Magnetostructural behavior in the non-centrosymmetric compound NdPd.

A systematic study of the physical properties and microscopic magnetism of NdPd compound, which in the paramagnetic state crystallizes in the non-centrosymmetric hexagonal ThFe-type structure (hP20-P6 mc; with a  =  10.1367(1) Å and c  =  6.3847(1) Å at 300 K), confirms multiple magnetic ordering transitions that occur upon cooling.

Characterization of six Merkel cell polyomavirus-positive Merkel cell carcinoma cell lines: Integration pattern suggest that large T antigen truncating events occur before or during integration.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), an aggressive neuroendocrine skin tumor, is a polyomavirus-induced human cancer. To study the causal relationship of MCC carcinogenesis with the integrated Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) in detail, well-characterized MCC cell lines are needed. Consequently, in the current study, we established and characterized six MCPyV-positive MCC cell lines.

Biomarker Predictors of Delirium in Acutely Ill Patients: A Systematic Review.

Delirium is a serious and common disorder that affects up to 80% of acutely ill patients, mainly the aged. In recent years, several studies pointed out possible biomarkers that could be used alone or in combination with other resources in the diagnosis and follow-up of critically ill patients who develop delirium. In this context, a systematic review was conducted to determine the predictive value of several biomarkers in acutely (critically and noncritically) ill adult patients with delirium.

Factors associated with dairy farmers' satisfaction and preparedness to adopt recommendations after veterinary herd health visits.

Herd health and production consultancy are important aspects of the modern dairy veterinary practice; therefore, veterinary farm visits will likely be more successful if veterinary practitioners communicate effectively and meet farmers' expectations. Objectives were to assess dairy farmers' satisfaction with veterinary advisors and their perceived preparedness to adopt veterinary advice. Furthermore, we assessed whether farmers' satisfaction and preparedness to adopt advice were associated with specific predictor variables; that is, general (demographic) factors of veterinarians or farmers, communication tools used by veterinarians, and veterinarians' affective attributes during the farm visit.

Characterization of Cancer-Induced Nociception in a Murine Model of Breast Carcinoma.

Severe and poorly treated pain often accompanies breast cancer. Thus, novel mechanisms involved in breast cancer-induced pain should be investigated. Then, it is necessary to characterize animal models that are reliable with the symptoms and progression of the disease as observed in humans.

Topochemical nitridation of SrFeMoO.

The topotactic nitridation of cation ordered, tetragonal Sr2FeMoO6 in NH3 at moderate temperatures leads to cubic, Fm3[combining macron]m double perovskite oxynitride Sr2FeMoO4.9N1.1 where double-exchange interactions determine ferromagnetic order with TC ≈ 100 K.

Left Ventricular Structure in Patients With Mild-to-Moderate CKD-a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Introduction: The high burden of left ventricular (LV) abnormalities in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) is well established. However, less is known about the prevalence, patterns, and determinants of LV abnormalities in patients with early CKD.

Methods: We examined LV structure in 290 patients with a median estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 51 ml/min per 1.

Whole-Genome Sequencing for Drug Resistance Profile Prediction in .

Whole-genome sequencing allows rapid detection of drug-resistant isolates. However, the availability of high-quality data linking quantitative phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (DST) and genomic data have thus far been limited. We determined drug resistance profiles of 176 genetically diverse clinical isolates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Peru, Thailand, and Switzerland by quantitative phenotypic DST for 11 antituberculous drugs using the BD Bactec MGIT 960 system and 7H10 agar dilution to generate a cross-validated phenotypic DST readout.

Characterizing adverse prenatal and postnatal experiences in children.

Background: Prenatal and postnatal adversities, including prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), prenatal exposure to other substances, toxic stress, lack of adequate resources, and postnatal abuse or neglect, often co-occur. These exposures can have cumulative effects, or interact with each other, leading to worse outcomes than single exposures. However, given their complexity and heterogeneity, exposures can be difficult to characterize.

