Cardiac and plasma lipid profiles in response to acute hypoxia in neonatal and young adult rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The physiological and biochemical responses to acute hypoxia have not been fully characterized in neonates. Fatty acids and lipids play an important role in most aspects of cardiac function.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed comprehensive lipid profiling analysis to survey the changes that occur in heart tissue and plasma of neonatal and young adult rats exposed to hypoxia for 2 h, and following 2 h of recovery from hypoxia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cardiac and plasma concentrations of short-chain acylcarnitines, and most plasma long-chain fatty acids, were decreased in hypoxic neonates. Following recovery from hypoxia, concentrations of propionylcarnitine, palmitoylcarnitine, stearoylcarnitine were increased in neonatal hearts, while oleylcarnitine and linoleylcarnitine concentrations were increased in neonatal plasma. The concentrations of long-chain fatty acids and long-chain acylcarnitines were increased in the hearts and plasma of hypoxic young adult rats; these metabolites returned to baseline values following recovery from hypoxia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There are differential effects of acute hypoxia on cardiac and plasma lipid profiles with maturation from the neonate to the young adult rat. Changes to neonatal cardiac and plasma lipid profiles during hypoxia likely allowed for greater metabolic and physiologic flexibility and increased chances for survival. Persistent alterations in the neonatal cardiac lipid profile following recovery from hypoxia may play a role in the development of rhythm disturbances.</p

The Effect of High Dose Total Body Irradiation on ACTH, Corticosterone, and Catecholamines in the Rat

Total body irradiation (TBI) or partial body irradiation is a distinct risk of accidental, wartime, or terrorist events. Total body irradiation is also used as conditioning therapy before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This therapy can result in injury to multiple tissues and might result in death as a result of multiorgan failure. The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis could play a causative role in those injuries, in addition to being activated under conditions of stress. In a rat model of TBI, we have established that radiation nephropathy is a significant lethal complication, which is caused by hypertension and uremia. The current study assessed HPA axis function in rats undergoing TBI. Using a head-shielded model of TBI, we found an enhanced response to corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in vitro in pituitaries from irradiated compared with nonirradiated rats at both 8 and 70 days after 10-Gy single fraction TBI. At 70, but not 8 days, plasma adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone levels were increased significantly in irradiated compared with nonirradiated rats. Plasma aldosterone was not affected by TBI at either time point, whereas plasma renin activity was decreased in irradiated rats at 8 days. Basal and stimulated adrenal steroid synthesis in vitro was not affected by TBI. In addition, plasma epinephrine was decreased at 70 days after TBI. The hypothalamic expression of CRH messenger RNA (mRNA) and hippocampal expression of glucocorticoid receptor mRNA were unchanged by irradiation. We conclude that the hypertension of radiation nephropathy is not aldosterone or catecholamine-dependent but that there is an abscopal activation of the HPA axis after 10 Gy TBI. This activation was attributable at least partially to enhanced pituitary ACTH production

Hardware Dispenser Project

The purpose of this design project was to develop a system that will allow employees of the ARC to be able to work on a greater variety of projects and to improve their productivity. The hardware dispenser group developed a design for a tray that would help the ARC employees work quicker and more efficiently. The tray has bins to hold hardware which the supervisor loads onto the tray. The employee slides a bag over the tip of the funnel and into the clip which holds the bag in place. The worker then chooses which parts need to be in the bag and slides each one of them down the tray from the bin and into the funnel. They can then remove the bag and the task is completed

Comparative outcomes between COVID-19 and influenza patients placed on veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for severe ARDS

Background ECMO is an established supportive adjunct for patients with severe, refractory ARDS from viral pneumonia. However, the exact role and timing of ECMO for COVID-19 patients remains unclear. Methods We conducted a retrospective comparison of the first 32 patients with COVID-19-associated ARDS to the last 28 patients with influenza-associated ARDS placed on V-V ECMO. We compared patient factors between the two cohorts and used survival analysis to compare the hazard of mortality over sixty days post-cannulation.Results COVID-19 patients were older (mean 47.8 vs. 41.2 years, p = 0.033), had more ventilator days before cannulation (mean 4.5 vs. 1.5 days, p < 0.001). Crude in-hospital mortality was significantly higher in the COVID-19 cohort at 65.6% (n = 21/32) versus 36.3% (n = 11/28, p = 0.041). The adjusted hazard ratio over sixty days for COVID-19 patients was 2.81 (95% CI 1.07, 7.35) after adjusting for age, race, ECMO-associated organ failure, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. Conclusion ECMO has a role in severe ARDS associated with COVID-19 but providers should carefully weigh patient factors when utilizing this scarce resource in favor of influenza pneumonia

