1,325 research outputs found
Myocytes changes and satellite cells proliferation following denervation of ALD (Anterior Latissimus Dorsi) and PLD (Posterior Latissimus Dorsi) muscles in two strains of turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
No full textMorphological features and chronology of myocytes changes after denervation were studied over 35 days period in 2 heavy (HW) and light-weight (LW) strains of 5-week-old male turkeys. Denervation caused progressive atrophy in posterior latissimus dorsi (PLD). By day 28, the weight of the PLD muscle had reached about 62% of the non-denervated contralateral muscle weight in both strains. On the contrary, ALD muscle mass increase
progressively after denervation. Thus the maximum hypertrophy of the ALD, expressed as a percentage of contralateral muscle, was respectively about 67% and 37%,day 21 in the HW strain and day 28
in LW strain after denervation. ALD hypertrophy ceased apparently after day 21 (HW strain) and day 28 (LW
strain). Morphometric analysis revealed that fast twitch (type II) fibers were atrophied after denervation, whereas slow tonic (type III) fibers were hypertrophied from day 7.Coagulative necrosis with fragmentation and lysis associated with moderate infiltration of inflammatory cells, were similar in both strains. Irregularities in mitochondrial distribution occurred mainly in type III fibers of ALD muscle at day 7. Seven and 14 days after denervation, immunolabelling of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) revealed satellite cell activation in denervated muscles. The number of activated satellite cells was greater in the LW than HW mainly in ALD muscle
DEFECT PHENOMENA IN SUPERCONDUCTING OXIDES AND ANALOGOUS CERAMIC OXIDES
No full textIn this review we discuss defect phenomena in superconducting oxides. We survey those aspects of oxide superconductors which relate them most closely to conventional ceramic oxides, concentrating on processes and behaviour related to defects. We also identify areas of difference between two types of oxide.Theoretical modelling of conventional oxides has been extremely effective, and we emphasize that some of these modelling tools can be exploited for the superconducting oxides too. In particular, we stress those methods and ideas that provide a framework for understanding behaviour, those that provide a datasbase of good quantitative experiments and those that provide an established and tested approach to quantitative modelling as a guide to prediction, optimization and extrapolation.Much progress has been made in both theory and experiment, but some problems do remain and these have not been omitted from our discussions. There is potential to exploit past work on defects in oxides, so as to control defect processes and microstructure and hence to enhance performance
Contributions of large wood to the initial establishment and diversity of riparian vegetation in a bar-braided temperate river
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine the effects of large wood (LW) on the physical environment and the initial establishment of vascular plant species in the Rekifune River, a large bar-braided monsoonal river in Japan. The physical environment and the diversity and composition of plant species were compared in relation to the orientation of LW pieces. We found that shading effects were more prevalent in the immediate vicinity of LW pieces than in quadrats distant from LW. The effect was especially strong at the center of LW jams (the "jam center"). Fine sand and silt were concentrated in the quadrats downstream from the LW pieces. In contrast, cobbles dominated the upstream quadrats. The highest diversity was found in the jam center, while intermediate values were observed in the quadrats surrounding LW. Indicator species analysis detected 21 indicator species only in the jam center. The LW jams favored the deposition of plant fragments and sediment and created shaded areas within and around the structures. Buried seeds may be transported with LW during a flood, and seeds dispersed by wind and stream flows may be trapped by the complex structure of LW jams. The specific environmental conditions and the trapping of seeds and plant fragments result in the early establishment of mid-successional tree species at LW jams. In conclusion, the LW pieces deposited on gravel bars altered the light and substrate conditions and thereby provided specific safe sites for various riparian plant species
An f/0.27 High-Gain Lens Antenna for Ultrasmall Platforms at THz Frequencies
