Year in review in Intensive Care Medicine 2010: III. ARDS and ALI, mechanical ventilation, noninvasive ventilation, weaning, endotracheal intubation, lung ultrasound and paediatrics

SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Behavioural indicators of welfare in farmed fish

Behaviour represents a reaction to the environment as fish perceive it and is therefore a key element of fish welfare. This review summarises the main findings on how behavioural changes have been used to assess welfare in farmed fish, using both functional and feeling-based approaches. Changes in foraging behaviour, ventilatory activity, aggression, individual and group swimming behaviour, stereotypic and abnormal behaviour have been linked with acute and chronic stressors in aquaculture and can therefore be regarded as likely indicators of poor welfare. On the contrary, measurements of exploratory behaviour, feed anticipatory activity and reward-related operant behaviour are beginning to be considered as indicators of positive emotions and welfare in fish. Despite the lack of scientific agreement about the existence of sentience in fish, the possibility that they are capable of both positive and negative emotions may contribute to the development of new strategies (e. g. environmental enrichment) to promote good welfare. Numerous studies that use behavioural indicators of welfare show that behavioural changes can be interpreted as either good or poor welfare depending on the fish species. It is therefore essential to understand the species-specific biology before drawing any conclusions in relation to welfare. In addition, different individuals within the same species may exhibit divergent coping strategies towards stressors, and what is tolerated by some individuals may be detrimental to others. Therefore, the assessment of welfare in a few individuals may not represent the average welfare of a group and vice versa. This underlines the need to develop on-farm, operational behavioural welfare indicators that can be easily used to assess not only the individual welfare but also the welfare of the whole group (e. g. spatial distribution). With the ongoing development of video technology and image processing, the on-farm surveillance of behaviour may in the near future represent a low-cost, noninvasive tool to assess the welfare of farmed fish.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal [SFRH/BPD/42015/2007]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of Interleukin 4, High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein and Activity of Alanine Transaminase Among Cooks in Nnewi

Soot arises from burning wood, oils, tires, and other hydrocarbon or organic compounds. Soot is widespread and has a massive detrimental effect on human health, climate, and air quality. The serum levels of Interleukin 4, High sensitivity C-reactive protein, and alanine transaminase activity were evaluated. This cross–sectional study recruited 90 participants consisting of 45 participants exposed to soot (test group) and 45 participants not exposed to soot (control group). The Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology Ethics Committee at Nnamdi Azikiwe University granted ethical approval, and participants’ informed consent was acquired. Interleukin 4 and high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels were determined using the Sandwich ELISA method while the activity of alanine transaminase was determined using the spectrophotometric method. Questionnaires were used to obtain the socio-demographic data of the participants and the body mass index (BMI) was calculated using weight (kg)/height2 (m2). Independent t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis and significance was set at p<0.05. The results showed that the mean serum activity of alanine transaminase (9.30 ± 0.28) was significantly lower in the participants exposed to soot compared with the control (9.48 ± 0.37) (p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the mean serum levels of Interleukin 4 and high sensitivity C-reactive protein of participants exposed to soot compared with the control (p>0.05). Hence, exposure to soot through the use of firewood did not predispose cooks to systemic inflammation, or cardiovascular and hepatic dysfunctions. Keywords: Soot, alanine transaminase, Interleukin 4, high sensitivity C-reactive protein, inflammatio