The Dairy Cattle Housing Dilemma: Natural Behavior Versus Animal Care.

Animal welfare has historically been defined at the intersection of 3 key concepts: (1) health and biological functioning, (2) affective state, and (3) natural living. For farmed animals, such as dairy cattle, health and biological functioning are often prioritized, sometimes at the expense of natural living. In this work, the authors discuss the perceived conflict between the duty of care exercised by producers and the resulting consequences to natural behavior expression.

Biodiversity assessments in the 21st century: the potential of insect traps to complement environmental samples for estimating eukaryotic and prokaryotic diversity using high-throughput DNA metabarcoding .

The rapid loss of biodiversity, coupled with difficulties in species identification, call for innovative approaches to assess biodiversity. Insects make up a substantial proportion of extant diversity and play fundamental roles in any given ecosystem. To complement morphological species identification, new techniques such as metabarcoding make it possible to quantify insect diversity and insect-ecosystem interactions through DNA sequencing.

The huge effect of Mn substitution on the structural and magnetic properties of LaFeAsO: the La(Fe,Mn)AsO system.

The substitution of Mn for Fe on the sub-lattice in LaFeAsO has a remarkable impact on both structural and magnetic properties; for example, the structural and magnetic transition temperatures decrease of ~20 K in samples with a Mn-content as low as x  =  0.01. Such a dramatic effect results from the high stability of the substituting Mn ion (3d ) in its high-spin state, which opposes any variation to its electronic state (configuration), perturbing thereby interactions within the Fe sub-lattice between the Fe ions surrounding the substituent.

Protist Biodiversity and Biogeography in Lakes From Four Brazilian River-Floodplain Systems.

The biodiversity and biogeography of protists inhabiting many ecosystems have been intensely studied using different sequencing approaches, but tropical ecosystems are relatively under-studied. Here, we sampled planktonic waters from 32 lakes associated with four different river-floodplains systems in Brazil, and sequenced the DNA using a metabarcoding approach with general eukaryotic primers. The lakes were dominated by the largely free-living Discoba (mostly the Euglenida), Ciliophora, and Ochrophyta.

Multimodal and Spectral Degradation Effects on Speech and Emotion Recognition in Adult Listeners.

For cochlear implant (CI) users, degraded spectral input hampers the understanding of prosodic vocal emotion, especially in difficult listening conditions. Using a vocoder simulation of CI hearing, we examined the extent to which informative multimodal cues in a talker's spoken expressions improve normal hearing (NH) adults' speech and emotion perception under different levels of spectral degradation (two, three, four, and eight spectral bands). Participants repeated the words verbatim and identified emotions (among four alternative options: happy, sad, angry, and neutral) in meaningful sentences that are semantically congruent with the expression of the intended emotion.

Blood Pressure Pattern and Target Organ Damage in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease.

In patients with chronic kidney disease, data on blood pressure (BP) pattern and its association with target organ damage, which indicates elevated cardiovascular risk, are sparse. In 305 treated hypertensive chronic kidney disease patients, we assessed BP pattern, left ventricular mass (magnetic resonance imaging), intima-media thickness (ultrasound), 24-hour-pulse wave velocity and 24-hour-central augmentation index (Mobil-O-Graph). Controlled hypertension (normal office and ambulatory BP) was found in 41% and sustained uncontrolled hypertension (elevated office and ambulatory BP) in 30% of patients.

Lock-in spin structures and ferrimagnetism in polar NiCoScSbO oxides.

The new phase CoScSbO and NiCoScSbO solid solutions adopt the polar NiTeO-type structure and order magnetically below 60 K. A series of long-period lock-in [0 0 1/3n] spin structures with n = 5, 6, 8 and 10 is discovered, coexisting with a ferrimagnetic [0 0 0] phase at high Co-contents. The presence of electrical polarisation and spontaneous magnetisations offers possibilities for multiferroic properties.

Conceptual and empirical advances in Neotropical biodiversity research.

