A comprehensive strategy to detect the fraudulent adulteration of herbs: The oregano approach

AbstractFraud in the global food supply chain is becoming increasingly common due to the huge profits associated with this type of criminal activity. Food commodities and ingredients that are expensive and are part of complex supply chains are particularly vulnerable. Both herbs and spices fit these criteria perfectly and yet strategies to detect fraudulent adulteration are still far from robust. An FT-IR screening method coupled to data analysis using chemometrics and a second method using LC-HRMS were developed, with the latter detecting commonly used adulterants by biomarker identification. The two tier testing strategy was applied to 78 samples obtained from a variety of retail and on-line sources. There was 100% agreement between the two tests that over 24% of all samples tested had some form of adulterants present. The innovative strategy devised could potentially be used for testing the global supply chains for fraud in many different forms of herbs

The genetic basis for adaptation of model-designed syntrophic co-cultures.

Understanding the fundamental characteristics of microbial communities could have far reaching implications for human health and applied biotechnology. Despite this, much is still unknown regarding the genetic basis and evolutionary strategies underlying the formation of viable synthetic communities. By pairing auxotrophic mutants in co-culture, it has been demonstrated that viable nascent E. coli communities can be established where the mutant strains are metabolically coupled. A novel algorithm, OptAux, was constructed to design 61 unique multi-knockout E. coli auxotrophic strains that require significant metabolite uptake to grow. These predicted knockouts included a diverse set of novel non-specific auxotrophs that result from inhibition of major biosynthetic subsystems. Three OptAux predicted non-specific auxotrophic strains-with diverse metabolic deficiencies-were co-cultured with an L-histidine auxotroph and optimized via adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE). Time-course sequencing revealed the genetic changes employed by each strain to achieve higher community growth rates and provided insight into mechanisms for adapting to the syntrophic niche. A community model of metabolism and gene expression was utilized to predict the relative community composition and fundamental characteristics of the evolved communities. This work presents new insight into the genetic strategies underlying viable nascent community formation and a cutting-edge computational method to elucidate metabolic changes that empower the creation of cooperative communities

Annual baseline King-Devick oculomotor function testing is needed due to scores varying by age

Objective: To document baseline King-Devick (K-D) oculomotor function scores for male and female participants aged between 4 and 20 years old. Methods: Utilising a cross section of schools, rugby clubs and gymnastic clubs, 1936 participants (1300 male, 636 female) completed the spiral-bound K-D test for the identification of disturbed oculomotor function. Results: This study identified that overall, the baseline scores of the K-D test became faster by 1.4 (0.3 to 4.5) s per year, when compared with the previous age group in the same number of reading card groups. When comparing normative values of the original K-D validation study with the same age groups of the current cohort, participants aged 6 to 11 years recorded a faster baseline time (range 3.5 to 8.6 s), while those in the 12 to 14 years. age group recorded slower baseline times (range −3.9 to −7.9 s). Discussion: In general, there were age group differences, but not sex differences, for K-D test times in the current cohort. Analysis of single card times, across all age groups, showed changes likely due to improved reading time. Conclusion: The results support the need for individualised annual pre-injury baseline testing of the K-D test

What actually confers adaptive capacity? Insights from agro-climatic vulnerability of Australian wheat

Vulnerability assessments have often invoked sustainable livelihoods theory to support the quantification of adaptive capacity based on the availability of capital--social, human, physical, natural, and financial. However, the assumption that increased availability of these capitals confers greater adaptive capacity remains largely untested. We quantified the relationship between commonly used capital indicators and an empirical index of adaptive capacity (ACI) in the context of vulnerability of Australian wheat production to climate variability and change. We calculated ACI by comparing actual yields from farm survey data to climate-driven expected yields estimated by a crop model for 12 regions in Australia\u27s wheat-sheep zone from 1991-2010. We then compiled data for 24 typical indicators used in vulnerability analyses, spanning the five capitals. We analyzed the ACI and used regression techniques to identify related capital indicators. Between regions, mean ACI was not significantly different but variance over time was. ACI was higher in dry years and lower in wet years suggesting that farm adaptive strategies are geared towards mitigating losses rather than capitalizing on opportunity. Only six of the 24 capital indicators were significantly related to adaptive capacity in a way predicted by theory. Another four indicators were significantly related to adaptive capacity but of the opposite sign, countering our theory-driven expectation. We conclude that the deductive, theory-based use of capitals to define adaptive capacity and vulnerability should be more circumspect. Assessments need to be more evidence-based, first testing the relevance and influence of capital metrics on adaptive capacity for the specific system of interest. This will more effectively direct policy and targeting of investment to mitigate agro-climatic vulnerability

