Seasonal Greeting token 1999

Obverse: Emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: Menorah in the midddle of the zodiac symbols.

Seasonal Greetings Token 1979

Obverse: Emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: Building of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation.

Seasonal Greeting token 1985

Obverse: Emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: Stylized view on Jerusalem.

Seasonal Greeting token 1987

Obverse: Emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: Dove of peace with olive branch in its beak.

Seasonal Greeting token 1989

Obverse: Emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: Stylized menorah with number forty.

Seasonal Greeting token 1988

Obverse: Emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: The outline of Jerusalem with inscription.

Seasonal Greeting token 1990

Obverse: emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: Planet and satellite

Seasonal Greeting token 1996

Obverse: Emblem of the Israel Government Coins and Medal Corporation. Reverse: Stylized sun with which there is a dove of peace and underneath the sun, stylized Star of David

Environmental factors affecting the occurrence of periglacial landforms in Finnish Lapland: a numerical approach

Determination of the environmental factors controlling earth surface processes and landform patterns is one of the central themes in physical geography. However, the identification of the main drivers of the geomorphological phenomena is often challenging. Novel spatial analysis and modelling methods could provide new insights into the process-environment relationships. The objective of this research was to map and quantitatively analyse the occurrence of cryogenic phenomena in subarctic Finland. More precisely, utilising a grid-based approach the distribution and abundance of periglacial landforms were modelled to identify important landscape scale environmental factors. The study was performed using a comprehensive empirical data set of periglacial landforms from an area of 600 km2 at a 25-ha resolution. The utilised statistical methods were generalized linear modelling (GLM) and hierarchical partitioning (HP). GLMs were used to produce distribution and abundance models and HP to reveal independently the most likely causal variables. The GLM models were assessed utilising statistical evaluation measures, prediction maps, field observations and the results of HP analyses. A total of 40 different landform types and subtypes were identified. Topographical, soil property and vegetation variables were the primary correlates for the occurrence and cover of active periglacial landforms on the landscape scale. In the model evaluation, most of the GLMs were shown to be robust although the explanation power, prediction ability as well as the selected explanatory variables varied between the models. The great potential of the combination of a spatial grid system, terrain data and novel statistical techniques to map the occurrence of periglacial landforms was demonstrated in this study. GLM proved to be a useful modelling framework for testing the shapes of the response functions and significances of the environmental variables and the HP method helped to make better deductions of the important factors of earth surface processes. Hence, the numerical approach presented in this study can be a useful addition to the current range of techniques available to researchers to map and monitor different geographical phenomena.

The Occurrence and Toxicity of Indospicine to Grazing Animals

Indospicine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid which occurs in Indigofera species with widespread prevalence in grazing pastures across tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. It accumulates in the tissues of grazing livestock after ingestion of Indigofera. It is a competitive inhibitor of arginase and causes both liver degeneration and abortion. Indospicine hepatoxicity occurs universally across animal species but the degree varies considerably between species, with dogs being particularly sensitive. The magnitude of canine sensitivity is such that ingestion of naturally indospicine-contaminated horse and camel meat has caused secondary poisoning of dogs, raising significant industry concern. Indospicine impacts on the health and production of grazing animals per se has been less widely documented. Livestock grazing Indigofera have a chronic and cumulative exposure to this toxin, with such exposure experimentally shown to induce both hepatotoxicity and embryo-lethal effects in cattle and sheep. In extensive pasture systems, where animals are not closely monitored, the resultant toxicosis may well occur after prolonged exposure but either be undetected, or even if detected not be attributable to a particular cause. Indospicine should be considered as a possible cause of animal poor performance, particularly reduced weight gain or reproductive losses, in pastures where Indigofera are prevalent.

Field evaluation of tolerance to Tobacco streak virus in sunflower germplasm, and observations of seasonal disease spread

Strong statistical evidence was found for differences in tolerance to natural infections of Tobacco streak virus (TSV) in sunflower hybrids. Data from 470 plots involving 23 different sunflower hybrids tested in multiple trials over 5 years in Australia were analysed. Using a Bayesian Hierarchical Logistic Regression model for analysis provided: (i) a rigorous method for investigating the relative effects of hybrid, seasonal rainfall and proximity to inoculum source on the incidence of severe TSV disease; (ii) a natural method for estimating the probability distributions of disease incidence in different hybrids under historical rainfall conditions; and (iii) a method for undertaking all pairwise comparisons of disease incidence between hybrids whilst controlling the familywise error rate without any drastic reduction in statistical power. The tolerance identified in field trials was effective against the main TSV strain associated with disease outbreaks, TSV-parthenium. Glasshouse tests indicate this tolerance to also be effective against the other TSV strain found in central Queensland, TSV-crownbeard. The use of tolerant germplasm is critical to minimise the risk of TSV epidemics in sunflower in this region. We found strong statistical evidence that rainfall during the early growing months of March and April had a negative effect on the incidence of severe infection with greatly reduced disease incidence in years that had high rainfall during this period.

