Uden, Holland: A Study of Community and Social Process

Throughout the history of mankind, individuals and all kinds of groups have existed together in localities. We refer to such combinations of individuals and groups as communities. As social units, communities are the focus for study by social scientists of various disciplines. The study of human interaction in the natural laboratory of a community is accomplished by use of the community study method. In this thesis, a case study of the town of Uden, Holland, is presented as an example of how members interacted with one another to foster the continuity of their community. Before presenting the analysis, however, it is necessary first to discuss the nature of communities, the methods for community study, and the ways that this study of Uden demonstrates both of these

Kinetics of lipase-mediated synthesis of butyl butyrate in n-hexane

This paper reports experimental and modeling work concerning alcoholysis reactions between butanol and ethyl butanoate, catalyzed by Lipozymee in n-hexane, using a batch stirred system at 608C. Description of the reaction kinetics was based on a postulated multisubstrate Ping Pong Bi Bi mechanism, and appropriate rate expressions were derived for all components in the reaction medium. Simplified models were fitted by nonlinear multiresponse regression analysis to data (experimental or calculated from mass balances, as appropriate) encompassing the concentrations of free butanol, ethyl butanoate, ethanol and butyl butanoate. Finally, incremental F-tests were performed to assess the simplest model form that was able to provide a statistically good fit throughout the entire reaction time frame

Integrated vs. sequential reaction and separation: contributions for a global analysis

Integration of reaction and separation in one single step has often been claimed to provide enhanced processing and economic results when compared with the traditional configuration where a reaction unit is followed by a downstream separation unit, due to alleviation of kinetic and thermodynamic constraints. This paper quantitatively addresses the kinetic and thermodynamic improvements which can be brought about by performing reaction and separation simultaneously instead of sequentially, in the case of a unisubstrate/uniproduct reversible reaction following first-order kinetics and that takes place in a system behaving as an ideal solution. Kinetic enhancement was ascertained via theoretical evolution of the molar fraction of product in both streams coming from either the separator (in series with the reactor) or from the integrated unit, whereas thermodynamic enhancement was ascertained via theoretical evolution of the overall Gibbs’ free energy in either configuration. The time required to achieve a predefined degree of conversion and separation is always lower for simultaneous than for sequential reaction and separation. The molar fraction of product in the product-rich stream is always higher for the integrated unit except for high values of parameter φ (defined as the ratio of the time scale associated with chemical reaction to the time scale associated with mass transfer of reactant) and of the chemical equilibrium constant. Comparison of the thermodynamic behaviour of both systems also leads to the conclusion that high values of φ yield worse results when the integrated unit is used instead of the sequential reactor/separator system because reactant is removed from the reacting system at a rate that is higher than the reaction rate itself

Comparison of the Role of 5′ Terminal Sequences of Alfalfa Mosaic Virus RNAs 1, 2, and 3 in Viral RNA Replication

AbstractThe 5′ untranslated regions (UTRs) of the genomic RNAs 1, 2, and 3 of alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) are 100, 54, and 345 nucleotides (nt) long, respectively, and lack extensive sequence similarity to each other. RNA 3 encodes the movement protein P3 and the coat protein and can be replicated in transgenic tobacco plants expressing the replicase proteins P1 and P2 (P12 plants). 5′Cis-acting sequences involved in RNA 3 replication have been shown to be confined to the 5′ UTR. When the 5′ UTR of RNA 3 was replaced by the 5′ UTRs of RNAs 1 or 2, the recombinant RNA was not infectious to P12 plants. Also, when the P3 gene in RNA 3 was put under the control of a subgenomic promoter and the 5′ UTR of this RNA was replaced by 5′ terminal RNA 1 sequences of 103 to 860 nt long or RNA 2 sequences of 57 to 612 nt long, no accumulation of the hybrid RNAs was observed. Deletion of the 5′ 22 nucleotides of RNA 3 resulted in the accumulation of a major progeny that lacked the 5′ 79 nt. However, when the 5′ 22 nucleotides of RNA 3 were replaced by the complete 5′ UTR of RNA 1 or 5′ sequences of RNAs 1, 2, or 3 with a length of 5 to 15 nt, accumulation of the full-length mutant RNAs was observed. The effect of mutations in the 5′ viral sequences of 5 to 15 nt was analyzed. It is concluded that although elements within nucleotides 80–345 of the 5′ UTR of RNA 3 are sufficient for replication, a specific sequence of 3 to 5 nt is required to target the replicase to an initiation site corresponding to the 5′ end of the RNA

