Use of stochastic simulation to evaluate the reduction in methane emissions and improvement in reproductive efficiency from routine hormonal interventions in dairy herds

This study predicts the magnitude and between herd variation in changes of methane emissions and production efficiency associated with interventions to improve reproductive efficiency in dairy cows. Data for 10,000 herds of 200 cows were simulated. Probability of conception was predicted daily from the start of the study (parturition) for each cow up to day 300 of lactation. Four scenarios of differing first insemination management were simulated for each herd using the same theoretical cows: A baseline scenario based on breeding from observed oestrus only, synchronisation of oestrus for pre-set first insemination using 2 methods, and a regime using prostaglandin treatments followed by first insemination to observed oestrus. Cows that did not conceive to first insemination were re-inseminated following detection of oestrus. For cows that conceived, gestation length was 280 days with cessation of milking 60 days before calving. Those cows not pregnant after 300 days of lactation were culled and replaced by a heifer. Daily milk yield was calculated for 730 days from the start of the study for each cow. Change in mean reproductive and economic outputs were summarised for each herd following the 3 interventions. For each scenario, methane emissions were determined by daily forage dry matter intake, forage quality, and cow replacement risk. Linear regression was used to summarise relationships. In some circumstances improvement in reproductive efficiency using the programmes investigated was associated with reduced cost and methane emissions compared to reliance on detection of oestrus. Efficiency of oestrus detection and the time to commencement of breeding after calving influenced variability in changes in cost and methane emissions. For an average UK herd this was a saving of at least £50 per cow and a 3.6% reduction in methane emissions per L of milk when timing of first insemination was pre-set

Early Lung Function Abnormalities in Acromegaly.

BACKGROUND: Acromegaly is an insidious disorder caused by a pituitary growth hormone (GH)-secreting adenoma resulting in high circulating levels of GH and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). Respiratory disorders are common complications in acromegaly, and can severely impact on quality of life, eventually affecting mortality. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to explore structural and functional lung alterations of acromegalic subjects. METHODS: We enrolled 10 consecutive patients (M/F: 5/5) affected by acromegaly. In all patients, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed the presence of pituitary tumor. All patients underwent clinical, lung functional, biological, and radiological assessments. Ten healthy age-matched subjects also served as controls. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences in lung function were detected between acromegalic and healthy subjects (p ≥ 0.05 for all analyses). However, the diffusing capacity for CO (TLCO) was significantly lower in the acromegalic group than in healthy subjects (TLCO% predicted: 78.1 ± 16 vs. 90 ± 6 %, respectively, p = 0.04; KCO% predicted: 77 ± 16 vs. 93 ± 5 %, p = 0.02, respectively). None of the lung function parameters correlated with duration of the disease, or with inflammatory marker of the airways. In acromegalics, biological (exhaled NO concentrations) and imaging (total lung volume, TLV, and mean lung density, MLD) evaluations were within normal values. The TLV measured by HRCT was 3540 ± 1555 ml in acromegalics, and the MLD was -711 ± 73 HU. None of the lung functional, radiological, and biological findings correlated with GH or IGF-I levels, and no correlation was found with duration of disease. CONCLUSIONS: In the current study, lung function evaluation allowed to detect early involvement of lung parenchyma, as assessed by TLCO and KCO, even in the absence of parenchymal density alterations of the lung by HRCT. These findings suggest to routinely include the carbon monoxide diffusing capacity in the lung function assessment for an early intervention in acromegaly

Antibody Vh Repertoire Differences between Resolving and Chronically Evolving Hepatitis C Virus Infections

Despite the production of neutralizing antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV), many patients fail to clear the virus and instead develop chronic infection and long-term complications. To understand how HCV infection perturbs the antibody repertoire and to identify molecular features of antibody genes associated with either viral clearance or chronic infection, we sequenced the V(D)J region of naïve and memory B cells of 6 persons who spontaneously resolved an HCV infection (SR), 9 patients with a newly diagnosed chronically evolving infection (CE), and 7 healthy donors. In both naïve and memory B cells, the frequency of use of particular antibody gene subfamilies and segments varied among the three clinical groups, especially between SR and CE. Compared to CE, SR antibody genes used fewer VH, D and JH gene segments in naïve B cells and fewer VH segments in memory B cells. SR and CE groups significantly differed in the frequency of use of 7 gene segments in naïve B cell clones and 3 gene segments in memory clones. The nucleotide mutation rates were similar among groups, but the pattern of replacement and silent mutations in memory B cell clones indicated greater antigen selection in SR than CE. Greater clonal evolution of SR than CE memory B cells was revealed by analysis of phylogenetic trees and CDR3 lengths. Pauciclonality of the peripheral memory B cell population is a distinguishing feature of persons who spontaneously resolved an HCV infection. This finding, previously considered characteristic only of patients with HCV-associated lymphoproliferative disorders, suggests that the B cell clones potentially involved in clearance of the virus may also be those susceptible to abnormal expansion

