Mila

Time around parturition is a stressful period for both bitches and their puppies. The use of probiotics has been proposed, e.g., in pigs, to improve health status of sows, their reproductive performances and in turn, the health and performance of their progeny. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact, on both dams and puppies, of a supplementation of bitches with the live yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii CNCM I-1079 (SB-1079) during the second part of the gestation and the lactation period...

Physical activity has a positive effect on human health and emotional well-being. However, in both amateur and professional athletes, training poses a risk of acute or chronic injury through repetitive overloading of bones, joints, and muscles. Inflammation can be an adverse effect of intense exercise caused by several factors including oxidative stress. The present narrative review summarizes current knowledge on inflammatory markers induced by physical exercise. Post-exercise recovery may reduce inflammatory responses and is key to effective training and adaptation of muscle tissues to sustained physical exertion...

AIM: Breast cancer is commonest cancer among Malaysian women and screening is essential for the early detection. Therefore our study aimed at measuring the levels of knowledge, attitude and perception towards personalized risk stratified breast cancer screening in Malaysia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Malaysia to assess the knowledge, perception and attitudes of the women in Malaysia. The study was conducted using an online questionnaire, and samples were obtained using convenience sampling...

Radioactivity is a process in which the nuclei of unstable atoms spontaneously decay, producing other nuclei and releasing energy in the form of ionizing radiation in the form of alpha (α) and beta (β) particles as well as the emission of gamma (γ) electromagnetic waves. People may be exposed to radiation in various forms, as casualties of nuclear accidents, workers in power plants, or while working and using different radiation sources in medicine and health care. Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) occurs in subjects exposed to a very high dose of radiation in a very short period of time...

Cerebrovascular disease accounts for major neurologic disabilities in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). A potential association of mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA ) and inflammation with cerebral vessel remodeling in patients with type 2 DM was evaluated. A cohort of 150 patients and 30 healthy controls were assessed concerning urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (UACR), synaptopodin, podocalyxin, kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), N-acetyl-β-(D)-glucosaminidase (NAG), interleukins IL-17A, IL-18, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1)...

The Liesegang pattern is a beautiful natural anisotropic patterning phenomenon observed in rocks and sandstones. This study reveals that the Liesegang pattern can induce nonlinear elasticity. Here, a Liesegang-patterned complex with biomineral-hydrogel repetitive layers is prepared. This Liesegang-patterned complex is obtained only when the biomineralization is performed under the supersaturated conditions. The Liesegang-patterned complex features a nonlinear elastic response, whereas a complex with a single biomineral shell shows a linear behavior, thus demonstrating that the Liesegang pattern is essential in achieving nonlinear elasticity...

Because novel SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to emerge, immunogenicity of XBB.1.5 monovalent vaccines against live clinical isolates needs to be evaluated. We report boosting of IgG (2.1×), IgA (1.5×), and total IgG/A/M (1.7×) targeting the spike receptor-binding domain and neutralizing titers against WA1 (2.2×), XBB.1.5 (7.4×), EG.5.1 (10.5×), and JN.1 (4.7×) variants.

Structural variants (SVs) contribute significantly to human genetic diversity and disease 1-4 . Previously, SVs have remained incompletely resolved by population genomics, with short-read sequencing facing limitations in capturing the whole spectrum of SVs at nucleotide resolution 5-7 . Here we leveraged nanopore sequencing 8 to construct an intermediate coverage resource of 1,019 long-read genomes sampled within 26 human populations from the 1000 Genomes Project. By integrating linear and graph-based approaches for SV analysis via pangenome graph-augmentation, we uncover 167,291 sequence-resolved SVs in these samples, considerably advancing SV characterization compared to population-wide short-read sequencing studies 3,4 ...

It is a great challenge to restore northern mines after mining and achieve optimal results due to the extremely harsh environment and climate, as in Qinghe County of Xinjiang Province, China. Qinghe County has a climate of drought, cold, strong winds, and high altitude. After sand and iron mining, the soil in this area contains a large amount of sand and gravel with extremely low organic matter, nitrogen deficiency, and a high pH of 9.26. Our preliminary studies disclosed that only three plants, including Caligonum junceum, Atraphaxis virgata, and Melilotus albus Medic, can grow naturally in this environment without any artificial management...

BACKGROUND: We followed prolonged mechanically ventilated (PMV) patients for weaning attempts and explored factors associated with successful weaning and long-term survival. METHODS: This historical cohort study included all adult PMV patients admitted to a single rehabilitation hospital during 2015-2018 and followed for survival according to weaning success up to 3 years or the end of 2021. RESULTS: The study included 223 PMV patients. Of them, 124(55...