Lipase-catalyzed synthesis of butyl butyrate by alcoholysis in an integrated liquid-vapor system

This paper reports experimental work pertaining to alcoholysis between butanol and ethyl butanoate, catalyzed by an immobilized lipase in a liquid-vapor system where chemical reaction and physical separation are simultaneously carried out. The processing setup was tested for various compositions of the starting feedstock and operated under reduced pressure. Samples were withdrawn both from the boiler and the condenser, and they were chromatographically assayed for butyl butyrate. The integrated configuration tested is quite effective toward improvement of the final yield of the desired product

Quantifying health effects of nutrition

Modelsimulaties geven aan dat met een grotere consumptie van fruit, groente en vis veel gezondheidswinst te behalen is. Dit soort schattingen kunnen worden gebruikt bij de onderbouwing van het voedingsbeleid. Met behulp van het Chronische-Ziekten-Model (CZM) van het RIVM kunnen de gezondheidseffecten op de langere termijn en zorggerelateerde kosten van beleidsdoelstellingen en voedingsinterventies worden doorgerekend. De modelsimulaties geven aan dat met een verhoging van de consumptie van groenten, fruit en vis relatief veel gezondheidswinst te behalen is. Ook blijkt dat ten aanzien van de vetzuursamenstelling de meeste gezondheidswinst inmiddels al is bereikt. Als de gehele Nederlandse bevolking de aanbevelingen voor gezonde voeding zou naleven, overlijden de komende twintig jaar naar schatting 140.000 minder mensen. De totale zorgkosten die anders in 20 jaar worden uitgegeven verminderen dan ongeveer met 3%. Doordat mensen langer leven zullen in de daaropvolgende jaren hun zorgkosten wel toenemen. Het model is ook gebruikt voor doorrekening van twee concrete voedingsinterventies, te weten SchoolGruiten en Werkfruit. Een kind dat deelneemt aan SchoolGruiten zal gemiddeld langer leven (+0,37 jaar) en ook langer gezond blijven. Er worden minder medische kosten op jongere leeftijd gemaakt. Deze kosten worden echter voor een groot deel uitgesteld. Voorwaarde voor de gunstige effecten is dat kinderen na de basisschool structureel meer groenten en fruit blijven eten. Werkfruit is een interventie die zich richt op de fruitconsumptie van werknemers in Nederland. Wanneer dit wordt ingevoerd bij 1 op de 10 werknemers, stijgt naar verwachting de levensverwachting van een 20-jarige met 0,08 jaar en nemen de gezondheidszorgkosten met 0,2 procent af.Simulations show that with an elevation of fruit, vegetable and fish consumption large health gains can be achieved. Model simulation is a good method to underpin nutritional policy. The RIVM Chronic Disease Model (CZM) can be used to calculate long term health effects and health care related costs of policy targets and dietary interventions. Simulations show that with an elevation of fruit, vegetable and fish consumption large health gains can be achieved. On the other hand, most health benefits related to fatty acids composition are already achieved. If the Dutch population complies with the dietary recommendations on nutrition, in 20 years, about 140,000 deaths and about 3% of the costs of health care will be saved. As the life expectancy increases people will experience health costs later in life. Two dietary interventions, 'SchoolGruiten' and 'Werkfruit' are simulated within CZM. Children participating in 'SchoolGruiten' will see their life expectancy increased (+0.37 year). They will also, on average, stay healthy for a longer time, assuming long term effects of the intervention. In this way such a child will make less medical costs at a younger age, however most of this costs are only postponed. Introducing 'Werkfruit' in the Netherlands onto one out of 10 employers, will increase the life expectancy of an 20-year old by an estimated 0.08 year and decrease the health-related costs of the whole population with 0.2 percent

Feedback inhibition enables theta-nested gamma oscillations and grid firing fields

