Economic Effects of Added Growing Season Rainfall on North Dakota Agriculture

Farm Management, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Impacts of governance styles on river restoration in NW Europe

Item does not contain fulltext28th Annual Conference of IAIA - The Art and Science of Impact Assessment, 4 mei 200

Tensions bows as a tool to assess the impacts of institutional change: an example from Dutch floodplain management

Contains fulltext : 72499.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)IAIA2008, 4 mei 200

High-Frequency network activity, global increase in Neuronal Activity, and Synchrony Expansion Precede Epileptic Seizures In Vitro

How seizures start is a major question in epilepsy research. Preictal EEG changes occur in both human patients and animal models, but their underlying mechanisms and relationship with seizure initiation remain unknown. Here we demonstrate the existence, in the hippocampal CA1 region, of a preictal state characterized by the progressive and global increase in neuronal activity associated with a widespread buildup of low-amplitude high-frequency activity (HFA) (100 Hz) and reduction in system complexity.HFAis generated by the firing of neurons, mainly pyramidal cells, at much lower frequencies. Individual cycles ofHFAare generated by the near-synchronous (within 5 ms) firing of small numbers of pyramidal cells. The presence of HFA in the low-calcium model implicates nonsynaptic synchronization; the presence of very similar HFA in the high-potassium model shows that it does not depend on an absence of synaptic transmission. Immediately before seizure onset, CA1 is in a state of high sensitivity in which weak depolarizing or synchronizing perturbations can trigger seizures. Transition to seizure is haracterized by a rapid expansion and fusion of the neuronal populations responsible for HFA, associated with a progressive slowing of HFA, leading to a single, massive, hypersynchronous cluster generating the high-amplitude low-frequency activity of the seizure

Effects of perinatal exposure to PCBs and dioxins on play behavior in Dutch children at school age.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins are known as neurotoxic compounds that may modulate sex steroid hormones. Steroid hormones play a mediating role in brain development and may influence behaviors that show sex differences, such as childhood play behavior. In this study we evaluated the effects of perinatal exposure to environmental levels of PCBs and dioxins on childhood play behavior and whether the effects showed sex differences. As part of the follow-up to the Dutch PCB/dioxin study at school age, we used the Pre-School Activity Inventory (PSAI) to assess play behavior in the Rotterdam cohort (n = 207). The PSAI assesses masculine or feminine play behavior scored on three subscales: masculine, feminine, and composite. Prenatal exposure to PCBs was defined as the sum of PCB 118, 138, 153, and 180 in maternal and cord plasma and breast milk. For breast milk we measured additional PCBs as well as 17 dioxins. Respondents returned 160 questionnaires (age 7.5 years +/- 0.4). Effects of prenatal exposure to PCBs, measured in maternal and cord plasma, on the masculine and composite scales were different for boys and girls (p <.05). In boys, higher prenatal PCB levels were related with less masculinized play, assessed by the masculine scale (p(maternal) =.042; p(cord) =.001) and composite scale (p(cord) =.011), whereas in girls higher PCB levels were associated with more masculinized play, assessed by the composite scale (p(PCBmilk) =.028). Higher prenatal dioxin levels were associated with more feminized play in boys as well as girls, assessed by the feminine scale (p =.048). These effects suggest prenatal steroid hormone imbalances caused by prenatal exposure to environmental levels of PCBs, dioxins, and other related organochlorine compounds

