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•Canine leishmaniosis has expanded in Europe to new locations, mainly northwards.•Most infected dogs in those new areas have been relocated from endemic countries.•Many other infected ...dogs have travelled with their owners to the same destinations.•In some cases Leishmania infantum transmission might have been autochthonous.•Preventive and other control measures are available and should be put in practice.
Leishmania infantum is the etiological agent of canine leishmaniosis (CanL) in Europe, where it is endemic in the Mediterranean region, with dogs being considered the major reservoir of the parasite for humans and other mammalian hosts. The main transmission mode of Leishmania is by the bite of infected phlebotomine sand fly insects (genus Phlebotomus), which are the only proven vectors of this zoonotic protozoan. Less common, non-vectorial transmission between dogs include infection through transfused blood products from infected donors, transplacental and venereal transmission. CanL has exhibited an expansion to new locations in Europe, mainly northwards, either by territorial contiguity, often in association with global warming that favours vectorial transmission, or by the long-distance importation of infected dogs. The increasing incidence of CanL in countries where the disease is not endemic is challenging owners, veterinarians and government authorities. Most infected dogs in these new areas have been relocated from or travelled with their owners to endemic regions, but in some cases transmission might have also been autochthonous. In the absence of prophylactic measures, the introduction of infected dogs in areas previously free of endemic CanL but which have competent sand fly vectors can result in a potential persistence of L. infantum. The spread of L. infantum in Europe is reviewed with a focus on transmission, epidemiology and geographic distribution of endemic and non-endemic CanL, infection and disease in humans and animal hosts other than dogs, together with prevention and additional control strategies.
Aims
The objective of this study was to investigate short‐ (≤ 30 days) and long‐term (≥ 2 years) all‐cause mortality after bariatric surgery among adult patients with obesity.
Materials and methods
...For short‐term mortality, eligible studies comprised randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting perioperative mortality. For long‐term mortality, eligible studies comprised RCTs and observational studies comparing mortality between obese patients after bariatric surgery and non‐operated controls. Random‐effects models using a Bayesian or frequentist approach were used to pool effect estimates of short‐ and long‐term mortality, respectively.
Results
Short‐term all‐cause mortality based on 38 RCTs involving 4030 patients was 0.18% (95% CI, 0.04%‐0.38%) and was higher for open surgeries (0.31%; 95% CI, 0.03%‐0.97%) and similar in mixed surgeries (0.17%; 95% CI, 0.03%‐0.43%) and restrictive surgeries (0.17%; 95% CI, 0.03%‐0.45%). For long‐term mortality, 12 observational studies involving 27 258 operated patients and 97 154 non‐operated obese controls were included. Of these, 8 studies were eligible for the meta‐analysis, which showed a reduction of 41% in all‐cause mortality (hazard ratio, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.52‐0.67; P < .001). Additionally, operated patients were 0.42 times as likely (95% CI, 0.25‐0.72, P < .001) and 0.47 times as likely (95% CI, 0.36‐0.63, P < .001) as non–operated obese controls to die from cardiovascular diseases and cancer, respectively.
Conclusions
Bariatric surgery is associated with low short‐term mortality and may be associated with long‐term reductions in all‐cause, cardiovascular and cancer‐related mortality.
The health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has involved research into diagnoses and vaccines, but primarily it has required specific treatments, facilities and equipment, together with the ...control of individual behaviour and a period of collective confinement. The aim of this particular research, therefore, is to discover whether COVID-19 is capable of changing the built environment (BE) and leveraging specific solutions for sustainable buildings or urban areas. Some historical reviews of infectious pandemics have highlighted the development of new solutions in the BE as an additional contribution towards preventing the spread of infection. The BE has an important role to play in supporting public health measures and reducing the risk of infections. The review of potential COVID-19 measures shows the existence of well-referenced solutions, ranging from incremental alterations (organisation of spaces, erection of physical barriers) to structural alterations (windows, balconies) with different timeframes and scales (ranging from changes in building materials to the design of urban areas). A critical exploratory assessment makes it possible to identify measures that may help not only to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission (or even prevent it), but also to increase resilience, improve air quality and lower energy requirements or the use of materials, and thus potentially increase the sustainability of the BE. COVID-19 measures challenge us to rethink buildings and urban areas and potentially leverage sustainable BE solutions with win-win outcomes (minimalist design and other solutions). The specific composition of this set of measures must, however, be further researched.
The association of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) with age-related vascular and neurodegenerative pathologies remains incompletely understood.
The objective of this work was to elucidate the ...neuropathologic correlates of WMH in a large community-based cohort of older adults.
Cerebral hemispheres from 603 community-based older adults were imaged with MRI ex vivo. All participants underwent annual clinical evaluation, cognitive assessment, and neuropathologic examination. WMH burden was assessed using a modified Fazekas rating scale. Multiple ordinal logistic regression was used to test the association of WMH burden with an array of age-related neuropathologies, adjusting for demographics. Mixed effects models of cognition controlling for neuropathologies and demographics were used to determine whether WMH burden contributes to cognitive decline beyond measured pathologies.
