Effects of global climate change on maize volatile production

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations [CO2] are projected to have critical impacts on precipitation patterns, potentially leading to a dramatic increase in the frequency and duration of drought across the North American Corn Belt and other agriculturally relevant areas around the world (IPCC2007...

Virtual Learning: Embracing True Education Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pohl, Robert

2009-01-01

Communication, commerce, and social patterns have changed dramatically during the past 25 years, and technology has played a major role in these transformations. Yet, one product of technology that schools have not embraced is virtual learning. For technology to play a substantive role in education, an alternative K-12 model must be established…

Occupation, Class, and Social Networks in Urban China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bian, Yanjie; Breiger, Ronald; Davis, Deborah; Galaskiewicz, Joseph

2005-01-01

China's class structure is changing dramatically in the wake of post-1978 market-oriented economic reforms. The creation of a mixed "market-socialist" economy has eroded the institutional bases of a cadre-dominated social hierarchy and created conditions for a new pattern of social stratification. Although conditions remain dynamic,…

Public School Nursing Practice in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willgerodt, Mayumi A.; Brock, Douglas M.; Maughan, Erin D.

2018-01-01

School nursing practice has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, yet few nationally representative investigations describing the school nursing workforce have been conducted. The National School Nurse Workforce Study describes the demographic and school nursing practice patterns among self-reported public school nurses and the number and…

Computing Cosmic Cataclysms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Centrella, Joan M.

2010-01-01

The final merger of two black holes releases a tremendous amount of energy, more than the combined light from all the stars in the visible universe. This energy is emitted in the form of gravitational waves, and observing these sources with gravitational wave detectors requires that we know the pattern or fingerprint of the radiation emitted. Since black hole mergers take place in regions of extreme gravitational fields, we need to solve Einstein's equations of general relativity on a computer in order to calculate these wave patterns. For more than 30 years, scientists have tried to compute these wave patterns. However, their computer codes have been plagued by problems that caused them to crash. This situation has changed dramatically in the past few years, with a series of amazing breakthroughs. This talk will take you on this quest for these gravitational wave patterns, showing how a spacetime is constructed on a computer to build a simulation laboratory for binary black hole mergers. We will focus on the recent advances that are revealing these waveforms, and the dramatic new potential for discoveries that arises when these sources will be observed.

Cognitive constraints influence an understanding of life-cycle change.

PubMed

French, Jason A; Menendez, David; Herrmann, Patricia A; Evans, E Margaret; Rosengren, Karl S

2018-05-04

We investigated children's (n = 120; 3- to 11-year-olds) and adults' (n = 18) reasoning about life-cycle changes in biological organisms by examining their endorsements of four different patterns of life-span changes. Participants were presented with two separate tasks: (a) judging possible adult versions of a juvenile animal and (b) judging possible juvenile versions of an adult animal. The stimuli enabled us to examine the endorsement of four different patterns of change: identical growth, natural growth, dramatic change, and speciation. The results suggest that endorsement of the different patterns is influenced by age and familiarity. Young children and individuals confronted with unfamiliar organisms often endorsed an identical growth that emphasizes the stability of features over the life span and between parents and offspring. The results are interpreted as supporting the idea that cognitive constraints influence individuals' reasoning about biological change and that the influence of these constraints is most notable when individuals are young or are presented with unfamiliar biological organisms. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Impact of the Divorce Process on the Family.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudolph, Linda B.

One of the most dramatic changes in the American culture in recent years is the emergence of a family unit experiencing stages of disruption and reorganization as a common pattern. The stereotypical middle-class, suburban family continues to exist, but other variations of families exist also, family units for which past guidelines and assumptions…

Learning Different Light Prior Distributions for Different Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerrigan, Iona S.; Adams, Wendy J.

2013-01-01

The pattern of shading across an image can provide a rich sense of object shape. Our ability to use shading information is remarkable given the infinite possible combinations of illumination, shape and reflectance that could have produced any given image. Illumination can change dramatically across environments (e.g. indoor vs. outdoor) and times…

Who gets custody now? Dramatic changes in children's living arrangements after divorce.

