Grazing Endophyte Infested Tall Fescue and Changes in Bovine Blood Components and Gain

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) is utilized on more than 15 million ha of pasture in the eastern USA and over 80% of the plants in this area are infested with the endophyte Neotyphodium coenophialum. Tall fescue toxicosis results from consumption of the infested (E+) grass host and is an important problem that causes considerable economic loss to producers. However, the agronomic attributes of tall fescue make it an attractive forage because of its ability to withstand cool temperatures, drought, poor soil conditions and intensive defoliation. There is need to understand mechanisms of animal physiology that are affected by the alkaloids produced by the endophyte/grass association. Blood serum samples were collected from steers (Bos taurus) grazing either E+ or endophyte free (E-) tall fescue in spring and summer during three consecutive years and were related to animal performance. Consistent and significant changes associated with E+ tall fescue were noted for daily gain, prolactin, albumin/globulin ratio, alanine aminotransferase, cholesterol, creatinine, globulin, total bilirubin, total serum protein, copper, red blood cells, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, and eosinophils. Thus, repeatable changes that occur in serum biochemical and blood cellular values of cattle grazing E+ tall fescue were identified and will aid in understanding the pathogenesis of the toxicosis

Extraction of electromagnetic neutron form factors through inclusive and exclusive polarized electron scattering on polarized 3He target

Inclusive 3He(e,e') and exclusive 3He(e,e'n) processes with polarized electrons and 3He have been theoretically analyzed and values for the magnetic and electric neutron form factors have been extracted. In both cases the form factor values agree well with the ones extracted from processes on the deuteron. Our results are based on Faddeev solutions, modern NN forces and partially on the incorporation of mesonic exchange currents.Comment: 28 pages, 29 Postscript figure

Tema Con Variazioni: Quantum Channel Capacity

Channel capacity describes the size of the nearly ideal channels, which can be obtained from many uses of a given channel, using an optimal error correcting code. In this paper we collect and compare minor and major variations in the mathematically precise statements of this idea which have been put forward in the literature. We show that all the variations considered lead to equivalent capacity definitions. In particular, it makes no difference whether one requires mean or maximal errors to go to zero, and it makes no difference whether errors are required to vanish for any sequence of block sizes compatible with the rate, or only for one infinite sequence.Comment: 32 pages, uses iopart.cl

Interventional Management of a Renal Cell Carcinoma by Radiofrequency Ablation with Tagging and Cooling

Over the last few years, percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) ablation has been successfully established as a viable treatment modality for small peripheral renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This technique is limited by central tumor location and tumor size. We report the interventional management of a 5.3 cm mixed RCC with central and exophytic parts by combining the RF ablation with embolization, tagging, and retrograde, as well as anterograde cooling. The potential pitfalls of complex hybrid interventions for treating RCC are discussed

(Bio-)chemische und physikalische Sensoren auf der Basis eines einzigen Transducerprinzips

Die wichtigste Einheit von modernen Mikroanalysesystemen, wie µTAS (Micro Total Analysis System), „Labor auf einem Chip“, elektronische Zunge, usw. ist die Detektoreinheit. Diese Detektoreinheit besteht in der Regel aus unterschiedlichen (bio-)chemischen und physikalischen Sensoren sowohl für die Kontrolle der (bio-)chemischen und physikalischen Kenngrößen in Flüßigkeiten als auch für die Minimierung oder für die Kompensierung des Einflußes von Störgrößen. Üblicherweise unterscheiden sich die Strukturen bzw. die sensitiven Schichten und Transducersprinzipen der (bio-)chemischen Sensoren von denen, die für physikalische Sensoren anwendbar sind. Deshalb ist die kommerzielle Realisierung solcher Multisensorsysteme häufig problematisch aufgrund der komplizierten Technologie bzw. der höheren Produktionskosten. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir ein neues Konzept für ein multifunktionales hybrides Sensormodul unter dem Einsatz eines einzigen Transducersprinzips auf der Basis der Feldeffektstruktur, sowohl für (bio-)chemische als auch physikalische Sensoren vor. Das entwickelte Sensormodul wird für die Messung von zwei (bio-)chemischen Kenngrößen (pH, Penicillinkonzentration) und drei physikalischen Kenngrößen (Temperatur, Flußgeschwindigkeit bzw. Flußrichtung) unter dem Einsatz von lediglich zwei Sensorstrukturen, einem Ionengenerator und einer Referenzelektrode realisiert und deren Eigenschaften untersucht. Ein pH-sensitiver ISFET (Ionensensitiver Feldeffekttransistor) auf der Basis von Ta2O5 wird als Transducer eingesetzt. Details der experimentellen Ergebnisse, insbesondere Messungen in biologischen Flüssigkeiten, wie im humanen Blut bzw. Urin, werden demonstriert. Perspektiven des neuen Konzepts- „(Bio-)chemische und physikalische Sensoren auf der Basis eines einzigen Transducersprinzips“ werden diskutiert

