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Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is one of the highly contagious avian pathogens that threatens poultry producers in endemic zones due to its epidemic potential. Selection for antibody (Ab) response can effectively improve disease resistance in chickens. However, the molecular basis of the variation in Ab response to NDV is unclear. This study aimed to detect genomic markers and genes modulating Ab response to NDV in chickens reared under tropical, outdoor conditions. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted on Sasso T451A chickens that were naturally exposed to infectious diseases from 56 to 112 days of age to identify regions associated with Ab response to NDV. Phenotypic immune data from 935 chickens, monitored in two batches, and genotyping data of these chickens based low-pass sequencing (2,676,181 single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) were used. BioMart data mining and variant effect predictor tools were used to annotate SNPs and candidate genes, respectively. A total of five SNPs (rs316795557 (FOXP2), chr 1; rs313761644 (CEP170B), chr 5; rs733628728, chr 13; and two unnamed SNPs, chr 30 and chr 33) were associated with the chicken antibody response to NDV at the suggestive significance level. These SNPs are located on chromosomes 1, 5, and 13 and are in genomic regions that contain several genes with roles in the regulation of the immune response. The results of this study pave the path for more investigation into the host immune response of chickens to NDV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation breeding programmes have become widespread as natural habitats shrink, and have been historically managed using pedigree data and an assumption that population founders are unrelated. Molecular genotyping is able to determine founder relatedness, but is rarely used. To empirically test the impact of assuming founders to be unrelated, we utilized data from 203 founding individuals and 11 subsequent years of breeding records for the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) insurance population. We integrated molecular data (N = 119 founders) and detailed trapping information (N = 203 founders) to test how founder relationship assumptions impacted the genetic characteristics of the population over time (N = 942 unique individuals). We developed a method to combine molecular kinship (using the TrioML estimator), year of birth and trapping location, and integrated the resulting empirical kinship estimates into population management software. We tested the effect of using pedigree data only, versus our integrated approach, on population outcomes. Inbreeding coefficients evaluated using the integrated approach were significantly higher than pedigree‐only inbreeding coefficients in the first few years following population establishment. A geographic distance‐only approach showed an association between kinship and probability of successful breeding. Our results show the value in using field and/or molecular data combined with pedigree data in conservation breeding programmes to provide new information for managing crucial populations and improving their success. We caution population managers against commencing expensive conservation breeding programmes in the absence of understanding founder relatedness, especially when wild augmentation is a goal. Long‐term costs of assuming founders are unrelated include financial costs, reduced productivity and release of potentially highly inbred individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Respiratory neurobiology has been a lead discipline in the field of neuroscience for almost a century. Despite this, research studies on the fundamental synaptic and cellular processes underlying the generation and modulation of breathing movements suffered a significant decline during the last decade. We still believe that respiratory neurobiology is one of the most exciting and imperative fields of neuroscience. With the first white paper concerned with the central control of breathing, we want to celebrate the global importance of breathing research., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

To enable investigation of palatal changes in infants who are prematurely born, it is necessary to first establish a reliable method of measurement of these tiny edentulous palates. This study compared the Olivetti-Inspector machine, Vernier calipers, and stereophotogrammetry for this purpose. Measurements were taken of 12 palatal casts of four infants at prescribed time intervals during the neonatal period. In each of the three methods, measurements were recorded as variables generated in the X and Z axes of the Cartesian scale in relation to three specified points along the Y axis. The results revealed that all methods were comparable, but the Vernier calipers differed significantly from the other two methods in height measurements, (p < 0.001). It was also found that both the Olivetti-Inspector machine and the Vernier calipers consistently underestimated the width, compared with Olivetti-Inspector machine, (p < 0.05). Stereophotogrammetry was found to be the most consistent method of measuring the configuration of preterm infant palates.

Ischaemia following surgery for aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) was defined by clinical criteria. Two distinct groups of patient developing ischaemia were identified: (1) patients recovering from anaesthesia with a new deficit or (2) patients developing 'true' delayed ischaemia. The only significant difference between the groups was an excess of pre-existing vascular disease in the former group. The eventual outcome for patients developing an immediate postoperative deficit was not significantly different from the delayed ischaemia group. The 6-month outcome for patients without clinical ischaemia in the first 10 postoperative days was excellent. The potentially different aetiology of ischaemia in the two subgroups with clinical ischaemia identified in this study should be considered during the planning and in particular the statistical design of trials testing new treatments for clinical ischaemia following aneurysmal SAH.

Retrospective and epidemiological studies have suggested that smoking increases the risk of developing aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). During 1990, 217 patients presenting to the Mersey Regional Neurosurgical unit with spontaneous SAH were prospectively studied. Smoking habits of patients with SAH were compared with age, sex and occupation matched controls. The relative risk of spontaneous aneurysmal SAH for smokers was twice that of non-smokers (p < 0.001). Management outcome at 6 months following aneurysmal SAH was similar for smokers and non-smokers (p = 0.43) but smokers had more postoperative pulmonary complications requiring ventilation. Significance was tested with chi-square tests.

