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Background: In the context of a global COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a variety of reports about the impact of infection to the fetus and in the immediate newborn period. Many babies appear to have a mild clinical course, but there is limited data about preterm infants. Case Presentation: A 28 week male infant was delivered with signs of fetal distress, four days after maternal infection with COVID-19. At this time, the delta variant of the virus predominated. After an initial period of stability, the baby significantly deteriorated in the second week and intensive care was escalated approaching maximal therapy. Given the life-threatening severity of the clinical condition, an off-licence trial of remdesivir was started alongside dexamethasone. With this treatment, the patient made a significant improvement and recovered. Conclusion: This case shows the feasibility of using remdesivir in the very premature neonatal population and seems to have been well tolerated.

An overview of the use of arbitration agreements in commercial aviation contracts, especially lease agreements, with particular reference to the establishment of the Hague Court of Arbitration for Aviation (‘Hague CAA’) in July 2022. It considers the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration agreements, as an alternative to state court jurisdiction clauses, in commercial aviation contracts, surveys the current provision of arbitration services to the aviation sector, examines the service offered by the Hague CAA and analyses the potential benefits and risks of writing Hague CAA arbitration agreements into new leases and contracts. Aviation, arbitration, court, enforcement, Hague, insurance, jurisdiction

This article analyses the operation of cut-through clauses in aviation insurance and reinsurance policies, with particular reference to the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) standard form cutthrough endorsement, AVN 109. It does so from the perspectives of the usual parties to aviation insurance policies, including on the insured’s side owners, operators, lessors and financiers, and on the underwriters’ side insurers and reinsurers. It considers cut-through clauses’ operation in the context of fronting arrangements, insurer insolvency (which brings into play the anti-deprivation principle), other bars on payment and coverage disputes. An insured’s ability to compel payment directly from the relevant insurer and the legal proceedings that may be required are discussed. The analysis is provided primarily under English law, including reference to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1990 and Randgold Resources Ltd & Anor v. Santam Ltd & Anor [2018] EWHC 2493 (Comm), though the laws of New York and other jurisdictions are also briefly considered. The article concludes with practical recommendations for aviation insurance policy holders to consider when negotiating cut-through clauses, so as to maximize the protection that they provide. Insurance, reinsurance, cut-through, aviation, AVN 109

Summary Background The WHO VISION 2020 global initiative against blindness, launched in 2000, prioritised childhood visual disability by aiming to end avoidable childhood blindness by 2020. However, progress has been hampered by the global paucity of epidemiological data concerning childhood visual disability. The British Childhood Visual Impairment and Blindness Study 2 (BCVIS2) was done to address this evidence gap. Methods BCVIS2 was a prospective UK-wide, cross-sectional, observational study to establish an inception cohort of children newly diagnosed with visual impairment. Ophthalmologists and paediatricians reported cases from 89 hospitals and community centres across the UK. We included children aged 18 years or younger who were newly diagnosed with any condition causing impaired visual acuity to a level of 0·5 logMAR or worse (worse than 6/18 Snellen) in each eye, or equivalent vision as assessed by standard qualitative measures, between Oct 1, 2015, and Nov 1, 2016. Eligible children were notified simultaneously but independently by their managing ophthalmologists and paediatricians via the two national active surveillance schemes, the British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit and the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit. Standardised detailed demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical data about detection, management, and treatment were collected at diagnosis and 1 year later. We calculated incidence estimates and relative rates by key sociodemographic factors. We did descriptive analyses of underlying ophthalmic disorders and non-ophthalmic comorbidities. Findings 61 (7%) of 845 eligible children initially notified were ineligible at follow-up because of improved vision after treatment. Thus, the study sample comprised 784 children with permanent newly-diagnosed all-cause visual impairment, severe visual impairment, or blindness. 559 (72%) of 778 children had clinically significant non-ophthalmic impairments or conditions. 28 (4%) of 784 children died within a year after diagnosis of visual disability (all had underlying systemic disorders). Incidence of visual disability in the first year of life was 5·19 per 10 000 children (95% CI 4·71–5·72), almost ten times higher than among 1-to-4-year-olds and between 20 times and 100 times higher than in the older age groups. The overall cumulative incidence (or lifetime risk) of visual impairment, severe visual impairment, or blindness was 10·03 per 10 000 children (9·35–10·76). Incidence rates were higher for those from any ethnic minority group, the lowest quintile of socioeconomic status, and those born preterm or with low birthweight. 345 (44%) of 784 children had a single affected anatomical site. Disorders of the brain and visual pathways affected 378 (48%) of 784 children. Interpretation BCVIS2 provides a contemporary snapshot of the heterogeneity, multi-morbidity, and vulnerability associated with childhood visual disability in a high-income country. These findings could facilitate developing and delivering health care and planning of interventional research. Our findings highlight the importance of including childhood visual disability as a sentinel event and metric in global child health initiatives. Funding Fight for Sight, National Institute for Health Research, and Ulverscroft Foundation.

SummaryBackgroundThe world is at the cusp of experiencing local/regional hot-spots and spikes of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19 disease. We aimed to formulate an applicable epidemiological model to accurately predict and forecast the impact of local resurgence and outbreaks to guide the local healthcare demand and capacity, policy making, and public health decisions.MethodsThe model utilised the aggregated daily COVID-19 situation reports (including counts of daily admissions, discharges, and occupancy) from the local NHS hospitals and Covid-19 related weekly deaths in hospitals and other settings in Sussex (population 1-7M), Southeast England. These datasets corresponded to the first wave of COVID-19 infections from 24 March-15 June 2020. The counts of death registrations and regional population estimates were obtained from the Office of National Statistics. A novel epidemiological predictive and forecasting model was then derived based on the local/regional surveillance data. Through a rigorous inverse parameter inference approach, the model parameters were estimated by fitting the model to the data in an optimal sense and then subsequently validated to make predictions subject to 95% confidence.FindingsThe inferred parameters were physically reasonable and matched up to the widely used parameter values derived from the national datasets. Unlike other predictive models, which are restricted to a couple of days, our model can predict local hospital admissions, discharges (including deaths) and occupancy for the next 10, 20, and 30 days at the local level.InterpretationWe have demonstrated that by using local/regional data, our predictive and forecasting model can be utilised to guide the local healthcare demand and capacity, policy making, and public health decisions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the local population. Understanding how future COVID-19 spikes/waves could possibly affect the regional populations empowers us to ensure the timely commissioning and organisation of services. Primary care and community services can be guided by the projected number of infectious and recovered patients and hospital admissions/discharges to project discharge pathways to bedded and community settings, thus allowing services to understand their likely load in future spikes/waves. The flexibility of timings in the model, in combination with other early warning systems, produces a timeframe for these services to prepare and isolate capacity for likely and potential demand within regional hospitals. The model also allows local authorities to plan potential mortuary capacity and understand the burden on crematoria and burial services. The model algorithms have been integrated into a web-based multi-institutional toolkit, which can be used by NHS hospitals, local authorities, and public health departments in other regions of the UK and elsewhere. The parameters, which are locally informed, form the basis of predicting and forecasting exercises accounting for different scenarios and impact of COVID-19 transmission.FundingThis study was supported by the Higher Education Innovation Fund through the University of Sussex (ECF, JVY, AMa). This work was partly supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant number EP/T00410X/1: UK-Africa Postgraduate Advanced Study Institute in Mathematical Sciences (AMa, ECF). ECF is supported by the Wellcome Trust grant number 204833/Z/16/Z.Research in contextEvidence before this studySince the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare managers and policy makers relied on epidemiological models based on national datasets to predict and mitigate the spread of the disease. The performance of these models has not always been validated against the available data, and they depend strongly on the values for the model parameters. Statistical models, e.g. those arising from time-series analysis, lack the temporal dynamics of the compartmentalised epidemiological model for the evolution of the disease and thus fail to capture the evolution far into the future with great accuracy. Compartmental models, on the other hand, capture the underlying dynamics of an infectious disease but typically use parameters estimated using datasets from other regions or countries, thus lacking the ability to capture local demographics and policy and therefore lack predicting local dynamics with accuracy.Added value of this studyAlthough our compartmental model follows standard SEIR-D model structure, the inference algorithm described and applied in this report is novel, along with the prediction technique used to validate the model. We checked bioRxiv, medRxiv, and arXiv up to the end of August 2020 using the terms “mathematical inference”, “COVID-19”, and “SIR” and found that there is a substantial use of Bayesian approaches to fit parameters but none that use the combination of statistical approaches with compartmental models, hence the originality of our work. We designed a compartmentalised epidemiological model that captures the basic dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic and revolves around the data that are available at the local/regional level. We estimated all the parameters in the model using the local surveillance data, and in consequence, our parameters reflect the characteristics of the local population. Furthermore, we validated the predictive power of the model by using only a subset of the available data to fit the parameters. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which combines statistical approaches with a compartmental model and as such benefits greatly from the ability to predict and forecast much further into the future using the dynamical structure of the compartmental model with a relatively much higher accuracy than previously presented in the literature. This research sets the gold-standard benchmark by laying the framework for future adaptations to the model when more precise (and comprehensive) datasets are made available.Implications of all the available evidenceThe predictive power of our model outperforms previously available models for local forecasting of the impact of COVID-19. Using local models, rather than trying to use national models at a local scale, ensures that the model reflects the local demographics and provides reliable local-data-driven predictions to guide the local healthcare demand and capacity, policy making, and public health decisions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the local population. Local authorities can use these results for the planning of local hospital demand as well as death management services by developing scenario-based analysis to which different values of the reproduction number R exiting a COVID-19 lockdown are assumed and results, such as maximum hospital occupancy, are compared to the first wave to establish a potential strain on resources. This can work as an early warning detection system to see what value of R that is currently followed, which in turn informs the relevant capacity and resources needed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The Web toolkit developed by us as a result of this study (https://alpha.halogen-health.org) demonstrates the predictive power of our model as well as its flexibility with the scenario-based analysis. Although our model is based on the data from Sussex, using similar variables/data from other regions in our model would derive respective COVID-19 model parameters, and thus enable similar scenario-based investigations to predict and forecast the impact of local resurgence to guide the local healthcare demand and capacity, policy making, and public health decisions.

