Antibody production and Escherichia coli resistance in socially stable flocks of dwarf and nondwarf chickens

Dwarf and normal pullets from lines that had undergone selection for divergence in juvenile body weight were maintained in cages as socially stable flocks. Antibody titers were measured at 6 and 14 weeks of age and an Escherichia coli challenge was administered at 16 weeks of age. There was a significant line by dwarf genotype interaction with dwarfs having lower antibody titers than normal pullets in the low weight line and higher antibody titers in the high weight line. The mortality of dwarfs from the low weight line to an Escherichia coli challenge was much higher than that of any other group. These results were consistent with those from previous experiments where the Escherichia coli challenge was given to hens in single cages.     

Aorto-left atrial fistula in prosthetic aortic endocarditis

Aortic valve endocarditis commonly leads to the formation of a root abscess, but fistulae are uncommon. The echocardiographic findings in a patient with Streptococcus viridans endocarditis of a prosthetic aortic valve associated with a fistula between the aorta and the left atrium are presented. The diagnosis was made by transthoracic echocardiography, although the transesophageal study gave higher resolution views and allowed a more confident exclusion of mitral valve involvement.     

Inhaled induction and emergence from desflurane anesthesia in the ambulatory surgical patient: the effect of premedication

We studied the effect of premedication (1 microgram/kg fentanyl and 0.04 mg/kg midazolam 5 min before induction of anesthesia) on airway reactivity and hemodynamic stability during inhaled induction using desflurane in 10 ambulatory surgical patients. Eight patients who were anesthetized without premedication served as the controls. Induction and emergence were rapid and unaffected by premedication. End-tidal and inspired concentrations of desflurane at loss of consciousness were significantly reduced by premedication (10.1% end-tidal/14.1% inspired, no premedication, vs. 5.3% end-tidal/8.9% inspired, premedication). Airway irritability was markedly attenuated by premedication (100% no premedication versus 30% premedicated), as was apnea (37.5% no premedication versus 0% premedicated). We observed an increase in mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate after loss of consciousness (mean arterial pressure 103 vs 121 mm Hg, heart rate 73 vs 100 bpm) in the unpremedicated patients, whereas both groups demonstrated a decrease in mean arterial blood pressure with no change in heart rate when baseline values were compared to those at incision (103 vs 74 mm Hg, no premedication, 99 vs 81 mm Hg premedicated). Patient acceptability was satisfactory and unchanged by premedication. We recommend the use of such premedication when desflurane is used during the induction of anesthesia.     

Phonological typicality influences sentence processing in predictive contexts: Reply to Staub, Grant, Clifton, and Rayner (2009).

In 2 separate self-paced reading experiments, Farmer, Christiansen, and Monaghan (2006) found that the degree to which a word's phonology is typical of other words in its lexical category influences online processing of nouns and verbs in predictive contexts. Staub, Grant, Clifton, and Rayner (2009) failed to find an effect of phonological typicality when they combined stimuli from the separate experiments into a single experiment. We replicated Staub et al.'s experiment and found that the combination of stimulus sets affects the predictiveness of the syntactic context; this reduces the phonological typicality effect as the experiment proceeds, although the phonological typicality effect was still evident early in the experiment. Although an ambiguous context may diminish sensitivity to the probabilistic relationship between the sound of a word and its lexical category, phonological typicality does influence online sentence processing during normal reading when the syntactic context is predictive of the lexical category of upcoming words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of newly synthesized cholesterol or its metabolites on the regulation of bile acid biosynthesis after short-term biliary diversion in the rat

Cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in the bile acid biosynthetic pathway, is thought to be regulated by hydrophobic bile acids through negative feedback control. The role of cholesterol in the regulation of cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase is more controversial, in part because of incomplete understanding of the relationship between the pathways of cholesterol synthesis and degradation. The main objective of this study was to define the interaction between these two pathways in an experimental model in which the supply of newly synthesized cholesterol was interrupted by sustained infusion of mevinolin (lovastatin), an inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase) or accelerated by a continuous infusion of mevalonate, a cholesterol precursor. The study was carried out in rats subjected to short-term bile fistula. In one set of experiments, rats were treated postoperatively with mevinolin (5 mg/kg loading dose followed by 2 mg/kg/hr infusion), mevalonate (180 mumol/hr infusion) or both for up to 96 hr. In a separate set of experiments, rats were infused intraduodenally with taurocholate (36 mumol/100 gm/hr for up to 96 hr). We determined cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase- and HMG-CoA reductase specific activities at those time intervals, whereas bile acid synthesis rates were determined throughout the study. Compared with rats not subjected to surgery, rats with short-term biliary diversion had increases in cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase activity of 259% and 827% at 48 and 96 hr, respectively. The increase in bile acid biosynthesis was less pronounced. Continuous infusion of mevinolin completely prevented increases in cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase specific activity and bile acid biosynthesis at both time intervals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)