The morphology, mineralogy and genesis of some soils on the moor house national nature reserve

The thesis comprises three parts. One reviews pedological research in the area, discusses the soil forming factors and considers the classification of the soils studied, A chapter is devoted to each pedogenic factor and describes its role in soil formation on the Reserve. Part two comprises a study of several small limestone grasslands. Their microtopography is described using maps which also show soils. Three surfaces are recognised; the surrounding peat surface, a sub-peat 'drift' surface and a dissected limestone surface. Each sub-group in the soil complex is described, i, e. rendzina, brown calcareous soil, acid brown earth and peat podzol: profiles, with analyses, are included. Drift or head is shown to dominate the soil parent material. A contribution from the limestone is present in the shallow soils and dominates in some rendzinas. The inter-relationships of the soils are discussed: they form a sequence reflecting increasing depth of drift. In the shallow soils plants obtain nutrients from the limestone thus offsetting leaching. In the deeper soils the limestone merely maintains free drainage, A history of the grasslands is reconstructed. The smaller areas were, almost certainly peat covered but parts of the larger ones may have remained peat free. Part three discusses eight of the main soil sub-groups on the Reserve. Their distribution, morphology and pedogenesis are considered: profiles are given with analyses. Iron humus podzols are described and the origin of their platey structure and parent material: these soils are shown to be sedentary. Theories on the formation of peaty gleyed podzols are examined in the light of the work at Moor House, Clay movement in some brown earths is discussed. The distribution pattern of the sub-groups is outlined: a drainage sequence containing calcareous members is present. Parent materials of soils on the Pennine escarpment are briefly examined. Many research colleagues in the postgraduate school of the geology department for helpful discussion, and assistance in sampling and analyses. Amongst these colleagues I am especially grateful to Dr. G. Farrow and Mr. A. Stoyel, who taught the author all he knows about steam engines and water mills. Dr. A. Marshall and Mr. K. Jones. The Natural Environmental Research Council for providing a research studentship to finance the research. Last, but by no means least, my wife for taking notes in torrential rain at Moor House, assisting with tables and text figures and, most of all, for giving much needed encouragement during the frequent disasters which occurred during the research

Flupenthixol in relapse prevention in schizophrenics with comorbid alcoholism: Results from an open clinical study

Substance use, especially alcoholism, has been recognized as a significant problem in schizophrenic patients, though only a few studies on the effects of pharmacotherapy in these patients have been conducted so far. The thioxanthene neuroleptic flupenthixol, which can be given intramuscularly (i.m.) for improving compliance, has been studied as a possible anti-craving drug both in animal models of alcoholism and some clinical studies. Pilot studies suggest that comorbid schizophrenics with substance use may benefit from treatment with flupenthixol. Efficacy of flupenthixol (10-60 mg i.m.) in reducing alcohol consumption of dual diagnosis patients was studied in an open 6-month clinical trial in 27 schizophrenics with comorbid alcoholism. Twenty-one patients entered the intention-to-treat analysis. Fourteen subjects were completers, 13 dropped out. Six patients completely abstained from alcohol during treatment. Alcohol consumption was significantly reduced compared to baseline (4 weeks before treatment as measured by timeline follow-back interview). In general, while patients showed a marked improvement concerning alcohol consumption, only a slight improvement in psychopathology was recorded. Overall tolerability was good. These data indicate a probable beneficial effect of flupenthixol in schizophrenic patients with comorbid alcoholism. Although the efficacy of flupenthixol as an anti-craving drug in dual diagnosis patients has to be explored in further studies, the drug may be considered a promising medication for these patients. Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

A rapid magnetic bead-based immunoassay for sensitive determination of diclofenac

Increasing contamination of environmental waters with pharmaceuticals represents an emerging threat for the drinking water quality and safety. In this regard, fast and reliable analytical methods are required to allow quick countermeasures in case of contamination. Here, we report the development of a magnetic bead-based immunoassay (MBBA) for the fast and cost-effective determination of the analgesic diclofenac (DCF) in water samples, based on diclofenac-coupled magnetic beads and a robust monoclonal anti-DCF antibody. A novel synthetic strategy for preparation of the beads resulted in an assay that enabled for the determination of diclofenac with a significantly lower limit of detection (400 ng/L) than the respective enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). With shorter incubation times and only one manual washing step required, the assay demands for remarkably shorter time to result (< 45 min) and less equipment than ELISA. Evaluation of assay precision and accuracy with a series of spiked water samples yielded results with low to moderate intra- and inter-assay variations and in good agreement with LC–MS/MS reference analysis. The assay principle can be transferred to other, e.g., microfluidic, formats, as well as applied to other analytes and may replace ELISA as the standard immunochemical method. Graphical abstractBundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347Indo-German Science and Technology Centre http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100018761Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) (4232)Peer Reviewe

Novel methods for spatial prediction of soil functions within landscapes (SP0531)

Previous studies showed that soil patterns could be predicted in agriculturally managed landscapes by modelling and extrapolating from extensive existing but related integrated datasets. Based on these results we proposed to develop and apply predictive models of the relationships between environmental data and known soil patterns to predict capacity for key soil functions within diverse landscapes for which there is little detailed underpinning soil information available. Objectives were: To develop a high-level framework in which the non-specialist user-community could explore questions. To generate digital soil maps for three selected catchments at a target resolution of 1:50000 to provide the base information for soil function prediction. To use a modelling approach to predict the performance of key soil functions in catchments undergoing change but where only sparse or low resolution soil survey data are available. To use a modelling approach to assess the impact of different management scenarios and/or environmental conditions on the delivery of multiple soil functions within a catchment. To create a detailed outline of the requirements for ground-truthing to test the predicted model outputs at a catchment scale. To contribute to the development of a high-level framework for decision makers

The Optimal Control Landscape for the Generation of Unitary Transformations with Constrained Dynamics

The reliable and precise generation of quantum unitary transformations is essential to the realization of a number of fundamental objectives, such as quantum control and quantum information processing. Prior work has explored the optimal control problem of generating such unitary transformations as a surface optimization problem over the quantum control landscape, defined as a metric for realizing a desired unitary transformation as a function of the control variables. It was found that under the assumption of non-dissipative and controllable dynamics, the landscape topology is trap-free, implying that any reasonable optimization heuristic should be able to identify globally optimal solutions. The present work is a control landscape analysis incorporating specific constraints in the Hamiltonian corresponding to certain dynamical symmetries in the underlying physical system. It is found that the presence of such symmetries does not destroy the trap-free topology. These findings expand the class of quantum dynamical systems on which control problems are intrinsically amenable to solution by optimal control.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Mathematical Physic

Do higher alarm thresholds for arterial blood pressure lead to less perioperative hypotension? A retrospective, observational cohort study

Arterial blood pressure is one of the vital signs monitored mandatory in anaesthetised patients. Even short episodes of intraoperative hypotension are associated with increased risk for postoperative organ dysfunction such as acute kidney injury and myocardial injury. Since there is little evidence whether higher alarm thresholds in patient monitors can help prevent intraoperative hypotension, we analysed the blood pressure data before (group 1) and after (group 2) the implementation of altered hypotension alarm settings. The study was conducted as a retrospective observational cohort study in a large surgical centre with 32 operating theatres. Alarm thresholds for hypotension alarm for mean arterial pressure (MAP) were altered from 60 (before) to 65&nbsp;mmHg for invasive measurement and 70&nbsp;mmHg for noninvasive measurement. Blood pressure data from electronic anaesthesia records of 4222 patients (1982 and 2240 in group 1 and 2, respectively) with 406,623 blood pressure values undergoing noncardiac surgery were included. We analysed (A) the proportion of blood pressure measurements below the threshold among all measurements by quasi-binomial regression and (B) whether at least one blood pressure measurement below the threshold occurred by logistic regression. Hypotension was defined as MAP &lt; 65&nbsp;mmHg. There was no significant difference in overall proportions of hypotensive episodes for mean arterial pressure before and after the adjustment of alarm settings (mean proportion of values below 65&nbsp;mmHg were 6.05% in group 1 and 5.99% in group 2). The risk of ever experiencing a hypotensive episode during anaesthesia was significantly lower in group 2 with an odds ratio of 0.84 (p = 0.029). In conclusion, higher alarm thresholds do not generally lead to less hypotensive episodes perioperatively. There was a slight but significant reduction of the occurrence of intraoperative hypotension in the presence of higher thresholds for blood pressure alarms. However, this reduction only seems to be present in patients with very few hypotensive episodes

Co-transplantation of pancreatic islets and microvascular fragments effectively restores normoglycemia in diabetic mice

Insufficient revascularization of pancreatic islets is one of the major obstacles impairing the success of islet transplantation. To overcome this problem, we introduce in the present study a straightforward strategy to accelerate the engraftment of isolated islets. For this purpose, we co-transplanted 250 islets and 20,000 adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments (MVF) from donor mice under the kidney capsule as well as 500 or 1000 islets with 40,000 MVF into the subcutaneous space of diabetic mice. We found that the co-transplantation of islets and MVF markedly accelerates the restoration of normoglycemia in diabetic recipients compared with the transplantation of islets alone. In fact, the transplantation of 250 islets with 20,000 MVF under the kidney capsule reversed diabetes in 88% of mice and the subcutaneous transplantation of 500 or 1000 islets with 40,000 MVF restored normoglycemia in 100% of mice. Moreover, diabetic mice receiving islets and MVF exhibited plasma insulin levels similar to nondiabetic control animals. Additional immunohistochemical analyses of the grafts revealed a significantly higher number of islet cells and microvessels in the co-transplantation groups. These findings demonstrate that the co-transplantation of islets and MVF is a promising strategy to improve the success rates of islet transplantation, which could be easily implemented into future clinical practice