363 research outputs found
Multipomeron Cuts and Hard Processes on Nuclei
With nuclear targets comes a new scale into the pQCD description of hard
processes - the saturation scale. In the saturation regime, the familiar linear
k_\perp-factorization breaks down and must be replaced by a nonlinear
k_\perp-factorization, which accounts for absorptive and multiple scattering
corrections to the hard process. Predictions for partial cross sections
corresponding to a fixed number of cut Pomerons (the topological cross
sections) can be obtained in a surprisingly straightforward manner. We discuss
some applications to deep inelastic scattering.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, a talk given at Diffraction 2008: International
Workshop On Diffraction In High Energy Physics; 9-14 Sep 2008, La
Londe-les-Maures, Franc
The State of Organic Seed in Europe
This booklet will present the information collected through research of the LIVESEED project in order to shed light on the actual situation of organic seed use in Europe. In particular, it will focus on the following questions:
1. How does the farmer know what varieties are available as organic seed? How do organic seed databases work in different EU countries and how could they be improved?
2. How much non-organic seed or planting material is used in EU organic farming? How many derogations are granted in different EU Member States and Switzerland?
3. Which are the factors encouraging or discouraging farmers to use organic seed? Which farm and farmer characteristics influence adoption of organic seed? How can organic plant breeding contribute to 100% organic seed use?
4. How has the organic seed market developed in the last years? According to seed suppliers` perspective, what factors hamper the further development of the organic seed sector?
To answer these questions, researchers in the LIVESEED project applied integrated research tools and methodologies: a comparative review of the different databases on organic seed in 28 EU countries; an integrated analysis of national derogation reports to measure the current use of nonorganic seed in Europe; a survey among farmers, to understand their perspective on the use of organic seed; and finally a survey among seed suppliers to evaluate trends in the offer of organic seed on the market. A quantitative model was used to estimate the potential demand for organic seed in Europe on the basis of the data collected
Diffractive jets production in pp-collisions
We consider the exclusive diffractive dissociation of a proton into three
jets with large transverse momenta in the double-logarithmic approximation of
perturbative QCD. This process is sensitive to the proton unintegrated gluon
distribution at small x and to the proton light-cone distribution amplitudes.
According to our estimates, an observation of such processes in the early runs
at LHC is feasible for jet transverse momenta of the order of 5 GeV.Comment: Presented at International Workshop on Diffraction in High-Energy
Physics, La Londe-les-Maures, France, September 9 - 14, 200
Comparing importance and performance from a patient perspective in English general practice: a cross-sectional survey
Background. Patient experience and satisfaction are important indicators of quality in health care.
Little is known about where to prioritize efforts to improve patient satisfaction.
Objectives. To investigate patient satisfaction with primary care, as part of the Quality and Costs
of Primary Care in Europe study in England, identifying areas where improvements could be made
from patientsâ perspectives.
Methods. We conducted a questionnaire survey of general practice patients in three English regions.
Patient Values questionnaires assessed what patients thought was important, and Patient Experience
questionnaires rated performance of primary care. Fifteen attributes of care were compared using
Importance Performance Analysis, a method that simultaneously represents data on importance
and performance of a service, enabling identification of its strengths and weaknesses.
Results. Patients rated both ârelationalâ and âfunctionalâ aspects of care as important. Satisfaction with
general practice could be improved by concentrating on specific aspects of access (ensuring that patients
know how to access out-of-hours services and find it easy to get an appointment), and one aspect
of empowerment (after their visit, patients feel able to cope better with their health problem/illness).
However, for other attributes (e.g. proximity of the practice to a patientâs house or, a short waiting time
when contacting the practice), investing additional resources is not likely to increase patient satisfaction.
Conclusion. Attributes needing most improvement concerned access to primary care and patient
empowerment. More research is needed to identify how to improve access without generating
unnecessary additional demand or compromising continuity of care
Melanocortin-4 receptor gene: case-control study and transmission disequilibrium test confirm that functionally relevant mutations are compatible with a major gene effect for extreme obesity
We initially performed a mutation screen of the coding region of the MC4R in 808 extremely obese children and adolescents and 327 underweight or normal-weight controls allowing for a case-control study. A total of 16 different missense, nonsense, and frameshift mutations were found in the obese study group; five of these have not been observed previously. In vitro assays revealed that nine [the haplotype (Y35X; D37V) was counted as one mutation] of the 16 mutations led to impaired cAMP responses, compared with wild-type receptor constructs. In contrast, only one novel missense mutation was detected in the controls, which did not alter receptor function. The association test based on functionally relevant mutations was positive (P = 0.006, Fisher's exact test, one-sided). We proceeded by screening a total of 1040 parents of 520 of the aforementioned obese young index patients to perform transmission disequilibrium tests. The 11 parental carriers of functionally relevant mutations transmitted the mutation in 81.8% (P = 0.033; exact one-sided McNemar test). These results support the hypothesis that these MC4R mutations represent major gene effects for obesity
BBF RFC 105: The Intein standard - a universal way to modify proteins after translation
This Request for Comments (RFC) proposes a new standard that allows for easy and flexible cloning of intein constructs and thus makes this technology accessible to the synthetic biology community
Glutathione and Homoglutathione Synthetases of Legume Nodules. Cloning, Expression, and Subcellular Localization
AFM study of morphology and mechanical properties of a chimeric 2 spider silk and bone sialoprotein protein for bone regeneration
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to assess a
new chimeric protein consisting of a fusion protein of the consensus
repeat for Nephila clavipes spider dragline protein and bone sialoprotein
(6merĂžBSP). The elastic modulus of this protein in film
form was assessed through force curves, and film surface roughness
was also determined. The results showed a significant difference
among the elastic modulus of the chimeric silk protein, 6merĂžBSP,
and control films consisting of only the silk component (6mer). The
behavior of the 6merĂžBSP and 6mer proteins in aqueous solution in
the presence of calcium (Ca) ions was also assessed to determine
interactions between the inorganic and organic components related
to bone interactions, anchoring, and biomaterial network formation.
The results demonstrated the formation of protein networks in the
presence of Ca2Ăž ions, characteristics that may be important in the
context of controlling materials assembly and properties related to
bone formation with this new chimeric silk-BSP protein.Silvia Games thanks the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for supporting her Ph.D. grant, SFRH/BD/28603/2006. This work was carried out under the scope of the European NoE EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283), the Chimera project (PTDC/EBB-EBI/109093/2008) funded by the FCT agency, the NIH (P41 EB002520) Tissue Engineering Resource Center, and the NIH (EB003210 and DE017207)
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