Theory and laboratory astrophysics

Science opportunities in the 1990's are discussed. Topics covered include the large scale structure of the universe, galaxies, stars, star formation and the interstellar medium, high energy astrophysics, and the solar system. Laboratory astrophysics in the 1990's is briefly surveyed, covering such topics as molecular, atomic, optical, nuclear and optical physics. Funding recommendations are given for the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Department of Energy. Recommendations for laboratory astrophysics research are given

Pro-Saccades Predict Cognitive Decline in Parkinson's Disease: ICICLE-PD.

BACKGROUND: Cumulative dementia incidence in Parkinson's disease (PD) is significant, with major personal and socioeconomic impacts on individuals with PD and their carers. Early identification of dementia risk is vital to ensuring optimal intervention. Saccadic deficits often distinguish neurodegenerative disorders and cognitive impairment, but their ability to predict cognitive decline in PD has yet to be determined. The aims of this study were to (1) evaluate baseline (6.4 ± 6.1 months since PD diagnosis) differences in pro-saccadic metrics between those with early PD and healthy age-matched adults; and (2) assess the ability of baseline pro-saccades to predict subsequent cognitive decline over 4.5 years. METHODS: One hundred and forty-one PD and 90 age-matched participants recruited at diagnosis underwent saccadometric assessment of pro-saccades at baseline and had cognition assessed at baseline, 18, 36, and 54 months. Pro-saccadic characteristics included latency, duration, amplitude, peak, and average velocity. Cognitive assessment included executive function, attention, fluctuating attention, and memory. Linear mixed-effects models examined pro-saccadic metrics as predictors of cognitive decline over 54 months. RESULTS: Pro-saccades were significantly impaired at baseline in PD compared with controls. Pro-saccadic characteristics of latency, duration, peak, and average velocity predicted decline in global cognition, executive function, attention, and memory over 54 months in PD. In addition, only reduction in global cognition and attention were predicted by pro-saccadic metrics in age-matched adults, indicating that PD findings were not purely age related. CONCLUSIONS: Saccadic characteristics are impaired in early PD and are predictive of cognitive decline in several domains. Assessment of saccades may provide a useful non-invasive biomarker for long-term PD cognitive decline in early disease. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.This work was funded by grants from Parkinson’s UK (J-0802, G-1301, G-1507) and Lockhart Parkinson’s Disease Research Fund. The research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Newcastle Biomedical Research Unit based at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University and a NIHR Biomedical Research Centre award to the University of Cambridge/Addenbrooke’s Hospital

Crop Updates 2002 - Oilseeds

This session covers twenty seven papers from different authors: 1. Forward and acknowledgements, Dave Eksteen, ACTING MANAGER OILSEEDS PRODUCTIVITY AND INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT Department of Agriculture PLENARY SESSION 2. GMO canola - Track record in Canada, K. Neil Harker and George W. Clayton,Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre, Lacombe, Alberta, R. Keith Downey, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon Research Centre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 3. GMO canola – Prospects in Western Australia farming systems, Keith Alcock, Crop Improvement Institute, Department of Agriculture 4. Diamondback moth (DBM) in canola, Kevin Walden, Department of Agriculture CANOLA AGRONOMY 5. Getting the best out of canola in the low rainfall central wheatbelt, Bevan Addison and Peter Carlton, Elders Ltd 6. Canola variety performance in Western Australia, Kevin Morthorpe, Stephen Addenbrooke and Alex Ford, Pioneer Hi-Bred Australia P/L 7. Relative performance of new canola varieties in Department of Agriculture variety trials in 2000 and 2001, S. Hasan Zaheer, GSARI, Department of Agriculture, G. Walton, Crop Improvement Institute, Department of Agriculture 8. Which canola cultivar should I sow? Imma Farré, CSIRO Plant Industry, Floreat, Bill Bowden,Western Australia Department of Agriculture 9. The effect of seed generation and seed source on yield and quality of canola, Paul Carmody, Department of Agriculture 10. The accumulation of oil in Brassica species, J.A. Fortescue and D.W. Turner, Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia, B. Tan, PO Box 1249, South Perth 11. Potential and performance of alternative oilseeds in WA, Margaret C. Campbell, Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture 12. Comparison of oilseed crops in WA, Ian Pritchard and Paul Carmody, Department of Agriculture, Centre for Cropping Systems, Margaret Campbell, Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture 13. Identifying constraints to canola production, Dave Eksteen, Canola Development Officer, Department of Agriculture 14. Boron – should we be worried about it? Richard W. BellA, K. FrostA, Mike WongB, and Ross BrennanC , ASchool of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, BCSIRO Land and Water, CDepartment of Agriculture PEST AND DISEASE 15. Yield losses caused when Beet Western Yellows Virus infects canola, Roger Jones and Jenny Hawkes, Department of Agriculture, and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture 16. Influence of climate on aphid outbreaks and virus epidemics in canola, Debbie Thackray, Jenny Hawkes and Roger Jones, Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture and Department of Agriculture 17. The annual shower of blackleg ascospores in canola: Can we predict and avoid it? Moin U. Salam, Ravjit K. Khangura, Art J. Diggle and Martin J. Barbetti, Department of Agriculture 18. Environmental influences on production and release of ascospores of blackleg and their implications in blackleg management in canola, Ravjit K. Khangura, Martin J. Barbetti , Moin U. Salam and Art J. Diggle, Department of Agriculture 19. WA blackleg resistance ratings on canola varieties form 2002, Ravjit Khangura, Martin J. Barbetti and Graham Walton, Department of Agriculture 20. Bronzed field beetle management in canola, Phil Michael, Department of Agriculture 21. DBM control in canola: Aerial versus boom application, Paul Carmody, Department of Agriculture 22. Effect of single or multiple spray trearments on the control of Diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) and yield of canola at Wongan Hills, Françoise Berlandier, Paul Carmody and Christiaan Valentine, Department of Agriculture ESTABLISHMENT 23. GrainGuardÔ - A biosecurity plan for the canola industry, Greg Shea, Department of Agriculture 24. Large canola seed is best, particularly for deep sowing, Glen Riethmuller, Rafiul Alam, Greg Hamilton and Jo Hawksley, Department of Agriculture 25. Canola establishment with seed size, tines and discs, with and without stubble, Glen Riethmuller, Rafiul Alam, Greg Hamilton and Jo Hawksley, Department of Agriculture WEEDS 26. Role of Roundup ReadyÒ canola in the farming system, Art Diggle1, Patrick Smith2, Paul Neve3, Felicity Flugge4, Amir Abadi5, Stephen Powles3 1Department of Agriculture, 2CSIRO, Sustainable Ecosystems, 3Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative, University of Western Australia, 4Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, University of Western Australia, 5Touchstone Consulting, Mt Hawthorn FEED 27. Getting value from canola meals in the animal feed industries: Aquaculture, Brett Glencross and John Curnow, Department of Fisheries - Government of Western Australia and Wayne Hawkins, Department of Agricultur

