OBJECTIVE: Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been promoted for its beneficial effects on tissue healing and pain relief. However, according to the results of in vivo studies, the effectiveness of ...this modality varies. Our purpose was to assess the putative effects of LLLT on healing using an experimental wound model. DESIGN AND SETTING: We used a randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled design with 2 within-subjects factors (wound and time) and 1 between-subjects factor (group). Data were collected in the laboratory setting. SUBJECTS: Twenty-two healthy subjects (age = 21 +/- 1 years, height = 175.6 +/- 9.8 cm, mass = 76.2 +/- 14.2 kg). MEASUREMENTS: Two standardized 1.27-cm(2) abrasions were induced on the anterior forearm. After wound cleaning, standardized digital photos were recorded. Each subject then received LLLT (8 J/cm(2); treatment time = 2 minutes, 5 seconds; pulse rate = 700 Hz) to 1 of the 2 randomly chosen wounds from either a laser or a sham 46-diode cluster head. Subjects reported back to the laboratory on days 2 to 10 to be photographed and receive LLLT and on day 20 to be photographed. Data were analyzed for wound contraction (area), color changes (chromatic red), and luminance. RESULTS: A group x wound x time interaction was detected for area measurements. At days 6, 8, and 10, follow-up testing revealed that the laser group had smaller wounds than the sham group for both the treated and the untreated wounds (P < .05). No group x wound x time differences were detected for chromatic red or luminance. CONCLUSIONS: The LLLT resulted in enhanced healing as measured by wound contraction. The untreated wounds in subjects treated with LLLT contracted more than the wounds in the sham group, so LLLT may produce an indirect healing effect on surrounding tissues. These data indicate that LLLT is an effective modality to facilitate wound contraction of partial-thickness wounds.
Large dams have been constructed on rivers to meet human demands for water, electricity, navigation, and recreation. As a consequence, flow and temperature regimes have been altered, strongly ...affecting river food webs and ecosystem processes. Experimental high-flow dam releases, i.e., controlled floods, have been implemented on the Colorado River, USA, in an effort to reestablish pulsed flood events, redistribute sediments, improve conditions for native fishes, and increase understanding of how dam operations affect physical and biological processes. We quantified secondary production and organic matter flows in the food web below Glen Canyon dam for two years prior and one year after an experimental controlled flood in March 2008. Invertebrate biomass and secondary production declined significantly following the flood (total biomass, 55% decline; total production, 56% decline), with most of the decline driven by reductions in two nonnative invertebrate taxa,
Potamopyrgus antipodarum
and
Gammarus lacustris
. Diatoms dominated the trophic basis of invertebrate production before and after the controlled flood, and the largest organic matter flows were from diatoms to the three most productive invertebrate taxa (
P. antipodarum
,
G. lacustris
, and Tubificida). In contrast to invertebrates, production of rainbow trout (
Oncorhynchus mykiss
) increased substantially (194%) following the flood, despite the large decline in total secondary production of the invertebrate assemblage. This counterintuitive result is reconciled by a post-flood increase in production and drift concentrations of select invertebrate prey (i.e., Chironomidae and Simuliidae) that supported a large proportion of trout production but had relatively low secondary production. In addition, interaction strengths, measured as species impact values, were strongest between rainbow trout and these two taxa before and after the flood, demonstrating that the dominant consumer-resource interactions were not necessarily congruent with the dominant organic matter flows. Our study illustrates the value of detailed food web analysis for elucidating pathways by which dam management may alter production and strengths of species interactions in river food webs. We suggest that controlled floods may increase production of nonnative rainbow trout, and this information can be used to help guide future dam management decisions.
Over the past century, studies of human pigmentary disorders along with mouse and zebrafish models have shed light on the many cellular functions associated with visible pigment phenotypes. This has ...led to numerous genes annotated with the ontology term “pigmentation” in independent human, mouse, and zebrafish databases. Comparisons among these datasets revealed that each is individually incomplete in documenting all genes involved in integument‐based pigmentation phenotypes. Additionally, each database contained inherent species‐specific biases in data annotation, and the term “pigmentation” did not solely reflect integument pigmentation phenotypes. This review presents a comprehensive, cross‐species list of 650 genes involved in pigmentation phenotypes that was compiled with extensive manual curation of genes annotated in OMIM, MGI, ZFIN, and GO. The resulting cross‐species list of genes both intrinsic and extrinsic to integument pigment cells provides a valuable tool that can be used to expand our knowledge of complex, pigmentation‐associated pathways.
