| multichannel cochlear implant for selective neuronal activation and chronic use in the free-moving mongolian gerbil. | animal models for chronic multichannel cochlear implant stimulation and selective neuronal activation contribute to a better understanding of auditory signal processing and central neural plasticity. | 2016 | 27519925 |
| the temporal-spatial dynamics of feature maps during monocular deprivation revealed by chronic imaging and self-organization model simulation. | experiments on the adult visual cortex of cats, ferrets and monkeys have revealed organized spatial relationships between multiple feature maps which can also be reproduced by the kohonen and elastic net self-organization models. however, attempts to apply these models to simulate the temporal kinetics of monocular deprivation (md) during the critical period, and their effects on the spatial arrangement of feature maps, have led to conflicting results. in this study, we performed md and chronic ... | 2016 | 27746342 |
| ferrets that help fight the flu. | | 2016 | 27763617 |
| comparison of three preclinical models for nausea and vomiting assessment. | nausea is a subjective sensation often preceding emesis in humans. drug-induced nausea remains difficult to predict in preclinical tests. the aim of this study was to compare the effects of emetic agents in rats (pica behavior), ferrets (acute and delayed phases of emesis) or dogs (emesis and cardiovascular endpoints). | 2017 | 27477617 |
| effects of ginseng-spikenard heart-nourishing capsule on inactivation of c-type kv1.4 potassium channel. | this research is to explore the effects of traditional chinese medicine ginseng-spikenard heart-nourishing capsule on the inactivation of c-type kv1.4 channels (kv1.4∆n) in xenopus laevis oocytes with two-electrode voltageclamp technique. defolliculated oocytes (stage v-vi) were injected with transcribed crnas of ferret kv1.4δn channels. during recording, oocytes were continuously perfused with nd96 solution (control group) and solution prepared from ginseng-spikenard heart-nourishing capsule (e ... | 2016 | 27731805 |
| a ferret model of copd-related chronic bronchitis. | chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is the third leading cause of death in the us. the majority of copd patients have symptoms of chronic bronchitis, which lacks specific therapies. a major impediment to therapeutic development has been the absence of animal models that recapitulate key clinical and pathologic features of human disease. ferrets are well suited for the investigation of the significance of respiratory diseases, given prior data indicating similarities to human airway phys ... | 2016 | 27699245 |
| effect of residual bacteria on the outcome of pulp regeneration in vivo. | it is not known to what extent residual infection may interfere with the success of pulp regeneration procedures. the aim of this study was to determine, radiographically and histologically, the effect of residual bacteria on the outcome of pulp regeneration mediated by a tissue-engineered construct as compared with traditional revascularization. periapical lesions were induced in 24 canine teeth of 6 ferrets. after disinfection with 1.25% naocl and triple antibiotic paste, ferret dental pulp st ... | 2017 | 27694153 |
| insights into the central pathways involved in the emetic and behavioural responses to exendin-4 in the ferret. | glp-1 receptor agonists are utilised for the treatment of type-2 diabetes but can be associated with undesirable effects of nausea and vomiting. | 2017 | 27692857 |
| profile of antiemetic activity of netupitant alone or in combination with palonosetron and dexamethasone in ferrets and suncus murinus (house musk shrew). | chemotherapy-induced acute and delayed emesis involves the activation of multiple pathways, with 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-ht; serotonin) playing a major role in the initial response. substance p tachykinin nk1 receptor antagonists can reduce emesis induced by disparate emetic challenges and therefore have a clinical utility as broad inhibitory anti-emetic drugs. in the present studies, we investigate the broad inhibitory anti-emetic profile of a relatively new nk1 receptor antagonist, netupitant, ... | 2016 | 27630563 |
| oscillatory dynamics in the frontoparietal attention network during sustained attention in the ferret. | sustained attention requires the coordination of neural activity across multiple cortical areas in the frontoparietal network, in particular the prefrontal cortex (pfc) and posterior parietal cortex (ppc). previous work has demonstrated that activity in these brain regions is coordinated by neuronal oscillations of the local field potential (lfp). however, the underlying coordination of activity in terms of organization of single unit (su) spiking activity has remained poorly understood, particu ... | 2016 | 27626658 |
| the controlled cortical impact model of experimental brain trauma: overview, research applications, and protocol. | controlled cortical impact (cci) is a commonly used and highly regarded model of brain trauma that uses a pneumatically or electromagnetically controlled piston to induce reproducible and well-controlled injury. the cci model was originally used in ferrets and it has since been scaled for use in many other species. this chapter will describe the historical development of the cci model, compare and contrast the pneumatic and electromagnetic models, and summarize key short- and long-term consequen ... | 2016 | 27604719 |
| sterilizing immunity to influenza virus infection requires local antigen-specific t cell response in the lungs. | sterilizing immunity is a unique immune status, which prevents effective virus infection into the host. it is different from the immunity that allows infection but with subsequent successful eradication of the virus. pre-infection induces sterilizing immunity to homologous influenza virus challenge in ferret. in our antigen-specific experimental system, mice pre-infected with pr8 influenza virus through nasal route are likewise resistant to reinfection of the same strain of virus. the virus is c ... | 2016 | 27596047 |
| resting state network topology of the ferret brain. | resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfmri) has emerged as a versatile tool for non-invasive measurement of functional connectivity patterns in the brain. rsfmri brain dynamics in rodents, non-human primates, and humans share similar properties; however, little is known about the resting state functional connectivity patterns in the ferret, an animal model with high potential for developmental and cognitive translational study. to address this knowledge-gap, we performed rsfmri ... | 2016 | 27596024 |
| the second spiking threshold: dynamics of laminar network spiking in the visual cortex. | most neurons have a threshold separating the silent non-spiking state and the state of producing temporal sequences of spikes. but neurons in vivo also have a second threshold, found recently in granular layer neurons of the primary visual cortex, separating spontaneous ongoing spiking from visually evoked spiking driven by sharp transients. here we examine whether this second threshold exists outside the granular layer and examine details of transitions between spiking states in ferrets exposed ... | 2016 | 27582693 |
