Grabbing or investment? On judging large-scale land acquisitions

Although analyses of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) often contain an explicit or implicit normative judgment about such projects, they rarely deduce such judgment from a nuanced balancing of pros and cons. This paper uses assessments about a well-researched LSLA in Sierra Leone to show that a utilitarian approach tends to lead to the conclusion that positive effects prevail, whereas deontological approaches lead to an emphasis on negative aspects. LSLA are probably the most radical land-use change in the history of humankind. This process of radical transformation poses a challenge for balanced evaluations. Thus, we line out a framework that focuses on the options of local residents but sets boundaries of acceptability through the core contents of human rights. In addition, systemic implications of a project need to be regarded.

Combination of bevacizumab and 2-weekly pegylated liposomal doxorubicin as first-line therapy for locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. A multicenter, single-arm phase II trial (SAKK 24/06)

pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) and bevacizumab are active agents in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We carried out a multicenter, single-arm phase II trial to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of PLD and bevacizumab as first-line treatment in MBC patients.

Diagnostic performance of line-immunoassay based algorithms for incident HIV-1 infection

Background Serologic testing algorithms for recent HIV seroconversion (STARHS) provide important information for HIV surveillance. We have previously demonstrated that a patient's antibody reaction pattern in a confirmatory line immunoassay (INNO-LIA™ HIV I/II Score) provides information on the duration of infection, which is unaffected by clinical, immunological and viral variables. In this report we have set out to determine the diagnostic performance of Inno-Lia algorithms for identifying incident infections in patients with known duration of infection and evaluated the algorithms in annual cohorts of HIV notifications. Methods Diagnostic sensitivity was determined in 527 treatment-naive patients infected for up to 12 months. Specificity was determined in 740 patients infected for longer than 12 months. Plasma was tested by Inno-Lia and classified as either incident (< = 12 m) or older infection by 26 different algorithms. Incident infection rates (IIR) were calculated based on diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of each algorithm and the rule that the total of incident results is the sum of true-incident and false-incident results, which can be calculated by means of the pre-determined sensitivity and specificity. Results The 10 best algorithms had a mean raw sensitivity of 59.4% and a mean specificity of 95.1%. Adjustment for overrepresentation of patients in the first quarter year of infection further reduced the sensitivity. In the preferred model, the mean adjusted sensitivity was 37.4%. Application of the 10 best algorithms to four annual cohorts of HIV-1 notifications totalling 2'595 patients yielded a mean IIR of 0.35 in 2005/6 (baseline) and of 0.45, 0.42 and 0.35 in 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively. The increase between baseline and 2008 and the ensuing decreases were highly significant. Other adjustment models yielded different absolute IIR, although the relative changes between the cohorts were identical for all models. Conclusions The method can be used for comparing IIR in annual cohorts of HIV notifications. The use of several different algorithms in combination, each with its own sensitivity and specificity to detect incident infection, is advisable as this reduces the impact of individual imperfections stemming primarily from relatively low sensitivities and sampling bias.

The ArgoNeuT detector in the NuMI low-energy beam line at Fermilab

The ArgoNeuT liquid argon time projection chamber has collected thousands of neutrino and anti-neutrino events during an extended run period in the NuMI beam-line at Fermilab. This paper focuses on the main aspects of the detector layout and related technical features, including the cryogenic equipment, time projection chamber, read-out electronics, and off-line data treatment. The detector commissioning phase, physics run, and first neutrino event displays are also reported. The characterization of the main working parameters of the detector during data-taking, the ionization electron drift velocity and lifetime in liquid argon, as obtained from through-going muon data complete the present report.

The new bern PET cyclotron, its research beam line, and the development of an innovative beam monitor detector

The new Bern cyclotron laboratory aims at industrial radioisotope production for PET diagnostics and multidisciplinary research by means of a specifically conceived beam transfer line, terminated in a separate bunker. In this framework, an innovative beam monitor detector based on doped silica and optical fibres has been designed, constructed, and tested. Scintillation light produced by Ce and Sb doped silica fibres moving across the beam is measured, giving information on beam position, shape, and intensity. The doped fibres are coupled to commercial optical fibres, allowing the read-out of the signal far away from the radiation source. This general-purpose device can be easily adapted for any accelerator used in medical applications and is suitable either for low currents used in hadrontherapy or for currents up to a few μA for radioisotope production, as well as for both pulsed and continuous beams.

Penetrability of the inner mucus layer: who is out there?

