There were significant differences in CA effect sizes among cropp

There were significant differences in CA effect sizes among cropping regions (Fig. 3). According to the overall effect of all practices, CA enhanced crop yield by 6.4% and 5.5% in the Northwest and South, respectively, compared to CT, whereas no significant effects were found in the North and Northeast (P < 0.05). For NT, crop yield was 3.4% higher in the South and 5.4% lower in

the North compared to CT, whereas no significant effects were found in the Northeast or the Sunitinib datasheet Northwest (P < 0.01). Straw retention showed a positive effect on crop yield in all study regions ( Fig. 3). The effect sizes of CTSR were 6.4% and 4.8% relative to CT in the South and the Northwest, respectively, with no significant positive effects in the Northeast or the North. Crop yield was 11.0% higher under NTSR than under CT in the Northwest, whereas no significant effects were observed in other regions (P < 0.05). Rice is planted in South and North China. However, in the North there were no field experiments with multiple-year experimental duration. For this reason, data for rice fields

were excluded in the comparison of effect sizes among climate patterns. There were significant Y-27632 manufacturer differences in CA effect sizes on crop yield among annual precipitation levels (P < 0.05, Fig. 4). According to the overall effect of all CA practices, the effect sizes of CA practices decreased with increasing annual precipitation. Significant positive effects occurred in areas with annual precipitation below 600 mm, whereas no marked effects were found when precipitation was above 600 mm. Furthermore, the effect sizes of CA practices increased with aridity index (P < 0.05). When the aridity index is greater than 1.25, the overall CA effects on crop yield in China are most likely positive ( Fig. 4). Meanwhile, the higher the mean annual temperature, the higher were the positive effects on crop yield under CA, although the differences were not significant between the temperature ranges ( Fig. 4). The highest enhancing effects on crop yield occurred when mean annual temperature was higher than 10 °C, whereas the effect was not significant when mean

annual temperature was lower than 5 °C. Large differences in CA effect sizes were found among specific crops (P < 0.05, Fig. 5). According to the overall effect of all Celastrol practices, CA significantly increased rice, wheat and maize yields by 4.1%, 2.9%, and 7.5%, respectively, compared to CT. The highest increase was found for maize. According to the effect of each practice, however, there were no significant effects of NT on the three crop yields. For all three crops in the study, straw retention showed a positive effect on crop yield ( Fig. 5). Rice and maize yields were significantly increased by 5.0% and 8.4% under the CTSR as compared to the CT, respectively, and wheat yield was increased by only 3.0% not a significant effect. NTSR significantly increased wheat and maize yields by 4.9% and 9.

There were no conversions to laparoscopy and all procedures were

There were no conversions to laparoscopy and all procedures were completed successfully. Two patients required endoscopy in the early postoperative

period: self-limited hematemesis (from a submucosal TSA HDAC tunnel) and radiologic evidence of leakage at the mucosotomy site (repaired with placement of additional clips on postoperative day 1). Patients were routinely discharged on postoperative day one (except 4 who were discharged on day 2). The median scores for solid dysphagia among the achalasia and nutcracker patients significantly improved from 4 (all meals) preoperatively to 0 (never) at 6 months. Similarly, 10 of these patients complained of either daily or continuous chest pain. GSK J4 price At 6 months, they reported only rare or no chest pain. One DES patient reported resolution of daily preoperative dysphagia and chest pain (follow-up 9 months). Three DES patients (follow-up 8-13 months) reported decreases in the frequency of dysphagia or chest pain (daily to occasional). One of these patients underwent two postoperative endoscopic dilations for

chest pain and dysphagia. DES patients demonstrated slow improvement in their symptoms. In contrast, the dysphagia relief among the achalasia and nutcracker patients was immediate and sustained. The senior author was the primary surgeon in the first 16 patients. Two trainees