Transactions costs in rural decision-making: The cases of funding and monitoring in rural development in England

Public domain decisions in rural England have become more complex as the number of stakeholders having a say in them has increased. Transactions costs can be used to explore this increasing complexity. The size and distribution of these costs are higher in rural areas. Grouping transactions costs into four - organizations, belief systems, knowledge and information, and institutions - two of the latter are evaluated empirically: growth in the bid culture, and monitoring and evaluation. Amongst 65 Agents of Rural Governance (ARGs) in Gloucestershire, both were found to be increasing over time, but those relating to finance were a greater burden than those of monitoring: the latter can improve ARG performance. Increasing transactions costs in rural decision-making appears to be at variance with ambitions of achieving 'smaller government' through, for example, the Big Society. Smaller government is likely to be shifting the incidence of these costs, rather than reducing them. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Point-of-care testing in paediatric settings in the UK and Ireland: A cross-sectional study

Background: Point-of-care testing (POCT) is diagnostic testing performed at or near to the site of the patient. Understanding the current capacity, and scope, of POCT in this setting is essential in order to respond to new research evidence which may lead to wide implementation. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey study of POCT use was conducted between 6th January and 2nd February 2020 on behalf of two United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland-based paediatric research networks (Paediatric Emergency Research UK and Ireland, and General and Adolescent Paediatric Research UK and Ireland). Results: In total 91/109 (83.5%) sites responded, with some respondents providing details for multiple units on their site based on network membership (139 units in total). The most commonly performed POCT were blood sugar (137/139; 98.6%), urinalysis (134/139; 96.4%) and blood gas analysis (132/139; 95%). The use of POCT for Influenza/Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) (45/139; 32.4%, 41/139; 29.5%), C-Reactive Protein (CRP) (13/139; 9.4%), Procalcitonin (PCT) (2/139; 1.4%) and Group A Streptococcus (5/139; 3.6%) and was relatively low. Obstacles to the introduction of new POCT included resources and infrastructure to support test performance and quality assurance. Conclusion: This survey demonstrates significant consensus in POCT practice in the UK and Ireland but highlights specific inequity in newer biomarkers, some which do not have support from national guidance. A clear strategy to overcome the key obstacles of funding, evidence base, and standardising variation will be essential if there is a drive toward increasing implementation of POCT

Aqueous colloidal processing and green sheet properties of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics made by tape casting

An aqueous system for tape casting PZT ceramics was developed using poly (vinyl alcohol) binder, poly (propylene glycol) plasticizer, D3021 dispersant and Surfynol SE-F wetting agent. Screening experiments were performed to assess the stability of the suspension in the presence of the dispersant by performing pH, conductivity and Zeta potential measurements. Viscosity measurements were used to find the optimum level of dispersant needed to produce a stable slip at pH 10.2. Subsequently, the rheological and mechanical characteristics were also investigated

Correlation of sintered microstructure with green density in thick film PZT

High density and low grain size are essential for the production of thick-film ceramics, in order that they possess adequate strength for any subsequent processing steps. In this paper sintered density and grain size were studied as function of green density and firing temperature. Wafers possessing a higher green density showed a more homogeneous microstructure and a higher sintered density

Pyroelectric ceramics and thin films for applications in uncooled infra-red sensor arrays

Pyroelectric infra-red detector arrays provide an attractive solution to the problem of collecting spatial information in the far IR. They are only sensitive to changes in the IR flux and are well suited to sensing movements of people. The applications of low cost arrays with limited ( a few hundred) elements for people sensing and radiometry will be illustrated. The performances of uncooled pyroelectric arrays are ultimately driven by the materials used. For this reason, continuous improvements in materials technology and figures-of-merit (FoM) are important. The performance of dense, bulk pyroelectric ceramics has not increased for several years, but nevertheless it is possible to obtain significant improvements in performance through the use of tape-cast, functionally gradient materials (FGMs) in which controlled porosity is used to control the permittivity and heat capacity of the material. A model for the performance of such a material will be presented, and compared with experimentally determined properties of FGMs based on a modified-PZT pyroelectric ceramic. The use of ferroelectric thin films is offering considerable potential for low cost and high performance. It will be shown that the introduction of controlled amounts of porosity can have a significant positive effect on the relevant pyroelectric FoM