Severe postpartum disruption of the pelvic ring: report of two cases and review of the literature

Pelvic dislocations are rare during labor, and the treatment is controversial. We report two cases of young women who sustained postpartum disruption of the pelvic ring: one case is an 8.8 cm wide separation of the pubic symphysis with sacroiliac joint disruption underwent surgical stabilization and the second case with 4.0 cm disruption being treated non-operatively. These cases illustrated of importance of accurate diagnosis, careful physical exam, fully informed consent and specific treatment for this condition

Phosphorus and Potassium Fertilizer Application Strategies in Corn–Soybean Rotations

To determine if current university fertilizer rate and timing recommendations pose a limitation to high-yield corn (Zea mays subsp. mays) and soybean (Glycine max) production, this study compared annual Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K) fertilizer applications to biennial fertilizer applications, applied at 1× and 2× recommended rates in corn–soybean rotations located in Minnesota (MN), Iowa (IA), Michigan (MI), Arkansas (AR), and Louisiana (LA). At locations with either soil test P or K in the sub-optimal range, corn grain yield was significantly increased with fertilizer application at five of sixteen site years, while soybean seed yield was significantly increased with fertilizer application at one of sixteen site years. At locations with both soil test P and K at optimal or greater levels, corn grain yield was significantly increased at three of thirteen site years and soybean seed yield significantly increased at one of fourteen site years when fertilizer was applied. Site soil test values were generally inversely related to the likelihood of a yield response from fertilizer application, which is consistent with yield response frequencies outlined in state fertilizer recommendations. Soybean yields were similar regardless if fertilizer was applied in the year of crop production or before the preceding corn crop. Based on the results of this work across the US and various yield potentials, it was confirmed that the practice of applying P and K fertilizers at recommended rates biennially prior to first year corn production in a corn–soybean rotation does not appear to be a yield limiting factor in modern, high management production systems

Comparison of Six Artificial Diets for Western Corn Rootworm Bioassays and Rearing

The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is considered the most important maize (Zea mays L.) pest in the U.S. Corn Belt. Bioassays testing susceptibility to Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bt) and other toxins of corn rootworm larvae often rely on artificial diet formulations. Successful bioassays on artificial diet for corn rootworm have sometimes been challenging because of microbial contamination. Toward the long-term goal of developing a universal artificial diet for western corn rootworm larvae, we compared larval survival, dry weight, and percentage of molt in 10-d bioassays from six current diets of which we were aware. In addition, as part of longer term rearing efforts, we recorded molting over an extended period of development (60 d). Six different artificial diets, including four proprietary industry diets (A, B, C, and D), the first published artificial diet for western corn rootworm (Pleau), and a new diet (WCRMO-1) were evaluated. Western corn rootworm larval survival was above 90% and contamination was 0% on all diets for 10 d. Diet D resulted in the greatest dry weight and percentage molting when compared with the other diets. Although fourth-instar western corn rootworm larvae have not been documented previously (only three instars have been previously documented), as many as 10% of the larvae from Diet B molted into a fourth instar prior to pupating. Overall, significant differences were found among artificial diets currently used to screen western corn rootworm. In order for data from differing toxins to be compared, a single, reliable and high-quality western corn rootworm artificial diet should eventually be chosen by industry, academia, and the public as a standard for bioassays

The Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH): Psychometric Evaluation and Initial Validation of the SSSH Baseline Spirituality Survey

This paper describes the development and initial psychometric testing of the baseline Spirituality Survey (SS-1) from the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH) which contained a mixture of items selected from validated existing scales and new items generated to measure important constructs not captured by existing instruments. The purpose was to establish the validity of new and existing measures in our racially/ethnically diverse sample. Psychometric properties of the SS-1 were evaluated using standard psychometric analyses in 4,634 SSSH participants. Predictive validity of SS-1 scales was assessed in relation to the physical and mental health component scores from the Short-Form 12 Health Survey (SF-12). Scales exhibited adequate to strong psychometric properties and demonstrated construct and predictive validity. Overall, the correlational findings provide solid evidence that the SS-1 scales are associated with a wide range of relevant R/S attitudes, mental health, and to a lesser degree physical health

Characterisation of retroviruses in the horse genome and their transcriptional activity via transcriptome sequencing

