Effects of dietary chromium on growth, amino acid content and proteomic changes in Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

781-786To assess the effect of dietary chromium, the growth rate, amino acid content and proteomic changes in the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus were compared, when fed with the diets amended with chromium-treated (58.27 mg Cr/kg dry weight) Macrocystis pyrifera and a Cr-free control diet (5.83 mg Cr/kg dry weight). After 10 days, the dietary chromium exposure decreased its growth rate and the amino acid content also changed. The proteomic changes were analyzed in A. japonicus after it was fed for 10 days with Cr-added and Cr-free control diet. The total of 1587 proteins were identified, of which 28 proteins were identified as differentially regulated proteins in sea cucumber to Cr stress. Among them, 10 proteins were identified. In summary, this work reported toxic effects in sea cucumber A. japonicus after dietary exposure to Cr

The effect of timing of oral meloxicam administration on physiological responses in calves after cautery dehorning with local anesthesia.

Abstract Dehorning is a painful husbandry procedure that is commonly performed in dairy calves. Parenteral meloxicam combined with local anesthesia mitigates the physiological and behavioral effects of dehorning in calves. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of timing of oral meloxicam administration on physiological responses in calves after dehorning. Thirty Holstein bull calves, 8 to 10 wk of age (28–70kg), were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups: placebo-treated control group (n=10), calves receiving meloxicam administered orally (1 mg/kg) in powdered milk replacer 12h before cautery dehorning (MEL-PRE; n=10), and calves receiving meloxicam administered as an oral bolus (1 mg/kg) at the time of dehorning (MEL-POST; n=10). Following cautery dehorning, blood samples were collected to measure cortisol, substance P (SP), haptoglobin, ex vivo prostaglandin E 2 (PgE 2 ) production after lipopolysaccharide stimulation and meloxicam concentrations. Maximum ocular temperature and mechanical nociceptive threshold (MNT) were also assessed. Data were analyzed using noncompartmental pharmacokinetic analysis and repeated measures ANOVA models. Mean peak meloxicam concentrations were 3.61±0 0.21 and 3.27±0.14μg/mL with average elimination half-lives of 38.62±5.87 and 35.81±6.26h for MEL-PRE and MEL-POST, respectively. Serum cortisol concentrations were lower in meloxicam-treated calves compared with control calves at 4h postdehorning. Substance P concentrations were significantly higher in control calves compared with meloxicam-treated calves at 120h after dehorning. Prostaglandin E 2 concentrations were lower in meloxicam-treated calves compared with control calves. Mechanical nociceptive threshold was higher in control calves at 1h after dehorning, but meloxicam-treated calves tended to have a higher MNT at 6h after dehorning. No effect of timing of meloxicam administration on serum cortisol concentrations, SP concentrations, haptoglobin concentrations, maximum ocular temperature, or MNT was observed. However, PgE 2 concentrations in MEL-PRE calves were similar to control calves after 12h postdehorning, whereas MEL-POST calves had lower PgE 2 concentrations for 3 d postdehorning. These findings support that meloxicam reduced cortisol, SP, and PgE 2 after dehorning, but only PgE 2 production was significantly affected by the timing of meloxicam administration

An Outcome Evaluation of the Implementation of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program in Hong Kong

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with a sample of Chinese parents of children with early onset conduct related problems in Hong Kong. The participants consisted of 91 parents whose children attended maternal and child health centers and child assessment centers for service, and were between three to seven years old. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (TP) and a waitlist control group (WL. There was no significant difference in pre-intervention measures between the two groups. However, at post intervention, participants in the TP group reported significantly lower levels of child behavior problems, lower dysfunctional parenting styles, and higher parent sense of competence, compared to the WL group. Implications of these findings for the use of Triple P with families of Chinese descent are discussed

Spectral and transport properties of doped Mott-Hubbard systems with incommensurate magnetic order

We present spectral and optical properties of the Hubbard model on a two-dimensional square lattice using a generalization of dynamical mean-field theory to magnetic states in finite dimension. The self-energy includes the effect of spin fluctuations and screening of the Coulomb interaction due to particle-particle scattering. At half-filling the quasiparticles reduce the width of the Mott-Hubbard `gap' and have dispersions and spectral weights that agree remarkably well with quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization calculations. Away from half-filling we consider incommensurate magnetic order with a varying local spin direction, and derive the photoemission and optical spectra. The incommensurate magnetic order leads to a pseudogap which opens at the Fermi energy and coexists with a large Mott-Hubbard gap. The quasiparticle states survive in the doped systems, but their dispersion is modified with the doping and a rigid band picture does not apply. Spectral weight in the optical conductivity is transferred to lower energies and the Drude weight increases linearly with increasing doping. We show that incommensurate magnetic order leads also to mid-gap states in the optical spectra and to decreased scattering rates in the transport processes, in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations in doped systems. The gradual disappearence of the spiral magnetic order and the vanishing pseudogap with increasing temperature is found to be responsible for the linear resistivity. We discuss the possible reasons why these results may only partially explain the features observed in the optical spectra of high temperature superconductors.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figure

Heavy quarkonium: progress, puzzles, and opportunities

A golden age for heavy quarkonium physics dawned a decade ago, initiated by the confluence of exciting advances in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and an explosion of related experimental activity. The early years of this period were chronicled in the Quarkonium Working Group (QWG) CERN Yellow Report (YR) in 2004, which presented a comprehensive review of the status of the field at that time and provided specific recommendations for further progress. However, the broad spectrum of subsequent breakthroughs, surprises, and continuing puzzles could only be partially anticipated. Since the release of the YR, the BESII program concluded only to give birth to BESIII; the $B$-factories and CLEO-c flourished; quarkonium production and polarization measurements at HERA and the Tevatron matured; and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC have opened a window on the deconfinement regime. All these experiments leave legacies of quality, precision, and unsolved mysteries for quarkonium physics, and therefore beg for continuing investigations. The plethora of newly-found quarkonium-like states unleashed a flood of theoretical investigations into new forms of matter such as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules, and tetraquarks. Measurements of the spectroscopy, decays, production, and in-medium behavior of c\bar{c}, b\bar{b}, and b\bar{c} bound states have been shown to validate some theoretical approaches to QCD and highlight lack of quantitative success for others. The intriguing details of quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions that have emerged from RHIC have elevated the importance of separating hot- and cold-nuclear-matter effects in quark-gluon plasma studies. This review systematically addresses all these matters and concludes by prioritizing directions for ongoing and future efforts.Comment: 182 pages, 112 figures. Editors: N. Brambilla, S. Eidelman, B. K. Heltsley, R. Vogt. Section Coordinators: G. T. Bodwin, E. Eichten, A. D. Frawley, A. B. Meyer, R. E. Mitchell, V. Papadimitriou, P. Petreczky, A. A. Petrov, P. Robbe, A. Vair

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters