This review focuses on a specific cause of lameness known as bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO) in broilers. Rapid increases in body weight impose excessive torque and shear stress on ...structurally immature epiphyseal and physeal cartilage, primarily in the proximal femora, proximal tibiae, and flexible thoracic vertebrae. Excessive mechanical stress creates osteochondrotic clefts among the chondrocytes of susceptible growth plates. These wound sites are colonized by hematogenously distributed opportunistic bacteria, culminating in the gross abscesses and necrotic voids that are pathognomonic for terminal BCO. Lameness attributable to characteristic BCO lesions can be reproduced by rearing broilers on wire flooring to create persistent footing instability and physiological stress, without the need to inoculate the birds with pathogenic bacteria that presumably are present but quiescent within the bird's microbial communities or in the environment. Experiments using the wire-flooring model revealed innate differences in the susceptibility of broiler lines to BCO, and demonstrated that BCO incidences can be reduced by prophylactically providing probiotics in the feed, by prophylactically adding 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 to the drinking water, or by therapeutically adding the antibiotic enrofloxacin to the drinking water. Hatchery and chick quality issues clearly influence the susceptibility of broilers to BCO. When broilers remain in a sitting posture for prolonged periods, the major arteries supplying their legs may be compressed. These episodes of inadequate blood flow may prevent chondrocyte maturation and trigger focal necrosis, thereby making the epiphyseal and physeal cartilage highly susceptible to osteochondrosis and BCO. Much remains to be revealed regarding the pathogenesis of BCO. Further revelations will be facilitated by the availability of the now-validated wire-flooring models that consistently trigger high incidences of BCO in experimental flocks.
Dissecting green returns Pástor, Ľuboš; Stambaugh, Robert F.; Taylor, Lucian A.
Journal of financial economics,
November 2022, 2022-11-00, Letnik:
146, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Green assets delivered high returns in recent years. This performance reflects unexpectedly strong increases in environmental concerns, not high expected returns. German green bonds outperformed ...their higher-yielding non-green twins as the “greenium” widened, and U.S. green stocks outperformed brown as climate concerns strengthened. Despite that outperformance, we estimate lower expected returns for green stocks than for brown, consistent with theory. We estimate expected returns in two ways: ex ante, using implied costs of capital, and ex post, using realized returns purged of shocks from climate concerns and earnings. A theoretically motivated green factor explains much of value stocks’ recent underperformance.
We revisit the relation between stock market volatility and macroeconomic activity using a new class of component models that distinguish short-run from long-run movements. We formulate models with ...the long-term component driven by inflation and industrial production growth that are in terms of pseudo out-of-sample prediction for horizons of one quarter at par or outperform more traditional time series volatility models at longer horizons. Hence, imputing economic fundamentals into volatility models pays off in terms of long-horizon forecasting. We also find that macroeconomic fundamentals play a significant role even at short horizons.
Activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-localised protein and member of the leucine zipper family of transcription factors. Best known for its role in transducing ...signals linked to stress to the endoplasmic reticulum, the 50 kDa activated form of ATF6 is now emerging as a major regulator of organogenesis and tissue homeostasis. Responsible for the correct folding, secretion and membrane insertion of a third of the proteome in eukaryotic cells, the ER encompasses a dynamic, labyrinthine network of regulators, chaperones, foldases and cofactors. Such structures are crucial to the extensive protein synthesis required to undergo normal development and maintenance of tissue homeostasis. When an additional protein synthesis burden is placed on the ER, ATF6, in tandem with ER stress transducers inositol requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1) and PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK), slows the pace of protein translation and induces the production of stress-reducing chaperones and foldases.
In the context of development and tissue homeostasis, however, distinct cellular impacts have been attributed to ATF6. Drawing on data published from human, rodent, fish, goat and bovine research, this review first focuses on ATF6-mediated regulation of osteo- and chondrogenesis, ocular development as well as neuro- and myelinogenesis. The purported role of ATF6 in development of the muscular and reproductive systems as well as adipo- and lipogenesis is then described. With relevance to cardiac disease, cancer and brain disorders, the importance of ATF6 in maintaining tissue homeostasis is the subject of the final section.
