An in vivo evaluation of Brilliant Blue G in animals and humans

Background/Aims: To evaluate the retinal toxicity of Brilliant Blue G (BBG) following intravitreal injection in rat eyes and examine the biocompatibility and the staining properties in humans.Methods: BBG was injected into the 11 rat eyes to evaluate toxic effects with balanced salt solution (BSS) serving as control. Retinal toxicity was assessed by retinal ganglion cell (RGC) counts and by light microscopy 7 days later. In addition, BBG was applied during vitrectomy for macular hole (MH) (n = 15) or epiretinal membranes (ERM) (n = 3) in a prospective, non-comparative consecutive series of patients. Before and after surgery, all patients underwent a complete clinical examination including measurement of best corrected visual acuity (VA) and intraocular pressure, perimetry, fundus photography and optical coherence tomography. Patients were seen 1 day before surgery and then in approximately four weeks intervals.Results: No significant reduction in RGC numbers and no morphological alterations were noted. A sufficient staining of the internal limiting membrane (ILM) was seen in patients with MH, while the staining pattern in ERM cases was patchy, indicating that parts of the ILM were peeled off along with the ERM in a variable extent. All MHs could be closed successfully. VA improved in 10 eyes (56%; 8/15 MH patients, 2/3 ERM patients), was unchanged in four eyes (22%; all MH patients) and was reduced in four eyes (22%; 3/15 MH, 1/3 ERM). No toxic effects attributable to the dye were noted during patient follow-up. The ultrastructure of tissue harvested during surgery was unremarkable.Conclusion: Brilliant Blue provides a sufficient and selective staining of the ILM. No retinal toxicity or adverse effects related to the dye were observed in animal and human studies. The long-term safety of this novel dye will have to be evaluated in larger patient series and a longer follow-up

Influence of ruminal degradable intake protein restriction on characteristics of digestion and growth performance of feedlot cattle during the late finishing phase.

Two trials were conducted to evaluate the influence of supplemental urea withdrawal on characteristics of digestion (Trial 1) and growth performance (Trial 2) of feedlot cattle during the last 40 days on feed. Treatments consisted of a steam-flaked corn-based finishing diet supplemented with urea to provide urea fermentation potential (UFP) of 0, 0.6, and 1.2%. In Trial 1, six Holstein steers (160 ± 10 kg) with cannulas in the rumen and proximal duodenum were used in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square experiment. Decreasing supplemental urea decreased (linear effect, P ≤ 0.05) ruminal OM digestion. This effect was mediated by decreases (linear effect, P ≤ 0.05) in ruminal digestibility of NDF and N. Passage of non-ammonia and microbial N (MN) to the small intestine decreased (linear effect, P = 0.04) with decreasing dietary urea level. Total tract digestion of OM (linear effect, P = 0.06), NDF (linear effect, P = 0.07), N (linear effect, P = 0.04) and dietary DE (linear effect, P = 0.05) decreased with decreasing urea level. Treatment effects on total tract starch digestion, although numerically small, likewise tended (linear effect, P = 0.11) to decrease with decreasing urea level. Decreased fiber digestion accounted for 51% of the variation in OM digestion. Ruminal pH was not affected by treatments averaging 5.82. Decreasing urea level decreased (linear effect, P ≤ 0.05) ruminal N-NH and blood urea nitrogen. In Trial 2, 90 crossbred steers (468 kg ± 8), were used in a 40 d feeding trial (5 steers/pen, 6 pens/ treatment) to evaluate treatment effects on final-phase growth performance. Decreasing urea level did not affect DMI, but decreased (linear effect, P ≤ 0.03) ADG, gain efficiency, and dietary NE. It is concluded that in addition to effects on metabolizable amino acid flow to the small intestine, depriving cattle of otherwise ruminally degradable N (RDP) during the late finishing phase may negatively impact site and extent of digestion of OM, depressing ADG, gain efficiency, and dietary NE

Benchmarking bitemporal database systems: ready for the future or stuck in the past?

Abstract. Introduction: Many strategic investments are often justified with the argument that they will create synergy. For holding mining establishment the goal was more on how to increase business capacity and funding, management of natural resources of mineral and coal, increase value added through downstream and increase local content, as well as cost efficiency through synergy. This paper aims to find the value of synergy in Inalum, PTBA, ANTM and TINS before establishment holding company of mining and the sensitivity the value to different assumptions and how to improve value of synergy in creating a holding company of mining. The major aims of mining holding company to create value and synergy in mining State-Owned Enterprises, with the expectation, it will increase revenue contribution to the country. These goals could be analyzed and measured by understanding of synergy based on two sources of synergies: operating synergy and financial synergy. This paper will assess operating synergy. Methods: In this valuation, Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Framework will be used to recognize the potential source of synergy from operation. Results: This study found that gain from operation synergy of increasing growth and cost reduction will maximize the business value amounted USD 3,659,295.63, compared to gain from cost reduction USD -14,181,427.91  and gain from increasing growth USD 644,448.44. Conclusion: Given the results from study, it is important to derive the right strategy from investment decision to reflect the optimal source of synergy in order to maximize the business value in Inalum. Keywords:  DCF, investing decision, maximize business value, value of synerg

Retrospective cohort study evaluating clinical, biochemical and pharmacological prognostic factors for prostate cancer progression using primary care data

