Effects of date palm fruit extracts on skin mucosal immunity, immune related genes expression and growth performance of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fry

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of date palm fruit extracts (DPFE) on skin mucosal immunity, immune related genes expression and growth performance of fry common carp (Cyprinus carpio). One hundred and twenty specimens (4.06 ± 0.13 g) were supplied and allocated into six aquaria; specimens in three aquaria were fed non-supplemented diet (control) while the fish in the other 3 aquaria were fed with DPFE at 200 ml kg-1. At the end of feeding trial (8 weeks) skin mucus immune parameters (total immunoglobulins, lysozyme, protease and alkaline phosphatase activity) and immune related gene expression (tumor necrosis factor α [tnfa], lysozyme [ly] and interleukin-1-beta, [il1b]) in the head-kidney were studied. The results revealed that feeding carp fry with 200 ml kg-1 DPFE remarkably elevated the three skin mucus immune parameters tested (P 0.05) compared to control fish (fed control diet). Furthermore, growth performance parameters were significantly improved in fry fed DPFE (P < 0.05). More studies are needed to understand different aspects of DPFE administration in fry mucosal immunity. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd

Structural optimization of 3D masonry buildings

In the design of buildings, structural analysis is traditionally performed after the aesthetic design has been determined and has little influence on the overall form. In contrast, this paper presents an approach to guide the form towards a shape that is more structurally sound. Our work is centered on the study of how variations of the geometry might improve structural stability. We define a new measure of structural soundness for masonry buildings as well as cables, and derive its closed-form derivative with respect to the displacement of all the vertices describing the geometry. We start with a gradient descent tool which displaces each vertex along the gradient. We then introduce displacement operators, imposing constraints such as the preservation of orientation or thickness; or setting additional objectives such as volume minimization.Shell Oil CompanyNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (PGS Program)Samsung Scholarship Foundatio

Non-specific interstitial pneumonia as the initial presentation of biphenotypic acute leukemia: a case report

Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia has been linked to numerous etiologies including, most recently, haematologic malignancy. We present a 46-year-old woman with recent-onset rheumatologic illness who developed pulmonary symptoms as the presenting feature of biphenotypic acute leukaemia. Chest radiology demonstrated bilateral infiltrates, and lung biopsy revealed nonspecific interstitial pneumonia. Corticosteroid therapy resulted in resolution of both her pulmonary and rheumatologic symptoms, and her pulmonary symptoms did not recur following treatment of her leukemia. The case highlights the importance of searching for an underlying etiology when confronted with nonspecific interstitial pneumonia

Primary graft dysfunction after heart transplantation: a thorn amongst the roses

Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) remains the leading cause of early mortality post-heart transplantation. Despite improvements in mechanical circulatory support and critical care measures, the rate of PGD remains significant. A recent consensus statement by the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) has formulated a definition for PGD. Five years on, we look at current concepts and future directions of PGD in the current era of transplantation

Evaluation of adipose tissue volume quantification with IDEAL fat-water separation

Purpose: To validate iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL) for adipose tissue volume quantification. IDEAL allows MRI images to be produced only from adipose-containing tissues; hence, quantifying adipose tissue should be simpler and more accurate than with current methods. Materials and Methods: Ten healthy controls were imaged with 1.5 Tesla (T) Spin Echo (SE), 3.0T T1-weighted spoiled gradient echo (SPGR), and 3.0T IDEAL-SPGR. Images were acquired from the abdomen, pelvis, mid-thigh, and mid-calf. Mean subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue volumes were compared between the three acquisitions for each subject. Results: There were no significant differences (P \u3e 0.05) between the three acquisitions for subcutaneous adipose tissue volumes. However, there was a significant difference (P = 0.0002) for visceral adipose tissue volumes in the abdomen. Post hoc analysis showed significantly lower visceral adipose tissue volumes measured by IDEAL versus 1.5T (P \u3c 0.0001) and 3.0T SPGR (P \u3c 0.002). The lower volumes given by IDEAL are due to its ability to differentiate true visceral adipose tissue from other bright structures like blood vessels and bowel content that are mistaken for adipose tissue in non-fat suppressed images. Conclusion: IDEAL measurements of adipose tissue are equivalent to established 1.5T measurement techniques for subcutaneous depots and have improved accuracy for visceral depots, which are more metabolically relevant. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc

ISHLT primary graft dysfunction incidence, risk factors and outcome: a UK national study

