Iowa Department of Transportation Major Items - Preliminary Quantity Report, February 17, 2015; With Addendums

Weekly letting report.

Estimació de la massa d'un porc a partir de l'anàlisi d'imatges digitals

El programa permet estimar la massa d'un porc a partir de sis longituds (la llargada i l'amplada en cinc posicions corresponents a espatlla, abdomen i malucs) obtingudes en una imatge digital de l'animal amb la càmera situada en posició zenital. S'adjunten dos conjunts de dades de referència que permeten obtenir l'equació que relaciona la massa del porc amb el seu volum, considerat com una esfera o un cilindre. Manual d'us: Per a usar el programa només cal indicar en la primera secció de codi el nom del fitxer de dades que es vol importar per generar el model pes / volum i en la darrera de totes, la llargada i les cinc amplades (en cm) del porc per al qual es vol estimar la massa.

Iowa Department of Transportation Major Items - Preliminary Quantity Report, March 17, 2015; With Addendums

Weekly letting report.

Parental investment and its sensitivity to corticosterone is linked to melanin-based coloration in barn owls.

Behavioral and physiological responses to unpredictable changes in environmental conditions are, in part, mediated by glucocorticoids (corticosterone in birds). In polymorphic species, individuals of the same sex and age display different heritable melanin-based color morphs, associated with physiological and reproductive parameters and possibly alternative strategies to cope with variation in environmental conditions. We examined whether the role of corticosterone in resolving the trade-off between self-maintenance and reproductive activities covaries with the size of melanin-based spots displayed on the ventral body side of male barn owls. Administration of corticosterone to simulate physiological stress in males revealed pronounced changes in their food-provisioning rates to nestlings compared to control males. Corticosterone-treated males with small eumelanic spots reduced nestling provisioning rates as compared to controls, and also to a greater degree than did corticosterone-treated males with large spots. Large-spotted males generally exhibited lower parental provisioning and appear insensitive to exogenous corticosterone suggesting that the size of the black spots on the breast feathers predicts the ability to cope with stressful situations. The reduced provisioning rate of corticosterone-treated males caused a temporary reduction in nestling growth rates but, did not affect fledgling success. This suggests that moderately elevated corticosterone levels are not inhibitory to current reproduction but rather trigger behavioral responses to maximize lifetime reproductive success.

Sistemas de explotação de seringueira utilizados em clones asiáticos Prang Besar no Oeste paulista

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho produtivo e os aspectos fisiológicos e econômicos de quatro clones asiáticos Prang Besar de seringueira [Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. ex A. Juss.) Muell. Arg.], sob diferentes sistemas de sangria. O experimento foi instalado na Fazenda Santa Gilda, Município de Guararapes, SP, em delineamento de blocos ao acaso, com parcelas subdivididas no tempo. Os tratamentos principais foram os clones PB 260, PB 235, PB 330 e PB 217, submetidos a nove sistemas de sangria: ½S d/3.ET 2,5% 8/y; ½S d/3.ET 5% 8/y; ½S d/4.ET 2,5% 8/y; ½S d/4.ET 5% 8/y; ½S d/5.ET 2,5% 8/y; ½S d/5.ET 5% 8/y; ½S d/7.ET 2,5% 8/y; ½S d/7.ET 5% 8/y e ½S d/2 (testemunha). As variáveis avaliadas foram: perímetro do caule, produção de borracha seca, secamento do painel; foi avaliada, também, a viabilidade econômica. Os resultados mostram a superioridade econômica dos sistemas ½S d/5.ET 2,5% 8/y e ½S d/7.ET 5% 8/y, para o clone PB 260; ½S d/7.ET 2,5% 8/y para o clone PB 235; e ½S d/3.ET 2,5% 8/y e ½S d/3.ET 5% 8/y, para os clones PB 330 e PB 217, comparados com a testemunha. A menor incidência de secamento do painel foi observada no sistema ½S d/7.ET 5% 8/y, exceto para o clone PB 235.

Substance P-induced skin inflammation is not modulated by a single dose of sitagliptin in human volunteers.

Substance P (SP), an undecapeptide belonging to the tachykinin family, is released during the activation of sensory nerves, and causes vasodilation, edema and pain through activation of tissular Neurokinin 1 receptors. SP proinflammatory effects are terminated by angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and neutral endopeptidase (NEP), while the aminopeptidase dipeptidylpeptidase IV (DPPIV) can also play a role. The aim of this randomized, crossover, double-blind study was to assess the cutaneous vasoreactivity (flare and wheal reaction, burning pain sensation) to intradermal injection of ascending doses of SP in six volunteers receiving a single therapeutic dose of the DPPIV inhibitor sitagliptin or a matching placebo. Cutaneous SP challenges produced the expected, dose-dependent flare and wheal response, while eliciting mild to moderate local pain sensation with little dose dependency. However, no differences were shown in the responses observed under sitagliptin compared with placebo, while the study would have been sufficiently powered to detect a clinically relevant increase in sensitivity to SP. The results of this pilot study are in line with proteolytic cleavage of SP by ACE and NEP compensating the blockade of DPPIV to prevent an augmentation of its proinflammatory action.