WMH burden in the whole group was associated with both vascular and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathologies: arteriolosclerosis (p < 10-4), gross (p < 10-4), and microscopic infarcts (p = 0.04), and amyloid-β plaques (p = 0.028). In non-demented participants (mild or no cognitive impairment) (N = 332), WMH burden was related to gross infarcts (p = 10-4) and arteriolosclerosis (p < 10-4), but not to AD pathology. Similarly, in those with no cognitive impairment (N = 178), WMH burden was related to gross infarcts (p = 8×10-4) and arteriolosclerosis (p = 0.014). WMH burden was associated with faster decline in perceptual speed in both the whole (p = 0.038) and non-demented (p = 0.006) groups.
WMH burden has independent associations with vascular pathologies in older adults regardless of clinical status, and with AD pathology later in the progression of AD. Moreover, WMH burden may reflect additional tissue injury not captured with traditional neuropathologic indices.
Abstract There are two main types of fluid in bone tissue, blood and interstitial fluid. The chemical composition of these fluids varies with time and location in bone. Blood arrives through the ...arterial system containing oxygen and other nutrients and the blood components depart via the venous system containing less oxygen and reduced nutrition. Within the bone, as within other tissues, substances pass from the blood through the arterial walls into the interstitial fluid. The movement of the interstitial fluid carries these substances to the cells within the bone and, at the same time, carries off the waste materials from the cells. Bone tissue would not live without these fluid movements. The development of a model for poroelastic materials with hierarchical pore space architecture for the description of blood flow and interstitial fluid flow in living bone tissue is reviewed. The model is applied to the problem of determining the exchange of pore fluid between the vascular porosity and the lacunar–canalicular porosity in bone tissue due to cyclic mechanical loading and blood pressure. These results are basic to the understanding of interstitial flow in bone tissue that, in turn, is basic to understanding of nutrient transport from the vasculature to the bone cells buried in the bone tissue and to the process of mechanotransduction by these cells.
BACKGROUND: Theileria annae is a tick-transmitted small piroplasmid that infects dogs and foxes in North America and Europe. Due to disagreement on its placement in the Theileria or Babesia genera, ...several synonyms have been used for this parasite, including Babesia Spanish dog isolate, Babesia microti-like, Babesia (Theileria) annae, and Babesia cf. microti. Infections by this parasite cause anemia, thrombocytopenia, and azotemia in dogs but are mostly subclinical in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Furthermore, high infection rates have been detected among red fox populations in distant regions strongly suggesting that these canines act as the parasite’s natural host. This study aims to reassess and harmonize the phylogenetic placement and binomen of T. annae within the order Piroplasmida. METHODS: Four molecular phylogenetic trees were constructed using a maximum likelihood algorithm based on DNA alignments of: (i) near-complete 18S rRNA gene sequences (n = 76 and n = 93), (ii) near-complete and incomplete 18S rRNA gene sequences (n = 92), and (iii) tubulin-beta gene sequences (n = 32) from B. microti and B. microti-related parasites including those detected in dogs and foxes. RESULTS: All phylogenetic trees demonstrate that T. annae and its synonyms are not Theileria parasites but are most closely related with B. microti. The phylogenetic tree based on the 18S rRNA gene forms two separate branches with high bootstrap value, of which one branch corresponds to Babesia species infecting rodents, humans, and macaques, while the other corresponds to species exclusively infecting carnivores. Within the carnivore group, T. annae and its synonyms from distant regions segregate into a single clade with a highly significant bootstrap value corroborating their separate species identity. CONCLUSION: Phylogenetic analysis clearly shows that T. annae and its synonyms do not pertain to Theileria and can be clearly defined as a separate species. Based on the facts that T. annae and its synonyms have not been shown to have a leukocyte stage, as expected in Theileria, do not infect humans and rodents as B. microti, and cluster phylogenetically as a separate species, this study proposes to name this parasite Babesia vulpes sp. nov., after its natural host, the red fox V. vulpes.
Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) may occur as part of a complex hereditary syndrome or an isolated (i.e., non‐syndromic) non‐hereditary (i.e., sporadic) endocrinopathy. Studies of hereditary and syndromic ...forms of PC, which include the hyperparathyroidism‐jaw tumor syndrome (HPT‐JT), multiple endocrine neoplasia types 1 and 2 (MEN1 and MEN2), and familial isolated primary hyperparathyroidism (FIHP), have revealed some genetic mechanisms underlying PC. Thus, cell division cycle 73 (CDC73) germline mutations cause HPT‐JT, and CDC73 mutations occur in 70% of sporadic PC, but in only ∼2% of parathyroid adenomas. Moreover, CDC73 germline mutations occur in 20%–40% of patients with sporadic PC and may reveal unrecognized HPT‐JT. This indicates that CDC73 mutations are major driver mutations in the etiology of PCs. However, there is no genotype–phenotype correlation and some CDC73 mutations (e.g., c.679_680insAG) have been reported in patients with sporadic PC, HPT‐JT, or FIHP. Other genes involved in sporadic PC include germline MEN1 and rearranged during transfection (RET) mutations and somatic alterations of the retinoblastoma 1 (RB1) and tumor protein P53 (TP53) genes, as well as epigenetic modifications including DNA methylation and histone modifications, and microRNA misregulation. This review summarizes the genetics and epigenetics of the familial syndromic and non‐syndromic (sporadic) forms of PC.
Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) is a rare disorder that may occur as a complex hereditary syndrome or as an isolated (i.e. non‐syndromic) non‐hereditary (i.e. sporadic) endocrinopathy. The molecular mechanisms associated with PC include mutations involving tumor suppressor genes and copy number gains, epigenetic alterations and disregulation of microRNAs. Genetic studies have provided valuable insights that can help in the diagnosis and management of patients with PC.
This review examines changing perspectives on the biomechanics of vulnerable plaque rupture over the past 25 years from the first finite element analyses (FEA) showing that the presence of a lipid ...pool significantly increases the local tissue stress in the atheroma cap to the latest imaging and 3D FEA studies revealing numerous microcalcifications in the cap proper and a new paradigm for cap rupture. The first part of the review summarizes studies describing the role of the fibrous cap thickness, tissue properties, and lesion geometry as main determinants of the risk of rupture. Advantages and limitations of current imaging technologies for assessment of vulnerable plaques are also discussed. However, the basic paradoxes as to why ruptures frequently did not coincide with location of PCS and why caps >65
μ
m thickness could rupture at tissue stresses significantly below the 300 kPa critical threshold still remained unresolved. The second part of the review describes recent studies in the role of microcalcifications, their origin, shape, and clustering in explaining these unresolved issues including the actual mechanism of rupture due to the explosive growth of tiny voids (cavitation) in local regions of high stress concentration between closely spaced microinclusions oriented along their tensile axis.
Using 2.1-µm high-resolution microcomputed tomography, we have examined the spatial distribution, clustering, and shape of nearly 35,000 microcalcifications (µCalcs) ≥ 5 µm in the fibrous caps of 22 ...nonruptured human atherosclerotic plaques. The vast majority of these µCalcs were <15 µm and invisible at the previously used 6.7-µm resolution. A greatly simplified 3D finite element analysis has made it possible to quickly analyze which of these thousands of minute inclusions are potentially dangerous. We show that the enhancement of the local tissue stress caused by particle clustering increases rapidly for gap between particle pairs (h)/particle diameter (D) < 0.4 if particles are oriented along the tensile axis of the cap. Of the thousands of µCalcs observed, there were 193 particle pairs with h / D ≤ 2 (tissue stress factor > 2), but only 3 of these pairs had h / D ≤ 0.4, where the local tissue stress could increase a factor > 5. Using nondecalcified histology, we also show that nearly all caps have µCalcs between 0.5 and 5 µm and that the µCalcs ≥ 5 µm observed in high-resolution microcomputed tomography are agglomerations of smaller calcified matrix vesicles. µCalcs < 5 µm are predicted to be not harmful, because the tiny voids associated with these very small particles will not explosively grow under tensile forces because of their large surface energy. These observations strongly support the hypothesis that nearly all fibrous caps have µCalcs, but only a small subset has the potential for rupture.
The life cycle, fisheries and management of the main fishing resources of the Patos Lagoon and adjacent coastal waters are reviewed. Over recent decades, fish landings in Rio Grande have decreased by ...over 60%. The stocks of the large-sized, slow-growing fishes Genidens barbus and G. planifrons, Pogonias cromis and Rhinobatos horkelii collapsed in the early 1980s. The pink shrimp Penaeus paulensis stock was reduced by intense fishing of subadults in the estuary and of adults at sea. The sciaenid fishes Micropogonias furnieri, Macrodon atricauda, Umbrina canosai and Cynoscion guatucupa, which together represent more than half of local marine fish landings, are overexploited. These sciaenids are more resilient to intense fishing when compared with other families because of their early maturation and high fecundity, but high exploitation rates are unsustainable in the long run. The pelagic migrant fishes Pomatomus saltatrix and Mugil liza and the blue crab Callinectes sapidus are at the limit of exploitation. The recovery of these stocks will depend on diminishing the fishing pressure they have suffered in recent decades. Despite legal protection, the present enforcement has proven to be insufficient and intense fishing by a large number of industrial and small-scale fishing boats still goes on. Overall, the future of the estuarine and coastal fishing resources is uncertain and the recovery of the large long-living species of the higher trophic levels is unlikely.
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