Objectives To confirm the association of previously reported prognostic factors with future progression of localised prostate cancer using primary care data and identify new potential prognostic factors for further assessment in prognostic model development and validation.Design Retrospective cohort study, employing Cox proportional hazards regression controlling for age, prostate specific antigen (PSA), and Gleason score, was stratified by diagnostic stage.Setting Primary care in England.Participants Males with localised prostate cancer diagnosedbetween 01/01/1987 and 31/12/2016 within the Clinical Practice ResearchDatalink database, with linked data from the National Cancer Registration andAnalysis Service and Office for National Statistics.Primary and secondary outcomes Primary outcome measure was prostate cancer mortality. Secondary outcome measures were all-cause mortality and commencing systemic therapy. Up-staging after diagnosis was not used as a secondary outcome owing to significant missing data.Results 10 901 men (mean age 74.38±9.03 years) with localised prostate cancer were followed up for a mean of 14.12 (±6.36) years. 2331 (21.38%) men underwent systemic therapy and 3450 (31.65%) died, including 1250 (11.47%) from prostate cancer. Factors associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer mortality included age; high PSA; current or ex-smoker; ischaemic heart disease; high C reactive protein; high ferritin; low haemoglobin; high blood glucose and low albumin.Conclusions This study identified several new potential prognostic factors for prostate cancer progression, as well as confirming some known prognostic factors, in an independent primary care data set. Further research is needed to develop and validate a prognostic model for prostate cancer progression

Analyzing the House Fly's Exploratory Behavior with Autoregression Methods

This paper presents a detailed characterization of the trajectory of a single housefly with free range of a square cage. The trajectory of the fly was recorded and transformed into a time series, which was fully analyzed using an autoregressive model, which describes a stationary time series by a linear regression of prior state values with the white noise. The main discovery was that the fly switched styles of motion from a low dimensional regular pattern to a higher dimensional disordered pattern. This discovered exploratory behavior is, irrespective of the presence of food, characterized by anomalous diffusion.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, full pape

The Milky Way's external disc constrained by 2MASS star counts

Context. Thanks to recent large scale surveys in the near infrared such as 2MASS, the galactic plane that most suffers from extinction is revealed and its overall structure can be studied. Aims. This work aims at constraining the structure of the Milky Way external disc as seen in 2MASS data, and in particular the warp. Methods. We use the Two Micron All Sky Survey (hereafter 2MASS) along with the Stellar Population Synthesis Model of the Galaxy, developed in Besancon, to constrain the external disc parameters such as its scale length, its cutoff radius, and the slope of the warp. In order to properly interpret the observations, the simulated stars are reddened using a three dimensional extinction map. The shape of the stellar warp is then compared with previous results and with similar structures in gas and dust. Results. We find new constraints on the stellar disc, which is shown to be asymmetrical, similar to observations of HI. The positive longitude side is found to be easily modelled with a S shape warp but with a slope significantly smaller than the slope seen in the HI warp. At negative longitudes, the disc presents peculiarities which are not well reproduced by any simple model. Finally, comparing with the warp seen in the dust, it seems to follow a slope intermediate between the gas and the stars.Comment: 9 pages. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

HIFI spectroscopy of low-level water transitions in M82

We present observations of the rotational ortho-water ground transition, the two lowest para-water transitions, and the ground transition of ionised ortho-water in the archetypal starburst galaxy M82, performed with the HIFI instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory. These observations are the first detections of the para-H2O(111-000) (1113\,GHz) and ortho-H2O+(111-000) (1115\,GHz) lines in an extragalactic source. All three water lines show different spectral line profiles, underlining the need for high spectral resolution in interpreting line formation processes. Using the line shape of the para-H2O(111-000) and ortho-H2O+(111-000) absorption profile in conjunction with high spatial resolution CO observations, we show that the (ionised) water absorption arises from a ~2000 pc^2 region within the HIFI beam located about ~50 pc east of the dynamical centre of the galaxy. This region does not coincide with any of the known line emission peaks that have been identified in other molecular tracers, with the exception of HCO. Our data suggest that water and ionised water within this region have high (up to 75%) area-covering factors of the underlying continuum. This indicates that water is not associated with small, dense cores within the ISM of M82 but arises from a more widespread diffuse gas component.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

Unstable decay and state selection II

The decay of unstable states when several metastable states are available for occupation is investigated using path-integral techniques. Specifically, a method is described which allows the probabilities with which the metastable states are occupied to be calculated by finding optimal paths, and fluctuations about them, in the weak noise limit. The method is illustrated on a system described by two coupled Langevin equations, which are found in the study of instabilities in fluid dynamics and superconductivity. The problem involves a subtle interplay between non-linearities and noise, and a naive approximation scheme which does not take this into account is shown to be unsatisfactory. The use of optimal paths is briefly reviewed and then applied to finding the conditional probability of ending up in one of the metastable states, having begun in the unstable state. There are several aspects of the calculation which distinguish it from most others involving optimal paths: (i) the paths do not begin and end on an attractor, and moreover, the final point is to a large extent arbitrary, (ii) the interplay between the fluctuations and the leading order contribution are at the heart of the method, and (iii) the final result involves quantities which are not exponentially small in the noise strength. This final result, which gives the probability of a particular state being selected in terms of the parameters of the dynamics, is remarkably simple and agrees well with the results of numerical simulations. The method should be applicable to similar problems in a number of other areas such as state selection in lasers, activationless chemical reactions and population dynamics in fluctuating environments.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.