The impact of inocula carryover and inoculum dilution on the methane yields in batch methane potential tests

Batch studies are used to benchmark biohydrogen potential (BHP) and biomethane potential (BMP) yields from feed substrates, digestates residues and different process configurations. This study shows that BMP yields using cellulose can be biased positively by not diluting the initial sewage sludge inoculum and the bias is independent of starting inoculum volatile solids (VS) concentration. The carryover of BHP inoculum also increased the BMP yields when using cellulose as a substrate by up to 18.8%. Furthermore it was also observed that the dilution of BMP inoculum with deionised H2O reduced methane yields from cellulose by up to 132 ± 26 N mL-CH4 g-VS−1. Therefore it is proposed that inoculum and standard substrate controls (as used in this study) should be included in methane batch methodologies, particularly when using a pre-fermentation stage such as dark fermentation

Prevalence of severe childhood obesity in England:2006-2013

BACKGROUND: International evidence shows that severe paediatric obesity results in an increased risk of ill health and may require specialised weight management strategies, yet there remains a lack of data on the extent of the problem. OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of severe obesity in children aged 4-5 and 10-11 years, attending English schools between 2006/2007 and 2012/2013. DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) data. SETTING: Maintained schools in England. PARTICIPANTS: All children aged 4-5 and 10-11 years included in the NCMP dataset. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of severe childhood obesity, defined using the 99.6th centile of the British 1990 (UK90) growth reference for body mass index (BMI), analysed by sex, geography, ethnic group and deprivation. RESULTS: The key findings show that in 2012/2013, severe obesity (BMI ≥UK90 99.6th centile) was found in 1.9% of girls and 2.3% of boys aged 4-5 years, and 2.9% of girls and 3.9% of boys aged 10-11 years. Severe obesity prevalence varies geographically and is more prevalent in children from deprived areas, and among those from black ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study should help to raise awareness of the prevalence of severe obesity and support the provision of adequate treatment and prevention services both to support children who are already severely obese and reduce the prevalence of extreme weight in the future

Pulmonary availability of isotretinoin in rats after inhalation of a powder aerosol

Repeated oral administration of chemopreventive retinoids such as isotretinoin over extended periods of time is associated with intolerable systemic toxicity. Here isotretinoin was formulated as a powder aerosol, and its delivery to the lungs of rats was studied with the aim to explore the possibility of minimizing adverse effects associated with its oral administration. Rats received isotretinoin orally (0.5, 1 or 10 mg kg–1) or by inhalation (theoretical dose ~1 or ~10 mg kg–1) in a nose-only inhalation chamber. Isotretinoin was quantitated by high-pressure liquid chromatography in plasma and lung tissue. The ratios of mean area of concentration-vs-time curve (AUC) values in the lungs over mean AUCs in the plasma for isotretinoin following single or repeated aerosol exposure surpassed those determined for the oral route by factors of between two (single low-dose) and five (single high-dose). Similarly, the equivalent ratios for the maximal peak concentrations in lungs and plasma obtained after aerosol exposure consistently exceeded those seen after oral administration, suggesting that lungs were exposed to higher isotretinoin concentrations after aerosol inhalation than after oral administration of similar doses. Repeated high doses of isotretinoin by inhalation resulted in moderate loss of body weight, but microscopic investigation of ten tissues including lung and oesophagus did not detect any significant aerosol-induced damage. The results suggest that administration of isotretinoin via powder aerosol inhalation is probably superior to its application via the oral route in terms of achieving efficacious drug concentrations in the lungs. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Complete off-shell effects in top quark pair hadroproduction with leptonic decay at next-to-leading order

