Evaluation of Weight Change During Carboplatin Therapy in Dogs With Appendicular Osteosarcoma.

BackgroundThe prevalence of cancer cachexia in veterinary medicine has not been studied widely, and as of yet, no definitive diagnostic criteria effectively assess this syndrome in veterinary patients.Objectives(1) To determine the patterns of weight change in dogs with appendicular osteosarcoma treated with amputation and single-agent carboplatin during the course of adjuvant chemotherapy; and (2) to determine whether postoperative weight change is a negative prognostic indicator for survival time in dogs with osteosarcoma.AnimalsEighty-eight dogs diagnosed with appendicular osteosarcoma. Animals were accrued from 3 veterinary teaching hospitals.MethodsRetrospective, multi-institutional study. Dogs diagnosed with appendicular osteosarcoma and treated with limb amputation followed by a minimum of 4 doses of single-agent carboplatin were included. Data analyzed in each patient included signalment, tumor site, preoperative serum alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP), and body weight (kg) at each carboplatin treatment.ResultsA slight increase in weight occurred over the course of chemotherapy, but this change was not statistically significant. Weight change did not have a significant effect on survival. Institution, patient sex, and serum ALP activity did not have a significant effect on survival.Conclusions and clinical importanceWeight change was not a prognostic factor in these dogs, and weight loss alone may not be a suitable method of determining cancer cachexia in dogs with appendicular osteosarcoma

A simplified, cost- and time-effective procedure for genotyping pearl millet in resource-limited laboratories

Procedures for DNA extraction and genotyping of large plant populations are cumbersome and expensive for resource-limited laboratories. Through eliminating or changing several steps used in DNA extraction, PCR amplification and PAGE electrophoresis in pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.], we developed a modified procedure that reduced the cost of consumables and required less time without compromising data quality. In the revised procedure, DNA was extracted by incubating 0.5 - 0.7 g ground young leaf tissue in 2% CTAB/-mercaptoethanol followed by refrigerated differential centrifugations with phenol:chloroform:isoamylalcohol. Steps such as additional  phenol/chloroform treatments, DNA pellet drying followed by RNase treatments and incubation were eliminated, reducing use of costly and corrosive chemicals and saving time. DNA produced from 174 genotypes exhibited an average concentration of 640 ng/ìL and average optical density ratio of 1.9. PCR amplification of SSR markers with this DNA produced clear and scorable bands following ethidium bromide stained agarose and silver stained polyacrylamide gel eletcrophoresis. Post PCR duplexing of two or more microsatellites based on different lengths of base pairs reduced the time and cost per unit data generation by up to half as compared to single marker per PAGE. Cluster analysis performed on the marker data generated 11 SSR primers following these procedures formed two main groups from genotypes of the U.S. origin. In summary, the procedures reported are simplified, shortened and economical and well suited for resource limited laboratories engaged in molecular breeding requiring large volume of genotyping

Analysis of genetic diversity in female, male and half sibs willow genotypes through RAPD and SSR markers

Willows belong to the genus Salix (Salicaceae) and consist of large number of species with large phenotypic variations. As a result, it has a low diagnostic value for identifying pure species and interspecific hybrids. Genetic characterization of 34 reference genotypes (4 female, 10 male, and 20 half sibs) of Salix collected from Naganji Nursery of University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India were analyzed using 10 SSRs and 15 RAPDs PCR-based molecular markers. RAPD analysis yielded 87 polymorphic fragments (98.9%), with an average of 5.8 polymorphic fragments per primer. Similarly, SSR analysis produced 33 bands, out of which 26 were polymorphic (78.8%) with an average of 2.6 polymorphic fragments per primer. The genetic diversity was high among the genotypes (Nei’s genetic diversity = 0.468 and Shannon’s information index = 0.659) as measured by combination of both RAPD and SSR markers. The mean coefficient of gene differentiation (Gst) was 0.034, indicating 96.6% of the genetic diversity resided within the genotypes. The genetic diversity among genotypes of Salix sp. was found to be high, suggesting the importance and feasibility of introducing elite genotypes from different origins for Salix germplasm conservation and breeding programs.Keywords: Salix sp., half sibs, molecular markers, genomic DNA fingerprinting.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(29), pp. 4578-458

Pharmacokinetics of articaine hydrochloride and its metabolite articainic acid after subcutaneous administration in red deer (Cervus elaphus)