An information-bearing seed for nucleating algorithmic self-assembly

Self-assembly creates natural mineral, chemical, and biological structures of great complexity. Often, the same starting materials have the potential to form an infinite variety of distinct structures; information in a seed molecule can determine which form is grown as well as where and when. These phenomena can be exploited to program the growth of complex supramolecular structures, as demonstrated by the algorithmic self-assembly of DNA tiles. However, the lack of effective seeds has limited the reliability and yield of algorithmic crystals. Here, we present a programmable DNA origami seed that can display up to 32 distinct binding sites and demonstrate the use of seeds to nucleate three types of algorithmic crystals. In the simplest case, the starting materials are a set of tiles that can form crystalline ribbons of any width; the seed directs assembly of a chosen width with >90% yield. Increased structural diversity is obtained by using tiles that copy a binary string from layer to layer; the seed specifies the initial string and triggers growth under near-optimal conditions where the bit copying error rate is 17 kb of sequence information. In sum, this work demonstrates how DNA origami seeds enable the easy, high-yield, low-error-rate growth of algorithmic crystals as a route toward programmable bottom-up fabrication

Bacillus spp. Probiotic Strains as a Potential Tool for Limiting the Use of Antibiotics, and Improving the Growth and Health of Pigs and Chickens

The pressure to increasingly optimize the breeding of livestock monogastric animals resulted in antimicrobials often being misused in an attempt to improve growth performance and counteract diseases in these animals, leading to an increase in the problem of antibiotic resistance. To tackle this problem, the use of probiotics, also known as direct in-feed microbials (DFM), seems to be one of the most promising strategies. Among probiotics, the interest in Bacillus strains has been intensively increased in recent decades in pigs and poultry. The aim of the present review was to evaluate the effectiveness of Bacillus strains as probiotics and as a potential strategy for reducing the misuse of antibiotics in monogastric animals. Thus, the potential modes of action, and the effects on the performance and health of pigs (weaning pigs, lactation and gestation sows) and broilers are discussed. These searches yielded 131 articles (published before January 2021). The present review showed that Bacillus strains could favor growth in terms of the average daily gain (ADG) of post-weaning piglets and broilers, and reduce the incidence of post-weaning diarrhea in pigs by 30% and mortality in broilers by 6–8%. The benefits of Bacillus strains on these parameters showed results comparable to the benefit obtained by the use of antibiotics. Furthermore, the use of Bacillus strains gives promising results in enhancing the local adaptative immune response and in reducing the oxidative stress of broilers. Fewer data were available regarding the effect on sows. Discordant effects have been reported regarding the effect on body weight (BW) and feed intake while a number of studies have supported the hypothesis that feeding probiotics to sows could benefit their reproductive performance, namely the BW and ADG of the litters. Taken all the above-mentioned facts together, this review confirmed the effectiveness of Bacillus strains as probiotics in young pigs and broilers, favoring their health and contributing to a reduction in the misuse of direct in-feed antibiotics. The continuous development and research regarding probiotics will support a decrease in the misuse of antibiotics in livestock production in order to endorse a more sustainable rearing system in the near future

Two contemporaneous mitogenomes from terminal Pleistocene burials in eastern Beringia

Pleistocene residential sites with multiple contemporaneous human burials are extremely rare in the Americas. We report mitochondrial genomic variation in the first multiple mitochondrial genomes from a single prehistoric population: two infant burials (USR1 and USR2) from a common interment at the Upward Sun River Site in central Alaska dating to ~11,500 calendar years before present (cal B.P.). Using a targeted capture method and next-generation sequencing we determined that the USR1 infant possessed variants that define mitochondrial lineage C1b, while the USR2 genome falls at the root of lineage B2, allowing us to refine younger coalescence age estimates for these two clades. C1b and B2 are rare to absent in modern populations of Northern North America. Documentation of these lineages at this location in the Late Pleistocene provides evidence for the extent of mitochondrial diversity in early Beringian populations, which supports the expectations of the Beringian Standstill Model

Gaseous Electronics

Contains reports on two research projects.Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E

Higher levels of CO2 during late incubation alter the hatch time of chicken embryos

status: publishe