Ex Ante Impact Assessment of Policies Affecting Land Use, Part B: Application of the Analytical Framework

The use of science-based tools for impact assessment has increasingly gained focus in addressing the complexity of interactions between environment, society, and economy. For integrated assessment of policies affecting land use, an analytical framework was developed. The aim of our work was to apply the analytical framework for specific scenario cases and in combination with quantitative and qualitative application methods. The analytical framework was tested for two cases involving the ex ante impact assessment of: (1) a European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) financial reform scenario employing a modeling approach and combined with a comprehensive indicator analysis and valuation; and (2) a regional bioenergy policy scenario, employing a fully participatory approach. The results showed that European land use in general is less sensitive to changes in the Common Agricultural Policy, but in the context of regions there can be significant impacts on the functions of land use. In general, the implementation of the analytical framework for impact assessment proved to be doable with both methods, i.e., with the quantitative modeling and with the qualitative participatory approach. A key advantage of using the system of linked quantitative models is that it makes possible the simultaneous consideration of all relevant sectors of the economy without abstaining from a great level of detail for sectors of particular interest. Other advantages lie in the incontestable character of the results. Based on neutral, existing data with a fixed set of settings and regions, an absolute comparability and reproducibility throughout Europe can be maintained. Analyzing the pros and cons of both approaches showed that they could be used complementarily rather than be seen as competing alternatives

Protease and phytase supplementation of broiler diets in which soybean meal is partially or completely replaced by raw full-fat soybean

The nutrient composition and enzymatic in vitro nutrient digestibility of raw full-fat soybean (RFSB) were assessed prior to evaluating the influences of enzyme supplementation in diets in which commercial soybean meal (SBM) was partially (phase 1) or completely (phase 2) replaced by RFSB. A 2 x 2 + 1 arrangement was used in a two-phase feeding trial. In phase 1 (0 - 25 days) a positive control, commercial-type diet (PC), without RFSB or enzymes, and a negative control diet (NC), with 75 g RFSB/kg were used. The NC diet was supplemented with or without protease (0 or 15000 PRPOT/kg) and phytase (0 or 2000 FYT/kg). In phase 2 (26 - 31 days), RFSB (NC) or SBM (PC) was used as the sole source of crude protein (CP) for birds. Each treatment was replicated six times. Phases 1 and 2 had the same enzyme supplementation and treatment arrangements. The results showed that the concentration of trypsin inhibitors in RFSB as an ingredient was 16 564 TIU/g, and its CP in vitro digestibility was improved significantly by protease and protease plus phytase. Birds fed on PC and on NC plus protease and phytase finally consumed higher quantities of feed and had the highest bodyweight gain (BWG). Protease improved feed intake (FI), BWG and feed conversion ratio (FCR) by approximately 5.3%, 22.5% and 11.4%, respectively, in phase 2. Birds on the diet with protease plus phytase were 11.7% and 24.8% superior in BWG and FCR, respectively, to NC between 26 and 31 days. Supplementation with both enzymes reduced the weight of the pancreas. Supplementing NC with protease and phytase marginally improved the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of protein and some amino acids (AA) at 25 and 31 days. Overall, BWG and feed efficiency of birds were improved by supplementation of both enzymes and, to a lesser extent, by protease on its own.Keywords: anti-nutritional factors, ileal digestibility, pancreas, trypsin inhibitors, sole source crude protein and amino acid

Cultural Resources Monitoring for the San Antonio Light and Print Building Project, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Over eight days in May and August 2019, and May, June, July, and September 2020 the Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) at the University of Texas at San Antonio conducted archaeological monitoring in advance of the planned construction of a 3,000 square foot, five-story addition for the San Antonio Light and Print Building Project located in downtown San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. CAR was contracted by GrayStreet Partners to monitor the mechanical excavation of seven holes for piers to support an elevated walkway and mechanical trenching for the installation of utilities and a 6.1 m emergency vehicular ingress and egress easement ramp leading to a future underground parking area. The project is privately funded and located on privately owned property between Broadway Street, McCullough Avenue, N. Alamo Street, and 4th Street in downtown San Antonio. As a result, the project was not subject to regulatory review by the Texas Historical Commission (THC). The project area is within the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) San Antonio Downtown and River Walk Historic District, which adjoins three other NRHP Historic Districts: Alamo Plaza, Main and Military Plaza, and La Villita. The project is subject to regulatory review by the City of San Antonio (COSA) Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) under the COSA Unified Development Code (Article 6 35-630 to 35-634). Dr. Paul Shawn Marceaux, CAR Director, served as the Principal Investigator and managed the project until his departure from CAR, at which time Dr. Raymond Mauldin took over the Principal Investigator role. Jason Brian Perez served as the Project Archaeologist. The project area was 0.47 hectare (1.15 acres). CAR monitored the mechanical drilling of the first two pier holes, it was determined that the starting elevation was approximately 4.5 m below the original ground surface, in culturally sterile sediments. The drilling of the remaining five holes was not monitored. The initial trench excavation for the easement ramp was completed without notifying CAR. A nineteenth-century privy/trash pit feature was identified in the trench wall by CAR archaeologists, and diagnostic artifacts, dating from 1870-1900, were recovered from the backfill. The privy/trash pit feature was associated with the property owned by the Hagans family from 1859-1895, and it was designated as site 41BX2362. CAR recommends that site 41BX2362 is not eligible for NRHP or for listing as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL). The CAR recommends no additional testing within the project area and that development proceed. In the event that additional construction reveals archaeological deposits, work should cease, and the City Archaeologist of the COSA-OHP should be notified. COSAOHP concurred with these recommendations. All recovered artifacts were offered to the landowner. Because the landowner failed to respond to several requests, CAR made the decision to curate selected diagnostic artifacts and discard the remainder. All collected artifacts are documented in the CAR’s collection management database. Selected diagnostic artifacts collected from the feature and all project documentation, including photographs, field forms, and a copy of this report were prepared for curation according to THC guidelines. The artifacts and records are permanently curated at the CAR repository as accession file 2266

