The WAG/Rij strain of rats is commonly used as a preclinical model of genetic absence epilepsy. While widely utilized, the developmental trajectory of absence seizure expression has been only partially described. Moreover, sex differences in this strain have been under-explored. Here, we longitudinally monitored male and female WAG/Rij rats to quantify cortical spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs) monthly, from 4 to 10 months of age. In both male and female WAG/Rij rats, absence seizure susceptibility increased with age. In contrast to previous reports, we found a robust and consistent increase in absence epilepsy susceptibility in male WAG/Rij rats in comparison to females across months. The increased absence seizure susceptibility was characterized by increased number and duration of SWDs, and consequently increased total SWDs duration. These findings highlight a previously un-recognized sex difference in a model of absence epilepsy and narrow the knowledge gap of age-dependent expression of SWDs in the WAG/Rij strain. Patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) experience early symptoms of dyspnoea and leg fatigue during exercise together with severe and rapid oxygen desaturation. Heated and humidified nasal high flow oxygen (NHF) has been proven to enhance exercise endurance and physiological parameters in COPD patients. This study aims to evaluate the effect of NHF on exercise tolerance in ILD patients. Twenty-five patients (10 female) with severe ILD performed three constant-load (70% maximal workload) cycling tests to exhaustion under different breathing conditions room air, oxygen supplementation (4Lmin O ) and NHF (inspiratory O fraction 0.5, 30-50Lmin , heated 34°C and humidified). Endurance time was significantly longer with NHF (618±297s) compared to O (369±217s, p<0.001) and room air (171±76s, p<0.001). Kinetics of oxygen desaturation, chronotropic response, dyspnoea and leg fatigue sensations were delayed with NHF. At exhaustion with NHF, compared to the two other conditions, oxygen desaturation was less severe while heart rate, dyspnoea and leg fatigue were similar. NHF significantly improved endurance time, physiological parameters and sensations during exercise in severe ILD patients. NHF may be useful to improve functional capacities and facilitate pulmonary rehabilitation in ILD. NHF significantly improved endurance time, physiological parameters and sensations during exercise in severe ILD patients. NHF may be useful to improve functional capacities and facilitate pulmonary rehabilitation in ILD. Dabrafenib plus trametinib has demonstrated clinical benefit across multiple BRAF-mutant tumours, leading to approval for resected stage III and metastatic melanoma, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)and anaplastic thyroid cancer. Pyrexia is a common adverse event in patients treated with dabrafenib plus trametinib. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/BI-2536.html Here, we characterise the incidence, patternsand management of pyrexia in patients receiving dabrafenib plus trametinib in clinical trials. Patients (N=1076) included in the analysis received dabrafenib plus trametinib in the following clinical trials phase II registration trial in advanced NSCLC (N=82), phase III COMBI-AD study in resectable stage III melanoma (N=435)and phase III COMBI-d and COMBI-v studies in unresectable or metastatic melanoma (N=209 and N=350, respectively). Among the 1076 patients enrolled in the clinical trials, 61.3% developed pyrexia, 5.7% developed grade 3/4 pyrexiaand 15.6% developed a protocol-defined serious pyrexia event. Among the 660 patients with pyrexia, 33.0% had 1 occurrence, 19.8% had 2 occurrencesand 47.1% had ≥3 occurrences. The incidence of pyrexia was highest early in treatment and decreased with time on treatment. Temporary dose interruption of dabrafenib or trametinib was the most common and effective management strategy. Pyrexia is the most common adverse event associated with dabrafenib plus trametinib but is manageable with dose interruption. ClinicalTrials.gov (Phase II NSCLC, NCT01336634; COMBI-AD, NCT01682083; COMBI-d, NCT01584648; COMBI-v, NCT01597908). ClinicalTrials.gov (Phase II NSCLC, NCT01336634; COMBI-AD, NCT01682083; COMBI-d, NCT01584648; COMBI-v, NCT01597908).Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) are retroviruses causing significant morbidity and mortality in cats. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and clinicopathologic aspects of FeLV and FIV infections in different populations of cats in Greece, including client-owned cats, stray cats and cats who live in catteries. A total of 435 cats were prospectively enrolled. Serological detection of FeLV antigen and FIV antibody was performed using a commercial in-house ELISA test kit. The results showed that 17 (3.9 %) and 40 (9.2 %) of the 435 cats were positive for FeLV antigen and FIV antibody, respectively, whereas 5 (1.1 %) had concurrent infection with FeLV and FIV. Factors that were associated with FeLV antigenemia, based on multivariate analysis, included vomiting, rhinitis, infection with FIV, neutropenia, decreased blood urea nitrogen and increased serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations. Factors associated with FIV seropositivity included male gender, older age, outdoor access, weight loss, fever, gingivostomatitis, skin lesions and/or pruritus and hyperglobulinemia. Various clinical signs and laboratory abnormalities were found to be significantly associated with retroviral infections, suggesting that current guidelines to test all sick cats should be followed, taking into particular consideration the high-risk groups of cats found in this study.Leptospirosis is the most widespread zoonosis worldwide, and it can cause reproductive failures in livestock, while in humans may vary from a mild fever to multi-organ failure and death. Due to this, in this study, we evaluated the usefulness of the segment encoding LigB C-terminus region, only present in pathogenic as target for a diagnostic PCR. This new PCR yielded a 100 % positivity for pathogenic Leptospira species and no cross-reactivity was found with intermediate or non-pathogenic species, or with other microorganisms, demostrating its high analytical specificity. The estimated analytical sensitivity was higher in serum samples than in blood or urine samples (6-9 × 102 lept/mL and 6-9 × 105 and 6-9 × 106 lept/mL, respectively). Multiple sequence alignment of the target region from different pathogenic Leptospira species confirmed that this gene region is highly conserved among these species, with few single nucleotide polymorphisms. The ligb-ct PCR here developed appears as a useful tool for the molecular diagnosis of leptospirosis.