Induction of Colonic Aberrant Crypts in Mice by Feeding Apparent N-Nitroso Compounds Derived From Hot Dogs

Nitrite-preserved meats (e.g., hot dogs) may help cause colon cancer because they contain N-nitroso compounds. We tested whether purified hot-dog-derived total apparent N-nitroso compounds (ANC) could induce colonic aberrant crypts, which are putative precursors of colon cancer. We purified ANC precursors in hot dogs and nitrosated them to produce ANC. In preliminary tests, CF1 mice received 1 or 3 i.p. injections of 5mg azoxymethane (AOM)/kg. In Experiments 1 and 2, female A/J mice received ANC in diet. In Experiment 1, ANC dose initially dropped sharply because the ANC precursors had mostly decomposed but, later in Experiment 1 and throughout Experiment 2, ANC remained at 85 nmol/g diet. Mice were killed after 8 (AOM tests) or 17–34 (ANC tests) wk.Median numbers of aberrant crypts in the distal 2 cm of the colon for 1 and 3 AOMinjections, CF1 controls, ANC (Experiment 1), ANC (Experiment 2),and untreated A/J mice were 31, 74, 12, 20, 12, and 5–6, with P < 0.01 for both ANC tests. Experiment 2 showed somewhat increased numbers of colonic mucin-depleted foci in the ANC-treated group. We conclude that hot-dog-derived ANC induced significant numbers of aberrant crypts in the mouse colon

NON-HYDROSTATIC THERMODYNAMICS OF CHEMICAL AND PHASE CHANGES

ABSTRACT The problem of chemical or phase equilibrium under non-hydrostatic stresses is discussed. It is shown how to formulate a formal thermodynamic theory, the essential step being the correct definition of the mechanical coordinates so that they describe not only the change of shape but the work done in such processes as deformation, chemical action, crystallization or solution at a surface, or a phase change. A useful Gibbs function is defined to give the conditions of equilibrium for the above processes. The theory agrees with experiments on the c-3 quartz transition and on the de-twinning of quartz

Evidence for Infanticide in Bottlenose Dolphins of the Western North Atlantic

Nine bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) calves that stranded in Virginia in 1996 and 1997 died of severe blunt-force trauma. Injuries were concentrated on the head and chest and multiple rib fractures, lung lacerations, and soft tissue contusions were prominent. Skeletal and/or soft tissue trauma occurred bilaterally in all of the calves. One had a bite wound across the left mandible that exhibited deep punctures consistent with the tooth placement in an adult bottlenose dolphin. The lesions were not compatible with predation, boat strike, fisheries interactions, rough-surf injury, or blast injury. However, they were similar to traumatic injuries described in stranded bottlenose dolphin calves and harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in Great Britain attributed to violent dolphin interactions. The evidence suggests that violent dolphin behavior was the cause of the trauma in the nine calves reported here and that infanticide occurs in bottlenose dolphins of the western North Atlantic

Critical minerals and energy-impacts and limitations of moving to unconventional resources

© 2016 by the authors. The nexus of minerals and energy becomes ever more important as the economic growth and development of countries in the global South accelerates and the needs of new energy technologies expand, while at the same time various important minerals are declining in grade and available reserves from conventional mining. Unconventional resources in the form of deep ocean deposits and urban ores are being widely examined, although exploitation is still limited. This paper examines some of the implications of the transition towards cleaner energy futures in parallel with the shifts through conventional ore decline and the uptake of unconventional mineral resources. Three energy scenarios, each with three levels of uptake of renewable energy, are assessed for the potential of critical minerals to restrict growth under 12 alternative mineral supply patterns. Under steady material intensities per unit of capacity, the study indicates that selenium, indium and tellurium could be barriers in the expansion of thin-film photovoltaics, while neodymium and dysprosium may delay the propagation of wind power. For fuel cells, no restrictions are observed

Little groups of irreps of O(3), SO(3), and the infinite axial subgroups

Little groups are enumerated for the irreps and their components in any basis of O(3) and SO(3) up to rank 9, and for all irreps of C$_{\infty}$, C$_{\infty h}$, C$_{\infty v}$, D$_{\infty}$ and D$_{\infty h}$. The results are obtained by a new chain criterion, which distinguishes massive (rotationally inequivalent) irrep basis functions and allows for multiple branching paths, and are verified by inspection. These results are relevant to the determination of the symmetry of a material from its linear and nonlinear optical properties and to the choices of order parameters for symmetry breaking in liquid crystals.Comment: 28 pages and 3 figure

A Study to Validate a Self-Reported Version of the ONS Drug Dependence Questionnaire

