Atmospheric Dispersion Patterns of Radionuclides Originating from Nuclear Power Plant Accidents under Various Release Types

Nuclear power has begun to lose its popularity after the major catastrophes of Chernobyl and Fukushima that caused a global environmental and public health problem. Radioactivity released from these accidents spread all around the world and negatively influenced large areas as a result of different meteorological conditions prevailing at the time of the accidents. Another particularly important parameter used in assessing the atmospheric dispersion of radioactivity is the characteristics of the source term that defines the release pattern of radionuclides from the accident site. Core inventory and shape and extent of the release define the source term to be used in simulating the dispersion pattern of radioactivity. Thus, mathematical representation of the source term is a crucial part of the dispersion modeling of radionuclides. Ideal types of releases (such as pulse, step, linear, sinusoidal) can occur in an accident or a combination of these types can constitute the real pattern of the release from the accident’s source. The mathematical character of the release is influential in the overall dispersion and deposition of radioactivity. Based on this premise, this study is conducted to assess the possible differences in the spatial distribution of dispersed and deposited radionuclides that can originate from a potential accident in Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP) in the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Simulations are performed with FLEXPART model to predict the atmospheric dispersion and ground level depositions of radionuclides to be released from a hypothetical accident in Akkuyu under various release patterns and different meteorological conditions representing extreme conditions. Model simulations considered a 10-day release duration with distinct release patterns under extreme meteorological conditions for the site. A comparative assessment is then conducted to evaluate the extent and magnitude of Cs-137 dispersion and deposition, which is the most commonly used radionuclide in NPP accident simulations

Anthocyanin-rich New Zealand blackcurrant extract enhances whole-body resting fat oxidation in physically active males

Background: New Zealand blackcurrant extract has been shown to enhance exercise-induced fat oxidation during walking and cycling. We examined the effects of 14-day intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract on the metabolic and physiological responses during supine rest in males. Methods: Healthy physically active males (n=16, age: 24±6 yr, body mass: 78±16 kg, height 178±6 cm, BMI: 24.7±4.1 kg·m-2 (8 normal weight, 7 overweight, 1 obese), body fat: 15±6%) volunteered. Participants were tested at baseline (no supplementation) and after 14-days intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract in a randomized, crossover design. Two capsules of New Zealand blackcurrant extract (600 mg containing 210 mg of anthocyanins) were consumed every morning with breakfast. The last 2 capsules were taken two hours before the visit with one slice of bread and water 3 hours before the visits. There were no differences for carbohydrate, fat, and protein intake between the visits. Resting expired air was collected for two times for 10 min with Douglas bags and recording of heart rate. Rates of whole-body resting fat and carbohydrate oxidation were calculated. Responses for the 10 min with the lowest minute ventilation were analysed. Results: During supine rest, there was no effect on heart rate (baseline: 61±10, 14-day: 61±10 beats·min-1, P=0.96), minute ventilation (baseline: 8.10±1.43, 14-day: 7.82±0.98 L·min-1, (P=0.38), oxygen uptake (baseline: 0.293±0.060, 14-day: 0.285±0.057 L·min-1, P=0.43), carbon dioxide production (baseline: 0.245±0.051, 14-day: 0.233±0.041 L·min-1, P=0.24) and energy expenditure (baseline: 1.49±0.30, 14-day: 1.44±0.27 kcal·min-1, P=0.33). Lower respiratory exchange ratio (baseline: 0.840±0.045, 14-day: 0.820±0.058, P=0.03), higher fat oxidation (baseline: 0.078±0.031, 14-day: 0.088±0.043 g·min-1, P=0.05), and lower carbohydrate oxidation (baseline: 0.168±0.062, 14-day: 0.134±0.066 g·min-1, P=0.03) were observed with 14-day intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract during supine rest. Twelve participants (75%) had higher fat oxidation during supine rest with for those an increase of 21±17%. Conclusions: Whole-body fat oxidation during supine rest was enhanced by 14-day intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract in males. Enhanced whole-body resting fat oxidation may be due to combined effects of an increase in lipolysis, an increase in blood flow, and increased metabolic handling of fatty acids in the muscle. Our observations on resting substrate oxidation in the present study may indicate that New Zealand blackcurrant extract has application for weight management. However, the dosing strategy to maximize whole-body resting fat oxidation with intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract is not known. Acknowledgements: Supplementation was provided by Health Currancy Ltd (United Kingdom) and CurraNZ Ltd (New Zealand). Financial support for conference attendance was obtained from Blackcurrant New Zealand Inc (New Zealand)

Cultures of conflict:Protests, violent repression, and community values

What are the cultural origins of societal conflicts that revolve around democratization, women’s rights, and modern libertarian values? We propose that deep-seated differences in community-based collective values (at the micro-level) may be related to why people support anti-government protest and why they support repression of such protests (at the macro-level). The hypothesis was examined among residents of Turkey (N = 500). Cultural values, measured at the individual level and community level with the community collectivism scale, correlated with political orientation and emotions, as well as with subsequent support for anti-governmental protest or its repression. The main conclusions are that both support for protest and support for repression are related to the cultural values people hold and their subsequent political orientations and emotions. Micro-level cultural values in local communities may thus play a role in explaining macro-level socio-political divides

