One-year oral toxicity study on a genetically modified maize MON810 variety in Wistar Han RCC rats (EU 7th Framework Programme project GRACE)

The GRACE (GMO Risk Assessment and Communication of Evidence; www.grace-fp7.eu) project was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme. A key objective of GRACE was to conduct 90-day animal feeding trials, animal studies with an extended time frame as well as analytical, in vitro and in silico studies on genetically modified (GM) maize in order to comparatively evaluate their use in GM plant risk assessment. In the present study, the results of a 1-year feeding trial with a GM maize MON810 variety, its near-isogenic non-GM comparator and an additional conventional maize variety are presented. The feeding trials were performed by taking into account the guidance for such studies published by the EFSA Scientific Committee in 2011 and the OECD Test Guideline 452. The results obtained show that the MON810 maize at a level of up to 33 % in the diet did not induce adverse effects in male and female Wistar Han RCC rats after a chronic exposure

The Redeemed, the Condemned, and the Forgotten: Narratives of Dissenting Aristocratic Identity in Medieval Bavaria

Identity in the Middle Ages encompassed numerous methods of transmission. Those of which that survive today include artwork, architecture, and written sources. In the case of written sources, the nobility and the clergy dominated the narrative to a substantial degree. Chroniclers of the Holy Roman Empire in specific saw both regional and pan-imperial narratives influence this identity through the exploration of historical figures. The medieval duchy of Bavaria fell into this milieu but experienced a substantially different relationship with its nobility from the twelfth century onward. The more condensed and consolidated format of medieval Bavaria under the Wittelsbach dynasty – as well as conscious efforts to project said configuration backward through history via chronicles – resulted in a uniquely Bavarian aristocratic identity into the early modern period. This aristocratic identity was the result of chroniclers\u27 pedagogical and didactic intention across laity and clergy in informing the mores and values of the Bavarian nobility, in addition to the history of their institution. Through Latin and later vernacular chronicles, courtiers and clergy expressed the veneration or damnation of key historical figures in Bavarian history to instill values and sets of ideal behaviors by the end of the fifteenth century. This thesis explores the changing narratives of three such figures, all of whom acted as thematic antagonists to prominent German kings and emperors: Tassilo III, Arnulf the Bad, and Henry the Lion. Ultimately, the widespread virtues of piety, respect for the clergy, and subservience to the emperor formed the main pillars of Bavarian aristocratic identity. However, Bavarian chroniclers required preexisting clerical traditions of chronicling, as well as adherence to the official narratives of the house of Wittelsbach, in order to fit these dissenting historical figures into a usable symbolic context

Expression profiling of key pathways in rat liver after a one-year feeding trial with transgenic maize MON810

In a recent one-year feeding study, we observed no adverse effects on tissue level in organs of rats fed with the genetically-modified maize MON810. Here, we assessed RNA expression levels of 86 key genes of the apoptosis-, NF-кB-, DNA-damage response (DDR)-, and unfolded-protein response (UPR) pathways by RT-qPCR in the rat liver. Male and female rats were fed either with 33% MON810 (GMO), isogenic- (ISO), or conventional maize (CONV) and RNAs were quantified from eight rats from each of the six feeding groups. Only Birc2 transcript showed a significant (p ≤ 0.05) consistent difference of ≥1.5-fold between the GMO and ISO groups in both sexes. Unsupervised cluster analysis showed a strong separation of male and female rats, but no clustering of the feeding groups. Individual analysis of the pathways did not show any clustering of the male or female feeding groups either, though transcript levels of UPR pathway-associated genes caused some clustering of the male GMO and CONV feeding group samples. These differences were not seen between the GMO and ISO control or within the female cohort. Our data therefore does not support an adverse effect on rat liver RNA expression through the long-term feeding of MON810 compared to isogenic control maize

Dynamic psychiatry and the psychodynamic formulation

This article aims to describe the difference between descriptive and dynamic psychiatry. As part of the latter every psychiatrist should be able to construct a psychodynamic formulation. A psychodynamic formulation, an indication of psychological mindedness, helps the psychiatrist to recognize the unique, personal aspects of the illness and the life of the patient. The formulation furthermore helps with the initial orientation towards the patient: it anticipates and predicts how the patient might interact with the psychiatrist and how defenses and underlying conflicts will manifest themselves in treatment. The formulation can therefore be very useful in the treatment of any patient, since it can help to understand and manage the patient’s attitude towards being prescribed medication, as well as compliance and prognosis and serve as an initial guide in the psychotherapy. The psychodynamic formulation is unfortunately seldom incorporated in the psychiatric presentation of patients; guidelines are therefore given to especially help psychiatric trainees with the construction of such a formulation.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_medjda.htm

The Court Psychiatrist: Between Two Worlds

A court psychiatrist owes what are often conflicting duties to his defendant- patient and the court. The author explores the nature and effect of these role conflicts

Political Asylum Policy and International Security

Research project funded in academic years 2007-08 and 2008-09The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.In 2005, President Bush signed the Read ID Act, requiring applicants for asylum to provide documentation of their identity and allowing judges to deny asylum to anyone whose family may be connected with a terrorist group. The act is one example of how political asylum policy is intertwined with international security issues. In this project, Amy Shuman and Carol Bohmer examine how humanitarian concerns for refugees come into conflict with security concerns in the United States and Britain. While the goal of political asylum is to provide refuge for the applicant, the process must also protect the state. This contradiction is at the root of current problems in the system.Mershon Center for International Security StudiesProject summar

Dynamical instability of fluid spheres in the presence of a cosmological constant

The equations describing the adiabatic, small radial oscillations of general relativistic stars are generalized to include the effects of a cosmological constant. The generalized eigenvalue equation for the normal modes is used to study the changes in the stability of the homogeneous sphere induced by the presence of the cosmological constant. The variation of the critical adiabatic index as a function of the central pressure is studied numerically for different trial functions. The presence of a large cosmological constant significantly increases the value of the critical adiabatic index. The dynamical stability condition of the homogeneous star in the Schwarzschild–de Sitter geometry is obtained and several bounds on the maximum allowable value for a cosmological constant are derived from stability considerations.published_or_final_versio

Dynamical dispersion relation for ELKO dark spinor fields

An intrinsic mass generation mechanism for exotic ELKO dark matter fields is scrutinized, in the context of the very special relativity (VSR). Our results are reported on unraveling inequivalent spin structures that educe an additional term on the associated Dirac operator. Contrary to the spinor fields of mass dimension 3/2, this term is precluded to be absorbed as a shift of some gauge vector potential, regarding the equations for the dark spinor fields. It leads to some dynamical constraints that can be intrinsically converted into a dark spinor mass generation mechanism, with the encoded symmetries maintained by the VSR. The dynamical mass is embedded in the VSR framework through a natural coupling to the kink solution of a \lambda \phi^{4} theory for a scalar field \phi. Our results evince the possibility of novel effective scenarios, derived from exotic couplings among dark spinor fields and scalar field topological solutions.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in Phys.Lett.