The Organic Research Centre; Elm Farm Bulletin 84 July 2006

Regular bulletin with technical updates of the Organic Advisory Service Issue contains: Battling on for Avian Flu preventive vaccination; Organic Colombian Blacktail eggs; UK Co-existence - GMOand non-GMO crops; Aspects of Poultry Behaviour; CAP in the service of biodiversity; Seeing the Wood, the Trees and the Catch 22; Beware of organic market "statistics"; A central role in energy review

Elm Farm Organic Research Centre Bulletin 83 April 2006

Regular bulleting with technical updates from Organic Advisory Service Issue contains: Testing for Tolerance - a pragmatic view GM Debate Vaccination nation - to jab or not to jab Future shape of OCIS Evolutionary wheat makes the grade? NIAB tracks health of organic cereal seed Stopping erosion of soil quality - the organic way Care needed to halt butterfly collapse Aspects of poultry behaviour: How free range is free range? On choosing an organic wheat A local education challenge New Wakelyns Science Building Organic vegetable market growt

Research and development into the viability of a one hundred per cent organic ration for organic table birds within a silvo-poultry system

The study was conducted on a commercial organic table bird enterprise to investigate the impact of feeding a one hundred per cent organic feed ration to organic table birds. Performance of birds on the one hundred per cent diet was compared with that on a commercially available eighty per cent organic feed ration (and after a change in regulation an eighty-five per cent organic ration). In the first section of the trial the performance of two different bird strains (ISA 257 and colourpac) was investigated during the summer season, and in the second section the per-formance of a ISA 257 strain was investigated during the winter season. Agronomic and welfare factors as well as production traits were considered. The first section of the trial revealed no overall health, growth or welfare concerns or increases in production costs when comparing the two rations. Some minor differ-ences were identified between the two strains of bird. The second section of the investigation is still on going, but there are early indications of a increase in cost and larger differential in performance for birds on the one hundred per cent ration, when compared to the spring/summer trial

A four gene signature of chromosome instability (CIN4) predicts for benefit from taxanes in the NCIC-CTG MA21 clinical trial.

Recent evidence demonstrated CIN4 as a predictive marker of anthracycline benefit in early breast cancer. An analysis of the NCIC CTG MA.21 clinical trial was performed to test the role of existing CIN gene expression signatures as prognostic and predictive markers in the context of taxane based chemotherapy.RNA was extracted from patients in cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and flurouracil (CEF) and epirubicin, cyclophosphamide and paclitaxel (EC/T) arms of the NCIC CTG MA.21 trial and analysed using NanoString technology.After multivariate analysis both high CIN25 and CIN70 score was significantly associated with an increased in RFS (HR 1.76, 95%CI 1.07-2.86, p=0.0018 and HR 1.59, 95%CI 1.12-2.25, p=0.0096 respectively). Patients whose tumours had low CIN4 gene expression scores were associated with an increase in RFS (HR: 0.64, 95% CI 0.39-1.03, p=0.06) when treated with EC/T compared to patients treated with CEF.In conclusion we have demonstrated CIN25 and CIN70 as prognostic markers in breast cancer and that CIN4 is a potential predictive maker of benefit from taxane treatment

Optimal Management of Adverse Events From Copanlisib in the Treatment of Patients With Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas

INTRODUCTION: Copanlisib is a phosphoinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor approved for the third-line treatment of follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Although the drug is generally well-tolerated, it can be associated with several unique and potentially serious adverse effects (AEs). Two of the most common toxicities not seen with other PI3K inhibitors include hyperglycemia and hypertension, which primarily occur during infusion and resolve shortly thereafter, and likely relate to targeting the PI3K alpha isoform. Other toxicities less commonly observed with copanlisib than with other approved drugs in this class include non-infectious pneumonitis, infections, diarrhea and colitis, and hepatobiliary toxicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A panel composed of experts in lymphoma, diabetes, and hypertension convened to develop guidance pertaining to the administration of copanlisib and the management of the AEs associated with copanlisib treatment. RESULTS: Recommendations were formulated pertaining to the management of AEs associated with copanlisib treatment, particularly infusion-related hyperglycemia and hypertension, noninfectious pneumonitis, infections, diarrhea, and colitis. The recommendations herein reflect the consensus of the members of this panel, all of whom contributed to these suggested approaches to patient supportive care. CONCLUSION: There are a number of challenges associated with the use of copanlisib. Infusion-related hypertension and hyperglycemia occur frequently, although they are transient, reversible, and rarely of clinical significance; this report provides guidance as to their management

Chemical models important in understanding the ways in which chromate can damage DNA.

Chromate is an established human carcinogen. There have been many studies of the reactivity of chromate aimed at improving understanding of chromate toxicity. In the present paper a number of conclusions of these studies are reviewed and considered in the light of new results obtained in our laboratories. A number of hypotheses are considered; it is concluded, however, that it is impossible to reconcile the generation of strand breaks by chromate during its reduction by glutathione with any simple mechanism involving the generation of DNA lesions by free hydroxyl radicals. Kinetic, spin-trapping, and competition kinetic studies, based on a strand-breaking assay, are reported in support of this conclusion

Heralded generation of entangled photon pairs

Entangled photons are a crucial resource for quantum communication and linear optical quantum computation. Unfortunately, the applicability of many photon-based schemes is limited due to the stochastic character of the photon sources. Therefore, a worldwide effort has focused in overcoming the limitation of probabilistic emission by generating two-photon entangled states conditioned on the detection of auxiliary photons. Here we present the first heralded generation of photon states that are maximally entangled in polarization with linear optics and standard photon detection from spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We utilize the down-conversion state corresponding to the generation of three photon pairs, where the coincident detection of four auxiliary photons unambiguously heralds the successful preparation of the entangled state. This controlled generation of entangled photon states is a significant step towards the applicability of a linear optics quantum network, in particular for entanglement swapping, quantum teleportation, quantum cryptography and scalable approaches towards photonics-based quantum computing

Genome-wide signatures of complex introgression and adaptive evolution in the big cats.

The great cats of the genus Panthera comprise a recent radiation whose evolutionary history is poorly understood. Their rapid diversification poses challenges to resolving their phylogeny while offering opportunities to investigate the historical dynamics of adaptive divergence. We report the sequence, de novo assembly, and annotation of the jaguar (Panthera onca) genome, a novel genome sequence for the leopard (Panthera pardus), and comparative analyses encompassing all living Panthera species. Demographic reconstructions indicated that all of these species have experienced variable episodes of population decline during the Pleistocene, ultimately leading to small effective sizes in present-day genomes. We observed pervasive genealogical discordance across Panthera genomes, caused by both incomplete lineage sorting and complex patterns of historical interspecific hybridization. We identified multiple signatures of species-specific positive selection, affecting genes involved in craniofacial and limb development, protein metabolism, hypoxia, reproduction, pigmentation, and sensory perception. There was remarkable concordance in pathways enriched in genomic segments implicated in interspecies introgression and in positive selection, suggesting that these processes were connected. We tested this hypothesis by developing exome capture probes targeting ~19,000 Panthera genes and applying them to 30 wild-caught jaguars. We found at least two genes (DOCK3 and COL4A5, both related to optic nerve development) bearing significant signatures of interspecies introgression and within-species positive selection. These findings indicate that post-speciation admixture has contributed genetic material that facilitated the adaptive evolution of big cat lineages