1,722 research outputs found
Postoperative complications associated with external skeletal fixators in cats
OBJECTIVES:
The objective of this study was to quantify complications associated with external skeletal fixators (ESFs) in cats and to identify potential risk factors.
METHODS:
A retrospective review of medical records and radiographs following ESF placement was performed.
RESULTS:
Case records of 140 cats were reviewed; fixator-associated complications (FACs) occurred in 19% of cats. The region of ESF placement was significantly associated with complication development. Complications developed most frequently in the femur (50%), tarsus (35%) and radius/ulna (33%). Superficial pin tract infection (SPTI) and implant failure accounted for 45% and 41% of all FACs, respectively. SPTI occurred more frequently in the femur, humerus and tibia, with implant failure more frequent in the tarsus. No association between breed, age, sex, weight, fracture type (open vs closed), ESF classification, number of pins per bone segment, degree of fracture load sharing, and the incidence or type of FAC was identified. No association between region of placement, breed, age, sex, weight, fracture type (open vs closed), ESF classification, number of pins per bone segment, fracture load sharing and the time to complication development was identified.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:
Complication development is not uncommon in cats following ESF placement. The higher complication rate in the femur, tarsus and radius/ulna should be considered when reviewing options for fracture management. However, cats appear to have a lower rate of pin tract infections than dogs
Genetic variations in GBA1 and LRRK2 genes: Biochemical and clinical consequences in Parkinson disease
Variants in the GBA1 and LRRK2 genes are the most common genetic risk factors associated with Parkinson disease (PD). Both genes are associated with lysosomal and autophagic pathways, with the GBA1 gene encoding for the lysosomal enzyme, glucocerebrosidase (GCase) and the LRRK2 gene encoding for the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 enzyme. GBA1-associated PD is characterized by earlier age at onset and more severe non-motor symptoms compared to sporadic PD. Mutations in the GBA1 gene can be stratified into severe, mild and risk variants depending on the clinical presentation of disease. Both a loss- and gain- of function hypothesis has been proposed for GBA1 variants and the functional consequences associated with each variant is often linked to mutation severity. On the other hand, LRRK2-associated PD is similar to sporadic PD, but with a more benign disease course. Mutations in the LRRK2 gene occur in several structural domains and affect phosphorylation of GTPases. Biochemical studies suggest a possible convergence of GBA1 and LRRK2 pathways, with double mutant carriers showing a milder phenotype compared to GBA1-associated PD. This review compares GBA1 and LRRK2-associated PD, and highlights possible genotype-phenotype associations for GBA1 and LRRK2 separately, based on biochemical consequences of single variants
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Understanding the direct and indirect mechanisms of xylanase action on starch digestion in broilers
The objective of the current study was to investigate the mechanisms of xylanase action in a maize-soya diet and its effect on starch digestion. A total of 60 broilers were divided into 6 treatment groups; a control group without xylanase, and five other groups supplemented with xylanase (Econase XT 25; 100 g/t) from 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 weeks before slaughter. At the end of the experiment, digesta was collected from the gizzard, upper and lower small intestine, and both caeca. Digesta pH ranged from pH 2.2-4.4, 5.9-6.6, 6.7-7.8 and 5.7-7.3 in the gizzard, upper small intestine, lower small intestine, and both caeca, respectively, with no effect of xylanase (P > 0.05). Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images along with total starch measurements showed the progression of starch digestion through the tract. The SEM did not show any greater disruption to cell wall material with xylanase supplementation. This suggests that xylanase was not working directly on the cell wall and provides evidence for the hypothesis that xylanase works through an indirect mechanism. Peptide YY (PYY) concentration in the blood was higher during the first few weeks of supplementation, with longer periods of supplementation nulling this effect, implying that xylanase may be acting through a prebiotic mechanism. The RT-q PCR results revealed a numerical increase in glucose transporter (GLUT2 and SGLT1) expression at 2 and 3 weeks of xylanase supplementation, respectively, which might suggest a greater absorption capacity of birds. From these results, a potential mechanism of xylanase action in maize-based diets has been proposed
D-SPACE4Cloud: A Design Tool for Big Data Applications
The last years have seen a steep rise in data generation worldwide, with the
development and widespread adoption of several software projects targeting the
Big Data paradigm. Many companies currently engage in Big Data analytics as
part of their core business activities, nonetheless there are no tools and
techniques to support the design of the underlying hardware configuration
backing such systems. In particular, the focus in this report is set on Cloud
deployed clusters, which represent a cost-effective alternative to on premises
installations. We propose a novel tool implementing a battery of optimization
and prediction techniques integrated so as to efficiently assess several
alternative resource configurations, in order to determine the minimum cost
cluster deployment satisfying QoS constraints. Further, the experimental
campaign conducted on real systems shows the validity and relevance of the
proposed method
A Large Scale Double Beta and Dark Matter Experiment: GENIUS
The recent results from the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW experiment have demonstrated
the large potential of double beta decay to search for new physics beyond the
Standard Model. To increase by a major step the present sensitivity for double
beta decay and dark matter search much bigger source strengths and much lower
backgrounds are needed than used in experiments under operation at present or
under construction. We present here a study of a project proposed recently,
which would operate one ton of 'naked' enriched GErmanium-detectors in liquid
NItrogen as shielding in an Underground Setup (GENIUS). It improves the
sensitivity to neutrino masses to 0.01 eV. A ten ton version would probe
neutrino masses even down to 10^-3 eV. The first version would allow to test
the atmospheric neutrino problem, the second at least part of the solar
neutrino problem. Both versions would allow in addition significant
contributions to testing several classes of GUT models. These are especially
tests of R-parity breaking supersymmetry models, leptoquark masses and
mechanism and right-handed W-boson masses comparable to LHC. The second issue
of the experiment is the search for dark matter in the universe. The entire
MSSM parameter space for prediction of neutralinos as dark matter particles
could be covered already in a first step of the full experiment - with the same
purity requirements but using only 100 kg of 76Ge or even of natural Ge -
making the experiment competitive to LHC in the search for supersymmetry.
