BACKGROUND Multiple studies have demonstrated that early-life exposure to pets or siblings affords protection against allergic disease; these associations are commonly attributed to the "hygiene hypothesis". Recently, low diversity of the infant gut microbiota has also been linked to allergic disease. In this study, we characterize the infant gut microbiota in relation to pets and siblings. M...

Attachment to pets has an important role in children's social, emotional, and cognitive development, mental health, well-being, and quality of life. This study examined associations between childhood attachment to pets and caring and friendship behaviour, compassion, and attitudes towards animals. This study also examined socio-demographic differences, particularly pet ownership and pet type. A...

The components of chloroplast translation are similar to those of prokaryotic translation but contain some additional unique features. Proteomic analysis of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast ribosome identified an S1-like protein, plastid-specific ribosomal protein-7 (PSRP-7), as a stoichiometric component of the 30S subunit. Here, we report that PSRP-7 is part of a polyprotein that con...

ownership and allergic disease, leading to the widely accepted recommendation of refraining or removal of pets from the home. The current study, as well as others, found that pet ownership may have a protective effect against the development of allergic disease. Children who were exposed to pets at birth had a lower prevalence of allergic rhinitis, asthma, and infant eczema, although this study...

We introduce a parameter called pointing error thermal sensitivity (PETS) for quantitatively determining the quality of a quadrupolar (QAD) fiber coil under radial temperature variations. We show both analytically and experimentally that the pointing error of a fiber gyro incorporating the fiber coil is linearly proportional to the final radial thermal gradient on the coil, with PETS as the pro...

The genetic similarity of Campylobacter jejuni isolates from pets, compared to human clinical cases and retail food isolates collected in Ireland over 2001-2006 was investigated by cluster analysis of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) fingerprinting profiles. Comparison of the PFGE profiles of 60 pet isolates and 109 human isolates revealed that seven (4.1%) profiles were grouped in clust...

A high resolution allelotype for nonfunctional pancreatic endocrine tumors (NF-PETs) has been generated by microsatellite analysis of DNA from 16 frozen cases, each probed with 394 markers. Two subgroups of NF-PETs were found. Seven cases showed frequent, large allelic deletions [loss of heterozygosity (LOH)] with an average fractional allelic loss (FAL) of 0.55, whereas nine cases showed a sma...

Efficacy of lufenuron (Program, Novartis Animal Health, Greensboro, NC), an insect growth regulator, and nitenpyram (Capstar, Novartis Animal Health), an insecticide for reducing flea populations, was evaluated in 35 flea-infested dogs and cats residing in 18 households in Tampa, Florida. Pets were randomly allocated by household to two treatment groups. Pets in both treatment groups were given...