Neutral Evolution and Dispersal Limitation Produce Biogeographic Patterns in Microcystis aeruginosa Populations of Lake Systems.

PubMed

Shirani, Sahar; Hellweger, Ferdi L

2017-08-01

Molecular observations reveal substantial biogeographic patterns of cyanobacteria within systems of connected lakes. An important question is the relative role of environmental selection and neutral processes in the biogeography of these systems. Here, we quantify the effect of genetic drift and dispersal limitation by simulating individual cyanobacteria cells using an agent-based model (ABM). In the model, cells grow (divide), die, and migrate between lakes. Each cell has a full genome that is subject to neutral mutation (i.e., the growth rate is independent of the genome). The model is verified by simulating simplified lake systems, for which theoretical solutions are available. Then, it is used to simulate the biogeography of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa in a number of real systems, including the Great Lakes, Klamath River, Yahara River, and Chattahoochee River. Model output is analyzed using standard bioinformatics tools (BLAST, MAFFT). The emergent patterns of nucleotide divergence between lakes are dynamic, including gradual increases due to accumulation of mutations and abrupt changes due to population takeovers by migrant cells (coalescence events). The model predicted nucleotide divergence is heterogeneous within systems, and for weakly connected lakes, it can be substantial. For example, Lakes Superior and Michigan are predicted to have an average genomic nucleotide divergence of 8200 bp or 0.14%. The divergence between more strongly connected lakes is much lower. Our results provide a quantitative baseline for future biogeography studies. They show that dispersal limitation can be an important factor in microbe biogeography, which is contrary to the common belief, and could affect how a system responds to environmental change.

Deformation of Cases in High Capacitance Value Wet Tantalum Capacitors under Environmental Stresses

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Teverovsky, Alexander

2016-01-01

Internal gas pressure in hermetic wet tantalum capacitors is created by air, electrolyte vapor, and gas generated by electrochemical reactions at the electrodes. This pressure increases substantially with temperature and time of operation due to excessive leakage currents. Deformation of the case occurs when the internal pressure exceeds pressure of the environments and can raise significantly when a part operates in space. Contrary to the cylinder case wet tantalum capacitors that have external sealing by welding and internal sealing provided by the Teflon bushing and crimping of the case, no reliable internal sealing exists in the button case capacitors. Single seal design capacitors are used for high capacitance value wet tantalum capacitors manufactured per DLA L&M drawings #04003, 04005, and 10011, and require additional analysis to assure their reliable application in space systems. In this work, leakage currents and case deformation of button case capacitors were measured during different environmental test conditions. Recommendations for derating, screening and qualification testing are given. This work is a continuation of a series of NEPP reports related to quality and reliability of wet tantalum capacitors.

Innovations in capture fisheries are an imperative for nutrition security in the developing world.

PubMed

Hall, Stephen J; Hilborn, Ray; Andrew, Neil L; Allison, Edward H

2013-05-21

This article examines two strands of discourse on wild capture fisheries; one that focuses on resource sustainability and environmental impacts, another related to food and nutrition security and human well-being. Available data and research show that, for countries most dependent on fish to meet the nutritional requirements of their population, wild capture fisheries remain the dominant supplier. Although, contrary to popular narratives, the sustainability of these fisheries is not always and everywhere in crisis, securing their sustainability is essential and requires considerable effort across a broad spectrum of fishery systems. An impediment to achieving this is that the current research and policy discourses on environmental sustainability of fisheries and food security remain only loosely and superficially linked. Overcoming this requires adoption of a broader sustainability science paradigm to help harness synergies and negotiate tradeoffs between food security, resource conservation, and macroeconomic development goals. The way society chooses to govern fisheries is, however, an ethical choice, not just a technical one, and we recommend adding an ethical dimension to sustainability science as applied to fisheries.

Breaking Down the Door: A Nonprofit Model Creating Pathways for Non-Traditional STEM Student Engagement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelaez, C.; Pelaez, J.

2015-12-01

Blueprint Earth was created as a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated to conducting micro-scale interdisciplinary environmental investigations to generate macroscopic, system-level environmental understanding. The field data collection and analysis process was conceived to be dependent on student participation and collaboration with more senior scientists, effecting knowledge transfer and emphasizing the critical nature of interdisciplinary research in investigating complex, macroscopic questions. Recruiting for student volunteer researchers is conducted in academic institutions, and to date has focused primarily on the Los Angeles area. Self-selecting student participation has run contrary to traditional STEM demographics. The vast majority of research participants in Blueprint Earth's work are female and/or from a minority (non-white) background, and most are first-generation college students or from low-income, Pell grant-eligible households. Traditional field research programs for students often come at a high cost, creating barriers to access for field-based STEM opportunities. The nonprofit model employed by Blueprint Earth provides zero-cost access to opportunity for students that the STEM world is currently targeting for future professional development.

Innovations in capture fisheries are an imperative for nutrition security in the developing world

PubMed Central

Hall, Stephen J.; Hilborn, Ray; Andrew, Neil L.; Allison, Edward H.

2013-01-01

This article examines two strands of discourse on wild capture fisheries; one that focuses on resource sustainability and environmental impacts, another related to food and nutrition security and human well-being. Available data and research show that, for countries most dependent on fish to meet the nutritional requirements of their population, wild capture fisheries remain the dominant supplier. Although, contrary to popular narratives, the sustainability of these fisheries is not always and everywhere in crisis, securing their sustainability is essential and requires considerable effort across a broad spectrum of fishery systems. An impediment to achieving this is that the current research and policy discourses on environmental sustainability of fisheries and food security remain only loosely and superficially linked. Overcoming this requires adoption of a broader sustainability science paradigm to help harness synergies and negotiate tradeoffs between food security, resource conservation, and macroeconomic development goals. The way society chooses to govern fisheries is, however, an ethical choice, not just a technical one, and we recommend adding an ethical dimension to sustainability science as applied to fisheries. PMID:23671089

Fostering Creativity through Collaboration: Polar Learning and Responding Climate Change Education Partnership

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pfirman, S. L.; Brunacini, J.; Hernandez, T.; Bachrach, E.

2014-12-01

Blueprint Earth was created as a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated to conducting micro-scale interdisciplinary environmental investigations to generate macroscopic, system-level environmental understanding. The field data collection and analysis process was conceived to be dependent on student participation and collaboration with more senior scientists, effecting knowledge transfer and emphasizing the critical nature of interdisciplinary research in investigating complex, macroscopic questions. Recruiting for student volunteer researchers is conducted in academic institutions, and to date has focused primarily on the Los Angeles area. Self-selecting student participation has run contrary to traditional STEM demographics. The vast majority of research participants in Blueprint Earth's work are female and/or from a minority (non-white) background, and most are first-generation college students or from low-income, Pell grant-eligible households. Traditional field research programs for students often come at a high cost, creating barriers to access for field-based STEM opportunities. The nonprofit model employed by Blueprint Earth provides zero-cost access to opportunity for students that the STEM world is currently targeting for future professional development.

Identification and function analysis of contrary genes in Dupuytren's contracture.

PubMed

Ji, Xianglu; Tian, Feng; Tian, Lijie

2015-07-01

The present study aimed to analyze the expression of genes involved in Dupuytren's contracture (DC), using bioinformatic methods. The profile of GSE21221 was downloaded from the gene expression ominibus, which included six samples, derived from fibroblasts and six healthy control samples, derived from carpal-tunnel fibroblasts. A Distributed Intrusion Detection System was used in order to identify differentially expressed genes. The term contrary genes is proposed. Contrary genes were the genes that exhibited opposite expression patterns in the positive and negative groups, and likely exhibited opposite functions. These were identified using Coexpress software. Gene ontology (GO) function analysis was conducted for the contrary genes. A network of GO terms was constructed using the reduce and visualize gene ontology database. Significantly expressed genes (801) and contrary genes (98) were screened. A significant association was observed between Chitinase-3-like protein 1 and ten genes in the positive gene set. Positive regulation of transcription and the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB)-inducing kinase activity exhibited the highest degree values in the network of GO terms. In the present study, the expression of genes involved in the development of DC was analyzed, and the concept of contrary genes proposed. The genes identified in the present study are involved in the positive regulation of transcription and activation of NF-κB-inducing kinase activity. The contrary genes and GO terms identified in the present study may potentially be used for DC diagnosis and treatment.

Age and Employee Green Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Wiernik, Brenton M.; Dilchert, Stephan; Ones, Deniz S.

2016-01-01

Recent economic and societal developments have led to an increasing emphasis on organizational environmental performance. At the same time, demographic trends are resulting in increasingly aging labor forces in many industrialized nations. Commonly held stereotypes suggest that older workers are less likely to be environmentally responsible than younger workers. To evaluate the degree to which such age differences are present, we meta-analyzed 132 independent correlations and 336 d-values based on 4676 professional workers from 22 samples in 11 countries. Contrary to popular stereotypes, age showed small positive relationships with pro-environmental behaviors, suggesting that older adults engaged in these workplace behaviors slightly more frequently. Relationships with age appeared to be linear for overall, Conserving, Avoiding Harm, and Taking Initiative pro-environmental behaviors, but non-linear trends were observed for Transforming and Influencing Others behaviors. PMID:26973550

Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) Ecosystem Management Project (SEMP) FY00 Annual Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-09-01

during a major drought period. Preliminary results indicate that there were fewer differences among the disturbance classes. Contrary to the May...Magellan GPS receivers. The Fort Benning region experienced a severe drought during 1999-2000. Most lysimeter samples collected on 31 May and 23...samples collected both during drought and high pre- cipitation periods contained high sulfate concentrations. This pattern was par- ticularly evident

HNS-MS : Improving Member States preparedness to face an HNS pollution of the Marine System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Legrand, Sébastien; Le Floch, Stéphane; Aprin, Laurent; Partenay, Valérie; Donnay, Eric; Parmentier, Koen; Ovidio, Fabrice; Schallier, Ronny; Poncet, Florence; Chataing, Sophie; Poupon, Emmanuelle; Hellouvry, Yann-Hervé

2017-04-01

When dealing with a HNS pollution incident, one of the priority requirements is the identification of the hazard and an assessment of the risk posed to the public and responder safety, the environment and socioeconomic assets upon which a state or coastal community depend. The primary factors which determine the safety, environmental and socioeconomic impact of the released substance(s) relate to their physico-chemical properties and fate in the environment. Until now, preparedness actions at various levels have primarily aimed at classifying the general environmental or public health hazard of an HNS, or at performing a risk analysis of HNS transported in European marine regions. Operational datasheets have been (MIDSIS-TROCS) or are being (MAR-CIS) developed collating detailed, substance-specific information for responders and covering information needs at the first stage of an incident. However, contrary to oil pollution preparedness and response tools, only few decision-support tools used by Member State authorities (Coastguard agencies or other) integrate 3D models that are able to simulate the drift, fate and behaviour of HNS spills in the marine environment. When they do, they usually consider simplified or steady-state environmental conditions. As a significant step forward, a 'one-stop shop' integrated HNS decision-support system has been developed in the framework of the HNS-MS project. Focussing on the Bonn Agreement area, the system integrates 1. A database containing the physico-chemical parameters needed to compute the behaviour in the marine environment of 120 relevant HNS; 2. A digital atlas of the HNS environmental and socioeconomic vulnerability maps ; 3. A three dimensional HNS spill drift and fate model able to simulate HNS behaviour in the marine environment (including floaters, sinkers, evaporators and dissolvers). 4. A user-friendly web-based interface allowing Coastguard stations to launch a HNS drift simulation and visualize post-processed results in support of an incident evaluation and decision-making process. All these results will be further presented.

Assessment of the trade-offs and synergies between low-carbon power sector transition and land and water resources of the United Kingdom using the "ForeseerTM" approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konadu, D. D.; Sobral Mourao, Z.

2016-12-01

Transitioning to a low-carbon power system has been identified as one of the main strategies for achieving GHG emissions reduction targets stipulated in the UK Climate Change Act (2008). However, projected mix of technologies aimed at achieving the targeted level of decarbonisation have implications for sustainable level natural resource exploitation at different spatial and temporal scales. Critical among these are the impact on land use (food production) and water resources, which are usually not adequately analysed and accounted for in developing these long-term energy system transition strategies and scenarios. Given the importance of the UK power sector to meeting economy-wide emissions targets, the overall environmental consequence of the prescribed scenarios could significantly affect meeting long-term legislated GHG emission reduction targets. It is therefore imperative that synergies and trade-offs between the power systems and these resources are comprehensively analysed. The current study employs an integrated energy and resource use accounting methodology, called ForeseerTM, to assess the land and water requirement for the deployment of the power sector technologies of the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) Carbon Budget scenarios. This is analysed under different scenarios of energy crop yield and electricity infrastructure location. The outputs are then compared with sustainable limits of resource exploitation to establish the environmental tractability of the scenarios. The results show that even if stringent environmental and land use restrictions are applied, all the projected bioenergy and ground-mounted solar PV can be deployed within the UK with no significant impacts on land use and food production. However, inland water resources would be significantly affected if high Carbon Capture and Storage deployment, and without new nuclear capacity. Overall, the output highlights that contrary to the notion of the inevitability of CCS deployment in delivering emissions reduction targets, a future without CCS poses the least overall environmental impacts.

Motivation of chemical industry social responsibility through Responsible Care.

PubMed

Givel, Michael

2007-04-01

Advocates of corporate social responsibility argue corporations should not only meet the needs of shareholders, but other key stakeholders including the community, customers, suppliers, and employees. Since 1988, the chemical industry has engaged in a major self-regulatory "Responsible Care" industry-wide social responsibility campaign to ensure environmental, public health, safety, and security performance among member companies. Contrary to the arguments of advocates of corporate social responsibility that such efforts meet the needs of stakeholders other than shareholders such as the community, the primary goal of the Responsible Care effort has been to change public concerns and opinion about chemical industry environmental and public health practices while also opposing support for stronger and more expensive public health and environmental legislation and regulation of chemical products, even if warranted.

Environmental Risk Assessment Strategy for Nanomaterials.

PubMed

Scott-Fordsmand, Janeck J; Peijnenburg, Willie J G M; Semenzin, Elena; Nowack, Bernd; Hunt, Neil; Hristozov, Danail; Marcomini, Antonio; Irfan, Muhammad-Adeel; Jiménez, Araceli Sánchez; Landsiedel, Robert; Tran, Lang; Oomen, Agnes G; Bos, Peter M J; Hund-Rinke, Kerstin

2017-10-19

An Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) for nanomaterials (NMs) is outlined in this paper. Contrary to other recent papers on the subject, the main data requirements, models and advancement within each of the four risk assessment domains are described, i.e., in the: (i) materials, (ii) release, fate and exposure, (iii) hazard and (iv) risk characterisation domains. The material, which is obviously the foundation for any risk assessment, should be described according to the legislatively required characterisation data. Characterisation data will also be used at various levels within the ERA, e.g., exposure modelling. The release, fate and exposure data and models cover the input for environmental distribution models in order to identify the potential (PES) and relevant exposure scenarios (RES) and, subsequently, the possible release routes, both with regard to which compartment(s) NMs are distributed in line with the factors determining the fate within environmental compartment. The initial outcome in the risk characterisation will be a generic Predicted Environmental Concentration (PEC), but a refined PEC can be obtained by applying specific exposure models for relevant media. The hazard information covers a variety of representative, relevant and reliable organisms and/or functions, relevant for the RES and enabling a hazard characterisation. The initial outcome will be hazard characterisation in test systems allowing estimating a Predicted No-Effect concentration (PNEC), either based on uncertainty factors or on a NM adapted version of the Species Sensitivity Distributions approach. The risk characterisation will either be based on a deterministic risk ratio approach (i.e., PEC/PNEC) or an overlay of probability distributions, i.e., exposure and hazard distributions, using the nano relevant models.

Environmental Risk Assessment Strategy for Nanomaterials

PubMed Central

Scott-Fordsmand, Janeck J.; Nowack, Bernd; Hunt, Neil; Hristozov, Danail; Marcomini, Antonio; Irfan, Muhammad-Adeel; Jiménez, Araceli Sánchez; Landsiedel, Robert; Tran, Lang; Oomen, Agnes G.; Bos, Peter M. J.

2017-01-01

An Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) for nanomaterials (NMs) is outlined in this paper. Contrary to other recent papers on the subject, the main data requirements, models and advancement within each of the four risk assessment domains are described, i.e., in the: (i) materials, (ii) release, fate and exposure, (iii) hazard and (iv) risk characterisation domains. The material, which is obviously the foundation for any risk assessment, should be described according to the legislatively required characterisation data. Characterisation data will also be used at various levels within the ERA, e.g., exposure modelling. The release, fate and exposure data and models cover the input for environmental distribution models in order to identify the potential (PES) and relevant exposure scenarios (RES) and, subsequently, the possible release routes, both with regard to which compartment(s) NMs are distributed in line with the factors determining the fate within environmental compartment. The initial outcome in the risk characterisation will be a generic Predicted Environmental Concentration (PEC), but a refined PEC can be obtained by applying specific exposure models for relevant media. The hazard information covers a variety of representative, relevant and reliable organisms and/or functions, relevant for the RES and enabling a hazard characterisation. The initial outcome will be hazard characterisation in test systems allowing estimating a Predicted No-Effect concentration (PNEC), either based on uncertainty factors or on a NM adapted version of the Species Sensitivity Distributions approach. The risk characterisation will either be based on a deterministic risk ratio approach (i.e., PEC/PNEC) or an overlay of probability distributions, i.e., exposure and hazard distributions, using the nano relevant models. PMID:29048395

Environmental Persistence Influences Infection Dynamics for a Butterfly Pathogen

PubMed Central

Altizer, Sonia; Williams, Mary-Kate; Hall, Richard J.

2017-01-01

Many pathogens, including those infecting insects, are transmitted via dormant stages shed into the environment, where they must persist until encountering a susceptible host. Understanding how abiotic conditions influence environmental persistence and how these factors influence pathogen spread are crucial for predicting patterns of infection risk. Here, we explored the consequences of environmental transmission for infection dynamics of a debilitating protozoan parasite (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha) that infects monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). We first conducted an experiment to observe the persistence of protozoan spores exposed to natural conditions. Experimental results showed that, contrary to our expectations, pathogen doses maintained high infectivity even after 16 days in the environment, although pathogens did yield infections with lower parasite loads after environmental exposure. Because pathogen longevity exceeded the time span of our experiment, we developed a mechanistic model to better explore environmental persistence for this host-pathogen system. Model analysis showed that, in general, longer spore persistence led to higher infection prevalence and slightly smaller monarch population sizes. The model indicated that typical parasite doses shed onto milkweed plants must remain viable for a minimum of 3 weeks for prevalence to increase during the summer-breeding season, and for 11 weeks or longer to match levels of infection commonly reported from the wild, assuming moderate values for parasite shedding rate. Our findings showed that transmission stages of this butterfly pathogen are long-lived and indicated that this is a necessary condition for the protozoan to persist in local monarch populations. This study provides a modeling framework for future work examining the dynamics of an ecologically important pathogen in an iconic insect. PMID:28099501

Determinants of human olfactory performance: a cross-cultural study.

PubMed

Sorokowska, Agnieszka; Sorokowski, Piotr; Frackowiak, Tomasz

2015-02-15

Olfaction allows us to detect subtle changes in our environment, but sensitivity of the sense of smell varies among individuals. Although a significant number of research papers discuss the relationship between olfactory abilities and environmental factors, most studies have been conducted on Western populations or in developed Asian societies. The potential environmental and cultural determinants of olfactory acuity warrant further exploration. In the current study, we compared previously published data on olfaction in an industrialized, modern society (i.e., Europeans) and an indigenous society living in unpolluted, natural environmental conditions (i.e., Tsimane'), with novel data on the olfactory acuity of inhabitants of the Cook Islands. Like the European population (and contrary to the Tsimane'), the Cook Islands people form a modern society, and like the Tsimane' population (and contrary to the Europeans), they live in an unpolluted region. Thus, these comparisons enabled us to independently assess the importance of both air pollution and changes in lifestyle for olfactory abilities in modern societies. Our results indicate that people from the Cook Islands had significantly higher olfactory acuity (i.e., lower thresholds of odor detection) than did Europeans and Tsimane' people. Interestingly, the olfactory sensitivity of Europeans was significantly lower than the olfactory sensitivity of the remaining two groups. Our data suggest that air pollution is an important factor in the deterioration of the sense of smell. However, it is also possible that factors such as agricultural and/or cooking practices, alcohol consumption, and access to medical service may also influence olfactory acuity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Material and energy recovery in integrated waste management systems: project overview and main results.

PubMed

Consonni, Stefano; Giugliano, Michele; Massarutto, Antonio; Ragazzi, Marco; Saccani, Cesare

2011-01-01

This paper describes the context, the basic assumptions and the main findings of a joint research project aimed at identifying the optimal breakdown between material recovery and energy recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW) in the framework of integrated waste management systems (IWMS). The project was carried out from 2007 to 2009 by five research groups at Politecnico di Milano, the Universities of Bologna and Trento, and the Bocconi University (Milan), with funding from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). Since the optimization of IWMSs by analytical methods is practically impossible, the search for the most attractive strategy was carried out by comparing a number of relevant recovery paths from the point of view of mass and energy flows, technological features, environmental impact and economics. The main focus has been on mature processes applicable to MSW in Italy and Europe. Results show that, contrary to a rather widespread opinion, increasing the source separation level (SSL) has a very marginal effects on energy efficiency. What does generate very significant variations in energy efficiency is scale, i.e. the size of the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. The mere value of SSL is inadequate to qualify the recovery system. The energy and environmental outcome of recovery depends not only on "how much" source separation is carried out, but rather on "how" a given SSL is reached. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transcriptomes of Mouse Olfactory Epithelium Reveal Sexual Differences in Odorant Detection

PubMed Central

Shiao, Meng-Shin; Chang, Andrew Ying-Fei; Liao, Ben-Yang; Ching, Yung-Hao; Lu, Mei-Yeh Jade; Chen, Stella Maris; Li, Wen-Hsiung

2012-01-01

To sense numerous odorants and chemicals, animals have evolved a large number of olfactory receptor genes (Olfrs) in their genome. In particular, the house mouse has ∼1,100 genes in the Olfr gene family. This makes the mouse a good model organism to study Olfr genes and olfaction-related genes. To date, whether male and female mice possess the same ability in detecting environmental odorants is still unknown. Using the next generation sequencing technology (paired-end mRNA-seq), we detected 1,088 expressed Olfr genes in both male and female olfactory epithelium. We found that not only Olfr genes but also odorant-binding protein (Obp) genes have evolved rapidly in the mouse lineage. Interestingly, Olfr genes tend to express at a higher level in males than in females, whereas the Obp genes clustered on the X chromosome show the opposite trend. These observations may imply a more efficient odorant-transporting system in females, whereas a more active Olfr gene expressing system in males. In addition, we detected the expression of two genes encoding major urinary proteins, which have been proposed to bind and transport pheromones or act as pheromones in mouse urine. This observation suggests a role of main olfactory system (MOS) in pheromone detection, contrary to the view that only accessory olfactory system (AOS) is involved in pheromone detection. This study suggests the sexual differences in detecting environmental odorants in MOS and demonstrates that mRNA-seq provides a powerful tool for detecting genes with low expression levels and with high sequence similarities. PMID:22511034

[Integration of sex/gender into environmental health research. Results of the interdisciplinary research network Sex/Gender-Environment-Health (GeUmGe-NET)].

PubMed

Bolte, Gabriele; David, Madlen; Dębiak, Małgorzata; Fiedel, Lotta; Hornberg, Claudia; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Kraus, Ute; Lätzsch, Rebecca; Paeck, Tatjana; Palm, Kerstin; Schneider, Alexandra

2018-06-01

The comprehensive consideration of sex/gender in health research is essential to increase relevance and validity of research results. Contrary to other areas of health research, there is no systematic summary of the current state of research on the significance of sex/gender in environmental health. Within the interdisciplinary research network Sex/Gender-Environment-Health (GeUmGe-NET) the current state of integration of sex/gender aspects or, respectively, gender theoretical concepts into research was systematically assessed within selected topics of the research areas environmental toxicology, environmental medicine, environmental epidemiology and public health research on environment and health. Knowledge gaps and research needs were identified in all research areas. Furthermore, the potential for methodological advancements by using gender theoretical concepts was depicted. A dialogue between biomedical research, public health research, and gender studies was started with the research network GeUmGe-NET. This dialogue has to be continued particularly regarding a common testing of methodological innovations in data collection and data analysis. Insights of this interdisciplinary research are relevant for practice areas such as environmental health protection, health promotion, environmental justice, and environmental health monitoring.

Holocene environmental changes recorded in Dicksonfjorden and Woodfjorden, Svalbard: impacts of global climate changes in a glacial-marine system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joo, Y. J.; Nam, S. I.; Son, Y. J.; Forwick, M.

2017-12-01

Fjords in the Svalbard archipelago are characterized by an extreme environmental gradient between 1) the glacial system affected by tidewater glaciers and seasonal sea ice inside the fjords and 2) the warm Atlantic Water intrusion by the West Spitsbergen Current from open ocean. As sediment is largely supplied from the terrestrial source area exposed along the steep slopes of the fjords, the changes in the surface processes affected by glaciers are likely preserved in the sediments in the inner fjords. On the other hand, variations in the influence of the warm Atlantic Water in the marine realm (e.g. marine productivity) can be archived in the sediment deposited in the vicinity of the entrance to the fjords. Since the last deglaciation of the Svalbard-Barents ice sheet ( 13000 yrs BP), the Svalbard fjords have faced dramatic climate changes including the early Holocene Climate Optimum (HCO) and subsequent cooling that eventually led to the current cold and dry climate. We investigate the Holocene environmental changes in both terrestrial and marine realms based on stable isotopic and inorganic geochemical analyses of sediments deposited in Dicksonfjorden and Woodfjorden in the western and northern Spitsbergen, respectively. The two fjords are expected to provide intriguing information regarding how terrestrial and marine realms of the Arctic fjords system responded to regional and global climate changes. Being a branch of the larger Isfjorden, Dicksonfjorden penetrates deeply to the land, whereas Woodfjorden is rather directly connected to the open ocean. Accordingly, the results suggest that the Dicksonfjorden sediment records mainly terrestrial signals with marked fluctuations in sediment composition that coincide with major climate changes (e.g. HCO). On the contrary, the two Woodfjorden cores collected from different parts of the fjord exhibit contrasting results, likely illustrating differing response of terrestrial and marine realms to the climate changes in terms of behavior of tidewater glaciers and inflow of the warm West Spitsbergen Current and their possible interactions. This study aims to disentangle the interaction between the fjords and the global climate changes and provide a holistic view to the Arctic fjords system with strong environmental gradients.

Parallel independent evolution of pathogenicity within the genus Yersinia

PubMed Central

Reuter, Sandra; Connor, Thomas R.; Barquist, Lars; Walker, Danielle; Feltwell, Theresa; Harris, Simon R.; Fookes, Maria; Hall, Miquette E.; Petty, Nicola K.; Fuchs, Thilo M.; Corander, Jukka; Dufour, Muriel; Ringwood, Tamara; Savin, Cyril; Bouchier, Christiane; Martin, Liliane; Miettinen, Minna; Shubin, Mikhail; Riehm, Julia M.; Laukkanen-Ninios, Riikka; Sihvonen, Leila M.; Siitonen, Anja; Skurnik, Mikael; Falcão, Juliana Pfrimer; Fukushima, Hiroshi; Scholz, Holger C.; Prentice, Michael B.; Wren, Brendan W.; Parkhill, Julian; Carniel, Elisabeth; Achtman, Mark; McNally, Alan; Thomson, Nicholas R.

2014-01-01

The genus Yersinia has been used as a model system to study pathogen evolution. Using whole-genome sequencing of all Yersinia species, we delineate the gene complement of the whole genus and define patterns of virulence evolution. Multiple distinct ecological specializations appear to have split pathogenic strains from environmental, nonpathogenic lineages. This split demonstrates that contrary to hypotheses that all pathogenic Yersinia species share a recent common pathogenic ancestor, they have evolved independently but followed parallel evolutionary paths in acquiring the same virulence determinants as well as becoming progressively more limited metabolically. Shared virulence determinants are limited to the virulence plasmid pYV and the attachment invasion locus ail. These acquisitions, together with genomic variations in metabolic pathways, have resulted in the parallel emergence of related pathogens displaying an increasingly specialized lifestyle with a spectrum of virulence potential, an emerging theme in the evolution of other important human pathogens. PMID:24753568

Light-Triggered CO2 Breathing Foam via Nonsurfactant High Internal Phase Emulsion.

PubMed

Zhang, Shiming; Wang, Dingguan; Pan, Qianhao; Gui, Qinyuan; Liao, Shenglong; Wang, Yapei

2017-10-04

Solid materials for CO 2 capture and storage have attracted enormous attention for gaseous separation, environmental protection, and climate governance. However, their preparation and recovery meet the problems of high energy and financial cost. Herein, a controllable CO 2 capture and storage process is accomplished in an emulsion-templated polymer foam, in which CO 2 is breathed-in under dark and breathed-out under light illumination. Such a process is likely to become a relay of natural CO 2 capture by plants that on the contrary breathe out CO 2 at night. Recyclable CO 2 capture at room temperature and release under light irradiation guarantee its convenient and cost-effective regeneration in industry. Furthermore, CO 2 mixed with CH 4 is successfully separated through this reversible breathing in and out system, which offers great promise for CO 2 enrichment and practical methane purification.

Episodic Reasoning for Vision-Based Human Action Recognition

PubMed Central

Martinez-del-Rincon, Jesus

2014-01-01

Smart Spaces, Ambient Intelligence, and Ambient Assisted Living are environmental paradigms that strongly depend on their capability to recognize human actions. While most solutions rest on sensor value interpretations and video analysis applications, few have realized the importance of incorporating common-sense capabilities to support the recognition process. Unfortunately, human action recognition cannot be successfully accomplished by only analyzing body postures. On the contrary, this task should be supported by profound knowledge of human agency nature and its tight connection to the reasons and motivations that explain it. The combination of this knowledge and the knowledge about how the world works is essential for recognizing and understanding human actions without committing common-senseless mistakes. This work demonstrates the impact that episodic reasoning has in improving the accuracy of a computer vision system for human action recognition. This work also presents formalization, implementation, and evaluation details of the knowledge model that supports the episodic reasoning. PMID:24959602

Swimming against the tide: resilience of a riverine turtle to recurrent extreme environmental events.

PubMed

Jergenson, Abigail M; Miller, David A W; Neuman-Lee, Lorin A; Warner, Daniel A; Janzen, Fredric J

2014-03-01

Extreme environmental events (EEEs) are likely to exert deleterious effects on populations. From 1996 to 2012 we studied the nesting dynamics of a riverine population of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) that experienced seven years with significantly definable spring floods. We used capture-mark-recapture methods to estimate the relationships between more than 5 m and more than 6 m flood events and population parameters. Contrary to expectations, flooding was not associated with annual differences in survival, recruitment or annual population growth rates of the adult female segment of the population. These findings suggest that female C. picta exhibit resiliency to key EEE, which are expected to increase in frequency under climate change.

75 FR 55576 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-13

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Final Environmental Assessment Addressing Construction, Operation, and Maintenance of a Military Working Dog Facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico

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2011-03-01

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Mastery matters most: How mastery and positive relations link attachment avoidance and anxiety to negative emotions.

PubMed

Paech, Juliane; Schindler, Ines; Fagundes, Christopher P

2016-08-01

Attachment avoidance and anxiety are associated with negative emotions. However, the mechanisms underlying these associations are not fully understood. We investigated environmental mastery and positive relations with others as two mechanisms behind the attachment-emotion link in a sample of 343 adults. As predicted, attachment avoidance and anxiety were related to greater fear, hostility, envy and depression through lower mastery. Contrary to our hypothesis, positive relations mediated only the attachment-depression link. In addition, by adopting a moderated mediation approach, we were able to show that mastery mattered most for individuals high on avoidance: The indirect effect of avoidance through lack of mastery on fear, hostility and depression (but not on envy) increased with higher avoidance scores. Contrary to our predictions, poor relationships did not matter more as sources of negative emotions as anxiety increased. These findings underscore that the emotional life of avoidantly attached individuals is especially jeopardised by poor mastery.

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Early Exposure to Environmental Chaos and Children's Physical and Mental Health.

PubMed

Coley, Rebekah Levine; Lynch, Alicia Doyle; Kull, Melissa

Environmental chaos has been proposed as a central influence impeding children's health and development, with the potential for particularly pernicious effects during the earliest years when children are most susceptible to environmental insults. This study evaluated a high-risk sample, following 495 low-income children living in poor urban neighborhoods from infancy to age 6. Longitudinal multilevel models tested the main tenets of the ecobiodevelopmental theory, finding that: (1) numerous distinct domains of environmental chaos were associated with children's physical and mental health outcomes, including housing disorder, neighborhood disorder, and relationship instability, with no significant results for residential instability; (2) different patterns emerged in relation to the timing of exposure to chaos, with more proximal exposure most strongly associated with children's functioning; and (3) the intensity of chaos also was a robust predictor of child functioning. Contrary to expectations, neither biological vulnerability (proxied through low birth weight status), maternal sensitivity, nor maternal distress moderated the role of chaos. Rather, maternal psychological distress functioned as a pathway through which environmental chaos was associated with children's functioning.

Early Exposure to Environmental Chaos and Children’s Physical and Mental Health

PubMed Central

Coley, Rebekah Levine; Lynch, Alicia Doyle; Kull, Melissa

2015-01-01

Environmental chaos has been proposed as a central influence impeding children’s health and development, with the potential for particularly pernicious effects during the earliest years when children are most susceptible to environmental insults. This study evaluated a high-risk sample, following 495 low-income children living in poor urban neighborhoods from infancy to age 6. Longitudinal multilevel models tested the main tenets of the ecobiodevelopmental theory, finding that: (1) numerous distinct domains of environmental chaos were associated with children’s physical and mental health outcomes, including housing disorder, neighborhood disorder, and relationship instability, with no significant results for residential instability; (2) different patterns emerged in relation to the timing of exposure to chaos, with more proximal exposure most strongly associated with children’s functioning; and (3) the intensity of chaos also was a robust predictor of child functioning. Contrary to expectations, neither biological vulnerability (proxied through low birth weight status), maternal sensitivity, nor maternal distress moderated the role of chaos. Rather, maternal psychological distress functioned as a pathway through which environmental chaos was associated with children’s functioning. PMID:25844016

Response to Lisovski et al.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Streby, Henry M.; Kramer, Gunnar R.; Peterson, Sean M.; Lehman, Justin A.; Buehler, David A.; Andersen, David

2018-01-01

Lisovski et al. [1] describe the widely recognized limitations of light-level geolocator data for identifying short-distance latitudinal movements, recommend that caution be used when interpreting such data, intimated that we did not use such caution and argued that environmental shading likely explained the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) movements described in our 2015 report [2] . Lisovski et al. [1] conclude that the bird movements we reported could not be disentangled from estimation error in stationary animals caused by environmental shading. We argue that, to the contrary, these hypotheses can easily be disentangled because the premise that environmental shading caused synchronous and parallel error among geolocators is false. With their assertion that our location estimates could be biased by >3,500 km on a day with no observable local sources of shading, Lisovski et al. [1] have taken a position of incredulity toward all geolocator-based animal movement data published to date.

Elections and Deforestation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanford, L.

2017-12-01

When do politicians' re-election strategies cause serious environmental damage? This paper focuses on a case of deforestation, and argues that the protection of forested areas is a long-term public good while their destruction provides short-term, private goods for local voters and elected officials. Politicians give voters access to forested areas for commercial use of timber and small-scale farming in exchange for electoral support. I test the theory that competitive elections are associated with higher rates of deforestation using remote sensed satellite data of forest cover and data on national elections cross-nationally. The findings suggest that rates of forest cover loss are 50% higher in anocracies during election years, and more than double the average rate in years when there are competitive elections in anocracies and democracies. This suggests that democratic elections can be an important source of environmental damage, such as deforestation, contrary to the conventional wisdom that democratization improves environmental protection.

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Power supply expansion and the nuclear option in Poland

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marnay, C.; Pickle, S.

Poland is in the process of liberalizing and modernizing its electric power system. Given its heavy reliance on coal and a consequent history of often severe environmental externalities associated with power production, the nature of capacity expansion in Poland has important environmental and social implications. To better understand capacity expansion in Poland, we constructed a data set of the Polish power sector for use with the Elfin capacity expansion planning model. Using Elfin, we derived four scenarios and several sensitivities for new generating capacity construction. These scenarios simulate choices among several generic generating technologies made to achieve the lowest overallmore » net present cost of operating the power system through 2015. We find that natural gas is a highly desirable fuel for future power generation in Poland, but primarily as a peaking resource. As the current system is inflexible and peaking capacity appears to be the most pressing need, this result is not surprising. However, when nuclear power is included as a generation option, natural gas is less desirable than the Polish Power Grid Company (PPGCo) has suggested, and, despite the PPGCo`s claims to the contrary, nuclear power cannot be ruled out in Poland on economic grounds alone. In the unconstrained Elfin scenarios, using PPGCo assumptions, nuclear power is attractive, especially after 2010. The attractiveness of nuclear generation proves sensitive to certain input variables, however, notably fixed operating and maintenance cost, and possible carbon taxes. Moreover, we find that the effectiveness of conservation efforts designed to reduce airborne emissions is limited under scenarios in which nuclear generation is adopted. 23 refs., 11 figs., 5 tabs.« less

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Why children differ in motivation to learn: Insights from over 13,000 twins from 6 countries.

PubMed

Kovas, Yulia; Garon-Carrier, Gabrielle; Boivin, Michel; Petrill, Stephen A; Plomin, Robert; Malykh, Sergey B; Spinath, Frank; Murayama, Kou; Ando, Juko; Bogdanova, Olga Y; Brendgen, Mara; Dionne, Ginette; Forget-Dubois, Nadine; Galajinsky, Eduard V; Gottschling, Juliana; Guay, Frédéric; Lemelin, Jean-Pascal; Logan, Jessica A R; Yamagata, Shinji; Shikishima, Chizuru; Spinath, Birgit; Thompson, Lee A; Tikhomirova, Tatiana N; Tosto, Maria G; Tremblay, Richard; Vitaro, Frank

2015-07-01

Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explored the etiology of individual differences in enjoyment and self-perceived ability for several school subjects in nearly 13,000 twins aged 9-16 from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages, school subjects, and cultures. Contrary to common belief, enjoyment of learning and children's perceptions of their competence were no less heritable than cognitive ability. Genetic factors explained approximately 40% of the variance and all of the observed twins' similarity in academic motivation. Shared environmental factors, such as home or classroom, did not contribute to the twin's similarity in academic motivation. Environmental influences stemmed entirely from individual specific experiences.

Swimming against the tide: resilience of a riverine turtle to recurrent extreme environmental events

PubMed Central

Jergenson, Abigail M.; Miller, David A. W.; Neuman-Lee, Lorin A.; Warner, Daniel A.; Janzen, Fredric J.

2014-01-01

Extreme environmental events (EEEs) are likely to exert deleterious effects on populations. From 1996 to 2012 we studied the nesting dynamics of a riverine population of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) that experienced seven years with significantly definable spring floods. We used capture–mark–recapture methods to estimate the relationships between more than 5 m and more than 6 m flood events and population parameters. Contrary to expectations, flooding was not associated with annual differences in survival, recruitment or annual population growth rates of the adult female segment of the population. These findings suggest that female C. picta exhibit resiliency to key EEE, which are expected to increase in frequency under climate change. PMID:24621555

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Consonni, Stefano, E-mail: stefano.consonni@polimi.it; Giugliano, Michele; Massarutto, Antonio

Highlights: > The source separation level (SSL) of waste management system does not qualify adequately the system. > Separately collecting organic waste gives less advantages than packaging materials. > Recycling packaging materials (metals, glass, plastics, paper) is always attractive. > Composting and anaerobic digestion of organic waste gives questionable outcomes. > The critical threshold of optimal recycling seems to be a SSL of 50%. - Abstract: This paper describes the context, the basic assumptions and the main findings of a joint research project aimed at identifying the optimal breakdown between material recovery and energy recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW)more » in the framework of integrated waste management systems (IWMS). The project was carried out from 2007 to 2009 by five research groups at Politecnico di Milano, the Universities of Bologna and Trento, and the Bocconi University (Milan), with funding from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). Since the optimization of IWMSs by analytical methods is practically impossible, the search for the most attractive strategy was carried out by comparing a number of relevant recovery paths from the point of view of mass and energy flows, technological features, environmental impact and economics. The main focus has been on mature processes applicable to MSW in Italy and Europe. Results show that, contrary to a rather widespread opinion, increasing the source separation level (SSL) has a very marginal effects on energy efficiency. What does generate very significant variations in energy efficiency is scale, i.e. the size of the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. The mere value of SSL is inadequate to qualify the recovery system. The energy and environmental outcome of recovery depends not only on 'how much' source separation is carried out, but rather on 'how' a given SSL is reached.« less

Economic development and environmental protection: an ecological economics perspective.

PubMed

Rees, William E

2003-01-01

This paper argues on both theoretical and empirical grounds that, beyond a certain point, there is an unavoidable conflict between economic development (generally taken to mean 'material economic growth') and environmental protection. Think for a moment of natural forests, grasslands, marine estuaries, salt marshes, and coral reefs; and of arable soils, aquifers, mineral deposits, petroleum, and coal. These are all forms of 'natural capital' that represent highly-ordered self-producing ecosystems or rich accumulations of energy/matter with high use potential (low entropy). Now contemplate despoiled landscapes, eroding farmlands, depleted fisheries, anthropogenic greenhouse gases, acid rain, poisonous mine tailings and toxic synthetic compounds. These all represent disordered systems or degraded forms of energy and matter with little use potential (high entropy). The main thing connecting these two states is human economic activity. Ecological economics interprets the environment-economy relationship in terms of the second law of thermodynamics. The second law sees economic activity as a dissipative process. From this perspective, the production of economic goods and services invariably requires the consumption of available energy and matter. To grow and develop, the economy necessarily 'feeds' on sources of high-quality energy/matter first produced by nature. This tends to disorder and homogenize the ecosphere, The ascendance of humankind has consistently been accompanied by an accelerating rate of ecological degradation, particularly biodiversity loss, the simplification of natural systems and pollution. In short, contemporary political rhetoric to the contrary, the prevailing growth-oriented global development paradigm is fundamentally incompatible with long-term ecological and social sustainability. Unsustainability is not a technical nor economic problem as usually conceived, but rather a state of systemic incompatibility between a economy that is a fully-contained, growing, dependent sub-system of a non-growing ecosphere. Potential solutions fly in the face of contemporary development trends and cultural values.

CropWatch agroclimatic indicators (CWAIs) for weather impact assessment on global agriculture.

PubMed

Gommes, René; Wu, Bingfang; Zhang, Ning; Feng, Xueliang; Zeng, Hongwei; Li, Zhongyuan; Chen, Bo

2017-02-01

CropWatch agroclimatic indicators (CWAIs) are a monitoring tool developed by the CropWatch global crop monitoring system in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; www.cropwatch.com.cn , Wu et al Int J Digital Earth 7(2):113-137, 2014, Wu et al Remote Sens 7:3907-3933, 2015). Contrary to most other environmental and agroclimatic indicators, they are "agronomic value-added", i.e. they are spatial values averaged over agricultural areas only and they include a weighting that enhances the contribution of the areas with the largest production potential. CWAIs can be computed for any time interval (starting from dekads) and yield one synthetic value per variable over a specific area and time interval, for instance a national annual value. Therefore, they are very compatible with socio-economic and other variables that are usually reported at regular time intervals over administrative units, such as national environmental or agricultural statistics. Two of the CWAIs are satellite-based (RAIN and Photosynthetically Active radiation, PAR) while the third is ground based (TEMP, air temperature); capitals are used when specifically referring to CWAIs rather than the climate variables in general. The paper first provides an overview of some common agroclimatic indicators, describing their procedural, systemic and normative features in subsequent sections, following the terminology of Binder et al Environ Impact Assess Rev 30:71-81 (2010). The discussion focuses on the systemic and normative aspects: the CWAIs are assessed in terms of their coherent description of the agroclimatic crop environment, at different spatial scales (systemic). The final section shows that the CWAIs retain key statistical properties of the underlying climate variables and that they can be compared to a reference value and used as monitoring and early warning variables (normative).

CropWatch agroclimatic indicators (CWAIs) for weather impact assessment on global agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gommes, René; Wu, Bingfang; Zhang, Ning; Feng, Xueliang; Zeng, Hongwei; Li, Zhongyuan; Chen, Bo

2017-02-01

CropWatch agroclimatic indicators (CWAIs) are a monitoring tool developed by the CropWatch global crop monitoring system in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; http://www.cropwatch.com.cn, Wu et al Int J Digital Earth 7(2):113-137, 2014, Wu et al Remote Sens 7:3907-3933, 2015). Contrary to most other environmental and agroclimatic indicators, they are "agronomic value-added", i.e. they are spatial values averaged over agricultural areas only and they include a weighting that enhances the contribution of the areas with the largest production potential. CWAIs can be computed for any time interval (starting from dekads) and yield one synthetic value per variable over a specific area and time interval, for instance a national annual value. Therefore, they are very compatible with socio-economic and other variables that are usually reported at regular time intervals over administrative units, such as national environmental or agricultural statistics. Two of the CWAIs are satellite-based (RAIN and Photosynthetically Active radiation, PAR) while the third is ground based (TEMP, air temperature); capitals are used when specifically referring to CWAIs rather than the climate variables in general. The paper first provides an overview of some common agroclimatic indicators, describing their procedural, systemic and normative features in subsequent sections, following the terminology of Binder et al Environ Impact Assess Rev 30:71-81 (2010). The discussion focuses on the systemic and normative aspects: the CWAIs are assessed in terms of their coherent description of the agroclimatic crop environment, at different spatial scales (systemic). The final section shows that the CWAIs retain key statistical properties of the underlying climate variables and that they can be compared to a reference value and used as monitoring and early warning variables (normative).

Instructional control of reinforcement learning: A behavioral and neurocomputational investigation

PubMed Central

Doll, Bradley B.; Jacobs, W. Jake; Sanfey, Alan G.; Frank, Michael J.

2011-01-01

Humans learn how to behave directly through environmental experience and indirectly through rules and instructions. Behavior analytic research has shown that instructions can control behavior, even when such behavior leads to sub-optimal outcomes (Hayes, S. (Ed.). 1989. Rule-governed behavior: cognition, contingencies, and instructional control. Plenum Press.). Here we examine the control of behavior through instructions in a reinforcement learning task known to depend on striatal dopaminergic function. Participants selected between probabilistically reinforced stimuli, and were (incorrectly) told that a specific stimulus had the highest (or lowest) reinforcement probability. Despite experience to the contrary, instructions drove choice behavior. We present neural network simulations that capture the interactions between instruction-driven and reinforcement-driven behavior via two potential neural circuits: one in which the striatum is inaccurately trained by instruction representations coming from prefrontal cortex/hippocampus (PFC/HC), and another in which the striatum learns the environmentally based reinforcement contingencies, but is “overridden” at decision output. Both models capture the core behavioral phenomena but, because they differ fundamentally on what is learned, make distinct predictions for subsequent behavioral and neuroimaging experiments. Finally, we attempt to distinguish between the proposed computational mechanisms governing instructed behavior by fitting a series of abstract “Q-learning” and Bayesian models to subject data. The best-fitting model supports one of the neural models, suggesting the existence of a “confirmation bias” in which the PFC/HC system trains the reinforcement system by amplifying outcomes that are consistent with instructions while diminishing inconsistent outcomes. PMID:19595993

Enantiomer specific measurements of current-use pesticides in aquatic systems

EPA Science Inventory

Contrary to predictions, current-use pesticides are adversely affecting aquatic systems in both urban and agricultural watersheds, particularly in California. One possible divergence from fate and effect predictions is that some current-use pesticides are chiral molecules. Increa...

Fish functional traits correlated with environmental variables in a temperate biodiversity hotspot.

PubMed

Keck, Benjamin P; Marion, Zachary H; Martin, Derek J; Kaufman, Jason C; Harden, Carol P; Schwartz, John S; Strange, Richard J

2014-01-01

The global biodiversity crisis has invigorated the search for generalized patterns in most disciplines within the natural sciences. Studies based on organismal functional traits attempt to broaden implications of results by identifying the response of functional traits, instead of taxonomic units, to environmental variables. Determining the functional trait responses enables more direct comparisons with, or predictions for, communities of different taxonomic composition. The North American freshwater fish fauna is both diverse and increasingly imperiled through human mediated disturbances, including climate change. The Tennessee River, USA, contains one of the most diverse assemblages of freshwater fish in North America and has more imperiled species than other rivers, but there has been no trait-based study of community structure in the system. We identified 211 localities in the upper Tennessee River that were sampled by the Tennessee Valley Authority between 2009 and 2011 and compiled fish functional traits for the observed species and environmental variables for each locality. Using fourth corner analysis, we identified significant correlations between many fish functional traits and environmental variables. Functional traits associated with an opportunistic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to greater land use disturbance and less flow regulation, while functional traits associated with a periodic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to regular disturbance and regulated flow. These are patterns observed at the continental scale, highlighting the generalizability of trait-based methods. Contrary to studies that found no community structure differences when considering riparian buffer zones, we found that fish functional traits were correlated with different environmental variables between analyses with buffer zones vs. entire catchment area land cover proportions. Using existing databases and fourth corner analysis, our results support the broad application potential for trait-based methods and indicate trait-based methods can detect environmental filtering by riparian zone land cover.

Fish Functional Traits Correlated with Environmental Variables in a Temperate Biodiversity Hotspot

PubMed Central

Keck, Benjamin P.; Marion, Zachary H.; Martin, Derek J.; Kaufman, Jason C.; Harden, Carol P.; Schwartz, John S.; Strange, Richard J.

2014-01-01

The global biodiversity crisis has invigorated the search for generalized patterns in most disciplines within the natural sciences. Studies based on organismal functional traits attempt to broaden implications of results by identifying the response of functional traits, instead of taxonomic units, to environmental variables. Determining the functional trait responses enables more direct comparisons with, or predictions for, communities of different taxonomic composition. The North American freshwater fish fauna is both diverse and increasingly imperiled through human mediated disturbances, including climate change. The Tennessee River, USA, contains one of the most diverse assemblages of freshwater fish in North America and has more imperiled species than other rivers, but there has been no trait-based study of community structure in the system. We identified 211 localities in the upper Tennessee River that were sampled by the Tennessee Valley Authority between 2009 and 2011 and compiled fish functional traits for the observed species and environmental variables for each locality. Using fourth corner analysis, we identified significant correlations between many fish functional traits and environmental variables. Functional traits associated with an opportunistic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to greater land use disturbance and less flow regulation, while functional traits associated with a periodic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to regular disturbance and regulated flow. These are patterns observed at the continental scale, highlighting the generalizability of trait-based methods. Contrary to studies that found no community structure differences when considering riparian buffer zones, we found that fish functional traits were correlated with different environmental variables between analyses with buffer zones vs. entire catchment area land cover proportions. Using existing databases and fourth corner analysis, our results support the broad application potential for trait-based methods and indicate trait-based methods can detect environmental filtering by riparian zone land cover. PMID:24676053

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Science teachers' worldviews and values regarding nature and the environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roberts, Wendy P.

According to the National Science Education Standards (1996), science educators are challenged with the goal of educating future citizens and policy makers to make informed decisions concerning socio-scientific issues. Previous science education research has not explored the influence of science teachers' personal worldviews and values in achieving this educational goal. The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary science teachers' worldviews and values as they relate to nature and environmental education in their science classrooms. The participants' descriptions of their environmental personae and their perception of its influence in their classrooms were also examined. The participants represented a purposeful sample of twelve certified secondary school science teachers who teach in a suburban Atlanta, Georgia school. The study employed an interpretive, qualitative methodology using a constant comparative, inductive analysis design to develop grounded theory. Each participant's worldview, values, and environmental personae regarding the natural world and the environment were explored using William Cobern's (2000) Nature Card Sort instrument, responses to five environmental scenarios and individual interviews that addressed each participant's interpretation of the effect that personal worldviews and values have in their science classrooms. The participants' worldviews and values were disproportionately reflective of both science and society with far more weight given to the contextual values of society rather than the constitutive values of science. Most of these teachers had strong spiritual worldviews of nature; however, these views were of a Puritanical nature rather than Aboriginal. The participants felt conflicted about the appropriate course of action in many environmental issues. Contrary to other studies conducted in this field, there were few philosophical differences between teachers in the different disciplines of science, with the exception of many of the physical science teachers' belief that their worldviews and values were not revealed in their classroom activities. All of the teachers considered heterogeneous philosophies and value systems to be important components of science education. Describing these teachers' worldviews and value systems is an essential first step in developing a better understanding of teachers' influence in socio-scientific decision making.

Adaptive Sex Determination and Population Dynamics in a Brackish-water Amphipod

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watt, Penelope J.; Adams, Jonathan

1993-09-01

Gammarus duebeni is a sexually dimorphic amphipod with an unusual and environmentally mediated sex determining system. In seasonal populations, environmental sex determination (ESD) is selectively advantageous and males and females are produced at different times of the year, but it has been predicted that where generations overlap or the breeding season is long, ESD should no longer have a selective advantage over genetic mechanisms of sex determination and males and females should be produced simultaneously. The dynamics of a supposedly bivoltine population at Totton Marsh on the south coast of England were investigated. The field study showed that the breeding season at Totton was not in fact bivoltine but long, extending through most of the year with a short break in early summer. Population sex ratio fluctuated seasonally: this pattern appears to be the product of differences in production of males and females rather than growth or mortality. Thus, contrary to expectations, ESD does occur in this population. Photoperiod is the cue for sex determination in the laboratory, but in the field this alone could not account for the observed pattern of male and female production at Totton Marsh. Another major variable must be involved and it is proposed that it also has an influence on other G. duebeni populations.

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Localizing transcripts to single cells suggests an important role of uncultured deltaproteobacteria in the termite gut hydrogen economy.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Adam Z; Zhang, Xinning; Lucey, Kaitlyn S; Ottesen, Elizabeth A; Trivedi, Vikas; Choi, Harry M T; Pierce, Niles A; Leadbetter, Jared R

2013-10-01

Identifying microbes responsible for particular environmental functions is challenging, given that most environments contain an uncultivated microbial diversity. Here we combined approaches to identify bacteria expressing genes relevant to catabolite flow and to locate these genes within their environment, in this case the gut of a "lower," wood-feeding termite. First, environmental transcriptomics revealed that 2 of the 23 formate dehydrogenase (FDH) genes known in the system accounted for slightly more than one-half of environmental transcripts. FDH is an essential enzyme of H2 metabolism that is ultimately important for the assimilation of lignocellulose-derived energy by the insect. Second, single-cell PCR analysis revealed that two different bacterial types expressed these two transcripts. The most commonly transcribed FDH in situ is encoded by a previously unappreciated deltaproteobacterium, whereas the other FDH is spirochetal. Third, PCR analysis of fractionated gut contents demonstrated that these bacteria reside in different spatial niches; the spirochete is free-swimming, whereas the deltaproteobacterium associates with particulates. Fourth, the deltaproteobacteria expressing FDH were localized to protozoa via hybridization chain reaction-FISH, an approach for multiplexed, spatial mapping of mRNA and rRNA targets. These results underscore the importance of making direct vs. inference-based gene-species associations, and have implications in higher termites, the most successful termite lineage, in which protozoa have been lost from the gut community. Contrary to expectations, in higher termites, FDH genes related to those from the protozoan symbiont dominate, whereas most others were absent, suggesting that a successful gene variant can persist and flourish after a gut perturbation alters a major environmental niche.

Why children differ in motivation to learn: Insights from over 13,000 twins from 6 countries

PubMed Central

Kovas, Yulia; Garon-Carrier, Gabrielle; Boivin, Michel; Petrill, Stephen A.; Plomin, Robert; Malykh, Sergey B.; Spinath, Frank; Murayama, Kou; Ando, Juko; Bogdanova, Olga Y.; Brendgen, Mara; Dionne, Ginette; Forget-Dubois, Nadine; Galajinsky, Eduard V.; Gottschling, Juliana; Guay, Frédéric; Lemelin, Jean-Pascal; Logan, Jessica A.R.; Yamagata, Shinji; Shikishima, Chizuru; Spinath, Birgit; Thompson, Lee A.; Tikhomirova, Tatiana N.; Tosto, Maria G.; Tremblay, Richard; Vitaro, Frank

2015-01-01

Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explored the etiology of individual differences in enjoyment and self-perceived ability for several school subjects in nearly 13,000 twins aged 9–16 from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages, school subjects, and cultures. Contrary to common belief, enjoyment of learning and children’s perceptions of their competence were no less heritable than cognitive ability. Genetic factors explained approximately 40% of the variance and all of the observed twins’ similarity in academic motivation. Shared environmental factors, such as home or classroom, did not contribute to the twin’s similarity in academic motivation. Environmental influences stemmed entirely from individual specific experiences. PMID:26052174

Are there shared environmental influences on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? Reply to Wood, Buitelaar, Rijsdijk, Asherson, and Kuntsi [corrected] (2010).

PubMed

Burt, S Alexandra

2010-05-01

A recent large-scale meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies indicated that shared environmental influences make important contributions to most forms of child and adolescent psychopathology (Burt, 2009b). The sole exception to this robust pattern of results was observed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which appeared to be largely genetic (and particularly nonadditive genetic) in origin, with no observable influence of the shared environment. The central thesis of Wood, Buitelaar, Rijsdijk, Asherson, and Kuntsi [corrected] (2010) is that, contrary to these findings, shared environmental influences are important for ADHD. As evidence for this thesis, Wood et al. presented a summary of prior twin studies, followed by a discussion of 4 methodological issues that may account for my findings in Burt (2009b). I argue that, although the methodological concerns raised by Wood et al. are very important, they do not undermine my earlier results (Burt, 2009b). I close with a discussion of 2 issues that may allow for some shared environmental influences on ADHD. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Effects of Vacation Rental Websites on the Concentration of Tourists-Potential Environmental Impacts. An Application to the Balearic Islands in Spain.

PubMed

Martín, José María Martín; Martín, José Antonio Rodriguez; Mejía, Karla Aída Zermeño; Fernández, José Antonio Salinas

2018-02-15

The concentration of tourists at certain times of the year can damage sensitive environments. The use of peer-to-peer vacation rental websites has increased greatly during the last decade. This system could either reduce seasonality in touristic destinations where the tourist activity takes place throughout the year at a lower price or on the contrary, it could increase the number of visitors at certain times of the year even more. This paper intends to analyze the effect that these platforms have on tourism seasonality in order to calculate if they help reduce or increase the pressure on the destinations. To do so, the Gini Index has been applied to one of the main touristic spots in Europe, the Balearic Islands in Spain. The conclusion is that this type of accommodation has aggravated the problem, generating a greater concentration of tourists and a higher pressure on the resources of the islands.

Toxicity evaluation of natural samples from the vicinity of rice fields using two trophic levels.

PubMed

Marques, Catarina R; Pereira, Ruth; Gonçalves, Fernando

2011-09-01

An ecotoxicological screening of environmental samples collected in the vicinity of rice fields followed a combination of physical and chemical measurements and chronic bioassays with two freshwater trophic levels (microalgae: Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and Chlorella vulgaris; daphnids: Daphnia longispina and Daphnia magna). As so, water and sediment/soil elutriate samples were obtained from three sites: (1) in a canal reach crossing a protected wetland upstream, (2) in a canal reach surrounded by rice fields and (3) in a rice paddy. The sampling was performed before and during the rice culture. During the rice cropping, the whole system quality decreased comparatively to the situation before that period (e.g. nutrient overload, the presence of pesticides in elutriates from sites L2 and L3). This was reinforced by a significant inhibition of both microalgae growth, especially under elutriates. Contrary, the life-history traits of daphnids were significantly stimulated with increasing concentrations of water and elutriates, for both sampling periods.

Effects of Vacation Rental Websites on the Concentration of Tourists—Potential Environmental Impacts. An Application to the Balearic Islands in Spain

PubMed Central

Rodriguez Martín, José Antonio; Zermeño Mejía, Karla Aída; Salinas Fernández, José Antonio

2018-01-01

The concentration of tourists at certain times of the year can damage sensitive environments. The use of peer-to-peer vacation rental websites has increased greatly during the last decade. This system could either reduce seasonality in touristic destinations where the tourist activity takes place throughout the year at a lower price or on the contrary, it could increase the number of visitors at certain times of the year even more. This paper intends to analyze the effect that these platforms have on tourism seasonality in order to calculate if they help reduce or increase the pressure on the destinations. To do so, the Gini Index has been applied to one of the main touristic spots in Europe, the Balearic Islands in Spain. The conclusion is that this type of accommodation has aggravated the problem, generating a greater concentration of tourists and a higher pressure on the resources of the islands. PMID:29462863

Automated Kinematics Equations Generation and Constrained Motion Planning Resolution for Modular and Reconfigurable Robots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pin, Francois G.; Love, Lonnie L.; Jung, David L.

