Intertarsal Joint Stabilization in a Bateleur Eagle (Terathopius ecaudatus) Using a Novel Application of a Braided Suture and Titanium Button System.

A 32-year-old adult captive male bateleur eagle (Terathopius ecaudatus) with a history of laxity, degenerative joint disease, and varus deviation of the distal left hindlimb for several years was presented for evaluation of left hindlimb lameness and was diagnosed with chronic subluxation of the left intertarsal joint. After failing to improve with conservative management and pain medication, surgical stabilization of the joint was performed using a novel application of a braided suture and titanium button system. Unsatisfactory clinical improvement and postsurgical reevaluation indicated that the initial surgical stabilization was unsuccessful. The surgery was repeated, and the animal showed postsurgical improvement in intertarsal joint stability, weight-bearing, and lameness for a period of several years with use and adjustment of chronic pain medications. The novel surgical technique described in this case report represents an additional treatment option for management of avian intertarsal joint subluxations. Presurgical planning should consider the unique anatomic features and variability of the avian tarsometatarsus to avoid surgical complications

New Product Development Processes in The Australian FMCG Industry.

This paper presents a study of new product development (NPD) processes in two large Australian organisations (National Foods and Lion Nathan) involved in the production of fast moving consumer goods. The research utilises the Australian Business Excellence Framework as a research lens for exploring NPD processes with a focus on the role of sales and operations management. A case study approach used data collected from employees in the two organisations who were involved the NPD process. The results showed a number of significant differences between the two organisations in the conduct and the effectiveness of their NPD processes. Although both organisations employed a formal Stage-Gate process, Lion Nathan did this more successfully than National Foods, perhaps because of Lion Nathan’s greater experience with using stage-gate methodology. This study highlights the importance of the role of sales and operation planning, especially in relation to collaborative demand forecasting. The importance of the leadership role was also evident particularly in relation to ensuring measurement, review, and improvement of NPD processes

Quantum incompressibility of a falling Rydberg atom, and a gravitationally-induced charge separation effect in superconducting systems

Freely falling point-like objects converge towards the center of the Earth. Hence the gravitational field of the Earth is inhomogeneous, and possesses a tidal component. The free fall of an extended quantum object such as a hydrogen atom prepared in a high principal-quantum-number stretch state, i.e., a circular Rydberg atom, is predicted to fall more slowly that a classical point-like object, when both objects are dropped from the same height from above the Earth. This indicates that, apart from "quantum jumps," the atom exhibits a kind of "quantum incompressibility" during free fall in inhomogeneous, tidal gravitational fields like those of the Earth. A superconducting ring-like system with a persistent current circulating around it behaves like the circular Rydberg atom during free fall. Like the electronic wavefunction of the freely falling atom, the Cooper-pair wavefunction is "quantum incompressible." The ions of the ionic lattice of the superconductor, however, are not "quantum incompressible," since they do not possess a globally coherent quantum phase. The resulting difference during free fall in the response of the nonlocalizable Cooper pairs of electrons and the localizable ions to inhomogeneous gravitational fields is predicted to lead to a charge separation effect, which in turn leads to a large repulsive Coulomb force that opposes the convergence caused by the tidal, attractive gravitational force on the superconducting system. A "Cavendish-like" experiment is proposed for observing the charge separation effect induced by inhomogeneous gravitational fields in a superconducting circuit. This experiment would demonstrate the existence of a novel coupling between gravity and electricity via macroscopically coherent quantum matter.Comment: `2nd Vienna Symposium for the Foundations of Modern Physics' Festschrift MS for Foundations of Physic

Can a charged ring levitate a neutral, polarizable object? Can Earnshaw's Theorem be extended to such objects?

Stable electrostatic levitation and trapping of a neutral, polarizable object by a charged ring is shown to be theoretically impossible. Earnshaw's Theorem precludes the existence of such a stable, neutral particle trap.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

G28.17+0.05: An unusual giant HI cloud in the inner Galaxy

New 21 cm HI observations have revealed a giant HI cloud in the Galactic plane that has unusual properties. It is quite well defined, about 150 pc in diameter at a distance of 5 kpc, and contains as much as 100,000 Solar Masses of atomic hydrogen. The outer parts of the cloud appear in HI emission above the HI background, while the central regions show HI self-absorption. Models which reproduce the observations have a core with a temperature <40 K and an outer envelope as much as an order of magnitude hotter. The cold core is elongated along the Galactic plane, whereas the overall outline of the cloud is approximately spherical. The warm and cold parts of the HI cloud have a similar, and relatively large, line width of approximately 7 km/s. The cloud core is a source of weak, anomalously-excited 1720 MHz OH emission, also with a relatively large line width, which delineates the region of HI self-absorption but is slightly blue-shifted in velocity. The intensity of the 1720 MHz OH emission is correlated with N(H) derived from models of the cold core. There is 12CO emission associated with the cloud core. Most of the cloud mass is in molecules, and the total mass is > 200,000 Solar Masses. In the cold core the HI mass fraction may be 10 percent. The cloud has only a few sites of current star formation. There may be about 100 more objects like this in the inner Galaxy; every line of sight through the Galactic plane within 50 degrees of the Galactic center probably intersects at least one. We suggest that G28.17+0.05 is a cloud being observed as it enters a spiral arm and that it is in the transition from the atomic to the molecular state.Comment: 35 pages, inludes 12 figure

Reduced free asparagine in wheat grain resulting from a natural deletion of TaASNB2: investigating and exploiting diversity in the asparagine synthetase gene family to improve wheat quality

