Animal models of retinal degeneration are critical for understanding disease and testing potential therapies. Inducing degeneration commonly involves the administration of chemicals that kill photoreceptors by disrupting metabolic pathways, signaling pathways, or protein synthesis. While chemically induced degeneration has been demonstrated in a variety of animals (mice, rats, rabbits, felines, 13-lined ground squirrels (13-LGS), pigs, chicks), few studies have used noninvasive high-resolution retinal imaging to monitor the in vivo cellular effects. Here, we used longitudinal scanning light ophthalmoscopy (SLO), optical coherence tomography, and adaptive optics SLO imaging in the euthermic, cone-dominant 13-LGS (46 animals, 52 eyes) to examine retinal structure following intravitreal injections of chemicals, which were previously shown to induce photoreceptor degeneration, throughout the active season of 2019 and 2020. We found that iodoacetic acid induced severe pan-retinal damage in all but one eye, which received the lowest concentration. While sodium nitroprusside successfully induced degeneration of the outer retinal layers, the results were variable, and damage was also observed in 50% of contralateral control eyes. Adenosine triphosphate and tunicamycin induced outer retinal specific damage with varying results, while eyes injected with thapsigargin did not show signs of degeneration. Given the variability of damage we observed, follow-up studies examining the possible physiological origins of this variability are critical. These additional studies should further advance the utility of chemically induced photoreceptor degeneration models in the cone-dominant 13-LGS.

Scanning, transmission, and analytical electron microscopy studies of shales from the Salton Sea geothermal field revealed that phyllosilicates progress through zones of illite-muscovite (115°−220°C), chlorite (220°−310°C), and biotite (310°C). These phyllosilicates occur principally as discrete, euhedral to subhedral crystals which partly fill pore space. The structural and chemical heterogeneity, which is typical of phyllosilicates in shales subject to diagenesis, is generally absent. Textures and microstructures indicate that the mineral progression involves dissolution of detrital phases, mass transport through interconnecting pore space, and direct crystallization of phyllosilicates from solution.

Phyllosilicate stability relations indicate that either increase in temperature or changing ion concentrations in solutions with depth are capable of explaining the observed mineral zoning. Textural and compositional data suggest that the observed mineral assemblages and the interstitial fluids approach equilibrium relative to the original detrital suites. The alteration process may have occurred in a single, short-lived, episodic hydrothermal event in which the original detrital phases (smectite, etc.) reacted directly to precipitate illite, chlorite, or biotite at different temperatures (depths) without producing intermediate phases.

Wyoming bentonite, Fithian illite, and basalt from the Umtanum Formation, Washington, were treated hydrothermally at 200° to 460°C and 260 to 500 bars for 71 to 584 days. No change was detected for the bentonite and basalt, except for the loss of calcite and exchange of Ca for K in the smectite and the growth of a small amount of smectite (presumably from a glass phase) in the basalt. Calcite in the initial bentonite may have stabilized the smectite by Ca/K exchange; thus, if the latter is used as a packing material in a nuclear waste repository, limestone should be added. No change was detected in the illite samples treated <300°C; however, at 360°C, euhedral crystals of berthierine and illite grew at the expense of original illite/smectite, apparently by a solution-crystallization process. Significant changes involving the dissolution of starting phases and the formation of illite and chlorite were also detected in mixtures of basalt and bentonite at 400°C; at temperatures <400°C, no changes were observed.

The newly formed mineral phases (berthierine, illite, and chlorite) observed by transmission electron microscopy showed euhedral to subhedral shapes. These shapes are the same as those observed in hydrothermally altered sediments from the Salton Sea field and different from those from burial metamorphic environments, such as Gulf Coast sediments. The reaction mechanism is apparently the dissolution of reactants followed by the crystallization of products from solution, without conservation of structural elements of the reactants. Reactions apparently required temperatures greater than those for analogous changes in nature, suggesting that the degree of reaction was controlled by kinetics. The lack of dissolution in experimental runs at low temperatures, however, does not necessarily imply long-term stabilities of these clay minerals.

