Micronucleus test and comet assay in erythrocytes of the Amazonian electric fish Apteronotus bonapartii exposed to benzene

In this study we address the genotoxicity and putative mutagenic effects of benzene (BZN) in the erythrocytes of the electric fish Apteronotus bonapartii (Gymnotiformes, Apteronotidae) using the micronucleus test (MN) and comet assay, under controlled laboratory conditions. Electric fish were collected in the Solimões River, Manaus-AM, Brazil, and the specimens were exposed to 10 and 25 ppm concentrations of BZN, in 150L tanks. Blood samples were collected at 0 (T0), 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours of exposure. For the concentration of 10 ppm BZN, the number of comets was significantly higher than T0 levels after exposure of 48 hours, whereas the nuclear abnormalities (including MN) did not show any increase in relation to the controls (T0) up to 96 hours. For the 25 ppm BZN, MN rates presented a significant increase after 72 hours, whereas other types of nuclear abnormalities increased in frequency after various exposure times, ranging from 24 to 72 hours. The number of comets increased significantly from 24 hours onwards for 25 ppm BZN. Both assays also showed a gradual increase in the number of damaged cells after longer exposure periods, indicating a time-dependent effect, especially at the highest BZN concentrations tested. This investigation reinforces the potential use of the endemic South American electric fish as a suitable genotoxicity biological model for biomonitoring purposes in the Amazon. Keywords: Comet assay, Micronucleus test, Apteronotus bonapartii, Benzene, Biomonitoring, Electric fish, Amazo

High throughput optical readout of dense arrays of nanomechanical systems for sensing applications

N. F. Martínez et al...We present an instrument based on the scanning of a laser beam and the measurement of the reflected beam deflection that enables the readout of arrays of nanomechanical systems without limitation in the geometry of the sample, with high sensitivity and a spatial resolution of few micrometers. The measurement of nanoscale deformations on surfaces of cm2 is performed automatically, with minimal need of user intervention for optical alignment. To exploit the capability of the instrument for high throughput biological and chemical sensing, we have designed and fabricated a two-dimensional array of 128 cantilevers. As a proof of concept, we measure the nanometer-scale bending of the 128 cantilevers, previously coated with a thin gold layer, induced by the adsorption and self-assembly on the gold surface of several self-assembled monolayers. The instrument is able to provide the static and dynamic responses of cantilevers with subnanometer resolution and at a rate of up to ten cantilevers per second. The instrumentation and the fabricated chip enable applications for the analysis of complex biological systems and for artificial olfaction.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Science Ministry through Project Nos. TEC2009– 14517-C02, TRA2009–0117, and CSD2007–00010.Peer reviewe

Broadband matched-field processing: coherent and incoherent approaches

Matched-field based methods always involve the comparison of the output of a physical model and the actual data. The method of comparison and the nature of the data varies according to the problem at hand, but the result becomes always largely conditioned by the accurateness of the physical model and the amount of data available. The usage of broadband methods has become a widely used approach to increase the amount of data and to stabilize the estimation process. Due to the difficulties to accurately predict the phase of the acoustic field the problem whether the information should be coherently or incoherently combined across frequency has been an open debate in the last years. This paper provides a data consistent model for the observed signal, formed by a deterministic channel structure multiplied by a perturbation random factor plus noise. The cross-frequency channel structure and the decorrelation of the perturbation random factor are shown to be the main causes of processor performance degradation. Different Bartlett processors, such as the incoherent processor [Baggeroer et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 80, 571-587 (1988)], the coherent normalized processor [Z.-H. Michalopoulou, IEEE J. Ocean Eng. 21, 384-392 (1996)] and the matched-phase processor [Orris et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 2563-2375 (2000)], are reviewed and compared to the proposed cross-frequency incoherent processor. It is analytically shown that the proposed processor has the same performance as the matched-phase processor at the maximum of the ambiguity surface, without the need for estimating the phase terms and thus having an extremely low computational cost. (C) 2003 Acoustical Society of America

A Robust Adaptive Solution Strategy for High-Order Implicit CFD Solvers

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90694/1/AIAA-2011-3696-676.pd

Особенности дизайн - проектирования модульной энергоэффективной теплицы с использованием адаптивных излучательных установок

Работа посвящена разработке системе дизайн-проектирования энергоэффективных объектов на примере тепличного комплекса для круглогодичного выращивания культур в экстремальных условиях.The work is devoted to the development of a system for designing energy-efficient objects on the example of a greenhouse complex for year-round cultivation of crops in extreme conditions

Posttreatment Ischemic Lesion Evolution Is Associated With Reduced Favorable Functional Outcome in Patients With Stroke

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ischemic lesion volume can increase even 24 hours after onset of an acute ischemic stroke. In this study, we investigated the association of lesion evolution with functional outcome and the influence of successful recanalization on this association. METHODS: We included patients from the MR CLEAN trial (Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Netherlands) who received good quality noncontrast CT images 24 hours and 1 week after stroke onset. The ischemic lesion delineations included infarct, edema, and hemorrhagic transformation. Lesion evolution was defined as the difference between the volumes measured on the 1-week and 24-hour noncontrast CTs. The association of lesion evolution with functional outcome was evaluated using unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression. Adjustments were made for baseline, clinical, and imaging parameters that were associated P<0.10) in univariate analysis with favorable functional outcome, defined as modified Rankin Scale score of ≤2. Interaction analysis was performed to evaluate the influence of successful recanalization, defined as modified Arterial Occlusion Lesion score of 3 points, on this association. RESULTS: Of the 226 patients who were included, 69 (31%) patients achieved the favorable functional outcome. Median lesion evolution was 22 (interquartile range, 10–45) mL. Lesion evolution was significantly inversely correlated with favourable functional outcome: unadjusted odds ratio, 0.76 (95% CI, 0.66–0.86; per 10 mL of lesion evolution; P<0.01) and adjusted odds ratio: 0.85 (95% CI, 0.72–0.97; per 10 mL of lesion evolution; P=0.03). There was no significant interaction of successful recanalization on the association of lesion evolution and favorable functional outcome (odds ratio, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.77–1.36]; P=0.94). CONCLUSIONS: In our population, subacute ischemic lesion evolution is associated with unfavorable functional outcome. This study suggests that even 24 hours after onset of stroke, deterioration of the brain continues, which has a negative effect on functional outcome. This finding may warrant additional treatment in the subacute phase

Distractors associated with reward break through the focus of attention

In the present study, we investigated the conditions in which rewarded distractors have the ability to capture attention, even when attention is directed toward the target location. Experiment 1 showed that when the probability of obtaining reward was high, all salient distractors captured attention, even when they were not associated with reward. This effect may have been caused by participants suboptimally using the 100%-valid endogenous location cue. Experiment 2 confirmed this result by showing that salient distractors did not capture attention in a block in which no reward was expected. In Experiment 3, the probability of the presence of a distractor was high, but it only signaled reward availability on a low number of trials. The results showed that those very infrequent distractors that signaled reward captured attention, whereas the distractors (both frequent and infrequent ones) not associated with reward were simply ignored. The latter experiment indicates that even when attention is directed to a location in space, stimuli associated with reward break through the focus of attention, but equally salient stimuli not associated with reward do not