PubMed

Cancian, Maria; Meyer, Daniel R; Brown, Patricia R; Cook, Steven T

2014-08-01

This article reexamines the living arrangements of children following their parents' divorce, using Wisconsin Court Records, updating an analysis that showed relatively small but significant increases in shared custody in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These changes have accelerated markedly in the intervening years: between 1988 and 2008, the proportion of mothers granted sole physical custody fell substantially, the proportion of parents sharing custody increased dramatically, and father-sole custody remained relatively stable. We explore changes in the correlates of alternative custody outcomes, showing that some results from the earlier analysis still hold (for example, cases with higher total family income are more likely to have shared custody), but other differences have lessened (shared-custody cases have become less distinctive as they have become more common). Despite the considerable changes in marriage and divorce patterns over this period, we do not find strong evidence that the changes in custody are related to changes in the characteristics of families experiencing a divorce; rather, changes in custody may be the result of changes in social norms and the process by which custody is determined.

Binary Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Centrella, Joan

2007-01-01

The final merger of two black holes releases a tremendous amount of energy, more than the combined light from all the stars in the visible universe. This energy is emitted in the form of gravitational waves, and observing these sources with gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO and LISA requires that we know the pattern or fingerprint of the radiation emitted. Since black hole mergers take place in regions of extreme gravitational fields, we need to solve Einstein's equations of general relativity on a computer in order to calculate these wave patterns. For more than 30 years, scientists have tried to compute these wave patterns. However, their computer codes have been plagued by problems that caused them to crash. This situation has changed dramatically in the past 2 years, with a series of amazing breakthroughs. This discussion examines these gravitational patterns, showing how a spacetime is constructed on a computer to build a simulation laboratory for binary black hole mergers. The focus is on recent advances that are revealing these waveforms, and the dramatic new potential for discoveries that arises when these sources will be observed by the space-based gravitational wave detector LISA.

Binary Black Holes, Numerical Relativity, and Gravitational Waves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Centrella, Joan

2007-01-01

The final merger of two black holes releases a tremendous amount of energy, more than the combined light from all the stars in the visible universe. This energy is emitted in the form of gravitational waves, and observing these sources with gravitational wave detectors such as LISA requires that we know the pattern or fingerprint of the radiation emitted. Since black hole mergers take place in regions of extreme gravitational fields, we need to solve Einstein's equations of general relativity on a computer in order to calculate these wave patterns. For more than 30 years, scientists have tried to compute these wave patterns. However, their computer codes have been plagued by problems that caused them to crash. This situation has changed dramatically in the past 2 years, with a series of amazing breakthroughs. This talk will take you on this quest for these gravitational wave patterns, showing how a spacetime is constructed on a computer to build a simulation laboratory for binary black hole mergers. We will focus on the recent advances that are revealing these waveforms, and the dramatic new potential for discoveries that arises when these sources will be observed by LISA

Cosmic Messengers: Binary Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Centrella, Joan

2007-01-01

The final merger of two black holes releases a tremendous amount of energy, more than the combined light from all the stars in the visible universe. This energy is emitted in the form of gravitational waves, and observing these sources with gravitational wave detectors such as LISA requires that we know the pattern or fingerprint of the radiation emitted. Since black hole mergers take place in regions of extreme gravitational fields, we need to solve Einstein s equations of general relativity on a computer in order to calculate these wave patterns. For more than 30 years, scientists have tried to compute these wave patterns. However, their computer codes have been plagued by problems that caused them to crash. . This situation has changed dramatically in the past 2 years, with a series of amazing breakthroughs. This talk will take you on this quest for these gravitational wave patterns, showing how a spacetime is constructed on a computer to build a simulation laboratory for binary black hole mergers. We will focus on the recent advances that are revealing these waveforms, and the dramatic new potential for discoveries that arises when these sources will. be observed by LISA.

