Ovariectomy as treatment for ovarian bacterial granulomas in a Duvaucel's gecko (Hoplodactylus duvaucelii)

CASE HISTORY: An adult female Duvaucel's gecko (Hoplodactylus duvaucelii) from a threatened species breeding programme presented due to a prolonged gestation period and distended abdomen. CLINICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS: The gecko was in lean body condition with an irregularly shaped, firm mass in the coelomic cavity. Radiographically there was a diffuse radio-opacity within the coelomic cavity with cranial displacement of the right lung field. Ultrasonography revealed a round homogenous abdominal mass of medium echogenicity with an echogenic capsule. Haematology showed a leucocytosis with a moderate left shift in heterophils and toxic changes. Bilateral ovariectomy was performed to remove two ovarian granulomas and Salmonella enterica subspecies houtenae (IV) was cultured from the ovarian tissue. The gecko recovered well from the surgery, regained weight and remained in good health 3 years following the surgery. DIAGNOSIS: Pre-ovulatory stasis and ovarian granulomas associated with infection with Salmonella enterica subsp. houtenae. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The surgery described in this case resulted in recovery of the gecko, which despite its loss of reproductive capability is of value as an education animal. This is the first report of pre-ovulatory stasis and ovarian granulomas associated with infection with Salmonella enterica in a Duvaucel's gecko and is also the first reported case of pre-ovulatory stasis in a viviparous lizard species. The case adds to knowledge regarding potential reproductive pathology in lizards, which is particularly important information for managers of captive lizard breeding programmes

Study on N-NH4+ removal from underground water by MBBR case study in Bach Khoa Ward, Hanoi, Vietnam

Moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) using porous carrier plastic material, Polyurethane (DHY-1) which has high porosity 92% -96%, has been researched and applied in many water treatment systems. The advantage of the material is that it has high surface area of about 6,000-12,000m2/m3 thereby increasing the density of biomass. In this research, they were tried to treat ammonium nitrogen (N-NH4+) in the ground water. It was found that the treatment efficiency was more than 90% with N-NH4+ concentration of 10-12mg/l. Different densities of carrier materials as well as different influent flow rates have significant impacts on the removal efficiency. The study showed that treatment capacity decreased with high influent flow rate while increased with high density of carrier materials

Competing English, Spanish, and French alabaster trade in Europe over five centuries as evidenced by isotope fingerprinting

A lack of written sources is a serious obstacle in the reconstruction of the medieval trade of art and art materials, and in the identification of artists, workshop locations, and trade routes. We use the isotopes of sulfur, oxygen, and strontium (S, O, Sr) present in gypsum alabaster to unambiguously link ancient European source quarries and areas to alabaster artworks produced over five centuries (12th–17th) held by the Louvre museum in Paris and other European and American collections. Three principal alabaster production areas are identified, in central England, northern Spain, and a major, long-lived but little-documented alabaster trade radiating from the French Alps. The related trade routes are mostly fluvial, although terrestrial transport crossing the major river basin borders is also confirmed by historical sources. Our study also identifies recent artwork restoration using Italian alabaster and provides a robust geochemical framework for provenancing, including recognition of restoration and forgeries

The latest Ordovician Hirnantia brachiopod fauna of Myanmar: Significance of new data from the Mandalay Region

