Nutritional Studies on Dried Functional Food Ingredients Containing omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty-Acids.

End of Project ReportTeagasc acknowledges with gratitude grant aid under the EU Framework Programme (EU FAIR contract No. CT-95-0085).The nutritional benefits of fish oils are generally attributed to their content of long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Diets rich in these fatty acids are known to reduce the risk of coronary thrombosis, and are recommended to those who are susceptible to atherosclerosis. In addition, some of these long chain PUFAs play an important role in early infant nutrition, in the development of vital human organs such as the neural tube. However, practical difficulties arise in achieving an adequate daily intake of fish oils to obtain these physiological benefits. Per capita fish consumption is low in many countries, especially of oily fish with high levels of omega-3 PUFAs. Fish oil, while available as a dietary supplement, is not universally appealing in that form. Attempts to incorporate fish oil into food formulations have had limited success mainly because of fishy flavours coming through in the consumer products. Fish oil is particularly susceptible to oxidation, which results in fishy, painty and metallic flavours. Hence the main aim of this study was the development of a dried ingredient in which the formulation and related processing conditions were optimised to protect the fish oil from oxidation. Protection of any sensitive oil may be achieved by means of microencapsulation, whereby oil is dispersed as very fine droplets in emulsions. During subsequent spray drying the droplets are effectively sealed inside a protective coating of protein surrounded by carbohydrate. The objective was, therefore, to evaluate microencapsulation as a means of extending the shelf-life of fish oil in powder form thus increasing its versatility as a nutritional ingredient in food formulations.European Unio

Clonsast Social Survey. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 126 1977

Clonsast is Bord na Mona's (BnM) oldest established larger type bog. It consists of six smaller bogs, - Garryhinch, Derryounce, Derrylea, Clonsast main bog, North bog and the Bulge. The whole group of bogs is situated close to Portarlington and has a gross area of 10,700 acres. Over 200,000 tons of sod peat are produced in these bogs annually but supplies are becoming exhausted. Production will progressively reduce from now onwards and by 1994 it will be down to an estimated 34,000 tons annually. Most of the turf from the Clonsast works is supplied to the ESB for use in the Portarlington generating station which has a 37.5 Mg Watt capacity. At present this station forms part of the ESB's base load electricity supply and will continue as such up to 1985, using 130,000 tons per year, which will be reduced to 100,000 tons for the last four years

Ecological values of Hamilton urban streams (North Island, New Zealand): constraints and opportunities for restoration

Urban streams globally are characterised by degraded habitat conditions and low aquatic biodiversity, but are increasingly becoming the focus of restoration activities. We investigated habitat quality, ecological function, and fish and macroinvertebrate community composition of gully streams in Hamilton City, New Zealand, and compared these with a selection of periurban sites surrounded by rural land. A similar complement of fish species was found at urban and periurban sites, including two threatened species, with only one introduced fish widespread (Gambusia affinis). Stream macroinvertebrate community metrics indicated low ecological condition at most urban and periurban sites, but highlighted the presence of one high value urban site with a fauna dominated by sensitive taxa. Light-trapping around seepages in city gullies revealed the presence of several caddisfly species normally associated with native forest, suggesting that seepage habitats can provide important refugia for some aquatic insects in urban environments. Qualitative measures of stream habitat were not significantly different between urban and periurban sites, but urban streams had significantly lower hydraulic function and higher biogeochemical function than periurban streams. These functional differences are thought to reflect, respectively, (1) the combined effects of channel modification and stormwater hydrology, and (2) the influence of riparian vegetation providing shade and enhancing habitat in streams. Significant relationships between some macroinvertebrate community metrics and riparian vegetation buffering and bank protection suggest that riparian enhancement may have beneficial ecological outcomes in some urban streams. Other actions that may contribute to urban stream restoration goals include an integrated catchment approach to resolving fish passage issues, active reintroduction of wood to streams to enhance cover and habitat heterogeneity, and seeding of depauperate streams with native migratory fish to help initiate natural recolonisation