Large numbers of microorganisms colonise the skin and mucous membranes of animals, with their highest density in the lower gastrointestinal tract. The impact of these microbes on the host can be demonstrated by comparing animals (usually mice) housed under germ-free conditions, or colonised with different compositions of microbes. Inbreeding and embryo manipulation programs have generated a wide variety of mouse strains with a fixed germ-line (isogenic) and hygiene comparisons robustly show remarkably strong interactions between the microbiota and the host, which can be summarised in three axioms. (I) Live microbes are largely confined to their spaces at body surfaces, provided the animal is not suffering from an infection. (II) There is promiscuous molecular exchange throughout the host and its microbiota in both directions [1]. (III) Every host organ system is profoundly shaped by the presence of body surface microbes. It follows that one must draw a line between live microbial and host “spaces” (I) to understand the crosstalk (II and III) at this interesting interface of the host-microbial superorganism. Of course, since microbes can adapt to very different niches, there has to be more than one line. In this issue of EMBO Reports, Johansson and colleagues have studied mucus, which is the main physical frontier for most microbes in the intestinal tract: they report how different non-pathogenic microbiota compositions affect its permeability and the functional protection of the epithelial surface [2].

Detection of back-to-back proton pairs in charged-current neutrino interactions with the ArgoNeuT detector in the NuMI low energy beam line

Short range nucleon-nucleon correlations in nuclei (NN SRC) carry important information on nuclear structure and dynamics. NN SRC have been extensively probed through two-nucleon knock- out reactions in both pion and electron scattering experiments. We report here on the detection of two-nucleon knock-out events from neutrino interactions and discuss their topological features as possibly involving NN SRC content in the target argon nuclei. The ArgoNeuT detector in the Main Injector neutrino beam at Fermilab has recorded a sample of 30 fully reconstructed charged current events where the leading muon is accompanied by a pair of protons at the interaction vertex, 19 of which have both protons above the Fermi momentum of the Ar nucleus. Out of these 19 events, four are found with the two protons in a strictly back-to-back high momenta configuration directly observed in the final state and can be associated to nucleon Resonance pionless mechanisms involving a pre-existing short range correlated np pair in the nucleus. Another fraction (four events) of the remaining 15 events have a reconstructed back-to-back configuration of a np pair in the initial state, a signature compatible with one-body Quasi Elastic interaction on a neutron in a SRC pair. The detection of these two subsamples of the collected (mu- + 2p) events suggests that mechanisms directly involving nucleon-nucleon SRC pairs in the nucleus are active and can be efficiently explored in neutrino-argon interactions with the LAr TPC technology.

Use of a novel DNA melting profile assay for the identification of PCR-amplified genomic sequences encoding for variant-specific surface proteins from the clonal GS/M-83-H7 line of Giardia lamblia.

During infections, Giardia lamblia undergoes a continuous change of its major surface antigens, the variant-specific surface proteins (VSPs). Many studies on antigenic variation have been performed using G. lamblia clone GS/M-83-H7, which expresses surface antigen VSP H7. The present study was focused on the identification and characterization of vsp gene sequences within the genome of the clonal G. lamblia GS/M-83-H7 line. For this purpose, we applied a PCR which specifically amplified truncated sequences from the 3'-terminal region of the vsp genes. Upon cloning, most of the vsp gene amplification products were shown to be approximately identical in size and thus could not be distinguished from each other by conventional gel electrophoresis. In order to pre-estimate the sequence complexity within the large panel of vsp clones isolated, we elaborated a novel concept which facilitated our large-scale genetic screening approach: PCR products from cloned DNA molecules were generated and then subjected to a DNA melting profile assay based on the use of the LightCycler Instrument. This high-throughput assay system proved to be well suited to monitor sequence differences between the amplification products from closely related vsp genes and thus could be used for the primary, sequence-related discrimination of the corresponding clones. After testing 50 candidates, vsp clones could be divided into five groups, each characterized by an individual DNA melting profile of the corresponding amplification products. Sequence analysis of some of these 50 candidates confirmed data from the aforementioned assay in that clones were demonstrated to be identical within, but different between, the distinct groups. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of five representative vsp clones showed high similarities both among each other and also with the corresponding gene segment of the variant-specific surface antigen (VSP H7) expressed by the original GS/M-83-H7 variant type. Furthermore, three of the genomic vsp sequences turned out to be identical to vsp sequences that represented previously characterized transcription products from in vivo- or in vitro-switched GS/M-83-H7 trophozoites. In conclusion, the DNA melting profile assay seems to be a versatile tool for the PCR-based genotyping of moderately or highly diversified sequence orthologues.