“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in New Zealand Veterinary Journal on 23 October 2017, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00480169.2017.1391141”Publishe

Special limits and non-relativistic solutions

We study special vanishing horizon limit of `boosted' black D3-branes having a compact light-cone direction. The type IIB solution obtained by taking such a zero temperature limit is found to describe a nonrelativistic system with dynamical exponent 3. We discuss about such limits in M2-branes case also.Comment: 10 pages; V2: various changes in interpretations including title; no change in mathematical results, V3: minor font typo in eq.(7) remove

Remanufacturing of functional surfaces using developed ECH machine

Determination of optimal input parameters is one of the important elements in any process planning of the metal parts. The aim of the study is to investigate the optimization of processing parameters in order to enhance the surface micro-finish and geometrical accuracy of the recovered functional surfaces made of SS316 material using a newly developed electrochemical honing (ECH) machine. ECH is a prominent hybrid machining process, which is widely used for precision finishing of intricate shapes and hard materials with an efficient and effective manner. In this work, discarded functional surface of the cylindrical shafts is recovered using twin wire arc (TWA) technique and its surface topography was studied using developed micro-finish machine. The results show that the ECH of recovered surfaces gives a glazed texture and produce an average surface roughness of 0.347 μm with the processing time of 90 s. The monitored outputs such as surface roughness (average, Ra and maximum, Rt) and geometrical accuracy such as out-of-roundness (OR) was measured during the investigation to optimized the process performance characteristics

Holographic flows to IR Lifshitz spacetimes

Recently we studied `vanishing' horizon limits of `boosted' black D3-brane geometry \cite{hsnr}. The type IIB solutions obtained by taking these special double limits were found to describe nonrelativistic Lifshitz spacetimes at zero temperature. In the present work we study these limits for TsT black-hole solutions which include $B$-field. The new Galilean solutions describe a holographic RG flow from Schr\"odinger ($a=2$) spacetime in UV to a Lifshitz universe ($a=3$) in the IR.Comment: 10 pages; v2: A bad typo in eq.8 corrected; v3: Discussion and reference on Kaigorodov spaces included, correction in sec-3, to be published in JHE

Lifshitz/Schr\"odinger D-p-branes and dynamical exponents

We extend our earlier study of special double limits of `boosted' $AdS_5$ black hole solutions to include all black D$p$-branes of type II strings. We find that Lifshitz solutions can be obtained in generality, with varied dynamical exponents, by employing these limits. We then study such double limits for `boosted' D$p$-brane bubble solutions and find that the resulting non-relativistic solutions instead describe Schr\"odinger like spacetimes, having varied dynamical exponents. We get a simple map between these Lifshitz & Schr\"odinger solutions and a relationship between two types of dynamical exponents. We also discuss about the singularities of the Lifshitz solutions and an intriguing thermodynamic duality.Comment: 20 pages; 3 figures; v3: similar to JHE

Improving the scalability of parallel N-body applications with an event driven constraint based execution model

The scalability and efficiency of graph applications are significantly constrained by conventional systems and their supporting programming models. Technology trends like multicore, manycore, and heterogeneous system architectures are introducing further challenges and possibilities for emerging application domains such as graph applications. This paper explores the space of effective parallel execution of ephemeral graphs that are dynamically generated using the Barnes-Hut algorithm to exemplify dynamic workloads. The workloads are expressed using the semantics of an Exascale computing execution model called ParalleX. For comparison, results using conventional execution model semantics are also presented. We find improved load balancing during runtime and automatic parallelism discovery improving efficiency using the advanced semantics for Exascale computing.Comment: 11 figure

Banded leaf and sheath blight: an emerging disease of maize (Zea mays L)

The basidiomycetes fungus Rhizoctonia solani is a major pathogen of maize worldwide, particularly in China, South Asian and South East Asian countries. It causes banded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB) on plants, which is considered an emerging disease, accompanied by small losses to total wipeout of the crop. This disease is more prevalent in humid weather with temperature around 28°C. The genetics of inheritance of this disease is unclear. Digenic as well as oligogenic inheritance of disease has been reported. A number of QTLs have been identified which will help to expedite breeding program against BLSB. Moreover, various chemical and biological control methods have been developed, but major emphasis is on development of maize cultivars with genetic resistance to BLSB for environment friendly control of the disease