A Phenomenological Study in Understanding African American Spiritual Leaders and the Black Church on Elder Abuse

This qualitative study described how the Black Church and African American Spiritual Leaders in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, understood the issue of elder abuse and the Black Church\u27s role in navigating education and resources to those who are victims or at risk. African-American Spiritual Leaders\u27 role and leadership are integral in combating elder abuse among their older members of the church and society. African Americans have always placed a significant portion of their support in the church and frequently turn to them before considering other options. Acknowledging the church\u27s and spiritual leaders\u27 involvement in comprehending the awareness of elder maltreatment is essential when working with the older population, which further emphasizes this obligation. Understanding how the Christian church expresses hope and the likeness of God to its elderly population depends critically on understanding how pastoral leadership illustrates hope and the image of God. This framework outlined used Burn\u27s (1978) transformational leadership theory to explain the Spiritual Leaders\u27 knowledge and expertise to represent their capacity to communicate vision and inspiration for change to the senior population. This study used one research question and two supporting questions. A survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with African American church leaders who had any information or experience with elder maltreatment served as the primary data-gathering methods for this study. This researcher aims to gather pertinent information for future research studies by looking at the leadership styles of pastoral leaders, their knowledge of elder abuse, and the role of the Black Church in successfully navigating elder abuse

ISARIC-COVID-19 dataset: A Prospective, Standardized, Global Dataset of Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19

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Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 in adults and children

Different neurological manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adults and children and their impact have not been well characterized. We aimed to determine the prevalence of neurological manifestations and in-hospital complications among hospitalized COVID-19 patients and ascertain differences between adults and children. We conducted a prospective multicentre observational study using the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) cohort across 1507 sites worldwide from 30 January 2020 to 25 May 2021. Analyses of neurological manifestations and neurological complications considered unadjusted prevalence estimates for predefined patient subgroups, and adjusted estimates as a function of patient age and time of hospitalization using generalized linear models. Overall, 161 239 patients (158 267 adults; 2972 children) hospitalized with COVID-19 and assessed for neurological manifestations and complications were included. In adults and children, the most frequent neurological manifestations at admission were fatigue (adults: 37.4%; children: 20.4%), altered consciousness (20.9%; 6.8%), myalgia (16.9%; 7.6%), dysgeusia (7.4%; 1.9%), anosmia (6.0%; 2.2%) and seizure (1.1%; 5.2%). In adults, the most frequent in-hospital neurological complications were stroke (1.5%), seizure (1%) and CNS infection (0.2%). Each occurred more frequently in intensive care unit (ICU) than in non-ICU patients. In children, seizure was the only neurological complication to occur more frequently in ICU versus non-ICU (7.1% versus 2.3%, P < 0.001). Stroke prevalence increased with increasing age, while CNS infection and seizure steadily decreased with age. There was a dramatic decrease in stroke over time during the pandemic. Hypertension, chronic neurological disease and the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation were associated with increased risk of stroke. Altered consciousness was associated with CNS infection, seizure and stroke. All in-hospital neurological complications were associated with increased odds of death. The likelihood of death rose with increasing age, especially after 25 years of age. In conclusion, adults and children have different neurological manifestations and in-hospital complications associated with COVID-19. Stroke risk increased with increasing age, while CNS infection and seizure risk decreased with age

Storage and Propagation Characteristics of Miscanthus x giganteus

Miscanthus x giganteus Anderss. exhibits favourable characteristics as a dedicated second-generation biomass feedstock. Propagation of this sterile species occurs mainly through micropropagation or rhizome cuttings, resulting in high establishment costs. This thesis sought to investigate the improvement of storage duration for field-harvested rhizomes, prolongment of callus regeneration potential through impairment of the phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway, and the induction of microrhizomes through the modification of media compositions. It was found that plant growth from rhizomes yielded similar results after spring and autumn harvests, plantlet regeneration was achieved from calli after 12 months in culture when media was supplemented with 2-aminoindan-2-phosphonic acid, and microrhizomes were successfully induced over a 10-week incubation period in liquid media supplemented with 8% sucrose, 6-benzylaminopurine, and 1-naphthaleneacetic acid. These findings may be used to improve conservation, reduce establishment costs, and allow for a greater supply of Miscanthus biomass in the marketplace.BioFuelNet Canad

Response to novel feed in dairy calves is affected by prior hay provision and presentation method

Animals raised in environments that prevent natural foraging opportunities may have difficulty adapting to novelty, such as feeding and management changes. Our objective was to evaluate how early provision and presentation of forage in dairy calves affected response to novel TMR (total mixed ration; grain and alfalfa) at weaning. Holstein heifer calves were housed individually in a covered outdoor hutch with an attached uncovered wire-fenced pen on sand bedding. Calves were fed a diet of starter grain and milk replacer (5.7-8.4L/d step-up) via a bottle (Control, n = 9) or given additional access to mountaingrass hay presented either in a bucket (Bucket, n = 9), or PVC pipe feeder (Pipe, n = 9). Treatments were applied from birth through 50 d of age, when step-down weaning began. All calves had 3 buckets and a pipe feeder provided in their uncovered pen area. On d 50, each calf was briefly blocked inside their hutch. TMR was put in the 3rd bucket that previously contained hay (Bucket) or was empty (Control, Pipe). The calf was released from the hutch and video-recorded for 30 min. Neophobia towards TMR was affected by prior experience with presentation: Bucket calves began eating TMR faster than Pipe and Control (P≤0.012) and showed the fewest number of startle responses (P = 0.004). Intake was similar across groups (P = 0.978), suggesting this apparent neophobia was transient, but Control calves took longer to eat than Bucket (P<0.001) and Pipe (P = 0.070) calves and were less likely to give up on eating to lie down instead. These results suggest that previous experience with hay improves processing ability when presented with novel TMR. Overall, response to a novel feed is affected by both early life experience, such as opportunities to process forage, and the presentation of the feed itself. Calves also appear motivated to access forage, evidenced by transient neophobia, high intake, and persistence in feeding by naïve calves

Response to novel feed in dairy calves is affected by prior hay provision and presentation method.

Animals raised in environments that prevent natural foraging opportunities may have difficulty adapting to novelty, such as feeding and management changes. Our objective was to evaluate how early provision and presentation of forage in dairy calves affected response to novel TMR (total mixed ration; grain and alfalfa) at weaning. Holstein heifer calves were housed individually in a covered outdoor hutch with an attached uncovered wire-fenced pen on sand bedding. Calves were fed a diet of starter grain and milk replacer (5.7-8.4L/d step-up) via a bottle (Control, n = 9) or given additional access to mountaingrass hay presented either in a bucket (Bucket, n = 9), or PVC pipe feeder (Pipe, n = 9). Treatments were applied from birth through 50 d of age, when step-down weaning began. All calves had 3 buckets and a pipe feeder provided in their uncovered pen area. On d 50, each calf was briefly blocked inside their hutch. TMR was put in the 3rd bucket that previously contained hay (Bucket) or was empty (Control, Pipe). The calf was released from the hutch and video-recorded for 30 min. Neophobia towards TMR was affected by prior experience with presentation: Bucket calves began eating TMR faster than Pipe and Control (P≤0.012) and showed the fewest number of startle responses (P = 0.004). Intake was similar across groups (P = 0.978), suggesting this apparent neophobia was transient, but Control calves took longer to eat than Bucket (P<0.001) and Pipe (P = 0.070) calves and were less likely to give up on eating to lie down instead. These results suggest that previous experience with hay improves processing ability when presented with novel TMR. Overall, response to a novel feed is affected by both early life experience, such as opportunities to process forage, and the presentation of the feed itself. Calves also appear motivated to access forage, evidenced by transient neophobia, high intake, and persistence in feeding by naïve calves

A Severe Case of Idiosyncratic Hepatotoxicity with Unfractionated Heparin

The authors describe a case of clinically apparent idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity in association with unfractionated heparin (UFH). A 52-year-old woman with increasingly symptomatic rheumatic mitral valvular disease and severe pulmonary hypertension underwent elective minimally-invasive bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement. The patient received 42 000 units of UFH intraoperatively 10 days after receiving 3100 units during a left heart catheterization. Standard prophylactic doses of unfractionated heparin were started on POD 2 for prevention of venous thromboembolism. On the evening of postoperative day (POD) 3, the patient was lethargic, encephalopathic, and hypoglycemic with an acute liver injury and hyperlactatemia. Similar events occurred on POD 7 after clinical improvement from the initial injury and an unintentional rechallenge with UFH. Heparins are usually not suspected of idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity due to their widespread utilization and reports of milder episodes of hepatotoxicity. This case highlights the need to consider UFH in the differential of drug-induced liver injury, including severe cases. </jats:p

Behavioral changes in the first 3 weeks after disbudding in dairy calves

ABSTRACT: Hot-iron disbudding, the practice of cauterizing horn bud tissue to prevent horn growth in dairy calves, results in behavioral changes indicative of pain in the first few days after the procedure. However, few studies have quantified behavioral changes in the following weeks, while the burn wounds are still healing. Female Holstein calves were disbudded with a heated iron and pain relief (5.5 mL lidocaine cornual nerve block and 1 mg/kg oral meloxicam) at 4 to 10 d of age (n = 19) or not disbudded (n = 19). Calves wore ear tag accelerometers that reported the dominant behavior being performed at 1-min intervals from 3 to 21 d after disbudding. Compared with age-matched controls, disbudded calves tended to spend more time inactive throughout the observation period, ruminated less in the first 3 to 11 d after disbudding, and sucked more from a milk bottle beginning 5 d after disbudding until the end of the 21-d observation period. In addition to the accelerometer data, live observations of sleeping (using a behavioral proxy), lying, and ruminating were collected using instantaneous sampling at 5-min intervals for 24-h periods 3, 10, and 17 d after disbudding. Disbudded calves slept with their head down more on all live observation days and spent more time lying on the 17th d after disbudding, but ruminating did not differ compared with controls, in contrast to the accelerometer results. More time spent inactive, sleeping, and lying, and less time spent ruminating (as indicated by the accelerometer) can be interpreted as attempts to reduce painful stimulation of the disbudding wounds and allocate energy to healing. It is unclear whether the greater amount of sucking in the disbudded calves is nutritive (milk present) or non-nutritive (milk absent), as the algorithm did not distinguish the type of sucking, and further research is needed to explore the factors underlying this effect. We conclude that disbudding alters daily behavior patterns for at least 3 wk, far beyond the duration of recommended pain medication, raising additional welfare concerns about the procedure