No full textThe development of a low focal number and low-mass lens antenna is presented that enables terahertz spectroscopy applications on ultracompact platforms. The antenna operates efficiently over a 20% fractional bandwidth, from 450 to 550 GHz, with a gain of 50 dBi at 500 GHz. The antenna consists of a hyperbolic silicon lens that is placed in a record low focal number configuration (f#=0.27) with respect to an advanced waveguide feed. An incident field-matching analysis is applied to investigate the optimal feed radiation pattern that maximizes the lens aperture efficiency, which would result in a 20% increase in aperture efficiency (> 80%) with respect to a standard open-ended waveguide (< 60% aperture efficiency). A multilayer leaky-wave (LW) stratification is quasi-analytically optimized to approximate the optimal feeding pattern, resulting in a >70% lens aperture efficiency. An example LW stratification is synthesized using silicon micromachining technology and is fully characterized in combination with the dielectric lens. Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Tera-Hertz Sensin
Precipitation patterns control the distribution and export of large wood at the catchment scale
No full textLarge wood (LW) plays an important role in river ecosystems, but LW-laden floods may cause serious damage to human lives and property. The relationship between precipitation patterns and variations in LW distribution and export at the watershed scale is poorly understood. To explore these linkages, we examined differences in LW distribution as a function of channel morphologies in six watersheds located in southern and northern Japan and analysed the impacts of different precipitation patterns on the fluvial export of LW from river catchments. In southern Japan, intense rainfalls caused by typhoons or localized torrential downpours initiate landslides and debris flows that introduce massive amounts of LW into channels. Gravel bars formed by frequent flood events are widely prevalent, and the LW temporarily stored on these bars is frequently moved and/or broken into smaller pieces by floods. In these systems fluvial export of LW is supply-limited, with smaller accumulations and shorter residence times than in northern Japan. Conversely, in northern Japan, where typhoons and torrential downpours rarely occur, LW is mostly recruited by bank erosion, tree mortality and windthrow into channels, rather than by landslides and debris flows. Recruited pieces accumulate in log jams on valley floors, particularly on floodplains supporting mature forests, resulting in larger accumulations and longer residence times. In these watersheds fluvial export of LW is transport-limited, and the pieces gradually decompose during long-term storage as log jams. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) inhibition induces lymphoma cell death through reactivation of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor pathway and polycomb repressor complex 2 (PRC2) silencing.
No full textEpigenetic regulation mediated by lysine- and arginine-specific enzymes plays an essential role in tumorigenesis, and enhanced expression of the type II protein arginine methyltransferase PRMT5 as well as the polycomb repressor complex PRC2 has been associated with increased cell proliferation and survival. Here, we show that PRMT5 is overexpressed in three different types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cell lines and clinical samples as well as in mouse primary lymphoma cells and that it up-regulates PRC2 expression through inactivation of the retinoblastoma proteins RB1 and RBL2. Although PRMT5 epigenetically controls RBL2 expression, it indirectly promotes RB1 phosphorylation through enhanced cyclin D1 expression. Furthermore, we demonstrate that PRMT5 knockdown in non-Hodgkin lymphoma cell lines and mouse primary lymphoma cells leads to RBL2 derepression and RB1 reactivation, which in turn inhibit PRC2 expression and trigger derepression of its CASP10, DAP1, HOXA5, and HRK pro-apoptotic target genes. We also show that reduced PRMT5 expression leads to cyclin D1 transcriptional repression via loss of TP53K372 methylation, which results in decreased BCL3 expression and enhanced recruitment of NF-κB p52-HDAC1 repressor complexes to the cyclin D1 promoter. These findings indicate that PRMT5 is a master epigenetic regulator that governs expression of its own target genes and those regulated by PRC2 and that its inhibition could offer a promising therapeutic strategy for lymphoma patients
Weight data lets you fine-tune
No full textThe article discusses a study on the possible benefits of daily liveweight (LW) monitoring in dairy herds. It cites that farmers can reduce the negative effects of LW change. It mentions that the study covers 450 mixed-age dairy cows, with data collected via a walk-over weighing system that measured the LW of each cow after leaving the milking platform. The author shares that LW change in postpartum and LW change after start of mating are indicators of the cow's reproductive performance
Early diastolic mitral annular velocity at the interventricular septal annulus correctly reflects left ventricular longitudinal myocardial relaxation