Calmodulin kinase IV: expression and function during rat brain development.

The expression of calmodulin kinase IV (CaMKIV) can be induced by the thyroid hormone T3 in a time- and concentration-dependent manner at a very early stage of brain differentiation using a fetal rat telencephalon primary cell culture system which can grow and differentiate under chemically defined conditions (Krebs et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 11055-11058). After the induction of CaMKIV by T3 we examined the influence of prolonged absence of T3 from the culture medium on the expression of CaMKIV. We could demonstrate that after the T3-dependent induction of CaMKIV, omission of the hormone, even for 8 days, from the medium did not downregulate the expression of CaMKIV indicating that different regulatory mechanisms became important for the expression of the enzyme. We further showed that CaMKIV could be involved in the Ca(2+) -dependent expression of the immediate early gene c-fos, probably via phosphorylation of the transcription factor CREB. Convergence of signal transduction pathways on this transcription factor by using different protein kinases may explain the importance of CREB for the regulation of different cellular processes.

The M-Coffee web server: a meta-method for computing multiple sequence alignments by combining alternative alignment methods.

The M-Coffee server is a web server that makes it possible to compute multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) by running several MSA methods and combining their output into one single model. This allows the user to simultaneously run all his methods of choice without having to arbitrarily choose one of them. The MSA is delivered along with a local estimation of its consistency with the individual MSAs it was derived from. The computation of the consensus multiple alignment is carried out using a special mode of the T-Coffee package [Notredame, Higgins and Heringa (T-Coffee: a novel method for fast and accurate multiple sequence alignment. J. Mol. Biol. 2000; 302: 205-217); Wallace, O'Sullivan, Higgins and Notredame (M-Coffee: combining multiple sequence alignment methods with T-Coffee. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006; 34: 1692-1699)] Given a set of sequences (DNA or proteins) in FASTA format, M-Coffee delivers a multiple alignment in the most common formats. M-Coffee is a freeware open source package distributed under a GPL license and it is available either as a standalone package or as a web service from www.tcoffee.org.

Surface modification of biomaterials for conjugation with human fetal osteoblasts.

Surface functionalization of hydroxyapatite (HA) and beta-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) bioceramics with chemical ligands containing a pyrrogallol moiety was developed to improve the adhesion of bone cell precursors to the biomaterials. Fast and biocompatible copper-free click reaction with azido-modified human fetal osteoblasts resulted in improved cell binding to both HA and TCP bioceramics, opening the way for using this methodology in the preparation of cell-engineered bone implants.

What impact do systemically administrated bisphosphonates have on oral implant therapy? A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate, analysing the dental literature, whether: * Patients on intravenous (IV) or oral bisphosphonates (BPs) can receive oral implant therapy and what could be the risk of developing bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ)? * Osseointegrated implants could be affected by BP therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A Medline search was conducted and all publications fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria from 1966 until December 2008 were included in the review. Moreover, the Cochrane Data Base of Systematic Reviews, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and EMBASE (from 1980 to December 2008) were searched for English-language articles published between 1966 and 2008. Literature search was completed by a hand research accessing the references cited in all identified publications. RESULTS: The literature search rendered only one prospective and three retrospective studies. The prospective controlled non-randomized clinical study followed patients with and without BP medication up to 36 months after implant therapy. The patients in the experimental group had been on oral BPs before implant therapy for periods ranging between 1 and 4 years. None of the patients developed BRONJ and implant outcome was not affected by the BP medication. The three selected retrospective studies (two case-controls and one case series) yielded very similar results. All have followed patients on oral BPs after implant therapy, with follow-up ranging between 2 and 4 years. BRONJ was never reported and implant survival rates ranged between 95% and 100%. The literature search on BRONJ including guidelines and recommendations found 59 papers, from which six were retrieved. Among the guidelines, there is a consensus on contraindicating implants in cancer patients under IV-BPs and not contraindicating dental implants in patients under oral-BPs for osteoporosis. CONCLUSIONS: From the analysis of the one prospective and the three retrospective series (217 patients), the placement of an implant may be considered a safe procedure in patients taking oral BPs for <5 years with regard to the occurrence of BRONJ since in these studies no BRONJ has been reported. Moreover, the intake of oral-BPs did not influence short-term (1-4 years) implant survival rates.