are positive

Innovation Novelty and Firm Value: Deep Learning based Text Understanding

Innovation is widely acknowledged as a key driver of firm performance, with patents serving as unique indicators of a company’s technological advancements. This study aims to investigate the impact of textual novelty within patents on firm performance, focusing specifically on biotechnology startups listed on the Nasdaq. Utilizing deep learning-based approaches, we construct measures for semantic originality in patent texts. Through panel vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis, our empirical findings demonstrate a positive correlation between textual novelty and abnormal stock returns. Further, impulse response function analysis indicates that the impact of textual novelty peaks approximately one week after patent issuance and gradually diminishes within a month. These insights offer valuable contributions to both the theoretical understanding and practical application of innovation management and strategic planning

Perceptions and Barriers of Survivorship Care in Asia: Perceptions From Asian Breast Cancer Survivors.

PurposeWith the long-term goal to optimize post-treatment cancer care in Asia, we conducted a qualitative study to gather in-depth descriptions from multiethnic Asian breast cancer survivors on their perceptions and experiences of cancer survivorship and their perceived barriers to post-treatment follow-up.MethodsTwenty-four breast cancer survivors in Singapore participated in six structured focus group discussions. The focus group discussions were voice recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed by thematic analysis.ResultsBreast cancer survivors were unfamiliar with and disliked the term "survivorship," because it implies that survivors had undergone hardship during their treatment. Cognitive impairment and peripheral neuropathy were physical symptoms that bothered survivors the most, and many indicated that they experienced emotional distress during survivorship, for which they turned to religion and peers as coping strategies. Survivors indicated lack of consultation time and fear of unplanned hospitalization as main barriers to optimal survivorship care. Furthermore, survivors indicated that they preferred receipt of survivorship care at the specialty cancer center.ConclusionBudding survivorship programs in Asia must take survivor perspectives into consideration to ensure that survivorship care is fully optimized within the community

Recent advances in the compound-oriented and pattern-oriented approaches to the quality control of herbal medicines

The current approaches to the quality control of herbal medicines are either compound-oriented or pattern-oriented, the former targeting specific components with some known chemical properties and the latter targeting all detectable components. The marker approach uses specific chemical compounds with known molecular structures, while the multi-compound approach uses both chemical compounds with known structures and those with partial chemical information e.g. retention times, mass spectra and ultraviolet spectra. Apart from chromatographic techniques, new techniques such as oscillating and electrochemistry fingerprints have been developed for quality control. Chemometric resolution methods are widely used for component deconvolution and data comparison. Pattern recognition techniques are used for authentication of herbal medicines

Field Evaluation of Four Low-cost PM Sensors and Design, Development and Field Evaluation of A Wearable PM Exposure Monitoring System

To mitigate the significant biases/errors in research studying the associations between PM and health, which are introduced by the coarse/inadequate assessments of PM exposure from conventional PM monitoring paradigm, a personalized monitoring system consisting of a low-cost wearable PM device is proposed. However, due to the absence of a unifying evaluation protocol for low-cost PM sensors, the evaluation results/performance specifications from existing studies/datasheets are of limited reference values when attempting to determine the best candidate for the proposed system. In this regard, the authors appeal to the research community to develop a standardized evaluation protocol for low-cost PM sensors/devices, and a unifying attempt is established in this manuscript by adopting the definitive terminology from international documents and the evaluation metrics regarded as best practices. Collocated on the rooftop of the HKUST Supersite, four empirically selected PM sensors were compared against each other and calibrated against two reference monitors. They were then evaluated against the reference following the protocol. The PlanTower PMS-A003 sensor was selected for the wearable device as it outperformed the others in terms of affordability, portability, detection capability, data quality, as well as humidity and condensation insusceptibility. An automated approach was proposed to identify and remove the condensation associated abnormal measurements. The proposed device has better affordability and portability as well as similar usability and data accessibility compared to those existing devices recognized. The first 10 devices were also evaluated and calibrated at the Supersite. Additional 120 units were manufactured and delivered to the subjects to acquire their daily PM2.5 exposures for investigating the association with subclinical atherosclerosis

Roles and recommendations from primary care physicians towards managing low-risk breast cancer survivors in a shared-care model with specialists in Singapore-a qualitative study.

BackgroundBreast cancer is prevalent and has high cure rates. The resultant increase in numbers of breast cancer survivors (BCS) may overwhelm the current oncology workforce in years to come. We postulate that primary care physicians (PCPs) could play an expanded role in comanaging survivors, provided they are given the appropriate tools and training to do so.ObjectiveTo explore the perspectives of PCPs towards managing BCS in a community-based shared-care programme with oncologists.MethodsEleven focus groups and six in-depth interviews were conducted with seventy PCPs recruited by purposive sampling. All sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded by three independent investigators. Thematic data analysis was performed and the coding process facilitated by NVivo 12.ResultsMajority of PCPs reported currently limited roles in managing acute and non-cancer issues, optimizing comorbidities and preventive care. PCPs aspired to expand their role to include cancer surveillance, risk assessment and addressing unmet psychosocial needs. PCPs preferred to harmonize cancer survivorship management of their primary care patients who are also BCS, with defined role distinct from oncologists. Training to understand the care protocol, enhancement of communication skills, confidence and trust were deemed necessary. PCPs proposed selection criteria of BCS and adequacy of their medical information; increased consultation time; contact details and timely access to oncologists (if needed) in the shared-care programme.ConclusionsPCPs were willing to share the care of BCS with oncologists but recommended role definition, training, clinical protocol, resources and access to oncologist's consultation to optimize the programme implementation

Effect of medications with anti-cholinergic properties on cognitive function, delirium, physical function and mortality:a systematic review

Objectives: to determine the effect of drugs with anti-cholinergic properties on relevant health outcomes.Design: electronic published and unpublished literature/trial registries were systematically reviewed. Studies evaluating medications with anti-cholinergic activity on cognitive function, delirium, physical function or mortality were eligible.Results: forty-six studies including 60,944 participants were included. Seventy-seven percent of included studies evaluating cognitive function (n = 33) reported a significant decline in cognitive ability with increasing anti-cholinergic load (P 0.05). Five of the eight included studies reported a decline in physical function in users of anti-cholinergics (P < 0.05). Three of nine studies evaluating mortality reported that the use of drugs with anti-cholinergic properties was associated with a trend towards increased mortality, but this was not statistically significant. The methodological quality of the evidence-base ranged from poor to very good.Conclusion: medicines with anti-cholinergic properties have a significant adverse effect on cognitive and physical function, but limited evidence exists for delirium or mortality outcomes. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved