The Korean War was the first conflict in which helicopters were used extensively for casualty evacuation but their contribution to medical evacuation at that time is disputed. On the one hand, many ...cases undoubtedly survived because of helicopter transportation; on the other, the proportion of casualties evacuated appears to have been small and difficult to determine precisely. Taking the British army as a case study, this article looks more closely at arrangements for casualty evacuation in Korea, assessing the role of helicopters in relation to other elements of the evacuation system and its operation as a whole. The article is divided into several sections. The first examines the command structure of the medical system in Korea, which extended as far back as hospitals in Japan. It shows how medical support for British forces was closely integrated with that of other Commonwealth forces. It notes that rapid and effective integration was a major factor in the success of medical evacuation because it allowed ideas and equipment to be shared easily and because it fostered a spirit of cooperation. This section also highlights the Second World service of all senior Commonwealth medical officers as a factor conducive to integration. The second section provides an overview of the chain of evacuation from the frontline to hospitals in Japan. It describes the functions of the different medical institutions along the chain and how they were connected. Among other things, it shows how the chain for British and Commonwealth troops intersected with medical units of the United States such as Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals and hospital trains. In the third section of the article, there is a detail examination of evacuation by helicopter, describing how it was arranged, what its limitations were, and what types of casualty were evacuated. It estimates the proportion of casualties that were evacuated by this means. The fourth and fifth sections highlight the importance of command decisions in the effective working of the evacuation system. The fourth concentrates on the evolution of a system of forward treatment of minor cases, looking at the challenge posed by disease and other non-battle casualties. The fifth and final section of the article describes how the system of evacuation functioned as a whole, including the different means used to carry the sick and wounded in addition to helicopters. It stresses the importance of coordination between these different elements and places particular emphasis on the value of wireless communications. The article concludes that the success of casualty evacuation in Korea depended less on any single method of transportation than on effective command and control. In this respect, communication between constituent units of the evacuation chain and cooperation between British and other UN forces was crucial. Of equal and perhaps even greater importance was the decision to implement a policy of forward treatment of sickness and minor injuries. Without such a policy, the lines of evacuation would inevitably have become congested, having a detrimental effect on casualty survival rates. This policy drew on the lessons of the two world wars which were still relatively fresh in the minds of medical commanders. Although far less striking than the advent of the helicopter, prior knowledge of coalition warfare and the handling of mass casualties was crucial to medical success. If there is a lesson to be learned from the Korean War for own times, it is probably this.
Evidence of life on Earth is manifestly preserved in the rock record. However, the microfossil record only extends to ∼3.5 billion years (Ga), the chemofossil record arguably to ∼3.8 Ga, and the rock ...record to 4.0 Ga. Detrital zircons from Jack Hills, Western Australia range in age up to nearly 4.4 Ga. From a population of over 10,000 Jack Hills zircons, we identified one >3.8-Ga zircon that contains primary graphite inclusions. Here, we report carbon isotopic measurements on these inclusions in a concordant, 4.10 ± 0.01-Ga zircon. We interpret these inclusions as primary due to their enclosure in a crack-free host as shown by transmission X-ray microscopy and their crystal habit. Their δ13CPDB of −24 ± 5‰ is consistent with a biogenic origin and may be evidence that a terrestrial biosphere had emerged by 4.1 Ga, or ∼300 My earlier than has been previously proposed.
Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive spore-forming anaerobe and a major cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Disruption of the commensal microbiota, such as through treatment with ...broad-spectrum antibiotics, is a critical precursor for colonisation by C. difficile and subsequent disease. Furthermore, failure of the gut microbiota to recover colonisation resistance can result in recurrence of infection. An unusual characteristic of C. difficile among gut bacteria is its ability to produce the bacteriostatic compound para-cresol (p-cresol) through fermentation of tyrosine. Here, we demonstrate that the ability of C. difficile to produce p-cresol in vitro provides a competitive advantage over gut bacteria including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella oxytoca and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Metabolic profiling of competitive co-cultures revealed that acetate, alanine, butyrate, isobutyrate, p-cresol and p-hydroxyphenylacetate were the main metabolites responsible for differentiating the parent strain C. difficile (630Δerm) from a defined mutant deficient in p-cresol production. Moreover, we show that the p-cresol mutant displays a fitness defect in a mouse relapse model of C. difficile infection (CDI). Analysis of the microbiome from this mouse model of CDI demonstrates that colonisation by the p-cresol mutant results in a distinctly altered intestinal microbiota, and metabolic profile, with a greater representation of Gammaproteobacteria, including the Pseudomonales and Enterobacteriales. We demonstrate that Gammaproteobacteria are susceptible to exogenous p-cresol in vitro and that there is a clear divide between bacterial Phyla and their susceptibility to p-cresol. In general, Gram-negative species were relatively sensitive to p-cresol, whereas Gram-positive species were more tolerant. This study demonstrates that production of p-cresol by C. difficile has an effect on the viability of intestinal bacteria as well as the major metabolites produced in vitro. These observations are upheld in a mouse model of CDI, in which p-cresol production affects the biodiversity of gut microbiota and faecal metabolite profiles, suggesting that p-cresol production contributes to C. difficile survival and pathogenesis.
