Spray characteristics of diesel fuel containing dissolved CO2

The effect of adding CO2 to diesel fuel has been studied by several groups that used tailor-made injectionsystems to achieve notable low Sauter mean diameters (SMDs). In the present study, we use a real commercial fuel injection system and study the effect of the amount of dissolved CO2 on the resulting spray characteristics. In this case, when the mixture enters the injector and flows downstream through the variable cross-section passage toward the discharge orifice, partial nucleation of the dissolved gas is expected to occur at different locations along the duct, which transforms the mixture into tiny bubbles that grow fast downstream. When the mixture is driven out through the discharge orifice, these bubbles undergo arapid flashing process that results in an intensive disintegration of the liquid bulk into small droplets. Inthe present study, we present an experimental study of the atomization process of diesel fuel containing dissolved CO2 that occurs in steady flow conditions. An extensive study was performed to map the effect of the CO2 content on the spray SMD and droplet distribution at different locations downstream the discharge orifice. It is concluded that the atomization of diesel fuel containing dissolved CO2, is significantly promoted by the flash-boiling phenomenon, which results in low SMD sprays, low D0.1 droplets, a faster breakup mechanism, and a more uniform droplet size distributio

Transcription factors relevant to auxin signalling coordinate broad-spectrum metabolic shifts including sulphur metabolism

A systems approach has previously been used to follow the response behaviour of Arabidopsis thaliana plants upon sulphur limitation. A response network was reconstructed from a time series of transcript and metabolite profiles, integrating complex metabolic and transcript data in order to investigate a potential causal relationship. The resulting scale-free network allowed potential transcriptional regulators of sulphur metabolism to be identified. Here, three sulphur-starvation responsive transcription factors, IAA13, IAA28, and ARF-2 (ARF1-Binding Protein), all of which are related to auxin signalling, were selected for further investigation. IAA28 overexpressing and knock-down lines showed no major morphological changes, whereas IAA13- and ARF1-BP-overexpressing plants grew more slowly than the wild type. Steady-state metabolite levels and expression of pathway-relevant genes were monitored under normal and sulphate-depleted conditions. For all lines, changes in transcript and metabolite levels were observed, yet none of these changes could exclusively be linked to sulphur stress. Instead, up- or down-regulation of the transcription factors caused metabolic changes which in turn affected sulphur metabolism. Auxin-relevant transcription factors are thus part of a complex response pattern to nutrient starvation that serve as coordinators of the metabolic shifts driving sulphur homeostasis rather then as direct effectors of the sulphate assimilation pathway. This study provides the first evidence ever presented that correlates auxin-related transcriptional regulators with primary plant metabolism

Training of patient and consumer representatives in the basic competencies of evidence-based medicine: a feasibility study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has become standard approach in medicine. Patients and health authorities increasingly claim active patient roles in decision making. Education to cope with these roles might be useful. We investigated the feasibility, acceptability and possible impact of EBM training courses for patient and consumer representatives.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We designed a generic one-week EBM course based on previous experience with EBM courses for non-medical health professionals. A course specific competence test has been developed and validated to measure EBM skills. Formative and summative evaluation of the course comprised: 1) EBM skills; 2) individual learning goals; 3) self-reported implementation after six months using semi-structured interviews; 4) group-based feedback by content analysis. EBM skills' achievement was compared to results gathered by a group of undergraduate University students of Health Sciences and Education who had attended a comparable EBM seminar.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Fourteen EBM courses were conducted including 161 participants without previous EBM training (n = 54 self-help group representatives, n = 64 professional counsellors, n = 36 patient advocates, n = 7 others); 71% had a higher education degree; all but five finished the course. Most participants stated personal learning goals explicitly related to practicing EBM such as acquisition of critical appraisal skills (n = 130) or research competencies (n = 67). They rated the respective relevance of the course on average with 80% (SD 4) on a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 to 100%.</p> <p>Participants passed the competence test with a mean score of 14.7 (SD 3.0, n = 123) out of 19.5 points. The comparison group of students achieved a mean score of 14.4 (SD 3.3, n = 43). Group-based feedback revealed increases of self confidence, empowerment through EBM methodology and statistical literacy, and acquisition of new concepts of patient information and counselling. Implementation of EBM skills was reported by 84 of the 129 (65%) participants available for follow-up interviews. Barriers included lack of further support, limited possibilities to exchange experiences, and feeling discouraged by negative reactions of health professionals.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Training in basic EBM competencies for selected patient and consumer representatives is feasible and accepted and may affect counselling and advocacy activities. Implementation of EBM skills needs support beyond the training course.</p

Real-Time Self-Regulation of Emotion Networks in Patients with Depression

Many patients show no or incomplete responses to current pharmacological or psychological therapies for depression. Here we explored the feasibility of a new brain self-regulation technique that integrates psychological and neurobiological approaches through neurofeedback with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a proof-of-concept study, eight patients with depression learned to upregulate brain areas involved in the generation of positive emotions (such as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and insula) during four neurofeedback sessions. Their clinical symptoms, as assessed with the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HDRS), improved significantly. A control group that underwent a training procedure with the same cognitive strategies but without neurofeedback did not improve clinically. Randomised blinded clinical trials are now needed to exclude possible placebo effects and to determine whether fMRI-based neurofeedback might become a useful adjunct to current therapies for depression

A Role for the Motor System in Binding Abstract Emotional Meaning

Sensorimotor areas activate to action- and object-related words, but their role in abstract meaning processing is still debated. Abstract emotion words denoting body internal states are a critical test case because they lack referential links to objects. If actions expressing emotion are crucial for learning correspondences between word forms and emotions, emotion word–evoked activity should emerge in motor brain systems controlling the face and arms, which typically express emotions. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 18 native speakers and used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain activation evoked by abstract emotion words to that by face- and arm-related action words. In addition to limbic regions, emotion words indeed sparked precentral cortex, including body-part–specific areas activated somatotopically by face words or arm words. Control items, including hash mark strings and animal words, failed to activate precentral areas. We conclude that, similar to their role in action word processing, activation of frontocentral motor systems in the dorsal stream reflects the semantic binding of sign and meaning of abstract words denoting emotions and possibly other body internal states

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM−/− patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors

CYP3A7*1C allele: linking premenopausal oestrone and progesterone levels with risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancers

Funder: Breast Cancer Now (BCN); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100009794Funder: Cancer Research UK (CRUK); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000289Funder: RCUK | Medical Research Council (MRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000265Funder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH)Funder: Wellcome Trust (Wellcome); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100004440Funder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013)); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100011199; Grant(s): HEALTH-F2-2009-223175, HEALTH-F2-2009-223175Funder: Genome Canada (Génome Canada); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100008762Funder: Gouvernement du Canada | Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Instituts de Recherche en Santé du Canada); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000024Funder: Quebec Breast cancer Foundation Genome QuebecFunder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100000092Funder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013))Funder: European Union’s Horizon 2020Funder: Deutsche Krebshilfe (German Cancer Aid); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100005972Funder: BCAST - European Union’s Horizon 2020Funder: Breast Cancer Now; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007913Abstract: Background: Epidemiological studies provide strong evidence for a role of endogenous sex hormones in the aetiology of breast cancer. The aim of this analysis was to identify genetic variants that are associated with urinary sex-hormone levels and breast cancer risk. Methods: We carried out a genome-wide association study of urinary oestrone-3-glucuronide and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide levels in 560 premenopausal women, with additional analysis of progesterone levels in 298 premenopausal women. To test for the association with breast cancer risk, we carried out follow-up genotyping in 90,916 cases and 89,893 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. All women were of European ancestry. Results: For pregnanediol-3-glucuronide, there were no genome-wide significant associations; for oestrone-3-glucuronide, we identified a single peak mapping to the CYP3A locus, annotated by rs45446698. The minor rs45446698-C allele was associated with lower oestrone-3-glucuronide (−49.2%, 95% CI −56.1% to −41.1%, P = 3.1 × 10–18); in follow-up analyses, rs45446698-C was also associated with lower progesterone (−26.7%, 95% CI −39.4% to −11.6%, P = 0.001) and reduced risk of oestrogen and progesterone receptor-positive breast cancer (OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.82–0.91, P = 6.9 × 10–8). Conclusions: The CYP3A7*1C allele is associated with reduced risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer possibly mediated via an effect on the metabolism of endogenous sex hormones in premenopausal women

Ecologic and socio-economic developments at the Southern fringe of the Dsungarian basin/ Xinjiang in the 1990s

In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Hinweise auf Veränderungen aufgezeigt, die sich vor dem Hintergrund des chinesischen Transformationsprozesses in den 90er Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts auf die Bevölkerung und auf die Landnutzung einer relativ ‚peripheren’ Region in der VR China ergaben. Untersuchungsgebiet war der Südrand des Dsungarischen Beckens im Norden der Autonomen Region Xinjiang. Das Gebiet umfaßt den Rand einer großflächigen landwirtschaftlichen Erschließungszone durch zwei chinesische Staatsfarmen und Teile der angrenzenden Halbwüstenzone, die von den Herden mehrerer kasachischer Tierhalterfamilien als Weiden genutzt wird. In den Staatsfarmen war zu beobachten, dass es durch Zu- und Abwanderung teilweise zu einem 'Austausch' der Bevölkerung kam, der in erster Linie ökonomisch motiviert war und als Ausdruck des allgemein zunehmenden sozialen Gefälles verstanden werden kann. Aber auch das innerhalb des Untersuchungsgebietes wachsende soziale Gefälle führte zu einer unterschiedlichen Bevölkerungsentwicklung in den einzelnen ‚Dörfern’ der Staatsfarmen. Es zeigte sich, daß sich ökologische Ungunstlagen immer negativer auf die wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse der Bewohner auswirkten. Eine Ausdehnung des Bewässerungsfeldlandes war aufgrund von Wassermangel, Versandung und Boden- und Wasserversalzung nicht mehr möglich. Die zunehmende Entnahme von Grundwasser für Bewässerungszwecke muß zudem als sehr problematisch angesehen werden (Kap. 5). Einzelne kasachische Tierhalterfamilien bewirtschaften die an die Staatsfarmen angrenzenden Halbwüstenflächen. Die Migration spielte für die kasachischen Tierhalter im Vergleich zu den Bewohnern der Staatsfarmen nur eine unwesentliche Rolle: Eine Zuwanderung fand aufgrund der begrenzten Arbeitsmöglichkeiten nicht statt. Auch die Abwanderung in die Städte blieb die seltene Ausnahme, da die Chance der Kasachen, auf den chinesischen Arbeitsmärkten Fuß zu fassen begrenzt ist. Vergleichbar mit der Wirtschaftslage in den untersuchten Staatsfarmen war auch bei den kasachischen Tierhaltern ein steigendes soziales Gefälle zu beobachten. Auch die Tierzahlen (v. a. Schafe und Ziegen) stiegen im Untersuchungszeitraum stark an. Dies wirkte sich – neben der allgemeinen Rechtsunsicherheit in Hinsicht auf die Nutzung der Weiden und dem anhaltenden Wasserentzug durch den Bewässerungsfeldbau der Staatsfarmen - negativ auf den Zustand der natürlichen Halbwüstenvegation aus (Kap. 6). In einem Exkurs werden Möglichkeiten des Umweltmonitorings in Trockengebieten Chinas anhand des Untersuchungsgebietes diskutiert. Speziell wird dabei die Wichtigkeit sozioökonomischer Parameter herausgestrichen (Kap. 8).This thesis highlights population and landscape changes that occured at the end of the 20th century in the context of the Chinese transformation process in a relatively remote area of China. The research area lies at the Southern fringe of the Dsungarian Basin in the North of the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. This area includes the agricultural areas of two Chinese statefarms and parts of the rangeland that surrounds the statefarms and that is used by several Kazakh pastoralist families for the keeping of livestock. The statefarms were characterised both by imigration and by emigration. This process was economically motivated and can be seen in the context of generally increasing social differences in China. Social and economic differences were, however, also growing within the research area: This was leading to different tendencies in the population development of the separate ‘villages’ of the statefarms. It appeared that ecologically critical areas were characterised increasingly by economic disadvantages. An increase of the agricultural area was not possible due to the shortage of water for irrigation, desertification and due to salinisation of water and of soil. The growing use of ground water for irrigation purposes has to be seen very critically (Chapter 5). Several Kazakh families were using those pastures bordering the statefarms for the keeping of their livestock. In the contrary to the Chinese population, for the Kazakhs living in the research area, migration only played a minor role. Imigration was difficult due to very restricted working opportunities apart from working in pastoralism. Emigration to urban areas was also difficult because the Kazakhs face major problems looking for work on the Chinese job market. Similar to the economic situation in the statefarms, growing social and economic differences were also observed amongst the Kazakh community. In this context, the number of livestock (mainly sheep and goats) was growing. This affected – together with a general lack of legal security in respect to the use of the pastures and with the constant high water withdrawal from the side of the statefarms – the state of the natural vegetation negatively (Chapter 6). In the last chapter ideas for a successful environmental monitoring program in arid areas of China are discussed, with the research area serving as an example. In this context, special attention is paid to the importance of socio-economic parameters (Chapter 8)

Particulate geochemistry of sediment core POS536_66-1 (BC3)

This dataset consists of the results from particulate matter geochemical analyses of sediment cores that were taken during the cruise POS536 in August 2019. The research area was the North Atlantic gyre southwest of the Azores. During this cruise, samples were collected for the JPI Oceans project HOTMIC. The research objective of HOTMIC is the investigation of distribution and transport of microplastic particles from the European coast to the garbage accumulations in the North Atlantic gyre. Sediment samples were taken with a box corer and subsampled with MUC liners. MUC liner subsamples from three stations were sliced for geochemical analyses. Particulate organic carbon and nitrogen, total sulfur and CaCO3 contents of the solid phase were determined with an elemental analyzer

Particulate geochemistry of sediment core POS536_73-1 (BC6)

This dataset consists of the results from particulate matter geochemical analyses of sediment cores that were taken during the cruise POS536 in August 2019. The research area was the North Atlantic gyre southwest of the Azores. During this cruise, samples were collected for the JPI Oceans project HOTMIC. The research objective of HOTMIC is the investigation of distribution and transport of microplastic particles from the European coast to the garbage accumulations in the North Atlantic gyre. Sediment samples were taken with a box corer and subsampled with MUC liners. MUC liner subsamples from three stations were sliced for geochemical analyses. Particulate organic carbon and nitrogen, total sulfur and CaCO3 contents of the solid phase were determined with an elemental analyzer