The circadian system of the cockroach Leucophaea maderae: The role of the neuropeptide orcokinin and light entrainment

Das circadiane system der Schabe Leucophaea maderae: Die Rolle des Neuropetides Orcokinin und die Synchronisation der Inneren Uhr durch Licht

Produktivität verschiedener Sojasorten im ostösterreichischen Anbaugebiet

In Austria organic soybeans are mainly produced in the eastern part of the country due to its temperature requirements. To examine genotypic differences with respect to seed quality a three-year field trial with seven soybean cultivars was conducted. The cultivar `Essor´ showed significantly higher (p<0,05) values for corn yield, thousand grain weight and seed protein content in all three years compared to to the early maturing cultivar `Merlin´. During the whole observation period the cultivars `Essor´and `Lambton´ produced most stable corn yields while ´Essor´ and ´Cardiff´ revealed most stable seed protein contents. Based on our results, soybean cultivars of maturity group 00 had higher grain yields as well as higher seed protein content in comparison to early maturing cultivars (maturity group 000) grown under natural conditions prevalent in eastern Austria

Validating the Belle2 PhysicsList in Geant4 v10.1.2

Since the start of software development at the Belle II experiment operating at the KEK national laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, the simulation tool kit Geant4 has undergone several updates. As a member in the ongoing collaboration, the University of Louisville’s High Energy Physics (HEP) group is striving to validate newer versions of Geant4 to maximize improvements of physics performance.We have simulated the performance of a new physics list sub-module, the Belle2 PhysicsList , with improved modeling of hadronic shower shape and standard electromagnetic processes. Using a reconstruction-based selection procedure on tau-pair events decaying into a final state consisting ofe lectrons, photons, and pions, we have concluded that the Belle2 PhysicsList is consistent with the default present in Geant4 v10.1.2. Furthermore, using a sample of bb-bar events, we find that the Belle2 PhysicsList decreases CPU requirements by up to 25%https://ir.library.louisville.edu/uars/1028/thumbnail.jp

Consensus on circulatory shock and hemodynamic monitoring. Task force of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

OBJECTIVE: Circulatory shock is a life-threatening syndrome resulting in multiorgan failure and a high mortality rate. The aim of this consensus is to provide support to the bedside clinician regarding the diagnosis, management and monitoring of shock. METHODS: The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine invited 12 experts to form a Task Force to update a previous consensus (Antonelli et al.: Intensive Care Med 33:575-590, 2007). The same five questions addressed in the earlier consensus were used as the outline for the literature search and review, with the aim of the Task Force to produce statements based on the available literature and evidence. These questions were: (1) What are the epidemiologic and pathophysiologic features of shock in the intensive care unit ? (2) Should we monitor preload and fluid responsiveness in shock ? (3) How and when should we monitor stroke volume or cardiac output in shock ? (4) What markers of the regional and microcirculation can be monitored, and how can cellular function be assessed in shock ? (5) What is the evidence for using hemodynamic monitoring to direct therapy in shock ? Four types of statements were used: definition, recommendation, best practice and statement of fact. RESULTS: Forty-four statements were made. The main new statements include: (1) statements on individualizing blood pressure targets; (2) statements on the assessment and prediction of fluid responsiveness; (3) statements on the use of echocardiography and hemodynamic monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: This consensus provides 44 statements that can be used at the bedside to diagnose, treat and monitor patients with shock

Recent Advances in Our Understanding of the Role of Meltwater in the Greenland Ice Sheet System

Nienow, Sole and Cowton’s Greenland research has been supported by a number of UK NERC research grants (NER/O/S/2003/00620; NE/F021399/1; NE/H024964/1; NE/K015249/1; NE/K014609/1) and Slater has been supported by a NERC PhD studentshipPurpose of the review:  This review discusses the role that meltwater plays within the Greenland ice sheet system. The ice sheet’s hydrology is important because it affects mass balance through its impact on meltwater runoff processes and ice dynamics. The review considers recent advances in our understanding of the storage and routing of water through the supraglacial, englacial, and subglacial components of the system and their implications for the ice sheet Recent findings:   There have been dramatic increases in surface meltwater generation and runoff since the early 1990s, both due to increased air temperatures and decreasing surface albedo. Processes in the subglacial drainage system have similarities to valley glaciers and in a warming climate, the efficiency of meltwater routing to the ice sheet margin is likely to increase. The behaviour of the subglacial drainage system appears to limit the impact of increased surface melt on annual rates of ice motion, in sections of the ice sheet that terminate on land, while the large volumes of meltwater routed subglacially deliver significant volumes of sediment and nutrients to downstream ecosystems. Summary:  Considerable advances have been made recently in our understanding of Greenland ice sheet hydrology and its wider influences. Nevertheless, critical gaps persist both in our understanding of hydrology-dynamics coupling, notably at tidewater glaciers, and in runoff processes which ensure that projecting Greenland’s future mass balance remains challenging.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Thalamic nuclei convey diverse contextual information to layer 1 of visual cortex

