Safety of the Administration of an Inactivated PCV2a/PCV2b/Mycoplasma Hyopneumoniae Vaccine to Pregnant and Lactating Sows and Gilts.

Porcine Circovirus type 2 (PCV2) vaccination of gilts during acclimation has become a routine practice in commercial pig farms to homogenize herd immunity to PCV2 and reduce the impact of diseases associated with PCV2 infection, namely reproductive, respiratory, systemic, and other PCV2-associated diseases. The periodic mass vaccination of sows, with the same objectives, is also common. To ensure mass vaccination is an appropriate health management tool, demonstrating that the vaccine is safe in different sow/gilt physiological stages is necessary. The objective of the present studies was to evaluate safety of a PCV2a/PCV2b/Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (PCV2a2bMHP) killed vaccine in sows and gilts during gestation and lactation, under controlled experimental pen conditions, and during gestation, mimicking mass vaccination, under field conditions. Safety was assessed by monitoring for immediate adverse reactions after vaccination, rectal temperatures after vaccination (controlled experimental pen studies only), local and systemic reactions, and reproductive performance (studies conducted during pregnancy) or lactation performance (studies conducted during lactation). In total, 416 sows/gilts were enrolled, and more than 4000 piglets were observed during their first week of life, under field conditions. In both controlled experimental and field studies, no immediate anaphylactic type reactions were observed after vaccination and the incidence of adverse events, such as depression or decreased appetite, was acceptable for what is expected in a swine herd. In the studies conducted during gestation, vaccination did not significantly increase rectal temperature of the vaccinated animals. Sow reproductive outcomes were not affected by vaccination. The farrowing rate of animals participating in the field study was higher than the historic averages of the farms. In the laboratory studies conducted during the first and second half of gestation, no differences in reproductive outcome were observed between vaccinated and non-vaccinated animals. However, sows vaccinated during lactation experienced a transient hyperthermia which did not affect milk production since the piglets' average daily weight gain was not affected. The previously described results confirm that the administration of a PCV2a2bMHP vaccine was safe in the tested conditions. All the anticipated benefits of sow and gilt PCV2 vaccination, such as homogenization of PCV2 antibody titers or reduction in PCV2 circulation in the herd, would not be masked by potential adverse events due to herd vaccination. In conclusion, the administration of a PCV2a2bMHP vaccine to sows and gilts during different stages of gestation and during lactation is safe.

Treatment Minimization in Older Patients With Early-Stage Breast Cancer.

The management of early-stage breast cancer in older patients is complex and requires a careful balance of the risk of cancer death with the competing risks of comorbidities and treatment-related toxicity in women with largely favorable disease. As the US population continues to age, oncologists will increasingly encounter this clinical challenge. Several strategies involving each core component of breast cancer therapy have been investigated to minimize treatment in these patients while still maintaining acceptable outcomes. These include omission of primary tumor resection, surgical axillary evaluation, systemic chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy, as well as reduction in radiotherapy treatment volume (partial breast irradiation) or total treatment time (hypofractionation). We review these strategies and the literature supporting their use, as well as future directions for treatment minimization.

Invasive adenoma and pituitary carcinoma: a SEER database analysis.

Invasive pituitary adenomas and pituitary carcinomas are clinically indistinguishable until identification of metastases. Optimal management and survival outcomes for both are not clearly defined. The purpose of this study is to use the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to report patterns of care and compare survival outcomes in a large series of patients with invasive adenomas or pituitary carcinomas. One hundred seventeen patients diagnosed between 1973 and 2008 with pituitary adenomas/adenocarcinomas were included. Eighty-three invasive adenomas and seven pituitary carcinomas were analyzed for survival outcomes. Analyzed prognostic factors included age, sex, race, histology, tumor extent, and treatment. A significant decrease in survival was observed among carcinomas compared to invasive adenomas at 1, 2, and 5 years (p = 0.047, 0.001, and 0.009). Only non-white race, male gender, and age ≥65 were significant negative prognostic factors for invasive adenomas (p = 0.013, 0.033, and <0.001, respectively). There was no survival advantage to radiation therapy in treating adenomas at 5, 10, 20, or 30 years (p = 0.778, 0.960, 0.236, and 0.971). In conclusion, pituitary carcinoma patients exhibit worse overall survival than invasive adenoma patients. This highlights the need for improved diagnostic methods for the sellar phase to allow for potentially more aggressive treatment approaches.

A yoctoliter-scale DNA reactor for small-molecule evolution.

The center of DNA three-way junctions, constituting a yoctoliter (10(-24) L) volume, is applied as an efficient reactor to create DNA-encoded libraries of chemical products. Amino acids and short peptides are linked to oligonucleotides via cleavable and noncleavable linkers. The oligonucleotide sequences contain two universal assembling domains at the center and a distal codon sequence specific for the attached building block. Stepwise self-assembly and chemical reactions of these conjugates in a combinatorial fashion create a library of pentapeptides in DNA three-way junctions in a single reaction vessel. We demonstrate the formation of an evenly distributed library of 100 peptides. Each library member contains a short synthetic peptide attached to a unique genetic code creating the necessary "genotype-phenotype" linkage essential to the process of in vitro molecular evolution. Selective enrichment of the [Leu]-enkephalin peptide from an original frequency of 1 in 10 million in a model library to a final frequency of 1.7% in only two rounds of affinity selection is described and demonstrates successful molecular evolution for a non-natural system.

Crystal growth of novel lanthanide-containing platinates K4[Ln6Pt2O15] (Ln = La, Pr, Nd, Sm) with a unique framework structure.

Crystals of a new family of lanthanide-containing platinum oxides with a unique framework structure were grown out of molten hydroxide fluxes. The structure consists of a crystallographically well-behaved [Ln(6)Pt(2)O(15)](4-) framework permeated by channels filled with disordered atoms along the [100] and equivalent directions. Open-channel structures are rare in oxides and apparently unknown in platinate chemistry.

A quantitative study of the microstructure and biochemistry of the medial meniscal horn attachments.

Little quantitative data is available on the structure of meniscal attachments. Therefore, as an aid to designing meniscal replacements as well as a possible explanation for mechanical behavior, this study was designed to further the knowledge of the microstructure and biochemistry of native meniscal attachments. Bovine medial meniscal attachments (the external ligamentous portion as well as the transition zones at the bony insertion) were removed and prepared for microstructural evaluation. After embedding in paraffin, the samples were sliced on a microtome and stained for quantitative analysis. The anterior and posterior insertion sites are known to contain three zones: subchondral bone, calcified fibrocartilage, and uncalcified fibrocartilage. Additionally, others have shown that the anterior insertion site contains a ligamentous zone. The insertion zones were further divided into proximal, middle, and distal zones. The posterior attachment's insertion site had a significantly greater thickness of interdigitations, subchondral bone, uncalcified fibrocartilage, and calcified fibrocartilage zone thickness compared to the anterior attachment insertion. The anterior attachment's insertion had the greatest GAG fraction in each zone when compared to the posterior attachment's insertion. GAG fraction decreased from the meniscus to the subchondral bone. Both GAG fraction and normalized thickness varied within a given zone, decreasing from the distal to proximal regions in both the anterior and posterior attachments' insertion zones. Crimp frequency of the collagen fibrils in the external ligamentous portion of the tissue was homogeneous along the length. The findings from this study agree with previously published material property data on the medial meniscal attachments, and could be used in the future to design methods of attachment for tissue engineered replacement menisci.