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Three wild dogs (and the truth) : a memoir
\"What happens when the Zusak family opens their home to three big, wild, street-hardened dogs--Reuben, more wolf than hound; Archer, blond, beautiful, destructive; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm? The answer can only be chaos: there are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property damages, injuries, hospital visits, wellness checks, pure comedy, shocking tragedy, and carnage that must be read to be believed. ... [This is a] memoir about the human need for both connection and disorder, a love letter to the animals who bring hilarity and beauty--but also the visceral truth of the natural world--straight to our doors and into our lives and change us forever\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Animals, Aging, and the Aged
This volume explores the significant contributions of animals to our understanding of aging, to improving geriatric medicine, and to providing companionship and assistance to the elderly. Leo L. Bustad discusses what can be learned from animal life-span studies about the process of aging, including the problems of cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and age-related mental conditions. The results of these studies suggest that changes in life-style -- especially the diet -- may modify the effects of chronic degenerative diseases. Other studies show that caring for a pet can contribute greatly to the health and well-being of the elderly. Bustad surveys experiments using animals in therapy and he presents, for the first time, evaluative instruments for choosing the appropriate pet. Companion animals allow many elderly people to maintain their independence. Animals are also helpful as aids for those with visual, hearing, and physical impairments. An appendix lists agencies that train dogs as aids to the physically impaired. Animals, Aging, and the Aged is a thoughtful discussion of the physical, psychological, and social problems faced by the elderly, with emphasis on the ways that animals have contributed to the solution of some of those problems. As such, it will be useful for those involved in geriatric medicine and social work and in veterinary medicine and research. This book is volume 5 in the series Wesley W. Spink Lectures in Comparative Medicine.
eBook
An engineered PET depolymerase to break down and recycle plastic bottles
Present estimates suggest that of the 359 million tons of plastics produced annually worldwide
1
, 150–200 million tons accumulate in landfill or in the natural environment
2
. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is the most abundant polyester plastic, with almost 70 million tons manufactured annually worldwide for use in textiles and packaging
3
. The main recycling process for PET, via thermomechanical means, results in a loss of mechanical properties
4
. Consequently, de novo synthesis is preferred and PET waste continues to accumulate. With a high ratio of aromatic terephthalate units—which reduce chain mobility—PET is a polyester that is extremely difficult to hydrolyse
5
. Several PET hydrolase enzymes have been reported, but show limited productivity
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,
7
. Here we describe an improved PET hydrolase that ultimately achieves, over 10 hours, a minimum of 90 per cent PET depolymerization into monomers, with a productivity of 16.7 grams of terephthalate per litre per hour (200 grams per kilogram of PET suspension, with an enzyme concentration of 3 milligrams per gram of PET). This highly efficient, optimized enzyme outperforms all PET hydrolases reported so far, including an enzyme
8
,
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from the bacterium
Ideonella sakaiensis
strain 201-F6 (even assisted by a secondary enzyme
10
) and related improved variants
11
–
14
that have attracted recent interest. We also show that biologically recycled PET exhibiting the same properties as petrochemical PET can be produced from enzymatically depolymerized PET waste, before being processed into bottles, thereby contributing towards the concept of a circular PET economy.
Computer-aided engineering produces improvements to an enzyme that breaks down poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) into its constituent monomers, which are used to synthesize PET of near-petrochemical grade that can be further processed into bottles.
Journal Article
One Health Investigation into Mpox and Pets, United States
Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is zoonotic and capable of infecting many mammal species. However, whether common companion animals are susceptible to MPXV infection is unclear. During July 2022-March 2023, we collected animal and environmental swab samples within homes of confirmed human mpox case-patients and tested for MPXV and human DNA by PCR. We also used ELISA for orthopoxvirus antibody detection. Overall, 12% (22/191) of animal and 25% (14/56) of environmental swab samples from 4 households, including samples from 4 dogs and 1 cat, were positive for MPXV DNA, but we did not detect viable MPXV or orthopoxvirus antibodies. Among MPXV PCR-positive swab samples, 82% from animals and 93% from environment amplified human DNA with a statistically significant correlation in observed cycle threshold values. Our findings demonstrate likely DNA contamination from the human mpox cases. Despite the high likelihood for exposure, we found no indications that companion animals were infected with MPXV.
Journal Article
Positron emission tomography in the diagnosis and management of primary pediatric lung tumors
Primary pediatric lung tumors are uncommon and have many overlapping clinical and imaging features. In contrast to adult lung tumors, these rare pediatric neoplasms have a relatively broad histologic spectrum. Informed by a single-institution 13-year retrospective record review, we present an overview of the most common primary pediatric lung neoplasms, with a focus on the role of positron emission tomography (PET), specifically 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET and 68Ga-DOTATATE PET, in the management of primary pediatric lung tumors. In addition to characteristic conventional radiographic and cross-sectional imaging findings, knowledge of patient age, underlying cancer predisposition syndromes, and PET imaging features may help narrow the differential. While metastases from other primary malignancies remain the most commonly encountered pediatric lung malignancy, the examples presented in this pictorial essay highlight many of the important conventional radiologic and PET imaging features of primary pediatric lung malignancies.