| developing a de novo targeted knock-in method based on in utero electroporation into the mammalian brain. | genome-editing technology has revolutionized the field of biology. here, we report a novel de novo gene-targeting method mediated by in utero electroporation into the developing mammalian brain. electroporation of donor dna with the crispr/cas9 system vectors successfully leads to knock-in of the donor sequence, such as egfp, to the target site via the homology-directed repair mechanism. we developed a targeting vector system optimized to prevent anomalous leaky expression of the donor gene from ... | 2016 | 27578183 |
| zeroing in on cost-cutting. organizations on 100 top hospitals list use data and standardization to ferret out savings. | | 2016 | 27526470 |
| viral injection and cranial window implantation for in vivo two-photon imaging. | two-photon (2p) imaging has proven to be a powerful tool for investigating neural structure and function both in brain slices and in intact systems. in vivo 2p imaging presents significant challenges in sample preparation, which are exacerbated in non-murine species. here, we describe procedures for the effective virally mediated labeling of neurons and for the implantation of cranial windows for imaging. the procedures described here are applicable to a range of species, including mice, and are ... | 2016 | 27515080 |
| spatiotemporal features of retinal waves instruct the wiring of the visual circuitry. | coordinated spontaneous activity is present in different sensory systems during early stages of development. this activity is thought to play a critical role in the development of sensory representations before the maturation of sensory experience. in the visual system, the mechanisms by which spatiotemporal properties of retinal spontaneous activity, called retinal waves, drive developmental events has been well studied. recent advancements in pharmacological, genetic, and optogenetic manipulat ... | 2016 | 27507937 |
| polychlorinated biphenyls in settled dust from informal electronic waste recycling workshops and nearby highways in urban centers and suburban industrial roadsides of chennai city, india: levels, congener profiles and exposure assessment. | polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) were quantified in settled dust collected from informal electronic waste (e-waste) recycling workshops and nearby highways in the urban centers and roadside dust from the suburban industrial belt of chennai city in india. further dust samples were subjected to a high resolution field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer (fesem/edx) to characterize the shape, size and elemental composition of the dust particle ... | 2016 | 27503630 |
| anatomy and disorders of the oral cavity of ferrets and other exotic companion carnivores. | exotic companion carnivores such as ferrets, skunks, fennec foxes, coatimundis, raccoons, and kinkajous presented in clinical practice share similar dental anatomy, function, and diseases. the domestic ferret serves as the representative species for this group with its anatomy, diseases, and conditions described in detail. dog and cat guidelines for veterinary and home care seem to be relevant and applicable, including dental endodontic procedures. annual or biannual dental examinations and prop ... | 2016 | 27497211 |
| functional connectivity of resting hemodynamic signals in submillimeter orientation columns of the visual cortex. | resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging has been increasingly used for examining connectivity across brain regions. the spatial scale by which hemodynamic imaging can resolve functional connections at rest remains unknown. to examine this issue, deoxyhemoglobin-weighted intrinsic optical imaging data were acquired from the visual cortex of lightly anesthetized ferrets. the neural activity of orientation domains, which span a distance of 0.7-0.8 mm, has been shown to be correlated dur ... | 2016 | 27461173 |
| a review of radiation-induced coagulopathy and new findings to support potential prevention strategies and treatments. | results from our recent studies have led to the novel hypothesis that radiation-induced coagulopathy (ric) and associated hemorrhage occurring as part of the acute radiation syndrome (ars) is a major cause of death resulting from radiation exposure in large mammals, including humans. this article contains information related to ric, as well as potential strategies for the prevention and treatment of ric. in addition, new findings are reported here on the occurrence of ric biomarkers in humans ex ... | 2016 | 27459701 |
| complexities in ferret influenza virus pathogenesis and transmission models. | ferrets are widely employed to study the pathogenicity, transmissibility, and tropism of influenza viruses. however, inherent variations in inoculation methods, sampling schemes, and experimental designs are often overlooked when contextualizing or aggregating data between laboratories, leading to potential confusion or misinterpretation of results. here, we provide a comprehensive overview of parameters to consider when planning an experiment using ferrets, collecting data from the experiment, ... | 2016 | 27412880 |
| an essential role of svz progenitors in cortical folding in gyrencephalic mammals. | because folding of the cerebral cortex in the mammalian brain is believed to be crucial for higher brain functions, the mechanisms underlying its formation during development and evolution are of great interest. although it has been proposed that increased neural progenitors in the subventricular zone (svz) are responsible for making cortical folds, their roles in cortical folding are still largely unclear, mainly because genetic methods for gyrencephalic mammals had been poorly available. here, ... | 2016 | 27403992 |
| mistuning detection performance of ferrets in a go/no-go task. | the harmonic structure of sounds is an important grouping cue in auditory scene analysis. the ability of ferrets to detect mistuned harmonics was measured using a go/no-go task paradigm. psychometric functions plotting sensitivity as a function of degree of mistuning were used to evaluate behavioral performance using signal detection theory. the mean (± standard error of the mean) threshold for mistuning detection was 0.8 ± 0.1 hz, with sensitivity indices and reaction times depending on the deg ... | 2016 | 27369180 |
| sensory experience modifies feature map relationships in visual cortex. | the extent to which brain structure is influenced by sensory input during development is a critical but controversial question. a paradigmatic system for studying this is the mammalian visual cortex. maps of orientation preference (op) and ocular dominance (od) in the primary visual cortex of ferrets, cats and monkeys can be individually changed by altered visual input. however, the spatial relationship between op and od maps has appeared immutable. using a computational model we predicted that ... | 2016 | 27310531 |