2004-03-29

Contrary to the repetitive tasks performed by industrial robots, the tasks in most DOE missions such as environmental restoration or Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) can be characterized as ''batches-of-one'', in which robots must be capable of adapting to changes in constraints, tools, environment, criteria and configuration. No commercially available robot control code is suitable for use with such widely varying conditions. In this talk we present our development of a ''generic code'' to allow real time (at loop rate) robot behavior adaptation to changes in task objectives, tools, number and type of constraints, modes of controls or kinematics configuration. Wemore » present the analytical framework underlying our approach and detail the design of its two major modules for the automatic generation of the kinematics equations when the robot configuration or tools change and for the motion planning under time-varying constraints. Sample problems illustrating the capabilities of the developed system are presented.« less

75 FR 43498 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

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Climate variability and environmental stress in the Sudan-Sahel zone of West Africa.

PubMed

Mertz, Ole; D'haen, Sarah; Maiga, Abdou; Moussa, Ibrahim Bouzou; Barbier, Bruno; Diouf, Awa; Diallo, Drissa; Da, Evariste Dapola; Dabi, Daniel

2012-06-01

Environmental change in the Sudan-Sahel region of West Africa (SSWA) has been much debated since the droughts of the 1970s. In this article we assess climate variability and environmental stress in the region. Households in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria were asked about climatic changes and their perceptions were compared across north-south and west-east rainfall gradients. More than 80% of all households found that rainfall had decreased, especially in the wettest areas. Increases in wind speeds and temperature were perceived by an overall 60-80% of households. Contrary to household perceptions, observed rainfall patterns showed an increasing trend over the past 20 years. However, August rainfall declined, and could therefore potentially explain the contrasting negative household perceptions of rainfall trends. Most households reported degradation of soils, water resources, vegetation, and fauna, but more so in the 500-900 mm zones. Adaptation measures to counter environmental degradation included use of manure, reforestation, soil and water conservation, and protection of fauna and vegetation. The results raise concerns for future environmental management in the region, especially in the 500-900 mm zones and the western part of SSWA.

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Nature Museums: Tools for Learning about, Promoting, and Protecting the Natural Heritage of Europe. Proceedings of the Seminar Organised by the Council of Europe in Collaboration with The International Council of Museums (Strasbourg, September 27-29, 1989). Environmental Encounters Series, No. 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Council of Europe, Strasbourg (France).

The history of museology over the last century suggests that, in general, the founding of a new natural history museum is rarely the result of planning within the cultural policy field, a situation contrary to what occurs in the history of art museums. This lack of planning with respect to natural history museums has several causes, particularly…

Learner Control in Hypermedia Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheiter, Katharina; Gerjets, Peter

2007-01-01

Contrary to system-controlled multimedia learning environments, hypermedia systems are characterized by a high level of interactivity. This interactivity is referred to as learner control in the respective literature. For several reasons this learner control is seen as a major advantage of hypermedia for learning and instruction. For instance,…

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48 CFR 316.770-2 - Memoranda of understanding.

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2010-10-01

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48 CFR 316.770-2 - Memoranda of understanding.

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The Slope of Change: An Environmental Management Approach to Reduce Drinking on a Day of Celebration at a U.S. College

PubMed Central

Marchell, Timothy C.; Lewis, Deborah D.; Croom, Katherine; Lesser, Martin L.; Murphy, Susan H.; Reyna, Valerie F.; Frank, Jeremy; Staiano-Coico, Lisa

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE This research extends the literature on event-specific environmental management with a case study evaluation of an intervention designed to reduce student drinking at a university's year-end celebration. PARTICIPANTS Cornell University undergraduates were surveyed each May from 2001 through 2009. Sample sizes ranged from 322 to 1,973. METHODS Randomly sampled surveys were conducted after a large, annual spring campus celebration. An environmental management plan was initiated in 2003 that included increased enforcement of the minimum age drinking law (MADL). RESULTS In the short-term, drinking at the campus celebration decreased while drinking before the event increased. Over time, the intervention significantly reduced high-risk drinking on the day of the event, especially among those under the age of 21. CONCLUSION These findings are contrary to the argument that enforcement of MADLs simply lead to increased high-risk drinking, and therefore have implications for how colleges approach the challenge of student alcohol misuse. PMID:23930747

Environmental scanning as a moderator of strategy-performance relationships: an empirical analysis of physical therapy facilities.

PubMed

Davis, Mark A; Miles, Grant; McDowell, William C

2008-05-01

To date, strategic management research in health care is largely confined to the acute care sector of the industry. This research examines the linkages among environmental scanning, competitive strategy and performance in physical therapy facilities. Nontrivial differences between acute and subacute care firms suggest the role of environmental scanning may change in non-acute care settings. Consistent with previous research, these results indicate that the frequency of internal and external scanning is related to the strategic orientation of physical therapy facilities. Contrary to the expectations, broader scope of scanning is positively related to an increasing market-focused and increasing efficiency strategic orientation. A key objective of the research is to test the impact of strategy/scanning alignment on facility performance. These findings support predictions on the moderating role of scanning activities in the strategy-performance relationship. However, a paradoxical pattern of results has possible implications for clinician managers in subacute care settings as well as the interpretation of scanning activities.

Investment threshold and management reflection for industrial system cleaning: a case for China.

PubMed

Fang, Yiping

2012-03-01

The recognition that industrial activity plays an essential role in a sustainable society is now widespread. To understand the causal relationship between industrial pollution abatement expenditure and industrial system cleaning level in China is of considerable importance, especially under extremely rapid industrial growth and serious pressure of industrial pollutants abatement context. We use composite index assessment method and regression analysis in this paper. We establish the mathematical model between composite industrial cleaner index and investment intensity for industrial pollutants abatement, and analyze the effects of industrial pollutants treatment and discharge indicators on composite industrial cleaner index in China. Results show that: (1) There is significant nonlinear relationship between composite industrial cleaner index and investment intensity for industrial pollutants abatement. (2) From single indicator perspective, the effect of investment intensity on pollutants treatment indicators is positively, on the contrary, the effect of investment intensity on pollutants discharge indicators is negatively; (3) From decomposition cleaner index perspective, the effect of pollutants discharge level (process control) is higher than pollutants treatment capacity (end-of-pipe) on composite industrial cleaner index; (4) There is threshold between investment intensity and composite cleaner industrial index, it is a crucial reference scale for industrial environmental management in selected period.

Regulation and physiological role of silicon in alleviating drought stress of mango.

PubMed

Helaly, Mohamed Naser; El-Hoseiny, Hanan; El-Sheery, Nabil Ibrahim; Rastogi, Anshu; Kalaji, Hazem M

2017-09-01

Improvement of drought stress of mango plants requires intensive research that focuses on physiological processes. In three successive seasons (2014, 2015and 2016) field experiments with four different strains of mango were subjected to two water regimes. The growth and physiological parameters of possible relevance for drought stress tolerances in mango were investigated. Yield and its components were also evaluated. The data showed that all growth and physiological parameters were increased under K 2 SiO 3 (Si) supplement and were followed by the interaction treatment (Si treatment and its combination with drought stress) compared to that of the controlled condition. Drought stress decreased the concentration of auxins (IAA), gibberellins (GA) and cytokinins (CK) in the three mango cultivars leaves, whereas, it increased the concentration of abscisic acid (ABA). On the contrary, IAA, GA, and CK (promoters) endogenous levels were improved by supplementing Si, in contrary ABA was decreased. Drought stress increased the activity of peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the leaves of all mango cultivars grown during three experimental seasons. However, Si supplementation reduced the levels of all these antioxidative enzymes, especially the concentration of SOD when compared to that of control leaves. Fruit quality was improved in three successive seasons when Si was applied. Our results clearly show that the increment in drought tolerance was associated with an increase in antioxidative enzyme activity, allowing mango plants to cope better with drought stress. Si possesses an efficient system for scavenging reactive oxygen species, which protects the plant against destructive oxidative reactions, thereby improving the ability of the mango trees to withstand environmental stress in arid regions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

48 CFR 203.904 - Procedures for filing complaints.

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2010-10-01

... SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE GENERAL IMPROPER BUSINESS PRACTICES AND PERSONAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST... otherwise discriminated against contrary to the policy in 203.903 may file a complaint with the DoD...

48 CFR 203.904 - Procedures for filing complaints.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE GENERAL IMPROPER BUSINESS PRACTICES AND PERSONAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST... otherwise discriminated against contrary to the policy in 203.903 may file a complaint with the DoD...

Molecular epidemiology and virulence assessment of Aspergillus fumigatus isolates from white stork chicks and their environment.

PubMed

Olias, Philipp; Gruber, Achim D; Hafez, Hafez M; Lierz, Michael; Slesiona, Silvia; Brock, Matthias; Jacobsen, Ilse D

2011-03-24

Aspergillus fumigatus is a common pathogen in poultry and captive wild birds and an emerging opportunistic fungal pathogen in immunocompromised humans. Although invasive aspergillosis is frequently reported in free-ranging wild birds, the incidence and epidemiology of the disease in a natural setting is unknown. We recently reported endemic outbreaks of invasive aspergillosis at white stork nesting sites close to human habitation in Germany with significant subsequent breeding losses. Therefore, we hypothesized that A. fumigatus strains with higher virulence in birds may have evolved in this environment and performed the first epidemiological analysis of invasive aspergillosis in free-ranging wild birds. Sixty-one clinical and environmental A. fumigatus isolates from six affected nesting sites were genotyped by microsatellite analysis using the STRAf-assay. The isolates showed a remarkable high genomic diversity and, contrary to the initial hypothesis, clinical and environmental isolates did not cluster significantly. Interestingly, storks were infected with two to four different genotypes and in most cases both mating types MAT-1.1 and MAT-1.2 were present within the same specimen. The majority of selected clinical and environmental strains exhibited similar virulence in an in vivo infection model using embryonated chicken eggs. Noteworthy, virulence was not associated with one distinct fungal mating type. These results further support the assumption that the majority of A. fumigatus strains have the potential to cause disease in susceptible hosts. In white storks, immaturity of the immune system during the first three weeks of age may enhance susceptibility to invasive aspergillosis. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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2013-10-03

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Transitions in sex determination and sex chromosomes across vertebrate species.

PubMed

Pennell, Matthew W; Mank, Judith E; Peichel, Catherine L

2018-02-16

Despite the prevalence of sexual reproduction across eukaryotes, there is a remarkable diversity of sex-determination mechanisms. The underlying causes of this diversity remain unclear, and it is unknown whether there are convergent trends in the directionality of turnover in sex-determination mechanisms. We used the recently assembled Tree of Sex database to assess patterns in the evolution of sex-determination systems in the remarkably diverse vertebrate clades of teleost fish, squamate reptiles and amphibians. Contrary to theoretical predictions, we find no evidence that the evolution of separate sexes is irreversible, as transitions from separate sexes to hermaphroditism occur at higher rates than the reverse in fish. We also find that transitions from environmental sex determination to genetic sex determination occur at higher rates than the reverse in both squamates and fish, suggesting that genetic sex determination is more stable. However, our data are not consistent with the hypothesis that heteromorphic sex chromosomes are an "evolutionary trap." Rather, we find similar transition rates between homomorphic and heteromorphic sex chromosomes in both fish and amphibians, and to environmental sex determination from heteromorphic vs. homomorphic sex chromosome systems in fish. Finally, we find that transitions between male and female heterogamety occur at similar rates in amphibians and squamates, while transitions to male heterogamety occur at higher rates in fish. Together, these results provide the most comprehensive view to date of the evolution of vertebrate sex determination in a phylogenetic context, providing new insight into long-standing questions about the evolution of sexual reproduction. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Distribution of mesopredatory fish determined by habitat variables in a predator-depleted coastal system.

PubMed

Bergström, Lena; Karlsson, Martin; Bergström, Ulf; Pihl, Leif; Kraufvelin, Patrik

Shallow nearshore habitats are highly valued for supporting marine ecosystems, but are subject to intense human-induced pressures. Mesopredatory fish are key components in coastal food webs, and alterations in their abundance may have evident effects also on other parts of the ecosystem. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between the abundance of coastal mesopredatory fish, defined as mid-trophic level demersal and benthic species with a diet consisting predominantly of invertebrates, and ambient environmental variables in a fjord system influenced by both eutrophication and overfishing. A field survey was conducted over a coastal gradient comprising 300 data points sampled consistently for fish community and environmental data. Results from multivariate and univariate analyses supported each other, demonstrating that mesopredatory fish abundance at species and functional group level was positively related to the cover of structurally complex vegetation and negatively related to eutrophication, as measured by water transparency. Contrary to other studies showing an inverse relationship to piscivore abundance over time, the spatial distribution of mesopredatory fish was not locally regulated by the abundance of piscivorous fish, probably attributed to piscivores being at historically low levels due to previous overfishing. Mesopredatory fish abundance was highest in areas with high habitat quality and positively related to the abundance of piscivores, suggesting a predominance of bottom-up processes. We conclude that, in parallel with ongoing regulations of fishing pressure, measures to restore habitat function and food web productivity are important for the recovery of coastal fish communities in the area.

Can We Advance Macroscopic Quantum Systems Outside the Framework of Complex Decoherence Theory?

PubMed Central

Brezinski, Mark E; Rupnick, Maria

2016-01-01

Macroscopic quantum systems (MQS) are macroscopic systems driven by quantum rather than classical mechanics, a long studied area with minimal success till recently. Harnessing the benefits of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic level would revolutionize fields ranging from telecommunication to biology, the latter focused on here for reasons discussed. Contrary to misconceptions, there are no known physical laws that prevent the development of MQS. Instead, they are generally believed universally lost in complex systems from environmental entanglements (decoherence). But we argue success is achievable MQS with decoherence compensation developed, naturally or artificially, from top-down rather current reductionist approaches. This paper advances the MQS field by a complex systems approach to decoherence. First, why complex system decoherence approaches (top-down) are needed is discussed. Specifically, complex adaptive systems (CAS) are not amenable to reductionist models (and their master equations) because of emergent behaviour, approximation failures, not accounting for quantum compensatory mechanisms, ignoring path integrals, and the subentity problem. In addition, since MQS must exist within the context of the classical world, where rapid decoherence and prolonged coherence are both needed. Nature has already demonstrated this for quantum subsystems such as photosynthesis and magnetoreception. Second, we perform a preliminary study that illustrates a top-down approach to potential MQS. In summary, reductionist arguments against MQS are not justifiable. It is more likely they are not easily detectable in large intact classical systems or have been destroyed by reductionist experimental set-ups. This complex systems decoherence approach, using top down investigations, is critical to paradigm shifts in MQS research both in biological and non-biological systems. PMID:29200743

Can We Advance Macroscopic Quantum Systems Outside the Framework of Complex Decoherence Theory?

PubMed

Brezinski, Mark E; Rupnick, Maria

2014-07-01

Macroscopic quantum systems (MQS) are macroscopic systems driven by quantum rather than classical mechanics, a long studied area with minimal success till recently. Harnessing the benefits of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic level would revolutionize fields ranging from telecommunication to biology, the latter focused on here for reasons discussed. Contrary to misconceptions, there are no known physical laws that prevent the development of MQS. Instead, they are generally believed universally lost in complex systems from environmental entanglements (decoherence). But we argue success is achievable MQS with decoherence compensation developed, naturally or artificially, from top-down rather current reductionist approaches. This paper advances the MQS field by a complex systems approach to decoherence. First, why complex system decoherence approaches (top-down) are needed is discussed. Specifically, complex adaptive systems (CAS) are not amenable to reductionist models (and their master equations) because of emergent behaviour, approximation failures, not accounting for quantum compensatory mechanisms, ignoring path integrals, and the subentity problem. In addition, since MQS must exist within the context of the classical world, where rapid decoherence and prolonged coherence are both needed. Nature has already demonstrated this for quantum subsystems such as photosynthesis and magnetoreception. Second, we perform a preliminary study that illustrates a top-down approach to potential MQS. In summary, reductionist arguments against MQS are not justifiable. It is more likely they are not easily detectable in large intact classical systems or have been destroyed by reductionist experimental set-ups. This complex systems decoherence approach, using top down investigations, is critical to paradigm shifts in MQS research both in biological and non-biological systems.

Lifshitz interaction can promote ice growth at water-silica interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boström, Mathias; Malyi, Oleksandr I.; Parashar, Prachi; Shajesh, K. V.; Thiyam, Priyadarshini; Milton, Kimball A.; Persson, Clas; Parsons, Drew F.; Brevik, Iver

2017-04-01

At air-water interfaces, the Lifshitz interaction by itself does not promote ice growth. On the contrary, we find that the Lifshitz force promotes the growth of an ice film, up to 1-8 nm thickness, near silica-water interfaces at the triple point of water. This is achieved in a system where the combined effect of the retardation and the zero frequency mode influences the short-range interactions at low temperatures, contrary to common understanding. Cancellation between the positive and negative contributions in the Lifshitz spectral function is reversed in silica with high porosity. Our results provide a model for how water freezes on glass and other surfaces.

19 CFR 12.97 - Importations contrary to law.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Importations contrary to law. 12.97 Section 12.97... TREASURY SPECIAL CLASSES OF MERCHANDISE Switchblade Knives § 12.97 Importations contrary to law. Importations of switchblade knives, except as permitted by 15 U.S.C. 1244, are importations contrary to law and...

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Monitoring trace elements generated by automobiles: air pollutants with possible health impacts.

PubMed

Anwar, Khaleeq; Ejaz, Sohail; Ashraf, Muhammad; Ahmad, Nisar; Javeed, Aqeel

2013-07-01

Major transformations in the environmental composition are principally attributable to the combustion of fuels by automobiles. Motorized gasoline-powered two-stroke auto-rickshaws (TSA) and compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered four-stroke auto-rickshaws (FSA) are potential source of air pollution in south Asia and produce toxic amount of particulate matter (PM) to the environment. In this study, we attempted to characterize elemental pollutants from the PM of TSA and FSA using proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis. The observations of the existing investigation recognized significant increase in Al (P < 0.05), P (P < 0.01), and Zn (P < 0.01) from the PM samples of FSA. In addition, the concentrations of Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Na and S were also observed exceeding the recommended National Institute for Environmental Studies limits. On the contrary, increased concentration of Sr and V were observed in the PM samples from TSA. It is generally believed that FSA generates smaller amount of PM but data obtained from FSA are clearly describing that emissions from FSA comprised potentially more toxic substances than TSA. The current research is specific to metropolitan population and has evidently revealed an inconsistent burden of exposure to air pollutants engendered by FSA in urban communities, which could lead to the disruption of several biological activities and may cause severe damage to entire ecological system.

Phenotypic plasticity despite source-sink population dynamics in a long-lived perennial plant.

PubMed

Anderson, Jill T; Sparks, Jed P; Geber, Monica A

2010-11-01

• Species that exhibit adaptive plasticity alter their phenotypes in response to environmental conditions, thereby maximizing fitness in heterogeneous landscapes. However, under demographic source-sink dynamics, selection should favor traits that enhance fitness in the source habitat at the expense of fitness in the marginal habitat. Consistent with source-sink dynamics, the perennial blueberry, Vaccinium elliottii (Ericaceae), shows substantially higher fitness and population sizes in dry upland forests than in flood-prone bottomland forests, and asymmetrical gene flow occurs from upland populations into bottomland populations. Here, we examined whether this species expresses plasticity to these distinct environments despite source-sink dynamics. • We assessed phenotypic responses to a complex environmental gradient in the field and to water stress in the glasshouse. • Contrary to expectations, V. elliottii exhibited a high degree of plasticity in foliar and root traits (specific leaf area, carbon isotope ratios, foliar nitrogen content, root : shoot ratio, root porosity and root architecture). • We propose that plasticity can be maintained in source-sink systems if it is favored within the source habitat and/or a phylogenetic artifact that is not costly. Additionally, plasticity could be advantageous if habitat-based differences in fitness result from incipient niche expansion. Our results illuminate the importance of evaluating phenotypic traits and fitness components across heterogeneous landscapes. © The Authors (2010). Journal compilation © New Phytologist Trust (2010).

Is biotic resistance enhanced by natural variation in diversity?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Grace, James B.; Harrison, Susan P.; Cornell, Howard

2017-01-01

Theories linking diversity to ecosystem function have been challenged by the widespread observation of more exotic species in more diverse native communities. Few studies have addressed the underlying processes by dissecting how biotic resistance to new invaders may be shaped by the same environmental influences that determine diversity and other community properties.In grasslands with heterogeneous soils, we added invaders and removed competitors to analyze the causes of invasion resistance. Abiotic resistance was measured using invader success in the absence of the resident community. Biotic resistance was measured as the reduction in invader success in the presence of the resident community.Invaders were most successful where biotic resistance was lowest and abiotic resistance was highest, confirming the dominant role of biotic resistance. Contrary to theory, though, biotic resistance was highest where both species richness and functional diversity were lowest. In the multivariate framework of a structural equation model, biotic resistance was independent of community diversity, and was highest where fertile soils led to high community biomass.Seed predation slightly augmented biotic resistance without qualitatively changing the results. Soil-related genotypic variation in the invader also did not affect the results.We conclude that in natural systems, diversity may be correlated with invasibility and yet have little effect on biotic resistance to invasion. More generally, the environmental causes of variation in diversity should be considered when examining the potential functional consequences of diversity.

Chlorinated paraffins wrapping of carbon nanotubes: A theoretical investigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Qiuyue; Ding, Ning; Chen, Xiangfeng; Wu, Chi-Man Lawrence

2018-04-01

How nanomaterials interact with pollutants is the central for understanding their environmental behavior and practical application. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theoretical (DFT) methods were used to investigated the influence of carbon chain length, degree of chlorination, chain configuration, and chirality of chlorinated paraffin (CP) and diameter of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on the interaction between CPs and SWNTs. The simulation results demonstrated that CP chain length and chlorination degree played considerably important roles in determining interaction strength between SWNTs and CPs. The interaction energies increased with increasing chain length and chlorination degree. The chirality of SWNT exerted negligible influence on the interaction energy between SWNTs and CPs. On the contrary, interaction energy increased with increasing radius of SWNTs due to the surface curvatures. This result was rationalized by considering the decrease in SWNT curvature with increasing radius, which resulted in plane-like CNT wall. The negligible influence of CP chain configurations was attributed to relative flexibility of CP carbon chains, which can wrap on tubes through conformational changes with low-energy barriers. MD results indicated that CPs could adsorb on SWNT surface rapidly in aqueous environment. Charge transfer and electronic density results indicated that the interaction between CPs and SWNTs was physisorption in nature. This work provides fundamental information regarding SWNTs as sorbents for CPs extraction and adsorptive removal from environmental water system.

Review of incursive, hyperincursive and anticipatory systems-foundation of anticipation in electromagnetism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dubois, Daniel M.

2000-05-01

The main purpose of this paper is to show that anticipation is not only a property of biosystems but is also a fundamental property of physical systems. In electromagnetism, the anticipation is related to the Lorentz transform. In this framework the anticipation is a strong anticipation because it is not based on a prediction from a model of the physical system but is embedded in the fundamental system. So, Robert Rosen's anticipatory systems deal with weak anticipation. Contrary to Robert Rosen's affirmation, anticipation is thus not a characteristic of living systems. Finality is implicitly embedded in any system and thus the final cause of Aristotle is implicitly embedded in any physical and biological systems, contrary to what Robert Rosen argued. This paper will review some incursive and hyperincursive systems giving rise to strong anticipation. Space-time incursive parabolic systems show non-local properties. Hyperincursive crisp systems are related to catastrophe theory. Finally it will be shown that incursive and hyperincursive anticipatory systems could model properties of biosystems like free will, game strategy, theorem creation, etc. Anticipation is not only related to predictions but to decisions: hyperincursive systems create multiple choices and a decision process selects one choice. So, anticipation is not a final goal, like in cybernetics and system science, but is a fundamental property of physical and biological systems.

Specious Rights: Myth vs. Reality in the American Criminal Justice System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinhardt, William R.

2010-01-01

Contrary to the dominant discourse metanarrative, this dissertation explores, re-exposes, and updates the generally hidden realities of what is actually taking place in the current operation of the American criminal justice system. The government/dominant discourse benefits from the amorphous ambiguity of the law in conjunction with its usage of…

Gene-Environment Interaction in Adults’ IQ Scores: Measures of Past and Present Environment

PubMed Central

Willemsen, Gonneke; de Geus, Eco J. C.; Boomsma, Dorret I.; Posthuma, Danielle

2008-01-01

Gene-environment interaction was studied in a sample of young (mean age 26 years, N = 385) and older (mean age 49 years, N = 370) adult males and females. Full scale IQ scores (FSIQ) were analyzed using biometric models in which additive genetic (A), common environmental (C), and unique environmental (E) effects were allowed to depend on environmental measures. Moderators under study were parental and partner educational level, as well as urbanization level and mean real estate price of the participants’ residential area. Mean effects were observed for parental education, partner education and urbanization level. On average, FSIQ scores were roughly 5 points higher in participants with highly educated parents, compared to participants whose parents were less well educated. In older participants, IQ scores were about 2 points higher when their partners were highly educated. In younger males, higher urbanization levels were associated with slightly higher FSIQ scores. Our analyses also showed increased common environmental variation in older males whose parents were more highly educated, and increased unique environmental effects in older males living in more affluent areas. Contrary to studies in children, however, the variance attributable to additive genetic effects was stable across all levels of the moderators under study. Most results were replicated for VIQ and PIQ. PMID:18535898

Life style and peptic ulcer disease.

PubMed

Yegen, Berrak C

2018-05-09

The risk of developing peptic ulcer disease (PUD) was shown to be associated with genetic inheritance, life-style and social status of the patients. Unhealthy lifestyle habits and failure in coping with stress have been closely associated with the occurrence of PUD. In contrary, limiting the use of analgesic drugs and glucocorticoids, controlling environmental and socioeconomic factors that predispose to H. Pylori infection, having a balanced diet, exercising regularly, coping successfully with stress, avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol intake and getting sufficient night sleep are essential in prevention and healing of PUD. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Energy crops on landfills: functional, environmental, and costs analysis of different landfill configurations.

PubMed

Pivato, Alberto; Garbo, Francesco; Moretto, Marco; Lavagnolo, Maria Cristina

2018-02-09

The cultivation of energy crops on landfills represents an important challenge for the near future, as the possibility to use devalued sites for energy production is very attractive. In this study, four scenarios have been assessed and compared with respect to a reference case defined for northern Italy. The scenarios were defined taking into consideration current energy crops issues. In particular, the first three scenarios were based on energy maximisation, phytotreatment ability, and environmental impact, respectively. The fourth scenario was a combination of these characteristics emphasised by the previous scenarios. A multi-criteria analysis, based on economic, energetic, and environmental aspects, was performed. From the analysis, the best scenario resulted to be the fourth, with its ability to pursue several objectives simultaneously and obtain the best score relatively to both environmental and energetic criteria. On the contrary, the economic criterion emerges as weak, as all the considered scenarios showed some limits from this point of view. Important indications for future designs can be derived. The decrease of leachate production due to the presence of energy crops on the top cover, which enhances evapotranspiration, represents a favourable but critical aspect in the definition of the results.

Globalization of environmental regulations for offshore E & P operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shannon, B.E.

1995-12-31

One of the enduring legacies of the Rio Environmental Summit of 1992 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED) is Agenda 21 (Chapter 17 - Protection of the Oceans), which among other things called for the assessment of the need for a global authority to regulate offshore Exploration & Production (E&P) discharges, emissions and safety. Despite advice to the contrary from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), interest is building within the European community for the standardization of regulations for offshore E&P activities. Several international of regulations for offshore E&P activities. Several international frameworks or forums have been mentioned asmore » possible candidates. These include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS); London Convention 1972 (LC 1972) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL) 73/78. International offshore oil and gas operators operate within requirements of regional conventions under the United Nations Environmental Program`s (UNEP) - Regional Seas Program. Domestic offshore operations are undertaken under the auspices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Minerals Management Service.« less

Are environmental scanning units effective?

PubMed

Stubbart, C

1982-06-01

Many authorities have urged companies to set up environmental scanning to assist corporate planning. Some advocates have recommended a unit at corporate level. This would give breadth of view and penetration into the future. It would arm decision makers with accurate forecasts. The information would be broad in scope and future directed. It could provide also assumptions for long-range planning. The Fahey and King study produced a model of corporate scanning types. The data showed that environmental information was built into the plan. Though the political environment was important, scanning was inadequate. The best location for scanning was not at corporate level and most firms used irregular methods. The Thomas study concluded that effective environmental scanning was permanent and multi level and that 'best practice' was continuous scanning. In 1978 the sample organizations were revisited. Five of the twelve have not changed their practice. The factors which encouraged a continuous model were the attitudes of academics and business media, demonstrated success of the units, the right kind of personnel. Contrary influences were changes in top management, decentralization moves, resource cuts, defining the environment and its significance, the availability of scanning competent personnel, surprise itself, and the availability of alternatives e.g. external forecasts.

It's Time to Stop Believing Scientists about Evolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, James

2016-01-01

Evolution is not, contrary to what many creationists will tell you, a belief system. Neither is it a matter of faith. We should stop asking if people "believe" in evolution and talk about acceptance instead.

78 FR 27193 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-09

... received which result in a contrary determination. Comments will be accepted on or before June 10, 2013...) and DMDC 01, Defense Manpower Data Center Data Base (November 23, 2011, 76 FR 72391); and therefore...

Calculation of a solid/liquid surface tension: A methodological study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dreher, T.; Lemarchand, C.; Soulard, L.; Bourasseau, E.; Malfreyt, P.; Pineau, N.

2018-01-01

The surface tension of a model solid/liquid interface constituted of a graphene sheet surrounded by liquid methane has been computed using molecular dynamics in the Kirkwood-Buff formalism. We show that contrary to the fluid/fluid case, the solid/liquid case can lead to different structurations of the first fluid layer, leading to significantly different values of surface tension. Therefore we present a statistical approach that consists in running a series of molecular simulations of similar systems with different initial conditions, leading to a distribution of surface tensions from which an average value and uncertainty can be extracted. Our results suggest that these distributions converge as the system size increases. Besides we show that surface tension is not particularly sensitive to the choice of the potential energy cutoff and that long-range corrections can be neglected contrary to what we observed in the liquid/vapour interfaces. We have not observed the previously reported commensurability effect.

Differential Susceptibility and the Early Development of Aggression: Interactive Effects of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Environmental Quality

PubMed Central

Eisenberg, Nancy; Sulik, Michael J.; Spinrad, Tracy L.; Edwards, Alison; Eggum, Natalie D.; Liew, Jeffrey; Sallquist, Julie; Popp, Tierney K.; Smith, Cynthia L.; Hart, Daniel

2012-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to predict the development of aggressive behavior from young children’s respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and environmental quality. In a longitudinal sample of 213 children, baseline RSA, RSA suppression in response to a film of crying babies, and a composite measure of environmental quality (incorporating socioeconomic status and marital adjustment) were measured, and parent-reported aggression was assessed from 18 to 54 months of age. Predictions based on biological sensitivity-to-context/differential susceptibility and diathesis-stress models, as well as potential moderation by child sex, were examined. The interaction of baseline RSA with environmental quality predicted the development (slope) and 54-month intercept of mothers’ reports of aggression. For girls only, the interaction between baseline RSA and environmental quality predicted the 18-month intercept of fathers’ reports. In general, significant negative relations between RSA and aggression were found primarily at high levels of environmental quality. In addition, we found a significant Sex × RSA interaction predicting the slope and 54-month intercept of fathers’ reports of aggression, such that RSA was negatively related to aggression for boys but not for girls. Contrary to predictions, no significant main effects or interactions were found for RSA suppression. The results provide mixed but not full support for differential susceptibility theory and provide little support for the diathesis-stress model. PMID:22182294

Effects of Place Identity, Place Dependence, and Experience-Use History on Perceptions of Recreation Impacts in a Natural Setting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, Dave D.; Virden, Randy J.; van Riper, Carena J.

2008-10-01

It is generally accepted that recreation use in natural environments results in some degree of negative social and environmental impact. Environmental managers are tasked with mitigating the impact while providing beneficial recreation opportunities. Research on the factors that influence visitors’ perceptions of environmental and social conditions is necessary to inform sound environmental management of protected natural areas. This study examines the effect of prior experience with the setting and two dimensions of place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence) on visitors’ perceptions of three types of recreation impacts (i.e., depreciative behavior, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict). Principal components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to test the study hypotheses using data collected from 351 visitors through on-site questionnaires (response rate of 93 percent). The results show that prior experience exhibited a moderate and significant direct positive effect on place identity, place dependence, and visitors’ perceptions of recreation impacts. Contrary to study hypotheses and prior research, neither place dependence nor place identity exhibited a significant effect on the dependent variables. The results show that prior experience causes visitors to be more sensitive to depreciative behaviors, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict. These findings raise concerns over potential visitor displacement and deterioration of site conditions. Implications for resource managers are discussed, which include education, modifying visitor use patterns, and site design strategies.

Effects of place identity, place dependence, and experience-use history on perceptions of recreation impacts in a natural setting.

PubMed

White, Dave D; Virden, Randy J; van Riper, Carena J

2008-10-01

It is generally accepted that recreation use in natural environments results in some degree of negative social and environmental impact. Environmental managers are tasked with mitigating the impact while providing beneficial recreation opportunities. Research on the factors that influence visitors' perceptions of environmental and social conditions is necessary to inform sound environmental management of protected natural areas. This study examines the effect of prior experience with the setting and two dimensions of place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence) on visitors' perceptions of three types of recreation impacts (i.e., depreciative behavior, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict). Principal components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to test the study hypotheses using data collected from 351 visitors through on-site questionnaires (response rate of 93 percent). The results show that prior experience exhibited a moderate and significant direct positive effect on place identity, place dependence, and visitors' perceptions of recreation impacts. Contrary to study hypotheses and prior research, neither place dependence nor place identity exhibited a significant effect on the dependent variables. The results show that prior experience causes visitors to be more sensitive to depreciative behaviors, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict. These findings raise concerns over potential visitor displacement and deterioration of site conditions. Implications for resource managers are discussed, which include education, modifying visitor use patterns, and site design strategies.

Adolescent precursors of adult borderline personality pathology in a high-risk community sample.

PubMed

Conway, Christopher C; Hammen, Constance; Brennan, Patricia A

2015-06-01

Longitudinal studies of the exact environmental conditions and personal attributes contributing to the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) are rare. Furthermore, existing research typically examines risk factors in isolation, limiting our knowledge of the relative effect sizes of different risk factors and how they act in concert to bring about borderline personality pathology. The present study investigated the prospective effects of diverse acute and chronic stressors, proband psychopathology, and maternal psychopathology on BPD features in a high-risk community sample (N = 700) of youth followed from mid-adolescence to young adulthood. Multivariate analyses revealed significant effects of maternal externalizing disorder history, offspring internalizing disorder history, family stressors, and school-related stressors on BPD risk. Contrary to expectations, no interactions between chronically stressful environmental conditions and personal characteristics in predicting borderline personality features were detected. Implications of these findings for etiological theories of BPD and early screening efforts are discussed.

Toward a global agenda for research in environmental epidemiology.

PubMed

Soskolne, Colin L; Butler, Colin D; Ijsselmuiden, Carel; London, Leslie; von Schirnding, Yasmin

2007-01-01

The global environment is in critical decline. Whether one's concern about environmental epidemiology stems from the perspectives of environmental health, climate change, ecological collapse, or growing inequity, clear problems exist. Natural capital resources are being depleted; disregard for the integrity of ecosystems is entrenched in current business practices. Indeed, despite increasing rhetoric to the contrary, the disregard displayed by those who hold power globally toward long-term sustainability and, thus, the health and well-being of future generations, could be described as wanton. Six years ago, the Millennium Development Goals were announced by the United Nations as a rallying point for action to achieve a sustainable future, particularly by reducing the gap between the "have mores" and "have nots." The attainment of these Goals is now endangered, as is, apparently, the spirit of optimism and idealism that inspired them at the Millennium Summit. We call for a reinvigoration of both concern about-and action on-sustainability. In particular, we appeal to those engaged in the field of environmental epidemiology (and other specialties with whom they engage) to consider how they might help by incorporating sustainability issues (including global ecological integrity and global environmental justice) into their own research programs. This incorporation would make a vital contribution to protect both present and future generations and to reduce resource and health gaps between North and South. Simply put, we propose that sustainability becomes integral to advancing the science of environmental epidemiology and related environmental disciplines.

The Crvenka loess-paleosol sequence (Vojvodina, Northern Serbia)- a record of continuous domination of the Late Pleistocene grasslands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Markovic, Slobodan; Sümegi, Pál; Stevens, Thomas; Obreht, Igor; Chu, Wei; Buggle, Björn; Zech, Michael; Zech, Roland; Hambach, Ulrich; Lehmkuhl, Frank; Zeeden, Christian; Gavrilov, Milivoj; Svircev, Zorica

2016-04-01

In this study we present a comparison of two independent paleo-environmental evidences: novel n-alkane biomarkers and traditional land snails assemblages, associated with widely used proxy records such as the low field magnetic susceptibility, grain size and various isotopic and geochemical indices. These paleo-environmental proxy records provide evidence for the continued predominance of the different grassland vegetation types during the entire Late Pleistocene. The results presented in this study highlight the spatial differences in the environmental conditions during the Late Pleistocene across the European loess belt. Contrary to other European loess provinces characterized by high diversity of the Late Pleistocene environments (ranging from tundra-like to deciduous forest habitats), our investigations indicate a continued dominance of grassland-dominated ecosystems in the southeastern Carpathian Basin. This uninterrupted presence of Late Pleistocene grassland zone in the southeastern part of the Carpathian Basin may have played an important role in the preservation of exceptional biodiversity of the Balkan region, as well as in the migration of anatomically modern humans into Europe.

Spillover of the Atlantic bluefin tuna offspring from cages in the Adriatic Sea: A multidisciplinary approach and assessment.

PubMed

Džoić, Tomislav; Beg Paklar, Gordana; Grbec, Branka; Ivatek-Šahdan, Stjepan; Zorica, Barbara; Šegvić-Bubić, Tanja; Čikeš Keč, Vanja; Lepen Pleić, Ivana; Mladineo, Ivona; Grubišić, Leon; Verley, Philippe

2017-01-01

During routine monitoring of commercial purse seine catches in 2011, 87 fingerling specimens of scombrids were collected in the southern Adriatic Sea. Sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA control region locus inferred that specimens belonged to the Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758) (N = 29), bullet tuna, Auxis rochei (Risso, 1810) (N = 30) and little tunny, Euthynnus alletteratus, Rafinesque, 1810 (N = 28). According to previously published growth parameters, the age of the collected specimens was estimated at approximately 30-40 days, suggesting they might have been spawned in the Adriatic Sea, contrary to the current knowledge. A coupled modelling system with hydrodynamic (ROMS) and individual based model (IBM-Ichthyop) was set up to determine the location of the spawning event. Numerical simulations with the IBM model, both backward and forward in time, indicate commercial tuna cages in the middle Adriatic coastal area as possible spawning location. The two other non-commercial species likely opportunistically use the positive environmental (abiotic and biotic) conditions to spawn in the same area.

Why a Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA)?

PubMed

Hempel, Gotthilf; Daler, Dag

2004-02-01

Why GIWA? Six years ago several people had their doubts as to whether a Global International Waters Assessment would be worth the money and effort. Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to justify the creation of GIWA. On the contrary, we will show how important it was that the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and UNEP, constituted GIWA. Countless water-related assessments focus on specific regions and/or specific issues. But GIWA is unique in its global and holistic policy-oriented approach applying a common methodology to address the major problems in all parts of the global hydrosphere. One major achievement of GIWA will be the GIWA publications which provide advice to GEF and other decision-making organizations. Further assets include the network of regional focal points and teams. GIWA encompasses marine, surface freshwater, and groundwater systems, following the flow of water from the sources in the mountains through the rivers and estuaries into the coastal waters and the shelf seas. GIWA studies the physical, chemical and biological properties of those waterbodies and living resources in relation to the human activities, combining ecological and socioeconomic considerations.

Nanoscale discharge electrode for minimizing ozone emission from indoor corona devices.

PubMed

Bo, Zheng; Yu, Kehan; Lu, Ganhua; Mao, Shun; Chen, Junhong; Fan, Fa-Gung

2010-08-15

Ground-level ozone emitted from indoor corona devices poses serious health risks to the human respiratory system and the lung function. Federal regulations call for effective techniques to minimize the indoor ozone production. In this work, stable atmospheric corona discharges from nanomaterials are demonstrated using horizontally suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the discharge electrode. Compared with the conventional discharges employing micro- or macroscale electrodes, the corona discharge from CNTs could initiate and operate at a much lower voltage due to the small electrode diameter, and is thus energy-efficient. Most importantly, the reported discharge is environmentally friendly since no ozone (below the detection limit of 0.5 ppb) was detected for area current densities up to 0.744 A/m(2) due to the significantly reduced number of electrons and plasma volume generated by CNT discharges. The resulting discharge current density depends on the CNT loading. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, negative CNT discharges should be used to enhance the current density owing to the efficient field emission of electrons from the CNT surface.

Deliberate Satellite Fragmentations and their Effects on the Long-Term Space Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, N. L.

2010-01-01

Since 1964 at least 56 spacecraft and two launch vehicle upper stages have been deliberately fragmented while in Earth orbit. Many of these events have had no long-lasting effects on the near-Earth space environment, but one represents the most devastating satellite breakup in history that will pose hazards to operational spacecraft in low Earth orbit for decades to come. International space debris mitigation guidelines now call for avoiding the creation of long-lived debris from intentional satellite fragmentations. This paper summarizes the reasons for and environmental consequences of deliberate satellite fragmentations. Contrary to popular belief, only one in five deliberate fragmentations have been related to the testing of anti-satellite weapon systems, for which only one such test has occurred during the past 25 years. Other reasons for deliberate satellite fragmentations range from engineering tests to protecting national security information. Whereas the majority of deliberate satellite fragmentations have occurred in low Earth orbits, some have involved spacecraft in highly elliptical orbits. The former Soviet Union and the current Russian Federation have been responsible for 90% of all identified deliberate on-orbit satellite fragmentations.

Spillover of the Atlantic bluefin tuna offspring from cages in the Adriatic Sea: A multidisciplinary approach and assessment

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

During routine monitoring of commercial purse seine catches in 2011, 87 fingerling specimens of scombrids were collected in the southern Adriatic Sea. Sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA control region locus inferred that specimens belonged to the Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758) (N = 29), bullet tuna, Auxis rochei (Risso, 1810) (N = 30) and little tunny, Euthynnus alletteratus, Rafinesque, 1810 (N = 28). According to previously published growth parameters, the age of the collected specimens was estimated at approximately 30–40 days, suggesting they might have been spawned in the Adriatic Sea, contrary to the current knowledge. A coupled modelling system with hydrodynamic (ROMS) and individual based model (IBM—Ichthyop) was set up to determine the location of the spawning event. Numerical simulations with the IBM model, both backward and forward in time, indicate commercial tuna cages in the middle Adriatic coastal area as possible spawning location. The two other non-commercial species likely opportunistically use the positive environmental (abiotic and biotic) conditions to spawn in the same area. PMID:29190825

OMEGA - OSIRIS Mapping of Emission-line Galaxies in A901/2 - II. Environmental influence on integrated star formation properties and AGN activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríguez del Pino, Bruno; Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso; Chies-Santos, Ana L.; Weinzirl, Tim; Bamford, Steven P.; Gray, Meghan E.; Böhm, Asmus; Wolf, Christian; Maltby, David T.

2017-06-01

We present a study of the star formation and AGN activity for galaxies in CP 15051 the Abell 901/2 multicluster system at z ˜ 0.167 as part of the OSIRIS Mapping of Emission-line Galaxies in A901/2 (OMEGA) survey. Using Tuneable Filter data obtained with the OSIRIS instrument at the Gran Telescopio Canarias, we produce spectra covering the Hα and [N II] spectral lines for more than 400 galaxies. Using optical emission-line diagnostics, we identify a significant number of galaxies hosting AGN, which tend to have high masses and a broad range of morphologies. Moreover, within the environmental densities probed by our study, we find no environmental dependence on the fraction of galaxies hosting AGN. The analysis of the integrated Hα emission shows that the specific star formation rates of a majority of the cluster galaxies are below the field values for a given stellar mass. We interpret this result as evidence for a slow decrease in the star formation activity of star-forming galaxies as they fall into higher density regions, contrary to some previous studies that suggested a rapid truncation of star formation. We find that most of the intermediate- and high-mass spiral galaxies go through a phase in which their star formation is suppressed but still retain significant star formation activity. During this phase, these galaxies tend to retain their spiral morphology while their colours become redder. The presence of this type of galaxies in high-density regions indicates that the physical mechanism responsible for suppressing star formation affects mainly the gas component of the galaxies, suggesting that ram-pressure stripping or starvation is potentially responsible.

A meta-analysis reveals a positive correlation between genetic diversity metrics and environmental status in the long-lived seagrass Posidonia oceanica.

PubMed

Jahnke, Marlene; Olsen, Jeanine L; Procaccini, Gabriele

2015-05-01

The seagrass Posidonia oceanica is a key engineering species structuring coastal marine systems throughout much of the Mediterranean basin. Its decline is of concern, leading to the search for short- and long-term indicators of seagrass health. Using ArcGIS maps from a recent, high-resolution (1-4 km) modelling study of 18 disturbance factors affecting coastal marine systems across the Mediterranean (Micheli et al. 2013, http://globalmarine.nceas.ucsb.edu/mediterranean/), we tested for correlations with genetic diversity metrics (allelic diversity, genotypic/clonal diversity and heterozygosity) in a meta-analysis of 56 meadows. Contrary to initial predictions, weak but significantly positive correlations were found for commercial shipping, organic pollution (pesticides) and cumulative impact. This counterintuitive finding suggests greater resistance and resilience of individuals with higher genetic and genotypic diversity under disturbance (at least for a time) and/or increased sexual reproduction under an intermediate disturbance model. We interpret the absence of low and medium levels of genetic variation at impacted locations as probable local extinctions of individuals that already exceeded their resistance capacity. Alternatively, high diversity at high-impact sites is likely a temporal artefact, reflecting the mismatch with pre-environmental impact conditions, especially because flowering and sexual recruitment are seldom observed. While genetic diversity metrics are a valuable tool for restoration and mitigation, caution must be exercised in the interpretation of correlative patterns as found in this study, because the exceptional longevity of individuals creates a temporal mismatch that may falsely suggest good meadow health status, while gradual deterioration of allelic diversity might go unnoticed. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Deciphering the Environmental Impacts on Rice Quality for Different Rice Cultivated Areas.

PubMed

Li, Xiukun; Wu, Lian; Geng, Xin; Xia, Xiuhong; Wang, Xuhong; Xu, Zhengjin; Xu, Quan

2018-01-19

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is cultivated in a wide range of climatic conditions, and is one of mankind's major staple foods. The interaction of environmental factors with genotype effects major agronomic traits such as yield, quality, and resistance in rice. However, studies on the environmental factors affecting agronomic traits are often difficult to conduct because most environmental factors are dynamic and constantly changing. A series of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from an indica/japonica cross were planted into four typical rice cultivated areas arranging from latitude N22° to N42°. The environmental data from the heading to mature (45 days) stages were recorded for each RIL in the four areas. We determined that light, temperature, and humidity significantly affected the milling quality and cooking quality overall the four areas. Within each area, these environmental factors mainly affected the head rice ratio, grain length, alkali consumption, and amylose and protein content. Moreover, the effect of these environmental factors dynamically changed from heading to mature stage. Compared to light and humidity, temperature was more stable and predictable, and night temperature showed a stronger correlation efficiency to cooking quality than day temperature, and the daily temperature range had contrary effects compared to day and night temperature on grain quality. The present study evaluated the critical phase during the grain filling stage by calculating the dynamic changes of correlation efficiency between the quality traits and climate parameters. Our findings suggest that the sowing date could be adjusted to improve rice quality so as to adjust for environmental changes.

Root Architecture Diversity and Meristem Dynamics in Different Populations of Arabidopsis thaliana

PubMed Central

Aceves-García, Pamela; Álvarez-Buylla, Elena R.; Garay-Arroyo, Adriana; García-Ponce, Berenice; Muñoz, Rodrigo; Sánchez, María de la Paz

2016-01-01

Arabidopsis thaliana has been an excellent model system for molecular genetic approaches to development and physiology. More recently, the potential of studying various accessions collected from diverse habitats has been started to exploit. Col-0 has been the best-studied accession but we now know that several traits show significant divergences among them. In this work, we focused in the root that has become a key system for development. We studied root architecture and growth dynamics of 12 Arabidopsis accessions. Our data reveal a wide variability in root architecture and root length among accessions. We also found variability in the root apical meristem (RAM), explained mainly by cell size at the RAM transition domain and possibly by peculiar forms of organization at the stem cell niche in some accessions. Contrary to Col-0 reports, in some accessions the RAM size not always explains the variations in the root length; indicating that elongated cell size could be more relevant in the determination of root length than the RAM size itself. This study contributes to investigations dealing with understanding the molecular and cellular basis of phenotypic variation, the role of plasticity on adaptation, and the developmental mechanisms that may restrict phenotypic variation in response to contrasting environmental conditions. PMID:27379140

Root Architecture Diversity and Meristem Dynamics in Different Populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.

PubMed

Aceves-García, Pamela; Álvarez-Buylla, Elena R; Garay-Arroyo, Adriana; García-Ponce, Berenice; Muñoz, Rodrigo; Sánchez, María de la Paz

2016-01-01

Arabidopsis thaliana has been an excellent model system for molecular genetic approaches to development and physiology. More recently, the potential of studying various accessions collected from diverse habitats has been started to exploit. Col-0 has been the best-studied accession but we now know that several traits show significant divergences among them. In this work, we focused in the root that has become a key system for development. We studied root architecture and growth dynamics of 12 Arabidopsis accessions. Our data reveal a wide variability in root architecture and root length among accessions. We also found variability in the root apical meristem (RAM), explained mainly by cell size at the RAM transition domain and possibly by peculiar forms of organization at the stem cell niche in some accessions. Contrary to Col-0 reports, in some accessions the RAM size not always explains the variations in the root length; indicating that elongated cell size could be more relevant in the determination of root length than the RAM size itself. This study contributes to investigations dealing with understanding the molecular and cellular basis of phenotypic variation, the role of plasticity on adaptation, and the developmental mechanisms that may restrict phenotypic variation in response to contrasting environmental conditions.

Modelling the salinization of a coastal lagoon-aquifer system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colombani, N.; Mastrocicco, M.

2017-08-01

In this study, a coastal area constituted by alternations of saline-brackish lagoons and freshwater bodies was studied and modelled to understand the hydrological processes occurring between the lagoons, the groundwater system of the Po River Delta (Italy) and the Adriatic Sea. The contribution of both evaporation and anthropogenic factors on groundwater salinization was assessed by means of soil, groundwater and surface water monitoring. Highresolution multi-level samplers were used to capture salinity gradients within the aquifer and surface water bodies. Data were employed to calibrate a density-dependent numerical transport model implemented with SEAWAT code along a transect perpendicular to the coast line. The results show that the lagoon is hydraulically well connected with the aquifer, which provides the major source of salinity because of the upcoming of paleo-seawater from the aquitard laying at the base of the unconfined aquifer. On the contrary, the seawater (diluted by the freshwater river outflow) creates only a limited saltwater wedge. The increase in groundwater salinity could be of serious concern, especially for the pinewood located in the dune near the coast, sensitive to salinity increases. This case study represents an interesting paradigm for other similar environmental setting, where the assumption of classical aquifer salinization from a saltwater wedge intruding from the sea is often not representative of the actual aquifer’s salinization mechanisms.

Mortality for chronic-degenerative diseases in Tuscany: Ecological study comparing neighboring areas with substantial differences in environmental pollution.

PubMed

Marabotti, Claudio; Piaggi, Paolo; Scarsi, Paolo; Venturini, Elio; Cecchi, Romina; Pingitore, Alessandro

2017-06-19

Environmental pollution is associated with morbidity and mortality for chronic-degenerative diseases. Recent data points out a relationship between proximity to industrial plants and mortality due to neoplasms. The aim of this study has been to compare mortality due to chronic-degenerative diseases in the area of Tuscany (Bassa Val di Cecina), Italy, characterized by the presence of 2 neighboring municipalities similar in terms of size but with substantial differences in industrial activities: Rosignano (the site of chemical, energy production and waste processing industries) and Cecina (with no polluting activity). Standardized mortality rates for the 2001-2010 decade were calculated; the data of the whole Tuscany was assumed as reference. Environmental levels of pollutants were obtained by databases of the Environmental Protection Agency of Tuscany Region (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale della Toscana - ARPAT). Maximum tolerated pollutant levels set by national laws were assumed as reference. In the whole Bassa Val di Cecina, significantly elevated standardized mortality rates due to mesothelioma, ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and Alzheimer and other degenerative diseases of nervous system were observed. In the municipality of Rosignano, a significant excess of mortality for all these groups of diseases was confirmed. On the contrary, the municipality of Cecina showed only significantly higher mortality rates for ischemic heart diseases. Elevated levels of heavy metals in sea water and of particulate matter which contains particles of diameter ≤ 10 mm (PM₁₀) and ozone in air were detected in Rosignano. This study shows an excess of mortality for chronic-degenerative diseases in the area with elevated concentration of polluting factories. Proximity to industrial plants seems to represent a risk factor for those diseases. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2017;30(4):641-653. This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.

Smart Braid Feedback for the Closed-Loop Control of Soft Robotic Systems.

PubMed

Felt, Wyatt; Chin, Khai Yi; Remy, C David

2017-09-01

This article experimentally investigates the potential of using flexible, inductance-based contraction sensors in the closed-loop motion control of soft robots. Accurate motion control remains a highly challenging task for soft robotic systems. Precise models of the actuation dynamics and environmental interactions are often unavailable. This renders open-loop control impossible, while closed-loop control suffers from a lack of suitable feedback. Conventional motion sensors, such as linear or rotary encoders, are difficult to adapt to robots that lack discrete mechanical joints. The rigid nature of these sensors runs contrary to the aspirational benefits of soft systems. As truly soft sensor solutions are still in their infancy, motion control of soft robots has so far relied on laboratory-based sensing systems such as motion capture, electromagnetic (EM) tracking, or Fiber Bragg Gratings. In this article, we used embedded flexible sensors known as Smart Braids to sense the contraction of McKibben muscles through changes in inductance. We evaluated closed-loop control on two systems: a revolute joint and a planar, one degree of freedom continuum manipulator. In the revolute joint, our proposed controller compensated for elasticity in the actuator connections. The Smart Braid feedback allowed motion control with a steady-state root-mean-square (RMS) error of [1.5]°. In the continuum manipulator, Smart Braid feedback enabled tracking of the desired tip angle with a steady-state RMS error of [1.25]°. This work demonstrates that Smart Braid sensors can provide accurate position feedback in closed-loop motion control suitable for field applications of soft robotic systems.

Acute exposure to space flight results in evidence of reduced lymph Transport, tissue fluid Shifts, and immune alterations in the rat gastrointestinal system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cromer, W. E.; Zawieja, D. C.

2018-05-01

Space flight causes a number of alterations in physiological systems, changes in the immunological status of subjects, and altered interactions of the host to environmental stimuli. We studied the effect of space flight on the lymphatic system of the gastrointestinal tract which is responsible for lipid transport and immune surveillance which includes the host interaction with the gut microbiome. We found that there were signs of tissue damage present in the space flown animals that was lacking in ground controls (epithelial damage, crypt morphological changes, etc.). Additionally, morphology of the lymphatic vessels in the tissue suggested a collapsed state at time of harvest and there was a profound change in the retention of lipid in the villi of the ileum. Contrary to our assumptions there was a reduction in tissue fluid volume likely associated with other fluid shifts described. The reduction of tissue fluid volume in the colon and ileum is a likely contributing factor to the state of the lymphatic vessels and lipid transport issues observed. There were also associated changes in the number of MHC-II+ immune cells in the colon tissue, which along with reduced lymphatic competence would favor immune dysfunction in the tissue. These findings help expand our understanding of the effects of space flight on various organ systems. It also points out potential issues that have not been closely examined and have to potential for the need of countermeasure development.

77 FR 22337 - Privacy Act of 1974; Amendment to an Existing System of Records, Inventory Management System Also...

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47 CFR 10.11 - CMAS implementation timeline.

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2010-10-01

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Effects of Listening to Music versus Environmental Sounds in Passive and Active Situations on Levels of Pain and Fatigue in Fibromyalgia.

PubMed

Mercadíe, Lolita; Mick, Gérard; Guétin, Stéphane; Bigand, Emmanuel

2015-10-01

In fibromyalgia, pain symptoms such as hyperalgesia and allodynia are associated with fatigue. Mechanisms underlying such symptoms can be modulated by listening to pleasant music. We expected that listening to music, because of its emotional impact, would have a greater modulating effect on the perception of pain and fatigue in patients with fibromyalgia than listening to nonmusical sounds. To investigate this hypothesis, we carried out a 4-week study in which patients with fibromyalgia listened to either preselected musical pieces or environmental sounds when they experienced pain in active (while carrying out a physical activity) or passive (at rest) situations. Concomitant changes of pain and fatigue levels were evaluated. When patients listened to music or environmental sounds at rest, pain and fatigue levels were significantly reduced after 20 minutes of listening, with no difference of effect magnitude between the two stimuli. This improvement persisted 10 minutes after the end of the listening session. In active situations, pain did not increase in presence of the two stimuli. Contrary to our expectations, music and environmental sounds produced a similar relieving effect on pain and fatigue, with no benefit gained by listening to pleasant music over environmental sounds. Copyright © 2015 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gender, genetic risk, and criminal behavior.

PubMed

Vaske, Jamie; Wright, John Paul; Boisvert, Danielle; Beaver, Kevin Michael

2011-02-28

The threshold hypothesis asserts that the prevalence of offending is lower among females because females have a higher threshold for risk than males. As a result, females who do offend should exhibit greater concentrations of genetic and environmental risk than male offenders. In light of these statements, the current study examines the role of genetic factors in the etiology of female offending using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The results reveal that the genetic risk threshold is higher for females than for males. However, contrary to the threshold hypothesis, female offenders exhibit fewer genetic risks than male offenders. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cortisol response to waterborne 4-nonylphenol exposure leads to increased brain POMC and HSP70 mRNA expressions and reduced total antioxidant capacity in juvenile sole (Solea solea).

PubMed

Palermo, Francesco Alessandro; Cocci, Paolo; Nabissi, Massimo; Polzonetti-Magni, Alberta; Mosconi, Gilberto

2012-11-01

4-Nonylphenol (4-NP) is a breakdown product of alkylphenolpolyethoxylates and can be found in almost all environmental water matrices. 4-NP can act as environmental stressor on fish, typically causing modulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis (HPI). To examine the effects of the xenoestrogen 4-NP or 17β-estradiol (E2) on induction of stress response mechanisms by evaluating the levels of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA, heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) mRNA and plasma cortisol, we exposed juvenile sole (Solea solea), under static condition for 7 day, to either 10(-6) or 10(-8) M 4-NP, or 10(-8) M E2. In addition, plasma cortisol titers were correlated to the total antioxidant capacity (TAC), one of the oxidative stress parameters. 4-NP treatments resulted in high levels of POMC mRNA, HSP70 mRNA and plasma cortisol. On the contrary, E2 basically down-regulated POMC expression. Moreover, elevated cortisol levels in fish exposed to the highest dose of 4-NP were accompanied by low TAC. These results suggest that 4-NP modulates the sole HPI axis inducing a cortisol-mediated stress response. Specifically, we suggest that 4-NP affects brain POMC mRNA levels via non-estrogen receptor (ER)-mediated mechanism further supporting the ability of 4-NP to target multiple receptor systems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bringing the Polluters Back In: Environmental Inequality and the Organization of Chemical Production

PubMed Central

Grant, Don; Trautner, Mary Nell; Downey, Liam; Thiebaud, Lisa

2011-01-01

Environmental justice scholars have suggested that because chemical plants and other hazardous facilities emit more pollutants where they face the least resistance, disadvantaged communities face a special health risk. In trying to determine whether race or income has the bigger impact on a neighborhood’s exposure to pollution, however, scholars tend to overlook the facilities themselves and the effect of their characteristics on emissions. In particular, how do the characteristics of facilities and their surrounding communities jointly shape pollution outcomes? We propose a new line of environmental justice research that focuses on facilities and how their features combine with communities’ features to create dangerous emissions. Using novel fuzzy-set analysis techniques and the EPA’s newly developed Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators, we test the influence of facility and community factors on chemical plants’ health-threatening emissions. Contrary to the idea that community characteristics have singular, linear effects, findings show that facility and community factors combine in a variety of ways to produce risky emissions. We speculate that as chemical firms experiment with different ways of producing goods and externalizing pollution costs, new “recipes of risk” are likely to emerge. The question, then, will no longer be whether race or income matters most, but in which of these recipes do they matter and how. PMID:21921966

77 FR 9902 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

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48 CFR 52.227-19 - Commercial Computer Software License.

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2014-10-01

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48 CFR 52.227-19 - Commercial Computer Software License.

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... Software License. 52.227-19 Section 52.227-19 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION... Clauses 52.227-19 Commercial Computer Software License. As prescribed in 27.409(g), insert the following clause: Commercial Computer Software License (DEC 2007) (a) Notwithstanding any contrary provisions...

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48 CFR 52.227-19 - Commercial Computer Software License.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Software License. 52.227-19 Section 52.227-19 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION... Clauses 52.227-19 Commercial Computer Software License. As prescribed in 27.409(g), insert the following clause: Commercial Computer Software License (DEC 2007) (a) Notwithstanding any contrary provisions...

