Mechanical and Anatomical Properties in Individual Growth Rings of Plantation-Grown Eastern Cottonwood and Loblolly Pine

Growth in genetically improved trees under intensive management is so rapid that rotations may be as short as 20 to 30 years. At that age, the trees contain a high proportion of lower quality juvenile wood. Thus, the properties of juvenile wood need to be characterized to effectively use this resource.This study determined relationships between age and mechanical and anatomical properties, the average properties of juvenile and mature wood, the age of demarcation between juvenile and mature wood, and the projected proportions of juvenile and mature wood at various ages in plantation cottonwood and loblolly pine. It also compared projected properties of plantation trees with those published for trees from natural forests.All properties improved markedly with age, up to nearly a tenfold increase in modulus of elasticity of one loblolly pine tree from early juvenile wood to late mature wood. Average mechanical properties of juvenile wood ranged from 47% to 63% of those for mature wood in pine and from 62% to 79% in cottonwood. The age of demarcation between juvenile and mature wood varied by species and property, ranging from 13 to 20 years. At age 40, plantation trees sampled were projected to contain approximately 25% juvenile wood. The mechanical properties of the pine were projected to approximate those of trees from natural forests at 30 to 60 years, depending on property, while those for cottonwood will not achieve comparability

Tricyclic antidepressants for migraine and tension-type headaches

Are largely beneficial, but a lack of research leaves important clinical questions unanswere

Stochastic Model for Modulus of Elasticity of Lumber

A model was developed for generating the lengthwise variability in modulus of elasticity (MOE) of lumber. A limited grade selection of southern pine visual and machine stress-rated (MSR) grades formed the basic data base, A second-order Markov model was used to generate serially correlated MOE's along 30-inch segments for a piece of lumber. Modulus of elasticity indexes were obtained by dividing each correlated MOE by the average MOE of the piece of lumber. The MOE of each segment was obtained by multiplying the MOE indexes by a single random observation from a distribution of MOE. The distribution characteristics of the generated MOE values are preserved, and the first- and second-order lengthwise serial correlations are preserved

Challenges recruiting to a proof-of-concept pharmaceutical trial for a rare disease: The trigeminal neuralgia experience

Background: This study aimed to describe recruitment challenges encountered during a phase IIa study of vixotrigine, a state and use-dependent Nav1.7 channel blocker, in individuals with trigeminal neuralgia. Methods: This was an international, multicenter, placebo-controlled, randomized withdrawal study that included a 7-day run-in period, a 21-day open-label phase, and a 28-day double-blind phase in which patients (planned n = 30) were randomized to vixotrigine or placebo. Before recruitment, all antiepileptic drugs had to be stopped, except for gabapentin or pregabalin. After the trial, patients returned to their original medications. Patient recruitment was expanded beyond the original five planned (core) centers in order to meet target enrollment (total recruiting sites N = 25). Core sites contributed data related to patient identification for study participation (prescreening data). Data related to screening failures and study withdrawal were also analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Approximately half (322/636; 50.6%) of the patients who were prescreened at core sites were considered eligible for the study and 56/322 (17.4%) were screened. Of those considered eligible, 26/322 (8.1%) enrolled in the study and 6/322 (1.9%) completed the study. In total, 125 patients were screened across all study sites and 67/125 (53.6%) were enrolled. At prescreening, reasons for noneligibility varied by site and were most commonly diagnosis change (78/314; 24.8%), age > 80 years (75/314; 23.9%), language/distance/mobility (61/314; 19.4%), and noncardiac medical problems (53/314; 16.9%). At screening, frequently cited reasons for noneligibility included failure based on electrocardiogram, insufficient pain, and diagnosis change. Conclusions: Factors contributing to recruitment challenges encountered in this study included diagnosis changes, anxiety over treatment changes, and issues relating to distance, language, and mobility. Wherever possible, future studies should be designed to address these challenges. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01540630. EudraCT, 2010-023963-16. 07 Aug 2015

Heterogeneity of the cancer cell line metabolic landscape

The unravelling of the complexity of cellular metabolism is in its infancy. Cancer-associated genetic alterations may result in changes to cellular metabolism that aid in understanding phenotypic changes, reveal detectable metabolic signatures, or elucidate vulnerabilities to particular drugs. To understand cancer-associated metabolic transformation, we performed untargeted metabolite analysis of 173 different cancer cell lines from 11 different tissues under constant conditions for 1,099 different species using mass spectrometry (MS). We correlate known cancer-associated mutations and gene expression programs with metabolic signatures, generating novel associations of known metabolic pathways with known cancer drivers. We show that metabolic activity correlates with drug sensitivity and use metabolic activity to predict drug response and synergy. Finally, we study the metabolic heterogeneity of cancer mutations across tissues, and find that genes exhibit a range of context specific, and more general metabolic control

Evidence of local and regional freshening of Northeast Greenland coastal waters

The supply of freshwater to fjord systems in Greenland is increasing as a result of climate change-induced acceleration in ice sheet melt. However, insight into the marine implications of the melt water is impaired by lack of observations demonstrating the fate of freshwater along the Greenland coast and providing evaluation basis for ocean models. Here we present 13 years of summer measurements along a 120 km transect in Young Sound, Northeast Greenland and show that sub-surface coastal waters are decreasing in salinity with an average rate of 0.12 ± 0.05 per year. This is the first observational evidence of a significant freshening on decadal scale of the waters surrounding the ice sheet and comes from a region where ice sheet melt has been less significant. It implies that ice sheet dynamics in Northeast Greenland could be of key importance as freshwater is retained in southward flowing coastal currents thus reducing density of water masses influencing major deep water formation areas in the Subarctic Atlantic Ocean. Ultimately, the observed freshening could have implications for the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation

PepServe: a web server for peptide analysis, clustering and visualization

Peptides, either as protein fragments or as naturally occurring entities are characterized by their sequence and function features. Many times the researchers need to massively manage peptide lists concerning protein identification, biomarker discovery, bioactivity, immune response or other functionalities. We present a web server that manages peptide lists in terms of feature analysis as well as interactive clustering and visualization of the given peptides. PepServe is a useful tool in the understanding of the peptide feature distribution among a group of peptides. The PepServe web application is freely available at http://bioserver-1.bioacademy.gr/Bioserver/PepServe/