Condensed tannin changes along the digestive tract in lambs fed with sainfoin pellets or hazelnut skins

The variable anthelmintic efficacy of condensed tannins (CT) against gastrointestinal nematodes may depend on CT concentration, composition, or fate along the digestive tract. We analyzed CT concentration and composition by acetone−HCl−butanol and thiolysis coupled to HPLC-MS in digesta and feces of lambs. Lambs had been infected with Haemonchus contortus and Trichostrongylus colubriformis and received sainfoin pellets and hazelnut skins of contrasting prodelphinidin/procyanidin ratios. The digesta and feces had lower CT concentrations than the original feeds but similar concentration patterns across the digestive compartments. The changes in assayable CT concentrations between rumen, abomasum, and small intestine may be due to complex formation between CT and other dietary components. However, the large CT disappearance (61−85%) from feed to feces could also indicate that CT may have been structurally modified, degraded, or absorbed during digestion. Interestingly, there were no changes in the structural features of assayable CT in the digesta

Syringomyelia associated with cervical spondylotic myelopathy causing canal stenosis. A rare association

Background Although cervical spondylosis is extremely common, only few cases with associated syrinx have been reported. Depending on review of two large data bases, we report this case series. In addition, we evaluated the posterior decompression as the management option in treatment of this rare condition. Materials and methods Data of all cases with cervical spondylosis and canal stenosis that sought medical advice or needed decompressive laminectomy/laminoplasty between the years 2006 and 2015 were checked in manually. Perioperative data, together with follow up were reviewed. Results Out of five cases found in the reviewed data; four cases undergone posterior decompression (laminectomy in two cases and laminoplasty in the other). One case refused surgery. Along mean follow up period of 6.25 months; three cases improved markedly, while in one case no improvement occurred. Conclusion Cervical spondylotic myelopathy can rarely cause syringomyelia. Posterior decompression would be the preferable management option with clinical improvement of most of the cases

Elemental, Morphological, and Corrosion Characterization of Different Surface States of Co-Cr Alloy for Prosthodontic Applications

In this study, four different groups were prepared in a cast model of an arch that received four implants made with a Co-Cr dental alloy. The surface of each group was prepared by four different surface treatments, including sandblasting with Al2O3 grains (SB), conventional finishing with dental burs (CF), milling with a CAD/CAM device (MIL), and electrodischarge machining (EDM). The characterization of the roughness parameters, morphology, elemental composition, and electrochemical properties of a dental Co-Cr alloy in different surface states exposed to an oral environment were reported. The electrochemical properties were tested with open-circuit potential (OCP) and anodic scan in Ringer’s solutions. The results of roughness parameters, elemental composition, OCP, corrosion potential and pitting potential were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA and the Tukey-Kramer multiple- comparison test at 95% confidence level. The roughness parameters classified the surfaces from smoothest to roughest according to the following order; CF, MIL, EDM, and SB. The CF group has the best corrosion resistance followed by the EDM, MIL, and SB groups

Characteristics of novel polymer composite heat transfer tubes

Papers presented to the 11th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 20-23 July 2015.Heat transfer tubes are one of the basic components in many equipment widely used in chemical, pharmaceutical, petroleum, petrochemicals, power generation and air conditioning systems. These tubes are manufactured from a wide variety of high thermally conductive metals. Examples of such materials are: nickel alloys, copper, aluminium, stainless steels like austenitic, duplex and super duplex as well as super alloys and titanium. Metallic tubes may suffer from failure due to corrosion and erosion especially in aggressive environments. In addition, metallic tubes are characterized by high density and high costs. This is the motivation for the development of non-metallic materials for heat exchanger applications. Plastics are attractive materials for the construction of heat exchangers, especially in harsh environments. However, plastics have one essential negative character; low thermal conductivity. There are two different approaches to overcome these drawbacks. On the one hand the use of small tube/channel diameter and extraordinary small wall thickness can reduce the thermal resistance. On the other hand the more promising solution is to improve the thermal conductivity by filling plastics with very high thermally conductive materials. This paper provides an overview of different plastic materials suitable for use in heat transfer applications. Also, it summarizes the properties of different possible filling materials. The thermal conductivity of these composite materials strongly depends on the size, shape, mass fraction and orientation of the particles. The possibilities to control the particle orientation of filling materials within the wall of a plastic tube will be shown. The effect of filling material orientation on thermal conductivity of tubes in axial and orthogonal direction and the influence of the wall thickness are illustrated. The paper compares the properties of developed tubes with customary used heat transfer tubes. Properties compared in this paper include fouling and corrosion resistance, thermal and mechanical properties, erosion resistance and temperature limitations. The novel polymer composite heat exchanger tubes combine a high thermal conductivity, low density, excellent resistance against ionic corrosion with an outstanding resistance against abrasion and erosion.am201

Thermalization of a color glass condensate and review of the "Bottom-Up" scenario

Thermalization of a longitudinally expanding color glass condensate with Bjorken boost invariant geometry is investigated within microscopical parton cascade BAMPS. Our main focus lies on the detailed comparison of thermalization, observed in BAMPS with that suggested in the \BUp scenario. We demonstrate that the tremendous production of soft gluons via $gg \to ggg$, which is shown in the \BUp picture as the dominant process during the early preequilibration, will not occur in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies, because the back reaction $ggg\to gg$ hinders the absolute particle multiplication. Moreover, different from the \BUp scenario, soft and hard gluons thermalize at the same time. The time scale of thermal equilibration obtained from BAMPS calculations is of order \as^{-2} (\ln \as)^{-2} Q_s^{-1}. After this time the gluon system exhibits nearly hydrodynamical behavior. The shear viscosity to entropy density ratio has weak dependence on $Q_s$ and lies close to the lower bound from the AdS/CFT conjecture.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figure

