Development of obstetric-hepatology services: defining optimal care and impact of pregnancy counselling on patient experience.

Objective: Prepregnancy counselling (PPC) is an important aspect of care for women with chronic liver disease (CLD) and liver transplantation (LT), yet its impact has not been well described. This study aims to assess the experience of women attending a joint obstetric-hepatology PPC clinic in a single-centre unit.

Design/methods: A retrospective questionnaire-based study in a tertiary unit within the UK where patients who attended the PPC clinic between March 2016 and July 2021 were invited to participate by filling in a questionnaire.

Pregnancy outcomes in women with primary biliary cholangitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To determine maternal, obstetric and neonatal outcomes in a cohort of women with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Ten specialist centres managing pregnant women with liver disease.

Prediction of soil available water-holding capacity from visible near-infrared reflectance spectra.

Sustainable land management requires reliable information about soil hydraulic properties. Among these properties, available water-holding capacity (AWC) is a key attribute, as it quantifies the amount of water available for plants that the soil can hold. Since direct measurements of AWC are costly, pedotransfer functions (PTF) are often used to estimate AWC, leveraging statistical relationships with properties that are easier to measure, such as texture, bulk density, and organic carbon content.

Effects of climate change on the delivery of soil-mediated ecosystem services within the primary sector in temperate ecosystems: a review and New Zealand case study.

Future human well-being under climate change depends on the ongoing delivery of food, fibre and wood from the land-based primary sector. The ability to deliver these provisioning services depends on soil-based ecosystem services (e.g.

The frequency and significance of WT-1 expression in serous endometrial carcinoma.

Serous endometrial carcinoma is an aggressive type of endometrial carcinoma. Wilms tumor gene 1 (WT-1) is commonly expressed in ovarian serous carcinomas and considered a diagnostic marker of these tumors. However, it is generally believed that WT-1 is rarely expressed by endometrial serous carcinoma.

The role of precision agriculture for improved nutrient management on farms.

Precision agriculture uses proximal and remote sensor surveys to delineate and monitor within-field variations in soil and crop attributes, guiding variable rate control of inputs, so that in-season management can be responsive, e.g. matching strategic nitrogen fertiliser application to site-specific field conditions.

The B4 school check behaviour measures: findings from the Hawke's Bay evaluation.

The Before (B4) School Check is a free health and development check delivered by specifically trained nurses to four year old children throughout New Zealand, aimed to identify and address any health, behavioural, social or developmental concerns that could affect a child's ability to get the most benefit from school. Reported here are the results of an evaluation of the B4 School Checks in Hawke's Bay, focusing specifically on children assessed at the 84 School Check with behaviour issues as determined by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Health Hawke's Bay (HHB) records were reviewed to understand the number and demographics of the children assessed with behaviour issues at the B4 School Checks up to 31 August 2011, and the interventions to which they were referred.

Improving school readiness with the Before School Check: early experience in Hawke's Bay.

Aim: The New Zealand Ministry of Health's Before-School Check (B4SC) aims to identify those 4-year-old children with health, developmental or behavioural problems likely to impact on their education so these can be remediated before school entry. This evaluation aims to demonstrate the outcomes of the first 10 months of the B4SC programme in Hawke's Bay and the lessons learnt.

Methods: The B4SC was implemented in Hawke's Bay using an intersectoral, collaborative approach including all major stakeholders, led by the Hawke's Bay Primary Health Organisation (HBPHO).

Intracellular sucrose communicates metabolic demand to sucrose transporters in developing pea cotyledons.

Mechanistic inter-relationships in sinks between sucrose compartmentation/metabolism and phloem unloading/translocation are poorly understood. Developing grain legume seeds provide tractable experimental systems to explore this question. Metabolic demand by cotyledons is communicated to phloem unloading and ultimately import by sucrose withdrawal from the seed apoplasmic space via a turgor-homeostat mechanism.

Effect of afforestation and reforestation of pastures on the activity and population dynamics of methanotrophic bacteria.

We investigated the effect of afforestation and reforestation of pastures on methane oxidation and the methanotrophic communities in soils from three different New Zealand sites. Methane oxidation was measured in soils from two pine (Pinus radiata) forests and one shrubland (mainly Kunzea ericoides var. ericoides) and three adjacent permanent pastures.

myo-Inositol and sucrose concentrations affect the accumulation of raffinose family oligosaccharides in seeds.

Raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) fulfil multiple functions in plants. In seeds, they possibly protect cellular structures during desiccation and constitute carbon reserves for early germination. Their biosynthesis proceeds by the transfer of galactose units from galactinol to sucrose.