Effect of the scale inhibitor on ion content in reverse osmosis system for seawater desalination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Yuhua; Liu, Zhenfa; Zhang, Lihui; Li, Haihua

2017-09-01

A scale inhibitor was synthesized from polysuccinimide with 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid and aspartic acid. The effect of scale inhibitor on ion content in reverse osmosis system for seawater desalination was studied. The results showed that the ion content of permeate water is lower with the scale inhibitor added in RO system for seawater desalination than without scale inhibitor. On the contrary, the ion content of concentrate water is higher when with scale inhibitor in RO system.

Environmental Drivers of the Canadian Arctic Megabenthic Communities

PubMed Central

Roy, Virginie; Iken, Katrin; Archambault, Philippe

2014-01-01

Environmental gradients and their influence on benthic community structure vary over different spatial scales; yet, few studies in the Arctic have attempted to study the influence of environmental gradients of differing spatial scales on megabenthic communities across continental-scales. The current project studied for the first time how megabenthic community structure is related to several environmental factors over 2000 km of the Canadian Arctic, from the Beaufort Sea to northern Baffin Bay. Faunal trawl samples were collected between 2007 and 2011 at 78 stations from 30 to 1000 m depth and patterns in biomass, density, richness, diversity, and taxonomic composition were examined in relation to indirect/spatial gradients (e.g., depth), direct gradients (e.g., bottom oceanographic variables), and resource gradients (e.g., food supply proxies). Six benthic community types were defined based on their biomass-based taxonomic composition. Their distribution was significantly, but moderately, associated with large-scale (100–1000 km) environmental gradients defined by depth, physical water properties (e.g., bottom salinity), and meso-scale (10–100 km) environmental gradients defined by substrate type (hard vs. soft) and sediment organic carbon content. We did not observe a strong decline of bulk biomass, density and richness with depth or a strong increase of those community characteristics with food supply proxies, contrary to our hypothesis. We discuss how local- to meso-scale environmental conditions, such as bottom current regimes and polynyas, sustain biomass-rich communities at specific locations in oligotrophic and in deep regions of the Canadian Arctic. This study demonstrates the value of considering the scales of variability of environmental gradients when interpreting their relevance in structuring of communities. PMID:25019385

76 FR 18195 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

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Environmental variables measured at multiple spatial scales exert uneven influence on fish assemblages of floodplain lakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dembkowski, Daniel J.; Miranda, Leandro E.

2014-01-01

We examined the interaction between environmental variables measured at three different scales (i.e., landscape, lake, and in-lake) and fish assemblage descriptors across a range of over 50 floodplain lakes in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Mississippi and Arkansas. Our goal was to identify important local- and landscape-level determinants of fish assemblage structure. Relationships between fish assemblage structure and variables measured at broader scales (i.e., landscape-level and lake-level) were hypothesized to be stronger than relationships with variables measured at finer scales (i.e., in-lake variables). Results suggest that fish assemblage structure in floodplain lakes was influenced by variables operating on three different scales. However, and contrary to expectations, canonical correlations between in-lake environmental characteristics and fish assemblage structure were generally stronger than correlations between landscape-level and lake-level variables and fish assemblage structure, suggesting a hierarchy of influence. From a resource management perspective, our study suggests that landscape-level and lake-level variables may be manipulated for conservation or restoration purposes, and in-lake variables and fish assemblage structure may be used to monitor the success of such efforts.

78 FR 5792 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

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47 CFR 11.56 - EAS Participants receive CAP-formatted alerts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

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Reflections on Foreign Language Education in Iran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farhady, Hossein; Hezaveh, Fattaneh Sajadi; Hedayati, Hora

2010-01-01

This article reflects upon foreign-language education in Iran. Contrary to its political and historical reputation in the world, Iran has not been well presented regarding its educational system in general and its foreign-language education in particular. Of course, a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Iranian education…

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2013-03-27

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2011-09-30

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Sizing up arthropod genomes: an evaluation of the impact of environmental variation on genome size estimates by flow cytometry and the use of qPCR as a method of estimation.

PubMed

Gregory, T Ryan; Nathwani, Paula; Bonnett, Tiffany R; Huber, Dezene P W

2013-09-01

A study was undertaken to evaluate both a pre-existing method and a newly proposed approach for the estimation of nuclear genome sizes in arthropods. First, concerns regarding the reliability of the well-established method of flow cytometry relating to impacts of rearing conditions on genome size estimates were examined. Contrary to previous reports, a more carefully controlled test found negligible environmental effects on genome size estimates in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. Second, a more recently touted method based on quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was examined in terms of ease of use, efficiency, and (most importantly) accuracy using four test species: the flies Drosophila melanogaster and Musca domestica and the beetles Tribolium castaneum and Dendroctonus ponderosa. The results of this analysis demonstrated that qPCR has the tendency to produce substantially different genome size estimates from other established techniques while also being far less efficient than existing methods.

Morphological evolution, ecological diversification and climate change in rodents.

PubMed

Renaud, Sabrina; Michaux, Jacques; Schmidt, Daniela N; Aguilar, Jean-Pierre; Mein, Pierre; Auffray, Jean-Christophe

2005-03-22

Among rodents, the lineage from Progonomys hispanicus to Stephanomys documents a case of increasing size and dental specialization during an approximately 9 Myr time-interval. On the contrary, some contemporaneous generalist lineages like Apodemus show a limited morphological evolution. Dental shape can be related to diet and can be used to assess the ecological changes along the lineages. Consequently, size and shape of the first upper molar were measured in order to quantify the patterns of morphological evolution along both lineages and compare them to environmental trends. Climatic changes do not have a direct influence on evolution, but they open new ecological opportunities by changing vegetation and allow the evolution of a specialist like Stephanomys. On the other hand, environmental changes are not dramatic enough to destroy the habitat of a long-term generalist like Apodemus. Hence, our results exemplify a case of an influence of climate on the evolution of specialist species, although a generalist species may persist without change.

Morphological evolution, ecological diversification and climate change in rodents

PubMed Central

Renaud, Sabrina; Michaux, Jacques; Schmidt, Daniela N; Aguilar, Jean-Pierre; Mein, Pierre; Auffray, Jean-Christophe

2005-01-01

Among rodents, the lineage from Progonomys hispanicus to Stephanomys documents a case of increasing size and dental specialization during an approximately 9 Myr time-interval. On the contrary, some contemporaneous generalist lineages like Apodemus show a limited morphological evolution. Dental shape can be related to diet and can be used to assess the ecological changes along the lineages. Consequently, size and shape of the first upper molar were measured in order to quantify the patterns of morphological evolution along both lineages and compare them to environmental trends. Climatic changes do not have a direct influence on evolution, but they open new ecological opportunities by changing vegetation and allow the evolution of a specialist like Stephanomys. On the other hand, environmental changes are not dramatic enough to destroy the habitat of a long-term generalist like Apodemus. Hence, our results exemplify a case of an influence of climate on the evolution of specialist species, although a generalist species may persist without change. PMID:15817435

Population turnover and adaptation in heterogeneous environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campos, Paulo R. A.; de Oliveira, Viviane M.

2012-02-01

We study adaptive dynamics in a structured population model of asexual individuals which takes into account environmental heterogeneity among the subpopulations. The key purpose of the present work is to address how population turnovers, i.e. extinction events followed by recolonization, affect the rate of fixation of advantageous mutations. This model is a generalization of our previous model to address the interplay between environmental correlation and evolutionary forces on the adaptive process. The incorporation of population turnovers into the model enables us to make a direct correspondence between the model and host-parasite dynamics (epidemiological models). Strikingly, contrary to the intuitive and usual deleterious effect associated to extinction events, it is observed that population turnovers can in fact speed up adaptation as heterogeneity rises. On the other side, in nearly homogeneous population turnovers have a neutral effect on fixation rates, but a detrimental outcome is also achieved when extinction events become very common. In resume, population turnover outcomes on fixation rates of advantageous mutations are strongly influenced by the selective correlation among the subpopulations (demes).

PCDD/F and dioxin-like PCB bioaccumulation by Manila clam from polluted areas of Venice lagoon (Italy).

PubMed

Sfriso, Adriano; Facca, Chiara; Raccanelli, Stefano

2014-01-01

POP bioaccumulation pathways in the clam Tapes philippinarum were examined for two years from juveniles to adult size. Two polluted sites, one with sandy sediment, the other muddy were compared with a reference site characterized by low contamination levels. Juvenile clams coming from a hatchery were reared both on the sediment and in nets suspended at 30 cm from the bottom. POP changes in clam tissue were related to the concentrations recorded in sediments and in the particulate matter during the entire fattening period. Results provided interesting data on the relationships between environmental contamination and bioaccumulation. Contrary to studies on the decontamination times of the clams collected in polluted areas, this work investigates the preferential clam bioaccumulation pathways during growth under different environmental conditions. In general POP bioaccumulation resulted to be correlated to concentrations in SPM rather than in sediments and was higher in S-clams rather than in B-clams. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Holocene sedimentation processes and environmental changes along the Namibian coastline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schüller, Irka; Belz, Lukas; Wilkes, Heinz; Wehrmann, Achim

2016-04-01

The regional oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns strongly control environmental conditions in southern Africa. Changes in the system may have significant consequences on climate and related processes. The hyper arid coast of Namibia is mainly influenced by (1) the cold Benguela upwelling, (2) the Benguela current and (3) the Angola current. The Benguela current transports the cool, upwelling water from south to north and interacts with the warm, contrary flowing Angola current at the Angola-Benguela Front (ABF). Today the ABF is located around the Namibian-Angolan border with minor seasonal changes. Therefore, climate and environment at the Namibian coast are affected by the cold water conditions. It is known evidently that the location of the ABF changed during the Holocene over several latitudes and enabled warm water species to expand their range farther south. Several (paleo-) lagoons (coastal salt pans) exist along the Namibian coastline. Most of them are already barred and filled by longshore sediment transport processes. Tidal flooding and active sedimentation processes are restricted to the southernmost lagoons. Two different types of sediments occur. The northern pans contain well sorted, siliciclastic medium sands. Fine-layered alternation refers to changes in mineral composition. The southern pans are dominated by typical tidal sediments with a high amount of benthic fauna (mainly bivalves and gastropods). At Cape Cross the distinct shift between both facies is documented in the cores. Age determinations of core material prove a very fast sediment filling of the distinct lagoons with high sedimentation rates. However, the age of closure differs from lagoon to lagoon. Northern pan sediments are much older (Cape Cross: ~ 5000 a BP) than southern (Sandwich Bay and Conception Bay: 1800 - 300 a BP). Additional information are supported by river clay deposits (~ 36600 a BP) and fossil reed systems (~ 47900 a BP) in Conception Bay and peat deposits at the fossil Kuiseb delta between Walvis Bay and Sandwich Bay (~ 1350 - 750 a BP). The results of our analyses of lagoon and pan sediments as well as the fossil remnants allow the reconstruction of coastal sedimentation processes as well as the associated Holocene environmental changes at the coast and the terrestrial hinterland.

Development of a Salmonella cross-protective vaccine for food animal production systems.

PubMed

Heithoff, Douglas M; House, John K; Thomson, Peter C; Mahan, Michael J

2015-01-01

Intensive livestock production is associated with increased Salmonella exposure, transmission, animal disease, and contamination of food and water supplies. Modified live Salmonella enterica vaccines that lack a functional DNA adenine methylase (Dam) confer cross-protection to a diversity of salmonellae in experimental models of murine, avian, ovine, and bovine models of salmonellosis. However, the commercial success of any vaccine is dependent upon the therapeutic index, the ratio of safety/efficacy. Herein, secondary virulence-attenuating mutations targeted to genes involved in intracellular and/or systemic survival were introduced into Salmonella dam vaccines to screen for vaccine candidates that were safe in the animal and the environment, while maintaining the capacity to confer cross-protective immunity to pathogenic salmonellae serotypes. Salmonella dam mgtC, dam sifA, and dam spvB vaccine strains exhibited significantly improved vaccine safety as evidenced by the failure to give rise to virulent revertants during the infective process, contrary to the parental Salmonella dam vaccine. Further, these vaccines exhibited a low grade persistence in host tissues that was associated with reduced vaccine shedding, reduced environmental persistence, and induction of cross-protective immunity to pathogenic serotypes derived from infected livestock. These data indicate that Salmonella dam double mutant vaccines are suitable for commercial applications against salmonellosis in livestock production systems. Reducing pre-harvest salmonellae load through vaccination will promote the health and productivity of livestock and reduce contamination of livestock-derived food products, while enhancing overall food safety. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Patterns of seasonal variation in lagoonal macrozoobenthic assemblages (Mellah lagoon, Algeria).

PubMed

Magni, Paolo; Draredja, Brahim; Melouah, Khalil; Como, Serena

2015-08-01

In coastal lagoons, many studies indicated that macrozoobenthic assemblages undergo marked temporal fluctuations as related to the strong environmental variability of these systems. However, most of these studies have not assessed the seasonal patterns of these fluctuations and none of them has investigated the consistency of this variation in different areas within the same lagoon system. In this study, we assessed patterns of variation at multiple temporal (date, season and year) scales in two different areas in the coastal lagoon of Mellah (northeast Algeria). These areas (hereafter Shore and Center) are representative of two different environments typically found in coastal lagoons. The Shore (water depth of about 1.5-2 m) is characterized by relatively higher hydrodynamics, sand to silty-sand sediments and the presence of vegetation (Ruppia maritima), the Center (water depth of about 3-3.5 m) is characterized by mud to sandy-mud, organic-enriched sediments due to fine particle accumulation. Results showed two distinct patterns of seasonal variation in Shore and Center assemblages for two consecutive years. In Shore, species richness (S), total abundance (N) and the abundance of several dominant taxa were highest in summer and/or autumn. This pattern can be related to the local environmental conditions maintaining relatively well oxidized conditions, while increasing food availability, and favoring the recruitment of species and individuals in summer/autumn. On the contrary in Center, S was lowest in summer and autumn, and N and the abundance of fewer dominant taxa were lowest in summer. In Center, the bivalve Loripes lucinalis showed a 10-fold increase from summer to autumn in both years, likely related to the lagoon's hydrodynamics favoring larval transport and settlement in the central sector of the lagoon. Overall, the seasonal variation found in Center followed a regression/recovery pattern typical of opportunistic assemblages occurring in confined organic-enriched environments. In conclusion, our results provide new insight into the patterns of seasonal variation in lagoon soft-sediment benthos and highlight the importance of local environmental conditions on this variation. This study provides a valuable tool for adopting appropriate monitoring strategies in these systems, with special reference to Southern-Eastern Mediterranean lagoons which are expected to suffer from increasing coastal development and human pressure in the near future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Livermore study says oil leaks not severe

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Patrick, L.

The Petroleum Marketers Association of America (PMAA), which is working to reform the federal Leaking Underground Storage Tank program, got some strong ammunition last month. A study that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory performed for the California State Water Resources Control Board has found that the environmental threat of leaks is not as severe as formerly thought. The study said: such leaks rarely jeopardize drinking water; fuel hydrocarbons have limited impacts on health, the environment, and groundwater; and cleanups often are done contrary to the knowledge and experience gained from prior remediations. As a result of the study, Gov. Petemore » Wilson ordered California cleanups halted at sites more than 250 feet from drinking water supplies.« less

Influence of Coal Industry Enterprises on Biodiversity (on the Example of Formicidae)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blinova, Svetlana; Dobrydina, Tatiana

2017-11-01

The fauna, the population density and the types of ants' nests on the territory affected by the coal industry have been studied. It has been found that the level of environmental contamination influences all the indicators: the minimum indices of density, 1-2 species of ants and only underground nests near the pollution sources. On the contrary, in the areas with a weak influence of coal enterprises, 9 species with a maximum density of up to 15.2 nests / m2 have been observed with predominance of nests in the form of earthen mounds. Lasius niger are the most resistant to pollution, while the Myrmica do not stand such an impact.

Microbial forensics: predicting phenotypic characteristics and environmental conditions from large-scale gene expression profiles.

PubMed

Kim, Minseung; Zorraquino, Violeta; Tagkopoulos, Ilias

2015-03-01

A tantalizing question in cellular physiology is whether the cellular state and environmental conditions can be inferred by the expression signature of an organism. To investigate this relationship, we created an extensive normalized gene expression compendium for the bacterium Escherichia coli that was further enriched with meta-information through an iterative learning procedure. We then constructed an ensemble method to predict environmental and cellular state, including strain, growth phase, medium, oxygen level, antibiotic and carbon source presence. Results show that gene expression is an excellent predictor of environmental structure, with multi-class ensemble models achieving balanced accuracy between 70.0% (±3.5%) to 98.3% (±2.3%) for the various characteristics. Interestingly, this performance can be significantly boosted when environmental and strain characteristics are simultaneously considered, as a composite classifier that captures the inter-dependencies of three characteristics (medium, phase and strain) achieved 10.6% (±1.0%) higher performance than any individual models. Contrary to expectations, only 59% of the top informative genes were also identified as differentially expressed under the respective conditions. Functional analysis of the respective genetic signatures implicates a wide spectrum of Gene Ontology terms and KEGG pathways with condition-specific information content, including iron transport, transferases, and enterobactin synthesis. Further experimental phenotypic-to-genotypic mapping that we conducted for knock-out mutants argues for the information content of top-ranked genes. This work demonstrates the degree at which genome-scale transcriptional information can be predictive of latent, heterogeneous and seemingly disparate phenotypic and environmental characteristics, with far-reaching applications.

Establishing Functional Relationships between Abiotic Environment, Macrophyte Coverage, Resource Gradients and the Distribution of Mytilus trossulus in a Brackish Non-Tidal Environment.

PubMed

Kotta, Jonne; Oganjan, Katarina; Lauringson, Velda; Pärnoja, Merli; Kaasik, Ants; Rohtla, Liisa; Kotta, Ilmar; Orav-Kotta, Helen

2015-01-01

Benthic suspension feeding mussels are an important functional guild in coastal and estuarine ecosystems. To date we lack information on how various environmental gradients and biotic interactions separately and interactively shape the distribution patterns of mussels in non-tidal environments. Opposing to tidal environments, mussels inhabit solely subtidal zone in non-tidal waterbodies and, thereby, driving factors for mussel populations are expected to differ from the tidal areas. In the present study, we used the boosted regression tree modelling (BRT), an ensemble method for statistical techniques and machine learning, in order to explain the distribution and biomass of the suspension feeding mussel Mytilus trossulus in the non-tidal Baltic Sea. BRT models suggested that (1) distribution patterns of M. trossulus are largely driven by separate effects of direct environmental gradients and partly by interactive effects of resource gradients with direct environmental gradients. (2) Within its suitable habitat range, however, resource gradients had an important role in shaping the biomass distribution of M. trossulus. (3) Contrary to tidal areas, mussels were not competitively superior over macrophytes with patterns indicating either facilitative interactions between mussels and macrophytes or co-variance due to common stressor. To conclude, direct environmental gradients seem to define the distribution pattern of M. trossulus, and within the favourable distribution range, resource gradients in interaction with direct environmental gradients are expected to set the biomass level of mussels.

Establishing Functional Relationships between Abiotic Environment, Macrophyte Coverage, Resource Gradients and the Distribution of Mytilus trossulus in a Brackish Non-Tidal Environment

PubMed Central

Kotta, Jonne; Oganjan, Katarina; Lauringson, Velda; Pärnoja, Merli; Kaasik, Ants; Rohtla, Liisa; Kotta, Ilmar; Orav-Kotta, Helen

2015-01-01

Benthic suspension feeding mussels are an important functional guild in coastal and estuarine ecosystems. To date we lack information on how various environmental gradients and biotic interactions separately and interactively shape the distribution patterns of mussels in non-tidal environments. Opposing to tidal environments, mussels inhabit solely subtidal zone in non-tidal waterbodies and, thereby, driving factors for mussel populations are expected to differ from the tidal areas. In the present study, we used the boosted regression tree modelling (BRT), an ensemble method for statistical techniques and machine learning, in order to explain the distribution and biomass of the suspension feeding mussel Mytilus trossulus in the non-tidal Baltic Sea. BRT models suggested that (1) distribution patterns of M. trossulus are largely driven by separate effects of direct environmental gradients and partly by interactive effects of resource gradients with direct environmental gradients. (2) Within its suitable habitat range, however, resource gradients had an important role in shaping the biomass distribution of M. trossulus. (3) Contrary to tidal areas, mussels were not competitively superior over macrophytes with patterns indicating either facilitative interactions between mussels and macrophytes or co-variance due to common stressor. To conclude, direct environmental gradients seem to define the distribution pattern of M. trossulus, and within the favourable distribution range, resource gradients in interaction with direct environmental gradients are expected to set the biomass level of mussels. PMID:26317668

Acute exposure to space flight results in evidence of reduced lymph Transport, tissue fluid Shifts, and immune alterations in the rat gastrointestinal system.

PubMed

Cromer, W E; Zawieja, D C

2018-05-01

Space flight causes a number of alterations in physiological systems, changes in the immunological status of subjects, and altered interactions of the host to environmental stimuli. We studied the effect of space flight on the lymphatic system of the gastrointestinal tract which is responsible for lipid transport and immune surveillance which includes the host interaction with the gut microbiome. We found that there were signs of tissue damage present in the space flown animals that was lacking in ground controls (epithelial damage, crypt morphological changes, etc.). Additionally, morphology of the lymphatic vessels in the tissue suggested a collapsed state at time of harvest and there was a profound change in the retention of lipid in the villi of the ileum. Contrary to our assumptions there was a reduction in tissue fluid volume likely associated with other fluid shifts described. The reduction of tissue fluid volume in the colon and ileum is a likely contributing factor to the state of the lymphatic vessels and lipid transport issues observed. There were also associated changes in the number of MHC-II + immune cells in the colon tissue, which along with reduced lymphatic competence would favor immune dysfunction in the tissue. These findings help expand our understanding of the effects of space flight on various organ systems. It also points out potential issues that have not been closely examined and have to potential for the need of countermeasure development. Copyright © 2018 The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Overweight and obesity in schoolchildren from Brandsen and its relationship with socio-environmental characteristics of residence].

PubMed

Cesani, María F; Luis, María A; Torres, María F; Castro, Luis E; Quintero, Fabián A; Luna, María E; Bergel, María L; Oyhenart, Evelia E

2010-08-01

Environmental factors play an important role in the etiology of overweight (S) and obesity (O), constituting the "obesogenic environment". The objectives of the present study are: a) to estimate overweight and obesity prevalences in 3 to 14 years-old schoolchildren from Brandsen (Provincia de Buenos Aires), and b) to analyze the probability of occurrence of overweight and obesity in relation to the socioenvironmental conditions of resident. Weight and height were measured in 989 boys and girls aged 3 to 14 years. S and O were estimated following the criteria suggested by the International Obesity Task Force. The prevalences of S and O were compared between genders and ages. The socio- environmental information was gathered according to surveys and processed by Categorical Principal Components Analysis (catPCA). Generalized Linear Model (link logit) against the variables S and O was employed. S was found in 15,8% of schoolchildren and O in 7,2%. None significative statistics differences between both genders and ages, were found. The first axis of the catPCA discriminated the cases that presented better socio-environmental conditions with positive values and those with more unfavorable conditions with negatives values. Higher probability of obese children was associated with better socio-environmental conditions (higher educational level of parents, higher income and better access to public services), and higher probability of overweight children was associated with less favored environments. The schoolchildren population of Brandsen presents high overweight and obesity prevalences. The chance of presenting overweight is higher in children from households with adverse socio-environmental conditions. On the contrary, obese children are to be more found in households which have more favorable socio-environmental conditions.

Environmental protection, the economy, and jobs: national and regional analyses.

PubMed

Bezdek, Roger H; Wendling, Robert M; Diperna, Paula

2008-01-01

The relationship between environmental protection (EP), the economy, and jobs has been an issue of harsh contention for decades. Does EP harm the economy and destroy jobs or facilitate economic growth and create jobs? We address this issue by summarizing the results of the Jobs and the Environment Initiative, research funded by nonprofit foundations to quantify the relationship between EP, the economy, and jobs. We estimate the size of the US environmental industry and the numbers of environment-related jobs at the national level and in the states of Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin. This is the first time that such comprehensive, detailed estimates have been developed. Our major finding is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, EP, economic growth, and jobs creation are complementary and compatible: investments in EP create jobs and displace jobs, but the net effect on employment is positive. Second, environment protection has grown rapidly to become a major sales-generating, job-creating industry--$300 billion/year and 5 million jobs in 2003. Third, most of the 5 million jobs created are standard jobs for accountants, engineers, computer analysts, clerks, factory workers, etc., and the classic environmental job (environmental engineer, ecologist, etc.) constitutes only a small portion of the jobs created. Most of the persons employed in the jobs created may not even realize that they owe their livelihood to protecting the environment. Fourth, at the state level, the relationship between environmental policies and economic/job growth is positive, not negative. States can have strong economies and simultaneously protect the environment. Finally, environmental jobs are concentrated in manufacturing and professional, information, scientific, and technical services, and are thus disproportionately the types of jobs all states seek to attract.

Using Motivational Interviewing to reduce threats in conversations about environmental behavior

PubMed Central

Klonek, Florian E.; Güntner, Amelie V.; Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nale; Kauffeld, Simone

2015-01-01

Human behavior contributes to a waste of environmental resources and our society is looking for ways to reduce this problem. However, humans may perceive feedback about their environmental behavior as threatening. According to self-determination theory (SDT), threats decrease intrinsic motivation for behavior change. According to self-affirmation theory (SAT), threats can harm individuals’ self-integrity. Therefore, individuals should show self-defensive biases, e.g., in terms of presenting counter-arguments when presented with environmental behavior change. The current study examines how change recipients respond to threats from change agents in interactions about environmental behavior change. Moreover, we investigate how Motivational Interviewing (MI) — an intervention aimed at increasing intrinsic motivation — can reduce threats at both the social and cognitive level. We videotaped 68 dyadic interactions with change agents who either did or did not use MI (control group). We coded agents verbal threats and recipients’ verbal expressions of motivation. Recipients also rated agents’ level of confrontation and empathy (i.e., cognitive reactions). As hypothesized, threats were significantly lower when change agents used MI. Perceived confrontations converged with observable social behavior of change agents in both groups. Moreover, behavioral threats showed a negative association with change recipients’ expressed motivation (i.e., reasons to change). Contrary to our expectations, we found no relation between change agents’ verbal threats and change recipients’ verbally expressed self-defenses (i.e., sustain talk). Our results imply that MI reduces the adverse impact of threats in conversations about environmental behavior change on both the social and cognitive level. We discuss theoretical implications of our study in the context of SAT and SDT and suggest practical implications for environmental change agents in organizations. PMID:26257676

Using Motivational Interviewing to reduce threats in conversations about environmental behavior.

PubMed

Klonek, Florian E; Güntner, Amelie V; Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nale; Kauffeld, Simone

2015-01-01

Human behavior contributes to a waste of environmental resources and our society is looking for ways to reduce this problem. However, humans may perceive feedback about their environmental behavior as threatening. According to self-determination theory (SDT), threats decrease intrinsic motivation for behavior change. According to self-affirmation theory (SAT), threats can harm individuals' self-integrity. Therefore, individuals should show self-defensive biases, e.g., in terms of presenting counter-arguments when presented with environmental behavior change. The current study examines how change recipients respond to threats from change agents in interactions about environmental behavior change. Moreover, we investigate how Motivational Interviewing (MI) - an intervention aimed at increasing intrinsic motivation - can reduce threats at both the social and cognitive level. We videotaped 68 dyadic interactions with change agents who either did or did not use MI (control group). We coded agents verbal threats and recipients' verbal expressions of motivation. Recipients also rated agents' level of confrontation and empathy (i.e., cognitive reactions). As hypothesized, threats were significantly lower when change agents used MI. Perceived confrontations converged with observable social behavior of change agents in both groups. Moreover, behavioral threats showed a negative association with change recipients' expressed motivation (i.e., reasons to change). Contrary to our expectations, we found no relation between change agents' verbal threats and change recipients' verbally expressed self-defenses (i.e., sustain talk). Our results imply that MI reduces the adverse impact of threats in conversations about environmental behavior change on both the social and cognitive level. We discuss theoretical implications of our study in the context of SAT and SDT and suggest practical implications for environmental change agents in organizations.

75 FR 51140 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-18

... NASDAQ Stock Market LLC To Amend Exchange Rules Related to the Cut-off Time for Contrary Exercise Advice... Options Contracts) to make changes to extend the cut-off time to submit contrary exercise advices... Chapter VIII, Section 1 to extend the cut-off time to submit Contrary Exercise Advices to the Exchange; to...

Isotopic fractionation of tritium in biological systems.

PubMed

Le Goff, Pierre; Fromm, Michel; Vichot, Laurent; Badot, Pierre-Marie; Guétat, Philippe

2014-04-01

Isotopic fractionation of tritium is a highly relevant issue in radiation protection and requires certain radioecological considerations. Sound evaluation of this factor is indeed necessary to determine whether environmental compartments are enriched/depleted in tritium or if tritium is, on the contrary, isotopically well-distributed in a given system. The ubiquity of tritium and the standard analytical methods used to assay it may induce biases in both the measurement and the signification that is accorded to the so-called fractionation: based on an exhaustive review of the literature, we show how, sometimes large deviations may appear. It is shown that when comparing the non-exchangeable fraction of organically bound tritium (neOBT) to another fraction of tritium (e.g. tritiated water) the preparation of samples and the measurement of neOBT reported frequently led to underestimation of the ratio of tritium to hydrogen (T/H) in the non-exchangeable compartment by a factor of 5% to 50%. In the present study, corrections are proposed for most of the biological matrices studied so far. Nevertheless, the values of isotopic fractionation reported in the literature remain difficult to compare with each other, especially since the physical quantities and units often vary between authors. Some improvements are proposed to better define what should encompass the concepts of exchangeable and non-exchangeable fractions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Protection Against Type 1 Diabetes Upon Coxsackievirus B4 Infection and iNKT-Cell Stimulation

PubMed Central

Ghazarian, Liana; Diana, Julien; Beaudoin, Lucie; Larsson, Pär G.; Puri, Raj K.; van Rooijen, Nico; Flodström-Tullberg, Malin; Lehuen, Agnès

2013-01-01

Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells belong to the innate immune system and exercise a dual role as potent regulators of autoimmunity and participate in responses against different pathogens. They have been shown to prevent type 1 diabetes development and to promote antiviral responses. Many studies in the implication of environmental factors on the etiology of type 1 diabetes have suggested a link between enteroviral infections and the development of this disease. This study of the pancreatropic enterovirus Coxsackievirus B4 (CVB4) shows that although infection accelerated type 1 diabetes development in a subset of proinsulin 2–deficient NOD mice, the activation of iNKT cells by a specific agonist, α-galactosylceramide, at the time of infection inhibited the disease. Diabetes development was associated with the infiltration of pancreatic islets by inflammatory macrophages, producing high levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α and activation of anti-islet T cells. On the contrary, macrophages infiltrating the islets after CVB4 infection and iNKT-cell stimulation expressed a number of suppressive enzymes, among which indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase was sufficient to inhibit anti-islet T-cell response and to prevent diabetes. This study highlights the critical interaction between virus and the immune system in the acceleration or prevention of type 1 diabetes. PMID:23894189

Relations between three dopaminergic system genes, school attachment, and adolescent delinquency.

PubMed

Fine, Adam; Mahler, Alissa; Simmons, Cortney; Chen, Chuansheng; Moyzis, Robert; Cauffman, Elizabeth

2016-11-01

Both environmental factors and genetic variation, particularly in genes responsible for the dopaminergic system such as DRD4, DRD2, and DAT1 (SLC6A3), affect adolescent delinquency. The school context, despite its developmental importance, has been overlooked in gene-environment research. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD ECCYD), this study examined key interactions between school attachment and (a) each of the DRD4, DRD2, and DAT1 (SLC6A3) genotypes; and (b) a polygenic score. Results indicate that there is a main effect of school attachment, unlike genetic variation, on delinquency. Interestingly, there are important interactive effects of school attachment and dopaminergic genotypes on delinquency. Carriers of the DRD2-A1 allele were differentially affected by both positive and negative school environments, whereas DAT1-10R carriers fared the same as 9R homozygotes in poorer and moderate school environments, but fared disproportionately better in more positive environments. Contrary to expectations, youth without the DRD4-7R allele were particularly affected by the school environment. These findings contribute to the literature considering the roles of both context and genes in delinquency research, and inform our understanding of the individual-level traits that influence sensitivity to particular contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Review of human-animal interactions and their impact on animal productivity and welfare

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Humans and animals are in regular and at times close contact in modern intensive farming systems. The quality of human-animal interactions can have a profound impact on the productivity and welfare of farm animals. Interactions by humans may be neutral, positive or negative in nature. Regular pleasant contact with humans may result in desirable alterations in the physiology, behaviour, health and productivity of farm animals. On the contrary, animals that were subjected to aversive human contact were highly fearful of humans and their growth and reproductive performance could be compromised. Farm animals are particularly sensitive to human stimulation that occurs early in life, while many systems of the animals are still developing. This may have long-lasting impact and could possibly modify their genetic potential. The question as to how human contact can have a positive impact on responses to stressors, and productivity is not well understood. Recent work in our laboratory suggested that pleasant human contact may alter ability to tolerate various stressors through enhanced heat shock protein (hsp) 70 expression. The induction of hsp is often associated with increased tolerance to environmental stressors and disease resistance in animals. The attitude and consequent behaviour of stockpeople affect the animals’ fear of human which eventually influence animals’ productivity and welfare. Other than attitude and behaviour, technical skills, knowledge, job motivation, commitment and job satisfaction are prerequisites for high job performance. PMID:23855920

Review of human-animal interactions and their impact on animal productivity and welfare.

PubMed

Zulkifli, Idrus

2013-07-15

Humans and animals are in regular and at times close contact in modern intensive farming systems. The quality of human-animal interactions can have a profound impact on the productivity and welfare of farm animals. Interactions by humans may be neutral, positive or negative in nature. Regular pleasant contact with humans may result in desirable alterations in the physiology, behaviour, health and productivity of farm animals. On the contrary, animals that were subjected to aversive human contact were highly fearful of humans and their growth and reproductive performance could be compromised. Farm animals are particularly sensitive to human stimulation that occurs early in life, while many systems of the animals are still developing. This may have long-lasting impact and could possibly modify their genetic potential. The question as to how human contact can have a positive impact on responses to stressors, and productivity is not well understood. Recent work in our laboratory suggested that pleasant human contact may alter ability to tolerate various stressors through enhanced heat shock protein (hsp) 70 expression. The induction of hsp is often associated with increased tolerance to environmental stressors and disease resistance in animals. The attitude and consequent behaviour of stockpeople affect the animals' fear of human which eventually influence animals' productivity and welfare. Other than attitude and behaviour, technical skills, knowledge, job motivation, commitment and job satisfaction are prerequisites for high job performance.

Gender Differences in Emotion Expression in Low-Income Adolescents Under Stress

PubMed Central

Panjwani, Naaila; Chaplin, Tara M.; Sinha, Rajita; Mayes, Linda C.

2015-01-01

Gender roles in mainstream U.S. culture suggest that girls express more happiness, sadness, anxiety, and shame/embarrassment than boys, while boys express more anger and externalizing emotions, such as contempt. However, gender roles and emotion expression may be different in low-income and ethnically diverse families, as children and parents are often faced with greater environmental stressors and may have different gender expectations. This study examined gender differences in emotion expression in low-income adolescents, an understudied population. One hundred and seventy nine adolescents (aged 14-17) participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Trained coders rated adolescents’ expressions of happiness, sadness, anxiety, shame/embarrassment, anger, and contempt during the TSST using a micro-analytic coding system. Analyses showed that, consistent with gender roles, girls expressed higher levels of happiness and shame than boys; however, contrary to traditional gender roles, girls showed higher levels of contempt than boys. Also, in contrast to cultural stereotypes, there were no differences in anger between boys and girls. Findings suggest gender-role inconsistent displays of externalizing emotions in low-income adolescents under acute stress, and may reflect different emotion socialization experiences in this group. PMID:29056804

Gender Differences in Emotion Expression in Low-Income Adolescents Under Stress.

PubMed

Panjwani, Naaila; Chaplin, Tara M; Sinha, Rajita; Mayes, Linda C

2016-06-01

Gender roles in mainstream U.S. culture suggest that girls express more happiness, sadness, anxiety, and shame/embarrassment than boys, while boys express more anger and externalizing emotions, such as contempt. However, gender roles and emotion expression may be different in low-income and ethnically diverse families, as children and parents are often faced with greater environmental stressors and may have different gender expectations. This study examined gender differences in emotion expression in low-income adolescents, an understudied population. One hundred and seventy nine adolescents (aged 14-17) participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Trained coders rated adolescents' expressions of happiness, sadness, anxiety, shame/embarrassment, anger, and contempt during the TSST using a micro-analytic coding system. Analyses showed that, consistent with gender roles, girls expressed higher levels of happiness and shame than boys; however, contrary to traditional gender roles, girls showed higher levels of contempt than boys. Also, in contrast to cultural stereotypes, there were no differences in anger between boys and girls. Findings suggest gender-role inconsistent displays of externalizing emotions in low-income adolescents under acute stress, and may reflect different emotion socialization experiences in this group.

How ocean acidification can benefit calcifiers.

PubMed

Connell, Sean D; Doubleday, Zoë A; Hamlyn, Sarah B; Foster, Nicole R; Harley, Christopher D G; Helmuth, Brian; Kelaher, Brendan P; Nagelkerken, Ivan; Sarà, Gianluca; Russell, Bayden D

2017-02-06

Reduction in seawater pH due to rising levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the world's oceans is a major force set to shape the future of marine ecosystems and the ecological services they provide [1,2]. In particular, ocean acidification is predicted to have a detrimental effect on the physiology of calcifying organisms [3]. Yet, the indirect effects of ocean acidification on calcifying organisms, which may counter or exacerbate direct effects, is uncertain. Using volcanic CO 2 vents, we tested the indirect effects of ocean acidification on a calcifying herbivore (gastropod) within the natural complexity of an ecological system. Contrary to predictions, the abundance of this calcifier was greater at vent sites (with near-future CO 2 levels). Furthermore, translocation experiments demonstrated that ocean acidification did not drive increases in gastropod abundance directly, but indirectly as a function of increased habitat and food (algal biomass). We conclude that the effect of ocean acidification on algae (primary producers) can have a strong, indirect positive influence on the abundance of some calcifying herbivores, which can overwhelm any direct negative effects. This finding points to the need to understand ecological processes that buffer the negative effects of environmental change. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Processes driving nocturnal transpiration and implications for estimating land evapotranspiration.

PubMed

de Dios, Víctor Resco; Roy, Jacques; Ferrio, Juan Pedro; Alday, Josu G; Landais, Damien; Milcu, Alexandru; Gessler, Arthur

2015-06-15

Evapotranspiration is a major component of the water cycle, yet only daytime transpiration is currently considered in Earth system and agricultural sciences. This contrasts with physiological studies where 25% or more of water losses have been reported to occur occurring overnight at leaf and plant scales. This gap probably arose from limitations in techniques to measure nocturnal water fluxes at ecosystem scales, a gap we bridge here by using lysimeters under controlled environmental conditions. The magnitude of the nocturnal water losses (12-23% of daytime water losses) in row-crop monocultures of bean (annual herb) and cotton (woody shrub) would be globally an order of magnitude higher than documented responses of global evapotranspiration to climate change (51-98 vs. 7-8 mm yr(-1)). Contrary to daytime responses and to conventional wisdom, nocturnal transpiration was not affected by previous radiation loads or carbon uptake, and showed a temporal pattern independent of vapour pressure deficit or temperature, because of endogenous controls on stomatal conductance via circadian regulation. Our results have important implications from large-scale ecosystem modelling to crop production: homeostatic water losses justify simple empirical predictive functions, and circadian controls show a fine-tune control that minimizes water loss while potentially increasing posterior carbon uptake.

Bioconversion of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil using apple filter cake

PubMed Central

Medaura, M. Cecilia; Ércoli, Eduardo C.

2008-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using apple filter cake, a fruit-processing waste to enhance the bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soil. A rotating barrel system was used to study the bioconversion of the xenobiotic compound by natural occurring microbial population. The soil had been accidentally polluted with a total petroleum hydrocarbon concentration of 41,000 ppm. Although this global value was maintained during the process, microbial intervention was evidenced through transformation of the petroleum fractions. Thus, fractions that represent a risk for the environment (GRO, Gasoline Range Organics i.e., C6 to C10–12; DRO, Diesel Range Organics i.e., C8–12 to C24–26 and RRO, Residual Range Organics i.e., C25 to C35) were significantly reduced, from 2.95% to 1.39%. On the contrary, heavier weight fraction from C35 plus other organics increased in value from 1.15% to 3.00%. The noticeable diminution of low molecular weight hydrocarbons content and hence environmental risk by the process plus the improvement of the physical characteristics of the soil, are promising results with regard to future application at large scale. PMID:24031241

Plant zonation in a tropical irregular estuary: can large occurrence zones be explained by a tradeoff model?

PubMed

Ribeiro, J P N; Matsumoto, R S; Takao, L K; Lima, M I S

2015-08-01

Estuaries present an environmental gradient that ranges from almost fresh water conditions to almost marine conditions. Salinity and flooding are the main abiotic drivers for plants. Therefore, plant zonation in estuaries is closely related to the tidal cycles. It is expected that the competitive abilities of plants would be inversely related to the tolerance toward environmental stress (tradeoff). Thus, in estuaries, plant zonation tends to be controlled by the environment near the sandbar and by competition away from it. This zonation pattern has been proposed for regular non-tropical estuaries. For tropical estuaries, the relative importance of rain is higher, and it is not clear to what extent this model can be extrapolated. We measured the tidal influence along the environmental gradient of a tropical irregular estuary and quantified the relative importance of the environment and the co-occurrence degree. Contrary to the narrow occurrence zone that would be expected for regular estuaries, plants presented large occurrence zones. However, the relative importance of the environment and competition followed the same patterns proposed for regular estuaries. The environmental conditions allow plants to occur in larger zones, but these zones arise from smaller and infrequent patches distributed across a larger area, and most species populations are concentrated in relatively narrow zones. Thus, we concluded that the zonation pattern in the Massaguaçu River estuary agrees with the tradeoff model.

Effects of Business School Student's Study Time on the Learning Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tetteh, Godson Ayertei

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify the relationship between the student's study time and the learning process in the higher education system by adapting the total quality management (TQM) principles-process approach. Contrary to Deming's (1982) constancy of purpose to improve the learning process, some students in higher education postpone their…

On the Origins of the Conceptual System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mandler, Jean M.

2007-01-01

Contrary to the conventional view of infancy as a sensorimotor period without conceptual thought, research over the past 20 years has shown that preverbal infants are capable of at least 3 conceptual functions: forming concepts with which to interpret the world, recall of the past, and engaging in conceptual generalization. Research is described…

Mass Media and Moral Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stein, Aletha Huston

Commercial television as it currently exists presents moral content and values that are often contrary to the predominant values of the society. It emphasizes violence and illegal action; it perpetuates a system in which groups of people are devalued because of sex, race, age, and other such criteria. There is good reason to believe that this type…

You Can Lose What You Never Had

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cobb, Cam

2016-01-01

An often-used idiom states: "you can't lose what you never had." Yet contrary to this expression, it "is" possible to lose what you never had--at least when special education support is concerned. In Ontario, as in other jurisdictions, special education exists as a codified system. An ever-changing nexus of discourses and…

Economic Factors of Russian Inequality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bobkov, Vyacheslav N.; Vakhtina, Margarita A.; Simonova, Marina V.

2016-01-01

The relevance of the researched problem is connected with the high level of economic inequality in Russia. The article goal is to show that the current Russian institutional system is not directed to decrease the economic inequality but on the contrary it continues to make and deepen it. The leading approach to study of this problem is the…

Fast and sensitive in vivo studies under controlled environmental conditions to substitute long-term field trials with genetically modified plants.

PubMed

Horn, Patricia; Schlichting, André; Baum, Christel; Hammesfahr, Ute; Thiele-Bruhn, Sören; Leinweber, Peter; Broer, Inge

2017-02-10

We introduce an easy, fast and effective method to analyze the influence of genetically modified (GM) plants on soil and model organisms in the laboratory to substitute laborious and time consuming field trials. For the studies described here we focused on two GM plants of the so-called 3rd generation: GM plants producing pharmaceuticals (PMP) and plant made industrials (PMI). Cyanophycin synthetase (cphA) was chosen as model for PMI and Choleratoxin B (CTB) as model for PMP. The model genes are expressed in transgenic roots of composite Vicia hirsuta plants grown in petri dishes for semi-sterile growth or small containers filled with non-sterile soil. No significant influence of the model gene expression on root induction, growth, biomass, interaction with symbionts such as rhizobia (number, size and functionality of nodules, selection of nodulating strains) or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could be detected. In vitro, but not in situ under field conditions, structural diversity of the bulk soil microbial community between transgenic and non-transgenic cultivars was determined by PLFA pattern-derived ratios of bacteria: fungi and of gram + : gram - bacteria. Significant differences in PLFA ratios were associated with dissimilarities in the quantity and molecular composition of rhizodeposits as revealed by Py-FIMS analyses. Contrary to field trials, where small effects based on the transgene expression might be hidden by the immense influence of various environmental factors, our in vitro system can detect even minor effects and correlates them to transgene expression with less space, time and labour. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Progressive Sampling Technique for Efficient and Robust Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis of Environmental Systems Models: Stability and Convergence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheikholeslami, R.; Hosseini, N.; Razavi, S.

2016-12-01

Modern earth and environmental models are usually characterized by a large parameter space and high computational cost. These two features prevent effective implementation of sampling-based analysis such as sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, which require running these computationally expensive models several times to adequately explore the parameter/problem space. Therefore, developing efficient sampling techniques that scale with the size of the problem, computational budget, and users' needs is essential. In this presentation, we propose an efficient sequential sampling strategy, called Progressive Latin Hypercube Sampling (PLHS), which provides an increasingly improved coverage of the parameter space, while satisfying pre-defined requirements. The original Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) approach generates the entire sample set in one stage; on the contrary, PLHS generates a series of smaller sub-sets (also called `slices') while: (1) each sub-set is Latin hypercube and achieves maximum stratification in any one dimensional projection; (2) the progressive addition of sub-sets remains Latin hypercube; and thus (3) the entire sample set is Latin hypercube. Therefore, it has the capability to preserve the intended sampling properties throughout the sampling procedure. PLHS is deemed advantageous over the existing methods, particularly because it nearly avoids over- or under-sampling. Through different case studies, we show that PHLS has multiple advantages over the one-stage sampling approaches, including improved convergence and stability of the analysis results with fewer model runs. In addition, PLHS can help to minimize the total simulation time by only running the simulations necessary to achieve the desired level of quality (e.g., accuracy, and convergence rate).

Contrasting patterns of fine-scale herb layer species composition in temperate forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chudomelová, Markéta; Zelený, David; Li, Ching-Feng

2017-04-01

Although being well described at the landscape level, patterns in species composition of forest herb layer are rarely studied at smaller scales. Here, we examined fine-scale environmental determinants and spatial structures of herb layer communities in thermophilous oak- and hornbeam dominated forests of the south-eastern part of the Czech Republic. Species composition of herb layer vegetation and environmental variables were recorded within a fixed grid of 2 × 2 m subplots regularly distributed within 1-ha quadrate plots in three forest stands. For each site, environmental models best explaining species composition were constructed using constrained ordination analysis. Spatial eigenvector mapping was used to model and account for spatial structures in community variation. Mean Ellenberg indicator values calculated for each subplot were used for ecological interpretation of spatially structured residual variation. The amount of variation explained by environmental and spatial models as well as the selection of variables with the best explanatory power differed among sites. As an important environmental factor, relative elevation was common to all three sites, while pH and canopy openness were shared by two sites. Both environmental and community variation was mostly coarse-scaled, as was the spatially structured portion of residual variation. When corrected for bias due to spatial autocorrelation, those environmental factors with already weak explanatory power lost their significance. Only a weak evidence of possibly omitted environmental predictor was found for autocorrelated residuals of site models using mean Ellenberg indicator values. Community structure was determined by different factors at different sites. The relative importance of environmental filtering vs. spatial processes was also site specific, implying that results of fine-scale studies tend to be shaped by local conditions. Contrary to expectations based on other studies, overall dominance of spatial processes at fine scale has not been detected. Ecologists should keep this in mind when making generalizations about community dynamics.

Microbial Activity Response to Solar Radiation across Contrasting Environmental Conditions in Salar de Huasco, Northern Chilean Altiplano.

PubMed

Hernández, Klaudia L; Yannicelli, Beatriz; Olsen, Lasse M; Dorador, Cristina; Menschel, Eduardo J; Molina, Verónica; Remonsellez, Francisco; Hengst, Martha B; Jeffrey, Wade H

2016-01-01

In high altitude environments, extreme levels of solar radiation and important differences of ionic concentrations over narrow spatial scales may modulate microbial activity. In Salar de Huasco, a high-altitude wetland in the Andean mountains, the high diversity of microbial communities has been characterized and associated with strong environmental variability. Communities that differed in light history and environmental conditions, such as nutrient concentrations and salinity from different spatial locations, were assessed for bacterial secondary production (BSP, 3 H-leucine incorporation) response from short-term exposures to solar radiation. We sampled during austral spring seven stations categorized as: (a) source stations, with recently emerged groundwater (no-previous solar exposure); (b) stream running water stations; (c) stations connected to source waters but far downstream from source points; and (d) isolated ponds disconnected from ground sources or streams with a longer isolation and solar exposure history. Very high values of 0.25 μE m -2 s -1 , 72 W m -2 and 12 W m -2 were measured for PAR, UVA, and UVB incident solar radiation, respectively. The environmental factors measured formed two groups of stations reflected by principal component analyses (near to groundwater sources and isolated systems) where isolated ponds had the highest BSP and microbial abundance (35 microalgae taxa, picoeukaryotes, nanoflagellates, and bacteria) plus higher salinities and PO 4 3- concentrations. BSP short-term response (4 h) to solar radiation was measured by 3 H-leucine incorporation under four different solar conditions: full sun, no UVB, PAR, and dark. Microbial communities established in waters with the longest surface exposure (e.g., isolated ponds) had the lowest BSP response to solar radiation treatments, and thus were likely best adapted to solar radiation exposure contrary to ground source waters. These results support our light history (solar exposure) hypothesis where the more isolated the community is from ground water sources, the better adapted it is to solar radiation. We suggest that factors other than solar radiation (e.g., salinity, PO 4 3- , NO 3 - ) are also important in determining microbial productivity in heterogeneous environments such as the Salar de Huasco.

Microbial Activity Response to Solar Radiation across Contrasting Environmental Conditions in Salar de Huasco, Northern Chilean Altiplano

PubMed Central

Hernández, Klaudia L.; Yannicelli, Beatriz; Olsen, Lasse M.; Dorador, Cristina; Menschel, Eduardo J.; Molina, Verónica; Remonsellez, Francisco; Hengst, Martha B.; Jeffrey, Wade H.

2016-01-01

In high altitude environments, extreme levels of solar radiation and important differences of ionic concentrations over narrow spatial scales may modulate microbial activity. In Salar de Huasco, a high-altitude wetland in the Andean mountains, the high diversity of microbial communities has been characterized and associated with strong environmental variability. Communities that differed in light history and environmental conditions, such as nutrient concentrations and salinity from different spatial locations, were assessed for bacterial secondary production (BSP, 3H-leucine incorporation) response from short-term exposures to solar radiation. We sampled during austral spring seven stations categorized as: (a) source stations, with recently emerged groundwater (no-previous solar exposure); (b) stream running water stations; (c) stations connected to source waters but far downstream from source points; and (d) isolated ponds disconnected from ground sources or streams with a longer isolation and solar exposure history. Very high values of 0.25 μE m-2 s-1, 72 W m-2 and 12 W m-2 were measured for PAR, UVA, and UVB incident solar radiation, respectively. The environmental factors measured formed two groups of stations reflected by principal component analyses (near to groundwater sources and isolated systems) where isolated ponds had the highest BSP and microbial abundance (35 microalgae taxa, picoeukaryotes, nanoflagellates, and bacteria) plus higher salinities and PO43- concentrations. BSP short-term response (4 h) to solar radiation was measured by 3H-leucine incorporation under four different solar conditions: full sun, no UVB, PAR, and dark. Microbial communities established in waters with the longest surface exposure (e.g., isolated ponds) had the lowest BSP response to solar radiation treatments, and thus were likely best adapted to solar radiation exposure contrary to ground source waters. These results support our light history (solar exposure) hypothesis where the more isolated the community is from ground water sources, the better adapted it is to solar radiation. We suggest that factors other than solar radiation (e.g., salinity, PO43-, NO3-) are also important in determining microbial productivity in heterogeneous environments such as the Salar de Huasco. PMID:27920763

Characterizing the distribution of an endangered salmonid using environmental DNA analysis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Laramie, Matthew B.; Pilliod, David S.; Goldberg, Caren S.

2015-01-01

Determining species distributions accurately is crucial to developing conservation and management strategies for imperiled species, but a challenging task for small populations. We evaluated the efficacy of environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis for improving detection and thus potentially refining the known distribution of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Methow and Okanogan Subbasins of the Upper Columbia River, which span the border between Washington, USA and British Columbia, Canada. We developed an assay to target a 90 base pair sequence of Chinook DNA and used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to quantify the amount of Chinook eDNA in triplicate 1-L water samples collected at 48 stream locations in June and again in August 2012. The overall probability of detecting Chinook with our eDNA method in areas within the known distribution was 0.77 (±0.05 SE). Detection probability was lower in June (0.62, ±0.08 SE) during high flows and at the beginning of spring Chinook migration than during base flows in August (0.93, ±0.04 SE). In the Methow subbasin, mean eDNA concentration was higher in August compared to June, especially in smaller tributaries, probably resulting from the arrival of spring Chinook adults, reduced discharge, or both. Chinook eDNA concentrations did not appear to change in the Okanogan subbasin from June to August. Contrary to our expectations about downstream eDNA accumulation, Chinook eDNA did not decrease in concentration in upstream reaches (0–120 km). Further examination of factors influencing spatial distribution of eDNA in lotic systems may allow for greater inference of local population densities along stream networks or watersheds. These results demonstrate the potential effectiveness of eDNA detection methods for determining landscape-level distribution of anadromous salmonids in large river systems.

Morphological variation of freshwater crabs Zilchiopsis collastinensis and Trichodactylus borellianus (Decapoda, Trichodactylidae) among localities from the middle Paraná River basin during different hydrological periods

PubMed Central

Torres, María Victoria; Collins, Pablo Agustín; Giri, Federico

2014-01-01

Abstract Measures of hydrologic connectivity have been used extensively to describe spatial connections in riverine landscapes. Hydrologic fluctuations constitute an important macrofactor that regulates other environmental variables and can explain the distribution and abundance of organisms. We analysed morphological variations among individuals of two freshwater crab species, Zilchiopsis collastinensis and Trichodactylus borellianus, from localities of the middle Paraná River basin during two phases of the local hydrological regime. Specimens were sampled at sites (localities) of Paraná River, Saladillo Stream, Salado River and Coronda River when water levels were falling and rising. The conductivity, pH, temperature and geographical coordinates were recorded at each site. The dorsal cephalothorax of each crab was represented using 16 landmarks for Zilchiopsis collastinensis and 14 landmarks for Trichodactylus borellianus. The Canonical Variate Analyses showed differences in shape (for both species) among the crabs collected from the Paraná and Salado Rivers during the two hydrologic phases. We did not find a general distribution pattern for shape among the crab localities. During falling water, the shapes of Zilchiopsis collastinensis were not related to latitude-longitude gradient (i.e., showing greater overlap in shape), while during rising water the shapes were ordered along a distributional gradient according to geographical location. Contrary, shapes of Trichodactylus borellianus were related to latitude-longitude during falling water and were not related to distributional gradient during rising water. The cephalothorax shape showed, in general, no statistically significant covariations with environmental variables for either species. These results show that each freshwater crab species, from different localities of the middle Paraná River, remain connected; however, these connections change throughout the hydrologic regime of the floodplain system. This study was useful for delineating how the relation among shapes of crabs of localities varies during two phases of the hydrological regime and for estimating the connections and geographical patterns in the floodplain system. PMID:25561836

Environmental variability facilitates coexistence within an alcid community at sea

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haney, J. Christopher; Schauer, Amy E.S.

1994-01-01

We examined coexistence at sea among 7 taxa of diving, wing-propelled seabirds (Alcidae) in the genera Aethia, Uria, Cepphus, and Fratercula. Species abundances were measured simultaneously with a suite of environmental factors in the northern Bering Sea, Alaska, USA; data from 260 adjacent and non-adjacent sites occupied by alcids foraging offshore near breeding colonies were then subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). We used PCA to group redundant environmental descriptors, to identify orthogonal axes for constructing a multi-dimensional niche, and to differentiate species associations within niche dimensions from species associations among niche dimensions. Decomposition of the correlation matrix for 22 environmental and 7 taxonomic variables with PCA gave 14 components (10 environmental and 4 species interactions) that retained 90% of the original available variance. Alcid abundances (all species) were most strongly correlated with axes representing tidal stage, a time-area interaction (due to sampling layout), water masses, and a temporal or intra-seasonal trend partially associated with weather changes. Axes representing tidal stage, 2 gradients in macro-habitat (Anadyr and Bering Shelf Water masses), the micro-habitat of the sea surface, and an air-sea interaction were most important for detecting differences among species within niche dimensions. Contrary to assumptions of competition, none of 4 compound variables describing primarily species-interactions gave strong evidence for negative associations between alcid taxa sharing similar body sizes and feeding requirements. This exploratory analysis supports the view that alcids may segregate along environmental gradients at sea. But in this community, segregation was unrelated to foraging distance from colonies, in part because foraging 'substrate' was highly variable in structure, location, and area1 extent. We contend that coexistence within this seabird group is facilitated via expanded niche dimensions created from a complex marine environment.

Associations and dynamics of Vibrionaceae in the environment, from the genus to the population level

PubMed Central

Takemura, Alison F.; Chien, Diana M.; Polz, Martin F.

2013-01-01

The Vibrionaceae, which encompasses several potential pathogens, including V. cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, and V. vulnificus, the deadliest seafood-borne pathogen, are a well-studied family of marine bacteria that thrive in diverse habitats. To elucidate the environmental conditions under which vibrios proliferate, numerous studies have examined correlations with bulk environmental variables—e.g., temperature, salinity, nitrogen, and phosphate—and association with potential host organisms. However, how meaningful these environmental associations are remains unclear because data are fragmented across studies with variable sampling and analysis methods. Here, we synthesize findings about Vibrio correlations and physical associations using a framework of increasingly fine environmental and taxonomic scales, to better understand their dynamics in the wild. We first conduct a meta-analysis to determine trends with respect to bulk water environmental variables, and find that while temperature and salinity are generally strongly predictive correlates, other parameters are inconsistent and overall patterns depend on taxonomic resolution. Based on the hypothesis that dynamics may better correlate with more narrowly defined niches, we review evidence for specific association with plants, algae, zooplankton, and animals. We find that Vibrio are attached to many organisms, though evidence for enrichment compared to the water column is often lacking. Additionally, contrary to the notion that they flourish predominantly while attached, Vibrio can have, at least temporarily, a free-living lifestyle and even engage in massive blooms. Fine-scale sampling from the water column has enabled identification of such lifestyle preferences for ecologically cohesive populations, and future efforts will benefit from similar analysis at fine genetic and environmental sampling scales to describe the conditions, habitats, and resources shaping Vibrio dynamics. PMID:24575082

Omental transplantation for neurodegenerative diseases.

PubMed

Rafael, Hernando

2014-01-01

Up to date, almost all researchers consider that there is still no effective therapy for neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and therefore, these diseases are incurable. However, since May 1998, we know that a progressive ischemia in the medial temporal lobes and subcommissural regions can cause Alzheimer's disease; because, in contrast to this, its revascularization by means of omental tissue can cure or improve this disease. Likewise we observed that the aging process, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; all of them are of ischemic origin caused by cerebral atherosclerosis, associated with vascular anomalies and/or environmental chemicals. On the contrary, an omental transplantation on the affected zone can stop and improve these diseases. For these reasons, I believe that NDDs, are wrongly classified as neurodegenerative disorders.

Unorganized Cognitive Structures of Illiterate as the Key Factor in Rural E-Learning Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katre, Dinesh S.

2006-01-01

Cognitive Structures and Linguistic Sequential Memory or Memory of Serial Order are not very well developed among illiterate people contrary to educated people. It affects the comprehension of abstract ideas and the usability of the system. Therefore the cognitive limitations of illiterate must be considered for instructional design and user…

YRE: A Break from Tradition That Makes Educational and Economic Sense!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brekke, Norman R.

No other innovation in education in the United States has as much potential for improving education and reducing costs as the year-round operation of schools. Contrary to popular perception, the 9-month school calendar is not deeply imbedded in America's education system; throughout American history, the school calendar has responded to the…

[Agent liability: a law in flux].

PubMed

Hardy, J

2000-02-01

This communication aims to show the impact of the recent reform of the French sanitary organization, and of the evolutions of the French law of liability. Contrary to what it seems, the important reform of the safety system has less immediate consequences than the change in laws on the way in which transfusion professionals perceive their juridical situation.