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•Cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G) was acylated with fatty acid methyl esters.•The acylation of C3G with fatty acids occurred on the 6″-OH of the glucose part.•Three esters were purified and ...characterized.•C3G-n-octanoate had the highest thermostability and photostability.•C3G-laurate had the highest cellular antioxidant activity.
Cyanidin-3-glucoside is a major anthocyanin in legumes, black rice, and purple potato, and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. In the present study, the effect of acylation on cyanidin-3-glucoside lipophilicity, stability, and antioxidant capacity was investigated. Cyanidin-3-glucoside was enzymatically acylated through transesterification with fatty acid esters to produce three monoacylated cyanidin-3-glucoside esters, cyanidin-3-(6″-n-octanoyl)-glucoside, cyanidin-3-(6″-lauroyl)-glucoside, and cyanidin-3-(6″-myristoyl)-glucoside. Cyanidin-3-(6″-n-octanoyl)-glucoside had the highest thermostability and photostability of the three cyanidin-3-glucoside esters. While the in vitro antioxidant activity of cyanidin-3-(6″-n-octanoyl)-glucoside was 7.5%–14.3% lower than that of cyanidin-3-glucoside (p < 0.05), its cellular antioxidant activity increased by 33.3% (p < 0.05). Further, while cyanidin-3-(6″-lauroyl)-glucoside had lower stability and in vitro antioxidant activity than that of cyanidin-3-(6″-n-octanoyl)-glucoside, its cellular antioxidant capacity was 125.9% and 69.4% higher than cyanidin-3-glucoside and cyanidin-3-(6″-n-octanoyl)-glucoside, respectively (p < 0.05). This study demonstrated that transesterification can be used to improve the stability and in vivo antioxidant activity of cyanidin-3-glucoside.
The combination of dwindling petroleum reserves and population growth make the development of renewable energy and chemical resources more pressing than ever before. Plant biomass is the most ...abundant renewable source of energy and chemicals. Enzymes can selectively convert the polysaccharides in plant biomass into simple sugars which can then be upgraded to liquid fuels and platform chemicals using biological and/or chemical processes. Pretreatment is essential for efficient enzymatic saccharification of plant biomass and this article provides an overview of how organic solvent (organosolv) pretreatments affect the structure and chemistry of plant biomass, and how these changes enhance enzymatic saccharification. A comparison between organosolv pretreatments utilizing broadly different classes of solvents (
i.e.
, low boiling point, high boiling point, and biphasic) is presented, with a focus on solvent recovery and formation of by-products. The reaction mechanisms that give rise to these by-products are investigated and strategies to minimize by-product formation are suggested. Finally, process simulations of organosolv pretreatments are compared and contrasted, and discussed in the context of an industrial-scale plant biomass to fermentable sugar process.
Pretreatments of lignocellulosic biomass for enhanced enzymatic saccharification with different types of organic solvents are compared and reviewed.
Warm storage for arc magmas Barboni, Mélanie; Boehnke, Patrick; Schmitt, Axel K. ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
12/2016, Letnik:
113, Številka:
49
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Felsic magmatic systems represent the vast majority of volcanic activity that poses a threat to human life. The tempo and magnitude of these eruptions depends on the physical conditions under which ...magmas are retained within the crust. Recently the case has been made that volcanic reservoirs are rarely molten and only capable of eruption for durations as brief as 1,000 years following magma recharge. If the “cold storage” model is generally applicable, then geophysical detection of melt beneath volcanoes is likely a sign of imminent eruption. However, some arc volcanic centers have been active for tens of thousands of years and show evidence for the continual presence of melt. To address this seeming paradox, zircon geochronology and geochemistry from both the frozen lava and the cogenetic enclaves they host from the Soufrière Volcanic Center (SVC), a long-lived volcanic complex in the Lesser Antilles arc, were integrated to track the preeruptive thermal and chemical history of the magma reservoir. Our results show that the SVC reservoir was likely eruptible for periods of several tens of thousands of years or more with punctuated eruptions during these periods. These conclusions are consistent with results from other arc volcanic reservoirs and suggest that arc magmas are generally stored warm. Thus, the presence of intracrustal melt alone is insufficient as an indicator of imminent eruption, but instead represents the normal state of magma storage underneath dormant volcanoes.
Zircon structurally accommodates a range of trace impurities into its lattice, a feature which is used extensively to investigate the evolution of silicate magmas. One key compositional boundary of ...magmas is defined by whether the molar ratio of Al2O3/(CaO + Na2O + K2O) is larger or smaller than unity. Here we report ∼800 Al in zircon concentrations from 19 different rocks from the Lachlan Fold Belt (southeastern Australia), New England (USA), and Arunachal leucogranites (eastern Himalaya) with Al2O3/(CaO + Na2O + K2O) whole rock values that range from 0.88 to 1.6. Zircons from peraluminous rocks yield an average Al concentration of ∼10 ppm, which distinguishes them from crystals found in metaluminous rocks (∼1.3 ppm). This difference is related to the materials involved in the melting, assimilation, and/or magma differentiation processes; for example, magmas that assimilate Al‐rich material such as metapelites are expected to produce melts with elevated alumina activities, and thus zircons with high Al concentrations. These observations are applied to the Archean and Hadean Jack Hills detrital zircon record. Detrital Archean zircons, with ages from about 3.30 to 3.75 Ga, yield Al in zircon concentrations consistent with origins in peraluminous rocks in ∼8% of the cases (n = 236). A single zircon from the pre‐3.9 Ga age group (n = 39) contains elevated Al contents, which suggests that metaluminous crustal rocks were more common than peraluminous rocks in the Hadean. Weathered material assimilated into these Hadean source melts was not dominated by Al‐rich source material.
Key Points
Approximately 800 Al concentrations in zircons measured in 19 different peraluminous and metaluminous rocks
Al concentrations in zircons from peraluminous rocks are distinctly higher than zircons from metaluminous rocks
Al in zircon proposed as a tool to discriminate peraluminous and metaluminous rocks within the detrital zircon record
•Need for alternative energy has led to explore new feedstock.•Ocimum basilicum seeds oil was used as biodiesel feedstock.•Biodiesel was produced via lipase-catalyzed transesterification by ...Novozym.•Artificial neural network with genetic algorithm modelling was employed.
The increasing global demand for fuel, limited fossil fuel resources, and increasing concern about the upturn in gaseous CO2 emissions are the key drivers of research and development into sources of renewable liquid transport fuels, such as biodiesel. In the present work, we demonstrate biodiesel production from Ocimum basilicum (sweet basil) seed oil by lipase-catalyzed transesterification. Sweet basil seeds contain 22% oil on a dry weight basis. Artificial neural network with genetic algorithm modelling was used to optimize reaction. Temperature, catalyst concentration, time, and methanol to oil molar ratio were the input factors in the optimization study, while fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield was the key model output. FAME composition was determined by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The optimized transesterification process resulted in a 94.58% FAME yield after reaction at 47°C for 68h in the presence of 6% w/w catalyst and a methanol to oil ratio of 10:1. The viscosity, density, calorific value, pour point, and cloud point of the biodiesel derived from sweet basil seed oil conformed to the EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 standard specifications. The antioxidant stability of the biodiesel did not meet these specifications but could be improved via the addition of antioxidant.
We think of Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution as a poor country, and this was so by the standards of other great powers. In 1913, as figure 1 shows, Russia was far behind the global frontier ...marked by the United States. But by another standard, that of economic development around the world, Russia was just an average economy, with real output per capita at the global mean. Over the century from 1913, the eve of World War I, to 2008, the edge of the recent world financial crisis, Russia's real output per capita multiplied more than five times-but so did that of the world. So in 2008 Russia was again an average economy. If the twentieth century saw Russia develop at the same pace as the global economy, neither faster nor slower, one might wonder why the years between 1913 and 2008 deserve much attention. In fact, these years were extraordinary. The Bolshevik Revolution began with an economic disaster as output plunged. It did not recover to the prewar level until the end of the 1920s. During the 1930s, Soviet production regained the global mean and rose above it. The margin of Soviet advantage over the world average was 10 percent by the outbreak of World War II and 40 to 50 percent for much of the Cold War. For half a century, Russia's output was forced by the relentless pressure of state-led modernization and mobilization. The level of output was pushed up, but there was no sustainable path to the global frontier. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the pushing stopped, and everyone breathed out. Output fell back to the world average and then below it, before reverting once more to the mean. Before and after the Soviet era, therefore, Russia had an average economy- exceptional only in size. And size mattered.
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