Establishment Techniques to Increase the Production of Italian Ryegrass (\u3cem\u3eLolium multiflorum\u3c/em\u3e) Over-Sown into an Irrigated Kikuyu (\u3cem\u3ePennisetum clandestinum\u3c/em\u3e) Pasture

Irrigated mixed pastures of kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) over-sown with Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) in the cool-season (May-October) can produce large amounts of biomass in a sub-tropical environment (Botha et al. 2008). However, appropriate pasture management practices are required to suppress the aggressive growth of kikuyu prior to autumn, in order to facilitate establishment of ryegrass seedlings. The present study evaluated ryegrass establishment techniques on the dry matter (DM) production, botanical composition and forage quality of a mixed sward containing kikuyu

First scattered light images of debris disks around HD 53143 and HD 139664

We present the first scattered light images of debris disks around a K star (HD 53143) and an F star (HD 139664) using the coronagraphic mode of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). With ages 0.3 - 1 Gyr, these are among the oldest optically detected debris disks. HD 53143, viewed ~45 degrees from edge-on, does not show radial variation in disk structure and has width >55 AU. HD 139664 is seen close to edge-on and has belt-like morphology with a dust peak 83 AU from the star and a distinct outer boundary at 109 AU. We discuss evidence for significant diversity in the radial architecture of debris disks that appears unconnected to stellar spectral type or age. HD 139664 and possibly the solar system belong in a category of narrow belts 20-30 AU wide. HD 53143 represents a class of wide disk architecture with characteristic width >50 AU.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Commanded Capitalism: a Study of the Beijing Financial Street

China’s economy continues to fascinate. For some time now, it has been the focus of a discourse centred on the nature and implications of the phenomenon of Chinese state capitalism. Much of the research on this phenomenon has highlighted the country’s industrial sector. However, another distinctive yet comparatively under-researched characteristic of contemporary Chinese state capitalism is its financial system. Although the basics of this system are widely understood, the specifics remain very much a black box. In what follows, I position Beijing’s financial centre as a scholarship void that that will provide grounded insights into this lacuna in our understanding of a particular aspect of state capitalism in China. In particular, this study focuses on the Beijing ‘Financial Street’ (jinrong jie; 金融界). Drawing on a strand of economic sociology that focuses on institutions, networks, social capital and culture, the financial centre is seen here as a setting supporting a central component of China’s model of economic model. This setting is characterised by a networked hierarchy of firms constitutive of the commanding heights of the country’s financial system. In turn, this networked hierarchy is shown to be embedded and configured according to larger, more elaborate networks inclusive of the party-state. It is argued that the organisational structure of Chinese state capitalism in the Financial Street takes the form of a political financial industrial complex, which differs from the popular image of financial centres as spaces of globalised capital flow. Financial centres are phenomena of our time. They are the organisations according to which the economic landscapes of capitalism are configured. Whilst what is written here may be read as an attempt to bring the financial centre back down to earth, to ground it in a sustained scientific inquiry, this thesis is also meant to fit into the broader field of multiple capitalisms research. As a focal point for state capitalism, studying the Beijing Financial Street can tell us how China’s particular brand of capitalism is being constructed. It provides a window into some of the mechanics of Chinese economic development. This is important for deepening our knowledge and understanding of the nature of capitalism in general

Air ambulance outcome measures using Institutes of Medicine and Donabedian quality frameworks: protocol for a systematic scoping review

Background: Dedicated air ambulance services provide a vital link for critically ill and injured patients to higherlevels of care. The recent developments of pre-hospital and retrieval medicine create an opportunity for airambulance providers and policy-makers to utilize a dashboard of quality performance measures to assess serviceperformance. The objective of this scoping systematic review will be to identify and evaluate the range of airambulance outcome measures reported in the literature and help to construct a quality dashboard based on ahealthcare quality framework. Methods: We will search PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (fromJanuary 2001 onwards). Complementary searches will be conducted in selected relevant journals. We will includesystematic reviews and observational studies (cohort, cross-sectional, interrupted time series) in critically ill orinjured patients published in English and focusing on air ambulance delivery and quality measures. Two reviewerswill independently screen all citations, full-text articles, and abstract data. The study methodological quality (or bias)will be appraised using appropriate tools. Analysis of the characteristics associated with outcome measure will bemapped and described according to the proposed healthcare quality framework. Discussion: This review will contribute to the development of an air ambulance quality dashboard designed tocombine multiple quality frameworks. Our findings will provide a basis for helping decision-making in healthplanning and policy

Antitumor effects of B3-PE and B3-lysPE40 in a nude mouse model of human breast cancer and the evaluation of B3-PE toxicity in monkeys