A new, latest Ordovician brachiopod fauna is systematically described from the Hwe Mawng Purple Shale Member (Hirnantian) of the Naungkangyi Group of the Pa-thin area, Mandalay Region, Myanmar, revealing one of the most diverse representatives of the typical Hirnantia Fauna. Rhynchonelliformean, craniiformean and linguliformean brachiopods studied belong to 23 genera and a few indeterminate taxa, among which the most abundant genus Kinnella, along with the four common genera (Paromalomena, Pseudopholidops, Fardenia, and Dalmanella), and other genera (such as Cliftonia, Draborthis, Hindella, Hirnantia, Leptaena, Mirorthis, Plectothyrella, Skenidioides, and Xenocrania) are recorded for the first time. This high diversity Hirnantia Fauna represents an ecological differentiation within the benthos of the Sibumasu Terrane during the end Ordovician global crisis. The palaeoeco-unit named herein as the Kinnella-Paromalomena Association is assigned to lower BA3. This paper includes a taxonomic revision with the following conclusions: 1) Sinomena Zeng et al. and Yichangomena Zeng et al. are treated as junior synonyms of Eostropheodonta Bancroft; 2) Hubeinomena Zeng et al. is regarded as a juvenile form of Coolinia Bancroft; 3) Paramirorthis Zeng et al. is considered an immature growth stage of Mirorthis Zeng; 4) Shanomena Cocks and Fortey is treated as a junior synonym of Paromalomena Rong; 5) Scenidium? medlicotti Reed is redesignated as the type species of Kinnella Bergström to replace Hirnantia? kielanae Temple. The distribution of the Hirnantia Fauna in Myanmar, Thailand and western Yunnan of the Sibumasu Terrane highlights the distinctive nature of the Mandalay fauna, and the analyses of the Hirnantia Fauna and others of Sibumasu shows that Sibumasu was not located far from the South China and Lhasa palaeoplates during late Middle and Late Ordovician

Dynamic ordering and frustration of confined vortex rows studied by mode-locking experiments

The flow properties of confined vortex matter driven through disordered mesoscopic channels are investigated by mode locking (ML) experiments. The observed ML effects allow to trace the evolution of both the structure and the number of confined rows and their match to the channel width as function of magnetic field. From a detailed analysis of the ML behavior for the case of 3-rows we obtain ({\it i}) the pinning frequency $f_p$, ({\it ii}) the onset frequency $f_c$ for ML ($\propto$ ordering velocity) and ({\it iii}) the fraction $L_{ML}/L$ of coherently moving 3-row regions in the channel. The field dependence of these quantities shows that, at matching, where $L_{ML}$ is maximum, the pinning strength is small and the ordering velocity is low, while at mismatch, where $L_{ML}$ is small, both the pinning force and the ordering velocity are enhanced. Further, we find that $f_c \propto f_p^2$, consistent with the dynamic ordering theory of Koshelev and Vinokur. The microscopic nature of the flow and the ordering phenomena will also be discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure, submitted to PRB. Discussion has been improved and a figure has been adde

NEMO-ICB (v1.0): interactive icebergs in the NEMO ocean model globally configured at eddy-permitting resolution

An established iceberg module, ICB, is used interactively with the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) ocean model in a new implementation, NEMO–ICB (v1.0). A 30-year hindcast (1976–2005) simulation with an eddy-permitting (0.25°) global configuration of NEMO–ICB is undertaken to evaluate the influence of icebergs on sea ice, hydrography, mixed layer depths (MLDs), and ocean currents, through comparison with a control simulation in which the equivalent iceberg mass flux is applied as coastal runoff, a common forcing in ocean models. In the Southern Hemisphere (SH), drift and melting of icebergs are in balance after around 5 years, whereas the equilibration timescale for the Northern Hemisphere (NH) is 15–20 years. Iceberg drift patterns, and Southern Ocean iceberg mass, compare favourably with available observations. Freshwater forcing due to iceberg melting is most pronounced very locally, in the coastal zone around much of Antarctica, where it often exceeds in magnitude and opposes the negative freshwater fluxes associated with sea ice freezing. However, at most locations in the polar Southern Ocean, the annual-mean freshwater flux due to icebergs, if present, is typically an order of magnitude smaller than the contribution of sea ice melting and precipitation. A notable exception is the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, where iceberg melting reaches around 50% of net precipitation over a large area. Including icebergs in place of coastal runoff, sea ice concentration and thickness are notably decreased at most locations around Antarctica, by up to ~ 20% in the eastern Weddell Sea, with more limited increases, of up to ~ 10% in the Bellingshausen Sea. Antarctic sea ice mass decreases by 2.9%, overall. As a consequence of changes in net freshwater forcing and sea ice, salinity and temperature distributions are also substantially altered. Surface salinity increases by ~ 0.1 psu around much of Antarctica, due to suppressed coastal runoff, with extensive freshening at depth, extending to the greatest depths in the polar Southern Ocean where discernible effects on both salinity and temperature reach 2500 m in the Weddell Sea by the last pentad of the simulation. Substantial physical and dynamical responses to icebergs, throughout the global ocean, are explained by rapid propagation of density anomalies from high-to-low latitudes. Complementary to the baseline model used here, three prototype modifications to NEMO–ICB are also introduced and discussed