Abstract
Despite the increasing importance of new survey tools such as unmanned aerial vehicles (
UAV
s), the implications of how their spatial deployment may interact with species detection errors ...have not yet been assessed. Acknowledging and incorporating these errors are crucial for accurate population estimation and improved management. To address this important gap in our knowledge, and to discover how flight plans should be selected to reduce overall error, we simulated contrasting
UAV
flight surveys over a range of population densities and dispersion patterns using different detection errors. We found that if a survey is carried out using an individual transect that low and slow flights consistently provide the best estimates of abundance and occupancy. However, the greater sampling area afforded by higher or faster flights resulted in more complex guidelines for estimates of abundance or occupancy over larger study areas. For highly clustered populations, especially those at low densities, a high and fast survey is preferable, as its greater area coverage best enables detection of local occupancy. The performance rankings of flight plans were sensitive to the underlying species detectability and, to a lesser extent, population density and aggregation. This suggests that
UAV
survey plans need to account for the spatial and movement ecology of target species, and that flight plans should adapt as an invasive species spreads, or a threatened species contracts. We encapsulate our results in a decision tree to guide flight planning for given survey objectives, detectability, and ecological context. Importantly, these findings provide guidance to other fields with transect‐based surveys such as manned aviation and road or ground transects that trade‐off sampling area and precision of estimates. Promising new technologies such as
UAV
s will be best utilized by ecologists if detection errors, and their interaction with the spatial ecology of the species, are carefully assessed.
Constraining conditions and mechanisms of the early stages of exhumation from within subduction zones is challenging. Although pressure, temperature, and age can be inferred from the exhumed rock ...record, it is generally difficult to derive each of these parameters from any single rock, thus demanding assumptions that diverse data from multiple samples can be safely combined into a single pressure‐temperature‐time (P‐T‐t) path that might then be used to infer tectonic context and mechanisms of exhumation. Here, we present new thermobarometric and geochronologic information preserved in a single sample from Syros, Greece, to deduce the conditions and rates of the earliest phase of exhumation as a part of the well‐preserved high‐pressure metamorphic rocks of the Cycladic Blueschist Unit (CBU). The sample studied here is a garnet‐bearing, quartz‐mica schist that records two distinct metamorphic events. Results from thermodynamic models and quartz‐in‐garnet elastic geobarometry show that metamorphic garnet cores formed as P‐T conditions evolved from ∼485°C and 2.2 GPa to 530°C and 2.0 GPa, and that garnet rims formed as conditions evolved from ∼560°C and 2.1 GPa to ∼550°C and 1.6 GPa. Sm‐Nd geochronology on garnet cores and rims yields ages of 45.3 ± 1.0 and 40.5 ± 1.9 Ma, respectively, thus indicating a 4.8 ± 2.1 Myr growth span. Given the decompression path calculated based on garnet core and rim P‐T estimates, we conclude that the distinct phases of garnet growth preserve evidence of the initial exhumation of portions of the CBU.
Plain Language Summary
Constraining the evolution of rocks formed at great depths (>60 km) and their subsequent returned to Earth's surface is a challenging endeavor, because information regarding the pressure, temperature, and timing of formation is typically elucidated through the study of multiple samples and thus through the comparison of different datasets. Here, we present pressure, temperature, and age data that were derived by analyzing garnet crystals within a single sample from a well‐known paleo‐subduction zone locate in Syros, Greece. Our results show that the sample records two metamorphic events that occurred as a result of initial ascent to the surface from depths of ∼66 to 48 km.
Key Points
Metamorphic garnets record two stages of growth during HP/LT metamorphism and exhumation of the Cycladic Blueschist Unit (CBU) on Syros, Greece
Garnet growth spanned 4.8 ± 2.1 Myr including decompression from 2.1 to 1.6 GPa
Garnets in this sample record a part of the CBU that was exhumed as a series of tectonic slices on Syros
During adolescence, deselection from sport occurs during team try-outs when month of birth, stage of growth and maturation may influence selection.
The purpose of this study was to identify ...differences in growth and maturity related factors between those selected and deselected in youth sports teams and identify short-term associations with continued participation.
Eight hundred and seventy participants, aged 11-17 years, were recruited from six sports try-outs in Saskatchewan, Canada: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer and volleyball. Two hundred and forty-four of the initial 870 (28%) returned for follow-up at 36 months. Chronological (years from birth), biological (years from age at peak height velocity (APHV)) and relative (month of birth as it relates to the selection band) ages were calculated from measures of date of birth, date of test, height, sitting height and weight. Parental heights were measured or recalled and participant's adult height predicted. Reference standards were used to calculate z-scores. Sports participation was self-reported at try-outs and at 36-month follow-up.
