Effect of Heat on Canines and Felines

Exposure of dogs and cats to high environmental temperatures may have serious and often fatal consequences. This article will briefly discuss the harmful effects of heat, known as heat stress (heat strokes, hyperpyrexia, sun stroke), which is characterized by acute onset, high body temperature, and collapse

A diagnosis of low-order dynamics in the atmosphere of Mars

Introduction: There is considerable evidence that shows that the Martian atmosphere behaves in a more regular fashion than its terrestrial counterpart [1, 2, 3, 4]. This evidence leads to the hypothesis of theMartian climate attractor being of a relatively low dimension, which, in turn, would imply the possibility of describing the state of the atmosphere by means of a relatively few degrees of freedom. We explore this hypothesis by assuming that the atmospheric total energy (TE), i.e. the sum of kinetic energy and total potential energy (gravitational potential energy plus internal energy), is confined in a few coherent structures which dynamically interact nonlinearly with each other

Post-exercise Supplementation of Sodium Bicarbonate Improves Acid Base Balance Recovery and Subsequent High-Intensity Boxing Specific Performance

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of post-exercise sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) ingestion (0.3 g.kg−1 body mass) on the recovery of acid-base balance (pH, HCO−3, and the SID) and subsequent exercise performance in elite boxers. Seven elite male professional boxers performed an initial bout of exhaustive exercise comprising of a boxing specific high-intensity interval running (HIIR) protocol, followed by a high-intensity run to volitional exhaustion (TLIM1). A 75 min passive recovery then ensued, whereby after 10 min recovery, participants ingested either 0.3 g.kg−1 body mass NaHCO3, or 0.1 g.kg−1 body mass sodium chloride (PLA). Solutions were taste matched and administered double-blind. Participants then completed a boxing specific punch combination protocol, followed by a second high-intensity run to volitional exhaustion (TLIM2). Both initial bouts of TLIM1 were well matched between PLA and NaHCO3 (ICC; r = 0.94, p = 0.002). The change in performance from TLIM1 to TLIM2 was greater following NaHCO3 compared to PLA (+164 ± 90 vs. +73 ± 78 sec; p = 0.02, CI = 45.1, 428.8, g = 1.0). Following ingestion of NaHCO3, pH was greater prior to TLIM2 by 0.11 ± 0.02 units (1.4%) (p < 0.001, CI = 0.09, 0.13, g = 3.4), whilst HCO−3 was greater by 8.8 ± 1.5 mmol.l−1 (26.3%) compared to PLA (p < 0.001, CI = 7.3, 10.2, g = 5.1). The current study suggests that these significant increases in acid base balance during post-exercise recovery facilitated the improvement in the subsequent bout of exercise. Future research should continue to explore the role of NaHCO3 supplementation as a recovery aid in boxing and other combat sports

Engaging Rural Nevadans in Participatory Research to Explore and Explain the Community Food and Physical Activity Context

The purpose of this study was to engage residents of four rural Nevada communities to explain local resources and readiness to address environmental challenges to weight healthy lifestyles. Residents engaged in HEAL MAPPS™, a participatory research approach using photomapping and community conversations to document lived experiences of place-based resources as supports or barriers. Data were triangulated to scale community readiness-to-change. This study focuses on a description of methods and qualitative findings. Healthy food unavailability emerged consistently among communities as a barrier; produce options were limited and many residents relied on convenience foods. Physical activity opportunities were available, yet access was a barrier. Transportation-related issues emerged as barriers to healthy eating and physical activity. Communities ranged between “vague awareness” and “preplanning” on readiness-to-change. Local data and shared knowledge of the obesogenic context can inform community policy and environmental improvements that promote health and enhance quality of life for rural populations

miR-25 targets TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) death receptor-4 and promotes apoptosis resistance in cholangiocarcinoma.