(fellows) participated in cases 17 to 24, where they performed increasing elements of the procedure under supervision. Cases 25 to 40 Teicoplanin were primarily performed by 1 of the 2 fellows. Hence, when the 40 consecutive procedures were divided into 5 groups of 8 patients, the first and second groups were primarily performed by the attending physician, the third group was a transition period, and the fourth and fifth groups were primarily performed by the fellow. The means (± SD) of the LOP per centimeter myotomy were as follows: 16 ± 4 minutes, 17 ± 5 minutes, 13 ± 3 minutes, 15 ± 2 minutes, and 13 ± 4 minutes. The number of inadvertent mucosotomy also decreased with increasing experience in the consecutive 5 groups: 8, 6, 4, 0, and 1 (Table 1).Figure 1 and Figure 2 depict the decreasing trend in the LOP per centimeter myotomy and the number of mucosotomy. The POEM procedure represents a focused, direct approach to a selective myotomy of the inner circular layer of the esophagus and the GEJ.11 It avoids body wall trauma and minimizes the disruption of the normal anatomical architecture of the GEJ. It may represent an advance over current medical or surgical treatments for achalasia and other spastic disorders of the LES and esophageal body.

, 2009) Similarly, circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines (as a

, 2009). Similarly, circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines (as a result of high fat diet-induced systemic inflammation) can also access the brain at the mediobasal hypothalamus where they can activate cytokine receptors (Cai and Liu, 2012). The result of this is free fatty acid- and cytokine-mediated perpetuation of the inflammatory Olaparib in vivo signal in the brain through initiation of local pro-inflammatory cytokine production (Cai and Liu, 2012). Aside

from direct entry of cytokines, chemokines, and free fatty acids into the brain at areas lacking a BBB, systemic inflammation and excess free fatty acids may also promote central inflammation by initiating a cascade of pro-inflammatory cytokines and prostaglandins that stimulate centrally projecting neurons (Blatteis, 2007), and by increasing BBB permeability allowing peripheral cytokines and immune cells to enter (Lu et al., 2009) (see Section 7). Interestingly, the effects of high fat diet exposure seem to contrast markedly with what we would expect from acute pro-inflammatory cytokine exposure, such as occurs with a bacterial infection or a single injection of LPS. In this situation, the inflammatory response is short-lived and results in hypophagia. PI3K inhibitor It appears this acute hypophagia is at least partly due

to leptin’s actions on the ObR and the action of other pro-inflammatory cytokines will, over time, stimulate Exoribonuclease SOCS3 expression, contributing to negative feedback on this leptin signaling and thus stimulation of feeding (Fruhbeck, 2006 and Qin et al., 2007). It is worth noting that multiple exposures to LPS results in tolerance to the anorexigenic effects of the endotoxin so that LPS-induced hypophagia is no longer seen (Borges et al., 2011). The mechanism for this is likely similar to that involved in high fat diet as acute LPS does not stimulate such sickness behavior in high fat fed animals (Borges et al., 2011). It is thus likely the effects of systemic and central inflammation

on feeding pathways may be similar irrespective of the cause, but may be dependent upon duration of the stimulus. Systemic inflammation, independently of and associated with obesity, has been linked to faster cognitive decline in the elderly (Marioni et al., 2010 and Trollor et al., 2012) and with dementias including AD (Hall et al., 2013). Thus, metabolic syndrome (including inflammation and obesity) and systemic inflammation have both been identified as independent risk factors for depressive symptoms, cerebral white matter lesions and cognitive dysfunction in older people (van Dijk et al., 2005 and Viscogliosi et al., 2013). Moreover, higher plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-12 and 6 are linked to reduced speed in processing information and a faster rate of cognitive decline (Schram et al., 2007, Marioni et al., 2010 and Trollor et al., 2012).

31 × 1014 of dry matter per year) of renewable biomass in the wor

31 × 1014 of dry matter per year) of renewable biomass in the world [12]. Therefore, RS is considered a powerful biomass for the production of monomeric sugars. However, RS is difficult to depolymerize using only hydrolases owing to its polymeric outer cell-wall membrane, which is surrounded by amorphous compounds (especially lignins). To commercialize the production of cellulosic bioethanol, the effective conversion of recalcitrant biomass, especially lignocellulose,

into fermentable monomers appears to be necessary [1], [18] and [8]. Irradiation technology (especially electron beam selleck chemicals irradiation) has been widely used for changing the properties of polymers [7]. Such technology also extends the range of applications for the irradiated material. The main role of the irradiation program is to focus on the radiation-induced changes in the microstructural crystallinity of the substrates. Irradiation induces a chain–cleavage

