Effects of Ubiquinol with Fluid Resuscitation following Hemorrhagic Shock

Abstract Hemorrhagic shock (HS) and fluid resuscitation triggers ischemia-reperfusion injury in cells and increases the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which are known to activate the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis and contribute to organ dysfunction.1 Ubiquinol is a potent free radical scavenger which is produced endogenously and functions as part of the mitochondrial respiratory chain.2 No study has been conducted to investigate the effects of ubiquinol related to HS. The overall aim of this study was to examine the effects of ubiquinol on leukocyte mitochondria and in the lungs, diaphragm, heart and kidneys as a supplemental treatment for HS. A randomized experimental design was used for this study. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 20) were anesthetized and HS was induced by withdrawing 40% of the rat's blood volume to maintain a mean arterial pressure of 45-55 mmHg for 60 minutes. Following HS the rats were resuscitated with blood and lactated Ringer's (LR) with or without ubiquinol (1 mg per 100 g of body weight). The rats were monitored for 120 minutes, the animals were euthanized and the organs harvested. Leukocyte mitochondria superoxide (O2*⁻) was measured by flow cytometry using MitoSOX Red, a mitochondrial-targeted variant of the fluorescent probe hydroethidine. Superoxide levels were measured at baseline, end of HS and 120 minutes following fluid resuscitation. Arterial blood values were also recorded at these times. At the end of experiment, diaphragms were evaluated for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) using the fluorescent probe dihydrofluorescein-diacetate (Hfluor). The lungs, diaphragm, heart, and kidneys were examined for percent of apoptotic nuclear membrane damage using a differential dye uptake method with acridine orange and ethidium bromide. No significant differences were found between groups with regard to the volume of blood removed, hemodynamic status or arterial blood values (p 0.05). Ubiquinol decreased leukocyte mitochondrial production of O2*⁻ at the end of the experiment by 35% compared to the control group (4687.2 ± 265.4 versus 7227.9 ± 534.5, p ˂ 0.001). Similarly, the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of diaphragm H2O2 was significantly lower in the ubiquinol group compared to control (4193 ± 333 versus 23513 ± 5098, p ˂ 0.001). The percent of apoptosis in the lungs, diaphragm, heart, and kidneys was significantly reduced in the animals treated with ubiquinol compared to the control group (6.0 ± 0.7% versus 39.2 ± 1.1%, 4.7 ± 0.5% versus 30.6 ± 2.4%, 2.9 ± 0.6% versus 23.6 ± 1.2%, 2.4 ± 0.3% versus 42.1± 1.9%, respectively, p ˂ 0.001). Ubiquinol was effective in decreasing leukocyte mitochondrial O2*⁻ formation, which suggests that ubiquinol scavenged O2*⁻ within the mitochondria. Since ubiquinol is a potent antioxidant, it also probably scavenged other free radicals outside the mitochondria. The increased concentration of ubiquinol within the mitochondria would assist in maintaining the activities within the electron transport chain during HS. In addition, the decreased mitochondrial O2*⁻ would result in lower H2O2 production. The significant reduction in the percent of apoptosis in lungs, diaphragm, heart and kidneys between the control and treatment rats, suggests that decreased ROS production attenuated the activation of the intrinsic (mitochondrial) apoptosis pathway.3 The findings could also be attributed to the stabilization of the mitochondrial membrane by ubiquinol, which has been demonstrated in a previous study.4 In conclusion, ubiquinol may have application as a supplemental treatment to reduce free radical damage and apoptosis- related injury following HS and fluid resuscitation

Brief communication: impacts of ocean-wave-induced breakup of Antarctic sea ice via thermodynamics in a stand-alone version of the CICE sea-ice model

Impacts of wave-induced breakup of Antarctic sea ice on ice concentration and volume are investigated using a modified version of the CICE sea-ice model, run in standalone mode from 1979–2010. Model outputs show that during summer wave-induced breakup reduces local ice concentration by up to 0.3–0.4 in a vicinity of the ice edge and total ice volume by up to a factor of 0.1–0.2.Luke G. Bennetts, Siobhan O’Farrell, and Petteri Uotil

Intranasal Inhalation of Oxytocin Improves Face Processing in Developmental Prosopagnosia

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is characterised by a severe, lifelong impairment in face recognition. Little work has attempted to improve face processing in these individuals, but intriguingly, recent evidence suggests oxytocin can improve face processing in both healthy participants and individuals with autism. This study examined whether oxytocin could also improve face processing in individuals with DP. Ten adults with the condition and 10 matched controls were tested using a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind within-subject experimental design (AB-BA). Each participant took part in two testing sessions where they inhaled 24IU of oxytocin or placebo spray and completed two face processing tests: one assessing face memory and the other face perception. Results showed main effects of both participant group and treatment condition in both face processing tests, but the two did not interact. Specifically, the performance of DP participants was significantly lower than control performance under both oxytocin and placebo conditions, but oxytocin improved processing to a similar extent in both groups