Atomic force microscopy of pea starch: origins of image contrast.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to image the internal structure of pea starch granules. Starch granules were encased in a nonpenetrating matrix of rapid-set Araldite. Images were obtained of the internal structure of starch exposed by cutting the face of the block and of starch in sections collected on water.

Atomic force microscopy of pea starch granules: granule architecture of wild-type parent, r and rb single mutants, and the rrb double mutant.

AFM studies have been made of the internal structure of pea starch granules. The data obtained provides support for the blocklet model of starch granule structure (Carbohydr. Polym.

Starch synthesis and carbon partitioning in developing endosperm.

The biosynthesis of starch is the major determinant of yield in cereal grains. In this short review, attention is focused on the synthesis of the soluble substrate for starch synthesis, ADPglucose (ADPG). Consideration is given to the pathway of ADPG production, its subcellular compartmentation, and the role of metabolite transporters in mediating its delivery to the site of starch synthesis.

Mutant alleles at the rugosus loci in pea affect seed moisture sorption isotherms and the relations between seed longevity and moisture content.

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) mutant near-isogenic lines (RRrbrb, rrRbRb, rrrbrb) with lower starch but higher lipid contents, brought about by lesions in the starch biosynthetic pathway, had seed moisture sorption isotherms displaced below that of the wild type (RRRbRb). The negative logarithmic relationship between seed longevity and seed storage moisture content (%, f.

Structural studies of starches with different water contents.

The proportion of double helices in starches from a series of pea [rb, rug4-b, rug3-a, and lam-c mutants, and the wild type (WT) parental line], potato and maize (normal and low amylose), and wheat (normal) lines, ranged from about 30-50% on a dry weight basis. In relatively dry starch powders, only about half of the double helices were in crystalline order, this proportion being higher for A-type than for B-type starches. Using starch from WT pea as an example, it was found that increasing water content results in an increase in total crystallinity.

Analysis of the raffinose family oligosaccharide pathway in pea seeds with contrasting carbohydrate composition.

Raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) are synthesized by a set of galactosyltransferases, which sequentially add galactose units from galactinol to sucrose. The accumulation of RFOs was studied in maturing seeds of two pea (Pisum sativum) lines with contrasting RFO composition. Seeds of the line SD1 accumulated stachyose as the predominant RFO, whereas verbascose, the next higher homolog of stachyose, was almost absent.

Expression of legumin and vicilin genes in pea mutants and the production of legumin in transgenic plants.

Pea seeds contain two major storage proteins, legumin and vicilin, in proportions that are genetically and environmentally determined. They are synthesized from at least 40 genes and at least 10 different genetic loci. Mutant alleles at loci involved in starch synthesis, which result in perturbations in starch accumulation, also affect the expression of legumin genes, thereby influencing the legumin: vicilin ratio within the total seed protein.

The effect of water content on the ordered/disordered structures in starches.

(13)C cross-polarization magic angle spinning NMR has been used to study the ordered and disordered structures of starches with different water contents. The amorphous regions of starch have been shown to produce NMR patterns only if they are in a glassy state, the widths, positions, and areas of the peaks to some extent being dependent on the temperature and the water content of the starch. In the amorphous region, the peaks were all Gaussian in shape, while the peaks in the ordered regions had Lorentz profiles.

[Induction of delayed luminescence of pea photosystem II with genetically changed level of starch in the seeds].

We studied the curves of delayed luminescence induction in leaves of pea plants with mutations affecting the starch branching enzyme (r locus) and ADPG pyrophosphorylase (rb locus). In mutated pants, a 75% reduction of starch content in seeds was observed. The half-decay time of delayed luminescence intensity during induction for double mutants was shown to be longer than for wild type plants.

The rug3 locus of pea encodes plastidial phosphoglucomutase.

Two cDNA clones were isolated from pea (Pisum sativum L.) and their deduced amino acid sequences shown to have significant homology to phosphoglucomutases from eukaryotic and prokaryotic sources. The longer cDNA contained a putative transit-peptide-encoding sequence, supporting the hypothesis that the isolated clones represent the cytosolic and plastidial isoforms of phosphoglucomutase in pea.

Influence of genotype and processing on the in vitro rate of starch hydrolysis and resistant starch formation in peas (Pisum sativum L.).

The formation of resistant starch (RS) and the rate of starch hydrolysis were evaluated in vitro in a wild type of green-seeded pea genotype RRRbRb BC3 (33-Am) with 32.7% amylose content and in two mutants RRrbrb BC3 (23-Am) and rrRbRb BC3 (65-Am) with amylose contents of 23.3 and 65.