The objective was to investigate the potential effect of gestational diabetes mellitus on the initial neonatal oral microbiome community structure. Methods: Oral samples were collected from 20 full-term, vaginally delivered newborns with sterile swabs. Nine of them had mothers diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM group), while 11 had non-diabetic mothers (NDM group). The oral microbiota was analyzed using multi-barcode 16S rRNA sequencing on Illumina MiSeq system. Results: The results showed that the birth weight, gestational age and gestational weight gain were significantly higher in NDM group. There was a significant correlation between gestational age and birth weight. Neonatal oral microbiome was composed of five dominant phyla from Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Tenericutes. Compared to NDM group, a higher alpha diversity and reduction of phylum Firmicutes were observed in GDM group. Genus Lactobacillus dominated in NDM group, while Alistipes, Streptococcus, and Faecalibacterium were overabundant in GDM group. Additionally, carbohydrate metabolism increased in NDM group, whereas amino acid metabolism, vitamin metabolism and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis were more abundant in GDM group. Conclusions: This study showed a distinct oral microbiota profile in neonates born to mothers with GDM, which indicated that maternal diabetes status played an important role in neonatal initial oral microbiota.

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are spaces designed to educate students remotely via online platforms. Although traditional VLEs such as iSocial have shown promise in educating students, they offer limited immersion that diminishes learning effectiveness. This paper outlines a virtual reality learning environment (VRLE) over a high-speed network, which promotes educational effectiveness and efficiency via our creation of flexible content and infrastructure which meet established VLE standards with improved immersion. This paper further describes our implementation of multiple learning modules developed in High Fidelity, a "social VR" platform. Our experiment results show that the VR mode of content delivery better stimulates the generalization of lessons to the real world than non-VR lessons and provides improved immersion when compared to an equivalent desktop version.

The dystrophin-deficient dog is excellent large animal model for testing novel therapeutic modalities for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Despite well-documented descriptions of dystrophic symptoms in these dogs, very few quantitative studies have been performed. Here, we developed a comprehensive set of non-invasive assays to quantify dog gait (stride length and speed), joint angle and limb mobility (for both forelimb and hind limb), and spontaneous activity at night. To validate these assays, we examined three 8-m-old mix-breed dystrophic dogs. We also included three age-matched siblings as the normal control. High-resolution video recorders were used to digitize dog walking and spontaneous movement at night. Stride speed and length were significantly decreased in affected dogs. The mobility of the limb segments (forearm, front foot, lower thigh, rear foot) and the carpus and hock joints was significantly reduced in dystrophic dogs. There was also a significant reduction of the movement in affected dogs during overnight monitoring. In summary, we have established a comprehensive set of outcome measures for clinical phenotyping of DMD dogs. These non-invasive end points would be valuable in monitoring disease progression and therapeutic efficacy in translational studies in the DMD dog model.

No abstract

Objective: Very low birth weight (VLBW) infants, which experience significant postnatal growth restriction at the time of discharge, are at high risk of later growth failure and long-term consequences. This study aims to characterize the structure of intestinal microbiome community in VLBW infants with extrauterine growth restriction (EUGR). Methods: Twenty-three VLBW infants appropriate for gestational age (GA) hospitalized at the neonatal intensive care unit of the BaoAn Maternal and Child Care Hospital (Shenzhen, China) were enrolled in this study, which were divided into the growth restriction group (EUGR; n = 12) and the normal growth group (AGA; n = 11). Meconium and fecal samples at postnatal day 28 were collected respectively during hospitalization. Total bacterial DNA was extracted and sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq Sequencing System based on the V3–V4 hyper-variable regions of the 16S rRNA gene. Results: The intestinal bacterial communities of preterm infants were dominated by the phylum Proteobacteria . Compared with the AGA group, the relative abundances of the genera Aeromicrobium and Serratia in meconium samples significantly decreased, whereas genera Parabacteroides, Ruminococcus, Blautia , and Aeromonas were more prevalent in the EUGR group. On postnatal day 28, the relative abundances of the genera Parabacteroides, Bacteroides, Eubacterium, Granulicatella , and Salinivibrio were significantly different between the two groups, where genus Salinivibrio decreased significantly in the EUGR samples. Among them, genus Parabacteroides was more abundant on both postnatal day 1 and 28. Further KEGG prediction analysis showed that there were many differences in functional genes and pathways between the two groups on postnatal day 28, but not on day 1, the majority of which were related to energy metabolism. And no statistical differences were observed in the clinical characteristics of infants. Conclusions: Overall, these findings showed that a distinct gut microbiota profile presented in preterm infants with EUGR. The role of intestinal microbiome in the extrauterine growth of preterm infants during hospitalization should be further investigated.