There was an over-representation of players across all sports born in the first and second quartiles of the selection bands (p < 0.05), whether they were selected or deselected. z-scores for predicted adult height ranged from 0.1 (1.1) to 1.8 (1.2) and were significantly different between sports (p < 0.05). Height and APHV differences (p < 0.05) were found between selected and deselected male participants. In females only weight differed between selected and deselected female hockey players (p < 0.05); no further differences were found between selected and deselected female participants. Four per cent of deselected athletes exited sports participation and 68% of deselected athletes remained in the same sport at 36 months, compared with 84% of selected athletes who remained in the same sport.
It was found that youth who attended sports team's try-outs were more likely to be born early in the selection year, be tall for their age, and in some sports early maturers. The majority of both the selected and deselected participants continued to participate in sport 36 months after try-outs, with the majority continuing to participate in their try-out sport.
We previously localized and fine-mapped Charcot Marie Tooth 4A (CMT4A), the autosomal recessive, demyelinating peripheral neuropathy, to chromosome 8. Through additional positional cloning, we have ...identified a good candidate gene, encoding ganglioside-induced differentiation-associated protein-1 (GDAP1). We found three different mutations in four different Tunisian families-two nonsense and one missense mutation. How mutations in GDAP1 lead to CMT4A remains to be understood.
ABSTRACT
We search for the signature of cosmological shocks in stacked gas pressure profiles of galaxy clusters using data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Specifically, we stack the latest ...Compton-y maps from the 2500 deg2 SPT-SZ survey on the locations of clusters identified in that same data set. The sample contains 516 clusters with mean mass $\langle M_{\rm 200m}\rangle = 10^{14.9} \, {\rm M}_\odot$ and redshift 〈z〉 = 0.55. We analyse in parallel a set of zoom-in hydrodynamical simulations from the three hundred project. The SPT-SZ data show two features: (i) a pressure deficit at R/R200m = 1.08 ± 0.09, measured at 3.1σ significance and not observed in the simulations, and; (ii) a sharp decrease in pressure at R/R200m = 4.58 ± 1.24 at 2.0σ significance. The pressure deficit is qualitatively consistent with a shock-induced thermal non-equilibrium between electrons and ions, and the second feature is consistent with accretion shocks seen in previous studies. We split the cluster sample by redshift and mass, and find both features exist in all cases. There are also no significant differences in features along and across the cluster major axis, whose orientation roughly points towards filamentary structure. As a consistency test, we also analyse clusters from the Planck and Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter surveys and find quantitatively similar features in the pressure profiles. Finally, we compare the accretion shock radius ($R_{\rm sh,\, acc}$) with existing measurements of the splashback radius (Rsp) for SPT-SZ and constrain the lower limit of the ratio, $R_{\rm sh,\, acc}/R_{\rm sp}\gt 2.16 \pm 0.59$.
Thyroid and glucocorticoid hormones stimulate growth hormone synthesis in cultured rat pituitary cells (GC). We have compared changes in growth hormone production and mRNA in these cells. ...Triiodothyronine (10 nM) and dexamethasone (1 μ M) stimulated increases in growth hormone production by 2.5- and 3.8-fold, respectively. There were corresponding increases in the capacity of RNA from hormone-treated cells to direct synthesis of pregrowth hormone in a wheat germ cell-free translation system, suggesting hormone-regulated increases in growth hormone mRNA. Hormone-induced changes in mRNA were also demonstrated by determining the kinetics of hybridization of a cDNA probe prepared from RNA enriched (about 70%) for growth hormone translational activity with RNA from control and hormone-treated cells. These results suggest that thyroid and glucocorticoid hormones can regulate growth hormone production by influencing the levels of its mRNA.
Small scale mechanical test methods are now widely recognised as an established and quantifiable means of obtaining useful mechanical property information from limited material quantities. Much ...research has been gathered employing such approaches, but to date these methods have largely been restricted to characterising the creep, tensile and fracture characteristics of numerous materials and alloys through the small punch (SP) test. Clearly, a key element that is missing from this list of fundamental mechanical properties is understanding the cyclic response of the material, a significant form of damage that accounts for a large proportion of in-service failures in critical structural components. Therefore, in order to profit from the numerous benefits that SP testing has to offer, including a small sample size and hence reduced cost, a small scale fatigue testing methodology is now required to provide a holistic mechanical property evaluation. Such an innovative approach would provide real potential benefit to the engineering mechanical characterisation community. This paper will discuss the development and implementation of this highly bespoke SP fatigue testing methodology that can accommodate alternative loading ratios and frequencies to mimic conventional fatigue data. A number of novel experiments have been performed on the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V with accompanying analysis and fractography detailed. Numerical correlations to uniaxial fatigue data is also presented through the use of Finite Element Analysis.
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