Cortical circuits are thought to multiplex firing rate codes with temporal codes that rely on oscillatory network activity, but the circuit mechanisms that combine these coding schemes are unclear. We establish with optogenetic activation of layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex that theta frequency drive to this circuit is sufficient to generate nested gamma frequency oscillations in synaptic activity. These nested gamma oscillations closely resemble activity during spatial exploration, are generated by local feedback inhibition without recurrent excitation, and have clock-like features suitable as reference signals for multiplexing temporal codes within rate-coded grid firing fields. In network models deduced from our data, feedback inhibition supports coexistence of theta-nested gamma oscillations with attractor states that generate grid firing fields. These results indicate that grid cells communicate primarily via inhibitory interneurons. This circuit mechanism enables multiplexing of oscillation-based temporal codes with rate-coded attractor states

Adaptive GDDA-BLAST: Fast and Efficient Algorithm for Protein Sequence Embedding

A major computational challenge in the genomic era is annotating structure/function to the vast quantities of sequence information that is now available. This problem is illustrated by the fact that most proteins lack comprehensive annotations, even when experimental evidence exists. We previously theorized that embedded-alignment profiles (simply “alignment profiles” hereafter) provide a quantitative method that is capable of relating the structural and functional properties of proteins, as well as their evolutionary relationships. A key feature of alignment profiles lies in the interoperability of data format (e.g., alignment information, physio-chemical information, genomic information, etc.). Indeed, we have demonstrated that the Position Specific Scoring Matrices (PSSMs) are an informative M-dimension that is scored by quantitatively measuring the embedded or unmodified sequence alignments. Moreover, the information obtained from these alignments is informative, and remains so even in the “twilight zone” of sequence similarity (<25% identity) [1]–[5]. Although our previous embedding strategy was powerful, it suffered from contaminating alignments (embedded AND unmodified) and high computational costs. Herein, we describe the logic and algorithmic process for a heuristic embedding strategy named “Adaptive GDDA-BLAST.” Adaptive GDDA-BLAST is, on average, up to 19 times faster than, but has similar sensitivity to our previous method. Further, data are provided to demonstrate the benefits of embedded-alignment measurements in terms of detecting structural homology in highly divergent protein sequences and isolating secondary structural elements of transmembrane and ankyrin-repeat domains. Together, these advances allow further exploration of the embedded alignment data space within sufficiently large data sets to eventually induce relevant statistical inferences. We show that sequence embedding could serve as one of the vehicles for measurement of low-identity alignments and for incorporation thereof into high-performance PSSM-based alignment profiles

European clinical practice guidelines for the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of oligometastatic esophagogastric cancer (OMEC-4)

Esophageal cancer; Gastric cancer; OligometastasisCàncer d'esòfag; Càncer gàstric; OligometàstasiCáncer de esófago; Cáncer gástrico; OligometástasisIntroduction The OligoMetastatic Esophagogastric Cancer (OMEC) project aims to provide clinical practice guidelines for the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of esophagogastric oligometastatic disease (OMD). Methods Guidelines were developed according to AGREE II and GRADE principles. Guidelines were based on a systematic review (OMEC-1), clinical case discussions (OMEC-2), and a Delphi consensus study (OMEC-3) by 49 European expert centers for esophagogastric cancer. OMEC identified patients for whom the term OMD is considered or could be considered. Disease-free interval (DFI) was defined as the time between primary tumor treatment and detection of OMD. Results Moderate to high quality of evidence was found (i.e. 1 randomized and 4 non-randomized phase II trials) resulting in moderate recommendations. OMD is considered in esophagogastric cancer patients with 1 organ with ≤ 3 metastases or 1 involved extra-regional lymph node station. In addition, OMD continues to be considered in patients with OMD without progression in number of metastases after systemic therapy. 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging is recommended for baseline staging and for restaging after systemic therapy when local treatment is considered. For patients with synchronous OMD or metachronous OMD and a DFI ≤ 2 years, recommended treatment consists of systemic therapy followed by restaging to assess suitability for local treatment. For patients with metachronous OMD and DFI > 2 years, upfront local treatment is additionally recommended. Discussion These multidisciplinary European clinical practice guidelines for the uniform definition, diagnosis and treatment of esophagogastric OMD can be used to standardize inclusion criteria in future clinical trials and to reduce variation in treatment