Sensory perception depends on the context in which a stimulus occurs. Prevailing models emphasize cortical feedback as the source of contextual modulation. However, higher order thalamic nuclei, such as the pulvinar, interconnect with many cortical and subcortical areas, suggesting a role for the thalamus in providing sensory and behavioral context. Yet the nature of the signals conveyed to cortex by higher order thalamus remains poorly understood. Here we use axonal calcium imaging to measure information provided to visual cortex by the pulvinar equivalent in mice, the lateral posterior nucleus (LP), as well as the dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN). We found that dLGN conveys retinotopically precise visual signals, while LP provides distributed information from the visual scene. Both LP and dLGN projections carry locomotion signals. However, while dLGN inputs often respond to positive combinations of running and visual flow speed, LP signals discrepancies between self-generated and external visual motion. This higher order thalamic nucleus therefore conveys diverse contextual signals that inform visual cortex about visual scene changes not predicted by the animal's own action

Circadian pacemaker coupling by multi-peptidergic neurons in the cockroach Leucophaea maderae

Lesion and transplantation studies in the cockroach, Leucophaea maderae, have located its bilaterally symmetric circadian pacemakers necessary for driving circadian locomotor activity rhythms to the accessory medulla of the optic lobes. The accessory medulla comprises a network of peptidergic neurons, including pigment-dispersing factor (PDF)-expressing presumptive circadian pacemaker cells. At least three of the PDF-expressing neurons directly connect the two accessory medullae, apparently as a circadian coupling pathway. Here, the PDF-expressing circadian coupling pathways were examined for peptide colocalization by tracer experiments and double-label immunohistochemistry with antisera against PDF, FMRFamide, and Asn13-orcokinin. A fourth group of contralaterally projecting medulla neurons was identified, additional to the three known groups. Group one of the contralaterally projecting medulla neurons contained up to four PDF-expressing cells. Of these, three medium-sized PDF-immunoreactive neurons coexpressed FMRFamide and Asn13-orcokinin immunoreactivity. However, the contralaterally projecting largest PDF neuron showed no further peptide colocalization, as was also the case for the other large PDF-expressing medulla cells, allowing the easy identification of this cell group. Although two-thirds of all PDF-expressing medulla neurons coexpressed FMRFamide and orcokinin immunoreactivity in their somata, colocalization of PDF and FMRFamide immunoreactivity was observed in only a few termination sites. Colocalization of PDF and orcokinin immunoreactivity was never observed in any of the terminals or optic commissures. We suggest that circadian pacemaker cells employ axonal peptide sorting to phase-control physiological processes at specific times of the day

A structured judgement method to enhance mortality case note review: development and evaluation.

Background: Case note review remains a prime means of retrospectively assessing quality of care. This study examines a new implicit judgement method, combining structured reviewer comments with quality of care scores, to assess care of people who die in hospital. Methods: Using 1566 case notes from 20 English hospitals, 40 physicians each reviewed 30–40 case notes, writing structured judgement based comments on care provided within three phases of care, and on care overall, and scoring quality of care from 1 (unsatisfactory) to 6 (very best care). Quality of care comments on 119 people who died (7.6% of the cohort) were analysed independently by two researchers to investigate how well reviewers provided structured short judgement notes on quality of care, together with appropriate care scores. Consistency between explanatory textual data and related scores was explored, using overall care score to group cases. Results: Physician reviewers made informative, clinical judgement-based comments across all phases of care and usually provided a coherent quality of care score relating to each phase. The majority of comments (83%) were explicit judgements. About a fifth of patients were considered to have received less than satisfactory care, often experiencing a series of adverse events. Conclusions: A combination of implicit judgement, explicit explanatory comment and related quality of care scores can be used effectively to review the spectrum of care provided for people who die in hospital. The method can be used to quickly evaluate deaths so that lessons can be learned about both poor and high quality care

DNA building blocks: keeping control of manufacture

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is the only source for de novo production of the four deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) building blocks needed for DNA synthesis and repair. It is crucial that these dNTP pools are carefully balanced, since mutation rates increase when dNTP levels are either unbalanced or elevated. RNR is the major player in this homeostasis, and with its four different substrates, four different allosteric effectors and two different effector binding sites, it has one of the most sophisticated allosteric regulations known today. In the past few years, the structures of RNRs from several bacteria, yeast and man have been determined in the presence of allosteric effectors and substrates, revealing new information about the mechanisms behind the allosteric regulation. A common theme for all studied RNRs is a flexible loop that mediates modulatory effects from the allosteric specificity site (s-site) to the catalytic site for discrimination between the four substrates. Much less is known about the allosteric activity site (a-site), which functions as an on-off switch for the enzyme's overall activity by binding ATP (activator) or dATP (inhibitor). The two nucleotides induce formation of different enzyme oligomers, and a recent structure of a dATP-inhibited α6β2 complex from yeast suggested how its subunits interacted non-productively. Interestingly, the oligomers formed and the details of their allosteric regulation differ between eukaryotes and Escherichia coli Nevertheless, these differences serve a common purpose in an essential enzyme whose allosteric regulation might date back to the era when the molecular mechanisms behind the central dogma evolved