Journal Article
Danger
The precautionary principle (a.k.a. “just in case”) has driven the global response to Covid from the get-go. Just in case plexiglass barriers help stop the spread. Just in case the park swings harbor the virus. It’s a policy approach that dates back to the 1970s, when politicians invoked the German principle of Vorsorge — literally, “pre-concern” — to justify tougher environmental measures. The phrase “abundance of caution” captures the precautionary principle in a more literary way. It has a lofty sound to it, connoting wisdom and restraint. The locution exploded in popularity in the spring of 2020 and has since become a go-to apology for Covid restrictions. “Out of an abundance of caution,” a Toronto school closed for a week after an itinerant staff member tested positive. “Out of an abundance of caution,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture advised people with Covid to keep distance from their pets. “Out of abundance of caution,” Singapore required quarantine for incoming travelers who had antibodies after recovering from Covid, on the chance they were infected with a new variant. “Out of an abundance of caution,” the Biden administration issued new travel bans in response to the Omicron variant. It’s far past time we ask ourselves when abundance really means excess, when our precautionary measures against Covid have gone too far, when we have ignored the costs and lost all sense of proportionality.
Journal Article
Consensus Nomenclature for in vivo Imaging of Reversibly Binding Radioligands
An international group of experts in pharmacokinetic modeling recommends a consensus nomenclature to describe in vivo molecular imaging of reversibly binding radioligands.An international group of experts in pharmacokinetic modeling recommends a consensus nomenclature to describe in vivo molecular imaging of reversibly binding radioligands.
Journal Article
Terbium-161 for PSMA-targeted radionuclide therapy of prostate cancer
PurposeThe prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) has emerged as an interesting target for radionuclide therapy of metastasized castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The aim of this study was to investigate 161Tb (T1/2 = 6.89 days; Eβ͞av = 154 keV) in combination with PSMA-617 as a potentially more effective therapeutic alternative to 177Lu-PSMA-617, due to the abundant co-emission of conversion and Auger electrons, resulting in an improved absorbed dose profile.Methods161Tb was used for the radiolabeling of PSMA-617 at high specific activities up to 100 MBq/nmol. 161Tb-PSMA-617 was tested in vitro and in tumor-bearing mice to confirm equal properties, as previously determined for 177Lu-PSMA-617. The effects of 161Tb-PSMA-617 and 177Lu-PSMA-617 on cell viability (MTT assay) and survival (clonogenic assay) were compared in vitro using PSMA-positive PC-3 PIP tumor cells. 161Tb-PSMA-617 was further investigated in therapy studies using PC-3 PIP tumor-bearing mice.Results161Tb-PSMA-617 and 177Lu-PSMA-617 displayed equal in-vitro properties and tissue distribution profiles in tumor-bearing mice. The viability and survival of PC-3 PIP tumor cells were more reduced when exposed to 161Tb-PSMA-617 as compared to the effect obtained with the same activities of 177Lu-PSMA-617 over the whole investigated concentration range. Treatment of mice with 161Tb-PSMA-617 (5.0 MBq/mouse and 10 MBq/mouse, respectively) resulted in an activity-dependent increase of the median survival (36 vs 65 days) compared to untreated control animals (19 days). Therapy studies to compare the effects of 161Tb-PSMA-617 and 177Lu-PSMA-617 indicated the anticipated superiority of 161Tb over 177Lu.Conclusion161Tb-PSMA-617 showed superior in-vitro and in-vivo results as compared to 177Lu-PSMA-617, confirming theoretical dose calculations that indicate an additive therapeutic effect of conversion and Auger electrons in the case of 161Tb. These data warrant more preclinical research for in-depth investigations of the proposed concept, and present a basis for future clinical translation of 161Tb-PSMA-617 for the treatment of mCRPC.
Journal Article
Oiling the Chicken Machine
In her community, it’s common knowledge that my mom is a soft touch when it comes to chickens. She maintains a motley flock of adoptees — backyard hens whose owners have moved, scrawny layers too old to be worth their feed, the pets of children who never much wanted them in the first place. She knows most of the people who donate the birds, or at least knows how they connect to her capacious social circle. But a few years ago, a complete stranger arrived at her door. He came bearing two bony, adolescent chicks, pink skin showing through their white feathers, their beaks and feet comically outsized. He’d bought them as an Easter present for his grandkids, and rather than petite, pretty hens, they had turned into gangly monstrosities. Mom spotted them for the woefully underfed meat birds they were, but she nevertheless took them in. One died almost immediately, whether of natural causes or at the teeth of a fox no one remembers. The other survived. It grew and grew and ate and grew some more, inflating until it weighed some twenty pounds, more than three times as much as a standard laying hen. Released from the pen for their morning constitutional, the other members of the flock would dart about after bugs and shoots. They’d take dust baths and cluck and squabble. The lone broiler would do all this too, but at half speed. While the araucana and barred rock chickens swiftly tacked about the large patch of hosta that curled around the back deck, the broiler would plod through it like a miniature white tugboat. Perhaps because of her size, she moved with uncommon deliberateness, as if taking each step only after a great deal of thought. She walked, and the leaves parted before the prow of her serene, unflighty chest. For the past century, agriculture in America has been getting more productive and more efficient. After stagnating for decades at twenty-something bushels per acre, average corn yields have risen to nearly two hundred. Horses have been replaced by horsepower. Chicken meat, once a relatively rare byproduct of the egg industry, has become the most consumed meat in the country, a shift made possible by advances in genetics and feed. Now over a billion dollars, from sources as varied as Bill Gates, venture capital funds, and agribusiness giants, have been invested in the idea that the next big thing in food is to leave farming behind, at least the livestock part of it. Instead of growing chicken meat in a chicken, why not grow it in a test tube?
Journal Article