The flyby of Pluto and Charon by the New Horizons spacecraft provided high-resolution images of cratered surfaces embedded in the Kuiper belt, an extensive region of bodies orbiting beyond Neptune. ...Impact craters on Pluto and Charon were formed by collisions with other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) with diameters from ~40 kilometers to ~300 meters, smaller than most KBOs observed directly by telescopes. We find a relative paucity of small craters ≲13 kilometers in diameter, which cannot be explained solely by geological resurfacing. This implies a deficit of small KBOs (≲1 to 2 kilometers in diameter). Some surfaces on Pluto and Charon are likely ≳4 billion years old, thus their crater records provide information on the size-frequency distribution of KBOs in the early Solar System.
The Kuiper Belt hosts a swarm of distant, icy objects ranging in size from small, primordial planetesimals to much larger, highly evolved objects, representing a whole new class of previously ...unexplored cryogenic worlds. Pluto, the largest among them, along with its system of five satellites, has been revealed by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft flight through the system in July 2015, nearly a decade after its launch.
Purpose
Risk classification of primary prostate cancer in clinical routine is mainly based on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, Gleason scores from biopsy samples, and tumor-nodes-metastasis ...(TNM) staging. This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic performance of positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) in vivo models for predicting low-vs-high lesion risk (LH) as well as biochemical recurrence (BCR) and overall patient risk (OPR) with machine learning.
Methods
Fifty-two patients who underwent multi-parametric dual-tracer
18
FFMC and
68
GaGa-PSMA-11 PET/MRI as well as radical prostatectomy between 2014 and 2015 were included as part of a single-center pilot to a randomized prospective trial (NCT02659527). Radiomics in combination with ensemble machine learning was applied including the
68
GaGa-PSMA-11 PET, the apparent diffusion coefficient, and the transverse relaxation time-weighted MRI scans of each patient to establish a low-vs-high risk lesion prediction model (M
LH
). Furthermore, M
BCR
and M
OPR
predictive model schemes were built by combining M
LH
, PSA, and clinical stage values of patients. Performance evaluation of the established models was performed with 1000-fold Monte Carlo (MC) cross-validation. Results were additionally compared to conventional
68
GaGa-PSMA-11 standardized uptake value (SUV) analyses.
Results
The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) of the M
LH
model (0.86) was higher than the AUC of the
68
GaGa-PSMA-11 SUV
max
analysis (0.80). MC cross-validation revealed 89% and 91% accuracies with 0.90 and 0.94 AUCs for the M
BCR
and M
OPR
models respectively, while standard routine analysis based on PSA, biopsy Gleason score, and TNM staging resulted in 69% and 70% accuracies to predict BCR and OPR respectively.
Conclusion
Our results demonstrate the potential to enhance risk classification in primary prostate cancer patients built on PET/MRI radiomics and machine learning without biopsy sampling.
Large-herbivore migrations occur across gradients of food quality or food abundance that are generally determined by underlying geographic patterns in rainfall, elevation, or latitude, in turn ...causing variation in the degree of interspecific competition and the exposure to predators. However, the role of top-down effects of predation as opposed to the bottom-up effects of competition for resources in shaping migrations is not well understood. We studied 30 GPS radio-collared wildebeest and zebra migrating seasonally in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem to ask how predation and food availability differentially affect the individual movement patterns of these co-migrating species. A hierarchical analysis of movement trajectories (directions and distances) in relation to grass biomass, high-quality food patches, and predation risk show that wildebeest tend to move in response to food quality, with little attention to predation risk. In contrast, individual zebra movements reflect a balance between the risk of predation and the access to high-quality food of sufficient biomass. Our analysis shows how two migratory species move in response to different attributes of the same landscape. Counterintuitively and in contrast to most other animal movement studies, we find that both species move farther each day when resources are locally abundant than when they are scarce. During the wet season when the quality of grazing is at its peak, both wildebeest and zebra move the greatest distances and do not settle in localized areas to graze for extended periods. We propose that this punctuated movement in high-quality patches is explained by density dependency, whereby large groups of competing individuals (up to 1.65 million grazers) rapidly deplete the localized grazing opportunities. These findings capture the roles of predation and competition in shaping animal migrations, which are often claimed but rarely measured.
ABSTRACT
New protein ingredients are used to support pet food market growth and the development of new products while maintaining animal dietary needs. However, novel protein sources (e.g., ...spray-dried chicken, and (or) rice, pea, and potato protein concentrates) have limited data available regarding their protein quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate protein ingredients used in the pet food industry by laboratory analysis and a chick growth assay as a model. Following analysis for proximate and amino acid composition, chicks (six birds per pen with four pens per treatment) were fed experimental diets for 10 d. Diets contained 10% crude protein from each of the experimental protein sources (spray-dried egg-SDEG; spray-dried egg white-SDEW, spray-dried inedible whole egg-SDIE, chicken by-product meal-CBPM, chicken meal-CKML, low-temperature fluid bed air-dried chicken-LTCK, low-temperature and pressure fluid bed dried chicken-LTPC, spray-dried chicken-SDCK, whey protein concentrate-WPCT, corn gluten meal-CGML, corn protein concentrate-CPCT, potato protein isolate-PPIS, rice protein concentrate-RPCT, pea protein isolate-PEPI, soy protein isolate-SPIS, and soybean meal-SBML) along with an N-free diet (negative control). Chicks fed SDEG, SDIE, and LTPC had the highest protein efficiency ratio (PER; P < 0.0001; 5.18, 5.37, and 5.33, respectively), LTCK and SDCK were intermediate (4.54 and 4.79), and the CBPM and CKML were the lowest among the poultry proteins for EAA:NEAA, PER, and Lys availability. Among the vegetable proteins, PPIS and SBML had the highest PER values (3.60 and 3.48, P < 0.0001). In general, the chick PER method ranked the quality of animal protein sources higher than vegetable proteins, and these results were consistent with the EAA:NEAA ratio and Lys availability.
