The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: Nitrogen abundances for Be-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds

Aims. We compare the predictions of evolutionary models for early-type stars with atmospheric parameters, projected rotational velocities and nitrogen abundances estimated for a sample of Be-type stars. Our targets are located in 4 fields centred on the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster: NGC 2004 and the N 11 region as well as the Small Magellanic Cloud clusters: NGC 330 and NGC 346.

Beaufort trout MicroPlex:A high-throughput multiplex platform comprising 38 informative microsatellite loci for use in resident and anadromous (sea trout) brown trout Salmo trutta genetic studies

A flexible panel consisting of 38 informative microsatellite markers for Salmo trutta is described. These markers were selected from a pool of over 150 candidate loci that can be readily amplified in four multiplex PCR groups but other permutations are also possible. The basic properties of each markers were assessed in six population samples from both the Burrishoole catchment, in the west of Ireland, and Lough Neagh, in Northern Ireland. A method to assess the relative utility of individual markers for the detection of population genetic structuring is also described. Given its flexibility, technical reliability and high degree of informativeness, the use of this panel of markers is advocated as a standard for S. trutta genetic studies. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Fish Biology © 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

HERQULES:System level cross-layer design exploration for efficient energy-quality trade-offs

In this paper, we present a unique cross-layer design framework that allows systematic exploration of the energy-delay-quality trade-offs at the algorithm, architecture and circuit level of design abstraction for each block of a system. In addition, taking into consideration the interactions between different sub-blocks of a system, it identifies the design solutions that can ensure the least energy at the "right amount of quality" for each sub-block/system under user quality/delay constraints. This is achieved by deriving sensitivity based design criteria, the balancing of which form the quantitative relations that can be used early in the system design process to evaluate the energy efficiency of various design options. The proposed framework when applied to the exploration of energy-quality design space of the main blocks of a digital camera and a wireless receiver, achieves 58% and 33% energy savings under 41% and 20% error increase, respectively. © 2010 ACM.

STARTEC: Novel processing technologies in the development of a decision support tool to ensure safe and nutritious Ready-To-Eat foods

Ready-to-eat (RTE) foods can be readily consumed with minimum or without any further preparation; their processing is complex—involving thorough decontamination processes— due to their composition of mixed ingredients. Compared with conventional preservation technologies, novel processing technologies can enhance the safety and quality of these complex products by reducing the risk of pathogens and/ or by preserving related health-promoting compounds. These novel technologies can be divided into two categories: thermal and non-thermal. As a non-thermal treatment, High Pressure Processing is a very promising novel methodology that can be used even in the already packaged RTE foods. A new “volumetric” microwave heating technology is an interesting cooking and decontamination method directly applied to foods. Cold Plasma technology is a potential substitute of chlorine washing in fresh vegetable decontamination. Ohmic heating is a heating method applicable to viscous products but also to meat products. Producers of RTE foods have to deal with challenging decisions starting from the ingredients suppliers to the distribution chain. They have to take into account not only the cost factor but also the benefits and food products’ safety and quality. Novel processing technologies can be a valuable yet large investment for several SME food manufacturers, but they need support data to be able to make adequate decisions. Within the FP7 Cooperation funded by the European Commission, the STARTEC project aims to develop an IT decision supporting tool to help food business operators in their risk assessment and future decision making when producing RTE foods with or without novel preservation technologies.

A constructive approach for examination timetabling based on adaptive decomposition and ordering

In this study, we investigate an adaptive decomposition and ordering strategy that automatically divides examinations into difficult and easy sets for constructing an examination timetable. The examinations in the difficult set are considered to be hard to place and hence are listed before the ones in the easy set in the construction process. Moreover, the examinations within each set are ordered using different strategies based on graph colouring heuristics. Initially, the examinations are placed into the easy set. During the construction process, examinations that cannot be scheduled are identified as the ones causing infeasibility and are moved forward in the difficult set to ensure earlier assignment in subsequent attempts. On the other hand, the examinations that can be scheduled remain in the easy set.

Within the easy set, a new subset called the boundary set is introduced to accommodate shuffling strategies to change the given ordering of examinations. The proposed approach, which incorporates different ordering and shuffling strategies, is explored on the Carter benchmark problems. The empirical results show that the performance of our algorithm is broadly comparable to existing constructive approaches.

