The frozen elephant trunk has simplified the surgical treatment of the entire thoracic aorta; moreover many different technical variants of how to do it have been described. Our procedure include implantation of a Gore CTAG graft into the aortic arch followed by a teflon reinforced suture line that should include the stent graft and the native aorta. The 4-branched graft is then sutured to the distal stump therefore creating a custom-made frozen elephant trunk hybrid prosthesis. Three patients with acute type A aortic dissection and primary entry tear in the arch were operated with this technique. There were no early or late deaths, moreover no neurologic events occurred. The purpose of this article is to introduce an innovative technique for total arch replacement with the combination of a Gore CTAG stent graft used as a frozen elephant trunk and a standard 4-branched graft for arch reconstruction.

Dispersal abilities play a crucial role in shaping the extent of population genetic structure, with more mobile species being panmictic over large geographic ranges and less mobile ones organized in meta-populations exchanging migrants to different degrees. In turn, population structure directly influences the coalescence pattern of the sampled lineages, but the consequences on the estimated variation of the effective population size (Ne) over time obtained by means of unstructured demographic models remain poorly understood. However, this knowledge is crucial for biologically interpreting the observed Ne trajectory and further devising conservation strategies in endangered species. Here we investigated the demographic history of four shark species (Carharhinus melanopterus, Carharhinus limbatus, Carharhinus amblyrhynchos, Galeocerdo cuvier) with different degrees of endangered status and life history traits related to dispersal distributed in the Indo-Pacific and sampled off New Caledonia. We compared several evolutionary scenarios representing both structured (meta-population) and unstructured models and then inferred the Ne variation through time. By performing extensive coalescent simulations, we provided a general framework relating the underlying population structure and the observed Ne dynamics. On this basis, we concluded that the recent decline observed in three out of the four considered species when assuming unstructured demographic models can be explained by the presence of population structure. Furthermore, we also demonstrated the limits of the inferences based on the sole site frequency spectrum and warn that statistics based on linkage disequilibrium will be needed to exclude recent demographic events affecting meta-populations.

Background: To evaluate the efficiency and safety of medium power (MP) holmium laser devices in the enucleation of the enlarged prostate (HoLEP) adenomas compared to high power (HP) laser devices. Methods: Based on the device power used, a total of 120 patients were divided randomly into two groups. While patients in Group 1 were treated with a MP device (50 W) at 39.6-W (2.2J / 18Hz ), patients in Group 2 were treated with HP (100W) device at 42W (1.2J / 35Hz). Peri- and postoperative parameters were well evaluated in both groups with an emphasis on enucleation efficiency and hemoglobin decrease in a comparative manner. Results: Peri- and postoperative parameters as well as functional results were similar in the two groups. The median enucleation efficiency (EE) values in Group 1 and Group 2 were 1.15 (IQR: 0.33-2.2) and 1.11 (IQR: 0.4-2.8), respectively (p=0.775). Hemoglobin decrease values in Group 1 and Group 2 were 1.3 (IQR: 0.1-4) and 1.4 (IQR: 0.4-3.1), respectively (p=0.736). Significant improve in the postoperative functional parameters were noted again in both groups. Conclusion: Our results indicate well that similar to the HP laser devices, effective and safe removal of the enlarged prostate adenomas with MP laser devices (50W) is possible without any technical difficulties, even in patients receiving antithrombotic therapy.

Introduction: Systemic sclerosis is a multisystemic disease. Thyroid involvement in systemic sclerosis is an issue that can be ignored. Our study aimed to evaluate the decreased thyroid volume in SSc. Also, we aimed to show the relationship between patients’ thyroid volume and severity score, clinical and laboratory parameters. Method: This was a single-center, cross-sectional study. Eighty-eight patients were included in the study. A radiologist evaluated patients’ thyroid volumes by ultrasonography. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded. Skin thickness was evaluated by the modified Rodnan skin score and the disease severity by the Medsger severity score. Findings were analyzed statistically. Results: Thyroid volume was in the atrophic range in 53.4% of the patients. There was a significant negative correlation between thyroid volume and mRSS, MSS, and disease duration. Logistic regression analysis showed that modified Rodnan skin score and disease duration were risk factors for thyroid atrophy. Conclusions: Many studies point out that thyroid autoantibodies are a cause of thyroid dysfunction in patients with SSc. However, in most of these studies, thyroid volume was not evaluated. As a result of our study, we saw that the major cause of thyroid dysfunction in our SSc patients was thyroid atrophy. Also, we observed that thyroid atrophy was more common in patients with ILD. We would like to draw attention to the fact that thyroid dysfunction and volume changes increase with the disease’s duration and severity in systemic sclerosis.

