In critically ill trauma patients, adequate nutrition is essential for the body’s healing process. Currently, there is no clinical standard for initiating feeds after percutaneous endoscopic ...gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement. We aimed to demonstrate that early enteral nutrition (EN) is as safe as delayed EN in patients who have undergone PEG tube insertion. We conducted a multi-center, retrospective cohort study of 384 patients from the Prisma Health Trauma Registries who received PEGs. Feeding intolerance was defined as high gastric residuals, nausea, emesis, sustained diarrhea, or ileus. The probability that a patient would experience intolerance was 11.7% in those fed within 6 hours, 5.1% among patients fed between 6 and 12 hours, 6.0% among patients fed between 12 and 24 hours, and 7.6% among patients fed after 24 hours, for which no statistically significant difference was detected. These findings support that early EN after PEG placement is safe in critically ill, trauma patients.
Storms in the tropics of Titan Schaller, E. L; Brown, M. E; Roe, H. G ...
Nature,
08/2009, Letnik:
460, Številka:
7257
Journal Article
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Methane clouds, lakes and most fluvial features on Saturn’s moon Titan have been observed in the moist high latitudes, while the tropics have been nearly devoid of convective clouds and have shown an ...abundance of wind-carved surface features like dunes. The presence of small-scale channels and dry riverbeds near the equator observed by the Huygens probe at latitudes thought incapable of supporting convection (and thus strong rain) has been suggested to be due to geological seepage or other mechanisms not related to precipitation. Here we report the presence of bright, transient, tropospheric clouds in tropical latitudes. We find that the initial pulse of cloud activity generated planetary waves that instigated cloud activity at other latitudes across Titan that had been cloud-free for at least several years. These observations show that convective pulses at one latitude can trigger short-term convection at other latitudes, even those not generally considered capable of supporting convection, and may also explain the presence of methane-carved rivers and channels near the Huygens landing site.
Seasonal changes in Titan's meteorology Turtle, E. P.; Del Genio, A. D.; Barbara, J. M. ...
Geophysical research letters,
February 2011, Letnik:
38, Številka:
3
Journal Article
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The Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem has observed Titan for ∼1/4 Titan year, and we report here the first evidence of seasonal shifts in preferred locations of tropospheric methane clouds. ...South‐polar convective cloud activity, common in late southern summer, has become rare. North‐polar and northern mid‐latitude clouds appeared during the approach to the northern spring equinox in August 2009. Recent observations have shown extensive cloud systems at low latitudes. In contrast, southern mid‐latitude and subtropical clouds have appeared sporadically throughout the mission, exhibiting little seasonality to date. These differences in behavior suggest that Titan's clouds, and thus its general circulation, are influenced by both the rapid temperature response of a low‐thermal‐inertia surface and the much longer radiative timescale of Titan's cold thick troposphere. North‐polar clouds are often seen near lakes and seas, suggesting that local increases in methane concentration and/or lifting generated by surface roughness gradients may promote cloud formation.
We have acquired near-infrared spectra of Kuiper Belt objects 2003 UZ117, 2005 CB79, and 2004 SB60 with NIRC on the Keck I telescope. These objects are dynamically close to the core of the 2003 EL61 ...collisional family and were suggested to be potential fragments of this collision by Ragozzine and Brown. We find that the spectra of 2003 UZ117 and 2005 CB79 both show the characteristic strong water ice absorption features seen exclusively on 2003 EL61, its largest satellite, and the six other known collisional fragments. In contrast, we find that the near-infrared spectrum of 2004 SB60 is essentially featureless with a fraction of water ice of less than 5%. We discuss the implications of the discovery of these additional family members for understanding the formation and evolution of this collisional family in the outer solar system.
Antibodies are indispensable tools used for a large number of applications in both foundational and translational bioscience research; however, there are drawbacks to using traditional antibodies ...generated in animals. These include a lack of standardization leading to problems with reproducibility, high costs of antibodies purchased from commercial sources, and ethical concerns regarding the large number of animals used to generate antibodies. To address these issues, we have developed practical methodologies and tools for generating low-cost, high-yield preparations of recombinant monoclonal antibodies and antibody fragments directed to protein epitopes from primary sequences. We describe these methods here, as well as approaches to diversify monoclonal antibodies, including customization of antibody species specificity, generation of genetically encoded small antibody fragments, and conversion of single chain antibody fragments (e.g. scFv) into full-length, bivalent antibodies. This study focuses on antibodies directed to epitopes important for mitosis and kinetochore function; however, the methods and reagents described here are applicable to antibodies and antibody fragments for use in any field.
