Intense flight and endotoxin injection elicit similar effects on leukocyte distributions but dissimilar effects on plasma-based immunoplogical indices in pigeons

Most birds rely on flight for survival. Yet as an energetically taxing and physiologically integrative process, flight has many repercussions. Studying pigeons (Columba livia) and employing physiological and immunological indices that are relevant to ecologists working with wild birds, we determined what, if any, acute immune-like responses result from bouts of intense, non-migratory flight. We compared the effects of flight with the effects of a simulated bacterial infection. We also investigated indices in terms of their post-flight changes within individuals and their relationship with flight speed among individuals. Compared to un-flown controls, flown birds exhibited significant elevations in numbers of heterophils relative to numbers of lymphocytes and significant reductions in numbers of eosinophils and monocytes. Furthermore, within-individual changes in concentrations of an acute phase protein were greater in flown birds than in controls. However, none of the flight-affected indices showed any evidence of being related to flight speed. While some of the effects of flight were comparable to the effects of the simulated bacterial infection, other effects were observed only after one of these two physiological challenges. Our study suggests that flight by pigeons yields immune-like responses, and these responses have the potential to complicate the conclusions drawn by ecologists regarding immune function in free-living birds. Still, a better understanding of the repercussions of flight can help clarify the ties between the physiology of exercise and the disease ecology of migration and will ultimately assist in the broader goal of accounting for immunological variation within and among species

Self-aligned flexible organic thin-film transistors with gates patterned by nano-imprint lithography

Many applications that rely on organic electronic circuits still suffer from the limited switching speed of their basic elements - the organic thin film transistor (OTFT). For a given set of materials the OTFT speed scales inversely with the square of the channel length, the parasitic gate overlap capacitance, and the contact resistance. For maximising speed we pattern transistor channels with lengths from 10 mu m down to the sub-micrometre regime by industrially scalable UV-nanoimprint lithography. The reduction of the overlap capacitance is achieved by minimising the source-drain to gate overlap lengths to values as low as 0.2 mu m by self-aligned electrode definition using substrate reverse side exposure. Pentacene based organic thin film transistors with an exceptionally low line edge roughness <20 nm of the channels, a mobility of 0.1 cm(2)/Vs, and an on-off ratio of 10(4), are fabricated on 4 '' x 4 '' flexible substrates in a carrier-free process scheme. The stability and spatial distribution of the transistor channel lengths are assessed in detail with standard deviations of L ranging from 185 to 28 nm. Such high-performing self-aligned organic thin film transistors enabled a ring-oscillator circuit with an average stage delay below 4 mu s at an operation voltage of 7.5 V

Quality Improvement Goals for Acute Kidney Injury

AKI is a global concern with a high incidence among patients across acute care settings. AKI is associated with significant clinical consequences and increased health care costs. Preventive measures, as well as rapid identification of AKI, have been shown to improve outcomes in small studies. Providing high-quality care for patients with AKI or those at risk of AKI occurs across a continuum that starts at the community level and continues in the emergency department, hospital setting, and after discharge from inpatient care. Improving the quality of care provided to these patients, plausibly mitigating the cost of care and improving short- and long-term outcomes, are goals that have not been universally achieved. Therefore, understanding how the management of AKI may be amenable to quality improvement programs is needed. Recognizing this gap in knowledge, the 22nd Acute Disease Quality Initiative meeting was convened to discuss the evidence, provide recommendations, and highlight future directions for AKI-related quality measures and care processes. Using a modified Delphi process, an international group of experts including physicians, a nurse practitioner, and pharmacists provided a framework for current and future quality improvement projects in the area of AKI. Where possible, best practices in the prevention, identification, and care of the patient with AKI were identified and highlighted. This article provides a summary of the key messages and recommendations of the group, with an aim to equip and encourage health care providers to establish quality care delivery for patients with AKI and to measure key quality indicators