Effect of storage time and conditions on the hardness and cooking quality of adzuki (Vigna angularis)

A storage trial of two varieties of adzuki (Vigna angularis), Bloodwood and Erimo, produced in Australia, was conducted to determine the effect of various combinations of temperature, humidity and length of storage on bean quality. The beans were stored for up to 6 mo under the following conditions: temperature (10, 20 and 30degreesC), relative humidity (RH) (40 and 65%). Storage of adzuki at elevated temperature (30degreesC) and low relative humidity (40%) resulted in the greatest loss of bean moisture, increase in hydration times and decrease in bean cooking quality, i.e. increased hardness of cooked beans. The best storage conditions for the preservation of adzuki quality were 10degreesC and 65% RH.

Dormancy release in Lolium rigidum seeds is a function of thermal after-ripening time and seed water content

Dormancy release in seeds of Lolium rigidum Gaud. (annual ryegrass) was investigated in relation to temperature and seed water content. Freshly matured seeds were collected from cropping fields at Wongan Hills and Merredin, Western Australia. Seeds from Wongan Hills were equilibrated to water contents between 6 and 18% dry weight and after-ripened at constant temperatures between 9 and 50degreesC for up to 23 weeks. Wongan Hills and Merredin seeds at water contents between 7 and 17% were also after-ripened in full sun or shade conditions. Dormancy was tested at regular intervals during after-ripening by germinating seeds on agar at 12-h alternating 15degreesC (dark) and 25degreesC (light) periods. Rate of dormancy release for Wongan Hills seeds was a positive linear function of after-ripening temperature above a base temperature (T-b) of 5.4degreesC. A thermal after-ripening time model for dormancy loss accounting for seed moisture in the range 6-18% was developed using germination data for Wongan Hills seeds after-ripened at constant temperatures. The model accurately predicted dormancy release for Wongan Hills seeds after-ripened under naturally fluctuating temperatures. Seeds from Merredin responded similarly but had lower dormancy at collection and a faster rate of dormancy release in seeds below 9% water content.

Falls prevention in rural general practice: what stands the test of time and where to from here?

Objective: General practitioner recall of the 1992-96 'Stay on Your Feet'(SOYF) program and its influence on practice were surveyed five years post-intervention to gauge sustainability of the SOYF General Practice (GP) component. Methods: A survey assessed which SOYF components were still in existence, current practice related to falls prevention, and interest in professional development. All general practitioners (GPs) situated within the boundaries of a rural Area Health Service were mailed a survey in late 2001. Results: Response rate was 66.5% (139/ 209). Of 117 GPs in practice at the time of SOYF, 80.2% reported having heard of SOYF and 74.4% of those felt it had influenced practice. Half (50.9%) still had a copy of the SOYF GP resource and of those, 58.6% used it at least 'occasionally'. Three-quarters of GPs surveyed (75.2%) checked medications 'most/almost all' of the time with patients over 60 years; 46.7% assessed falls risk factors; 41.3% gave advice; and 22.6% referred to allied health practitioners. GPs indicated a strong interest in falls prevention- related professional development. There was no significant association between use of the SOYF resource package and any of the current falls prevention practices (all chi(2)>0.05). Conclusions and implications: There was high recall of SOYF and a general belief that it influenced practice. There was little indication that use of the resource had any lasting influence on GPs' practices. In future, careful thought needs to go into designing a program that has potential to affect long-term change in GPs' falls prevention practice.

Family advocacy roles and highly dependent residents in nursing homes

A developing critique has questioned the practical utility of user rights policy initiatives for highly dependent residents of nursing homes. This paper seeks to extend this critique to the advocacy roles that families have been accorded within the policy initiatives, The discussion is based on a qualitative research study of family participation in six aged care units, The paper argues that the capacity of families to act as advocates for highly dependent nursing home residents is is limited by the their weak position within the organisations and the complexity of their relations with staff It questions both the applicability and the appropriateness of rights models which do not take sufficient account of the structure and meaning of care.

On the heritability of inspection time and its covariance with IQ: A twin study

Using the classical twin design, this study investigates the influence of genetic factors on the large phenotypic variance in inspection time (IT), and whether the well established IT-IQ association can be explained by a common genetic factor. Three hundred ninety pairs of twins (184 monozygotic, MZ; 206 dizygotic, DZ) with a mean age of 16 years participated, and 49 pairs returned approximately 3 months, later for retesting. As in many IT studies, the pi figure stimulus was used and IT was estimated from the cumulative normal ogive. IT ranged from 39.4 to 774.1 ms (159 +/- 110.1 ms) with faster ITs (by an average of 26.9 ms) found in the retest session from which a reliability of .69 was estimated. Full-scale IQ (FIQ) was assessed by the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) and ranged from 79 to 145 (111 +/- 13). The phenotypic association between IT and FIQ was confirmed (- .35) and bivariate results showed that a common genetic factor accounted for 36% of the variance in IT and 32% of the variance in FIQ. The maximum likelihood estimate of the genetic correlation was - .63. When performance and verbal IQ (PIQ & VIQ) were analysed with IT, a stronger phenotypic and genetic relationship was found between PIQ and IT than with VIQ. A large part of the IT variance (64%) was accounted for by a unique environmental factor. Further genetic factors were needed to explain the remaining variance in IQ with a small component of unique environmental variance present. The separability of a shared genetic factor influencing IT and IQ from the total genetic variance in IQ suggests that IT affects a specific subcomponent of intelligence rather than a generalised efficiency. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Schistosoma japonicum cathepsin D aspartic protease cleaves human IgG and other serum components

