Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EVALUATION OF LOCALIZED INFLAMMATORY REACTIONS SECONDARY TO INTRAMUSCULAR INJECTIONS OF ENROFLOXACIN IN STRIPED BASS (MORONE SAXATILIS)

Abstract: Enrofloxacin is a fluoroquinolone widely used in animals including fish. Intramuscular (IM) injection of enrofloxacin is a feasible and efficacious option for drug delivery. In many species IM injection has been associated with injection site reactions and increases in serum muscle enzymes. Injection site reactions have not been well characterized in fish. Three groups of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) received an IM injection of enrofloxacin 2.27% in the right epaxial musculature 24, 48, or 96 hr prior to evaluation. Mean dose was 7.69 mg/ kg (6.14–9.69 mg/kg). The 24- and 48-hr groups received an injection of equal-volume 0.9% saline in the left epaxial musculature. A corresponding noninjected tissue sample was designated in the left epaxial musculature from each fish of the 96-hr group. Fish were euthanized and injection sites and noninjection control sites were evaluated grossly and histologically. Grades 1–4 were assigned to samples, with grade 1 corresponding to normal tissue and grades 2, 3, and 4 corresponding to mild, moderate, and severe inflammation and/or necrosis respectively. Externally, all control and injection sites appeared visually unremarkable. On cut surface, epaxial muscle of the enrofloxacin-injected tissue appeared moderately to severely hemorrhagic compared to saline and noninjected tissue, which was normal or mildly hemorrhagic. Histologically, eight of eight noninjected tissues were grade 1. For saline-injected tissues, 14 of 16 tissues were grade 2 and 2 samples were grade 3 when 24- and 48-hr groups were combined. For enrofloxacin-injected tissues, 8 of the 8 24-hr samples were grade 3 and 16 of the 16 48- and 96-hr samples were grade 4. These data show that IM injection of enrofloxacin 2.27% is associated with severe hemorrhage, necrosis, and inflammation in striped bass, and may negatively affect animal welfare.
EVALUATION OF CELL PRESERVATIVES ON THE INTEGRITY OF ATTWATER'S PRAIRIE CHICKEN (TYMPANUCHUS CUPIDO ATTWATERI) WHOLE BLOOD SAMPLES OVER TIME

Abstract: The processing of blood samples can be delayed during health assessments of wildlife populations in distant locations. The use of whole blood preservatives may be useful in these situations. However, there is scant information regarding their use in nonmammalian species. This study tested the efficacy of two cell preservatives on whole blood collected from 12 Attwater's prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri). The preservatives used were Streck Cell Preservative© (SCP), a proprietary proteinaceous stabilizer developed for human flow cytology and validated in other mammalian species, and formalin, which is commonplace in histopathology, but its use in whole blood has been limited to fish. Grouped blood samples were treated with heparin, SCP, or formalin and analyzed at 0, 1, 4, and 7 days after collection for packed cell volume (PCV), complete blood count (CBC), and cellular morphology. SCP effectively preserved most cell types in Attwater's prairie chicken blood samples over a period of 7 days, with the exception of monocyte cell counts, which were significantly reduced from day 0. Formalin maintained total white blood cell counts at baseline levels measured by hemocytometer, but irregular staining characteristics prevented accurate analysis of differential counts or cellular morphology. Both preservatives altered PCV compared with the heparin control, but these values remained constant over time, highlighting the need for method-specific reference intervals. The validation of SCP in Attwater's prairie chickens supports its potential for use in other avian species for the collection of accurate hematologic data when the processing of blood samples may be delayed.
Paroxysmal Discharges in Tissue Slices From Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Patients: Critical Role of GABAB Receptors in the Generation of Ictal Activity

In the present study, we characterized the effects of bath application of the proconvulsant drug 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) alone or in combination with GABAA and/or GABAB receptor antagonists, in cortical dysplasia (CD type I and CD type IIa/b), tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), and non-CD cortical tissue samples from pediatric epilepsy surgery patients. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings in current and voltage clamp modes were obtained from cortical pyramidal neurons (CPNs), interneurons, and balloon/giant cells. In pyramidal neurons, bath application of 4-AP produced an increase in spontaneous synaptic activity as well as rhythmic membrane oscillations. In current clamp mode, these oscillations were generally depolarizing or biphasic and were accompanied by increased membrane conductance. In interneurons, membrane oscillations were consistently depolarizing and accompanied by bursts of action potentials. In a subset of balloon/giant cells from CD type IIb and TSC cases, respectively, 4-AP induced very low-amplitude, slow membrane oscillations that echoed the rhythmic oscillations from pyramidal neurons and interneurons. Bicuculline reduced the amplitude of membrane oscillations induced by 4-AP, indicating that they were mediated principally by GABAA receptors. 4-AP alone or in combination with bicuculline increased cortical excitability but did not induce seizure-like discharges. Ictal activity was observed in pyramidal neurons and interneurons from CD and TSC cases only when phaclofen, a GABAB receptor antagonist, was added to the 4-AP and bicuculline solution. These results emphasize the critical and permissive role of GABAB receptors in the transition to an ictal state in pediatric CD tissue and highlight the importance of these receptors as a potential therapeutic target in pediatric epilepsy.
The Fight to Capture Light: Functional Diversity Is Related to Aquatic Plant Community Productivity Likely by Enhancing Light Capture