In conclusion, the review encourages further elucidation of ATF6 regulatory operations during organogenesis and tissue homeostasis, to spawn the development of ATF6-targeted therapeutic strategies.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Ex Ante Skewness and Expected Stock Returns CONRAD, JENNIFER; DITTMAR, ROBERT F.; GHYSELS, ERIC
The Journal of finance (New York),
February 2013, Letnik:
68, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We use option prices to estimate ex ante higher moments of the underlying individual securities' risk-neutral returns distribution. We find that individual securities' risk-neutral volatility, ...skewness, and kurtosis are strongly related to future returns. Specifically, we find a negative (positive) relation between ex ante volatility (kurtosis) and subsequent returns in the cross-section, and more ex ante negatively (positively) skewed returns yield subsequent higher (lower) returns. We analyze the extent to which these returns relations represent compensation for risk and find evidence that, even after controlling for differences in co-moments, individual securities' skewness matters.
Weight Loss Strategies for Treatment of Obesity Kushner, Robert F
Progress in cardiovascular diseases,
2014, January-February 2014, 2014 Jan-Feb, 2014-1-00, Letnik:
56, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Abstract Obesity is one of the most serious and prevalent non-communicable diseases of the 21st century. It is also a patient-centered condition in which affected individuals seek treatment through a ...variety of commercial, medical and surgical approaches. Considering obesity as a chronic medical disease state helps to frame the concept of using a three-stepped intensification of care approach to weight management. As a foundation, all patients should be counseled on evidence-based lifestyle approaches that include diet, physical activity and behavior change therapies. At the second tier, two new pharmacological agents, phentermine–topiramate and lorcaserin, were approved in 2012 as adjuncts to lifestyle modification. The third step, bariatric surgery, has been demonstrated to be the most effective and long-term treatment for individuals with severe obesity or moderate obesity complicated by comorbid conditions that is not responsive to non-surgical approaches. By using a medical model, clinicians can provide more proactive and effective treatments in assisting their patients with weight loss.
Summary Viral respiratory tract infections are common and usually selflimited illnesses. For patients at risk of asthma, or with existing asthma, viral respiratory tract infections can have a ...profound effect on the expression of disease or loss of control. New evidence has shown that wheezing episodes early in life due to human rhinoviruses are a major risk factor for the later diagnosis of asthma at age 6 years. For those with existing asthma, exacerbations are a major cause of morbidity, can need acute care, and can, albeit rarely, result in death. Viral respiratory tract infections, predominantly those caused by human rhinoviruses, are associated with asthma exacerbations. There is also evidence that deficiencies in antiviral activity and the integrity of the airway epithelial barrier could make individuals with asthma more likely to have severe viral respiratory infections of the lower airway, and thus increase the risk of exacerbation. In view of the effect of respiratory viruses on many aspects of asthma, efforts to understand the mechanisms and risk factors by which these airway infections cause changes in airway pathophysiology are a first step towards improved treatment.
Obesity is one of the most serious and prevalent non-communicable diseases of the twenty-first century. It is also a patient-centered condition in which affected individuals seek treatment through a ...variety of commercial, medical and surgical approaches. Considering obesity as a chronic medical disease state helps to frame the concept of using a three-stepped intensification of care approach to weight management. As a foundation, all patients should be counseled on evidence-based lifestyle approaches that include diet, physical activity and behavior change therapies. At the second tier, four new pharmacological agents, lorcaserin, phentermine/topiramate, naltrexone/bupropion and liraglutide have been approved since 2012 as adjuncts to lifestyle modification. The third step, bariatric surgery, has been demonstrated to be the most effective and long-term treatment for individuals with severe obesity or moderate obesity complicated by co-morbid conditions that is not responsive to non-surgical approaches. By using a medical model, clinicians can provide more proactive and effective treatments in assisting their patients with weight loss.
With significant improvements in cryopreservation technology (vitrification) the number of frozen ET IVF cycles is increasing and may soon surpass in numbers and success rates those of fresh ...stimulated IVF cycles. Increasing numbers of elective single ETs are also resulting in more frozen embryos (blastocysts) available for subsequent frozen ET cycles. Optimal endometrial preparation and identification of the receptive window for ET in frozen ET cycles thus assumes utmost importance for insuring the best frozen ET outcomes. Reliable data are essential for defining the optimal endometrial preparation protocols with accurate determination of the implantation window in frozen ET cycles.
PDF