It has been established that microRNA expression and function contribute to phenotypic features of malignant cells, including resistance to apoptosis. Although targets and functional roles for a number of microRNAs have been described in cholangiocarcinoma, many additional microRNAs dysregulated in this tumor have not been assigned functional roles. In this study, we identify elevated miR-25 expression in malignant cholangiocarcinoma cell lines as well as patient samples. In cultured cells, treatment with the Smoothened inhibitor, cyclopamine, reduced miR-25 expression, suggesting Hedgehog signaling stimulates miR-25 production. Functionally, miR-25 was shown to protect cells against TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-induced apoptosis. Correspondingly, antagonism of miR-25 in culture sensitized cells to apoptotic death. Computational analysis identified the TRAIL Death Receptor-4 (DR4) as a potential novel miR-25 target, and this prediction was confirmed by immunoblot, cell staining, and reporter assays. CONCLUSION: These data implicate elevated miR-25 levels in the control of tumor cell apoptosis in cholangiocarcinoma. The identification of the novel miR-25 target DR4 provides a mechanism by which miR-25 contributes to evasion of TRAIL-induced cholangiocarcinoma apoptosis

Exercise as an Airway Clearance Technique in people with Cystic Fibrosis (ExACT-CF):rationale and study protocol for a randomised pilot trial

BACKGROUND: Chest physiotherapy is an established cornerstone of care for people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF), but is often burdensome. Guidelines recommend at least one chest physiotherapy session daily, using various airway clearance techniques (ACTs). Exercise (with huffs and coughs) may offer an alternative ACT, however the willingness of pwCF to be randomised into a trial needs testing. The 'ExACT-CF: Exercise as an Airway Clearance Technique in people with Cystic Fibrosis' trial will test the feasibility of recruiting pwCF to be randomised to continue usual care (chest physiotherapy) or replace it with exercise ACT (ExACT) for 28-days. Secondary aims include determining the short-term clinical impact (and safety) of stopping routine chest physiotherapy and replacing it with ExACT, and effects on physical activity, sleep, mood, quality of life and treatment burden, alongside preliminary health economic measures and acceptability.METHODS: Multi-centre, two-arm, randomised (1:1 allocation using minimisation), pilot trial at two sites. Fifty pwCF (≥10 years, FEV 1 &gt;40% predicted, stable on Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor (ETI)) will be randomised to an individually-customised ExACT programme (≥once daily aerobic exercise of ≥20-minutes duration at an intensity that elicits deep breathing, with huffs and coughs), or usual care. After baseline assessments, secondary outcomes will be assessed after 28-days, with additional home lung function and exacerbation questionnaires at 7, 14 and 21-days, physical activity and sleep monitoring throughout, and embedded qualitative and health-economic components. Feasibility measures include recruitment, retention, measurement completion, adverse events, interviews exploring the acceptability of trial procedures, and a trial satisfaction questionnaire. DISCUSSION: Co-designed with the UK CF community, the ExACT-CF pilot trial is the first multi-centre RCT to test the feasibility of recruiting pwCF stable on ETI into a trial investigating ExACT. This pilot trial will inform the feasibility, design, management, likely external validity for progression to a main phase randomised controlled trial.REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT05482048).</p

PCA-based lung motion model

Organ motion induced by respiration may cause clinically significant targeting errors and greatly degrade the effectiveness of conformal radiotherapy. It is therefore crucial to be able to model respiratory motion accurately. A recently proposed lung motion model based on principal component analysis (PCA) has been shown to be promising on a few patients. However, there is still a need to understand the underlying reason why it works. In this paper, we present a much deeper and detailed analysis of the PCA-based lung motion model. We provide the theoretical justification of the effectiveness of PCA in modeling lung motion. We also prove that under certain conditions, the PCA motion model is equivalent to 5D motion model, which is based on physiology and anatomy of the lung. The modeling power of PCA model was tested on clinical data and the average 3D error was found to be below 1 mm.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. submitted to International Conference on the use of Computers in Radiation Therapy 201

The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI)

We demonstrate a novel technology that combines the power of the multi-object spectrograph with the spatial multiplex advantage of an integral field spectrograph (IFS). The Sydney-AAO Multi-object IFS (SAMI) is a prototype wide-field system at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) that allows 13 imaging fibre bundles ("hexabundles") to be deployed over a 1-degree diameter field of view. Each hexabundle comprises 61 lightly-fused multimode fibres with reduced cladding and yields a 75 percent filling factor. Each fibre core diameter subtends 1.6 arcseconds on the sky and each hexabundle has a field of view of 15 arcseconds diameter. The fibres are fed to the flexible AAOmega double-beam spectrograph, which can be used at a range of spectral resolutions (R=lambda/delta(lambda) ~ 1700-13000) over the optical spectrum (3700-9500A). We present the first spectroscopic results obtained with SAMI for a sample of galaxies at z~0.05. We discuss the prospects of implementing hexabundles at a much higher multiplex over wider fields of view in order to carry out spatially--resolved spectroscopic surveys of 10^4 to 10^5 galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by MNRA