Adding Value to Grasslands Through Certified Organic Beef Production

New demands are being made for safe beef from low input production systems (low input of energy, pesticides, other chemically synthesised products and hormones and GM free) by the main retailers and consumers (Howard, 2004). These present an opportunity for adding value to grazing production systems and to reinforce relationships among farmers, agro-industrialists, exporters and consumers and to show advantages of positive externalities of grasslands (Meister, 2001)

Expression of c-myc and c-fms oncogenes in trophoblastic cells in hydatidiform mole and normal human placenta

Aims: To compare the expression of c-myc and c-fms proto-oncogenes in the placenta and hydatidiform mole. Methods: Twelve hydatidiform moles and six induced abortion cases were collected. c-myc and c-fms proto-oncogene expression was analysed by northern blot hybridisation and immunohistochemical staining. Results: The results of northern blot hybridisation analysis showed that c-fms was expressed more strongly in hydatidiform moles compared with normal placenta of similar gestational age. Moreover, c-fms mRNA concentrations increased with more advanced gestational age in moles but not in normal placentas. c-myc expression was very low in hydatidiform moles and normal placentas. Both oncogenes, however, had no direct correlation with the clinical course of the molar pregnancies. Conclusion: The difference in c-fms expression between hydatidiform moles and normal placentas suggests that c-fms may have a role in the development of molar pregnancies.published_or_final_versio

HISTORICAL EARTHEN WALLS: FROM KNOWLEDGE TO CONSCIOUS CONSERVATION

Abstract. Centuries-old earthen masonry presenting various stages of degradation, earthen walls that have been restored several times: these are the archeological phases of the city walls of Mascarell, on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Founded in the first half of the 13th century, this town is the only complex in Castellon Province that preserves all its ancient walls, which were built entirely by means of the brick-faced rammed-earth technique (clay with bricks and lime). This article reports the first results of a research project conducted on the multiple information available on these artifacts: bibliographic, archival and iconographic sources and the results of direct material analysis, stratigraphic analysis and archeological analysis. The situation is complex, as these walls have undergone a long sequence of transformations, including interventions carried out since the 18th century and multiple restorations in the period 1942–2015. The research developed and refined architecture archeology tools in order to analyze the rammed-earth techniques adopted during restoration work (similar but not identical to the historical technique), to characterize the materials used in restoration, to evaluate their resistance to degradation over the years, to define a sort of 'critical evolutionary line' of rammed-earth restoration, and to conduct a cross-sectional study of this building technique from the Middle Ages to the present. Finally, we drafted some guidelines for future interventions for conservation and enhancement

LLM-Assist: Enhancing Closed-Loop Planning with Language-Based Reasoning

Although planning is a crucial component of the autonomous driving stack, researchers have yet to develop robust planning algorithms that are capable of safely handling the diverse range of possible driving scenarios. Learning-based planners suffer from overfitting and poor long-tail performance. On the other hand, rule-based planners generalize well, but might fail to handle scenarios that require complex driving maneuvers. To address these limitations, we investigate the possibility of leveraging the common-sense reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT4 and Llama2 to generate plans for self-driving vehicles. In particular, we develop a novel hybrid planner that leverages a conventional rule-based planner in conjunction with an LLM-based planner. Guided by commonsense reasoning abilities of LLMs, our approach navigates complex scenarios which existing planners struggle with, produces well-reasoned outputs while also remaining grounded through working alongside the rule-based approach. Through extensive evaluation on the nuPlan benchmark, we achieve state-of-the-art performance, outperforming all existing pure learning- and rule-based methods across most metrics. Our code will be available at https://llmassist.github.io.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 7 table

Marginal zone lymphomas in children and the young adult population; characterization of genetic aberrations by FISH and RT-PCR