| quantitative mri and dti abnormalities during the acute period following cci in the ferret. | during the acute time period following traumatic brain injury (tbi), noninvasive brain imaging tools such as magnetic resonance imaging (mri) can provide important information about the clinical and pathological features of the injury and may help predict long-term outcomes. in addition to standard imaging approaches, several quantitative mri techniques including relaxometry and diffusion mri have been identified as promising reporters of cellular alterations after tbi and may provide greater se ... | 2016 | 27294688 |
| orientation selectivity and the functional clustering of synaptic inputs in primary visual cortex. | the majority of neurons in primary visual cortex are tuned for stimulus orientation, but the factors that account for the range of orientation selectivities exhibited by cortical neurons remain unclear. to address this issue, we used in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to characterize the orientation tuning and spatial arrangement of synaptic inputs to the dendritic spines of individual pyramidal neurons in layer 2/3 of ferret visual cortex. the summed synaptic input to individual neurons reliabl ... | 2016 | 27294510 |
| naturally occurring recombination in ferret coronaviruses revealed by complete genome characterization. | ferret coronaviruses (frcovs) exist as an enteric and a systemic pathotype, of which the latter is highly lethal to ferrets. to our knowledge, this study provides the first full genome sequence of a frcov, tentatively called frcov-nl-2010, which was detected in 2010 in ferrets in the netherlands. phylogenetic analysis showed that frcov-nl-2010 is most closely related to mink cov, forming a separate clade of mustelid alphacoronavirus that split off early from other alphacoronaviruses. based on se ... | 2016 | 27283016 |
| a restricted period for formation of outer subventricular zone defined by cdh1 and trnp1 levels. | the outer subventricular zone (osvz) is a germinal layer playing key roles in the development of the neocortex, with particular relevance in gyrencephalic species such as human and ferret, where it contains abundant basal radial glia cells (brgcs) that promote cortical expansion. here we identify a brief period in ferret embryonic development when apical rgcs generate a burst of brgcs that become founders of the osvz. after this period, brgcs in the osvz proliferate and self-renew exclusively lo ... | 2016 | 27264089 |
| building the ferretome. | databases of structural connections of the mammalian brain, such as cocomac (cocomac.g-node.org) or bams (https://bams1.org), are valuable resources for the analysis of brain connectivity and the modeling of brain dynamics in species such as the non-human primate or the rodent, and have also contributed to the computational modeling of the human brain. another animal model that is widely used in electrophysiological or developmental studies is the ferret; however, no systematic compilation of br ... | 2016 | 27242503 |
| the importance of systematic approaches in the study of emesis. | nausea and vomiting are among the most basic of human experiences and unfortunately accompany a wide variety of clinical treatments as side effects. despite decades of research, the neural mechanisms of nausea and vomiting (emesis) remain elusive. trpv1 represents a possibly overlooked and understudied pharmacological target with anti-emetic potential. | 2017 | 27227036 |
| the involvement of trpv1 in emesis and anti-emesis. | diverse transmitter systems (e.g. acetylcholine, dopamine, endocannabinoids, endorphins, glutamate, histamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, substance p) have been implicated in the pathways by which nausea and vomiting are induced and are targets for anti-emetic drugs (e.g. 5-hydroxytryptamine3 and tachykinin nk1 antagonists). the involvement of trpv1 in emesis was discovered in the early 1990s and may have been overlooked previously as trpv1 pharmacology was studied in rodents (mice, rats) lacking an e ... | 2017 | 27227028 |
| effects of developmental alcohol and valproic acid exposure on play behavior of ferrets. | exposure to alcohol and valproic acid (vpa) during pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and fetal valproate syndrome, respectively. altered social behavior is a hallmark of both these conditions and there is ample evidence showing that developmental exposure to alcohol and vpa affect social behavior in rodents. however, results from rodent models are somewhat difficult to translate to humans owing to the substantial differences in brain development, morphology, and connectivity ... | 2016 | 27208641 |
| a case of advanced second-degree atrioventricular block in a ferret secondary to lymphoma. | a female ferret was referred as an emergency for severe respiratory distress symptoms. at presentation, the patient was listlessness, dyspnoeic, and hyper-responsive. the clinical examination evidenced dyspnea with cyanosis, altered cardiac rhythm, and hepatomegaly. electrocardiography showed an advanced second-degree atrioventricular (av) block. the liver aspirate was diagnostic for lymphoma. the patient did not respond to supportive therapy and rapidly died. post-mortem exams confirmed the pre ... | 2016 | 27200273 |
| relating approach-to-target and detection tasks in animal psychoacoustics. | psychophysical experiments seek to measure the limits of perception. while straightforward in humans, in animals they are time consuming. choosing an appropriate task and interpreting measurements can be challenging. we investigated the localization of high-frequency auditory signals in noise using an "approach-to-target" task in ferrets, how task performance should be interpreted in terms of perception, and how the measurements relate to other types of tasks. to establish their general ability ... | 2016 | 27196623 |
| ferret: a user-friendly java tool to extract data from the 1000 genomes project. | the 1000 genomes (1kg) project provides a near-comprehensive resource on human genetic variation in worldwide reference populations. 1kg variants can be accessed through a browser and through the raw and annotated data that are regularly released on an ftp server. we developed ferret, a user-friendly java tool, to easily extract genetic variation information from these large and complex data files. from a locus, gene(s) or snp(s) of interest, ferret retrieves genotype data for 1kg snps and indel ... | 2016 | 27153588 |
| differential cortical laminar structure revealed by neun immunostaining and myeloarchitecture between sulcal and gyral regions independent of sexual dimorphisms in the ferret cerebrum. | the purpose of this study was to quantitatively clarify differences in laminar structure and myeloarchitecture of sulcal and gyral regions of the cerebral cortex of ferrets. histological sections of cerebrum from male and female ferrets at postnatal day 90 were made at the coronal plane, and were immunostained with anti-neun or anti-myelin basic protein (mbp). thickness was estimated in the entire depth or three strata, that is, layer i, outer (layers ii-iii) and inner (layers iv-vi) strata of t ... | 2016 | 27144367 |
