Publications by authors named "Highland M"

Background: Lamb health is crucial for producers; however, the percentage of lambs that die before weaning is still 15-20%. One factor that can contribute to lamb deaths is congenital diseases. A novel semi-lethal disease has been identified in newborn Polypay lambs and termed dozer lamb syndrome.

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Introduction: Percutaneous microwave ablation (MWA) is clinically accepted for the treatment of lung tumors and oligometastatic disease. Bronchoscopic MWA is under development and evaluation in the clinical setting. We previously reported on the development of a bronchoscopy-guided MWA system integrated with clinical virtual bronchoscopy and navigation and demonstrated the feasibility of transbronchial MWA, using a maximum power of 60 W at the catheter input.

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Introduction: Aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) is the most common cause of endocrine-related hypertension but surgery is not always feasible. Current medical interventions are associated with significant side effects and poor patient compliance. New APA animal models that replicate basic characteristics of APA and give physical and biochemical feedback are needed to test new non-surgical treatment methods, such as image-guided thermal ablation.

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Background: Despite the theoretical advantages of treating metastatic bone disease with microwave ablation (MWA), there are few reports characterizing microwave absorption and bioheat transfer in bone. This report describes a computational modeling-based approach to simulate directional microwave ablation (dMWA) in spine, supported by and pilot experiments in porcine vertebral bodies.

Materials And Methods: A 3D computational model of microwave ablation within porcine vertebral bodies was developed.

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Next-generation synchrotron radiation facilities, such as the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade (APS-U), bring significant advancements in scientific research capabilities, necessitating advanced diagnostic tools. Central to these diagnostics are x-ray wavefront sensors, crucial for preserving beam properties, including brightness, coherence, and stability. This paper presents two novel wavefront sensor prototypes developed at the APS using the coded-mask-based technique.

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We describe the application of an AI-driven system to autonomously align complex x-ray-focusing mirror systems, including mirrors systems with variable focus spot sizes. The system has been developed and studied on a digital twin of nanofocusing X-ray beamlines, built using advanced optical simulation tools calibrated with wavefront sensing data collected at the beamline.We experimentally demonstrated that the system is reliably capable of positioning a focused beam on the sample, both by simulating the variation of a beamline with random perturbations due to typical changes in the light source and optical elements over time, and by conducting similar tests on an actual focusing mirror system.

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A neural-network machine learning model is developed to control a bimorph adaptive mirror to achieve and preserve aberration-free coherent X-ray wavefronts at synchrotron radiation and free electron laser beamlines. The controller is trained on a mirror actuator response directly measured at a beamline with a real-time single-shot wavefront sensor, which uses a coded mask and wavelet-transform analysis. The system has been successfully tested on a bimorph deformable mirror at the 28-ID IDEA beamline of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers are developing new methods to analyze the structure of electrode materials when they're in use, which helps connect structure to their electrochemical properties.* -
  • Current techniques struggle with both the level of detail and the conditions needed to observe significant structural changes during operation.* -
  • Using a combination of advanced imaging and electrochemical methods, the study reveals that surface strain changes during polarization are influenced by electrode surface charge and reactions, while the core remains stable, providing insights for improving electrochemical performance.*
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This report documents cases of fatal pulmonary mycosis caused by entomopathogenic fungi in the genera and (Order Hypocreales) in a loggerhead sea turtle (), a Chinese alligator (), two gopher tortoises (), a Cuvier's dwarf caiman (), a false gharial (), a green sea turtle (), and a Kemp's ridley sea turtle (), and a case of granulomatous coelomitis in a hawksbill sea turtle (). Fungi identified in these cases included , , , , and one case of infection by a novel species. The animals were either housed at zoos or brought into rehabilitation from the wild.

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Human-adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADMSCs) are adult stem cells and are relatively easy to access compared to other sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). They have shown immunomodulation properties as well as effects in improving tissue regeneration. To better stimulate and preserve the therapeutic properties of hADMSCs, biomaterials for cell delivery have been studied extensively.

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Tick-borne Anaplasma species are obligate, intracellular, bacterial pathogens that cause important diseases globally in people, agricultural animals, and dogs. Targeted mutagenesis methods are yet to be developed to define genes essential for these pathogens. In addition, vaccines conferring protection against diseases caused by Anaplasma species are not available.

