Force Transmission between Synergistic Skeletal Muscles through Connective Tissue Linkages

The classic view of skeletal muscle is that force is generated within its muscle fibers and then directly transmitted in-series, usually via tendon, onto the skeleton. In contrast, recent results suggest that muscles are mechanically connected to surrounding structures and cannot be considered as independent actuators. This article will review experiments on mechanical interactions between muscles mediated by such epimuscular myofascial force transmission in physiological and pathological muscle conditions. In a reduced preparation, involving supraphysiological muscle conditions, it is shown that connective tissues surrounding muscles are capable of transmitting substantial force. In more physiologically relevant conditions of intact muscles, however, it appears that the role of this myofascial pathway is small. In addition, it is hypothesized that connective tissues can serve as a safety net for traumatic events in muscle or tendon. Future studies are needed to investigate the importance of intermuscular force transmission during movement in health and disease

Investigation of Anaplasma marginale Seroprevalence in a Traditionally Managed Large California Beef Herd.

Recent observations by stakeholders suggested that ecosystem changes may be driving an increased incidence of bovine erythrocytic anaplasmosis, resulting in a reemerging cattle disease in California. The objective of this prospective cohort study was to estimate the incidence of Anaplasma marginale infection using seroconversion in a northern California beef cattle herd. A total of 143 Black Angus cattle (106 prebreeding heifers and 37 cows) were enrolled in the study. Serum samples were collected to determine Anaplasma marginale seroprevalence using a commercially available competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test kit. Repeat sampling was performed in seronegative animals to determine the incidence density rate from March through September (2013). Seroprevalence of heifers was significantly lower than that of cows at the beginning of the study (P < 0.001) but not at study completion (P = 0.075). Incidence density rate of Anaplasma marginale infection was 8.17 (95% confidence interval: 6.04, 10.81) cases per 1000 cow-days during the study period. Study cattle became Anaplasma marginale seropositive and likely carriers protected from severe clinical disease that might have occurred had they been first infected as mature adults. No evidence was found within this herd to suggest increased risk for clinical bovine erythrocytic anaplasmosis

Les immigrants et les syndicats

La présente étude a pour objectif de dresser un portrait du rapport que la population immigrante du Luxembourg entretient avec les syndicats, leurs modes d?action et leurs revendications. Partant du constat que les immigrants adhèrent moins aux syndicats que ne le font les non-immigrants, elle cherche plus spécifiquement à savoir dans quelle mesure la plus faible propension des immigrants à se syndiquer traduit des attitudes plus négatives vis-à-vis des syndicats et des diverses formes d?action collective et examine jusqu?à quel point elle s?inscrit dans le cadre d?une moindre participation sociale générale des immigrants. Distinguant ensuite trois thèmes susceptibles d?être abordés par les syndicats ? à savoir les conditions de travail, l?avenir du système de pension luxembourgeois, ainsi que l?Union européenne et son élargissement ? l?étude tente de savoir si les immigrants se caractérisent par des revendications particulières. Les résultats rendent compte de différences importantes entre les immigrants et les nonimmigrants, mais également entre les groupes d?immigrants eux-mêmes. Ces différences sont largement attribuables aux caractéristiques sociodémographiques des groupes d?immigrants mais une part non négligeable d?entre elles semblent provenir d?autres facteurs restant encore à examiner. L?étude conclut par conséquent sur la nécessité d?investigations plus poussées pour mieux saisir les spécificités des relations que les groupes d?immigrants entretiennent à l?égard de la syndicalisation et de l?action collective.immigrants; syndicats; attitudes politiques; action collective; participation sociale; relations professionnelles