Heat Activated Prestressing of Shape Memory Alloys for Active Confinement of Concrete Sections

This paper presents the results from the experimental investigation on heat activated prestressing of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires for active confinement of concrete sections. Active confinement of concrete is found to be much more effective than passive confinement which becomes effective only when the concrete starts to dilate. Active confinement achieved using conventional prestressing techniques often faces many obstacles due to practical limitations. A class of smart materials that has recently drawn attention in civil engineering is the super elastic SMA which has the ability to undergo reversible hysteretic shape change known as the shape memory effect. The shape memory effect of SMAs can be utilized to develop a convenient prestressing technique for active confinement of concrete sections.
In this study a series of experimental tests are conducted to study Heat Activated Prestress (HAP) in SMAs. Three different types of tests are conducted with different loading protocol to determine parameters such as HAP, residual strain after heating and range of strain that can be used for effective active confinement after HAP. Test results show a maximum HAP of about 500 MPa can be achieved after heating and approximately 450MPa is retained at 25oC in specimens pre-strained by 6%. A substantial amount of strain recovery upon unloading and after heating the SMA wires is recorded. About 2.5% elastic strain recovery upon unloading from 6% strain level is observed. In the specimen pre-strained by 6%, a total of 4% strain is recovered when unloaded after heating. A strain range of 3% is found available for effective confinement after HAP. Test results demonstrate that SMAs have unique features that can be intelligently employed in many civil engineering applications including active confinement of concrete sections.

MicroRNAs in Parasitic Helminthiases: Current Status and Future Perspectives

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a variety of roles in diverse biological processes at the post-transcriptional regulatory level. Although numerous miRNAs have been identified in parasitic helminths, we still know little about their biological functions. As molecular signatures that can be stably detectable in serum and plasma, worm-derived miRNAs have shown promise as markers for the early detection of particular helminth infections. In addition, host miRNAs are dysregulated during the development of pathology associated with helminthiases and show potential as therapeutic intervention targets. This review discusses the possible biological roles of helminth miRNAs, the prediction of their specific targets, their application in diagnosis and anti-pathology therapy interventions, and the potential functions of miRNAs in extracellular vesicle cargo, such as exosomes, in helminth-host interplay.

Religious Political Parties and the Limits of Political Liberalism

Political parties have only recently become a subject of investigation in political theory. In this paper I analyse religious political parties in the context of John Rawls’s political liberalism. Rawlsian political liberalism, I argue, overly constrains the scope of democratic political contestation and especially for the kind of contestation channelled by parties. This restriction imposed upon political contestation risks undermining democracy and the development of the kind of democratic ethos that political liberalism cherishes. In this paper I therefore aim to provide a broader and more inclusive understanding of ‘reasonable’ political contestation, able to accommodate those parties (including religious ones) that political liberalism, as customarily understood, would exclude from the democratic realm. More specifically, I first embrace Muirhead and Rosenblum’s (Perspectives on Politics 4: 99–108 2006) idea that parties are ‘bilingual’ links between state and civil society and I draw its normative implications for party politics. Subsequently, I assess whether Rawls’s political liberalism is sufficiently inclusive to allow the presence of parties conveying religious and other comprehensive values. Due to Rawls’s thick conceptions of reasonableness and public reason, I argue, political liberalism risks seriously limiting the number and kinds of comprehensive values which may be channelled by political parties into the public political realm, and this may render it particularly inhospitable to religious political parties. Nevertheless, I claim, Rawls’s theory does offer some scope for reinterpreting the concepts of reasonableness and public reason in a thinner and less restrictive sense and this may render it more inclusive towards religious partisanship.

Radiation-induced intercellular signaling mediated by cytochrome-c via a p53-dependent pathway in hepatoma cells

The tumor suppressor p53 has a crucial role in cellular response to DNA damage caused by ionizing radiation, but it is still unclear whether p53 can modulate radiation-induced bystander effects (RIBE). In the present work, three different hepatoma cell lines, namely HepG2 (wild p53), PLC/PRF/5 (mutation p53) and Hep3B (p53 null), were irradiated with c-rays and then co-cultured with normal Chang liver cell (wild p53) in order to elucidate the mechanisms of RIBE. Results showed that the radiosensitivity of HepG2 cells was higher than that of PLC/PRF/5 and Hep3B cells. Only irradiated HepG2 cells, rather than irradiated PLC/PRF/5 or Hep3B cells, could induce bystander effect of micronuclei (MN) formation in the neighboring Chang liver cells. When HepG2 cells were treated with 20 mu M pifithrin-alpha, an inhibitor of p53 function, or 5 lM cyclosporin A (CsA), an inhibitor of cytochrome- c release from mitochondria, the MN induction in bystander Chang liver cells was diminished. In fact, it was found that after irradiation, cytochrome- c was released from mitochondria into the cytoplasm only in HepG2 cells in a p53- dependent manner, but not in PLC/PRF/5 and Hep3B cells. Interestingly, when 50 lg/ml exogenous cytochrome- c was added into cell co- culture medium, RIBE was significantly triggered by irradiated PLC/PRF/5 and Hep3B cells, which previously failed to provoke a bystander effect. In addition, this exogenous cytochrome- c also partly recovered the RIBE induced by irradiated HepG2 cells even with CsA treatment. Our results provide new evidence that the RIBE can be modulated by the p53 status of irradiated hepatoma cells and that a p53- dependent release of cytochrome- c may be involved in the RIBE. Oncogene (2011) 30, 1947- 1955; doi: 10.1038/onc. 2010.567; published online 6 December 2010