Evidence of increased axillary blood flow velocity without increased handgrip strength and endurance in persons with a fibromuscular axillary arch

Background: The purpose of this in vivo study was to compare axillary artery blood flow velocity, and maximal handgrip strength and endurance performance in young subjects with and without an axillary arch (AA). Materials and methods: One hundred and fifty-six young adults were screened for the presence of an AA on their dominant arm side. After physical examination subjects were checked using diagnostic echography for the presence of an AA. Sixteen subjects with an AA and 15 without an AA had their axillary artery peak systolic velocity quantified in 3 different arm positions using Doppler ultrasound. Maximal handgrip strength and endurance performance was quantified in the same positions using a functional rehabilitation system. Results: Mean peak systolic velocity was significantly higher in the AA group compared to controls in abduction/external rotation of the arm during muscle relaxation (p = 0.003) and contraction (p = 0.01). No significant differences between groups were found for maximal handgrip strength and endurance performance. Conclusions: This study provides evidence for a transient axillary artery compression by the AA in a throwing position. This is not reinforced by additional contraction of the shoulder muscles along with the AA. Axillary artery compression does not influence maximal handgrip strength and endurance performance in symptom-free young adults

Unilateral sight loss in a 4-year-old girl

For 6 weeks the parents of a 4-year-old girl had noticed a difference between the two eyes of their child. Ophtalmological examination revealed leukocoria. This finding raised clinical suspicion of retinoblastoma. MRI was performed. On T2 weighted images a hypointense mass relative to the vitreous humor was evident. There were several hypointensities compatible with calcifications. An area of retinal detachment was also seen. On T1 weighted images a mildly hyperintense mass relative to vitreous humor was seen. It showed marked contrast enhancement. On diffusion weighted images there was restricted diffusion suggestive for a tumoral lesion. The imaging findings were compatible with a retinoblastoma without transscleral or optic nerve extension. The tumor was complicated by retinal detachment reducing visual potential. The patient was treated with enucleation of the affected eye

Variational assimilation of Lagrangian data in oceanography

We consider the assimilation of Lagrangian data into a primitive equations circulation model of the ocean at basin scale. The Lagrangian data are positions of floats drifting at fixed depth. We aim at reconstructing the four-dimensional space-time circulation of the ocean. This problem is solved using the four-dimensional variational technique and the adjoint method. In this problem the control vector is chosen as being the initial state of the dynamical system. The observed variables, namely the positions of the floats, are expressed as a function of the control vector via a nonlinear observation operator. This method has been implemented and has the ability to reconstruct the main patterns of the oceanic circulation. Moreover it is very robust with respect to increase of time-sampling period of observations. We have run many twin experiments in order to analyze the sensitivity of our method to the number of floats, the time-sampling period and the vertical drift level. We compare also the performances of the Lagrangian method to that of the classical Eulerian one. Finally we study the impact of errors on observations.Comment: 31 page

Dynamic design: manipulation of millisecond timescale motions on the energy landscape of cyclophilin A

Proteins need to interconvert between many conformations in order to function, many of which are formed transiently, and sparsely populated. Particularly when the lifetimes of these states approach the millisecond timescale, identifying the relevant structures and the mechanism by which they interconvert remains a tremendous challenge. Here we introduce a novel combination of accelerated MD (aMD) simulations and Markov state modelling (MSM) to explore these ‘excited’ conformational states. Applying this to the highly dynamic protein CypA, a protein involved in immune response and associated with HIV infection, we identify five principally populated conformational states and the atomistic mechanism by which they interconvert. A rational design strategy predicted that the mutant D66A should stabilise the minor conformations and substantially alter the dynamics, whereas the similar mutant H70A should leave the landscape broadly unchanged. These predictions are confirmed using CPMG and R1ρ solution state NMR measurements. By efficiently exploring functionally relevant, but sparsely populated conformations with millisecond lifetimes in silico, our aMD/MSM method has tremendous promise for the design of dynamic protein free energy landscapes for both protein engineering and drug discovery

Measuring non-polyaminated lipocalin-2 for cardiometabolic risk assessment

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Catalog of Galactic Beta Cephei Stars

We present an extensive and up-to-date catalog of Galactic Beta Cephei stars. This catalog is intended to give a comprehensive overview of observational characteristics of all known Beta Cephei stars. 93 stars could be confirmed to be Beta Cephei stars. For some stars we re-analyzed published data or conducted our own analyses. 61 stars were rejected from the final Beta Cephei list, and 77 stars are suspected to be Beta Cephei stars. A list of critically selected pulsation frequencies for confirmed Beta Cephei stars is also presented. We analyze the Beta Cephei stars as a group, such as the distributions of their spectral types, projected rotational velocities, radial velocities, pulsation periods, and Galactic coordinates. We confirm that the majority of these stars are multiperiodic pulsators. We show that, besides two exceptions, the Beta Cephei stars with high pulsation amplitudes are slow rotators. We construct a theoretical HR diagram that suggests that almost all 93 Beta Cephei stars are MS objects. We discuss the observational boundaries of Beta Cephei pulsation and their physical parameters. We corroborate that the excited pulsation modes are near to the radial fundamental mode in frequency and we show that the mass distribution of the stars peaks at 12 solar masses. We point out that the theoretical instability strip of the Beta Cephei stars is filled neither at the cool nor at the hot end and attempt to explain this observation

Production and performance of bio-based mineral fertilizers from agricultural waste using ammonia (stripping-)scrubbing technology

Development and optimization of nutrient recovery technologies for agricultural waste is on the rise. The full scale adoption of these technologies is however hindered by complex legal aspects that result from lack of science-based knowledge on characterization and fertilizer performance of recovered end-products. Ammonium sulfate (AS) and ammonium nitrate (AN), end-products of (stripping-)scrubbing technology, are currently listed by the European Commission as high priority products with the potential of replacing synthetic N fertilizers. The legal acceptance of AS and AN will be highly dependent on critical mass of scientific evidence. This study describes four different (stripping-)scrubbing pathways to recover ammonia with an aim to (i) assess product characteristics of ammonium nitrate (AN) and ammonium sulfate (AS) produced from different installations, (ii) evaluate fertilizer performance of recovered end-products in greenhouse (Lactuca sativa L.) and full field (Zea mays L.) scale settings and (iii) compare the observed performances with other published studies. Results have indicated that the recovered products might have a different legal status, as either mineral N fertilizer or yet as animal manure, depending on the used (stripping-)scrubbing process pathway. Nevertheless, no significant differences in respect to product characterization and fertilizer performance of AN and AS have been identified in this study as compared to the conventional use of synthetic N fertilizers. This indicates that recovered AS and AN are valuable N sources and therefore might be used as N fertilizers in crop cultivation.</p

Stimuli of Sensory-Motor Nerves Terminate Arterial Contractile Effects of Endothelin-1 by CGRP and Dissociation of ET-1/ETA-Receptor Complexes

Endothelin-1 (ET-1), a long-acting paracrine mediator, is implicated in cardiovascular diseases but clinical trials with ET-receptor antagonists were not successful in some areas. We tested whether the quasi-irreversible receptor-binding of ET-1 (i) limits reversing effects of the antagonists and (ii) can be selectively dissociated by an endogenous counterbalancing mechanism.-receptor complexes.-receptors by ET-1 (i) occur at an antagonist-insensitive site of the receptor and (ii) are selectively terminated by endogenously released CGRP. Hence, natural stimuli of sensory-motor nerves that stimulate release of endogenous CGRP can be considered for therapy of diseases involving ET-1