Recombinant cathepsin D aspartic protease of Schistosoma japonicum cleaved human IgG in vitro in a time and dose-dependent manner. Optimal cleavage was seen at pH 3.6-4.5; modest cleavage remained at pH 5.0, and no cleavage was detected above pH 5.0. Amino terminal sequencing of the major cleavage fragments of human IgG identified a Fab fragment from the VH1 domain, and 2 cleavage sites in the CH2 domain below the hinge region. The P1 and P1' residues at the 2 CH2 cleavage sites were Phe254-Leu255 and Leu325-Thr326, indicating a preference by the schistosome protease for bulky hydrophobic residues flanking the scissile bond. No cleavage of the immunoglobulin light chain was detected. In addition, the recombinant schistosome protease indiscriminately degraded the human serum proteins complement C3 and serum albumin into numerous small fragments. These results demonstrate specific cleavage of human IgG by the recombinant schistosome aspartic protease, and highlight the broad range digestive specificity of the enzyme which may play a role in the degradation of host serum proteins ingested as part of the schistosome bloodmeal.

Multiple maps and activity-dependent representational plasticity in the anterior Wulst of the adult barn owl (Tyto alba)

In the present study we addressed the issue of somatosensory representation and plasticity in a nonmammalian species, the barn owl. Multiunit mapping techniques were used to examine the representation of the specialized receptor surface of the claw in the anterior Wulst. We found dual somatotopic mirror image representations of the skin surface of the contralateral claw. In addition, we examined both representations 2 weeks after denervation of the distal skin surface of a single digit. In both representations, the denervated digital representation became responsive to stimulation of the adjacent, mutually functional, digit. The mutability and multiple representations indicates that the Wulst provides the owl with sensory processing capabilities analogous to those in mammals.

Amino acids 1-20 of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein specifically inhibit HCV IRES- dependent translation in Hep G2 cells, and inhibit both HCV IRES- and cap-dependent translation in HuH7 and CV-1 cells.

A self-modulating mechanism by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein has been suggested to influence the level of HCV replication, but current data on this subject are contradictory. We examined the effect of wild-type and mutated core protein on HCV IRES- and cap-dependent translation. The wild-type core protein was shown to inhibit both IRES- and cap-dependent translation in an in vitro system. This effect was duplicated in a dose-dependent manner with a synthetic peptide representing amino acids 1-20 of the HCV core protein. This peptide was able to bind to the HCV IRES as shown by a mobility shift assay. In contrast, a peptide derived from the hepatitis B virus (HBV) core protein that contained a similar proportion of basic residues was unable to inhibit translation or bind the HCV IRES. A recombinant vaccinia-HCV core virus was used to examine the effect of the HCV core protein on HCV IRES-dependent translation in cells and this was compared with the effects of an HBV core-recombinant vaccinia virus. In CV-1 and HuH7 cells, the HCV core protein inhibited translation directed by the IRES elements of HCV, encephalomyocarditis virus and classical swine fever virus as well as cap-dependent translation, whereas in HepG2 cells, only HCV IRES-dependent translation was affected. Thus, the ability of the HCV core protein to selectively inhibit HCV IRES-dependent translation is cell-specific. N-terminal truncated (aa 1-20) HCV core protein that was expressed from a novel recombinant vaccinia virus in cells abrogated the inhibitory phenotype of the core protein in vivo, consistent with the above in vitro data.

Ataxia-telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) and NBS1-dependent phosphorylation of Chk1 on Ser-317 in response to ionizing radiation

In mammals, the ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia-mutated) and ATR (ATM and Rad3-related) protein kinases function as critical regulators of the cellular DNA damage response. The checkpoint functions of ATR and ATM are mediated, in part, by a pair of checkpoint effector kinases termed Chk1 and Chk2. In mammalian cells, evidence has been presented that Chk1 is devoted to the ATR signaling pathway and is modified by ATR in response to replication inhibition and UV-induced damage, whereas Chk2 functions primarily through ATM in response to ionizing radiation (IR), suggesting that Chk2 and Chk1 might have evolved to channel the DNA damage signal from ATM and ATR, respectively. We demonstrate here that the ATR-Chk1 and ATM-Chk2 pathways are not parallel branches of the DNA damage response pathway but instead show a high degree of cross-talk and connectivity. ATM does in fact signal to Chk1 in response to IR. Phosphorylation of Chk1 on Ser-317 in response to IR is ATM-dependent. We also show that functional NBS1 is required for phosphorylation of Chk1, indicating that NES1 might facilitate the access of Chk1 to ATM at the sites of DNA damage. Abrogation of Chk1 expression by RNA interference resulted in defects in IR-induced S and G2/M phase checkpoints; however, the overexpression of phosphorylation site mutant (S317A, S345A or S317A/S345A double mutant) Chk1 failed to interfere with these checkpoints. Surprisingly, the kinase-dead Chk1 (D130A) also failed to abrogate the S and G2 checkpoint through any obvious dominant negative effect toward endogenous Chk1. Therefore, further studies will be required to assess the contribution made by phosphorylation events to Chk1 regulation. Overall, the data presented in the study challenge the model in which Chk1 only functions downstream from ATR and indicate that ATM does signal to Chk1. In addition, this study also demonstrates that Chk1 is essential for IR-induced inhibition of DNA synthesis and the G2/M checkpoint.