Mastitis Control and Somatic Cell Counts.

6 p

Mastitis Control and Somatic Cell Counts.

6 p

Emerging trends for urban freight transport-The potential for sustainable micromobility

Aim Active transportation referring to non-motorized modes of transport is promoted and popularized both in practice and in the scientific literature, while their use for urban freight transport has been largely neglected. Thus the main scope of the paper is to indicate the development potential of micromobility use in urban freight transport and to check its influence on urban sustainability. Methods The authors have hypothesized that active means of transport, with a focus on micromobility, have great development potential in freight transportation in cities. The implemented methods for analyzing the relationship between users’ characteristics, micromobility, and its impact on urban sustainable development, were logit and probit modelling. The authors’ system includes an analysis of factors connected with the topics of sustainability and micromobilty, that have met an essential scientific gap that this paper addresses. Logistic (logit) regression is used mainly for binary, ordinal, and multi-level outcomes to find the probability of success (i.e. occurrence of some event). Probit regression, however, is primarily used in binary response models and assumes the normal distribution of data. Results The main finding of the article has led the authors to the statement that active means of transport, including micromobility have great development potential in freight transportation in cities. Conclusions Knowledge of the acceptance of micromobility solutions is essential for municipal authorities in shaping the development of urban transport systems. Thus proper strategies and actions need to be prioritized to leverage the sustainability-related co-benefits of active transport

The temperature of caffeine administered during pregnancy and foetal morphometric parameters

Background: Caffeine is one of the most frequently ingested (at various temperatures) xenobiotics by people. A number of studies have confirmed the negative effect of high doses of caffeine ingested during pregnancy both for the mother and the developing foetus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between caffeine’s toxicity on development and the administered solution’stemperature.Materials and methods: The research was conducted on rats. The fertilised females were randomly divided into two main groups: an experimental (E) and a control group (C). The experimental groups received caffeine (30 mg/day) in10 (E1), 25 (E2) and 45°C (E3). The females in the control group were given water at the same temperature (C1, C2 and C3). On the 21st day of pregnancy, the pregnant females were killed by decapitation using a specially prepared laboratory guillotine and were assessed morphometric parameters of foetuses.Results and Conclusions: Based on this work showed that: the embryotoxic effect of caffeine was only confined to a reduction in the number of offspring; the greatest changes in the morphometric parameters occurred in foetuses whose mothers received caffeine at 10°C; in the control groups, the greatest changes were observed in foetuses whose mothers were given water at 10°C during pregnancy

Characterisation of Hybrid Pixel Detectors with capacitive charge division

In order to fully exploit the physics potential of the future high energy e+ e- linear collider, a Vertex Tracker providing high resolution track reconstruction is required. Hybrid pixel sensors are an attractive technology due to their fast read-out capabilities and radiation hardness. A novel pixel detector layout with interleaved cells between the readout nodes has been developed to improve the single point resolution. The results of the characterisation of the first processed prototypes are reported.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, presented at LCWS2000, Linear Collider Workshop, October 24-28 2000, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, U.S.A. Proceedings to be published by the American Institute of Physic

Bridging the Location Gap: Physician Perspectives of Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration in Patient Care (BRIDGE Phase II)

Background: To optimize patient outcomes, the patient-centred medical home model emphasizes comprehensive team-based care. Pharmacists are qualified to enhance appropriate medication use and help improve patient outcomes through provision of medication therapy management (MTM) services. To optimally provide MTM, pharmacists must effectively collaborate with physicians. This study explored factors that influence pharmacist-physician collaboration. Methods and Findings: A convenience sample of five physicians participated in semi-structured interviews and the resulting data were analyzed using qualitative methods. Transcripts of the interviews were independently coded for themes by two researchers. Five themes emerged: trustworthiness, role specification, relationship initiation, effects on practice, and professional awareness/expectations. Conclusions: Overall interviewees spoke positively about pharmacists; however, when discussing collaboration, they spoke almost exclusively about pharmacists within their clinic. Since most pharmacists practice outside of clinics, bridging the location gap is imperative for collaboration. In addition, physicians lacked an overall understanding of pharmacists’ training and clinical capacity. This may inhibit pharmacists from participating to their full professional capability within integrated healthcare teams. One approach to resolve this lack of physician understanding of pharmacists’ role and value may be to co-educate health professional students. Further research is needed to explore ways to improve interprofessional collaborative care