The layout of the proposed experiment is discussed and the shielding and
purity requirements are studied using GEANT Monte Carlo simulations. As a
demonstration of the feasibility of the experiment first results of operating a
'naked' Ge detector in liquid nitrogen are presented.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, see also
http://pluto.mpi-hd.mpg.de/~betalit/genius.htm
Stellar spectroscopy: Fermions and holographic Lifshitz criticality
Electron stars are fluids of charged fermions in Anti-de Sitter spacetime.
They are candidate holographic duals for gauge theories at finite charge
density and exhibit emergent Lifshitz scaling at low energies. This paper
computes in detail the field theory Green's function G^R(w,k) of the
gauge-invariant fermionic operators making up the star. The Green's function
contains a large number of closely spaced Fermi surfaces, the volumes of which
add up to the total charge density in accordance with the Luttinger count.
Excitations of the Fermi surfaces are long lived for w <~ k^z. Beyond w ~ k^z
the fermionic quasiparticles dissipate strongly into the critical Lifshitz
sector. Fermions near this critical dispersion relation give interesting
contributions to the optical conductivity.Comment: 38 pages + appendices. 9 figure
Direct observation of incommensurate magnetism in Hubbard chains
The interplay between magnetism and doping is at the origin of exotic
strongly correlated electronic phases and can lead to novel forms of magnetic
ordering. One example is the emergence of incommensurate spin-density waves
with a wave vector that does not match the reciprocal lattice. In one dimension
this effect is a hallmark of Luttinger liquid theory, which also describes the
low energy physics of the Hubbard model. Here we use a quantum simulator based
on ultracold fermions in an optical lattice to directly observe such
incommensurate spin correlations in doped and spin-imbalanced Hubbard chains
using fully spin and density resolved quantum gas microscopy. Doping is found
to induce a linear change of the spin-density wave vector in excellent
agreement with Luttinger theory predictions. For non-zero polarization we
observe a decrease of the wave vector with magnetization as expected from the
Heisenberg model in a magnetic field. We trace the microscopic origin of these
incommensurate correlations to holes, doublons and excess spins which act as
delocalized domain walls for the antiferromagnetic order. Finally, when
inducing interchain coupling we observe fundamentally different spin
correlations around doublons indicating the formation of a magnetic polaron
Polycation-Ï€ Interactions Are a Driving Force for Molecular Recognition by an Intrinsically Disordered Oncoprotein Family
Molecular recognition by intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) commonly involves specific localized contacts and target-induced disorder to order transitions. However, some IDPs remain disordered in the bound state, a phenomenon coined "fuzziness", often characterized by IDP polyvalency, sequence-insensitivity and a dynamic ensemble of disordered bound-state conformations. Besides the above general features, specific biophysical models for fuzzy interactions are mostly lacking. The transcriptional activation domain of the Ewing's Sarcoma oncoprotein family (EAD) is an IDP that exhibits many features of fuzziness, with multiple EAD aromatic side chains driving molecular recognition. Considering the prevalent role of cation-π interactions at various protein-protein interfaces, we hypothesized that EAD-target binding involves polycation- π contacts between a disordered EAD and basic residues on the target. Herein we evaluated the polycation-π hypothesis via functional and theoretical interrogation of EAD variants. The experimental effects of a range of EAD sequence variations, including aromatic number, aromatic density and charge perturbations, all support the cation-π model. Moreover, the activity trends observed are well captured by a coarse-grained EAD chain model and a corresponding analytical model based on interaction between EAD aromatics and surface cations of a generic globular target. EAD-target binding, in the context of pathological Ewing's Sarcoma oncoproteins, is thus seen to be driven by a balance between EAD conformational entropy and favorable EAD-target cation-π contacts. Such a highly versatile mode of molecular recognition offers a general conceptual framework for promiscuous target recognition by polyvalent IDPs. © 2013 Song et al
Constraining New Physics with a Positive or Negative Signal of Neutrino-less Double Beta Decay
We investigate numerically how accurately one could constrain the strengths
of different short-range contributions to neutrino-less double beta decay in
effective field theory. Depending on the outcome of near-future experiments
yielding information on the neutrino masses, the corresponding bounds or
estimates can be stronger or weaker. A particularly interesting case, resulting
in strong bounds, would be a positive signal of neutrino-less double beta decay
that is consistent with complementary information from neutrino oscillation
experiments, kinematical determinations of the neutrino mass, and measurements
of the sum of light neutrino masses from cosmological observations. The keys to
more robust bounds are improvements of the knowledge of the nuclear physics
involved and a better experimental accuracy.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes. Matches version published in JHE
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