No full textAims: Early diastolic mitral annular velocity (e') obtained by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is widely used to evaluate left ventricular (LV) diastolic function based on the assumption that it reflects myocardial relaxation in the long-axis direction. In this study, we aimed to determine whether or not e' truly reflects early diastolic longitudinal myocardial relaxation, and which is the most useful for evaluating LV diastolic function among e' measured at the interventricular-septal annulus (IS-e'), that measured at the lateral annulus (LW-e') or their mean value (M-e'). Methods and results: IS-e', LW-e', and M-e' were measured using colour TDI in 15 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 13 patients with hypertension and 19 control subjects. Using two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging, early diastolic myocardial strain rates (SR_[E]) were measured for the IS (IS-SR_[E]), LW(LW-SR_[E]) and entire LV myocardium (G-SR_[E]). IS-e' was excellently correlated with IS-SR_[E] (r = 0.90, P < 0.001); the correlation was better than that between LW-e' and LW-SR_[E] (r = 0.75, P < 0.001). IS-e' and M-e' were well correlated with G-SR_[E] (r = 0.88, P < 0.001 and r = 0.86, P < 0.001, respectively) and with LV early diastolic flow propagation velocity (r = 0.77, P < 0.001 and r = 0.78, P < 0.001, respectively). The correlations of LW-e' to G-SR_[E] (r = 0.80, P < 0.001) and flow propagation velocity (r = 0.75, P < 0.001) did not reach this level. Conclusion: IS-e' well reflected LV longitudinal myocardial relaxation and LV diastolic function, and was found to be more useful in evaluating LV diastolic function than LW-e'
Free vibration analysis of variable stiffness composite laminated beams and plates by novel hierarchical differential quadrature finite elements
No full textThe present work deals with the free vibration behavior of the variable stiffness composite laminates (VSCLs)featured by spatially varyingfibre orientation angles via novel quasi‐three‐dimensional solutions. The CarreraUnified Formulation (CUF) is employed to construct such novel models, where cross‐section kinematics aredescribed with the improved hierarchical Legendre expansion (IHLE) of primary mechanical variables. Theproposed expansions not only maintain the hierarchical properties of the HLE model but also become less sen-sitive to the numbering sequence of expansion terms. As a result of these enhanced kinematics, EquivalentSingle Layer (ESL) and Layer‐Wise (LW) models can be formulated more robustly. The weak form differentialquadraturefinite element method (DQFEM) is employed to solve the governing equations derived by the prin-ciple of virtual displacements. Based on CUF‐based DQFEM, even a single beam element is sufficient to tacklemany complex issues with high accuracy. Compact VSCL beams and plates with variousfibre paths, boundaryconditions, lamination schemes, and thickness‐to‐width ratios have been studied in several numerical exam-ples. The proposed method’s accuracy and effectiveness are validated by comparing results to published dat
Infection of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes with entomopathogenic fungi: effect of host age and blood-feeding status.
No full textPhysiological characteristics of insects can influence their susceptibility to fungal infection of which age and nutritional status are among the most important. An understanding of host-pathogen interaction with respect to these physiological characteristics of the host is essential if we are to develop fungal formulations capable of reducing malaria transmission under field conditions. Here, two independent bioassays were conducted to study the effect of age and blood-feeding status on fungal infection and survival of Anopheles gambiae s.s. Giles. Mosquitoes were exposed to 2 × 10(10) conidia m(-2) of oil-formulated Metarhizium anisopliae ICIPE-30 and of Beauveria bassiana I93-825, respectively, and their survival was monitored daily. Three age groups of mosquitoes were exposed, 2-4, 5-8, and 9-12 days since emergence. Five groups of different feeding status were exposed: non-blood-fed, 3, 12, 36, and 72 h post-blood feeding. Fungal infection reduced the survival of mosquitoes regardless of their age and blood-feeding status. Although older mosquitoes died relatively earlier than younger ones, age did not tend to affect mosquito susceptibility to fungal infection. Non-blood-fed mosquitoes were more susceptible to fungus infection compared to all categories of blood-fed mosquitoes, except for those exposed to B. bassiana 72 h post-blood feeding. In conclusion, formulations of M. anisopliae and B. bassiana can equally affect mosquitoes of different age classes, with them being relatively more susceptible to fungus infection when non-blood-fed
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