Boterdorpsche Plas nabij Rotterdam Airport?; aanvaringsrisico's tussen vogels en vliegtuigen in relatie tot aanleg en inrichting van de waterplas

Onderzoek naar de vogelaantrekkende werking van een mogelijke waterplas in een VINEX locatie te Bergschenhoek. Dit met het oog op de vliegveiligheid voor vliegtuigen die van en naar Rotterdam Airport vliegen. De opdracht van de gemeente Bergschenhoek was om na te gaan of de aanleg van de waterplas in de gedachte grootte en vorm een risico zou toevoegen op aanvaringen tussen vogels en vliegtuigen. Ook was de vraag of er buiten de gedachte grote waterplas andere varianten van een woonwijk met water mogelijk waren

Magnetoresistance of a semiconducting magnetic wire with domain wall

We investigate theoretically the influence of the spin-orbit interaction of Rashba type on the magnetoresistance of a semiconducting ferromagnetic nanostructure with a laterally constrained domain wall. The domain wall is assumed sharp (on the scale of the Fermi wave length of the charge carriers). It is shown that the magnetoresistance in such a case can be considerably large, which is in a qualitative agreement with recent experimental observations. It is also shown that spin-orbit interaction may result in an increase of the magnetoresistance. The role of localization corrections is also briefly discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Electrons in a ferromagnetic metal with a domain wall

We present theoretical description of conduction electrons interacting with a domain wall in ferromagnetic metals. The description takes into account interaction between electrons. Within the semiclassical approximation we calculate the spin and charge distributions, particularly their modification by the domain wall. In the same approximation we calculate local transport characteristics, including relaxation times and charge and spin conductivities. It is shown that these parameters are significantly modified near the wall and this modification depends on electron-electron interaction.Comment: 10 pages with 4 figure

Whole home exercise intervention for depression in older care home residents (the OPERA study) : a process evaluation

Background: The ‘Older People’s Exercise intervention in Residential and nursing Accommodation’ (OPERA) cluster randomised trial evaluated the impact of training for care home staff together with twice-weekly, physiotherapist-led exercise classes on depressive symptoms in care home residents, but found no effect. We report a process evaluation exploring potential explanations for the lack of effect. Methods: The OPERA trial included over 1,000 residents in 78 care homes in the UK. We used a mixed methods approach including quantitative data collected from all homes. In eight case study homes, we carried out repeated periods of observation and interviews with residents, care staff and managers. At the end of the intervention, we held focus groups with OPERA research staff. We reported our first findings before the trial outcome was known. Results: Homes showed large variations in activity at baseline and throughout the trial. Overall attendance rate at the group exercise sessions was low (50%). We considered two issues that might explain the negative outcome: whether the intervention changed the culture of the homes, and whether the residents engaged with the intervention. We found low levels of staff training, few home champions for the intervention and a culture that prioritised protecting residents from harm over encouraging activity. The trial team delivered 3,191 exercise groups but only 36% of participants attended at least 1 group per week and depressed residents attended significantly fewer groups than those who were not depressed. Residents were very frail and therefore most groups only included seated exercises. Conclusions: The intervention did not change the culture of the homes and, in the case study homes, activity levels did not change outside the exercise groups. Residents did not engage in the exercise groups at a sufficient level, and this was particularly true for those with depressive symptoms at baseline. The physical and mental frailty of care home residents may make it impossible to deliver a sufficiently intense exercise intervention to impact on depressive symptoms

Defining the clonal dynamics leading to mouse skin tumour initiation.

The changes in cell dynamics after oncogenic mutation that lead to the development of tumours are currently unknown. Here, using skin epidermis as a model, we assessed the effect of oncogenic hedgehog signalling in distinct cell populations and their capacity to induce basal cell carcinoma, the most frequent cancer in humans. We found that only stem cells, and not progenitors, initiated tumour formation upon oncogenic hedgehog signalling. This difference was due to the hierarchical organization of tumour growth in oncogene-targeted stem cells, characterized by an increase in symmetric self-renewing divisions and a higher p53-dependent resistance to apoptosis, leading to rapid clonal expansion and progression into invasive tumours. Our work reveals that the capacity of oncogene-targeted cells to induce tumour formation is dependent not only on their long-term survival and expansion, but also on the specific clonal dynamics of the cancer cell of origin.C.B. is an investigator of WELBIO. A.S-D. and JC.L. are supported by a fellowship of the FNRS and FRIA respectively. B.D.S. and E.H. are supported by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 098357/Z/12/Z and 110326/Z/15/Z). EH is supported by a fellowship from Trinity College, Cambridge. This work was supported by the FNRS, the IUAP program, the Fondation contre le Cancer, the ULB fondation, the foundation Bettencourt Schueller, the foundation Baillet Latour, a consolidator grant of the European Research Council.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature1906