Investigation of Firebrand Generation from an Experimental Fire : Development of a Reliable Data Collection Methodology

An experimental approach has been developed to quantify the characteristics and flux of firebrands during a management-scale wildfire in a pine-dominated ecosystem. By characterizing the local fire behavior and measuring the temporal and spatial variation in firebrand collection, the flux of firebrands has been related to the fire behavior for the first time. This linkage is seen as the first step in risk mitigation at the wildland urban interface (WUI). Data analyses allowed the evaluation of firebrand flux with respect to observed fire intensities for this ecosystem. Typical firebrand fluxes of 0.82–1.36 pcs m−2 s−1 were observed for fire intensities ranging between 7.35±3.48 MW m−1 to 12.59±5.87 MW m−1. The experimental approach is shown to provide consistent experimental data, with small variations within the firebrand collection area. Particle size distributions show that small particles of area 0.75–5×10−5 m2 are the most abundant (0.6–1 pcs m−2 s−1), with the total flux of particles >5×10−5 m2 equal to 0.2–0.3 pcs m−2 s−1. The experimental method and the data gathered show substantial promise for future investigation and quantification of firebrand generation and consequently a better description of the firebrand risk at the WUI

Modified Kolmogorov Wave Turbulence in QCD matched onto "Bottom-up" Thermalization

We investigate modification of Kolmogorov wave turbulence in QCD calculating gluon spectra as functions of time in the presence of a low energy source which feeds in energy density in the infrared region at a time-dependent rate. Then considering the picture of saturation constraints as has been constructed in the "bottom-up" thermalization approach we revisit that picture for RHIC center-mass energy, $W = 130 {GeV}$, and also extend it to LHC center-mass energy, $W = 5500 {GeV}$, thus for two cases having an opportunity to calculate the equilibration time, $tau_{eq|therm}$, of the gluon system produced in a central heavy ion collision at mid-rapidity region. Thereby, at RHIC and LHC energies we can match the equilibration time, obtained from the late stage gluon spectrum of the modified Kolmogorov wave turbulence, onto that of the "bottom-up" thermalization and other evolutional approaches as well. In addition, from the revised "bottom-up" approach we find the gluon liberation coefficient to be on the average, $c = 0.81 - 1.06$ at RHIC and $c = 0.50 - 0.56$ at LHC. We also present other phenomenological estimates of $tau_{therm}$ which, at QCD realistic couplings, yield $0.45fm - 0.65fm < tau_{therm} < 0.97fm - 2.72fm$ at RHIC and $0.31fm - 0.40fm < tau_{therm} < 0.86fm - 2.04fm$ at LHC, both reflecting the original and modified Kolmogorov wave turbulent scenarios. In the latter case, at certain conditions, taking also into account both very small and realistic couplings we give estimates - $0.65fm < tau_{therm} < 1.29fm$ at RHIC and $0.52fm < tau_{therm} < 1.16fm$ at LHC, as well as at realistic couplings we find $0.53 < tau_{therm} < 0.7fm$ at RHIC and $0.41 < tau_{therm} < 0.65fm$ at LHC.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figures and 5 tables: typos were corrected, content changed in Abstract and Conclusions, 2 tables were added in Conclusion

Identifying metabolites by integrating metabolome databases with mass spectrometry cheminformatics.

Novel metabolites distinct from canonical pathways can be identified through the integration of three cheminformatics tools: BinVestigate, which queries the BinBase gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolome database to match unknowns with biological metadata across over 110,000 samples; MS-DIAL 2.0, a software tool for chromatographic deconvolution of high-resolution GC-MS or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS); and MS-FINDER 2.0, a structure-elucidation program that uses a combination of 14 metabolome databases in addition to an enzyme promiscuity library. We showcase our workflow by annotating N-methyl-uridine monophosphate (UMP), lysomonogalactosyl-monopalmitin, N-methylalanine, and two propofol derivatives

Urine E-cadherin: A Marker for early detection of kidney injury in diabetic patients.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the main reason for end-stage renal disease. Microalbuminuria as the non-invasive available diagnosis marker lacks specificity and gives high false positive rates. To identify and validate biomarkers for DN, we used in the present study urine samples from four patient groups: diabetes without nephropathy, diabetes with microalbuminuria, diabetes with macroalbuminuria and proteinuria without diabetes. For the longitudinal validation, we recruited 563 diabetic patients and collected 1363 urine samples with the clinical data during a follow-up of 6 years. Comparative urinary proteomics identified four proteins Apolipoprotein A-I (APOA1), Beta-2-microglobulin (B2M), E-cadherin (CDH1) and Lithostathine-1-alpha (REG1A), which differentiated with high statistical strength (p < 0.05) between DN patients and the other groups. Label-free mass spectrometric quantification of the candidates confirmed the discriminatory value of E-cadherin and Lithostathine-1-alpha (p < 0.05). Immunological validation highlighted E-cadherin as the only marker able to differentiate significantly between the different DN stages with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.85 (95%-CI: [0.72, 0.97]). The analysis of the samples from the longitudinal study confirmed the prognostic value of E-cadherin, the critical increase in urinary E-cadherin level was measured 20 ± 12.5 months before the onset of microalbuminuria and correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with the glomerular filtration rate measured by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)