Large area molybdenum disulphide-epitaxial graphene vertical Van der Waals heterostructures

International audienceTwo-dimensional layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) show great potential for optoelectronic devices due to their electronic and optical properties. A metal-semiconductor interface, as epitaxial graphene - molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), is of great interest from the standpoint of fundamental science, as it constitutes an outstanding platform to investigate the interlayer interaction in van der Waals heterostructures. Here, we study large area MoS2-graphene-heterostructures formed by direct transfer of chemical-vapor deposited MoS2 layer onto epitaxial graphene/SiC. We show that via a direct transfer, which minimizes interface contamination, we can obtain high quality and homogeneous van der Waals heterostructures. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements combined with Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations show that the transition from indirect to direct bandgap in monolayer MoS2 is maintained in these heterostructures due to the weak van der Waals interaction with epitaxial graphene. A downshift of the Raman 2D band of the graphene, an up shift of the A1g peak of MoS2 and a significant photoluminescence quenching are observed for both monolayer and bilayer MoS2 as a result of charge transfer from MoS2 to epitaxial graphene under illumination. Our work provides a possible route to modify the thin film TDMCs photoluminescence properties via substrate engineering for future device design

Phylogeographic and genome-wide investigations of Vietnam ethnic groups reveal signatures of complex historical demographic movements

The territory of present-day Vietnam was the cradle of one of the world’s earliest civilizations, and one of the first world regions to develop agriculture. We analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) complete control region of six ethnic groups and the mitogenomes from Vietnamese in The 1000 Genomes Project (1000G). Genome-wide data from 1000G (~55k SNPs) were also investigated to explore different demographic scenarios. All Vietnamese carry South East Asian (SEA) haplotypes, which show a moderate geographic and ethnic stratification, with the Mong constituting the most distinctive group. Two new mtDNA clades (M7b1a1f1 and F1f1) point to historical gene flow between the Vietnamese and other neighboring countries. Bayesian-based inferences indicate a time-deep and continuous population growth of Vietnamese, although with some exceptions. The dramatic population decrease experienced by the Cham 700 years ago (ya) fits well with the Nam tiến (“southern expansion”) southwards from their original heartland in the Red River Delta. Autosomal SNPs consistently point to important historical gene flow within mainland SEA, and add support to a main admixture event occurring between Chinese and a southern Asian ancestral composite (mainly represented by the Malay). This admixture event occurred ~800 ya, again coinciding with the Nam tiến.This study received support from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Proyecto de Investigación en Salud, Acción Estratégica en Salud: project GePEM ISCIII/PI16/01478/Cofinanciado FEDER) (AS) and project ReSVinext ISCIII/PI16/01569/Cofinanciado FEDER (FMT); Consellería de Sanidade, Xunta de Galicia (RHI07/2-intensificación actividad investigadora, PS09749 and 10PXIB918184PR), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Intensificación de la actividad investigadora 2007–2012, PI16/01569), Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS; PI070069/PI1000540) del plan nacional de I+D+I and “fondos FEDER” (FMT), and 2016-PG071 Consolidación e Estructuración REDES 2016GI-1344 G3VIP (Grupo Gallego de Genética Vacunas Infecciones y Pediatría, ED341D R2016/021) (AS and FMT)S

Deceleration and trapping of heavy diatomic molecules using a ring-decelerator

We present an analysis of the deceleration and trapping of heavy diatomic molecules in low-field seeking states by a moving electric potential. This moving potential is created by a 'ring-decelerator', which consists of a series of ring-shaped electrodes to which oscillating high voltages are applied. Particle trajectory simulations have been used to analyze the deceleration and trapping efficiency for a group of molecules that is of special interest for precision measurements of fundamental discrete symmetries. For the typical case of the SrF molecule in the (N,M) = (2, 0) state, the ring-decelerator is shown to outperform traditional and alternate-gradient Stark decelerators by at least an order of magnitude. If further cooled by a stage of laser cooling, the decelerated molecules allow for a sensitivity gain in a parity violation measurement, compared to a cryogenic molecular beam experiment, of almost two orders of magnitude