Goat Milk Based Infant Formula in Newborns:A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial on Growth and Safety.

Objectives: We aimed to determine the growth and safety parameters in newborns fed a goat milk based infant formula (GMF) using a randomized double-blind trial, in which a cow milk formula (CMF) served as a control and a breast fed (BF) group as a reference. Methods: Healthy term infants (n = 218) aged up to 14 days were recruited from 25 European study centers and randomized to GMF or CMF. Weight, length, head circumference were measured at baseline, and at 14, 28, 56, 84, and 112 days at the study clinics. Adverse events were recorded and stool characteristics, reflux, fussiness, colic, and flatulence were self-reported by parents in 3-day diaries. Anthropometric measurements were transformed to WHO standardized age- and sex-adjusted z-scores. Analyses of covariance and linear mixed modeling were used to statistically analyze growth, while adjusting for potential confounders when studying the breast-fed group (n = 86). Results: Comparing the GMF to the CMF group, weight gain [mean difference 227.8 g (95% CI -16.6 to -439.0)] and z-scores for anthropometric measurements were similar after 112 days intervention. Infant formula groups showed greater mean (SD) weight z-scores than the BF group from 84 days onwards (GMF: 0.28 (0.84), CMF: 0.12 (0.88), BF -0.19 (1.02), P < 0.05), whereas length and head circumference z-scores were similar. Incidences of serious adverse events and reflux, fussiness, colic, and flatulence were similar among the three groups. Conclusion: Our data demonstrate that GMF provides adequate growth, has a good tolerability, and is safe to use in infants

A Multiscale Approach to Blast Neurotrauma Modeling: Part I – Development of Novel Test Devices for in vivo and in vitro Blast Injury Models

The loading conditions used in some current in vivo and in vitro blast-induced neurotrauma models may not be representative of real-world blast conditions. To address these limitations, we developed a compressed-gas driven shock tube with different driven lengths that can generate Friedlander-type blasts. The shock tube can generate overpressures up to 650 kPa with durations between 0.3 and 1.1 ms using compressed helium driver gas, and peak overpressures up to 450 kPa with durations between 0.6 and 3 ms using compressed nitrogen. This device is used for short-duration blast overpressure loading for small animal in vivo injury models, and contrasts the more frequently used long duration/high impulse blast overpressures in the literature. We also developed a new apparatus that is used with the shock tube to recreate the in vivo intracranial overpressure response for loading in vitro culture preparations. The receiver device surrounds the culture with materials of similar impedance to facilitate the propagation of a single overpressure pulse through the tissue. This method prevents pressure waves reflecting off the tissue that can cause unrealistic deformation and injury. The receiver performance was characterized using the longest helium-driven shock tube, and produced in-fluid overpressures up to 1500 kPa at the location where a culture would be placed. This response was well correlated with the overpressure conditions from the shock tube (R2 = 0.97). Finite element models of the shock tube and receiver were developed and validated to better elucidate the mechanics of this methodology. A demonstration exposing a culture to the loading conditions created by this system suggest tissue strains less than 5% for all pressure levels simulated, which was well below functional deficit thresholds for strain rates less than 50 s−1. This novel system is not limited to a specific type of culture model and can be modified to reproduce more complex pressure pulses

A Multiscale Approach to Blast Neurotrauma Modeling: Part II: Methodology for Inducing Blast Injury to in vitro Models

Due to the prominent role of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in wounding patterns of U.S. war-fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, blast injury has risen to a new level of importance and is recognized to be a major cause of injuries to the brain. However, an injury risk-function for microscopic, macroscopic, behavioral, and neurological deficits has yet to be defined. While operational blast injuries can be very complex and thus difficult to analyze, a simplified blast injury model would facilitate studies correlating biological outcomes with blast biomechanics to define tolerance criteria. Blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) results from the translation of a shock wave in-air, such as that produced by an IED, into a pressure wave within the skull–brain complex. Our blast injury methodology recapitulates this phenomenon in vitro, allowing for control of the injury biomechanics via a compressed-gas shock tube used in conjunction with a custom-designed, fluid-filled receiver that contains the living culture. The receiver converts the air shock wave into a fast-rising pressure transient with minimal reflections, mimicking the intracranial pressure history in blast. We have developed an organotypic hippocampal slice culture model that exhibits cell death when exposed to a 530 ± 17.7-kPa peak overpressure with a 1.026 ± 0.017-ms duration and 190 ± 10.7 kPa-ms impulse in-air. We have also injured a simplified in vitro model of the blood–brain barrier, which exhibits disrupted integrity immediately following exposure to 581 ± 10.0 kPa peak overpressure with a 1.067 ± 0.006-ms duration and 222 ± 6.9 kPa-ms impulse in-air. To better prevent and treat bTBI, both the initiating biomechanics and the ensuing pathobiology must be understood in greater detail. A well-characterized, in vitro model of bTBI, in conjunction with animal models, will be a powerful tool for developing strategies to mitigate the risks of bTBI

Identification of Habitat-Specific Biomes of Aquatic Fungal Communities Using a Comprehensive Nearly Full-Length 18S rRNA Dataset Enriched with Contextual Data

