Amino acids in the uterine luminal fluid reflects the temporal changes in transporter expression in the endometrium and conceptus during early pregnancy in cattle

In cattle, conceptus-maternal interactions are critical for the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. A major component of this early interaction involves the transport of nutrients and secretion of key molecules by uterine epithelial cells to help support conceptus development during the peri-implantation period of pregnancy. Objectives were to: 1) analyze temporal changes in the amino acid (AA) content of uterine luminal fluid (ULF) during the bovine estrous cycle; 2) understand conceptus-induced alterations in AA content; 3) determine expression of AA transporters in the endometrium and conceptus; and 4) determine how these transporters are modulated by (Progesterone) P4. Concentrations of aspartic acid, arginine, glutamine, histidine, lysine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine and tyrosine decreased on Day 16 of the estrous cycle but increased on Day 19 in pregnant heifers (P < 0.05). Glutamic acid only increased in pregnant heifers on Day 19 (P,0.001). Asparagine concentrations were greater in ULF of cyclic compared to pregnant heifers on Day 7 (P < 0.05) while valine concentrations were higher in pregnant heifers on Day 16 (P < 0.05). Temporal changes in expression of the cationic AA transporters SLC7A1 SLC7A4 and SLC7A6 occurred in the endometrium during the estrous cycle/early pregnancy coordinate with changes in conceptus expression of SLC7A4, SLC7A2 and SLC7A1 (P < 0.05). Only one acidic AA transporter (SLC1A5) increased in the endometrium while conceptus expression of SLC1A4 increased (P < 0.05). The neutral AA transporters SLC38A2 and SLC7A5 increased in the endometrium in a temporal manner while conceptus expression of SLC38A7, SLC43A2, SLC38A11 and SLC7A8 also increased (P < 0.05). P4 modified the expression of SLC1A1, -1A4, -1A5, -38A2 , -38A4, -38A7, -43A2, -6A14, -7A1, -7A5 and -7A7 in the endometrium. Results demonstrate that temporal changes in AA in the ULF reflect changes in transporter expression in the endometrium and conceptus during early pregnancy in cattle, some of which are modified by P4. © 2014 Forde et al

Reforming the New York Lieutenant Governor Replacement Process: A Policy Recommendation

New York\u27s governor has unilateral power to fill vacancies in the lieutenant governor\u27s office. This unchecked power is undemocratic and risks elevating unqualified officials. In this report, the Fordham Law School Rule of Law Clinic recommends reforming the lieutenant governor replacement process. Building on a recommendation advanced by the New York State Bar Association, the clinic recommends providing the Legislature an opportunity to confirm the governor\u27s nominees. If the Legislature rejects two nominations, the governor could choose a new lieutenant governor from among a group of elected and Senate-confirmed officials.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/rule_of_law_clinic/1003/thumbnail.jp

Achieving the impossible : A review of magic-based interventions and their effects on wellbeing

Research has demonstrated that involvement with mainstream performing arts, such as music and dance, can boost wellbeing. This article extends this work by reviewing little-known research on whether learning magic tricks can have an equally beneficial effect. We first present an historic overview of several magic-based interventions created by magicians, psychologists and occupational therapists. We then identify the potential benefits of such interventions, and review studies that have attempted to systematically assess these interventions. The studies have mostly revealed beneficial outcomes, but much of the work is of poor methodological quality (involving small numbers of participants and no control group), and has tended to focus on clinical populations. Finally, we present guidelines for future research in the area, emphasizing the need for more systematic and better-controlled studies.Peer reviewe

Is there a renoprotective value to leukodepletion during heart valve surgery? A randomized controlled trial (ROLO)