IHS Markit undertakes component-level research in the automotive industry through a combination of peer-level interviews and discussions with contacts and thought leaders. This is underpinned by their industry leading vehicle and powertrain-level forecasts. The approach generates a unique level of varied and comprehensive insight, which helps drive the business lines and investment decisions of our clients. With the move to electrified powertrain technology, the automotive supply chain is undergoing a transformational shift towards more compact configurations that will liberate interior space in the vehicle. Whilst this ‘end state’ might appear somewhat simplistic and uninspiring, the interim period will generate a huge number of creative technical evolutions. IHS Markit has undertaken component-level research focusing on the extent to which power electronics, transmission and e-motor technology as well as the thermal management will become increasingly integrated, analyzing the approaches of OEMs and interpolating the supply chain dynamics to understand how solutions will evolve with time.

A twin infant was born at 23+5 weeks’ gestation by vaginal delivery after spontaneous onset of labour. He required inflation breaths and was intubated at 4 min of age. He was admitted to neonatal intensive care unit and received artificial ventilation but was otherwise haemodynamically stable. Birth weight was 0.593 kg. On day 3 of life, maternal breast milk feeds were commenced but …

The Tofts located in north-western Fenland is a low ridge composed of sandy silt, elevated several metres above the surrounding land. Stratigraphically, the feature is the landward edge of an intertidal-subtidal sand body that stretches east into The Wash. It was the location of a Medieval salt-making industry. The ridge seems to have been initiated after 2100 cal years BP by storm waves and/or wind transporting sediment landward from adjacent intertidal flats. Differential consolidation of peat on its landward side and dumping of sediment onto the surface during salt-making enhanced its morphological expression.

