Sorption of water vapor by papermaking materials: II. Effect of physical and chemical processing

Published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, November 193

Sensory, microbiological and chemical changes in vacuum-packaged Blue Spotted Emperor (Lethrinus sp), Saddletail Snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus), Crimson Snapper (Lutjanus erythropterus), Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) and Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) fillets stored at 4°C

Quality assessment of finfish fillets during storage is important to be able to predict the shelf life of the fresh product during distribution. Microbial, chemical (pH, TMA, and TVB‐N), and sensory (Quality index assessment QIA, Torry scheme) changes in vacuum‐packaged blue‐spotted emperor (Lethrinus sp), saddletail (Lutjanus malabaricus), crimson snapper (Lutjanus erythropterus), barramundi (Lates calcarifer), and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fillets stored at 4°C were evaluated for 5 days. Microbiological study included evaluation of TVC (total viable counts), total psychrotrophic organisms, and H2S‐producing bacteria. Numbers increased during storage time and reached an average of 8.5, 8.5, and 9.2 log10 cfu/g, respectively, for the five different fish species. These levels were above accepted microbiological limits for fish fillets. Although the sensory analyses showed a decrease in quality, none of the finfish fillets were considered unacceptable at the end of the storage trial. Chemically, there was a slight pH increase, but trimethylamine (TMA) levels remained low. However, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB‐N) levels increased over time, reaching levels above 35 mg/100 g for blue spotted emperor, saddletail snapper, and crimson snapper by the end of the storage period. Results show that the deterioration of finfish fillet quality is a complex event of biochemical, sensory, and microbial factors, and multiple analyses may be required to define acceptability

Telomere length predicts progression and overall survival in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: data from the UK LRF CLL4 trial

Telomere erosion and fusion play an important role in the pathology of many common human malignancies including CLL.1,2 Previous studies in CLL have shown that short telomeres defined on the basis of the median value or receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis are associated with unmutated IGHV genes, poor risk genomic abnormalities, genomic complexity and high expression of CD38, CD49d, and ZAP70 whereas long telomeres are associated with increasing IGHV mutational load, isolated deletion of 13q and low CD49d expression. In addition, in predominantly diagnostic or mixed patient cohorts, telomere length (TL) predicts time to first treatment and/or overall survival (OS) in multivariate analyses of models incorporating established biomarkers. 3-7 However uncertainties about the most clinically relevant measure of telomere length, the optimal choice of assay, the need for assay standardisation and the lack of published data on the prognostic value of TL in patients entered into randomised trials have hindered the implementation of TL measurement into routine clinical practice. We have attempted to address these issues by measuring telomere length using monochrome multiplex Q-PCR (MMQ-PCR) in 384 patients at randomisation into the UK LRF CLL4 phase 3 chemotherapy trial (Table S1), of whom 111 samples were also screened by single telomer

Agrobacterium rhizogenes-Mediated Transformation of the Parasitic Plant Phtheirospermum japonicum

Background: Plants within the Orobanchaceae are an agriculturally important group of parasites that attack economically important crops to obtain water and nutrients from their hosts. Despite their agricultural importance, molecular mechanisms of the parasitism are poorly understood. Methodology/Principal Findings: We developed transient and stable transformation systems for Phtheirospermum japonicum, a facultative parasitic plant in the Orobanchaceae. The transformation protocol was established by a combination of sonication and acetosyringone treatments using the hairy-root-inducing bacterium, Agrobacterium rhizogenes and young seedlings. Transgenic hairy roots of P. japonicum were obtained from cotyledons 2 to 3 weeks after A. rhizogenes inoculation. The presence and the expression of transgenes in P. japonicum were verified by genomic PCR, Southern blot and RT-PCR methods. Transgenic roots derived from A. rhizogenes-mediated transformation were able to develop haustoria on rice and maize roots. Transgenic roots also formed apparently competent haustoria in response to 2,6dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone (DMBQ), a haustorium-inducing chemical. Using this system, we introduced a reporter gene with a Cyclin B1 promoter into P. japonicum, and visualized cell division during haustorium formation. Conclusions: We provide an easy and efficient method for hairy-root transformation of P. japonicum. Transgenic marker analysis revealed that cell divisions during haustorium development occur 24 h after DMBQ treatment. The protocol

Mosaic RAS/MAPK variants cause sporadic vascular malformations which respond to targeted therapy.

BACKGROUND: Sporadic vascular malformations (VMs) are complex congenital anomalies of blood vessels that lead to stroke, life-threatening bleeds, disfigurement, overgrowth, and/or pain. Therapeutic options are severely limited, and multidisciplinary management remains challenging, particularly for high-flow arteriovenous malformations (AVM). METHODS: To investigate the pathogenesis of sporadic intracranial and extracranial VMs in 160 children in which known genetic causes had been excluded, we sequenced DNA from affected tissue and optimized analysis for detection of low mutant allele frequency. RESULTS: We discovered multiple mosaic-activating variants in 4 genes of the RAS/MAPK pathway, KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, and MAP2K1, a pathway commonly activated in cancer and responsible for the germline RAS-opathies. These variants were more frequent in high-flow than low-flow VMs. In vitro characterization and 2 transgenic zebrafish AVM models that recapitulated the human phenotype validated the pathogenesis of the mutant alleles. Importantly, treatment of AVM-BRAF mutant zebrafish with the BRAF inhibitor vemurafinib restored blood flow in AVM. CONCLUSION: Our findings uncover a major cause of sporadic VMs of different clinical types and thereby offer the potential of personalized medical treatment by repurposing existing licensed cancer therapies. FUNDING: This work was funded or supported by grants from the AVM Butterfly Charity, the Wellcome Trust (UK), the Medical Research Council (UK), the UK National Institute for Health Research, the L'Oreal-Melanoma Research Alliance, the European Research Council, and the National Human Genome Research Institute (US)

Do organizational climate and competitive strategy moderate the relationship between human resource management and productivity?

This study examined whether the effectiveness of human resource management (HRM)practices is contingent on organizational climate and competitive strategy The concepts of internol and external fit suggest that the positive relationship between HRM and subsequent productivity will be stronger for firms with a positive organizational climate and for firms using differentiation strategies. Resource allocation theories of motivation, on the other hand, predict that the relationship between HRM and productivity will be stronger for firms with a poor climate because employees working in these firms should have the greatest amount of spare capacity. The results supported the resource allocation argument

An eye-movement study of relational memory in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) demonstrate good memory for single items but difficulties remembering contextual information related to these items. Recently, we found compromised explicit but intact implicit retrieval of object-location information in ASD (Ring et al. 2015). Eye-movement data collected from a sub-sample of the participants are the focus of the current paper. At encoding, trial-by-trial viewing durations predicted subsequent retrieval success only in typically developing (TD) participants. During retrieval, TD compared to ASD participants looked significantly longer at previously studied objectlocations compared to alternative locations. These findings extend similar observations recently reported by Cooper et al. (2017a) and demonstrate that eye-movement data can shed important light on the source and nature of relational memory difficulties in ASD

The sustainable materials roadmap

Over the past 150 years, our ability to produce and transform engineered materials has been responsible for our current high standards of living, especially in developed economies. However, we must carefully think of the effects our addiction to creating and using materials at this fast rate will have on the future generations. The way we currently make and use materials detrimentally affects the planet Earth, creating many severe environmental problems. It affects the next generations by putting in danger the future of the economy, energy, and climate. We are at the point where something must drastically change, and it must change now. We must create more sustainable materials alternatives using natural raw materials and inspiration from nature while making sure not to deplete important resources, i.e. in competition with the food chain supply. We must use less materials, eliminate the use of toxic materials and create a circular materials economy where reuse and recycle are priorities. We must develop sustainable methods for materials recycling and encourage design for disassembly. We must look across the whole materials life cycle from raw resources till end of life and apply thorough life cycle assessments (LCAs) based on reliable and relevant data to quantify sustainability. We need to seriously start thinking of where our future materials will come from and how could we track them, given that we are confronted with resource scarcity and geographical constrains. This is particularly important for the development of new and sustainable energy technologies, key to our transition to net zero. Currently 'critical materials' are central components of sustainable energy systems because they are the best performing. A few examples include the permanent magnets based on rare earth metals (Dy, Nd, Pr) used in wind turbines, Li and Co in Li-ion batteries, Pt and Ir in fuel cells and electrolysers, Si in solar cells just to mention a few. These materials are classified as 'critical' by the European Union and Department of Energy. Except in sustainable energy, materials are also key components in packaging, construction, and textile industry along with many other industrial sectors. This roadmap authored by prominent researchers working across disciplines in the very important field of sustainable materials is intended to highlight the outstanding issues that must be addressed and provide an insight into the pathways towards solving them adopted by the sustainable materials community. In compiling this roadmap, we hope to aid the development of the wider sustainable materials research community, providing a guide for academia, industry, government, and funding agencies in this critically important and rapidly developing research space which is key to future sustainability.journal articl