Functional diversity (FD) experiments are highly effective for investigating how a community interacts with its environment. However, such experiments using morphological and chemical traits have not been conducted for submerged aquatic plants and their insights would be highly valuable for understanding the ecology of these communities. We conducted a 15-week field experiment in the Baltic Sea where we manipulated the species composition of aquatic plant communities to investigate functional diversity. We constructed artificial triculture communities with different species compositions to change the Community Weighted Means (CWMs) and variability of traits. We measured nine plant traits and tested how community productivity (CP) was related to FD, trait CWMs and community trait ranges. CP varied by more than four times across treatments and functional richness was significantly related to CP. Functional evenness and functional divergence were not significantly related to CP. Height, leaf area and δ13C were significantly related to CP. Leaf δ13C trends with CP suggested that the carbon supply is not replete, yet species composition was partly responsible for the relationship. Plant height likely had multifaceted benefits to CP because there was evidence of a competitive height interaction between the tallest and 2nd tallest species, therefore the effects of plant height to CP would have been disproportionally large. The height of the tallest species significantly drove the variability of the community height range, which was significantly related to CP and it had a relatively large influence on the calculation of FD indices. Leaf area, which was strongly correlated to plant height, was also significantly related to CP. The significant relationship between functional richness and CP was most likely driven by the presence of taller plants. FD likely enhanced CP, by selecting for extreme trait values which enhanced production (selection effect), while niche complementarity effects were not observed. This study provides experimental evidence and mechanistic insights into the role of FD and specific traits for CP in submerged aquatic plant communities. To conclude, FD was significantly related to CP of temperate aquatic plant communities likely by selecting for traits which enhanced light capture, with consequences for carbon supply.
Resistance of Gram-Negative Bacteria to Current Antibacterial Agents and Approaches to Resolve It

Antimicrobial resistance represents an enormous global health crisis and one of the most serious threats humans face today. Some bacterial strains have acquired resistance to nearly all antibiotics. Therefore, new antibacterial agents are crucially needed to overcome resistant bacteria. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a list of antibiotic-resistant priority pathogens, pathogens which present a great threat to humans and to which new antibiotics are urgently needed the list is categorized according to the urgency of need for new antibiotics as critical, high, and medium priority, in order to guide and promote research and development of new antibiotics. The majority of the WHO list is Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. Due to their distinctive structure, Gram-negative bacteria are more resistant than Gram-positive bacteria, and cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Several strategies have been reported to fight and control resistant Gram-negative bacteria, like the development of antimicrobial auxiliary agents, structural modification of existing antibiotics, and research into and the study of chemical structures with new mechanisms of action and novel targets that resistant bacteria are sensitive to. Research efforts have been made to meet the urgent need for new treatments; some have succeeded to yield activity against resistant Gram-negative bacteria by deactivating the mechanism of resistance, like the action of the β-lactamase Inhibitor antibiotic adjuvants. Another promising trend was by referring to nature to develop naturally derived agents with antibacterial activity on novel targets, agents such as bacteriophages, DCAP(2-((3-(3,6-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)-2-hydroxypropyl)amino)-2(hydroxymethyl)propane1,3-diol, Odilorhabdins (ODLs), peptidic benzimidazoles, quorum sensing (QS) inhibitors, and metal-based antibacterial agents.
The Effect of 12 Weeks of Different Exercise Training Modalities or Nutritional Guidance on Cardiometabolic Risk Factors, Vascular Parameters, and Physical Fitness in Overweight Adults: Cardiometabolic High-Intensity Interval Training-Resistance Training Randomized Controlled Study.