Experimentation and Simulation of a Small-Scale Adsorption Cooling System in Temperate Climate

peer reviewedThis paper focuses on the analysis of the operation of a solar cooling system based upon an adsorption chiller. The air-conditioned building studied is a laboratory located in a temperate climate region (Belgium). The monitoring reveals thermal and electrical coefficient of performance (COP) of the cooling system for different time scale (10s to 1 month). The whole system including solar collectors, adsorption machine, recooling unit and hot storage is simulated. The models are then confronted to the measurements. Measurement period is shared between 2011 and 2012. Enhancements have been achieved during winter 2011 to have a more efficient system operation. The aim of this experimental work is to describe, for both measurement periods, the influence of operating conditions on the energy efficiency (thermal behavior and electrical consumption). On the simulation point of view, the main objective is to find accurate models for all the components. The adsorption chiller model is not yet precise enough to evaluate the performance of solar cooling in other conditions

BUZZARD: A NUMA-Aware In-Memory Indexing System

With the availability of large main memory capacities, in-memory index structures have become an important component of modern data management platforms. Current research even suggests index-based query processing as an alternative or supplement for traditional tuple-at-a-time processing models. However, while simple sequential scan operations can fully exploit the high bandwidth provided by main memory, indexes are mainly latency bound and spend most of their time waiting for memory accesses. Considering current hardware trends, the problem of high memory latency is further exacerbated as modern shared-memory multiprocessors with non-uniform memory access (NUMA) become increasingly common. On those NUMA platforms, the execution time of index operations is dominated by memory access latency that increases dramatically when accessing memory on remote sockets. Therefore, good index performance can only be achieved through careful optimization of the index structure to the given topology. BUZZARD is a NUMA-aware in-memory indexing system. Using adaptive data partitioning techniques, BUZZARD distributes a prefix-tree-based index across the NUMA system and hands off incoming requests to worker threads located on each partition's respective NUMA node. This approach reduces the number of remote memory accesses to a minimum and improves cache utilization. In addition, all indexes inside BUZZARD are only accessed by their respective owner, eliminating the need for synchronization primitives like compare-and-swap

Alternative Antriebe in der kommunalen Abfallwirtschaft und Stadtreinigung

ALTERNATIVE ANTRIEBE IN DER KOMMUNALEN ABFALLWIRTSCHAFT UND STADTREINIGUNG Alternative Antriebe in der kommunalen Abfallwirtschaft und Stadtreinigung / Maas, Thomas (Rights reserved) ( -

An integrated gene regulatory network controls stem cell proliferation in teeth.

Epithelial stem cells reside in specific niches that regulate their self-renewal and differentiation, and are responsible for the continuous regeneration of tissues such as hair, skin, and gut. Although the regenerative potential of mammalian teeth is limited, mouse incisors grow continuously throughout life and contain stem cells at their proximal ends in the cervical loops. In the labial cervical loop, the epithelial stem cells proliferate and migrate along the labial surface, differentiating into enamel-forming ameloblasts. In contrast, the lingual cervical loop contains fewer proliferating stem cells, and the lingual incisor surface lacks ameloblasts and enamel. Here we have used a combination of mouse mutant analyses, organ culture experiments, and expression studies to identify the key signaling molecules that regulate stem cell proliferation in the rodent incisor stem cell niche, and to elucidate their role in the generation of the intrinsic asymmetry of the incisors. We show that epithelial stem cell proliferation in the cervical loops is controlled by an integrated gene regulatory network consisting of Activin, bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and Follistatin within the incisor stem cell niche. Mesenchymal FGF3 stimulates epithelial stem cell proliferation, and BMP4 represses Fgf3 expression. In turn, Activin, which is strongly expressed in labial mesenchyme, inhibits the repressive effect of BMP4 and restricts Fgf3 expression to labial dental mesenchyme, resulting in increased stem cell proliferation and a large, labial stem cell niche. Follistatin limits the number of lingual stem cells, further contributing to the characteristic asymmetry of mouse incisors, and on the basis of our findings, we suggest a model in which Follistatin antagonizes the activity of Activin. These results show how the spatially restricted and balanced effects of specific components of a signaling network can regulate stem cell proliferation in the niche and account for asymmetric organogenesis. Subtle variations in this or related regulatory networks may explain the different regenerative capacities of various organs and animal species

The Integrated Mental Health Atlas of South Western Sydney

Partners in Recovery South Western Sydne