Factors affecting the productivity of urban parks

Treesearch

Thomas A. More; Thomas A. More

1990-01-01

The park system of two Massachusetts cities-Holyoke (pop. 44,819) and Fitchburg (pop. 39,332)-produced an estimated 605,608 visitor-hours of use during the summer of 1979. The average park produced 7,877 visitor-hours in Holyoke and 9,624 in Fitchburg, though use varied widely. Contrary to original expectations, neighborhood characteristics had little influence on use...

77 FR 26029 - Privacy Act of 1974; Notice of a New System of Records, Department of Housing and Urban...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-02

... are received during or before this period which would result in a contrary determination. Comments Due... participation, other change of unit, Family Self Sufficiency/Welfare-to-Work (FSS/WTW) addendum only, annual... initial, date of birth, age on effective date of action, sex, relationship to head of household...

Mixing-induced quantum non-Markovianity and information flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Breuer, Heinz-Peter; Amato, Giulio; Vacchini, Bassano

2018-04-01

Mixing dynamical maps describing open quantum systems can lead from Markovian to non-Markovian processes. Being surprising and counter-intuitive, this result has been used as argument against characterization of non-Markovianity in terms of information exchange. Here, we demonstrate that, quite the contrary, mixing can be understood in a natural way which is fully consistent with existing theories of memory effects. In particular, we show how mixing-induced non-Markovianity can be interpreted in terms of the distinguishability of quantum states, system-environment correlations and the information flow between system and environment.

Multi-scale sustainability assessments for biomass-based and coal-based fuels in China.

PubMed

Man, Yi; Xiao, Honghua; Cai, Wei; Yang, Siyu

2017-12-01

Transportation liquid fuels production is heavily depend on oil. In recent years, developing biomass based and coal based fuels are regarded as promising alternatives for non-petroleum based fuels in China. With the rapid growth of constructing and planning b biomass based and coal based fuels production projects, sustainability assessments are needed to simultaneously consider the resource, the economic, and the environmental factors. This paper performs multi-scale analyses on the biomass based and coal based fuels in China. The production cost, life cycle cost, and ecological life cycle cost (ELCC) of these synfuels are investigated to compare their pros to cons and reveal the sustainability. The results show that BTL fuels has high production cost. It lacks of economic attractiveness. However, insignificant resource cost and environmental cost lead to a substantially lower ELCC, which may indicate better ecological sustainability. CTL fuels, on the contrary, is lower in production cost and reliable for economic benefit. But its coal consumption and pollutant emissions are both serious, leading to overwhelming resource cost and environmental cost. A shifting from petroleum to CTL fuels could double the ELCC, posing great threat to the sustainability of the entire fuels industry. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

ANALYSIS OF BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC FACTORS INFLUENCING THE OCCURRENCE OF WEST NILE VIRUS INFECTION IN TUNISIA.

PubMed

Ben Hassine, Th; Calistri, P; Ippoliti, C; Conte, A; Danzetta, M L; Bruno, R; Lelli, R; Bejaoui, M; Hammami, S

2014-01-01

Eco-climatic conditions are often associated with the occurrence of West Nile Disease (WND) cases. Among the complex set of biotic and abiotic factors influencing the emergence and spread of this vector-borne disease, two main variables have been considered to have a great influence on the probability of West Nile Virus (WNV) introduction and circulation in Tunisia: the presence of susceptible bird populations and the existence of geographical areas where the environmental and climatic conditions are more favourable to mosquito multiplications. The aim of this study was to identify and classify the climatic and environmental variables possibly associated with the occurrence of WNVhuman cases in Tunisia. The following environmental and climatic variables have been considered: wetlands and humid areas, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), temperatures and elevation. A preliminary analysis for the characterization of main variables associated with areas with a history of WNV human cases in Tunisia between 1997 and 2011 has been made. This preliminary analysis clearly indicates the closeness to marshes ecosystem, where migratory bird populations are located, as an important risk factor for WNV infection. On the contrary the temperature absolute seems to be not a significant factor in Tunisian epidemiological situation. In relation to NDVI values, more complex considerations should be made.

What drives the distribution of the bloom-forming cyanobacteria Planktothrix agardhii and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii?

PubMed

Bonilla, Sylvia; Aubriot, Luis; Soares, Maria Carolina S; González-Piana, Mauricio; Fabre, Amelia; Huszar, Vera L M; Lürling, Miquel; Antoniades, Dermot; Padisák, Judit; Kruk, Carla

2012-03-01

The cyanobacteria Planktothrix agardhii and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii are bloom-forming species common in eutrophic freshwaters. These filamentous species share certain physiological traits which imply that they might flourish under similar environmental conditions. We compared the distribution of the two species in a large database (940 samples) covering different climatic regions and the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and carried out laboratory experiments to compare their morphological and physiological responses. The environmental ranges of the two species overlapped with respect to temperature, light and total phosphorus (TP); however, they responded differently to environmental gradients; C. raciborskii biovolume changed gradually while P. agardhii shifted sharply from being highly dominated to a rare component of the phytoplankton. As expected, P. agardhii dominates the phytoplankton with high TP and low light availability conditions. Contrary to predictions, C. raciborskii succeeded in all climates and at temperatures as low as 11 °C. Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii had higher phenotypic plasticity than P. agardhii in terms of pigments, individual size and growth rates. We conclude that the phenotypic plasticity of C. raciborskii could explain its ongoing expansion to temperate latitudes and suggest its future predominance under predicted climate-change scenarios. © 2011 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fish species introductions provide novel insights into the patterns and drivers of phylogenetic structure in freshwaters

PubMed Central

Strecker, Angela L.; Olden, Julian D.

2014-01-01

Despite long-standing interest of terrestrial ecologists, freshwater ecosystems are a fertile, yet unappreciated, testing ground for applying community phylogenetics to uncover mechanisms of species assembly. We quantify phylogenetic clustering and overdispersion of native and non-native fishes of a large river basin in the American Southwest to test for the mechanisms (environmental filtering versus competitive exclusion) and spatial scales influencing community structure. Contrary to expectations, non-native species were phylogenetically clustered and related to natural environmental conditions, whereas native species were not phylogenetically structured, likely reflecting human-related changes to the basin. The species that are most invasive (in terms of ecological impacts) tended to be the most phylogenetically divergent from natives across watersheds, but not within watersheds, supporting the hypothesis that Darwin's naturalization conundrum is driven by the spatial scale. Phylogenetic distinctiveness may facilitate non-native establishment at regional scales, but environmental filtering restricts local membership to closely related species with physiological tolerances for current environments. By contrast, native species may have been phylogenetically clustered in historical times, but species loss from contemporary populations by anthropogenic activities has likely shaped the phylogenetic signal. Our study implies that fundamental mechanisms of community assembly have changed, with fundamental consequences for the biogeography of both native and non-native species. PMID:24452027

Efficacy of species-specific recA PCR tests in the identification of Burkholderia cepacia complex environmental isolates.

PubMed

Dalmastri, Claudia; Pirone, Luisa; Tabacchioni, Silvia; Bevivino, Annamaria; Chiarini, Luigi

2005-05-01

In this study, we evaluated if recA species-specific PCR assays could be successfully applied to identify environmental isolates of the widespread Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) species. A total of 729 Bcc rhizosphere isolates collected in different samplings were assigned to the species B. cepacia genomovar I (61), B. cenocepacia recA lineage IIIB (514), B. ambifaria (124) and B. pyrrocinia (30), by means of recA (RFLP) analysis, and PCR tests were performed to assess sensitivity and specificity of recA species-specific primers pairs. B. cepacia genomovar I specific primers produced the expected amplicon with all isolates of the corresponding species (sensitivity, 100%), and cross-reacted with all B. pyrrocinia isolates. On the contrary, B. cenocepacia IIIB primers did not give the expected amplicon in 164 B. cenocepacia IIIB isolates (sensitivity, 68.1%), and isolates of distinct populations showed different sensitivity. B. ambifaria primers failed to amplify a recA-specific fragment only in a few isolates of this species (sensitivity, 93.5%). The absence of specific amplification in a high number of B. cenocepacia rhizosphere isolates indicates that recA specific PCR assays can lead to an underestimation of environmental microorganisms belonging to this bacterial species.

Conditions for addressing environmental determinants of health behavior in intersectoral policy networks: A fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis.

PubMed

Peters, D T J M; Verweij, S; Grêaux, K; Stronks, K; Harting, J

2017-12-01

Improving health requires changes in the social, physical, economic and political determinants of health behavior. For the realization of policies that address these environmental determinants, intersectoral policy networks are considered necessary for the pooling of resources to implement different policy instruments. However, such network diversity may increase network complexity and therefore hamper network performance. Network complexity may be reduced by network management and the provision of financial resources. This study examined whether network diversity - amidst the other conditions - is indeed needed to address environmental determinants of health behavior. We included 25 intersectoral policy networks in Dutch municipalities aimed at reducing overweight, smoking, and alcohol/drugs abuse. For our fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis we used data from three web-based surveys among (a) project leaders regarding network diversity and size (n = 38); (b) project leaders and project partners regarding management (n = 278); and (c) implementation professionals regarding types of environmental determinants addressed (n = 137). Data on budgets were retrieved from project application forms. Contrary to their intentions, most policy networks typically addressed personal determinants. If the environment was addressed too, it was mostly the social environment. To address environmental determinants of health behavior, network diversity (>50% of the actors are non-public health) was necessary in networks that were either small (<16 actors) or had small budgets (<€183,172), when both were intensively managed. Irrespective of network diversity, environmental determinants also were addressed by small networks with large budgets, and by large networks with small budgets, when both provided network management. We conclude that network diversity is important - although not necessary - for resource pooling to address environmental determinants of health behavior, but only effective in the presence of network management. Our findings may support intersectoral policy networks in improving health behaviors by addressing a variety of environmental determinants. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Ultrasound-assisted oxidative desulfurization and denitrogenation of liquid hydrocarbon fuels: A critical review.

PubMed

Ja'fari, Mahsa; Ebrahimi, Seyedeh Leila; Khosravi-Nikou, Mohammad Reza

2018-01-01

Nowadays, a continuously worldwide concern for development of process to produce ultra-low sulfur and nitrogen fuels have been emerged. Typical hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation technology deals with important difficulties such as high pressure and temperature operating condition, failure to treat some recalcitrant compounds and limitations to meet the stringent environmental regulations. In contrary an advanced oxidation process that is ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization and denitrogenation satisfies latest environmental regulations in much milder conditions with more efficiency. The present work deals with a comprehensive review on findings and development in the ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization and denitrogenation (UAOD) during the last decades. The role of individual parameters namely temperature, residence time, ultrasound power and frequency, pH, initial concentration and types of sulfur and nitrogen compounds on the efficiency are described. What's more another treatment properties that is role of phase transfer agent (PTA) and solvents of extraction step, reaction kinetics, mechanism of the ultrasound, fuel properties and recovery in UAOD are reviewed. Finally, the required future works to mature this technology are suggested. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Alkaloid diversity in the leaves of Australian Flindersia (Rutaceae) species driven by adaptation to aridity.

PubMed

Robertson, Luke P; Hall, Casey R; Forster, Paul I; Carroll, Anthony R

2018-05-04

The genus Flindersia (Rutaceae) comprises 17 species of mostly Australian endemic trees. Although most species are restricted to rainforests, four have evolved to grow in semi-arid and arid environments. In this study, the leaf alkaloid diversity of rainforest and semi-arid/arid zone adapted Australian Flindersia were compared by LC/MS-MS and NMR spectroscopy. Contrary to expectations, Flindersia alkaloid diversity was strongly correlated with environmental aridity, where species predominating in drier regions produced more alkaloids than their wet rainforest congenerics. Rainforest species were also more chemically similar to each other than were the four semi-arid/arid zone species. There was a significant relationship between the presence of alkaloid structural classes and phylogenetic distance, suggesting that alkaloid profiles are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. The results suggest that the radiation of Flindersia species out of the rainforest and into drier environments has promoted the evolution of unique alkaloid diversity. Plants growing in arid and semi-arid regions of Australia may represent an untapped source of undescribed specialised metabolites. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Factors associated with remission of eczema in children: a population-based follow-up study.

PubMed

von Kobyletzki, Laura B; Bornehag, Carl-Gustaf; Breeze, Elizabeth; Larsson, Malin; Lindström, Cecilia Boman; Svensson, Åke

2014-03-01

The aim of this study was to analyse factors associated with remission of atopic dermatitis (AD) in childhood. A population-based AD cohort of 894 children aged 1-3 years from a cross-sectional baseline study in 2000 was followed up in 2005. The association between remission, background, health, lifestyle, and environmental variables was estimated with crude and multivariable logistic regression. At follow-up, 52% of the children had remission. Independent factors at baseline predicting remission were: milder eczema (adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 1.43; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.16-1.77); later onset of eczema (aOR 1.40; 95% CI 1.08-1.80); non-flexural eczema (aOR 2.57; 95% CI 1.62-4.09); no food allergy (aOR 1.51; 95% CI 1.11-2.04), and rural living (aOR 1.48; 95% CI 1.07-2.05). Certain aspects of AD and rural living were important for remission, but despite the initial hypotheses to the contrary, the environmental factors examined in this paper were not substantial predictors of remission.

Fall field crickets did not acclimate to simulated seasonal changes in temperature.

PubMed

Niehaus, Amanda C; Wilson, Robbie S; Storm, Jonathan J; Angilletta, Michael J

2012-02-01

In nature, many organisms alter their developmental trajectory in response to environmental variation. However, studies of thermal acclimation have historically involved stable, unrealistic thermal treatments. In our study, we incorporated ecologically relevant treatments to examine the effects of environmental stochasticity on the thermal acclimation of the fall field cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus). We raised crickets for 5 weeks at either a constant temperature (25°C) or at one of three thermal regimes mimicking a seasonal decline in temperature (from 25 to 12°C). The latter three treatments differed in their level of thermal stochasticity: crickets experienced either no diel cycle, a predictable diel cycle, or an unpredictable diel cycle. Following these treatments, we measured several traits considered relevant to survival or reproduction, including growth rate, jumping velocity, feeding rate, metabolic rate, and cold tolerance. Contrary to our predictions, the acclimatory responses of crickets were unrelated to the magnitude or type of thermal variation. Furthermore, acclimation of performance was not ubiquitous among traits. We recommend additional studies of acclimation in fluctuating environments to assess the generality of these findings.

[Influence of Submerged Plants on Microbial Community Structure in Sediment of Hongze Lake].

PubMed

Zhang, Ding-yu; Zhang, Ting-xi; Dong, Dan-ping; Li, De-fang; Wang, Guo-xiang

2016-05-15

Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) method was applied to analyze the influence of submerged plants on sediment microbial community structure, in order to investigate the changes of sediment microbial community structure for different kinds of the submerged plants in different growth periods. Particularly, Potamogeton crispus L., Potamogeton pectinatus L and the mixed group were chosen as the typical submerged plants in Hongze Lake for investigation in this paper. The results indicated that the change of total PLFAs in different periods was significant, on the contrary, the PLFA change for different groups in the same period was insignificant. The values of G⁺ PLFA/G⁻ PLFA in the submerged plant group were also highly related to the different growth periods, which demonstrated that the root function of the submerged plant had a severe impact on the microbial community in sediment. Furthermore, some environmental factors, such as Temperature, pH, TOC and DO, were correlated to characteristic phospholipid of PLFAs in sediment, which means the environmental factors could also affect the microbial community structure.

Investigating yellow dung fly body size evolution in the field: Response to climate change?

PubMed

Blanckenhorn, Wolf U

2015-08-01

Uncovering genetic responses to selection in wild populations typically requires tracking individuals over generations and use of animal models. Our group monitored the body size of one Swiss Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria; Diptera: Scathophagidae) field population over 15 years, including intermittent common-garden rearing in the laboratory to assess body size with minimized environmental and maximized genetic variation. Contrary to expectations based on repeated heritability and phenotypic selection assessments over the years (reported elsewhere), field body sizes declined by >10% and common-garden laboratory sizes by >5% from 1993 to 2009. Our results confirm the temperature-size rule (smaller when warmer) and, albeit entirely correlational, could be mediated by climate change, as over this period mean temperature at the site increased by 0.5°C, although alternative systematic environmental changes cannot be entirely excluded. Monitoring genetic responses to selection in wild invertebrate populations is thus possible, though indirect, and wild populations may evolve in directions not consistent with strongly positive directional selection favoring large body size. © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution © 2015 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Quantum Speed Limits across the Quantum-to-Classical Transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shanahan, B.; Chenu, A.; Margolus, N.; del Campo, A.

2018-02-01

Quantum speed limits set an upper bound to the rate at which a quantum system can evolve. Adopting a phase-space approach, we explore quantum speed limits across the quantum-to-classical transition and identify equivalent bounds in the classical world. As a result, and contrary to common belief, we show that speed limits exist for both quantum and classical systems. As in the quantum domain, classical speed limits are set by a given norm of the generator of time evolution.

An assessment of residential exposure to environmental noise at a shipping port.

PubMed

Murphy, Enda; King, Eoin A

2014-02-01

The World Health Organisation has recently acknowledged that contrary to the trend for other environmental stressors, noise exposure is increasing in Europe. However, little research has been conducted on environmental noise exposure to handling activity at shipping ports. This paper reports on research examining the extent of noise exposure for residents within the vicinity of Dublin Port, Ireland using the nation's largest port terminal as a proxy for port noise. In order to assess the level of exposure in the area, long-term measurements were undertaken at the most exposed residential façade for a period of 45days to determine the extent of night-time exposure that was above levels recommended by the World Health Organisation. The indicators L90, Leq and LMax were used to determine exposure levels. The results show that exposure is above night-time guideline limits set down by the WHO, above Irish levels for the assessment of noise mitigation and highlight the extent to which port noise can be a significant environmental stressor. The research also investigated the extent of low-frequency noise (which is associated with greater health issues) from night-time port handling activity and found a significant low-frequency component indicating the negative health issues that might arise from port noise exposure more generally. We also undertook semi-structured interviews with residents to qualitatively assess the self-reported impact of prolonged night-time noise exposure for local residents. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of environmental enrichment on the incubation of cocaine craving

PubMed Central

Chauvet, Claudia; Goldberg, Steven R.; Jaber, Mohamed; Solinas, Marcello

2012-01-01

Recent studies have demonstrated that exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) during withdrawal periods reduces the risks of relapse to drug-seeking behavior. In this study, we investigated whether EE could prevent the development of time-dependent increases in cocaine-seeking behavior (incubation of craving). In addition, we investigated whether EE could eliminate already developed incubation and whether the effects of EE would last when enrichment is discontinued. For this, we allowed rats to self-administer cocaine for 10 daily 6h sessions and measured cocaine seeking 1, 30 and 60 days after the last self-administration session. In between these tests, rats were kept in forced abstinence and housed either in EE or standard environments (SE). Between day 30 and 60 of withdrawal, half of the rats in each group were maintained in their original environmental condition and the other half was switched to the other environmental condition. We found that exposure to EE prevents development of incubation of cocaine craving and eliminates already developed incubation. In addition, contrary to our expectations, when EE was discontinued, its positive effects on incubation of craving disappeared. These results indicate that EE can reduce cocaine seeking but only temporarily and questions the hypothesis that EE can permanently eliminate the neural consequences of exposure to drugs of abuse. Therefore, stimulating environments could have positive effects on the treatment of cocaine addiction only if they are maintained for long periods of abstinence that encompass the time-frame during which addicts are most vulnerable to relapse. PMID:22634364

Delayed bet-hedging resilience strategies under environmental fluctuations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogura, Masaki; Wakaiki, Masashi; Rubin, Harvey; Preciado, Victor M.

2017-05-01

Many biological populations, such as bacterial colonies, have developed through evolution a protection mechanism, called bet hedging, to increase their probability of survival under stressful environmental fluctuation. In this context, the concept of preadaptation refers to a common type of bet-hedging protection strategy in which a relatively small number of individuals in a population stochastically switch their phenotypes to a dormant metabolic state in which they increase their probability of survival against potential environmental shocks. Hence, if an environmental shock took place at some point in time, preadapted organisms would be better adapted to survive and proliferate once the shock is over. In many biological populations, the mechanisms of preadaptation and proliferation present delays whose influence in the fitness of the population are not well understood. In this paper, we propose a rigorous mathematical framework to analyze the role of delays in both preadaptation and proliferation mechanisms in the survival of biological populations, with an emphasis on bacterial colonies. Our theoretical framework allows us to analytically quantify the average growth rate of a bet-hedging bacterial colony with stochastically delayed reactions with arbitrary precision. We verify the accuracy of the proposed method by numerical simulations and conclude that the growth rate of a bet-hedging population shows a nontrivial dependency on their preadaptation and proliferation delays. Contrary to the current belief, our results show that faster reactions do not, in general, increase the overall fitness of a biological population.

An Introduction to the Historical Development of Black English: Some Implications for American Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Orlando L.

In discussing the rich linguistic history of Afro-Americans, the author points out that black people had a linguistic system when they came to the New World and frequently had a knowledge of a form of English which had been influenced by Black Portuguese and West African languages. Despite many assertions to the contrary, Black English, "the…

75 FR 82061 - Notice To Amend an Existing System of Records; Privacy Act of 1974; as Amended

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-29

... amended, the Department of the Interior (DOI) is issuing public notice of its intent to amend the Bureau... would require a contrary determination. The DOI will publish a revised notice if changes are made based... primary uses of the records are: (1) To provide the BLM, the DOI or state, local and tribal governments...

Short-Run Prosocial Behavior in Response to Receiving Corrections and Affirmations in Three Therapeutic Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, Keith L.; Doogan, Nathan; De Leon, George; Phillips, Gary S.; Moody, James; Hodge, Ashleigh

2013-01-01

Therapeutic communities (TCs) have a strong record of maintaining high quality social climates in prison units. One possible reason for this is the system of mutual monitoring among TC residents, based on the assumption that peer affirmation of behavior in accord with TC norms, and peer correction of behavior contrary to TC norms, will lead to…

Fault-Tolerant Computing: An Overview

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-06-01

Addison Wesley:, Reading, MA) 1984. [8] J. Wakerly , Error Detecting Codes, Self-Checking Circuits and Applications , (Elsevier North Holland, Inc.- New York... applicable to bit-sliced organi- zations of hardware. In the first time step, the normal computation is performed on the operands and the results...for error detection and fault tolerance in parallel processor systems while perform- ing specific computation-intensive applications [111. Contrary to

Universals of Word Order in Esperanto. Lektos: Interdisciplinary Working Papers in Language Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

St. Clair, Robert N.

The contention that Esperanto is a natural linguistic system is discussed. Research is cited concerning universals of word order, dominant word order, polar type languages, Esperanto as a verb-subject-object language, and gapping in Esperanto. It is concluded that contrary to grammatical tradition, word order is not and cannot be completely free.…

Amnesic H.M. Exhibits Parallel Deficits and Sparing in Language and Memory: Systems versus Binding Theory Accounts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacKay, Donald G.; James, Lori E.; Taylor, Jennifer K.; Marian, Diane E.

2007-01-01

This study examines sentence-level language abilities of amnesic H.M. to test competing theoretical conceptions of relations between language and memory. We present 11 new sources of experimental evidence indicating deficits in H.M's comprehension and production of non-cliche sentences. Contrary to recent claims that H.M.'s comprehension is…

Catalytic oxidation of gaseous reduced sulfur compounds using coal fly ash.

PubMed

Kastner, James R; Das, K C; Melear, Nathan D

2002-11-11

Activated carbon has been shown to oxidize reduced sulfur compounds, but in many cases it is too costly for large-scale environmental remediation applications. Alternatively, we theorized that coal fly ash, given its high metal content and the presence of carbon could act as an inexpensive catalytic oxidizer of reduced sulfur compounds for "odor" removal. Initial results indicate that coal fly ash can catalyze the oxidization of H(2)S and ethanethiol, but not dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) at room temperature. In batch reactor systems, initial concentrations of 100-500 ppmv H(2)S or ethanethiol were reduced to 0-2 ppmv within 1-2 and 6-8 min, respectively. This was contrary to control systems without ash in which concentrations remained constant. Diethyl disulfide was formed from ethanethiol substantiating the claim that catalytic oxidation occurred. The presence of water increased the rate of adsorption/reaction of both H(2)S and ethanethiol for the room temperature reactions (23-25 degrees C). Additionally, in a continuous flow packed bed reactor, a gaseous stream containing an inlet H(2)S concentration of 400-500 ppmv was reduced to 200 ppmv at a 4.6s residence time. The removal efficiency remained at 50% for approximately 4.6h or 3500 reactor volumes. These results demonstrate the potential of using coal fly ash in reactors for removal of H(2)S and other reduced sulfur compounds.

Reducing phosphorus loss in tile water with managed drainage in a claypan soil.

PubMed

Nash, Patrick R; Nelson, Kelly A; Motavalli, Peter P; Nathan, Manjula; Dudenhoeffer, Chris

2015-03-01

Installing subsurface tile drain systems in poorly drained claypan soils to improve corn ( L.) yields could potentially increase environmental phosphorus (P) loss through the tile drainage system. The objectives of the study were to quantify the average concentration and loss of ortho-P in tile drain water from a claypan soil and to determine whether managed subsurface drainage (MD) could reduce ortho-P loss in tile water compared with free subsurface drainage (FD). Flow-weighted ortho-P concentration in the tile water was significantly lower with MD (0.09 mg L) compared with that of FD (0.15 mg L). Ortho-P loss in the tile water of this study was reduced with MD (36 g ha) by 80% compared with FD (180 g ha). Contrary to previous research, reduced ortho-P loss observed over the 4-yr study was not solely due to the reduced amount of water drained annually (63%) with MD compared with FD. During the spring period, when flow was similar between MD and FD, the concentration of ortho-P in the tile water generally was lower with MD compared with FD, which resulted in significantly less ortho-P loss with MD. We speculate that MD's ability to conserve water during the dry summer months increased corn's uptake of water and P, which reduced the amount of P available for leaching loss in the subsequent springs. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Quantum histories without contrary inferences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Losada, Marcelo; Laura, Roberto

2014-12-01

In the consistent histories formulation of quantum theory it was shown that it is possible to retrodict contrary properties. We show that this problem do not appear in our formalism of generalized contexts for quantum histories.

Water development for phosphate mining in a karst setting in Florida—a complex environmental problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lamoreaux, P. E.

1989-09-01

The State of Florida, U.S.A., passed legislation in the early 1970s and developed regulations applied to large withdrawals of groundwater. These regulations require strict adherence to defining the impact on surface water, shallow Surficial Aquifers, and the deeper aquifers within the Floridan Aquifer System. These regulations require the development of a Regional Impact Statement and a Consumptive Use Permit. To meet these requirements it is necessary to perform surface- and groundwater studies, extensive pumping tests and the collection of detailed monitoring and water quality data. These permits fall under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Environmental Regulations and are administrated under Regional Water Management districts, such as the Southwest Florida Management District. These regional district offices have a regulatory hearing board, hold public hearings that are properly advertized, and have support staffs of geologists, engineers, chemists, and biologists. The Florida Code involved required that, “The water crop, in the absence of data to the contrary, is 1,000 gallons per day per acre.” A “5—3—1 Criteria” also applies that requires that a determination be made to show that there will not be more than a 5 foot average decline in water level in the Floridan Aquifer at the boundary of a property to be developed, not more than a 3-foot decline in the Surficial Aquifer at the boundary, and no more than a 1-foot decline in the nearest water body (pond, lake, etc.). In addition, surface-water flow in streams of the area must not be decreased more than 5 percent unless a variance to the rule is obtained. The hydrogeological work required to meet these regulations is described in the following report.

Reprint of "Fast and sensitive in vivo studies under controlled environmental conditions to substitute long-term field trials with genetically modified plants".

PubMed

Horn, Patricia; Schlichting, André; Baum, Christel; Hammesfahr, Ute; Thiele-Bruhn, Sören; Leinweber, Peter; Broer, Inge

2017-09-10

We introduce an easy, fast and effective method to analyze the influence of genetically modified (GM) plants on soil and model organisms in the laboratory to substitute laborious and time consuming field trials. For the studies described here we focused on two GM plants of the so-called 3rd generation: GM plants producing pharmaceuticals (PMP) and plant made industrials (PMI). Cyanophycin synthetase (cphA) was chosen as model for PMI and Choleratoxin B (CTB) as model for PMP. The model genes are expressed in transgenic roots of composite Vicia hirsuta plants grown in petri dishes for semi-sterile growth or small containers filled with non-sterile soil. No significant influence of the model gene expression on root induction, growth, biomass, interaction with symbionts such as rhizobia (number, size and functionality of nodules, selection of nodulating strains) or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could be detected. In vitro, but not in situ under field conditions, structural diversity of the bulk soil microbial community between transgenic and non-transgenic cultivars was determined by PLFA pattern-derived ratios of bacteria: fungi and of gram + : gram - bacteria. Significant differences in PLFA ratios were associated with dissimilarities in the quantity and molecular composition of rhizodeposits as revealed by Py-FIMS analyses. Contrary to field trials, where small effects based on the transgene expression might be hidden by the immense influence of various environmental factors, our in vitro system can detect even minor effects and correlates them to transgene expression with less space, time and labour. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Virulence and Specific Variations in Trace Elements during Acute Lung Infection: Implications in Cystic Fibrosis

PubMed Central

Crocetta, Valentina; Consalvo, Ada; Zappacosta, Roberta; Di Ilio, Carmine; Di Bonaventura, Giovanni

2014-01-01

Metal ions are necessary for the proper functioning of the immune system, and, therefore, they might have a significant influence on the interaction between bacteria and host. Ionic dyshomeostasis has been recently observed also in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, whose respiratory tract is frequently colonized by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. For the first time, here we used an inductively mass spectrometry method to perform a spatial and temporal analysis of the pattern of changes in a broad range of major trace elements in response to pulmonary infection by S. maltophilia. To this, DBA/2 mouse lungs were comparatively infected by a CF strain and by an environmental one. Our results showed that pulmonary ionomic profile was significantly affected during infection. Infected mice showed increased lung levels of Mg, P, S, K, Zn, Se, and Rb. To the contrary, Mn, Fe, Co, and Cu levels resulted significantly decreased. Changes of element concentrations were correlated with pulmonary bacterial load and markers of inflammation, and occurred mostly on day 3 post-exposure, when severity of infection culminated. Interestingly, CF strain – significantly more virulent than the environmental one in our murine model - provoked a more significant impact in perturbing pulmonary metal homeostasis. Particularly, exposure to CF strain exclusively increased P and K levels, while decreased Fe and Mn ones. Overall, our data clearly indicate that S. maltophilia modulates pulmonary metal balance in a concerted and virulence-dependent manner highlighting the potential role of the element dyshomeostasis during the progression of S. maltophilia infection, probably exacerbating the harmful effects of the loss of CF transmembrane conductance regulator function. Further investigations are required to understand the biological significance of these alterations and to confirm they are specifically caused by S. maltophilia. PMID:24586389

Effects of microcystin-LR, cylindrospermopsin and a microcystin-LR/cylindrospermopsin mixture on growth, oxidative stress and mineral content in lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa L.).

PubMed

Freitas, Marisa; Azevedo, Joana; Pinto, Edgar; Neves, Joana; Campos, Alexandre; Vasconcelos, Vitor

2015-06-01

Toxic cyanobacterial blooms are documented worldwide as an emerging environmental concern. Recent studies support the hypothesis that microcystin-LR (MC-LR) and cylindrospermopsin (CYN) produce toxic effects in crop plants. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is an important commercial leafy vegetable that supplies essential elements for human nutrition; thus, the study of its sensitivity to MC-LR, CYN and a MC-LR/CYN mixture is of major relevance. This study aimed to assess the effects of environmentally relevant concentrations (1, 10 and 100 µg/L) of MC-LR, CYN and a MC-LR/CYN mixture on growth, antioxidant defense system and mineral content in lettuce plants. In almost all treatments, an increase in root fresh weight was obtained; however, the fresh weight of leaves was significantly decreased in plants exposed to 100 µg/L concentrations of each toxin and the toxin mixture. Overall, GST activity was significantly increased in roots, contrary to GPx activity, which decreased in roots and leaves. The mineral content in lettuce leaves changed due to its exposure to cyanotoxins; in general, the mineral content decreased with MC-LR and increased with CYN, and apparently these effects are time and concentration-dependent. The effects of the MC-LR/CYN mixture were almost always similar to the single cyanotoxins, although MC-LR seems to be more toxic than CYN. Our results suggest that lettuce plants in non-early stages of development are able to cope with lower concentrations of MC-LR, CYN and the MC-LR/CYN mixture; however, higher concentrations (100 µg/L) can affect both lettuce yield and nutritional quality. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aggressive desert goby males also court more, independent of the physiological demands of salinity.

PubMed

Lehtonen, Topi K; Svensson, P Andreas; Wong, Bob B M

2018-06-19

Both between- and within-individual variation in behaviour can be important in determining mating opportunities and reproductive outcomes. Such behavioural variability can be induced by environmental conditions, especially if individuals vary in their tolerance levels or resource allocation patterns. We tested the effects of exposure to different salinity levels on male investment into two important components of mating success-intrasexual aggression and intersexual courtship-in a fish with a resource defence mating system, the desert goby, Chlamydogobius eremius. We found that males that were more aggressive to rivals also exhibited higher rates of courtship displays towards females. Contrary to predictions, this positive relationship, and the consistency of the two behaviours, were not affected by the salinity treatment, despite the physiological costs that high salinity imposes on the species. Moreover, over the entire data-set, there was only a marginally non-significant tendency for males to show higher levels of aggression and courtship in low, than high, salinity. The positive correlation between male aggression and courtship, independent of the physiological demands of the environment, suggests that males are not inclined to make contrasting resource investments into these two key reproductive behaviours. Instead, in this relatively euryhaline freshwater species, typical investment into current reproductive behaviours can occur under a range of different salinity conditions.

Age-Related Gene Expression Differences in Monocytes from Human Neonates, Young Adults, and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Tong, Ann-Jay; Kollmann, Tobias R.; Smale, Stephen T.

2015-01-01

A variety of age-related differences in the innate and adaptive immune systems have been proposed to contribute to the increased susceptibility to infection of human neonates and older adults. The emergence of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) provides an opportunity to obtain an unbiased, comprehensive, and quantitative view of gene expression differences in defined cell types from different age groups. An examination of ex vivo human monocyte responses to lipopolysaccharide stimulation or Listeria monocytogenes infection by RNA-seq revealed extensive similarities between neonates, young adults, and older adults, with an unexpectedly small number of genes exhibiting statistically significant age-dependent differences. By examining the differentially induced genes in the context of transcription factor binding motifs and RNA-seq data sets from mutant mouse strains, a previously described deficiency in interferon response factor-3 activity could be implicated in most of the differences between newborns and young adults. Contrary to these observations, older adults exhibited elevated expression of inflammatory genes at baseline, yet the responses following stimulation correlated more closely with those observed in younger adults. Notably, major differences in the expression of constitutively expressed genes were not observed, suggesting that the age-related differences are driven by environmental influences rather than cell-autonomous differences in monocyte development. PMID:26147648

Processes driving nocturnal transpiration and implications for estimating land evapotranspiration

PubMed Central

de Dios, Víctor Resco; Roy, Jacques; Ferrio, Juan Pedro; Alday, Josu G.; Landais, Damien; Milcu, Alexandru; Gessler, Arthur

2015-01-01

Evapotranspiration is a major component of the water cycle, yet only daytime transpiration is currently considered in Earth system and agricultural sciences. This contrasts with physiological studies where 25% or more of water losses have been reported to occur occurring overnight at leaf and plant scales. This gap probably arose from limitations in techniques to measure nocturnal water fluxes at ecosystem scales, a gap we bridge here by using lysimeters under controlled environmental conditions. The magnitude of the nocturnal water losses (12–23% of daytime water losses) in row-crop monocultures of bean (annual herb) and cotton (woody shrub) would be globally an order of magnitude higher than documented responses of global evapotranspiration to climate change (51–98 vs. 7–8 mm yr−1). Contrary to daytime responses and to conventional wisdom, nocturnal transpiration was not affected by previous radiation loads or carbon uptake, and showed a temporal pattern independent of vapour pressure deficit or temperature, because of endogenous controls on stomatal conductance via circadian regulation. Our results have important implications from large-scale ecosystem modelling to crop production: homeostatic water losses justify simple empirical predictive functions, and circadian controls show a fine-tune control that minimizes water loss while potentially increasing posterior carbon uptake. PMID:26074373

A structural coarse-grained model for clays using simple iterative Boltzmann inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaettle, Karl; Ruiz Pestana, Luis; Head-Gordon, Teresa; Lammers, Laura Nielsen

2018-06-01

Cesium-137 is a major byproduct of nuclear energy generation and is environmentally threatening due to its long half-life and affinity for naturally occurring micaceous clays. Recent experimental observations of illite and phlogopite mica indicate that Cs+ is capable of exchanging with K+ bound in the anhydrous interlayers of layered silicates, forming sharp exchange fronts, leading to interstratification of Cs- and K-illite. We present here a coarse-grained (CG) model of the anhydrous illite interlayer developed using iterative Boltzmann inversion that qualitatively and quantitatively reproduces features of a previously proposed feedback mechanism of ion exchange. The CG model represents a 70-fold speedup over all-atom models of clay systems and predicts interlayer expansion for K-illite near ion exchange fronts. Contrary to the longstanding theory that ion exchange in a neighboring layer increases the binding of K in lattice counterion sites leading to interstratification, we find that the presence of neighboring exchanged layers leads to short-range structural relaxations that increase basal spacing and decrease cohesion of the neighboring K-illite layers. We also provide evidence that the formation of alternating Cs- and K-illite interlayers (i.e., ordered interstratification) is both thermodynamically and mechanically favorable compared to exchange in adjacent interlayers.

Satellite assessment of increasing tree cover 1982-2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, X. P.; Hansen, M.

2017-12-01

The Earth's vegetation has undergone dramatic changes as we enter the Anthropocene. Recent studies have quantified global forest cover dynamics and resulting biogeochemical and biophysical impacts to the climate for the post-2000 time period. However, long-term gradual changes in undisturbed forests are less well quantified. We mapped annual tree cover using satellite data and quantified tree cover change during 1982-2016. The dataset was produced by combining optical observations from multiple satellite sensors, including the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and various very high spatial resolution sensors. Contrary to current understanding of forest area change, global tree cover increased by 7%. The overall net gain in tree cover is a result of net loss in the tropics overweighed by net gain in the subtropical, temperate and boreal zones. All mountain systems, regardless of climate domain, experienced increases in tree cover. Regional patterns of tree cover gain including eastern United States, eastern Europe and southern China, indicate profound influences of socioeconomic, political or land management changes in shaping long-term environmental change. Results provide the first comprehensive record of global tree cover dynamics over the past four decades and may be used to reduce uncertainties in the quantification of the global carbon cycle.

Environmental risk factors for autism: an evidence-based review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

PubMed

Modabbernia, Amirhossein; Velthorst, Eva; Reichenberg, Abraham

2017-01-01

According to recent evidence, up to 40-50% of variance in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) liability might be determined by environmental factors. In the present paper, we conducted a review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of environmental risk factors for ASD. We assessed each review for quality of evidence and provided a brief overview of putative mechanisms of environmental risk factors for ASD. Current evidence suggests that several environmental factors including vaccination, maternal smoking, thimerosal exposure, and most likely assisted reproductive technologies are unrelated to risk of ASD. On the contrary, advanced parental age is associated with higher risk of ASD. Birth complications that are associated with trauma or ischemia and hypoxia have also shown strong links to ASD, whereas other pregnancy-related factors such as maternal obesity, maternal diabetes, and caesarian section have shown a less strong (but significant) association with risk of ASD. The reviews on nutritional elements have been inconclusive about the detrimental effects of deficiency in folic acid and omega 3, but vitamin D seems to be deficient in patients with ASD. The studies on toxic elements have been largely limited by their design, but there is enough evidence for the association between some heavy metals (most important inorganic mercury and lead) and ASD that warrants further investigation. Mechanisms of the association between environmental factors and ASD are debated but might include non-causative association (including confounding), gene-related effect, oxidative stress, inflammation, hypoxia/ischemia, endocrine disruption, neurotransmitter alterations, and interference with signaling pathways. Compared to genetic studies of ASD, studies of environmental risk factors are in their infancy and have significant methodological limitations. Future studies of ASD risk factors would benefit from a developmental psychopathology approach, prospective design, precise exposure measurement, reliable timing of exposure in relation to critical developmental periods and should take into account the dynamic interplay between gene and environment by using genetically informed designs.

[Liver cirrhosis mortality in Mexico. II. Excess mortality and pulque consumption].

PubMed

Narro-Robles, J; Gutiérrez-Avila, J H; López-Cervantes, M; Borges, G; Rosovsky, H

1992-01-01

Over the years high cirrhosis mortality rates have been reported in Mexico City and in the surrounding states (Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla and the State of Mexico); on the contrary, well defined areas, such as the northern states, have shown a considerably lower mortality rate. This situation may indicate that some factors such as the pattern of alcoholic intake and other environmental characteristics could explain this striking difference. To determine the role of alcohol, the availability and consumption of alcohol at regional and state level were compared with cirrhosis mortality rates. A high and statistically significant correlation was found with pulque availability and consumption (r = 72-92%, p less than 0.01) in all periods of time under examination. On the contrary, a statistically significant negative association was observed with beer consumption and a positive, but not significant correlation, with distilled alcoholic beverages. Infectious hepatitis incidence, prevalence of exclusive use of native languages (as an indirect index of ethnic background) and nutritional deficiencies were also studied as possible risk factors. Nutritional deficiencies and the prevalence of exclusive use of náhuatl and otomí languages were positively correlated. These results can be useful to conduct further epidemiological studies still needed to determine the etiologic role of pulque consumption as well as of the other risk factors. Nonetheless, the current data stress the need to implement public health programs to reduce alcohol consumption, especially pulque, and to minimize the impact of these risk factors in high mortality areas.

Carbon dioxide emissions, output, and energy consumption categories in Algeria.

PubMed

Amri, Fethi

2017-06-01

This study examines the relation between CO 2 emissions, income, non-renewable, and renewable energy consumption in Algeria during the period extending from 1980 to 2011. Our work gives particular attention to the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) with break point method outcome demonstrates the positive effect of non-renewable type of energy on CO 2 emissions consumption. On the contrary, the results reveal an insignificant effect of renewable energy on environment improvement. Moreover, the results accept the existence of EKC hypothesis but the highest gross domestic product value in logarithm scale of our data is inferior to the estimated turning point. Consequently, policy-makers in Algeria should expand the ratio of renewable energy and should decrease the quota of non-renewable energy consumption.

Inhibitory Motor Control at Five Years as a Function of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure

PubMed Central

BENDERSKY, MARGARET; GAMBINI, GIORGIA; LASTELLA, ANNA; BENNETT, DAVID S.; LEWIS, MICHAEL

2006-01-01

This study examined children’s (n = 140, age 5 years) ability to inhibit a motor response as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure. We hypothesized that cocaine-exposed children would perform worse than unexposed children on the Contrary Tapping task. Results indicated that cocaine exposure, high environmental risk, male gender, and low child IQ each were related to poorer inhibitory control. An interaction indicated that cocaine effects were specific to children who lived in relatively low-risk environments. Cocaine-exposed children made an error sooner than unexposed children if they lived in low-risk environments but not if they lived in high-risk environments. Potential underlying mechanisms and the importance of examining cocaine exposure effects in the context of children’s existing environment are discussed. PMID:14578695

Determinants of elephant distribution at Nazinga Game Ranch, Burkina Faso

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jenks, Jonathan A.; Klaver, Robert W.; Wicks, Zeno W.

2007-01-01

We used seasonal ground total counts and remote sensing and GIS technology to relate elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) distribution at Nazinga Game Ranch to environmental and anthropogenic factors. Variables used in analyses were normalized difference vegetation index, elevation, stream density, density of poaching and human illegal activities, distance to dams, distance to rivers, distance to roads, and distance to poaching risk. Contrary to our expectation, road traffic did not disturb elephants. Strong negative relationships were documented between elephant abundance and stream density, distance to dams, and poaching density. Density of poaching and other human illegal activities explained 81%, vegetation greenness 6%, and stream density 3% of the variation in elephant density. Elephant distribution represented a survival strategy affected by poaching, food quality and abundance, and water availability. 

Omental transplantation for neurodegenerative diseases

PubMed Central

Rafael, Hernando

2014-01-01

Up to date, almost all researchers consider that there is still no effective therapy for neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and therefore, these diseases are incurable. However, since May 1998, we know that a progressive ischemia in the medial temporal lobes and subcommissural regions can cause Alzheimer’s disease; because, in contrast to this, its revascularization by means of omental tissue can cure or improve this disease. Likewise we observed that the aging process, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; all of them are of ischemic origin caused by cerebral atherosclerosis, associated with vascular anomalies and/or environmental chemicals. On the contrary, an omental transplantation on the affected zone can stop and improve these diseases. For these reasons, I believe that NDDs, are wrongly classified as neurodegenerative disorders. PMID:25232510

From dehydration to hyperhidration isotonic and diuretic drinks and hyperhydratant aids in sport.

PubMed

Urdampilleta, Aritz; Gómez-Zorita, Saioa

2014-01-01

The needs of water and electrolytes are quite variants, depending on age, physiological or environmental conditions. In most long-term sports, usual weight loss of 3-6%, affect in athletic performance. The effects of a 6% dehydration could be improved with individualized diet-specific nutritional strategies and allow only a 2-3% dehydration, which affect metabolic efficiency but will not risk the health. On the contrary, hyperhydration can be dangerous and is associated with hyponatremia that can cause cerebral edema or respiratory failure. Sports drinks should moisturize, providing minerals and carbohydrates and increase the absorption of water by an ideal combination of salts and sugars. Therefore, it is important to provide correct hydration -protocols before, during and after physical activity, as well as know possible limitations of the sport.

FORUM: Dynamics and Causation of Environmental Equity, Locally Unwanted Land Uses, and Neighborhood Changes

PubMed

Liu

1997-09-01

/ Why are some environmental risks distributed disproportionately in the neighborhoods of the minorities and the poor? A hypothesis was proposed in a recent study that market dynamics contributed to the current environmental inequity. That is, locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) make the host communities home to more poor people and people of color. This hypothesis was allegedly supported by a Houston case study, whereby its author analyzed the postsiting changes of the socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhoods surrounding solid waste facilities. I argue that such an analysis of postsiting changes alone is insufficient to test the causation hypothesis. Instead, I propose a conceptual framework for analysis of environmental equity dynamics and causation. I suggest that the presiting neighborhood dynamics and the characteristics of control neighborhoods be analyzed as the first test for the causation hypothesis. Furthermore, I present theories of neighborhood change and then examine alternative hypotheses that these theories offer for explaining neighborhood changes and for the roles of LULUs in neighborhood changes. These alternative hypotheses should be examined when analyzing the relationship between LULUs and neighborhood changes in a metropolitan area. Using this framework of analysis, I revisited the Houston case. First, I found no evidence that provided support for the hypothesis that the presence of LULUs made the neighborhoods home to more blacks and poor people, contrary to the conclusion made by the previous study. Second, I examined alternative hypotheses for explaining neighborhood changes-invasion-succession, other push forces, and neighborhood life-cycle; the former two might offer better explanation.KEY WORDS: Environmental equity and justice; Locally unwanted lane uses; Siting; Market dynamics; Invasion-succession; Neighborhood changes

Quantitative Evaluation of the Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ) for Comparing Herbicides

PubMed Central

Kniss, Andrew R.; Coburn, Carl W.

2015-01-01

Various indicators of pesticide environmental risk have been proposed, and one of the most widely known and used is the environmental impact quotient (EIQ). The EIQ has been criticized by others in the past, but it continues to be used regularly in the weed science literature. The EIQ is typically considered an improvement over simply comparing the amount of herbicides applied by weight. Herbicides are treated differently compared to other pesticide groups when calculating the EIQ, and therefore, it is important to understand how different risk factors affect the EIQ for herbicides. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the suitability of the EIQ as an environmental indicator for herbicides. Simulation analysis was conducted to quantify relative sensitivity of the EIQ to changes in risk factors, and actual herbicide EIQ values were used to quantify the impact of herbicide application rate on the EIQ Field Use Rating. Herbicide use rate was highly correlated with the EIQ Field Use Rating (Spearman’s rho >0.96, P-value <0.001) for two herbicide datasets. Two important risk factors for herbicides, leaching and surface runoff potential, are included in the EIQ calculation but explain less than 1% of total variation in the EIQ. Plant surface half-life was the risk factor with the greatest relative influence on herbicide EIQ, explaining 26 to 28% of the total variation in EIQ for actual and simulated EIQ values, respectively. For herbicides, the plant surface half-life risk factor is assigned values without any supporting quantitative data, and can result in EIQ estimates that are contrary to quantitative risk estimates for some herbicides. In its current form, the EIQ is a poor measure of herbicide environmental impact. PMID:26121252

Quantitative Evaluation of the Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ) for Comparing Herbicides.

PubMed

Kniss, Andrew R; Coburn, Carl W

2015-01-01

Various indicators of pesticide environmental risk have been proposed, and one of the most widely known and used is the environmental impact quotient (EIQ). The EIQ has been criticized by others in the past, but it continues to be used regularly in the weed science literature. The EIQ is typically considered an improvement over simply comparing the amount of herbicides applied by weight. Herbicides are treated differently compared to other pesticide groups when calculating the EIQ, and therefore, it is important to understand how different risk factors affect the EIQ for herbicides. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the suitability of the EIQ as an environmental indicator for herbicides. Simulation analysis was conducted to quantify relative sensitivity of the EIQ to changes in risk factors, and actual herbicide EIQ values were used to quantify the impact of herbicide application rate on the EIQ Field Use Rating. Herbicide use rate was highly correlated with the EIQ Field Use Rating (Spearman's rho >0.96, P-value <0.001) for two herbicide datasets. Two important risk factors for herbicides, leaching and surface runoff potential, are included in the EIQ calculation but explain less than 1% of total variation in the EIQ. Plant surface half-life was the risk factor with the greatest relative influence on herbicide EIQ, explaining 26 to 28% of the total variation in EIQ for actual and simulated EIQ values, respectively. For herbicides, the plant surface half-life risk factor is assigned values without any supporting quantitative data, and can result in EIQ estimates that are contrary to quantitative risk estimates for some herbicides. In its current form, the EIQ is a poor measure of herbicide environmental impact.

Environmental impact of cheese production: A case study of a small-scale factory in southern Europe and global overview of carbon footprint.

PubMed

Canellada, Fernando; Laca, Amanda; Laca, Adriana; Díaz, Mario

2018-09-01

The environmental performance of a small-scale cheese factory sited in a NW Spanish region has been analysed by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as representative of numerous cheese traditional factories that are scattered through the European Union, especially in the southern countries. Inventory data were directly obtained from this facility corresponding to one-year operation, and the main subsystems involved in cheese production were included, i.e. raw materials, water, electricity, energy, cleaning products, packaging materials, transports, solid and liquid wastes and gas emissions. Results indicated that the environmental impacts derived from cheese making were mainly originated from raw milk production and the natural land transformation was the most affected of the considered categories. On the contrary, the manufacturing of packaging material and other non-dairy ingredients barely influenced on the total impact. Additionally, an average carbon footprint of the cheeses produced in the analysed facility has also been calculated, resulting milk production and pellet boiler emissions the most contributing subsystems. Furthermore, it was notable the positive environmental effect that entailed the direct use of whey as animal feed, which was considered in this study as avoided fodder. Finally, a revision of published works regarding the environmental performance of cheese production worldwide was provided and compared to results found in the present work. According to the analysed data, it is clear that the content of fat and dry extract are determinant factors for the carbon footprint of cheeses, whereas the cheesemaking scale and the geographical area have a very low effect. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Casemix--an AMA perspective.

PubMed

Nelson, B

1994-09-05

The introduction of casemix payment systems into Australia's public hospitals is an inevitability which the Australian Medical Association has now begun to address. A greater involvement of clinicians in the design and implementation of casemix can add substantial quality to these systems. However, there is concern that a proliferation of separate casemix systems may be contrary to overall health policy developments and that governments will not understand the limits of casemix. Recent attempts to include medical payments within a casemix payment system in the private sector faced our united opposition. Finally, special care needs to be taken to ensure that the introduction of a casemix payment system does not further disadvantage access to high quality health care for Aborigines.

Yes, But...(An Invitation to Dialogue)--Holistic vs. Systemic Approach to the Teaching of Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Dorothy S.

Today, contrary to Euclid's view of things as they are, people are told that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nowhere apparently has the concept of the whole been ignored more than in the teaching of reading. The "see and say" (holistic) approach, introduced in the early fifties, still dominates the classroom. Readers and…

Combining correlative and mechanistic habitat suitability models to improve ecological compensation.

PubMed

Meineri, Eric; Deville, Anne-Sophie; Grémillet, David; Gauthier-Clerc, Michel; Béchet, Arnaud

2015-02-01

Only a few studies have shown positive impacts of ecological compensation on species dynamics affected by human activities. We argue that this is due to inappropriate methods used to forecast required compensation in environmental impact assessments. These assessments are mostly descriptive and only valid at limited spatial and temporal scales. However, habitat suitability models developed to predict the impacts of environmental changes on potential species' distributions should provide rigorous science-based tools for compensation planning. Here we describe the two main classes of predictive models: correlative models and individual-based mechanistic models. We show how these models can be used alone or synoptically to improve compensation planning. While correlative models are easier to implement, they tend to ignore underlying ecological processes and lack accuracy. On the contrary, individual-based mechanistic models can integrate biological interactions, dispersal ability and adaptation. Moreover, among mechanistic models, those considering animal energy balance are particularly efficient at predicting the impact of foraging habitat loss. However, mechanistic models require more field data compared to correlative models. Hence we present two approaches which combine both methods for compensation planning, especially in relation to the spatial scale considered. We show how the availability of biological databases and software enabling fast and accurate population projections could be advantageously used to assess ecological compensation requirement efficiently in environmental impact assessments. © 2014 The Authors. Biological Reviews © 2014 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

In defence of Kant's moral prohibition on suicide solely to avoid suffering.

PubMed

Vong, G

2008-09-01

In Ian Brassington's article in a previous issue of this journal, he argues that suicide for the purpose of avoiding suffering is not, as Kant has contended, contrary to the moral law. Brassington's objections are not cogent because they rely upon the exegetically incorrect premise that according to Kant the priceless value of personhood is in the noumenal world that we have no perception of. On the basis of Kant's normative, metaphysical and epistemological theory, I argue, contrary to Brassington, that according to Kant personhood's moral value is explicitly in the sensible, phenomenal realm. While I argue that suicide solely to avoid suffering is immoral, I show that Kant's normative system allows some acts of suicide to be morally permissible. In the course of the discussion of the value of humanity's rationality and the immorality of suicide, I will discuss the broader modern medical ethical implications of Kant's arguments, such as the moral impermissibility of using rationality depriving drugs, such as ketamine, solely to avoid pain.

Gamma-ray background induced by atmospheric neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Y.-Q.

1984-03-01

A small piggyback detector system is used to study the reduction of gamma-ray background induced by atmospheric neutrons in the type of actively shielded gamma-ray spectroscopes. The system consists of two 1.5 x 1.5 arcsec NaI crystal units, one of which is surrounded by some neutron shield material. The results of a balloon flight in 1981 are presented. The data show that a shield of 3 cm-thick pure paraffin cannot reduce the gamma-ray background. On the contrary, it may even cause some enhancement.

An artificial bioindicator system for network intrusion detection.

PubMed

Blum, Christian; Lozano, José A; Davidson, Pedro Pinacho

An artificial bioindicator system is developed in order to solve a network intrusion detection problem. The system, inspired by an ecological approach to biological immune systems, evolves a population of agents that learn to survive in their environment. An adaptation process allows the transformation of the agent population into a bioindicator that is capable of reacting to system anomalies. Two characteristics stand out in our proposal. On the one hand, it is able to discover new, previously unseen attacks, and on the other hand, contrary to most of the existing systems for network intrusion detection, it does not need any previous training. We experimentally compare our proposal with three state-of-the-art algorithms and show that it outperforms the competing approaches on widely used benchmark data.

Visualization of ex vivo human ciliated epithelium and induced flow using optical coherence tomography (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ling, Yuye; Gamm, Uta A.; Yao, Xinwen; Arteaga-Solis, Emilio; Emala, Charles W.; Choma, Michael A.; Hendon, Christine P.

2017-04-01

The ciliated epithelium is important to the human respiratory system because it clears mucus that contains harmful microorganisms and particulate matter. We report the ex vivo visualization of human trachea/bronchi ciliated epithelium and induced flow characterized by using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). A total number of 17 samples from 7 patients were imaged. Samples were obtained from Columbia University Department of Anesthesiology's tissue bank. After excision, the samples were placed in Gibco Medium 199 solution with oxygen at 4°C until imaging. The samples were maintained at 36.7°C throughout the experiment. The imaging protocol included obtaining 3D volumes and 200 consecutive B-scans parallel to the head-to-feet direction (superior-inferior axis) of the airway, using Thorlabs Telesto system at 1300 nm at 28 kHz A-line rate and a custom built high resolution SDOCT system at 800nm at 32 kHz A-line rate. After imaging, samples were processed with H and E histology. Speckle variance of the time resolved datasets demonstrate significant contrast at the ciliated epithelium sites. Flow images were also obtained after injecting 10μm polyester beads into the solution, which shows beads traveling trajectories near the ciliated epithelium areas. In contrary, flow images taken in the orthogonal plane show no beads traveling trajectories. This observation is in line with our expectation that cilia drive flow predominantly along the superior-inferior axis. We also observed the protective function of the mucus, shielding the epithelium from the invasion of foreign objects such as microspheres. Further studies will be focused on the cilia's physiological response to environmental changes such as drug administration and physical injury.

PecS is an important player in the regulatory network governing the coordinated expression of virulence genes during the interaction between Dickeya dadantii 3937 and plants.

PubMed

Mhedbi-Hajri, Nadia; Malfatti, Pierrette; Pédron, Jacques; Gaubert, Stéphane; Reverchon, Sylvie; Van Gijsegem, Frédérique

2011-11-01

Successful infection of a pathogen relies on the coordinated expression of numerous virulence factor-encoding genes. In plant-bacteria interactions, this control is very often achieved through the integration of several regulatory circuits controlling cell-cell communication or sensing environmental conditions. Dickeya dadantii (formerly Erwinia chrysanthemi), the causal agent of soft rot on many crops and ornamentals, provokes maceration of infected plants mainly by producing and secreting a battery of plant cell wall-degrading enzymes. However, several other virulence factors have also been characterized. During Arabidopsis infection, most D. dadantii virulence gene transcripts accumulated in a coordinated manner during infection. This activation requires a functional GacA-GacS two-component regulatory system but the Gac system is not involved in the growth phase dependence of virulence gene expression. Here we show that, contrary to Pectobacterium, the AHL-mediated ExpIR quorum-sensing system does not play a major role in the growth phase-dependent control of D. dadantii virulence genes. On the other hand, the global regulator PecS participates in this coordinated expression since, in a pecS mutant, an early activation of virulence genes is observed both in vitro and in planta. This correlated with the known hypervirulence phenotype of the pecS mutant. Analysis of the relationship between the regulatory circuits governed by the PecS and GacA global regulators indicates that these two regulators act independently. PecS prevents a premature expression of virulence genes in the first stages of colonization whereas GacA, presumably in conjunction with other regulators, is required for the activation of virulence genes at the onset of symptom occurrence. © 2011 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Aquaculture: global status and trends

PubMed Central

Bostock, John; McAndrew, Brendan; Richards, Randolph; Jauncey, Kim; Telfer, Trevor; Lorenzen, Kai; Little, David; Ross, Lindsay; Handisyde, Neil; Gatward, Iain; Corner, Richard

2010-01-01

Aquaculture contributed 43 per cent of aquatic animal food for human consumption in 2007 (e.g. fish, crustaceans and molluscs, but excluding mammals, reptiles and aquatic plants) and is expected to grow further to meet the future demand. It is very diverse and, contrary to many perceptions, dominated by shellfish and herbivorous and omnivorous pond fish either entirely or partly utilizing natural productivity. The rapid growth in the production of carnivorous species such as salmon, shrimp and catfish has been driven by globalizing trade and favourable economics of larger scale intensive farming. Most aquaculture systems rely on low/uncosted environmental goods and services, so a critical issue for the future is whether these are brought into company accounts and the consequent effects this would have on production economics. Failing that, increased competition for natural resources will force governments to allocate strategically or leave the market to determine their use depending on activities that can extract the highest value. Further uncertainties include the impact of climate change, future fisheries supplies (for competition and feed supply), practical limits in terms of scale and in the economics of integration and the development and acceptability of new bio-engineering technologies. In the medium term, increased output is likely to require expansion in new environments, further intensification and efficiency gains for more sustainable and cost-effective production. The trend towards enhanced intensive systems with key monocultures remains strong and, at least for the foreseeable future, will be a significant contributor to future supplies. Dependence on external feeds (including fish), water and energy are key issues. Some new species will enter production and policies that support the reduction of resource footprints and improve integration could lead to new developments as well as reversing decline in some more traditional systems. PMID:20713392

Species delimitation in the continental forms of the genus Epicrates (Serpentes, Boidae) integrating phylogenetics and environmental niche models.

