The impacts of agricultural payments on groundwater quality: Spatial analysis on the case of Slovenia

The European Common Agricultural Policy still follows its primary goals, i.e. quality food at affordable prices and a decent standard of living for farmers, fifty years after its adoption. Moreover, this policy adapts to the changing needs of society and the new challenges, mostly preservation of the environment, nature and biodiversity in rural areas. Although the Common Agricultural Policy receives the largest share of European budget, the funds are decreasing over time, especially direct payments, which aim to provide basic income support to farmers in the European Union. On the other hand, agri-environmental payments are gaining importance. Policy decision-makers should be interested in the question of impacts of growing eco-conditionality of agricultural spending. New insights would help them to be successful in achieving the goals of sustainable agriculture. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impacts of production support payments and rural development payments on the quality of groundwater. We use the small EU country Slovenia as an example. The baseline indicators are the level of nitrates and pesticides in groundwater, while the impacts were estimated using spatial error model. The results show that direct payments, coupled subsidies and investment grants raise the level of pesticides in groundwater, but do not have any statistically significant impact on the level of nitrates in groundwater. Furthermore, we did not find any statistically significant effects of agri-environmental payments on decrease of groundwater pollution with nitrates. However, our findings revealed that agri-environmental payments are effective in reducing pesticides in groundwater, although only to a limited extent. These results imply a problem of insufficient targeting of agri-environmental measures on the one hand, and suggest that greening of direct payments is necessary and entirely justified.     

踝肱指数与糖尿病周围神经病变及中医证候积分的相关性

目的：探讨踝肱指数（ABI）与糖尿病周围神经病变及中医证候积分的相关性。方法：选取我院内分泌科收治辩证以气阴两虚 为证型的糖尿病患者66 例，根据踝肱指数实验将患者分为ABI降低组（0.9>ABI>0.5）和ABI 正常组(1.4>ABI>0.9)。记录患者神 经病变症状尼龙丝检查以及中医症候评分，分析ABI与糖尿病周围神经病变及中医证候积分的相关性。结果：ABI降低组的糖尿 病周围神经病变的患病率高于ABI正常组（P<0.05）。ABI 降低组发麻、针刺感症状的发生率高于ABI 正常组，且有统计学差异 （P<0.05）。ABI降低组10 g尼龙丝检查异常者多于ABI正常组，差异显著（P<0.05）。ABI降低组的感觉振动阈值高于ABI正常组 （P<0.05）。ABI数值与中医证候积分呈负向直线相关（P<0.05）。结论：糖尿病患者ABI数值与糖尿病周围神经病变和中医证候积 分具有相关性。     

康复运动对冠脉支架植入术后患者相关因素的影响

目的：研究心脏康复运动对冠脉支架植入术后患者血脂、血糖、体重指数及生活质量的影响。方法：对实施冠脉支架植入术的 146例患者进行比较分析，根据随机原则分为试验组76 例及对照组70 例。对照组患者给予常规的健康教育及冠心病二级预防指 导，给予定期随访。试验组患者在此基础上给予规律的康复运动指导。经过6 个月随访，比较两组患者血脂、HbA1C、体重指数及 生活质量情况。结果：试验组患者通过为期6 个月的规律的心脏康复运动指导，其血脂、HbA1C等冠心病危险因素控制情况优于 对照组，差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。同时，6个月后，试验组康复运动六月后sF 量表各项评分与对照组同期比较，差异均有统计 学意义(P<0.05)。结论：规范的心脏康复运动指导能够有效改善冠脉支架植入术后患者血脂、血糖情况，提高患者生活质量。     

The influence of stomach distention on feeding in the nudibranch mollusk Melibe leonina

