In this study, we investigated the pattern of floristic similarity as a function of geographical distances and environmental variability in well-drained uplands (terra firme) in Colombian Amazonia. ...The study site comprised three National Natural Parks, Tinigua, Chiribiquete, and Amacayacu, located in different geological units that represent a soil fertility gradient linked to parental materials. Differences in species richness between sites were compared using rarefaction analysis. A clear floristic transition appeared in the east-west direction following a soil fertility gradient along the first PCoA axis. In multiple regression analyses based on distance matrices, both geographical distances and geology explained 64 percent of the total floristic variation. Geographical distances alone accounted for 12 percent of variation in floristic similarities among plots, while geology alone accounted for 1 percent, and the joint effect of both explained 51 percent of the floristic variation. The species richness trend supports the existence of a latitudinal corridor southward of the geographical Equator in the Amazon basin, where tree diversity reaches the maximum expected values. A coupled effect of stochastic dispersal limitation and habitat specialization would certainly appear to be an appropriate explanation for tree species turnover in terra firme forests in Colombian Amazonia, strongly emphasizing that competition and neutrality must be supplementary rather than mutually exclusive processes. This result pinpoints the effect of dispersal on floral mixing as an ongoing active process for structuring tree communities in NW Amazonia, and the size of the reserves as a relevant issue to protect rare species from extinction by chance.
In this study, uterine blood flow area (BFA) has been evaluated for the first time using power Doppler ultrasound (PD) as a marker of endometritis in mares and jennies. The uterine BFA in healthy ...mares was greater in oestrus than in diestrus (p < .001). However, differences in endometrial blood flow between oestrus and diestrus were not observed in mares with endometritis. The uterine blood flow in healthy jennies is not affected by the oestrus cycle. Both species showed an increase in endometrial BFA in pathological uterine conditions compared to controls. BFA was a good marker of endometritis with an area under curve (AUC) (estrus:0.94 (p < .001) diestrus:0.98 (p < .001) in mares and AUC (0.91 (p < .0001) in jennies. The results of this preliminary study suggest that PD ultrasound in combination with computerized image analysis has the potential to be a very useful tool in the diagnosis of endometritis.
Reducing asthma exacerbation frequency is an important criterion for approval of asthma therapies, but the clinical features of exacerbation-prone asthma (EPA) remain incompletely defined.
To ...describe the clinical, physiologic, inflammatory, and comorbidity factors associated with EPA.
Baseline data from the NHLBI Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP)-3 were analyzed. An exacerbation was defined as a burst of systemic corticosteroids lasting 3 days or more. Patients were classified by their number of exacerbations in the past year: none, few (one to two), or exacerbation prone (≥3). Replication of a multivariable model was performed with data from the SARP-1 + 2 cohort.
Of 709 subjects in the SARP-3 cohort, 294 (41%) had no exacerbations and 173 (24%) were exacerbation prone in the prior year. Several factors normally associated with severity (asthma duration, age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status) did not associate with exacerbation frequency in SARP-3; bronchodilator responsiveness also discriminated exacerbation proneness from asthma severity. In the SARP-3 multivariable model, blood eosinophils, body mass index, and bronchodilator responsiveness were positively associated with exacerbation frequency (rate ratios 95% confidence interval, 1.6 1.2-2.1 for every log unit of eosinophils, 1.3 1.1-1.4 for every 10 body mass index units, and 1.2 1.1-1.4 for every 10% increase in bronchodilatory responsiveness). Chronic sinusitis and gastroesophageal reflux were also associated with exacerbation frequency (1.7 1.4-2.1 and 1.6 1.3-2.0), even after adjustment for multiple factors. These effects were replicated in the SARP-1 + 2 multivariable model.
EPA may be a distinct susceptibility phenotype with implications for the targeting of exacerbation prevention strategies. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT 01760915).
Young people in European countries are experiencing high levels of alcohol and drug use and escalating levels of sexually transmitted infections. Individually these represent major public health ...priorities. Understanding of the association between sex and substance use, and specifically the strategic roles for which young people utilise substances to facilitate sexual activity, remains limited.
Respondent driven sampling methodology was used in nine European cities to survey 1,341 16-35 year olds representing youth and younger adults who routinely engage in nightlife. Participants self-completed questionnaires, designed to gather demographic, social, and behavioural data on historic and current substance use and sexual behaviour.
Respondents reported strategic use of specific substances for different sexual purposes. Substances differed significantly in the purposes for which each was deployed (e.g. 28.6% of alcohol users use it to facilitate sexual encounters; 26.2% of cocaine users use it to prolong sex) with user demographics also relating to levels of sexual use (e.g. higher levels of: ecstasy use by males to prolong sex; cocaine use by single individuals to enhance sensation and arousal). Associations between substance use and sex started at a young age, with alcohol, cannabis, cocaine or ecstasy use before age 16 all being associated with having had sex before the age of 16 (odds ratios, 3.47, 4.19, 5.73, 9.35 respectively). However, sexes differed and substance use under 16 years was associated with a proportionately greater increase in early sex amongst girls. Respondents' current drug use was associated with having multiple sexual partners. Thus, for instance, regular cocaine users (c.f. never users) were over five times more likely to have had five or more sexual partners in the last 12 months or have paid for sex.
An epidemic of recreational drug use and binge drinking exposes millions of young Europeans to routine consumption of substances which alter their sexual decisions and increase their chances of unsafe and regretted sex. For many, substance use has become an integral part of their strategic approach to sex, locking them into continued use. Tackling substances with both physiological and psychological links to sex requires approaching substance use and sexual behaviour in the same way that individuals experience them; as part of the same social process.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The effect of age on asthma severity is poorly understood.