PubMed

Rivera, Paula C; Di Cola, Valeria; Martínez, Juan J; Gardenal, Cristina N; Chiaraviglio, Margarita

2011-01-01

Until recently, the genus Epicrates (Boidae) presented only one continental species, Epicrates cenchria, distributed in Central and South America, but after a taxonomic revision using morphologic characters five species were recognized: E. cenchria, E. crassus, E. maurus, E. assisi, and E. alvarezi. We analyzed two independent data sets, environmental niche models and phylogeny based on molecular information, to explore species delimitation in the continental species of this genus. Our results indicated that the environmental requirements of the species are different; therefore there are not evidences of ecological interchangeability among them. There is a clear correlation between species distributions and the major biogeographic regions of Central and South America. Their overall distribution reveals that allopatry or parapatry is the general pattern. These evidences suggest that habitat isolation prevents or limits gene exchange among them. The phylogenetic reconstruction showed that the continental Epicrates are monophyletic, being E. alvarezi the sister species for the remaining two clades: E. crassus-E. assisi, and E. maurus-E. cenchria. The clade grouping the continental Epicrates is the sister taxon of the genus Eunectes and not of the Caribbean Epicrates clade, indicating that the genus is paraphyletic. There is a non-consistent pattern in niche evolution among continental Epicrates. On the contrary, a high variation and abrupt shifts in environmental variables are shown when ancestral character states were reconstructed on the sequence-based tree. The degree of genetic and ecological divergence among continental Epicrates and the phylogenetic analyses support the elevation to full species of E. cenchria, E. crassus, E. maurus, E. assisi, and E. alvarezi.

Species Delimitation in the Continental Forms of the Genus Epicrates (Serpentes, Boidae) Integrating Phylogenetics and Environmental Niche Models

PubMed Central

Rivera, Paula C.; Di Cola, Valeria; Martínez, Juan J.; Gardenal, Cristina N.; Chiaraviglio, Margarita

2011-01-01

Until recently, the genus Epicrates (Boidae) presented only one continental species, Epicrates cenchria, distributed in Central and South America, but after a taxonomic revision using morphologic characters five species were recognized: E. cenchria, E. crassus, E. maurus, E. assisi, and E. alvarezi. We analyzed two independent data sets, environmental niche models and phylogeny based on molecular information, to explore species delimitation in the continental species of this genus. Our results indicated that the environmental requirements of the species are different; therefore there are not evidences of ecological interchangeability among them. There is a clear correlation between species distributions and the major biogeographic regions of Central and South America. Their overall distribution reveals that allopatry or parapatry is the general pattern. These evidences suggest that habitat isolation prevents or limits gene exchange among them. The phylogenetic reconstruction showed that the continental Epicrates are monophyletic, being E. alvarezi the sister species for the remaining two clades: E. crassus - E. assisi, and E. maurus - E. cenchria. The clade grouping the continental Epicrates is the sister taxon of the genus Eunectes and not of the Caribbean Epicrates clade, indicating that the genus is paraphyletic. There is a non-consistent pattern in niche evolution among continental Epicrates. On the contrary, a high variation and abrupt shifts in environmental variables are shown when ancestral character states were reconstructed on the sequence-based tree. The degree of genetic and ecological divergence among continental Epicrates and the phylogenetic analyses support the elevation to full species of E. cenchria, E. crassus, E. maurus, E. assisi, and E. alvarezi. PMID:21912634

Socio-environmental variables associated with malnutrition and intestinal parasitoses in the child population of Misiones, Argentina.

PubMed

Zonta, María L; Oyhenart, Evelia E; Navone, Graciela T

2014-01-01

The aim was to analyze the socio-environmental variables associated with malnutrition and intestinal parasitoses in children from Aristóbulo del Valle, Province of Misiones (Argentina). A cross-sectional study was performed in 2,291 schoolchildren (age, 4-14 years). Body weight and height were measured and body mass index was calculated. NHANES III reference was used to estimate the nutritional status-underweight, stunting, wasting, overweight, and obesity. The parasitological analysis was performed by fecal and anal brush samples. The socio-environmental variables were surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire. These variables were processed by categorical principal component analysis (cat-PCA). The two first axes defined four subgroups of schoolchildren: three of these were associated with urban characteristics (high, middle, and periurban), whereas the remaining subgroup was considered rural. Stunting and parasitic infections occurred mainly in the periurban group, that is the group of higher socio-environmental vulnerability. On the other hand, the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity and the lowest parasitism was observed in the high urban group. The similarity between rural and middle urban groups in stunting prevalence reveals that cities are not healthier than rural environments. On the contrary, the fact that the rural group presents the lowest prevalence of overweight reaffirms that poverty and malnutrition are progressively moving from rural to urban areas, and that rural children have still more diverse and healthy diets favored by the consumption of homemade products (i.e., orchards, animal husbandry, etc.), placing them at an earlier stage of the nutrition transition. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Environmental and economic life cycle assessment for sewage sludge treatment processes in Japan.

PubMed

Hong, Jinglan; Hong, Jingmin; Otaki, Masahiro; Jolliet, Olivier

2009-02-01

Life cycle assessment for sewage sludge treatment was carried out by estimating the environmental and economic impacts of the six alternative scenarios most often used in Japan: dewatering, composting, drying, incineration, incinerated ash melting and dewatered sludge melting, each with or without digestion. Three end-of-life treatments were also studied: landfilling, agricultural application and building material application. The results demonstrate that sewage sludge digestion can reduce the environmental load and cost through reduced dry matter volume. The global warming potential (GWP) generated from incineration and melting processes can be significantly reduced through the reuse of waste heat for electricity and/or heat generation. Equipment production in scenarios except dewatering has an important effect on GWP, whereas the contribution of construction is negligible. In addition, the results show that the dewatering scenario has the highest impact on land use and cost, the drying scenario has the highest impact on GWP and acidification, and the incinerated ash melting scenario has the highest impact on human toxicity due to re-emissions of heavy metals from incinerated ash in the melting unit process. On the contrary, the dewatering, composting and incineration scenarios generate the lowest impact on human toxicity, land use and acidification, respectively, and the incinerated ash melting scenario has the lowest impact on GWP and cost. Heavy metals released from atmospheric effluents generated the highest human toxicity impact, with the effect of dioxin emissions being significantly lower. This study proved that the dewatered sludge melting scenario is an environmentally optimal and economically affordable method.

The environmental challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed

Mabogunje, A L

1995-05-01

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are doing some rethinking, after decades of development that have resulted in continued poverty, international indebtedness, environmental degradation, and inappropriate Western models. Technological innovations, institutional developments, and family planning are key inputs. Development should shift to a focus on elimination of widespread poverty. Past development strategies in an African context of ample resources have harmed the environment without improving the average person's standard of living. Knowledge about Africa's environment and environmental degradation is inadequate. Recent studies have found, contrary to popular belief, that small shareholders made considerable investments in resource-based capital, which protected their farms from major environmental deterioration and negative impacts of intensification. In Nigeria field studies found that rising demand for fuelwood did not lead to greater deforestation or desertification. Severe degradation has occurred in places where density of population is greater than 500 persons per sq. km, where the land is physically or biologically vulnerable, and where socioeconomic conditions interfere with application of conservation measures. Reduced well-being and reduced food capacity is attributed to land tenure arrangements, misguided macroeconomic policies, and inadequate infrastructure. The issues of development, environment, and population are complex. Sustainable development is possible with appropriate investment priorities that will provide needed infrastructure, services, and education. Urban areas need safe water, solid waste disposal, and spatial planning to relieve congested spaces. Rural areas should focus on health education and basic sanitation. Regulatory measures and conservation measures are also important. Institutional development that promotes democracy, expands individual property rights, and increases the knowledge base offers the most hope for alleviating poverty and protecting the environment.

Anticipatory systems as linguistic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ekdahl, Bertil

2000-05-01

The idea of system is well established although not well defined. What makes up a system depends on the observer. Thinking in terms of systems is only a convenient way to conceptualize organizations, natural or artificial, that show coherent properties. Among all properties, which can be ascribed to systems, one property seems to be more outstanding than others, namely that of being anticipatory. In nature, anticipatory properties are found only in living organizations. In this way it can be said to separate non-living systems from living because there is no indication that any natural phenomenon occurring in systems where there is no indication of life is anticipatory. The characteristic of living systems is that they are exposed to the evolution contrary to causal systems that do not undergo changes due to the influence of the environment. Causal systems are related to the past in such a way that subsequent situations can be calculated from knowledge of past situations. In causal systems the past is the cause of the present and there is no reference to the future as a determining agent, contrary to anticipatory systems where expectations are the cause of the present action. Since anticipatory properties are characteristic of living systems, this property, as all other properties in living systems, is a result of the evolution and can be found in plants as well as in animals. Thus, it is not only tied to consciousness but is found at a more basic level, i.e., in the interplay between genotype and phenotype. Anticipation is part of the genetic language in such a way that appropriate actions, for events in the anticipatory systems environment, are inscribed in the genes. Anticipatory behavior, as a result of the interpretation of the genetic language, has been selected by the evolution. In this paper anticipatory systems are regarded as linguistic systems and I argue that as such anticipation cannot be fragmented but must be holistically studied. This has the implication that anticipatory behavior can only partially be described in a computer language and, furthermore, it shows that only a restricted class of anticipatory systems can be transferred to computers.

Dissipation in graphene and nanotube resonators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seoánez, C.; Guinea, F.; Castro Neto, A. H.

2007-09-01

Different damping mechanisms in graphene nanoresonators are studied: charges in the substrate, ohmic losses in the substrate and the graphene sheet, breaking and healing of surface bonds (Velcro effect), two level systems, attachment losses, and thermoelastic losses. We find that, for realistic structures and contrary to semiconductor resonators, dissipation is dominated by ohmic losses in the graphene layer and metallic gate. An extension of this study to carbon nanotube-based resonators is presented.

Note on the ideal frame formulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lara, Martin

2017-09-01

An implementation of the ideal frame formulation of perturbed Keplerian motion is presented which only requires the integration of a differential system of dimension 7, contrary to the 8 variables traditionally integrated with this approach. The new formulation is based on the integration of a scaled version of the Eulerian set of redundant parameters and slightly improves runtime performance with respect to the 8-dimensional case while retaining comparable accuracy.

Reconsidering the measurement of ancillary service performance.

PubMed

Griffin, D T; Rauscher, J A

1987-08-01

Prospective payment reimbursement systems have forced hospitals to review their costs more carefully. The result of the increased emphasis on costs is that many hospitals use costs, rather than margin, to judge the performance of ancillary services. However, arbitrary selection of performance measures for ancillary services can result in managerial decisions contrary to hospital objectives. Managerial accounting systems provide models which assist in the development of performance measures for ancillary services. Selection of appropriate performance measures provides managers with the incentive to pursue goals congruent with those of the hospital overall. This article reviews the design and implementation of managerial accounting systems, and considers the impact of prospective payment systems and proposed changes in capital reimbursement on this process.

Chaos in quantum steering in high-dimensional systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Guang Ping

2018-04-01

Quantum steering means that in some bipartite quantum systems the local measurements on one side can determine the state of the other side. Here we show that in high-dimensional systems there exists a specific entangled state which can display a kind of chaos effect when being adopted for steering. That is, a subtle difference in the measurement results on one side can steer the other side into completely orthogonal states. Moreover, by expanding the result to infinite-dimensional systems, we find two sets of states for which, contrary to common belief, even though their density matrices approach being identical, the steering between them is impossible. This property makes them very useful for quantum cryptography.

Terrestrial record of the solar system's oscillation about the galactic plane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stothers, R. B.

1985-01-01

A new study is presented of the observational evidence pertaining to the theory which attributes the episodic component of the earth's impact cratering record over the past 600 Myr to gravitational encounters between the solar system and interstellar clouds that cause comets to fall into the solar system and impact the earth. Contrary to a claim by Thaddeus and Chanan (1985), the vertical scale height of the clouds seems to be sufficently small and the sun's vertical trajectory sufficiently large for the modulating effect of the sun's galactovertical motion to be detectable in the terrestrial record of impact cratering with at least a 50 percent a priori probability.

[The systemic effects of imidacloprid and fipronil on Xenopsylla cheopis fleas (Siphonaptera) and blood-sucking Ornithonyssus bacoti gamasid mites (Gamasina: Macronyssidae)].

PubMed

Lopatina, Iu V; Eremina, O Iu

2013-01-01

The systemic effects of imidacloprid and fipronil on Xenopsylla cheopis fleas and blood-sucking Ornithonyssus bacoti gamasid mites were studied under laboratory conditions. Albino rats were forcibly administered insectoacaricides per os in doses of 1, 10, 30 mg/kg or fed with dietary bait (the doses of fipronil and imidacloprid were 10-33 and 18-70 mg/kg/day, respectively) for 3 or more days. Fipronil had a pronounced systemic effect on both X. cheopis and O. baconi. Imidacloprid was markedly active against the fleas and, on the contrary, inactive against the mites.

The effects of host age, host nuclear background and temperature on phenotypic effects of the virulent Wolbachia strain popcorn in Drosophila melanogaster.

PubMed

Reynolds, K Tracy; Thomson, Linda J; Hoffmann, Ary A

2003-07-01

Because of their obligate endosymbiotic nature, Wolbachia strains by necessity are defined by their phenotypic effects upon their host. Nevertheless, studies on the influence of host background and environmental conditions upon the manifestation of Wolbachia effects are relatively uncommon. Here we examine the behavior of the overreplicating Wolbachia strain popcorn in four different Drosophila melanogaster backgrounds at two temperatures. Unlike other strains of Wolbachia in Drosophila, popcorn has a major fitness impact upon its hosts. The rapid proliferation of popcorn causes cells to rupture, resulting in the premature death of adult hosts. Apart from this effect, we found that popcorn delayed development time, and host background influenced both this trait and the rate of mortality associated with infection. Temperature influenced the impact of popcorn upon host mortality, with no reduction in life span occurring in flies reared at 19 degrees. No effect upon fecundity was found. Contrary to earlier reports, popcorn induced high levels of incompatibility when young males were used in tests, and CI levels declined rapidly with male age. The population dynamics of popcorn-type infections will therefore depend on environmental temperature, host background, and the age structure of the population.

Reconception of mandatory-based corporate social and environmental responsibility in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yunari, S. B.; Suhariningsih, S.; Syafa'at, R.; Sihabudin, S.

2018-01-01

The Legal Concept of Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER) in Law Number 40 Year 2007 (Company Law), as set forth in the general provision Article 1 (3) of Company Law evidently is a definition (begripsbepalingen) of voluntary basis, because it comes from the concept of CSR used by western countries based on World Bank’s guidelines. Hence, it is certainly contrary to the legal concept of CSER that is perceived to be mandatory in the Company Law. Therefore, the concept of CSER as an implementation of a legal principle in a norm, so as not to cause legal issue, at the normative level as well as at implementation level, must be consistent and need reconception.The purpose of this reconception of CSER is to find a new concept of mandatory-based CSER. The methodology of research used is legal research (doctrinal research), based on secondary legal material acquired analysed presciptively by statute, conseptual and comparative approach.The research outcome is resulting in a discussion of reconception of a legal responsibility-based Corporate Social Liability (CSL) with sustainable local community empowerment oriented, so as to create legal certainty at the normative level and implementation in Indonesia.

Glycans – the third revolution in evolution

PubMed Central

Lauc, Gordan; Krištić, Jasminka; Zoldoš, Vlatka

2014-01-01

The development and maintenance of a complex organism composed of trillions of cells is an extremely complex task. At the molecular level every process requires a specific molecular structures to perform it, thus it is difficult to imagine how less than tenfold increase in the number of genes between simple bacteria and higher eukaryotes enabled this quantum leap in complexity. In this perspective article we present the hypothesis that the invention of glycans was the third revolution in evolution (the appearance of nucleic acids and proteins being the first two), which enabled the creation of novel molecular entities that do not require a direct genetic template. Contrary to proteins and nucleic acids, which are made from a direct DNA template, glycans are product of a complex biosynthetic pathway affected by hundreds of genetic and environmental factors. Therefore glycans enable adaptive response to environmental changes and, unlike other epiproteomic modifications, which act as off/on switches, glycosylation significantly contributes to protein structure and enables novel functions. The importance of glycosylation is evident from the fact that nearly all proteins invented after the appearance of multicellular life are composed of both polypeptide and glycan parts. PMID:24904645

Carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, energy use, and urbanization in Saudi Arabia: evidence from the ARDL approach and impulse saturation break tests.

PubMed

Raggad, Bechir

2018-05-01

This study investigates the existence of long-run relationship between CO 2 emissions, economic growth, energy use, and urbanization in Saudi Arabia over the period 1971-2014. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach with structural breaks, where structural breaks are identified with the recently impulse saturation break tests, is applied to conduct the analysis. The bounds test result supports the existence of long-run relationship among the variables. The existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis has also been tested. The results reveal the non-validity of the EKC hypothesis for Saudi Arabia as the relationship between GDP and pollution is positive in both the short and the long run. Moreover, energy use increases pollution both in short and long run in the country. On the contrary, the results show a negative and significant impact of urbanization on carbon emissions in Saudi Arabia, which means that urban development is not an obstacle to the improvement of environmental quality. Consequently, policy-makers in Saudi Arabia should consider the efficiency enhancement, frugality in energy consumption, and especially increase the share of renewable energies in the total energy mix.

Environmental Screening Effects in 2D Materials: Renormalization of the Bandgap, Electronic Structure, and Optical Spectra of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus.

PubMed

Qiu, Diana Y; da Jornada, Felipe H; Louie, Steven G

2017-08-09

Few-layer black phosphorus has recently emerged as a promising 2D semiconductor, notable for its widely tunable bandgap, highly anisotropic properties, and theoretically predicted large exciton binding energies. To avoid degradation, it has become common practice to encapsulate black phosphorus devices. It is generally assumed that this encapsulation does not qualitatively affect their optical properties. Here, we show that the contrary is true. We have performed ab initio GW and GW plus Bethe-Salpeter equation (GW-BSE) calculations to determine the quasiparticle (QP) band structure and optical spectrum of one-layer (1L) through four-layer (4L) black phosphorus, with and without encapsulation between hexagonal boron nitride and sapphire. We show that black phosphorus is exceptionally sensitive to environmental screening. Encapsulation reduces the exciton binding energy in 1L by as much as 70% and completely eliminates the presence of a bound exciton in the 4L structure. The reduction in the exciton binding energies is offset by a similarly large renormalization of the QP bandgap so that the optical gap remains nearly unchanged, but the nature of the excited states and the qualitative features of the absorption spectrum change dramatically.

From regional pulse vaccination to global disease eradication: insights from a mathematical model of poliomyelitis.

PubMed

Browne, Cameron J; Smith, Robert J; Bourouiba, Lydia

2015-07-01

Mass-vaccination campaigns are an important strategy in the global fight against poliomyelitis and measles. The large-scale logistics required for these mass immunisation campaigns magnifies the need for research into the effectiveness and optimal deployment of pulse vaccination. In order to better understand this control strategy, we propose a mathematical model accounting for the disease dynamics in connected regions, incorporating seasonality, environmental reservoirs and independent periodic pulse vaccination schedules in each region. The effective reproduction number, Re, is defined and proved to be a global threshold for persistence of the disease. Analytical and numerical calculations show the importance of synchronising the pulse vaccinations in connected regions and the timing of the pulses with respect to the pathogen circulation seasonality. Our results indicate that it may be crucial for mass-vaccination programs, such as national immunisation days, to be synchronised across different regions. In addition, simulations show that a migration imbalance can increase Re and alter how pulse vaccination should be optimally distributed among the patches, similar to results found with constant-rate vaccination. Furthermore, contrary to the case of constant-rate vaccination, the fraction of environmental transmission affects the value of Re when pulse vaccination is present.

The relative influence of neighbourhood incivilities, cognitive social capital, club membership and individual characteristics on positive mental health.

PubMed

Jones, Russell; Heim, Derek; Hunter, Simon; Ellaway, Anne

2014-07-01

Previous research indicates that residents׳ perceptions of their neighbourhoods can have an adverse influence on their health and wellbeing over and above the influence of structural disadvantage. Contrary to most prior research, this study employed an indicator of positive wellbeing and assessed the impact of individual characteristics, perceived social and environmental incivilities, indicators of cognitive and structural social capital, and perceived safety. Analyses of data from a large regional UK representative study (n=8237; 69.64% response rate) found the most influential determinants of wellbeing were physical health problems, age, SES and cognitive social capital. Smaller, significant effects were also found for environmental and social incivilities, and for perceived safety. The effect of cognitive social capital was moderated by age, with a stronger effect found among those aged 65 years and over than among younger participants. Findings indicate that the promotion of positive mental health within communities may be facilitated by efforts to foster a greater sense of belonging among residents, and that older adults may benefit most from such efforts. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

PAH dissipation in spiked soil: impacts of bioavailability, microbial activity, and trees.

PubMed

Mueller, Kevin E; Shann, Jodi R

2006-08-01

While trees have demonstrated potential in phytoremediation of several organic contaminants, little is known regarding their ability to impact the common soil contaminant PAHs. Several species of native North American trees were planted in soil artificially contaminated with three PAHs. Plant biomass, PAH dissipation, and microbial mineralization were monitored over the course of one year and environmental conditions were allowed to follow typical seasonal patterns. PAH dissipation and mineralization were not affected by planting. Extensive and rapid loss of PAHs was observed and attributed to high bioavailability and microbial activity in all treatments. The rate of this loss may have masked any significant planting effects. Anthracene was found to be more recalcitrant than pyrene or phenanthrene. Parallel soil aging studies indicated that sequestration to soil components was minimal. Contrary to common inferences in literature, amendment with decaying fine roots inhibited PAH degradation by the soil microbial community. Seasonal variation in environmental factors and rhizosphere dynamics may have also reduced or negated the effect of planting and should be taken into account in future phytoremediation trials. The unique root traits of trees may pose a challenge to traditional thought regarding PAH dissipation in the rhizosphere of plants.

Early transcriptomic changes induced by magnesium deficiency in Arabidopsis thaliana reveal the alteration of circadian clock gene expression in roots and the triggering of abscisic acid-responsive genes.

PubMed

Hermans, Christian; Vuylsteke, Marnik; Coppens, Frederik; Craciun, Adrian; Inzé, Dirk; Verbruggen, Nathalie

2010-07-01

*Plant growth and development ultimately depend on environmental variables such as the availability of essential minerals. Unravelling how nutrients affect gene expression will help to understand how they regulate plant growth. *This study reports the early transcriptomic response to magnesium (Mg) deprivation in Arabidopsis. Whole-genome transcriptome was studied in the roots and young mature leaves 4, 8 and 28 h after the removal of Mg from the nutrient solution. *The highest number of regulated genes was first observed in the roots. Contrary to other mineral deficiencies, Mg depletion did not induce a higher expression of annotated genes in Mg uptake. Remarkable responses include the perturbation of the central oscillator of the circadian clock in roots and the triggering of abscisic acid (ABA) signalling, with half of the up-regulated Mg genes in leaves being ABA-responsive. However, no change in ABA content was observed. *The specificity of the response of some Mg-regulated genes was challenged by studying their expression after other mineral deficiencies and environmental stresses. The possibility to develop markers for Mg incipient deficiency is discussed here.

Trees, soils, and food security

PubMed Central

Sanchez, P. A.; Buresh, R. J.; Leakey, R. R. B.

1997-01-01

Trees have a different impact on soil properties than annual crops, because of their longer residence time, larger biomass accumulation, and longer-lasting, more extensive root systems. In natural forests nutrients are efficiently cycled with very small inputs and outputs from the system. In most agricultural systems the opposite happens. Agroforestry encompasses the continuum between these extremes, and emerging hard data is showing that successful agroforestry systems increase nutrient inputs, enhance internal flows, decrease nutrient losses and provide environmental benefits: when the competition for growth resources between the tree and the crop component is well managed. The three main determinants for overcoming rural poverty in Africa are (i) reversing soil fertility depletion, (ii) intensifying and diversifying land use with high-value products, and (iii) providing an enabling policy environment for the smallholder farming sector. Agroforestry practices can improve food production in a sustainable way through their contribution to soil fertility replenishment. The use of organic inputs as a source of biologically-fixed nitrogen, together with deep nitrate that is captured by trees, plays a major role in nitrogen replenishment. The combination of commercial phosphorus fertilizers with available organic resources may be the key to increasing and sustaining phosphorus capital. High-value trees, 'Cinderella' species, can fit in specific niches on farms, thereby making the system ecologically stable and more rewarding economically, in addition to diversifying and increasing rural incomes and improving food security. In the most heavily populated areas of East Africa, where farm size is extremely small, the number of trees on farms is increasing as farmers seek to reduce labour demands, compatible with the drift of some members of the family into the towns to earn off-farm income. Contrary to the concept that population pressure promotes deforestation, there is evidence that demonstrates that there are conditions under which increasing tree planting is occurring on farms in the tropics through successful agroforestry as human population density increases.

Microcanonical entropy for classical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franzosi, Roberto

2018-03-01

The entropy definition in the microcanonical ensemble is revisited. We propose a novel definition for the microcanonical entropy that resolve the debate on the correct definition of the microcanonical entropy. In particular we show that this entropy definition fixes the problem inherent the exact extensivity of the caloric equation. Furthermore, this entropy reproduces results which are in agreement with the ones predicted with standard Boltzmann entropy when applied to macroscopic systems. On the contrary, the predictions obtained with the standard Boltzmann entropy and with the entropy we propose, are different for small system sizes. Thus, we conclude that the Boltzmann entropy provides a correct description for macroscopic systems whereas extremely small systems should be better described with the entropy that we propose here.

The impact of environment on the comprehension of declarative communication in apes.

PubMed

Lyn, Heidi; Russell, Jamie L; Hopkins, William D

2010-03-01

A series of recent reports have questioned the ability of great apes to comprehend declarative communication and have suggested that this ability is biologically based and may have driven the evolution of human language. We tested three groups of differently reared chimpanzees and bonobos for their ability to understand declarative signals in an object-choice task. The scores of the two groups of apes that were reared in a sociolinguistically complex environment were significantly higher than the scores of the standard-reared group. The results further showed that bonobos did not outperform chimpanzees. Our results demonstrate that environmental factors, particularly access to a sociolinguistically rich environment, directly influence great apes' ability to comprehend declarative signals and suggest that, contrary to recent claims, apes have the biological capacity to utilize purely informative communication.

Use of genetically modified crops and pesticides in Brazil: growing hazards.

PubMed

Almeida, Vicente Eduardo Soares de; Friedrich, Karen; Tygel, Alan Freihof; Melgarejo, Leonardo; Carneiro, Fernando Ferreira

2017-10-01

Genetically modified (GM) crops were officially authorized in Brazil in 2003. In this documentary study, we aimed to identify possible changes in the patterns of pesticide use after the adoption of this technology over a span of 13 years (2000 to 2012). The following variables were analyzed: Pesticide use (kg), Pesticide use per capita (kg/inhab), Pesticide and herbicide use per area (kg/ha) and productivity (kg/ha). Contrary to the initial expectations of decreasing pesticide use following the adoption of GM crops, overall pesticide use in Brazil increased 1.6-fold between the years 2000 and 2012. During the same period, pesticide use for soybean increased 3-fold. This study shows that the adoption of GM crops in Brazil has led to an increase in pesticide use with possible increases in environmental and human exposure and associated negative impacts.

From water to life: from Phoenix to EXOMARS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giorgio, V.

Latest news: there definitely is water on Mars. NASA issued the announcement following measurements performed by the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft on samples gathered from the planet's surface. Such a discovery confirms what the scientific community has long posited: some kind of life form could have developed on Mars, and may still be there; a kind of life form that was undoubtedly able to adapt to the Red Planet's harshest environmental conditions. However, scientists won't stop here: quite the contrary, they intend to keep going. The next step is to find evidence of that life, traces of its past or current existence. That is the task that was assigned to EXOMARS European Mission, whose main purpose is carrying out research into Exobiology, that is to say research into the origin, evolution and spreading of life across the universe.

Copper/solder intermetallic growth studies.

PubMed

Kirchner, K W; Lucey, G K; Geis, J

1993-08-01

Copper samples, hot solder (eutectic) dipped and thermally aged, were cross-sectioned and placed in an environmental scanning electronic microscope (ESEM). While in the ESEM the samples were heated for approximately 2.5 h at 170 degrees C to stimulate the growth of additional Cu/Sn intermetallic compound. The intent of the study was to obtain a continuous real-time videotape record of the diffusion process and compare the observations to static SEM images reported to represent long-term, naturally aged intermetallic growth. The video obtained allows the observation of the diffusion process and relativistic growth phenomena at the Cu, Cu3Sn, Cu6Sn5, and solder interfaces as well as effects on the bulk Cu and solder. Effects contrary to earlier reports were observed; for example, growth rates of Cu3Sn were found to greatly exceed those of Cu6Sn5.

Biodiversity patterns, environmental drivers and indicator species on a high-temperature hydrothermal edifice, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarrazin, Jozée; Legendre, Pierre; de Busserolles, Fanny; Fabri, Marie-Claire; Guilini, Katja; Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N.; Morineaux, Marie; Vanreusel, Ann; Sarradin, Pierre-Marie

2015-11-01

Knowledge on quantitative faunal distribution patterns of hydrothermal communities in slow-spreading vent fields is particularly scarce, despite the importance of these ridges in the global mid-ocean system. This study assessed the composition, abundance and diversity of 12 benthic faunal assemblages from various locations on the Eiffel Tower edifice (Lucky Strike vent field, Mid-Atlantic Ridge) and investigated the role of key environmental conditions (temperature, total dissolved iron (TdFe), sulfide (TdS), copper (TdCu) and pH) on the distribution of macro- and meiofaunal species at small spatial scales (<1 m). There were differences in macro- and meiofaunal community structure between the different sampling locations, separating the hydrothermal community of the Eiffel Tower edifice into three types of microhabitats: (1) cold microhabitats characterized by low temperatures (<6 °C), high TdCu (up to 2.4±1.37 μmol l-1), high pH (up to 7.34±0.13) but low TdS concentrations (<6.98±5.01 μmol l-1); (2) warm microhabitats characterized by warmer temperatures (>6 °C), low pH (<6.5) and high TdS/TdFe concentrations (>12.8 μmol l-1/>1.1 μmol l-1 respectively); and (3) the third microhabitat characterized by intermediate abiotic conditions. Environmental conditions showed more variation in the warm microhabitats than in the cold microhabitats. In terms of fauna, the warm microhabitats had lower macro- and meiofaunal densities, and lower richness and Shannon diversity than the cold microhabitats. Six macrofaunal species (Branchipolynoe seepensis, Amathys lutzi, Bathymodiolus azoricus, Lepetodrilus fucensis, Protolira valvatoides and Chorocaris chacei) and three meiofaunal taxa (Paracanthonchus, Cephalochaetosoma and Microlaimus) were identified as being significant indicator species/taxa of particular microhabitats. Our results also highlight very specific niche separation for copepod juveniles among the different hydrothermal microhabitats. Some sampling units showed unique faunal composition and increased beta diversity on the Eiffel Tower edifice. Contrary to what was expected, the highest beta diversity was not associated with a particular microhabitat type, but rather with location on the central part of the edifice where other structuring factors may predominate.

An Efficient Bundle Adjustment Model Based on Parallax Parametrization for Environmental Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, R.; Sun, Y. Y.; Lei, Y.

2017-12-01

With the rapid development of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), more and more research fields have been successfully equipped with this mature technology, among which is environmental monitoring. One difficult task is how to acquire accurate position of ground object in order to reconstruct the scene more accurate. To handle this problem, we combine bundle adjustment method from Photogrammetry with parallax parametrization from Computer Vision to create a new method call APCP (aerial polar-coordinate photogrammetry). One impressive advantage of this method compared with traditional method is that the 3-dimensional point in space is represented using three angles (elevation angle, azimuth angle and parallax angle) rather than the XYZ value. As the basis for APCP, bundle adjustment could be used to optimize the UAS sensors' pose accurately, reconstruct the 3D models of environment, thus serving as the criterion of accurate position for monitoring. To verity the effectiveness of the proposed method, we test on several UAV dataset obtained by non-metric digital cameras with large attitude angles, and we find that our methods could achieve 1 or 2 times better efficiency with no loss of accuracy than traditional ones. For the classical nonlinear optimization of bundle adjustment model based on the rectangular coordinate, it suffers the problem of being seriously dependent on the initial values, making it unable to converge fast or converge to a stable state. On the contrary, APCP method could deal with quite complex condition of UAS when conducting monitoring as it represent the points in space with angles, including the condition that the sequential images focusing on one object have zero parallax angle. In brief, this paper presents the parameterization of 3D feature points based on APCP, and derives a full bundle adjustment model and the corresponding nonlinear optimization problems based on this method. In addition, we analyze the influence of convergence and dependence on the initial values through math formulas. At last this paper conducts experiments using real aviation data, and proves that the new model can effectively solve bottlenecks of the classical method in a certain degree, that is, this paper provides a new idea and solution for faster and more efficient environmental monitoring.

40 CFR 179.24 - Ex parte discussions; separation of functions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... hearing, or by the Administrator, depending on who received the communication. An oral communication... hearing, who is involved in an oral communication contrary to this section, must, to the extent necessary... oral communication contrary to this section will be permitted. (d) The prohibitions specified in...

Elevational variation in body-temperature response to immune challenge in a lizard

PubMed Central

Reguera, Senda; Moreno-Rueda, Gregorio

2016-01-01

Immunocompetence benefits animal fitness by combating pathogens, but also entails some costs. One of its main components is fever, which in ectotherms involves two main types of costs: energy expenditure and predation risk. Whenever those costs of fever outweigh its benefits, ectotherms are expected not to develop fever, or even to show hypothermia, reducing costs of thermoregulation and diverting the energy saved to other components of the immune system. Environmental thermal quality, and therefore the thermoregulation cost/benefit balance, varies geographically. Hence, we hypothesize that, in alpine habitats, immune-challenged ectotherms should show no thermal response, given that (1) hypothermia would be very costly, as the temporal window for reproduction is extremely small, and (2) fever would have a prohibitive cost, as heat acquisition is limited in such habitat. However, in temperate habitats, immune-challenged ectotherms might show a febrile response, due to lower cost/benefit balance as a consequence of a more suitable thermal environment. We tested this hypothesis in Psammodromus algirus lizards from Sierra Nevada (SE Spain), by testing body temperature preferred by alpine and non-alpine lizards, before and after activating their immune system with a typical innocuous pyrogen. Surprisingly, non-alpine lizards responded to immune challenge by decreasing preferential body-temperature, presumably allowing them to save energy and reduce exposure to predators. On the contrary, as predicted, immune-challenged alpine lizards maintained their body-temperature preferences. These results match with increased costs of no thermoregulation with elevation, due to the reduced window of time for reproduction in alpine environment. PMID:27168981

Elevational variation in body-temperature response to immune challenge in a lizard.

PubMed

Zamora-Camacho, Francisco Javier; Reguera, Senda; Moreno-Rueda, Gregorio

2016-01-01

Immunocompetence benefits animal fitness by combating pathogens, but also entails some costs. One of its main components is fever, which in ectotherms involves two main types of costs: energy expenditure and predation risk. Whenever those costs of fever outweigh its benefits, ectotherms are expected not to develop fever, or even to show hypothermia, reducing costs of thermoregulation and diverting the energy saved to other components of the immune system. Environmental thermal quality, and therefore the thermoregulation cost/benefit balance, varies geographically. Hence, we hypothesize that, in alpine habitats, immune-challenged ectotherms should show no thermal response, given that (1) hypothermia would be very costly, as the temporal window for reproduction is extremely small, and (2) fever would have a prohibitive cost, as heat acquisition is limited in such habitat. However, in temperate habitats, immune-challenged ectotherms might show a febrile response, due to lower cost/benefit balance as a consequence of a more suitable thermal environment. We tested this hypothesis in Psammodromus algirus lizards from Sierra Nevada (SE Spain), by testing body temperature preferred by alpine and non-alpine lizards, before and after activating their immune system with a typical innocuous pyrogen. Surprisingly, non-alpine lizards responded to immune challenge by decreasing preferential body-temperature, presumably allowing them to save energy and reduce exposure to predators. On the contrary, as predicted, immune-challenged alpine lizards maintained their body-temperature preferences. These results match with increased costs of no thermoregulation with elevation, due to the reduced window of time for reproduction in alpine environment.

RECLAMATION OF TOXIC MINE WASTE UTILIZING SEWAGE SLUDGE CONTRARY CREEK DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

EPA Science Inventory

Three abandoned pyrite mines in central Virginia that had been inactive since 1923 contained about 12 denuded ha and caused severe acid mine drainage (AMD) in a small stream known as Contrary Creek. The AMD included heavy metals and rendered the stream virtually void of aquatic l...

Participation of the hypophyseal-adrenal cortex system in thrombin clearance during immobilization stress

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kudryashov, B. A.; Uljanov, A. M.; Shapiro, F. B.; Bazazyan, G. G.

1981-01-01

Thrombin marked with I-131 resulted in a considerable increase of the thrombined clearance rate in healthy male rats during stress caused by an immobilization lasting 30 minutes, and in an increase of thrombin clearance occurred by a combination of immobilization and administration of adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). Contrary to ACTH, the thrombin clearance is not stimulated in healthy animals by hydrocortisone. The results of the examination are presented.

Human Terrain Systems and the Moral Prosecution of Warfare

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-01

those waging war having “rightful intention” in which wars are waged “not for motives of aggrandizement, or cruelty , but with the object of securing...other’s language, meet, and are not compelled to pass, but, on the contrary, to remain in company, dumb animals , though of different species, would...produce honey for sale in village markets. The interpreters became extremely animated when they found the scope and some Arabic documents and they

Antimisting Fuel Research and Development for Commercial Aircraft

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-04-01

applied to the same systems operating with AMK. This finding is contrary to that for forced convection, Boeing said, where AiK is a less effective heat ...Ralph Combariati Port. Authority of NY and NJ JFK International Airport Jamaica, NY 11430 Mr. Edward Conklin Sikorsky Aircraft North Main Street...Charter Oak Boulevard Box 10651 West Hartford, CT 06110-0651 Mr. Stanley Jones Pan American World Airways JFK International Airport New York, NY

Year-round Application of Water Curtain for Environmental Control in Greenhouse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibuki, R.; Sugita, E.

2011-12-01

In large area of Japan needs forced environmental control to cultivate yields in hard temperature condition. Water Curtain is applied in Japan for night time air temperature control of small greenhouse, making strawberry and covered by plastic film. Water is splayed on extended plastic film, located above strawberry and below roof film. Underground water is utilized for cooling in summer, and warming in winter. Heat exchange between water and ground, and also water and air in the greenhouse is occurring in this system. Furthermore, heat transfer by radiation effect is also controlled by water membrane. In winter night, infrared radiation through plastic film is reduced by water membrane because of its high absorption coefficient on wave length of infrared. Besides water has a high transparency on wave length of visible light. These features are useful on the daytime radiation control of greenhouse to maintain visible light level for photosynthesis and to reduce excess infrared, damages yields in summer. Also in daytime of sunny day in winter season, temperature is too high to cultivate yields in closed greenhouse. Under this situation, water curtain is useful to storage from broad area in greenhouse excess heat from air in the circulation water. Warm water is useful to maintain temperature in greenhouse. On the contrary, in summer season, water can storage heat in daytime and release in night time. Water curtain system will contribute to be a sustainable and low energy consumption system to maintain comfortable environment for yields growth. For this reason we are considering to use water curtain in year-round. At the first step of the year-round application, day time use in summer is experimentally investigated. General water curtain splays water on plastic film extended on metal pipe. In this situation water is gathered at valley part of the film. Then water membrane is partially made and radiation control is not effective at large area. Therefore we applied new covering way to realize higher water covering ratio. With this way selective reduction effect of water curtain, which reduce infrared more than visible light is quantitatively measured. Also small greenhouse to growth plants under it is settled to measure thermal net, heat absorption, water and air temperature variation and yields growth. From measurements way of making water membrane influenced water temperature elevation.

Biological activity of green-synthesized silver nanoparticles depends on the applied natural extracts: a comprehensive study.

PubMed

Rónavári, Andrea; Kovács, Dávid; Igaz, Nóra; Vágvölgyi, Csaba; Boros, Imre Miklós; Kónya, Zoltán; Pfeiffer, Ilona; Kiricsi, Mónika

2017-01-01

Due to obvious disadvantages of the classical chemical methods, green synthesis of metallic nanoparticles has attracted tremendous attention in recent years. Numerous environmentally benign synthesis methods have been developed yielding nanoparticles via low-cost, eco-friendly, and simple approaches. In this study, our aim was to determine the suitability of coffee and green tea extracts in green synthesis of silver nanoparticles as well as to compare the performance of the obtained materials in different biological systems. We successfully produced silver nanoparticles (C-AgNP and GT-AgNP) using coffee and green tea extracts; moreover, based on our comprehensive screening, we delineated major differences in the biological activity of C-AgNPs and GT-AgNPs. Our results indicate that although GT-AgNPs exhibited excellent antimicrobial activity against all the examined microbial pathogens, these particles were also highly toxic to mammalian cells, which limits their potential applications. On the contrary, C-AgNPs manifested substantial inhibitory action on the tested microbes but were nontoxic to human and mouse cells, indicating an outstanding capacity to discriminate between potential pathogens and mammalian cells. These results clearly show that the various green materials used for stabilization and for reduction of metal ions have a defining role in determining and fine-tuning the biological activity of the obtained nanoparticles.

[Health consequences of passive smoking].

PubMed

Haustein, K O

2001-06-01

Environmental tobacco smoking (ETS) represents a main risk factor for the generation of diseases of the respiratory tract and of the cardiovascular system in spite of statements to the contrary. ETS enhances the risk of lung cancer by a factor of 2-3. Newborn and small children (< 2 years of life) are at high risk if they live within this period of time in a household exposed to maternal more than fraternal smoking. Endothelial cells of the blood vessels are damaged as early as during the first month of life of passive smoking children, and these defects can be detected during the first decade of life. ETS over a period of more than ten years changes the intima/media ratio by enhancing the thickness of the vessel wall. Additionally, poor health behaviour is seen in households of smokers because the behaviour of the parents is transferred to that of their children, and this behaviour is the starting point of further health risks and damages. The presented data should cause a call for primary smoking prevention preferably among children and young persons on the one hand, and the organisation of programs against ETS at the workplace and in public buildings, as well as in the private house on the other hand. Non-smokers must be informed about the risks and dangers of ETS more than it is the case up to now.

Biological activity of green-synthesized silver nanoparticles depends on the applied natural extracts: a comprehensive study

PubMed Central

Rónavári, Andrea; Kovács, Dávid; Igaz, Nóra; Vágvölgyi, Csaba; Boros, Imre Miklós; Kónya, Zoltán; Pfeiffer, Ilona; Kiricsi, Mónika

2017-01-01

Due to obvious disadvantages of the classical chemical methods, green synthesis of metallic nanoparticles has attracted tremendous attention in recent years. Numerous environmentally benign synthesis methods have been developed yielding nanoparticles via low-cost, eco-friendly, and simple approaches. In this study, our aim was to determine the suitability of coffee and green tea extracts in green synthesis of silver nanoparticles as well as to compare the performance of the obtained materials in different biological systems. We successfully produced silver nanoparticles (C-AgNP and GT-AgNP) using coffee and green tea extracts; moreover, based on our comprehensive screening, we delineated major differences in the biological activity of C-AgNPs and GT-AgNPs. Our results indicate that although GT-AgNPs exhibited excellent antimicrobial activity against all the examined microbial pathogens, these particles were also highly toxic to mammalian cells, which limits their potential applications. On the contrary, C-AgNPs manifested substantial inhibitory action on the tested microbes but were nontoxic to human and mouse cells, indicating an outstanding capacity to discriminate between potential pathogens and mammalian cells. These results clearly show that the various green materials used for stabilization and for reduction of metal ions have a defining role in determining and fine-tuning the biological activity of the obtained nanoparticles. PMID:28184158

Diel-scale temporal dynamics recorded for bacterial groups in Namib Desert soil

PubMed Central

Gunnigle, Eoin; Frossard, Aline; Ramond, Jean-Baptiste; Guerrero, Leandro; Seely, Mary; Cowan, Don A.

2017-01-01

Microbes in hot desert soil partake in core ecosystem processes e.g., biogeochemical cycling of carbon. Nevertheless, there is still a fundamental lack of insights regarding short-term (i.e., over a 24-hour [diel] cycle) microbial responses to highly fluctuating microenvironmental parameters like temperature and humidity. To address this, we employed T-RFLP fingerprinting and 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA-derived cDNA to characterize potentially active bacteria in Namib Desert soil over multiple diel cycles. Strikingly, we found that significant shifts in active bacterial groups could occur over a single 24-hour period. For instance, members of the predominant Actinobacteria phyla exhibited a significant reduction in relative activity from morning to night, whereas many Proteobacterial groups displayed an opposite trend. Contrary to our leading hypothesis, environmental parameters could only account for 10.5% of the recorded total variation. Potential biotic associations shown through co-occurrence networks indicated that non-random inter- and intra-phyla associations were ‘time-of-day-dependent’ which may constitute a key feature of this system. Notably, many cyanobacterial groups were positioned outside and/or between highly interconnected bacterial associations (modules); possibly acting as inter-module ‘hubs’ orchestrating interactions between important functional consortia. Overall, these results provide empirical evidence that bacterial communities in hot desert soils exhibit complex and diel-dependent inter-community associations. PMID:28071697

Climatic variability leads to later seasonal flowering of Floridian plants.

PubMed

Von Holle, Betsy; Wei, Yun; Nickerson, David

2010-07-21

Understanding species responses to global change will help predict shifts in species distributions as well as aid in conservation. Changes in the timing of seasonal activities of organisms over time may be the most responsive and easily observable indicator of environmental changes associated with global climate change. It is unknown how global climate change will affect species distributions and developmental events in subtropical ecosystems or if climate change will differentially favor nonnative species. Contrary to previously observed trends for earlier flowering onset of plant species with increasing spring temperatures from mid and higher latitudes, we document a trend for delayed seasonal flowering among plants in Florida. Additionally, there were few differences in reproductive responses by native and nonnative species to climatic changes. We argue that plants in Florida have different reproductive cues than those from more northern climates. With global change, minimum temperatures have become more variable within the temperate-subtropical zone that occurs across the peninsula and this variation is strongly associated with delayed flowering among Florida plants. Our data suggest that climate change varies by region and season and is not a simple case of species responding to consistently increasing temperatures across the region. Research on climate change impacts need to be extended outside of the heavily studied higher latitudes to include subtropical and tropical systems in order to properly understand the complexity of regional and seasonal differences of climate change on species responses.

Plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems: macro-, meso-, and microplastic debris in a floodplain lake.

PubMed

Blettler, Martin C M; Ulla, Maria Alicia; Rabuffetti, Ana Pia; Garello, Nicolás

2017-10-23

Plastic pollution is considered an important environmental problem by the United Nations Environment Programme, and it is identified, alongside climate change, as an emerging issue that might affect biological diversity and human health. However, despite research efforts investigating plastics in oceans, relatively little studies have focused on freshwater systems. The aim of this study was to estimate the spatial distribution, types, and characteristics of macro-, meso-, and microplastic fragments in shoreline sediments of a freshwater lake. Food wrappers (mainly polypropylene and polystyrene), bags (high- and low-density polyethylene), bottles (polyethylene terephthalate), and disposable Styrofoam food containers (expanded polystyrene) were the dominant macroplastics recorded in this study. Contrary to other studies, herein macroplastic item surveys would not serve as surrogates for microplastic items. This is disadvantageous since macroplastic surveys are relatively easier to conduct. Otherwise, an average of 25 mesoplastics (mainly expanded polystyrene) and 704 microplastic particles (diverse resins) were recorded per square meter in sandy sediments. Comparisons with other studies from freshwater and marine beaches indicated similar relevance of plastic contamination, demonstrating for the first time that plastic pollution is a serious problem in the Paraná floodplain lakes. This study is also valuable from a social/educational point of view, since plastic waste has been ignored in the Paraná catchment as a pollutant problem, and therefore, the outcome of the current study is a relevant contribution for decision makers.

Psychomotor performance during a 28 day head-down tilt with and without lower body negative pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Traon, A. Pavy-le; de Feneyrols, A. Rous; Cornac, A.; Abdeseelam, R.; N'uygen, D.; Lazerges, M.; Güell, A.; Bes, A.

Several factors may affect psychomotor performance in space: sensory-motor changes, sleep disturbances, psychological modifications induced by the social isolation and confinement. However, psychomotor performance is difficult to assess. A battery of standardized and computerized tests, so-called "Automated Portable Test System" (APTS) was devised to ascertain the cognitive, perceptive and motor abilities and their possible fluctuations according to environmental effects. Antiorthostatic bedrest, often used to simulate weightlessness, (particularly cardiovascular modifications) also constitutes a situation of social confinement and isolation. During two bedrest experiments (with head-down tilt of -6°) of 28 days each, we intended to assess psychomotor performance of 6 males so as to determine whether: —on the one hand, it could be altered by remaining in decubitus; —on the other, the Lower Body Negative Pressure sessions, designed to prevent orthostatic intolerance back on Earth, could improve the performance. To accomplish this, part of the APTS tests as well as an automated perceptive attention test were performed. No downgrading of psychomotor performance was observed. On the contrary, the tasks were more accurately performed over time. In order to assess the experimental conditions on the acquisition phase, the learning curves were modelled. A beneficial effect of the LBNP sessions on simple tests involving the visual-motor coordination and attention faculties can only be regarded as a mere trend. Methods used in this experiment are also discussed.

Diel-scale temporal dynamics recorded for bacterial groups in Namib Desert soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunnigle, Eoin; Frossard, Aline; Ramond, Jean-Baptiste; Guerrero, Leandro; Seely, Mary; Cowan, Don A.

2017-01-01

Microbes in hot desert soil partake in core ecosystem processes e.g., biogeochemical cycling of carbon. Nevertheless, there is still a fundamental lack of insights regarding short-term (i.e., over a 24-hour [diel] cycle) microbial responses to highly fluctuating microenvironmental parameters like temperature and humidity. To address this, we employed T-RFLP fingerprinting and 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA-derived cDNA to characterize potentially active bacteria in Namib Desert soil over multiple diel cycles. Strikingly, we found that significant shifts in active bacterial groups could occur over a single 24-hour period. For instance, members of the predominant Actinobacteria phyla exhibited a significant reduction in relative activity from morning to night, whereas many Proteobacterial groups displayed an opposite trend. Contrary to our leading hypothesis, environmental parameters could only account for 10.5% of the recorded total variation. Potential biotic associations shown through co-occurrence networks indicated that non-random inter- and intra-phyla associations were ‘time-of-day-dependent’ which may constitute a key feature of this system. Notably, many cyanobacterial groups were positioned outside and/or between highly interconnected bacterial associations (modules); possibly acting as inter-module ‘hubs’ orchestrating interactions between important functional consortia. Overall, these results provide empirical evidence that bacterial communities in hot desert soils exhibit complex and diel-dependent inter-community associations.

Gene-Environment Interactions in Asthma: Genetic and Epigenetic Effects.

PubMed

Lee, Jong-Uk; Kim, Jeong Dong; Park, Choon-Sik

2015-07-01

Over the past three decades, a large number of genetic studies have been aimed at finding genetic variants associated with the risk of asthma, applying various genetic and genomic approaches including linkage analysis, candidate gene polymorphism studies, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, contrary to general expectation, even single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered by GWAS failed to fully explain the heritability of asthma. Thus, application of rare allele polymorphisms in well defined phenotypes and clarification of environmental factors have been suggested to overcome the problem of 'missing' heritability. Such factors include allergens, cigarette smoke, air pollutants, and infectious agents during pre- and post-natal periods. The first and simplest interaction between a gene and the environment is a candidate interaction of both a well known gene and environmental factor in a direct physical or chemical interaction such as between CD14 and endotoxin or between HLA and allergens. Several GWAS have found environmental interactions with occupational asthma, aspirin exacerbated respiratory disease, tobacco smoke-related airway dysfunction, and farm-related atopic diseases. As one of the mechanisms behind gene-environment interaction is epigenetics, a few studies on DNA CpG methylation have been reported on subphenotypes of asthma, pitching the exciting idea that it may be possible to intervene at the junction between the genome and the environment. Epigenetic studies are starting to include data from clinical samples, which will make them another powerful tool for re-search on gene-environment interactions in asthma.

Sensor kinase KinB and its pathway-associated key factors sense the signal of nutrition starvation in sporulation of Bacillus subtilis.

PubMed

Liu, Weipeng; He, Zeying; Gao, Feng; Yan, Jinyuan; Huang, Xiaowei

2018-01-03

Bacillus subtilis responds to environmental stress cues and develops endospores for survival. In the process of endospore formation, sporulation initiation is a vital stage and this stage is governed by autophosphorylation of the sensor histidine kinases. The second major sensor kinase KinB perceives the intracellular changes of GTP and ATP during sporulation. However, determination of the environmental signals as well as its related signaling pathway of KinB requires further elucidation. Our current study found that, contrary to the sporulation failure induced by ΔkinA in the nutrient-rich 2× SG medium, the sensor kinase KinB sensed the environmental cues in the nutrient-poor MM medium. Two other membrane proteins, KapB and KbaA, also responded similarly to the same external signal as KinB. Both KapB and KbaA acted upstream of KinB, but they exerted their regulation upon KinB independently. Furthermore, we demonstrated that both the SH3 domain and the α-helix structure in KapB are required for sensing or transducing the signal of sporulation initiation. Collectively, our work here supplied the direct evidences that KinB and its pathway sense the external signal of nutrient starvation in MM medium, and further analyzes the interrelationship among KinB, KbaA, and KapB. © 2018 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Does better for the environment mean less tasty? Offering more climate-friendly meals is good for the environment and customer satisfaction.

PubMed

Visschers, Vivianne H M; Siegrist, Michael

2015-12-01

Food consumption comprises a significant portion of the total environmental impact of households. One way to reduce this impact may be to offer consumers more climate-friendly meal choices, such as when eating out. However, the environmental benefits of such an intervention will depend on not only consumers' liking of the climate-friendlier meals, but also on the perceived environmental impact. We therefore investigated the relationship between the global warming potential (GWP) of and consumers' liking of meals in two field studies in the same restaurant. Visitors to the restaurant were asked to rate the taste of the meal they had just consumed. These taste ratings were then related to the meals' GWP and number of purchases. In the second study, an intervention was tested consisting of a climate-friendly choice label and information posters. Contrary to expectations, it was found in both studies that the GWP of the meals was unrelated to the taste or the number of purchases. Offering more climate-friendly meals did not change consumer satisfaction. As expected, the introduction of the climate-friendly choice label increased the number of climate-friendly meal purchases. Therefore, offering more climate-friendly meals with a climate-friendly choice label can affect consumers' meal choices, but not their preferences or satisfaction, which is beneficial for the climate, consumers and gastronomic establishments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection of odour removal technologies in wastewater treatment plants: a guideline based on Life Cycle Assessment.

PubMed

Alfonsín, Carolina; Lebrero, Raquel; Estrada, José M; Muñoz, Raúl; Kraakman, N J R Bart; Feijoo, Gumersindo; Moreira, M Teresa

2015-02-01

This paper aims at analysing the environmental benefits and impacts associated with the treatment of malodorous emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to two biological treatments, namely biofilter (BF) and biotrickling filter (BTF), two physical/chemical alternatives, namely activated carbon tower (AC) and chemical scrubber (CS), and a hybrid combination of BTF + AC. The assessment provided consistent guidelines for technology selection, not only based on removal efficiencies, but also on the environmental impact associated with the treatment of emissions. The results showed that biological alternatives entailed the lowest impacts. On the contrary, the use of chemicals led to the highest impacts for CS. Energy use was the main contributor to the impact related to BF and BTF, whereas the production of glass fibre used as infrastructure material played an important role in BTF impact. Production of NaClO entailed the highest burdens among the chemicals used in CS, representing ∼ 90% of the impact associated to chemicals. The frequent replacement of packing material in AC was responsible for the highest environmental impacts, granular activated carbon (GAC) production and its final disposal representing more than 50% of the impact in most categories. Finally, the assessment of BTF + AC showed that the hybrid technology is less recommendable than BF and BTF, but friendlier to the environment than physical/chemical treatments. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developmental plasticity and the origin of species differences

PubMed Central

West-Eberhard, Mary Jane

2005-01-01

Speciation is the origin of reproductive isolation and divergence between populations, according to the “biological species concept” of Mayr. Studies of reproductive isolation have dominated research on speciation, leaving the origin of species differences relatively poorly understood. Here, I argue that the origin of species differences, and of novel phenotypes in general, involves the reorganization of ancestral phenotypes (developmental recombination) followed by the genetic accommodation of change. Because selection acts on phenotypes, not directly on genotypes or genes, novel traits can originate by environmental induction as well as mutation, then undergo selection and genetic accommodation fueled by standing genetic variation or by subsequent mutation and genetic recombination. Insofar as phenotypic novelties arise from adaptive developmental plasticity, they are not “random” variants, because their initial form reflects adaptive responses with an evolutionary history, even though they are initiated by mutations or novel environmental factors that are random with respect to (future) adaptation. Change in trait frequency involves genetic accommodation of the threshold or liability for expression of a novel trait, a process that follows rather than directs phenotypic change. Contrary to common belief, environmentally initiated novelties may have greater evolutionary potential than mutationally induced ones. Thus, genes are probably more often followers than leaders in evolutionary change. Species differences can originate before reproductive isolation and contribute to the process of speciation itself. Therefore, the genetics of speciation can profit from studies of changes in gene expression as well as changes in gene frequency and genetic isolation. PMID:15851679

Context-specific effects of the identity of detrital mixtures on invertebrate communities

PubMed Central

Bishop, Melanie J; Kelaher, Brendan P

2013-01-01

Many aquatic ecosystems are sustained by detrital subsidies of leaf litter derived from exogenous sources. Although numerous studies have examined the effects of litter species richness and identity on decomposition processes, it remains unclear how these effects extend to associated invertebrate communities or how these effects vary spatially according to local environmental context. Using field enrichment experiments, we assessed how the species richness, assemblage composition, and supply of detrital litter resources interact to affect benthic communities of three temperate Australian estuarine mudflats. Our experiments utilized eight litter sources that are presently experiencing human-mediated changes in their supply to estuarine mudflats. Contrary to predictions, we did not detect effects of the species richness of detrital mixtures on benthic communities. Macroinvertebrate community structure and, in particular, abundance were, instead, influenced by the assemblage composition of detrital mixtures. At two of the three sites, plots receiving the most labile detrital mix, containing the ephemeral algae Chaetomorpha and Ulva, supported the fewest macroinvertebrates of all the experimental enrichments. The large effect of detrital mix identity on macroinvertebrate communities is of concern given present trends of proliferation of macroalgae at the expense of more refractory seagrasses and marsh grasses. As such environmental degradation continues, it will be important to more fully understand under what environmental contexts such compositional changes in detrital resources will have the most detrimental effects on important prey resources for commercially important fish and wading shorebirds. PMID:24198954

75 FR 37732 - National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Reciprocating Internal Combustion...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-30

... procedure are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest, the Agency may issue a rule... because this action only corrects a simple and obvious instructional error that would cause a change that... impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest. This determination must be supported by a brief...

43 CFR 3746.1 - Mining locations for fissionable source materials.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... provisions of the Act of August 12, 1953 (67 Stat. 539), and particularly sec. 3 thereof, any mining claim... deposit which is a fissionable source material and which, except for the possible contrary construction of... affected by such possible contrary construction, be valid and effective, in all respects to the same extent...

43 CFR 3746.1 - Mining locations for fissionable source materials.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... provisions of the Act of August 12, 1953 (67 Stat. 539), and particularly sec. 3 thereof, any mining claim... deposit which is a fissionable source material and which, except for the possible contrary construction of... affected by such possible contrary construction, be valid and effective, in all respects to the same extent...

Age, state, environment, and season dependence of senescence in body mass.

PubMed

Kroeger, Svenja B; Blumstein, Daniel T; Armitage, Kenneth B; Reid, Jane M; Martin, Julien G A

2018-02-01

Senescence is a highly variable process that comprises both age-dependent and state-dependent components and can be greatly affected by environmental conditions. However, few studies have quantified the magnitude of age-dependent and state-dependent senescence in key life-history traits across individuals inhabiting different spatially structured and seasonal environments. We used longitudinal data from wild female yellow-bellied marmots ( Marmota flaviventer ), living in two adjacent environments that differ in elevation and associated phenology, to quantify how age and individual state, measured as "time to death," affect body mass senescence in different environments. Further, we quantified how patterns of senescence differed between two biologically distinct seasons, spring, and late summer. Body mass senescence had an age-dependent component, expressed as a decrease in mass in old age. Overall, estimated age-dependent senescence was greater in females living in the more favorable lower elevation environment, than in the harsher higher elevation environment, and greater in late summer than in spring. Body mass senescence also had a state-dependent component, captured by effects of time to death, but only in the more favorable lower elevation environment. In spring, body mass gradually decreased from 2 years before death, whereas in late summer, state-dependent effects were expressed as a terminal decrease in body mass in the last year of life. Contrary to expectations, we found that senescence was more likely to be observed under more favorable environmental conditions, rather than under harsher conditions. By further demonstrating that senescence patterns differ among seasons, our results imply that within-year temporal environmental variation must be considered alongside spatial environmental variation in order to characterize and understand the pattern and magnitude of senescence in wild populations.

Living on the edge: Daily, seasonal and annual body temperature patterns of Arabian oryx in Saudi Arabia.

