3,181 research outputs found
Endoscopic laser-ablation for the treatment of orthotopic and ectopic ureteroceles in dogs: 13 cases (2008-2017).
BACKGROUND: Ureteroceles are a rare condition in dogs in which conventional treatments can result in substantial morbidity. Cystoscopic and fluoroscopic-guided laser ablation (CLA) of ureteroceles can successfully relieve obstruction.
OBJECTIVES: To describe the technique and outcomes of attempting CLA for treatment of ureteroceles in dogs.
ANIMALS: Thirteen client-owned dogs that underwent CLA for treatment of ureteroceles.
METHODS: Retrospective multicentered study. Medical records were reviewed in all dogs that underwent CLA for ureterocele(s). A laser was used to extend the opening of the ureteral orifice (UO) unless surgical conversion was necessary. Data collected included signalment, clinicopathologic data, imaging, procedural findings, complications, and short- and long-term outcome.
RESULTS: Thirteen dogs with 13 ureteroceles associated with 14 UOs resulting in ureteral obstruction were included. One ureterocele extended bilaterally. Treatment was initiated via retrograde cystoscopy (7 females), percutaneous perineal urethrocystoscopy (4 males), or percutaneous antegrade cystoscopy (2 males). Surgical conversion was necessary in 2 males. Ten of 14 (71%) UOs associated with the ureteroceles were ectopic. Thirteen of 14 had stenotic or imperforate UOs. No postoperative complications were noted. Preoperative incontinence or pollakiuria was present in 9 of 13 and 3 of 13 dogs and resolved in 8 of 9 and 3 of 3 dogs, respectively. Follow-up imaging showed resolution of all ureteroceles and improved ureteral/renal pelvic dilatation. Median follow-up time was 27 months (range, 3-96 months).
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Cystoscopic-guided laser ablation was effective for the treatment of ureteroceles(s) in 11 of 13 dogs
New Kadampa Buddhists and Jungian psychological type
Building on previous studies on Canadian Anglicans and Catholics, this study examines and discusses the psychological type profile of 31 adherents to New Kadampa Buddhism. Like Anglicans and Catholics, Buddhists preferred introversion (I). Like Anglicans who preferred intuition (N) and unlike Catholics who preferred sensing (S), Buddhists displayed a preference for intuition (N). Unlike Anglicans and Catholics who both preferred feeling (F), Buddhists displayed a balance between feeling (F) and thinking (T). Like Anglicans and unlike Catholics, Buddhists preferred the Apollonian temperament (NF) over the Epimethean temperament (SJ). These data are discussed to interpret the psychological appeal of New Kadampa Buddhism
Thermodynamics of Dyonic Lifshitz Black Holes
Black holes with asymptotic anisotropic scaling are conjectured to be gravity
duals of condensed matter system close to quantum critical points with
non-trivial dynamical exponent z at finite temperature. A holographic
renormalization procedure is presented that allows thermodynamic potentials to
be defined for objects with both electric and magnetic charge in such a way
that standard thermodynamic relations hold. Black holes in asymptotic Lifshitz
spacetimes can exhibit paramagnetic behavior at low temperature limit for
certain values of the critical exponent z, whereas the behavior of AdS black
holes is always diamagnetic.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure
Lovelock-Lifshitz Black Holes
In this paper, we investigate the existence of Lifshitz solutions in Lovelock
gravity, both in vacuum and in the presence of a massive vector field. We show
that the Lovelock terms can support the Lifshitz solution provided the
constants of the theory are suitably chosen. We obtain an exact black hole
solution with Lifshitz asymptotics of any scaling parameter in both
Gauss-Bonnet and in pure 3rd order Lovelock gravity. If matter is added in the
form of a massive vector field, we also show that Lifshitz solutions in
Lovelock gravity exist; these can be regarded as corrections to Einstein
gravity coupled to this form of matter. For this form of matter we numerically
obtain a broad range of charged black hole solutions with Lifshitz asymptotics,
for either sign of the cosmological constant. We find that these asymptotic
Lifshitz solutions are more sensitive to corrections induced by Lovelock
gravity than are their asymptotic AdS counterparts. We also consider the
thermodynamics of the black hole solutions and show that the temperature of
large black holes with curved horizons is proportional to where is
the critical exponent; this relationship holds for black branes of any size. As
is the case for asymptotic AdS black holes, we find that an extreme black hole
exists only for the case of horizons with negative curvature. We also find that
these Lovelock-Lifshitz black holes have no unstable phase, in contrast to the
Lovelock-AdS case. We also present a class of rotating Lovelock-Lifshitz black
holes with Ricci-flat horizons.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, a few references added, typo fixed and some
comments have been adde
Black holes and black branes in Lifshitz spacetimes
We construct analytic solutions describing black holes and black branes in
asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes with arbitrary dynamical exponent z and for
arbitrary number of dimensions. The model considered consists of Einstein
gravity with negative cosmological constant, a scalar, and N U(1) gauge fields
with dilatonic-like couplings. We study the phase diagrams and thermodynamic
instabilities of the solution, and find qualitative differences between the
cases with 12.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures; v2 references added, minor comments adde
Pathologies in Asymptotically Lifshitz Spacetimes
There has been significant interest in the last several years in studying
possible gravitational duals, known as Lifshitz spacetimes, to anisotropically
scaling field theories by adding matter to distort the asymptotics of an AdS
spacetime. We point out that putative ground state for the most heavily studied
example of such a spacetime, that with a flat spatial section, suffers from a
naked singularity and further point out this singularity is not resolvable by
any known stringy effect. We review the reasons one might worry that
asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes are unstable and employ the initial data
problem to study the stability of such systems. Rather surprisingly this
question, and even the initial value problem itself, for these spacetimes turns
out to generically not be well-posed. A generic normalizable state will evolve
in such a way to violate Lifshitz asymptotics in finite time. Conversely,
enforcing the desired asymptotics at all times puts strong restrictions not
just on the metric and fields in the asymptotic region but in the deep interior
as well. Generically, even perturbations of the matter field of compact support
are not compatible with the desired asymptotics.Comment: 36 pages, 1 figure, v2: Enhanced discussion of singularity, including
relationship to Gubser's conjecture and singularity in RG flow solution, plus
minor clarification
Lifshitz black holes in string theory
We provide the first black hole solutions with Lifshitz asymptotics found in
string theory. These are expected to be dual to models enjoying anisotropic
scale invariance with dynamical exponent z=2 at finite temperature. We employ a
consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity to four dimensions with an
arbitrary 5-dimensional Einstein manifold times a circle as internal geometry.