Effects of intermittent and daily intake of anthocyanin-rich New Zealand blackcurrant extract on cardiovascular function during supine rest in healthy males

Background: Intake of polyphenols results in plasma bioavailability of metabolites that can last for days. Studies have mostly employed dosing protocols that examined observations following acute or daily prolonged intake. We examined the effects of intermittent and daily intake of New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract over a 14-day period on cardiovascular function during supine rest. Methods: Healthy physically active males (n=15, age: 24±6 yr, body mass: 78±16 kg, height 177±7 cm, BMI: 24.7±4.3 kg·m-2 (8 normal weight, 6 overweight, 1 obese), body fat: 15±5%) volunteered. Participants visits included resting measurements at baseline (no supplementation), after 14-day intermittent intake (14-I, i.e. every other day) and 14-day daily intake (14-D) of two NZBC extract capsules (210 mg of anthocyanins for two capsules). Last dose was consumed one hour after breakfast of one slice of bread and water and 2 hours before visiting the laboratory. Cardiovascular measurements were obtained with a beat-to-beat blood pressure monitoring system (Portapres® Model 2, Finapres Medical Systems BV, Enschede, The Netherlands). Expired air was collected for two times for 10 min with Douglas bags and volumes measured. Cardiovascular observations during the 10 min with the lowest minute ventilation were analysed. Result: During supine rest, there was no effect on heart rate and systolic blood pressure. Lower diastolic blood pressure was recorded and similar for intake conditions [baseline: 70±7, 14-I: 64±5 (P<0.01, d= -0.99), 14-D: 63±9 mmHg (P<0.05, d= -0.87)]. Lower mean arterial pressure was recorded and similar for intake conditions [baseline: 87±7, 14-I: 81±6 (P<0.01, d= -0.92), 14-D: 81±9 mmHg (P=0.03, d= -0.74)]. Higher stroke volume was recorded only for 14-day daily intake [baseline: 94.9±13.4, 14-I: 100.0±14.3, 14-D: 103.1±18.1 mL (P=0.01, d=0.51)]. Cardiac output was higher with a trend for change at 14-day intermittent and a change with 14-day daily intake [baseline: 5.68±0.71, 14-I: 6.15±0.90 (P=0.05, d=0.58), 14-D: 6.14±0.88 L·min-1 (P=0.02, d=0.58)]. Total peripheral resistance was reduced and similar for intake conditions (baseline: 15.67±2.85, 14-I: 13.59±2.50 (P<0.01, d= -0.78), 14-D: 13.43±2.61 mmHg·min·L-1 (P<0.01, d= -0.82)]. Conclusions: Beneficial effects of intake of anthocyanin-rich NZBC extract on resting cardiovascular function can be obtained by intermittent (i.e. every other day) intake of 210 mg of anthocyanins. Future work may want to address the effects of longer intermittent intake than the 2-weeks employed in our study. It would also be of interest to examine plasma bioavailability of anthocyanin-derived metabolites with intermittent intake of NZBC extract. Acknowledgements: Supplementation was provided by Health Currancy Ltd (United Kingdom) and CurraNZ Ltd (New Zealand). Financial support for conference attendance was obtained from Blackcurrant New Zealand Inc (New Zealand)

Acute effects of anthocyanin-rich New Zealand blackcurrant extract on cardiovascular function during supine rest in healthy males

Background: Polyphenols in fruits and vegetables provide anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic effects. Reduced risk for cardiovascular disease is likely associated with the effects by polyphenols on blood pressure and arterial stiffness. Studies with 7-day intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract showed changes during supine rest for cardiovascular parameters. We examined the effects of an acute intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract on cardiovascular function during supine rest in healthy males. Methods: Healthy physically active males (n=15, age: 24±6 yr, body mass: 78±16 kg, height 177±7 cm, BMI: 24.7±4.3 kg·m-2 (8 normal weight, 6 overweight, 1 obese), body fat: 15±5%) volunteered. Participants visited the laboratory for resting measurements at baseline (no supplementation) and 2 hours after intake of two capsules with New Zealand blackcurrant extract (600 mg containing 210 mg of anthocyanins). Capsules were taken one hour after breakfast of one slice of bread and water and 2 hours before testing. After being seated in a chair for 10 min, participants were asked to lie horizontally on a massage table for resting measurements. Whole body cardiovascular measurements were obtained with a beat-to-beat blood pressure monitoring system (Portapres® Model 2, Finapres Medical Systems BV, Enschede, The Netherlands). Expired air was collected for two times for 10 min with Douglas bags and volume measured. Cardiovascular observations during the 10 min with the lowest minute ventilation were analysed. Results: At supine rest, there was no effect on heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure and stroke volume. However, 10 out of 15 participants had lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure values with acute intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract. There was a trend for cardiac output to be higher by 5% (baseline: 5.68±0.71, NZBC: 5.99±0.98 L·min-1, P=0.09, d=0.36). Total peripheral resistance was reduced by 7% (baseline: 15.67±2.85, NZBC: 14.45±3.04 mmHg·min·L-1, P<0.05, d= -0.41). Conclusions: In previous work, we observed with 7- and 14-day intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract larger changes in cardiac output and total peripheral resistance than in the present study. Our observations indicate only a moderate effect on cardiovascular function at rest with acute intake. Future studies need to address whether an acute intake of New Zealand blackcurrant extract is effective in people with hypertension or peripheral arterial disease. Acknowledgements: Supplementation was provided by Health Currancy Ltd (United Kingdom) and CurraNZ Ltd (New Zealand). Financial support for conference attendance was obtained from Blackcurrant New Zealand Inc (New Zealand)

