Life cycle assessment of Swiss organic farming systems

The impacts of organic and integrated farming systems in Switzerland on the environment have been assessed in a comprehensive study by the life cycle assessment method. This paper reports a comparison of the treatments of the DOC experiment. Organic farming showed clear ecological advantages particularly for eco- and human toxicity, resource use and biodiversity. These ecological advantages only partly apply to nutrient losses and are not always found for single products. Per kg of organic product, higher impacts were often found for global warming potential, ozone formation, eutrophication and acidification compared to integrated production. In the same crop rotation with the same amount of organic fertilisers there were no systematic differences in soil quality of organic compared with integrated production. Further improvement of the environmental performance of organic farming should focus on achieving higher yields of good quality – especially in potatoes and cereals - by using inputs more efficiently and minimising nitrogen losses

The World Court And The Bomb: Nuremberg And Babel At The Hague

On July 8, 1996, the World Court, the International Court of Justice at the Hague, banned the bomb

Observations on the fermentation of carbohydrates along the gastro-intestinal tract of a fistulated cow.

One cow was provided with cannulae in the proximal duodenum and terminal ileum. Three experimental rations were offered: 1, hay 7 kg/day and concentrate 6; 2, hay 3 kg/day, paper pulp 3 and concentrate 3.7; 3, fresh grass 11 kg DM/day. Rations 2 and 2 were given twice daily and 3 was offered more frequently. Experimental periods were 5 days in experiment 1 and 7 days in 2 and 3. Samples were taken from each cannula every 2 h for 5 days. Faeces were collected in each period. Flow rate of the intestinal contents was measured with polyethylene glycol and chromium sesquioxide as markers. Carbohydrates in the feed, digesta and faeces were fractionated according to solubility into ethanol-soluble sugars, alpha -glucose polymers, fructosan, water-soluble polysaccharides other than alpha -glucose polymers and fructosan, neutral-detergent-soluble polysaccharides and neutral-detergent residue. Sugars, sialic and uronic acids were measured in the hydrolysates and the sugars were separated chromatographically.Most of the ethanol-soluble sugars and all the fructosan was digested in the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum, considered collectively as the stomach. Digestion of alpha -glucose polymer occurred mainly in the stomach and only 5 to 10% was digested in the small intestine and caecum with colon. The hay and concentrate ration contained more starch than the others and a higher proportion of this was digested in the small intestine and caecum with colon (20.3 and 6.8% of the digestible starch). The water-soluble fraction was digested mostly in the stomach; on rations 1 and 3 more component carbohydrates disappeared from the small intestine than the caecum with colon. Bacterial polysaccharides were thought to be digested in the small intestine and some bacterial growth was indicated, particularly on ration 2 which contained large amounts of cellulose. Fermentation and addition of bacterial polysaccharides and mucus confused the picture of digestion of the neutral-detergent-soluble fraction, but on all 3 rations it was higher in the small intestine than in the caecum with colon. The neutral-detergent residue was mainly fermented in the stomach and the caecum with colon. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission

Lepton-Flavour Violation in Ordinary and Supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories

By an explicit calculation we show that in ordinary SU(5) logarithmic divergence in the amplitude of $\mu \to e\gamma$ cancels among diagrams and remaining finite part is suppressed by at least $1/M_{GUT}^2$. In SUSY SU(5), when the effect of flavour changing wave function renormalization is taken into account such logarithmic correction disappears, provided a condition is met among SUSY breaking masses. In SUGRA-inspired SUSY GUT the remaining logarithmic effect is argued not to be taken as a prediction of the theory.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX209 file, using axodraw.st

Remarks on the Racetrack Scheme

There are only a small number of ideas for stabilizing the moduli of string theory. One of the most appealing of these is the racetrack mechanism, in which a delicate interplay between two strongly interacting gauge groups fixes the value of the coupling constant. In this note, we explore this scenario. We find that quite generally, some number of discrete tunings are required in order that the mechanism yield a small gauge coupling. Even then, there is no sense in which a weak coupling approximation is valid. On the other hand, certain holomorphic quantities can be computed, so such a scheme is in principle predictive. Searching for models which realize this mechanism is thus of great interest. We also remark on cosmology in these schemes.Comment: 20 pp, latex, discussion of calculability modifie

Gaugino Condensation with S-Duality and Field-Theoretical Threshold Corrections

We study gaugino condensation in the presence of an intermediate mass scale in the hidden sector. S-duality is imposed as an approximate symmetry of the effective supergravity theory. Furthermore, we include in the K\"ahler potential the renormalization of the gauge coupling and the one-loop threshold corrections at the intermediate scale. It is shown that confinement is indeed achieved. Furthermore, a new running behaviour of the dilaton arises which we attribute to S-duality. We also discuss the effects of the intermediate scale, and possible phenomenological implications of this model.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 3 postscript figures include

Isolation and characterization of a spontaneously immortalized bovine retinal pigmented epithelial cell line

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Retinal Pigmented Epithelium (RPE) is juxtaposed with the photoreceptor outer segments of the eye. The proximity of the photoreceptor cells is a prerequisite for their survival, as they depend on the RPE to remove the outer segments and are also influenced by RPE cell paracrine factors. RPE cell death can cause a progressive loss of photoreceptor function, which can diminish vision and, over time, blindness ensues. Degeneration of the retina has been shown to induce a variety of retinopathies, such as Stargardt's disease, Cone-Rod Dystrophy (CRD), Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), Fundus Flavimaculatus (FFM), Best's disease and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). We have cultured primary bovine RPE cells to gain a further understanding of the mechanisms of RPE cell death. One of the cultures, named tRPE, surpassed senescence and was further characterized to determine its viability as a model for retinal diseases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The tRPE cell line has been passaged up to 150 population doublings and was shown to be morphologically similar to primary cells. They have been characterized to be of RPE origin by reverse transcriptase PCR and immunocytochemistry using the RPE-specific genes <it>RPE65 </it>and <it>CRALBP </it>and RPE-specific proteins RPE65 and Bestrophin. The tRPE cells are also immunoreactive to vimentin, cytokeratin and zonula occludens-1 antibodies. Chromosome analysis indicates a normal diploid number. The tRPE cells do not grow in suspension or in soft agar. After ³H thymidine incorporation, the cells do not appear to divide appreciably after confluency.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The tRPE cells are immortal, but still exhibit contact inhibition, serum dependence, monolayer growth and secrete an extra-cellular matrix. They retain the <it>in-vivo </it>morphology, gene expression and cell polarity. Additionally, the cells endocytose exogenous melanin, A2E and purified lipofuscin granules. This cell line may be a useful <it>in-vitro </it>research model for retinal maculopathies.</p

Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes in the Brain: Cellular Internalization and Neuroinflammatory Responses

The potential use of functionalized carbon nanotubes (f-CNTs) for drug and gene delivery to the central nervous system (CNS) and as neural substrates makes the understanding of their in vivo interactions with the neural tissue essential. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions between chemically functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (f-MWNTs) and the neural tissue following cortical stereotactic administration. Two different f-MWNT constructs were used in these studies: shortened (by oxidation) amino-functionalized MWNT (oxMWNT-NH3+) and amino-functionalized MWNT (MWNT-NH3+). Parenchymal distribution of the stereotactically injected f-MWNTs was assessed by histological examination. Both f-MWNT were uptaken by different types of neural tissue cells (microglia, astrocytes and neurons), however different patterns of cellular internalization were observed between the nanotubes. Furthermore, immunohistochemical staining for specific markers of glial cell activation (GFAP and CD11b) was performed and secretion of inflammatory cytokines was investigated using real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Injections of both f-MWNT constructs led to a local and transient induction of inflammatory cytokines at early time points. Oxidation of nanotubes seemed to induce significant levels of GFAP and CD11b over-expression in areas peripheral to the f-MWNT injection site. These results highlight the importance of nanotube functionalization on their interaction with brain tissue that is deemed critical for the development nanotube-based vector systems for CNS application

5.5-7.5 MeV Proton generation by a moderate intensity ultra-short laser interaction with H2O nano-wire targets

We report on the first generation of 5.5-7.5 MeV protons by a moderate intensity short-pulse laser (4.5 \times 1017 W/cm^2, 50 fsec) interacting with H2O nano-wires (snow) deposited on a Sapphire substrate. In this setup, the laser intensity is locally enhanced by the tip of the snow nano-wire, leading to high spatial gradients. Accordingly, the plasma near the tip is subject to enhanced ponderomotive potential, and confined charge separation is obtained. Electrostatic fields of extremely high intensities are produced over the short scale length, and protons are accelerated to MeV-level energies.Comment: submitted to PRL, under press embargo. 6 figure