25+ year changes in forest structure and tree-ring patterns in three old-growth red spruce stands in West Virginia

Treesearch

Eric Heitzman; Sean Doughterty; James Rentch; Steve Adams; Steve. Stephenson

2010-01-01

The extent of red spruce (Picea rubens) forests in West Virginia has dramatically declined from an estimated 1.5 million acres in 1865 to 30,000 acres today because of widespread logging and forest fires during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

WORKING WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN ECONOMY.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

KEYSERLING, MARY DUBLIN

AMERICAN WOMEN HAVE MADE A LARGE AND GROWING CONTRIBUTION TO FAMILY INCOME PROGRESS SINCE 1940. THE NUMBER OF WOMEN IN THE WORKING FORCE HAS DOUBLED. THIS INCREASE REFLECTS THE DRAMATIC CHANGE IN WOMEN'S WORK-LIFE PATTERNS. THERE HAS BEEN A MARKED INCREASE IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN OVER 35. THE WOMAN MOST LIKELY TO BE A WAGE EARNER IN 1967 WAS…

Brain development and aging: overlapping and unique patterns of change.

PubMed

Tamnes, Christian K; Walhovd, Kristine B; Dale, Anders M; Østby, Ylva; Grydeland, Håkon; Richardson, George; Westlye, Lars T; Roddey, J Cooper; Hagler, Donald J; Due-Tønnessen, Paulina; Holland, Dominic; Fjell, Anders M

2013-03-01

Early-life development is characterized by dramatic changes, impacting lifespan function more than changes in any other period. Developmental origins of neurocognitive late-life functions are acknowledged, but detailed longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging studies of brain maturation and direct comparisons with aging are lacking. To these aims, a novel method was used to measure longitudinal volume changes in development (n=85, 8-22 years) and aging (n=142, 60-91 years). Developmental reductions exceeded 1% annually in much of the cortex, more than double to that seen in aging, with a posterior-to-anterior gradient. Cortical reductions were greater than the subcortical during development, while the opposite held in aging. The pattern of lateral cortical changes was similar across development and aging, but the pronounced medial temporal reduction in aging was not precast in development. Converging patterns of change in adolescents and elderly, particularly in the medial prefrontal areas, suggest that late developed cortices are especially vulnerable to atrophy in aging. A key question in future research will be to disentangle the neurobiological underpinnings for the differences and the similarities between brain changes in development and aging. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Altruism: A natural strategy for enhancing survival

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rozenfeld, Alejandro F.; Luis Gruver, José; Albano, Ezequiel V.; Havlin, Shlomo

2006-09-01

We study the influence of altruistic behavior in a prey-predator model permitting the preys to commit suicide by confronting the predators instead of escaping. Surprising, altruistic behavior at microscopic (local) scale, leads to the emergence of new complex macroscopic (global) phenomena characterized by dramatic changes in the dynamic topology of the prey-predator spatiotemporal distribution, yielding spiral patterns. We show that such dynamics enhances the prey's survivability.

Game-Changing Innovations: How Culture Can Change the Parameters of Its Own Evolution and Induce Abrupt Cultural Shifts.