The South African Insolvency Act 24 of 1936 creates two methods by which a debtor's estate may be sequestrated, namely voluntary surrender of a debtor's estate and compulsory sequestration of a debtor's estate. The voluntary surrender of a debtor's estate should be aimed at realising a not negligible dividend for the debtor's creditors. It is not a principal aim of South African insolvency law to obtain the debtor's release from his liabilities, but to ensure an equitable distribution of the debtor's assets for the benefit of his creditors, as is expressly required by section 3(1) of the Act.

The general policy in South African insolvency law is that assets must be recovered and included in the insolvent estate, and that this action must be to the advantage of the creditors of the insolvent estate. But there are several exceptions to this rule and an asset that is the subject of such an exception may be excluded from the insolvent estate. The Insolvency Act, however, does not expressly distinguish between excluded and exempt assets, thereby resulting in problem areas in the field of exemption law in insolvency in South Africa. It may be argued that the fundamental difference between excluded and exempt assets is that excluded assets should never form part of an insolvent estate and should be beyond the reach of the creditors of the insolvent estate, while exempt assets initially form part of the insolvent estate, but in certain circumstances may be exempted from the estate for the benefit of the insolvent debtor, thereby allowing the debtor to use such excluded or exempt assets to start afresh before or after rehabilitation. Modern society, socio-political developments and human rights requirements have necessitated a broadening of the classes of assets that should be excluded or exempted from insolvent estates. This article considers assets excluded from the insolvent estates of individual debtors by legislation other than the Insolvency Act. It must, however, be understood that these legislative provisions relate to insolvent estates and thus generally overlap in one way or another with some provisions of the Insolvency Act.

The early Holocene mainland coast of Abu Dhabi Emirate consisted of a series of embayments between headlands of Miocene inliers and Pleistocene carbonate seif dunes. Subsequently, most of those embayments were back-filled to form coastal sabkhas. The facies and gross depositional characteristics of modern embayments adjacent to Jebel Dhanna are described and used as analogues for former embayments such as those landward of Abu Dhabi Island. Unfortunately, the sedimentology of both modern and earlier embayments have been severely or completely destroyed by industrial and urban developments but vintage aerial photography and satellite imagery have revealed the former topography.

Glacially driven eustatic sea-level fluctuations have left a clear signature only along the coastal regions and barrier islands of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. Four marine sequences are identifiable although others are known to exist offshore. The stratigraphy is complicated by aeolian processes associated especially with the Shamal winds which have blown from the northwest to create dune fields that dominate the Quaternary sedimentation. Whilst aeolian facies can clearly be identified separating marine incursions along the coastal regions, aeolian deflation has complicated the stratigraphy by recycling sediment partly in response to loss of windward sediment sources during marine transgressions and partly in response to glacially driven climatic changes. Unravelling the sequence stratigraphy of the desert dunes inland, especially beyond the coastal sabkhas, is therefore extremely difficult. The late Quaternary aeolian dunes and their veneer of mobile aeolian sands are grouped into a single poorly defined formation which spans the entire timescale of the sequences identified along the coast.