ICAM- melanoma cells are relatively resistant to CD3-mediated T-cell lysis

Abstract The primary activation pathway of T cells is via the T-cell receptor (TCR)/CD3 complex, which is functionally interrelated with various accessory molecules. We examined the contribution of the lymphocyte-function-associated antigenI/intercellular adhesion molecule I (LFA-I/ICAM-I) interaction to CD3/TCR-mediated lysis by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). We used ICAM-I-or+ tumor cell lines as target cells and anti-CD3- or anti-LFA-I containing hetero-cross-linked monoclonal antibody (MAb) to bridge CTL and target cells and simultaneously to activate CTL. The ICAM-I- melanoma-derived cell line lgR39 was relatively resistant to CD3-mediated lysis by both TCRαβ+ and TCRγdL+ CTL, when compared with ICAM-I+ cell lines. Induction of ICAM-I on the membrane of lgR39 cells by tumor necrosis factor (TNF) rendered these cells more susceptible to CD3-mediated lysis. Anti-ICAM-I MAb inhibited this TNF-enhanced susceptibility to lysis, directly demonstrating that the induction of ICAM-I was critical in the TNF-induced increase in susceptibility to lysis of lgR39 cells. CTL formed less efficient conjugates with the ICAM-I- cells as compared to ICAM-I+ cells. Both spontaneous and CD3-induced conjugate formation as well as CD3-mediated lysis of ICAM-I- tumor cells by CTL were enhanced by the addition of anti-LFA-I containing heterocross-linked MAb, thereby mimicking the LFA-I/ICAM-I interaction between CTL and target cells. Soluble anti-CD18 MAb inhibited CD3-mediated lysis of ICAM-I- target cells by CTL without affecting their conjugate formation. Anti-LFA-I MAb added after conjugate formation still inhibited lysis of both ICAM-I+or- tumor cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that the LFA-I/ICAM-I interaction co-activates CD3/TCR-mediated lysis by CTL through both an enhanced CTL-target cell binding and the delivery of post-conjugate costimulatory signals

О некоторых тенденциях, осложнивших в начале ХХI века перспективы курортно-рекреационного развития Крыма

Целью работы явился анализ взаимовлияния различных факторов, сужающих потенциал туристско-рекреационной привлекательности Крыма, для уточнения возможностей объективного прогнозирования его перспективного развития

Using Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probes to Monitor Landscape Scale Soil Water Content in Mixed Land Use Agricultural Systems

With an ever-increasing demand for natural resources and the societal need to understand and predict natural disasters, soil water content (SWC) observations remain a critical variable to monitor in order to optimally allocate resources, establish early warning systems, and improve weather forecasts.However, routine agricultural production practices of soil cultivation, planting, and harvest make the operation andmaintenance of direct contact point sensors for long-termmonitoring challenging. In this work, we explore the use of the newly established Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probe (CRNP) and method to monitor landscape average SWC in a mixed agricultural land use systemin northeastAustria.Thecalibrated CRNP landscape SWC values compare well against an independent in situ SWC probe network (MAE = 0.0286m3/m3) given the challenge of continuous in situ monitoring from probes across a heterogeneous agricultural landscape. The ability of the CRNP to provide real-time and accurate landscape SWC measurements makes it an ideal method for establishing long-term monitoring sites in agricultural ecosystems to aid in agricultural water and nutrient management decisions at the small tract of land scale as well as aiding in management decisions at larger scales

Chemoimmunotherapy with bleomycin, vincristine, lomustine, dacarbazine (BOLD) plus interferon alpha for metastatic melanoma: a multicentre phase II study.

High response rates in patients with metastatic melanoma have been achieved with combination chemoimmunotherapy. A response rate of 62% in 45 patients has been reported for treatment with dacarbazine, bleomycin, vincristine, lomustine (BOLD) plus interferon alpha (IFN-alpha). We conducted a multicentre phase II study to confirm these results. Melanoma patients with distant metastases were treated as outpatients with dacarbazine 200 mg m(-2) on days 1-5, vincristine 1 mg m(-2) on days 1 and 4, bleomycin 15 mg on days 2 and 5 i.v. and lomustine 80 mg orally on day 1, repeated every 4 weeks. IFN-alpha-2b was initiated s.c. on day 8 at 3 MU daily for 6 weeks, and 6 MU t.i.w. thereafter. Forty-three patients entered the study. The median number of metastatic sites was three (range 1-5), and 81% of patients had visceral metastases. Nine patients had brain metastases, and seven patients were systemically pretreated. Among the 41 patients that were evaluable for response, the response rate was 27% (95% CI 14-3%), with one complete and ten partial remissions. The response rate in 25 previously untreated patients without brain metastases was 40% (95% CI 21-61%). Median duration of response was 6 (range 2-14+) months; median overall survival was 5 (1-26) months. The main toxicity was malaise/fatigue. We confirm that BOLD plus IFN-alpha has activity in metastatic melanoma. The lower response rate in our study compared with the previous report is probably related to patient selection, as in the previous study 46% of patients had stage III disease, whereas all our patients had stage IV disease, which is associated with a worse prognosis