Background: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a fatal acute tick-borne viral infection and a substantial emerging global public health threat. This illness has a high case fatality rate of up to 40%. The liver is one of the important target organs of the CCHF virus. Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis to evaluate the correlation between CCHF  and liver injury and draw more generalized inferences about the abnormal serum markers of liver injury such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in CCHF patients. Methods: A literature search was accomplished for published eligible articles with MEDLINE/PubMed and Embase databases. All eligible observational studies and case series were included from around the world. The inclusion criteria were articles describing liver injury biomarkers AST and ALT amongst patients diagnosed with CCHF. Results: Data from 18 studies, consisting of 1238 patients with CCHF  were included in this meta-analysis. The overall pooled prevalence of at least one raised liver injury biomarker was 77.95% (95% CI, I2 = 88.50%, p < 0.0001). Similarly, pooled prevalence of elevated AST and ALT was 85.92% (95% CI, I2 = 85.27%,  p < 0.0001) and 64.30% (95% CI, I2 = 88.32%,  p < 0.0001) respectively.  Both Egger and Begg-Mazumdar’s tests detected no apparent publication bias in all three meta-analyses(p > 0.05).  Conclusion: These elevated liver injury biomarkers have been identified as significant prognostic factors. Hence, Physicians must recognize and continuously monitor these biomarkers, since these aid early stratification of prognosis and the prevention of severe outcomes in infection with such a high case fatality rate.

In order to measure the interfacial Strain Energy Release Rate (SERR) of adhesively bonded joints with metallic substrates, an alternative to the Tapered Double Cantilever Beam (TDCB) specimen is used here. In particular, the dimensions of one of the two substrates were reduced to create an Asymmetric Tapered Double Cantilever Beam (ATDCB) specimen. The ATDCB specimen has been introduced in the past by other research teams to study the mode I+II cohesive fracture properties of structural adhesives. It is shown the geometric dissymmetry of the ATDCB specimen affects the crack propagation path towards the interface with the smaller (less stiff) substrate. However, this substrate plasticises during the fracture test; hence, a strategy is also presented to evaluate the amount of potential energy spent for this phenomenon and subtract it from the total potential energy induced in the system during the fracture test. After this operation, the SERR of the adhesive under investigation was calculated by means of the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) theory before and after water ageing. The results showed a large decrease of the SERR with the increase of the ageing time.

purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of flexible ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy(FURSL) for treatment of the upper urinary tract calculi. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 784 patients who underwent FURSL between January 2015 to October 2020 in our unit. The operative parameters, postoperative functional outcomes and complications were recorded respectively. Rusults: All patients underwent successful operation. The mean operative time was 46.9±15.8min. The average postoperative hospital stay was 1.2±1.1 days. The postoperative serum creatinine and hemoglobin were 76.2±10.2umol/L and 133.6±5.1g/L, which compared to preoperative, there were no sigificant statistical difference. Among 784 patients, 746 patients were followed up and 38 patients were lost. 700(93.8%) cases met the stone removal critetia and 46 cases(6.2%) did not meet the stone removal criteria for other treatments, such as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy and observed regularly. The stone free rate(SFR) is 92.5% after 1-3 months and SFR of middle and upper calyceal calculi was higher than that of lower calyceal calculi significantly. The most common complications were fever(58/784,7.4%),gross hematuria(540/784,68.88%) and lpsilateral low back pain(47/784,5.99). The incidence rate of serious complication was 1.28%(10/784), including 5 cases of septic shock and 5 cases of subcapsular hematoma, which were cured after active treatment. Conclusion: FURSL is a reliable treatment for small and medium calculi patients of upper urinary tract. The curative effect of stone removal is clear,the complications are few and the safety is high. However there are certain limitation to the efficacy in the treatment of large stone and lower calyceal calculi.