An ERP study on facial emotion processing in young people with subjective memory complaints

Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) are commonly related to aging, but they are also presented by young adults. Their neurophysiological mechanisms are not thoroughly understood, although some aspects related to affective state have been mentioned. Here, we investigated whether facial emotion processing is different in young people with (n = 41) and without (n = 39) SMCs who were exposed to positive, negative, and neutral faces, by recording the event-related potential (ERP) activity. From the ERP activity, the N170 (an index of face processing) and the LPP (an index of motivated attention) components were extracted. Regarding the N170, results showed less amplitude for positive and neutral faces in the participants with SMCs than in those without SMCs. Moreover, women with SMCs displayed longer latencies for neutral faces than women without SMCs. No significant differences were found between the groups in the LPP component. Together, our findings suggest deficits in an early stage of facial emotion processing in young people with SMCs, and they emphasize the importance of further examining affective dimensions. © 2021, The Author(s)

Correlation between periodontal disease management and metabolic control of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic literature review

Background: Diabetes and periodontal disease share common features in terms of inflammatory responses. Current scientific evidence suggests that treatment of periodontal disease might contribute to glycemic control. The objective of the study is a review of the last three years. Material and Methods: A literature search was performed in the MEDLINE (PubMed), Cochrane, and Scopus databases, for articles published between 01-01-2013 and 30-06-2015, applying the key terms “periodontal disease” AND “diabetes mellitus”. The review analyzed clinical trials of humans published in English and Spanish. Results: Thirteen clinical trials were reviewed, representing a total of 1,912 patients. Three of them had samples of 40 patients, representing a total of 1,804. Only one article achieved a Jadad score of five. Seven articles (998 patients, 52.3% total), presented a statistically significant decrease in HbA1c (p<0.05) as a result of periodontal treatment. In the six remaining articles (representing 914 patients, 47.8% of the total), the decrease in HbA1c was not significant. Patient follow-up varied between 3 to 12 months. In three articles, the follow-up was of 3, 4, and 9 months, in two 6 and 12 months. Conclusions: The majority of clinical trials showed that radicular curettage and smoothing, whether associated with antibiotics or not, can improve periodontal conditions in patients with diabetes mellitus. However, few studies suggest that this periodontal treatment improves metabolic control. However, there is no clear evidence of a relation between periodontal treatment and improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitu

Folding of dimeric methionine adenosyltransferase III: identification of two folding intermediates

Methionine adenosyl transferase (MAT) is an essential enzyme that synthesizes AdoMet. The liver-specific MAT isoform, MAT III, is a homodimer of a 43.7-kDa subunit that organizes in three nonsequential alpha-beta domains. Although MAT III structure has been recently resolved, little is known about its folding mechanism. Equilibrium unfolding and refolding of MAT III, and the monomeric mutant R265H, have been monitored using different physical parameters. Tryptophanyl fluorescence showed a three-state folding mechanism. The first unfolding step was a folding/association process as indicated by its dependence on protein concentration. The monomeric folding intermediate produced was the predominant species between 1.5 and 3 m urea. It had a relatively compact conformation with tryptophan residues and hydrophobic surfaces occluded from the solvent, although its N-terminal region may be very unstructured. The second unfolding step monitored the denaturation of the intermediate. Refolding of the intermediate showed first order kinetics, indicating the presence of a kinetic intermediate within the folding/association transition. Its presence was confirmed by measuring the 1,8-anilinonaphtalene-8-sulfonic acid binding in the presence of tripolyphosphate. We propose that the folding rate-limiting step is the formation of an intermediate, probably a structured monomer with exposed hydrophobic surfaces, that rapidly associates to form dimeric MAT III