The recently released draft horse genome is incompletely characterised in terms of its repetitive element profile. This paper presents characterisation of the endogenous retrovirus (ERVs) of the horse genome based on a data-mining strategy using murine leukaemia virus proteins as queries. 978 ERV gene sequences were identified. Sequences were identified from the gamma, epsilon and betaretrovirus genera. At least one full length gammaretroviral locus was identified, though the gammaretroviral sequences are very degenerate. Using these data the RNA expression of these ERVs were derived from RNA transcriptome data from a variety of equine tissues. Unlike the well studied human and murine ERVs there do not appear to be particular phylogenetic groups of equine ERVs that are more transcriptionally active. Using this novel approach provided a more technically feasible method to characterise ERV expression than previous studies

Evolutionary properties of the low-luminosity galaxy population in the NGC5044 Group

With this third paper of a series we present Johnson-Gunn B,g,V,r,i,z multicolour photometry for 79 objects, including a significant fraction of the faintest galaxies around NGC5044, assessing group membership on the basis of apparent morphology and low-resolution optical spectroscopy to estimate redshift for 21 objects. Together, dE's and Im's provide the bulk of the galaxy luminosity function, around M(g)\sim-18.0, while the S0 and dSph components dominate, respectively, the bright and faint-end tails of the distribution. This special mix places the NGC 5044 group just "midway" between the high-density cosmic aggregation scale typical of galaxy clusters, and the low-density environment of looser galaxy clumps like our Local Group. The bright mass of the 136 member galaxies with available photometry and morphological classification, amounts to a total of 2.3x10^{12}M_sun while current SFR within the group turns to be about or higher than 23M_sun/yr. In this regard, a drift toward bluer integrated colours is found to be an issue for dE's pointing to a moderate but pervasive star-formation activity even among nominally "quiescent" stellar systems. Through Lick narrow-band index analysis, dwarf ellipticals are found to share a sub-solar metallicity (-1.0 < [Fe/H] <-0.5) with a clear decoupling between Iron and alpha elements, as already established also for high-mass systems. Both dE's and dS0's are consistent with an old age, about one Hubble time, although a possible bias, toward higher values of age, may be induced by the gas emission affecting the Hbeta strength.Comment: 25 pages with 19 figure & 8 tables - To appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (in press) See http://www.bo.astro.it/~eps/buz10602/10602.html for a complete overview of the projec

An abnormal bone marrow microenvironment contributes to hematopoietic dysfunction in Fanconi anemia

Fanconi anemia is a complex heterogeneous genetic disorder with a high incidence of bone marrow failure, clonal evolution to acute myeloid leukemia and mesenchymal-derived congenital anomalies. Increasing evidence in Fanconi anemia and other genetic disorders points towards an interdependence of skeletal and hematopoietic development, yet the impact of the marrow microenvironment in the pathogenesis of the bone marrow failure in Fanconi anemia remains unclear. Here we demonstrated that mice with double knockout of both Fancc and Fancg genes had decreased bone formation at least partially due to impaired osteoblast differentiation from mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells. Mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells from the double knockout mice showed impaired hematopoietic supportive activity. Mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells of patients with Fanconi anemia exhibited similar cellular deficits, including increased senescence, reduced proliferation, impaired osteoblast differentiation and defective hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell supportive activity. Collectively, these studies provide unique insights into the physiological significance of mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells in supporting the marrow microenvironment, which is potentially of broad relevance in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

Positional variations among heterogeneous nucleosome maps give dynamical information on chromatin

Although nucleosome remodeling is essential to transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes, little is known about its genome-wide behavior. Since a number of nucleosome positioning maps in vivo have been recently determined, we examined if their comparisons might be used for obtaining a genome-wide profile of nucleosome remodeling. Using seven yeast maps, the local variability of nucleosomes, measured by the entropy, was significantly higher in a set of reported unstable nucleosomes. The binding sites of four transcription factors, known as the remodeling factors, were distinctively high both in entropy and linker ratio, whereas those of Yhp1, their potential inhibitor, showed the lowest values in both of them. Taken together, our map shows the general information of nucleosome dynamics reasonably well. The “nucleosome dynamics” map provides the new significant correlation with the degree of expression variety instead of their intensity. Furthermore, the associations with gene function and histone modification were also discussed here