First molecular evidence of Anaplasma spp. co-infection in stray dogs from Anhui, China.

Anaplasma species are obligate intracellular pathogens that threaten the health of both humans and animals worldwide. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Anaplasma species in stray dogs in Anhui Province, China. Blood samples from 201 apparently healthy stray dogs were collected from August 2017 to January 2018, and Anaplasma spp. infection in these dogs was evaluated by nested PCR and phylogenetic analysis. The overall infection rate of Anaplasma spp. in stray dogs was 38.3% (77/201). The prevalences of single infection of A. platys, A. phagocytophilum and A. ovis were 15.4%, 11.9%, and 8.5%, respectively. Co-infection rate of A. platys and A. phagocytophilum was 1.5% and that of A. platys and A. ovis was 0.5%. Co-infection by these three pathogens was found in one sample (0.5%). This is the first report of Anaplasma spp. infections in stray dogs from Anhui, China.

Virtual reality technology for teaching neurosurgery of skull base tumor.

BACKGROUND: Neurosurgery represents one of the most challenging and delicate of any surgical procedure. Skull base tumors in particular oftentimes present as a very technically difficult procedures in the setting of neurosurgical teaching. Virtual reality technology is one of the most promising surgical planning tools. It can perform fast three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other imaging data sets under conditions of virtual reality (VR). Surgical simulation can more intuitively understand the anatomical relationship of the surgical area in significantly greater detail. METHODS: Thirty clinical undergraduates from the class of 2016 were randomly divided into two groups: the traditional teaching group and the virtual reality teaching group. After the study concluded, the teaching effectiveness was evaluated by combining basic theoretical knowledge, case analysis and questionnaire survey methods. RESULTS: Comparative analysis between both groups showed the response effect of the virtual reality teaching group was better than that of the traditional teaching group (P < 0.05). There was also no difference between both groups in terms of the design of the surgical approach and the listing of surgical matters that required attention (P > 0.05).The results of theoretical knowledge assessment between both groups showed that the scores of basic theory, location, adjacent structure, clinical manifestation, diagnosis and analysis, surgical methods and total scores in the VR group exceeded those in the traditional teaching group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that VR technology might improve neurosurgical skull base teaching quality, which should be promoted in the teaching of clinical subjects.

Lipid profiling of rat peritoneal surface layers by online normal- and reversed-phase 2D LC QToF-MS.

An online, two-dimensional (2D) liquid chromatography (LC) quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QToF-MS) method was developed for lipid profiling of rat peritoneal surface layers, in which the lipid classes and species could be simultaneously separated in one injection with a significantly increased sensitivity. Different lipid classes were separated on a normal-phase column in the first dimension and lipid molecular species were separated on a reversed-phase column in the second dimension, so that the ion suppression effects were reduced while the detection sensitivity was improved. Identified were 721 endogenous lipid species from 12 lipid classes, in which 415 structures were confirmed using tandem mass spectra, and the other 306 lipid molecular species were identified by accurate masses. The linearity, limit of detection, and repeatability were all satisfactory. The method was applied to the investigation of the lipid changes in rat peritoneal surface layer after peritoneal dialysis, and 32 potential lipid biomarkers were identified, as their concentrations in the dosed group were 2.2-12.5 times of those in the control group. The results revealed that this 2D LC-MS system was a promising tool for lipid profiling of complex biological samples.