Tissue microarray analysis of human FRAT1 expression and its correlation with the subcellular localisation of ?-catenin in ovarian tumours

The mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer are poorly understood, but evidence suggests that aberrant activation of Wnt/?-catenin signalling pathway plays a significant role in this malignancy. However, the molecular defects that contribute to the activation of this pathway have not been elucidated. Frequently rearranged in advanced T-cell lymphomas-1 (FRAT1) is a candidate for the regulation of cytoplasmic ?-catenin. In this study, we developed in situ hybridisation probes to evaluate the presence of FRAT1 and used an anti-?-catenin antibody to evaluate by immunohistochemistry the expression levels and subcellular localisation of ?-catenin in ovarian cancer tissue microarrays. Expression of FRAT1 was found in some human normal tissues and 47% of ovarian adenocarcinomas. A total of 46% of ovarian serous adenocarcinomas were positive for FRAT1 expression. Accumulation of ?-catenin in the nucleus and/or cytoplasm was observed in 55% ovarian adenocarcinomas and in 59% of serous adenocarcinomas. A significant association was observed in ovarian serous adenocarcinomas between FRAT1 and ?-catenin expression (P<0.01). These findings support that Wnt/?-catenin signalling may be aberrantly activated through FRAT1 overexpression in ovarian serous adenocarcinomas. The mechanism behind the overexpression of FRAT1 in ovarian serous adenocarcinomas and its significance is yet to be investigated

Rb regulates fate choice and lineage commitment in vivo

February 1, 2011Mutation of the retinoblastoma gene (RB1) tumour suppressor occurs in one-third of all human tumours and is particularly associated with retinoblastoma and osteosarcoma[superscript 1]. Numerous functions have been ascribed to the product of the human RB1 gene, the retinoblastoma protein (pRb). The best known is pRb’s ability to promote cell-cycle exit through inhibition of the E2F transcription factors and the transcriptional repression of genes encoding cell-cycle regulators[superscript 1]. In addition, pRb has been shown in vitro to regulate several transcription factors that are master differentiation inducers[superscript 2]. Depending on the differentiation factor and cellular context, pRb can either suppress or promote their transcriptional activity. For example, pRb binds to Runx2 and potentiates its ability to promote osteogenic differentiation in vitro[superscript 3]. In contrast, pRb acts with E2F to suppress peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ subunit (PPAR-γ), the master activator of adipogenesis[superscript 4, 5]. Because osteoblasts and adipocytes can both arise from mesenchymal stem cells, these observations suggest that pRb might play a role in the choice between these two fates. However, so far, there is no evidence for this in vivo. Here we use mouse models to address this hypothesis in mesenchymal tissue development and tumorigenesis. Our data show that Rb status plays a key role in establishing fate choice between bone and brown adipose tissue in vivo.National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Grant)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant

Modelling the dispersion of particle numbers in five European cities

We present an overview of the modelling of particle number concentrations (PNCs) in five major European cities, namely Helsinki, Oslo, London, Rotterdam, and Athens, in 2008. Novel emission inventories of particle numbers have been compiled both on urban and European scales. We used atmospheric dispersion modelling for PNCs in the five target cities and on a European scale, and evaluated the predicted results against available measured concentrations. In all the target cities, the concentrations of particle numbers (PNs) were mostly influenced by the emissions originating from local vehicular traffic. The influence of shipping and harbours was also significant for Helsinki, Oslo, Rotterdam, and Athens, but not for London. The influence of the aviation emissions in Athens was also notable. The regional background concentrations were clearly lower than the contributions originating from urban sources in Helsinki, Oslo, and Athens. The regional background was also lower than urban contributions in traffic environments in London, but higher or approximately equal to urban contributions in Rotterdam. It was numerically evaluated that the influence of coagulation and dry deposition on the predicted PNCs was substantial for the urban background in Oslo. The predicted and measured annual average PNCs in four cities agreed within approximatelyPeer reviewe