L’Autorizzazione Integrata Ambientale (AIA) è il provvedimento che autorizza l’esercizio di un impianto o parte di esso, in cui si svolgono attività che potrebbero causare significativi impatti ambientali. Con l’AIA le imprese possono uniformarsi ai principi di IPPC che sta per Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control, individuando soluzioni tecniche, impiantistiche ed economiche, per una corretta gestione delle possibili forme di inquinamento. Per raggiungere elevati livelli di protezione dell’ambiente bisogna adottare le Migliori Tecniche Disponibili, in inglese Best Available Technology (BAT). Ad oggi in Italia non è ancora presente un metodo di studio delle migliori tecnologie disponibili, ma una diversa situazione si ha nel Regno Unito dove viene il software H1. Lo scopo del presente lavoro è individuare una metodologia di studio delle BAT per un impianto di trattamento della Frazione Organica dei Rifiuti Solidi Urbani (FORSU) e scarti ligneo-cellulosici per la produzione di biometano situato in Italia, applicando per lo stesso il software inglese. 

Metabarcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) is now widely used to build diversity profiles from DNA that has been shed by species into the environment. There is substantial interest in the expansion of eDNA approaches for improved detection of terrestrial vertebrates using invertebrate-derived DNA (iDNA) in which hematophagous, sarcophagous, and coprophagous invertebrates sample vertebrate blood, carrion, or feces. Here, we use metabarcoding and multiple iDNA samplers (carrion flies, sandflies, and mosquitos) to profile gamma and alpha diversity in a dry, tropical forest in the southern Amazon. Our main objectives were to (1) compare diversity found with iDNA to camera trapping, which is the conventional method of vertebrate diversity surveillance and (2) compare each of the iDNA samplers to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and potential biases associated with each sampler. Carrion flies were the most effective sampler, despite the least amount of sampling effort and the fewest number of individuals captured for metabarcoding, in describing vertebrate biodiversity followed by sandflies. Camera traps had the highest median species richness at the site-level but showed strong bias towards carnivore and ungulate species and missed much of the diversity described by iDNA methods. Mosquitos showed a strong feeding preference for humans as did sandflies for armadillos, thus presenting potential utility to further study related to host-vector interactions.

Early-life telomere length (TL) is associated with fitness in a range of organisms. Little is known about the genetic basis of variation in TL in wild animal populations, but to understand the evolutionary and ecological significance of TL it is important to quantify the relative importance of genetic and environmental variation in TL. In this study, we measured TL in 2746 house sparrow nestlings sampled across 20 years and used an animal model to show that there is a small heritable component of early-life TL (h2=0.04), but with a strong component of maternal inheritance. Variation in TL among individuals was mainly driven by environmental (year) variance, but also brood and parental effects. We did not find evidence for a negative genetic correlation underlying the observed negative phenotypic correlation between TL and structural body size. Thus, TL may evolve independently of body size and the negative phenotypic correlation is likely to be caused by non-genetic environmental effects. We further used genome‐wide association analysis to identify genomic regions associated with TL variation. We identified several putative genes underlying TL variation; these have been inferred to be involved in oxidative stress, cellular growth, skeletal development, cell differentiation and tumorigenesis in other species. Together, our results show that TL is a lowly heritable, polygenic trait which is strongly affected by environmental conditions in a free-living bird.

Background: This study investigates the use of modern machine learning (ML) techniques to improve prediction of survival after orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT). Methods: Retrospective study of adult patients undergoing primary, isolated OHT between 2000-2019 as identified in the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) registry. The primary outcome was one-year post-transplant survival. Patients were randomly divided into training (80%) and validation (20%) sets. Dimensionality reduction and data re-sampling were employed during training. Multiple machine learning algorithms were combined into a final ensemble ML model. Discriminatory capability was assessed using area under receiver-operating-characteristic curve (AUROC), net reclassification index (NRI), and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results: A total of 33,657 OHT patients were evaluated. One-year mortality was 11% (n=3,738). In the validation cohort, the AUROC of singular logistic regression was 0.649 (95% CI 0.628-0.670) compared to 0.691 (95% CI 0.671-0.711) with random forest, 0.691 (95% CI 0.671-0.712) with deep neural network, and 0.653 (95% CI 0.632-0.674) with Adaboost. A final ensemble ML model was created that demonstrated the greatest improvement in AUROC: 0.764 (95% CI 0.745-0.782) (p<0.001). The ensemble ML model improved predictive performance by 72.9% ±3.8% (p<0.001) as assessed by NRI compared to logistic regression. DCA showed the final ensemble method improved risk prediction across the entire spectrum of predicted risk as compared to all other models (p<0.001). Conclusions: Modern ML techniques can improve risk prediction in OHT compared to traditional approaches. This may have important implications in patient selection, programmatic evaluation, allocation policy, and patient counseling and prognostication.