PubMed

Streicher, S; Lutermann, H; Bennett, N C; Bertelsen, M F; Mohammed, O B; Manger, P R; Scantlebury, M; Ismael, K; Alagaili, A N

2017-01-01

Heterothermy, the ability to allow body temperature (Tb) to fluctuate, has been proposed as an adaptive mechanism that enables large ungulates to cope with the high environmental temperatures and lack of free water experienced in arid environments. By storing heat during the daytime and dissipating it during the night, arid-adapted ungulates may reduce evaporative water loss and conserve water. Adaptive heterothermy in large ungulates should be particularly pronounced in hot environments with severely limited access to free water. In the current study we investigated the effects of environmental temperature (ambient, Ta and soil, Ts) and water stress on the Tb of wild, free-ranging Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) in two different sites in Saudi Arabia, Mahazat as-Sayd (MS) and Uruq Bani Ma'arid (UBM). Using implanted data loggers wet took continuous Tb readings every 10 minutes for an entire calendar year and determined the Tb amplitude as well as the heterothermy index (HI). Both differed significantly between sites but contrary to our expectations they were greater in MS despite its lower environmental temperatures and higher rainfall. This may be partially attributable to a higher activity in an unfamiliar environment for translocated animals in UBM. As expected Tb amplitude and HI were greatest during summer. Only minor sex differences were apparent that may be attributable to sex-specific investment into reproduction (e.g. male-male competition) during rut. Our results suggest that the degree of heterothermy is not only driven by extrinsic factors (e.g. environmental temperatures and water availability), but may also be affected by intrinsic factors (e.g. sex and/or behaviour).

The Zebrafish Ortholog of TRPV1 Is Required for Heat-Induced Locomotion

PubMed Central

Gau, Philia; Poon, Jason; Ufret-Vincenty, Carmen; Snelson, Corey D.; Gordon, Sharona E.; Raible, David W.

2013-01-01

The ability to detect hot temperatures is critical to maintaining body temperature and avoiding injury in diverse animals from insects to mammals. Zebrafish embryos, when given a choice, actively avoid hot temperatures and display an increase in locomotion similar to that seen when they are exposed to noxious compounds such as mustard oil. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the single zebrafish ortholog of TRPV1/2 may have arisen from an evolutionary precursor of the mammalian TRPV1 and TRPV2. As opposed to TRPV2, mammalian TRPV1 is essential for environmentally relevant heat sensation. In the present study, we provide evidence that the zebrafish TRPV1 ion channel is also required for the sensation of heat. Contrary to development in mammals, zebrafish TRPV1+ neurons arise during the first wave of somatosensory neuron development, suggesting a vital importance of thermal sensation in early larval survival. In vitro analysis showed that zebrafish TRPV1 acts as a molecular sensor of environmental heat (≥25°C) that is distinctly lower than the sensitivity of the mammalian form (≥42°C) but consistent with thresholds measured in behavioral assays. Using in vivo calcium imaging with the genetically encoded calcium sensor GCaMP3, we show that TRPV1-expressing trigeminal neurons are activated by heat at behaviorally relevant temperatures. Using knock-down studies, we also show that TRPV1 is required for normal heat-induced locomotion. Our results demonstrate for the first time an ancient role for TRPV1 in the direct sensation of environmental heat and show that heat sensation is adapted to reflect species-dependent requirements in response to environmental stimuli. PMID:23516290

Survival differences and the effect of environmental instability on breeding dispersal in an Adélie penguin meta-population

PubMed Central

Dugger, Katie M.; Ainley, David G.; Lyver, Phil O'B.; Barton, Kerry; Ballard, Grant

2010-01-01

High survival and breeding philopatry was previously confirmed for the Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) during a period of stable environmental conditions. However, movements of breeding adults as a result of an unplanned natural experiment within a four-colony meta-population provided interesting insights into this species’ population dynamics. We used multistate mark-recapture models to investigate apparent survival and dispersal of breeding birds in the southwestern Ross Sea during 12 breeding seasons (1996–2007). The natural experiment was facilitated by the temporary grounding of two immense icebergs that (i) erected a veritable fence separating colonies and altering migration routes and (ii) added additional stress by trapping extensive sea ice in the region during 5 of 12 y. Colony size varied by orders of magnitude, allowing investigation of apparent survival and dispersal rates in relation to both environmental conditions and colony size within this meta-population. Apparent survival was lowest for the smallest colony (4,000 pairs) and similar for the medium (45,000 pairs) and large colonies (155,000 pairs), despite increased foraging effort expended by breeders at the largest colony. Dispersal of breeding birds was low (<1%), except during years of difficult environmental conditions when movements increased, especially away from the smallest colony (3.5%). Decreased apparent survival at the smallest colony could reflect differences in migration chronology and winter habitat use compared with the other colonies, or it may reflect increased permanent emigration to colonies outside this meta-population. Contrary to current thought, breeding penguins are not always philopatric. Rather, stressful conditions can significantly increase dispersal rates. PMID:20566874

Living on the edge: Daily, seasonal and annual body temperature patterns of Arabian oryx in Saudi Arabia

PubMed Central

Lutermann, H.; Bennett, N. C.; Bertelsen, M. F.; Mohammed, O. B.; Manger, P. R.; Scantlebury, M.; Ismael, K.; Alagaili, A. N.

2017-01-01

Heterothermy, the ability to allow body temperature (Tb) to fluctuate, has been proposed as an adaptive mechanism that enables large ungulates to cope with the high environmental temperatures and lack of free water experienced in arid environments. By storing heat during the daytime and dissipating it during the night, arid-adapted ungulates may reduce evaporative water loss and conserve water. Adaptive heterothermy in large ungulates should be particularly pronounced in hot environments with severely limited access to free water. In the current study we investigated the effects of environmental temperature (ambient, Ta and soil, Ts) and water stress on the Tb of wild, free-ranging Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) in two different sites in Saudi Arabia, Mahazat as-Sayd (MS) and Uruq Bani Ma’arid (UBM). Using implanted data loggers wet took continuous Tb readings every 10 minutes for an entire calendar year and determined the Tb amplitude as well as the heterothermy index (HI). Both differed significantly between sites but contrary to our expectations they were greater in MS despite its lower environmental temperatures and higher rainfall. This may be partially attributable to a higher activity in an unfamiliar environment for translocated animals in UBM. As expected Tb amplitude and HI were greatest during summer. Only minor sex differences were apparent that may be attributable to sex-specific investment into reproduction (e.g. male-male competition) during rut. Our results suggest that the degree of heterothermy is not only driven by extrinsic factors (e.g. environmental temperatures and water availability), but may also be affected by intrinsic factors (e.g. sex and/or behaviour). PMID:28854247

The formation and fragmentation of disks around primordial protostars.

PubMed

Clark, Paul C; Glover, Simon C O; Smith, Rowan J; Greif, Thomas H; Klessen, Ralf S; Bromm, Volker

2011-02-25

The very first stars to form in the universe heralded an end to the cosmic dark ages and introduced new physical processes that shaped early cosmic evolution. Until now, it was thought that these stars lived short, solitary lives, with only one extremely massive star, or possibly a very wide binary system, forming in each dark-matter minihalo. Here we describe numerical simulations that show that these stars were, to the contrary, often members of tight multiple systems. Our results show that the disks that formed around the first young stars were unstable to gravitational fragmentation, possibly producing small binary and higher-order systems that had separations as small as the distance between Earth and the Sun.

System-size independence of directed flow measured at the BNL relativistic heavy-ion collider.

PubMed

Abelev, B I; Aggarwal, M M; Ahammed, Z; Anderson, B D; Arkhipkin, D; Averichev, G S; Bai, Y; Balewski, J; Barannikova, O; Barnby, L S; Baudot, J; Baumgart, S; Beavis, D R; Bellwied, R; Benedosso, F; Betts, R R; Bhardwaj, S; Bhasin, A; Bhati, A K; Bichsel, H; Bielcik, J; Bielcikova, J; Biritz, B; Bland, L C; Bombara, M; Bonner, B E; Botje, M; Bouchet, J; Braidot, E; Brandin, A V; Bueltmann, S; Burton, T P; Bystersky, M; Cai, X Z; Caines, H; Calderón de la Barca Sánchez, M; Callner, J; Catu, O; Cebra, D; Cendejas, R; Cervantes, M C; Chajecki, Z; Chaloupka, P; Chattopadhyay, S; Chen, H F; Chen, J H; Chen, J Y; Cheng, J; Cherney, M; Chikanian, A; Choi, K E; Christie, W; Chung, S U; Clarke, R F; Codrington, M J M; Coffin, J P; Cormier, T M; Cosentino, M R; Cramer, J G; Crawford, H J; Das, D; Dash, S; Daugherity, M; de Moura, M M; Dedovich, T G; Dephillips, M; Derevschikov, A A; Derradi de Souza, R; Didenko, L; Dietel, T; Djawotho, P; Dogra, S M; Dong, X; Drachenberg, J L; Draper, J E; Du, F; Dunlop, J C; Dutta Mazumdar, M R; Edwards, W R; Efimov, L G; Elhalhuli, E; Elnimr, M; Emelianov, V; Engelage, J; Eppley, G; Erazmus, B; Estienne, M; Eun, L; Fachini, P; Fatemi, R; Fedorisin, J; Feng, A; Filip, P; Finch, E; Fine, V; Fisyak, Y; Gagliardi, C A; Gaillard, L; Gangadharan, D R; Ganti, M S; Garcia-Solis, E; Ghazikhanian, V; Ghosh, P; Gorbunov, Y N; Gordon, A; Grebenyuk, O; Grosnick, D; Grube, B; Guertin, S M; Guimaraes, K S F F; Gupta, A; Gupta, N; Guryn, W; Haag, B; Hallman, T J; Hamed, A; Harris, J W; He, W; Heinz, M; Heppelmann, S; Hippolyte, B; Hirsch, A; Hoffman, A M; Hoffmann, G W; Hofman, D J; Hollis, R S; Huang, H Z; Hughes, E W; Humanic, T J; Igo, G; Iordanova, A; Jacobs, P; Jacobs, W W; Jakl, P; Jin, F; Jones, P G; Judd, E G; Kabana, S; Kajimoto, K; Kang, K; Kapitan, J; Kaplan, M; Keane, D; Kechechyan, A; Kettler, D; Khodyrev, V Yu; Kiryluk, J; Kisiel, A; Klein, S R; Knospe, A G; Kocoloski, A; Koetke, D D; Kollegger, T; Kopytine, M; Kotchenda, L; Kouchpil, V; Kravtsov, P; Kravtsov, V I; Krueger, K; Kuhn, C; Kumar, A; Kumar, L; Kurnadi, P; Lamont, M A C; Landgraf, J M; Lange, S; Lapointe, S; Laue, F; Lauret, J; Lebedev, A; Lednicky, R; Lee, C-H; Levine, M J; Li, C; Li, Y; Lin, G; Lin, X; Lindenbaum, S J; Lisa, M A; Liu, F; Liu, J; Liu, L; Ljubicic, T; Llope, W J; Longacre, R S; Love, W A; Lu, Y; Ludlam, T; Lynn, D; Ma, G L; Ma, J G; Ma, Y G; Mahapatra, D P; Majka, R; Mangotra, L K; Manweiler, R; Margetis, S; Markert, C; Matis, H S; Matulenko, Yu A; McShane, T S; Meschanin, A; Millane, J; Miller, M L; Minaev, N G; Mioduszewski, S; Mischke, A; Mitchell, J; Mohanty, B; Morozov, D A; Munhoz, M G; Nandi, B K; Nattrass, C; Nayak, T K; Nelson, J M; Nepali, C; Netrakanti, P K; Ng, M J; Nogach, L V; Nurushev, S B; Odyniec, G; Ogawa, A; Okada, H; Okorokov, V; Olson, D; Pachr, M; Pal, S K; Panebratsev, Y; Pawlak, T; Peitzmann, T; Perevoztchikov, V; Perkins, C; Peryt, W; Phatak, S C; Planinic, M; Pluta, J; Poljak, N; Porile, N; Poskanzer, A M; Potekhin, M; Potukuchi, B V K S; Prindle, D; Pruneau, C; Pruthi, N K; Putschke, J; Qattan, I A; Raniwala, R; Raniwala, S; Ray, R L; Ridiger, A; Ritter, H G; Roberts, J B; Rogachevskiy, O V; Romero, J L; Rose, A; Roy, C; Ruan, L; Russcher, M J; Rykov, V; Sahoo, R; Sakrejda, I; Sakuma, T; Salur, S; Sandweiss, J; Sarsour, M; Schambach, J; Scharenberg, R P; Schmitz, N; Seger, J; Selyuzhenkov, I; Seyboth, P; Shabetai, A; Shahaliev, E; Shao, M; Sharma, M; Shi, S S; Shi, X-H; Sichtermann, E P; Simon, F; Singaraju, R N; Skoby, M J; Smirnov, N; Snellings, R; Sorensen, P; Sowinski, J; Spinka, H M; Srivastava, B; Stadnik, A; Stanislaus, T D S; Staszak, D; Stock, R; Strikhanov, M; Stringfellow, B; Suaide, A A P; Suarez, M C; Subba, N L; Sumbera, M; Sun, X M; Sun, Y; Sun, Z; Surrow, B; Symons, T J M; Szanto de Toledo, A; Takahashi, J; Tang, A H; Tang, Z; Tarnowsky, T; Thein, D; Thomas, J H; Tian, J; Timmins, A R; Timoshenko, S; Tokarev, M; Trainor, T A; Tram, V N; Trattner, A L; Trentalange, S; Tribble, R E; Tsai, O D; Ulery, J; Ullrich, T; Underwood, D G; Van Buren, G; van der Kolk, N; van Leeuwen, M; Vander Molen, A M; Varma, R; Vasconcelos, G M S; Vasilevski, I M; Vasiliev, A N; Videbaek, F; Vigdor, S E; Viyogi, Y P; Vokal, S; Voloshin, S A; Wada, M; Waggoner, W T; Wang, F; Wang, G; Wang, J S; Wang, Q; Wang, X; Wang, X L; Wang, Y; Webb, J C; Westfall, G D; Whitten, C; Wieman, H; Wissink, S W; Witt, R; Wu, J; Wu, Y; Xu, N; Xu, Q H; Xu, Y; Xu, Z; Yang, Y Y; Yepes, P; Yoo, I-K; Yue, Q; Zawisza, M; Zbroszczyk, H; Zhan, W; Zhang, H; Zhang, S; Zhang, W M; Zhang, Y; Zhang, Z P; Zhao, Y; Zhong, C; Zhou, J; Zoulkarneev, R; Zoulkarneeva, Y; Zuo, J X

2008-12-19

We measure directed flow (v_{1}) for charged particles in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 and 62.4 GeV, as a function of pseudorapidity (eta), transverse momentum (p_{t}), and collision centrality, based on data from the STAR experiment. We find that the directed flow depends on the incident energy but, contrary to all available model implementations, not on the size of the colliding system at a given centrality. We extend the validity of the limiting fragmentation concept to v_{1} in different collision systems, and investigate possible explanations for the observed sign change in v_{1}(p_{t}).

Accuracy of perturbative master equations.

PubMed

Fleming, C H; Cummings, N I

2011-03-01

We consider open quantum systems with dynamics described by master equations that have perturbative expansions in the system-environment interaction. We show that, contrary to intuition, full-time solutions of order-2n accuracy require an order-(2n+2) master equation. We give two examples of such inaccuracies in the solutions to an order-2n master equation: order-2n inaccuracies in the steady state of the system and order-2n positivity violations. We show how these arise in a specific example for which exact solutions are available. This result has a wide-ranging impact on the validity of coupling (or friction) sensitive results derived from second-order convolutionless, Nakajima-Zwanzig, Redfield, and Born-Markov master equations.

Boredom begets creativity: A solution to the exploitation-exploration trade-off in predictive coding.

PubMed

Gomez-Ramirez, Jaime; Costa, Tommaso

2017-12-01

Here we investigate whether systems that minimize prediction error e.g. predictive coding, can also show creativity, or on the contrary, prediction error minimization unqualifies for the design of systems that respond in creative ways to non-recurrent problems. We argue that there is a key ingredient that has been overlooked by researchers that needs to be incorporated to understand intelligent behavior in biological and technical systems. This ingredient is boredom. We propose a mathematical model based on the Black-Scholes-Merton equation which provides mechanistic insights into the interplay between boredom and prediction pleasure as the key drivers of behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Putative Liquid-Liquid Transition is a Liquid-Solid Transition in Atomistic Models of Water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chandler, David; Limmer, David

2013-03-01

Our detailed and controlled studies of free energy surfaces for models of water find no evidence for reversible polyamorphism, and a general theoretical analysis of the phase behavior of cold water in nano pores shows that measured behaviors of these systems reflect surface modulation and dynamics of ice, not a liquid-liquid critical point. A few workers reach different conclusions, reporting evidence of a liquid-liquid critical point in computer simulations of supercooled water. In some cases, it appears that these contrary results are based upon simulation algorithms that are inconsistent with principles of statistical mechanics, such as using barostats that do not reproduce the correct distribution of volume fluctuations. In other cases, the results appear to be associated with difficulty equilibrating the supercooled material and mistaking metastability for coarsening of the ordered ice phase. In this case, sufficient information is available for us to reproduce the contrary results and to establish that they are artifacts of finite time sampling. This finding leads us to the conclusion that two distinct, reversible liquid phases do not exist in models of supercooled water.

Microbial responses to changes in flow status in temporary headwater streams: a cross-system comparison

PubMed Central

Febria, Catherine M.; Hosen, Jacob D.; Crump, Byron C.; Palmer, Margaret A.; Williams, D. Dudley

2015-01-01

Microbial communities are responsible for the bulk of biogeochemical processing in temporary headwater streams, yet there is still relatively little known about how community structure and function respond to periodic drying. Moreover, the ability to sample temporary habitats can be a logistical challenge due to the limited capability to measure and predict the timing, intensity and frequency of wet-dry events. Unsurprisingly, published datasets on microbial community structure and function are limited in scope and temporal resolution and vary widely in the molecular methods applied. We compared environmental and microbial community datasets for permanent and temporary tributaries of two different North American headwater stream systems: Speed River (Ontario, Canada) and Parkers Creek (Maryland, USA). We explored whether taxonomic diversity and community composition were altered as a result of flow permanence and compared community composition amongst streams using different 16S microbial community methods (i.e., T-RFLP and Illumina MiSeq). Contrary to our hypotheses, and irrespective of method, community composition did not respond strongly to drying. In both systems, community composition was related to site rather than drying condition. Additional network analysis on the Parkers Creek dataset indicated a shift in the central microbial relationships between temporary and permanent streams. In the permanent stream at Parkers Creek, associations of methanotrophic taxa were most dominant, whereas associations with taxa from the order Nitrospirales were more dominant in the temporary stream, particularly during dry conditions. We compared these results with existing published studies from around the world and found a wide range in community responses to drying. We conclude by proposing three hypotheses that may address contradictory results and, when tested across systems, may expand understanding of the responses of microbial communities in temporary streams to natural and human-induced fluctuations in flow-status and permanence. PMID:26089816

Flexible merit pay for faculty.

PubMed

Allcorn, S

1986-01-01

Faculty and administrators of medical schools should not depend only upon customary forms of salary administration. Many medical schools and departments set salaries in a manner contrary to the principal mission of the institution. In this approach, the author proposes a versatile, flexible, and cost-effective salary merit pay program. The system not only follows the mission of the institution, it also allows for a stimulating assortment of pay opportunities, and promotes productivity since the faculty members actively design their own programs.

Two-Color V and R CCD Photometry of the SW Sex-Type Eclipsing Cataclysmic Variable V1315 Aql

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andronov, I. L.; Baklanov, A. V.; Burwitz, V.

2005-08-01

The V-R color index shows a complicated behaviour during the eclipse, being largest at the brightness minimum, but showing asymmetric minima at phases -0.07 and +0.13. The hump at the light curve occurs after the eclipse, contrary to systems with the "hot spot". The phases of minima in V and R are 0.0092(17) and 0.0062(17), respectively, for the mean date JD=2453202.

FIEFDom: A Transparent Domain Boundary Recognition System using a Fuzzy Mean Operator

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-04

to search for matching fragments by running the PSI-BLAST program a second time. During this step, the expectation value threshold ( e -value) is set at...statistical significance (or low e -value), and therefore have low scores. Finally, the domain boundaries (if any) are predicted using the scored...neighbor (match) is weighted by its e -value, the relative contribution of each neighbor is apparent. This is contrary to black-box models in which the

The interplay between hepatic stellate cells and hepatocytes in an in vitro model of NASH.

PubMed

Barbero-Becerra, Varenka J; Giraudi, Pablo J; Chávez-Tapia, Norberto C; Uribe, Misael; Tiribelli, Claudio; Rosso, Natalia

2015-10-01

A complex interplay exists between hepatocytes and hepatic stellate cells (HSC) in hepatic fibrogenesis. The activation of HSCs after liver injury leads to production of extracellular matrix (ECM). Co-culture models could be useful to mimic the liver microenvironment. This study evaluates the effect of free fatty acids (FFA) on HSC cells and the interplay with hepatocytes via both soluble-mediator and cell-cell contact. The human hepatocyte cell line (HuH7) and HSC cells (LX2) were exposed to FFA for 24 h in 3 different experimental set-ups: (A) monoculture of HSC; (B) Transwell® system (effect of soluble mediators); and (C) Simultaneous Co-Culture (SCC) (cell-to-cell connections). Intracellular FFA accumulation was assessed qualitatively (microscopy) and quantitatively (flow cytometry); the activation of HSC (alpha smooth muscle actin, α-SMA) expression of ECM components were quantified by RT-PCR. FFA exposure induces intracellular fat accumulation in all the experimental set-up but the expression of α-SMA was significantly increased only in SCC. On the contrary, the expression of ECM was substantially decreased in the transwell® system. The HSC activation is independent of FFA accumulation but requires cell-to-cell interaction with hepatocyte. On the contrary, the gene regulation of ECM components seems to occur through paracrine mediators. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change

PubMed Central

Ziegler, Martin; Simon, Margit H.; Hall, Ian R.; Barker, Stephen; Stringer, Chris; Zahn, Rainer

2013-01-01

The development of modernity in early human populations has been linked to pulsed phases of technological and behavioural innovation within the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. However, the trigger for these intermittent pulses of technological innovation is an enigma. Here we show that, contrary to some previous studies, the occurrence of innovation was tightly linked to abrupt climate change. Major innovational pulses occurred at times when South African climate changed rapidly towards more humid conditions, while northern sub-Saharan Africa experienced widespread droughts, as the Northern Hemisphere entered phases of extreme cooling. These millennial-scale teleconnections resulted from the bipolar seesaw behaviour of the Atlantic Ocean related to changes in the ocean circulation. These conditions led to humid pulses in South Africa and potentially to the creation of favourable environmental conditions. This strongly implies that innovational pulses of early modern human behaviour were climatically influenced and linked to the adoption of refugia. PMID:23695699

Increase in penguin populations during the Little Ice Age in the Ross Sea, Antarctica.

PubMed

Hu, Qi-Hou; Sun, Li-Guang; Xie, Zhou-Qing; Emslie, Steven D; Liu, Xiao-Dong

2013-01-01

Penguins are an important seabird species in Antarctica and are sensitive to climate and environmental changes. Previous studies indicated that penguin populations increased when the climate became warmer and decreased when it became colder in the maritime Antarctic. Here we determined organic markers in a sediment profile collected at Cape Bird, Ross Island, high Antarctic, and reconstructed the history of Adélie penguin colonies at this location over the past 700 years. The region transformed from a seal to a penguin habitat when the Little Ice Age (LIA; 1500-1800 AD) began. Penguins then became the dominant species. Penguin populations were the highest during ca. 1490 to 1670 AD, a cold period, which is contrary to previous results in other regions much farther north. Different responses to climate change may occur at low latitudes and high latitudes in the Antarctic, even if for same species.

Biogeochemistry: Hexadecane decay by methanogenesis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, Robert T.; Lovely, Derek R.

2000-01-01

The potential for the biological conversion of long-chain saturated hydrocarbons to methane under anaerobic conditions has been demonstrated by using an enrichment culture of bacteria to degrade pure-phase hexadecane1. The formation of methane in hydrocarbon-rich subsurface zones could be explained if a similar conversion of long-chain alkanes to methane were to take place in subsurface environments. If this process could be stimulated in the subsurface, it could be used to enhance hydrocarbon recovery from petroleum reserves1, 2. Parkes2, however, questions the environmental significance of the enrichment-culture results1 on the grounds that alkane conversion to methane is very slow and because sulphate-reducing and methanogenic bacteria might both be necessary for even this slow process to occur, restricting the conversion to specialized, unusual zones in sediments. Here we show that, on the contrary, subsurface bacteria can adapt to convert hexadecane to methane rapidly and in the absence of sulphate-reducing bacteria.

Seasonal and Lunar Month Periods Observed in Natural Neutron Flux at High Altitude

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stenkin, Yuri; Alekseenko, Victor; Cai, Zeyu; Cao, Zhen; Cattaneo, Claudio; Cui, Shuwang; Giroletti, Elio; Gromushkin, Dmitry; Guo, Cong; Guo, Xuewen; He, Huihai; Liu, Ye; Ma, Xinhua; Shchegolev, Oleg; Vallania, Piero; Vigorito, Carlo; Zhao, Jing

2017-07-01

Air radon concentration measurement is useful for research on geophysical effects, but it is strongly sensitive to site geology and many geophysical and microclimatic processes such as wind, ventilation, air humidity and so on inducing very big fluctuations on the concentration of radon in air. On the contrary, monitoring the radon concentration in soil by measuring the thermal neutron flux reduces environmental effects. In this paper, we report some experimental results on the natural thermal neutron flux as well as on the concentration of air radon and its variations at 4300 m asl. These results were obtained with unshielded thermal neutron scintillation detectors (en-detectors) and radon monitors located inside the ARGO-YBJ experimental hall. The correlation of these variations with the lunar month and 1-year period is undoubtedly confirmed. A method for earthquake prediction provided by a global net of en-detectors is currently under study.

Development of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change.

PubMed

Ziegler, Martin; Simon, Margit H; Hall, Ian R; Barker, Stephen; Stringer, Chris; Zahn, Rainer

2013-01-01

The development of modernity in early human populations has been linked to pulsed phases of technological and behavioural innovation within the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. However, the trigger for these intermittent pulses of technological innovation is an enigma. Here we show that, contrary to some previous studies, the occurrence of innovation was tightly linked to abrupt climate change. Major innovational pulses occurred at times when South African climate changed rapidly towards more humid conditions, while northern sub-Saharan Africa experienced widespread droughts, as the Northern Hemisphere entered phases of extreme cooling. These millennial-scale teleconnections resulted from the bipolar seesaw behaviour of the Atlantic Ocean related to changes in the ocean circulation. These conditions led to humid pulses in South Africa and potentially to the creation of favourable environmental conditions. This strongly implies that innovational pulses of early modern human behaviour were climatically influenced and linked to the adoption of refugia.

Fibrin Clots Are Equilibrium Polymers That Can Be Remodeled Without Proteolytic Digestion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chernysh, Irina N.; Nagaswami, Chandrasekaran; Purohit, Prashant K.; Weisel, John W.

2012-11-01

Fibrin polymerization is a necessary part of hemostasis but clots can obstruct blood vessels and cause heart attacks and strokes. The polymerization reactions are specific and controlled, involving strong knob-into-hole interactions to convert soluble fibrinogen into insoluble fibrin. It has long been assumed that clots and thrombi are stable structures until proteolytic digestion. On the contrary, using the technique of fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we demonstrate here that there is turnover of fibrin in an uncrosslinked clot. A peptide representing the knobs involved in fibrin polymerization can compete for the holes and dissolve a preformed fibrin clot, or increase the fraction of soluble oligomers, with striking rearrangements in clot structure. These results imply that in vivo clots or thrombi are more dynamic structures than previously believed that may be remodeled as a result of local environmental conditions, may account for some embolization, and suggest a target for therapeutic intervention.

Diffusion of environmentally-friendly energy technologies: buy versus lease differences in residential PV markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rai, Varun; Sigrin, Benjamin

2013-03-01

Diffusion of microgeneration technologies, particularly rooftop photovoltaic (PV), represents a key option in reducing emissions in the residential sector. We use a uniquely rich dataset from the burgeoning residential PV market in Texas to study the nature of the consumer’s decision-making process in the adoption of these technologies. In particular, focusing on the financial metrics and the information decision-makers use to base their decisions upon, we study how the leasing and buying models affect individual choices and, thereby, the adoption of capital-intensive energy technologies. Overall, our findings suggest that the leasing model more effectively addresses consumers’ informational requirements and that, contrary to some other studies, buyers and lessees of PV do not necessarily differ significantly along socio-demographic variables. Instead, we find that the leasing model has opened up the residential PV market to a new, and potentially very large, consumer segment—those with a tight cash-flow situation.

Avocado waste for finishing pigs: Impact on muscle composition and oxidative stability during chilled storage.

PubMed

Hernández-López, Silvia H; Rodríguez-Carpena, Javier G; Lemus-Flores, Clemente; Grageola-Nuñez, Fernando; Estévez, Mario

2016-06-01

The utilization of agricultural waste materials for pig feeding may be an interesting option for reducing production costs and contributing to sustainability and environmental welfare. In the present study, a mixed diet enriched with avocado waste (TREATED) is used for finishing industrial genotype pigs. The muscle longissimus thoracis et lomborum (LTL) from TREATED pigs was analyzed for composition and oxidative and color stability and compared with muscles obtained from pigs fed a CONTROL diet. Dietary avocado had significant impact on the content and composition of intramuscular fat (IMF), reducing the lipid content in LTL muscles and increasing the degree of unsaturation. This did not increase the oxidative instability of samples. On the contrary, muscles from TREATED pigs had significantly lower lipid and protein oxidation rates during chilled storage. The color of the muscles from TREATED pigs was also preserved from oxidation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Behavioral flexibility and problem solving in an invasive bird.

PubMed

Logan, Corina J

2016-01-01

Behavioral flexibility is considered an important trait for adapting to environmental change, but it is unclear what it is, how it works, and whether it is a problem solving ability. I investigated behavioral flexibility and problem solving experimentally in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird species and thus a likely candidate for possessing behavioral flexibility. Grackles demonstrated behavioral flexibility in two contexts, the Aesop's Fable paradigm and a color association test. Contrary to predictions, behavioral flexibility did not correlate across contexts. Four out of 6 grackles exhibited efficient problem solving abilities, but problem solving efficiency did not appear to be directly linked with behavioral flexibility. Problem solving speed also did not significantly correlate with reversal learning scores, indicating that faster learners were not the most flexible. These results reveal how little we know about behavioral flexibility, and provide an immense opportunity for future research to explore how individuals and species can use behavior to react to changing environments.

Social-Ecological Changes in a Quilombola Community in the Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil.

PubMed

Thorkildsen, Kjersti

2014-01-01

Through a combined adaptive cycle and political ecology approach, this article explores how the Afro-Brazilian Quilombolas of Bombas, living inside the protected area of PETAR, respond to and shape social-ecological changes in the Atlantic Forest. Field data reveal that both environmental restrictions and social policies of state transfer payments and food packages have contributed to decreased engagement in agricultural practices, loss of traditional knowledge, and reduced agro-biodiversity. The claim to land rights based on a Quilombola identity and recent negotiations with forest authorities insinuate a shift of this trend. Contrary to dominant conservation narratives, the findings indicate that small-scale shifting cultivation practices by the Quilombolas have the potential to increase structural ecological complexity of the Atlantic Forest. The article therefore argues that legalization of settlement and subsistence activities is important not only for livelihood security and social cohesion of Bombas inhabitants, but also possibly for biodiversity conservation.

Growing Super-Dwarf wheat in Space Station Mir

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salisbury, F. B.

1997-01-01

Super-Dwarf wheat plants were grown in the Russian/Bulgarian growth chamber called Svet (means light in Russian), in Space Station Mir, from August 12 to November 9, 1995 (90 days) and from August 5 to December 6, 1996 (123 days); a second 1996 crop grew from December 6, 1996 to January 14, 1997 (39 days). Environmental monitoring instrumentation was built at Utah State University and added to Svet for the experiments. That instrumentation functioned well in 1995, but four of six lamp sets (two lamps in each set) failed, as did the controller and a fan. Plants stayed alive but were mostly vegetative (contrary to ground controls under equivalent photon flux). New, higher intensity lamps and other equipment functioned well during 1996, and plants grew surprisingly well, producing about 280 heads and considerable biomass, but the heads were all sterile. A strong case can be made that the sterility was caused by high ethylene in the cabin atmosphere.

Biological and biomedical aspects of genetically modified food.

PubMed

Celec, Peter; Kukucková, Martina; Renczésová, Veronika; Natarajan, Satheesh; Pálffy, Roland; Gardlík, Roman; Hodosy, Július; Behuliak, Michal; Vlková, Barbora; Minárik, Gabriel; Szemes, Tomás; Stuchlík, Stanislav; Turna, Ján

2005-12-01

Genetically modified (GM) foods are the product of one of the most progressive fields of science-biotechnology. There are major concerns about GM foods in the public; some of them are reasonable, some of them are not. Biomedical risks of GM foods include problems regarding the potential allergenicity, horizontal gene transfer, but environmental side effects on biodiversity must also be recognized. Numerous methods have been developed to assess the potential risk of every GM food type. Benefits of the first generation of GM foods were oriented towards the production process and companies, the second generation of GM foods offers, on contrary, various advantages and added value for the consumer. This includes improved nutritional composition or even therapeutic effects. Recombinant probiotics and the principle of alternative gene therapy represent the latest approach of using GM organisms for biomedical applications. This article tries to summarize and to explain the problematic topic of GM food.

Coral mass spawning predicted by rapid seasonal rise in ocean temperature

PubMed Central

Maynard, Jeffrey A.; Edwards, Alasdair J.; Guest, James R.; Rahbek, Carsten

2016-01-01

Coral spawning times have been linked to multiple environmental factors; however, to what extent these factors act as generalized cues across multiple species and large spatial scales is unknown. We used a unique dataset of coral spawning from 34 reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans to test if month of spawning and peak spawning month in assemblages of Acropora spp. can be predicted by sea surface temperature (SST), photosynthetically available radiation, wind speed, current speed, rainfall or sunset time. Contrary to the classic view that high mean SST initiates coral spawning, we found rapid increases in SST to be the best predictor in both cases (month of spawning: R2 = 0.73, peak: R2 = 0.62). Our findings suggest that a rapid increase in SST provides the dominant proximate cue for coral mass spawning over large geographical scales. We hypothesize that coral spawning is ultimately timed to ensure optimal fertilization success. PMID:27170709

77 FR 35481 - Subsistence Management Regulations for Public Lands in Alaska-2012-13 and 2013-14 Subsistence...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-13

... recommended for rejection by one or more of the Regional Councils unless noted below. Statewide The Board took... action was contrary to one council recommendation and consistent with the recommendation of another. The... methods on State and private lands. This action was contrary to the one Council's recommendation, one...

[Comparative life cycle environmental assessment between electric taxi and gasoline taxi in Beijing].

PubMed

Shi, Xiao-Qing; Sun, Zhao-Xin; Li, Xiao-Nuo; Li, Jin-Xiang; Yang, Jian-Xin

2015-03-01

Tailpipe emission of internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) is one of the main sources leading to atmospheric environmental problems such as haze. Substituting electric vehicles for conventional gasoline vehicles is an important solution for reducing urban air pollution. In 2011, as a pilot city of electric vehicle, Beijing launched a promotion plan of electric vehicle. In order to compare the environmental impacts between Midi electric vehicle (Midi EV) and Hyundai gasoline taxi (ICEV), this study created an inventory with local data and well-reasoned assumptions, and contributed a life cycle assessment (LCA) model with GaBi4.4 software and comparative life cycle environmental assessment by Life cycle impact analysis models of CML2001(Problem oriented) and EI99 (Damage oriented), which included the environmental impacts of full life cycle, manufacture phase, use phase and end of life. The sensitivity analysis of lifetime mileage and power structure was also provided. The results indicated that the full life cycle environmental impact of Midi EV was smaller than Hyundai ICEV, which was mainly due to the lower fossil fuel consumption. On the contrary, Midi EV exhibited the potential of increasing the environmental impacts of ecosystem quality influence and Human health influence. By CML2001 model, the results indicated that Midi EV might decrease the impact of Abiotic Depletion Potential, Global Warming Potential, Ozone Layer Depletion Potential and so on. However, in the production phase, the impact of Abiotic Depletion Potential, Acidification Potential, Eutrophication Potential, Global Warming Potential, Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential, Ozone Layer Depletion Potential, Marine Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential, Terrestric Ecotoxicity Potential, Human Toxicity Potential of Midi EV were increased relative to Hyundai ICEV because of emissions impacts from its power system especially the battery production. Besides, in the use phase, electricity production was the main process leading to the impact of Abiotic Depletion Potential, Acidification Potential, Eutrophication Potential, Global Warming Potential, Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential, Marine Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential, Freshwater Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential, Human Toxicity Potential. While for Hyundai ICEV, gasoline production and tailpipe emission were the primary sources of environmental impact in the use phase. Tailpipe emission was a significant cause for increase in Eutrophication Potential and Global Warming Potential, and so forth. On the basis of inventory data analysis and 2010 Beijing electricity mix, the comparative results of haze-induced pollutants emissions showed that the full life cycle emissions of PM2.5, NO(x), SO(x), VOCs of Midi EV were higher than those of Hyundai ICEV, but the emission of NH3 was lower than that of Hyundai ICEV. Different emissions in use phase were the chief reason leading to this trend. In addition, by sensitivity analysis the results indicated that with the increase of lifetime mileage and proportion of cleaning energy, the rate of GHG( Green House Gas) emission reduction per kilometer of Midi EV became higher with respect to Hyundai ICEV. Haze-induced pollutants emission from EV could be significantly reduced using cleaner power energy. According to the assessment results, some management strategies aiming at electric car promotion were proposed.

The contribution of fine roots to peatland stability under changing environmental conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malhotra, A.; Brice, D. J.; Childs, J.; Phillips, J.; Hanson, P. J.; Iversen, C. M.

2017-12-01

Fine-root production and traits are closely linked with ecosystem nutrient and water fluxes, and may regulate these fluxes in response to environmental change. Plant strategies can shift to favoring below- over aboveground biomass allocation when nutrients or moisture are limited. Fine-roots traits such as root tissue density (RTD) or specific root length (SRL) can also adapt to the environment, for example, by maximizing the area of soil exploited by decreasing RTD and increasing SRL during dry conditions. Fine-root trait plasticity could contribute to the stability of peatland carbon function in response to environmental change. However, the extent and mechanisms of peatland fine-root plasticity are unknown. We investigated fine-root growth and traits and their link to environmental factors and aboveground dynamics at SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments), a warming and elevated CO2 (eCO2) experiment in an ombrotrophic peatland. In the first growing season of whole ecosystem warming, fine-root production increased with warming and drying. Above- versus belowground allocation strategies varied by plant functional type (PFT). In shrubs, contrary to our expectation, aboveground- to fine-root production allocation ratio increased with dryer conditions, perhaps as a response to a concurrent increase in nutrients. Trait response hypotheses were largely supported, with RTD decreasing and SRL increasing with warming; however, response varied among PFTs. Once eCO2 was turned on in the second growing season, preliminary results suggest interactive effects of warming and eCO2 on total fine-root production: production decreased or increased with warming in ambient or elevated CO2 plots, respectively. Both trait and production responses to warming and eCO2 varied by microtopography and depth. Our results highlight plasticity of fine-root traits and biomass allocation strategies; the extent and mechanism of which varies by PFT. We will summarize our results using a trait-based approach as a first step toward modeling fine-root contributions to peatland carbon stability in response to environmental change.

Contrasting Responses to Harvesting and Environmental Drivers of Fast and Slow Life History Species

PubMed Central

Quetglas, Antoni; Rueda, Lucía; Alvarez-Berastegui, Diego; Guijarro, Beatriz; Massutí, Enric

2016-01-01

According to their main life history traits, organisms can be arranged in a continuum from fast (species with small body size, short lifespan and high fecundity) to slow (species with opposite characteristics). Life history determines the responses of organisms to natural and anthropogenic factors, as slow species are expected to be more sensitive than fast species to perturbations. Owing to their contrasting traits, cephalopods and elasmobranchs are typical examples of fast and slow strategies, respectively. We investigated the responses of these two contrasting strategies to fishing exploitation and environmental conditions (temperature, productivity and depth) using generalized additive models. Our results confirmed the foreseen contrasting responses of cephalopods and elasmobranchs to natural (environment) and anthropogenic (harvesting) influences. Even though a priori foreseen, we did expect neither the clear-cut differential responses between groups nor the homogeneous sensitivity to the same factors within the two taxonomic groups. Apart from depth, which affected both groups equally, cephalopods and elasmobranchs were exclusively affected by environmental conditions and fishing exploitation, respectively. Owing to its short, annual cycle, cephalopods do not have overlapping generations and consequently lack the buffering effects conferred by different age classes observed in multi-aged species such as elasmobranchs. We suggest that cephalopods are sensitive to short-term perturbations, such as seasonal environmental changes, because they lack this buffering effect but they are in turn not influenced by continuous, long-term moderate disturbances such as fishing because of its high population growth and turnover. The contrary would apply to elasmobranchs, whose multi-aged population structure would buffer the seasonal environmental effects, but they would display strong responses to uninterrupted harvesting due to its low population resilience. Besides providing empirical evidence to the theoretically predicted contrasting responses of cephalopods and elasmobranchs to disturbances, our results are useful for the sustainable exploitation of these resources. PMID:26859577

High Available COTS Based Computer for Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartmann, J.; Magistrati, Giorgio

2015-09-01

The availability and reliability factors of a system are central requirements of a target application. From a simple fuel injection system used in cars up to a flight control system of an autonomous navigating spacecraft, each application defines its specific availability factor under the target application boundary conditions. Increasing quality requirements on data processing systems used in space flight applications calling for new architectures to fulfill the availability, reliability as well as the increase of the required data processing power. Contrary to the increased quality request simplification and use of COTS components to decrease costs while keeping the interface compatibility to currently used system standards are clear customer needs. Data processing system design is mostly dominated by strict fulfillment of the customer requirements and reuse of available computer systems were not always possible caused by obsolescence of EEE-Parts, insufficient IO capabilities or the fact that available data processing systems did not provide the required scalability and performance.

Obesity, the Endocannabinoid System, and Bias Arising from Pharmaceutical Sponsorship

PubMed Central

McPartland, John M.

2009-01-01

Background Previous research has shown that academic physicians conflicted by funding from the pharmaceutical industry have corrupted evidence based medicine and helped enlarge the market for drugs. Physicians made pharmaceutical-friendly statements, engaged in disease mongering, and signed biased review articles ghost-authored by corporate employees. This paper tested the hypothesis that bias affects review articles regarding rimonabant, an anti-obesity drug that blocks the central cannabinoid receptor. Methods/Principal Findings A MEDLINE search was performed for rimonabant review articles, limited to articles authored by USA physicians who served as consultants for the company that manufactures rimonabant. Extracted articles were examined for industry-friendly bias, identified by three methods: analysis with a validated instrument for monitoring bias in continuing medical education (CME); analysis for bias defined as statements that ran contrary to external evidence; and a tally of misrepresentations about the endocannabinoid system. Eight review articles were identified, but only three disclosed authors' financial conflicts of interest, despite easily accessible information to the contrary. The Takhar CME bias instrument demonstrated statistically significant bias in all the review articles. Biased statements that were nearly identical reappeared in the articles, including disease mongering, exaggerating rimonabant's efficacy and safety, lack of criticisms regarding rimonabant clinical trials, and speculations about surrogate markers stated as facts. Distinctive and identical misrepresentations regarding the endocannabinoid system also reappeared in articles by different authors. Conclusions The findings are characteristic of bias that arises from financial conflicts of interest, and suggestive of ghostwriting by a common author. Resolutions for this scenario are proposed. PMID:19333392

Controls of picophytoplankton abundance and composition in a highly dynamic marine system, the Northern Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amorim, Ana L.; León, Pablo; Mercado, Jesús M.; Cortés, Dolores; Gómez, Francisco; Putzeys, Sebastien; Salles, Soluna; Yebra, Lidia

2016-06-01

The Alboran Sea is a highly dynamic basin which exhibits a high spatio-temporal variability of hydrographic structures (e.g. fronts, gyres, coastal upwellings). This work compares the abundance and composition of picophytoplankton observed across the northern Alboran Sea among eleven cruises between 2008 and 2012 using flow cytometry. We evaluate the seasonal and longitudinal variability of picophytoplankton on the basis of the circulation regimes at a regional scale and explore the presence of cyanobacteria ecotypes in the basin. The maximal abundances obtained for Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and picoeukaryotes (12.7 × 104, 13.9 × 104 and 8.6 × 104 cells mL- 1 respectively) were consistent with those reported for other adjacent marine areas. Seasonal changes in the abundance of the three picophytoplankton groups were highly significant although they did not match the patterns described for other coastal waters. Higher abundances of Prochlorococcus were obtained in autumn-winter while Synechococcus and picoeukaryotes exhibited a different seasonal abundance pattern depending on the sector (e.g. Synechococcus showed higher abundance in summer in the west sector and during winter in the eastern study area). Additionally, conspicuous longitudinal gradients were observed for Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus, with Prochlorococcus decreasing from west to east and Synechococcus following the opposite pattern. The analysis of environmental variables (i.e. temperature, salinity and inorganic nutrients) and cell abundances indicates that Prochlorococcus preferred high salinity and nitrate to phosphate ratio. On the contrary, temperature did not seem to play a role in Prochlorococcus distribution as it was numerically important during the whole seasonal cycle. Variability in Synechococcus abundance could not be explained by changes in any environmental variable suggesting that different ecotypes were sampled during the surveys. In particular, our data would indicate the presence of at least two ecotypes of Synechococcus: a summer ecotype widely distributed in the whole Alboran Sea and a winter ecotype adapted to lower temperature and higher nutrient concentration whose growth is favoured in the eastern sector.

The effects of host age, host nuclear background and temperature on phenotypic effects of the virulent Wolbachia strain popcorn in Drosophila melanogaster.

PubMed Central

Reynolds, K Tracy; Thomson, Linda J; Hoffmann, Ary A

2003-01-01

Because of their obligate endosymbiotic nature, Wolbachia strains by necessity are defined by their phenotypic effects upon their host. Nevertheless, studies on the influence of host background and environmental conditions upon the manifestation of Wolbachia effects are relatively uncommon. Here we examine the behavior of the overreplicating Wolbachia strain popcorn in four different Drosophila melanogaster backgrounds at two temperatures. Unlike other strains of Wolbachia in Drosophila, popcorn has a major fitness impact upon its hosts. The rapid proliferation of popcorn causes cells to rupture, resulting in the premature death of adult hosts. Apart from this effect, we found that popcorn delayed development time, and host background influenced both this trait and the rate of mortality associated with infection. Temperature influenced the impact of popcorn upon host mortality, with no reduction in life span occurring in flies reared at 19 degrees. No effect upon fecundity was found. Contrary to earlier reports, popcorn induced high levels of incompatibility when young males were used in tests, and CI levels declined rapidly with male age. The population dynamics of popcorn-type infections will therefore depend on environmental temperature, host background, and the age structure of the population. PMID:12871912

Psychometrics and life history strategy: the structure and validity of the High K Strategy Scale.

PubMed

Copping, Lee T; Campbell, Anne; Muncer, Steven

2014-03-22

In this paper, we critically review the conceptualization and implementation of psychological measures of life history strategy associated with Differential K theory. The High K Strategy Scale (HKSS: Giosan, 2006) was distributed to a large British sample (n = 809) with the aim of assessing its factor structure and construct validity in relation to theoretically relevant life history variables: age of puberty, age of first sexual encounter, and number of sexual partners. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the HKSS in its current form did not show an adequate statistical fit to the data. Modifications to improve fit indicated four correlated factors (personal capital, environmental stability, environmental security, and social capital). Later puberty in women was positively associated with measures of the environment and personal capital. Among men, contrary to Differential K predictions but in line with female mate preferences, earlier sexual debut and more sexual partners were positively associated with more favorable environments and higher personal and social capital. We raise concerns about the use of psychometric indicators of lifestyle and personality as proxies for life history strategy when they have not been validated against objective measures derived from contemporary life history theory and when their status as causes, mediators, or correlates has not been investigated.

Photodegradation behaviour of sethoxydim and its comercial formulation Poast® under environmentally-relevant conditions in aqueous media. Study of photoproducts and their toxicity.

PubMed

Sevilla-Morán, Beatriz; Calvo, Luisa; López-Goti, Carmen; Alonso-Prados, José L; Sandín-España, Pilar

2017-02-01

Photolysis is an important route for the abiotic degradation of many pesticides. However, the knowledge of the photolytic behaviour of these compounds and their commercial formulations under environmentally-relevant conditions are limited. The present study investigated the importance of photochemical processes on the persistence and fate of the herbicide sethoxydim and its commercial formulation Poast ® in aqueous media. Moreover, the effect of important natural water substances (nitrate, calcium, and ferric ions) on the photolysis of the herbicide was also studied. The results showed that additives existing in the commercial formulation Poast ® accelerated the rate of photolysis of sethoxydim by a factor of 3. On the contrary, the presence of nitrate and calcium ions had no effect on the photodegradation rate while ferric ions resulted in an important decrease in the half-life of sethoxydim possibly due to the formation of a complex. Different transformation products were identified in the course of sethoxydim irradiation and the effect of experimental conditions on their concentrations was investigated. Finally, Microtox ® test revealed that aqueous solutions of sethoxydim photoproducts increased the toxicity to the bacteria Vibrio fischeri. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Instability, investment, disasters, and demography: natural disasters and fertility in Italy (1820-1962) and Japan (1671-1965).

PubMed

Lin, C-Y Cynthia

2010-03-01

This article examines whether natural disasters affect fertility-a topic little explored but of policy importance given relevance to policies regarding disaster insurance, foreign aid, and the environment. The identification strategy uses historic regional data to exploit natural variation within each of two countries: one European country-Italy (1820-1962), and one Asian country-Japan (1671-1965). The choice of study settings allows consideration of Jones' (The European miracle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981) theory that preindustrial differences in income and population between Asia and Europe resulted from the fertility response to different environmental risk profiles. According to the results, short-run instability, particularly that arising from the natural environment, appears to be associated with a decrease in fertility-thereby suggesting that environmental shocks and economic volatility are associated with a decrease in investment in the population size of future generations. The results also show that, contrary to Jones' (The European miracle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981) theory, differences in fertility between Italy and Japan cannot be explained away by disaster proneness alone. Research on the effects of natural disasters may enable social scientists and environmentalists alike to better predict the potential effects of the increase in natural disasters that may result from global climate change.

Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System (DOEHRS) Guidance

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-07-01

TERMS Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Reporting System (DOEHRS), Industrial Hygiene, Environmental Health, Information Management System Hygiene...Information System (AF EMIS), the Air Force Enterprise Environmental, Safety, and Occupational Health Information Management System (EESOH MIS), or the

Trustworthiness and relevance in web-based clinical question answering.

PubMed

Cruchet, Sarah; Boyer, Célia; van der Plas, Lonneke

2012-01-01

Question answering systems try to give precise answers to a user's question posed in natural language. It is of utmost importance that the answers returned are relevant to the user's question. For clinical QA, the trustworthiness of answers is another important issue. Limiting the document collection to certified websites helps to improve the trustworthiness of answers. On the other hand, limited document collections are known to harm the relevancy of answers. We show, however, in a comparative evaluation, that promoting trustworthiness has no negative effect on the relevance of the retrieved answers in our clinical QA system. On the contrary, the answers found are in general more relevant.

Getting Religion Right in Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haynes, Charles C.

2011-01-01

Contrary to culture-war rhetoric from the Right, there is more student religious expression and more study about religion in public schools today than at any time in the last 100 years. And contrary to dire warnings from the Left, much of the religion that goes to school these days arrives through the First Amendment door. Of course, this isn't to…

78 FR 24677 - Safety Zone; XA The Experimental Agency Fireworks, Pier 34, East River, NY

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-26

... delay encountered in this regulation's effective date by publishing a NPRM would be contrary to public..., during, and immediately after the fireworks event. DATES: This rule is effective on May 16, 2013 from 8... ``impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.'' Under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), the Coast Guard...

Proceedings: IEEE Workshop on Real-Time Operating Systems and Software (11th) Held in Seattle, Washington on 18-19 May 1994

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-05-19

time artificial intelligence , algorithms [5, 6], in this paper we report on new ex- to develop a test platform for flezible manufacturing, tensions...flexible, adaptive and able to exhibit intelligence . This is * assignment of spare capacity to requesting processes. contrary to the relatively inflexible...Frenc Belina, D. Hogref, and A. Sarma, "SDL with We think the method using SDL with the compan - Applications from Protocol Specification", Print- ion

METHODOLOGICAL NOTES: Integrating magnetism into semiconductor electronics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zakharchenya, Boris P.; Korenev, Vladimir L.

2005-06-01

The view of a ferromagnetic-semiconducting hybrid structure as a single tunable system is presented. Based on an analysis of existing experiments it is shown that, contrary to a 'common sense', a nonmagnetic semiconductor is capable of playing an important role in controlling ferromagnetism. Magnetic properties of a hybrid (the hysteresis loop and the spatial orientation of magnetization) can be tuned both optically and electrically by utilizing semiconductor—making the hybrid an electronic-write-in and electronic-read-out elementary storage unit.

Physics and Techniques for the Investigation of the Properties of Ultra Small Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-05-09

unetched samples were found to be identical. The T, of the etched sample was seen to be ehanced by - 30 inK , contrary to the observations on the free...elastic mean free path is considerably shorter than the thermal phonon wavelength. Once again, the technique used to extract the scattering rates was to...thermal resistance extracted from the 3w response data is plotted against the temperature. The data are expressed as boundary resistances, Rthx Area

Smart Surfaces and Interfaces

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-08-01

the piezoelecric thin film sensor is placed between the top tribological coating system and bottom of ferritic nirocarburized H13 die substrate to...11 Electrical Resistivity (Ω.cm) 109 1011- 1016 108 1011 Note: CTE  (10-6 K-1): 13 for H13 steel, 6 for Al2O3, 6.5 for TiAlN, and 10.1 for Ti...In contrary, at lower working pressures, collision frequency of ions is much lower and ions with high energy will impact the substrate introducing

Experience in highly parallel processing using DAP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parkinson, D.

1987-01-01

Distributed Array Processors (DAP) have been in day to day use for ten years and a large amount of user experience has been gained. The profile of user applications is similar to that of the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) working group. Experience has shown that contrary to expectations, highly parallel systems provide excellent performance on so-called dirty problems such as the physics part of meteorological codes. The reasons for this observation are discussed. The arguments against replacing bit processors with floating point processors are also discussed.

On the robustness of complex heterogeneous gene expression networks.

PubMed

Gómez-Gardeñes, Jesús; Moreno, Yamir; Floría, Luis M

2005-04-01

We analyze a continuous gene expression model on the underlying topology of a complex heterogeneous network. Numerical simulations aimed at studying the chaotic and periodic dynamics of the model are performed. The results clearly indicate that there is a region in which the dynamical and structural complexity of the system avoid chaotic attractors. However, contrary to what has been reported for Random Boolean Networks, the chaotic phase cannot be completely suppressed, which has important bearings on network robustness and gene expression modeling.

Origins of Knowledge: Insights from Precocial Species.

PubMed

Versace, Elisabetta; Vallortigara, Giorgio

2015-01-01

Behavioral responses are influenced by knowledge acquired during the lifetime of an individual and by predispositions transmitted across generations. Establishing the origin of knowledge and the role of the unlearned component is a challenging task, given that both learned and unlearned knowledge can orient perception, learning, and the encoding of environmental features since the first stages of life. Ethical and practical issues constrain the investigation of unlearned knowledge in altricial species, including human beings. On the contrary, precocial animals can be tested on a wide range of tasks and capabilities immediately after birth and in controlled rearing conditions. Insects and precocial avian species are very convenient models to dissect the knowledge systems that enable young individuals to cope with their environment in the absence of specific previous experience. We present the state of the art of research on the origins of knowledge that comes from different models and disciplines. Insects have been mainly used to investigate unlearned sensory preferences and prepared learning mechanisms. The relative simplicity of the neural system and fast life cycle of insects make them ideal models to investigate the neural circuitry and evolutionary dynamics of unlearned traits. Among avian species, chicks of the domestic fowl have been the focus of many studies, and showed to possess unlearned knowledge in the sensory, physical, spatial, numerical and social domains. Solid evidence shows the existence of unlearned knowledge in different domains in several species, from sensory and social preferences to the left-right representation of the mental number line. We show how non-mammalian models of cognition, and in particular precocial species, can shed light into the adaptive value and evolutionary history of unlearned knowledge.

Developing and using artificial soils to analyze soil microbial processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, X.; Cheng, H. Y.; Boynton, L.; Masiello, C. A.; Silberg, J. J.

2017-12-01

Microbial diversity and function in soils are governed by soil characteristics such as mineral composition, particles size and aggregations, soil organic matter (SOM), and availability of nutrients and H2O. The spatial and temporal heterogeneity of soils creates a range of niches (hotspots) differing in the availability of O2, H2O, and nutrients, which shapes microbial activities at scales ranging from nanometer to landscape. Synthetic biologists often examine microbial response trigged by their environment conditions in nutrient-rich aqueous media using single strain microbes. While these studies provided useful insight in the role of soil microbes in important soil biogeochemical processes (e.g., C cycling, N cycling, etc.), the results obtained from the over-simplified model systems are often not applicable natural soil systems. On the contrary, soil microbiologists examine microbial processes in natural soils using longer incubation time. However, due to its physical, chemical and biological complexity of natural soils, it is often difficult to examine soil characteristics independently and understand how each characteristic influences soil microbial activities and their corresponding soil functioning. Therefore, it is necessary to bridge the gap and develop a model matrix to exclude unpredictable influences from the environment while still reliably mimicking real environmental conditions. The objective of this study is to design a range of ecologically-relevant artificial soils with varying texture (particle size distribution), structure, mineralogy, SOM content, and nutrient heterogeneity. We thoroughly characterize the artificial soils for pH, active surface area and surface morphology, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and water retention curve. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the artificial soils as useful matrix for microbial processes, such as microbial growth and horizontal gene transfer (HGT), using the gas-reporting biosensors recently developed in our lab.

Soil engineering in vivo: harnessing natural biogeochemical systems for sustainable, multi-functional engineering solutions

PubMed Central

DeJong, Jason T.; Soga, Kenichi; Banwart, Steven A.; Whalley, W. Richard; Ginn, Timothy R.; Nelson, Douglas C.; Mortensen, Brina M.; Martinez, Brian C.; Barkouki, Tammer

2011-01-01

Carbon sequestration, infrastructure rehabilitation, brownfields clean-up, hazardous waste disposal, water resources protection and global warming—these twenty-first century challenges can neither be solved by the high-energy consumptive practices that hallmark industry today, nor by minor tweaking or optimization of these processes. A more radical, holistic approach is required to develop the sustainable solutions society needs. Most of the above challenges occur within, are supported on, are enabled by or grown from soil. Soil, contrary to conventional civil engineering thought, is a living system host to multiple simultaneous processes. It is proposed herein that ‘soil engineering in vivo’, wherein the natural capacity of soil as a living ecosystem is used to provide multiple solutions simultaneously, may provide new, innovative, sustainable solutions to some of these great challenges of the twenty-first century. This requires a multi-disciplinary perspective that embraces the science of biology, chemistry and physics and applies this knowledge to provide multi-functional civil and environmental engineering designs for the soil environment. For example, can native soil bacterial species moderate the carbonate cycle in soils to simultaneously solidify liquefiable soil, immobilize reactive heavy metals and sequester carbon—effectively providing civil engineering functionality while clarifying the ground water and removing carbon from the atmosphere? Exploration of these ideas has begun in earnest in recent years. This paper explores the potential, challenges and opportunities of this new field, and highlights one biogeochemical function of soil that has shown promise and is developing rapidly as a new technology. The example is used to propose a generalized approach in which the potential of this new field can be fully realized. PMID:20829246

Soil engineering in vivo: harnessing natural biogeochemical systems for sustainable, multi-functional engineering solutions.

PubMed

DeJong, Jason T; Soga, Kenichi; Banwart, Steven A; Whalley, W Richard; Ginn, Timothy R; Nelson, Douglas C; Mortensen, Brina M; Martinez, Brian C; Barkouki, Tammer

2011-01-06

Carbon sequestration, infrastructure rehabilitation, brownfields clean-up, hazardous waste disposal, water resources protection and global warming-these twenty-first century challenges can neither be solved by the high-energy consumptive practices that hallmark industry today, nor by minor tweaking or optimization of these processes. A more radical, holistic approach is required to develop the sustainable solutions society needs. Most of the above challenges occur within, are supported on, are enabled by or grown from soil. Soil, contrary to conventional civil engineering thought, is a living system host to multiple simultaneous processes. It is proposed herein that 'soil engineering in vivo', wherein the natural capacity of soil as a living ecosystem is used to provide multiple solutions simultaneously, may provide new, innovative, sustainable solutions to some of these great challenges of the twenty-first century. This requires a multi-disciplinary perspective that embraces the science of biology, chemistry and physics and applies this knowledge to provide multi-functional civil and environmental engineering designs for the soil environment. For example, can native soil bacterial species moderate the carbonate cycle in soils to simultaneously solidify liquefiable soil, immobilize reactive heavy metals and sequester carbon-effectively providing civil engineering functionality while clarifying the ground water and removing carbon from the atmosphere? Exploration of these ideas has begun in earnest in recent years. This paper explores the potential, challenges and opportunities of this new field, and highlights one biogeochemical function of soil that has shown promise and is developing rapidly as a new technology. The example is used to propose a generalized approach in which the potential of this new field can be fully realized.

