Evaluation of the 1-methyl-2-phenylindole colorimetric assay for aldehydic lipid peroxidation products in plants: malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal.

The 1-methyl-2-phenylindole colorimetric assay is considered specific for malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) in mammalian systems, but its specificity in plant tissues is unknown. This study demonstrates that the assay produces a purple/blue chromophore with an absorbance peak at 586 nm for a malondialdehyde standard, while aqueous extractions from Ribes spp. Beta vulgaris, and Lycopersicon esculentum tissues produce an orange chromophore with an absorbance maximum at 450 nm and a large shoulder that extends to 700 nm.

Reciprocation and interchange in wild Japanese macaques: grooming, cofeeding, and agonistic support.

Social primates spend a significant proportion of their time exchanging grooming with their group companions. Although grooming is mainly exchanged in kind, given its hygienic and tension-reducing functions, it is still debated whether grooming also provides some social benefits, such as preferential access to resources (e.g.

Intensification of hydroxyl radical production in sonochemical reactors.

The efficacy of sonochemical reactors in chemical processing applications has been well established in the laboratory scale of operation though at a given set of operating parameters and no efforts have been directed in terms of maximizing the free radical production. In the present work, the effect of different operating parameters viz. pH, power dissipation into the system, effect of additives such as air, haloalkanes, titanium dioxide, iron and oxygen on the extent of hydroxyl radical formation in a sonochemical reactor have been investigated using salicylic acid dosimetry.

The role of modelling in identifying drug targets for diseases of the cell cycle.

The cell cycle is implicated in diseases that are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the developed world. Until recently, the search for drug targets has focused on relatively small parts of the regulatory network under the assumption that key events can be controlled by targeting single pathways. This is valid provided the impact of couplings to the wider scale context of the network can be ignored.

Correlating yeast cell stress physiology to changes in the cell surface morphology: atomic force microscopic studies.

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) has emerged as a powerful biophysical tool in biotechnology and medicine to investigate the morphological, physical, and mechanical properties of yeasts and other biological systems. However, properties such as, yeasts' response to environmental stresses, metabolic activities of pathogenic yeasts, cell-cell/cell-substrate adhesion, and cell-flocculation have rarely been investigated so far by using biophysical tools. Our recent results obtained by AFM on one strain each of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe show a clear correlation between the physiology of environmentally stressed yeasts and the changes in their surface morphology.

Culturally sensitive mental health care: a module for 21st century education and practice.

As the United Kingdom becomes increasingly culturally diverse, we are tasked with becoming more attuned to complex cultures, health beliefs and practices. The routes toward this demographic trend and related issues of population movement are complex and have a significant impact on those engaged in meeting the needs of clients with mental health problems and their families. This paper is the result of a small study undertaken to explore the current extend of cultural awareness of a group of mental health practitioners working with clients across a range of health care settings.

Optimisation of the azinobis-3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid radical scavenging assay for physiological studies of total antioxidant activity in woody plant germplasm.

A robust spectroscopic method for determining total antioxidant activity in aqueous extractions has been applied to tissues from diverse woody plant species, including seeds of Coffea arabica and in vitro shoots from Ribes nigrum, Picea sitchensis and Shorea leprosula. The assay involves scavenging of an ABTS [2,2'-azinobis-(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)] radical generated by the reaction of potassium persulphate with ABTS to produce an ABTS*(+) chromophore (lambda=734 nm). Antioxidants reduce ABTS*(+) back to ABTS with a concomitant decrease in absorbance.

Temporally resolved electro-optic effect.

The electro-optic effect between an ultrafast optical probe pulse and an ultrashort terahertz pulse is shown to depend on the time derivatives of the product of the probe and terahertz electric fields. Application of this theory to temporally resolved single-shot terahertz detection techniques, where the electro-optic effect is temporally localized within an optical probe pulse, shows that the description presented here differs fundamentally and verifiably from that commonly used in literature.

Atomic force microscopic study of the effects of ethanol on yeast cell surface morphology.

The detrimental effects of ethanol toxicity on the cell surface morphology of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (strain NCYC 1681) and Schizosaccharomyces pombe (strain DVPB 1354) were investigated using an atomic force microscope (AFM). In combination with culture viability and mean cell volume measurements AFM studies allowed us to relate the cell surface morphological changes, observed on nanometer lateral resolution, with the cellular stress physiology. Exposing yeasts to increasing stressful concentrations of ethanol led to decreased cell viabilities and mean cell volumes.

Atomic force microscopic study of the influence of physical stresses on Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Morphological changes in the cell surfaces of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (strain NCYC 1681), and the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe (strain DVPB 1354), in response to thermal and osmotic stresses, were investigated using an atomic force microscope. With this microscope imaging, together with measurements of culture viability and cell size, it was possible to relate topological changes of the cell surface at nanoscale with cellular stress physiology. As expected, when the yeasts were exposed to thermostress or osmostress, their viability together with the mean cell volume decreased in conjunction with the increase in thermal or osmotic shock.

DRASTIC--INSIGHTS: querying information in a plant gene expression database.

DRASTIC--Database Resource for the Analysis of Signal Transduction In Cells (http://www.drastic.org.

HPLC analysis of plant DNA methylation: a study of critical methodological factors.

