Regulation of bone biology by prostaglandin endoperoxide H synthases (PGHS): A rose by any other name...

It is well established that prostaglandins are essential mediators of bone resorption and formation. In the early 1990s, it was discovered that enzymatic reactions producing prostaglandins were regulated by two cyclooxygenase enzymes, one producing prostaglandins constitutively in tissues like the stomach, prostaglandin endoperoxide H synthase-1 (PGHS-1 or COX-1), and another induced by mitogens or inflammatory mediators (PGHS-2 or COX-2). This neat distinction has not been maintained because both enzymes act in different cell systems to provide physiological signaling, constitutively or by induction under certain conditions. For example, the regulation patterns of PGHS-1 and PGHS-2 are distinct, but the evidence shows that PGHS-2 functions constitutively in the skeleton. PGHS-2 hits quickly been established, therefore, as a key regulator of bone biology, capable of rapid and transient expression in bone cells, and mediating osteoclastogenesis, mechanotransduction, bone formation and fracture repair. The goal of this review is to Summarize the current state of our knowledge of PGHS regulation of bone metabolism and to identify some of the key unresolved challenges and questions that require further study. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Collaborative decision-making processes for maintaining biodiversity: Two Australian case studies

There have been many models developed by scientists to assist decision-makers in making socio-economic and environmental decisions. It is now recognised that there is a shift in the dominant paradigm to making decisions with stakeholders, rather than making decisions for stakeholders. Our paper investigates two case studies where group model building has been undertaken for maintaining biodiversity in Australia. The first case study focuses on preservation and management of green spaces and biodiversity in metropolitan Melbourne under the umbrella of the Melbourne 2030 planning strategy. A geographical information system is used to collate a number of spatial datasets encompassing a range of cultural and natural assets data layers including: existing open spaces, waterways, threatened fauna and flora, ecological vegetation covers, registered cultural heritage sites, and existing land parcel zoning. Group model building is incorporated into the study through eliciting weightings and ratings of importance for each datasets from urban planners to formulate different urban green system scenarios. The second case study focuses on modelling ecoregions from spatial datasets for the state of Queensland. The modelling combines collaborative expert knowledge and a vast amount of environmental data to build biogeographical classifications of regions. An information elicitation process is used to capture expert knowledge of ecoregions as geographical descriptions, and to transform this into prior probability distributions that characterise regions in terms of environmental variables. This prior information is combined with measured data on the environmental variables within a Bayesian modelling technique to produce the final classified regions. We describe how linked views between descriptive information, mapping and statistical plots are used to decide upon representative regions that satisfy a number of criteria for biodiversity and conservation. This paper discusses the advantages and problems encountered when undertaking group model building. Future research will extend the group model building approach to include interested individuals and community groups.

Editorial:welcome to the LRN2004 annual conference special issue of the International journal of logistics: research and applications

It is a great pleasure to be Guest Editor for this issue – I hope that the papers which are included will be stimulating and support you in your ongoing research activities. A number of guiding principles were adopted in selecting the papers for inclusion in this issue. Firstly, the papers cover a wide range of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) topics. This is a reflection of the evolution of the field in recent years. In terms of the “buy-make-store-move-sell” model of SCM all the main constituent areas are addressed. Secondly, it is important that the conference issue of this Journal reflects the emphasis and content of the conference itself. I have tried to achieve this in terms of the papers included. One interesting point to note is that outsourcing is a theme which is a major issue in a number of papers. This reflects the increasing importance of this issue to organisations of all kinds and sizes. Economic globalisation and the trend towards vertical disintegration of supply chain architectures have sharpened the focus on outsourcing as a key element of supply chain strategy. The need to move beyond the notion that sourcing of certain activities can be some kind of panacea in evident from the relevant contributions. Thirdly, the LRN Annual Conference has become a more international event in recent years...the number of delegates and papers presented from outside the UK has continued to grow. The papers collected in this issue reflect this internationalization. Two papers are worthy of particular comment from an LRN perspective. The contribution by Jaafar and Rafiq has been developed from the submission which won the best paper prize at the LRN 2004 event. The paper by Pettit and Beresford is based on research which was supported by LRN seed corn funding. It was developed form the final report on this work submitted to CITL (UK) via the LRN. The seed corn funding is an important mechanism whereby the LRN supports research in innovative aspects of logistics in UK universities. In many ways, the LRN2004 event in Dublin seems like a long time ago. From my point of view it was one of the most professionally rewarding activities in which I have been involved in my career. It was a time to meet old friends and new and to keep abreast of the multitude of interesting projects being undertaken in over 20 countries. There are too many people to thank for the smooth running of the event. However, my colleague John Mee does warrant a special mention. His logistical skills were seriously put to the test in the weeks and months leading up to September 9th. 2004. I want to acknowledge his particular contribution to the success of the event. Since then we have had the 2005 event at the University of Plymouth. This was again a great opportunity to network with colleagues and many congratulations are due to John Dinwoodie and his team. We now look forward to LRN 2006 in Newcastle...form my part I hope and trust that this issue provides some useful perspectives and insights into the range of topics addressed.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Análise de métodos para detecção de mudanças estruturais em séries temporais climáticas

