Comparative cardiovascular, analgesic, and sedative effects of medetomidine, medetomidine-hydromorphone, and medetomidine-butorphanol in dogs

OBJECTIVE: To compare sedative, analgesic, and cardiopulmonary effects after IV administration of medetomidine (20 microg/kg), medetomidine-hydromorphone (20 microg of medetomidine/kg and 0.1 mg of hydromorphone/kg), and medetomidine-butorphanol (20 microg of medetomidine/kg and 0.2 mg of butorphanol tartrate/kg) in dogs. ANIMALS: 6 dogs healthy mixed-breed dogs. PROCEDURE: Instruments were surgically inserted, and heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), systolic arterial pressure (SAP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), diastolic arterial pressure (DAP), mean pulmonary arterial pressure (MPAP), pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP), central venous pressure (CVP), core body temperature, and cardiac output (CO) were measured 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes after injection. Cardiac index (CI), stroke volume (SV), stroke index (SI), systemic vascular resistance (SVR), and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) were calculated. Arterial samples for blood gas analysis were collected 0, 15, and 45 minutes after injection. Intensity of analgesia, degree of sedation, and degree of muscle relaxation were evaluated at aforementioned time points and 75, 90, 120, 150, 180, and 210 minutes after injection. RESULTS: Administration of medetomidine, medetomidine-hydromorphone, and medetomidine-butorphanol was associated with increases in SAP, MAP, DAP, MPAP, PCWP, CVP, SVR, PVR, core body temperature, and PaCO2 and decreases in HR, CO, CI, SV, SI, RR, pH, and PaO2. Clinically important differences were not detected among treatments. Medetomidine-hydromorphone and medetomidine-butorphanol provided a longer duration of sedation and better quality of analgesia, compared with medetomidine alone. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Medetomidine-hydromorphone or medetomidine-butorphanol is associated with improved analgesia and sedation but has cardiopulmonary effects comparable to those for medetomidine alone.     

Maxillary bone epithelial cyst in an adult miniature schnauzer

Maxillary bone epithelial cyst is rare in dogs. A 5-year-old, spayed female miniature schnauzer developed a swelling below the nasal canthus of left eye. Plain radiograph demonstrated a 1.5 cm diameter of radiolucent lesion on the maxillary bone anteroventral to the eye, and contrast dacryocystorhinography confirmed an obstructed nasolarcrimal duct. The swelling showed poor response to antibiotic treatment but responded well to oral prednisolone. Exploratory surgery revealed a cyst-like structure filled with brown serous fluid. Histopathological examination of the removed cyst revealed a double cuboidal epithelial cyst. The dog recovered rapidly after surgery, and the swelling had not recurred for a 36-month follow-up. It is the first case of periorbital bone epithelial cyst reported in an adult miniature schnauzer.     

Reprogramming control of an allosteric signaling switch through modular recombination

Many eukaryotic signaling proteins are composed of simple modular binding domains, yet they can display sophisticated behaviors such as allosteric gating and multi-input signal integration, properties essential for complex cellular circuits. To understand how such behavior can emerge from combinations of simple domains, we engineered variants of the actin regulatory protein N-WASP (neuronal Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein) in which the "output" domain of N-WASP was recombined with heterologous autoinhibitory "input" domains. Synthetic switch proteins were created with diverse gating behaviors in response to nonphysiological inputs. Thus, this type of modular framework can facilitate the evolution or engineering of cellular signaling circuits.     

Disk-to-Disk Transfer as the Rate-Limiting Step for Energy Flow in Phycobilisomes

A broadly tunable picosecond laser source and an ultrafast streak camera were used to measure temporally and spectrally resolved emission from intact phycobilisomes and from individual phycobiliproteins as a function of excitation wavelength. Both wild-type and mutant phycobilisomes of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6701 were examined, as well as two biliproteins, R-phycoerythrin (240 kilodaltons, 34 bilins) and allophycocyanin (100 kilodaltons, 6 bilins). Measurements of intact phycobilisomes with known structural differences showed that the addition of an average of 1.6 phycoerythrin disks in the phycobilisome rod increased the overall energy transfer time by 30 +/- 5 picoseconds. In the isolated phycobiliproteins the onset of emission was as prompt as that of a solution of rhodamine B laser dye and was independent of excitation wavelength. This imposes an upper limit of 8 picoseconds (instrument-limited) on the transfer time from "sensitizing" to "fluorescing" chromophores in these biliproteins. These results indicate that disk-to-disk transfer is the slowest energy transfer process in phycobilisomes and, in combination with previous structural analyses, show that with respect to energy transfer the lattice of approximately 625 light-harvesting chromophores in the Synechocystis 6701 wild-type phycobilisome functions as a linear five-point array.     