Modelling the Risks Remotely Piloted Aircraft Pose to People on the Ground

Worldwide there is much e ort being directed towards the development of a framework of air- worthiness regulations for remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS). It is now broadly accepted that regulations should have a strong foundation in, and traceability to, the management of the safety risks. Existing risk models for RPAS operations do not provide a simple means for incorporating the wide range of technical and operational controls into the risk analysis and evaluation processes. This paper describes a new approach for modelling and evaluating the risks associated with RPAS operations near populous areas based on the barrier bow tie (BBT) model. A BBT model is used to structure the underlying risk management problem. The model focuses risk analysis, evaluation, and decision making activities on the devices, people, and processes that can be employed to reduce risk. The BBT model and a comprehensive set of example risk controls are presented. The general model can be applied to any RPAS operation. The foundations for quantitative and qualitative assessments using a BBT model are also presented. The modelling and evaluation framework is illustrated through its application to a case-study rotary wing RPAS for two operational scenarios. The model can be used as a basis for determining airworthiness certification requirements for RPAS

The Effect of Various Pasture-based Systems of Milk Production on Animal Performance in the Northeast Region of Ireland

End of Project ReportThe potential of Irish soils to grow grass throughout the year and success in utilizing grass are key factors affecting output and profitability of dairy production systems (Shalloo et al., 2004). In the Northeast region of Ireland, the potential grazing season is shortened due to impeded land drainage, topography, high rainfall and northerly aspect. The main focus of the Ballyhaise research programme is to develop more sustainable production systems suitable to the limitations of the region with a specific focus on grass growth and utilization. Progress in these technologies will improve the competitiveness of dairying in the Northeast region. We are also now faced with a new economic environment with market forecasts predicting a steady decline in dairy product prices for Irish dairy farmers while input prices continue to increase. It has been shown from previous studies that dairy farmers need to expand and/or increase the efficiency of their dairy operation to maintain their real farm incomes over the coming years (Breen and Hennessey, 2003). It is likely that land purchase price will continue to be high in future years. Firstly, dairy farmers can continue at their current level of production and efficiency, and suffer a decline in farm profit as milk price falls. It is likely that greater amounts of milk quota will become available in the coming years; therefore many dairy farmers will have the option to increase production. Expansion opportunities will be limited by the key constraints such as labour supply and cost, capital cost, milk quota availability and price and availability of land around the milking parlour. Labour efficient work practices will have to be adopted on farms to allow one operator to manage a greater number of cows. The objective of this experiment was to examine the effect of two divergent pasture-based systems of milk production on animal performance over a two-year period and to subsequently describe the optimum system for dairy farmers in the Northeast region both now and into the future

A novel two-section tunable discrete mode Fabry-PÉrot laser exhibiting nanosecond wavelength switching

A novel widely tunable laser diode is proposed and demonstrated. Mode selection occurs by etching perturbing slots into the laser ridge. A two-section device is realized with different slot patterns in each section allowing Vernier tuning. The laser operates at 1.3 mum and achieves a maximum output power of 10 mW. A discontinuous tuning range of 30 nm was achieved with a side mode suppression greater than 30 dB. Wavelength switching times of approximately 1.5 ns between a number of wavelength channels separated by 7 nm have been demonstrated

Signs of the 2009 Influenza Pandemic in the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Electronic Health Records

Background In June of 2009, the World Health Organization declared the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century, and by July, New York City's New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) experienced a heavy burden of cases, attributable to a novel strain of the virus (H1N1pdm). Methods and Results We present the signs in the NYPH electronic health records (EHR) that distinguished the 2009 pandemic from previous seasonal influenza outbreaks via various statistical analyses. These signs include (1) an increase in the number of patients diagnosed with influenza, (2) a preponderance of influenza diagnoses outside of the normal flu season, and (3) marked vaccine failure. The NYPH EHR also reveals distinct age distributions of patients affected by seasonal influenza and the pandemic strain, and via available longitudinal data, suggests that the two may be associated with distinct sets of comorbid conditions as well. In particular, we find significantly more pandemic flu patients with diagnoses associated with asthma and underlying lung disease. We further observe that the NYPH EHR is capable of tracking diseases at a resolution as high as particular zip codes in New York City. Conclusion The NYPH EHR permits early detection of pandemic influenza and hypothesis generation via identification of those significantly associated illnesses. As data standards develop and databases expand, EHRs will contribute more and more to disease detection and the discovery of novel disease associations

Inferred summer precipitation for southern Ontario back to AD 610, as reconstructed from ring widths of Thuja occidentalis

