The Influence of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Supplements on the Composition of the Ruminal Ingesta of Sheep Grazing Desert Range Forage

Approximately 46 million acres or 88 per cent of the land area of the state of Utah has been classified by Reuss and Blanch (1951) as range land open for grazing. Although some of this area cannot be grazed because of inaccessibility, lack of water, poison plants, and similar factors, it is estimated that some 40 million acres or 78 per cent of the total land area is available for grazing. Most of this grazing land is federally owned (73 per cent), while only 22 per cent is privately held, and 5 per cent is state owned

Fatigue testing a plurality of test specimens and method

Described is a fatigue testing apparatus for simultaneously subjecting a plurality of material test specimens to cyclical tension loading to determine the fatigue strength of the material. The fatigue testing apparatus includes a pulling head having cylinders defined therein which carry reciprocating pistons. The reciprocation of the pistons is determined by cyclical supplies of pressurized fluid to the cylinders. Piston rods extend from the pistons through the pulling head and are attachable to one end of the test specimens, the other end of the test specimens being attachable to a fixed base, causing test specimens attached between the piston rods and the base to be subjected to cyclical tension loading. Because all the cylinders share a common pressurized fluid supply, the breaking of a test specimen does not substantially affect the pressure of the fluid supplied to the other cylinders nor the tension applied to the other test specimens

cAMP Increases Density of ENaC Subunits in the Apical Membrane of MDCK Cells in Direct Proportion to Amiloride-sensitive Na+ Transport

Antidiuretic hormone and/or cAMP increase Na+ transport in the rat renal collecting duct and similar epithelia, including Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell monolayers grown in culture. This study was undertaken to determine if that increment in Na+ transport could be explained quantitatively by an increased density of ENaC Na+ channels in the apical membrane. MDCK cells with no endogenous ENaC expression were retrovirally transfected with rat α-, β-, and γENaC subunits, each of which were labeled with the FLAG epitope in their extracellular loop as described previously (Firsov, D., L. Schild, I. Gautschi, A.-M. Mérillat, E. Schneeberger, and B.C. Rossier. 1996. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 93:15370–15375). The density of ENaC subunits was quantified by specific binding of 125I-labeled anti-FLAG antibody (M2) to the apical membrane, which was found to be a saturable function of M2 concentration with half-maximal binding at 4–8 nM. Transepithelial Na+ transport was measured as the amiloride-sensitive short-circuit current (AS-Isc) across MDCK cells grown on permeable supports. Specific M2 binding was positively correlated with AS-Isc measured in the same experiments. Stimulation with cAMP (20 μM 8-p-chlorothio-cAMP plus 200 μM IBMX) significantly increased AS-Isc from 11.2 ± 1.3 to 18.1 ± 1.3 μA/cm2. M2 binding (at 1.7 nM M2) increased in direct proportion to AS-Isc from 0.62 ± 0.13 to 1.16 ± 0.18 fmol/cm2. Based on the concentration dependence of M2 binding, the quantity of Na+ channels per unit of AS-Isc was calculated to be the same in the presence and absence of cAMP, 0.23 ± 0.04 and 0.21 ±0.05 fmol/μA, respectively. These values would be consistent with a single channel conductance of ∼5 pS (typically reported for ENaC channels) only if the open probability is <0.02, i.e., less than one-tenth of the typical value. We interpret the proportional increases in binding and AS-Isc to indicate that the increased density of ENaC subunits in the apical membrane can account completely for the Isc increase produced by cAMP

Allosteric activation of the nitric oxide receptor soluble guanylate cyclase mapped by cryo-electron microscopy.

Soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) is the primary receptor for nitric oxide (NO) in mammalian nitric oxide signaling. We determined structures of full-length Manduca sexta sGC in both inactive and active states using cryo-electron microscopy. NO and the sGC-specific stimulator YC-1 induce a 71° rotation of the heme-binding β H-NOX and PAS domains. Repositioning of the β H-NOX domain leads to a straightening of the coiled-coil domains, which, in turn, use the motion to move the catalytic domains into an active conformation. YC-1 binds directly between the β H-NOX domain and the two CC domains. The structural elongation of the particle observed in cryo-EM was corroborated in solution using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). These structures delineate the endpoints of the allosteric transition responsible for the major cyclic GMP-dependent physiological effects of NO

Individual Nurse Productivity in Preparing Patients for Discharge Is Associated with Patient Likelihood of 30-Day Return to Hospital