Germination Biology and Occurrence of Polyembryony in Two Forms of Cats Claw Creeper Vine, Dolichandra unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae): Implications for Its Invasiveness and Management

Cat’s claw creeper vine, Dolichandra unguis-cati (L.) Lohmann (syn. Macfadyena unguis-cati (L.) Gentry), is a major environmental weed in Australia. Two forms of the weed with distinctive leaf morphology and reproductive traits, including varying fruit size, occur in Queensland, Australia. The long pod form occurs in a few localities in Queensland, while the short pod form is widely distributed in Queensland and northern part of New South Wales. This investigation aimed to evaluate germination behavior and occurrence of polyembryony (production of multiple seedlings from a single seed) in the two forms of the weed. Seeds were germinated in growth chambers set to 10/20°C, 15/25°C, 20/30°C, 30/45°C and 25°C, representing ambient temperature conditions of the region. Germination and polyembryony were monitored over a period of 12 weeks. For all the treatments in this study, seeds from short pod plants exhibited significantly higher germination rates and higher occurrence of polyembryony than those from long pod plants. Seeds from long pod plants did not germinate at the lowest temperature of 10/20°C; in contrast, those of the short pod form germinated under this condition, albeit at a lower rate (reaching a maximum 45% germination at week 12). Results from this study could explain why the short pod form of D. unguis-cati is the more widely distributed plants in Australia, while the long pod is confined to a few localities. The results have implication in predicting future range of both forms of the invasive D. unguis-cati, as well as inform management decisions for control of the weed.

An explanation for the rare occurrence of cis peptide units in proteins and polypeptides

The rarity of occurrence of cis peptide units is only partially explained by the higher intrinsic energy of the cis over the trans form, which provides a probability of 0·01 for cis peptide units to occur. An additional factor is the conformational restriction imposed by the occurrence of a cis peptide unit in a chain of trans units. Taking a section of three peptide units having the sequences trans-trans-trans (ttt) and trans-cis-trans (tct), conformational energy calculations indicate that the latter can occur only to an extent of 0·1%, unless there occurs the sequence X-Pro, in which case it is of the order of 30%. This explains the extreme rarity of cis peptide units, in general; however, it follows that even with non-prolyl residues, cis peptide units are not forbidden, but can occur in some rare examples and should be looked for.

Circadian Rhythm Disruptions and Health

The doctoral thesis defined connections between circadian rhythm disruptions and health problems. Sleep debt, jet-lag, shift work, as well as transitions into and out of the daylight saving time may lead to circadian rhythm disruptions. Disturbed circadian rhythm causes sleep deprivation and decrease of mood and these effects may lead to higher accident rates and trigger mental illnesses. Circadian clock genes are involved in the regulation of the cell cycle and metabolism and thus unstable circadian rhythmicity may also lead to cancer development. In publications I-III it was explored how transitions into and out of the daylight saving time impact the sleep efficiency and the rest-activity cycles of healthy individuals. Also it was explored whether the effect of transition is different in fall as compared to spring, and whether there are subgroup specific differences in the adjustment to transitions into and out of daylight saving time. The healthy participants of studies I-III used actigraphs before and after the transitions and filled in the morningness-eveningness and seasonal pattern assessment questionnaires. In publication IV the incidence of hospital-treated accidents and manic episodes was explored two weeks before and two weeks after the transitions into and out of the daylight saving time in years 1987-2003. In publication V the relationship between circadian rhythm disruption and the prevalence of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was studied. The study V consisted of all working aged Finns who participated in the national population census in 1970. For our study, all the cancers diagnosed during the years 1971-1995 were extracted from the Finnish Cancer Register and linked with the 1970 census files. In studies I-III it was noticed that transitions into and out of the daylight saving time disturbs the sleep-wake cycle and the sleep efficiency of the healthy participants. We also noticed that short sleepers were more sensitive than long sleepers for sudden changes in the circadian rhythm. Our results also indicated that adaptation to changes in the circadian rhythm is potentially sex, age and chronotype-specific. In study IV no significant increase in the occurrence of hospital treated accidents or manic episodes was noticed. However, interesting observations about the seasonal fluctuation of the occurrence rates of accidents and manic episodes were made. Study V revealed that there might be close relationship between circadian rhythm disruption and cancer. The prevalence of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was the highest among night workers. The five publications included in this thesis together point out that disturbed circadian rhythms may have adverse effect on health. Disturbed circadian rhythms decrease the quality of sleep and weaken the sleep-wake cycle. A continuous circadian rhythm disruption may also predispose individuals to cancer development. Since circadian rhythm disruptions are common in modern society they might have a remarkable impact on the public health. Thus it is important to continue circadian rhythm research so that better prevention and treatment methods can be developed. Keywords: Circadian rhythm, daylight saving time, manic episodes, accidents, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 11

BRCA1 and BRCA2 germline mutation analysis among Indian women from south India: identification of four novel mutations and high-frequency occurrence of 185delAG mutation

Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes profoundly increase the risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer among women. To explore the contribution of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in the development of hereditary breast cancer among Indian women, we carried out mutation analysis of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in 61 breast or ovarian cancer patients from south India with a positive family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Mutation analysis was carried out using conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis (CSGE) followed by sequencing. Mutations were identified in 17 patients (28.0%); 15 (24.6%) had BRCA1 mutations and two (3.28%) had BRCA2 mutations. While no specific association between BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations with cancer type was seen, mutations were more often seen in families with ovarian cancer. While 40% (4/10) and 30.8% (4/12) of families with ovarian or breast and ovarian cancer had mutations, only 23.1% (9/39) of families with breast cancer carried mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. In addition, while BRCA1 mutations were found in all age groups, BRCA2 mutations were found only in the age group of <= 40 years. Of the BRCA1 mutations, there were three novel mutations (295delCA; 4213T -> A; 5267T -> G) G) and three mutations that have been reported earlier. Interestingly, 185delAG, a BRCA1 mutation which occurs at a very high frequency in Ashkenazi Jews, was found at a frequency of 16.4% (10/61). There was one novel mutation (4866insT) and one reported mutation in BRCA2. Thus, our study emphasizes the importance of mutation screening in familial breast and/or ovarian cancers, and the potential implications of these findings in genetic counselling and preventive therapy.