Assessment of runs of homozygosity, heterozygosity-rich regions and genomic inbreeding estimates in a subpopulation of Guzerá (Bos indicus) dual-purpose cattle.

For decades, inbreeding in cattle has been evaluated using pedigree information. Nowadays, inbreeding coefficients can be obtained using genomic information such as runs of homozygosity (ROH). The aims of this study were to quantify ROH and heterozygosity-rich regions (HRR) in a subpopulation of Guzerá dual-purpose cattle, to examine ROH and HRR islands, and to compare inbreeding coefficients obtained by ROH with alternative genomic inbreeding coefficients. A subpopulation of 1733 Guzerá animals genotyped for 50k SNPs was used to obtain the ROH and HRR segments. Inbreeding coefficients by ROH (FROH ), by genomic relationship matrix based on VanRaden's method 1 using reference allele frequency in the population (FGRM ), by genomic relationship matrix based on VanRaden's method 1 using allele frequency fixed in 0.5 (FGRM_0.5 ), and by the proportion of homozygous loci (FHOM ) were calculated. A total of 15,660 ROH were identified, and the chromosome with the highest number of ROH was BTA6. A total of 4843 HRRs were identified, and the chromosome with the highest number of HRRs was BTA23. No ROH and HRR islands were identified according to established criteria, but the regions closest to the definition of an island were examined from 64 to 67 Mb of BTA6, from 36 to 37 Mb of BTA2 and from 0.50 to 1.25 Mb of BTA23. The genes identified in ROH islands have previously been associated with dairy and beef traits, while genes identified on HRR islands have previously been associated with reproductive traits and disease resistance. FROH was equal to 0.095 ± 0.084, and its Spearman correlation with FGRM was low (0.44) and moderate-high with FHOM (0.79) and with FGRM_0.5 (0.80). The inbreeding coefficients determined by ROH were higher than other cattle breeds' and higher than pedigree-based inbreeding in the Guzerá breed obtained in previous studies. It is recommended that future studies investigate the effects of inbreeding determined by ROH on the traits under selection in the subpopulation studied.

Enforcing surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic use to drive stewardship: experience in a paediatric setting.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic stewardship (AS) interventions in paediatrics are still not standardized regarding methodology, metrics, and outcomes. We report the results of an AS intervention in the paediatric area based on education and guideline provision via an electronic App. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The AS intervention was conducted in 2021 through observation, education, audit and feedback and provision of an electronic App (Firstline.org) to support antibiotic prescription based on local susceptibility data. The primary outcome was the antibiotic consumption in the 12 months following the intervention (year 2022) compared with a historical 12-month control (year 2019) via an interrupted time series analysis. Secondary outcomes were appropriateness of therapy, length of stay, 30-day readmission, transfers to the paediatric intensive care unit, in-hospital mortality, and prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). RESULTS: During the post-intervention phase, 29 cross-sectional audits and feedback were conducted including 467 patients. Prescriptions were appropriate according to the guidelines in 85.7% of cases, with a stable trend over time. A significant decrease in antibiotic consumption was measured in terms of defined daily doses per 1000 patient days (-222.13; P<0.001) and days of therapy per 1000 patient days (-452.49; P<0.001) in the post-intervention period with a clear inversion of the Access to Watch ratio (from 0.7 to 1.7). Length of stay, in-hospital mortality, intensive care unit transfers, and incidence of AMR infections remained stable, while 30-day readmission decreased from 4.9 per 100 admissions to 2.8 per 100 admissions (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The intervention was associated with a significant reduction in antimicrobial consumption and an increase in the appropriateness of prescriptions. Electronic tools can be of value in promoting adherence to guidelines and ensuring the sustainability of results.

