Öleinträge ins Meer über die offshore Ölindustrie und die Tankschiffahrt: Eine Kurzstudie über Eintragsgrößen, Abbauprozesse und Schadenswirkung von Kohlenwasserstoffen unter ökologisch-ökonomischen Gesichtspunkten

Im Auftrag des Instituts für Meereskunde an der Universität Kiel und dem Institut für Energieanwendung und Rationelle Energiewirtschaft an der Universität Stuttgart; Die vorliegende Arbeit ist das Ergebnis einer 3-monatigen Studie über Einträge und Wirkungen von Kohlenwasserstoffen, die durch Aktivitäten der offshore Erdölproduktion und durch die Tankschiffahrt in die marine Umwelt gelangen. Sie umfaßt zunächst einen Überblick über Art und Umfang von Einträgen aus weltweiten und regionalen offshore Aktivitäten. Als exemplarische Fallstudie werden ergänzend aktuelle Informationen über Art und Umfang von Entsorgungen in die Nordsee durch die norwegische Ölplattform OSEBERG C gegeben. Globale und regionale Eintragsgrößen aus dem Transport von Rohöl und seiner Raffinate durch Tanker werden anschließend erörtert. Zum erständnis der Auswirkungen auf die Lebewelt erschien eine Betrachtung der Ausbreitung von Öl im Meer sowie dessen Veränderung unter dem Einfluß physikalisch-biologischer Abbauprozesse als notwendig. Abschließend werden potentielle Auswirkungen eines küstennahen Ölunfalls auf den betroffenen Wirtschaftsraum diskutiert und auf Probleme hingewiesen, die sich aus der Entsorgung ausgedienter Ölförderplattformen ergeben können

Expansion of patient eligibility for virtual glaucoma clinics: a long-term strategy to increase the capacity of high-quality glaucoma care

AIMS: The virtual glaucoma clinic (VGC) is a well-established diagnostic pathway for delivery of glaucoma care. Current UK national guidance recommends VGCs for patients with ocular hypertension, glaucoma suspects or early glaucoma. This study evaluates whether expanded eligibility criteria, including other glaucoma phenotypes and disease stages, can deliver safe and effective care with a positive patient experience. METHODS: Records of over 8000 patients were reviewed in order to determine suitability for VGC attendance using expanded eligibility criteria. Patients with three prior consecutive visits within the glaucoma service were included. Follow-up interval, clinic type, visual acuity (VA), intraocular pressure (IOP) and visual field performance were recorded. Patient satisfaction was recorded for a sample of 118 patients. RESULTS: 2017 patients over 31 months were included. Two-thirds of eyes had ocular comorbidities, a fifth of eyes had undergone prior cataract surgery and 10% of eyes had undergone a prior laser treatment for glaucoma. After three visits, 32% of patients remained in the VGC, 42% were seen in face-to-face clinics and 25% were discharged. There were no clinically significant changes in VA, IOP and visual field performance during follow-up. 72% of patients expressed a preference to continue their care within VGCs. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that VGCs with expanded patient eligibility criteria can deliver high-quality glaucoma care that is safe, effective and with high levels of patient satisfaction. This approach provides a long-term solution to adapt delivery of glaucoma care to our expanding and ageing population

Electrical transport and optical studies of ferromagnetic Cobalt doped ZnO nanoparticles exhibiting a metal-insulator transition

The observed correlation of oxygen vacancies and room temperature ferromagnetic ordering in Co doped ZnO1-o nanoparticles reported earlier (Naeem et al Nanotechnology 17, 2675-2680) has been further explored by transport and optical measurements. In these particles room temperature ferromagnetic ordering had been observed to occur only after annealing in forming gas. In the current work the optical properties have been studied by diffuse reflection spectroscopy in the UV-Vis region and the band gap of the Co doped compositions has been found to decrease with Co addition. Reflections minima are observed at the energies characteristic of Co+2 d-d (tethrahedral symmetry) crystal field transitions, further establishing the presence of Co in substitutional sites. Electrical transport measurements on palletized samples of the nanoparticles show that the effect of a forming gas is to strongly decrease the resistivity with increasing Co concentration. For the air annealed and non-ferromagnetic samples the variation in the resistivity as a function of Co content are opposite to those observed in the particles prepared in forming gas. The ferromagnetic samples exhibit an apparent change from insulator to metal with increasing temperatures for T>380K and this change becomes more pronounced with increasing Co content. The magnetic and resistive behaviors are correlated by considering the model by Calderon et al [M. J. Calderon and S. D. Sarma, Annals of Physics 2007 (Accepted doi: 10.1016/j.aop.2007.01.010] where the ferromagnetism changes from being mediated by polarons in the low temperature insulating region to being mediated by the carriers released from the weakly bound states in the higher temperature metallic region.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

High-Resolution Microendoscopy for the Detection of Cervical Neoplasia in Low-Resource Settings

Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women in developing countries. Developing countries often lack infrastructure, cytotechnologists, and pathologists necessary to implement current screening tools. Due to their low cost and ease of interpretation at the point-of-care, optical imaging technologies may serve as an appropriate solution for cervical cancer screening in low resource settings. We have developed a high-resolution optical imaging system, the High Resolution Microendoscope (HRME), which can be used to interrogate clinically suspicious areas with subcellular spatial resolution, revealing changes in nuclear to cytoplasmic area ratio. In this pilot study carried out at the women's clinic of Princess Marina Hospital in Botswana, 52 unique sites were imaged in 26 patients, and the results were compared to histopathology as a reference standard. Quantitative high resolution imaging achieved a sensitivity and specificity of 86% and 87%, respectively, in differentiating neoplastic (≥CIN 2) tissue from non-neoplastic tissue. These results suggest the potential promise of HRME to assist in the detection of cervical neoplasia in low-resource settings

Differing self-similarity in light scattering spectra: A potential tool for pre-cancer detection

The fluctuations in the elastic light scattering spectra of normal and dysplastic human cervical tissues analyzed through wavelet transform based techniques reveal clear signatures of self-similar behavior in the spectral fluctuations. Significant differences in the power law behavior ascertained through the scaling exponent was observed in these tissues. The strong dependence of the elastic light scattering on the size distribution of the scatterers manifests in the angular variation of the scaling exponent. Interestingly, the spectral fluctuations in both these tissues showed multi-fractality (non-stationarity in fluctuations), the degree of multi-fractality being marginally higher in the case of dysplastic tissues. These findings using the multi-resolution analysis capability of the discrete wavelet transform can contribute to the recent surge in the exploration for non-invasive optical tools for pre-cancer detection.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figure

SILAC-based phosphoproteomics reveals an inhibitory role of KSR1 in p53 transcriptional activity via modulation of DBC1

BACKGROUND We have previously identified kinase suppressor of ras-1 (KSR1) as a potential regulatory gene in breast cancer. KSR1, originally described as a novel protein kinase, has a role in activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases. Emerging evidence has shown that KSR1 may have dual functions as an active kinase as well as a scaffold facilitating multiprotein complex assembly. Although efforts have been made to study the role of KSR1 in certain tumour types, its involvement in breast cancer remains unknown. METHODS A quantitative mass spectrometry analysis using stable isotope labelling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) was implemented to identify KSR1-regulated phosphoproteins in breast cancer. In vitro luciferase assays, co-immunoprecipitation as well as western blotting experiments were performed to further study the function of KSR1 in breast cancer. RESULTS Of significance, proteomic analysis reveals that KSR1 overexpression decreases deleted in breast cancer-1 (DBC1) phosphorylation. Furthermore, we show that KSR1 decreases the transcriptional activity of p53 by reducing the phosphorylation of DBC1, which leads to a reduced interaction of DBC1 with sirtuin-1 (SIRT1); this in turn enables SIRT1 to deacetylate p53. CONCLUSION Our findings integrate KSR1 into a network involving DBC1 and SIRT1, which results in the regulation of p53 acetylation and its transcriptional activity

Multispectral optical imaging device for in vivo detection of oral neoplasia

A multispectral digital microscope (MDM) is designed and constructed as a tool to improve detection of oral neoplasia. The MDM acquires in vivo images of oral tissue in fluorescence, narrow-band (NB) reflectance, and orthogonal polarized reflectance (OPR) modes, to enable evaluation of lesions that may not exhibit high contrast under standard white light illumination. The device rapidly captures image sequences so that the diagnostic value of each modality can be qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated alone and in combination. As part of a pilot clinical trial, images are acquired from normal volunteers and patients with precancerous and cancerous lesions. In normal subjects, the visibility of vasculature can be enhanced by tuning the reflectance illumination wavelength and polarization. In patients with histologically confirmed neoplasia, we observe decreased blue/green autofluorescence and increased red autofluorescence in lesions, and increased visibility of vasculature using NB and OPR imaging. The perceived lesion borders change with imaging modality, suggesting that multimodal imaging has the potential to provide additional diagnostic information not available using standard white light illumination or by using a single imaging mode alone.NIH (R21 DE 16485; R01 CA 103830

Src Inhibition Blocks c-Myc Translation and Glucose Metabolism to Prevent the Development of Breast Cancer

Preventing breast cancer will require the development of targeted strategies that can effectively block disease progression. Tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors are effective in addressing estrogen receptor–positive (ER+) breast cancer development, but estrogen receptor–negative (ER−) breast cancer remains an unmet challenge due to gaps in pathobiologic understanding. In this study, we used reverse-phase protein array to identify activation of Src kinase as an early signaling alteration in premalignant breast lesions of women who did not respond to tamoxifen, a widely used ER antagonist for hormonal therapy of breast cancer. Src kinase blockade with the small-molecule inhibitor saracatinib prevented the disorganized three-dimensional growth of ER− mammary epithelial cells in vitro and delayed the development of premalignant lesions and tumors in vivo in mouse models developing HER2+ and ER− mammary tumors, extending tumor-free and overall survival. Mechanistic investigations revealed that Src blockade reduced glucose metabolism as a result of an inhibition in ERK1/2–MNK1–eIF4E–mediated cap-dependent translation of c-Myc and transcription of the glucose transporter GLUT1, thereby limiting energy available for cell growth. Taken together, our results provide a sound rationale to target Src pathways in premalignant breast lesions to limit the development of breast cancers