A bibliography on post-harvest losses in cereals and pulses with particular reference to tropical and subtropical countries (G110)

Several excellent reviews on losses which occur during storage have been published in the last 10 to 15 years but very little has been written on losses which occur at all points in the post harvest system (from the mature crop in the field to the time of consumption). This bibliography encompasses the complete system for losses i11 cereals and pulses in an attempt to fill in some of the gaps but perhaps as important, it also shows where information is lacking. The list of references is by no means exhaustive and only includes those references which the author had to hand by the end of July 1976. An updating volume may be published when sufficient additional references have been collected

A guide to the objective and reliable estimation of food losses in small scale farmer storage

Losses in storage are of different types and the ultimate use of any estimates must be considered when conducting loss assessments. Selection of areas, farmers, and grain samples should be made using standard procedures. The grain sample may be analysed using several alternative methods to yield an estimate of loss within the sample. This information is then combined with data on consumption to produce an estimate of total loss for a storage season. The main causes of loss are insect and vertebrate pests, and fungi, The guide is based mainly on experience with maize in Africa

Searching a biomedical database from Bulgaria : the ABS database

The University of Sofia, Bulgaria, disseminates local biomedical literature (1994 to present) through a free online database, ABS. We systematically searched ABS to identify citations to controlled trials and find what proportion of these studies are to be found on MEDLINE. We searched using Bulgarian and English phrases; manually selected citations of controlled trials and sought these citations on MEDLINE. Using the two languages we found a total of 628 unique citations, of which 47 of which seem to be relevant controlled trials (precision 7.48%, 13% of ABS citations were found on MEDLINE). The trials in ABS commonly focused on evaluation of care for people with cardiovascular or urological problems

Searching a biomedical database from Bulgaria : the ABS database

The University of Sofia, Bulgaria, disseminates local biomedical literature (1994 to present) through a free online database, ABS. We systematically searched ABS to identify citations to controlled trials and find what proportion of these studies are to be found on MEDLINE. We searched using Bulgarian and English phrases; manually selected citations of controlled trials and sought these citations on MEDLINE. Using the two languages we found a total of 628 unique citations, of which 47 of which seem to be relevant controlled trials (precision 7.48%, 13% of ABS citations were found on MEDLINE). The trials in ABS commonly focused on evaluation of care for people with cardiovascular or urological problems

The evaluation of losses in maize stored on a selection of small farms in Zambia, with particular reference to methodology

A report on research into quantitative and qualitative losses incurred during maize storage on selected small farms is summarised. Various methods of analysing samples for loss were tested. The best estimate of loss within a sample was obtained by comparing the weight of a standard volume of grain from the sample with that of a reference sample obtained at the time of storage. Estimates of loss over a storage season were obtained by integrating losses within samples with the pattern of consumption over the storage period. Monetary values were placed on these losses. Methods for evaluating changes in storage practices are described and the costs and benefits of a simple improved storage technique are calculated

Examination of actin and microtubule dependent APC localisations in living mammalian cells

Abstract (provisional) Background The trafficking of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumour suppressor protein in mammalian cells is a perennially controversial topic. Immunostaining evidence for an actin-associated APC localisation at intercellular junctions has been previously presented, though live imaging of mammalian junctional APC has not been documented. Results Using live imaging of transfected COS-7 cells we observed intercellular junction-associated pools of GFP-APC in addition to previously documented microtubule-associated GFP-APC and a variety of minor localisations. Although both microtubule and junction-associated populations could co-exist within individual cells, they differed in their subcellular location, dynamic behaviour and sensitivity to cytoskeletal poisons. GFP-APC deletion mutant analysis indicated that a protein truncated immediately after the APC armadillo repeat domain retained the ability to localise to adhesive membranes in transfected cells. Supporting this, we also observed junctional APC immunostaining in cultures of human colorectal cancer cell line that express truncated forms of APC. Conclusions Our data indicate that APC can be found in two spatially separate populations at the cell periphery and these populations can co-exist in the same cell. The first localisation is highly dynamic and associated with microtubules near free edges and in cell vertices, while the second is comparatively static and is closely associated with actin at sites of cell-cell contact. Our imaging confirms that human GFP-APC possesses many of the localisations and behaviours previously seen by live imaging of Xenopus GFP-APC. However, we report the novel finding that GFP-APC puncta can remain associated with the ends of shrinking microtubules. Deletion analysis indicated that the N-terminal region of the APC protein mediated its junctional localisation, consistent with our observation that truncated APC proteins in colon cancer cell lines are still capable of localising to the cell cortex. This may have implications for the development of colorectal cancer

The evaluation of losses in maize stored on a selection of small farms in Zambia with particular reference to the development of methodology (G109)

The terms of reference for this project were: (1) to develop a satisfactory methodology to evaluate the extent of losses; (2) to establish reasonably reliable cost- benefit relationships for a simple improved farm storage technique; and (3) to recommend whether a longer term project should be undertaken over a wider area to evaluate cost-benefit relationships of improved storage techniques for the purpose of planning development programmes. Following these criteria the report makes a detailed study of various methods of assessing losses. These methods are then applied to maize stored by small farmers in selected areas of Zambia and an evaluation made of the costs and benefits to these farmers of adopting an improved storage technique

Designing Good Partial Coverage Satellite Constellations

Design of satellite constellations providing partial coverage of certain ground regions is becoming more important as small low-altitude satellites receive increased attention. The purpose of this study is to develop the procedures necessary for deriving the best constellations for partial coverage

Lower bound for energies of harmonic tangent unit-vector fields on convex polyhedra

We derive a lower bound for energies of harmonic maps of convex polyhedra in $\R^3$ to the unit sphere $S^2,$ with tangent boundary conditions on the faces. We also establish that $C^\infty$ maps, satisfying tangent boundary conditions, are dense with respect to the Sobolev norm, in the space of continuous tangent maps of finite energy.Comment: Acknowledgment added, typos removed, minor correction