Retina formation requires the correct spatiotemporal patterning of key regulatory factors. While it is known that repression of several signaling pathways lead to specification of retinal fates, addition of only Noggin, a known BMP antagonist, can convert pluripotent Xenopus laevis animal cap cells to functional retinal cells. The aim of this study is to determine the intracellular molecular ev...

The aim of this study was to understand the use and distribution of human rabies post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) vaccine in Bhutan and to identify risk factors for receiving an incomplete course of the vaccine. We analyzed post exposure treatment records from 28 medical hospitals from 2005 to 2008. Males (59%) accounted for significantly more PEP events than females (41%) across all age groups ...

Some large rectangular matrices used in animal breeding are presented. We describe how to generate these matrices from the data supplied by animal breeders. The matrices are very sparse (3 nonzeros per row) and range between 26 20 and 968 652 582 694.

This paper presents an overview of the history and the foreseeable developments of animal breeding. After the transition from population genetics to modern quantitative genetics, realized in the late 1950s, major progress has occurred in the field of breeding value evaluation and, more recently, with the advent of genomics and its potential contribution to genetic improvement. Various challenge...

Adenovirus vaccine vectors generated from new viral serotypes are routinely screened in pre-clinical laboratory animal models to identify the most immunogenic and efficacious candidates for further evaluation in clinical human and veterinary settings. Here, we show that studies in a laboratory species do not necessarily predict the hierarchy of vector performance in other mammals. In mice, afte...

The objective of this review article was to examine current and prospective developments in the scientific use of laboratory animals, and to find out whether or not there are still valid scientific benefits of and justification for animal experimentation. The PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched using the following key words: animal models, basic research, pharmaceutical research, ...

BACKGROUND Animal welfare should be prioritized not only for the animal's life sustainability but also for supporting the sustainability of living organism's life on the earth. However, Indonesian people have not understood it yet, thereby still treating animals arbitrarily and not appreciating either domesticated or wild animals. AIM This research aimed to analyze the zoo agent's action in a...

Mental healthcare of elderly people is a common problem in advanced countries. Recently, high technology has developed robots for use not only in factories but also for our living environment. In particular, human-interactive robots for psychological enrichment, which provide services by interacting with humans while stimulating their minds, are rapidly spreading. Such robots not only simply en...

Human-animal interaction (HAI) is a growing area of research that examines the ways in which humans and animals interact benefits result from these interactions. This paper reviews evolution into mutual HAI over past several decades. Early this focused primarily on therapeutic for humans, particularly context animal-assisted therapy. However, more recent has broadened scope to include wider ran...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is associated with reductions in fear, anxiety, and depression in psychiatric patients before electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Before their scheduled ECT treatment, 35 patients were assigned on alternate days to the treatment condition, consisting of a 15-minute AAT session, and the standard (comparison) condit...