Background: Understanding the determinants of free asparagine concentration in wheat grain is necessary to reduce levels of the processing contaminant acrylamide in baked and toasted wheat products. Although crop management strategies can help reduce asparagine levels, breeders have limited options to select for genetic variation underlying this trait. Asparagine synthetase enzymes catalyse a critical step in asparagine biosynthesis in plants and, in wheat, are encoded by five homeologous gene triads that exhibit distinct expression profiles. Within this family, TaASN2 genes are highly expressed during grain development but TaASN-B2 is absent in some varieties. Results: Natural genetic diversity in the asparagine synthetase gene family was assessed in different wheat varieties revealing instances of presence/absence variation and other polymorphisms, including some predicted to affect the function of the encoded protein. The presence and absence of TaASN-B2 was determined across a range of UK and global common wheat varieties and related species, showing that the deletion encompassing this gene was already present in some wild emmer wheat genotypes. Expression profiling confirmed that TaASN2 transcripts were only detectable in the grain, while TaASN3.1 genes were highly expressed during the early stages of grain development. TaASN-A2 was the most highly expressed TaASN2 homeologue in most assayed wheat varieties. TaASN-B2 and TaASN-D2 were expressed at similar, lower levels in varieties possessing TaASN-B2. Expression of TaASN-A2 and TaASN-D2 did not increase to compensate for the absence of TaASN-B2, so total TaASN2 expression was lower in varieties lacking TaASN-B2. Consequently, free asparagine levels in field-produced grain were, on average, lower in varieties lacking TaASN-B2, although the effect was lost when free asparagine accumulated to very high levels as a result of sulphur deficiency. Conclusions: Selecting wheat genotypes lacking the TaASN-B2 gene may be a simple and rapid way for breeders to reduce free asparagine levels in commercial wheat grain

A strongly magnetized pulsar within grasp of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole

The center of our Galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole, Sagittarius (Sgr) A*. Young, massive stars within 0.5 pc of SgrA* are evidence of an episode of intense star formation near the black hole a few Myr ago, which might have left behind a young neutron star traveling deep into SgrA*'s gravitational potential. On 2013 April 25, a short X-ray burst was observed from the direction of the Galactic center. Thanks to a series of observations with the Chandra and the Swift satellites, we pinpoint the associated magnetar at an angular distance of 2.4+/-0.3 arcsec from SgrA*, and refine the source spin period and its derivative (P=3.7635537(2) s and \dot{P} = 6.61(4)x10^{-12} s/s), confirmed by quasi simultaneous radio observations performed with the Green Bank (GBT) and Parkes antennas, which also constrain a Dispersion Measure of DM=1750+/-50 pc cm^{-3}, the highest ever observed for a radio pulsar. We have found that this X-ray source is a young magnetar at ~0.07-2 pc from SgrA*. Simulations of its possible motion around SgrA* show that it is likely (~90% probability) in a bound orbit around the black hole. The radiation front produced by the past activity from the magnetar passing through the molecular clouds surrounding the Galactic center region, might be responsible for a large fraction of the light echoes observed in the Fe fluorescence features.Comment: ApJ Letters in pres

KRAS-specific inhibition using a DARPin binding to a site in the allosteric lobe.

Inhibiting the RAS oncogenic protein has largely been through targeting the switch regions that interact with signalling effector proteins. Here, we report designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) macromolecules that specifically inhibit the KRAS isoform by binding to an allosteric site encompassing the region around KRAS-specific residue histidine 95 at the helix α3/loop 7/helix α4 interface. We show that these DARPins specifically inhibit KRAS/effector interactions and the dependent downstream signalling pathways in cancer cells. Binding by the DARPins at that region influences KRAS/effector interactions in different ways, including KRAS nucleotide exchange and inhibiting KRAS dimerization at the plasma membrane. These results highlight the importance of targeting the α3/loop 7/α4 interface, a previously untargeted site in RAS, for specifically inhibiting KRAS function

Dentate gyrus abnormalities in sudden unexplained death in infants: morphological marker of underlying brain vulnerability

Sudden unexplained death in infants, including the sudden infant death syndrome, is likely due to heterogeneous causes that involve different intrinsic vulnerabilities and/or environmental factors. Neuropathologic research focuses upon the role of brain regions, particularly the brainstem, that regulate or modulate autonomic and respiratory control during sleep or transitions to waking. The hippocampus is a key component of the forebrain–limbic network that modulates autonomic/respiratory control via brainstem connections, but its role in sudden infant death has received little attention. We tested the hypothesis that a well-established marker of hippocampal pathology in temporal lobe epilepsy—focal granule cell bilamination in the dentate, a variant of granule cell dispersion—is associated with sudden unexplained death in infants. In a blinded study of hippocampal morphology in 153 infants with sudden and unexpected death autopsied in the San Diego County medical examiner’s office, deaths were classified as unexplained or explained based upon autopsy and scene investigation. Focal granule cell bilamination was present in 41.2 % (47/114) of the unexplained group compared to 7.7 % (3/39) of the explained (control) group (p < 0.001). It was associated with a cluster of other dentate developmental abnormalities that reflect defective neuronal proliferation, migration, and/or survival. Dentate lesions in a large subset of infants with sudden unexplained death may represent a developmental vulnerability that leads to autonomic/respiratory instability or autonomic seizures, and sleep-related death when the infants are challenged with homeostatic stressors. Importantly, these lesions can be recognized in microscopic sections prepared in current forensic practice. Future research is needed to determine the relationship between hippocampal and previously reported brainstem pathology in sudden infant death. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00401-014-1357-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users