is a nematode that produces proliferative pulmonary endarteritis in dogs due to direct contact of the adult parasites with the intima layer of the pulmonary arteries, leading to irreversible severe ...structural damage and sustained pulmonary hypertension (PH), which can produce severe cardiorespiratory disorders. The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of the echocardiography tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in determining the presence of PH in dogs with heartworm disease.
There were 116 heartworm-infected dogs with PH and 33 healthy dogs included in the study. Based on the right pulmonary artery distensibility index (RPADi) < 29.5%, PH was present in 47.4% of infected dogs. Additionally, the animals were evaluated using other standard alternative echocardiographic measures to estimate PH. Moreover, a total of eight echocardiographic measurements were analysed using the TDI to determine its usefulness in diagnosing PH (E', A', S, E':A', global TDI, HRI-IVCT, HRI-IVRT, R-TEI).
The TDI measurements showed significant differences between dogs with and without PH, demonstrating a positive correlation with respect to the RPADi. In addition, cut-off values for the detection of PH with excellent sensitivity and specificity were found for E':A', global TDI, HRI-IVCT, HRI-IVRT and R-TEI.
The TDI mode may be useful as an adjunct diagnostic method for the determination of PH in dogs with
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Corn is the cereal with the highest production worldwide and is used for human consumption, livestock feed, and fuel. Various food technologies are currently used for processing industrially produced ...maize flours and corn meals in different parts of the world to obtain precooked refined maize flour, dehydrated nixtamalized flour, fermented maize flours, and other maize products. These products have different intrinsic vitamin and mineral contents, and their processing follows different pathways from raw grain to the consumer final product, which entail changes in nutrient composition. Dry maize mechanical processing creates whole or fractionated products, separated by anatomical features such as bran, germ, and endosperm. Wet maize processing separates by chemical compound classification such as starch and protein. Various industrial processes, including whole grain, dry milling fractionation, and nixtamalization, are described. Vitamin and mineral losses during processing are identified and the nutritional impacts outlined. Also discussed are the vitamin and mineral contents of corn.
Canine angiostrongylosis is an emerging disease caused by Angiostrongylus vasorum, mainly affecting wild carnivores and dogs. In Spain, there are studies reporting infections in foxes, wolves, and ...badgers in different regions of the country. However, there are hardly any publications on its prevalence in dogs. The aim of this study was to complete and update the epidemiologic map of A. vasorum in dogs in Spain. A total of 5619 canine blood samples from all autonomous cities and provinces of Spain were collected and tested for the presence of circulating A. vasorum antigens. The overall apparent prevalence of canine A. vasorum infection in Spain was 1.39%. No significant differences were found for sex or age, but significant differences between outdoor and indoor/outdoor dogs were found. A high prevalence was also observed in the northern third of the country, where an oceanic climate prevails, being humid and rainy and where abundant vegetation can be found, thus favoring the proliferation of intermediate hosts. The results suggest that A. vasorum canine infections are heterogeneously present in a large part of the territory, demonstrating its expansion throughout the country, and therefore, awareness and prevention campaigns for this disease should be promoted.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Statin therapy might have a beneficial prognostic effect in patients with COVID-19, given its immunomodulative, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic properties. Our purpose was to test this ...hypothesis by using the COVID-19 registry of a Spanish university hospital.
We conducted a single-center, observational and retrospective study in which hospitalized patients with COVID-19 diagnosed by PCR between March 2020 and October 2020 were included. By means of logistic regression, we designed a propensity score to estimate the likelihood that a patient would receive statin treatment prior to admission. We compared the survival of COVID-19 patients with and without statin treatment by means of Cox regression with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). The median follow-up was 406 days.
We studied 1122 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, whose median age was 71years and of which 488 (43.5%) were women. 451 (40.2%) patients received statins before admission. In the IPTW survival analysis, prior statin treatment was associated with a significant reduction in mortality (HR: 0.76; 95%CI: 0.59-0.97). The greatest benefit of previous statin therapy was seen in subgroups of patients with coronary artery disease (HR: 0.32; 95%CI: 0.18-0.56) and extracardiac arterial disease (HR: 0.45; 95%CI: 0.28-0.73).
Our study showed a significant association between previous treatment with statins and lower mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The observed prognostic benefit was greater in patients with previous coronary or extracardiac atherosclerotic disease.
Después de una generación de mujeres poetas que ha convivido con el papel y la red, la Generación Millenial y la última Generación Z de nativos digitales, ha iniciado un nuevo boom de poesía escrita ...por mujeres cuyo alcance y límite es, hoy por hoy, imposible de predecir, por ser un fenómeno totalmente nuevo en el que empieza a fijarse la élite cultural y, sobre todo, el mercado editorial. Las poetas del siglo veintiuno tienen muchos más lectores que las mujeres que se han dedicado a la literatura en España. El objetivo de este artículo es poner nombre a estas nuevas escritoras (como Elvira Sastre y Loreto Sesma) y reconocer al mismo tiempo los nombres de aquellas que les han abierto el camino.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
To describe the evolution of the serum levels of soluble HLA-G (s-HLA-G) during the first 12 months after heart transplantation (HT) and to correlate it with clinical outcomes.
Observational study ...based in a single-center cohort of 59 patients who underwent HT between December-2003 and March-2010. Soluble HLA-G levels were measured from serum samples extracted before HT, and 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after HT. The cumulative burden of s-HLA-G expression during the first post-transplant year was assessed by means of the area under the curve (AUC) of s-HLA-G levels over time and correlated with the acute rejection burden –as assessed by a rejection score–, the presence of coronary allograft vasculopathy (CAV) grade ≥ 1 and infections during the first post-transplant year; as well as with long-term patient and graft survival. Mean follow-up was 12.4 years.