B3 is a tumor-reactive monoclonal antibody (mAb) that binds to a limited number of normal tissues.Immunotoxins made with B3 coupled to either Pseudomonas exotoxin (PE) or recombinant forms of PE with a deletion of the cell-binding domain (LysPE40) have been shown to cause complete tumor regression in nude mice bearing a rapidly growing A431 (L. H. Pai et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88: 3358-3362, 1991) human epidermoid carcinoma. In this study we show that an immunotoxin composed of mAb B3 when chemically coupled to LysPE40 (B3-LysPE40) led to complete regression of a slowly growing breast cancer, MCF-7, in nude mice when given i.v. every other day for five doses. mAb B3 coupled to native PE also produced significant regression of the MCF-7 tumor. The reactivity of mAb B3 was evaluated using an immunohistochemical method on the two responsive tumors, MCF-7 and A431, and compared with a typical human colon carcinoma specimen that has B3 antigen on its surface. The results showed that both A431 and MCF-7 xenograft tumors have similar reactivity to B3 when compared with the human colon carcinoma specimen. To evaluate the toxicity of B3-PE in primates, Cynomolgus monkeys received escalating doses of B3-PE i.v. on Days 1, 3, and 5. Based on antibody localization studies using frozen sections of normal human and monkey tissue, gastric, trachea, and bladder mucosal injury could have occurred. However, no clinical signs of injury or histological damage to these organs were seen at the doses administered. Chemical hepatitis due to PE was transient and well tolerated at doses up to 50 μg/kg for three doses. The lethal dose was about 100 μg/kg, and the cause of death was liver necrosis, as shown by necropsy. We conclude that m Ab B3, when coupled to PE40 or PE, can produce strong antitumor activity in vivo. The similar level of reactivity of the B3 antibody in our tumor models with a surgical specimen of a human colon carcinoma and the toxicity study in monkeys indicate that therapeutic doses of B3-PE and B3-LysPE40 can be delivered without causing toxicity to normal organs that express B3 antigen. Although both B3-PE and B3-LysPE40 have antitumor activity in nude mice bearing a human xenograft, B3-LysPE40 is better tolerated and should be further evaluated as a therapeutic agent for cancer patients

Polymicrobial oral biofilm models: simplifying the complex

Over the past century, numerous studies have used oral biofilm models to investigate growth kinetics, biofilm formation, structure and composition, antimicrobial susceptibility and host–pathogen interactions. In vivo animal models provide useful models of some oral diseases; however, these are expensive and carry vast ethical implications. Oral biofilms grown or maintained in vitro offer a useful platform for certain studies and have the advantages of being inexpensive to establish and easy to reproduce and manipulate. In addition, a wide range of variables can be monitored and adjusted to mimic the dynamic environmental changes at different sites in the oral cavity, such as pH, temperature, salivary and gingival crevicular fluid flow rates, or microbial composition. This review provides a detailed insight for early-career oral science researchers into how the biofilm models used in oral research have progressed and improved over the years, their advantages and disadvantages, and how such systems have contributed to our current understanding of oral disease pathogenesis and aetiology

The identification and neurochemical characterization of central neurons that target parasympathetic preganglionic neurons involved in the regulation of choroidal blood flow in the rat eye using pseudorabies virus, immunolabeling and conventional pathway tracing methods

The choroidal blood vessels of the eye provide the main vascular support to the outer retina. These blood vessels are under parasympathetic vasodilatory control via input from the pterygopalatine ganglion (PPG), which in turn receives its preganglionic input from the superior salivatory nucleus (SSN) of the hindbrain. The present study characterized the central neurons projecting to the SSN neurons innervating choroidal PPG neurons, using pathway tracing and immunolabeling. In the initial set of studies, minute injections of the Bartha strain of the retrograde transneuronal tracer pseudorabies virus (PRV) were made into choroid in rats in which the superior cervical ganglia had been excised (to prevent labeling of sympathetic circuitry). Diverse neuronal populations beyond the choroidal part of ipsilateral SSN showed transneuronal labeling, which notably included the parvocellular part of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), the periaqueductal gray, the raphe magnus (RaM), the B3 region of the pons, A5, the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM), and the intermediate reticular nucleus of the medulla. The PRV+ neurons were located in the parts of these cell groups that are responsive to systemic blood pressure signals and involved in systemic blood pressure regulation by the sympathetic nervous system. In a second set of studies using PRV labeling, conventional pathway tracing, and immunolabeling, we found that PVN neurons projecting to SSN tended to be oxytocinergic and glutamatergic, RaM neurons projecting to SSN were serotonergic, and NTS neurons projecting to SSN were glutamatergic. Our results suggest that blood pressure and volume signals that drive sympathetic constriction of the systemic vasculature may also drive parasympathetic vasodilation of the choroidal vasculature, and may thereby contribute to choroidal baroregulation during low blood pressure