Experimental study of physiological pulsatile flow past valve prostheses in a model of human aorta--I. Caged ball valves

Pulsatile flow development past a caged ball valve in a model human aorta was studied using laser Doppler anemometry. Velocity profiles measured in the ascending aorta and in the mid-arch region were strongly influenced by the geometry of the valve at the root of the aorta. Velocity profiles distal to the valve were asymmetric with jet-like flow in the peripheral region having larger velocity magnitudes towards the left lateral wall. In early diastole, a streamwise vortex motion was observed throughout the model aorta with fluid moving towards the downstream direction along the left lateral wall and reversed flow along the right lateral wall. With the caged ball valve at the root of the aorta, no reversed flow was observed along the inner wall of curvature in the mid-arch region.     

Steady flow development past valve prostheses in a model human aorta—I. Centrally occluding valves

In this paper, laser-Doppler anemometry measurement of steady flow development in a model human aorta has been reported. Studies were made with uniform entry flow at the root of the aorta and our measurements showed the establishment of a pair of Dean vortices in the mid-arch region. Subsequently, the nature of flow development past centrally occluding caged ball valves in the model aorta was investigated. Our studies showed that in the ascending aorta, an asymmetric velocity profile is obtained with larger velocity gradients towards the inner wall of tertiary curvature (anatomically the left lateral wall) with centrally occluding valves. The peripheral flow past these valves prevented the development of Dean vortices in the mid-arch region. The caged ball valves at the root of the aorta had no discernible effect on the velocity profiles in the brachio-cephalic artery.     

High-titer bicistronic retroviral vectors employing foot-and-mouth disease virus internal ribosome entry site.

Bicistronic retroviral vectors were constructed containing the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) internal ribosome entry site (IRES) followed by the coding region of beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) or therapeutic genes, with the selectable neomycin phosphotransferase gene under the control of the viral long terminal repeat (LTR) promoter. LNFX, a vector with a multiple cloning site 3' to foot-and-mouth disease virus IRES, was used to construct vectors encoding rat erythropoietin (EP), rat granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), human adenosine deaminase (ADA) and beta-gal. In transduced primary rat vascular smooth muscle cells the cytokines were expressed at high levels, similar to those obtained from vectors employing the viral LTR promoter. LNFZ, a vector encoding beta-gal, had a 10-fold increase in titer over that of LNPoZ, a comparable vector containing the poliovirus (Po) internal ribosome entry site. Primary canine vascular smooth muscle cells infected with LNFZ and LNPoZ expressed similar activities of beta-gal and neomycin phosphotransferase (NPT). Overall, these vectors had titers between 10(6) and 2 x 10(7) c.f.u./ml, indicating that foot-and-mouth disease virus IRES provides high-titer bicistronic vectors with high-level two gene expression.     

Efficiency of direct and indirect shoot organogenesis in different genotypes of Rosa hybrida

To optimize indirect regeneration (IR) and direct regeneration (DR) in Rosa hybrida cv. Apollo different explant types and different concentrations of plant growth regulators were investigated. Among the different auxins studied and over all explant types, 10???M 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) promoted the highest frequency of callus production for IR. The highest frequency of regeneration (60.8?%) was obtained when calli were transferred to Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 2.5???M thidiazuron (TDZ) and 2???M gibberellic acid. The highest frequency of regeneration (80.2?%) for DR was obtained from leaves cultured on the medium containing 10???M TDZ. The efficiency of IR and DR were compared in four different rose cultivars including ??Apollo??, ??Black Baccara??, ??Maroussia?? and ??Amanda??. The frequency of regeneration in all four cultivars was significantly higher in DR compared to IR. Also shoots regenerated by DR appeared earlier than the shoots regenerated by IR. The results of flow cytometry showed that the shoots derived from IR to DR were tetraploid like the original cultivars.     

Quantifying the impact of ecological memory on the dynamics of interacting communities

Ecological memory refers to the influence of past events on the response of an ecosystem to exogenous or endogenous changes. Memory has been widely recognized as a key contributor to the dynamics of ecosystems and other complex systems, yet quantitative community models often ignore memory and its implications.Recent modeling studies have shown how interactions between community members can lead to the emergence of resilience and multistability under environmental perturbations. We demonstrate how memory can be introduced in such models using the framework of fractional calculus. We study how the dynamics of a well-characterized interaction model is affected by gradual increases in ecological memory under varying initial conditions, perturbations, and stochasticity.Our results highlight the implications of memory on several key aspects of community dynamics. In general, memory introduces inertia into the dynamics. This favors species coexistence under perturbation, enhances system resistance to state shifts, mitigates hysteresis, and can affect system resilience both ways depending on the time scale considered. Memory also promotes long transient dynamics, such as long-standing oscillations and delayed regime shifts, and contributes to the emergence and persistence of alternative stable states. Our study highlights the fundamental role of memory in communities, and provides quantitative tools to introduce it in ecological models and analyse its impact under varying conditions.     

l-Arginine is a feasible supplement to heal chronic anal fissure via reducing internal anal sphincter pressure: a randomized clinical trial study

Amino Acids - The hypertonicity of internal anal sphincter resting pressure is one of the main causes of chronic anal fissure. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of oral...     

