Evaluation of the Dietary Effect of Hallabong Peel Oil on Growth, Hematological, and Immune Gene Expression in Rock Bream, Oplegnathus fasciatus Challenged with Edwardsiella tarda

In the present study we evaluated the dietary effect of Hallabong peel oil (HPO) on growth, disease resistance, and immune gene expression of rock bream, Oplegnathus fasciatus challenged with Edwardsiella tarda after a 4 week feeding trial with 5 treatments: control-C, probiotic–P, HPO (0.1%), HPO (0.5%), and P+HPO, diets. All fish groups were assessed for growth performance, innate immune parameters, serum biochemical profile, and immune gene expression in head kidney on 2nd, and 4th week, and 1st, 3rd and 7th day post infection with Edwardsiella tarda. Fish fed the HPO enriched diets showed increased growth performance with significantly decreased (P>0.05) mortality compared with the control and probiotic diet groups. The positive effects of HPO enriched diet were also found in all assessed innate immune and biochemical parameters which included increased respiratory burst and lysozyme activity, with significantly increased erythrocyte and leukocytes counts, increased serum protein, decreased glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol level in serum compared with control diet fed fish. Moreover, the probiotic bacterial count in the intestine of fish was enhanced with the HPO diet and the P+HPO diet compared to fish fed the probiotic diet. The head kidney of HPO enriched diet fed fish showed up-regulated expression of inflammatory cytokines genes such as TNFα, IL-1β, and FST, after 4th week of feeding trial which was increased ~2 to 3 times on 1dpi and 3 dpi. These results indicate that limonene rich (91.26%), HPO enriched diets enhance growth and immunity and enhance disease resistance of Oplegnathus fasciatus challenged against E. tarda

Non-monotonic temperature dependent transport in graphene grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Temperature-dependent resistivity of graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is investigated. We observe in low mobility CVD graphene device a strong insulating behavior at low temperatures and a metallic behavior at high temperatures manifesting a non-monotonic in the temperature dependent resistivity.This feature is strongly affected by carrier density modulation. To understand this anomalous temperature dependence, we introduce thermal activation of charge carriers in electron-hole puddles induced by randomly distributed charged impurities. Observed temperature evolution of resistivity is then understood from the competition among thermal activation of charge carriers, temperature-dependent screening and phonon scattering effects. Our results imply that the transport property of transferred CVD-grown graphene is strongly influenced by the details of the environmentComment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Magnetic interactions in transition metal doped ZnO : An abinitio study

We calculate the nature of magnetic interactions in transition-metal doped ZnO using the local spin density approximation and LSDA+\textit{U} method of density functional theory. We investigate the following four cases: (i) single transition metal ion types (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) substituted at Zn sites, (ii) substitutional magnetic transition metal ions combined with additional Cu and Li dopants, (iii) substitutional magnetic transition metal ions combined with oxygen vacancies and (iv) pairs of magnetic ion types (Co and Fe, Co and Mn, etc.). Extensive convergence tests indicate that the calculated magnetic ground state is unusually sensitive to the k-point mesh and energy cut-off, the details of the geometry optimizations and the choice of the exchange-correlation functional. We find that ferromagnetic coupling is sometimes favorable for single type substitutional transition metal ions within the local spin density approximation. However, the nature of magnetic interactions changes when correlations on the transition-metal ion are treated within the more realistic LSDA + \textit{U} method, often disfavoring the ferromagnetic state. The magnetic configuration is sensitive to the detailed arrangement of the ions and the amount of lattice relaxation, except in the case of oxygen vacancies when an antiferromagnetic state is always favored.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure

Pathogenicity and Immune Response of Starry Flounder, Platichthys stellatus, Infected with Vibrio anguillarum

Vibrio anguillarum is the aetiological agent of vibriosis, a disease affecting many marine fish species. The occurrence of vibriosis in starry flounder, Platichthys stellatus, grown in an aquaculture farm has demonstrated the urgent need for information on pathogenic infection and immune response for efficient disease management. This is the first study to report Vibrio anguillarum isolation and infection in starry flounder. We evaluated immune responses, serum biochemical parameters, and cumulative mortality of the fish by experimentally challenging healthy fish. The expression levels of five immune genes (TNF, TNFR, IL-6, MHCII, and CXC) were measured by real-time quantitative PCR. The transcriptional levels of the genes encoding tumor necrosis factor (TNF), TNF receptor (TNFR), interleukin-6 (IL-6), the major histocompatibility complex (MHC-II), and a chemokine (CXC) in the head-kidney of V. anguillarum infected fish were significantly upregulated compared with control fish and biochemical indices including the alanine aminotransferase, total serum protein, and glucose levels of infected fish differed significantly from those of control. Additionally, Starry flounder infected with V. anguillarum at 1.67 × 106 and 1.67 × 108CFU/mL showed 53%, and 100% mortality, respectively. This study furthers our understanding of the immune and serum biochemical alterations, and mortality induced by bacterial infections, depending on pathogen concentration. This may advance strategies for control of V. anguillarum in cultured starry flounde