Femtosecond Dynamics of Excited-State Evolution in

Time-resolved absorption spectroscopy on the femtosecond time scale has been used to monitor the earliest events associated with excited-state relaxation in tris-(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II). The data reveal dynamics associated with the temporal evolution of the Franck-Condon state to the lowest energy excited state of this molecule. The process is essentially complete in approximately 300 femtoseconds after the initial excitation. This result is discussed with regard to reformulating long-held notions about excited-state relaxation, as well as its implication for the importance of non-equilibrium excited-state processes in understanding and designing molecular-based electron transfer, artificial photosynthetic, and photovoltaic assemblies in which compounds of this class are currently playing a key role.     

Rapid prediction of solid wood lignin content using transmittance near-infrared spectroscopy

A rapid transmittance near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic method has been developed to characterize the lignin content of solid wood. Using simple, multiple regression, and partial least-squares statistical analysis the lignin contents of wood wafers, taken from increment cores, and synthetic wood, prepared by blending milled wood lignin and holocellulose, were compared and quantified. Strong correlations were obtained between the predicted NIR results and those obtained from traditional chemical methods. In addition to the experimental protocol and method development, NIR results from wood samples with different particle sizes and various lignin contents are discussed.     

Synergistic effect of antioxidant phenolic acids on human phenolsulfotransferase activity

Sulfate conjugation by phenolsulfotransferases (PSTs) is an important process in the detoxification of xenobiotics and endogenous compounds. There are two forms of PSTs for the sulfation of small phenols (PST-P) and monoamines (PST-M). Phenolic acids are known to increase the activities of PST-P and PST-M. The purpose of this study is to investigate the synergistic effect of the combinations of phenolic acids on human PSTs activities. The combinations of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, gentisic acid, ferulic acid, gallic acid, and coumaric acid in a random order for their effects on PSTs activities were evaluated at concentrations of 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 microM. The PST-M activity was significantly increased when gentisic acid was combined with each of the other phenolic acids. When p-hydroxybenzoic acid was combined with each of the other phenolic acids, a synergistic effect with respect to the promotion of PST-P activity was obtained. A potential synergistic effect for the PST-P activity was also found in the following combination: p-hydroxybenzoic acid + gallic acid + gentisic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid + gallic acid + m-coumaric acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid + o-coumaric acid + p-coumaric acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid + o-coumaric acid + m-coumaric acid, gallic acid + gentisic acid + p-coumaric acid, and gallic acid + o-coumaric acid + m-coumaric acid. Therefore, the activities of both forms of PSTs can be promoted by all of these combinations of phenolic acids. These results provide a better understanding regarding the effect of phenolic acids on human PSTs activities, as well as more information on the intake of antioxidant phenolic acids for human health.     

A GIS-based framework of regional irrigation water demand assessment

Although a lot of research has been performed on estimating irrigation water demand at the on-farm level, far less has been done on irrigation water demand for a region-wide basis, such as for a river basin or an area covering multiple river basins. The capture and management of the spatial variations in related data such as soil, climate, crops, and canal networks is the key to effective and efficient regional irrigation water demand estimations. The Geographic Information System (GIS), with its powerful spatial data management and analysis capabilities is used in this study to extend the scope of on-farm irrigation water estimation into a regional estimation. A command area covering several river basins in southern Taiwan was used to build a model prototype. The model framework shows the capability of the system to estimate regional irrigation water demand with most of the spatial variations preserved. The model also shows the capability for quickly reflecting changes in irrigation water demand in response to changes in cropping patterns, a feature that may be a necessary for regional water resource planning.