Intercomparison in the field between the new WISP-3 and other radiometers (TriOS Ramses, ASD FieldSpec, and TACCS)

Optical close-range instruments can be applied to derive water quality parameters for monitoring purposes and for validation of optical satellite data. In situ radiometers are often difficult to deploy, especially from a small boat or a remote location. The water insight spectrometer (WISP-3) is a new hand-held radiometer for monitoring water quality, which automatically performs measurements with three radiometers (L-sky, L-u, E-d) and does not need to be connected with cables and electrical power during measurements. The instrument is described and its performance is assessed by an intercomparison to well-known radiometers, under real fieldwork conditions using a small boat and with sometimes windy and cloudy weather. Root mean squared percentage errors relative to those of the TriOS system were generally between 20% and 30% for remote sensing reflection, which was comparable to those of the other instruments included in this study. From this assessment, it can be stated that for the tested conditions, the WISP-3 can be used to obtain reflection spectra with accuracies in the same range as well-known instruments. When tuned with suitable regional algorithms, it can be used for quick scans for water quality monitoring of Chl, SPM, and aCDOM. (C) 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.6.063615

Guidance on the Selection of Appropriate Indicators for Quantification of Antimicrobial Usage in Humans and Animals

An increasing variety of indicators of antimicrobial usage has become available in human and veterinary medicine, with no consensus on the most appropriate indicators to be used. The objective of this review is therefore to provide guidance on the selection of indicators, intended for those aiming to quantify antimicrobial usage based on sales, deliveries or reimbursement data. Depending on the study objective, different requirements apply to antimicrobial usage quantification in terms of resolution, comprehensiveness, stability over time, ability to assess exposure and comparability. If the aim is to monitor antimicrobial usage trends, it is crucial to use a robust quantification system that allows stability over time in terms of required data and provided output; to compare usage between different species or countries, comparability must be ensured between the different populations. If data are used for benchmarking, the system comprehensiveness is particularly crucial, while data collected to study the association between usage and resistance should express the exposure level and duration as a measurement of the exerted selection pressure. Antimicrobial usage is generally described as the number of technical units consumed normalized by the population at risk of being treated in a defined period. The technical units vary from number of packages to number of individuals treated daily by adding different levels of complexity such as daily dose or weight at treatment. These technical units are then related to a description of the population at risk, based either on biomass or number of individuals. Conventions and assumptions are needed for all of these calculation steps. However, there is a clear lack of standardization, resulting in poor transparency and comparability. By combining study requirements with available approaches to quantify antimicrobial usage, we provide suggestions on the most appropriate indicators and data sources to be used for a given study objective

RbR_b in supersymmetric models

We compute the supersymmetric contribution to $R_{b}\equiv \Gamma (Z\to b{\bar b})/\Gamma (Z\to {\rm hadrons})$ in a variety of supersymmetric models. In the context of supergravity models with universal soft-supersymmetry-breaking and radiative electroweak breaking we find R^{\rm susy}_b\lsim0.0004, which does not shift significantly the Standard Model prediction ($R^{\rm SM}_b=0.2157$ for m_t=175\GeV; $R^{\rm exp}_b=0.2204\pm0.0020$). We also compute $R_b$ in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), and delineate the region of parameter space which yields interestingly large values of $R_b$. This region entails light charginos and top-squarks, but is {\em strongly} restricted by the {\em combined} constraints from $B(b\to s\gamma)$ and a not-too-large invisible top-quark branching ratio: only a few percent of the points with $R^{\rm susy}_b>0.0020\,(1\sigma)$ are allowed.Comment: 20 pages (LaTeX), 10 figures (included

CHARACTERIZATION OF ISOLATED RAT-LIVER CELLS MADE PERMEABLE WITH FILIPIN

When isolated rat-liver cells were incubated for 1 min at 37 degrees C with filipin at a concentration of 50 microM, the plasma membrane became permeable to sucrose, inulin, glycerol 3-phosphate and other low-molecular-weight compounds. Upon removal of the filipin and subsequent incubation of the cells at 37 degrees C there was a gradual leakage of lactate dehydrogenase from the cells. However, the leakage of lactate dehydrogenase could be prevented for about 10 min by including glutathione and ATP in the incubation medium. The filipin-treated cells were able to metabolize phosphorylated sugars. The conversion of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate to fructose 6-phosphate, glucose-6-phosphate and glucose was inhibited by AMP but not by high concentrations of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate. The results indicate that filipin-treated cells can be used to study the kinetic parameters of enzymes in their macromolecular environment in sit