Laser anemometry measurements of pulsatile flow past aortic valve prostheses

Experimental results are presented on physiological pulsatile flow past caged ball and tilting disc aortic valve prostheses mounted in an axisymmetric chamber incorporated in a mock circulatory system. The measurements of velocity profiles and turbulent normal stresses during several times in a cardiac cycle were obtained using laser-Doppler anemometry. Our results show that with increased angle of opening for the tilting disc valves, a large but locally confined vortex is observed along the wall in the minor flow region throughout most of the cardiac cycle. The turbulent normal stresses measured downstream to the tilting disc in the minor flow region parallel to the tilt axis were found to be larger than those measured downstream to the caged ball valves. Comparison of measurements with steady flow at flow rates comparable to peak pulsatile flow rate show that the turbulent normal stresses are larger by a factor of two in pulsatile flow with a frequency of 1.2 Hz.     

Steady flow development past valve prostheses in a model human aorta—II. Tilting disc valves

The flow development in the model human aorta with uniform entry as well as with centrally occuluding valves mounted at the root of the aorta was described in Part I of this two-paper sequence. Part II deals with the flow development in the model aorta with tilting disc valves mounted at the root of the aorta. Bjork-Shiley and Hall-Kaster tilting disc valves were mounted in three different orientations with respect to the root of the aorta. The velocity profiles and turbulent stresses were measured with laser-Doppler anemometry. Our results under steady flow conditions in the model human aorta show quantitatively that the flow development in the ascending aorta as well as in the brachio-cephalic artery are strongly dependent on the orientation of the tilting disc valves. With the valves tilting towards the outer wall of curvature, our results suggest a tendency for flow separation at the flow divider region of the brachio-cephalic artery.     

Experimental study of physiological pulsatile flow past valve prosthesis in a model of human aorta--II. Tilting disc valves and the effect of orientation

In Part II of this two paper sequence, pulsatile flow development past a tilting disc valve in a model human aorta has been studied using quantitative laser Doppler techniques. The valve was mounted in three different orientations with respect to the aortic root in this study. Under pulsatile flow, the region of flow reversal induced near the wall of the minor flow orifice extends to more than one tissue annulus diameter downstream from the valve into the ascending aorta. In a plane perpendicular to the tilt axis, a bi-helical secondary flow is induced distal to the valve. This secondary flow is further compounded by the multiple curvatures in the aorta. Hence the valve orientation affects the velocity profiles as far downstream as the mid-arch region as well as in the brachio-cephalic arterial branch. In the mid-arch region, a flow reversal along the entire cross-section is observed in early diastole for all the three orientations of the disc valve.     

Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lilium ledebourii</Emphasis> (Baker) Boiss., an endangered species

A somatic embryogenesis (SE) protocol was established for the regeneration of Lilium ledebourii (Baker) Boiss. whole plants using new vegetative bulblet microscales and transverse thin cell layers (tTCLs) of young bulblet roots as the explant sources. Bulblets were induced from bulb scale explants cultured for at least 3 months in the dark on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 3% sucrose, 0.8% agar, and different concentrations of α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), 6-benzyladenine (BA), and thidiazuron. Embryo-like structures were obtained from tTCL explants of 3-month-old bulblets (excised from bulb scale explants) following culture on solid MS medium containing 3% sucrose and various concentrations of NAA and BA for 3 months in the dark. Both the explant source and the type of plant growth regulators affected the differentiation of somatic embryos. The highest percentage (65.55%) of embryogenesis was obtained from bulblet microscale tTCLs cultured on solid MS medium containing 0.54 μM NAA and 0.44 μM BA. Plants with normal shoots and roots were obtained following a 3-month culture of embryos on growth regulator-free MS medium at 25 ± 1°C under a 16/8-h light/dark photoperiod (light intensity 40 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹, cool-white fluorescent light). The plants were successfully acclimatized in the growth chamber.