Studies show that vitamin D (vit-D) (25(OH)D), the bioactive metabolite (1,25(OH)2D3) and vit-D receptors (vit-D receptor; protein disulphide isomerase, family A member 3) are expressed throughout the brain, particularly in regions pivotal to learning and memory. This has led to the paradigm that avoiding vit-D deficiency is important to preserve cognitive function. However, presently, it is not clear if the common clinical measure of serum 25(OH)D serves as a robust surrogate marker for central nervous system (CNS) homeostasis or function. Indeed, recent studies report CNS biosynthesis of endogenous 25(OH)D, the CNS expression of the CYP group of enzymes which catalyse conversion to 1,25(OH)2D3 and thereafter, deactivation. Moreover, in the periphery, there is significant ethnic/genetic heterogeneity in vit-D conversion to 1,25(OH)2D3 and there is a paucity of studies which have actually investigated vit-D kinetics across the cerebrovasculature. Compared with peripheral organs, the CNS also has differential expression of receptors that trigger cellular response to 1,25(OH)2D3 metabolites. To holistically consider the putative association of peripheral (blood) abundance of 25(OH)D on cognitive function, herein, we have reviewed population and genetic studies, pre-clinical and clinical intervention studies and moreover have considered potential confounders of vit-D analysis.

In order to optimise care of the adult patients with complex congenital heart disease, there is a need to develop recommendations for interventions. This document is the work of representatives of the three relevant societies and provides recommendations for institutions and operators performing cardiac interventions in these patients.

Laboratory apparatus and techniques are described for the rearing and insecticidal treatment of whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Gennadius, under simulated field conditions. Insects were reared on cotton plants inside large population cages and treated from an overhead sprayer. The effects of these treatments were assessed accurately, without interfering with insects or plants, by monitoring adult numbers with an endoscope over one or more generations. Examples of single-generation and multiple-generation tests with cypermethrin are described. The apparatus is suitable for testing strategies for delaying the selection of resistance (e.g. using insecticides applied singly, alternately, or in mixture, at various application rates and frequencies), for controlling populations already resistant to insecticides, and for integrated pest management using chemical and biological control agents together.

Cypermethrin, profenofos, and a mixture of these insecticides were evaluated against resistant and susceptible whitefly, Bemisa tabaci Gennadius, from Sudan using (a) laboratory technology which simulates the aerial spraying of whitefly infestations on cotton crops, and (b) standard residue-bioassays. Simulator tests in which adult cohorts were given a single insecticide treatment produced results that were unexpected on the basis of standard bioassay data. Resistance to cypermethrin, for example, was expressed in the bioassays but not in the simulator, resistance to profenofos was expressed both in bioassays and in the simulator, resistance to the mixture was expressed in the simulator but in the bioassay the chemicals acted synergistically and there was no resistance. Repeated treatment of resistant populations, comprised of all life stages, over three generations gave further unpredicted results: cypermethrin failed to contact larvae on the under surfaces of leaves and hence did not prevent population growth; profenofos sprayed at field rates controlled all life-stages (despite the expression of resistance) provided the insecticide vapour was not dissipated. An alternation of cypermethrin and profenofos – cypermethrin timed against maximum adult emergence and profenofos timed to coincide with high larval densities – gave the best control. The disparities between the simulator experiments and standard bioassays suggest that techniques simulating the field treatment of all life-stages are better suited for evaluating the practical significance of resistance and potential curative strategies.

The Ulster Museum is destined to remain a building that stands somewhat outside time and remote from its society. The building is in two parts that are merged into one: the first Classical, designed by James Wyness and built only in part by 1929, and the second, a transformative concrete extension designed by Francis Pym for a 1963 competition judged by Leslie Martin and opened in 1972 to the most violent year of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The extension is, as Paul Clarke, of the University of Ulster has written, ‘an icon to a period when architecture addressed at the very centre of its responsibility, the optimism of modern life, culture and public space’. Now, after decades of inept alterations and unimaginative curation, its doors are closed for a refurbishment that will disassemble its central ideas together with all the optimism that Clarke alludes to – and this at a time when Northern Ireland has the chance to build the open civil society that it never had and that the museum competition project symbolised in that brief period of opportunity for change forty-six years ago.

Fifty patients suffering from the alcohol dependence syndrome were detoxified over a 10-day period using a reducing regime of chlordiazepoxide. Twenty-four had been consuming minor tranquillisers together with alcohol prior to admission. The severity of the withdrawal syndrome was assessed daily but no differences were found between the 26 who had taken alcohol alone and the 24 who had taken a combination of alcohol and drugs. Four from each group had a transient hallucinosis and none had fits.