Parallel Measurement and Modeling of Transport in the Darht II Beamline on ETA II

To successfully tune the DARHT II transport beamline requires the close coupling of a model of the beam transport and the measurement of the beam observables as the beam conditions and magnet settings are varied. For the ETA II experiment using the DARHT II beamline components this was achieved using the SUICIDE (Simple User Interface Connecting to an Integrated Data Environment) data analysis environment and the FITS (Fully Integrated Transport Simulation) model. The SUICIDE environment has direct access to the experimental beam transport data at acquisition and the FITS predictions of the transport for immediate comparison. The FITS model is coupled into the control system where it can read magnet current settings for real time modeling. We find this integrated coupling is essential for model verification and the successful development of a tuning aid for the efficient convergence on a useable tune. We show the real time comparisons of simulation and experiment and explore the successes and limitations of this close coupled approach

Motion Calculations on Stent Grafts in AAA

Endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) is a technique which uses stent grafts to treat aortic aneurysms in patients at risk of aneurysm rupture. Although this technique has been shown to be very successful on the short term, the long term results are less optimistic due to failure of the stent graft. The pulsating blood flow applies stresses and forces to the stent graft, which can cause problems such as breakage, leakage, and migration. Therefore it is of importance to gain more insight into the in vivo motion behavior of these devices. If we know more about the motion patterns in well-behaved stent graft as well as ill-behaving devices, we shall be better able to distinguish between these type of behaviors These insights will enable us to detect stent-related problems and might even be used to predict problems beforehand. Further, these insights will help in designing the next generation stent grafts. Firstly, this work discusses the applicability of ECG-gated CT for measuring the motions of stent grafts in AAA. Secondly, multiple methods to segment the stent graft from these data are discussed. Thirdly, this work proposes a method that uses image registration to apply motion to the segmented stent mode

Typical support and Sanov large deviations of correlated states

Discrete stationary classical processes as well as quantum lattice states are asymptotically confined to their respective typical support, the exponential growth rate of which is given by the (maximal ergodic) entropy. In the iid case the distinguishability of typical supports can be asymptotically specified by means of the relative entropy, according to Sanov's theorem. We give an extension to the correlated case, referring to the newly introduced class of HP-states.Comment: 29 pages, no figures, references adde

Pseudo-single crystal electrochemistry on polycrystalline electrodes : visualizing activity at grains and grain boundaries on platinum for the Fe2+/Fe3+ redox reaction

The influence of electrode surface structure on electrochemical reaction rates and mechanisms is a major theme in electrochemical research, especially as electrodes with inherent structural heterogeneities are used ubiquitously. Yet, probing local electrochemistry and surface structure at complex surfaces is challenging. In this paper, high spatial resolution scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) complemented with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is demonstrated as a means of performing ‘pseudo-single-crystal’ electrochemical measurements at individual grains of a polycrystalline platinum electrode, while also allowing grain boundaries to be probed. Using the Fe2+/3+ couple as an illustrative case, a strong correlation is found between local surface structure and electrochemical activity. Variations in electrochemical activity for individual high index grains, visualized in a weakly adsorbing perchlorate medium, show that there is higher activity on grains with a significant (101) orientation contribution, compared to those with (001) and (111) contribution, consistent with findings on single-crystal electrodes. Interestingly, for Fe2+ oxidation in a sulfate medium a different pattern of activity emerges. Here, SECCM reveals only minor variations in activity between individual grains, again consistent with single-crystal studies, with a greatly enhanced activity at grain boundaries. This suggests that these sites may contribute significantly to the overall electrochemical behavior measured on the macroscale