Background: Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) adversely affects outcomes after cardiac surgery. A major mediator of AKI is the activation of leukocytes through exposure to the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit. We evaluate the use of leukodepletion filters throughout bypass to protect against post-operative AKI by removing activated leukocytes during cardiac surgery. Methods: This is a single-centre, double-blind, randomized controlled trial comparing the use of leukodepletion versus a standard arterial filter throughout bypass. Elective adult patients undergoing heart valve surgery with or without concomitant procedures were investigated. The primary clinical outcome measured was the development of AKI according to the KDIGO criteria. Secondary measures included biomarkers of renal tubular damage (urinary Retinol Binding Protein and Kidney Injury Molecule-1), glomerular kidney injury (urinary Micro Albumin and serum Cystatin C) and urinary Neutrophil Gelatinase Associated Lipocalin, as well as the length of hospital stay and quality of life measures through EQ-5D-5L questionnaires. Results: The ROLO trial randomized 64 participants with a rate of recruitment higher than anticipated (57% achieved, 40% anticipated). The incidence of AKI was greater in the leukodepletion filter group (44% versus 23%, risk difference 21, 95% CI − 2 to 44%). This clinical finding was supported by biomarker levels especially by a tendency toward glomerular insult at 48 h, demonstrated by a raised serum Cystatin C (mean difference 0.11, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.23, p = 0.068) in the leukodepleted group. There was however no clear association between the incidence or severity of AKI and length of hospital stay. On average, health related quality of life returned to pre-operative levels in both groups within 3 months of surgery. Conclusions: Leukocyte depletion during cardiopulmonary bypass does not significantly reduce the incidence of AKI after valvular heart surgery. Other methods to ameliorate renal dysfunction after cardiac surgery need to be investigated. Trial registration: The trial was registered by the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry ISRCTN42121335. Registered on the 18 February 2014. The trial was run by the Bristol Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit. This trial was financially supported by the National Institute of Health Research (Research for Patient Benefit), award ID: PB-PG-0711-25,090

A Multidisciplinary, Science-Based Approach to the Economics of Climate Change

Economic analyses of environmental mitigation and other interdisciplinary public policy issues can be much more useful if they critically examine what other disciplines have to say, insist on using the most relevant observational data and the scientific method, and examine lower cost alternatives to the change proposed. These general principles are illustrated by applying them to the case of climate change mitigation, one of the most interdisciplinary of public policy issues. The analysis shows how use of these principles leads to quite different conclusions than those of most previous such economic analyses, as follows: The economic benefits of reducing CO2 emissions may be about two orders of magnitude less than those estimated by most economists because the climate sensitivity factor (CSF) is much lower than assumed by the United Nations because feedback is negative rather than positive and the effects of CO2 emissions reductions on atmospheric CO2 appear to be short rather than long lasting.The costs of CO2 emissions reductions are very much higher than usually estimated because of technological and implementation problems recently identified.Geoengineering such as solar radiation management is a controversial alternative to CO2 emissions reductions that offers opportunities to greatly decrease these large costs, change global temperatures with far greater assurance of success, and eliminate the possibility of low probability, high consequence risks of rising temperatures, but has been largely ignored by economists.CO2 emissions reductions are economically unattractive since the very modest benefits remaining after the corrections for the above effects are quite unlikely to economically justify the much higher costs unless much lower cost geoengineering is used.The risk of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming appears to be so low that it is not currently worth doing anything to try to control it, including geoengineering

A Four-Year Multi-Center Retrospective Observational Study of Pediatric Emergency Medical Services Utilization in a Large Metropolitan Health System

Study Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly decreased pediatric emergency department (ED) utilization. The objective of this study was to quantify the characteristics of pediatric EMS utilization both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a metropolitan health care system. Methods: We performed a multi-center, retrospective observational study of all pediatric ED visits between 1/1/2018 and 12/31/2021, that presented to one of nine EDs within our health system. The data were sorted by mode of arrival; children arriving to the ED via EMS, or arrival by other means. Data collection included a variety of demographic and clinical variables. We compared overall pediatric ED patients’ arrival methods as well as ED and EMS volumes by year using a binomial test with a null hypothesis that the population proportion equals 50%. Analysis compared ED mode of arrival, admission rate, and Emergency Severity Index (ESI) triage scores using chi-square tests. Results: There were 201,313 pediatric ED encounters for 118,744 unique patients meeting the inclusion criteria. There were 8,815 (4.38%) children who arrived via EMS compared to 192,498 (95.62%) children who arrived by other means (p \u3c 0.0001). Children who arrived via EMS had a higher admission rate of 22.27% (1963) compared to 5.9% (11,351, p \u3c 0.0001). ESI among children arriving via EMS was higher, with 44.3% (3847) having ESI 1 or 2 triage scores compared to 8.8% (16,790) for children arriving by other means (p \u3c 0.0001). Overall pediatric ED mortality was 0.03% (61 deaths), with 86.9% (53) of those children arriving via EMS (p \u3c 0.0001). Pediatric ED and EMS volumes in 2018 and 2019 pre-pandemic were 127,652 ED visits and 5,306 EMS visits, respectively, compared to 73,661 and 3,509 visits in 2020 and 2021. This represents a 42.3% overall reduction in pediatric ED visits (p \u3c 0.0001) and a 33.9% reduction in pediatric EMS visits (p \u3c 0.0001). Conclusion: Approximately 5% of pediatric ED encounters in our health system arrived via EMS. These children appeared to have higher acuity presentations and required inpatient services more often than children who arrived by other means. Pediatric ED and EMS encounters have decreased substantially since the onset of the pandemic

Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, andyears lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematicanalysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) includes a comprehensive assessment of incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) for 354 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Previous GBD studies have shown how the decline of mortality rates from 1990 to 2016 has led to an increase in life expectancy, an ageing global population, and an expansion of the non-fatal burden of disease and injury. These studies have also shown how a substantial portion of the world’s population experiences non-fatal health loss with considerable heterogeneity among different causes, locations, ages, and sexes. Ongoing objectives of the GBD study include increasing the level of estimation detail, improving analytical strategies, and increasing the amount of high-quality data.Research reported in this publication was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Melbourne, Public Health England, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the National Institute on Ageing of the National Institutes of Health (award P30AG047845), and the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (award R01MH110163)

A shared frequency set between the historical mid-latitude aurora records and the global surface temperature

Herein we show that the historical records of mid-latitude auroras from 1700 to 1966 present oscillations with periods of about 9, 10-11, 20-21, 30 and 60 years. The same frequencies are found in proxy and instrumental global surface temperature records since 1650 and 1850, respectively and in several planetary and solar records. Thus, the aurora records reveal a physical link between climate change and astronomical oscillations. Likely, there exists a modulation of the cosmic ray flux reaching the Earth and/or of the electric properties of the ionosphere. The latter, in turn, have the potentiality of modulating the global cloud cover that ultimately drives the climate oscillations through albedo oscillations. In particular, a quasi 60-year large cycle is quite evident since 1650 in all climate and astronomical records herein studied, which also include an historical record of meteorite fall in China from 619 to 1943. These findings support the thesis that climate oscillations have an astronomical origin. We show that a harmonic constituent model based on the major astronomical frequencies revealed in the aurora records is able to forecast with a reasonable accuracy the decadal and multidecadal temperature oscillations from 1950 to 2010 using the temperature data before 1950, and vice versa. The existence of a natural 60-year modulation of the global surface temperature induced by astronomical mechanisms, by alone, would imply that at least 60-70% of the warming observed since 1970 has been naturally induced. Moreover, the climate may stay approximately stable during the next decades because the 60-year cycle has entered in its cooling phase.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure

Equilibrium shapes and energies of coherent strained InP islands

The equilibrium shapes and energies of coherent strained InP islands grown on GaP have been investigated with a hybrid approach that has been previously applied to InAs islands on GaAs. This combines calculations of the surface energies by density functional theory and the bulk deformation energies by continuum elasticity theory. The calculated equilibrium shapes for different chemical environments exhibit the {101}, {111}, {\=1\=1\=1} facets and a (001) top surface. They compare quite well with recent atomic-force microscopy data. Thus in the InP/GaInP-system a considerable equilibration of the individual islands with respect to their shapes can be achieved. We discuss the implications of our results for the Ostwald ripening of the coherent InP islands. In addition we compare strain fields in uncapped and capped islands.Comment: 10 pages including 6 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. B. Related publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Role of Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Serial Feature-Positive Discrimination Task during Eyeblink Conditioning in Mice.

We investigated the role of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) in eyeblink serial feature-positive discrimination learning in mice using the mAChR antagonist. A 2-s light cue was delivered 5 or 6 s before the presentation of a 350-ms tone paired with a 100-ms periorbital electrical shock (cued trial) but not before the tone-alone presentation (non-cued trial). Mice received 30 cued and 30 non-cued trials each day in a random order. We found that saline-injected control mice were successfully discriminating between cued and non-cued trials within a few days of conditioning. The mice responded more frequently to the tone in cued trials than in non-cued trials. Analysis of conditioned response (CR) dynamics revealed that the CR onset latency was shorter in cued trials than in non-cued trials, despite the CR peak amplitude not differing significantly between the two conditions. In contrast, scopolamine-injected mice developed an equal number of CRs with similar temporal patterns irrespective of the presence of the cue during the 7 days of conditioning, indicating in a failure to acquire conditional discrimination. In addition, the scopolamine administration to the control mice after they had successfully acquired discrimination did not impair the conditional discrimination and expression of pre-acquired CR. These results suggest that mAChRs may play a pivotal role in memory formation in the conditional brain state associated with the feature cue; however they are unlikely to be involved in the development of discrimination after conditional memory had formed in the serial feature-positive discrimination task during eyeblink conditioning