HPLC analysis of nucleosides is important for determining total DNA methylation in plants and can be used to help characterise epigenetic changes during stress, growth and development. This is of particular interest for in vitro plant cultures as they are highly susceptible to genetic change. HPLC methodologies have been optimised for mammalian and microbial DNA, but not for plants.

The enigma of facial asymmetry: is there a gender-specific pattern of facedness?

Although facial symmetry correlates with facial attractiveness, human faces are often far from symmetrical with one side frequently being larger than the other (Kowner, 1998). Smith (2000) reported that male and female faces were asymmetrical in opposite directions, with males having a larger area on the left side compared to the right side, and females having a larger right side compared to the left side. The present study attempted to replicate and extend this finding.

The modality shift effect and the effectiveness of warning signals in different modalities.

Which is better, a visual or an auditory warning signal? Initial findings suggested that an auditory signal was more effective, speeding reaction to a target more than a visual warning signal, particularly at brief foreperiods [Bertelson, P., & Tisseyre, F. (1969).

Imperfect DNA mirror repeats in E. coli TnsA and other protein-coding DNA.

DNA imperfect mirror repeats (DNA-IMRs) are ubiquitous in protein-coding DNA. However, they overlap and often have different centers of symmetry, making it difficult to evaluate their relationship to each other and to specific DNA and protein motifs and structures. This paper describes a systematic method of determining a hierarchy for DNA-IMRs and evaluates their relationship to protein structural elements (PSEs)--helices, turns and beta-sheets.

Back to the future: making a case for including the history of mental health nursing in nurse education programmes.

Reflections on nursing history, the nature of its workforce and its evolution as a profession can be powerful tools in the development of professional identity. Historical accounts of mental health nurses' practice and how they are socially, politically and culturally positioned within a particular time frame serve to illustrate that as practitioners we are precariously placed within a certain point in history. This paper emphasises the importance of mental health nursing historical research within nurse education curricula as a means of situating current theories, practice and professional identity.

Moderation of morphogenetic and oxidative stress responses in flax in vitro cultures by hydroxynonenal and desferrioxamine.

Hypocotyl segments of 7-day old seedlings of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) cultivars Atalante, Flanders, Jitka, Szegedi 30 and Super were screened for organogenesis (shoot and root induction) and embryo-like structure production. A non-destructive assay for hydroxyl radicals (*OH), utilising DMSO as a radical trap, was used to determine *OH formation during tissue culture and morphogenesis.

A Fenton-like oxidation process using corrosion of iron metal sheet surfaces in the presence of hydrogen peroxide: a batch process study using model pollutants.

This study evaluates a new method for chemically destroying organic pollutants in wastewater using spontaneous corrosion of iron metal sheet surfaces in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Model pollutants (phenol and benzoic acid) were degraded in batch experiments to investigate which parameters affected the process performance. Iron metal sheet surfaces spontaneously corrode under acidic conditions producing iron species (mainly ferrous ions) dissolved in aqueous solution, which react with hydrogen peroxide via the Fenton reaction.

Time series modelling of global mean temperature for managerial decision-making.

Climate change has important implications for business and economic activity. Effective management of climate change impacts will depend on the availability of accurate and cost-effective forecasts. This paper uses univariate time series techniques to model the properties of a global mean temperature dataset in order to develop a parsimonious forecasting model for managerial decision-making over the short-term horizon.

Factors influencing exfiltration processes in sewers.

Exfiltration from sewers is widespread and emerging legislation may require water service providers to identify, and rectify, its sources in sewerage systems. This paper describes exfiltration test apparatus and a series of experiments undertaken using sewage to gain a better understanding of the influence of sewage solids and sediments on leakage rates. An overview of the results obtained is given, which demonstrates that most previous estimates of exfiltration leakage rates were too high due to a lack of appreciation of the "self-repairing" action of sewage and sewage associated solids.

Thermal analysis of the plant encapsulation-dehydration cryopreservation protocol using silica gel as the desiccant.

The encapsulation-dehydration cryopreservation protocol is critically dependent upon the evaporative desiccation step, which must optimise survival with the retention of glass stability on sample cooling and rewarming. Desiccation is usually achieved evaporatively by drying in a sterile airflow. However, chemical desiccation using silica gel has advantages for laboratories that do not have environmental control and/or which are exposed to high relative humidities and risks of microbial contamination.

The impact of bacterial diet on the migration and navigation of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Can diet have a significant impact on the ability of organisms to sense and locate food? Focusing on the bacterial feeder Caenorhabditis elegans, we investigated what effect preconditioning on a range of bacterial substrates had on the subsequent chemotaxis process involved in the nematode locating other bacterial populations. Remarkably, we found that C. elegans, initially fed on a diet of Escherichia coli OP50, was significantly impaired in finding E.

Perspectives of cultural competence in health care.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the views of one group of healthcare professionals on the importance of cultural awareness in healthcare practice.

Method: A qualitative approach was used. Ten nurses of varying age from two counties in Scotland who worked across a range of clinical practice areas were interviewed.

Talking the talk: a discourse analysis of mental health nurses talking about their practice.

Mental Health nursing exists as a discipline in the UK within the wider contemporary health care establishment. Throughout its history it has attempted to define itself in ways that differentiate mental health nursing practice from other health care professions and fields of nursing. However, it is not surprising in this climate of contemporary healthcare for individual professional identities to become 'lost' in the melange of interdisciplinary practice.