Effects of Bacillus subtilis on performance, immune system and gut in Salmonella-challenged broilers

The goal of this study was to compare the effects of Bacillus subtilis and the antibiotic enrofloxacin on growth performance, immune response, intestinal histomorphometry and cecal Salmonella numbers in broilers challenged with S. gallinarum. Salmonella-free chicks (n = 240) were allocated to four groups, comprising six replicates (n = 10) each. Group NN was not infected and received no treatment. Group SN was infected with Salmonella and received no treatment. Group SE was infected with Salmonella and treated with the antibiotic enrofloxacin. Group SP was infected with Salmonella and treated orally with the probiotic B. subtilis. Initially the groups that were infected with Salmonella had reduced growth performance compared with NN. By the fourth week, SE and SP had recovered and weighed as much as or more than NN. The SP group had greater cellular immunity and relative weights of the bursa and thymus than the other groups. SN had the lowest villus height in all the segments of the small intestine and a larger Salmonella population in the ceca. Probiotic supplementation reduced the pathological outcomes more than enrofloxacin. Prophylactic use of B. subtilis-type probiotics had similar effects to the use of antibiotics, alleviated the stress related to infection of S. gallinarum, and improved the growth performance, immune function, and gut mucosal development in broilers. Keywords: growth promoters, immunity, probiotics, poultry villi lengt

On the Bohr inequality

The Bohr inequality, first introduced by Harald Bohr in 1914, deals with finding the largest radius $r$, $0<r<1$, such that $\sum_{n=0}^\infty |a_n|r^n \leq 1$ holds whenever $|\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_nz^n|\leq 1$ in the unit disk $\mathbb{D}$ of the complex plane. The exact value of this largest radius, known as the \emph{Bohr radius}, has been established to be $1/3.$ This paper surveys recent advances and generalizations on the Bohr inequality. It discusses the Bohr radius for certain power series in $\mathbb{D},$ as well as for analytic functions from $\mathbb{D}$ into particular domains. These domains include the punctured unit disk, the exterior of the closed unit disk, and concave wedge-domains. The analogous Bohr radius is also studied for harmonic and starlike logharmonic mappings in $\mathbb{D}.$ The Bohr phenomenon which is described in terms of the Euclidean distance is further investigated using the spherical chordal metric and the hyperbolic metric. The exposition concludes with a discussion on the $n$-dimensional Bohr radius

Krein-Space Formulation of PT-Symmetry, CPT-Inner Products, and Pseudo-Hermiticity

Emphasizing the physical constraints on the formulation of a quantum theory based on the standard measurement axiom and the Schroedinger equation, we comment on some conceptual issues arising in the formulation of PT-symmetric quantum mechanics. In particular, we elaborate on the requirements of the boundedness of the metric operator and the diagonalizability of the Hamiltonian. We also provide an accessible account of a Krein-space derivation of the CPT-inner product that was widely known to mathematicians since 1950's. We show how this derivation is linked with the pseudo-Hermitian formulation of PT-symmetric quantum mechanics.Comment: published version, 17 page

The smoking paradox in ischemic stroke patients treated with intra-arterial thrombolysis in combination with mechanical thrombectomy-VISTA-Endovascular