Voltage-gated sodium channels perform critical roles for electrical signaling in the nervous system by generating action potentials in axons and in dendrites. At least 10 genes encode sodium channels ...in mammals, but specific physiological roles that distinguish each of these isoforms are not known. One possibility is that each isoform is expressed in a restricted set of cell types or is targeted to a specific domain of a neuron or muscle cell. Using affinity-purified isoform-specific antibodies, we find that Nav1.6 is highly concentrated at nodes of Ranvier of both sensory and motor axons in the peripheral nervous system and at nodes in the central nervous system. The specificity of this antibody was also demonstrated with the Nav1.6-deficient mouse mutant strain med, whose nodes were negative for Nav1.6 immunostaining. Both the intensity of labeling and the failure of other isoform-specific antibodies to label nodes suggest that Nav1.6 is the predominant channel type in this structure. In the central nervous system, Nav1.6 is localized in unmyelinated axons in the retina and cerebellum and is strongly expressed in dendrites of cortical pyramidal cells and cerebellar Prukinje cells. Ultrastructural studies indicate that labeling in dendrites is both intracellular and on dendritic shaft membranes. Remarkably, Nav1.6 labeling was observed at both presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes in the cortex and cerebellum. Thus, a single sodium channel isoform is targeted to different neuronal domains and can influence both axonal conduction and synaptic responses.
Caenorhabditis elegans is an instrumental research model used to advance our knowledge in areas including development, metabolism, and aging. However, research on metabolism and/or other measures of ...health/aging are confounded by the nematode's food source in the lab, live E. coli bacteria. Commonly used treatments, including ultraviolet irradiation and antibiotics, are successful in preventing bacterial replication, but the bacteria can remain metabolically active. The purpose of this study is to develop a metabolically inactive food source for the worms that will allow us to minimize the confounding effects of bacterial metabolism on worm metabolism and aging. Our strategy is to use a paraformaldehyde (PFA) treated E. coli food source and to determine its effects on worm health, metabolism and longevity. We initially determine the lowest possible concentrations of PFA necessary to rapidly and reproducibly kill bacteria. We then measure various aspects of worm behavior, healthspan and longevity, including growth rate, food attraction, brood size, lifespan and metabolic assessments, such as oxygen consumption and metabolomics. Our resulting data show that worms eat and grow well on these bacteria and support the use of 0.5% PFA-killed bacteria as a nematode food source for metabolic, drug, and longevity experiments.
•Public goods governance tools for the adoption of conservation agriculture in an intensive agricultural area are assessed.•Monetary incentives resulted as the main tool to steer towards ...environment-friendly agriculture.•Social networks and awareness of public goods resulted as a necessary catalyst for practice change.•The effectiveness of the governance tools was strongly dependent on the socio-economic scenario.•The potential of monetary incentives should consider their long-term impacts on farmers’ motivation and ability.
In Europe, growing concerns about the environmental impacts of agriculture have stimulated the development of more efficient governance options to be included in, or to complement, current agri-environmental policies. However, a significant hurdle for the implementation of enhanced policy tools is the difficult adaptation of promising approaches, such as collective contracts and private-based payments for environmental services, to the locally specific, socio-economic and institutional contexts of different European regions. In this study, we apply a participatory approach based on the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping technique, in assessing different policy mechanisms, including improved monetary incentives and the potential for an enhanced design of agricultural landscape governance. Our analysis specifically assesses the interactions between rural society, public goods and policies under different, locally relevant economic and social scenarios. The study is carried out in the Marchfeld, an intensive agriculture case-study area in Eastern Austria, which features a number of environmental problems. The work is based on a two-year-long process including focus groups, mind mapping and scenario co-development, as well as individual interviews with local stakeholders.
The results show that integrating private or public, collective or performance-orientated monetary incentives with other non-monetary mechanisms like farmers’ partnerships or enhanced awareness building are evaluated as central to an effective agri-environmental governance system. Moreover, the results highlight that different futures have major effects on the effectiveness of mechanisms: in a purely market-driven context, tools based on collaborations among farmers are likely to be ineffective and monetary incentives are less efficient. On the other hand, positive social pressures and the influence of non-monetary governance initiatives expected in a sustainability-driven scenario are able to catalyse an efficient adoption of environmental-friendly practices, also at lower monetary rates. Based on the results, we discuss the problem of public goods in agricultural landscapes, and the relevance of such ancillary factors as social infrastructure, awareness and marketing, in supporting the effectiveness and feasibility of public-goods ‘governance’.
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