| medical and surgical emergencies in ferrets. | in the last few years, significant improvement in diagnosis and treatment of ferret emergencies has occurred. scientific advances demonstrated the need of specific practices when dealing with emergencies in ferrets. the risk of overdiagnosis of hypoglycemia with human portable blood glucose meters is a clear example. the purpose of this article is to describe the current approach to common medical and surgical emergencies in ferrets. | 2016 | 27131159 |
| white matter microstructure from nonparametric axon diameter distribution mapping. | we report the development of a double diffusion encoding (dde) mri method to estimate and map the axon diameter distribution (add) within an imaging volume. a variety of biological processes, ranging from development to disease and trauma, may lead to changes in the add in the central and peripheral nervous systems. unlike previously proposed methods, this add experimental design and estimation framework employs a more general, nonparametric approach, without a priori assumptions about the under ... | 2016 | 27126002 |
| magnesium sulfate treatment for juvenile ferrets following induction of hydrocephalus with kaolin. | previous work with 3-week hydrocephalic rats showed that white matter damage could be reduced by the calcium channel antagonist magnesium sulfate (mgso4). we hypothesized that mgso4 therapy would improve outcomes in ferrets with hydrocephalus induced with kaolin at 15 days. | 2016 | 27121710 |
| an improved microrna annotation of the canine genome. | the domestic dog, canis familiaris, is a valuable model for studying human diseases. the publication of the latest canine genome build and annotation, canfam3.1 provides an opportunity to enhance our understanding of gene regulation across tissues in the dog model system. in this study, we used the latest dog genome assembly and small rna sequencing data from 9 different dog tissues to predict novel mirnas in the dog genome, as well as to annotate conserved mirnas from the mirbase database that ... | 2016 | 27119849 |
| tobacco carcinogen induces both lung cancer and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and hepatocellular carcinomas in ferrets which can be attenuated by lycopene supplementation. | early epidemiologic studies have reported that tobacco smoking, which is causally associated with liver cancer, is an independent risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (nafld). lycopene from tomatoes has been shown to be a potential preventive agent against nafld and hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc). in the present study, we investigated whether the tobacco carcinogen 4-(n-methyl-n-nitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (nnk) induces lesions in both lungs and livers of ferrets with or ... | 2016 | 27116542 |
| coronavirus infection in ferrets: antigen distribution and inflammatory response. | multisystemic granulomatous lesions are the most common finding in ferrets infected by ferret systemic coronavirus (frscv). to characterize the inflammatory response developed against this virus, lesions from 4 naturally infected ferrets were examined. lesions were classified into the 4 known types of granulomas (granulomas without necrosis [g], granulomas with necrosis [g-n], granulomas with neutrophils [g-nl], and diffuse granulomatous inflammation [dg]). the cellular composition of the lesion ... | 2016 | 27106741 |
| spatial organization of astrocytes in ferret visual cortex. | astrocytes form an intricate partnership with neural circuits to influence numerous cellular and synaptic processes. one prominent organizational feature of astrocytes is the "tiling" of the brain with non-overlapping territories. there are some documented species and brain region-specific astrocyte specializations, but the extent of astrocyte diversity and circuit specificity are still unknown. we quantitatively defined the rules that govern the spatial arrangement of astrocyte somata and terri ... | 2016 | 27072916 |
| oral modeling of an adenovirus-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine in ferrets and mice. | oral vaccines delivered as tablets offer a number of advantages over traditional parenteral-based vaccines including the ease of delivery, lack of needles, no need for trained medical personnel, and the ability to formulate into temperature-stable tablets. we have been evaluating an oral vaccine platform based on recombinant adenoviral vectors for the purpose of creating a prophylactic vaccine to prevent influenza, and have demonstrated vaccine efficacy in animal models and substantial immunogen ... | 2016 | 27071663 |
| cerebral cortex expansion and folding: what have we learned? | one of the most prominent features of the human brain is the fabulous size of the cerebral cortex and its intricate folding. cortical folding takes place during embryonic development and is important to optimize the functional organization and wiring of the brain, as well as to allow fitting a large cortex in a limited cranial volume. pathological alterations in size or folding of the human cortex lead to severe intellectual disability and intractable epilepsy. hence, cortical expansion and fold ... | 2016 | 27056680 |
| dorso-lateral frontal cortex of the ferret encodes perceptual difficulty during visual discrimination. | visual discrimination requires sensory processing followed by a perceptual decision. despite a growing understanding of visual areas in this behavior, it is unclear what role top-down signals from prefrontal cortex play, in particular as a function of perceptual difficulty. to address this gap, we investigated how neurons in dorso-lateral frontal cortex (dl-fc) of freely-moving ferrets encode task variables in a two-alternative forced choice visual discrimination task with high- and low-contrast ... | 2016 | 27025995 |
| behavioral training promotes multiple adaptive processes following acute hearing loss. | the brain possesses a remarkable capacity to compensate for changes in inputs resulting from a range of sensory impairments. developmental studies of sound localization have shown that adaptation to asymmetric hearing loss can be achieved either by reinterpreting altered spatial cues or by relying more on those cues that remain intact. adaptation to monaural deprivation in adulthood is also possible, but appears to lack such flexibility. here we show, however, that appropriate behavioral trainin ... | 2016 | 27008181 |
| endocrinopathy and aging in ferrets. | ferrets have become more popular as household pets and as animal models in biomedical research in the past 2 decades. the average life span of ferrets is about 5-11 years with onset of geriatric diseases between 3-4 years including endocrinopathies, neoplasia, gastrointestinal diseases, cardiomyopathy, splenomegaly, renal diseases, dental diseases, and cataract. endocrinopathies are the most common noninfectious disease affecting middle-aged and older ferrets. spontaneous neoplasms affecting the ... | 2016 | 26936751 |