Localisation in water wave and thin plate problems

Simulations obtained for water waves over rough seabed and waves in rough in vacuo plate. Attenuation rates of effective and individual wave fields extracted, compared and found to differ

The impact of oral English proficiency on humanitarian migrants’ experiences of settling in Australia

© 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Key drivers for migrants’ social integration are education, employment, and skills in the dominant language of the settlement country. Data from Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants were used to examine migrants’ English proficiency and how oral English proficiency facilitated or hindered participation in activities that may help them become self-sufficient and settle. Participants were 2399 humanitarian migrants interviewed in the first wave of data collection (during 2013/14). Before arrival in Australia, 80.1% reported they spoke English not well or not at all. After arrival, oral English proficiency was a statistically significant predictor of self-sufficiency (knowing how to look for a job, get help in an emergency, etc.) explaining 21% of the variance while controlling for confounding variables such as age and education. After English proficiency, age (neither too young nor too old), gender (male), education (more than 12 years), and time since arrival (more than one year) were significant predictors of self-sufficiency. Identification of factors that predict self-sufficiency informs the understanding of people who provide support for humanitarian migrants. These findings indicate poor oral English skills may profoundly hinder humanitarian migrants’ ability to settle and highlight the importance of supporting migrants’ English learning

Identifying Hallmark Symptoms of Developmental Prosopagnosia for Non-Experts

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is characterised by a severe and relatively selective deficit in face recognition, in the absence of neurological injury. Because public and professional awareness of DP is low, many adults and children are not identified for formal testing. This may partly result from the lack of appropriate screening tools that can be used by non-experts in either professional or personal settings. To address this issue, the current study sought to (a) explore when DP can first be detected in oneself and another, and (b) identify a list of the condition’s everyday behavioural manifestations. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to large samples of adult DPs, their unaffected significant others, and parents of children with the condition; and data were analysed using inductive content analysis. It was found that DPs have limited insight into their difficulties, with most only achieving realisation in adulthood. Nevertheless, the DPs’ reflections on their childhood experiences, together with the parental responses, revealed specific indicators that can potentially be used to spot the condition in early childhood. These everyday hallmark symptoms may aid the detection of individuals who would benefit from objective testing, in oneself (in adults) or another person (for both adults and children)

11 W narrow linewidth laser source at 780nm for laser cooling and manipulation of Rubidium

We present a narrow linewidth continuous laser source with over 11 Watts of output power at 780nm, based on single-pass frequency doubling of an amplified 1560nm fibre laser with 36% efficiency. This source offers a combination of high power, simplicity, mode quality and stability. Without any active stabilization, the linewidth is measured to be below 10kHz. The fibre seed is tunable over 60GHz, which allows access to the D2 transitions in 87Rb and 85Rb, providing a viable high-power source for laser cooling as well as for large-momentum-transfer beamsplitters in atom interferometry. Sources of this type will pave the way for a new generation of high flux, high duty-cycle degenerate quantum gas experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The Role of Source Coherence in Atom Interferometery

The role of source cloud spatial coherence in a Mach-Zehnder type atom interferometer is experimentally investigated. The visibility and contrast of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and three thermal sources with varying spatial coherence are compared as a function of interferometer time. At short times, the fringe visibility of a BEC source approaches 100 % nearly independent of pi pulse efficiency, while thermal sources have fringe visibilities limited to the mirror efficiency. More importantly for precision measurement systems, the BEC source maintains interference at interferometer times significantly beyond the thermal source

A Bose-condensed, simultaneous dual species Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer

This paper presents the first realisation of a simultaneous $^{87}$Rb -$^{85}$Rb Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer with Bose-condensed atoms. A number of ambitious proposals for precise terrestrial and space based tests of the Weak Equivalence Principle rely on such a system. This implementation utilises hybrid magnetic-optical trapping to produce spatially overlapped condensates with a duty cycle of 20s. A horizontal optical waveguide with co-linear Bragg beamsplitters and mirrors is used to simultaneously address both isotopes in the interferometer. We observe a non-linear phase shift on a non-interacting $^{85}$Rb interferometer as a function of interferometer time, $T$, which we show arises from inter-isotope scattering with the co-incident $^{87}$Rb interferometer. A discussion of implications for future experiments is given.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. The authors welcome comments and feedback on this manuscrip