Results for next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the pp(p\bar{p}) -> t \bar{t} -> W^+W^- b\bar{b} -> e^{+} \nu_{e} \mu^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\mu} b \bar{b} +X processes with complete off-shell effects are presented for the first time. Double-, single- and non-resonant top contributions of the order {\cal{O}}(\alpha_{s}^3 \alpha^4) are consistently taken into account, which requires the introduction of a complex-mass scheme for unstable top quarks. Moreover, the intermediate W bosons are treated off-shell. Comparison to the narrow width approximation for top quarks, where non-factorizable corrections are not accounted for is performed. Besides the total cross section and its scale dependence, several differential distributions at the TeVatron run II and the LHC are given. In case of the TeVatron the forward-backward asymmetry of the top is recalculated afresh. With inclusive selection cuts, the forward-backward asymmetry amounts to A^{t}_{FB} = 0.051 +/- 0.0013. Furthermore, the corrections with respect to leading order are positive and of the order 2.3% for the TeVatron and 47% for the LHC. A study of the scale dependence of our NLO predictions indicates that the residual theoretical uncertainty due to higher order corrections is 8% for the TeVatron and 9% for the LHC.Comment: 35 pages, 39 figures, 3 tables. References and note added, version to appear in JHE

Multigluon tree amplitudes with a pair of massive fermions

We consider the calculation of n-point multigluon tree amplitudes with a pair of massive fermions in QCD. We give the explicit transformation rules of this kind of massive fermion-pair amplitudes with respect to different reference momenta and check the correctness of them by SUSY Ward identities. Using these rules and onshell BCFW recursion relation, we calculate the analytic results of several n-point multigluon amplitudes.Comment: 15page

Nitric oxide-mediated posttranslational modifications control neurotransmitter release by modulating complexin farnesylation and enhancing its clamping ability.

Nitric oxide (NO) regulates neuronal function and thus is critical for tuning neuronal communication. Mechanisms by which NO modulates protein function and interaction include posttranslational modifications (PTMs) such as S-nitrosylation. Importantly, cross signaling between S-nitrosylation and prenylation can have major regulatory potential. However, the exact protein targets and resulting changes in function remain elusive. Here, we interrogated the role of NO-dependent PTMs and farnesylation in synaptic transmission. We found that NO compromises synaptic function at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ) in a cGMP-independent manner. NO suppressed release and reduced the size of available vesicle pools, which was reversed by glutathione (GSH) and occluded by genetic up-regulation of GSH-generating and de-nitrosylating glutamate-cysteine-ligase and S-nitroso-glutathione reductase activities. Enhanced nitrergic activity led to S-nitrosylation of the fusion-clamp protein complexin (cpx) and altered its membrane association and interactions with active zone (AZ) and soluble N-ethyl-maleimide-sensitive fusion protein Attachment Protein Receptor (SNARE) proteins. Furthermore, genetic and pharmacological suppression of farnesylation and a nitrosylation mimetic mutant of cpx induced identical physiological and localization phenotypes as caused by NO. Together, our data provide evidence for a novel physiological nitrergic molecular switch involving S-nitrosylation, which reversibly suppresses farnesylation and thereby enhances the net-clamping function of cpx. These data illustrate a new mechanistic signaling pathway by which regulation of farnesylation can fine-tune synaptic release

Host-Associated and Free-Living Phage Communities Differ Profoundly in Phylogenetic Composition

Phylogenetic profiling has been widely used for comparing bacterial communities, but has so far been impossible to apply to viruses because of the lack of a single marker gene analogous to 16S rRNA. Here we developed a reference tree approach for matching viral sequences and applied it to the largest viral datasets available. The resulting technique, Shotgun UniFrac, was used to compare host-associated and non-host-associated phage communities (130 total metagenomes), and revealed a profound split similar to that found with bacterial communities. This new informatics approach complements analysis of bacterial communities and promises to provide new insights into viral community dynamics, such as top-down versus bottom-up control of bacterial communities by viruses in a range of systems

Assessment techniques, database design and software facilities for thermodynamics and diffusion

The purpose of this article is to give a set of recommendations to producers of assessed thermodynamic data, who may be involved in either the critical evaluation of limited chemical systems or the creation and dissemination of larger thermodynamic databases. Also, it is hoped that reviewers and editors of scientific publications in this field will find some of the information useful. Good practice in the assessment process is essential, particularly as datasets from many different sources may be combined together into a single database. With this in mind, we highlight some problems that can arise during the assessment process and we propose a quality assurance procedure. It is worth mentioning at this point, that the provision of reliable assessed thermodynamic data relies heavily on the availability of high quality experimental information. The different software packages for thermodynamics and diffusion are described here only briefly