Aim: A prospective study to establish the reliability of a self-completion version of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) questionnaire for assessing drug dependence of substance misuse clients. Method: A total of 47 treatment seeking opioid-dependent clients completed the self-complete version of the ONS questionnaire (ONS-sc) followed by the interviewer-administered ONS questionnaire (ONS-ia) at a single clinic appointment. Scores for four Class A drugs (heroin, methadone, speed and crack/cocaine) from both formats were compared. Results: The observed agreement was 87% or more and Cohen's kappa was 0.7 (p < 0.001) or more for all four Class A drugs. Sensitivity for each Class A drugs was 56% or higher and specificity was 87% or higher. Sensitivity for severe heroin dependency was 98% (CI 89–100%). There was a 100% correlation between the ONS-sc and positive urine analysis for heroin use. However, methadone and crack/cocaine drug use appeared under reported. Conclusion: ONS-sc is a feasible, practical and time-saving alternative to a detailed interview on drug dependence. Further research with a larger sample size and non-opiate-dependent clients are needed, as this could prove a useful tool for monitoring clients in everyday practice, or for survey purposes where interviews are impractical

Superradiant atomic recoil lasing with orbital-angular-momentum light

We analyze the collective light scattering by cold atoms in free space of a pump-laser beam possessing orbital angular momentum. We derive a set of coupled multiparticle equations for the atomic motion in which the vacuum-mode field is adiabatically eliminated. The resulting equations describe collective recoil as due to either transfer of linear momentum or orbital angular momentum. For a transverse annular atomic distribution the initial equilibrium with uniform atomic phases and no scattered field is unstable. The atoms are set in rotation and bunched in phase at different harmonics depending on the pump azimuthal index Formula Presented and on the ring radius

Performance of point-of-care HbA1c test devices: implications for use in clinical practice – a systematic review and meta-analysis

Regular monitoring of glycated hemoglobin subfraction A1c (HbA1c) in people with diabetes and treatment with glucose-lowering medications to improve glycaemic control can reduce the risk of developing complications [1]. In 2011, a World Health Organization consultation concluded that HbA1cat a threshold of 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) can be used as a diagnostic test for diabetes [2]. HbA1c monitoring often requires the patient to attend the health center twice: once to have blood taken and then returning to get test results and receive adjustments to medication. Point-of-care (POC) analysers are bench-top instruments that use a finger-prick blood sample and are designed for use in a treatment room or at the bed-side. They provide a test result within a few minutes allowing clinical decisions and medication changes to take place immediately. The suitability of many of these devices for the accurate measurement of HbA1c has been questioned, with some POC HbA1c test devices reported not to meet accepted accuracy and precision criteria [3]. Ideal imprecision goals for HbA1c should be coefficient of variation (CV) of <2% for HbA1c reported in % units (or <3% in SI units, mmol/mol) [4], [5], [6]. Most evaluations of POC HbA1c devices have taken place in laboratory settings [7], [8]; fewer studies have assessed device performance in a POC setting or with clinicians performing the tests [9], [10]. The only published review that has attempted to combine data from accuracy studies identified five studies covering three devices and compared correlation coefficients [11]. Systematically reporting and pooling data estimates of bias and precision between POC HbA1c devices and laboratory measurements would enable end users to assess which analysers best meet their analytical performance needs. This may be of particular importance for clinicians in primary care settings where much of the management of diabetes patients takes place. The comparison of accuracy between devices over the entire therapeutic range would need to be carried out by combining data on measurement error (bias) between POC and laboratory tests [12]. The aim of this study was to compare accuracy and precision of POC HbA1c devices with the local laboratory method based on data from published studies and discuss the clinical implications of the findings

A single genus in the gut microbiome reflects host preference and specificity

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in ISME Journal 9 (2015): 90–100, doi:10.1038/ismej.2014.97.Delineating differences in gut microbiomes of human and animal hosts contributes towards understanding human health and enables new strategies for detecting reservoirs of waterborne human pathogens. We focused upon Blautia, a single microbial genus that is important for nutrient assimilation as preliminary work suggested host-related patterns within members of this genus. In our dataset of 57 M sequence reads of the V6 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene in samples collected from seven host species, we identified 200 high-resolution taxonomic units within Blautia using oligotyping. Our analysis revealed 13 host-specific oligotypes that occurred exclusively in fecal samples of humans (three oligotypes), swine (six oligotypes), cows (one oligotype), deer (one oligotype), or chickens (two oligotypes). We identified an additional 171 oligotypes that exhibited differential abundance patterns among all the host species. Blautia oligotypes in the human population obtained from sewage and fecal samples displayed remarkable continuity. Oligotypes from only 10 Brazilian human fecal samples collected from individuals in a rural village encompassed 97% of all Blautia oligotypes found in a Brazilian sewage sample from a city of three million people. Further, 75% of the oligotypes in Brazilian human fecal samples matched those in US sewage samples, implying that a universal set of Blautia strains may be shared among culturally and geographically distinct human populations. Such strains can serve as universal markers to assess human fecal contamination in environmental samples. Our results indicate that host-specificity and host-preference patterns of organisms within this genus are driven by host physiology more than dietary habits.This study was funded by the NIH grant R01AI091829-01A1 to SLM