At least 17 subsea telecommunications cables cross the Gaoping Canyon and Manila Trench system in the Strait of Luzon between Taiwan and the Philippines. There, cable breaks record rapid (5–16 ms− 1), long run-out (> 300 km) sediment density flows triggered by earthquakes and typhoons. Four major cable-breaking events have occurred in the last decade. In 2006, the Pingtung ML = 7.0 earthquakes formed up to 3 individual flows, some of which ran-out for up to 460 km. In 2009, Typhoon Morakot generated two sediment flows; the first was triggered by hyperpycnal river discharge, whereas a second flow formed 3 days later, possibly due to failure of recently deposited flood sediment in upper Gaoping Canyon. A flow in 2010 formed during a swarm of ML = 3–5 earthquakes that followed the ML = 6.4 Jiashian earthquake. Finally, Typhoon Soudelor of 2015 caused the Gaoping River to form a hyperpycnal plume that failed to break cables at < 2600 m depth, but broke at least 6 cables in deeper water. The 2006 Pingtung earthquakes produced the largest sediment flow(s) that produced 22 cable breaks. The other events were less destructive with each causing 6–9 breaks. Sources of the sediment flows varied with the triggering mechanism: those associated with hyperpycnal discharges probably began near the mouth of the Gaoping River. In contrast, earthquake-triggered landslides and subsequent sediment density flows formed anywhere on the adjacent continental margin. Flow speeds generally declined with increased run-out, lower seabed slope and increased channel width. Most variability (7–20 ms− 1) was observed over the 0.4°–1.0° slopes of Gaoping Canyon but speeds were mainly restricted to 5–8 ms− 1 in the 0.3° sloping Manila Trench. The 2006–2015 period of frequent cable-damaging flows is the first for the past two decades or longer. In the absence of evidence for increased seismic or anthropogenic activity, this disruptive period may reflect increased typhoon intensity and fluvial sediment discharge. Such typhoon-related flows may complicate interpretation of palaeo-seismic records derived from turbidites in such settings.

The Flandrian transgression inundated an embayed Abu Dhabi coastline defined by headlands dominated by Miocene and Quaternary continental strata. Subsequent coastal development has produced the sabkha where Holocene marine carbonate dominates the outer reaches of the coastal plain whilst the inner parts are dominated by Pleistocene aeolian sediment which also underlie the Holocene sequence. The distribution of the Holocene carbonates, mainly formed under a forced regression, has been controlled by the formation of two barrier lagoon systems, the first of which is represented by a severely deflated storm beach system and the second by the present-day barrier island complex. The early storm beaches are still active along the seaward margin of Sabkha Matti, beyond the western end of the protective barrier island complex. The small shallow lagoons behind the deflated storm beaches have been infilled with marine and aeolian carbonates and early Holocene evaporites including transgressive and regressive anhydrite. The currently active lagoons behind the frontal barrier island complex have been progressively infilled by both mainland coastal accretion and barrier island enlargement through leeward accretion. Such leeward accretion has sometimes dominated the two processes. The modern intertidal microbial mat is separated from, and partly overlaps, the buried regressional microbial mat and seems to represent a renewed eustatic transgression in response to global warming. Whilst the mainland coastal sabkhas are expanding seawards, they are also extending landwards as a result of aeolian deflation. Marine and aeolian processes are therefore important in the bidirectional enlargement of the coastal sabkhas. Late Holocene peritidal and sabkha evaporites are forming along the mainland coastline seawards of the deflated storm beaches, but they are very rare on the barrier islands. Some banded anhydrites with planar bases and containing bouquets of anhydrite which replaced vertical gypsum crystals, plus interbedded microbial mat, indicate former salinas on the sabkhas. Holocene dolomite is difficult to detect in the field. Much of the dolomite is likely to have formed inorganically, perhaps encouraged by the presence of Mg-Si clay such as palygorskite, but there is increasing evidence of microbially induced dolomitization within the microbial mats. There is also evidence, from sulphide concentrations, of dolomite resulting from the activity of sulphate-reducing bacteria, possibly within former salinas. Whilst several Holocene hardgrounds are known to exist, they tend to display remarkably flat tops and irregular bases and may extend over large areas. They may act as chronological markers although it is possible that they may be diachronous. The once pristine sabkhas are now so spoiled by petroleum and civil engineering activities that Abu Dhabi and the global community are in grave danger of completely losing the best natural example of coastal sabkhas in the world although as yet there are regrettably only very limited efforts to try and preserve a small area as a site of special scientific interest.