PubMed

Kolodny, Oren; Creanza, Nicole; Feldman, Marcus W

2016-12-01

One of the most puzzling features of the prehistoric record of hominid stone tools is its apparent punctuation: it consists of abrupt bursts of dramatic change that separate long periods of largely unchanging technology. Within each such period, small punctuated cultural modifications take place. Punctuation on multiple timescales and magnitudes is also found in cultural trajectories from historical times. To explain these sharp cultural bursts, researchers invoke such external factors as sudden environmental change, rapid cognitive or morphological change in the hominids that created the tools, or replacement of one species or population by another. Here we propose a dynamic model of cultural evolution that accommodates empirical observations: without invoking external factors, it gives rise to a pattern of rare, dramatic cultural bursts, interspersed by more frequent, smaller, punctuated cultural modifications. Our model includes interdependent innovation processes that occur at different rates. It also incorporates a realistic aspect of cultural evolution: cultural innovations, such as those that increase food availability or that affect cultural transmission, can change the parameters that affect cultural evolution, thereby altering the population's cultural dynamics and steady state. This steady state can be regarded as a cultural carrying capacity. These parameter-changing cultural innovations occur very rarely, but whenever one occurs, it triggers a dramatic shift towards a new cultural steady state. The smaller and more frequent punctuated cultural changes, on the other hand, are brought about by innovations that spur the invention of further, related, technology, and which occur regardless of whether the population is near its cultural steady state. Our model suggests that common interpretations of cultural shifts as evidence of biological change, for example the appearance of behaviorally modern humans, may be unwarranted.

Game-Changing Innovations: How Culture Can Change the Parameters of Its Own Evolution and Induce Abrupt Cultural Shifts

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

One of the most puzzling features of the prehistoric record of hominid stone tools is its apparent punctuation: it consists of abrupt bursts of dramatic change that separate long periods of largely unchanging technology. Within each such period, small punctuated cultural modifications take place. Punctuation on multiple timescales and magnitudes is also found in cultural trajectories from historical times. To explain these sharp cultural bursts, researchers invoke such external factors as sudden environmental change, rapid cognitive or morphological change in the hominids that created the tools, or replacement of one species or population by another. Here we propose a dynamic model of cultural evolution that accommodates empirical observations: without invoking external factors, it gives rise to a pattern of rare, dramatic cultural bursts, interspersed by more frequent, smaller, punctuated cultural modifications. Our model includes interdependent innovation processes that occur at different rates. It also incorporates a realistic aspect of cultural evolution: cultural innovations, such as those that increase food availability or that affect cultural transmission, can change the parameters that affect cultural evolution, thereby altering the population’s cultural dynamics and steady state. This steady state can be regarded as a cultural carrying capacity. These parameter-changing cultural innovations occur very rarely, but whenever one occurs, it triggers a dramatic shift towards a new cultural steady state. The smaller and more frequent punctuated cultural changes, on the other hand, are brought about by innovations that spur the invention of further, related, technology, and which occur regardless of whether the population is near its cultural steady state. Our model suggests that common interpretations of cultural shifts as evidence of biological change, for example the appearance of behaviorally modern humans, may be unwarranted. PMID:28036346

Marine biological diversity: Some important issues, opportunities and critical research needs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Butman, Cheryl Ann; Carlton, James T.

1995-07-01

Marine biological diversity is changing, dramatically in some cases, and most recent changes are due to broad-scale human activities. Knowledge of "biodiversity" — the variety of genomes (the genetic material specifying all characteristics and functions within an organism), species and ecosystems — is the foundation for understanding and predicting how human and natural effects can change the ocean's ecosystems. Evaluating the scale and ultimate consequences to life in the sea of a plethora of anthropogenic effects is difficult, however, because there is inadequate knowledge of both the patterns of and the processes that control marine biodiversity. Recognizing change and evaluating its consequences require sufficient knowledge of present and historical natural patterns of biodiversity, and sufficient understanding of how and why these patterns vary in space and time. Data on biodiversity patterns and their causes are sorely lacking for most marine ecosystems. Adequate understanding of what creates and maintains diversity must be the scientific underpinning for policy decisions regarding pollutant and waste disposal, habitat alteration, fisheries management and the preservation of threatened or endangered species. The inability, at this time, to provide such information to policy makers may have important implications for the conservation of marine life [Norse, 1993].

Dramatic Increases of Soil Microbial Functional Gene Diversity at the Treeline Ecotone of Changbai Mountain.

PubMed

Shen, Congcong; Shi, Yu; Ni, Yingying; Deng, Ye; Van Nostrand, Joy D; He, Zhili; Zhou, Jizhong; Chu, Haiyan

2016-01-01

The elevational and latitudinal diversity patterns of microbial taxa have attracted great attention in the past decade. Recently, the distribution of functional attributes has been in the spotlight. Here, we report a study profiling soil microbial communities along an elevation gradient (500-2200 m) on Changbai Mountain. Using a comprehensive functional gene microarray (GeoChip 5.0), we found that microbial functional gene richness exhibited a dramatic increase at the treeline ecotone, but the bacterial taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing did not exhibit such a similar trend. However, the β-diversity (compositional dissimilarity among sites) pattern for both bacterial taxa and functional genes was similar, showing significant elevational distance-decay patterns which presented increased dissimilarity with elevation. The bacterial taxonomic diversity/structure was strongly influenced by soil pH, while the functional gene diversity/structure was significantly correlated with soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC). This finding highlights that soil DOC may be a good predictor in determining the elevational distribution of microbial functional genes. The finding of significant shifts in functional gene diversity at the treeline ecotone could also provide valuable information for predicting the responses of microbial functions to climate change.

Effect of Charge Patterning on the Phase Behavior of Polymer Coacervates for Charge Driven Self Assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radhakrishna, Mithun; Sing, Charles E.

Oppositely charged polymers can undergo associative liquid-liquid phase separation when mixed under suitable conditions of ionic strength, temperature and pH to form what are known as `polymeric complex coacervates'. Polymer coacervates find use in diverse array of applications like microencapsulation, drug delivery, membrane filtration and underwater adhesives. The similarity between complex coacervate environments and those in biological systems has also found relevance in areas of bio-mimicry. Our previous works have demonstrated how local charge correlations and molecular connectivity can drastically affect the phase behavior of coacervates. The precise location of charges along the chain therefore dramatically influences the local charge correlations, which consequently influences the phase behavior of coacervates. We investigate the effect of charge patterning along the polymer chain on the phase behavior of coacervates in the framework of the Restricted Primitive Model using Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo simulations. Our results show that charge patterning dramatically changes the phase behavior of polymer coacervates, which contrasts with the predictions of the classical Voorn-Overbeek theory. This provides the basis for designing new materials through charge driven self assembly by controlling the positioning of the charged monomers along the chain.

Segmentation and classification of cell cycle phases in fluorescence imaging.

PubMed

Ersoy, Ilker; Bunyak, Filiz; Chagin, Vadim; Cardoso, M Christina; Palaniappan, Kannappan

2009-01-01

Current chemical biology methods for studying spatiotemporal correlation between biochemical networks and cell cycle phase progression in live-cells typically use fluorescence-based imaging of fusion proteins. Stable cell lines expressing fluorescently tagged protein GFP-PCNA produce rich, dynamically varying sub-cellular foci patterns characterizing the cell cycle phases, including the progress during the S-phase. Variable fluorescence patterns, drastic changes in SNR, shape and position changes and abundance of touching cells require sophisticated algorithms for reliable automatic segmentation and cell cycle classification. We extend the recently proposed graph partitioning active contours (GPAC) for fluorescence-based nucleus segmentation using regional density functions and dramatically improve its efficiency, making it scalable for high content microscopy imaging. We utilize surface shape properties of GFP-PCNA intensity field to obtain descriptors of foci patterns and perform automated cell cycle phase classification, and give quantitative performance by comparing our results to manually labeled data.

A Simple Model for Complex Dynamical Transitions in Epidemics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Earn, David J. D.; Rohani, Pejman; Bolker, Benjamin M.; Grenfell, Bryan T.

2000-01-01

Dramatic changes in patterns of epidemics have been observed throughout this century. For childhood infectious diseases such as measles, the major transitions are between regular cycles and irregular, possibly chaotic epidemics, and from regionally synchronized oscillations to complex, spatially incoherent epidemics. A simple model can explain both kinds of transitions as the consequences of changes in birth and vaccination rates. Measles is a natural ecological system that exhibits different dynamical transitions at different times and places, yet all of these transitions can be predicted as bifurcations of a single nonlinear model.

New York City Goes to College: A First Look at Patterns of College Enrollment, Persistence, and Degree Attainment for NYC High School Students. Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coca, Vanessa

2014-01-01

Over the past 15 years, in New York City and across the country, expectations for high schools--and high school students--have changed dramatically. Increasingly, high schools are being asked not only to reduce dropout rates and boost graduation rates, but also to impart knowledge, skills, and experiences that will prepare students to succeed in…

A unique coral biomineralization pattern has resisted 40 million years of major ocean chemistry change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stolarski, Jarosław; Bosellini, Francesca R.; Wallace, Carden C.; Gothmann, Anne M.; Mazur, Maciej; Domart-Coulon, Isabelle; Gutner-Hoch, Eldad; Neuser, Rolf D.; Levy, Oren; Shemesh, Aldo; Meibom, Anders

2016-06-01

Today coral reefs are threatened by changes to seawater conditions associated with rapid anthropogenic global climate change. Yet, since the Cenozoic, these organisms have experienced major fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 levels (from greenhouse conditions of high pCO2 in the Eocene to low pCO2 ice-house conditions in the Oligocene-Miocene) and a dramatically changing ocean Mg/Ca ratio. Here we show that the most diverse, widespread, and abundant reef-building coral genus Acropora (20 morphological groups and 150 living species) has not only survived these environmental changes, but has maintained its distinct skeletal biomineralization pattern for at least 40 My: Well-preserved fossil Acropora skeletons from the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene show ultra-structures indistinguishable from those of extant representatives of the genus and their aragonitic skeleton Mg/Ca ratios trace the inferred ocean Mg/Ca ratio precisely since the Eocene. Therefore, among marine biogenic carbonate fossils, well-preserved acroporid skeletons represent material with very high potential for reconstruction of ancient ocean chemistry.

IL-1beta, but not BMP-7 leads to a dramatic change in the gene expression pattern of human adult articular chondrocytes--portraying the gene expression pattern in two donors.

PubMed

Saas, J; Haag, J; Rueger, D; Chubinskaya, S; Sohler, F; Zimmer, R; Bartnik, E; Aigner, T

2006-10-01

Anabolic and catabolic cytokines and growth factors such as BMP-7 and IL-1beta play a central role in controlling the balance between degradation and repair of normal and (osteo)arthritic articular cartilage matrix. In this report, we investigated the response of articular chondrocytes to these factors IL-1beta and BMP-7 in terms of changes in gene expression levels. Large scale analysis was performed on primary human adult articular chondrocytes isolated from two human, independent donors cultured in alginate beads (non-stimulated and stimulated with IL-1beta and BMP-7 for 48 h) using Affymetrix gene chips (oligo-arrays). Biostatistical and bioinformatic evaluation of gene expression pattern was performed using the Resolver software (Rosetta). Part of the results were confirmed using real-time PCR. IL-1beta modulated significantly 909 out of 3459 genes detectable, whereas BMP-7 influenced only 36 out of 3440. BMP-7 induced mainly anabolic activation of chondrocytes including classical target genes such as collagen type II and aggrecan, while IL-1beta, both, significantly modulated the gene expression levels of numerous genes; namely, IL-1beta down-regulated the expression of anabolic genes and induced catabolic genes and mediators. Our data indicate that BMP-7 has only a limited effect on differentiated cells, whereas IL-1beta causes a dramatic change in gene expression pattern, i.e. induced or repressed much more genes. This presumably reflects the fact that BMP-7 signaling is effected via one pathway only (i.e. Smad-pathway) whereas IL-1beta is able to signal via a broad variety of intracellular signaling cascades involving the JNK, p38, NFkB and Erk pathways and even influencing BMP signaling.

Characterizing the "Time of Emergence" of Air Quality Climate Penalties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rothenberg, D. A.; Garcia-Menendez, F.; Monier, E.; Solomon, S.; Selin, N. E.

2017-12-01

By driving not only local changes in temperature, but also precipitation and regional-scale changes in seasonal circulation patterns, climate change can directly and indirectly influence changes in air quality and its extremes. These changes - often referred to as "climate penalties" - can have important implications for human health, which is often targeted when assessing the potential co-benefits of climate policy. But because climate penalties are driven by slow, spatially-varying, temporal changes in the climate system, their emergence in the real world should also have a spatio-temporal component following regional variability in background air quality. In this work, we attempt to estimate the spatially-varying "time of emergence" of climate penalty signals by using an ensemble modeling framework based on the MIT Integrated Global System Model (MIT IGSM). With this framework we assess three climate policy scenarios assuming three different underlying climate sensitivities, and conduct a 5-member ensemble for each case to capture internal variability within the model. These simulations are used to drive offline chemical transport modeling (using CAM-Chem and GEOS-Chem). In these simulations, we find that the air quality response to climate change can vary dramatically across different regions of the globe. To analyze these regionally-varying climate signals, we employ a hierarchical clustering technique to identify regions with similar seasonal patterns of air quality change. Our simulations suggest that the earliest emergence of ozone climate penalties would occur in Southern Europe (by 2035), should the world neglect climate change and rely on a "business-as-usual" emissions policy. However, even modest climate policy dramatically pushes back the time of emergence of these penalties - to beyond 2100 - across most of the globe. The emergence of climate-forced changes in PM2.5 are much more difficult to detect, partially owing to the large role that changes in the frequency and spatial distribution of precipitation play in limiting the accumulation and duration of particulate pollution episodes.

Man induced change in community control in the north-western Black Sea: The top-down bottom-up balance.

PubMed

Bănaru, Daniela; Harmelin-Vivien, Mireille; Boudouresque, Charles F

2010-05-01

The present study shows how marine commercial fish food webs dramatically changed in the north-western Black Sea on both pelagic and benthic environments. Fisheries landings, diversity and equitability strongly decreased between 1965-1970 and 2001-2005. Fishes adapted their feeding behaviour to the increasingly low species diversity of the Black Sea communities. Their food web became poor and simplified following the loss of many top predator species and their trophic links. Linkage density, connectivity and Lyapunov stability proxy strongly decreased. The north-western Black Sea system switched from a complex top-down and bottom-up functioning pattern to a dominantly bottom-up functioning pattern. This study contributes to a better understanding of these transformations within the Danube-Black Sea system in the last decades. An attempt is made to relate these changes with river inputs, fisheries and coastal pollution. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Interplay Between Language, Gesture, and Affect During Communicative Transition: A Dynamic Systems Approach

PubMed Central

Parladé, Meaghan V.; Iverson, Jana M.

2012-01-01

From a dynamic systems perspective, transition points in development are times of increased instability, during which behavioral patterns are susceptible to temporary decoupling. This study investigated the impact of the vocabulary spurt on existing patterns of communicative coordination. Eighteen typically developing infants were videotaped at home 1 month before, at, and after the vocabulary spurt. Infants were identified as spurters if they underwent a discrete phase transition in vocabulary development (marked by an inflection point), and compared with a group of nonspurters whose word-learning rates followed a trajectory of continuous change. Relative to surrounding sessions, there were significant reductions in overall coordination of communicative behaviors and in words produced in coordination at the vocabulary spurt session for infants who experienced more dramatic vocabulary growth. In contrast, nonspurters demonstrated little change across sessions. Findings underscore the importance of transitions as opportunities for observing processes of developmental change. PMID:21219063

Broiler skin and meat color changes during storage.