The effect of anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy on the antibody responses to vaccines is the subject of ongoing debate. Therefore, we investigated the effect of the three currently available ...anti-TNF agents on influenza vaccination outcomes in a patient population with long-standing disease.
In a prospective cohort study, we assessed the antibody response upon influenza vaccination in 112 patients with long-standing autoimmune disease treated with immunosuppressive medication either with anti-TNF (etanercept, adalimumab or infliximab; n = 64) or without anti-TNF (n = 48) and a control group of 18 healthy individuals. Antibody responses were determined by haemagglutination inhibition assay, before and 4 weeks after vaccination.
The proportion of individuals with a protective titre (>or=40) after vaccination was large (80-94%) and did not significantly differ between the three groups. Post-vaccination geometric mean antibody titres against influenza (A/H3N2 and B) were significantly lower in the 64 patients treated with anti-TNF compared with the 48 patients not receiving anti-TNF, and the healthy controls.
The antibody response to influenza vaccination in patients treated with anti-TNF is only modestly impaired. The proportion of patients that achieves a protective titre is not significantly diminished by the use of TNF blocking therapies.
Biodiversity Risks from Fossil Fuel Extraction Butt, N.; Beyer, H. L.; Bennett, J. R. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
10/2013, Letnik:
342, Številka:
6157
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The overlapping of biodiverse areas and fossil fuel reserves indicates high-risk regions.
Despite a global political commitment to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 through the 2002 Convention on ...Biological Diversity, declines are accelerating and threats are increasing (
1
). Major threats to biodiversity are habitat loss, invasion by exotic species and pathogens, and climate change, all principally driven by human activities. Although fossil fuel (FF) extraction has traditionally been seen as a temporary and spatially limited perturbation to ecosystems (
2
), even local or limited biodiversity loss can have large cascade effects on ecosystem function and productivity. We explore the overlap between regions of high marine and terrestrial biodiversity and FF reserves to identify regions at particular risk of ecosystem destruction and biodiversity loss from exposure to FF extraction.
ABSTRACT
The addition of fiber in chick feeds is known to dilute nutrients; as a result, this may reduce nutrient digestibility and performance. However, recent studies suggest that moderate ...inclusion of insoluble fibers (2 to 3%) may stimulate gizzard development, which could result in better nutrient utilization and chick growth. The previous fiber sources evaluated were subject to wide fluctuation in their nutritional and chemical composition due to variation in processing. Miscanthus giganteus is a C4 grass purposefully grown for its fiber content which has a consistent fiber composition compared to food process residues. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of dietary fiber source and particle size on day-old chick performance and nutrient digestibility. Day-old chicks (8 chicks per cage, 5 cages per treatment) were fed diets containing 3% of either sepiolite (SEP), cellulose (CEL), coarse beet pulp (BP), fine BP, coarse Miscanthus grass (MG), and fine MG. At the end of days 7, 14, and 21, chicks and experimental diets were weighed to compute average daily gain and feed intake. In addition, excreta from the previous 48 h of each data capture point was collected to determine nutrient digestibility. In general, chicks fed diets containing fiber consumed more feed, gained more weight, and had better feed conversion rate than birds fed the SEP diet. Particle size of the fiber had no effect on chick performance; however, nutrient utilization was higher (P < 0.05) for chicks fed coarse fiber particles compared to these fed fine fiber particles. Birds fed diets containing MG performed similar to chicks fed CEL (P > 0.05), but digestibility coefficients of birds fed BP diets were generally higher than chicks fed MG diets. In conclusion, chicks performed better with fiber in their diet and MG was comparable to CEL.
The New Horizons mission has provided resolved measurements of Pluto's moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. All four are small, with equivalent spherical diameters of approx.40 kilometers for Nix ...and Hydra and approx. 10 kilometers for Styx and Kerberos. They are also highly elongated, with maximum to minimum axis ratios of approx. 2. All four moons have high albedos (approx.50 to 90%) suggestive of a water-ice surface composition. Crater densities on Nix and Hydra imply surface ages of at least 4 billion years. The small moons rotate much faster than synchronous, with rotational poles clustered nearly orthogonal to the common pole directions of Pluto and Charon. These results reinforce the hypothesis that the small moons formed in the aftermath of a collision that produced the Pluto-Charon binary.
Background: the 16-item Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) has been shown to have excellent reliability and construct validity. However, for practical and clinical purposes, a shortened ...version of the FES-I would be useful. Objective: to develop and validate a shortened version of FES-I while preserving good psychometric properties. Design: initial development of a shortened version using data from a UK survey (Short FES-I; n = 704), test of reliability and validity of the Short FES-I using data from a Dutch survey (n = 300). Setting: community samples. Methods: comparison of reliability and validity of the Short FES-I and the FES-I in a random sample of 193 people aged between 70 and 92. Results: the internal and 4-week test–retest reliability of the Short FES-I is excellent (Cronbach's alpha 0.92, intra-class coefficient 0.83) and comparable to the FES-I. The correlation between the Short FES-I and the FES-I is 0.97. Patterns in differences with respect to mean scores according to age, sex, falls history, and overall fear of falling are similar for the Short FES-I and the FES-I. The FES-I had slightly better power to discriminate between groups differentiated by age, sex, falls history, and fear falling, but differences are small. Conclusions: the Short FES-I is a good and feasible measure to assess fear of falling in older persons. However, if researchers or clinicians are particularly interested in the distributions of specific fear of falling-related activities not included in the Short FES-I, the use of the full FES-I is recommended.
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