mechanism by depolymerizing the polymeric material. Recently, an environmentally friendly electron beam irradiation (EBI) pre-treatment, which produces less inhibitory byproducts than the conventional thermochemical methods, was developed using a linear electron accelerator, and was subsequently evaluated with various analytical methods [2]. Based on the mass balance of lignocellulolysis, the commercial value of the irradiation program is quite high due to the instantaneous processing. Furthermore, this program RGFP966 solubility dmso does not need a temperature control (e.g., a cooling process) or a neutralization step owing to the presence of stable Methisazone downstream products and the absence of any byproducts. However, the exclusive use of EBI to enhance the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose has not been commercially successful. Therefore, to address the disadvantages in the original EBI system, such as, low sugar yields, a water-soaked RS was used as part of the advanced system. I conducted this study to determine the feasibility and efficiency of the water soaking-based electron beam

irradiation. Its impact was evaluated from the indices that measured the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation efficiencies. Based on the condition (1 MeV and 80 kGy at 0.12 mA) for a systemized procedure [2], rice straw (RS) was irradiated with accelerated electrons by using a linear electron accelerator (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon, Korea). Prior to the irradiation, RS was soaked in mineral water overnight in order to enhance the effects of the substrate pretreatment. The moisture contents (based on solid:liquid ratios) used were approximately 0% (0; control), 52% (2), 68% (1), 81% (0.5; saturation point), and over 81% (0.25 or 0.125; colloidal suspension), respectively.

Sub-basins with no observed discharge data available for optimiza

Sub-basins with no observed discharge data available for optimization were assigned parameter values of neighbouring sub-basins. The same applied to the downstream sections (e.g. Zambezi at Tete) with no reliable gauge data. The three optimized parameters that vary between (groups of) sub-basins

include: • Soil storage capacity. The first two parameters affect storage of rainfall in the soil for evapotranspiration and thereby control mean volume of flow. Further, they control how long it takes (up to several months) in the rainy season before the soils are sufficiently wet to enable runoff generation (see also Scipal et al., 2005 and Meier et al., 2011). The third parameter defines the fractions of runoff representing surface flow – which leaves the sub-basin within the same month – and base flow with a delayed response

controlling dry season discharge. Observed discharge data of the period 1961–1990 at 14 gauges were selleck kinase inhibitor used to automatically calibrate these three parameters of the water balance model with the Shuffled Complex Evolution search algorithm (Duan et al., 1992). As objective function we used a slightly modified version of the KGE-statistic ( Gupta et al., 2009; modified according to Kling et al., 2012): equation(1) KGE′=1−(r−1)2+(β−1)2+(γ−1)2 β=μsμo γ=CVsCVo=σs/μsσo/μowhere KGE′ is the modified version of the KGE-statistic (dimensionless), r is the correlation coefficient MDV3100 supplier between simulated and observed discharge (dimensionless), β is the bias ratio (dimensionless), γ is the variability ratio (dimensionless), μ is the mean discharge in m3/s, CV is the coefficient of variation (dimensionless), σ is the standard deviation of discharge in m3/s, and the indices s and o represent simulated and observed discharge values, respectively. KGE′, r, β and γ have their optimum at unity. For a full discussion of the KGE-statistic and its advantages over the often used Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE, Nash and Sutcliffe, 1970) or the related mean squared error see Gupta

et al. (2009). The KGE-statistic offers interesting diagnostic insights into the nearly model performance because of the decomposition into correlation (r), bias term (β) and variability term (γ). In this paper we use this decomposition of the model performance to report on the evaluation of discharge simulations at five key locations within the Zambezi basin in the calibration period 1961–1990 as well as in the independent evaluation period 1931–1960. Because of the long observed discharge time-series these statistics were also computed at the gauge Kafue Hook Bridge, even though this gauge was not included in the original set-up of the model. In addition to the parameters of the water balance model, there were also a large number of parameters that had to be specified for the water allocation model. These parameters were not calibrated in a classical sense.

