415 research outputs found

    Specialisation through co-operation between farms in organic farming

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    Co-operation in organic production provides the potential for production specialisation with the help of co-operation in machinery use, input integration, crop rotation, shared buildings and marketing. Co-operation models provide the opportunity to optimise production between different lines of production from environmental, economic and functional perspectives

    Biomass production and feeding value of whole-crop cereal-legume-silages

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    In eastern Finland, several mixtures of spring wheat, spring barley, spring oats and/or rye with vetches and/or peas were evaluated in field experiments in 2005-2007 for their dry matter procuction, crude protein concentration and digestibility using three different harvesting times

    Vocal behaviour and feeding ecology of killer whales Orcinus orca around Shetland, UK

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    Killer whales Orcinus orca are sighted regularly off Shetland, UK, but little is known about their numbers, diet and population identity. We aimed to relate vocal behaviour to diet of killer whales around Shetland in order to investigate population structure and differences in feeding strategies. Fieldwork was conducted in the summers of 2008 and 2009. We located killer whales through a sightings network and shore-based scans and collected photo-ID data, behavioural information, feeding data and acoustic recordings from a small boat. The majority of encounters (n = 14) were of small groups (1 to 15 individuals) travelling close to shore and feeding on marine mammals. Two encounters were with large groups (20+ individuals) feeding on herring Clupea harengus farther offshore. Seal-hunting groups vocalised rarely, producing pulsed calls, echolocation clicks and whistles almost exclusively when surface-active or milling after a kill. Herring-eating groups were largely silent during one encounter, but very vocal during the other. Analysis of pulsed calls identified 6 stereotyped call types for seal-hunting groups and 7 for herring-eating groups. No call types were shared between both kinds of groups. The vocal behaviour of seal-hunting groups showed striking parallels to that of Pacific marine mammal specialists and presumably evolved to decrease detection by acoustically sensitive prey. One call type produced by Shetland herring-eating killer whales matched a vocalisation that a previous study had described from Iceland and identified as a possible herding call that may function to concentrate herring during feeding. These findings point to behavioural and dietary specialisation among Shetland killer whales, which should be taken into account when making management decisions affecting these animals

    Low energy electron beam induced vacancy activation in GaN

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    Experimental evidence on low energy electron beam induced point defect activation in GaN grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy(MOVPE) is presented. The GaN samples are irradiated with a 5–20 keV electron beam of a scanning electron microscope and investigated by photoluminescence and positron annihilation spectroscopy measurements. The degradation of the band-to-band luminescence of the irradiatedGaN films is associated with the activation of point defects. The activated defects were identified as in-grown Ga-vacancies. We propose that MOVPE-GaN contains a significant concentration of passive VGa-H n complexes that can be activated by H removal during low energy electron irradiation.Peer reviewe

    Digitaalisen pelitarinan teemat ja kirjallisuusterapeuttiset elementit Kingdom Hearts -pelisarjassa

