פרסומים

Recently, new laws and medical guidelines in many countries have prohibited early genital surgeries and irreversible medical treatment for intersexed babies. Following the passing of the German law that allows parents to register intersexed babies with no sex/gender, and after the establishment of new medical guidelines for intersexed patients in Israel, this study aims to examine the current medical policies regarding intersexed bodies at DSD centres and hospitals in Israel and Germany. How, if at all, have they changed the previous medical guidelines? This is a narrative study that includes 62 in-depth interviews with medical professionals, parents and intersexed people from Germany and Israel. Three main controversial themes are examined, including the situated diagnostic medical gaze, the surgical practices for normalising intersexed bodies and the concealment of intersexed bodies. I find that in Israeli hospitals, early irreversible surgeries for 'ambiguous genitals' and the removal of internal sex organs are taking place frequently, whereas in Germany, the three DSD centres examined offer psychological counselling for parents instead of early surgeries for their babies. While in Israel concealment practices are embodied in the medical policy, the DSD centres in Germany encourage openness and peer group support. \copyright 2018 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

We report the complete nucleotide sequence of a new member of the Potyviridae family isolated from passion fruit plants grown in Israel, called Passiflora edulis symptomless virus (PeSV). The PeSV genome is 9,928 nucleotides long and encodes a 3,173 amino acids polyprotein that is predicted to be proteolytically cleaved into 10 mature peptides. Our phylogenetic analysis shows that PeSV represents a new species, and is most closely related to rose yellow mosaic virus (RoYMV). According to currently accepted criteria for genus demarcation, both viruses should be assigned as representative isolates of new species in the recently approved genus, Roymovirus, in the Potyviridae family.

Water transports organic matter through soils, where mineral-organic associations form to retain dissolved organic matter (“DOM”), influencing terrestrial carbon cycling, nutrient availability for plant growth, and other soil organic matter functions. We combined Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry with novel data analysis techniques to examine the role of sorptive fractionation in the associations between Fe(III)-montmorillonite and DOM from composted biosolids (“anthropogenic DOM”). To examine the influence of DOM composition on sorption and sorptive fractionation, we used resin-based separation to produce DOM subsamples with different molecular compositions and chemical properties. A large proportion (45 to 64%) of the initial carbon in every DOM solution sorbed to the Fe(III)-montmorillonite. However, when the compositions of the initial solutions were compared to the sorbed organic matter, the computed changes in composition were lower (10 to 32%). In fact, non-selective sorption was more important than selective sorption in every sample, except for the hydrophilic neutral (HiN) fraction, where high nitrogen content and acidic conditions appeared to enhance sorptive fractionation. The results from this study demonstrate that the importance of sorptive fractionation varies with DOM composition and other factors, and that non-selective sorption can contribute substantially to the formation of mineral-organic associations.

Irrigation with treated wastewater (TWW) and application of biosolids to arable land expose the agro-environment to pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) which can be taken up by crops. In this project, we studied the effect of a carrier medium (e.g., biosolids and TWW) on plant (tomato, wheat and lettuce) uptake, translocation and metabolism of carbamazepine as a model for non-ionic PPCPs. Plant uptake and bioconcentration factors were significantly lower in soils amended with biosolids compared to soils irrigated with TWW. In soils amended with biosolids and irrigated with TWW, the bioavailability of carbamazepine for plant uptake was moderately decreased as compared to plants grown in soils irrigated with TWW alone. While TWW acts as a continuous source of PPCPs, biosolids act both as a source and a sink for these compounds. Moreover, it appears that decomposition of the biosolids in the soil after amendment enhances their adsorptive properties, which in turn reduces the bioavailability of PPCPs in the soil environment. In-plant metabolism of carbamazepine was found to be independent of environmental factors, such as soil type, carrier medium, and absolute amount implemented to the soil, but was controlled by the total amount taken up by the plant. Bioavailability of PPCPs originated from biosolids amendment is lower than the bioavailability of those introduced by irrigation with treated wastewater. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

ABSTRACT The performance of the extended multi-state (XMS)-complete active space second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) method has been assessed for the benchmark of a truncated retinal model, the penta-2,4-dieniminium cation (PSB3). This benchmark presents a challenge for multireference electronic structure methods because the wave function character is changing considerably. The assessment comprises ground and excited state pathways of the isomerisation, including transition states and conical intersection (CI) points. It also includes circular paths centred around different CIs, and 2D potential energy scans located in the branching planes. In this work, we compare the performance of the previous formulations of CASPT2, the single-state and the multi-state, with the recently developed XMS-CASPT2. Besides, we have also tested two variants of internal contraction in XMS-CASPT2, namely, the single-state single reference (SS-SR) and multi-state multireference (MS-MR) schemes. In our study, we find that XMS-CASPT2 corrects the artefacts and discontinuities present in other CASPT2 variants. The investigation of a circular loop and 2D potential energy surfaces around the surface crossing point shows that XMS-CASPT2 exhibits a smooth topology at the CI with the correct degeneracy. It also agrees better with the reference method MRCISD+Q in regions of the potential energy surfaces further away from CIs. Another observation is the close agreement between the results from the SS-SR contraction scheme and the more demanding MS-MR scheme.

Multicellular organisms develop from a single cell that proliferates to form different cell types with specialized functions. Sixty years ago, Waddington suggested the 'epigenetic landscape' as a useful metaphor for the process. According to this view, cells move through a rugged identity space along genetically encoded trajectories, until arriving at one of the possible final fates. In plants in particular, these trajectories have strong spatial correlates, as cell identity is intimately linked to its relative position within the plant. During regeneration, however, positional signals are severely disrupted and differentiated cells are able to undergo rapid non-canonical identity changes. Moreover, while pluripotent properties have long been ascribed to plant cells, the introduction of induced pluripotent stem cells in animal studies suggests such plasticity may not be unique to plants. As a result, current concepts of differentiation as a gradual and hierarchical process are being reformulated across biological fields. Traditional studies of plant regeneration have placed strong emphasis on the emergence of patterns and tissue organization, and information regarding the events occurring at the level of individual cells is only now beginning to emerge. Here, I review the historical and current concepts of cell identity and identity transitions, and discuss how new views and tools may instruct the future understanding of differentiation and plant regeneration.

BackgroundThe ever-growing world population results in the ineluctable increase of food demand which translates in the augment of the global market of packaging materials. Hence, the concept of active packaging materializes as a technology to enhance the safety, quality and shelf-life of the packaged foods. Active packaging systems can contribute to the reduction of food waste by providing, apart from an inert barrier to external conditions, several functions associated with food preservation, namely absorbing/scavenging, releasing/emitting and removing properties, temperature, microbial and quality control. Scope and approach The purpose of this review is to present a concise (but wide-ranging) appraisal on the latest advances in active agents for active food packaging. Emphasis is placed on active functions such as antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, oxygen and ethylene scavenging, and carbon dioxide emitting. An effort was made to highlight representative articles that prompted research on active agents towards viable market solutions. Key findings and conclusions Active packaging is a thriving field given its duality as barrier to external detrimental factors and active role in food preservation and quality. The use of natural active agents is a flourishing field due to the general concern towards natural-based additives. Nevertheless, research is still in its early stages with a long way to go in the design of innovative and economical active packaging materials containing appropriate active agents. The interaction between packaging, environment and food is the key challenge for achieving commercial translation.

Transparent conductive networks are important for flexible electronics and solar cells. Often interwire (junction) conductivity is the limiting factor for network conductivity and can be improved by various treatments. The conductivity of individual junctions in a single walled carbon nanotube network was measured by conductive atomic force microscopy before and after exposure to nitric acid. The measurements show that this exposure improves the conductivity of each one of the junctions within the network. Our results suggest that the acid improves the conductivity by p-type charge transfer doping and by surfactant degradation.