Using a life tables approach with 2011–2017 claims data, we calculated lifetime risks of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) beginning at age 18 years. The lifetime CDI risk rates were 32% in female patients insured by Medicaid, 10% in commercially insured male patients, and almost 40% in females with end-stage renal disease.

Due to the environmental problems derived from the use of common surfactants as modifiers for clay mineral adsorbents to mitigate mycotoxin contamination of animal feeds, finding non-toxic modifiers to prepare safe and efficient adsorbents is necessary. The objective of the present study was, therefore, to modify acidified palygorskite with polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) to obtain antibacterial polyhexamethylene biguanide/palygorskite (PHMB/Plg) composites for the removal of zearalenone, a common mycotoxin. The PHMB/Plg composites were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and isothermal nitrogen adsorption analysis. The adsorption properties of the composites with respect to zearalenone and their antibacterial activity with respect to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were studied. The results indicated that the hydrophobicity of palygorskite was enhanced after modification with PHMB, which could effectively improve the adsorption property of palygorskite toward the nonpolar zearalenone molecules. The adsorption capacity of PHMB/Plg increased with increasing amounts of polyhexamethylene biguanide and increasing pH. The adsorption data were described well by pseudo-second order kinetics and by the Langmuir adsorption model. The maximum adsorption capacity was 2777 μg/g. When the amount of PHMB added increased to 15 wt.%, the composites obtained exhibited good antibacterial performance, and the minimum inhibitory concentrations for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were both at 2.5 mg/mL.

This article presents a theoretical modelling framework for the previously unconsidered case of turbulent wall plumes that detrain continually with height in stably stratified environments. Built upon the classic turbulent plume model, our approach incorporates turbulent detrainment with a variable coefficient of detrainment. Based on a linear constitutive relationship between the ratio of the detrainment to entrainment coefficients and the ambient buoyancy gradient, it is found that for linear ambient stratifications, a dynamic quasi-equilibrium region, characterised by a near invariant local plume Richardson number, is achieved, downstream of which this equilibrium rapidly breaks down. With increasing ambient buoyancy gradient, while the plume becomes increasingly slender with weaker vertical motions, the level at which the plume breaks down to form a horizontal intrusion first decreases and then increases. Moreover, distinct from classic purely entraining plumes, a detraining wall plume can swell within the pre-equilibrium adjustment stage provided the local Richardson number is sufficiently low $({Ri\ll 6})$, behaviour which is in accordance with observations made in filling-box experiments.

The linear temporal and absolute/convective stability characteristics of a thermal plume generated along a heated vertical cylinder are investigated theoretically under the Boussinesq approximation. Special focus is given to the uniform-wall-buoyancy-flux case whereby the cylinder surface sustains the same linear temperature gradient as the environment. A competition between the axisymmetric and helical modes is a remarkable feature of the instability, distinguishing these ‘annular plumes’ from free plumes/jets for which the helical mode is generally dominant. It is found that higher surface curvature stabilises the temporal axisymmetric mode significantly, but only has moderate effects on the helical mode. The most temporally unstable perturbation mode switches from a helical into an axisymmetric mode when the Prandtl number increases beyond a critical value. Both the roles of shear and buoyancy during the destabilisation are identified through an energy analysis which indicates that, while the shear work is usually a major source of perturbation energy, the buoyancy work manifests for long-wave axisymmetric perturbation modes, and for thin cylinders and high Prandtl numbers. For the specific temperature configuration considered herein, an annular plume is always convectively unstable whereas decreasing the cylinder radius from the planar limiting case first decreases and then increases the tendency of the flow towards being absolutely unstable. The helical mode is especially susceptible to being absolutely unstable on very thin cylinders. Several conditions for the onset of cellular thermal convection and plume detrainment are proposed based on our results and a hypothesis which connects the absolute instability to the detrainment phenomenon.