| behavioural estimates of auditory filter widths in ferrets using notched-noise maskers. | frequency selectivity is a fundamental property of hearing which affects almost all aspects of auditory processing. here auditory filter widths at 1, 3, 7, and 10 khz were estimated from behavioural thresholds using the notched-noise method [patterson, nimmo-smith, weber, and milroy, j. acoust. soc. am. 72, 1788-1803 (1982)] in ferrets. the mean bandwidth was 21% of the signal frequency, excluding wider bandwidths at 1 khz (65%). they were comparable although on average broader than equivalent m ... | 2016 | 26936579 |
| establishment of serological test to detect antibody against ferret coronavirus. | since there is no available serological methods to detect antibodies to ferret coronavirus (frcov), an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) using recombinant partial nucleocapsid (n) proteins of the ferret coronavirus (frcov) yamaguchi-1 strain was developed to establish a serological method for detection of frcov infection. many serum samples collected from ferrets recognized both a.a. 1-179 and a.a. 180-374 of the n protein, but two serum samples did not a.a. 180-374 of the n protein. thi ... | 2016 | 26935842 |
| encoding of natural sounds by variance of the cortical local field potential. | neural encoding of sensory stimuli is typically studied by averaging neural signals across repetitions of the same stimulus. however, recent work has suggested that the variance of neural activity across repeated trials can also depend on sensory inputs. here we characterize how intertrial variance of the local field potential (lfp) in primary auditory cortex of awake ferrets is affected by continuous natural sound stimuli. we find that natural sounds often suppress the intertrial variance of lo ... | 2016 | 26912594 |
| the value of integrating pre-clinical data to predict nausea and vomiting risk in humans as illustrated by azd3514, a novel androgen receptor modulator. | nausea and vomiting are components of a complex mechanism that signals food avoidance and protection of the body against the absorption of ingested toxins. this response can also be triggered by pharmaceuticals. predicting clinical nausea and vomiting liability for pharmaceutical agents based on pre-clinical data can be problematic as no single animal model is a universal predictor. moreover, efforts to improve models are hampered by the lack of translational animal and human data in the public ... | 2016 | 26876616 |
| using the ferret as an animal model for investigating influenza antiviral effectiveness. | the concern of the emergence of a pandemic influenza virus has sparked an increased effort toward the development and testing of novel influenza antivirals. central to this is the animal model of influenza infection, which has played an important role in understanding treatment effectiveness and the effect of antivirals on host immune responses. among the different animal models of influenza, ferrets can be considered the most suitable for antiviral studies as they display most of the human-like ... | 2016 | 26870031 |
| a transient metabolic recovery from early life glucose intolerance in cystic fibrosis ferrets occurs during pancreatic remodeling. | cystic fibrosis (cf)-related diabetes in humans is intimately related to exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, yet little is known about how these 2 disease processes simultaneously evolve in cf. in this context, we examined cf ferrets during the evolution of exocrine pancreatic disease. at 1 month of age, cf ferrets experienced a glycemic crisis with spontaneous diabetic-level hyperglycemia. this occurred during a spike in pancreatic inflammation that was preceded by pancreatic fibrosis and loss o ... | 2016 | 26862997 |
| inhibition of airway surface fluid absorption by cholinergic stimulation. | in upper airways airway surface liquid (asl) depth and clearance rates are both increased by fluid secretion. secretion is opposed by fluid absorption, mainly via the epithelial sodium channel, enac. in static systems, increased fluid depth activates enac and decreased depth inhibits it, suggesting that secretion indirectly activates enac to reduce asl depth. we propose an alternate mechanism in which cholinergic input, which causes copious airway gland secretion, also inhibits enac-mediated abs ... | 2016 | 26846701 |
| climbing fiber regulation of spontaneous purkinje cell activity and cerebellum-dependent blink responses(1,2,3). | it has been known for a long time that gabaergic purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex, as well as their target neurons in the cerebellar nuclei, are spontaneously active. the cerebellar output will, therefore, depend on how input is integrated into this spontaneous activity. it has been shown that input from climbing fibers originating in the inferior olive controls the spontaneous activity in purkinje cells. while blocking climbing fiber input to the purkinje cells causes a dramatic increase ... | 2017 | 26839917 |
| statistical frequency-dependent analysis of trial-to-trial variability in single time series by recurrence plots. | for decades, research in neuroscience has supported the hypothesis that brain dynamics exhibits recurrent metastable states connected by transients, which together encode fundamental neural information processing. to understand the system's dynamics it is important to detect such recurrence domains, but it is challenging to extract them from experimental neuroscience datasets due to the large trial-to-trial variability. the proposed methodology extracts recurrent metastable states in univariate ... | 2015 | 26834580 |
| activation of corticotropin releasing factor-containing neurons in the rat central amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis following exposure to two different anxiogenic stressors. | rats exposed to the odor of a predator or to the elevated plus maze (epm) express unique unconditioned fear behaviors. the extended amygdala has previously been demonstrated to mediate the response to both predator odor and the epm. we seek to determine if divergent amygdalar microcircuits are associated with the different behavioral responses. the current experiments compared activation of corticotropin-releasing factor (crf)-containing neuronal populations in the central amygdala and bed nucle ... | 2016 | 26821289 |
| developmental alcohol exposure leads to a persistent change on astrocyte secretome. | fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is the most common cause of mental disabilities in the western world. it has been quite established that acute alcohol exposure can dramatically affect astrocyte function. because the effects of early alcohol exposure on cell physiology can persist into adulthood, we tested the hypothesis that ethanol exposure in ferrets during a period equivalent to the last months of human gestation leads to persistent changes in astrocyte secretome in vitro. animals were treate ... | 2016 | 26801685 |