Phyllomedusa genus comprises 30 species ( Cruz, 1991; Faivovich e

Phyllomedusa genus comprises 30 species ( Cruz, 1991; Faivovich et al., 2010), which are geographically distributed throughout Central and South America, as Osimertinib cell line stated by American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), published online by Frost in 2011 ( Frost, 2011). Recently, the frog species Phyllomedusa nordestina was described and included within the clade of Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis, according to its morphological characters ( Caramaschi, 2006). This

species is endemic to the Brazilian Northeastern, known as ‘caatinga’. This is one of the main biomes in Brazil, characterized by a very dry and constant warm climate, with well-defined seasons and few rainfalls occurring only in the first months of each year. In contrast to the limited distribution of P. nordestina, P. hypochondrialis is found spread along biogeographically different habitats, which also include the rich Amazon rainforest biome. Taking into account that amphibian skin secretions are highly related to the type of environment in which a given species of frog inhabit ( Prates et al., 2011), it can be anticipated that the molecules secreted by P. nordestina should be different from that described for P. hypochondrialis group. Several studies describing the biochemical characterization

of the components from the skin secretion of Phyllomedusa genus have allowed the identification of biologically active peptides that are very similar to the mammalian click here hormones, neuropeptides, as well as the broad-spectrum cytolytic antimicrobial peptides ( Conceição et al., 2006).

To date these antimicrobial peptides are grouped in seven families namely dermaseptins, phylloseptins, plasticins, dermatoxins, phylloxins, hyposins, and orphan peptides ( Amiche et al., 2008). Some of these peptides were isolated and characterized from P. hyponchondrialis skin secretion, for instance dermaseptins, phylloseptins, and hyposins, which were only described in this species ( Conceição et al., 2006; Leite et al., 2005; Thompson et al., 2007b), and the bradykinin-related peptides (BRPs) ( Brand et al., 2006a, 2006b; Conceição et al., 2007b). Activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, Reverse transcriptase yeast and fungi were reported for dermaseptins ( Mor et al., 1991, 1994), while antibacterial activity and antiparasitic activity against Trypanosoma cruzi were demonstrated for phylloseptins ( Leite et al., 2005). In addition to these reports, studies dedicated to characterize themain biological effects of crude P. hypochondrialis skin secretion showed that, at low doses, it is able to induce edema and inflammation in the cremaster mice ( Conceição et al., 2007a). In addition, the same research team also observed pain, edema, and necrosis, 48 h after intraperitoneal injection in mice (personal communication).

Poster 137 Sensory-motor Training in Lower Limb Prevention Basket

Poster 137 Sensory-motor Training in Lower Limb Prevention Basketball Athletes Women Carlos E. Pinfildi, Michele A. Nishioka, Arainy Antunes, Rodrigo Paschoal Prado Crizotinib supplier (University Federal of São Paulo – UNIFESP) “
“Poster 165 in the 2013 ACRM | American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Annual Conference abstracts published in October contained an incomplete list of authors. (To view the full issue, please visit the Archives journal website at http://www.archives-pmr.org/issues.) The poster title and corrected author

list appear below. Transition to Adulthood in Cerebral Palsy: Does Independent Walking Make a Difference? James Carollo (Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO), David Robertson, Patricia Heyn. “
“The following poster was a late addition and was presented at the 2013 ACRM | American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine

Annual Conference, Progress in Rehabilitation Research, 12-16 November, 2013, Orlando, Florida, USA. Stroke Diagnosis Poster 167 A Clinical Assessment and Neuro-Imaging based Grading Scale Predicts Severe Post-Stroke Limb Spasticity. Wayne Feng (Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC), Andrew Gundran, Ali Tabesh, Lindsay Perry, Madhura Athreya, Michelle Woodbury, Steven Kautz, Robert Adams Objective: The objective of this study is to identify selleck chemicals llc a grading scale that can predict post-stroke limb spasticity from the acute phase. Design: This is a prospective cohort study of 47 patients with first-ever acute ischemic strokes and various degrees of motor impairment. The first assessment was done between 2 to 5 days after stroke with Fugl-Meyer upper extremity (FM_UE) scale, NIH Interleukin-3 receptor stroke scale and MRI of brain, the second assessment was completed at 3 months (+/- 2 weeks) with Modified Ashworth Spasticity Scale (MASS) at biceps, wrist and finger flexor. A highest value is used. Independent predictors of