Independent and incremental prognostic value of exercise single-photon emission computed tomographic (SPECT) thallium imaging in coronary artery disease

AbstractObjectives. The objective of this study was to examine the independent and incremental prognostic value of exercise singlephoton emission computed tomographic (SPECT) thallium imaging in patients with angiographically defined coronary artery disease.Background. Previous studies showed the importance of exercise thallium-201 in risk stratification. However, most of these studies used planar imaging techniques.Methods. Follow-up data were obtained in 316 medically treated patients with coronary artery disease. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the independent and incremental prognostic values of clinical exercise, thallium and cardiac catheterization data.Results. There were 35 events (cardiac death or nonfatal myocardial infarction) at a mean follow-up time of 28 months. Univariate analysis showed that gender (chi-square = 5.1), exercise work load (chi-square = 3.1), extent of coronary artery disease and left ventricular ejection fraction (chi-square = 14.8) and thallium variables (chi-square = 22.7) were prognostically important. The thallium data provided incremental prognostic value to catheterization data (chi-square = 33.7, p < 0.01). The extent of the perfusion abnormality was the single best predictor of prognosis (chi-square = 14). Patients with a large perfusion abnormality had a worse prognosis than that of patients with a mild or no abnormality (Mantel-Cox statistics = 10.6, p < 0.001).Conclusions. In medically treated patients with coronary artery disease, exercise SPECT thallium imaging provides independent and incremental prognostic information even when catheterization data are available. The extent of the perfusion abnormality is the single most important prognostic predictor

Dirty Black Holes and Hairy Black Holes

An approach based on considerations of the non-classical energy momentum tensor outside the event horizon of a black hole provides additional physical insight into the nature of discrete quantum hair on black holes and its effect on black hole temperature. Our analysis both extends previous work based on the Euclidean action techniques, and corrects an omission in that work. We also raise several issues related to the effects of instantons on black hole thermodynamics and the relation between these effects and results in two dimensional quantum field theory.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Methods for reduced cost and lower sample prep volumes for genetic analysis applications

As the cost of NGS has decreased, the library preparation cost has become a larger portion of the total expenditure. This is especially true for high-throughput applications, such as single-cell analysis. Therefore, there is a need to develop methods that can not only study the transcriptomes of single cells, but can also feasibly analyze large numbers of single cells. Miniaturizing the sample preparation volume provides the opportunity for significant cost savings. Using TTP Labtech’s mosquito liquid handlers, reagent and sample quantities can be scaled down to picogram values

Morphological changes of injected calcium phosphate cement in osteoporotic compressed vertebral bodies

SUMMARY: This study was undertaken to investigate the radiologic and clinical outcomes of vertebroplasty with calcium phosphate (CaP) cement in patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. The morphological changes of injected CaP cement in osteoporotic compressed vertebral bodies were variable and unpredictable. We suggest that the practice of vertebroplasty using CaP should be reconsidered. INTRODUCTION: Recently, CaP, an osteoconductive filler material, has been used in the treatment of osteoporotic compression fractures. However, the clinical results of CaP-cement-augmented vertebrae are still not well established. The purpose of this study is to assess the clinical results of vertebroplasty with CaP by evaluating the morphological changes of CaP cement in compressed vertebral bodies. METHODS: Fourteen patients have been followed for more than 2 years after vertebroplasty. The following parameters were reviewed: age, sex, T score, compliance with osteoporosis medications, visual analog scale score, compression ratio, subsequent compression fractures, and any morphological changes in the filler material. RESULTS: The morphological changes of injected CaP included reabsorption, condensation, bone formation (osteogenesis), fracture of the CaP solid hump, and heterotopic ossification. Out of 14 patients, 11 (78.6%) developed progression of the compression of the CaP-augmented vertebral bodies after vertebroplasty. CONCLUSIONS: The morphological changes of the injected CaP cement in the vertebral bodies were variable and unpredictable. The compression of the CaP-augmented vertebrae progressed continuously for 2 years or more. The findings of this study suggest that vertebroplasty using CaP cement should be reconsidered.ope