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BACKGROUND: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a condition of impaired quality of movement and occupational performance. It has been hypothesized that the difficulties experienced by children with DCD may in part be due to an impaired ability to use cognitive strategies to solve occupational performance problems. Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) is a verbally-based approach to helping children remediate this difficulty. The current pilot study investigated the use of cognitive strategies in children with DCD to determine whether cognitive strategy use is improved by CO-OP. METHODS: Observations of video-recorded sessions of 18 school-aged children were scored for frequency and type of cognitive strategies used. RESULTS: Differences within and between groups revealed changes in the types and frequency of cognitive strategies. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results of the present study support the use of a cognitively-based approach such as CO-OP in assisting children with DCD in developing cognitive strategies when solving occupational performance problems. However, further research using a larger sample is necessary to fully explore the impact of CO-OP on the strategy use of children with DCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital dermatitis (DD) presents as painful, ulcerative or proliferative lesions that lead to bovine lameness affecting economic efficiency and animal welfare. Although DD etiological agent(s) have not been established, it is widely accepted that DD is a polymicrobial disease significantly associated with species of Treponema and the non-linear disease progression may be attributed to interactions among infecting bacteria. We postulated the morphological changes associated with DD lesion grades are related to interactions among infecting species of Treponema. We developed a novel species-specific qPCR that can identify the absolute abundance of the four of the most common species of Treponema in DD, T. phagedenis, T. medium, T. pedis and T. denticola, in a single reaction. We found species abundance and the number of distinct Treponema species present is higher in active, ulcerative lesions than in healing lesions, chronic lesions, and DD-free skin. Treponema spp. were present in both DD-free skin and M3 lesions following treatment with oxytetracycline. We have also found positive correlations among T. phagedenis, T. medium and T. pedis indicating they are significantly more likely to be found together than apart and their absolute quantities tend to increase together, a relationship which is not present with T. denticola. Further, we found Treponema, particularly viable T. denticola, in lesions 5 days post treatment with oxytetracycline (M3). Our findings suggest that pathogenicity may be closely associated with Treponema abundance, particularly T. phagedenis, T. medium and T. pedis, and interactions among them, independent of T. denticola. Our results provide a novel, consistent method to identify species of Treponema within DD lesions and associate Treponema spp. and abundance with morphological changes related to host pathogenicity.

Digital dermatitis (DD) commonly associated with Treponema spp. infection is a prevalent infectious bovine foot disease characterized by ulcerative and necrotic lesions. Lesions associated with DD are often classified using the M-stage scoring system, with M0 indicating healthy heel skin and M4 indicating chronic lesions. Current treatments utilizing antimicrobials or chemical footbaths are often ineffective and rarely cure DD lesions. Understanding the function of the innate immune response in the pathogenesis of DD will help to identify novel therapeutic approaches. In this study, the expression of the local innate host defense peptides cathelicidins and β-defensins was investigated in cows with DD and associated with the presence of treponemes and inflammatory reactions. Samples from active ulcerative DD lesions (M2) had considerable epidermal neutrophilic infiltration and increased gene expression of β-defensin tracheal antimicrobial peptides compared to control skin. Samples from acute lesions also had elevated local Cxcl-8 and TLR4 gene expression and abundant treponemes as identified by direct visualization, immunohistochemistry, and culture. Conversely, the anti-inflammatory peptide IL-10 was elevated in skin from chronic (M4) lesions, whereas bovine cathelicidin myeloid antimicrobial peptide 28 (Bmap-28) was increased in skin from oxytetracycline-treated M2 lesions. Experiments using cultured human keratinocytes challenged with Treponema spp. isolated from clinical cases of bovine DD showed that structural products from treponemes are able to initiate the innate immune response, in part through TLR2 signaling. These findings indicate that neutrophil influx, Cxcl-8, and β-defensin are key markers of active DD. Cathelicidins and IL-10 seem important in response to treatment or during the chronic proliferative stages of the disease.

Three flavonol glycosides were isolated and identified from the commercial dark red kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivar Montcalm. In order of highest to lowest concentration these compounds were 3',4',5,7-tetrahydroxyflavonol 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (2-->1) O-beta-D-xylopyranoside (compound 1), quercetin 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (compound 2), and kaempferol 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (compound 3). Compound 1 is a flavonol glycoside that has not been reported before in P. vulgaris L. These three flavonol glycosides were yellow compounds that do not contribute to the garnet red color of Montcalm seed coats. Red-colored compounds which tested positive for proanthocyanidins are most likely responsible for the red seed coat color of Montcalm. Previous work on the chemistry of the compounds produced from the multi-allelic seed coat gene series C-C(r)()-c(u) indicated that neither anthocyanins nor flavonol glycosides were detected from seed coat extracts in the presence of the c(u)() locus. However, the seed coat color genotype of Montcalm is c(u) J g B v rk(d) and three flavonol glycosides were found. Technological advances such as modern HPLC analysis of seed coat extracts may allow for detection of small amounts of compounds which previously could not be seen using paper chromatography. Alternatively, the change of the Rk allele to rk(d) may allow for the synthesis of flavonol glycosides in the presence of c(u).

Freshly extracted molar teeth were prepared for complete cast gold crowns cemented with either zinc phosphate cement, polycarboxylate cement, glass ionomer cement, a resin luting agent, or a zinc oxide-eugenol temporary cement. The specimens were tested at 1-, 6-, and 12-month intervals with radioactive 45Ca. The specimens were sectioned, autoradiographs were made, and the marginal leakage was evaluated on a scale of 0 to 3. The results showed that zinc phosphate, polycarboxylate, and glass ionomer cements are equally suited for permanent cementation of restorations. The resin luting agent showed high initial leakage, indicating that it is not as desirable for permanent cementation purposes. The zinc oxide-eugenol cement showed increased leakage with time but is well suited for its indicated purpose, temporary cementation.