2,593 research outputs found
The microbiome associated with equine periodontitis and oral health
Equine periodontal disease is a common and painful condition and its severe form, periodontitis, can lead to tooth loss. Its aetiopathogenesis remains poorly understood despite recent increased awareness of this disorder amongst the veterinary profession. Bacteria have been found to be causative agents of the disease in other species, but current understanding of their role in equine periodontitis is extremely limited. The aim of this study was to use high-throughput sequencing to identify the microbiome associated with equine periodontitis and oral health. Subgingival plaque samples from 24 horses with periodontitis and gingival swabs from 24 orally healthy horses were collected. DNA was extracted from samples, the V3–V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplified by PCR and amplicons sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. Data processing was conducted using USEARCH and QIIME. Diversity analyses were performed with PAST v3.02. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) was used to determine differences between the groups. In total, 1308 OTUs were identified and classified into 356 genera or higher taxa. Microbial profiles at health differed significantly from periodontitis, both in their composition (p < 0.0001, F = 12.24; PERMANOVA) and in microbial diversity (p < 0.001; Mann–Whitney test). Samples from healthy horses were less diverse (1.78, SD 0.74; Shannon diversity index) and were dominated by the genera Gemella and Actinobacillus, while the periodontitis group samples showed higher diversity (3.16, SD 0.98) and were dominated by the genera Prevotella and Veillonella. It is concluded that the microbiomes associated with equine oral health and periodontitis are distinct, with the latter displaying greater microbial diversity
Evolution of entanglement within classical light states
We investigate the evolution of quantum correlations over the lifetime of a
multi-photon state. Measurements reveal time-dependent oscillations of the
entanglement fidelity for photon pairs created by a single semiconductor
quantum dot. The oscillations are attributed to the phase acquired in the
intermediate, non-degenerate, exciton-photon state and are consistent with
simulations. We conclude that emission of photon pairs by a typical quantum dot
with finite polarisation splitting is in fact entangled in a time-evolving
state, and not classically correlated as previously regarded
Relationships Between Physical Qualities and Key Performance Indicators During Match-Play in Senior International Rugby Union Players
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Urinary Tubular Injury Biomarkers Are Associated With ESRD and Death in the REGARDS Study.
IntroductionUrinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) and urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (uKIM-1) are established markers of subclinical acute kidney injury. In persons with reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria who are at high risk for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and death, the associations of these urinary markers with incident ESRD or death is an area of active investigation.MethodsAmong 1472 black and white participants from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study with eGFR ≤60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration [CKD-EPI] cystatin, 2012) and albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) ≥30 mg/g, we evaluated the associations of baseline uNGAL and uKIM-1 with progression to ESRD and all-cause death. Cox models were sequentially adjusted for urinary creatinine, traditional risk factors, C-reactive protein, ACR, and eGFR.ResultsThere were 257 ESRD events and 819 deaths over a median follow-up of 5.7 and 6.5 years, respectively. In demographic adjusted models, higher levels of uNGAL were associated with increased risk of ESRD and death, but these associations were attenuated in fully adjusted models including baseline eGFR for both ESRD (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.06 per doubling, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.98-1.14) and death (HR = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.00-1.08). Higher levels of uKIM-1 were associated with increased risk of ESRD and death in demographic-adjusted models, and although attenuated in fully adjusted models, remained statistically significant for both ESRD (HR = 1.24 per doubling, 95% CI = 1.08-1.42) and death (HR = 1.10, 95% CI =1.03-1.19).ConclusionIn this cohort of high-risk patients with baseline eGFR ≤60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 and albuminuria, renal tubular injury is associated with higher mortality and progression to ESRD. Further studies are necessary to investigate the mechanism underlying this increased risk
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: An experimentally accessible paradigm for quantum computing
We present experimental results which demonstrate that nuclear magnetic
resonance spectroscopy is capable of efficiently emulating many of the
capabilities of quantum computers, including unitary evolution and coherent
superpositions, but without attendant wave-function collapse. Specifically, we
have: (1) Implemented the quantum XOR gate in two different ways, one using
Pound-Overhauser double resonance, and the other using a spin-coherence double
resonance pulse sequence; (2) Demonstrated that the square root of the
Pound-Overhauser XOR corresponds to a conditional rotation, thus obtaining a
universal set of gates; (3) Devised a spin-coherence implementation of the
Toffoli gate, and confirmed that it transforms the equilibrium state of a
four-spin system as expected; (4) Used standard gradient-pulse techniques in
NMR to equalize all but one of the populations in a two-spin system, so
obtaining the pseudo-pure state that corresponds to |00>; (5) Validated that
one can identify which basic pseudo-pure state is present by transforming it
into one-spin superpositions, whose associated spectra jointly characterize the
state; (6) Applied the spin-coherence XOR gate to a one-spin superposition to
create an entangled state, and confirmed its existence by detecting the
associated double-quantum coherence via gradient-echo methods.Comment: LaTeX + epsfig + amsmath packages, 27 pages, 12 figures, to appear in
Physica D; revision updates list of authors and reference
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