Soft core thermodynamics from self-consistent hard core fluids

In an effort to generalize the self-consistent Ornstein-Zernike approximation (SCOZA) -- an accurate liquid-state theory that has been restricted so far to hard-core systems -- to arbitrary soft-core systems we study a combination of SCOZA with a recently developed perturbation theory. The latter was constructed by Ben-Amotz and Stell [J. Phys. Chem. B 108,6877-6882 (2004)] as a reformulation of the Week-Chandler-Andersen perturbation theory directly in terms of an arbitrary hard-sphere reference system. We investigate the accuracy of the combined approach for the Lennard-Jones fluid by comparison with simulation data and pure perturbation theory predictions and determine the dependence of the thermodynamic properties and the phase behavior on the choice of the effective hard-core diameter of the reference system.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figure

Sublethal effects of environmental pollutant exposure in birds of prey: Evaluating biomarkers of health as indicators of contaminant-mediated effects in two sentinel raptor species

Environmental pollution emerged as a major concern in the mid-20th century primarily due to the unrestricted release of industrial chemicals and pesticides. Among wildlife species, apex predators, like raptors, have been heavily exposed to environmental pollutants such as organo-halogenated contaminants (OHCs) and metals (e.g., mercury). Due to their high trophic position, harmful levels of these pollutants ensued through biomagnification and resulted in drastic population declines during the 1950s/60s. Following a series of regulative efforts that began in the 1970s, exposure to acutely toxic and lethal doses of OHCs and metals has become rare. However, chronic exposure to lower levels of contaminants can also be harmful by triggering sublethal health effects that may ultimately affect individuals’ survival and fitness. In this context, biological endpoints that act as early warning indicators of adverse health effects, that is, biomarkers, can prove useful. This thesis aimed to study contaminant-mediated health effects in two wild raptor species, the white-tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla (WTE) and the tawny owl Strix aluco, over interannual to decadal time series. The selected biomarkers were leukocyte coping capacity (LCC; indicator of immunocapacity), telomere length (proxy of genotoxicity), and feather corticosterone (fCORT; measure of physiological stress). We observed that higher OHC concentrations in Norwegian WTE nestlings were associated with lower LCC, suggesting a reduced immune system capacity following OHC exposure. By contrast, telomere lengths in Swedish nestlings did not correlate with OHC concentrations. Our findings therefore suggest that telomere length is not a useful proxy for contaminant-mediated effects in WTE nestlings. Additionally, no links were found between fCORT and OHCs in adult Swedish WTEs, despite the population experiencing contrasting OHC levels throughout the study period. In Norwegian adult tawny owls, a positive relationship between fCORT and aluminium and cadmium was observed, along with a negative association with mercury, suggesting that these metals may influence long-term stress physiology. This thesis provides further evidence that the relationships between biomarkers and contaminants can be complex and species-specific. A strength of this thesis was the inclusion of long-term studies, which can help minimize the influence of confounding environmental stressors and thus reduce the chance of reporting spurious relationships. In summary, this thesis demonstrates that some biomarkers can offer valuable insights into potential physiological consequences of contamination in wild animals in their natural environment. Namely, LCC stands out as a potential new tool to evaluate contaminant-mediated health effects in wildlife ecotoxicology. Future research should continue to prioritize non-destructive and preferably non-invasive biomarkers, which are invaluable when working with protected species such as the WTE and the tawny owl.Miljøforurensning ble et betydelig bekymringspunkt på midten av 1900-tallet, hovedsakelig på grunn av den ubegrensede utslipp av industrielle kjemikalier og plantevernmidler. Toppredatorer, som rovfugler, har blitt spesielt påvirket av forurensning på grunn av sin høye trofiske posisjon, noe som resulterer i høye nivåer av miljøgifter som organo-halogenerte forbindelser (OHC-er) og giftige metaller. Selv om OHC-er og metaller kan være dødelige i høye doser, er slike eksponeringer sjeldne i dag. Imidlertid kan kronisk eksponering for lavere nivåer av forurensende stoffer også være problematisk ved å utløse sublethale helseeffekter som til slutt kan påvirke individuell overlevelse og tilpasningsevne. Denne avhandlingen hadde som mål å studere forurensningsmedierte effekter på to rovfuglarter, havørn og kattugle, over tiår og en studie over to påfølgende år. Forurensningsmedierte effekter ble studert ved bruk av biomarkører, som er biologiske markører (eller endepunkter) som fungerer som tidlige advarselsignaler om ugunstige effekter på fysiologiske funksjoner. De studerte biomarkørene var leukocyte coping capacity (LCC; indikator for immunokapasitet), telomerlengde (proxy for genotoksisitet) og fjærkortikosteron (fCORT; mål for fysiologisk stress). Vi observerte at høyere konsentrasjoner av OHC i norske havørnunger var assosiert med lavere LCC, men telomerlengder hos svenske havørnunger viste ingen korrelasjon med OHC-konsentrasjoner. I tillegg ble det ikke identifisert noen koblinger mellom fCORT og OHC-konsentrasjoner hos voksne svenske havørner, til tross for at populasjonen opplevde sterk variasjon i nivåer av OHC-konsentrasjoner gjennom studien. Hos kattugler i Norge observerte vi et positivt forhold mellom fCORT og aluminium og kadmium, sammen med en negativ sammenheng med kvikksølv, noe som antyder at metaller påvirker langsiktig stressfysiologi. Denne avhandlingen viser at visse biomarkører kan relatere til sublethale effekter som skyldes forurensningseksponering hos ville rovfugler. Dessuten utmerker LCC seg som et potensielt nytt verktøy i økotoksikologi for å evaluere forurensningsmedierte effekter. Mens forholdene mellom biomarkører og forurensende stoffer er komplekse og artsspesifikke, kan langsiktige studier bidra til å minimere påvirkningen fra andre miljøstressfaktorer og dermed redusere sjansen for å rapportere tilfeldige sammenhenger. Oppsummert gir biomarkører verdifulle innsikter i potensielle fysiologiske konsekvenser av forurensning hos ville dyr som ikke lett kan studeres i det naturlige miljøet. Vårt pågående fokus bør prioritere søket etter ikke-destruktive og helst ikke-invasive biomarkører, noe som er viktig når man arbeider med beskyttede arter som havørn og kattugle

Supplementation of laying-hen feed with annatto tocotrienols and impact of α-tocopherol on tocotrienol transfer to egg yolk and tocopherol and annatto tocotrienol distribution analysis in laying-hen body

Laying-hens efficiently transfer nutrients from their feed to the resulting eggs, and nutrients from feed are distributed in many organs and tissues for various uses. Annatto is the only known source of tocotrienols (T3s) (gamma-T3 ~10% and delta-T3 ~90%) without alpha-tocopherol present. The T3s have many health benefits including lowering cholesterol. The objective of this research was to study the effect of alpha-tocopherol on the transfer of T3s to eggs and various organs and tissues in the body of the laying-hen. To do so, laying-hens were fed treatment diets for 7 weeks supplemented with annatto T3s in the presence and absence of alpha-tocopherol. The diet regimens were a control diet with not supplementation and three diets with 2000 ppm annatto extract and added alpha-tocopherol at 200 and 1000 ppm. No significant differences were found in egg production or egg yolk properties (moisture content of moisture, lipid, phospholipids, fatty acids, or cholesterol). Significant differences (p\u3c0.05) were found in feed intake, yolk viscosity, sensory yolk flavor and color, and transfer efficiency of tocopherols and T3s to the egg yolks. Alpha-tocopherol was transferred more efficiently (21.19-49.17%) than gamma-T3 (0.50-0.96%) or delta-T3 (0.74-0.93%) to the egg yolks. Addition of 1000 ppm of alpha-tocopherol decreased the transfer of gamma-T3 (by 23.76%) but it did not impact the transfer of delta-T3 to the egg yolk. The addition of annatto T3s did not significantly impact the cholesterol content of the laid eggs. A total of 18 organs or tissues (skin, fat pad, liver and gall bladder, heart, oviduct, forming yolk, laid yolk, lungs, spleen, kidney, pancreas, gizzard, digestive tract, brain, thigh, breast, manure, and blood) were collected after 7 weeks of feeding the diets. Tissue weights, moisture content (except for manure), lipid, alpha-tocopherol, gamma-T3, delta-T3, cholesterol, and fatty acid composition of extracted lipids in the collected organs and tissues (except for blood) were determined. Tissue weights, moisture content, and lipid content did not change significantly with feed supplementation across treatments, except that the liver became heavier with increased supplementation. Minimal changes were found in the fatty acid composition, except in the fat pad, oviduct, brain, and manure. Overall, the main organs that accumulated the supplemented forms of vitamin E were fat pad, liver and gall bladder, oviduct, forming yolks, laid yolks, kidney, brain, thigh, and breast. Much of annatto supplement (gamma-T3 and delta-T3) was detected in the manure (\u3e90%), indicating that most was excreted and not used by the hen. In some tissues (brain and oviduct) a significant increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids was seen with increased supplementation. Alpha-tocopherol impacted the transfer of gamma-T3 to the forming and laid yolks, but did not impact delta-T3 transfer. No significant differences were found in the cholesterol in the liver, kidney, laid yolks, breast meat, oviduct, or thigh meat, except for cholesterol reduction in the heart based on as-is tissue weight. Blood samples showed large variation among individual hens with no significant differences in total cholesterol, HDL, or total triacylglycerols. The results indicate that supplementing hen-laying feed with annatto T3s and alpha-tocopherol can alter the vitamin E profile and its distribution among the laid eggs and laying-hen organ and tissues (especially in the liver and egg yolks). Therefore it is possible to enhance the nutritional profile of the egg to further benefit the consumers and to increase oxidative stability of various organs and tissues

