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Intestinal diseases are one of the main causes of captive giant panda death. Their special dietary habits and gastrointestinal tract structure often lead to intestinal epithelium damage and secondary intestinal infection. The captive giant panda is predisposed to suffer from microbiota dysbiosis due to long-term artificial feeding and antibiotic misuse. However, there are few reported probiotics to treat giant panda enteritis and the associated dysbiosis. This study aims to elucidate the mechanism by which Lactobacillus plantarum G201683 (L. plantarum G83), a promising panda-derived probiotic, exerts a protective effect on intestinal inflammation in the dextran sulfate sodium- (DSS) induced panda microbiota-associated (DPMA) mouse model. The DPMA mouse was generated by antibiotic treatment and 5% DSS drinking water administration to assess the effect of L. plantarum G83 on intestinal inflammation and microbiota in vivo. Our results demonstrated the successful generation of a DPMA mouse model with Enterobacteriaceae enrichment, consistent with the giant panda intestinal microbiota. L. plantarum G83 decreased clinical and histological severity of intestinal inflammation, enhanced intestinal tight junction protein expression (ZO-1, Occludin) and alleviated inflammatory cytokine production (TNF-) in the colon of DPMA mice. The administration of L. plantarum G83 altered the microbiota composition by decreasing pathogen associated taxa such as E. coli and increasing abundance of beneficial bacteria including Bifidobacterium spp. These changes in microbiota composition were associated with an increased concentration of short chain fatty acids (SCFA), reduced NF-κB signaling, and an altered balance of T helper cell subsets. Our findings support L. plantarum G83 as a promising probiotic to treat intestinal inflammation in the giant panda.

In an engineering setup, one is interested to know and determine the reliability of the system of different components. These components are usually subjected to different kinds of stress, and the reliability of the components needs to be estimated under stress. In this paper, we aim to estimate the reliability of a multicomponent stress-strength model assuming that the components of the system are working independently with a common life distribution. The system follows a comparatively new distribution named as; Generalized X-Exponential bathtub failure rate distribution. This paper studies the usefulness of this distribution in terms of estimating the maximum likelihood estimate of the reliability parameter and its asymptotic confidence intervals. Paper uses methods of parametric estimation and reliability estimation. Results are computed using Monte Carlo simulation for small samples. Real data set is presented to evaluate the performance of Generalized X Exponential Distribution (GXED) reliability estimator. Findings show that with the usage of proposed distribution, estimator of reliability parameter fits very well to the real-world situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the frequency of post dural puncture headache with median versus para-median approach of spinal anaesthesia in females undergoing cesarean section. Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Anesthesiology and Obstetric departments, Combined Military Hospital, Badin Pakistan, from Oct 2018 to Apr 2019. Methodology: Total 128 females undergoing cesarean section, fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included randomly in two equal groups. Group-A received spinal anaesthesia with 25 G Quincke spinal needle by median approach while Group-B received by paramedian approach. Post-dural puncture headache was assessed by using visual analogue scale. Pain of any severity was taken as positive. All patients were followed by researcher for presence or absence of post-dural puncture headache. Results: Post dural puncture headache occurred in 21(32.81%) patients with median approach versus 4(6.25%) patients complained headache after para-median approach with p-value=0.0001, frequency was statistically significant. Conclusion: This study concluded that more frequency of headache after dural puncture in median approach compared to para-median approach in cesarean section patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oral mucosal vaccine has great potential in preventing a series of diseases caused by porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infection. This study constructed a recombinant Bacillus subtilis RB with PCV2 Capsid protein (Cap) on its spore surface and cotB as a fusion partner. The immune properties of the recombinant strain were evaluated in a mouse model. IgA in intestinal contents and IgG in serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results demonstrated that recombinant spores could activate strong specific mucosal and humoral immune responses. In addition, spores showed good mucosal immune adjuvant function, promoting the proliferation of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and other immune cells. We also found that the relative expression of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1b, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-a and IFN in the small intestinal mucosa was significantly up-regulated under the stimulation of recombinant bacteriophage. These effects are important for the balance of Th1/Th2-like responses. In summary, our results suggest that recombinant B. subtilis RB as a feed additive provides a new strategy for the development of novel and safe PCV2 mucosal subunit vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]