Background The smoking-paradox of a better outcome in ischemic stroke patients who smoke may be due to increased efficacy of thrombolysis. We investigated the effect of smoking on outcome following endovascular therapy (EVT) with mechanical thrombectomy alone versus in combination with intra-arterial (IA-) thrombolysis.Methods The primary endpoint was defined by three-month modified Rankin Scale (mRS). We performed a generalized linear model and reported relative risks (RR) for smoking (adjustment for age, sex, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, stroke severity, time to EVT) in patient data stemming from the Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive-Endovascular database.Results Among 1,497 patients, 740(49.4%) were randomized to EVT; among EVT patients, 524(35.0%) received mechanical thrombectomy alone and 216(14.4%) received it in combination with IA-thrombolysis. Smokers (N = 396) had lower mRS scores (mean 2.9 vs. 3.2; p = 0.02) and mortality rates (10% vs. 17.3%; p<0.001) in univariate analysis. In all patients and in patients treated with mechanical thrombectomy alone, smoking had no effect on outcome in regression analyses. In patients who received IA-thrombolysis (N = 216;14%), smoking had an adjusted RR of 1.65 for an mRS1 (95%CI 0.77-3.55). Treatment with IA-thrombolysis itself led to reduced RR for favorable outcome (adjusted RR 0.30); interaction analysis of IA-thrombolysis and smoking revealed that non-smokers with IA-thrombolysis had mRS <= 2 in 47 cases (30%, adjusted RR 0.53 [0.41-0.69]) while smokers with IA-thrombolysis had mRS <= 2 in 23 cases (38%, adjusted RR 0.61 [0.42-0.87]).Conclusions Smokers had no clear clinical benefit from EVT that incorporates IA-thrombolysis.Clinical epidemiolog

Possible origins of macroscopic left-right asymmetry in organisms

I consider the microscopic mechanisms by which a particular left-right (L/R) asymmetry is generated at the organism level from the microscopic handedness of cytoskeletal molecules. In light of a fundamental symmetry principle, the typical pattern-formation mechanisms of diffusion plus regulation cannot implement the "right-hand rule"; at the microscopic level, the cell's cytoskeleton of chiral filaments seems always to be involved, usually in collective states driven by polymerization forces or molecular motors. It seems particularly easy for handedness to emerge in a shear or rotation in the background of an effectively two-dimensional system, such as the cell membrane or a layer of cells, as this requires no pre-existing axis apart from the layer normal. I detail a scenario involving actin/myosin layers in snails and in C. elegans, and also one about the microtubule layer in plant cells. I also survey the other examples that I am aware of, such as the emergence of handedness such as the emergence of handedness in neurons, in eukaryote cell motility, and in non-flagellated bacteria.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to J. Stat. Phys. special issue. Major rewrite, rearranged sections/subsections, new Fig 3 + 6, new physics in Sec 2.4 and 3.4.1, added Sec 5 and subsections of Sec

Direct Measurements of Absolute Branching Fractions for D0 and D+ Inclusive Semimuonic Decays

By analyzing about 33 $\rm pb^{-1}$ data sample collected at and around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider, we directly measure the branching fractions for the neutral and charged $D$ inclusive semimuonic decays to be $BF(D^0 \to \mu^+ X) =(6.8\pm 1.5\pm 0.7)$ and $BF(D^+ \to \mu^+ X) =(17.6 \pm 2.7 \pm 1.8)$, and determine the ratio of the two branching fractions to be $\frac{BF(D^+ \to \mu^+ X)}{BF(D^0 \to \mu^+ X)}=2.59\pm 0.70 \pm 0.25$

D* Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel $D^{*+}\to (D^0 \to K^- \pi^+) \pi^+$ (+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The $e^+p$ cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with $5<Q^2<100 GeV^2$ and $y<0.7$ is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region {$1.3<p_T(D^{*\pm})<9.0$ GeV and $| \eta(D^{*\pm}) |<1.5$}. Differential cross sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), $\eta(D^{*\pm}), W$ and $Q^2$ are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and $\eta$(D^{*\pm}), the charm contribution $F_2^{c\bar{c}}(x,Q^2)$ to the proton structure function is determined for Bjorken $x$ between 2 $\cdot$ 10$^{-4}$ and 5 $\cdot$ 10$^{-3}$.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure

Observation of hard scattering in photoproduction events with a large rapidity gap at HERA

Events with a large rapidity gap and total transverse energy greater than 5 GeV have been observed in quasi-real photoproduction at HERA with the ZEUS detector. The distribution of these events as a function of the $\gamma p$ centre of mass energy is consistent with diffractive scattering. For total transverse energies above 12 GeV, the hadronic final states show predominantly a two-jet structure with each jet having a transverse energy greater than 4 GeV. For the two-jet events, little energy flow is found outside the jets. This observation is consistent with the hard scattering of a quasi-real photon with a colourless object in the proton.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 4 figures appended as uuencoded fil