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"Steele, Philip"
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The Aztec news
Uses a newspaper format to present articles about the history, politics, fashion, food, and daily life of the ancient Aztecs.
Book
Hail! Ancient Romans
Tells the story of an empire that began on the seven hills of Rome and spread all the way across Europe under the rule of such characters as Tiberius, Augustus, and Julius Caesar. It includes the thrills and spills of chariot races and gladiators in combat, sacrifices to the gods, public bathhouses, and villas, as well as the diary of a Roman slave.
Book
Characterization of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-oils Produced from Pretreated Pine Wood
The pretreatment of biomass prior to the fast pyrolysis process has been shown to alter the structure and chemical composition of biomass feed stocks leading to a change in the mechanism of biomass thermal decomposition. Pretreatment of feed stocks prior to fast pyrolysis provides an opportunity to produce bio-oils with varied chemical composition and physical properties. This provides the potential to vary bio-oil chemical and physical properties for specific applications. To determine the influence of biomass pretreatments on bio-oil produced during fast pyrolysis, we applied six chemical pretreatments: dilute phosphoric acid, dilute sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, ammonium hydroxide, and hydrogen peroxide. Bio-oils were produced from untreated and pretreated 10-year old pine wood feed stocks in an auger reactor at 450 °C. The bio-oils' physical properties of pH, water content, acid value, density, viscosity, and heating value were measured. Mean molecular weights and polydispersity were determined by gel permeation chromatography. Chemical characteristics of the bio-oils were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared techniques. Results showed that the physical and chemical characteristics of the bio-oils produced from pretreated pine wood feed stocks were influenced by the biomass pretreatments applied. These physical and chemical changes are compared and discussed in detail in the paper.
Journal Article
Rabbits are not resistant to prion infection
The ability of prions to infect some species and not others is determined by the transmission barrier. This unexplained phenomenon has led to the belief that certain species were not susceptible to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and therefore represented negligible risk to human health if consumed. Using the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) technique, we were able to overcome the species barrier in rabbits, which have been classified as TSE resistant for four decades. Rabbit brain homogenate, either unseeded or seeded in vitro with disease-related prions obtained from different species, was subjected to serial rounds of PMCA. De novo rabbit prions produced in vitro from unseeded material were tested for infectivity in rabbits, with one of three intracerebrally challenged animals succumbing to disease at 766 d and displaying all of the characteristics of a TSE, thereby demonstrating that leporids are not resistant to prion infection. Material from the brain of the clinically affected rabbit containing abnormal prion protein resulted in a 100% attack rate after its inoculation in transgenic mice overexpressing rabbit PrP. Transmissibility to rabbits (>470 d) has been confirmed in 2 of 10 rabbits after intracerebral challenge. Despite rabbits no longer being able to be classified as resistant to TSEs, an outbreak of \"mad rabbit disease\" is unlikely.
Journal Article
Galileo : the genius who faced the Inquisition
Discusses the childhood, education, interests, and inventions of Galileo, as well as how his studies led to conflict with the Catholic church.
Book
Correlation between infectivity and disease associated prion protein in the nervous system and selected edible tissues of naturally affected scrapie sheep
The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases are a group of fatal neurodegenerative disorders characterised by the accumulation of a pathological form of a host protein known as prion protein (PrP). The validation of abnormal PrP detection techniques is fundamental to allow the use of high-throughput laboratory based tests, avoiding the limitations of bioassays. We used scrapie, a prototype TSE, to examine the relationship between infectivity and laboratory based diagnostic tools. The data may help to optimise strategies to prevent exposure of humans to small ruminant TSE material via the food chain. Abnormal PrP distribution/accumulation was assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC), Western blot (WB) and ELISA in samples from four animals. In addition, infectivity was detected using a sensitive bank vole bioassay with selected samples from two of the four sheep and protein misfolding cyclic amplification using bank vole brain as substrate (vPMCA) was also carried out in selected samples from one animal. Lymph nodes, oculomotor muscles, sciatic nerve and kidney were positive by IHC, WB and ELISA, although at levels 100-1000 fold lower than the brain, and contained detectable infectivity by bioassay. Tissues not infectious by bioassay were also negative by all laboratory tests including PMCA. Although discrepancies were observed in tissues with very low levels of abnormal PrP, there was an overall good correlation between IHC, WB, ELISA and bioassay results. Most importantly, there was a good correlation between the detection of abnormal PrP in tissues using laboratory tests and the levels of infectivity even when the titre was low. These findings provide useful information for risk modellers and represent a first step toward the validation of laboratory tests used to quantify prion infectivity, which would greatly aid TSE risk assessment policies.
Journal Article
Susceptibility of European red deer (Cervus elaphus elaphus) to alimentary challenge with bovine spongiform encephalopathy
European red deer (Cervus elaphus elaphus) are susceptible to the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, one of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, when challenged intracerebrally but their susceptibility to alimentary challenge, the presumed natural route of transmission, is unknown. To determine this, eighteen deer were challenged via stomach tube with a large dose of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent and clinical signs, gross and histological lesions, presence and distribution of abnormal prion protein and the attack rate recorded. Only a single animal developed clinical disease, and this was acute with both neurological and respiratory signs, at 1726 days post challenge although there was significant (27.6%) weight loss in the preceding 141 days. The clinically affected animal had histological lesions of vacuolation in the neuronal perikaryon and neuropil, typical of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Abnormal prion protein, the diagnostic marker of transmissible encephalopathies, was primarily restricted to the central and peripheral nervous systems although a very small amount was present in tingible body macrophages in the lymphoid patches of the caecum and colon. Serial protein misfolding cyclical amplification, an in vitro ultra-sensitive diagnostic technique, was positive for neurological tissue from the single clinically diseased deer. All other alimentary challenged deer failed to develop clinical disease and were negative for all other investigations. These findings show that transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to European red deer via the alimentary route is possible but the transmission rate is low. Additionally, when deer carcases are subjected to the same regulations that ruminants in Europe with respect to the removal of specified offal from the human food chain, the zoonotic risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, from consumption of venison is probably very low.
Journal Article