Marginal zone lymphomas present rarely in children and young adults as either primary nodal or extranodal disease and have an excellent prognosis. To date, chromosomal aberrations have not been analyzed in the pediatric and young adult population. We undertook a study to analyze genetic alterations in nodal and extranodal marginal zone lymphomas in children and young adults using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and RT-PCR. These findings were correlated with clinical features at presentation and immunophenotype. Forty-one cases were identified meeting these criteria. The age range was 1.5-29 years old with 49% of the cases <18 years of age. 73% of the marginal zone lymphoma cases showed evidence of light chain restriction by immunohistochemistry or flow cytometry. CD43 was coexpressed in 83%. 85% of the marginal zone lymphoma cases tested showed evidence of immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangement. Fifty-nine percent of the cases were nodal marginal zone lymphomas with a median age at presentation of 16 years and an M/F ratio of 7:1. Twenty-one percent of the nodal marginal zone lymphoma cases contained genetic aberrations. Seventeen percent contained trisomy 18 with one case containing an additional trisomy 3. A translocation of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene to an unknown partner gene was present in one case. Forty-one percent of the cases were extranodal marginal zone lymphomas with a median age of 24 years and a M/F ratio of 1.4:1. Eighteen percent of the extranodal marginal zone lymphoma cases contained genetic aberrations. The t(14;18) involving the IGH and MALT1 genes was present in one case, tetraploidy was present in one case, and another case contained trisomy 3. Overall the incidence of genetic aberrations in marginal zone lymphomas in the pediatric and young adult population is low, but the aberrations seen are similar to those seen in the adult population

Anxiety-like behavior of prenatally stressed rats is associated with a selective reduction of glutamate release in the ventral hippocampus

Abnormalities of synaptic transmission and plasticity in the hippocampus represent an integral part of the altered programming triggered by early life stress. Prenatally restraint stressed (PRS) rats develop long-lasting biochemical and behavioral changes, which are the expression of an anxious/depressive-like phenotype. We report here that PRS rats showed a selective impairment of depolarization- or kainate-stimulated glutamate and 3HD-aspartate release in the ventral hippo campus, a region encoding memories related to stress and emotions. GABA release was un affected in PRS rats. As a consequence of reduced glutamate release, PRS rats were also highly resistant to kainate-induced seizures. Abnormalities of glutamate release were associated with large reductions in the levels of synaptic vesicle-related proteins, such as VAMP (synaptobrevin), syntaxin-1, synaptophysin, synapsin Ia/b and IIa, munc-18, and Rab3A in the ventral hippocampus of PRS rats. Anxiety-like behavior in male PRS (and control) rats was inversely related to the extent of depolarization-evoked glutamate release in the ventral hippocampus. A causal relationship between anxiety-like behavior and reduction in glutamate release was demonstrated usingamixtureofthemGlu2/3 receptor antagonist, LY341495, and the GABAB receptor antagonist, CGP52432, which was shown to amplify depolarization-evoked 3HD-aspartate release in the ventral hippocampus. Bilateral micro infusion of CGP52432 plus LY341495 in the ventral hippocampus abolished anxiety-like behavior in PRS rats. These findings indicate that an impairment of glutamate release in the ventral hippocampus is a key component of the neuro plastic program induced by PRS, and that strategies aimed at enhancing glutamate release in the ventral hippocampus correct the "anxious phenotype" caused by early life stress

Romidepsin in peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma: mechanistic implications from clinical and correlative data

Romidepsin is an epigenetic agent approved for the treatment of patients with cutaneous or peripheral T-cell lymphoma (CTCL and PTCL). Here we report data in all patients treated on the National Cancer Institute 1312 trial, demonstrating long-term disease control and the ability to retreat patients relapsing off-therapy. In all, 84 patients with CTCL and 47 with PTCL were enrolled. Responses occurred early, were clinically meaningful and of very long duration in some cases. Notably, patients with PTCL receiving romidepsin as third-line therapy or later had a comparable response rate (32%) of similar duration as the total population (38%). Eight patients had treatment breaks of 35months to 10years; in four of six patients, re-initiation of treatment led to clear benefit. Safety data show slightly greater haematological and constitutional toxicity in PTCL. cDNA microarray studies show unique individual gene expression profiles, minimal overlap between patients, and both induction and repression of gene expression that reversed within 24h. These data argue against cell death occurring as a result of an epigenetics-mediated gene induction programme. Together this work supports the safety and activity of romidepsin in T-cell lymphoma, but suggests a complex mechanism of action