Words That Bind: Judicial Review and the Grounds of Modern Constitutional Theory

A Review of John Arthur, Words That Bind: Judicial Review and the Grounds of Modern Constitutional Theor

Frequency over function : raised levels of CD127low/- regulatory T cells in the tumour microenvironment compared with the periphery of head and neck cancer patients

Objective: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are known to infiltrate the tumour microenvironment of many cancers, including head and neck malignancies, and are thought to contribute to the host's impaired anti-tumour immune response. However, their immunosuppressive function remains poorly understood within the tumour microenvironment and this study aimed to address this. Methods: The frequency and suppressive capacity of two CD4?CD127low/- Treg populations, separated on the basis of different levels of CD25 expression (CD25inter and CD25high), from the tumour/node microenvironment and peripheral circulation of newly-presenting head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients (n=19), were assessed using multicolour flow cytometry. Results: The proportion of Tregs (CD4?CD25high/?interCD127low/-) in the tumour/node microenvironment was significantly elevated compared with the peripheral circulation (p<0.001) and similar percentages were present in both the primary tumour and metastatic lymph node. The percentage of suppression induced by Tregs isolated from tumour associated nodes on the proliferation of nodal effector T cells was similar to that of peripheral Tregs on peripheral effector T cells. However, when the suppressive activity of both nodal and peripheral Tregs was compared on the same peripheral effectors, peripheral Tregs suppressed proliferation to a greater extent. Conclusion: This work shows that the recruitment and percentages of tumour infiltrating Tregs are key factors in modulating the immune environment of head and neck tumours

Realizing the Hydrogen Economy through Semantic Web Technologies

The FUSION (Fuel Cell Understanding through Semantic Inferencing, Ontologies and Nanotechnology) project applies, extends, and combines Semantic Web technologies and image analysis techniques to develop a knowledge management system to optimize the design of fuel cells

Evaluation of supply control options for beef

End of project reportThe incomes of Irish cattle farmers benefited greatly from the reform of the CAP for beef and cereals in 1992 and more recently under Agenda 2000. In both of these reforms the institutional support prices were reduced and direct payments (DPs) were used to compensate farmers for the price reduction

Towards an Ontology for Data-driven Discovery of New Materials

Materials scientists and nano-technologists are struggling with the challenge of managing the large volumes of multivariate, multidimensional and mixed-media data sets being generated from the experimental, characterisation, testing and post-processing steps associated with their search for new materials. In addition, they need to access large publicly available databases containing: crystallographic structure data; thermodynamic data; phase stability data and ionic conduction data. Materials scientists are demanding data integration tools to enable them to search across these disparate databases and to correlate their experimental data with the public databases, in order to identify new fertile areas for searching. Systematic data integration and analysis tools are required to generate targeted experimental programs that reduce duplication of costly compound preparation, testing and characterisation. This paper presents MatOnto – an extensible ontology, based on the DOLCE upper ontology, that aims to represent structured knowledge about materials, their structure and properties and the processing steps involved in their composition and engineering. The primary aim of MatOnto is to provide a common, extensible model for the exchange, re-use and integration of materials science data and experimentation

FUSION: A Knowledge Management System for Fuel Cell Optimization

Fuel cells are highly complex multi-component systems. Their efficiency depends on their internal nanostructure and the complex chemical and physical processes occurring across their internal interfaces. Significant advances in the accurate modeling of fuel cell components (electrodes, membrane and catalyst layers) can be achieved by improved analysis and assimilation of existing data and more systematic, controlled design and monitoring of tests and experiments. Within the FUSION project, we are employing the latest information technologies to provide a robust knowledge mining system for collaborative teams of fuel cell scientists

Effect of an agri-environmental measure on nitrate leaching from a beef farming system in Ireland

peer-reviewedAgricultural nitrogen (N) management remains a key environmental challenge. Improving N management is a matter of urgency to reduce the serious ecological consequences of the reactive N. Nitrate (NO3−–N) leaching was measured under suckler beef production systems stocked at two intensities: (1) intensive, 210 kg organic N ha−1 with two cut silage harvests; and (2) rural environmental protection scheme (REPS), 170 kg organic N ha−1 with one cut silage harvest. Three replicate plots of each treatment were instrumented with ceramic cups (8 per plot), randomly placed within each plot at a depth of 1 m to collect soil solution for NO3−–N at 50 kPa suction to collecting vessels one week prior to sampling. Samples were taken on a total of 53 sampling dates over 3 winter drainage periods (2002/03, 2003/04 and 2004/05). Over the course of the experiment the mean annual soil solution NO3−–N concentration exceeded the MAC twice out of 15 means (5 treatments over 3 years). The REPS grazing and silage sub treatments had significantly lower mean annual soil solution total oxidized N (TON) concentrations than the respective intensive treatments in years 2 and 3. Annual total NO3−–N losses over the three years in intensive and REPS systems ranged from 55 to 71 and 15 to 20 kg N ha−1, respectively. Mean N surpluses in intensive and REPS systems were 210 and 95 kg ha−1, respectively with the corresponding mean N inputs of 272 and 124 kg N ha−1. The reduction in N inputs under the REPS system results in lower N leaching losses and contributed to a significant reduction in pressures on water quality

DNA vaccines encoding the glycoprotein genes of spring viremia of carp virus, snakehead rhabdovirus, or infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus induce protective immunity in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) against an infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus lethal challenge

Recent advances in DNA vaccine technology has brought about a promising strategy for the control of viruses that contain surface membrane glycoproteins. This type of vaccine involves the intramuscular injection of a bacterial plasmid containing a gene encoding a viral protein. The strategy uses eukaryotic processing of the protein as would naturally occur during a viral infection. In this study, plasmid DNA encoding the glycoproteins of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (pcDNA3-IHNV-g), snakehead rhabdovirus (pcDNA3-SHRV-g), or spring viremia of carp virus (pcDNA3-SVCV-g) was injected into the skeletal muscle of rainbow trout fry. At 30 days post-vaccination, fish were challenged with IHNV. Protection against IHNV was observed among all DNA vaccinated groups. Fish injected with plasmid pcDNA3-IHNV-g, pcDNA3-SHRV-g, or pcDNA3-SVCV-g had relative survival rates of 93.2%, 98.3% and 94.9%, respectively. The mechanisms for the viral mediated resistance induced by these glycoprotein based DNA vaccines is unknown. A parallel study conducted by Dr. Carol Kim on the production of Mx proteins in these fish indicates that the observed protection might be a consequence of the stimulation of interferon

Inter-Country Cost Comparisons in Beef.

End of Project ReportThe purpose of this study was to: • establish the competitiveness of the Irish beef production systems post the 1992 CAP reform • quantify how Irish beef production costs, and cost components, compare with those for the other EU countries • determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Irish production systems