Inflammatory Airway Disease of Horses - Revised Consensus Statement

The purpose of this manuscript is to revise and update the previous consensus statement on inflammatory airway disease (IAD) in horses. Since 2007, a large number of scientific articles have been published on the topic and these new findings have led to a significant evolution of our understanding of IAD

Analysis of Particle Transport in a Magnetophoretic Microsystem

An analytical analysis is presented of the transport and capture of magnetic micro/nano-particles in a magnetophoretic microsystem that consists of an array of integrated soft-magnetic elements embedded beneath a microfluidic channel. The elements, which are polarized by a bias field, produce a nonuniform field distribution that gives rise to a force on magnetic particles within the microchannel. The equations governing particle motion are derived using analytical expressions for the dominant magnetic and fluidic forces. The magnetic force is obtained using an analytical expression for the field distribution in the microchannel combined with a linear magnetization model for the magnetic response of particles. The theory takes into account particle size and material properties, the bias field, the dimensions of the microchannel, the fluid properties, and the flow velocity. The equations of motion are solved to study particle transport and capture. The analysis indicates that the particles exhibit an oscillatory motion as they traverse the microsystem, and that a high capture efficiency can be obtained in practice

Importance of maintained atrio-ventricular synchrony in patients with pacemarkers

The effect of atrial contraction on cardiac function is reviewed in patients with dual chamber and rate-responsive ventricular pacemakers. The question posed was is there any haemodynamic, clinical or prognostic advantage of AV synchrony in dual chamber pacemakers in comparison to rate-responsive ventricular pacemakers? Optimal A V delay in dual chamber pacing favours cardiac performance at rest, while during exercise the increase in heart rate rather than A V synchrony influences cardiac performance and working capacity. However, there is little information on the benefit of maintained A V synchrony in patients' daily activities. Patients with pacemakers which maintain AV synchrony seem to have less morbidity and mortality than patients with ventricular stimulation alone, and there are comparable rates of complication in carriers of single and dual chamber pacemakers, the former showing problems with the pacemaker syndrome and the latter with atrial sensing and pacemaker-induced tachycardias. The disadvantage of dual chamber pacemakers are higher costs and time-consuming control

Stratospheric Influence on the Tropospheric Circulation Revealed by Idealized Ensemble Forecasts

The coupling between the stratosphere and troposphere following Stratospheric Sudden Warming (SSW) events is investigated in an idealized atmospheric General Circulation Model, with focus on the influence of stratospheric memory on the troposphere. Ensemble forecasts are performed to confirm the role of the stratosphere in the observed equatorward shift of the tropospheric midlatitude jet following an SSW. It is demonstrated that the tropospheric response to the weakening of the lower stratospheric vortex is robust, but weak in amplitude and thus easily masked by tropospheric variability. The amplitude of the response in the troposphere is crucially sensitive to the depth of the SSW. The persistence of the response in the troposphere is attributed to both the increased predictability of the stratosphere following an SSW, and the dynamical coupling between the tropospheric jet and lower stratosphere. These results suggest value in resolving the stratosphere and assimilating upper atmospheric data in forecast models

Growth and Yield Potential of Green Pepper as Affected by Nitrogen at Transplanting

Green pepper (Capsicum annuum L. cv. Lady Bell) was grown for 7 weeks and transplanted into the field. The following rates of N were applied: 112, 224, 336 and 448 kg/ha. High N rates at transplanting did not stimulate vegetative growth but suppressed plant growth, particularly during the early growing period. As N rates increased, plants exhibited poor early growth and produced lower early and total fruit yields. Early yield positively correlated with plant dry weight. Doubling the N rate from 112 to 224 kg/ha resulted in a 21% increase in flower buds, but the percentage of fruit set decreased as N rates increased. Fruit set correlated negatively with total leaf N and positively with plant weight, suggesting that a high leaf N content and a lower plant weight were detrimental to fruit set and yield of green pepper

Ab initio calculation of the anomalous Hall conductivity by Wannier interpolation

The intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnets depends on subtle spin-orbit-induced effects in the electronic structure, and recent ab-initio studies found that it was necessary to sample the Brillouin zone at millions of k-points to converge the calculation. We present an efficient first-principles approach for computing the anomalous Hall conductivity. We start out by performing a conventional electronic-structure calculation including spin-orbit coupling on a uniform and relatively coarse k-point mesh. From the resulting Bloch states, maximally-localized Wannier functions are constructed which reproduce the ab-initio states up to the Fermi level. The Hamiltonian and position-operator matrix elements, needed to represent the energy bands and Berry curvatures, are then set up between the Wannier orbitals. This completes the first stage of the calculation, whereby the low-energy ab-initio problem is transformed into an effective tight-binding form. The second stage only involves Fourier transforms and unitary transformations of the small matrices set up in the first stage. With these inexpensive operations, the quantities of interest are interpolated onto a dense k-point mesh and used to evaluate the anomalous Hall conductivity as a Brillouin zone integral. The present scheme, which also avoids the cumbersome summation over all unoccupied states in the Kubo formula, is applied to bcc Fe, giving excellent agreement with conventional, less efficient first-principles calculations. Remarkably, we find that more than 99% of the effect can be recovered by keeping a set of terms depending only on the Hamiltonian matrix elements, not on matrix elements of the position operator.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Exciton states in monolayer MoSe2: impact on interband transitions

We combine linear and non-linear optical spectroscopy at 4K with ab initio calculations to study the electronic bandstructure of MoSe2 monolayers. In 1-photon photoluminescence excitation (PLE) and reflectivity we measure a separation between the A- and B-exciton emission of 220 meV. In 2-photon PLE we detect for the A- and B-exciton the 2p state 180meV above the respective 1s state. In second harmonic generation (SHG) spectroscopy we record an enhancement by more than 2 orders of magnitude of the SHG signal at resonances of the charged exciton and the 1s and 2p neutral A- and B-exciton. Our post-Density Functional Theory calculations show in the conduction band along the $K-\Gamma$ direction a local minimum that is energetically and in k-space close to the global minimum at the K-point. This has a potentially strong impact on the polarization and energy of the excitonic states that govern the interband transitions and marks an important difference to MoS2 and WSe2 monolayers.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

"Low-dose"-Droperidol-Gabe bei Kindern: "Rescue"-Therapie gegen persistierende postoperative Übelkeit und Erbrechen

Zusammenfassung: Hintergrund: Persistierende postoperative Übelkeit und Erbrechen ("postoperative nausea and vomiting", PONV) trotz Prophylaxe ist in der Kinderanästhesie ein wichtiges Problem. In der vorgestellten Studie wurde untersucht, ob die "Low-dose"-Droperidol-Gabe (10µg/kgKG) als Rescue-Therapie bei persistierender PONV effektiv ist. Patienten und Methoden: Im elektronischen Archiv der Anästhesieabteilung der Universitäts-Kinderkliniken Zürich wurden von 2004 bis 2009 alle Patienten herausgefiltert, die im Aufwachraum Droperidol erhalten hatten. Es wurde überprüft, ob Low-dose-Droperidol gegen persistierende PONV wirksam ist und ob unerwünschte Nebenwirkungen aufgetreten sind. Ergebnisse: Daten von 144Patienten im Alter von 12,3Jahren [Interquartilabstand (IQR) 9,5 bis 15,2Jahre] konnten für die Untersuchung verwendet werden. Bei 128Patienten (89%) war die Rescue-Therapie mit Low-dose-Droperidol effektiv. Bei 16Patienten (11%) erfolgte keine Besserung. Sedation war die einzige beobachtete Nebenwirkung bei 39Patienten (27%). Schlussfolgerung: Die Gabe von Low-dose-Droperidol erwies sich als effektive Rescue-Therapie bei Kindern, bei denen trotz prophylaktischer antiemetischer Therapie PONV persistiert

The microstructure of plasmodesmata in internodal stem tissue of the Saccharum hybrid var. NCo376 : evidence for an apoplasmic loading pathway

The distribution, structure and functional state of plasmodesmata were investigated to gain a clearer understanding of the sucrose transport pathway to the storage parenchyma cells in stem tissue in Saccharum officinarum var. NCo376. Evidence from structural studies on sugarcane stems by electron microscopy indicated that there are numerous plasmodesmata from the vascular bundles through to the storage parenchyma cells in mature stem tissue. Our studies, supported by fluorescence microscopy and iontophoresis, indicate that there are functional plasmodesmata in the phloemunloading pathway from transport phloem tissue to the bundle sheath in Saccharum, which could support symplasmic transport; plasmodesmata outside of the sheath cells in the storage parenchyma appear to be constricted by sphincter-like structures within their neck regions. Staining with Aniline Blue revealed evidence of large callose deposits, which co-localized with plasmodesmatal aggregates in the walls of the storage parenchyma cells. This suggests that the sucrose transport into, and accumulation by, storage parenchyma of mature stem tissue is under apoplasmic control