Effectiveness of service screening: a case–control study to assess breast cancer mortality reduction

The aim of this study was the evaluation of the impact of service screening programmes on breast cancer mortality in five regions of Italy. We conducted a matched case–control study with four controls for each case. Cases were defined as breast cancer deaths occurred not later than 31 December 2002. Controls were sampled from the local municipality list and matched by date of birth. Screening histories were assessed by the local, computerised, screening database and subjects were classified as either invited or not-yet-invited and as either screened or unscreened. There were a total of 1750 breast cancer deaths within the 50 to 74-year-old breast cancer cases and a total of 7000 controls. The logistic conditional estimate of the cumulative odds ratios comparing invited with not-yet-invited women was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.62–0.92). Restricting the analyses to invited women, the odds ratio of screened to never-respondent women corrected for self-selection bias was 0.55 (95% CI: 0.36–0.85). The introduction of breast cancer screening programmes in Italy is associated with a reduction in breast cancer mortality attributable to the additional impact of service screening over and above the background access to mammography

Conformational Control of the Binding of the Transactivation Domain of the MLL Protein and c-Myb to the KIX Domain of CREB

The KIX domain of CBP is a transcriptional coactivator. Concomitant binding to the activation domain of proto-oncogene protein c-Myb and the transactivation domain of the trithorax group protein mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) transcription factor lead to the biologically active ternary MLL∶KIX∶c-Myb complex which plays a role in Pol II-mediated transcription. The binding of the activation domain of MLL to KIX enhances c-Myb binding. Here we carried out molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for the MLL∶KIX∶c-Myb ternary complex, its binary components and KIX with the goal of providing a mechanistic explanation for the experimental observations. The dynamic behavior revealed that the MLL binding site is allosterically coupled to the c-Myb binding site. MLL binding redistributes the conformational ensemble of KIX, leading to higher populations of states which favor c-Myb binding. The key element in the allosteric communication pathways is the KIX loop, which acts as a control mechanism to enhance subsequent binding events. We tested this conclusion by in silico mutations of loop residues in the KIX∶MLL complex and by comparing wild type and mutant dynamics through MD simulations. The loop assumed MLL binding conformation similar to that observed in the KIX∶c-Myb state which disfavors the allosteric network. The coupling with c-Myb binding site faded, abolishing the positive cooperativity observed in the presence of MLL. Our major conclusion is that by eliciting a loop-mediated allosteric switch between the different states following the binding events, transcriptional activation can be regulated. The KIX system presents an example how nature makes use of conformational control in higher level regulation of transcriptional activity and thus cellular events

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$and correspond to an integrated luminosity of$4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$and pseudorapidity$|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Search for R-parity-violating supersymmetry in events with four or more leptons in sqrt(s) =7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for new phenomena in final states with four or more leptons (electrons or muons) is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of $\sqrt{s}=7\;\mathrm{TeV}$ proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in two signal regions: one that requires moderate values of missing transverse momentum and another that requires large effective mass. The results are interpreted in a simplified model of R-parity-violating supersymmetry in which a 95% CL exclusion region is set for charged wino masses up to 540 GeV. In an R-parity-violating MSUGRA/CMSSM model, values of m 1/2 up to 820 GeV are excluded for 10 < tan β < 40

Search for high-mass resonances decaying to dilepton final states in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for high-mass resonances decaying to an electron-positron pair or a muon-antimuon pair. The search is sensitive to heavy neutral Z′ gauge bosons, Randall-Sundrum gravitons, Z * bosons, techni-mesons, Kaluza-Klein Z/γ bosons, and bosons predicted by Torsion models. Results are presented based on an analysis of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb−1 in the e + e − channel and 5.0 fb−1 in the μ + μ −channel. A Z ′ boson with Standard Model-like couplings is excluded at 95 % confidence level for masses below 2.22 TeV. A Randall-Sundrum graviton with coupling k/MPl=0.1 is excluded at 95 % confidence level for masses below 2.16 TeV. Limits on the other models are also presented, including Technicolor and Minimal Z′ Models

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal