Governing shipping externalities : Baltic ports in the process of SOx emission reduction

This paper analyses the debate which has unfolded in the Baltic Sea Region regarding the reduction of sulphur content in vessel fuels, in order to illustrate how tightening environmental regulation challenges traditional forms of maritime governance. Using an interactive governance approach, this study reconstructs the process of sulphur emission reduction as a complex multi-stakeholder interaction in multiple contexts. The empirical investigation has drawn on documentary material from around the Baltic region, including Russia, and has applied the method of qualitative content analysis. The empirical study focuses on two interlinked questions: (1) How sulphur emission reduction policies are being anticipated by maritime industry, in particular by Baltic ports and (2) How port adaptation strategies are tied into Baltic local and energy contexts. Addressing these questions highlights the role of polycentricity in shipping governance and explains how the same universal international regulations can produce varying patterns of governance. The paper concludes that policy-making shall take an account of the fact that the globalized shipping industry is nevertheless locally and sectorally embedded.Peer reviewe

Antifungal susceptibility of Candida albicans biofilms on titanium discs with different surface roughness

Although it is well known that fungal biofilms have increased resistance to antimicrobial agents, limited information is available on the formation of candidal biofilms on implant surfaces with different surface roughness and their resistance to conventional antifungal therapy. In the current study, the effect of increasing the surface roughness of titanium discs on the susceptibility of Candida albicans biofilms to amphotericin B was determined. Grade I commercially pure titanium discs were sandblasted with 99.6% aluminium oxide of different grit sizes, producing surface roughness of 0.90, 1.88 and 3.82 μm (Groups A, B and C), respectively (P < 0.001). The antifungal susceptibility of C. albicans biofilm grown on different Ti discs was determined using XTT assay. The 50% reduction in metabolic activity (50% RMA) of planktonic C. albicans (0.5 μg/mL) was much lower than those from Groups A, B and C (2, 16, 2 μg/mL, respectively), while the 50% RMA from Group B was three-fold higher than those from Groups A and C. In conclusion, difference in titanium surface roughness was associated with variations in the antifungal resistance of the candidal biofilm. Group C appeared to have an optimum surface roughness for biofilm resistance. © Springer-Verlag 2007.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Internal audit of surgical pathology in a teaching hospital

Conferenc Theme: Transformation in Hospital ServicesAbstrac

Subclinical vasculopathy and skeletal muscle metrics in the singapore longitudinal ageing study

10.18632/aging.203142Aging131114768-1478

Somatic mutations in the BRCA1 gene in Chinese sporadic breast and ovarian cancer

Inherited mutations in the BRCA1 gene confer increased susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer. Its role in sporadic carcinogenesis is not well defined. Somatic mutations in breast cancers have not been reported and to date there are only three reports of somatic mutations in sporadic ovarian cancers. To investigate the contribution of BRCA1 mutations to sporadic breast and ovarian cancer in the Chinese population, we analysed 62 samples from Chinese women using the protein truncation test. There were 40 cases of breast cancer under age 50 and 22 cases of ovarian cancer, all unselected for family history. There was no age selection for the ovarian cancers. We found two somatic BRCA1 mutations in exon 11, one in a breast cancer and the other in an ovarian cancer, both of which result in truncated proteins. Our results indicate that somatic BRCA1 mutations, like somatic mutations in the BRCA2 gene, though very rare, can be found in both breast and ovarian cancers and support a tumor suppressor function for BRCA1 in sporadic tumors.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Short report: Somatic mutations in the BRCA1 gene in Chinese sporadic breast and ovarian cancer

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