Estimating the association between antibiotic exposure and colonization with extended-spectrum ß-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria using machine learning methods: a multicentre, prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to measure the impact of antibiotic exposure on the acquisition of colonization with extended-spectrum ß-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria (ESBL-GNB) accounting for individual- and group-level confounding using machine-learning methods. METHODS: Patients hospitalized between September 2010 and June 2013 at six medical and six surgical wards in Italy, Serbia and Romania were screened for ESBL-GNB at hospital admission, discharge, antibiotic start, and after 3, 7, 15 and 30 days. Primary outcomes were the incidence rate and predictive factors of new ESBL-GNB colonization. Random forest algorithm was used to rank antibiotics according to the risk of selection of ESBL-GNB colonization in patients not colonized before starting antibiotics. RESULTS: We screened 10 034 patients collecting 28 322 rectal swab samples. New ESBL-GNB colonization incidence with and without antibiotic treatment was 22/1000 and 9/1000 exposure-days, respectively. In the adjusted regression analyses, antibiotic exposure (hazard ratio (HR) 2.38; 95% CI 1.29-4.40), age 60-69 years (HR 1.19; 95% CI 1.05-1.34), and spring season (HR 1.25; 95% CI 1.14-1.38) were independently associated with new colonization. Monotherapy ranked higher als combination therapy in promoting ESBL-GNB colonization. Among monotherapy, cephalosporins ranked first followed by tetracycline (second), macrolide (fourth) and cotrimoxazole (seventh). Overall the ranking of cephalosporins was lower when used in combination. Among combinations not including cephalosporins, quinolones plus carbapenems ranked highest (eighth). Among sequential therapies, quinolones ranked highest (tenth) when prescribed within 30 days of therapy with cephalosporins. CONCLUSIONS: Impact of antibiotics on selecting ESBL-GNB at intestinal level varies if used in monotherapy or combination and according to previous antibiotic exposure. These finding should be explored in future clinical trials on antibiotic stewardship interventions. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01208519.

Emotional, cognitive and social factors of antimicrobial prescribing: can antimicrobial stewardship intervention be effective without addressing psycho-social factors?

There is increasing evidence that psycho-social factors can influence antimicrobial prescribing practice in hospitals and the community, and represent potential barriers to antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Clinicians are conditioned both by emotional and cognitive factors based on fear, uncertainty, a set of beliefs, risk perception and cognitive bias, and by interpersonal factors established through social norms and peer and doctor-patient communication. However, a gap is emerging between research and practice, and no stewardship recommendation addresses the most appropriate human resource allocation or modalities to account for psycho-social determinants of prescribing. There is a need for translation of the evidence available from human behaviour studies to the design and implementation of stewardship interventions and policies at hospital and community levels. The integration of behaviour experts into multidisciplinary stewardship teams seems essential to positively impact on prescribers' communication and decision-making competencies, and reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.

Tubercular liver abscess: an uncommon presentation of disseminated tuberculosis.

We present a case of tubercular liver abscess with disseminated tuberculosis, associated with underlying HIV infection. The patient responded well to percutaneous drainage of the abscess and first-line quadruple antitubercular therapy. We report this case to highlight a rare manifestation of a common disease and to create greater awareness which may ensure timely diagnosis and avoid unnecessary surgical intervention.

Evaluación del grado de satisfacción y determinación del contenido de fibra de un pan elaborado en base a harina de arroz integral / Evaluation of the degree of satisfaction and determination of fiber content in bread made with brown rice flour