Guillain–Barre’ syndrome (GBS) is an acute inflammatory and immune-mediated demyelinating disease of peripheral nervous system (PNS). Macrophages playing a central role in its animal model, experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN) has been well-accepted. Additionally, NF-κB inhibitors has been used to treat cancers and showed beneficial effects. Here we investigated the therapeutic effect of M2 macrophage and NF-κB pathway is correlated with macrophages activation in experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN) in C57BL/6 mice. We demonstrated that M2 macrophage transfusion can alleviate the clinical symptoms of EAN by reducing the proportion of M1 macrophage in the peak period, inhibiting the phosphorylation of NF-κB p65. The NF-κB inhibitor (BAY-11-7082) could alleviate the clinical symptoms of EAN and shorten the duration of symptoms by reducing the proportion of M1 macrophages and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Consequently, BAY-11-7082 exhibits strong potential as a therapeutic strategy for ameliorating EAN by influencing the balance of M1/M2 macrophages and inflammatory cytokines.

COVID-19 has been associated with both transient and persistent systemic symptoms that do not appear to be a direct consequence of viral infection. The generation of autoantibodies has been proposed as a mechanism to explain these symptoms. To understand this phenomenon in more detail, we investigated the frequency and specificity of clinically relevant autoantibodies in 84 individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, suffering from COVID-19 of varying severity in both the acute and convalescent setting. These were compared with results from 32 individuals who were on ITU for non COVID reasons. We demonstrate a higher frequency of autoantibodies in the COVID-19 ITU group compared with non-COVID-19 ITU disease control patients and that autoantibodies were also found in the serum 3-5 months post COVID-19 infection. Non-COVID patients displayed a diverse pattern of autoantibodies; in contrast, the COVID-19 groups had a more restricted panel of autoantibodies including skin, skeletal muscle and cardiac antibodies. Our results demonstrate that severe COVID-19 induces a pattern of autoantibodies that may correlate with and contribute to the immune pathology associated with the long-term sequelae of infection.

In this paper, the energitics, electronic and absorption properties analysis of ZnO doped and co-doped with trivalent ions Gd+3 and Al+3 have been performed using first-principles calculations with the hybrid functional theory. The results show that the energetic stability can be easily prepared the desirables Gd-, Al-doped and Gd/Al-codoped ZnO at O-rich conditions. In addition, the incorporation of Gd+3 and Al+3 into ZnO lattice creates shallow donor states around Fermi level in the conduction band minimum from mainly Al-3s and Gd-6s states, which offers good electronic properites with significant improvements for the Gd-doping compared to other dopants and pure ZnO. The results show that the absorption peaks of Al-doped and Gd/Al-codoped ZnO have a blue-shift compared with pure ZnO. However, the absorption of Gd/Al-codoped ZnO is slighly higher than that of pure and monodoped ZnO in the visible and infrared zone. Finally, these results confirm that trivalent ions doped-ZnO has n-type conductivity.

Abstract Aims: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is usually defined by two or more consecutive clinical miscarriages, which causes psychological trauma for couples. In this study, we aimed to investigate the predictive role of Fibrinogen to albumin ratio (FAR) in patients with RPL. Methods: Pregnant women in their first trimester of pregnancy were included in the study and divided in to two groups as RPL patients (n:44) and patients with no previous recurrent miscarriage (n:60) as control group. Demographical parameters and routine blood parameters (fibrinogen, D-dimer, fibrinogen to albumin ratio (FAR), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet count, main platelet volume (MPV), and red cell distribution width (RDW) values) were compared between the RPL group and the control group. Results: The groups were determined to be statistically different in regards to gravidity and parity (p<0.05). The difference between the groups was statistically different in regards to fibrinogen (mg/dl), albumin (g/dl), FAR (%), NLR (%), RDW-coefficient of variation (CV) (%), RDW-standard deviation (SD) (fL), and platelet counts (10-3/ uL). However, MPV (fL) and D-dimer (ug/L) levels were similar in both groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that the NLR levels were 84.1% sensitive and 75% specific with a cut-off value of 4.27 and the FAR levels were 79.5% sensitive and 88.3% specific with a cut-off value of 105.69 for predicting RPL. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the FAR and NLR levels seem to be effective parameters for predicting RPL with high sensitivity and specificity.