Specificity of DNA methylation in the hypertensive kidney

Background: Evidence suggests that DNA methylation (5mC) is important in the development of essential hypertension (EH). The 5mC percentage, a measurement for global methylation studies, in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) has been previously associated with hypertension. Methylation patterns are tissue-specific, contributing to differences in transcriptional regulation and cellular differentiation. So far, there have been no studies of 5mC in the kidney – an important effector organ in EH. Furthermore, there has been no investigation of the relationship between 5mC patterns in the hypertensive kidney and PBLs. Aims: (i) To determine if global 5mC in the kidney is correlated to hypertension diagnosis and blood pressure (BP) regulation. (ii) To determine whether PBLs provide a surrogate for cross-tissue patterns of 5mC in the kidney. Methods: We used 96 human kidney and 76 human PBL samples from the TRANSLATE study to investigate global 5mC percentage. TRANSLATE consists of carefully characterized collections of "apparently healthy" specimens of human kidneys. Global methylation was determined using the 5mC ELISA kit (Zymo Research) that measures the total amount of 5mC present in a sample. Results: We found no association of global 5mC percentage in kidney (P=0.18) and PBL (P=0.54) with hypertension diagnosis, nor between PBL 5mC percentage and BP. However, a negative correlation was found between kidney 5mC percentage and systolic BP (r= –0.246; P <0.05), and diastolic BP (r= –0.319; P <0.01). This association was still evident after adjustment for antihypertensive medication for systolic BP (r= –0.210; P <0.05) and diastolic BP (r= –0.273; P <0.01). Furthermore, we found a strong positive correlation between normotensive kidneys and leukocyte 5mC percentages (r=0.864; P<0.01). Similarly, a strong positive correlation was evident for hypertensive kidneys and leukocyte 5mC percentages (r=0.916; P <0.01). Conclusion: Our findings show that kidney 5mC, but not PBL 5m C, is correlated to BP regulation. No relationship was evident for global 5mC and hypertension diagnosis, regardless of the tissue type studied. Furthermore, PBL 5mC global methylation percentage was highly correlated to kidney 5mC percentage. These results highlight the importance of further studies on the involvement of kidney DNA methylation in hypertension, as well as further investigation of the relationship between methylation patterns in the kidney and blood

A Pixel Vertex Tracker for the TESLA Detector

In order to fully exploit the physics potential of a e+e- linear collider, such as TESLA, a Vertex Tracker providing high resolution track reconstruction is required. Hybrid Silicon pixel sensors are an attractive sensor technology option due to their read-out speed and radiation hardness, favoured in the high rate TESLA environment, but have been so far limited by the achievable single point space resolution. A novel layout of pixel detectors with interleaved cells to improve their spatial resolution is introduced and the results of the characterisation of a first set of test structures are discussed. In this note, a conceptual design of the TESLA Vertex Tracker, based on hybrid pixel sensors is presentedComment: 20 pages, 11 figure

Longitudinal stability augmentation of seaplanes in planing

The towing tank experiments conducted at Yokohama National University from November 30 to December 9 in 2005 suggested a new way of suppressing a dangerous coupled motion between heave and pitch called porpoising. The research in this paper was developed on the observations made in the experiments and conducted numerical simulations to further investigate the parametric design space. Two linear-time-invariant models were developed: rigid-body planing craft (conventional float planes or flying boats), and flexibly supported planing craft. The latter could simulate the new method found in the experiments for suppressing porpoising. In this study, the stability of the oscillatory motions was analyzed to see the effect of design variables on the inception of porpoising. The parametric study of flexibly supported float planes in the context of porpoising was a new contribution in the conceptual design of seaplanes

Fatty foci within the heart and the accompanying changes in the coronary arteries diagnosed in electrocardiogram-gated multislice computed tomography of the heart

Background: The purpose of our study was to analyse the relationship between fatty foci within the heart and the accompanying changes in the coronary arteries supplying the relevant heart chambers in a large group of patients referred to multi-slice computed tomography with electrocardiogram-gating examinations (ECG-MSCT) for various clinical reasons. Materials and methods: The ECG-MSCT examinations of 1,830 consecutive patients were analysed. The examinations were performed using 8-row (1,015 patients) and 64-row (815 patients) MSCT, in pre- and postcontrast scanning. In the group of patients with fatty foci within the heart the concomitant changes in the coronary arteries were assessed. It was analysed: the type of changes in the arteries; the relationship between the locations of the fatty deposits and the occurrence and type of changes in the coronary arteries. Results: In 200 (10.9%) subjects fatty foci within the heart (112 men; 88 women; mean age 57.8) were detected. The distribution of the fat was as follows: right ventricle (RV) — 32.5%, left ventricle (LV) — 22.0%, biventricular — 45.5%. One hundred and seventy-two patients had concomitant changes in the coronary arteries. In patients with normal coronary arteries, significantly more often fatty deposits were localised within RV. Fat was primarily located subendocardially in the LV in patients with atherosclerosis in the left anterior descending artery (p &lt; 0.001), in the right coronary artery (RCA) (p = 0.003), and in the left circumflex artery (LCX) (p &lt; 0.001). Subpericardial locations of fatty deposits in RV significantly correlated with RCA bridging (p &lt; 0.02); the subpericardial location of fat in LV significantly correlated with LCX bridging (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Fatty replacement of the myocardium is common, occurring in up to 10% of diagnosed patients and the majority of this group had concomitant changes in the coronary arteries. However, in the group of patients without changes in the coronary arteries, the fatty deposits locate themselves significantly more frequently within the RV