En la población celíaca la contraindicación en el consumo de algunos tipos de cereales integrales, limita el aporte de fibra total a la proveniente de frutas, hortalizas, legumbres y semillas, aumentando la probabilidad de no alcanzar la ingesta adecuada de fibra dietética, por lo que es necesario considerar el aporte de fibra de los cereales y en especial del pan, por el elevado consumo del mismo en la Argentina. El objetivo fue elaborar un pan a base de harina de arroz integral con alto contenido de fibra (libre de gluten) y evaluar el grado de satisfacción del mismo. Se procedió a elaborar el pan, luego se determinó analíticamente el contenido de fibra mediante método AOAC 985.2 y se realizó una comparación con otros panes disponibles en el mercado; por último se procedió a valorar el grado de aceptabilidad del pan mediante una escala hedónica. El pan elaborado presenta un alto aporte de fibra dietética(10,6g/100g) y con características sensoriales similares a un pan convencional (con gluten). El contenido de fibra es superior al aportado por otros panes integrales (aptos y no aptos para celíacos) ofrecidos en el mercado, hasta 3,7 veces más fibra que similares productos integrales y 10 veces más fibra que el pan comercial (no integral) apto para celíacos. Contiene sólo 1,9g de grasas totales/100g (AOAC 920,85), no aporta grasas saturadas porque fueron reemplazadas por grasas monoinsaturadas (aceite de girasol alto oleico). El grado de satisfacción ha sido valorado positivamente por más del 90% de la personas y no ha recibido valoraciones negativas. Se logró elaborar un pan libre de gluten con alto contenido de fibra dietética, y con aceptables características organolépticas, orientado a incrementar el aporte de fibra en los individuos celíacos que lo requieran(AU)

Evaluación del grado de satisfacción y determinación del contenido de fibra de un pan elaborado en base a harina de arroz integral / Evaluation of the degree of satisfaction and determination of fiber content in bread made with brown rice flour

En la población celíaca la contraindicación en el consumo de algunos tipos de cereales integrales, limita el aporte de fibra total a la proveniente de frutas, hortalizas, legumbres y semillas, aumentando la probabilidad de no alcanzar la ingesta adecuada de fibra dietética, por lo que es necesario considerar el aporte de fibra de los cereales y en especial del pan, por el elevado consumo del mismo en la Argentina. El objetivo fue elaborar un pan a base de harina de arroz integral con alto contenido de fibra (libre de gluten) y evaluar el grado de satisfacción del mismo. Se procedió a elaborar el pan, luego se determinó analíticamente el contenido de fibra mediante método AOAC 985.2 y se realizó una comparación con otros panes disponibles en el mercado; por último se procedió a valorar el grado de aceptabilidad del pan mediante una escala hedónica. El pan elaborado presenta un alto aporte de fibra dietética(10,6g/100g) y con características sensoriales similares a un pan convencional (con gluten). El contenido de fibra es superior al aportado por otros panes integrales (aptos y no aptos para celíacos) ofrecidos en el mercado, hasta 3,7 veces más fibra que similares productos integrales y 10 veces más fibra que el pan comercial (no integral) apto para celíacos. Contiene sólo 1,9g de grasas totales/100g (AOAC 920,85), no aporta grasas saturadas porque fueron reemplazadas por grasas monoinsaturadas (aceite de girasol alto oleico). El grado de satisfacción ha sido valorado positivamente por más del 90% de la personas y no ha recibido valoraciones negativas. Se logró elaborar un pan libre de gluten con alto contenido de fibra dietética, y con aceptables características organolépticas, orientado a incrementar el aporte de fibra en los individuos celíacos que lo requieran

Improvement of protein secondary structure prediction by combination of statistical algorithms and circular dichroism.

Three different approaches (propensity curve shifting, hydropathy index evaluation, and iterative attribution/cancellation of secondary structure) to the use of secondary structure percentages derived from circular dichroism measurements to improve the success rate of a protein secondary structure prediction method, without using decision constants, are described and compared. Propensity-curve shifting appears to be the best-performing approach, bearing an increase of 5.3% in the success rate of single-residue structural prediction when exact information on the secondary structure, obtained by X-ray crystallography, is employed; with information of an accuracy comparable to that obtainable by circular dichroism, the improvement stays between 3.5 and 4.9%, for a three-state prediction. Although developed with circular dichroism in mind, the method can use percentages of secondary structure obtained by any other experimental methodology from which they can be inferred, for instance Raman spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy.