Business Succession in the New Zealand Horticulture Industry

falsehttps://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/44617-Business-Succession-in-the-New-Zealand-Horticulture-IndustryMinistry for Primary Industrie

Risk - An Opportunity or Threat for Entrepreneurial Farmers in the Global Food Market?

uncertainty, farm management, opportunities, threats, Agribusiness, Q12,

Fission yeast sec3 bridges the exocyst complex to the actin cytoskeleton.

The exocyst complex tethers post-Golgi secretory vesicles to the plasma membrane prior to docking and fusion. In this study, we identify Sec3, the missing component of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe exocyst complex (SpSec3). SpSec3 shares many properties with its orthologs, and its mutants are rescued by human Sec3/EXOC1. Although involved in exocytosis, SpSec3 does not appear to mark the site of exocyst complex assembly at the plasma membrane. It does, however, mark the sites of actin cytoskeleton recruitment and controls the organization of all three yeast actin structures: the actin cables, endocytic actin patches and actomyosin ring. Specifically, SpSec3 physically interacts with For3 and sec3 mutants have no actin cables as a result of a failure to polarize this nucleating formin. SpSec3 also interacts with actin patch components and sec3 mutants have depolarized actin patches of reduced endocytic capacity. Finally, the constriction and disassembly of the cytokinetic actomyosin ring is compromised in these sec3 mutant cells. We propose that a role of SpSec3 is to spatially couple actin machineries and their independently polarized regulators. As a consequence of its dual role in secretion and actin organization, Sec3 appears as a major co-ordinator of cell morphology in fission yeast.This work was supported by Cancer Research UK (T. T.)

A collateral missing value estimation algorithm for DNA microarrays

Genetic microarray expression data often contains multiple missing values that can significantly affect the performance of statistical and machine learning algorithms. This paper presents an innovative missing value estimation technique, called collateral missing value estimation (CMVE) which has demonstrated superior estimation performance compared with the K-nearest neighbour (KNN) imputation algorithm, the least square impute (LSImpute) and Bayesian principal component analysis (BPCA) techniques. Experimental results confirm that CMVE provides an improvement of 89%, 12% and 10% for the BRCA1, BRCA2 and sporadic ovarian cancer mutations, respectively, compared to the average error rate of KNN, LSImpute and BPCA imputation methods, over a range of randomly selected missing values. The underlying theory behind CMVE also means that it is not restricted to bioinformatics data, but can be successfully applied to any correlated data set

Proactive and reactive runtime service discovery: a framework and its evaluation

The identification of services during the execution of service-based applications to replace services in them that are no longer available and/or fail to satisfy certain requirements is an important issue. In this paper we present a framework to support runtime service discovery. This framework can execute service discovery queries in pull and push mode. In pull mode, it executes queries when a need for finding a replacement service arises. In push mode, queries are subscribed to the framework to be executed proactively, and in parallel with the operation of the application, in order to identify adequate services that could be used if the need for replacing a service arises. Hence, the proactive (push) mode of query execution makes it more likely to avoid interruptions in the operation of service-based applications when a service in them needs to be replaced at runtime. In both modes of query execution, the identification of services relies on distance-based matching of structural, behavioural, quality, and contextual characteristics of services and applications. A prototype implementation of the framework has been developed and an evaluation was carried out to assess the performance of the framework. This evaluation has shown positive results, which are discussed in the paper

Zebrafish scl functions independently in hematopoietic and endothelial development

AbstractThe SCL transcription factor is critically important for vertebrate hematopoiesis and angiogenesis, and has been postulated to induce hemangioblasts, bipotential precursors for blood and endothelial cells. To investigate the function of scl during zebrafish hematopoietic and endothelial development, we utilized site-directed, anti-sense morpholinos to inhibit scl mRNA. Knockdown of scl resulted in a loss of primitive and definitive hematopoietic cell lineages. However, the expression of early hematopoietic genes, gata2 and lmo2, was unaffected, suggesting that hematopoietic cells were present but unable to further differentiate. Using gene expression analysis and visualization of vessel formation in live animals harboring an lmo2 promoter-green fluorescent protein reporter transgene (Tg(lmo2:EGFP)), we show that angioblasts were specified normally in the absence of scl, but later defects in angiogenesis were evident. While scl was not required for angioblast specification, forced expression of exogenous scl caused an expansion of both hematopoietic and endothelial gene expression, and a loss of somitic tissue. In cloche and spadetail mutants, forced expression of scl resulted in an expansion of hematopoietic but not endothelial tissue. Surprisingly, in cloche, lmo2 was not induced in response to scl over-expression. Taken together, these findings support distinct roles for scl in hematopoietic and endothelial development, downstream of hemangioblast development

Who is in the transition gap? Transition from CAMHS to AMHS in the Republic of Ireland

Objective: The ITRACK study explored the process and predictors of transition between Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) in the Republic of Ireland. Method: Following ethical approval, clinicians in each of Ireland's four Health Service Executive (HSE) areas were contacted, informed about the study and invited to participate. Clinicians identified all cases who had reached the transition boundary (i.e. upper age limit for that CAMHS team ) between January and December 2010. Data were collected on clinical and socio-demographic details and factors that informed the decision to refer or not refer to AMHS and case notes were scrutinised to ascertain the extent of information exchanged between services during transition

The effects of entrepreneurial ecosystems, knowledge management capabilities, and knowledge spillovers on international open innovation

While there is a large body of literature on the benefits of open innovation, little is known about the knowledge flows and the interrelationship of the purposeful and serendipitous spillover of knowledge flows that deliver value from international open innovation (IOI) collaborations. This study examines these knowledge flows occurring from IOI and the extent to which the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) context, knowledge management (KM) capabilities of the firm, and knowledge spillovers (KS), nurture IOI engagement. A quantitative study is adopted where data on 98,809 firms from 15 European Union countries to empirically tested a proposed model through multiple linear regressions of logit models. The results highlight the positive effect of KS on IOI engagement, and the positive mediating effect of KM capability on the relationship between KS and IOI. Additionally, the results show a positive moderating effect of the EE on the relationship between the firm's KM capability and IOI engagement. Additionally, the findings emphasize the beneficial nature of the EE on nurturing KM capabilities within firms located in the ecosystem and its impact on nurturing KS within the network.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estimation of Effective Lens Position Using a Method Independent of Preoperative Keratometry Readings

Purpose To evaluate the validity of a keratometry (K)-independent method of estimating effective lens position (ELP) before phacoemulsification cataract surgery. Setting Institute of Eye Surgery, Whitfield Clinic, Waterford, Ireland. Design Evaluation of diagnostic test or technology. Methods The anterior chamber diameter and corneal height in eyes scheduled for cataract surgery were measured with a rotating Scheimpflug camera. Corneal height and anterior chamber diameter were used to estimate the ELP in a K-independent method (using the SRK/T [ELPrs] and Holladay 1 [ELPrh] formulas). Results The mean ELP was calculated using the traditional (mean ELPs 5.59 mm ± 0.52 mm [SD]; mean ELPh 5.63 ± 0.42 mm) and K-independent (mean ELPrs 5.55 ± 0.42 mm; mean ELPrh ± SD 5.60 ± 0.36 mm) methods. Agreement between ELPs and ELPrs and between ELPh and ELPrh were represented by Bland-Altman plots, with mean differences (± 1.96 SD) of 0.06 ± 0.65 mm (range −0.59 to +0.71 mm; P=.08) in association with ELPrs and −0.04 ± 0.39 mm (range −0.43 to +0.35 mm; P=.08) in association with ELPrh. The mean absolute error for ELPs versus ELPrs estimation and for ELPh versus ELPrh estimation was 0.242 ± 0.222 mm (range 0.001 to 1.272 mm) and 0.152 ± 0.137 mm (range 0.001 to 0.814 mm), respectively. Conclusion This study confirms that the K-independent ELP estimation method is comparable to traditional K-dependent methods and may be useful in post-refractive surgery patients

Self-reported pregnancy exposures and placental DNA methylation in the MARBLES prospective autism sibling study.

Human placenta is a fetal-derived tissue that offers a unique sample of epigenetic and environmental exposures present in utero. In the MARBLES prospective pregnancy study of high-risk younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pregnancy and environmental factors collected by maternal interviews were examined as predictors of placental DNA methylation, including partially methylated domains (PMDs), an embryonic feature of the placental methylome. DNA methylation data from MethylC-seq analysis of 47 placentas of children clinically diagnosed at 3 years with ASD or typical development using standardized assessments were examined in relation to: child's gestational age, birth-weight, and diagnosis; maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking, education, parity, height, prenatal vitamin and folate intake; home ownership; pesticides professionally applied to lawns or gardens or inside homes, pet flea/tick pouches, collars, or soaps/shampoos used in the 3 months prior to or during pregnancy. Sequencing run, order, and coverage, and child race and sex were considered as potential confounders. Akaike information criterion was used to select the most parsimonious among candidate models. Final prediction models used sandwich estimators to produce homoscadisticity-robust estimates of the 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-values controlled the false discovery rate at 5%. The strongest, most robust associations were between pesticides professionally applied outside the home and higher average methylation over PMDs [0.45 (95% CI 0.17, 0.72), P = 0.03] and a reduced proportion of the genome in PMDs [-0.42 (95% CI - 0.67 to -0.17), P = 0.03]. Pesticide exposures could alter placental DNA methylation more than other factors