| visually evoked spiking evolves while spontaneous ongoing dynamics persist. | neurons in the primary visual cortex spontaneously spike even when there are no visual stimuli. it is unknown whether the spiking evoked by visual stimuli is just a modification of the spontaneous ongoing cortical spiking dynamics or whether the spontaneous spiking state disappears and is replaced by evoked spiking. this study of laminar recordings of spontaneous spiking and visually evoked spiking of neurons in the ferret primary visual cortex shows that the spiking dynamics does not change: th ... | 2015 | 26778982 |
| incorporating midbrain adaptation to mean sound level improves models of auditory cortical processing. | adaptation to stimulus statistics, such as the mean level and contrast of recently heard sounds, has been demonstrated at various levels of the auditory pathway. it allows the nervous system to operate over the wide range of intensities and contrasts found in the natural world. yet current standard models of the response properties of auditory neurons do not incorporate such adaptation. here we present a model of neural responses in the ferret auditory cortex (the ic adaptation model), which tak ... | 2016 | 26758822 |
| anesthesia-related changes in information transfer may be caused by reduction in local information generation. | in anesthesia research it is an open question how general anesthetics lead to loss of consciousness (loc). it has been proposed that loc may be caused by the disruption of cortical information processing, preventing information integration. therefore, recent studies investigating information processing under anesthesia focused on changes in information transfer, measured by transfer entropy (te). however, often this complex technique was not applied rigorously, using time series in symbolic repr ... | 2015 | 26737182 |
| cytological analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid acquired by bronchoscopy in healthy ferrets: a pilot study. | the objective of this study was to investigate the normal cytological evaluation of bronchoalveolar lavage (bal) fluid in healthy adult ferrets (n = 12). these ferrets underwent bronchoscopy and bal using sterile saline [1.5 ml/kg body weight (bw)]. percentage of fluid recovered, total leukocyte count, differential leukocyte count, and cell count of the epithelial lining fluid (elf) were determined. the mean percentage of lavage volume recovered from the right lung and left lung were 67.8 ± 14.9 ... | 2016 | 26733735 |
| voltage-sensitive dye imaging of neocortical activity. | neural computations underlying sensory perception, cognition, and motor control are performed by populations of neurons at different anatomical and temporal scales. few techniques are currently available for exploring the dynamics of local and large range populations. voltage-sensitive dye imaging (vsdi), based on organic voltage probes, reveals neural population activity in areas ranging from a few tens of micrometers to a couple of centimeters, or two areas up to ~10 cm apart. vsdi provides a ... | 2016 | 26729915 |
| multiscale computational model of fluid flow and matrix deformation in decellularized liver. | currently little is known about the biomechanical environment in decellularized tissue. the goal of this research is to quantify the mechanical microenvironment in decellularized liver, for varying organ-scale perfusion conditions, using a combined experimental/computational approach. needle-guided ultra-miniature pressure sensors were inserted into liver tissue to measure parenchymal fluid pressure ex-situ in portal vein-perfused native (n=5) and decellularized (n=7) ferret liver, for flow rate ... | 2016 | 26722987 |
| correction for moore et al., severity of clinical disease and pathology in ferrets experimentally infected with influenza viruses is influenced by inoculum volume. | | 2016 | 26719560 |
| emergence of a sylvatic enzootic formosan ferret badger-associated rabies in taiwan and the geographical separation of two phylogenetic groups of rabies viruses. | taiwan had been declared rabies-free in humans and domestic animals for five decades until july 2013, when surprisingly, three formosan ferret badgers (fb) were diagnosed with rabies. since then, a variety of wild carnivores and other wildlife species have been found dead, neurologically ill, or exhibiting aggressive behaviors around the island. to determine the affected animal species, geographic areas, and environments, animal bodies were examined for rabies by direct fluorescent antibody test ... | 2016 | 26711025 |
| upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in ferret and the histological assessment of the endoscopic biopsies. | | 2016 | 26684485 |
| the essential complexity of auditory receptive fields. | encoding properties of sensory neurons are commonly modeled using linear finite impulse response (fir) filters. for the auditory system, the fir filter is instantiated in the spectro-temporal receptive field (strf), often in the framework of the generalized linear model. despite widespread use of the fir strf, numerous formulations for linear filters are possible that require many fewer parameters, potentially permitting more efficient and accurate model estimates. to explore these alternative s ... | 2015 | 26683490 |
| optogenetic spatial and temporal control of cortical circuits on a columnar scale. | many circuits in the mammalian brain are organized in a topographic or columnar manner. these circuits could be activated-in ways that reveal circuit function or restore function after disease-by an artificial stimulation system that is capable of independently driving local groups of neurons. here we present a simple custom microscope called projectorscope 1 that incorporates off-the-shelf parts and a liquid crystal display (lcd) projector to stimulate surface brain regions that express channel ... | 2016 | 26631152 |
| modular representation of luminance polarity in the superficial layers of primary visual cortex. | the spatial arrangement of luminance increments (on) and decrements (off) falling on the retina provides a wealth of information used by central visual pathways to construct coherent representations of visual scenes. but how the polarity of luminance change is represented in the activity of cortical circuits remains unclear. using wide-field epifluorescence and two-photon imaging we demonstrate a robust modular representation of luminance polarity (on or off) in the superficial layers of ferret ... | 2015 | 26590348 |
| a division of light and dark in the visual cortex. | the fate of on-off receptive field segregation in the visual cortex has long eluded scrutiny. in this issue of neuron, smith et al. (2015) now reveal the intricate relationship between luminance polarity and orientation selectivity in the upper layers of ferret visual cortex. | 2015 | 26590338 |
| crispr/cas9-mediated genome engineering of the ferret. | | 2015 | 26565559 |