We report the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of some potent small-molecule neuropilin-1 (NRP1) antagonists. NRP1 is implicated in the immune response to tumors, particularly in Treg cell fragility, required for PD1 checkpoint blockade. The design of these compounds was based on a previously identified compound EG00229. The design of these molecules was informed and supported by X-ray crystal structures. Compound 1 (EG01377) was identified as having properties suitable for further investigation. Compound 1 was then tested in several in vitro assays and was shown to have antiangiogenic, antimigratory, and antitumor effects. Remarkably, 1 was shown to be selective for NRP1 over the closely related protein NRP2. In purified Nrp1+, FoxP3+, and CD25+ populations of Tregs from mice, 1 was able to block a glioma-conditioned medium-induced increase in TGFβ production. This comprehensive characterization of a small-molecule NRP1 antagonist provides the basis for future in vivo studies.

The question of the ownership of property which vests (by virtue of sections 20(1) and 21(1) respectively of the Insolvency Act 24 of 1936) in the Master and, upon appointment, in the trustee of the insolvent estate, has been the source of academic debate and conflicting court judgments over a lengthy period. It was thought that the question had been finally settled by the (then) Appellate Division in De Villiers v Delta Cables (Pty) Ltd 1992 1 SA 9 (A), which concerned property belonging to the solvent spouse (as defined in section 21(13)), where it was held that ownership passes to the Master and subsequently the trustee. This was accepted by the Constitutional Court for the purposes of its judgment in Harksen v Lane 1998 1 SA 300 (CC). However, recent judgments, in Edkins v Registrar of Deeds, Johannesburg 2012 6 SA 278 (GSJ) and, on appeal, Fourie v Edkins 2013 6 SA 576 (SCA), have seemingly again opened up the question for debate, particularly in view of the fact that the Supreme Court of Appeal in Fourie v Edkins ignored its own precedent on this issue. These two judgments concerned property registered in the name of the insolvent. In a third recent judgment, in Motala v Moller (GSJ) unreported case number 32654/11 (GSJ) of 11 September 2013 (copy on file with authors) concerning property which had belonged to the solvent spouse at the time of the sequestration of the estate of her husband, the court regarded section 25(4) of the Insolvency Act as countering the precedent established by De Villiers v Delta Cables. In this article, each of these three judgments is analysed and criticised.KEYWORDS: Ownership of assets of insolvent estate; solvent spouse; section 21 Insolvency Act 24 of 1936; section 25 Insolvency Act 24 of 1936.

Accurate sea-level reconstruction is critical in understanding the drivers of coastal evolution. Inliers of shallow marine limestone and aeolianite are exposed as zeugen (carbonate-capped erosional remnants) on the southern coast of the Arabian/Persian Gulf. These have generally been accepted as evidence of a eustatically driven, last-interglacial relative sea-level highstand preceded by a penultimate glacial-age lowstand. Instead, recent optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating suggests a last glacial age for these deposits, requiring >100 m of uplift since the last glacial maximum in order to keep pace with eustatic sea-level rise and implying the need for a wholesale revision of tectonic, stratigraphic and sea-level histories of the Gulf. These two hypotheses have radically different implications for regional neotectonics and land–sea distribution histories. Here we test these hypotheses using OSL dating of the zeugen formations. These new ages are remarkably consistent with earlier interpretations of the formations being last interglacial or older in age, showing that tectonic movements are negligible and eustatic sea-level variations are responsible for local sea-level changes in the Gulf. The cause of the large age differences between recent studies is unclear, although it appears related to large differences in the measured accumulated dose in different OSL samples.

Deltas and their associated deep-water submarine fans are the main repositories of sediment produced by continental erosion. The internal structure of prograding deltas is often complicated by changes in loci of deposition and changes in land-sea levels during their formation. The high water content and rapid deposition cause syn-sedimentary deformation. Deltas have been inhabited by man throughout history due to their rich surface resources. Ancient deltas are rich in hydrocarbons which are widely exploited. They are very sensitive to changes in the hinterland and today their existence is threatened by anthropogenic actions such as dam construction and sea-level changes.