Ramírez-Vélez, R, Castro-Astudillo, K, Correa-Bautista, JE, González-Ruíz, K, Izquierdo, M, García-Hermoso, A, Álvarez, C, Ramírez-Campillo, R, and Correa-Rodríguez, M. The effect of 12 weeks of different exercise training modalities or nutritional guidance on cardiometabolic risk factors, vascular parameters and physical fitness in overweight adults: cardiometabolic high-intensity interval training-resistance training randomized controlled study. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2020-Evidence suggests that exercise training improves cardiometabolic risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate whether 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), resistance training (RT), concurrent training (CT = HIIT + RT), or nutritional guidance (NG) induced improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors, vascular parameters, and physical fitness in overweight adults, and to compare the responses between the 4 intervention groups. Twelve-weeks factorial randomized design examining the effects of different exercise regimes and/or NG on anthropometric and body composition (fat and lean mass at whole body, trunk fat, fat mass index, appendicular muscle mass, and waist circumference); cardiometabolic risk factors and vascular parameters (blood lipids, fasting glucose, blood pressure, flow-mediated dilation [FMD%], aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), and augmentation index); and physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness and handgrip strength). Adjusted mixed linear models revealed a significant improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness (mL·kg·min): HIIT +8.3, RT +4.1, and CT +6.3 (all p < 0.001). The improvement difference between the groups was statistically significant between the HIIT and NG group (p = 0.014), (time × group interaction F(23.564); p < 0.001; η partial = 0.365). In addition, the RT and CT groups have a significant positive impact on PWV (m·s) (d = 0.391 and 0.229 respectively; p < 0.001, (time × group interaction F(5.457); p = 0.003; η partial = 0.280). Hereafter, the RT group has a significant positive impact on the FMD (%) in comparison to HIIT, CT, or NG group (time × group interaction F(2.942); p = 0.044; η partial = 0.174). The main findings of this study are that 12 weeks of HIIT leads to significant improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, whereas RT resulted in improvements in the vascular profile, supporting the positive effect of both training programs for cardiometabolic risk factors in sedentary and overweight adults.
Adiponectin and Cognitive Decline

Adiponectin (ADPN) is a plasma protein secreted by adipose tissue showing pleiotropic effects with anti-diabetic, anti-atherogenic, and anti-inflammatory properties. Initially, it was thought that the main role was only the metabolism control. Later, ADPN receptors were also found in the central nervous system (CNS). In fact, the receptors AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 are expressed in various areas of the brain, including the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and cortex. While AdipoR1 regulates insulin sensitivity through the activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway, AdipoR2 stimulates the neural plasticity through the activation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) pathway that inhibits inflammation and oxidative stress. Overall, based on its central and peripheral actions, ADPN appears to have neuroprotective effects by reducing inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein (PCR), interleukin 6 (IL6), and Tumor Necrosis Factor a (TNFa). Conversely, high levels of inflammatory cascade factors appear to inhibit the production of ADPN, suggesting bidirectional modulation. In addition, ADPN appears to have insulin-sensitizing action. It is known that a reduction in insulin signaling is associated with cognitive impairment. Based on this, it is of great interest to investigate the mechanism of restoration of the insulin signal in the brain as an action of ADPN, because it is useful for testing a possible pharmacological treatment for the improvement of cognitive decline. Anyway, if ADPN regulates neuronal functioning and cognitive performances by the glycemic metabolic system remains poorly explored. Moreover, although the mechanism is still unclear, women compared to men have a doubled risk of developing cognitive decline. Several studies have also supported that during the menopausal transition, the estrogen reduction can adversely affect the brain, in particular, verbal memory and verbal fluency. During the postmenopausal period, in obese and insulin-resistant individuals, ADPN serum levels are significantly reduced. Our recent study has evaluated the relationship between plasma ADPN levels and cognitive performances in menopausal women. Thus, the aim of this review is to summarize both the mechanisms and the effects of ADPN in the central nervous system and the relationship between plasma ADPN levels and cognitive performances, also in menopausal women.
Frequency of Pathogenic Germline Variants in Cancer-Susceptibility Genes in Patients With Osteosarcoma.