severe spasticity (MASS is ≥3) were identified by logistic regression. A risk stratification scale was developed with weighting of independent predictors based on strength of association. Interventions: Observational study. Main Outcome Measures: MASS. Settings: Comprehensive stroke center. Participants: Ischemic stroke patients. Results: Factors independently associated with limb spasticity are motor function at baseline measured by FM_UE scale (P≤.0005), location of lesion (P=.002) and corticospinal tract (CST) lesion load (P<.03). The proposed grading scale is summation of individual points as followed: FM_UE Scale: >4(1 point), ≤4(0 point); Lesion location: subcortical or corti- cal (0 point), subcortical and cortical (1 point); CST lesion load: >7cc (1 point) ≤7cc (0 point). None of 22 patients (with score of 0) and all 7 patients (with score of 3) developed severe spasticity. The likelihood of developing severe spasticity in- creases steadily with grading scale score.

isnff org International Conference on Food Factors – “Food for We

isnff.org International Conference on Food Factors – “Food for Wellbeing-from Function to Processing” 20-23 November 2011 Taipei, Taiwan Internet: twww.icoff2011.org/download/Invitationlette.pdf EuroCereal 2011 6-7 December 2011 Chipping Campden, UK Internet:http://www.eurocerealconference.com/ Food Colloids 2012 15-18 April 2012 Copenhagen, Denmark E-mail: Richard Ipsen: [email protected] 8th International Conference on Diet and Activity Methods 8-10 May 2012 Rome, Italy Internet:http://www.icdam.org 11th International Hydrocolloids Conference 14-17 May 2012 Purdue University, USA Internet:http://www.international-hydrocolloids-conference.com/ IDF International Symposium on Cheese

Ripening 20-24 May 2012 Madison, Wisconsin, USA Internet:www.fil-idf.org BIRB 796 50th CIFST Conference 27-30 May 2012 Niagara Falls, Canada Internet:http://cifst.ca/default.asp?ID=1250 IDF/INRA International Symposium on Spray-Dried Dairy Products 19-21 June 2012 St Malo, France Email: [email protected] IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo 25-29 June 2012

Las Vegas, USA Internet:www.ift.org 2nd International Conference on Food Oral Processing – Physics, Physiology, and Psychology of Eating 1-5 July 2012 Beaune, France Internet:https://colloque.inra.fr/fop XVI IUFoST World Congress of Food Science and Technology 7-11 August 2012 Salvador, Brazil Internet:www.iufost2012.org.br ICoMST 2012 – 58th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology 12-17

August 2012 Montelukast Sodium Calgary, Canada Internet: TBA XVI IUFoST World Congress of Food Science and Technology 19-24 August 2012 Salvador, Brazil Internet:www.iufost2012.org.br Buparlisib concentration Foodmicro 2012 3-7 September 2012 Istanbul, Turkey Internet:www.foodmicro.org Eurosense 2012 - European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research 9-12 September 2012 Bern, Switzerland Internet: TBA Full-size table Table options View in workspace Download as CSV “
“Amino acids are biomolecules of great relevance in many fields, widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical industries. Amongst the 20 common amino acids used to biochemically build proteins and perform other functions in the human body, nine are classified as essential, due to the inability of the human body to synthesize them. Phenylalanine (Phe) is a non-polar aromatic amino acid, classified as essential, and extensively used as ingredient in the food, pharmaceutical and nutrition industries, with a large demand for its free form for the synthesis of the artificial sweetener aspartame, used as ingredient in diet-labeled drinks and food (Sprenger, 2007). Regardless of the production process of phenylalanine (extraction from natural products, chemical synthesis or microbiological fermentation), product separation, recovery and purification steps are required. The commonly employed processes for these purposes are based on selective adsorption of Phe on solid matrices, e.g.