Propylene oxide is an important chemical raw material. In this paper, Density Functional Theory (DFT) was used to calculate the epoxidation of propylene on the dimer MoOx by Gaussian 09 software. Firstly, we established the structure of the dimer MoOx/SiO2 and analyzed it, and then calculated the dehydrogenation process of propylene and the formation process of PO. It was found that the activity of O in Mo-O-Si was higher, which was beneficial to the AHS process of C3H6, but the reaction activity of different O substances to the formation of PO was very low. In order to solve this problem, we established a dimer MoOx model with defect sites, and found that the defect sites in the dimer could effectively activate O2 (O2- 2), and the activated material O had high PO selectivity. Compared with process of AHS and the process of PO formation, the energy barrier of PO formation path was very low, which was the main product. At the same time, we also established the MoOx model of Fe doped dimer and the MoOx model of Fe doped defect dimer. It was found that the MoOx clusters were more active due to Fe doping, and the energy barriers of both AHS process and PO formation path were greatly reduced compared with those before doping. The presence of Fe made it easier for the dimer MoOx to form defect sites, which made it easier to activate O2 (O- 2) and reduced the energy barriers of both AHS and PO formation processes.

Background Since the severity of symptoms affects the treatment option for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, the treatment pattern for mild to moderate non-ICU cases must be evaluated, particularly in the current scenario of mutation and variant strain for effective decision making. Objectives This retrospective study’s objectives were to assess clinical and treatment outcomes in mild to moderate non-ICU COVID-19 patients in Saudi Arabia. Methods Non-ICU patients with COVID-19 with mild to moderate symptoms who were admitted to major tertiary care hospitals in Al Baha, Saudi Arabia, between April and August 2019 were studied retrospectively for clinical outcomes. Results A total of 811 people were admitted for COVID-19 treatment, with age ranging from 14 to 66, diabetes mellitus (31 %, n = 248) and hypertension (24%, n = 198) were the most common comorbid conditions. The majority of the patients (77 %, n = 621) had reported symptoms for COVID -19 infection. The hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) treated group (G1 n = 466) had an MD of 8 and an IQR of 5-13 for time in hospital with a 4.3 % mortality rate, while the non-HCQ group (G2 n = 345) had an MD of 6 and an IQR of 3-11 for time in hospital with a 3.2 % mortality rate. The mortality rate among non-HCQ treated patients varied, but a combination of antiviral and antibiotic treatment was found to be effective, other most frequent intervention was analgesics 85.7 %, anticoagulant 75 %, minerals (Zinc 83 % and Vit D3 82 %). Conclusions The COVID 19 therapy and clinical outcomes from the past will be the guiding factor to treat the mutant strain infection in the future. Patients treated HCQ had a higher mortality rate, whereas those who were given a non-HCQ combination had a greater clinical outcome profile.

In this case report we describe how to recycle the Left Internal Thoracic Artery (LITA) when misused but not damaged. 8 years after a Left Anterior Small Thoracotomy followed by LAD stenting for STEMI in 1st post-operative day, a 67 years old woman had a NSTEMI with angiographic evidence of intra-stent re-stenosis with a perfectly patent LITA, harvested only from the 4th to the 6th intercostal space. During redo surgery, LITA was harvested as a pedicle from the anastomosis to the 4th intercostal space and primarily from the 1st to the 4th intercostal space. Special attention was paid at the level of the 4th intercostal space where the vessel was stuck to the sternum: a 15 blade was used being scissors or cautery too dangerous. At the end of harvesting, the LITA was full-length available for a new coronary anastomosis on LAD, distal to the previous one.

AlSi9Cu3(Fe) vacuum-assisted high pressure die cast (VPDC) specimens were investigated by experimental fatigue test and fracture mechanics approach. The aims of the investigations were (i) to evaluate the fracture resistance and (ii) to indirectly determine the threshold stress intensity value (ΔKth) of casting alloy in uniaxial tension. The specimens were sorted into two groups: specimens with different size (0.01-0.40 mm2) natural defects, and specimens an additional artificial blind hole. The fatigue strength region was tested at R=-1 stress ratio to 107 number of cycles to fracture. The fracture mechanics approach was applied to study the behavior of the small cracks by Kitagawa diagram, the defect size was taken into account by the Murakami’s (√area) parameter. The fatigue strength values were 104.7 MPa for smooth specimen, 92.7 MPa for specimen with D0.3 artificial hole, and 87.2 MPa for specimen with D0.6 artificial hole at the prescribed cycles, respectively.