Nebulin, a critical protein of the skeletal muscle thin filament, plays important roles in physiological processes such as regulating thin filament length (TFL), cross-bridge cycling, and myofibril alignment. Pathogenic variants in the nebulin gene (NEB) cause NEB-based nemaline myopathy (NEM2), a genetically heterogeneous disorder characterized by hypotonia and muscle weakness, currently lacking curative therapies. In this study, we examined a cohort of ten NEM2 patients, each with unique pathogenic variants, aiming to understand their impact on mRNA, protein, and functional levels...

We previously showed that SerpinE2 and the serine protease HtrA1 modulate fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling in germ layer specification and head-to-tail development of Xenopus embryos. Here, we present an extracellular proteolytic mechanism involving this serpin-protease system in the developing neural crest (NC). Knockdown of SerpinE2 by injected antisense morpholino oligonucleotides did not affect the specification of NC progenitors but instead inhibited the migration of NC cells, causing defects in dorsal fin, melanocyte, and craniofacial cartilage formation...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chronic systemic inflammation has been hypothesized to be a mechanistic factor leading to post-acute cognitive dysfunction after COVID-19. However, little data exist evaluating longitudinal inflammatory markers. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected from the CONTAIN randomized trial of convalescent plasma in patients hospitalized for COVID-19, including patients who completed an 18-month assessment of cognitive symptoms and PROMIS Global Health questionnaires...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the main pathogen associated with pulmonary exacerbation in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). CF is a multisystemic genetic disease caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene, which mainly affects pulmonary function. P. aeruginosa isolated from individuals with CF in Brazil is not commonly associated with multidrug resistance (MDR), especially when compared to global occurrence, where the presence of epidemic clones, capable of expressing resistance to several drugs, is often reported...

INTRODUCTION: Recently, a Geriatric Surgery Unit (GSU) was established in the Sheba Medical Center. The Unit's aims include: professional assessment of surgical candidates, approval of the surgical plan by a multidisciplinary team discussion (MTD), and meeting the specific needs of the geriatric patient undergoing surgery. METHODS: We describe the establishment of the GSU and preliminary results from the first year of its activity (January-December 2022). The GSU team consisted of a geriatric nurse practitioner (NP), a geriatric physician, surgeons, anesthesiologists and a physiotherapist...

Given the medical and social significance of Helicobacter pylori infection, timely and reliable diagnosis of the disease is required. The traditional invasive and non-invasive conventional diagnostic techniques have several limitations. Recently, opportunities for new diagnostic methods have appeared based on the recent advance in the study of H. pylori outer membrane proteins and their identified receptors. In the present study we assess the way in which outer membrane protein-cell receptor reactions are applicable in establishing a reliable diagnosis...

Using a Bayesian statistical approach, this study aimed to provide a robust assessment of associations between religiosity and personal faith, timing of sexual initiation and sexual risk taking in young people. To produce posterior probability distribution of the estimation of associations, this study combined two population-based surveys of emerging Croatian adults and meta-analytical estimates pertaining to international studies published between 2000 and 2020. Regardless of the prior used, age at sexual debut was delayed by both religiosity (correlations ranged from 0...

Ant behavior relies on a collection of natural products, from following trail pheromones during foraging to warding off potential predators. How nervous systems sense these compounds to initiate a behavioral response remains unclear. Here, we used Caenorhabditis elegans chemotaxis assays to investigate how ant compounds are detected by heterospecific nervous systems. We found that C. elegans avoid extracts of the pavement ant ( Tetramorium immigrans ) and either osm-9 or tax-4 ion channels are required for this response...

WRKY transcription factors are widely involved in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, there is currently a limited understanding of the regulation of viral infection by WRKY transcription factors in wheat (Triticum aestivum). The WRKY transcription factor TaWRKY50 in group IIb wheat exhibited a significant response to Chinese wheat mosaic virus infection. TaWRKY50 is localized in the nucleus and is an activating transcription factor. Interestingly, we found that silencing TaWRKY50 induces cell death following inoculation with CWMV...

A three-terminal memristor with an ultrasmall footprint of only 0.07 μm2 and critical dimensions of 70 nm × 10 nm × 6 nm is introduced. The device's feature is the presence of a gate contact, which enables two operation modes: either tuning the set voltage or directly inducing a resistance change. In I - V mode, we demonstrate that by changing the gate voltages between ±1 V one can shift the set voltage by 69%. In pulsing mode, we show that resistance change can be triggered by a gate pulse...