Extracranial paranasal spread of meningiomas is uncommon. We describe the management of four cases, all of which first presented to an oto-rhino-laryngologist for an opinion. We suggest that greater use of modern imaging techniques could lead to earlier diagnosis. The natural history of extracranial spread is relatively benign but the management of regrowth of residual disease is difficult. We therefore suggest radical surgery in the first instance provided that the patients general health and configuration of the tumour allow.

A crude aqueous extract of the leaves of T. flavescens when administered orally to vitamin D-deficient chicks produced significant increases in plasma phosphate but had little effect on plasma calcium. When chicks, fed a high strontium diet to inhibit endogenous 1,25 (OH)2 vitamin D3 production and intestinal calcium transport, were dosed with the extract or synthetic 1,25 (OH)2D345Ca absorption from the duodenum in vivo was stimulated, whereas vitamin D3 was ineffective. Partial purification of the crude extract on a Sephadex GH25 column yielded two factors, one of which mimicked 1,25 (OH)2D3 activity in chicks fed the high strontium diet while the other produced a significant increase in plasma phosphate. The presence of these substances, together with previously demonstrated organic solvent soluble vitamin D-type activity, may account for the calcinogenic nature of the plant.

Endotoxin-poisoned mice converted significantly greater quantities of tryptophan to serotonin than did normal mice. The percentage increase, approximately 10 to 15%, was the same whether mice were given only trace quantities of tryptophan or tryptophan load (20 mg of l-tryptophan). The increased serotonin synthesis was accompanied by a decreased flow of tryptophan into the kynurenine pathway. These results indicate that excess serotonin synthesis occurs not only at dose levels of tryptophan which are toxic for endotoxin-poisoned mice but also at physiological levels of tryptophan. This latter observation may have some importance in the overall pathophysiology of endotoxin shock.

The major issues involved in the design and implementation of effective school screening programs are addressed, using data from a longitudinal study following over 500 children from preschool through third grade. The article identifies early characteristics of children that are related to later behavioral and emotional problems, assesses the accuracy of a comprehensive screening procedure for identifying such problems, and compares two models using preschool and kindergarten data. Characteristics of children missed by the models are presented, and labeling issues are addressed. Implications for future screening efforts, policy, and research are discussed.

Inclusion of dried powdered leaves of Solanum torvum Swartz (collected in Papua, New Guinea) in the diet of rats induced hypercalcaemai rapidly and hyperphosphataemia more slowly; soft tissue calcification was most evident in the kidney and lung. Solanum torvum may be a causative agent of enzootic calcinosis in cattle in Papua, New Guinea.

We have developed methods for quantitatively monitoring the in vivo flow of tryptophan between the kynurenine and serotonin pathways. Our data suggest that endotoxin-poisoned mice have more tryptophan flowing into the serotonin pathway than normal mice both with and without tryptophan load. It appears that the distribution of tryptophan between the serotonin and kynurenine pathways in vivo is constant over a very wide dose range and that substrate availability rather than tryptophan oxygenase activity determines the precise amounts of tryptophan which flows into the two pathways.

The leaves of the plant Solanum malacoxylon contain 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol, the active form of vitamin D. The effect on egg-shell thickness of supplementing the diet of laying hens with a dry powdered preparation of the leaves (DLSM) has been studied. A significnat increase in shell thickness was evident for eggs laid on the second and subsequent days of the DLSM-regimen but nor for those laid during the first 24 hours. It is suggested that the provision of high doses of the vitamin D metabolite in the form of a DLSM supplement may restore calcium binding protein levels in birds approaching the end of the first laying year and hence improve dietary calcium absorption and consequently egg-shell quality.

A 180,000-dalton single-chain molecule (human pro-C3) is the precursor of the third component of human complement (C3), a disulfide-linked two-chain protein. The pro-C3 is converted by limited proteolysis to C3. The relationship between pro-C3 and C3 was established with the use of Hep G2, a cell line derived from a human hepatocellular carcinoma, which synthesizes at least 17 plasma proteins.

dl-Tryptophan (benzene ring-(14)C) and its metabolites persist longer and in greater quantity in tissues of endotoxin-poisoned mice than in tissues of normal mice. Correspondingly less label is excreted in urine and feces and expired as (14)CO(2) in the poisoned animals. The distribution of label (1.1 x 10(6) dpm per microgram of tryptophan) was relatively constant whether it was administered alone or in combination with 20 mg of unlabeled l-tryptophan. Tryptophan must be metabolized through the tryptophan oxygenase pathway to be converted to carbon dioxide, but attempts to quantitatively correlate depressed tryptophan oxygenase activity with depressed carbon dioxide production were unsuccessful. It appears that neither tryptophan oxygenase nor substrate availability exclusively determine the quantity of tryptophan converted to (14)CO(2) except under highly selected conditions. The validity of an earlier suggestion that expired (14)CO(2) could be used to monitor in vivo tryptophan oxygenase activity is not supported by our data.