Skeletopy of the intumescentia lumbalis and conus medullaris applied to epidural anaesthesia in Leopardus geoffroyi

Background: Leopardus geoffroyi is a Neotropical wild felid with wide distribution in the south of the South American continent. The objective was to investigate the skeletopy of the intumescentia lumbalis (IL) and conus medullaris (CM) from 11 specimens of L. geoffroyi collected dead on highways. Materials and methods: The cadavers were fixed in formaldehyde solution and dissected to allow the dorsal exposure of IL and CM. The cranial and caudal limits were marked with radiopaque pins and radiographic projections were used to determine the skeletopy. The lengths of IL and CM were measured with a pachymeter. Results: In most specimens, the IL was located at the level of L4 and L5 vertebrae, although in 4 (1 male and 3 females) individuals its cranial limit was L3 and in 3 specimens (2 male and 1 female) the caudal limit was L6. The length of IL was 35.6 ± 6.7 mm. The CM had its base predominantly at the level of the L5 vertebra, although in some specimens the base was in L4 and in others in L6. The apex of the CM can be found since the lumbosacral junction until the level of the Cd2 vertebra. The CM measured 74.4 ± 14.3 mm. Conclusions: Based on the skeletopy, it can be suggested that epidural anaesthesia procedures in L. geoffroyi are safer with the introduction of the catheter through the sacrocaudal interarcual space, as recommended by some anaesthetists for the domestic cat

First Powering of the LHC Test String 2

String 2 is a full-size model of a regular cell in an LHC arc. In the first phase, three dipole magnets and two quadrupole magnets have been assembled in String 2 and commissioning started in April 2001. By the beginning of 2002 three pre-series dipole magnets will be added to complete the cell. As for its predecessor String 1, the facility was built to individually validate the LHC systems and to investigate their collective behaviour for normal operation with the magnets at a temperature of 1.9 K, during transients as well as during exceptional conditions. String 2 is a precious milestone before installation and commissioning of the first LHC sector (1/8 of the machine) in 2004, with respect to infrastructure, installation, tooling and assembly procedures, testing and commissioning of individual systems, as well as the global commissioning of the technical systems. This paper describes the commissioning, and retraces the first powering history

Linha Básica de Suscetibilidade de Chrysodeixis includens (Walker, [1858]) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) a Benzoato de Emamectina.

Emamectin Benzoate was registered recently in Brazil to control Chrysodeixis includens (Walker, [1858]) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in soybean. We studied the baseline susceptibility of Mato Grosso populations of C. includes to support Insect Resistance Management programs by standard feeding assays on insecticide-surface of artificial diet. Variation in susceptibility between populations was low. The LC50 values from 11 populations varied between 0.015 a 0.065 μg i.a. cm-2. Based on our results, we propose the discriminant concentration of 2.867 μg i.a. cm-2 of emamectin benzoate to monitor insecticide resistance in C. includes.Bioassay

First Results and Status of the LHC Test String 2

After the commissioning of String 2 Phase1 and the powering of the main circuits in autumn 2001, a short yet vigorous experimental program was carried-out to validate the final design choices for the technical systems of LHC. This program included the investigation of thermo-hydraulics of quenches quench propagation, power converter controls and tracking between power converters, as well as the measurement of currents induced in the beam screen after a quench and crossing the interconnects. Parameters significant for the LHC, such as heat loads, were also measured. During the winter shutdown the String was completed to a full cell with the addition of three pre-series dipoles (Phase 2). After a short description of the layout of Phase 1 and Phase 2, the results of the experiments are presented and the future experimental program is outlined

Inhibition of Th17 Cells Regulates Autoimmune Diabetes in NOD Mice

OBJECTIVE: The T helper 17 (Th17) population, a subset of CD4-positive T-cells that secrete interleukin (IL)-17, has been implicated in autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis and lupus. Therapeutic agents that target the Th17 effector molecule IL-17 or directly inhibit the Th17 population (IL-25) have shown promise in animal models of autoimmunity. The role of Th17 cells in type 1 diabetes has been less clear. The effect of neutralizing anti-IL-17 and recombinant IL-25 on the development of diabetes in NOD mice, a model of spontaneous autoimmune diabetes, was investigated in this study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS AND RESULTS: Although treatment with either anti-IL-17 or IL-25 had no effect on diabetes development in young (<5 weeks) NOD mice, either intervention prevented diabetes when treatment was started at 10 weeks of age (P < 0.001). Insulitis scoring and immunofluorescence staining revealed that both anti-IL-17 and IL-25 significantly reduced peri-islet T-cell infiltrates. Both treatments also decreased GAD65 autoantibody levels. Analysis of pancreatic lymph nodes revealed that both treatments increased the frequency of regulatory T-cells. Further investigation demonstrated that IL-25 therapy was superior to anti-IL-17 during mature diabetes because it promoted a period of remission from new-onset diabetes in 90% of treated animals. Similarly, IL-25 delayed recurrent autoimmunity after syngeneic islet transplantation, whereas anti-IL-17 was of no benefit. GAD65-specific ELISpot and CD4-positive adoptive transfer studies showed that IL-25 treatment resulted in a T-cell-mediated dominant protective effect against autoimmunity. CONCLUSIONS: These studies suggest that Th17 cells are involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes. Further development of Th17-targeted therapeutic agents may be of benefit in this disease