The unparalleled biodiversity found in the American tropics (the Neotropics) has attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries. Despite major advances in recent years in our understanding of the origin and diversification of many Neotropical taxa and biotic regions, many questions remain to be answered. Additional biological and geological data are still needed, as well as methodological advances that are capable of bridging these research fields.

High-throughput metabarcoding reveals the effect of physicochemical soil properties on soil and litter biodiversity and community turnover across Amazonia.

Background: Knowledge on the globally outstanding Amazonian biodiversity and its environmental determinants stems almost exclusively from aboveground organisms, notably plants. In contrast, the environmental factors and habitat preferences that drive diversity patterns for micro-organisms in the ground remain elusive, despite the fact that micro-organisms constitute the overwhelming majority of life forms in any given location, in terms of both diversity and abundance. Here we address how the diversity and community turnover of operational taxonomic units (OTU) of organisms in soil and litter respond to soil physicochemical properties; whether OTU diversities and community composition in soil and litter are correlated with each other; and whether they respond in a similar way to soil properties.

Magnetic structure and field-dependent magnetic phase diagram of NiIn-type PrCuSi.

The magnetic structure of the ternary equiatomic intermetallic compound PrCuSi is investigated using neutron powder diffraction experiments in 0 T as well as in external magnetic fields up to 2 T. The PrCuSi compound crystallizes in the hexagonal NiIn-type structure, in the space group P6/mmc. In this structure, cationic ordering of Cu and Si takes place.

Relationship between the Crystal Structure and Electrical Properties of Oxide Ion Conducting BaWNbO.

The oxide ionic conductor BaWNbO has been synthesized as part of an investigation into the new class of BaM'M''O (M' = W, Mo; M'' = Nb) oxide-ion conducting hexagonal perovskite derivatives. The substitution of W for Nb in BaWNbO leads to an increase in the oxygen content, which enhances the low-temperature ionic conductivity. However, at 400 °C, the ionic conductivity of BaWNbO is still significantly lower than the molybdenum compound BaMoNbO.

Tranexamic Acid Reduces Perioperative Blood Loss and Hemarthrosis in Total Ankle Arthroplasty.

Tranexamic acid (TXA) is an effective agent used for reducing perioperative blood loss and decreasing the potential for postoperative hemarthrosis. We hypothesized that patients who had received intraoperative TXA during total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) would have a reduction in postoperative drain output, thereby resulting in a reduced risk of postoperative hemarthrosis and lower wound complication rates. A retrospective review was conducted on 50 consecutive patients, 25 receiving TXA (TXA-TAA) and 25 not receiving TXA (No TXA-TAA), who underwent an uncemented TAA between September 2011 and December 2015.

Clinical communication patterns of veterinary practitioners during dairy herd health and production management farm visits.

Effective communication with clients is an important skill for veterinary practitioners and is linked to clients' satisfaction with the consultancy and adherence to medical advice. Detailed description of veterinary communication styles in companion animal contexts has added to the communication knowledge base and informed veterinary curricula and postgraduate education programs. The objective here was to describe veterinary practitioners' communication patterns during dairy herd health and production management farm visits.

Author Correction: Long range electronic phase separation in CaFeO.

The original version of this Article contained an error in the third sentence of the legend of Fig. 2, which incorrectly read 'The phase fractions of the charge ordered (CO) phase, obtained from synchrotron (X) and neutron (N) diffraction data are shown in the right-hand panel.' The correct version states 'charge averaged (CA)' in place of 'charge ordered (CO)'.

Control of primary mouse cytomegalovirus infection in lung nodular inflammatory foci by cooperation of interferon-gamma expressing CD4 and CD8 T cells.

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) and mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) infection share many characteristics. Therefore infection of mice with MCMV is an important tool to understand immune responses and to design vaccines and therapies for patients at the risk of severe CMV disease. In this study, we investigated the immune response in the lungs following acute infection with MCMV.