Although research on satiation has revealed much about the effect of sensory inputs on motivational state, we have yet to fully understand exactly how satiating signals influence the neural circuits underlying specific behaviors. One organism that is well suited for addressing this question is the nudibranch Melibe leonina, because its feeding activity is easily quantified, it has translucent skin that makes the stomach easy to observe, and it has large, identifiable neurons that are very suitable for subsequent analysis of the neural correlates of satiation. In this study our goal was to document the time course of satiation in Melibe, and determine if stomach distention contributes to satiation. When exposed to brine shrimp (Artemia), Melibe immediately commenced stereotypic oral hood movements to capture prey, and continued to do so for approximately five hours. Individuals eventually stopped, despite the continued presence of food, and the slowing and eventual termination of oral hood closures was correlated with distension of the stomach caused by the ingested Artemia. We obtained further evidence that stomach distension is one of the underlying causes of satiation by injecting artificial non-nutritive food into the stomach, and by cutting open part of the stomach wall to prevent it from filling and distending. The first treatment caused satiation to occur more rapidly, while the second treatment delayed satiation. Both results demonstrate that in Melibe stomach distention has a major impact on the motivation to feed. These findings provide the framework for subsequent studies designed to determine precisely how stomach distention influences feeding circuits.     

Ghrelin receptors in human gastrointestinal tract during prenatal and early postnatal development

The aim of our study was to investigate the appearance, density and distribution of ghrelin cells and GHS-R1a and GHS-R1b in the human stomach and duodenum during prenatal and early postnatal development. We examined chromogranin-A and ghrelin cells in duodenum, and GHS-R1a and GHS-R1b expression in stomach and duodenum by immunohistochemistry in embryos, fetuses, and infants. Chromogranin-A and ghrelin cells were identified in the duodenum at weeks 10 and 11 of gestation. Ghrelin cells were detected individually or clustered within the base of duodenal crypts and villi during the first trimester, while they were presented separately within the basal and apical parts of crypts and villi during the second and third trimesters. Ghrelin cells were the most numerous during the first (∼11%) and third (∼10%) trimesters of gestation development. GHS-R1a and GHS-R1b were detected at 11 and 16 weeks of gestation, showed the highest level of expression in Brunner's gland and in lower parts of duodenal crypts and villi during the second trimester in antrum, and during the third trimester in corpus and duodenum. Our findings demonstrated for the first time abundant duodenal expression of ghrelin cells and ghrelin receptors during human prenatal development indicating a role of ghrelin in the regulation of growth and differentiation of human gastrointestinal tract.     

Enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis of hydrothermally pretreated empty fruit bunches at high solids loadings by the synergism of hemicellulase and polyethylene glycol

In enzymatic hydrolysis, high lignocellulose loadings are required to obtain high sugar titers. However, the high solids loadings limit enzymatic hydrolysis. In this study, to overcome this limitation, the promoting and synergistic effects of the accessory agents of hemicellulase (i.e., Cellic HTec2) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 8000 were investigated in the enzymatic hydrolysis of hydrothermally pretreated empty fruit bunches (EFBs). After the optimal addition of Cellic HTec2 and PEG, high enzymatic digestion of the pretreated EFBs was achieved owing to their synergistic effects, even at high solids loadings. For example, the enzymatic digestibility of pretreated EFBs at a 21.7% (w/v) solids loading with 10 FPU of Cellic CTec2/g glucan reached 72.5% when 2.7 mg of Cellic HTec2/g glucan and 62.5 mg of PEG/g glucan were used as the accessory agents. These results suggested that the optimal addition of accessory agents is effective for the enhanced hydrolysis of lignocellulose using even a commercial cellulase preparation.     

The origin of homeostasis in the early earth

Summary An equation is developed that describes the condition of homeostasis in a general molecular system containing catalysts. In a prebiotic environment, this condition first results from a critical level of catalytic feedback in feedback loops containing differing organic molecular species. This critical level results in temporary exponential growth in concentrations of those catalyst species participating in the feedback loops, leading to homeostasis as the steady-state endpoint. None of the molecules in any feedback loop need be self-replicating for this autocatalysis to occur. Homeostasis is regarded as a definition of life at the lowest possible hierarchical level. A general mathematical boundary condition is derived for the critical level of catalytic feedback mentioned above-in effect, an origin of life condition. The paper argues that any natural prebiotic system of organic molecules in an H₂O medium will automatically form many catalytic feedback loops, even if of very low catalytic efficiency. The analysis in this paper indicates that high temperatures strongly increase the efficiency of such catalytic feedback. If the temperature and total concentration of carbon in the system (e.g., in CO₂, CH₄, etc.) are sufficiently high, the critical condition for initial exponential growth will be attained. High initial temperatures for the earth are predicted by the planetesimal accretion model.