Putative avocado toxicity in two dogs

Two dogs were seen at the University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya, both having histories of dyspnoea, progressively enlarging abdomens, anasarca, ascites, pleural and pericardial effusion, and pulmonary oedema. One of the dogs had a mild neutrophilic leucocytosis, elevated levels of alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase and proteinuria. Histopathological examination of the myocardium revealed some damage to myocytes and a mononuclear cellular infiltration involving the myocardium, liver and kidneys. The two dogs had a fondness for avocado fruits and, as the presenting syndrome is identical to that seen in goats, sheep and horses poisoned by avocados, a comparison is made and the probable manifestation of this poisoning presented.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.mn201

Generation of arbitrary two dimensional motional state of a trapped ion

We present a scheme to generate an arbitrary two-dimensional quantum state of motion of a trapped ion. This proposal is based on a sequence of laser pulses, which are tuned appropriately to control transitions on the sidebands of two modes of vibration. Not more than $(M+1)(N+1)$ laser pulses are needed to generate a pure state with upper phonon number $M$ and $N$ in the $x$ and $y$ direction respectively.Comment: to appear in PR

Generation of two-mode nonclassical states and a quantum phase gate operation in trapped ion cavity QED

We propose a scheme to generate nonclassical states of a quantum system, which is composed of the one-dimensional trapped ion motion and a single cavity field mode. We show that two-mode SU(2) Schr\"odinger-cat states, entangled coherent states, two-mode squeezed vacuum states and their superposition can be generated. If the vibration mode and the cavity mode are used to represent separately a qubit, a quantum phase gate can be implemented.Comment: to appear in PR

Multipartite entangled coherent states

We propose a scheme for generating multipartite entangled coherent states via entanglement swapping, with an example of a physical realization in ion traps. Bipartite entanglement of these multipartite states is quantified by the concurrence. We also use the $N$--tangle to compute multipartite entanglement for certain systems. Finally we establish that these results for entanglement can be applied to more general multipartite entangled nonorthogonal states.Comment: 7 pages, two figures. We added more detail discussions on the generation of multipartite entangled coherent states and multipartite entangelemen

Pelagic seabirds as biomonitors of persistent organic pollutants in the Southwestern Atlantic

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are accumulated through time and can exert different effect on ecosystems. POPs and Chlorpyrifos, a current use pesticide, were assessed in body feathers of males and females of Black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris, BBA) and Cape petrels (Daption capense, CAP) during their non-breeding seasons at the Patagonian Shelf, Argentina. Chlorpyrifos showed the highest values among all pollutants in both species (49.56–84.88 ng g−1), resulting from current agricultural practices. The pattern OCPs > PCBs > PBDEs was observed in both species, and CAP showed higher concentrations than BBA probably as a consequence of higher lipid mobilization and pollutants availability during dispersion. Non-significant differences between sexes about POPs levels were found; however a slight tendency was observed, females>males in CAP, and males>females in BBA. More attention and further studies are needed to understand seabirds' physiology and its relationship with the pollutants distribution in their tissues and considering breeding season.Fil: Quadri Adrogué, Agustina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Marinas. Laboratorio de Ecotoxicología; ArgentinaFil: Miglioranza, Karina Silvia Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias Marinas. Laboratorio de Ecotoxicología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Copello, Sofía. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Favero, Marco. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Seco Pon, Juan Pablo. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; Argentin

Observation of inverse Compton emission from a long γ-ray burst.

Long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) originate from ultra-relativistic jets launched from the collapsing cores of dying massive stars. They are characterized by an initial phase of bright and highly variable radiation in the kiloelectronvolt-to-megaelectronvolt band, which is probably produced within the jet and lasts from milliseconds to minutes, known as the prompt emission1,2. Subsequently, the interaction of the jet with the surrounding medium generates shock waves that are responsible for the afterglow emission, which lasts from days to months and occurs over a broad energy range from the radio to the gigaelectronvolt bands1-6. The afterglow emission is generally well explained as synchrotron radiation emitted by electrons accelerated by the external shock7-9. Recently, intense long-lasting emission between 0.2 and 1 teraelectronvolts was observed from GRB 190114C10,11. Here we report multi-frequency observations of GRB 190114C, and study the evolution in time of the GRB emission across 17 orders of magnitude in energy, from 5 × 10-6 to 1012 electronvolts. We find that the broadband spectral energy distribution is double-peaked, with the teraelectronvolt emission constituting a distinct spectral component with power comparable to the synchrotron component. This component is associated with the afterglow and is satisfactorily explained by inverse Compton up-scattering of synchrotron photons by high-energy electrons. We find that the conditions required to account for the observed teraelectronvolt component are typical for GRBs, supporting the possibility that inverse Compton emission is commonly produced in GRBs

Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomisation analysis provide insights into the pathogenesis of heart failure

Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained. We report results from a GWAS meta-analysis of HF comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. Twelve independent variants at 11 genomic loci are associated with HF, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function, suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Functional analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homoeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Mendelian randomisation analysis supports causal roles for several HF risk factors, and demonstrates CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, and hypertension. These findings extend our knowledge of the pathways underlying HF and may inform new therapeutic strategies

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol- increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels