Effectiveness of English local plan SA/SEAs

Fourteen years since the implementation of the European SEA Directive, the effectiveness of the English system of Local Plan sustainability appraisals/strategic environmental assessments (SA/SEAs) is analysed, based on 15 case studies, five interviews, and questionnaires of 11 planners. Substantively, SA/SEA leads to fine-tuning of plan policy wording and a more robust choice of development sites, but to only limited wider influence on the plan. Normatively, there seems to be a direct conflict between the requirement that Local Plans must provide enough housing for ‘objectively assessed need’, and environmental protection. From a pluralist perspective SA/SEA reports are very long, and although the statutory consultees often comment on them, the public do so only infrequently. It is in the transactive dimension that the largest changes have taken place: both consultants and planners have had to do more with less. This does not yet seem to have negatively affected the other effectiveness dimensions, but may not be sustainable over time.     

Pectic Galactan Polysaccharide-Based Gene Delivery System for Targeting Neuroinflammation

Treating neuroinflammation-related injuries and disorders through manipulation of neuroinflammation functions is being heralded as a new therapeutic strategy. In this study, a novel pectic galactan (PG) polysaccharide based gene therapy approach is developed for targeting reactive gliosis in neuroinflammation. Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a cell protein with a high affinity to β-galactoside sugars and is highly expressed in reactive gliosis. Since PG carries galactans, it can target reactive gliosis via specific carbohydrate interaction between galactan and Gal-3 on the cell membrane, and therefore can be utilized as a carrier for delivering genes to these cells. The carrier is synthesized by modifying quaternary ammonium groups on the PG. The resulting quaternized PG (QPG) is found to form complexes with plasmid DNA with a mean diameter of 100 nm and have the characteristics required for targeted gene therapy. The complexes efficiently condense large amounts of plasmid per particle and successfully bind to Gal-3. The in vivo study shows that the complexes are biocompatible and safe for administration and can selectively transfect reactive glial cells of an induced cortical lesion. The results confirm that this PG-based delivery system is a promising platform for targeting Gal-3 overexpressing neuroinflammation cells for treating neuroinflammation-related injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.     

Recording of bridge damage areas by 3D integration of multiple images and reduction of the variability in detected results

Machine learning models have been developed to perform damage detection using images to improve bridge inspection efficiency. However, in damage detection using images alone, the 3D coordinates of the damage cannot be recorded. Furthermore, the accuracy of the detection depends on the quality of the images. This paper proposes a method to integrate and record the damage detected from multiple images into a 3D model using deep learning to detect the damage from bridge images and structure from motion to identify the shooting position. The proposed method reduces the variability of the detection results between images and can assess the scale of damage or, conversely, where there is no damage and the extent of inspection omissions. The proposed method has been applied to a real bridge, and it has been shown that the actual damage locations can be recorded as a 3D model.     

Evaluation of Two Sets of Sorghum Bagasse Samples as the Feedstock for Fermentable Sugar Recovery via the Calcium Capturing by Carbonation (CaCCO) Process

Abstract: Sorghum bagasse samples from two sets (n6 and bmr6; n18 and bmr18) of wild-type and corresponding “brown midrib” (bmr) mutant strains of sweet sorghum were evaluated as the feedstock for fermentable sugar recovery via the calcium capturing by carbonation (CaCCO) process, which involves Ca(OH)₂ pretreatment of bagasse with subsequent neutralization with CO₂ for enzymatic saccharification. Saccharification tests under various pretreatment conditions of the CaCCO process at different Ca(OH)₂ concentrations, temperatures or residence periods indicated that bmr strains are more sensitive to the pretreatment than their counterparts are. It is expected that variant bmr6 is more suitable for glucose recovery than its wild-type counterpart because of the higher glucan content and better glucose recovery with less severe pretreatment. Meanwhile, bmr18showed higher scores of glucose recovery than its counterpart did, only at low pretreatment severity, and did not yield higher sugar recovery under the more severe conditions. The trend was similar to that of xylose recovery data from the two bmr strains. The advantages of bmr strains were also proven by means of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of CaCCO-pretreated bagasse samples by pentose-fermenting yeast strain Candida shehatae Cs 4R. The amounts needed for production of 1 L of ethanol from n6, bmr6, n18, and bmr18samples were estimated as 4.11, 3.46, 4.03, and 3.95 kg, respectively. The bmr strains seem to have excellent compatibility with the CaCCO process for ethanol production, and it is expected that integrated research from the feedstock to bioprocess may result in breakthroughs for commercialization.     

Low-Frequency Ultrasound Effects on Intracellular Barriers in Nonviral Gene Delivery Processes

Gene therapy, the expression in cells of genetic material with therapeutic activity, has emerged as a promising approach for the treatment or prevention of human diseases. At the present time, major somatic gene-transfer approaches employ either viral or nonviral vectors. Nonviral vectors are less efficient at introducing and maintaining foreign gene expression, but have the profound advantage of being nonpathogenic and nonimmunogenic. In this study, we aimed to develop an efficient nonviral gene delivery system in which low-frequency ultrasound (LFUS) was applied to enhance gene expression of polyplexes formed with poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) and plasmid encoding for green fluorescent protein. Ultrasound (US), and in particular LFUS, can cause temporary membrane permeabilization and thereby enhance drug and gene entrance into viable cells. We evaluated possible additional favorable effects of LFUS on the polyplex transfection process, such as overcoming intracellular barriers. We found that pDMAEMA protected the plasmid DNA from ultrasonic degradation. Atomic force microscopy analysis also confirmed that the LFUS did not change the polyplexes’ morphology. We also attained an insight into the structure of polyplexes during LFUS exposure and found that LFUS induced a temporary partial detachment between the polymer chains and the plasmid. In addition, LFUS application on ovarian carcinoma cells transfected with the polyplexes induced a 27% enhancement in transfection efficiency. Based on these results, we propose that LFUS enhances the decomplexation of the polyplexes, and therefore, can be used to optimize transfection efficiency.     

Linking perceived external prestige and collective identification to collaborative behaviors in R&D teams

Research efforts have long been directed at understanding variations in collaborative behaviors among work teams with burgeoning interest in teams operating in knowledge-intensive settings. One of the largely unexplained issues is how does team image and collective identification facilitate collaborative behaviors. Here, survey data were collected from nineteen highly technical work teams engaging in software development in an R&D division of a multinational NASDAQ firm involved in multimedia communications and information processing technology. The relationships between perceived external prestige, collective team identification and team collaborative behaviors were examined. The results of the team-level analyses suggest that perceived external prestige augments collective team identification (measured at Time 1), which in turn engenders a high degree of collaboration and interaction within the team (measured at Time 2). When past team performance was controlled for, the results consistently supported the hypothesized model.