Development and characterization of a potent free fatty acid receptor 1 (FFA1) fluorescent tracer

The free fatty acid receptor 1 (FFA1/GPR40) is a potential target for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Although several potent agonists have been described, there remains a strong need for suitable tracers to interrogate ligand binding to this receptor. We address this by exploring fluorophore-tethering to known potent FFA1 agonists. This led to the development of 4, a high affinity FFA1 tracer with favorable and polarity-dependent fluorescent properties. A close to ideal overlap between the emission spectrum of the NanoLuciferase receptor tag and the excitation spectrum of 4 enabled the establishment of a homogenous BRET-based binding assay suitable for both detailed kinetic studies and high throughput competition binding studies. Using 4 as a tracer demonstrated that the compound acts fully competitively with selected synthetic agonists but not with lauric acid and allowed for the characterization of binding affinities of a diverse selection of known FFA1 agonists, indicating that 4 will be a valuable tool for future studies at FFA1

Promotion and prevention focused feeding strategies: Exploring the effects on healthy and unhealthy child eating

This is an open access article, originally published in BioMed Research International under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.There is a general lack of research addressing the motivations behind parental use of various feeding practices. Therefore, the present work aims to extend the current literature on parent-child feeding interactions by integrating the traditional developmental psychological perspective on feeding practices with elements of Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT) derived from the field of motivational psychology. In this paper, we seek to explain associations between parental feeding practices and child (un)healthy eating behaviors by categorizing parental feeding practices into promotion and prevention focused strategies, thus exploring parent-child feeding interactions within the framework of RFT. Our analyses partly supported the idea that (1) child healthy eating is positively associated with feeding practices characterized as promotion focused, and (2) child unhealthy eating is negatively associated with feeding practices characterized as prevention focused. However, a general observation following from our results suggests that parents’ major driving forces behind reducing children’s consumption of unhealthy food items and increasing their consumption of healthy food items are strategies that motivate rather than restrict. In particular, parents’ provision of a healthy home food environment seems to be essential for child eating

Telephone triage by nurses in primary care out-of-hours services in Norway: an evaluation study based on written case scenarios