The time series analysis has played an increasingly important role in weather and climate studies. The success of these studies depends crucially on the knowledge of the quality of climate data such as, for instance, air temperature and rainfall data. For this reason, one of the main challenges for the researchers in this field is to obtain homogeneous series. A time series of climate data is considered homogeneous when the values of the observed data can change only due to climatic factors, i.e., without any interference from external non-climatic factors. Such non-climatic factors may produce undesirable effects in the time series, as unrealistic homogeneity breaks, trends and jumps. In the present work it was investigated climatic time series for the city of Natal, RN, namely air temperature and rainfall time series, for the period spanning from 1961 to 2012. The main purpose was to carry out an analysis in order to check the occurrence of homogeneity breaks or trends in the series under investigation. To this purpose, it was applied some basic statistical procedures, such as normality and independence tests. The occurrence of trends was investigated by linear regression analysis, as well as by the Spearman and Mann-Kendall tests. The homogeneity was investigated by the SNHT, as well as by the Easterling-Peterson and Mann-Whitney-Pettit tests. Analyzes with respect to normality showed divergence in their results. The von Neumann ratio test showed that in the case of the air temperature series the data are not independent and identically distributed (iid), whereas for the rainfall series the data are iid. According to the applied testings, both series display trends. The mean air temperature series displays an increasing trend, whereas the rainfall series shows an decreasing trend. Finally, the homogeneity tests revealed that all series under investigations present inhomogeneities, although they breaks depend on the applied test. In summary, the results showed that the chosen techniques may be applied in order to verify how well the studied time series are characterized. Therefore, these results should be used as a guide for further investigations about the statistical climatology of Natal or even of any other place.

The Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association

Annually, the association publishes a journal, The Proceedings, which consists of papers presented at the annual meeting. Loyalism in Charleston, 1761-1784 by Ella Pettit Levett – University of Chicago Inland Navigation in South Carolina and Traffic on the Columbia Canal by Carl L. Epting – Columbia College An Interpretation of Mexican Socialism of the Last Two Decades by W. H. Callcott – Duke University

Logística humanitaria: seguridad agroalimentaria

Actualmente la relación que existe entre la logística humanitaria y la seguridad agroalimentaria es muy estrecha, estos dos conceptos constituyen un elemento sumamente importante en situaciones que se presentan hoy en día a nivel mundial, como por ejemplo en los diferentes tipos de desastres naturales como terremotos, tsunamis, sequías, hambrunas, entre otros, o simplemente, en zonas de alta pobreza. La logística humanitaria es hoy en día un concepto novedoso que nace de la necesidad de poder suministrar los recursos adecuados en zonas que han sido afectadas por desastres naturales, o situaciones de orden público, como por ejemplo los conflictos armados. Estos recursos deben asegurarle a la población afectada que puedan mantener a lo largo de un tiempo sus necesidades básicas, y así mismo, que estos recursos aseguren a la población afectada que puedan tener una vida digna y segura, lo que conlleva entre otras cosas, tener una seguridad agroalimentaria. A medida que se presentan diferentes escenarios de desastres naturales, la ayuda humanitaria a nivel mundial es necesaria, y el tiempo de respuesta juega un papel sumamente importante. En consecuencia, esta investigación presenta un enfoque que involucra los conceptos de logística humanitaria y de seguridad agroalimentaria, con el fin de contextualizar su evolución y los estudios que se llevan a cabo hoy en día.

La disrupción: el punto de partida de la resiliencia o del fracaso empresarial (reflexiones desde la ingeniería)

La perdurabilidad empresarial ha sido un tema recurrente en la literatura sobre dirección de empresas. A pesar de los avances, la liquidación de las empresas aumenta permanentemente. Buscando alternativas de mejora se estudia el caso de dos empresas cuadragenarias dedicadas a prestar servicios de consultoría en ingeniería eléctrica y civil que, en condiciones de crisis, implementaron acciones que les permitieron, no sólo mantenerse en el mercado sino también fortalecer su estructura financiera. Los resultados demostraron que un enfoque equilibrado caracterizado por la toma oportuna de decisiones y la definición e implementación de estrategias de negocio efectivas constituyen herramientas óptimas para asegurar un mayor grado de resiliencia empresarial.