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Two central bearded dragons (), a 3-y-old male and a 5-y-old female, were diagnosed with different manifestations of lymphoma at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory between 2019 and 2020. The 3-y-old male was presented for postmortem evaluation and was in poor body condition. Microscopically, nearly all examined organs contained variable numbers of neoplastic round cells.

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As part of a respiratory pathogen survey of Alaska wildlife, we conducted a concordance study to assess Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae detection among three different PCR assays using a total of 346 nasal swabs sampled from four species (Dall's sheep, Ovis dalli dalli; mountain goats, Oreamnos americanus; caribou, Rangifer tarandus granti; and moose, Alces alces gigas), and two taxonomic subfamilies (Bovidae subfamily Caprinae and Cervidae subfamily Capreolinae). A federal research laboratory performed two PCR assays (LM40 and intergenic spacer region [IGS]), and a state diagnostic laboratory performed the third (universal Mycoplasma [UM]). Overall concordance was good, ranging from 93% to 99%, which was probably a result of low detection rate of M.

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We have developed and demonstrated an image super-resolution method-XR-UNLOC: X-Ray UNsupervised particle LOCalization-for hard x-rays measured with fast-frame-rate detectors that is an adaptation of the principle of photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM) and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), which enabled biological fluorescence imaging at sub-optical-wavelength scales. We demonstrate the approach on experimental coherent Bragg diffraction data measured with 52 keV x-rays from a nanocrystalline sample. From this sample, we resolve the fine fringe detail of a high-energy x-ray Bragg coherent diffraction pattern to an upsampling factor of 16 of the native pixel pitch of 30 μm of a charge-integrating fastCCD detector.

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The stacking sequence of hexagonal close-packed and related crystals typically results in steps on vicinal {0001} surfaces that have alternating A and B structures with different growth kinetics. However, because it is difficult to experimentally identify which step has the A or B structure, it has not been possible to determine which has faster adatom attachment kinetics. Here we show that in situ microbeam surface X-ray scattering can determine whether A or B steps have faster kinetics under specific growth conditions.

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Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a respiratory pathogen that impacts domestic sheep (Ovis aries; DS) and bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis; BHS). BHS are reported to be more susceptible than DS to developing polymicrobial pneumonia associated with M. ovipneumoniae infection.

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Solid-phase epitaxy (SPE) and other three-dimensional epitaxial crystallization processes pose challenging structural and chemical characterization problems. The concentration of defects, the spatial distribution of elastic strain, and the chemical state of ions each vary with nanoscale characteristic length scales and depend sensitively on the gas environment and elastic boundary conditions during growth. The lateral or three-dimensional propagation of crystalline interfaces in SPE has nanoscale or submicrometer characteristic distances during typical crystallization times.

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Article Synopsis
  • Mycoplasmas are a diverse group of bacteria, some of which can cause diseases in humans and animals.
  • A draft genome sequence of a new species within this group has been identified.
  • This new species could lead to false-positive PCR test results for a respiratory pathogen affecting ruminants.
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Side-bounce beamlines with fixed-exit angles have been intended to operate with only one selected energy. However, a tunable monochromator in a new geometry is presented here that will make side-bounce beamlines energy tunable. It requires the addition of two more rotations.

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Mycoplasma ovis is a hemotropic bacterium reported to infect sheep, goats, and deer species. Infection in these species can result in anemia, jaundice, and ill-thrift. Although of worldwide distribution, only rare reports of this bacterium in the United States exist.

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The genus Macavirus of the subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae comprises two genetically distinct lineages of lymphotropic viruses. One of these lineages includes viruses that can cause malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), which are known as MCF viruses (MCFV). All MCFVs are genetically and antigenically related but carried by different hosts.

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The causative agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, harbours a single linear chromosome and upwards of 23 linear and circular plasmids. Only a minority of these plasmids, including linear plasmid 17, are maintained with near-absolute fidelity during extended in vitro passage, and characterisation of any putative virulence determinants they encode has only recently begun. In this work, a mutant lacking a ~4.

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has been reported in association with respiratory disease in the wild only in members of the subfamily Caprinae of the family Bovidae. We identified in a cervid: a free-ranging barren ground caribou () yearling with polymicrobial bronchopneumonia.

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