Plasma metabolites reflect seasonally changing metabolic processes in a long-distance migrant shorebird (Calidris canutus)

Migrant birds have tightly scheduled annual cycles consisting of several distinct life cycle (sub-)stages such as reproduction, migration, moult and overwintering, each of which have specific metabolic requirements (e.g., fattening during migration, protein build-up during moult). This study examines changes in fat and protein metabolism during the annual cycle of body mass and moult over 1.5 years in a captive flock of an arctic-breeding shorebird, the red knot Calidris canutus islandica. 2–5 h after food withdrawal, plasma uric acid levels were still decreasing and β-hydroxy-butyrate levels were low, indicating prolonged catabolism of dietary protein, probably linked with a conversion into lipids. Such a late-resorptive state is achieved much earlier in passerines, but only after several days in penguins and, thus, seems to depend on meal size or mass-specific metabolic rate. Substages of body mass gain and high body mass were characterized by increased plasma triglyceride levels reflecting increased turnover of lipids, and low levels of the ketone body β-hydroxy-butyrate, indicating that the bird is not short of glucose. The high uric acid levels during these substages indicated an increased breakdown of nutritional protein. During moult, plasma triglyceride levels were low, suggesting that lipids were less available than at other times of the year. It is concluded that plasma metabolite levels indicate the metabolic processes related to migratory fuelling and moult and the influence of exogeneous factors.

Clinical relevance of soluble c-erbB-2 for patients with metastatic breast cancer predicting the response to second-line hormone or chemotherapy

Concentrations of soluble c-erbB-2 were determined in the sera of 64 patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer receiving second-line hormone or chemotherapy in comparison to 35 breast cancer patients without detectable recurrent disease and 17 healthy blood donors. The sera of non-metastatic breast cancer patients contained s-erbB-2 concentrations similar to those of healthy blood donors. Patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer had significantly higher values of s-erbB-2 in comparison to patients with non-disseminated disease (mean: 59.6 vs. 11.6 U/ml; p = 0.022). A significant correlation was observed between s-erbB-2 serum levels and serum LDH concentrations (p < 0.001), levels of alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.001), and the presence of hepatic metastasis (p = 0.001). Time to tumor progression was significantly shorter in patients with s-erbB-2 levels above 40 U/ml (mean: 23.4 vs. 56.7 months; p = 0.002). Furthermore, breast cancer patients with hepatic metastasis and those with elevated s-erbB-2 serum levels above 40 U/ml had limited response to hormone or chemotherapy. Non-responders had significantly higher s-erbB-2 levels (mean: 270.3, range: 42-500 U/ml;) compared with the responder group (mean: 23.1, range: 0-149 U/ml; p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis indicated that elevated s-erbB-2 serum levels above 40 U/ml independently predicted an unfavorable response to second-line hormone or chemotherapy in patients with advanced metastatic breast cancer. Copyright (C) 2002 S. KargerAG, Basel

Oxidative stress in endurance flight: an unconsidered factor in bird migration

Migrating birds perform extraordinary endurance flights, up to 200 h non-stop, at a very high metabolic rate and while fasting. Such an intense and prolonged physical activity is normally associated with an increased production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) and thus increased risk of oxidative stress. However, up to now it was unknown whether endurance flight evokes oxidative stress. We measured a marker of oxidative damage (protein carbonyls, PCs) and a marker of enzymatic antioxidant capacity (glutathione peroxidase, GPx) in the European robin (Erithacus rubecula), a nocturnal migrant, on its way to the non-breeding grounds. Both markers were significantly higher in European robins caught out of their nocturnal flight than in conspecifics caught during the day while resting. Independently of time of day, both markers showed higher concentrations in individuals with reduced flight muscles. Adults had higher GPx concentrations than first-year birds on their first migration. These results show for the first time that free-flying migrants experience oxidative stress during endurance flight and up-regulate one component of antioxidant capacity. We discuss that avoiding oxidative stress may be an overlooked factor shaping bird migration strategies, e.g. by disfavouring long non-stop flights and an extensive catabolism of the flight muscles

Nonlinear Self-Trapping of Matter Waves in Periodic Potentials

We report the first experimental observation of nonlinear self-trapping of Bose-condensed 87Rb atoms in a one dimensional waveguide with a superimposed deep periodic potential . The trapping effect is confirmed directly by imaging the atomic spatial distribution. Increasing the nonlinearity we move the system from the diffusive regime, characterized by an expansion of the condensate, to the nonlinearity dominated self-trapping regime, where the initial expansion stops and the width remains finite. The data are in quantitative agreement with the solutions of the corresponding discrete nonlinear equation. Our results reveal that the effect of nonlinear self-trapping is of local nature, and is closely related to the macroscopic self-trapping phenomenon already predicted for double-well systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Bloch Structures in a Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensate

A rotating Bose-Einstein condensate is shown to exhibit a Bloch band structure without the need of periodic potential. Vortices enter the condensate by a mechanism similar to the Bragg reflection, if the frequency of a rotating drive or the strength of interaction is adiabatically changed. A localized state analogous to a gap soliton in a periodic system is predicted near the edge of the Brillouin zone.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Hypriot Cluster Lab: An ARM-Powered Cloud Solution Utilizing Docker

Following the establishment of virtualization approaches, cloud services within data center environments have become easily manageable. Modern infrastructures use virtual machines as a platform for service delivery, requiring powerful servers. Conjointly, the uprising of the Internet of Things implies new challenges to provide applications that can successfully manage data and communicate with a large number of connected devices. The standards of entry have resulted in extreme difficulties for small enterprises and educational institutions trying to provide their own virtualized services. The Hypriot Cluster Lab (HCL) - made publicly available on Github1 - offers cloud functionality while running on ARM processors, thereby minimizing costs. Due to the fact that such processors offer less computational power, services are packaged into lightweight containers built using the Docker framework, which avoid the overhead associated with virtual machine

Increased prevalence of colorectal adenomas in women with breast cancer

Background: The frequency of colorectal adenomas and carcinomas was investigated in a large cohort of women with breast cancer in comparison with matched controls, since data on the occurrence of second tumors in women with breast cancer is controversial. Design: In a cohort study, 188 consecutive women (median age 57 years) with primary breast cancer and 376 age-matched women who served as controls were examined by total colonoscopy. Breast cancer patients and controls were compared for the frequency of colorectal adenomas and carcinomas. Results: Women with breast cancer showed a higher risk of colorectal adenomas than controls (14.9 vs. 9.3%, p = 0.047, OR 1.7, 95% Cl 1.0-2.9). This increased prevalence resulted primarily from an increased prevalence in the age group 65-85 (31 vs. 10%, p = 0.004, OR 3.8, 95% Cl 1.6-9.3). Colorectal carcinomas were found infrequently in both groups (2 in each group). Women with breast cancer receiving anti-estrogen therapy showed a trend towards a lower risk of adenomas compared to women without anti-estrogen therapy (3.7 vs. 17.2%, p = 0.053, OR 0.16, 95% Cl 0.0-1.1). Conclusions: Women with breast cancer above the age of 65 years have an increased risk of colorectal adenomas compared to women without breast cancer. Women with a diagnosis of breast cancer should especially be encouraged to participate in colorectal cancer-screening programs which, in most countries, call for screening of all average-risk individuals over the age of 50 years