To study the thermal cracking characteristics and mechanism of sandstone after high-temperature treatment, the pore size distribution and micromorphology of sandstone were observed by nuclear magnetic resonance and scanning electron microscopy. Then, based on the Weibull distribution theory, a thermal elastic mechanical model of random heterogeneous rock was established for the rock unit, the thermal stress distribution characteristics of sandstone were analysed, and the thermal fracture mechanism of rock was discussed. The results show that the porosities of the samples increased with increasing temperature, and the proportion of large pores increased significantly when exceeded 400 °C. Particularly when reached 1000 °C, thermal cracking was distributed in a complex network. Additionally, different rock units are in different thermal stress states, which leads to the regional differences in the distribution of rock thermal fracture. When exceeded 400 °C, there were obvious thermal cracks near the outer edge that weakened the mechanical properties of rock.

Diagnosing asthma in preschool children remains an unsolved challenge, at a time when early identification would allow for better education and treatment to prevent morbidity and lung function deterioration. Objective: To evaluate if the Asthma Predictive Index (API) can be used as surrogate for asthma diagnosis in preschoolers. Methods: Birth cohort of 339 pregnant women enrolled at delivery and their offspring, who were followed for atopy, wheezing, and other respiratory illnesses through 30 months of age. The API was determined at 30 months of age by the researchers; and examined its association with physician-diagnosed asthma during the first 30 months, made independently by the primary care physician not involved in the study. Results: Among 307 offspring with complete follow-up, 44 (14.3%) were API+. Maternal body mass index, maternal education, past oral contraceptive use, birthweight, placenta weight, age of daycare at 12m, gastroesophageal reflux disease at 12m, acute otitis media at 18m, bronchiolitis, croup and pneumonia, cord blood adiponectin were all associated with API+. In the multivariable analysis, API+ was associated with almost 6-fold odds of asthma diagnosis (adjusted OR= 5.7, 95% CI [2.6-12.3]), after adjusting for the relevant covariates above including respiratory infections like bronchiolitis and pneumonia. The API sensitivity was 48%, specificity 92%, 61% PPV, 88% NPV, 6.4 LR+, 0.56 LR-, 0.84 diagnosis accuracy. The adjusted odds for asthma was 11.4. Conclusions: This longitudinal birth cohort suggests, for first time, that API could be used as a diagnostic tool, not only as a prognostic tool, in toddlers and preschoolers.

Fat metabolism in toothed whales is different from other mammals. RT-qPCR is still a reliable technique for studying the relative expressions of various genes involved in metabolism. This study was done for Risso’s dolphin, a toothed whale and information produced here will be important for further transcriptomics studies focused on unrevealed marine mammal fat metabolism. In this study, we sought to identify a suitable reference gene with minimum resources. Seven candidate reference genes ZC3H10, FTL, LGALS1, RPL27A, GAPDH, FTH1 and DCN were initially tested for amplification efficiency using RT-qPCR by producing standard curves. Then, three nearly 100% efficient genes FTL, LGALS1 and GAPDH were selected for the gene stability analysis to determine one stable gene across eight different fat tissues, liver, and muscle of Risso’s dolphins based on four algorithms, provided in geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and Delta Ct. Finally, a RefFinder comprehensive ranking was done based on stability values and the genes were ranked as: FTL>LGALS1>GAPDH. The FTL and LGHLS were identified as the most stable genes; however, GAPDH was third, a well-known housekeeping gene for mammals. Finally, we suggest using FTL as a reliable reference gene for functional genomics studies on toothed whales in the future.

We report on a 15-year-long outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in wildlife from a Brazilian safari park. A timeline of diagnostic events and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 21 Mycobacterium bovis isolates from deer and llamas were analyzed. Accordingly, from 2003 to 2018, at least 16 animals, from 8 species, died due to TB, which is likely an underestimated number. In three occasions since 2013, the deer presented positive tuberculin tests, leading to the park closure and culling of all deer. WGS indicated that multiple M. bovis strains were circulating, with at least three founding introductions since the park inauguration in 1977. Recent transmission events between nearby farms and the park were not found based on WGS. Lastly, by discussing socio-economic and environmental factors escaping current regulatory gaps that were determinant of this outbreak, we pledge for the development of a plan to report and control bTB in wildlife in Brazil.

False pregnancy''can be described as a false belief of being pregnant despite factual evidence to the contrary.A 33-year-old woman, was referred to the hospital. believing that she was pregnant Contrary to the patient's reports, which show no child.The importance of research is to show how the patient's delusions affects he