Powerful AGN jets and unbalanced cooling in the hot atmosphere of IC 4296

We present new Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA, 1.5 GHz) radio data for the giant elliptical galaxy IC 4296, supported by archival radio, X-ray (Chandra, XMM-Newton) and optical (SOAR, HST) observations. The galaxy hosts powerful radio jets piercing through the inner hot X-ray emitting atmosphere, depositing most of the energy into the ambient intra-cluster medium (ICM). Whereas the radio surface brightness of the A configuration image is consistent with a Fanaroff-Riley Class I (FR I) system, the D configuration image shows two bright, relative to the central region, large (~160 kpc diameter), well-defined lobes, previously reported by Killeen et al., at a projected distance r~>230 kpc. The XMM-Newton image reveals an X-ray cavity associated with one of the radio lobes. The total enthalpy of the radio lobes is ~7x10^59 erg and the mechanical power output of the jets is ~10^44 erg/s. The jets are mildly curved and possibly re-brightened by the relative motion of the galaxy and the ICM. The lobes display sharp edges, suggesting the presence of bow shocks, which would indicate that they are expanding supersonically. The central entropy and cooling time of the X-ray gas are unusually low and the nucleus hosts a warm H\alpha+[NII] nebula and a cold molecular CO disk. Because most of the energy of the jets is deposited far from the nucleus, the atmosphere of the galaxy continues to cool, apparently feeding the central supermassive black hole and powering the jet activity.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Gender and sexual orientation differences in cognition across adulthood : age is kinder to women than to men regardless of sexual orientation

Despite some evidence of greater age-related deterioration of the brain in males than in females, gender differences in rates of cognitive aging have proved inconsistent. The present study employed web-based methodology to collect data from people aged 20-65 years (109,612 men; 88,509 women). As expected, men outperformed women on tests of mental rotation and line angle judgment, whereas women outperformed men on tests of category fluency and object location memory. Performance on all tests declined with age but significantly more so for men than for women. Heterosexuals of each gender generally outperformed bisexuals and homosexuals on tests where that gender was superior; however, there were no clear interactions between age and sexual orientation for either gender. At least for these particular tests from young adulthood to retirement, age is kinder to women than to men, but treats heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals just the same

Integrated modelling of cost-effective siting and operation of flow-control infrastructure for river ecosystem conservation

Wetland and floodplain ecosystems along many regulated rivers are highly stressed, primarily due to a lack of environmental flows of appropriate magnitude, frequency, duration, and timing to support ecological functions. In the absence of increased environmental flows, the ecological health of river ecosystems can be enhanced by the operation of existing and new flow-control infrastructure (weirs and regulators) to return more natural environmental flow regimes to specific areas. However, determining the optimal investment and operation strategies over time is a complex task due to several factors including the multiple environmental values attached to wetlands, spatial and temporal heterogeneity and dependencies, nonlinearity, and time-dependent decisions. This makes for a very large number of decision variables over a long planning horizon. The focus of this paper is the development of a nonlinear integer programming model that accommodates these complexities. The mathematical objective aims to return the natural flow regime of key components of river ecosystems in terms of flood timing, flood duration, and interflood period. We applied a 2-stage recursive heuristic using tabu search to solve the model and tested it on the entire South Australian River Murray floodplain. We conclude that modern meta-heuristics can be used to solve the very complex nonlinear problems with spatial and temporal dependencies typical of environmental flow allocation in regulated river ecosystems. The model has been used to inform the investment in, and operation of, flow-control infrastructure in the South Australian River Murray.<br /

Total elbow arthroplasty in rheumatoid arthritis: A population-based study from the Finnish Arthroplasty Register

Background and purpose Although total elbow arthroplasty (TEA) is a recognized procedure for the treatment of the painful arthritic elbow, the choice of implant is still obscure. We evaluated the survival of different TEA designs and factors associated with survival using data from a nationwide arthroplasty register