The Ria of Vigo, one of the classical rias of SW Europe, is an environment of high production of organic matter naturally induced by the Galician upwelling. The organic matter is partly supplied by small rivers but mainly by sewage plants along the ria shoreline; jointly they contribute 725 t y−1 of POC, of which 72% is of anthropogenic origin. The freshwater flux is equivalent to a supply of 5 g m−2 yr−1 of allochtonous POC to the ria floor. However the rate of accumulation of POC is dominated by the order of magnitude higher supply of autochthonous material from the net primary production. The present accumulation rate of organic matter (49–58 gPOC m−2 yr−1) is lower than the average supply, estimated from the sedimentary record, to the ria since the middle of the nineteen Century (>60 gPOC m−2 yr−1). This difference may be due to anthropogenic activity or changes in the upwelling pattern. The composition of the organic matter in the sediment reflects the relative importance of the various sources (terrestrial-marine). While terrestrial woody materials dominate the inner ria, phytoplankton remains dominate the remainder of the ria. Rock-Evaluation analysis indicates the inner ria is the site of deposition of gas-prone material and it is inferred that the outer ria of oil-prone organic matter. The controls on the accumulation of POC in the rias show many differences to those found in estuaries affected by anthropogenic activities e.g. agriculture and increasing human population., The writers would like to record their gratitude to members of the former Department of ‘Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente (Univ. of Vigo)’ for helping in collecting the samples with the support of CICYT projects NAT 89-1075 and AMB 93-0300; to METRIA project participants and, particularly, to Dr. Santos-Echeandía and Mr. Otxotorena, for their help with the sampling; to Dr. Z. Ali and Mr. M.A. Ahmad of the former Department of Geology (Imperial College of London) for the carbon and nitrogen analyses; to Dr Ettienn Drosse (Institut Français du Pétrole) for the rock-evaluation values; to Mr. Portela for the gauging station measurements in the Oitavén River and to Dr. Alvarez Eijo (USC) for the gauging station calibration and river flow quantification; to Ms. Rodríguez-Riveiros for her technical assistance; and to the sewage plant companies ‘Pridesa’, ‘Aqualia’, ‘Espina y Delfín’ and ‘Fergó Galicia’ for their kindness in cooperating in the sampling and providing sewage flow and population equivalent data. This work is a contribution to the Spanish LOICZ program and was partially supported by CICYT under the project ‘Biogeochemical budget and 3D transport model of trace metals in a Galician Ria’ (reference REN2003-04106-C03).

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid that causes skin cancer and binds to cysteine residues—a property that could be used to infer arsenic responsiveness of a target protein. Non-synonymous Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (nsSNPs) result in amino acid substitutions and may alter arsenic binding with cysteine residues. Thus, the objective of this investigation was to identify and analyze nsSNPs that lead to substitutions to or from cysteine residues as an indication of increased or decreased arsenic responsiveness. We hypothesize that integration of data on molecular impacts of nsSNPs and arsenic-gene relationships will identify nsSNPs that could serve as arsenic responsiveness markers. We have analyzed functional and structural impacts data for 5,811 nsSNPs linked to 1,224 arsenic-annotated genes. In addition to the identified candidate nsSNPs for increased or reduced arsenic responsiveness, we observed i) a nsSNP that results in the breakage of a disulfide bond, as candidate marker for reduced arsenic responsiveness of KLK7, a secreted serine protease participate in normal shedding of the skin; and ii) 6 pairs of vicinal cysteines in KLK7 protein that could be binding sites for arsenic. In summary, our analysis identified non-synonymous SNPs that could be used to evaluate responsiveness of a protein target to arsenic. In particular, an epidermal expressed serine protease with crucial function in normal skin physiology was prioritized on the basis of abundance of vicinal cysteines for further research on arsenic-induced keratinocyte carcinogenesis.

This paper reviews the performance of the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission since it was set up in July 2004 as an independent advisor to the Victorian Government on regulation reform and business competitiveness. The Commission undertakes inquiries into issues that the government refers to it; reviews regulatory impact statements and business impact assessments; and administers competitive neutrality policy. There is evidence that the Commission is contributing to improvements in the regulatory and competitive environment in Victoria, but there are opportunities for further improvements.