His research on bacterial pathogenesis is leveraged to identify v

His research on bacterial pathogenesis is leveraged to identify vaccine targets that can be delivered using adjuvanted or living vaccine delivery systems to elicit protective immune responses. Professor Strugnell receives funding support from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and was a member of a team supported by the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health to develop a recombinant Salmonella delivery platform for the developing world. Figure options Download full-size

image Download as PowerPoint slide Terapong Tantawichien, MD: Terapong Tantawichien is Professor in SGI-1776 cost the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Professor Tantawichien received his medical degree from the same university and is board-certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases. His main scientific and research interests include rabies vaccination, adolescent and adult immunisation (such as HPV, pertussis and influenza), dengue in adults and infections in immunocompromised FK866 in vitro hosts. Professor Tantawichien has held positions at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital and Kuzell Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, USA. He is former Secretary-General of

the Infectious Diseases Association of Thailand and is currently Chief of Division click here of Infectious Diseases and Deputy Chairman for Academic Affairs, Department of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University. Professor Tantawichien is also Assistant Director at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute

in Bangkok, Thailand, and Deputy Chairman of the scientific committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Thailand. In 2001, he was the recipient of the first Young Investigator Award from the Infectious Diseases Association of Thailand. Professor Tantawichien is the author or co-author of numerous articles published in international peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet, Vaccine and Clinical Infectious Diseases. Figure options Download full-size image Download as PowerPoint slide Fred Zepp, MD, PhD: Fred Zepp is Medical Director and Chairman of the Children’s Hospital, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. He obtained his medical degree as a Research Fellow and undertook his residency in the Department of Paediatrics at the same university, where he was appointed Head of Paediatric Immunology and Infectiology in 1985. After working as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland, Professor Zepp qualified as a paediatrician. His research focuses on cell-mediated immune responses to vaccines and candidate vaccines in infants and adults, immune responses to acute respiratory tract infection in children and immunology of the newborn.

A source of information about duplication is the immune system in

A source of information about duplication is the immune system in which novel proteins, antibodies, arise very quickly

with but small local changes in a binding region but not in the backbone giving a great variety of proteins [37]. The case of this multiplication is considered to Thiazovivin mw be local modification of DNA, which arises from the more or less direct effect of the antigen. The direct changes include deamination of DNA of the cytosine and 5-methyl cytosine bases making uridine and thymidine [38]. Bert Vallee who knew that the deaminase was a zinc enzyme would have loved the fact that it is so important in gene modification and immune response. We have to consider how an environmental novelty can cause this DNA disruption to occur locally. One possible mechanism is that when a poison binds to a particular protein, the cell is forced to find Selleckchem Navitoclax a replacement so that the cell can function. An increase in protein production requires an increase in its RNA levels which demands in turn longer periods when DNA is single-stranded. Single-stranded DNA is more open to mutation by the above enzymes, such

as the deaminase, and then disruption of DNA copying. A way of connecting the DNA into a double-strand is to duplicate the offending section. This gives rise to local duplications. In the immune system it is known that duplication is relatively easy on the introduction of poisons but only in special cells and not in the germ cells so immunity is not reproducible from generation to generation. The system is only found in some modern animals. However it is known that components of the system such as the thymidine deaminase are inherited and occur in earlier organisms. A good example of the function of the protective system occurs in many species is the response to the drug, poison, methatrexate, which is inherited. There is an interesting observation in bacteria which have plasmids as well as a main DNA. The proteins of drug resistance are found in the plasmids where expansion of its DNA by duplication, must have occurred, Fig. 6. Now the plasmids also accumulate proteins for Cobimetinib solubility dmso resistance

to foreign metal ions in their environment. The suggestion is that protection arises generally by duplication giving not only protective proteins but some which are neutral, both of which can be mutated to give novel proteins. If a new poison similar to the earlier one enters the system the neutral proteins are available for protection. It is reasonable to say that protection from certain poisons preceded their use as is clearly the case in the oxidase family of P-450 enzymes. The conclusion is that duplication followed by mutation is the major route of evolution certainly before 0.54 Ga. Is this the way in which organism evolution followed metal ion availability? Bert Vallee was ill for many years before he died. He fought with all his strength against this. I was not in contact with him during this time.