Soluble HLA-G levels decreased over the first post-transplant year (p = 0.020). The AUC of s-HLA-G levels during the first post-transplant year was higher among patients with infections vs. those without infections (p = 0.006). No association was found between the AUC of s-HLA-G levels and the burden of acute rejection or the development of CAV.
Overall long-term survival, long-term survival free of late graft failure and cancer-free survival were not significantly different in patients with an AUC of s-HLA-G levels higher or lower than the median of the study population.
Soluble HLA-G levels decreased over the first year after HT. Higher HLA-G expression was associated with a higher frequency of infections, but not with the burden of acute rejection or the development of CAV, neither with long-term patient or graft survival.
•Soluble HLA-G levels decreased over the first year after HT.•No association was found between the AUC of s-HLA-G levels and the burden of acute rejection or the development of CAV.•Higher HLA-G expression was associated with a higher frequency of infections.
Background: The search for putative enzymes that can facilitate gene editing has recently focused its attention on Argonaute proteins from prokaryotes (pAgos). Though they are structural homologues ...of human Argonaute protein, which uses RNA guides to interfere with RNA targets, pAgos use ssDNA guides to identify and, in many cases, cut a complementary DNA target. Thermophilic pAgos from
Thermus thermophilus,
Pyrococcus furiosus and
Methanocaldococcus jasmanii have been identified and thoroughly studied, but their thermoactivity makes them of little use in mesophilic systems such as mammalian cells.
Methods: Here we search for and identify CbcAgo, a prokaryotic Argonaute protein from a mesophilic bacterium, and characterize
in vitro its DNA interference activity.
Results: CbcAgo efficiently uses 5'P-ssDNA guides as small as 11-mers to cut ssDNA targets, requires divalent cations (preferentially, Mn
2+) and has a maximum activity between 37 and 42 °C, remaining active up to 55 °C. Nicking activity on supercoiled dsDNA was shown. However, no efficient double-strand breaking activity could be demonstrated.
Conclusions: CbcAgo can use gDNA guides as small as 11 nucleotides long to cut complementary ssDNA targets at 37ºC, making it a promising starting point for the development of new gene editing tools for mammalian cells.
Nowadays, irrigation with low quality water is becoming an alternative to satisfy the needs of crops. However, some plant species have to deal with high salinity of reclaimed water, by adapting their ...physiological behaviour during both saline and recovery periods and developing morphological changes in their leaves. The application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) could also be a suitable option to mitigate the negative effects of this kind of water, although the effectiveness of plant-AMF association is influenced by many factors. In this work, during forty weeks, the combined effect of Glomus iranicum var. tenuihypharum and two types of water: control, C, EC<0.9dSm−1 and reclaimed water, RW (with EC: 4dSm−1 during a first saline period and EC: 6dSm−1 during a second saline period) was evaluated for laurustinus plants (Viburnum tinus L.) transplanted in soil. This was followed by a recovery period of eight weeks, when all the plants were irrigated in the control irrigation conditions. Seasonal and daily changes in stem water potential (Ψstem), stomatal conductance (gs), photosynthesis (Pn) and leaf internal CO2 concentration (Ci) of laurustinus plants were evaluated. Leaf structure alterations, nutrient imbalance, height and leaf hydraulic conductivity (Kleaf) were also determined. Due to the high difficulty of absorbing water from the soil, RW plants showed a high volumetric water content (θv) in soil. The stem water potential and the stomatal conductance (gs) values were reduced in RW plants throughout the second saline period. These decreases were also found during the day. Leaf Ca2+/Na+ and K+/Na+ ratios diminished in RW plants respect to the C plants due to the Na+ accumulation, although height and chlorophyll content values did not show statistical differences. Leaves from RW plants showed a significantly thicker mesophyll than Control leaves as a consequence of high EC. The area of palisade parenchyma (PP) increased while the area of spongy parenchyma (SP) decreased in RW leaves with respect to the C leaves. These structural changes could be considered as a strategy to maximize photosynthesis potential in saline conditions. Mycorrhizal inoculation improved the water status of both C and RW plants by increasing their Ψstem and gs values. As regards leaf structure, AMF showed an opposite effect to salinity for PP and SP. At the end of the recovery period, hardly any statistical differences of physiological parameters were found between treatments, although a tendency to improve them was observed in inoculated plants. In any case, the leaf structural changes and the great reduction in Kleaf observed at Ψleaf below −1.5MPa would constitute an important mechanism for laurustinus plants to reduce the water loses produced by salinity.
La pandemia de la COVID-19 ha cambiado de forma radical e impredecible el entorno competitivo de las empresas, siendo España uno de los países de su entorno que se ha visto más afectado. En este ...nuevo contexto, para hacer frente a unas condiciones del entorno extremadamente dinámicas, complejas y difícilmente predecibles, las empresas para poder adaptarse necesitan estar en posesión o desarrollar una serie de capacidades específicas. Este artículo pretende mostrar que el desarrollo de las TIC, la flexibilidad laboral y la capacidad de innovar son tres factores que favorecen la capacidad de las organizaciones para adaptarse a los nuevos y cambiantes entornos competitivos provocados por la emergencia sanitaria de la COVID-19. La capacidad de adaptarse se refleja a través de su habilidad para dar continuidad tanto a la gestión y monitorización de sus operaciones como a la relación con sus clientes a lo largo de todos los niveles del proceso de venta. Para analizar esta relación, se entrevistó a directivos de empresas durante los meses posteriores a la declaración del estado de alarma en España. Mediante la aplicación de la técnica de análisis multivariante PLS-SEM, se ha estimado que un mayor nivel de los tres aspectos indicados se relaciona positivamente con una mejor adaptación de las empresas tanto a las nuevas necesidades como a las limitaciones de operación en sus respectivos mercados.
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