Background: The use of nurses for telephone-based triage in out-of-hours services is increasing in several countries. No investigations have been carried out in Norway into the quality of decisions made by nurses regarding our priority degree system. There are three levels: acute, urgent and non-urgent. Methods: Nurses working in seven casualty clinics in out-of-hours districts in Norway (The Watchtowers) were all invited to participate in a study to assess priority grade on 20 written medical scenarios validated by an expert group. 83 nurses (response rate 76%) participated in the study. A one-out-of-five sample of the nurses assessed the same written cases after 3 months (n¼18, response rate 90%) as a testeretest assessment. Results: Among the acute, urgent and non-urgent scenarios, 82%, 74% and 81% were correctly classified according to national guidelines. There were significant differences in the proportion of correct classifications among the casualty clinics, but neither employment percentage nor profession or work experience affected the triage decision. The mean intraobserver variability measured by the Cohen kappa was 0.61 (CI 0.52 to 0.70), and there were significant differences in kappa with employment percentage. Casualty clinics and work experience did not affect intrarater agreement. Conclusion: Correct classification of acute and nonurgent cases among nurses was quite high. Work experience and employment percentage did not affect triage decision. The intrarater agreement was good and about the same as in previous studies performed in other countries. Kappa increased significantly with increasing employment percentage

Understanding of and adherence to advice after telephone counselling by nurse: a survey among callers to a primary emergency out-of-hours service in Norway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To investigate how callers understand the information given by telephone by registered nurses in a casualty clinic, to what degree the advice was followed, and the final outcome of the condition for the patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was conducted at a large out-of-hours inter-municipality casualty clinic in Norway during April and May 2010. Telephone interviews were performed with 100 callers/patients who had received information and advice by a nurse as a sole response. Six topics from the interview guide were compared with the telephone record files to check whether the caller had understood the advice. In addition, questions were asked about how the caller followed the advice provided and the patient's outcome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>99 out of 100 interviewed callers stated that they had understood the nurse's advice, but interpreted from the telephone records, the total agreement for all six topics was 82.6%. 93 callers/patients stated that they followed the advice and 11 re-contacted the casualty clinic. 22 contacted their GP for the same complaints the same week, of whom five patients received medical treatment and one was hospitalised. There were significant difference between the native-Norwegian and the non-native Norwegian regarding whether they trusted the nurse (p = 0.017), and if they got relevant answers to their questions (p = 0.005).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Callers to the out-of-hours service seem to understand the advice given by the registered nurses, and a large majority of the patients did not contact their GP or other health services again with the same complaints.</p> <p>Practice Implication</p> <p>Medical and communicative training must be an important part of the continuous improvement strategy within the out-of-hour services.</p

Telerehabilitation for aphasia – protocol of a pragmatic, exploratory, pilot randomized controlled trial

Background The Cochrane review on the effectiveness of speech and language therapy for aphasia following stroke suggests intensity of therapy is a key predictor for outcome. Current aphasia services cannot provide intervention at the intensity observed within trial contexts because of resource limitations. Telerehabilitation could widen access to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in geographically remote contexts and reduce the time spent on travel by the therapist and patient. The current academic literature within this field is in its infancy, with few trials of speech and language therapy (SLT) delivered by videoconference. Our pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) will explore feasibility aspects and effectiveness of telerehabilitation for aphasia in addition to standard SLT. Method/design Our study is a pragmatic, exploratory, pilot randomized controlled trial, where participants will be randomized to a telerehabilitation group or a control group. Both groups receive standard SLT (usual care) but the telerehabilitation group receives an additional 5 h of telerehabilitation per week over 4 weeks through videoconference. This additional telerehabilitation focuses on spoken language with an emphasis on word naming. We aim to include 40 patients in each group, with inclusion criteria being aphasia any time post stroke. Participants will be assessed blindly at pre-randomization (baseline), and 4 weeks and 4 months after randomization. The primary endpoint is naming ability 3 months after the completed intervention, measured by the Norwegian Basic Aphasia Assessment (NGA) naming subtest. Secondary endpoints include other subtests of the NGA, the VAST (Verb and Sentence Test) subtest sentence production, Communicative Effectiveness Index (CETI) and the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life scale (SAQOL-39). Experiences of patients and SLPs with telerehabilitation are assessed using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Statistical between group comparisons will be in line with an intention-to-treat analysis. Discussion This pilot RCT of intensive language training by videoconference will contribute new scientific evidence to the field of aphasia telerehabilitation. Here, we describe our trial which will explore the feasibility of telerehabilitation for aphasia as an intervention, our choice of primary and secondary outcome measures and proposed analyses. Our trial will provide information for the development and delivery of future definitive RCTs. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02768922 . Registered on 11 May 2016. Last updated on 17 November 2017