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The renowned French composer and musician, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) exhibited a perplexing case of progressive degenerative neurological symptoms, namely amnesia, aphasia, apraxia, amusia, and alexia. The symptoms started when Ravel was only fairly young, at 57, five years prior to his death in 1937. He was surgically intervened in what was known then as an exploratory craniotomy and passed away. There are a number of publications in which his life and known medical history were dissected and analyzed in an attempt to diagnose the ailment that Ravel suffered. Many diagnoses have been considered, among them Alzheimer’s disease, Pick Disease, primary progressive aphasia, corticobasal degeneration, and complications of head injury following a car crash in 1932. Since an autopsy was not performed, an exact diagnosis is rather unlikely, and no one has been able to confirm or deny any of the aforementioned hypotheses. The authors conducted an extensive revision of existent literature and propose some original ideas regarding Ravel’s neurological condition, mainly the psychological impact of Ravel’s life and experiences and the way they may have influenced his musical genius.

Background: Lawsonia intracellularis is the causative agent of Porcine Proliferative Enteropathy (PPE), one of the most prevalent pig enteric diseases worldwide, but with sparse information about early infections in suckling piglets in the epidemiology of PPE. With that aim, this study evaluates the prevalence of L. intracellularis in 3-week-old piglets by analysing ileal digesta content and mucosal scrapings from 383 pigs from 16 farms (aprox., 25 pigs/batch) by real-time qPCR and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Results: Forty-nine samples yielded a qPCR positive result. Eleven samples from eight farms were confirmed as positive with concentrations of L. intracellularis from 3.5 log10 to 4.5 log10 bacteria/g of sample. Another 16 samples, eight farms, were classified as low positive (2.07–2.38 log10 bacteria/g) and 22 provided an uncertain result. Finally, 334 samples tested negative for L. intracellularis. At batch level, half of the farms included in the study had at least one positive sample and in 10 farms (62.5%) there was at least one low positive sample. The ddPCR was run in 50 of the 383 samples based on their PCR output (including low positive, uncertain and negative samples). Correlation analyses revealed a strong association between qPCR and the ddPCR results (ρ = 0.75; p < 0.001). The ddPCR allowed us to detect and confirm a positive result in the 19 samples classified as uncertain by the qPCR and detect L. intracellularis in 8 of 15 negatives by qPCR. Conclusions: The results of the study demonstrate that a number of piglets are already infected with L. intracellularis during the suckling period evidencing early infection in certain animals, adding information of PPE epidemiology and opening new research topics such as sow-piglet transmission. Study results also evidence the usefulness of a combination of qPCR and ddPCR to improve qPCR sensitivity but assuring high specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The number of children experiencing postnatal situations of neurological risk (such as psycho-motor developmental disorders and delays) after birth has increased in recent years. These infants often require multiple pediatric interventions to address functional problems that might generate stress, anxiety, and discomfort. The aim of the present study is to determine whether the level of salivary cortisol, as a stress marker, increases after hydrotherapy and land-based therapy in children at risk of or currently presenting delayed psycho-motor development. Methods: Saliva samples were collected from 25 children (aged 3–36 months) between June 2022 and January 2023 at the Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine Clinical Management Unit of the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Granada, Spain. Three samples were collected from each child, representing baseline, post-hydrotherapy and post-land-based therapy. Result: All salivary cortisol levels were within the normal range. Resting values were the highest, and both modes of therapy decreased salivary cortisol levels. There were no statistically significant differences between the two therapies. Conclusions: Both therapies appear to be useful for treating children with psychomotor developmental disorders without increasing stress during physiotherapy sessions. Although cortisol levels were slightly higher with hydrotherapy than with land-based therapy, this may be due to the small sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silaging can be used as preservation technology to valorize currently discarded raw material into protein hydrolysate on board deep-sea vessels. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sorting and raw material freshness on the quality and yield of protein hydrolysates obtained through silaging of saithe (Pollachius virens) viscera. Additionally, the effect of using acidcontaining antioxidants was tested. Out sorting of the liver prior to silaging resulted in slightly higher hydrolysate yields. The hydrolysates with the highest protein contents were obtained from silages made from fresh raw materials (day 0), and the content decreased significantly after longer storage of the raw material (2–3 days at 4 ◦C). Storage of the raw material for 1 day did not affect the quality. However, a significantly higher degree of hydrolysis (DH), content of free amino acids (FAA), and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) were obtained when raw materials were stored for 3 days. The FAA composition was influenced by the raw material’s freshness, with increases in free glutamic acid and lysine and a decrease in free glutamine after longer storage. None of the studied parameters were significantly affected by out sorting of liver or the addition of antioxidants. Overall, the results indicate that the whole fraction of the viscera can be utilized without reducing the quality of the hydrolysate and that the raw material should be stored for a maximum of 1 day prior to preservation to optimize the quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Swine dysentery (SD) is a severe mucohaemorrhagic colitis in pigs caused classically by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae. Although several aspects of B. hyodysenteriae infection dynamic are already described, further research in the early stage of this infection is required. In this study, 7-week-old pigs were orally challenged with B. hyodysenteriae to obtain information about faecal shedding, macro and microscopic intestinal lesions and serum acute phase proteins in pigs at the onset of B. hyodysenteriae shedding (early infection group, n = 8), in pigs with mucohaemorrhagic diarrhoea (acute infection group, n = 8) and in non-infected controls (n = 16). Results: First B. hyodysenteriae detection by q-PCR and first loose stools with blood and mucus occurred both at 8 days post-inoculation. The lapse between a positive q-PCR and observation of mucohaemorrhagic diarrhoea ranged from 0 to 3 days, except in a single pig in which this period lasted 5 days. Macroscopic lesions were observed in the large intestine from both infected groups although more frequent and severe in acute infection group. Microscopic observation of the apex mucosa revealed that in early infection only higher ulceration values were observed compared to healthy controls. In contrast, the acute infection group exhibited higher ulceration, neutrophils infiltration and increased mucosal thickness compared to the other two groups. Among the serum biomarkers tested, only haptoglobin, C-reactive protein, and creatine kinase showed a significant increase in pigs in the acute infection period compared to controls, whereas haptoglobin was the only factor with a significant increase at the early infection compared to non-infected animals. Conclusions: This study provides new insights about SD and remarks the complex and limited options to perform an early detection of infected animals beyond PCR diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residents of Venezuela are struggling to survive in a country with the world's highest annual inflation rate, 46,305% (1), and a minimum monthly wage of just USD $1.79 (5,196,000 Bolivars). [...]

Aims: According to Braak's hypothesis, it is plausible that Parkinson's disease (PD) originates in the enteric nervous system (ENS) and spreads to the brain through the vagus nerve. In this work, we studied whether inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) in humans can progress with the emergence of pathogenic α‐synuclein (α‐syn) in the gastrointestinal tract and midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Methods: We have analysed the gut and the ventral midbrain from subjects previously diagnosed with IBD and form a DSS‐based rat model of gut inflammation in terms of α‐syn pathology. Results: Our data support the existence of pathogenic α‐syn in both the gut and the brain, thus reinforcing the potential role of the ENS as a contributing factor in PD aetiology. Additionally, we have analysed the effect of a DSS‐based rat model of gut inflammation to demonstrate (i) the appearance of P‐α‐syn inclusions in both Auerbach's and Meissner's plexuses (gut), (ii) an increase in α‐syn expression in the ventral mesencephalon (brain) and (iii) the degeneration of nigral dopaminergic neurons, which all are considered classical hallmarks in PD. Conclusion: These results strongly support the plausibility of Braak's hypothesis and emphasise the significance of peripheral inflammation and the gut‐brain axis in initiating α‐syn aggregation and transport to the substantia nigra, resulting in neurodegeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]