Understanding and mitigating the toxicity of cadmium to the anaerobic fermentation of waste activated sludge.

PubMed

Xu, Qiuxiang; Li, Xiaoming; Ding, Rongrong; Wang, Dongbo; Liu, Yiwen; Wang, Qilin; Zhao, Jianwei; Chen, Fei; Zeng, Guangming; Yang, Qi; Li, Hailong

2017-11-01

Cadmium (Cd) is present in significant levels in waste activated sludge, but its potential toxicities on anaerobic fermentation of sludge remain largely unknown. This work therefore aims to provide such support. Experimental results showed that the impact of Cd on short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) production from sludge anaerobic fermentation was dose-dependent. The presence of environmentally relevant level of Cd (e.g., 0.1 mg/g VSS) enhanced SCFA production by 10.6%, but 10 mg/g VSS of Cd caused 68.1% of inhibition. Mechanism exploration revealed that although all levels of Cd did not cause extra leakage of intracellular substrates, 0.1 mg/g VSS Cd increased the contents of both soluble and loosely-bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), thereby benefitting sludge solubilization. On the contrary, 10 mg/g VSS Cd decreased the levels of all EPS layers, which reduced the content of soluble substrates. It was also found that 0.1 mg/g VSS Cd benefited both the hydrolysis and acidogenesis but 10 mg/g VSS Cd inhibited all the hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis processes. Further investigations with microbial community and enzyme analysis showed that the pertinent presence of Cd enhanced the activities of protease, acetate kinase, and oxaloacetate transcarboxylase whereas 10 mg/g VSS Cd decreased the microbial diversity, the abundances of functional microbes, and the activities of key enzymes. Finally, one strategy that could effectively mitigate the adverse impact of high Cd levels on SCFA production was proposed and examined. This work provides insights into Cd-present sludge fermentation systems, and the findings obtained may guide engineers to manipulate sludge treatment systems in the future. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The limit behavior of the evolution of the Tsallis entropy in self-gravitating systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Yahui; Du, Jiulin; Liang, Faku

2017-06-01

In this letter, we study the limit behavior of the evolution of the Tsallis entropy in self-gravitating systems. The study is carried out under two different situations, drawing the same conclusion. No matter in the energy transfer process or in the mass transfer process inside the system, when the nonextensive parameter q is more than unity, the total entropy is bounded; on the contrary, when this parameter is less than unity, the total entropy is unbounded. There are proofs in both theory and observation that the q is always more than unity. So the Tsallis entropy in self-gravitating systems generally exhibits a bounded property. This indicates the existence of a global maximum of the Tsallis entropy. It is possible for self-gravitating systems to evolve to thermodynamically stable states.

Modeling the survival responses of a multi-component biofilm to environmental stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carles Brangarí, Albert; Manzoni, Stefano; Sanchez-Vila, Xavier; Fernàndez-Garcia, Daniel

2017-04-01

Biofilms are consortia of microorganisms embedded in self-produced matrices of biopolymers. The survival of such communities depends on their capacity to improve the environmental conditions of their habitat by mitigating, or even benefitting from some adverse external factors. The mechanisms by which the microbial habitat is regulated remain mostly unknown. However, many studies have reported physiological responses to environmental stresses that include the release of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and the induction of a dormancy state. A sound understanding of these capacities is required to enhance the knowledge of the microbial dynamics in soils and its potential role in the carbon cycle, with significant implications for the degradation of contaminants and the emission of greenhouse gases, among others. We present a numerical analysis of the dynamics of soil microbes and their responses to environmental stresses. The conceptual model considers a multi-component heterotrophic biofilm made up of active cells, dormant cells, EPS, and extracellular enzymes. Biofilm distribution and properties are defined at the pore-scale and used to determine nutrient availability and water saturation via feedbacks of biofilm on soil hydraulic properties. The pore space micro-habitat is modeled as a simplified pore-network of cylindrical tubes in which biofilms proliferate. Microbial compartments and most of the carbon fluxes are defined at the bulk level. Microbial processes include the synthesis, decay and detachment of biomass, the activation/deactivation of cells, and the release and reutilization of EPS. Results suggest that the release of EPS and the capacity to enter a dormant state offer clear evolutionary advantages in scenarios characterized by environmental stress. On the contrary, when the conditions are favorable, the diversion of carbon into the production of the aforementioned survival mechanisms does not confer any additional benefit and the population of active cells decline. The proposed model (including complex relations between active biomass and biofilm) has been proved useful to capture the most relevant processes involved in biofilm proliferation and its adaptation to environmental conditions. These aspects are largely neglected in biogeochemical models, but could be relevant in soils where strong feedbacks of microbial activity on hydraulic properties emerge.

Marine phytoplankton stoichiometry mediates nonlinear interactions between nutrient supply, temperature, and atmospheric CO2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moreno, Allison R.; Hagstrom, George I.; Primeau, Francois W.; Levin, Simon A.; Martiny, Adam C.

2018-05-01

Marine phytoplankton stoichiometry links nutrient supply to marine carbon export. Deviations of phytoplankton stoichiometry from Redfield proportions (106C : 1P) could therefore have a significant impact on carbon cycling, and understanding which environmental factors drive these deviations may reveal new mechanisms regulating the carbon cycle. To explore the links between environmental conditions, stoichiometry, and carbon cycling, we compared four different models of phytoplankton C : P: a fixed Redfield model, a model with C : P given as a function of surface phosphorus concentration (P), a model with C P given as a function of temperature, and a new multi-environmental model that predicts C : P as a function of light, temperature, and P. These stoichiometric models were embedded into a five-box ocean circulation model, which resolves the three major ocean biomes (high-latitude, subtropical gyres, and tropical upwelling regions). Contrary to the expectation of a monotonic relationship between surface nutrient drawdown and carbon export, we found that lateral nutrient transport from lower C : P tropical waters to high C : P subtropical waters could cause carbon export to decrease with increased tropical nutrient utilization. It has been hypothesized that a positive feedback between temperature and pCO2, atm will play an important role in anthropogenic climate change, with changes in the biological pump playing at most a secondary role. Here we show that environmentally driven shifts in stoichiometry make the biological pump more influential, and may reverse the expected positive relationship between temperature and pCO2, atm. In the temperature-only model, changes in tropical temperature have more impact on the Δ pCO2, atm (˜ 41 ppm) compared to subtropical temperature changes (˜ 4.5 ppm). Our multi-environmental model predicted a decline in pCO2, atm of ˜ 46 ppm when temperature spanned a change of 10 °C. Thus, we find that variation in marine phytoplankton stoichiometry and its environmental controlling factors can lead to nonlinear controls on pCO2, atm, suggesting the need for further studies of ocean C : P and the impact on ocean carbon cycling.

Comparison of environmental risk factors for esophageal atresia, anorectal malformations, and the combined phenotype in 263 German families.

PubMed

Zwink, N; Choinitzki, V; Baudisch, F; Hölscher, A; Boemers, T M; Turial, S; Kurz, R; Heydweiller, A; Keppler, K; Müller, A; Bagci, S; Pauly, M; Brokmeier, U; Leutner, A; Degenhardt, P; Schmiedeke, E; Märzheuser, S; Grasshoff-Derr, S; Holland-Cunz, S; Palta, M; Schäfer, M; Ure, B M; Lacher, M; Nöthen, M M; Schumacher, J; Jenetzky, E; Reutter, H

2016-11-01

Esophageal atresia with or without tracheoesophageal fistula (EA/TEF) and anorectal malformations (ARM) represent the severe ends of the fore- and hindgut malformation spectra. Previous research suggests that environmental factors are implicated in their etiology. These risk factors might indicate the influence of specific etiological mechanisms on distinct developmental processes (e.g. fore- vs. hindgut malformation). The present study compared environmental factors in patients with isolated EA/TEF, isolated ARM, and the combined phenotype during the periconceptional period and the first trimester of pregnancy in order to investigate the hypothesis that fore- and hindgut malformations involve differing environmental factors. Patients with isolated EA/TEF (n = 98), isolated ARM (n = 123), and the combined phenotype (n = 42) were included. Families were recruited within the context of two German multicenter studies of the genetic and environmental causes of EA/TEF (great consortium) and ARM (CURE-Net). Exposures of interest were ascertained using an epidemiological questionnaire. Chi-square, Fisher's exact, and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to assess differences between the three phenotypes. Newborns with isolated EA/TEF and the combined phenotype had significantly lower birth weights than newborns with isolated ARM (P = 0.001 and P < 0.0001, respectively). Mothers of isolated EA/TEF consumed more alcohol periconceptional (80%) than mothers of isolated ARM or the combined phenotype (each 67%). Parental smoking (P = 0.003) and artificial reproductive techniques (P = 0.03) were associated with isolated ARM. Unexpectedly, maternal periconceptional multivitamin supplementation was most frequent among patients with the most severe form of disorder, i.e. the combined phenotype (19%). Significant differences in birth weight were apparent between the three phenotype groups. This might be attributable to the limited ability of EA/TEF fetuses to swallow amniotic fluid, thus depriving them of its nutritive properties. Furthermore, the present data suggest that fore- and hindgut malformations involve differing environmental factors. Maternal periconceptional multivitamin supplementation was highest among patients with the combined phenotype. This latter finding is contrary to expectation, and warrants further analysis in large prospective epidemiological studies. © 2015 International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus.

Technology-based management of environmental organizations using an Environmental Management Information System (EMIS): Design and development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kouziokas, Georgios N.

2016-01-01

The adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in environmental management has become a significant demand nowadays with the rapid growth of environmental information. This paper presents a prototype Environmental Management Information System (EMIS) that was developed to provide a systematic way of managing environmental data and human resources of an environmental organization. The system was designed using programming languages, a Database Management System (DBMS) and other technologies and programming tools and combines information from the relational database in order to achieve the principal goals of the environmental organization. The developed application can be used to store and elaborate information regarding: human resources data, environmental projects, observations, reports, data about the protected species, environmental measurements of pollutant factors or other kinds of analytical measurements and also the financial data of the organization. Furthermore, the system supports the visualization of spatial data structures by using geographic information systems (GIS) and web mapping technologies. This paper describes this prototype software application, its structure, its functions and how this system can be utilized to facilitate technology-based environmental management and decision-making process.

HNS-MS : Improving Member States preparedness to face an HNS pollution of the Marine System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Legrand, Sebastien; Le Floch, Stéphane; Aprin, Laurent; Parthenay, Valérie; Donnay, Eric; Parmentier, Koen; Ovidio, Fabrice; Schallier, Ronny; Poncet, Florence; Chataing, Sophie; Poupon, Emmanuelle; Hellouvry, Yann-Hervé

2016-04-01

When dealing with a HNS pollution incident, one of the priority requirements is the identification of the hazard and an assessment of the risk posed to the public and responder safety, the environment and socioeconomic assets upon which a state or coastal community depend. The primary factors which determine the safety, environmental and socioeconomic impact of the released substance(s) relate to their physico-chemical properties and fate in the environment. Until now, preparedness actions at various levels have primarily aimed at classifying the general environmental or public health hazard of an HNS, or at performing a risk analysis of HNS transported in European marine regions. Operational datasheets have been (MIDSIS-TROCS) or are being (MAR-CIS) developed collating detailed, substance-specific information for responders and covering information needs at the first stage of an incident. However, contrary to oil pollution preparedness and response tools, only few decision-support tools used by Member State authorities (Coastguard agencies or other) integrate 3D models that are able to simulate the drift, fate and behaviour of HNS spills in the marine environment. When they do, they usually consider simplified or steady-state environmental conditions. Moreover, the above-mentioned available HNS information is currently not sufficiently detailed or not suitably classified to be used as an input for an advanced HNS support decision tool. HNS-MS aims at developing a 'one-stop shop' integrated HNS decision-support tool that is able to predict the drift, behaviour and Fate of HNS spills under realistic environmental conditions and at providing key product information - drawing upon and in complement to existing studies and databases - to improve the understanding and evaluation of a HNS spill situation in the field and the environmental and safety-related issues at stake. The 3D HNS drift and fate model and decision-support tool will also be useful at the preparedness stage. The expected results will be an operational HNS decision-support tool (prototype) for the Bonn Agreement area that can also be viewed as a demonstrator tool for other European marine regions. The developed tool will have a similar operational level as OSERIT, the Belgian oil spill drift model. The HNS decision-support tool will integrate the following features: 1. A database containing the physico-chemical parameters needed to compute the behaviour in the marine environment of 100+ relevant HNS; 2. A database of environmental and socioeconomic HNS-sensitive features; 3. A three dimensional HNS spill drift and fate model able to simulate HNS behaviour in the marine environment (including floaters, sinkers, evaporators and dissolvers). 4. A user-friendly web-based interface allowing Coastguard stations to launch a HNS drift simulation and visualize post-processed results in support of an incident evaluation and decision-making process. In this contribution, we will present the methodology followed to develop these four features.

48 CFR 52.223-19 - Compliance with Environmental Management Systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Environmental Management Systems. 52.223-19 Section 52.223-19 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL... Provisions and Clauses 52.223-19 Compliance with Environmental Management Systems. As prescribed in 23.903, insert the following clause: Compliance With Environmental Management Systems (May 2011) The Contractor's...

Teachers' Prestige in Spain: Probing the Public's and the Teachers' Contrary Views

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pérez-Díaz, Víctor; Rodríguez, Juan Carlos

2014-01-01

We use the results of a public opinion survey we carried out in 2012 on a sample of the Spanish adult population to offer a plausible explanation of one of the main conundrums of primary and secondary school teachers' prestige, not only in Spain, i.e. that, contrary to public discourse and to teachers' perceptions, this prestige has not fallen in…

75 FR 51308 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated; Notice of Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-19

... Effectiveness of Proposal To Extend the Cut-Off Time To Submit Contrary Exercise Advices August 12, 2010... to amend Rule 11.1 to extend the cut-off time to submit contrary exercise advices. The text of the.... Purpose The purpose of the proposed rule change is to amend Rule 11.1 to extend the cut-off time to submit...

Social inequalities in residential exposure to road traffic noise: an environmental justice analysis based on the RECORD Cohort Study.

PubMed

Havard, Sabrina; Reich, Brian J; Bean, Kathy; Chaix, Basile

2011-05-01

To explore social inequalities in residential exposure to road traffic noise in an urban area. Environmental injustice in road traffic noise exposure was investigated in Paris, France, using the RECORD Cohort Study (n = 2130) and modelled noise data. Associations were assessed by estimating noise exposure within the local area around participants' residence, considering various socioeconomic variables defined at both individual and neighbourhood level, and comparing different regression models attempting or not to control for spatial autocorrelation in noise levels. After individual-level adjustment, participants' noise exposure increased with neighbourhood educational level and dwelling value but also with proportion of non-French citizens, suggesting seemingly contradictory findings. However, when country of citizenship was defined according to its human development level, noise exposure in fact increased and decreased with the proportions of citizens from advantaged and disadvantaged countries, respectively. These findings were consistent with those reported for the other socioeconomic characteristics, suggesting higher road traffic noise exposure in advantaged neighbourhoods. Substantial collinearity between neighbourhood explanatory variables and spatial random effects caused identifiability problems that prevented successful control for spatial autocorrelation. Contrary to previous literature, this study shows that people living in advantaged neighbourhoods were more exposed to road traffic noise in their residential environment than their deprived counterparts. This case study demonstrates the need to systematically perform sensitivity analyses with multiple socioeconomic characteristics to avoid incorrect inferences about an environmental injustice situation and the complexity of effectively controlling for spatial autocorrelation when fixed and random components of the model are correlated.

Rapid screening of heavy metals and trace elements in environmental samples using portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, A comparative study

PubMed Central

McComb, Jacqueline Q.; Rogers, Christian; Han, Fengxiang X.; Tchounwou, Paul B.

2014-01-01

With industrialization, great amounts of trace elements and heavy metals have been excavated and released on the surface of the earth and dissipated into the environments. Rapid screening technology for detecting major and trace elements as well as heavy metals in variety of environmental samples is most desired. The objectives of this study were to determine the detection limits, accuracy, repeatability and efficiency of a X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (Niton XRF analyzer) in comparison with the traditional analytical methods, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-MS) in screening of major and trace elements of environmental samples including estuary soils and sediments, contaminated soils, and biological samples. XRF is a fast and non-destructive method in measuring the total concentration of multi--elements simultaneously. Contrary to ICP-OES and ICP-MS, XRF analyzer is characterized by the limited preparation required for solid samples, non-destructive analysis, increased total speed and high throughout, the decreased production of hazardous waste and the low running costs as well as multi-elemental determination and portability in the fields. The current comparative study demonstrates that XRF is a good rapid non-destructive method for contaminated soils, sediments and biological samples containing higher concentrations of major and trace elements. Unfortunately, XRF does not have sensitive detection limits of most major and trace elements as ICP-OES or ICP-MS but it may serve as a rapid screening tool for locating hot spots of uncontaminated field soils and sediments. PMID:25861136

Environmental attitudes and political partisanship.

PubMed

DeNicola, E; Subramaniam, P R

2014-05-01

To explore the impact of political partisanship on environmental attitudes related to climate change in United States and its implications for public health. An integrative literature review. A literature review of English articles was performed from January 2013 to March 2013 using the following databases: CINAHL, PubMed, Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, ERIC, psychINFO, and Wiley Online Library. Empirical and review articles and Internet sources were included. Continued mass emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will exacerbate the consequences of global warming and climate change. As one of the key global contributors of carbon emissions, the lack of climate change policy and regulatory practices at the federal level in the United States is of great concern. Political partisanship in the US is largely to blame for this inaction, as efforts for drastic remediation action is met with rejection from conservative groups who do not believe that global warming and climate change are a problem, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. To promote the health of the entire population, there needs to be a paradigm shift from consumption driven economic growth as advocated by the Republicans to a realization of true prosperity beyond growth in order to create a sustainable world. This presents a critical challenge to public health professionals as political partisanship has the power to impact environmental attitudes and have serious implications for public health. Preserving the environment must take precedence over economic growth if we want a habitable planet low in carbon. Copyright © 2014 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparative population structure of Cynopterus fruit bats in peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand.

PubMed

Campbell, Polly; Schneider, Christopher J; Adnan, Adura M; Zubaid, Akbar; Kunz, Thomas H

2006-01-01

The extent to which response to environmental change is mediated by species-specific ecology is an important aspect of the population histories of tropical taxa. During the Pleistocene glacial cycles and associated sea level fluctuations, the Sunda region in Southeast Asia experienced concurrent changes in landmass area and the ratio of forest to open habitat, providing an ideal setting to test the expectation that habitat associations played an important role in determining species' response to the opportunity for geographic expansion. We used mitochondrial control region sequences and six microsatellite loci to compare the phylogeographic structure and demographic histories of four broadly sympatric species of Old World fruit bats in the genus, Cynopterus. Two forest-associated species and two open-habitat generalists were sampled along a latitudinal transect in Singapore, peninsular Malaysia, and southern Thailand. Contrary to expectations based on habitat associations, the geographic scale of population structure was not concordant across ecologically similar species. We found evidence for long and relatively stable demographic history in one forest and one open-habitat species, and inferred non-coincident demographic expansions in the second forest and open-habitat species. Thus, while these results indicate that Pleistocene climate change did not have a single effect on population structure across species, a correlation between habitat association and response to environmental change was supported in only two of four species. We conclude that interactions between multiple factors, including historical and contemporary environmental change, species-specific ecology and interspecific interactions, have shaped the recent evolutionary histories of Cynopterus fruit bats in Southeast Asia.

Effect of the environment on the dendritic morphology of the rat auditory cortex

PubMed Central

Bose, Mitali; Muñoz-Llancao, Pablo; Roychowdhury, Swagata; Nichols, Justin A.; Jakkamsetti, Vikram; Porter, Benjamin; Byrapureddy, Rajasekhar; Salgado, Humberto; Kilgard, Michael P.; Aboitiz, Francisco; Dagnino-Subiabre, Alexies; Atzori, Marco

2010-01-01

The present study aimed to identify morphological correlates of environment-induced changes at excitatory synapses of the primary auditory cortex (A1). We used the Golgi-Cox stain technique to compare pyramidal cells dendritic properties of Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to different environmental manipulations. Sholl analysis, dendritic length measures, and spine density counts were used to monitor the effects of sensory deafness and an auditory version of environmental enrichment (EE). We found that deafness decreased apical dendritic length leaving basal dendritic length unchanged, whereas EE selectively increased basal dendritic length without changing apical dendritic length. On the contrary, deafness decreased while EE increased spine density in both basal and apical dendrites of A1 layer 2/3 (LII/III) neurons. To determine whether stress contributed to the observed morphological changes in A1, we studied neural morphology in a restraint-induced model that lacked behaviorally relevant acoustic cues. We found that stress selectively decreased apical dendritic length in the auditory but not in the visual primary cortex. Similar to the acoustic manipulation, stress-induced changes in dendritic length possessed a layer specific pattern displaying LII/III neurons from stressed animals with normal apical dendrites but shorter basal dendrites, while infragranular neurons (layers V and VI) displayed shorter apical dendrites but normal basal dendrites. The same treatment did not induce similar changes in the visual cortex, demonstrating that the auditory cortex is an exquisitely sensitive target of neocortical plasticity, and that prolonged exposure to different acoustic as well as emotional environmental manipulation may produce specific changes in dendritic shape and spine density. PMID:19771593

Ecophysiology of native and alien-invasive clams in an ocean warming context.

PubMed

Anacleto, Patrícia; Maulvault, Ana Luísa; Lopes, Vanessa M; Repolho, Tiago; Diniz, Mário; Nunes, Maria Leonor; Marques, António; Rosa, Rui

2014-09-01

Both climate change and biological invasions are among the most serious global environmental threats. Yet mechanisms underlying these eventual interactions remain unclear. The aim of this study was to undertake a comprehensive examination of the physiological and biochemical responses of native (Ruditapes decussatus) and alien-invasive (Ruditapes philippinarum) clams to environmental warming. We evaluated thermal tolerance limits (CTMax), routine metabolic rates (RMRs) and respective thermal sensitivity (Q10 values), critical oxygen partial pressure (Pcrit), heat shock response (HSP70/HSC70 levels), lipid peroxidation (MDA build-up) and antioxidant enzyme [glutathione-S-transferase (GST), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD)] activities. Contrary to most studies that show that invasive species have a higher thermal tolerance than native congeners, here we revealed that the alien-invasive and native species had similar CTMax values. However, warming had a stronger effect on metabolism and oxidative status of the native R. decussatus, as indicated by the higher RMRs and HSP70/HSC70 and MDA levels, as well as GST, CAT and SOD activities. Moreover, we argue that the alien-invasive clams, instead of up-regulating energetically expensive cellular responses, have evolved a less demanding strategy to cope with short-term environmental (oxidative) stress-pervasive valve closure. Although efficient during stressful short-term periods to ensure isolation and guarantee longer survival, such adaptive behavioural strategy entails metabolic arrest (and the enhancement of anaerobic pathways), which to some extent will not be advantageous under the chronically warming conditions predicted in the future. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biochemical and physiological responses of halophilic nanophytoplankton (Dunaliella salina) from exposure to xeno-estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol.

PubMed

Belhaj, Dalel; Athmouni, Khaled; Frikha, Doniez; Kallel, Monem; El Feki, Abdelfattah; Maalej, Sami; Zhou, John L; Ayadi, Habib

2017-03-01

The environmental impacts of various pollutants on the entire levels of organisms are under investigation. Among these pollutants, endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) present a serious hazard, even though the environmental significance of these compounds remains basically unknown. To drop some light on this field, we assessed the effects of a 11-day exposure of 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) on the growth, metabolic content, antioxidant response, oxidative stress, and genetic damage of Dunaliella salina, isolated from Tunisian biotopes. The results showed that at 10 ng L -1 , EE2 could stimulate the growth of D. salina and increase its cellular content of photosynthetic pigments and metabolites; however, it did not significantly increase the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) or the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). In contrast, exposure to high levels of EE2 concentrations significantly inhibited the growth of D. salina (P < 0.05), decreased the cellular content of photosynthetic pigments, increased the cellular content of all of the metabolites and the SOD activity, and inhibited CAT and GPx activities. Nevertheless, the balance between oxidant and antioxidant enzymes was disrupted because H 2 O 2 content along with MDA content simultaneously increased. Contrary to expected results, DNA damage (strand breaks) decreased after the exposure of algae to EE2. The results of this study suggest that EE2 toxicity could result in environmental impacts with consequences on the whole aquatic community. Graphical abstract.

Undersafe: Monitoring safety parameters in touristic mines and caves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parcerisa, David; Sanmiquel, Lluís; Alfonso, Pura; Oliva, Josep

2014-05-01

Tourism is a key sector of the European economy, generating more than 5% of the EU GPD (Gross Domestic Product). Usually, underground touristic sites receive non-expert visitors; nevertheless these activities are poorly regulated or completely deregulated. Nowadays, safety is provided by underground expert professionals whom proceed to regular inspections and by basic safety infrastructures. Even with these measures, some potential personal and environmental dangers are always present and cannot be totally avoided. Therefore, there is a clear need of a new technological product for safety and environmental continuous monitoring of tourist underground attractions. So, the aim of the Undersafe project is to provide underground attractions with a novel and specifically tailored monitoring system, easy to use and maintain. One of the goals of the Undersafe project is to develop a rock falling detection based on a set of cost limited vibration sensors. Based on the technical needs, but with cost constraints, different types of potential sensors are considered: Underground microphone: It is placed in the surface or in the underground. It is based on the consideration that the impact of the stone generates a ground impact vibration which can be understood as a "noise" that is received by a microphone capsule. Airborne sound sensing microphone: It similarly applies to underground use of the microphones, but now the microphone is tested as for its traditional use (I.e. air sound detection). In such case, the microphone detects the environmental noise produced by the impact of the stone falling onto the ground, which will include the impact sound of the stone. Geophone: It is the de facto standard for ground vibrations. Although this technology was initially discarded due to its high cost, recently, low cost geophones have appeared in the market that allows its use inside the underground attractions. Accelerometers: These, can have enough sensibility to act as vibration sensors. Although the costs of the most sensible ones are out of the limits needed for our purposes, but some non-expensive accelerometers will be tested in real environment. All these systems have been tested and it can be concluded that results have been positive for the following technologies: piezoelectric, Electret (airborne and underground) and geophone. On the contrary, accelerometer and movement sensor provided negative results. The most sensible sensor that we have found is Electret that, in turn, is the most sensitive one to out of ground environmental noise (relevant in order to discard surface vibrations effect). All sensors can provide detections in a range of 15m. Low cost rock falling detectors, in cercles of 30 m of diameter are feasible. Also detection for longer distances, up to 80 meters, is feasible, but not advisable for low-cost application. Aknowledgements: Undersafe is an European project under the auspices of the EU 7h Framework Program. EDMA Innovation S.L. deeply contributed to the development of this study.

Study of market model describing the contrary behaviors of informed and uninformed agents: Being minority and being majority

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yu-Xia; Liao, Hao; Medo, Matus; Shang, Ming-Sheng; Yeung, Chi Ho

2016-05-01

In this paper we analyze the contrary behaviors of the informed investors and uniformed investors, and then construct a competition model with two groups of agents, namely agents who intend to stay in minority and those who intend to stay in majority. We find two kinds of competitions, inter- and intra-groups. The model shows periodic fluctuation feature. The average distribution of strategies illustrates a prominent central peak which is relevant to the peak-fat-tail character of price change distribution in stock markets. Furthermore, in the modified model the tolerance time parameter makes the agents diversified. Finally, we compare the strategies distribution with the price change distribution in real stock market, and we conclude that contrary behavior rules and tolerance time parameter are indeed valid in the description of market model.

A Study of MX Environmental Management Information System (MXEMIS) Needs.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-12-01

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MXEMIS) NEEDS by Ronald Webster Ralph Mitchell Valorie Young -J : 2 34 LA--. Approved for public release...System (SAIFS) The MX Management Information System (MX MIS) The Mobilization Early Warning System (MEWS) The Computer-Aided Environmental Baseline...26 REFERENCES DISTRIBUTION I5 S’ t A STUDY OF MX ENVIRONMENTAL 2 EXISTING SYSTEMS CLASSIFICATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MXEMIS

Antarctic ice shelf potentially stabilized by export of meltwater in surface river.

PubMed

Bell, Robin E; Chu, Winnie; Kingslake, Jonathan; Das, Indrani; Tedesco, Marco; Tinto, Kirsty J; Zappa, Christopher J; Frezzotti, Massimo; Boghosian, Alexandra; Lee, Won Sang

2017-04-19

Meltwater stored in ponds and crevasses can weaken and fracture ice shelves, triggering their rapid disintegration. This ice-shelf collapse results in an increased flux of ice from adjacent glaciers and ice streams, thereby raising sea level globally. However, surface rivers forming on ice shelves could potentially export stored meltwater and prevent its destructive effects. Here we present evidence for persistent active drainage networks-interconnected streams, ponds and rivers-on the Nansen Ice Shelf in Antarctica that export a large fraction of the ice shelf's meltwater into the ocean. We find that active drainage has exported water off the ice surface through waterfalls and dolines for more than a century. The surface river terminates in a 130-metre-wide waterfall that can export the entire annual surface melt over the course of seven days. During warmer melt seasons, these drainage networks adapt to changing environmental conditions by remaining active for longer and exporting more water. Similar networks are present on the ice shelf in front of Petermann Glacier, Greenland, but other systems, such as on the Larsen C and Amery Ice Shelves, retain surface water at present. The underlying reasons for export versus retention remain unclear. Nonetheless our results suggest that, in a future warming climate, surface rivers could export melt off the large ice shelves surrounding Antarctica-contrary to present Antarctic ice-sheet models, which assume that meltwater is stored on the ice surface where it triggers ice-shelf disintegration.

Molecular basis of a novel adaptation to hypoxic-hypercapnia in a strictly fossorial mole.

PubMed

Campbell, Kevin L; Storz, Jay F; Signore, Anthony V; Moriyama, Hideaki; Catania, Kenneth C; Payson, Alexander P; Bonaventura, Joseph; Stetefeld, Jörg; Weber, Roy E

2010-07-16

Elevated blood O(2) affinity enhances survival at low O(2) pressures, and is perhaps the best known and most broadly accepted evolutionary adjustment of terrestrial vertebrates to environmental hypoxia. This phenotype arises by increasing the intrinsic O(2) affinity of the hemoglobin (Hb) molecule, by decreasing the intracellular concentration of allosteric effectors (e.g., 2,3-diphosphoglycerate; DPG), or by suppressing the sensitivity of Hb to these physiological cofactors. Here we report that strictly fossorial eastern moles (Scalopus aquaticus) have evolved a low O(2) affinity, DPG-insensitive Hb - contrary to expectations for a mammalian species that is adapted to the chronic hypoxia and hypercapnia of subterranean burrow systems. Molecular modelling indicates that this functional shift is principally attributable to a single charge altering amino acid substitution in the beta-type delta-globin chain (delta136Gly-->Glu) of this species that perturbs electrostatic interactions between the dimer subunits via formation of an intra-chain salt-bridge with delta82Lys. However, this replacement also abolishes key binding sites for the red blood cell effectors Cl-, lactate and DPG (the latter of which is virtually absent from the red cells of this species) at delta82Lys, thereby markedly reducing competition for carbamate formation (CO(2) binding) at the delta-chain N-termini. We propose this Hb phenotype illustrates a novel mechanism for adaptively elevating the CO(2) carrying capacity of eastern mole blood during burst tunnelling activities associated with subterranean habitation.

Molecular basis of a novel adaptation to hypoxic-hypercapnia in a strictly fossorial mole

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Elevated blood O2 affinity enhances survival at low O2 pressures, and is perhaps the best known and most broadly accepted evolutionary adjustment of terrestrial vertebrates to environmental hypoxia. This phenotype arises by increasing the intrinsic O2 affinity of the hemoglobin (Hb) molecule, by decreasing the intracellular concentration of allosteric effectors (e.g., 2,3-diphosphoglycerate; DPG), or by suppressing the sensitivity of Hb to these physiological cofactors. Results Here we report that strictly fossorial eastern moles (Scalopus aquaticus) have evolved a low O2 affinity, DPG-insensitive Hb - contrary to expectations for a mammalian species that is adapted to the chronic hypoxia and hypercapnia of subterranean burrow systems. Molecular modelling indicates that this functional shift is principally attributable to a single charge altering amino acid substitution in the β-type δ-globin chain (δ136Gly→Glu) of this species that perturbs electrostatic interactions between the dimer subunits via formation of an intra-chain salt-bridge with δ82Lys. However, this replacement also abolishes key binding sites for the red blood cell effectors Cl-, lactate and DPG (the latter of which is virtually absent from the red cells of this species) at δ82Lys, thereby markedly reducing competition for carbamate formation (CO2 binding) at the δ-chain N-termini. Conclusions We propose this Hb phenotype illustrates a novel mechanism for adaptively elevating the CO2 carrying capacity of eastern mole blood during burst tunnelling activities associated with subterranean habitation. PMID:20637064

Antarctic Ice Shelf Potentially Stabilized by Export of Meltwater in Surface River

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bell, Robin E.; Chu, Winnie; Kingslake, Jonathan; Das, Indrani; Tedesco, Marco; Tinto, Kirsty J.; Zappa, Christopher J.; Frezzotti, Massimo; Boghosian, Alexandra; Lee, Won Sang

2017-01-01

Meltwater stored in ponds and crevasses can weaken and fracture ice shelves, triggering their rapid disintegration. This ice-shelf collapse results in an increased flux of ice from adjacent glaciers and ice streams, thereby raising sea level globally. However, surface rivers forming on ice shelves could potentially export stored meltwater and prevent its destructive effects. Here we present evidence for persistent active drainage networks-interconnected streams, ponds and rivers-on the Nansen Ice Shelf in Antarctica that export a large fraction of the ice shelf's meltwater into the ocean. We find that active drainage has exported water off the ice surface through waterfalls and dolines for more than a century. The surface river terminates in a 130-metre-wide waterfall that can export the entire annual surface melt over the course of seven days. During warmer melt seasons, these drainage networks adapt to changing environmental conditions by remaining active for longer and exporting more water. Similar networks are present on the ice shelf in front of Petermann Glacier, Greenland, but other systems, such as on the Larsen C and Amery Ice Shelves, retain surface water at present. The underlying reasons for export versus retention remain unclear. Nonetheless our results suggest that, in a future warming climate, surface rivers could export melt off the large ice shelves surrounding Antarctica-contrary to present Antarctic ice-sheet models, which assume that meltwater is stored on the ice surface where it triggers ice-shelf disintegration.

Climatic Variability Leads to Later Seasonal Flowering of Floridian Plants

PubMed Central

Von Holle, Betsy; Wei, Yun; Nickerson, David

2010-01-01

Understanding species responses to global change will help predict shifts in species distributions as well as aid in conservation. Changes in the timing of seasonal activities of organisms over time may be the most responsive and easily observable indicator of environmental changes associated with global climate change. It is unknown how global climate change will affect species distributions and developmental events in subtropical ecosystems or if climate change will differentially favor nonnative species. Contrary to previously observed trends for earlier flowering onset of plant species with increasing spring temperatures from mid and higher latitudes, we document a trend for delayed seasonal flowering among plants in Florida. Additionally, there were few differences in reproductive responses by native and nonnative species to climatic changes. We argue that plants in Florida have different reproductive cues than those from more northern climates. With global change, minimum temperatures have become more variable within the temperate-subtropical zone that occurs across the peninsula and this variation is strongly associated with delayed flowering among Florida plants. Our data suggest that climate change varies by region and season and is not a simple case of species responding to consistently increasing temperatures across the region. Research on climate change impacts need to be extended outside of the heavily studied higher latitudes to include subtropical and tropical systems in order to properly understand the complexity of regional and seasonal differences of climate change on species responses. PMID:20657765

Antarctic ice shelf potentially stabilized by export of meltwater in surface river

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, Robin E.; Chu, Winnie; Kingslake, Jonathan; Das, Indrani; Tedesco, Marco; Tinto, Kirsty J.; Zappa, Christopher J.; Frezzotti, Massimo; Boghosian, Alexandra; Lee, Won Sang

2017-04-01

Meltwater stored in ponds and crevasses can weaken and fracture ice shelves, triggering their rapid disintegration. This ice-shelf collapse results in an increased flux of ice from adjacent glaciers and ice streams, thereby raising sea level globally. However, surface rivers forming on ice shelves could potentially export stored meltwater and prevent its destructive effects. Here we present evidence for persistent active drainage networks—interconnected streams, ponds and rivers—on the Nansen Ice Shelf in Antarctica that export a large fraction of the ice shelf’s meltwater into the ocean. We find that active drainage has exported water off the ice surface through waterfalls and dolines for more than a century. The surface river terminates in a 130-metre-wide waterfall that can export the entire annual surface melt over the course of seven days. During warmer melt seasons, these drainage networks adapt to changing environmental conditions by remaining active for longer and exporting more water. Similar networks are present on the ice shelf in front of Petermann Glacier, Greenland, but other systems, such as on the Larsen C and Amery Ice Shelves, retain surface water at present. The underlying reasons for export versus retention remain unclear. Nonetheless our results suggest that, in a future warming climate, surface rivers could export melt off the large ice shelves surrounding Antarctica—contrary to present Antarctic ice-sheet models, which assume that meltwater is stored on the ice surface where it triggers ice-shelf disintegration.

Flexible compensation of uniparental care: female poison frogs take over when males disappear.

PubMed

Ringler, Eva; Pašukonis, Andrius; Fitch, W Tecumseh; Huber, Ludwig; Hödl, Walter; Ringler, Max

2015-01-01

Parental care systems are shaped by costs and benefits to each sex of investing into current versus future progeny. Flexible compensatory parental care is mainly known in biparental species, particularly where parental desertion or reduction of care by 1 parent is common. The other parent can then compensate this loss by either switching parental roles and/or by increasing its own parental effort. In uniparental species, desertion of the caregiver usually leads to total brood loss. In the poison frog, Allobates femoralis , obligatory tadpole transport (TT) is generally performed by males, whereas females abandon their clutches after oviposition. Nevertheless, in a natural population we previously observed 7.8% of TT performed by females, which we could link to the absence of the respective fathers. In the following experiment, under laboratory conditions, all tested A. femoralis females flexibly took over parental duties, but only when their mates were removed. Our findings provide clear evidence for compensatory flexibility in a species with unisexual parental care. Contrary to the view of amphibian parental care as being stereotypical and fixed, these results demonstrate behavioral flexibility as an adaptive response to environmental and social uncertainty. Behavioral flexibility might actually represent a crucial step in the evolutionary transition from uniparental to biparental care in poison frogs. We suspect that across animal species flexible parental roles are much more common than previously thought and suggest the idea of a 3-dimensional continuum regarding flexibility, parental involvement, and timing, when thinking about the evolution of parental care.

Smart sensing to drive real-time loads scheduling algorithm in a domotic architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santamaria, Amilcare Francesco; Raimondo, Pierfrancesco; De Rango, Floriano; Vaccaro, Andrea

2014-05-01

Nowadays the focus on power consumption represent a very important factor regarding the reduction of power consumption with correlated costs and the environmental sustainability problems. Automatic control load based on power consumption and use cycle represents the optimal solution to costs restraint. The purpose of these systems is to modulate the power request of electricity avoiding an unorganized work of the loads, using intelligent techniques to manage them based on real time scheduling algorithms. The goal is to coordinate a set of electrical loads to optimize energy costs and consumptions based on the stipulated contract terms. The proposed algorithm use two new main notions: priority driven loads and smart scheduling loads. The priority driven loads can be turned off (stand by) according to a priority policy established by the user if the consumption exceed a defined threshold, on the contrary smart scheduling loads are scheduled in a particular way to don't stop their Life Cycle (LC) safeguarding the devices functions or allowing the user to freely use the devices without the risk of exceeding the power threshold. The algorithm, using these two kind of notions and taking into account user requirements, manages loads activation and deactivation allowing the completion their operation cycle without exceeding the consumption threshold in an off-peak time range according to the electricity fare. This kind of logic is inspired by industrial lean manufacturing which focus is to minimize any kind of power waste optimizing the available resources.

Complex Adaptive Systems, soil degradation and land sensitivity to desertification: A multivariate assessment of Italian agro-forest landscape.

PubMed

Salvati, Luca; Mavrakis, Anastasios; Colantoni, Andrea; Mancino, Giuseppe; Ferrara, Agostino

2015-07-15

Degradation of soils and sensitivity of land to desertification are intensified in last decades in the Mediterranean region producing heterogeneous spatial patterns determined by the interplay of factors such as climate, land-use changes, and human pressure. The present study hypothesizes that rising levels of soil degradation and land sensitivity to desertification are reflected into increasingly complex (and non-linear) relationships between environmental and socioeconomic variables. To verify this hypothesis, the Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) framework was used to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of eleven indicators derived from a standard assessment of soil degradation and land sensitivity to desertification in Italy. Indicators were made available on a detailed spatial scale (773 agricultural districts) for various years (1960, 1990, 2000 and 2010) and analyzed through a multi-dimensional exploratory data analysis. Our results indicate that the number of significant pair-wise correlations observed between indicators increased with the level of soil and land degradation, although with marked differences between northern and southern Italy. 'Fast' and 'slow' factors underlying soil and land degradation, and 'rapidly-evolving' or 'locked' agricultural districts were identified according to the rapidity of change estimated for each of the indicators studied. In southern Italy, 'rapidly-evolving' districts show a high level of soil degradation and land sensitivity to desertification during the whole period of investigation. On the contrary, those districts in northern Italy are those experiencing a moderate soil degradation and land sensitivity to desertification with the highest increase in the level of sensitivity over time. The study framework contributes to the assessment of complex local systems' dynamics in affluent but divided countries. Results may inform thematic strategies for the mitigation of land and soil degradation in the framework of action plans to combat desertification. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Field measurements and analyses of environmental vibrations induced by high-speed Maglev.

PubMed

Li, Guo-Qiang; Wang, Zhi-Lu; Chen, Suwen; Xu, You-Lin

2016-10-15

Maglev, offers competitive journey-times compared to the railway and subway systems in markets for which distance between the stations is 100-1600km owing to its high acceleration and speed; however, such systems may have excessive vibration. Field measurements of Maglev train-induced vibrations were therefore performed on the world's first commercial Maglev line in Shanghai, China. Seven test sections along the line were selected according to the operating conditions, covering speeds from 150 to 430km/h. Acceleration responses of bridge pier and nearby ground were measured in three directions and analyzed in both the time and frequency domain. The effects of Maglev train speed on vibrations of the bridge pier and ground were studied in terms of their peak accelerations. Attenuation of ground vibration was investigated up to 30m from the track centerline. Effects of guideway configuration were also analyzed based on the measurements through two different test sections with same train speed of 300km/h. The results showed that peak accelerations exhibited a strong correlation with both train speed and distance off the track. Guideway configuration had a significant effect on transverse vibration, but a weak impact on vertical and longitudinal vibrations of both bridge pier and ground. Statistics indicated that, contrary to the commonly accepted theory and experience, vertical vibration is not always dominant: transverse and longitudinal vibrations should also be considered, particularly near turns in the track. Moreover, measurements of ground vibration induced by traditional high-speed railway train were carried out with the same testing devices in Bengbu in the Anhui Province. Results showed that the Maglev train generates significantly different vibration signatures as compared to the traditional high-speed train. The results obtained from this paper can provide good insights on the impact of Maglev system on the urban environment and the quality of human life nearby. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Age-dependent salt hypertension in Dahl rats: fifty years of research.

PubMed

Zicha, J; Dobešová, Z; Vokurková, M; Rauchová, H; Hojná, S; Kadlecová, M; Behuliak, M; Vaněčková, I; Kuneš, J

2012-01-01

Fifty years ago, Lewis K. Dahl has presented a new model of salt hypertension - salt-sensitive and salt-resistant Dahl rats. Twenty years later, John P. Rapp has published the first and so far the only comprehensive review on this rat model covering numerous aspects of pathophysiology and genetics of salt hypertension. When we summarized 25 years of our own research on Dahl/Rapp rats, we have realized the need to outline principal abnormalities of this model, to show their interactions at different levels of the organism and to highlight the ontogenetic aspects of salt hypertension development. Our attention was focused on some cellular aspects (cell membrane function, ion transport, cell calcium handling), intra- and extrarenal factors affecting renal function and/or renal injury, local and systemic effects of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, endothelial and smooth muscle changes responsible for abnormal vascular contraction or relaxation, altered balance between various vasoconstrictor and vasodilator systems in blood pressure maintenance as well as on the central nervous and peripheral mechanisms involved in the regulation of circulatory homeostasis. We also searched for the age-dependent impact of environmental and pharmacological interventions, which modify the development of high blood pressure and/or organ damage, if they influence the salt-sensitive organism in particular critical periods of development (developmental windows). Thus, severe self-sustaining salt hypertension in young Dahl rats is characterized by pronounced dysbalance between augmented sympathetic hyperactivity and relative nitric oxide deficiency, attenuated baroreflex as well as by a major increase of residual blood pressure indicating profound remodeling of resistance vessels. Salt hypertension development in young but not in adult Dahl rats can be attenuated by preventive increase of potassium or calcium intake. On the contrary, moderate salt hypertension in adult Dahl rats is attenuated by superoxide scavenging or endothelin-A receptor blockade which do not affect salt hypertension development in young animals.

Integrated Building Energy Systems Design Considering Storage Technologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stadler, Michael; Marnay, Chris; Siddiqui, Afzal

The addition of storage technologies such as flow batteries, conventional batteries, and heat storage can improve the economic, as well as environmental attraction of micro-generation systems (e.g., PV or fuel cells with or without CHP) and contribute to enhanced demand response. The interactions among PV, solar thermal, and storage systems can be complex, depending on the tariff structure, load profile, etc. In order to examine the impact of storage technologies on demand response and CO2 emissions, a microgrid's distributed energy resources (DER) adoption problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program that can pursue two strategies as its objective function.more » These two strategies are minimization of its annual energy costs or of its CO2 emissions. The problem is solved for a given test year at representative customer sites, e.g., nursing homes, to obtain not only the optimal investment portfolio, but also the optimal hourly operating schedules for the selected technologies. This paper focuses on analysis of storage technologies in micro-generation optimization on a building level, with example applications in New York State and California. It shows results from a two-year research projectperformed for the U.S. Department of Energy and ongoing work. Contrary to established expectations, our results indicate that PV and electric storage adoption compete rather than supplement each other considering the tariff structure and costs of electricity supply. The work shows that high electricity tariffs during on-peak hours are a significant driver for the adoption of electric storage technologies. To satisfy the site's objective of minimizing energy costs, the batteries have to be charged by grid power during off-peak hours instead of PV during on-peak hours. In contrast, we also show a CO2 minimization strategy where the common assumption that batteries can be charged by PV can be fulfilled at extraordinarily high energy costs for the site.« less

Quantitative and qualitative hydrologic balance for a suburban watershed with a separate sewer system (Nantes, France).

PubMed

Ruban, V; Larrarte, F; Berthier, M; Favreau, L; Sauvourel, Y; Letellier, L; Mosisni, M L; Raimbault, G

2005-01-01

A qualitative and quantitative budget at the outlet of the storm-water runoff system of a small suburban watershed is presented together with some data regarding waste-water. 445,000 m3 (34% of the rain-water volume) were drained by the storm-water runoff system and 40,879 m3 by the waste-water system from September 2002 to March 2004. Storm-water runoff is generally not heavily polluted with regard to trace metals but concentrations occasionally exceed the standards for surface water of good quality. On the contrary, pesticides (diuron and glyphosate) have very high concentrations especially in spring and autumn when their use is maximum. As the St Joseph storm-water runoff is finally discharged into the Erdre River, measures to reduce the use of these pollutants should be considered.

A Brief 30-Year Review: Research Highlights from Lightning Mapping Systems 1970-2000

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacGorman, D. R.

2016-12-01

Modern lightning mapping began in the 1970s, the decade in which VHF mapping systems, acoustic mapping systems, and ground strike locating systems were introduced. Adding GPS synchronization of VHF systems in the late 1990s enabled real-time VHF mapping systems to be deployed more extensively. Data these systems provided by 2000 revolutionized our understanding of how storms produce lightning. Among key results: Electrostatics, not electrodynamics, governs where lightning is initiated and where it propagates, contrary to early expectations. Lightning is initiated in a region of large electric field magnitude, typically between a positive charge region and a negative charge region. The geometry of a storm's charge regions governs the spatial extent of each end of the flash. The flash initially propagates bidirectionally toward the two charge regions that initiated it, and once it reaches the charge regions and maximizes the ambient potential difference spanned by the flash structure, it extends through each charge region's ambient electric potential well until the total electric field magnitude at the ends of the flash drops below the threshold for continued propagation. The typical charge distribution producing a cloud-to-ground flash is a region of charge of the polarity being lowered to ground, above a lesser amount of charge of the opposite polarity; the lower region has too little charge to capture the downward propagating channel. Contrary to previous understanding, naturally occurring cloud-to-ground lightning often lowers positive charge to ground, instead of the usual negative charge, in several situations, including winter storms, stratiform precipitation regions, some severe storms, and storms on the High Plains of the United States. The reason cloud-to-ground activity in some storms is dominated by flashes that lower positive charge to ground is that the polarity of the main charge regions in those storms is inverted from the usual polarity, with the main mid-level charge being positive and the main upper-level charge being negative. This strongly implies that the dominant non-inductive electrification mechanism is inverted in those storms, probably because the liquid water content in the mixed phase region is larger than in most storms.

Passive control of temperature excursion and uniformity in high-energy Li-ion battery packs at high current and ambient temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kizilel, R.; Lateef, A.; Sabbah, R.; Farid, M. M.; Selman, J. R.; Al-Hallaj, S.

A strategy for portable high-power applications with a controlled thermal environment has been developed and has demonstrated the advantage of using the novel phase change material (PCM) thermal management systems over conventional active cooling systems. A passive thermal management system using PCM for Li-ion batteries is tested for extreme conditions, such as ambient temperature of 45 °C and discharge rate of 2.08 C-rate (10 A). Contrary to Li-ion packs without thermal management system, high-energy packs with PCM are discharged safely at high currents and degrading rate of capacity of the Li-ion packs lowered by half. Moreover, the compactness of the packs not only decreases the volume occupied by the packs and its associated complex cooling system, but also decreases the total weight for large power application.

Use of CDMA access technology in mobile satellite systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramasastry, Jay; Wiedeman, Bob

1995-01-01

Use of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology in terrestrial wireless systems is fairly well understood. Similarly, design and operation of Power Control in a CDMA-based system in a terrestrial environment is also well established. Terrestrial multipath characteristics, and optimum design of the CDMA receiver to deal with multipath and fading conditions are reliably established. But the satellite environment is different. When the CDMA technology is adopted to the satellite environment, other design features need to be incorporated (for example; interleaving, open-loop and closed-loop power control design, diversity characteristics) to achieve comparable level of system performance. In fact, the GLOBALSTAR LEO/MSS system has incorporated all these features. Contrary to some published reports, CDMA retains the advantages in the satellite environment that are similar to those achieved in the terrestrial environment. This document gives a description of the CDMA waveform and other design features adopted for mobile satellite applications.

Shear-induced structural transitions in Newtonian non-Newtonian two-phase flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cristobal, G.; Rouch, J.; Colin, A.; Panizza, P.

2000-09-01

We show the existence under shear flow of steady states in a two-phase region of a brine-surfactant system in which lyotropic dilute lamellar (non-Newtonian) and sponge (Newtonian) phases are coexisting. At high shear rates and low sponge phase-volume fractions, we report on the existence of a dynamic transition corresponding to the formation of a colloidal crystal of multilamellar vesicles (or ``onions'') immersed in the sponge matrix. As the sponge phase-volume fraction increases, this transition exhibits a hysteresis loop leading to a structural bistability of the two-phase flow. Contrary to single phase lamellar systems where it is always 100%, the onion volume fraction can be monitored continuously from 0 to 100 %.

Local symmetries and order-disorder transitions in small macroscopic Wigner islands.

PubMed

Coupier, Gwennou; Guthmann, Claudine; Noat, Yves; Jean, Michel Saint

2005-04-01

The influence of local order on the disordering scenario of small Wigner islands is discussed. A first disordering step is put in evidence by the time correlation functions and is linked to individual excitations resulting in configuration transitions, which are very sensitive to the local symmetries. This is followed by two other transitions, corresponding to orthoradial and radial diffusion, for which both individual and collective excitations play a significant role. Finally, we show that, contrary to large systems, the focus that is commonly made on collective excitations for such small systems through the Lindemann criterion has to be made carefully in order to clearly identify the relative contributions in the whole disordering process.

Adaptable piezoelectric hemispherical composite strips using a scalable groove technique for a self-powered muscle monitoring system.

PubMed

Alluri, Nagamalleswara Rao; Vivekananthan, Venkateswaran; Chandrasekhar, Arunkumar; Kim, Sang-Jae

2018-01-18

Contrary to traditional planar flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators (PNGs), highly adaptable hemispherical shape-flexible piezoelectric composite strip (HS-FPCS) based PNGs are required to harness/measure non-linear surface motions. Therefore, a feasible, cost-effective and less-time consuming groove technique was developed to fabricate adaptable HS-FPCSs with multiple lengths. A single HS-CSPNG generates 130 V/0.8 μA and can also work as a self-powered muscle monitoring system (SP-MMS) to measure maximum human body part movements, i.e., spinal cord, throat, jaw, elbow, knee, foot stress, palm hand/finger force and inhale/exhale breath conditions at a time or at variable time intervals.

Scale-dependent behavior of scale equations.

PubMed

Kim, Pilwon

2009-09-01

We propose a new mathematical framework to formulate scale structures of general systems. Stack equations characterize a system in terms of accumulative scales. Their behavior at each scale level is determined independently without referring to other levels. Most standard geometries in mathematics can be reformulated in such stack equations. By involving interaction between scales, we generalize stack equations into scale equations. Scale equations are capable to accommodate various behaviors at different scale levels into one integrated solution. On contrary to standard geometries, such solutions often reveal eccentric scale-dependent figures, providing a clue to understand multiscale nature of the real world. Especially, it is suggested that the Gaussian noise stems from nonlinear scale interactions.

Axioms for Obligation and Robustness with Temporal Logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

French, Tim; McCabe-Dansted, John C.; Reynolds, Mark

RoCTL* was proposed to model and specify the robustness of reactive systems. RoCTL* extended CTL* with the addition of Obligatory and Robustly operators, which quantify over failure-free paths and paths with one more failure respectively. This paper gives an axiomatisation for all the operators of RoCTL* with the exception of the Until operator; this fragment is able to express similar contrary-to-duty obligations to the full RoCTL* logic. We call this formal system NORA, and give a completeness proof. We also consider the fragments of the language containing only path quantifiers (but where variables are dependent on histories). We examine semantic properties and potential axiomatisations for these fragments.

Method and system for environmentally adaptive fault tolerant computing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Copenhaver, Jason L. (Inventor); Jeremy, Ramos (Inventor); Wolfe, Jeffrey M. (Inventor); Brenner, Dean (Inventor)

2010-01-01

A method and system for adapting fault tolerant computing. The method includes the steps of measuring an environmental condition representative of an environment. An on-board processing system's sensitivity to the measured environmental condition is measured. It is determined whether to reconfigure a fault tolerance of the on-board processing system based in part on the measured environmental condition. The fault tolerance of the on-board processing system may be reconfigured based in part on the measured environmental condition.

Three-dimensional periodic dielectric structures having photonic Dirac points

DOEpatents

Bravo-Abad, Jorge; Joannopoulos, John D.; Soljacic, Marin

2015-06-02

The dielectric, three-dimensional photonic materials disclosed herein feature Dirac-like dispersion in quasi-two-dimensional systems. Embodiments include a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure formed by alternating layers of dielectric rods and dielectric slabs patterned with holes on respective triangular lattices. This fcc structure also includes a defect layer, which may comprise either dielectric rods or a dielectric slab with patterned with holes. This defect layer introduces Dirac cone dispersion into the fcc structure's photonic band structure. Examples of these fcc structures enable enhancement of the spontaneous emission coupling efficiency (the .beta.-factor) over large areas, contrary to the conventional wisdom that the .beta.-factor degrades as the system's size increases. These results enable large-area, low-threshold lasers; single-photon sources; quantum information processing devices; and energy harvesting systems.

Chiral d -wave superconductivity in a triangular surface lattice mediated by long-range interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Xiaodong; Ayral, Thomas; Zhong, Zhicheng; Parcollet, Olivier; Manske, Dirk; Hansmann, Philipp

2018-04-01

Adatom systems on the Si(111) surface have recently attracted an increasing attention as strongly correlated systems with a rich phase diagram. We study these materials by a single band model on the triangular lattice, including 1 /r long-range interaction. Employing the recently proposed TRILEX method, we find an unconventional superconducting phase of chiral d -wave symmetry in hole-doped systems. Contrary to usual scenarios where charge and spin fluctuations are seen to compete, here the superconductivity is driven simultaneously by both charge and spin fluctuations and crucially relies on the presence of the long-range tail of the interaction. We provide an analysis of the relevant collective bosonic modes and predict how a cumulative charge and spin paring mechanism leads to superconductivity in doped silicon adatom materials.

Connecting drug delivery reality to smart materials design.

PubMed

Grainger, David W

2013-09-15

Inflated claims to both design and mechanistic novelty in drug delivery and imaging systems, including most nanotechnologies, are not supported by the generally poor translation of these systems to clinical efficacy. The "form begets function" design paradigm is seductive but perhaps over-simplistic in translation to pharmaceutical efficacy. Most innovations show few clinically important distinctions in their therapeutic benefits in relevant preclinical disease and delivery models, despite frequent claims to the contrary. Long-standing challenges in drug delivery issues must enlist more realistic, back-to-basics approaches to address fundamental materials properties in complex biological systems, preclinical test beds, and analytical methods to more reliably determine fundamental pharmaceutical figures of merit, including drug carrier purity and batch-batch variability, agent biodistribution, therapeutic index (safety), and efficacy. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Environmental-Socio-Economic Monitoring as a Tool of Region’s Environmental-Economic System Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galanina, T. V.; Baumgarten, M. I.; Mikhailov, V. G.; Koroleva, T. G.; Mikhailov, G. S.

2017-01-01

The paper deals with the region’s environmental-economic system management through a tool such as the environmental-socio-economic monitoring. The purpose of research - is analysis and development of theoretical assumptions of environmental-socio-economic monitoring system for the effective management of geographically distributed environmental-economic system. The main elements of environmental-socio-economic monitoring are identified, taking into account the characteristics of the studied area. The main result of the research is the development of multi-functional integrated monitoring system for the evaluation of the indicators "gross domestic product" and "gross national product", taking into account the influence of environmental factors. The results of the study conducted may be recommended to the regional and federal governments to support the effective, environment-friendly management decision-making consistent with the overall development concept.

Propiedades espectroscópicas de planetas extrasolares y de enanas marrones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martínez, C. F.; Gómez, M.

In this contribution we present a comparison of the spectroscopic properties of three groups of objects: brown dwarfs, "Hot Jupiter" extrasolar planets and giant solar system planets, in particular Jupiter and Saturn. We col- lect all published spectra from the literature and compare their characteris- tics. Elements such as water vapor (H2 O) and methane (CH4 ) are present in practical all analyzed objects. On the contrary molecules such as carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2 ) are only detected in the spectra of planets. FULL TEXT IN SPANISH

Abell 2069 - An X-ray cluster of galaxies with multiple subcondensations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gioia, I. M.; Maccacaro, T.; Geller, M. J.; Huchra, J. P.; Stocke, J.; Steiner, J. E.

1982-01-01

X-ray and optical observations of the cluster Abell 2069 are presented. The cluster is at a mean redshift of 0.116. The cluster shows multiple condensations in both the X-ray emission and in the galaxy surface density and, thus, does not appear to be relaxed. There is a close correspondence between the gas and galaxy distributions which indicates that the galaxies in this system do map the mass distribution, contrary to what might be expected if low-mass neutrinos dominate the cluster mass.

Year-round breeding equatorial Larks from three climatically-distinct populations do not use rainfall, temperature or invertebrate biomass to time reproduction

PubMed Central

Ndithia, Henry K.; Matson, Kevin D.; Versteegh, Maaike A.; Muchai, Muchane; Tieleman, B. Irene

2017-01-01

Timing of reproduction in birds is important for reproductive success and is known to depend on environmental cues such as day length and food availability. However, in equatorial regions, where day length is nearly constant, other factors such as rainfall and temperature are thought to determine timing of reproduction. Rainfall can vary at small spatial and temporal scales, providing a highly fluctuating and unpredictable environmental cue. In this study we investigated the extent to which spatio-temporal variation in environmental conditions can explain the timing of breeding of Red-capped Lark, Calandrella cinerea, a species that is capable of reproducing during every month of the year in our equatorial east African study locations. For 39 months in three climatically-distinct locations, we monitored nesting activities, sampled ground and flying invertebrates, and quantified rainfall, maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperatures. Among locations we found that lower rainfall and higher temperatures did not coincide with lower invertebrate biomasses and decreased nesting activities, as predicted. Within locations, we found that rainfall, Tmax, and Tmin varied unpredictably among months and years. The only consistent annually recurring observations in all locations were that January and February had low rainfall, high Tmax, and low Tmin. Ground and flying invertebrate biomasses varied unpredictably among months and years, but invertebrates were captured in all months in all locations. Red-capped Larks bred in all calendar months overall but not in every month in every year in every location. Using model selection, we found no clear support for any relationship between the environmental variables and breeding in any of the three locations. Contrary to popular understanding, this study suggests that rainfall and invertebrate biomass as proxy for food do not influence breeding in equatorial Larks. Instead, we propose that factors such as nest predation, female protein reserves, and competition are more important in environments where weather and food meet minimum requirements for breeding during most of the year. PMID:28419105

Geographical and temporal variation in environmental conditions affects nestling growth but not immune function in a year-round breeding equatorial lark.

PubMed

Ndithia, Henry K; Bakari, Samuel N; Matson, Kevin D; Muchai, Muchane; Tieleman, B Irene

2017-01-01

Variation in growth and immune function within and among populations is often associated with specific environmental conditions. We compared growth and immune function in nestlings of year-round breeding equatorial Red - capped Lark Calandrella cinerea from South Kinangop, North Kinangop and Kedong (Kenya), three locations that are geographically close but climatically distinct. In addition, we studied growth and immune function of lark nestlings as a function of year - round variation in breeding intensity and rain within one location. We monitored mass, wing, and tarsus at hatching (day 1) and at 4, 7, and 10 days post - hatch, and we quantified four indices of immune function (haptoglobin, agglutination, lysis and nitric oxide) using blood samples collected on day 10. Nestling body mass and size at hatching, which presumably reflect the resources that females allocated to their eggs, were lowest in the most arid location, Kedong. Contrary to our predictions, nestlings in Kedong grew faster than nestlings in the two other cooler and wetter locations of South and North Kinangop. During periods of peak reproduction within Kedong, nestlings were heavier at hatching, but they did not grow faster over the first 10 days post - hatch. In contrast, rainfall, which did not relate to timing of breeding, had no effect on hatching mass, but more rain did coincide with faster growth post - hatch. Finally, we found no significant differences in nestling immune function, neither among locations nor with the year - round variation within Kedong. Based on these results, we hypothesize that female body condition determines nestling mass and size at hatching, but other independent environmental conditions subsequently shape nestling growth. Overall, our results suggest that environmental conditions related to food availability for nestlings are relatively unimportant to the timing of breeding in equatorial regions, while these same conditions do have consequences for nestling size and growth.

Influences on the variability of eruption sequences and style transitions in the Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kereszturi, Gábor; Németh, Károly; Cronin, Shane J.; Procter, Jonathan; Agustín-Flores, Javier

2014-10-01

Monogenetic basaltic volcanism is characterised by a complex array of eruptive behaviours, reflecting spatial and temporal variability of the magmatic properties (e.g. composition, eruptive volume, magma flux) as well as environmental factors at the vent site (e.g. availability of water, country rock geology, faulting). These combine to produce changes in eruption style over brief periods (minutes to days) in many eruption episodes. Monogenetic eruptions in some volcanic fields often start with a phreatomagmatic vent-opening phase that later transforms into "dry" magmatic explosive or effusive activity, with a strong variation in the duration and importance of this first phase. Such an eruption sequence pattern occurred in 83% of the known eruption in the 0.25 My-old Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF), New Zealand. In this investigation, the eruptive volumes were compared with the sequences of eruption styles preserved in the pyroclastic record at each volcano of the AVF, as well as environmental influencing factors, such as distribution and thickness of water-saturated semi- to unconsolidated sediments, topographic position, distances from known fault lines. The AVF showed that there is no correlation between ejecta ring volumes and environmental influencing factors that is valid for the entire AVF. In contrary, using a set of comparisons of single volcanoes with well-known and documented sequences, resultant eruption sequences could be explained by predominant patterns of the environment in which these volcanoes were erupted. Based on the spatial variability of these environmental factors, a first-order susceptibility hazard map was constructed for the AVF that forecasts areas of largest likelihood for phreatomagmatic eruptions by overlaying topographical and shallow geological information. Combining detailed phase-by-phase breakdowns of eruptive volumes and the event sequences of the AVF, along with the new susceptibility map, more realistic eruption scenarios can be developed for different parts of the volcanic field. This approach can be applied to tailoring field and sub-field specific hazard forecasting at similar volcanic fields worldwide.

The vitamin D hypothesis revisited: race-based disparities in birth outcomes in the United States and ultraviolet light availability.

PubMed

Thayer, Zaneta M

2014-04-15

Skin color has been proposed to contribute to race-based health disparities in the United States because of differences in ultraviolet (UV) light-induced vitamin D synthesis. The prediction of this hypothesis, herein named the UVD hypothesis, is that racial disparities in health outcomes are correlated with UV light availability. This paper investigates whether UV light availability is associated with disparities in the rates of low birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth (PTB) between whites and blacks, because these outcomes are thought to be influenced by vitamin D status and to shape disease risk in later life. Data on LBW and PTB from 2007 (n = 2,825,620 births) were compared with data on UV light exposure across the United States. Contrary to the predictions of the UVD hypothesis, LBW and PTB rate disparities were greatest in states with the highest UV light exposure. Notably, income inequality was positively and significantly related to LBW and PTB disparities, even after controlling for UV light availability. The results of this analysis demonstrate that there is a significant environmental gradient in racial disparities in birth outcomes in the United States, but other social or environmental factors associated with living in the southern United States are likely stronger contributors to disparities in birth outcomes than UV light-induced vitamin D status.

Influence of temperature on the corticosterone stress-response: an experiment in the Children's python (Antaresia childreni).

PubMed

Dupoué, Andréaz; Brischoux, François; Lourdais, Olivier; Angelier, Frédéric

2013-11-01

To cope with environmental challenges, organisms have to adjust their behaviours and their physiology to the environmental conditions they face (i.e. allostasis). In vertebrates, such adjustments are often mediated through the secretion of glucocorticoids (GCs) that are well-known to activate and/or inhibit specific physiological and behavioural traits. In ectothermic species, most processes are temperature-dependent and according to previous studies, low external temperatures should be associated with low GC concentrations (both baseline and stress-induced concentrations). In this study, we experimentally tested this hypothesis by investigating the short term influence of temperature on the GC stress response in a squamate reptile, the Children's python (Antaresia childreni). Snakes were maintained in contrasting conditions (warm and cold groups), and their corticosterone (CORT) stress response was measured (baseline and stress-induced CORT concentrations), within 48h of treatment. Contrary to our prediction, baseline and stress-induced CORT concentrations were higher in the cold versus the warm treatment. In addition, we found a strong negative relationship between CORT concentrations (baseline and stress-induced) and temperature within the cold treatment. Although it remains unclear how cold temperatures can mechanistically result in increased CORT concentrations, we suggest that, at suboptimal temperature, high CORT concentrations may help the organism to maintain an alert state. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Are antimicrobial defences in bird eggs related to climatic conditions associated with risk of trans-shell microbial infection?

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Introduction All bird eggs are exposed to microbes in the environment, which if transmitted to the developing embryo, could cause hatching failure. However, the risk of trans-shell infection varies with environmental conditions and is higher for eggs laid in wetter environments. This might relate to generally higher microbial abundances and diversity in more humid environments, including on the surface of eggshells, as well as the need for moisture to facilitate microbial penetration of the eggshell. To protect against microbial infection, the albumen of avian eggs contains antimicrobial proteins, including lysozyme and ovotransferrin. We tested whether lysozyme and ovotransferrin activities varied in eggs of larks (Alaudidae) living along an arid-mesic gradient of environmental aridity, which we used as a proxy for risk of trans-shell infection. Results Contrary to expectations, lysozyme activity was highest in eggs from hotter, more arid locations, where we predicted the risk of trans-shell infection would be lower. Ovotransferrin concentrations did not vary with climatic factors. Temperature was a much better predictor of antimicrobial protein activity than precipitation, a result inconsistent with studies stressing the importance of moisture for trans-shell infection. Conclusions Our study raises interesting questions about the links between temperature and lysozyme activity in eggs, but we find no support for the hypothesis that antimicrobial protein deposition is higher in eggs laid in wetter environments. PMID:25057281

Are antimicrobial defences in bird eggs related to climatic conditions associated with risk of trans-shell microbial infection?

PubMed

Horrocks, Nicholas Pc; Hine, Kathryn; Hegemann, Arne; Ndithia, Henry K; Shobrak, Mohammed; Ostrowski, Stéphane; Williams, Joseph B; Matson, Kevin D; Tieleman, B Irene

2014-01-01

All bird eggs are exposed to microbes in the environment, which if transmitted to the developing embryo, could cause hatching failure. However, the risk of trans-shell infection varies with environmental conditions and is higher for eggs laid in wetter environments. This might relate to generally higher microbial abundances and diversity in more humid environments, including on the surface of eggshells, as well as the need for moisture to facilitate microbial penetration of the eggshell. To protect against microbial infection, the albumen of avian eggs contains antimicrobial proteins, including lysozyme and ovotransferrin. We tested whether lysozyme and ovotransferrin activities varied in eggs of larks (Alaudidae) living along an arid-mesic gradient of environmental aridity, which we used as a proxy for risk of trans-shell infection. Contrary to expectations, lysozyme activity was highest in eggs from hotter, more arid locations, where we predicted the risk of trans-shell infection would be lower. Ovotransferrin concentrations did not vary with climatic factors. Temperature was a much better predictor of antimicrobial protein activity than precipitation, a result inconsistent with studies stressing the importance of moisture for trans-shell infection. Our study raises interesting questions about the links between temperature and lysozyme activity in eggs, but we find no support for the hypothesis that antimicrobial protein deposition is higher in eggs laid in wetter environments.

Stable carbon isotopic composition of tree rings from a pine tree from Augustów Wilderness, Poland, as a temperature and local environment conditions indicator.

PubMed

Pawelczyk, Slawomira; Pazdur, Anna; Halas, Stanislaw

2004-06-01

Tree rings can be used as archives of climatic and environmental data with annual resolution. Tree rings widths, maximum late wood density and other parameters as stable composition in tree rings can be used for the reconstruction of past climatic and environmental changes. Stable carbon isotope ratios in tree rings may provide valuable information on past climatic conditions. 13C/12C ratios of plant organic matter can reflect corresponding 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2 during formation of the rings. Investigations of isotopic carbon composition in tree rings from in the ecologically clean the Augustów Wilderness region in the north-eastern part of Poland (22 degrees 58'E, 53 degrees 51'N) (nowadays a sanctuary) were undertaken. Series of delta13C in alpha-cellulose and in wholewood were acquired. Those measurements constituted a part of more complex investigations of carbon isotope composition in tree rings including the measurements of radiocarbon concentration and tree ring widths. This article presents preliminary results. It is argued that contrary to the tree ring widths and delta13C in wholewood that do not reveal significant correlation with temperature, the variation of delta13C in the latewood alpha-cellulose is correlated with combined July and August temperatures. Copyright 2004 Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Bluetongue virus spread in Europe is a consequence of climatic, landscape and vertebrate host factors as revealed by phylogeographic inference

PubMed Central

Palmarini, Massimo; Mertens, Peter

2017-01-01

Spatio-temporal patterns of the spread of infectious diseases are commonly driven by environmental and ecological factors. This is particularly true for vector-borne diseases because vector populations can be strongly affected by host distribution as well as by climatic and landscape variables. Here, we aim to identify environmental drivers for bluetongue virus (BTV), the causative agent of a major vector-borne disease of ruminants that has emerged multiple times in Europe in recent decades. In order to determine the importance of climatic, landscape and host-related factors affecting BTV diffusion across Europe, we fitted different phylogeographic models to a dataset of 113 time-stamped and geo-referenced BTV genomes, representing multiple strains and serotypes. Diffusion models using continuous space revealed that terrestrial habitat below 300 m altitude, wind direction and higher livestock densities were associated with faster BTV movement. Results of discrete phylogeographic analysis involving generalized linear models broadly supported these findings, but varied considerably with the level of spatial partitioning. Contrary to common perception, we found no evidence for average temperature having a positive effect on BTV diffusion, though both methodological and biological reasons could be responsible for this result. Our study provides important insights into the drivers of BTV transmission at the landscape scale that could inform predictive models of viral spread and have implications for designing control strategies. PMID:29021180

Mercury contamination in fish in midcontinent great rivers of the united states: Importance of species traits and environmental factors

USGS Publications Warehouse

Walters, D.M.; Blocksom, K.A.; Lazorchak, J.M.; Jicha, T.; Angradi, T.R.; Bolgrien, D.W.

2010-01-01

We measured mercury (Hg) concentrations in whole fish from the Upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers to characterize the extent and magnitude of Hg contamination and to identify environmental factors influencing Hg accumulation. Concentrations were generally lower (80% of values between 20?200 ng g1 wet weight) than those reported for other regions (e.g., upper Midwest and Northeast U.S.). Mercury exceeded the risk threshold for belted kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon, the most sensitive species considered) in 33?75% of river length and 1?7% of river length for humans. Concentrations were lower in the Missouri than in the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, consistent with continental-scale patterns in atmospheric Hg deposition. Body size and trophic guild were the best predictors of Hg concentrations, which were highest in large-bodied top predators. Site geochemical and landscape properties were weakly related with fish Hg. Moreover, relationships often ran contrary to conventional wisdom, and the slopes of the relationships (positive or negative) were inconsistent among fish guilds and rivers. For example, sulfate is positively associated with fish Hg concentrations but was negatively correlated with Hg in five of six regression models of tissue concentrations. Variables such as pH, acid neutralizing capacity, and total phosphorus did not occur at levels associated with high fish Hg concentrations, partially explaining the relatively low Hg values we observed. ?? 2010 American Chemical Society.

Salmonella Biofilm Development Depends on the Phosphorylation Status of RcsB

PubMed Central

Latasa, Cristina; García, Begoña; Echeverz, Maite; Toledo-Arana, Alejandro; Valle, Jaione; Campoy, Susana; García-del Portillo, Francisco; Solano, Cristina

2012-01-01

The Rcs phosphorelay pathway is a complex signaling pathway involved in the regulation of many cell surface structures in enteric bacteria. In response to environmental stimuli, the sensor histidine kinase (RcsC) autophosphorylates and then transfers the phosphate through intermediary steps to the response regulator (RcsB), which, once phosphorylated, regulates gene expression. Here, we show that Salmonella biofilm development depends on the phosphorylation status of RcsB. Thus, unphosphorylated RcsB, hitherto assumed to be inactive, is essential to activate the expression of the biofilm matrix compounds. The prevention of RcsB phosphorylation either by the disruption of the phosphorelay at the RcsC or RcsD level or by the production of a nonphosphorylatable RcsB allele induces biofilm development. On the contrary, the phosphorylation of RcsB by the constitutive activation of the Rcs pathway inhibits biofilm development, an effect that can be counteracted by the introduction of a nonphosphorylatable RcsB allele. The inhibition of biofilm development by phosphorylated RcsB is due to the repression of CsgD expression, through a mechanism dependent on the accumulation of the small noncoding RNA RprA. Our results indicate that unphosphorylated RcsB plays an active role for integrating environmental signals and, more broadly, that RcsB phosphorylation acts as a key switch between planktonic and sessile life-styles in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. PMID:22582278

Environmentally-Friendly Dense and Porous Geopolymers Using Fly Ash and Rice Husk Ash as Raw Materials

PubMed Central

Ziegler, Daniele; Formia, Alessandra; Tulliani, Jean-Marc; Palmero, Paola

2016-01-01

This paper assesses the feasibility of two industrial wastes, fly ash (FA) and rice husk ash (RHA), as raw materials for the production of geopolymeric pastes. Three typologies of samples were thus produced: (i) halloysite activated with potassium hydroxide and nanosilica, used as the reference sample (HL-S); (ii) halloysite activated with rice husk ash dissolved into KOH solution (HL-R); (iii) FA activated with the alkaline solution realized with the rice husk ash (FA-R). Dense and porous samples were produced and characterized in terms of mechanical properties and environmental impact. The flexural and compressive strength of HL-R reached about 9 and 43 MPa, respectively. On the contrary, the compressive strength of FA-R is significantly lower than the HL-R one, in spite of a comparable flexural strength being reached. However, when porous samples are concerned, FA-R shows comparable or even higher strength than HL-R. Thus, the current results show that RHA is a valuable alternative to silica nanopowder to prepare the activator solution, to be used either with calcined clay and fly ash feedstock materials. Finally, a preliminary evaluation of the global warming potential (GWP) was performed for the three investigated formulations. With the mix containing FA and RHA-based silica solution, a reduction of about 90% of GWP was achieved with respect to the values obtained for the reference formulation. PMID:28773587

Biosurfactant production by Pseudomonas aeruginosain kefir and fish meal.

PubMed

Kaskatepe, Banu; Yildiz, Sulhiye; Gumustas, Mehmet; Ozkan, Sibel A

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to increase rhamnolipid production by formulating media using kefir and fish meal for Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from different environmental resources. The strains, named as H1, SY1, and ST1, capable of rhamnolipid production were isolated from soil contaminated with wastes originating from olive and fish oil factories. Additionally, P. aeruginosa ATCC 9027 strain, which is known as rhamnolipid producer, was included in the study. Initially, rhamnolipid production by the strains was determined in Mineral Salt Medium (MSM) and then in media prepared by using kefir and fish meal. The obtained rhamnolipids were purified and quantified according to Dubois et al. (1956). The quantity of rhamnolipids of ATCC, H1 and SY1 strains in kefir media were determined as 11.7 g/L, 10.8 g/L and 3.2 g/L, respectively, and in fish meal media as 12.3 g/L, 9.3 g/L and 10.3 g/L, respectively. In addition, effect of UV light exposure on rhamnolipid production was also investigated but contrary a decrease was observed. The results indicate that P. aeruginosa strains isolated from various environmental resources used in this study can be important due to their rhamnolipid yield, and fish meal, which is obtained from waste of fish, can be an alternative source in low cost rhamnolipid production.

Permeability estimates from artificial drawdown and natural refill experiments at Solfatara volcano, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woith, Heiko; Chiodini, Giovanni; Mangiacapra, Annarita; Wang, Rongjiang

2016-04-01

The hydrothermal system beneath Campi Flegrei is strongly affected by sub-surface processes as manifested by a geothermal "plume" below Solfatara, associated with the formation of mud-pools (Fangaia), fumaroles (Bocca Grande, Pisciarelli), and thermal springs (Agnano). Within the frame of MED-SUV (The MED-SUV project has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7 under Grant agreement no 308665), pressure transients in the hydrothermal system of Campi Flegrei are being continuously monitored at fumaroles, mudpools, hot springs, and geothermal wells. In total, waterlevel and temperature is recorded at 8 sites across the hydrothermal plume along a profile aligned between Agnano Termal in the East and Fangaia in the West. Autonomous devices are used to record the water level and water temperature at 10 minute intervals. At Fangaia mudpool water level and water temperature are dominantly controlled by rain water. Thus, the pool is refilled episodically. Contrary, the water level at a well producing hot water (82°C) for the Pisciarelli tennis club drops and recovers at nearly regular intervals. The induced water level changes are of the order of 1-2m and 3-4m in case of the mudpool and the hot-water-well, respectively. At first glance, both monitoring sites might seem to be fully useless to access natural changes in the Campi Flegrei fluid system. At a second thought, both timeseries provide a unique opportunity to monitor potential permeability changes in the aquifer system. A similar approach had been proposed to deduce earthquake-related permeability changes from Earth tide variations. Contrary to the indirect Earth tide approach, we have the chance to estimate the hydraulic aquifer properties from our monitoring data directly, since each time series contains a sequence of discrete hydraulic tests - namely drawdown tests and refill experiments. Although our Cooper-Jacob approach is really crude, we obtained reasonable permeability estimates for both sites. Preliminary permeability timeseries are presented.

The Need and Keys for a New Generation Network Adjustment Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colomina, I.; Blázquez, M.; Navarro, J. A.; Sastre, J.

2012-07-01

Orientation and calibration of photogrammetric and remote sensing instruments is a fundamental capacity of current mapping systems and a fundamental research topic. Neither digital remote sensing acquisition systems nor direct orientation gear, like INS and GNSS technologies, made block adjustment obsolete. On the contrary, the continuous flow of new primary data acquisition systems has challenged the capacity of the legacy block adjustment systems - in general network adjustment systems - in many aspects: extensibility, genericity, portability, large data sets capacity, metadata support and many others. In this article, we concentrate on the extensibility and genericity challenges that current and future network systems shall face. For this purpose we propose a number of software design strategies with emphasis on rigorous abstract modeling that help in achieving simplicity, genericity and extensibility together with the protection of intellectual proper rights in a flexible manner. We illustrate our suggestions with the general design approach of GENA, the generic extensible network adjustment system of GeoNumerics.

ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT: TOWARDS A NEW SCIENCE OF SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

EPA Science Inventory

Environmental Systems Management (ESM) is the management of environmental problems at the systems level fully accounting for the multi-dimensional nature of the environment. This includes socio-economic dimensions as well as the usual physical and life science aspects of environm...

Behavioral flexibility and problem solving in an invasive bird

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Behavioral flexibility is considered an important trait for adapting to environmental change, but it is unclear what it is, how it works, and whether it is a problem solving ability. I investigated behavioral flexibility and problem solving experimentally in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird species and thus a likely candidate for possessing behavioral flexibility. Grackles demonstrated behavioral flexibility in two contexts, the Aesop’s Fable paradigm and a color association test. Contrary to predictions, behavioral flexibility did not correlate across contexts. Four out of 6 grackles exhibited efficient problem solving abilities, but problem solving efficiency did not appear to be directly linked with behavioral flexibility. Problem solving speed also did not significantly correlate with reversal learning scores, indicating that faster learners were not the most flexible. These results reveal how little we know about behavioral flexibility, and provide an immense opportunity for future research to explore how individuals and species can use behavior to react to changing environments. PMID:27168984

Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time

PubMed Central

Balasubramanya, Soumya; Pfaff, Alexander; Bennear, Lori; Tarozzi, Alessandro; Ahmed, Kazi Matin; Schoenfeld, Amy; van Geen, Alexander

2014-01-01

A national campaign of well testing through 2003 enabled households in rural Bangladesh to switch, at least for drinking, from high-arsenic wells to neighboring lower-arsenic wells. We study the well-switching dynamics over time by re-interviewing, in 2008, a randomly selected subset of households in the Araihazar region who had been interviewed in 2005. Contrary to concerns that the impact of arsenic information on switching behavior would erode over time, we find that not only was 2003–2005 switching highly persistent but also new switching by 2008 doubled the share of households at unsafe wells who had switched. The passage of time also had a cost: 22% of households did not recall test results by 2008. The loss of arsenic knowledge led to staying at unsafe wells and switching from safe wells. Our results support ongoing well testing for arsenic to reinforce this beneficial information. PMID:25383015

Use of the RoboFlag synthetic task environment to investigate workload and stress responses in UAV operation.

PubMed

Guznov, Svyatoslav; Matthews, Gerald; Funke, Gregory; Dukes, Allen

2011-09-01

Use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an increasingly important element of military missions. However, controlling UAVs may impose high stress and workload on the operator. This study evaluated the use of the RoboFlag simulated environment as a means for profiling multiple dimensions of stress and workload response to a task requiring control of multiple vehicles (robots). It tested the effects of two workload manipulations, environmental uncertainty (i.e., UAV's visual view area) and maneuverability, in 64 participants. The findings confirmed that the task produced substantial workload and elevated distress. Dissociations between the stress and performance effects of the manipulations confirmed the utility of a multivariate approach to assessment. Contrary to expectations, distress and some aspects of workload were highest in the low-uncertainty condition, suggesting that overload of information may be an issue for UAV interface designers. The strengths and limitations of RoboFlag as a methodology for investigating stress and workload responses are discussed.

Pronounced Environmental Effects on Injection Currents in EGaIn Tunneling Junctions Comprising Self-Assembled Monolayers.

PubMed

Carlotti, Marco; Degen, Maarten; Zhang, Yanxi; Chiechi, Ryan C

2016-09-15

Large-area tunneling junctions using eutectic Ga-In (EGaIn) as a top contact have proven to be a robust, reproducible, and technologically relevant platform for molecular electronics. Thus far, the majority of studies have focused on saturated molecules with backbones consisting mainly of alkanes in which the frontier orbitals are either highly localized or energetically inaccessible. We show that self-assembled monolayers of wire-like oligophenyleneethynylenes (OPEs), which are fully conjugated, only exhibit length-dependent tunneling behavior in a low-O 2 environment. We attribute this unexpected behavior to the sensitivity of injection current on environment. We conclude that, contrary to previous reports, the self-limiting layer of Ga 2 O 3 strongly influences transport properties and that the effect is related to the wetting behavior of the electrode. This result sheds light on the nature of the electrode-molecule interface and suggests that adhesive forces play a significant role in tunneling charge-transport in large-area molecular junctions.

Fine-scale analysis of genetic structure in the brooding coral Seriatopora hystrix from the Red Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maier, E.; Tollrian, R.; Nürnberger, B.

2009-09-01

The dispersal of gametes and larvae plays a key role in the population dynamics of sessile marine invertebrates. Species with internal fertilisation are often associated with very localised larval dispersal, which may cause small-scale patterns of neutral genetic variation. This study on the brooding coral Seriatopora hystrix from the Red Sea focused on the smallest possible scale: Two S. hystrix stands (~100 colonies each) near Dahab were completely sampled, mapped and analysed at five microsatellite markers. The sexual mode of reproduction, the likely occurrence of selfing and the level of immigration were in agreement with previous studies on this species. Contrary to previous findings, both stands were in Hardy-Weinberg proportions. Also, no evidence for spatially restricted larval dispersal within the sampled areas was found. Differences between this and previous studies on S. hystrix could reflect variation in life history or varying environmental conditions, which opens intriguing questions for future research.

Recruitment and establishment of the gut microbiome in arctic shorebirds.

PubMed

Grond, Kirsten; Lanctot, Richard B; Jumpponen, Ari; Sandercock, Brett K

2017-12-01

Gut microbiota play a key role in host health. Mammals acquire gut microbiota during birth, but timing of gut microbial recruitment in birds is unknown. We evaluated whether precocial chicks from three species of arctic-breeding shorebirds acquire gut microbiota before or after hatching, and then documented the rate and compositional dynamics of accumulation of gut microbiota. Contrary to earlier reports of microbial recruitment before hatching in chickens, quantitative PCR and Illumina sequence data indicated negligible microbiota in the guts of shorebird embryos before hatching. Analyses of chick feces indicated an exponential increase in bacterial abundance of guts 0-2 days post-hatch, followed by stabilization. Gut communities were characterized by stochastic recruitment and convergence towards a community dominated by Clostridia and Gammaproteobacteria. We conclude that guts of shorebird chicks are likely void of microbiota prior to hatch, but that stable gut microbiome establishes as early as 3 days of age, probably from environmental inocula. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Lessons from a primary-prevention program for lead poisoning among inner-city children.

PubMed

Dugbatey, Kwesi; Croskey, Valda; Evans, R Gregory; Narayan, Gopal; Osamudiamen, Osa-Edoh

2005-12-01

This study evaluated the impact on childhood lead poisoning of a primary-prevention educational-intervention program for pregnant women in St. Louis, Missouri. The women were predominantly poor and of African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian backgrounds. The interventions, tailored for each woman on the basis of responses to a survey and environmental measurements, included case management with hands-on instruction on cleaning techniques, property maintenance, hygiene, and nutrition to reduce exposure of newborns to lead. It was hypothesized that the probability of lead poisoning (blood lead levels greater than 10 microg/dL) would be reduced among mothers who received the interventions compared with those who received only printed educational material. Contrary to expectations, none of the interventions reduced the likelihood of lead poisoning among participating children. In the process of the study, however, a number of valuable lessons related to recruitment and commitment of participants emerged that can inform future efforts of this nature.

Diet and Asthma: Is It Time to Adapt Our Message?

PubMed Central

Scott, Hayley A.

2017-01-01

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder which is associated with airway inflammation. Environmental factors, in association with genetic susceptibility, play a critical role in asthma pathophysiology. Inhaled allergens, smoke exposure, indoor and outdoor air pollution are common triggers of asthma symptoms. Although the role of diet has clearly established mechanisms in diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, it is not commonly identified as a causal factor in asthma. However, some dietary patterns, such as the Western diet, which includes a high intake of refined grains, processed and red meats, and desserts, have pro-inflammatory effects. On the contrary, the Mediterranean diet, with high intake of fruits and vegetables has anti-inflammatory properties. The influence of food on asthma outcomes is of growing interest, but dietary habits of asthma patients are not commonly investigated in clinical practice. In this review, we focus on the impact of diet on asthma risk and asthma control. We also detail the influence of diet on obese patients with asthma. PMID:29117118

Influences of neighborhood context, individual history and parenting behavior on recidivism among juvenile offenders.

PubMed

Grunwald, Heidi E; Lockwood, Brian; Harris, Philip W; Mennis, Jeremy

2010-09-01

This study examined the effects of neighborhood context on juvenile recidivism to determine if neighborhoods influence the likelihood of reoffending. Although a large body of literature exists regarding the impact of environmental factors on delinquency, very little is known about the effects of these factors on juvenile recidivism. The sample analyzed includes 7,061 delinquent male juveniles committed to community-based programs in Philadelphia, of which 74% are Black, 13% Hispanic, and 11% White. Since sample youths were nested in neighborhoods, a hierarchical generalized linear model was employed to predict recidivism across three general categories of recidivism offenses: drug, violent, and property. Results indicate that predictors vary across the types of offenses and that drug offending differs from property and violent offending. Neighborhood-level factors were found to influence drug offense recidivism, but were not significant predictors of violent offenses, property offenses, or an aggregated recidivism measure, despite contrary expectations. Implications stemming from the finding that neighborhood context influences only juvenile drug recidivism are discussed.

Pronounced Environmental Effects on Injection Currents in EGaIn Tunneling Junctions Comprising Self-Assembled Monolayers

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Large-area tunneling junctions using eutectic Ga–In (EGaIn) as a top contact have proven to be a robust, reproducible, and technologically relevant platform for molecular electronics. Thus far, the majority of studies have focused on saturated molecules with backbones consisting mainly of alkanes in which the frontier orbitals are either highly localized or energetically inaccessible. We show that self-assembled monolayers of wire-like oligophenyleneethynylenes (OPEs), which are fully conjugated, only exhibit length-dependent tunneling behavior in a low-O2 environment. We attribute this unexpected behavior to the sensitivity of injection current on environment. We conclude that, contrary to previous reports, the self-limiting layer of Ga2O3 strongly influences transport properties and that the effect is related to the wetting behavior of the electrode. This result sheds light on the nature of the electrode–molecule interface and suggests that adhesive forces play a significant role in tunneling charge-transport in large-area molecular junctions. PMID:27738488

[Disparity on the grade of exposure to ecological risks in the European region of WHO].

PubMed

Braubach, M; Héroux, M E; Korol, N; Kosbaeva, A; Paunovic, E; Zastenskaia, I

2015-01-01

Disparity in relation of ecological conditions and health concerns to the general differences in environmental conditions and in large extent is stipulated by socio-economic and demographic differences in the impact of its hazards. In addition to differences in the impact the inequality in relation of ecological conditions and health can also be caused by social or demographic differences in exposure to certain risks. This article offers an assessment of the evidence and data on differences in the impact of the environment in the European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) received during the recent work of the European Regional Office of WHO. The obtained results testify that socio-demographic disparity in the impact of the environment exists in all countries. Such inequality can be seen in respect of a variety offactors, such as age, gender income level, or on the contrary, poverty, education and employment, household type, location of the home.

Fluoride coatings for vacuum ultraviolet reflection filters.

PubMed

Guo, Chun; Kong, Mingdong; Lin, Dawei; Li, Bincheng

2015-12-10

LaF3/MgF2 reflection filters with a high spectral-discrimination capacity of the atomic-oxygen lines at 130.4 and 135.6 nm, which were employed in vacuum ultraviolet imagers, were prepared by molybdenum-boat thermal evaporation. The optical properties of reflection filters were characterized by a high-precision vacuum ultraviolet spectrophotometer. The vulnerability of the filter's microstructures to environmental contamination and the recovery of the optical properties of the stored filter samples with ultraviolet ozone cleaning were experimentally demonstrated. For reflection filters with the optimized nonquarter-wave multilayer structures, the reflectance ratios R135.6 nm/R130.4 nm of 92.7 and 20.6 were achieved for 7° and 45° angles of incidence, respectively. On the contrary, R135.6 nm/R130.4 nm ratio of 12.4 was obtained for a reflection filter with a standard π-stack multilayer structure with H/L=1/4 at 7° AOI.

Resurgence of cholera in Hong Kong.

PubMed Central

Lee, S. H.; Lai, S. T.; Lai, J. Y.; Leung, N. K.

1996-01-01

Cholera is one of the three diseases subject to the International Health Regulations. After a period of over 30 years, the seventh pandemic of cholera, which started in South East Asia in 1961, still shows no sign of a decline. On the contrary, it has increased its severity and invaded many other countries in Africa and Latin America. In the last two years, there has been a recrudescence of the disease in South East Asia and Western Pacific Regions. The discovery of a new strain of Vibrio cholerae 0139 in these regions is causing concern in view of its potential to cause major epidemics and higher mortality. Hong Kong had two intensive outbreaks of cholera in the last two years. The cause of these outbreaks was not clear, but adverse environmental conditions and increasing pollution of coastal waters have been implicated. The spread of cholera knows no geographical boundaries. There is a need for intensified efforts among health authorities in the affected areas to prevent the international spread of the disease. PMID:8760949

System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of "system-sanctioned change".

PubMed

Feygina, Irina; Jost, John T; Goldsmith, Rachel E

2010-03-01

Despite extensive evidence of climate change and environmental destruction, polls continue to reveal widespread denial and resistance to helping the environment. It is posited here that these responses are linked to the motivational tendency to defend and justify the societal status quo in the face of the threat posed by environmental problems. The present research finds that system justification tendencies are associated with greater denial of environmental realities and less commitment to pro-environmental action. Moreover, the effects of political conservatism, national identification, and gender on denial of environmental problems are explained by variability in system justification tendencies. However, this research finds that it is possible to eliminate the negative effect of system justification on environmentalism by encouraging people to regard pro-environmental change as patriotic and consistent with protecting the status quo (i.e., as a case of "system-sanctioned change"). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act (CERFA) Report, Sacramento Army Depot, Sacramento, California

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-04-01

Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System CERFA Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act CORTESE State-designated hazardous...waste cleanup sites DESCOM U.S. Army Depot Systems Command DTSC Department of Toxic Substance Control EMD Environmental Management Division EPA U.S...Environmental Protection Agency ERNS Emergency Response Notification system FFA Federal Facility Agreement FINDS Facility index system HWCSA Hazardous

Synechococcus diversity in the California current as seen by RNA polymerase (rpoC1) gene sequences of isolated strains.

PubMed Central

Toledo, G; Palenik, B

1997-01-01

Because they are ubiquitous in a range of aquatic environments and culture methods are relatively advanced, cyanobacteria may be useful models for understanding the extent of evolutionary adaptation of prokaryotes in general to environmental gradients. The roles of environmental variables such as light and nutrients in influencing cyanobacterial genetic diversity are still poorly characterized, however. In this study, a total of 15 Synechococcus strains were isolated from the oligotrophic edge of the California Current from two depths (5 and 95 m) with large differences in light intensity, light quality, and nutrient concentrations. RNA polymerase gene (rpoC1) fragment sequences of the strains revealed two major genetic lineages, distinct from other marine or freshwater cyanobacterial isolates or groups seen in shotgun-cloned sequences from the oligotrophic Atlantic Ocean. The California Current low-phycourobilin (CCLPUB) group represented by six isolates in a single lineage was less diverse than the California Current high-phycourobilin (CCHPUB) group with nine isolates in three relatively divergent lineages. The former was found to be the closest known genetic group to Prochlorococcus spp., a chlorophyll b-containing cyanobacterial group. Having an isolate from this group will be valuable for looking at the molecular changes necessary for the transition from the use of phycobiliproteins to chlorophyll b as light-harvesting pigments. Both of the CCHPUB and CCLPUB groups included strains obtained from surface (5 m) and deep (95 m) samples. Thus, contrary to expectations, there was no clear correlation between sampling depth and isolation of genetic groups, despite the large environmental gradients present. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration with isolates that genetically divergent Synechococcus groups coexist in the same seawater sample. PMID:9361417

Hallux Valgus, By Nature or Nurture? A Twin Study.

PubMed

Munteanu, Shannon E; Menz, Hylton B; Wark, John D; Christie, Jemma J; Scurrah, Katrina J; Bui, Minh; Erbas, Bircan; Hopper, John L; Wluka, Anita E

2017-09-01

To evaluate the contributions of shared but unmeasured genetic and environmental factors to hallux valgus (HV). Between 2011 and 2012, 74 monozygotic (MZ) and 56 dizygotic (DZ) female twin pairs self-reported HV and putative risk factors, including footwear use across their lifespan. Estimates of casewise concordance (P C ), correlation (ρ), and odds ratios (ORs) were calculated, adjusting for age and other risk factors, and compared between MZ and DZ pairs using logistic regression, generalized estimating equations, and a maximum likelihood-based method, respectively. A total of 70 participants (27%) reported HV, with 12 MZ and 7 DZ pairs being concordant. After adjusting for age, twins were correlated (ρ = 0.27 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.08, 0.46]) and concordant (P C  = 0.45 [95% CI 0.29, 0.61]; mean age 58 years), with no difference between MZ and DZ pairs (P = 0.7). HV was associated with regularly wearing footwear with a constrictive toe-box during the fourth decade (adjusted OR 2.73 [95% CI 1.12, 6.67]). This risk factor was correlated in MZ (ρ = 0.38 [95% CI 0.15, 0.60]) but not DZ (ρ = -0.20 [95% CI -0.43, 0.03]) pairs. These correlations were significantly different (P = 0.002). Twins are correlated for HV, but we found no evidence that correlation was due to shared genetic factors. We identified an environmental risk factor, footwear with a constrictive toe-box, that is not shared to the same extent by MZ and DZ pairs, contrary to the assumption of the classic twin model. Footwear, and possibly genetic factors and unknown shared environmental factors, could contribute to developing HV. © 2016, American College of Rheumatology.

Sudden changes in environmental conditions do not increase invasion risk in grassland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruprecht, Eszter; Fenesi, Annamária; Nijs, Ivan

2013-02-01

After direct habitat transformation, biological invasions are considered to be the second most important threat to biodiversity. A better understanding of the factors affecting invasion success in new areas is crucial, and may provide insight into potential control actions. We hypothesized that invasion risk increases in habitats undergoing a sudden change in the disturbance regime or environmental conditions. For testing this assumption we initiated a seed sowing experiment while introducing two novel treatments, mowing twice and fertilizer application, in two grassland sites (one dryer and one mesic) in Romania. The seeds of two invasive species, Solidago canadensis and Rudbeckia laciniata, and two resident natives of similar seed sizes, life-forms and strategies were sowed in treated and control plots, and seed germination, seedling establishment and growth were followed during four months. Contrary to our expectations, there was no difference in the treatment effects on seed germination and seedling establishment between species, while there was on seedling vigour of the larger seeded species in the dryer grassland site, where the native had a higher performance especially in increased nutrient conditions. Indifferently from applied treatments, invasive species had greater cumulative germination in the mesic site, while natives were far more successful in seedling establishment in the drier site. At the same time, seed size was found to be a very important factor explaining germination and establishment success, with large seeded species outperforming small seeded species in any circumstances. Our results call the attention upon management interventions in mesic, productive grassland sites opening colonization windows for the recruitment of those invasive species of which ecological requirements correspond to local environmental conditions.

Early solar system. Stellar origin of the ¹⁸²Hf cosmochronometer and the presolar history of solar system matter.

PubMed

Lugaro, Maria; Heger, Alexander; Osrin, Dean; Goriely, Stephane; Zuber, Kai; Karakas, Amanda I; Gibson, Brad K; Doherty, Carolyn L; Lattanzio, John C; Ott, Ulrich

2014-08-08

Among the short-lived radioactive nuclei inferred to be present in the early solar system via meteoritic analyses, there are several heavier than iron whose stellar origin has been poorly understood. In particular, the abundances inferred for (182)Hf (half-life = 8.9 million years) and (129)I (half-life = 15.7 million years) are in disagreement with each other if both nuclei are produced by the rapid neutron-capture process. Here, we demonstrate that contrary to previous assumption, the slow neutron-capture process in asymptotic giant branch stars produces (182)Hf. This has allowed us to date the last rapid and slow neutron-capture events that contaminated the solar system material at ~100 million years and ~30 million years, respectively, before the formation of the Sun. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The provenances of asteroids, and their contributions to the volatile inventories of the terrestrial planets.

PubMed

Alexander, C M O'D; Bowden, R; Fogel, M L; Howard, K T; Herd, C D K; Nittler, L R

2012-08-10

Determining the source(s) of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen accreted by Earth is important for understanding the origins of water and life and for constraining dynamical processes that operated during planet formation. Chondritic meteorites are asteroidal fragments that retain records of the first few million years of solar system history. The deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) values of water in carbonaceous chondrites are distinct from those in comets and Saturn's moon Enceladus, implying that they formed in a different region of the solar system, contrary to predictions of recent dynamical models. The D/H values of water in carbonaceous chondrites also argue against an influx of water ice from the outer solar system, which has been invoked to explain the nonsolar oxygen isotopic composition of the inner solar system. The bulk hydrogen and nitrogen isotopic compositions of CI chondrites suggest that they were the principal source of Earth's volatiles.

Integrating Energy and Environmental Management in Wood Furniture Industry

PubMed Central

Babić, Milun; Jelić, Dubravka; Konćalović, Davor; Vukašinović, Vladimir

2014-01-01

As energy costs continue to rise, industrial plants (even those of energy nonintensive industries such as furniture industry) need effective way to reduce the amount of energy they consume. Besides, there are a number of economic and environmental reasons why a company should consider environmental management initiatives. This paper provides a detailed guideline for implementing joint energy and environmental management system in wood furniture industrial company. It covers in detail all essential aspects of the system: initial system assessment, organization, policy development, energy and environmental auditing, action plan development, system promotion, checking system performance, and management review. PMID:24587734

Integrating energy and environmental management in wood furniture industry.

PubMed

Gordić, Dušan; Babić, Milun; Jelić, Dubravka; Konćalović, Davor; Vukašinović, Vladimir

2014-01-01

As energy costs continue to rise, industrial plants (even those of energy nonintensive industries such as furniture industry) need effective way to reduce the amount of energy they consume. Besides, there are a number of economic and environmental reasons why a company should consider environmental management initiatives. This paper provides a detailed guideline for implementing joint energy and environmental management system in wood furniture industrial company. It covers in detail all essential aspects of the system: initial system assessment, organization, policy development, energy and environmental auditing, action plan development, system promotion, checking system performance, and management review.

ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS THEORY

EPA Science Inventory

Environmental Systems Management is the management of environmental problems at the systems level fully accounting for the multi-dimensional nature of the environment. This includes socio-economic dimensions as well as the usual physical and life science aspects. This is importa...

Exploring the link between environmental identity, behaviors and decision making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freed, Allison

This study was conducted with undergraduate students at a large university to investigate the association between environmental identity, pro-environmental behaviors and environmental decision-making. This study explored how environmental identity as defined by Clayton (2003) influenced the type of pro-environmental behaviors individuals choose to participate in. Environmental decision-making based on Kahneman's (2003, 2011) System 1 and System 2 framework was also assessed in association with environmental identity. A survey including the Environmental Identity Survey (Clayton, 2003), the Environmentally Responsible Behaviors Index (Smith-Sebasto & D'Acosta, 1995), and a Decision Making Questionnaire were administered. After administering the surveys, eight participants were chosen for a 60-minute interview. The quantitative results of the study showed there was a significant relationship between environmental identity and participating in environmental behaviors more often. There was also a significant relation between environmental identity and making the decision to recycle in a fast and automatic way. The interview results showed that participants with both a strong and a weak environmental identity recycled often and thought it was a fast decision. The results of this study show that certain components of environmental identity are important, but other factors like the physical environment and social norms influence the thinking that goes into recycling more than environmental identity alone. This study provides evidence of the importance of social norms and environmental structures in fostering pro-environmental behaviors and influencing the type of thinking that goes into making environmental decisions. Keywords: environmental identity, environmental behaviors, System 1, System 2, recycling.

Electromagnetic Environmental Effects System Testing

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-02

Procedure (TOP) 1-2-511 Electromagnetic Environmental Effects System Testing 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER...airborne, sea, space, and ground systems , including associated ordnance, as stated in military standard (MIL-STD)-464A “Electromagnetic Environmental...Effects Requirement for Systems ”, as well as ADS-37A-PRF “Aeronautical Design Standard for the Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) Performance and

Development of an expert system for analysis of Shuttle atmospheric revitalization and pressure control subsystem anomalies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lafuse, Sharon A.

1991-01-01

The paper describes the Shuttle Leak Management Expert System (SLMES), a preprototype expert system developed to enable the ECLSS subsystem manager to analyze subsystem anomalies and to formulate flight procedures based on flight data. The SLMES combines the rule-based expert system technology with the traditional FORTRAN-based software into an integrated system. SLMES analyzes the data using rules, and, when it detects a problem that requires simulation, it sets up the input for the FORTRAN-based simulation program ARPCS2AT2, which predicts the cabin total pressure and composition as a function of time. The program simulates the pressure control system, the crew oxygen masks, the airlock repress/depress valves, and the leakage. When the simulation has completed, other SLMES rules are triggered to examine the results of simulation contrary to flight data and to suggest methods for correcting the problem. Results are then presented in form of graphs and tables.

Experimental observation of Fano effect in Ag nanoparticle-CdTe quantum dot hybrid system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurung, Sabina; Jayabalan, J.; Singh, Asha; Khan, Salahuddin; Chari, Rama

2018-04-01

We have experimentally measured the optical properties of Ag nanoparticle-CdTe quantum dot hybrid system and compared it with that of bare CdTe quantum dot colloid. It has been shown that the photoluminescence line shape of CdTe quantum dots becomes asymmetric in presence of Ag nanoparticles. The observed changes in the PL spectrum closely match the expected changes in the line shape due to Fano interaction between discrete level and continuum levels. Our experiment shows that a very small fraction of metal nanoparticles in the metal-semiconductor hybrid is sufficient to induce such changes in line shape which is in contrary to the earlier reported theoretical prediction on metal-semiconductor hybrid.

Alu polymorphic insertions reveal genetic structure of north Indian populations.

PubMed

Tripathi, Manorama; Tripathi, Piyush; Chauhan, Ugam Kumari; Herrera, Rene J; Agrawal, Suraksha

2008-10-01

The Indian subcontinent is characterized by the ancestral and cultural diversity of its people. Genetic input from several unique source populations and from the unique social architecture provided by the caste system has shaped the current genetic landscape of India. In the present study 200 individuals each from three upper-caste and four middle-caste Hindu groups and from two Muslim populations in North India were examined for 10 polymorphic Alu insertions (PAIs). The investigated PAIs exhibit high levels of polymorphism and average heterozygosity. Limited interpopulation variance and genetic flow in the present study suggest admixture. The results of this study demonstrate that, contrary to common belief, the caste system has not provided an impermeable barrier to genetic exchange among Indian groups.

Hormetic Response to Low-Dose Radiation: Focus on the Immune System and Its Clinical Implications

PubMed Central

Cui, Jiuwei; Yang, Guozi; Pan, Zhenyu; Zhao, Yuguang; Liang, Xinyue; Li, Wei; Cai, Lu

2017-01-01

The interrelationship between ionizing radiation and the immune system is complex, multifactorial, and dependent on radiation dose/quality and immune cell type. High-dose radiation usually results in immune suppression. On the contrary, low-dose radiation (LDR) modulates a variety of immune responses that have exhibited the properties of immune hormesis. Although the underlying molecular mechanism is not fully understood yet, LDR has been used clinically for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and malignant tumors. These advancements in preclinical and clinical studies suggest that LDR-mediated immune modulation is a well-orchestrated phenomenon with clinical potential. We summarize recent developments in the understanding of LDR-mediated immune modulation, with an emphasis on its potential clinical applications. PMID:28134809

The role of quench rate in colloidal gels.

PubMed

Royall, C Patrick; Malins, Alex

2012-01-01

Interactions between colloidal particles have hitherto usually been fixed by the suspension composition. Recent experimental developments now enable the control of interactions in situ. Here we use Brownian dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of controlling interactions upon gelation, by "quenching" the system from an equilibrium fluid to a gel. We find that, contrary to the normal case of an instantaneous quench, where the local structure of the gel is highly disordered, controlled quenching results in a gel with a much higher degree of local order. Under sufficiently slow quenching, local crystallisation is found, which is strongly enhanced when a monodisperse system is used. The higher the degree of local order, the smaller the mean squared displacement, indicating an enhancement of gel stability.

Ranking structures and rank-rank correlations of countries: The FIFA and UEFA cases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ausloos, Marcel; Cloots, Rudi; Gadomski, Adam; Vitanov, Nikolay K.

2014-04-01

Ranking of agents competing with each other in complex systems may lead to paradoxes according to the pre-chosen different measures. A discussion is presented on such rank-rank, similar or not, correlations based on the case of European countries ranked by UEFA and FIFA from different soccer competitions. The first question to be answered is whether an empirical and simple law is obtained for such (self-) organizations of complex sociological systems with such different measuring schemes. It is found that the power law form is not the best description contrary to many modern expectations. The stretched exponential is much more adequate. Moreover, it is found that the measuring rules lead to some inner structures in both cases.

Distribution behavior of uranium, neptunium, rare-earth elements ( Y, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd) and alkaline-earth metals (Sr,Ba) between molten LiClKCI eutectic salt and liquid cadmium or bismuth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurata, M.; Sakamura, Y.; Hijikata, T.; Kinoshita, K.

1995-12-01

Distribution coefficients of uranium neptunium, eight rare-earth elements (Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu and Gd) and two alkaline-earth metals (Sr and Ba) between molten LiCl-KCI eutectic salt and either liquid cadmium or bismuth were measured at 773 K. Separation factors of trivalent rare-earth elements to uranium or neptunium in the LiCl-KCl/Bi system were by one or two orders of magnitude larger than those in the LiCl-KCl/Cd system. On the contrary, the separation factors of alkaline-earth metals and divalent rare-earth elements to trivalent rare-earth elements were by one or two orders of magnitude smaller in the LiCl-KCl/Bi system.

Macroscopic response to microscopic intrinsic noise in three-dimensional Fisher fronts.

PubMed

Nesic, S; Cuerno, R; Moro, E

2014-10-31

We study the dynamics of three-dimensional Fisher fronts in the presence of density fluctuations. To this end we simulate the Fisher equation subject to stochastic internal noise, and study how the front moves and roughens as a function of the number of particles in the system, N. Our results suggest that the macroscopic behavior of the system is driven by the microscopic dynamics at its leading edge where number fluctuations are dominated by rare events. Contrary to naive expectations, the strength of front fluctuations decays extremely slowly as 1/logN, inducing large-scale fluctuations which we find belong to the one-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class of kinetically rough interfaces. Hence, we find that there is no weak-noise regime for Fisher fronts, even for realistic numbers of particles in macroscopic systems.

ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION REPORT - GROUNDWATER SAMPLING TECHNOLOGIES - QED ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS INC. WELL WIZARD DEDICATED SAMPLING SYSTEM

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created the Environmental Technology Verification Program (ETV) to facilitate the deployment of innovative or improved environmental technologies through performance verification and dissemination of information. The goal of the ...

Environmental performance of wastewater reuse systems: impact of system boundaries and external conditions.

PubMed

Baresel, Christian; Dalgren, Lena; Almemark, Mats; Lazic, Aleksandra

2016-01-01

Wastewater reclamation will be a significant part of future water management and the environmental assessment of various treatment systems to reuse wastewater has become an important research field. The secondary treatment process and sludge handling on-site are, especially, electricity demanding processes due to aeration, pumping, mixing, dewatering, etc. used for operation and are being identified as the main contributor for many environmental impacts. This study discusses how the environmental performance of reuse treatment systems may be influenced by surrounding conditions. This article illustrates and discusses the importance of factors commonly treated as externalities and as such not being included in optimization strategies of reuse systems, but that are necessary to environmentally assess wastewater reclamation systems. This is illustrated by two up-stream and downstream processes; electricity supply and the use of sludge as fertilizer commonly practiced in regions considered for wastewater reclamation. The study shows that external conditions can have a larger impact on the overall environmental performance of reuse treatment systems than internal optimizations could compensate for. These results imply that a more holistic environmental assessment of reuse schemes could provide less environmental impacts as externalities could be included in measures to reduce the overall impacts.

Inferring the effects of potential dispersal routes on the metacommunity structure of stream insects: as the crow flies, as the fish swims or as the fox runs?

PubMed

Kärnä, Olli-Matti; Grönroos, Mira; Antikainen, Harri; Hjort, Jan; Ilmonen, Jari; Paasivirta, Lauri; Heino, Jani

2015-09-01

1. Metacommunity research relies largely on proxies for inferring the effect of dispersal on local community structure. Overland and watercourse distances have been typically used as such proxies. A good proxy for dispersal should, however, take into account more complex landscape features that can affect an organism's movement and dispersal. The cost distance approach does just that, allowing determining the path of least resistance across a landscape. 2. Here, we examined the distance decay of assemblage similarity within a subarctic stream insect metacommunity. We tested whether overland, watercourse and cumulative cost distances performed differently as correlates of dissimilarity in assemblage composition between sites. We also investigated the effect of body size and dispersal mode on metacommunity organization. 3. We found that dissimilarities in assemblage composition correlated more strongly with environmental than physical distances between sites. Overland and watercourse distances showed similar correlations to assemblage dissimilarity between sites, being sometimes significantly correlated with biological variation of entire insect communities. In metacommunities deconstructed by body size or dispersal mode, contrary to our expectation, passive dispersers showed a slightly stronger correlation than active dispersers to environmental differences between sites, although passive dispersers also showed a stronger correlation than active dispersers to physical distances between sites. The strength of correlation between environmental distance and biological dissimilarity also varied slightly among the body size classes. 4. After controlling for environmental differences between sites, cumulative cost distances were slightly better correlates of biological dissimilarities than overland or watercourse distances between sites. However, quantitative differences in correlation coefficients were small between different physical distances. 5. Although environmental differences typically override physical distances as determinants of the composition of stream insect assemblages, correlations between environmental distances and biological dissimilarities are typically rather weak. This undetermined variation may be attributable to dispersal processes, which may be captured using better proxies for the process. We suggest that further modifying the measurement of cost distances may be a fruitful avenue, especially if complemented by more direct natural history information on insect dispersal behaviour and distances travelled by them. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2015 British Ecological Society.

Distributed intelligent urban environment monitoring system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Jinsong; Wang, Wei; Gao, Jie; Cong, Rigang

2018-02-01

The current environmental pollution and destruction have developed into a world-wide major social problem that threatens human survival and development. Environmental monitoring is the prerequisite and basis of environmental governance, but overall, the current environmental monitoring system is facing a series of problems. Based on the electrochemical sensor, this paper designs a small, low-cost, easy to layout urban environmental quality monitoring terminal, and multi-terminal constitutes a distributed network. The system has been small-scale demonstration applications and has confirmed that the system is suitable for large-scale promotion

The Use of Input-Output Control System Analysis for Sustainable Development of Multivariable Environmental Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koliopoulos, T. C.; Koliopoulou, G.

2007-10-01

We present an input-output solution for simulating the associated behavior and optimized physical needs of an environmental system. The simulations and numerical analysis determined the accurate boundary loads and areas that were required to interact for the proper physical operation of a complicated environmental system. A case study was conducted to simulate the optimum balance of an environmental system based on an artificial intelligent multi-interacting input-output numerical scheme. The numerical results were focused on probable further environmental management techniques, with the objective of minimizing any risks and associated environmental impact to protect the quality of public health and the environment. Our conclusions allowed us to minimize the associated risks, focusing on probable cases in an emergency to protect the surrounded anthropogenic or natural environment. Therefore, the lining magnitude could be determined for any useful associated technical works to support the environmental system under examination, taking into account its particular boundary necessities and constraints.

78 FR 15973 - Notice of Public Scoping Meetings for the Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System Environmental...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-13

... Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System Environmental Impact Statement, New Mexico AGENCY: Bureau of... Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, the Bureau of Reclamation is preparing an environmental impact... document, alternatives, concerns, and issues to be addressed in the environmental impact statement. DATES...

Guide to Developing an Environmental Management System - Act

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page takes you though the basic steps (Plan, Do, Check, Act) of building an Environmental Management System (EMS) as they are outlined in the 2001 Second Edition of Environmental Management Systems: An Implementation Guide. Act section.

Guide to Developing an Environmental Management System - Plan

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page takes you though the basic steps (Plan, Do, Check, Act) of building an Environmental Management System (EMS) as they are outlined in the 2001 Second Edition of Environmental Management Systems: An Implementation Guide. Plan section.

Guide to Developing an Environmental Management System - Check

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page takes you though the basic steps (Plan, Do, Check, Act) of building an Environmental Management System (EMS) as they are outlined in the 2001 Second Edition of Environmental Management Systems: An Implementation Guide. Check section.

Work Smarter Not Harder: Utilizing an Environmental Management Information System to Meet Regulatory Compliance and Reporting Requirements for a Major Source Title V Facility

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-05-10

Environmental Management Information System to Meet Regulatory Compliance and Reporting Requirements for a Major Source Title V Facility. Tannis Danley...AND SUBTITLE Work Smarter Not Harder: Utilizing an Environmental Management Information System to Meet Regulatory Compliance and Reporting...Carson) – EMS (Hawaii Garrison, West Virginia National Guard) Environmental Management Information System (EMIS) National Defense Center for Energy and

Complying with Executive Order 13148 using the Enterprise Environmental Safety And Occupational Health Management Information System.

PubMed

McFarland, Michael J; Nelson, Tim M; Rasmussen, Steve L; Palmer, Glenn R; Olivas, Arthur C

2005-03-01

All U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) facilities are required under Executive Order (EO) 13148, "Greening the Government through Leadership in Environmental Management," to establish quality-based environmental management systems (EMSs) that support environmental decision-making and verification of continuous environmental improvement by December 31, 2005. Compliance with EO 13148 as well as other federal, state, and local environmental regulations places a significant information management burden on DoD facilities. Cost-effective management of environmental data compels DoD facilities to establish robust database systems that not only address the complex and multifaceted environmental monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting requirements demanded by these rules but enable environmental management decision-makers to gauge improvements in environmental performance. The Enterprise Environmental Safety and Occupational Health Management Information System (EESOH-MIS) is a new electronic database developed by the U.S. Air Force to manage both the data needs associated with regulatory compliance programs across its facilities as well as the non-regulatory environmental information that supports installation business practices. The U.S. Air Force, which has adopted the Plan-Do-Check-Act methodology as the EMS standard that it will employ to address EO 13148 requirements.

System-focused environmental flow regime prescription, monitoring and adaptive management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hetherington, David; Lexartza Artza, Irantzu

2016-04-01

The definition of appropriate environmental flow regimes through hydropower schemes and water storage reservoirs is key part of mitigation. Insufficient (magnitude and variability) environmental flows can result in much environmental harm with negative impacts being encountered by morphological, ecological and societal systems. Conventionally, environmental flow regimes have been determined by using generic protocols and guidance such as the Tennant method of environmental flow estimation. It is generally accepted that such approaches to minimum environmental flow definition, although being a useful starting point, are not universally applicable across catchment typologies and climatic regions. Such approaches will not always produce conditions that would be associated with 'Good Ecological Status' under the Water framework Directive (or equivalent). Other similar approaches to minimum environmental flow estimation are used that are specific to geographies, yet still the associated guidance rarely thoroughly covers appropriate definition for healthy holistic systems across the flow regime. This paper draws on experience of system-focused environmental flow regime determination in the UK and the Georgian Caucasus Mountains, which allowed for a critical analysis of more conventional methods to be undertaken. The paper describes a recommended approach for determining appropriate environmental flow regimes based on analysis of the impacted geomorphological, ecological and societal systems in a way which is sensitive to the local holistic environment and associated complexities and interactions. The paper suggests that a strong understanding of the local geomorphology in key in predicting how flows will manifest habitat differently across the flow regime, and be spatially dynamic. Additionally, an understanding of the geomorphological system allows the flow of course and fine sediment to be factored into the initial suggested environmental flow regime. It is suggested that more peripheral influencing factors should be given serious consideration when developing environmental flow regimes. These factors could include the development of ice, non-fluvial geomorphic processes such as landslides, connectivity with groundwater and provision for local cottage industries. Even with a thorough appreciation of the holistic system, the value of detailed environmental monitoring and adaptive management plans cannot be underestimated as a means of further managing risk and uncertainty in complex systems. It is suggested that by taking a more holistic and system-focused approach to environmental flow definition, that environmental flow regimes can be tailored to the specificity and complexity of any given location. By improving the way that environmental flow regimes and associated physical mitigation are prescribed, monitored and managed it should be possible to develop more sustainable forms of energy production whilst minimising environmental harm as far as possible.