Mutation Frequency of the Major Frontotemporal Dementia Genes, MAPT, GRN and C9ORF72 in a Turkish Cohort of Dementia Patients

‘Microtubule-associated protein tau’ (MAPT), ‘granulin’ (GRN) and ‘chromosome 9 open reading frame72’ (C9ORF72) gene mutations are the major known genetic causes of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Recent studies suggest that mutations in these genes may also be associated with other forms of dementia. Therefore we investigated whether MAPT, GRN and C9ORF72 gene mutations are major contributors to dementia in a random, unselected Turkish cohort of dementia patients. A combination of whole-exome sequencing, Sanger sequencing and fragment analysis/Southern blot was performed in order to identify pathogenic mutations and novel variants in these genes as well as other FTD-related genes such as the ‘charged multivesicular body protein 2B’ (CHMP2B), the ‘FUS RNA binding protein’ (FUS), the ‘TAR DNA binding protein’ (TARDBP), the ‘sequestosome1’ (SQSTM1), and the ‘valosin containing protein’ (VCP). We determined one pathogenic MAPT mutation (c.1906C>T, p.P636L) and one novel missense variant (c.38A>G, p.D13G). In GRN we identified a probably pathogenic TGAG deletion in the splice donor site of exon 6. Three patients were found to carry the GGGGCC expansions in the non-coding region of the C9ORF72 gene. In summary, a complete screening for mutations in MAPT, GRN and C9ORF72 genes revealed a frequency of 5.4% of pathogenic mutations in a random cohort of 93 Turkish index patients with dementia

A novel compound heterozygous mutation in TREM2 found in a Turkish frontotemporal dementia-like family

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) homozygous mutations cause Nasu-Hakola disease, an early-onset recessive form of dementia preceded by bone cysts and fractures. The same type of mutations has recently been shown to cause frontotemporal dementia (FTD) without the presence of any bone phenotype. Here, we further confirm the association of TREM2 mutations with FTD-like phenotypes by reporting the first compound heterozygous mutation in a Turkish family

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine: Brussels, Belgium. 15-18 March 2016.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Fast Multi-contrast MRI Reconstruction

Abstract. This paper proposes an efficient algorithm to simultaneously reconstruct multiple T1/T2-weighted images of the same anatomical cross section from partially sampled k-space data. The simultaneous re-construction problem is formulated as minimizing a linear combination of three terms corresponding to a least square data fitting, joint total-variation (TV) and group wavelet-sparsity regularization. It is rooted in two observations: 1) the variance of image gradients should be similar for the same spatial position across multiple contrasts; 2) the wavelet coeffi-cients of all images from the same anatomical cross section should have similar sparse modes. To efficiently solve this formulation, we decompose it into group sparsity and joint TV regularization subproblems, respec-tively. Finally, the reconstructed image is obtained from the weighted average of solutions from two subproblems in an iterative framework. We compare the proposed algorithm with previous methods on SRT24 multi-channel Brain Atlas Data. Experiments demonstrate its superior performance for multi-contrast MR image reconstruction.

Wheat-barley hybridization – the last forty years

Abstract Several useful alien gene transfers have been reported from related species into wheat (Triticum aestivum), but very few publications have dealt with the development of wheat/barley (Hordeum vulgare) introgression lines. An overview is given here of wheat 9 barley hybridization over the last forty years, including the development of wheat 9 barley hybrids, and of addition and translocation lines with various barley cultivars. A short summary is also given of the wheat 9 barley hybrids produced with other Hordeum species. The meiotic pairing behaviour of wheat 9 barley hybrids is presented, with special regard to the detection of wheat– barley homoeologous pairing using the molecular cytogenetic technique GISH. The effect of in vitro multiplication on the genome composition of intergeneric hybrids is discussed, and the production and characterization of the latest wheat/barley translocation lines are presented. An overview of the agronomical traits (b-glucan content, earliness, salt tolerance, sprouting resistance, etc.) of the newly developed introgression lines is given. The exploitation and possible use of wheat/barley introgression lines for the most up-to-date molecular genetic studies (transcriptome analysis, sequencing of flow-sorted chromosomes) are also discussed