The post-compression technique based on self-phase modulation of high-energy pulses leads to an increase in achievable peak power and intensity. Typically, the pulses considered in experiments have been less than 100 fs in duration. Here, the method is applied to the ELFIE laser system at the LULI facility, for a pulse of 7 J energy and an initial measured duration of 350 fs. A 5-mm-thick fused silica window and a 2 mm cyclic-olefin polymer were used as optical nonlinear materials. The 9 cm diameter beam was spectrally broadened to a bandwidth corresponding to 124 fs Fourier-limited pulse duration, and then it was partly post-compressed to 200 fs. After measuring the spatial spectra of the beam fluence, a uniform gain factor of 4 increase in the fluctuations over the studied range of frequencies is observed, due to small-scale self-focusing.

Paediatric fatty liver disease (FLD) can develop into steatohepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in adulthood. We assessed if early life physical exercise reduced the effects of high-fat (HF) diet-induced steatosis. Male HF-fed rats with access to a running wheel from weaning until day (D)60 (early exercise) or from D67 to D120 (late exercise) were compared with control HF- or chow-fed groups with no wheel. At D63 and D120, liver histopathology (Kleiner score), type I collagen and plasma enzymes were assessed. At D63, early life activity significantly reduced histopathology scores (total, portal inflammation, steatosis, ballooning, but not lobular inflammation or fibrosis) and the number of rats affected. At D120, HF control scores were higher than in chow-fed controls, but the effect of activity was selective: early exercise reduced portal inflammation, steatosis, ballooning and fibrosis, but late activity affected only portal inflammation and ballooning. The chow-fed portal inflammation score was significantly less than all HF groups, but lobular inflammation was lower in the HF control group only. The fibrosis score in the HF early exercise and control chow group were lower than in the late exercise and sedentary HF groups, indicating that early life exercise was more effective than when activity was introduced later in life. Plasma biomarkers showed minor between-group differences. The retained effect on liver histopathology rat at D120 after only early life exposure activity suggests that timing of introduction of exercise is critical in reducing FLD scores and prevalence in children, young adults and possibly into adulthood.

We report the experimental results of the commissioning phase in the 10 PW laser beamline of the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF). The peak power reaches 2.4 PW on target without the last amplifying during the experiment. The laser energy of 72 ± 9 J is directed to a focal spot of approximately 6 μm diameter (full width at half maximum) in 30 fs pulse duration, yielding a focused peak intensity around 2.0 × 1021 W/cm2. The first laser-proton acceleration experiment is performed using plain copper and plastic targets. High-energy proton beams with maximum cut-off energy up to 62.5 MeV are achieved using copper foils at the optimum target thickness of 4 μm via target normal sheath acceleration. For plastic targets of tens of nanometers thick, the proton cut-off energy is approximately 20 MeV, showing ring-like or filamented density distributions. These experimental results reflect the capabilities of the SULF-10 PW beamline, for example, both ultrahigh intensity and relatively good beam contrast. Further optimization for these key parameters is underway, where peak laser intensities of 1022–1023 W/cm2 are anticipated to support various experiments on extreme field physics.

We report on the phenomenon of detonation synchronization and demonstrate the existence of the Arnold tongues and devil's staircases in the problem of gaseous detonation in a periodically inhomogeneous reactive medium. Universal properties of these dynamical structures – the Farey tree, fractal dimension and period-doubling bifurcations – are revealed.

Two boundary value problems are solved for potential steady-state 2D Darcian seepage flows towards a line sink in a homogeneous isotropic soil from a ponded land surface, which is not flat but profiled. The aim of this shaping is ‘uniformisation’ of the velocity and travel time between this surface and a horizontal drain modelled by a line sink. The complex potential domain is a half-strip, which is mapped onto a reference plane. Either the velocity magnitude or a vertical coordinate along the land surface are control variables. Either a complexified velocity or complex physical coordinate is reconstructed by solving mixed boundary-value problems with the help of the Keldysh-Sedov formula via singular integrals, the kernel of which are the control functions. The flow nets, isotachs and breakthrough curves are found by computer algebra routines. A designed soil hump above the drain ameliorates an unwanted ‘preferential flow’ (shortcut) and improves leaching of salinised soil of a cropfield during a pre-cultivation season.