We present a network of seven ring-width chronologies of eastern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) from the Niagara Escarpment in southern Ontario, Canada. Using principal component regression, a 350-year June-July precipitation reconstruction (SOR) is developed for the region. Prior to the 20th century, the SOR series shows reasonable coherence, particularly at the decadal scale, with an independent tree-ring-based reconstruction of the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) for roughly the same region. A weakening of the tree-growth – climate relationship in recent decades results in a regression model explaining 21% of the variance in the original climate series when the recent data are used for calibration. We therefore compromise with a model, calibrated for the period 1900–1960, which explains 33% of the variance. The model, while not terribly strong, does pass verification tests, indicating some degree of predictive skill. The longest chronology in our network, the 2787-year Flowerpot Island (FLOW) chronology, also exhibits common variability with the PDSI reconstruction, particularly on decadal and longer time scales and was used to infer hydroclimatic conditions back to AD 610. The combined information of the SOR, PDSI, and FLOW series suggests that dry conditions existed for the periods 1700–1725, 1750–1800, and 1840–1900, and wet conditions for the periods 1675–1700, 1730–1750, and 1810–1840. Over longer time scales, the FLOW chronology shows that summer precipitation was particularly variable during the 7th, 9th, 13th, and 16th centuries

The concluding chapter: Recircumscription of Goodenia (Goodeniaceae) to include four allied genera with an updated infrageneric classification

© 2020. Close scrutiny of Goodenia (Goodeniaceae) and allied genera in the \u27Core Goodeniaceae\u27 over recent years has clarified our understanding of this captivating group. While expanded sampling, sequencing of multiple regions, and a genome skimming reinforced backbone clearly supported Goodenia s.l. as monophyletic and distinct from Scaevola and Coopernookia, there appears to be no synapomorphic characters that uniquely characterise this morphologically diverse clade. Within Goodenia s.l., there is strong support from nuclear, chloroplast and mitochondrial data for three major clades (Goodenia Clades A, B and C) and various subclades, which lead to earlier suggestions for the possible recognition of these as distinct genera. Through ongoing work, it has become evident that this is impractical, as conflict remains within the most recently diverged Clade C, likely due to recent radiation and incomplete lineage sorting. In light of this, it is proposed that a combination of morphological characters is used to circumscribe an expanded Goodenia that now includes Velleia, Verreauxia, Selliera and Pentaptilon, and an updated infrageneric classification is proposed to accommodate monophyletic subclades. A total of twenty-five new combinations, three reinstatements, and seven new names are published herein including Goodenia subg. Monochila sect. Monochila subsect. Infracta K.A. Sheph. subsect. nov. Also, a type is designated for Goodenia subg. Porphyranthus sect. Ebracteolatae (K. Krause) K.A. Sheph. comb. et stat. nov., and lectotypes or secondstep lectotypes are designated for a further three names

S4S8-RPA phosphorylation as an indicator of cancer progression in oral squamous cell carcinomas.

Oral cancers are easily accessible compared to many other cancers. Nevertheless, oral cancer is often diagnosed late, resulting in a poor prognosis. Most oral cancers are squamous cell carcinomas that predominantly develop from cell hyperplasias and dysplasias. DNA damage is induced in these tissues directly or indirectly in response to oncogene-induced deregulation of cellular proliferation. Consequently, a DNA Damage response (DDR) and a cell cycle checkpoint is activated. As dysplasia transitions to cancer, proteins involved in DNA damage and checkpoint signaling are mutated or silenced decreasing cell death while increasing genomic instability and allowing continued tumor progression. Hyperphosphorylation of Replication Protein A (RPA), including phosphorylation of Ser4 and Ser8 of RPA2, is a well-known indicator of DNA damage and checkpoint activation. In this study, we utilize S4S8-RPA phosphorylation as a marker for cancer development and progression in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). S4S8-RPA phosphorylation was observed to be low in normal cells, high in dysplasias, moderate in early grade tumors, and low in late stage tumors, essentially supporting the model of the DDR as an early barrier to tumorigenesis in certain types of cancers. In contrast, overall RPA expression was not correlative to DDR activation or tumor progression. Utilizing S4S8-RPA phosphorylation to indicate competent DDR activation in the future may have clinical significance in OSCC treatment decisions, by predicting the susceptibility of cancer cells to first-line platinum-based therapies for locally advanced, metastatic and recurrent OSCC