Bi-Signature optical spectroscopy for online fault detection in electrical machines

A novel bi-signature optical spectroscopy for fault detection in electrical machines is presented. The combined use of long period grating (LPG) and two fibre Bragg gratings (FBG1 and FBG2) is implemented to discriminate between vibration and temperature sensitivity in the detection of machine faults. With LPG having higher sensitivity to temperature compared to both FBGs, machine faults are detected through spectral analysis of both signatures; and the optimal detection signature for each fault is consequently analysed. This novel technique utilises the principle of a shift in the wavelengths of the gratings to determine the kind of fault present in an electrical machine as the signature spectroscopy reveals varying amount of Bragg wavelength shifts for various fault types. The use of FBG sensing for fault detection in electrical machines has the potential of revolutionising non-intrusive real-time condition monitoring of future industrial machines with high reliability due to zero electromagnetic interference (EMI) as well as significant low cost of fibre-optic sensors

Biochemical basis for the dominant inheritance of hypermethioninemia associated with the R264H mutation of the MAT1A gene. A monomeric methionine adenosyltransferase with tripolyphosphatase activity

Methionine adenosyltransferase (MAT) catalyzes the synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), the main alkylating agent in living cells. Additionally, in the liver, MAT is also responsible for up to 50% of methionine catabolism. Humans with mutations in the gene MAT1A, the gene that encodes the catalytic subunit of MAT I and III, have decreased MAT activity in liver, which results in a persistent hypermethioninemia without homocystinuria. The hypermethioninemic phenotype associated with these mutations is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. The only exception is the dominant mild hypermethioninemia associated with a G-A transition at nucleotide 791 of exon VII. This change yields a MAT1A-encoded subunit in which arginine 264 is replaced by histidine. Our results indicate that in the homologous rat enzyme, replacement of the equivalent arginine 265 by histidine (R265H) results in a monomeric MAT with only 0.37% of the AdoMet synthetic activity. However the tripolyphosphatase activity is similar to that found in the wild type (WT) MAT and is inhibited by PP(i). Our in vivo studies demonstrate that the R265H MAT I/III mutant associates with the WT subunit resulting in a dimeric R265H-WT MAT unable to synthesize AdoMet. Tripolyphosphatase activity is maintained in the hybrid MAT, but is not stimulated by methionine and ATP, indicating a deficient binding of the substrates. Our data indicate that the active site for tripolyphosphatase activity is functionally active in the monomeric R265H MAT I/III mutant. Moreover, our results provide a molecular mechanism that might explain the dominant inheritance of the hypermethioninemia associated with the R264H mutation of human MAT I/III

Serum melatonin levels during the first seven days of severe sepsis diagnosis are associated with sepsis severity and mortality

Objective: Higher serum melatonin levels have previously been found in patients with severe sepsis who died within 30 days of diagnosis than in survivors. The objective of our study were to determine whether serum melatonin levels during the first seven days of severe sepsis diagnosis could be associated with sepsis severity and mortality. Methods: Multicentre study in eight Spanish Intensive Care Units which enrolled 308 patients with severe sepsis. We determined serum levels of melatonin, malondialdehyde (as biomarker of lipid peroxidation) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha at days 1, 4 and 8 of severe sepsis diagnosis. The study's primary endpoint was 30-day mortality. Results: A total of 103 patients had died and 205 survived at 30 days of severe sepsis diagnosis, with the non-survivors presenting higher serum melatonin levels at days 1 (p<0.001), 4 (p<0.001) and 8 (p<0.001) of severe sepsis diagnosis than the survivor patient group. The multiple logistic regression analysis found that serum melatonin levels at days 1, 4 and 8 of severe sepsis diagnosis (p<0.001, p = 0.01 and p = 0.001, respectively) were associated with mortality adjusted for age, serum lactic acid, SOFA score and diabetes mellitus. Conclusions: The novel and more interesting findings of our study were that serum melatonin levels during the first seven days of severe sepsis diagnosis are associated with sepsis severity and mortality. (C) 2017 Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. and Sociedad Espanola de Enfermedades lnfecciosas y Microbiologia Clinica

Determination of Se at low concentration in coal by collision/reaction cell technology inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

The authors are grateful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Grant 309297/2016-8), Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Bioanalítica – INCTBio (CNPq Grant Nr. 573672/2008-3) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS, Grants16/2551-0000 (182-0) and 16/2551-0000516-8) for supporting this study. Funding for the sample collection provided by NERC Security of Supply programme UK (grant NE/L001764/1).Peer reviewedPostprin