0-6839: Designing Pavements to Support the Heavy Loads in the Energy Development Areas

0-6839In recent years, rapid energy development in Texas has caused significant damage to many farm-to-market (FM) roads, which traditionally have a thin asphalt surface layer plus a stabilized base directly over the subgrade. These roadways were often rehabilitated with full-depth reclamation (FDR), and often 2 to 3 percent cement was added to the pulverized existing materials. These roadways performed well under normal traffic loads but failed dramatically under the energy-sector truck loads. Figure 1 shows the damaged FM roads. The impact of overloading traffic on pavement damage is not only limited to FM roads; it also has significant influence on the pavement life of state highways and even interstate highways. There is an urgent need to repair many of these badly damaged roadways in all energy development areas

Current status of 5α-reductase inhibitors in the management of lower urinary tract symptoms and BPH

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a progressive disease that is commonly associated with bothersome lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and might result in complications, such as acute urinary retention and BPH-related surgery. Therefore, the goals of therapy for BPH are not only to improve LUTS in terms of symptoms and urinary flow, but also to identify those patients at a risk of unfavorable disease progression and to optimize their management. This article reviews the current status of therapy with 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors (5ARIs), namely fiasteride and dutasteride, for men with LUTS and BPH. Data from key randomized controlled trials (Oxford level 1b) on the use of 5ARIs are analyzed. The efficacy of 5ARIs either as monotherapy or in combination with alpha(1)-adrenoceptor antagonists in the management of LUTS and the impact of monotherapy and combined therapy on BPH progression are discussed. Further promises, including the withdrawal of the alpha-blocker from the combined medical treatment and the potential clinical implications from the use of 5ARIs for prostate cancer chemoprevention in patients receiving 5ARIs for symptomatic BPH are highlighted. Current evidence shows that 5ARIs are effective in treating LUTS and preventing disease progression and represent a recommended option in treatment guidelines for men who have moderate to severe LUTS and enlarged prostates

High-quality habitat and facilitation ameliorate competitive effects of prior residents on new settlers

Many species disperse during their lifetime. Two factors that can affect the performance of individuals following dispersal are the presence of conspecifics and intrinsic habitat quality at the settlement site. Detecting the influence of these factors can be difficult for at least two reasons: (1) the outcomes of interactions with conspecifics are often variable including both competition and facilitation, and (2) selection of high quality habitats often leads to positive covariance between habitat quality and density. In this study, I investigate positive and negative effects of resident blue streak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) on the growth and survival of recently settled conspecifics while accounting for habitat quality. Juvenile L. dimidiatus settle near adult conspecifics, but likely have to compete with resident adults for access to food. However, field experiments indicate that settlers have access to more resources at occupied sites, and as a result, grow faster despite evidence for competition with residents. This result is a direct consequence of two factors: (1) resident conspecifics facilitate settlers by attracting client fish, and (2) resident conspecifics are strongly associated with high quality habitat. These results highlight the need to simultaneously consider habitat quality and competitive and facilitative interactions between conspecifics when making inferences about ecological processes from spatial patterns of individual performance

Three-dimensional holographic optical manipulation through a high-numerical-aperture soft-glass multimode fibre

Holographic optical tweezers (HOT) hold great promise for many applications in biophotonics, allowing the creation and measurement of minuscule forces on biomolecules, molecular motors and cells. Geometries used in HOT currently rely on bulk optics, and their exploitation in vivo is compromised by the optically turbid nature of tissues. We present an alternative HOT approach in which multiple three-dimensional (3D) traps are introduced through a high-numerical-aperture multimode optical fibre, thus enabling an equally versatile means of manipulation through channels having cross-section comparable to the size of a single cell. Our work demonstrates real-time manipulation of 3D arrangements of micro-objects, as well as manipulation inside otherwise inaccessible cavities. We show that the traps can be formed over fibre lengths exceeding 100 mm and positioned with nanometric resolution. The results provide the basis for holographic manipulation and other high-numerical-aperture techniques, including advanced microscopy, through single-core-fibre endoscopes deep inside living tissues and other complex environments

The significance of the complement system for the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration — current evidence and translation into clinical application

BACKGROUND: Dysregulation of the complement system has been shown to play a major role in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: The current evidence from human studies derives from immunohistochemical and proteomic studies in donor eyes, genetic association studies, and studies of blood complement protein levels. These lines of evidence are corroborated by in vitro and animal studies. RESULTS: In AMD donor eyes, detection of complement proteins in drusen suggested local inflammatory processes involving the complement system. Moreover, higher levels of complement proteins in the Bruch's membrane/choroid complex could be detected in AMD donor eyes compared to controls. A large number of independent genetic studies have consistently confirmed the association of AMD with risk or protective variants in genes coding for complement proteins, including complement factor H (CFH), CFH-related proteins 1 and 3, factor B/C2, C3 and factor I. Another set of independent studies detected increased levels of complement activation products in plasma of AMD patients, suggesting that AMD may be a systemic disease and the macula a vulnerable anatomic site of minimal resistance to complement activation. Genotype-phenotype correlations, including the impact of genetic variants on disease progression, gene-environment and pharmacogenetic interactions, have been investigated. There is evidence that complement gene variants may be associated with the progression from early to late forms of AMD, whereas they do not appear to play a significant role when late atrophic AMD has already developed. There are indications for an interaction between genetic variants and supplementation and dietary factors. Also, there is some evidence that variants in the CFH gene influence treatment effects in patients with neovascular AMD. CONCLUSIONS: Such data suggest that the complement system may have a significant role for developing new prophylactic and therapeutic interventions in AMD. In fact, several compounds acting on the complement pathway are currently in clinical trials. Therapeutics that modulate the complement system need to balance inhibition with preservation of sufficient functional activity in order to maintain adequate immune responses and tissue homeostasis. Specifically, targeting the dysfunction appears more adequate than a global suppression of complement activation in chronic diseases such as AMD

Transglutaminase 2 at the Crossroads between Cell Death and Survival

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Role of DNA methylation in head and neck cancer

Head and neck cancer (HNC) is a heterogenous and complex entity including diverse anatomical sites and a variety of tumor types displaying unique characteristics and different etilogies. Both environmental and genetic factors play a role in the development of the disease, but the underlying mechanism is still far from clear. Previous studies suggest that alterations in the genes acting in cellular signal pathways may contribute to head and neck carcinogenesis. In cancer, DNA methylation patterns display specific aberrations even in the early and precancerous stages and may confer susceptibility to further genetic or epigenetic changes. Silencing of the genes by hypermethylation or induction of oncogenes by promoter hypomethylation are frequent mechanisms in different types of cancer and achieve increasing diagnostic and therapeutic importance since the changes are reversible. Therefore, methylation analysis may provide promising clinical applications, including the development of new biomarkers and prediction of the therapeutic response or prognosis. In this review, we aimed to analyze the available information indicating a role for the epigenetic changes in HNC

Phenotypic continuum of NFU1-related disorders.

Bi-allelic variants in Iron-Sulfur Cluster Scaffold (NFU1) have previously been associated with multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome 1 (MMDS1) characterized by early-onset rapidly fatal leukoencephalopathy. We report 19 affected individuals from 10 independent families with ultra-rare bi-allelic NFU1 missense variants associated with a spectrum of early-onset pure to complex hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) phenotype with a longer survival (16/19) on one end and neurodevelopmental delay with severe hypotonia (3/19) on the other. Reversible or irreversible neurological decompensation after a febrile illness was common in the cohort, and there were invariable white matter abnormalities on neuroimaging. The study suggests that MMDS1 and HSP could be the two ends of the NFU1-related phenotypic continuum