Pleistocene carbonates along the northern coasts of Futaysi Island and Al Dabb'iya tombolo, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., contain unusual calcirudite-filled structures which are bowl- and funnel-shaped in vertical section; roughly circular in plan view; up to 1 m in diameter and 1 m deep. The calcirudite infill is dominated by clasts of reworked lithified smaller burrows and what appear to be fragments of beach rock or hardground. These structures were previously interpreted as marking the sites of former trees with holes, left behind by their root balls, infilled by a storm deposit and were considered to indicate an emergent event marking the boundary between two Pleistocene sedimentary sequences represented by the Futaisi (Futaysi) and Dabb’iya Members of the Fuwayrit Formation. However, they are here re-interpreted as giant burrows formed by some, as yet, unknown marine animal probably foraging for food or using them as dwelling sites which contained storm deposits emplaced in shallow water. Thin crusts on top of some giant burrow infills possibly suggest emergence and this would require a repositioning of the sequence boundary between the Futaysi and Dabb’iya Members. The burrows are believed to have been formed at approximately 75–125 Ka.

This article establishes a concrete relation between order ideals of minimal generators and annihilator ideals. For a regular local ring $R$ and ideal $I$ the authors construct an $R$-module $M$ with minimal generator having $I$ as order ideal. Further, it is shown that most variability in ideal–theoretic behavior of such order ideals is exhibited by modules of projective dimension~one. The authors ``introduce'' the concept of $*$-orthogonality and use their syzygy theorem to show constraints on the size and height of a $*$-orthogonal set in a given finitely generated non-free module. The paper contains an application of the theory of order ideals to the binomial behavior of syzygy rank.

Validated gene transfer and expression tracers are essential for elucidating functions of mammalian genes. Here, we have determined the suitability and unintended side effects of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and DsRed-Express fluorescent protein as expression tracers in long-term hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Retrovirally transduced mouse bone marrow cells expressing either EGFP or DsRed-Express in single or mixed dual-color cell populations were clearly discerned by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. The results from in vivo competitive repopulation assays demonstrated that EGFP-expressing HSCs were maintained nearly throughout the lifespan of the transplanted mice and retained long-term multilineage repopulating potential. All mice assessed at 15 months post-transplantation were EGFP positive, and, on average, 24% total peripheral white blood cells expressed EGFP. Most EGFP-expressing recipient mice lived at least 22 months. In contrast, Discosoma sp. red fluorescent protein (DsRed)-expressing donor cells dramatically declined in transplant-recipient mice over time, particularly in the competitive setting, in which mixed EGFP- and DsRed-expressing cells were cotransplanted. Moreover, under in vitro culture condition favoring preservation of HSCs, purified EGFP-expressing cells grew robustly, whereas DsRed-expressing cells did not. Therefore, EGFP has no detectable deteriorative effects on HSCs, and is nearly an ideal long-term expression tracer for hematopoietic cells; however, DsRed-Express fluorescent protein is not suitable for these cells.

Stromal cell–derived factor (SDF)-1/CXCL12, released by murine embryonic stem (ES) cells, enhances survival, chemotaxis, and hematopoietic differentiation of murine ES cells. Conditioned medium (CM) from murine ES cells growing in the presence of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) was generated while the ES cells were in an undifferentiated Oct-4 expressing state. ES cell–CM enhanced survival of normal murine bone marrow myeloid progenitors (CFU-GM) subjected to delayed growth factor addition in vitro and decreased apoptosis of murine bone marrow c-kit+lin− cells. ES CM contained interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-10, IL-11, macrophage-colony stimulating factor (CSF), oncostatin M, stem cell factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, as well as a number of chemokines and other proteins, some of which are known to enhance survival/anti-apoptosis of progenitors. Irradiation of ES cells enhanced release of some proteins and decreased release of others. IL-6, FGF-9, and TNF-α, not detected prior to irradiation was found after ES cells were irradiated. ES cell CM also stimulated CFU-GM colony formation. Thus, undifferentiated murine ES cells growing in the presence of LIF produce/release a number of biologically active interleukins, CSFs, chemokines, and other growth modulatory proteins, results which may be of physiological and/or practical significance.