The objective of this study was to compare the baseline features of severe and nonsevere asthma in the Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP) ...III cohort, and examine in cross section the effects of age on those features.
SARP III is a National Institutes of Health/National Heart Lung Blood Institute multisite 3-year cohort study conducted to investigate mechanisms of severe asthma. The sample included 188 children (111 severe, 77 nonsevere) and 526 adults (313 severe, 213 nonsevere) characterized for demographic features, symptoms, health care utilization, lung function, and inflammatory markers compared by age and severity.
Compared with children with nonsevere asthma, children with severe asthma had more symptoms and more historical exacerbations, but no difference in body weight, post-bronchodilator lung function, or inflammatory markers. After childhood, and increasing with age, the cohort had a higher proportion of women, less allergen sensitization, and overall fewer blood eosinophils. Enrollment of participants with severe asthma was highest in middle-aged adults, who were older, more obese, with greater airflow limitation and higher blood eosinophils, but less allergen sensitization than adults with nonsevere asthma.
The phenotypic features of asthma differ by severity and with advancing age. With advancing age, patients with severe asthma are more obese, have greater airflow limitation, less allergen sensitization, and variable type 2 inflammation. Novel mechanisms besides type 2 inflammatory pathways may inform the severe asthma phenotype with advancing age.
In the cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) industry, the textural properties and firmness of the fruit are priority traits for producing processed products, such as sweetened dried cranberry ...(SDC), which have gained popularity in recent years. However, there is currently no reliable methodology for screening these traits in breeding programs. In this study, we examine the key methodologies, textural traits, parameters, and conditions that are necessary to accurately and efficiently measure the texture of cranberry fruit. Double compression, single compression, puncture, shearing and Kramer shear cell methodologies were successfully implemented in cranberry, resulting in a total of 47 textural features. These features allowed the evaluation of the texture of the cranberry fruit based on key factors such as flesh, structure, and skin. This study also examined factors than can affect the performance of texture measurements, including the optimal sample size, storage time, fruit texture-size correlation, fruit temperature and orientation, optimal speed/strain combinations, and the effect of probe diameter. The results of the study suggests that certain texture traits of the compression and puncture methodologies could potentially be used to test varieties and aid in breeding programs.
•The beam commissioning of LIPAc has been progressing significantly.•The world most powerful RFQ successfully accelerated 125 mA deuteron beam to 5 MeV.•The result proves the validity of the present ...novel RFQ design.
For the development of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) aiming at material tests for fusion power plants, the construction of the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) has been conducted at Rokkasho, Japan under the Broader Approach Agreement. The commissioning of LIPAc has been progressing significantly. The world most powerful RFQ successfully accelerated proton beam of 58 mA, and an important project milestone of the acceleration of deuteron beam to 5 MeV with the beam current of 125 mA in pulse mode was successfully achieved. The result proves the validity of the present RFQ design. The adjustment and tuning of the RF power system and the injector for enabling an operation at maximum performances played an important role in achieving this result. For the next step, the preparation of the high duty cycle operation of RFQ is underway. The installation of the HEBT (High Energy Beam Transport line) and the beam dump accepting 1 MW, CW beam, has been completed and a new beam transport line is under manufacturing. Also the assembly of the Superconducting RF (SRF) linac to accelerate the beam up to 9 MeV started in a clean room in Rokkasho.
Patients with medically intractable epilepsy often undergo invasive evaluation and surgery, with a 50% success rate. The low success rate is likely due to poor identification of the epileptogenic ...zone (EZ), the brain area causing seizures. This work introduces a new method using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with simultaneous direct electrical stimulation of the brain that could help localize the EZ, performed in five patients with medically intractable epilepsy undergoing invasive evaluation with intracranial depth electrodes. Stimulation occurred in a location near the hypothesized EZ and a location away. Electrical recordings in response to stimulation were recorded and compared to fMRI. Multiple stimulation parameters were varied, like current and frequency. The brain areas showing fMRI response were compared with the areas resected and the success of surgery. Robust fMRI maps of activation networks were easily produced, which also showed a significant but weak positive correlation between quantitative measures of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity and measures of electrical activity in response to direct electrical stimulation (mean correlation coefficient of 0.38 for all acquisitions that produced a strong BOLD response). For four patients with outcome data at 6 months, successful surgical outcome is consistent with the resection of brain areas containing high local fMRI activity. In conclusion, this method demonstrates the feasibility of simultaneous direct electrical stimulation and fMRI in humans, which allows the study of brain connectivity with high resolution and full spatial coverage. This innovative technique could be used to better define the localization and extension of the EZ in intractable epilepsies, as well as for other functional neurosurgical procedures.
For the development of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) aiming at material tests for fusion power plants, the construction of the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator ...(LIPAc) has been conducted at Rokkasho, Japan under the Broader Approach Agreement. The commissioning of LIPAc has been progressing significantly. The world most powerful RFQ successfully accelerated proton beam of 58 mA, and an important project milestone of the acceleration of deuteron beam to 5 MeV with the beam current of 125 mA in pulse mode was successfully achieved. The result proves the validity of the present RFQ design. The adjustment and tuning of the RF power system and the injector for enabling an operation at maximum performances played an important role in achieving this result. For the next step, the preparation of the high duty cycle operation of RFQ is underway. The installation of the HEBT (High Energy Beam Transport line) and the beam dump accepting 1 MW, CW beam, has been completed and a new beam transport line is under manufacturing. Also the assembly of the Superconducting RF (SRF) linac to accelerate the beam up to 9 MeV started in a clean room in Rokkasho.
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