| civility in scientific publishing: the glyphosate paper. | in recent years, we have witnessed a decline in civility in the public arena when various socially sensitive issues are being presented. those of us engaged in the publishing of scientific papers and in our comments on these papers, need to be cognizant of the social graces, courteous demeanor, and chivalry. debates are essential to our learning and in being able to ferret out the essentials of various scientific issues that are of value. because of the amount of time and effort connected with a ... | 2015 | 26543672 |
| reconstruction of audio waveforms from spike trains of artificial cochlea models. | spiking cochlea models describe the analog processing and spike generation process within the biological cochlea. reconstructing the audio input from the artificial cochlea spikes is therefore useful for understanding the fidelity of the information preserved in the spikes. the reconstruction process is challenging particularly for spikes from the mixed signal (analog/digital) integrated circuit (ic) cochleas because of multiple non-linearities in the model and the additional variance caused by ... | 2015 | 26528113 |
| neuronal migration dynamics in the developing ferret cortex. | during mammalian neocortical development, newborn excitatory and inhibitory neurons must migrate over long distances to reach their final positions within the cortical plate. in the lissencephalic rodent brain, pyramidal neurons are born in the ventricular and subventricular zones of the pallium and migrate along radial glia fibers to reach the appropriate cortical layer. although much less is known about neuronal migration in species with a gyrencephalic cortex, retroviral studies in the ferret ... | 2015 | 26490868 |
| pathophysiological analyses of cortical malformation using gyrencephalic mammals. | one of the most prominent features of the cerebral cortex of higher mammals is the presence of gyri. because malformations of the cortical gyri are associated with severe disability in brain function, the mechanisms underlying malformations of the cortical gyri have been of great interest. combining gyrencephalic carnivore ferrets and genetic manipulations using in utero electroporation, here we successfully recapitulated the cortical phenotypes of thanatophoric dysplasia (td) by expressing fibr ... | 2015 | 26482531 |
| structural and functional characterisation of ferret interleukin-2. | while the ferret is a valuable animal model for a number of human viral infections, such as influenza, hendra and nipah, evaluating the cellular immune response following infection has been hampered by the lack of a number of species-specific immunological reagents. interleukin 2 (il-2) is one such key cytokine. ferret recombinant il-2 incorporating a c-terminal histidine tag was expressed and purified and the three-dimensional structure solved and refined at 1.89 å by x-ray crystallography, whi ... | 2016 | 26472619 |
| the what, why, and how of born-open data. | although many researchers agree that scientific data should be open to scrutiny to ferret out poor analyses and outright fraud, most raw data sets are not available on demand. there are many reasons researchers do not open their data, and one is technical. it is often time consuming to prepare and archive data. in response, my laboratory has automated the process such that our data are archived the night they are created without any human approval or action. all data are versioned, logged, time ... | 2016 | 26428912 |
| epidemiological and virological findings during multiple outbreaks of equine influenza in south america in 2012. | in 2012, equine influenza (ei) virus was confirmed as the cause of outbreaks of respiratory disease in horses throughout south america. in uruguay and argentina, hundreds of vaccinated thoroughbred horses in training and racing facilities were clinically affected. | 2016 | 26406274 |
| rapid task-related plasticity of spectrotemporal receptive fields in the auditory midbrain. | previous research has demonstrated that auditory cortical neurons can modify their receptive fields when animals engage in auditory detection tasks. we tested for this form of task-related plasticity in the inferior colliculus (ic) of ferrets trained to detect a pure tone target in a sequence of noise distractors that did not overlap in time. during behavior, responses were suppressed at the target tone frequency in approximately half of ic neurons relative to the passive state. this suppression ... | 2015 | 26400939 |
| a modern syllogistic method in intuitionistic fuzzy logic with realistic tautology. | the modern syllogistic method (msm) of propositional logic ferrets out from a set of premises all that can be concluded from it in the most compact form. the msm combines the premises into a single function equated to 1 and then produces the complete product of this function. two fuzzy versions of msm are developed in ordinary fuzzy logic (ofl) and in intuitionistic fuzzy logic (ifl) with these logics augmented by the concept of realistic fuzzy tautology (rft) which is a variable whose truth exc ... | 2015 | 26380357 |
| soy isoflavone metabolism in cats compared with other species: urinary metabolite concentrations and glucuronidation by liver microsomes. | 1. soybean is a common source of protein in many pet foods. slow glucuronidation of soy-derived isoflavones in cats has been hypothesized to result in accumulation with adverse health consequences. here, we evaluated species' differences in soy isoflavone glucuronidation using urine samples from cats and dogs fed a soy-based diet and liver microsomes from cats compared with microsomes from 12 other species. 2. significant concentrations of conjugated (but not unconjugated) genistein, daidzein an ... | 2016 | 26366946 |
| relationship between haemagglutination inhibition titre and immunity to influenza in ferrets. | our understanding of the antigenic evolution of the human influenza virus is chiefly derived from experiments in which serum from influenza infected ferrets is tested against panels of virus isolates in the haemagglutination inhibition (hi) assay. the interpretation of these results has been much aided by the development of antigenic mapping techniques, which suppose that the antigenic distance between two different influenza viruses is directly proportional to their fold-difference in titre in ... | 2015 | 26342848 |
| overexpression of serum response factor in neurons restores ocular dominance plasticity in a model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. | deficits in neuronal plasticity underlie many neurobehavioral and cognitive problems presented in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (fasd). our laboratory has developed a ferret model showing that early alcohol exposure leads to a persistent disruption in ocular dominance plasticity (odp). for instance, a few days of monocular deprivation results in a robust reduction of visual cortex neurons' responsiveness to stimulation of the deprived eye in normal animals, but not in ferrets with early alcoho ... | 2015 | 26342644 |
| a dunnione compound mb12662 improves cisplatin-induced tissue injury and emesis. | the present study was aimed to investigate the effects of mb12662, a synthetic dunnione compound, on cisplatin-induced vomiting reflexes and intestinal, renal, immune system, and hematopoietic toxicities in ferrets and mice, respectively. male icr mice were orally administered mb12662 (5, 10, 25 or 50 mg/kg) for 10 days, during which intraperitoneally challenged with cisplatin (3.5 mg/kg) from day 4 to 7, and sacrificed on day 10 for the pathological examination. male ferrets were orally adminis ... | 2015 | 26336585 |