New interesting features are found that significantly differ from previous
results in phenomenological models. In particular, small black holes are shown
to be thermodynamically unstable, analogously to the usual AdS-Schwarzschild
black holes, and extremality is never reached. This signals a possible
Hawking-Page like phase transition at low temperatures.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. v2 references adde
Na+ imaging reveals little difference in action potential–evoked Na+ influx between axon and soma
Author Posting. © The Authors, 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Neuroscience 13 (2010): 852-860, doi:10.1038/nn.2574.In cortical pyramidal neurons, the axon initial segment (AIS) plays a pivotal role in synaptic
integration. It has been asserted that this property reflects a high density of Na+ channels in AIS.
However, we here report that AP–associated Na+ flux, as measured by high–speed fluorescence
Na+ imaging, is about 3 times larger in the rat AIS than in the soma. Spike evoked Na+ flux in
the AIS and the first node of Ranvier is about the same, and in the basal dendrites it is about 8
times lower. At near threshold voltages persistent Na+ conductance is almost entirely axonal.
Finally, we report that on a time scale of seconds, passive diffusion and not pumping is
responsible for maintaining transmembrane Na+ gradients in thin axons during high frequency
AP firing. In computer simulations, these data were consistent with the known features of AP
generation in these neurons.Supported by US–
Israel BSF Grant (2003082), Grass Faculty Grant from the MBL, NIH Grant (NS16295),
Multiple Sclerosis Society Grant (PP1367), and a fellowship from the Gruss Lipper Foundation
Live to cheat another day: bacterial dormancy facilitates the social exploitation of beta-lactamases
The breakdown of antibiotics by β-lactamases may be cooperative, since resistant cells can detoxify their environment and facilitate the growth of susceptible neighbours. However, previous studies of this phenomenon have used artificial bacterial vectors or engineered bacteria to increase the secretion of β-lactamases from cells. Here, we investigated whether a broad-spectrum β-lactamase gene carried by a naturally occurring plasmid (pCT) is cooperative under a range of conditions. In ordinary batch culture on solid media, there was little or no evidence that resistant bacteria could protect susceptible cells from ampicillin, although resistant colonies could locally detoxify this growth medium. However, when susceptible cells were inoculated at high densities, late-appearing phenotypically susceptible bacteria grew in the vicinity of resistant colonies. We infer that persisters, cells that have survived antibiotics by undergoing a period of dormancy, founded these satellite colonies. The number of persister colonies was positively correlated with the density of resistant colonies and increased as antibiotic concentrations decreased. We argue that detoxification can be cooperative under a limited range of conditions: if the toxins are bacteriostatic rather than bacteridical; or if susceptible cells invade communities after resistant bacteria; or if dormancy allows susceptible cells to avoid bactericides. Resistance and tolerance were previously thought to be independent solutions for surviving antibiotics. Here, we show that these are interacting strategies: the presence of bacteria adopting one solution can have substantial effects on the fitness of their neighbours
Reduced haemodynamic response in the ageing visual cortex measured by absolute fNIRS
The effect of healthy ageing on visual cortical activation is still to be fully explored. This study aimed to elucidate whether the haemodynamic response (HDR) of the visual cortex altered as a result of ageing. Visually normal (healthy) participants were presented with a simple visual stimulus (reversing checkerboard). Full optometric screening was implemented to identify two age groups: younger adults (n = 12, mean age 21) and older adults (n = 13, mean age 71). Frequency-domain Multi-distance (FD-MD) functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure absolute changes in oxygenated [HbO] and deoxygenated [HbR] haemoglobin concentrations in the occipital cortices. Utilising a slow event-related design, subjects viewed a full field reversing checkerboard with contrast and check size manipulations (15 and 30 minutes of arc, 50% and 100% contrast). Both groups showed the characteristic response of increased [HbO] and decreased [HbR] during stimulus presentation. However, older adults produced a more varied HDR and often had comparable levels of [HbO] and [HbR] during both stimulus presentation and baseline resting state. Younger adults had significantly greater concentrations of both [HbO] and [HbR] in every investigation regardless of the type of stimulus displayed (p<0.05). The average variance associated with this age-related effect for [HbO] was 88% and [HbR] 91%. Passive viewing of a visual stimulus, without any cognitive input, showed a marked age-related decline in the cortical HDR. Moreover, regardless of stimulus parameters such as check size, the HDR was characterised by age. In concurrence with present neuroimaging literature, we conclude that the visual HDR decreases as healthy ageing proceeds
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