Importance Osteosarcoma, the most common malignant bone tumor in children and adolescents, occurs in a high number of cancer predisposition syndromes that are defined by highly penetrant germline mutations. The germline genetic susceptibility to osteosarcoma outside of familial cancer syndromes remains unclear. Objective To investigate the germline genetic architecture of 1244 patients with osteosarcoma. Design, Setting, and Participants Whole-exome sequencing (n = 1104) or targeted sequencing (n = 140) of the DNA of 1244 patients with osteosarcoma from 10 participating international centers or studies was conducted from April 21, 2014, to September 1, 2017. The results were compared with the DNA of 1062 individuals without cancer assembled internally from 4 participating studies who underwent comparable whole-exome sequencing and 27 173 individuals of non-Finnish European ancestry who were identified through the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC) database. In the analysis, 238 high-interest cancer-susceptibility genes were assessed followed by testing of the mutational burden across 736 additional candidate genes. Principal component analyses were used to identify 732 European patients with osteosarcoma and 994 European individuals without cancer, with outliers removed for patient-control group comparisons. Patients were subsequently compared with individuals in the ExAC group. All data were analyzed from June 1, 2017, to July 1, 2019. Main Outcomes and Measures The frequency of rare pathogenic or likely pathogenic genetic variants. Results Among 1244 patients with osteosarcoma (mean [SD] age at diagnosis, 16 [8.9] years [range, 2-80 years]; 684 patients [55.0%] were male), an analysis restricted to individuals with European ancestry indicated a significantly higher pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant burden in 238 high-interest cancer-susceptibility genes among patients with osteosarcoma compared with the control group (732 vs 994, respectively; P = 1.3 × 10-18). A pathogenic or likely pathogenic cancer-susceptibility gene variant was identified in 281 of 1004 patients with osteosarcoma (28.0%), of which nearly three-quarters had a variant that mapped to an autosomal-dominant gene or a known osteosarcoma-associated cancer predisposition syndrome gene. The frequency of a pathogenic or likely pathogenic cancer-susceptibility gene variant was 128 of 1062 individuals (12.1%) in the control group and 2527 of 27 173 individuals (9.3%) in the ExAC group. A higher than expected frequency of pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants was observed in genes not previously linked to osteosarcoma (eg, CDKN2A, MEN1, VHL, POT1, APC, MSH2, and ATRX) and in the Li-Fraumeni syndrome-associated gene, TP53. Conclusions and Relevance In this study, approximately one-fourth of patients with osteosarcoma unselected for family history had a highly penetrant germline mutation requiring additional follow-up analysis and possible genetic counseling with cascade testing.
Natural history matters: Plastics in estuarine fish and sediments at the mouth of an urban watershed

The extent to which small plastics and potentially associated compounds are entering coastal food webs, especially in estuarine systems, is only beginning to be realized. This study examined an estuarine reach at the mouth of urbanized Chollas Creek in San Diego, California to determine: 1) the extent and magnitude of microplastics pollution in estuarine sediments and fish, 2) the extent and magnitude of SVOC contamination in estuarine fish, and 3) whether fish preferentially ingested certain types of microplastics, when compared with the microplastic composition of creekbed sediments. Surface sediments (0–5 cm depth) contained about 10,000 small plastic pieces per m2, consisting mostly (90%) of fibers, and hard and soft pieces. Nearly 25% of fish contained small plastics, but prevalence varied with size and between species. Of the 25 types of small plastics found in sediment, fish preferred about 10 types (distinct colors and forms). Several SVOCs, both water soluble and sediment-associated compounds, were found in the two species of fish tested. This study revealed that a species’ natural history may influence contamination levels, and warrants further study to better understand the pathways of plastics and associated contaminants into and throughout coastal food webs, and the potential health risks for small and/or low-trophic level organisms.
Employing newly qualified nurses to work in hospices: A qualitative interview study.

AIM To establish an understanding of the experiences of newly qualified nurses' working in hospices from the perspective of both newly qualified and senior nurses. DESIGN A qualitative interview study. METHODS Semi-structured interviews with six newly qualified nurses and five senior nurses from four United Kingdom hospices were conducted between March - July 2017. RESULTS The hospices involved in this study were among the first to recruit newly qualified nurses. Participants believed newly qualified nurses coped well with hospice working and received unique opportunities for professional development. Participants identified the value of formal and informal support however newly qualified nurses faced negative attitudes from some established staff. Newly qualified nurses expressed concerns about a perceived lack of technical clinical skills training however they highlighted gaining end-of-life care and communication skills that would be transferrable to other settings. Participants highlighted the need to allocate more time for education and formal support including preceptorship. Senior staff did not necessarily expect newly qualified nurses to remain in long-term hospice employment suggesting they could disseminate their hospice learning to future workplaces. CONCLUSION This study supports recruitment strategies that increasingly target newly qualified nurses to work in hospices with findings suggesting that hospices can be a suitable environment for recent graduates to work in. The senior nurses in this study viewed the employment of newly qualified nurses in a positive light but shared the concerns of newly qualified nurses regarding skills training. IMPACT At a time when hospices need to expand if they are going to meet demand for their services, they along with most areas of healthcare face difficulties recruiting and retaining registered nurses. To increase the appeal of hospice employment, recruitment campaigns aimed at newly qualified nurses should emphasise the transferability of skills gained in hospice settings.