Fluid Particle Accelerations in Fully Developed Turbulence

The motion of fluid particles as they are pushed along erratic trajectories by fluctuating pressure gradients is fundamental to transport and mixing in turbulence. It is essential in cloud formation and atmospheric transport, processes in stirred chemical reactors and combustion systems, and in the industrial production of nanoparticles. The perspective of particle trajectories has been used successfully to describe mixing and transport in turbulence, but issues of fundamental importance remain unresolved. One such issue is the Heisenberg-Yaglom prediction of fluid particle accelerations, based on the 1941 scaling theory of Kolmogorov (K41). Here we report acceleration measurements using a detector adapted from high-energy physics to track particles in a laboratory water flow at Reynolds numbers up to 63,000. We find that universal K41 scaling of the acceleration variance is attained at high Reynolds numbers. Our data show strong intermittency---particles are observed with accelerations of up to 1,500 times the acceleration of gravity (40 times the root mean square value). Finally, we find that accelerations manifest the anisotropy of the large scale flow at all Reynolds numbers studied.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

DNA damage by lipid peroxidation products: implications in cancer, inflammation and autoimmunity

Oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation (LPO) induced by inflammation, excess metal storage and excess caloric intake cause generalized DNA damage, producing genotoxic and mutagenic effects. The consequent deregulation of cell homeostasis is implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of malignancies and degenerative diseases. Reactive aldehydes produced by LPO, such as malondialdehyde, acrolein, crotonaldehyde and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, react with DNA bases, generating promutagenic exocyclic DNA adducts, which likely contribute to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects associated with oxidative stress-induced LPO. However, reactive aldehydes, when added to tumor cells, can exert an anticancerous effect. They act, analogously to other chemotherapeutic drugs, by forming DNA adducts and, in this way, they drive the tumor cells toward apoptosis. The aldehyde-DNA adducts, which can be observed during inflammation, play an important role by inducing epigenetic changes which, in turn, can modulate the inflammatory process. The pathogenic role of the adducts formed by the products of LPO with biological macromolecules in the breaking of immunological tolerance to self antigens and in the development of autoimmunity has been supported by a wealth of evidence. The instrumental role of the adducts of reactive LPO products with self protein antigens in the sensitization of autoreactive cells to the respective unmodified proteins and in the intermolecular spreading of the autoimmune responses to aldehyde-modified and native DNA is well documented. In contrast, further investigation is required in order to establish whether the formation of adducts of LPO products with DNA might incite substantial immune responsivity and might be instrumental for the spreading of the immunological responses from aldehyde-modified DNA to native DNA and similarly modified, unmodified and/or structurally analogous self protein antigens, thus leading to autoimmunity

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

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Not AvailableLivestock is an integral part of any agricultural system all over the world. Optimized livestock production is depended upon many factors like environmental stresses, climatic factors, health status, nutrient availability, and genetic potential. In the changing climate scenario, nutritional stress act as the most important indirect stress affecting livestock leading to decreased performance, lower efficiency, increased mortality and it also affects the immune system. The animals in tropics faces the problem of low feed availability during summer and this leads to severe nutritional stress to livestock grazing in the low pasture lands. Under nutrition reduces the quality and quantity of milk production, effects growth potential and reduces body condition score (BCS), induces seasonal weight loss (SWL) and it also declines the reproductive capacity of the animals, it reduces the fertility rate, embryo quality, expression of oestrus behaviour, altering follicular development, compromising oocyte competence, and inhibiting embryonic development, reduced calf birth weight, reduced sperm output, decreased sperm motility and an increased proportion of morphologically abnormal spermatozoa in the ejaculate. The reduced nutrient availability also alters the endocrine and hormonal activity in livestock leading to physiological changes and decline in reproductive efficiency. The animals exposed to environmental stress are found to cope up with the adverse effects of the stress when the nutritional requirements are not compromised. Thus in order to sustain the productivity, suitable nutritional interventions are to be adopted like management of forage for the dry period, utilization of the non-conventional feed resources as alternatives, antioxidant supplementations during the stress period, and also water management strategies for both surface and ground water resources, at both local and national levels, as fresh and contamination free water is crucial for animal production. These efforts will ensure economically viable returns in livestock farms in the changing climate scenario..Not Availabl

Ameliorative Strategies to Sustain Livestock Production during Heat Stress

Not AvailableIn the changing climate scenario, heat stress is of major concern among livestock owners as it affects drastically livestock production which otherwise contributes 40% of world agriculture GDP (gross domestic product). Hence there is an urgent need for reviewing the various strategies to counter the heat stress impact on livestock production. THI (temperature humidity index) may not be the ideal index to quantify heat stress impact on livestock as it does not take into account solar radiation and wind velocity. Hence, more appropriate agro-ecological zone specific indices like Dairy Heat Load Index (DHLI) which takes into account all cardinal weather parameters is the need of hour. Development of appropriate heat abatement strategies depends on the type of dairy operation practiced in a particular livestock farm. During heat stress, management strategies such as providing shade, sprinklers, fans, cold water, minimum handling, grazing during early morning and late evening hours might be very beneficial to improve livestock production. Considerable efforts are needed to modify the existing housing condition according to the changing climatic condition to improve the livestock production. Apart from management strategies, nutritional strategies also must be given equal importance which not only will help the animal to survive the stress but also it will ensure optimum energy for production processes. Nutritional interventions such as additional concentrate supplementation, re-formulation of diet that accounts for reduced DMI, fat, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants supplementation are very vital for ensuring optimum production in livestock during heat stress condition. Appropriate health service measures needs to be taken to counter the emergence of sudden disease outbreaks during heat stress condition. Geographic information system (GIS) has to be integrated with disease surveillance program to create the hazardous maps of sudden disease outbreaks and correlating them with climate and other information might be very useful for future predictions. In addition, predictive modeling system can also be used as an effective tool to forecast the probability of a disease outbreak. Advanced technological development need to be integrated with suitable breeding programs using marker assisted selection to develop agro-ecological zone specific thermo-tolerant breeds of livestock. The developed strategies should be user friendly and economically feasible if farmers have to adopt those strategies to improve livestock production in the changing climatic condition.Not Availabl

Adaptation of livestock to environmental challenges

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Not AvailableThe present review is an attempt to signify the importance of heat shock proteins in livestock adaptation during heat stress. The cellular and molecular responses in livestock are very crucial as it may lead to identification of confirmatory biomarker for heat stress in livestock. Thermo-tolerant gene expression and elevated heat shock protein (HSP) levels are observed to be the ultimate response through which the cell survives the heat stress. The HSPs have chaperonic activity ensuring the folding, unfolding and refolding of stress-denatured proteins. The components of heat shock response include heat shock factors (HSFs), heat shock element (HSE) and HSP. The cellular response to heat stress in mammalian organisms is controlled at the transcription level and it is mediated by a family of HSF which are regulated by the corresponding HSF genes. The activated HSFs bind with the HSE in the promoter region of HSP genes culminating in enhanced transcription of HSP mRNA. The HSP70, HSP90 and HSP27 are the predominant HSPs having protective role during heat stress in farm animals. Among these HSPs studied, HSP70 was identified to be the ideal biological marker for quantifying heat stress in animals.Not Availabl