Objective: Applied to value-based health care, the economic term “individual productivity” refers to the quality of an outcome attributable through a care process to an individual clinician. This study aimed to (1) estimate and describe the discharge preparation productivities of individual acute care nurses and (2) examine the association between the discharge preparation productivity of the discharging nurse and the patient’s likelihood of a 30-day return to hospital [readmission and emergency department (ED) visits]. Research Design: Secondary analysis of patient-nurse data from a cluster-randomized multisite study of patient discharge readiness and readmission. Patients reported discharge readiness scores; postdischarge outcomes and other variables were extracted from electronic health records. Using the structure-process-outcomes model, we viewed patient readiness for hospital discharge as a proximal outcome of the discharge preparation process and used it to measure nurse productivity in discharge preparation. We viewed hospital return as a distal outcome sensitive to discharge preparation care. Multilevel regression analyses used a split-sample approach and adjusted for patient characteristics. Subjects: A total 522 nurses and 29,986 adult (18+ y) patients discharged to home from 31 geographically diverse medical-surgical units between June 15, 2015 and November 30, 2016. Measures: Patient discharge readiness was measured using the 8-item short form of Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale (RHDS). A 30-day hospital return was a categorical variable for an inpatient readmission or an ED visit, versus no hospital return. Results: Variability in individual nurse productivity explained 9.07% of variance in patient discharge readiness scores. Nurse productivity was negatively associated with the likelihood of a readmission (−0.48 absolute percentage points, P\u3c0.001) and an ED visit (−0.29 absolute percentage points, P=0.042). Conclusions: Variability in individual clinician productivity can have implications for acute care quality patient outcomes

Activation in the COMPTEL double-scattering gamma-ray telescope

Abstract-The COMPTEL gamma-ray telescope has been operating in low Earth orbit for six years, since the launch of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in April 1991. Comparisons of data for different orbits and epochs show evidence of activation on time scales from minutes (27Mg, q,2=9.5 min) to years C2Na, q&.58 yr). The activation is correlated with both the orbital altitude and solar cosmic-ray modulation. Because it requires coincident measurements in two different detectors, COMPTEL is most susceptible to instrumental background events in which two or more photons are produced simultaneously

Urban challenges to food and nutrition security

This review of recent literature explores the urban face of food and nutrition security in a more comprehensive, integrated way than most previous efforts. The review is organized around a conceptual framework that identifies food insecurity, inadequate caring behaviors, and poor health as the primary causes of malnutrition. It discusses current knowledge in eight areas that require the special attention of policymakers, development practitioners, and program administrators who wish to improve urban food and nutrition security: the sources and cost of food; incomes and employment; urban agriculture; urban diets; child caregiving practices; childhood mortality, morbidity, and malnutrition; health and environment; and social assistance programs, or safety nets. The review also reports on the magnitude of rural-urban and intra-urban health differences in mortality, morbidity, and malnutrition. In conclusion, the review indicates which policy issues and knowledge gaps remain for future research to address.Urban health. ,Urban poor Services for. ,Food security. ,Malnutrition. ,Child care. ,

Proglacial erosion rates and processes in a glacierized catchment in the Swiss Alps

In the Swiss Alps, climatic changes have not only caused glacier retreat, but also likely increased sedimentation downstream of glaciers. This material either originates from below the glacier or from periglacial environments, which are exposed as glaciers retreat, and often consist of easily erodible sediment. Griesgletscher's catchment in the Swiss Alps was examined to quantify erosion in the proglacial area, possible hydrological drivers and contributions of the sub- and periglacial sources. Digital elevation models, created from annual aerial photographs, were subtracted to determine annual volume changes in the proglacial area from 1986 to 2014. These data show a strong increase in proglacial erosion in the decade prior to 2012, coincident with increasing proglacial area size. However, examination of the gradient between discharge and sediment evacuation, and modeled sediment transport, could suggest that the proglacial area began to stabilize and sediment supply is limited. The large influx of sediment into the proglacial reservoir, which is roughly 2.5 times greater than the amount of sediment eroded from the proglacial area, demonstrates the importance of subglacial erosion to the catchment's sediment budget. Although far more sediment originates subglacially, erosion rates in the proglacial area are over 50 times greater than the rest of the catchment. In turn, both sub- and periglacial processes, in addition to constraining sediment supply, must be considered for assessing future sediment dynamics as glacier area shrinks and proglacial areas grow

Human central nervous system (CNS) ApoE isoforms are increased by age, differentially altered by amyloidosis, and relative amounts reversed in the CNS compared with plasma

The risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is highly dependent on apolipoprotein-E (apoE) genotype. The reasons for apoE isoform-selective risk are uncertain; however, both the amounts and structure of human apoE isoforms have been hypothesized to lead to amyloidosis increasing the risk for AD. To address the hypothesis that amounts of apoE isoforms are different in the human CNS, we developed a novel isoform-specific method to accurately quantify apoE isoforms in clinically relevant samples. The method utilizes an antibody-free enrichment step and isotope-labeled physiologically relevant lipoprotein particle standards produced by immortalized astrocytes. We applied this method to a cohort of well characterized clinical samples and observed the following findings. The apoE isoform amounts are not different in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from young normal controls, suggesting that the amount of apoE isoforms is not the reason for risk of amyloidosis prior to the onset of advanced age. We did, however, observe an age-related increase in both apoE isoforms. In contrast to normal aging, the presence of amyloid increased apoE3, whereas apoE4 was unchanged or decreased. Importantly, for heterozygotes, the apoE4/apoE3 isoform ratio was increased in the CNS, although the reverse was true in the periphery. Finally, CSF apoE levels, but not plasma apoE levels, correlated with CSF β-amyloid levels. Collectively, these findings support the hypothesis that CNS and peripheral apoE are separate pools and differentially regulated. Furthermore, these results suggest that apoE mechanisms for the risk of amyloidosis and AD are related to an interaction between apoE, aging, and the amount of amyloid burden