| brain oxygen tension controls the expansion of outer subventricular zone-like basal progenitors in the developing mouse brain. | the mammalian neocortex shows a conserved six-layered structure that differs between species in the total number of cortical neurons produced owing to differences in the relative abundance of distinct progenitor populations. recent studies have identified a new class of proliferative neurogenic cells in the outer subventricular zone (osvz) in gyrencephalic species such as primates and ferrets. lissencephalic brains of mice possess fewer osvz-like progenitor cells and these do not constitute a di ... | 2015 | 26329599 |
| long-term contraception in a small implant: a review of suprelorin (deslorelin) studies in cats. | deslorelin (suprelorin®; virbac) is a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (gnrh) agonist licensed in select countries for the long-term suppression of fertility in adult male dogs and male ferrets. this article summarizes studies investigating the use of deslorelin implants for the long-term suppression of fertility in male and female domestic cats. | 2015 | 26323800 |
| innate immunity and the inter-exposure interval determine the dynamics of secondary influenza virus infection and explain observed viral hierarchies. | influenza is an infectious disease that primarily attacks the respiratory system. innate immunity provides both a very early defense to influenza virus invasion and an effective control of viral growth. previous modelling studies of virus-innate immune response interactions have focused on infection with a single virus and, while improving our understanding of viral and immune dynamics, have been unable to effectively evaluate the relative feasibility of different hypothesised mechanisms of anti ... | 2015 | 26284917 |
| imaging the dynamics of mammalian neocortical population activity in-vivo. | neural computations underlying sensory perception, cognition and motor control are performed by populations of neurons at different anatomical and temporal scales. few techniques are currently available for exploring dynamics of local and large range populations. voltage-sensitive dye imaging (vsdi) reveals neural population activity in areas ranging from a few tens of microns to a couple of centimeters, or two areas up to ~10 cm apart. vsdi provides a sub-millisecond temporal resolution, and a ... | 2015 | 26238056 |
| oseltamivir inhibits influenza virus replication and transmission following ocular-only aerosol inoculation of ferrets. | ocular exposure to influenza virus represents an alternate route of virus entry capable of establishing a respiratory infection in mammals, but the effectiveness of currently available antiviral treatments to limit virus replication within ocular tissue or inhibit virus spread from ocular sites to the respiratory tract is poorly understood. using an inoculation method that delivers an aerosol inoculum exclusively to the ocular surface, we demonstrate that oral oseltamivir administration followin ... | 2015 | 26142497 |
| computer-aided pulmonary image analysis in small animal models. | to develop an automated pulmonary image analysis framework for infectious lung diseases in small animal models. | 2015 | 26133591 |
| animal models for influenza virus transmission studies: a historical perspective. | animal models are used to simulate, under experimental conditions, the complex interactions among host, virus, and environment that affect the person-to-person spread of influenza viruses. the three species that have been most frequently employed, both past and present, as influenza virus transmission models-ferrets, mice, and guinea pigs-have each provided unique insights into the factors governing the efficiency with which these viruses pass from an infected host to a susceptible one. this rev ... | 2015 | 26126082 |
| video otoscopy in exotic companion mammals. | ear disease is a common disorder seen in exotic companion mammals, especially in ferrets, rabbits, and rats. this article describes patient preparation, equipment, and video otoscopy technique in exotic companion mammals. this noninvasive technique facilitates accurate diagnosis of diseases affecting the external ear canal or middle ear. moreover, therapeutic otoscopic evaluation of the external ear facilitates foreign body removal, external ear canal flushing, intralesional drug administration, ... | 2015 | 26117517 |
| multi-dimensional measurement of antibody-mediated heterosubtypic immunity to influenza. | the human immune response to influenza vaccination depends in part on preexisting cross-reactive (heterosubtypic) immunity from previous infection by, and/or vaccination with, influenza strains that share antigenic determinants with the vaccine strains. however, current methods for assessing heterosubtypic antibody responses against influenza, including the hemagglutination-inhibition (hai) assay and elisa, are time and labor intensive, and require moderate amounts of serum and reagents. to addr ... | 2015 | 26103163 |
| auditory gap-in-noise detection behavior in ferrets and humans. | the precise encoding of temporal features of auditory stimuli by the mammalian auditory system is critical to the perception of biologically important sounds, including vocalizations, speech, and music. in this study, auditory gap-detection behavior was evaluated in adult pigmented ferrets (mustelid putorius furo) using bandpassed stimuli designed to widely sample the ferret's behavioral and physiological audiogram. animals were tested under positive operant conditioning, with psychometric funct ... | 2015 | 26052794 |
| cerebral pyogranuloma associated with systemic coronavirus infection in a ferret. | a 2-year-old male ferret was presented with central nervous system signs. computed tomography (ct) of the brain revealed a well-defined contrast-enhancing lesion on the rostral forebrain that appeared extraparenchymal. surgical excision of the mass was performed and the ferret was euthanised during the procedure. histopathology of the excised mass showed multiple meningeal nodular lesions with infiltrates of epithelioid macrophages, occasionally centred on degenerated neutrophils and surrounded ... | 2016 | 26046449 |
| comparison of a ferret model with an inanimate simulator for training novices in techniques for intubating neonates. | simulators for neonatal intubation training have improved, prompting us to compare a state-of-the-art simulator with live ferrets for training novice family-medicine residents in this crucial skill. after a scripted didactic presentation, we used a crossover study design and randomly assigned residents to receive simulator or live ferret training, after which they repeated the procedure by using the opposite method. participants were asked to report their level of confidence and competence befor ... | 2015 | 26045454 |