Molecular diversity surveys have demonstrated that aquatic fungi are highly diverse, and that they play fundamental ecological roles in aquatic systems. Unfortunately, comparative studies of aquatic fungal communities are few and far between, due to the scarcity of adequate datasets. We combined all publicly available fungal 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences with new sequence data from a marine fungi culture collection. We further enriched this dataset by adding validated contextual data. Specifically, we included data on the habitat type of the samples assigning fungal taxa to ten different habitat categories. This dataset has been created with the intention to serve as a valuable reference dataset for aquatic fungi including a phylogenetic reference tree. The combined data enabled us to infer fungal community patterns in aquatic systems. Pairwise habitat comparisons showed significant phylogenetic differences, indicating that habitat strongly affects fungal community structure. Fungal taxonomic composition differed considerably even on phylum and class level. Freshwater fungal assemblage was most different from all other habitat types and was dominated by basal fungal lineages. For most communities, phylogenetic signals indicated clustering of sequences suggesting that environmental factors were the main drivers of fungal community structure, rather than species competition. Thus, the diversification process of aquatic fungi must be highly clade specific in some cases.The combined data enabled us to infer fungal community patterns in aquatic systems. Pairwise habitat comparisons showed significant phylogenetic differences, indicating that habitat strongly affects fungal community structure. Fungal taxonomic composition differed considerably even on phylum and class level. Freshwater fungal assemblage was most different from all other habitat types and was dominated by basal fungal lineages. For most communities, phylogenetic signals indicated clustering of sequences suggesting that environmental factors were the main drivers of fungal community structure, rather than species competition. Thus, the diversification process of aquatic fungi must be highly clade specific in some cases

The ALICE Data Challenges

Since 1998, the ALICE experiment and the CERN/IT division have jointly executed several large-scale high throughput distributed computing exercises: the ALICE data challenges. The goals of these regular exercises are to test hardware and software components of the data acquisition and computing systems in realistic conditions and to execute an early integration of the overall ALICE computing infrastructure. This paper reports on the third ALICE Data Challenge (ADC III) that has been performed at CERN from January to March 2001. The data used during the ADC III are simulated physics raw data of the ALICE TPC, produced with the ALICE simulation program AliRoot. The data acquisition was based on the ALICE online framework called the ALICE Data Acquisition Test Environment (DATE) system. The data after event building were then formatted with the ROOT I/O package and a data catalogue based on MySQL was established. The Mass Storage System used during ADC III is CASTOR. Different software tools have been used to monitor the performances. DATE has demonstrated performances of more than 500 MByte/s. An aggregate data throughput of 85 MByte/s was sustained in CASTOR over several days. The total collected data amounts to 100 TBytes in 100,000 files

Surface Roughness and Effective Stick-Slip Motion

The effect of random surface roughness on hydrodynamics of viscous incompressible liquid is discussed. Roughness-driven contributions to hydrodynamic flows, energy dissipation, and friction force are calculated in a wide range of parameters. When the hydrodynamic decay length (the viscous wave penetration depth) is larger than the size of random surface inhomogeneities, it is possible to replace a random rough surface by effective stick-slip boundary conditions on a flat surface with two constants: the stick-slip length and the renormalization of viscosity near the boundary. The stick-slip length and the renormalization coefficient are expressed explicitly via the correlation function of random surface inhomogeneities. The effective stick-slip length is always negative signifying the effective slow-down of the hydrodynamic flows by the rough surface (stick rather than slip motion). A simple hydrodynamic model is presented as an illustration of these general hydrodynamic results. The effective boundary parameters are analyzed numerically for Gaussian, power-law and exponentially decaying correlators with various indices. The maximum on the frequency dependence of the dissipation allows one to extract the correlation radius (characteristic size) of the surface inhomogeneities directly from, for example, experiments with torsional quartz oscillators.Comment: RevTeX4, 14 pages, 3 figure

Challenging the challenge: handling data in the Gigabit/s range

The ALICE experiment at CERN will propose unprecedented requirements for event building and data recording. New technologies will be adopted as well as ad-hoc frameworks, from the acquisition of experimental data up to the transfer onto permanent media and its later access. These issues justify a careful, in-depth planning and preparation. The ALICE Data Challenge is a very important step of this development process where simulated detector data is moved from dummy data sources up to the recording media using processing elements and data-paths as realistic as possible. We will review herein the current status of past, present and future ALICE Data Challenges, with particular reference to the sessions held in 2002 when - for the first time - streams worth one week of ALICE data were recorded onto tape media at sustained rates exceeding 300 MB/s.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 9 pages, PDF. PSN MOGT00

Synthesis and Characterization of Cobalt(II) N,N′‑Diphenylazodioxide Complexes

Removal of chloride from CoCl2 with TlPF6 in acetonitrile, followed by addition of excess nitrosobenzene, yielded the eight-coordinate cobalt(II) complex salt [Co{Ph(O)NN(O)- Ph}4](PF6)2, shown by single-crystal X-ray analysis to have a distorted tetragonal geometry. The analogous treatment of the bipyridyl complex Co(bpy)Cl2 yielded the mixed-ligand cobalt(II) complex salt [Co(bpy){Ph(O)NN(O)Ph}2](PF6)2, whose singlecrystal X-ray structure displays a trigonal prismatic geometry, similar to that of the iron(II) cation in the previously known complex salt [Fe{Ph(O)NN(O)Ph}3](FeCl4)2. The use of TlPF6 to generate solvated metal complex cations from chloride salts or chlorido complexes, followed by the addition of nitrosobenzene, is shown to be a useful synthetic strategy for the preparation of azodioxide complex cations with the noncoordinating, diamagnetic PF6 − counteranion. Coordination number appears to be more important than d electron count in determining the geometry and metal−ligand bond distances of diphenylazodioxide complexes