Bilateral paediatric cataract surgery - outcomes of 298 children from Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Introduction: The leading cause of childhood blindness globally is paediatric cataract. Bilateral cataract surgery can help to improve visual performance and to diminish the burden of childhood blindness. Objective: To report in a retrospective observational cohort study the long-term outcomes of 298 children who had bilateral cataract surgery with IOL implantation from 2001-2016 in Kinshasa. Methods: A standardized surgical treatment of paediatric cataract was practiced on 298 children. Patient\u2019s follow-up, complications, and visual outcomes were recorded and analysed. Results: The mean age was 5.7 \ub1 4.3 years and males were predominant (64.9%). Most of children were living mainly in urban poorest areas (96.3%). Strabismus, nystagmus and microcornea were encountered in 20.1%, 25.1% and 8.7% of children, respectively. Using WHO criteria most of patients were classified as blind preoperatively and 81.9% of them had improved visual outcomes after surgery. Main reasons for reduced vision during follow-up were secondary cataract (5.7%), IOL decentration (1.2%), retinal detachment (1.2%), and secondary glaucoma (1.5%). Conclusion: In spite of the post conflict challenges, elimination of cataract blindness in children remains a priority. Children present at a late age for surgery and long term follow-up is poor. There is need for program strengthening in these areas

Persistent anthrax as a major driver of wildlife mortality in a tropical rainforest

Anthrax is a globally important animal disease and zoonosis. Despite this, our current knowledge of anthrax ecology is largely limited to arid ecosystems, where outbreaks are most commonly reported. Here we show that the dynamics of an anthrax-causing agent, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis, in a tropical rainforest have severe consequences for local wildlife communities. Using data and samples collected over three decades, we show that rainforest anthrax is a persistent and widespread cause of death for a broad range of mammalian hosts. We predict that this pathogen will accelerate the decline and possibly result in the extirpation of local chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) populations. We present the epidemiology of a cryptic pathogen and show that its presence has important implications for conservation

A Large Hadron Electron Collider at CERN

This document provides a brief overview of the recently published report on the design of the Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC), which comprises its physics programme, accelerator physics, technology and main detector concepts. The LHeC exploits and develops challenging, though principally existing, accelerator and detector technologies. This summary is complemented by brief illustrations of some of the highlights of the physics programme, which relies on a vastly extended kinematic range, luminosity and unprecedented precision in deep inelastic scattering. Illustrations are provided regarding high precision QCD, new physics (Higgs, SUSY) and electron-ion physics. The LHeC is designed to run synchronously with the LHC in the twenties and to achieve an integrated luminosity of O(100) fb$^{-1}$. It will become the cleanest high resolution microscope of mankind and will substantially extend as well as complement the investigation of the physics of the TeV energy scale, which has been enabled by the LHC

Robust computational reconstitution – a new method for the comparative analysis of gene expression in tissues and isolated cell fractions

BACKGROUND: Biological tissues consist of various cell types that differentially contribute to physiological and pathophysiological processes. Determining and analyzing cell type-specific gene expression under diverse conditions is therefore a central aim of biomedical research. The present study compares gene expression profiles in whole tissues and isolated cell fractions purified from these tissues in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. RESULTS: The expression profiles of the whole tissues were compared to computationally reconstituted expression profiles that combine the expression profiles of the isolated cell fractions (macrophages, fibroblasts, and non-adherent cells) according to their relative mRNA proportions in the tissue. The mRNA proportions were determined by trimmed robust regression using only the most robustly-expressed genes (1/3 to 1/2 of all measured genes), i.e. those showing the most similar expression in tissue and isolated cell fractions. The relative mRNA proportions were determined using several different chip evaluation methods, among which the MAS 5.0 signal algorithm appeared to be most robust. The computed mRNA proportions agreed well with the cell proportions determined by immunohistochemistry except for a minor number of outliers. Genes that were either regulated (i.e. differentially-expressed in tissue and isolated cell fractions) or robustly-expressed in all patients were identified using different test statistics. CONCLUSION: Robust Computational Reconstitution uses an intermediate number of robustly-expressed genes to estimate the relative mRNA proportions. This avoids both the exclusive dependence on the robust expression of individual, highly cell type-specific marker genes and the bias towards an equal distribution upon inclusion of all genes for computation