Background: Heart transplantation (HTx) remains the most effective long-term treatment for advanced heart failure. Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) continues to be a potentially life-threatening early complication. In 2014, a consensus statement released by ISHLT established diagnostic criteria for PGD. We studied the incidence of PGD across the UK. Methods: We analysed the medical records of all adult patients who underwent heart transplantation between October 2012-October 2015 in the 6 UK heart transplant centers Preoperative donor and recipient characteristics, intraoperative details and posttransplant complications were compared between the PGD and non PGD groups using the ISHLT definition. Multivariable analysis was performed using logistic regression. Results: The incidence of ISHLT PGD was 36%. Thirty-day all-cause mortality in those with and without PGD was 31(19%) vs 13(4.5%) (p=0.0001). Donor, recipient and operative factors associated with PGD were: recipient diabetes mellitus (p=0.031), recipient preoperative BIVAD(p&lt;0.001) and preoperative ECMO (p=0.023), female donor to male recipient gender mismatch(p=0.007) older donor age (p=0.010) and intracerebral haemorrhage/thrombosis in donor (p=0.023). Intra-operatively, implant time (p=0.017) and bypass time(p&lt;0.001) were significantly longer in the PGD cohort. Perioperatively, patients with PGD received more blood products (p&lt;0.001). Risk factors identified by multivariable logistic regression were donor age (p=0.014), implant time (p=0.038), female: male mismatch (p=0.033), recipient diabetes (p=0.051) and preoperative VAD/ECMO support (p=0.012), Conclusion: This is the first national study to examine the incidence and significance of PGD after heart transplantation using the ISHLT definition. PGD remains a frequent early complication of heart transplantation and is associated with increased mortality

Enhanced neutralising antibody response to bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) induced by DNA vaccination in calves

DNA vaccination is effective in inducing potent immunity in mice; however it appears to be less so in large animals. Increasing the dose of DNA plasmid to activate innate immunity has been shown to improve DNA vaccine adaptive immunity. Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) is a critical cytoplasmic double-stranded RNA pattern receptor required for innate immune activation in response to viral infection. RIG-I recognise viral RNA and trigger antiviral response, resulting in type I interferon (IFN) and inflammatory cytokine production. In an attempt to enhance the antibody response induced by BVDV DNA in cattle, we expressed BVDV truncated E2 (E2t) and NS3 codon optimised antigens from antibiotic free-plasmid vectors expressing a RIG-I agonist and designated either NTC E2t(co) and NTC NS3(co). To evaluate vaccine efficacy, groups of five BVDV-free calves were intramuscularly injected three times with NTC E2t(co) and NTC NS3(co) vaccine plasmids individually or in combination. Animals vaccinated with our (previously published) conventional DNA vaccines pSecTag/E2 and pTriExNS3 and plasmids expressing RIG-I agonist only presented both the positive and mock-vaccine groups. Our results showed that vaccines coexpressing E2t with a RIG-I agonist induced significantly higher E2 antigen specific antibody response (p < 0.05). Additionally, E2t augmented the immune response to NS3 when the two vaccines were delivered in combination. Despite the lack of complete protection, on challenge day 4/5 calves vaccinated with NTC E2t(co) alone or NTC E2t(co) plus NTC NS3(co) had neutralising antibody titres exceeding 1/240 compared to 1/5 in the mock vaccine control group. Based on our results we conclude that co-expression of a RIG-I agonist with viral antigen could enhance DNA vaccine potency in cattle

High-temperature oxidation of nickel-based alloys and estimation of the adhesion strength of resulting oxide layers

The kinetics of isothermal oxidation (1100°C) of commercial nickel-based alloys with different content of sulfur (0.22–3.2 wt ppm) is studied. The adhesion strength in a metal/oxide system is estimated as a function of sulfur content and duration of high-temperature exposure. The scratch-test technique is proposed to quantitatively estimate the work of adhesion of resulting oxide films. It is found that the film microstructure is composed of an inner α-Al2O3 layer and an outer NiAl2O4 spinel layer, which are separated by discrete inclusions of TiO2. Residual stresses in the oxide film are experimentally determined by X-ray diffraction. spinel layer, which are separated by discrete inclusions of TiO2. Residual stresses in the oxide film are experimentally determined by X-ray diffractio

3D Cardiac Shape Prediction with Deep Neural Networks: Simultaneous Use of Images and Patient Metadata

Large prospective epidemiological studies acquire cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) images for pre-symptomatic populations and follow these over time. To support this approach, fully automatic large-scale 3D analysis is essential. In this work, we propose a novel deep neural network using both CMR images and patient metadata to directly predict cardiac shape parameters. The proposed method uses the promising ability of statistical shape models to simplify shape complexity and variability together with the advantages of convolutional neural networks for the extraction of solid visual features. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that uses such an approach for 3D cardiac shape prediction. We validated our proposed CMR analytics method against a reference cohort containing 500 3D shapes of the cardiac ventricles. Our results show broadly significant agreement with the reference shapes in terms of the estimated volume of the cardiac ventricles, myocardial mass, 3D Dice, and mean and Hausdorff distance