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    Tiivistelmä. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena oli tarkastella digitaalisesta viihdepelistä ilmeneviä teemoja sekä kirjallisuusterapeuttisia tekijöitä. Tarkoituksena oli selvittää sisällönanalyysin ja CHARP-menetelmän avulla, millaisia ihmiselämään liittyviä teemoja ja kirjallisuusterapeuttisia asioita Kingdom Hearts -pelisarjassa ilmenee. Interaktiiviset digitaaliset viihdepelit ovat nyky-yhteiskunnassa keskeinen osa ihmiselämää pelitarinoina ja siksi digitaaliset pelit valittiin tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tutkimusaineistoksi. Tutkimuksen taustalla on ajatus interaktiivisten tarinoiden herättämistä teemoista sekä terapeuttisista mahdollisuuksista. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin litteroimalla YouTubesta löytyviä Kingdom Hearts Timeline-videoita. Koottu aineisto analysoitiin aluksi sisällönanalyysilla ja myöhemmin soveltamalla Venian (2013) CHARP-menetelmää. CHARP-menetelmässä tarkastellaan kirjoista löytyviä kirjallisuusterapeuttisia piirteitä, kuten selviytymisstrategiaa, ongelmallista tilannetta, samaistuttavaa hahmoa ja keskustelua herättävää asiaa. Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä eli lähdeteoksina käytettiin aikaisempaa kirjallisuutta, muun muassa digitaalisia pelejä ja kirjallisuusterapiaa koskevia teoksia. Tutkimuksen keskeisenä tavoitteena oli päästä syvemmälle Kingdom Hearts-pelisarjan sisältä löytyviin terapeuttisiin elementteihin. Tulokset osoittivat, että Kingdom Hearts-sarjan viihdepeleistä löytyi ihmiselämään liittyviä teemoja sekä kirjallisuusterapeuttisia elementtejä. Sisällönanalyysilla löydetyt keskeiset teemat olivat sydän, pimeys, usko, ystävyys ja valo. Nämä löydetyt teemat kuvaavat ihmisen sisäisiä kokemuksia. Teemojen lainauksia tarkasteltiin kirjallisuusterapian näkökulmasta CHARP-menetelmän avulla, kuten esimerkiksi samaistuttavia hahmoja sekä tunteita kuvaavia teemoja tarkastelemalla. Kirjallisuusterapeuttisia elementtejä olivat muun muassa selviytymisstrategia, ongelmallinen tilanne ja muut CHARP-menetelmän piirteet. Tutkimustuloksien luotettavuutta pyrittiin parantamaan muun muassa tutkimuksen tarkalla kuvailulla ja empiirisen aineiston analysoinnilla tutkimusmenetelmiä soveltamalla. Digitaalisista viihdepeleistä löytyi kirjallisuusterapeuttisia elementtejä, mikä tukee osittain aikaisemman tutkimuksen tuloksia. Aikaisempi tutkimus on kuitenkin keskittynyt kirjallisuuteen, kun taas tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan digitaalista pelisarjaa. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tuoda esille esimerkinomaisesti, että digitaaliset viihdepelit voivat sisältää teemoja sekä mahdollisia kirjallisuusterapeuttisia elementtejä. Digitaaliset viihdepelit ansaitsivat tulla tutkituksi laajemminkin terapeuttisina välineinä, esimerkiksi pelaajille tehtyinä haastatteluina

    Predicting the effect of prandial stage and particle size on absorption of ODM-204.

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    The prediction of absorption properties plays a key role in formulation development when the compound under development shows poor solubility and its absorption is therefore presumed to be solubility limited. In our work, we combined and compared data obtained from in vitro dissolution tests, transit intestinal model studies (TIM -1) and physiologically based pharmacokinetic modelling. Our aim was to determine the ability of these methods to predict performance of poorly soluble lipophilic weak base in vivo. The validity of the predictive methods was evaluated against the in vivo clinical pharmacokinetic (PK) data obtained after administration of the first test formulation, Tl. The aim of our study was to utilize the models in evaluating absorption properties of the second test formulation, T2, which has not yet been clinically administered. The compound in the studies was ODM-204, which is a novel, orally administered, investigational, nonsteroidal dual inhibitor of CYP17A1 and androgen receptor. Owing to its physicochemical properties ODM-204 is prone to low or variable bioavailability. The models examined provided congruent data on dose dependent absorption, food effect at a dose of 200 mg and on the effect of API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) particle size on absorption. Our study shows that the predictive tools of in vitro dissolution, TIM-1 system and the PBPK (physiologically based pharmacokinetic) simulation, showed predictive power of different mechanisms of bioavailability and together provided valuable information for decision making.Peer reviewe

    Effect of Donor Simvastatin Treatment on Gene Expression Profiles in Human Cardiac Allografts during Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

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    Purpose Numerous studies have shown that statin therapy initiated early after heart transplantation has beneficial effects on the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Recently, we were able to show in a randomized clinical trial that simvastatin treatment of brain-dead donors conditions the heart transplant to withstand ischemia-reperfusion injury and to reduce the need for rejection treatments early after transplantation. In this study, we analyzed myocardial gene expression profiles in cardiac allografts after donor simvastatin treatment. Methods 84 heart transplant donors received 80 mg of simvastatin via nasogastric tube (n=42), or no treatment (n=42) in a prospective, double-blinded randomized controlled trial. Transmural Tru-Cut biopsies were taken from the apex of left ventricle of the donor heart immediately before reperfusion and 1 hour after reperfusion. 20 heart biopsies from donors without treatment and 20 heart biopsies from donors with simvastatin treatment will be analyzed with RNA sequencing. Results The preliminary analysis of RNA sequencing data from myocardial biopsies revealed altogether 137 significantly differentially expressed genes in all pairwise comparisons. The overall biological functions of these genes were related to gene ontology terms such as response to toxic substance, leukocyte migration, neutrophil mediated immunity, response to lipopolysaccharide, and response to oxidative stress. At the KEGG pathway level, our results indicated alterations in IL-17, TNF, MAPK and the AGE-RAGE signaling pathways. Conclusion We have shown in previous studies that donor simvastatin treatment induces protective effects against IRI in heart transplant recipients. In this study, we were able to detect significantly differentially expressed genes related to effects of simvastatin treatment. In order to single out genes that show beneficial effects of simvastatin treatment, further analysis will be conducted by exploring gene expression changes in specific biological functional categories, such as interleukin signaling and neutrophil degranulation. The complete analysis will be presented at the ISHLT 2019 congress.Peer reviewe

    Increased myeloid cell hypoxia-inducible factor-1 delays obliterative airway disease in the mouse

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    BACKGROUND: Obliterative bronchiolitis after lung transplantation is characterized by chronic airway inflammation leading to the obliteration of small airways. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a master regulator of cellular responses to hypoxia and inflammation. The Von Hippel-Lindau protein (pVHL) drives the degradation of oxygen-sensitive subunit HIF-1 alpha that controls the activity of HIF-1. We investigated the effect of myeloid cell targeted gene deletion of HIF-1 alpha or its negative regulator pVHL on the development of obliterative airway disease (OAD) in the recipients of tracheal allografts, a mouse model for obliterative bronchiolitis after lung transplantation. METHODS: Tracheal allografts were heterotopically transplanted from BALB/c donor mice to fully major histocompatibility complex mismatched recipient mice with HIF-1 alpha or VHL gene deletion in myeloid cells. The recipients were left non-immunosuppressed or received tacrolimus daily. Histologic, immunohistochemical, and real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analyses were performed at 3, 10, and 30 days. RESULTS: In the absence of immunosuppression, myeloid cell-specific VHL deficiency of the recipient mice improved epithelial recovery, decreased inflammatory cell infiltration and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, increased regulatory forkhead box P3 messenger RNA expression, and reduced OAD development in tracheal allografts. In the presence of tacrolimus immunosuppression, loss of HIF-1 alpha activity in myeloid cells of the recipient by HIF-1 alpha gene deletion accelerated OAD development in mouse tracheal allografts. CONCLUSIONS: Activity of the HIF-pathway affects the development of allograft rejection, and our results suggest that myeloid cell-specific VHL-deficiency that potentially increases HIF-activity decreases allograft inflammation and the subsequent development of OAD in mouse tracheal allografts. (C) 2016 International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

    Enhanced light extraction from InGaN/GaN quantum wells with silver gratings

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    We demonstrate that an extraction enhancement by a factor of 2.8 can be obtained for a GaN quantum well structure using metallic nanostructures, compared to a flat semiconductor. The InGaN/GaN quantum well is inserted into a dielectric waveguide, naturally formed in the structure, and a silver grating is deposited on the surface and covered with a polymer film. The polymer layer greatly improves the extraction compared to a single metallic grating. The comparison of the experiments with simulations gives strong indications on the key role of weakly guided modes in the polymer layer diffracted by the grating.Peer reviewe

    Culturing of Selenastrum on diluted composting fluids; conversion of waste to valuable algal biomass in presence of bacteria

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    © 2017 The AuthorsGrowth and fatty acid production of microalga Selenastrum sp. with associated bacteria was studied in lab-scale experiments in three composting leachate liquids. Nutrient reduction in cultures was measured at different initial substrate strengths. A small, pilot-scale photobioreactor (PBR) was used to verify lab-scale results. Similar growth conditions supported growth of both Selenastrum and bacteria. CO2 feed enhanced the production of biomass and lipids in PBR (2.4 g L−1 and 17% DW) compared to lab-scale (0.1–1.6 g L−1 and 4.0–6.5% DW) experiments. Also prolonged cultivation time increased lipid content in PBR. At both scales, NH4-N with an initial concentration of ca. 40 mg L−1 was completely removed from the biowaste leachate. In lab-scale, maximal COD reduction was over 2000 mg L−1, indicating mixotrophic growth of Selenastrum. Co-cultures are efficient in composting leachate liquid treatment, and conversion of waste to biomass is a promising approach to improve the bioeconomy of composting plants
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