PubMed

Petracci, M; Fletcher, D L

2002-10-01

The importance of poultry skin and meat color (both absolute and variations in color) in the market place have been well established. It has also been reported that these colors change over time. With the development of computer-assisted vision grading systems, the changes in skin and meat color during and after processing have become important, based on calibrations and assessment values based on color. Four independent experiments were conducted to determine the pattern of color change in broiler skin and meat during processing and storage. Skin color change was measured on subscald (57 C) and semiscald (50 C) breast skin surfaces and on breast and leg meat, on the carcass and following deboning and packaging. A reflectance colorimeter was used to determine lightness (L*), redness (a*), and yellowness (b*) at 20-min intervals for the first 3 h, at 30-min intervals between 3 and 8 h, hourly between 8 and 12 h, and daily up to 8 d postmortem. Results clearly show that color values for both skin and meat changed dramatically for the first 6 h postmortem, after which the changes were less pronounced. The skin from semiscalded birds showed less change than the skin from subscalded birds. These results indicate that on-line vision systems need to take into account the dramatic changes in skin and meat color during the first 6 h postmortem, after which the color changes may be less important.

Multiple bunch HOM evaluation for ERL cavities

DOE PAGES

Xu, Chen; Ben-Zvi, I.; Blaskiewicz, Michael M.; ...

2017-06-15

In this paper we investigate the effect of the bunch pattern in a linac on the Higher Order Mode (HOM) power generation. The future ERL-based electron–ion collider eRHIC at BNL is used as an illustrative example. This ERL has multiple high current Superconducting Radiofrequency (SRF) 5-cell cavities. The HOM power generated when a single bunch traverses the cavity is estimated by the corresponding loss factor. Multiple re-circulations through the Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) create a specific bunch pattern. In this case the loss factor can be different than the single bunch loss factor. HOM power can vary dramatically when themore » ERL bunch pattern changes. The HOM power generation can be surveyed in the time and frequency domains. We estimate the average HOM power in a 5-cell cavity with different ERL bunch patterns.« less

Multiple bunch HOM evaluation for ERL cavities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Chen; Ben-Zvi, I.; Blaskiewicz, Michael M.; Hao, Yue; Ptitsyn, Vadim

2017-09-01

In this work we investigate the effect of the bunch pattern in a linac on the Higher Order Mode (HOM) power generation. The future ERL-based electron-ion collider eRHIC at BNL is used as an illustrative example. This ERL has multiple high current Superconducting Radiofrequency (SRF) 5-cell cavities. The HOM power generated when a single bunch traverses the cavity is estimated by the corresponding loss factor. Multiple re-circulations through the Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) create a specific bunch pattern. In this case the loss factor can be different than the single bunch loss factor. HOM power can vary dramatically when the ERL bunch pattern changes. The HOM power generation can be surveyed in the time and frequency domains. We estimate the average HOM power in a 5-cell cavity with different ERL bunch patterns.

Multiple bunch HOM evaluation for ERL cavities

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

Xu, Chen; Ben-Zvi, I.; Blaskiewicz, Michael M.

In this paper we investigate the effect of the bunch pattern in a linac on the Higher Order Mode (HOM) power generation. The future ERL-based electron–ion collider eRHIC at BNL is used as an illustrative example. This ERL has multiple high current Superconducting Radiofrequency (SRF) 5-cell cavities. The HOM power generated when a single bunch traverses the cavity is estimated by the corresponding loss factor. Multiple re-circulations through the Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) create a specific bunch pattern. In this case the loss factor can be different than the single bunch loss factor. HOM power can vary dramatically when themore » ERL bunch pattern changes. The HOM power generation can be surveyed in the time and frequency domains. We estimate the average HOM power in a 5-cell cavity with different ERL bunch patterns.« less

New York City Goes to College: A First Look at Patterns of College Enrollment, Persistence, and Degree Attainment for New York City High School Students. Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coca, Vanessa

2014-01-01

Over the past 15 years, in New York City and across the country, expectations for high schools--and high school students--have changed dramatically. Increasingly, high schools are being asked not only to reduce dropout rates and boost graduation rates, but also to impart knowledge, skills, and experiences that will prepare students to succeed in…

New York City Goes to College: A First Look at Patterns of College Enrollment, Persistence, and Degree Attainment for NYC High School Students. Technical Appendices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coca, Vanessa

2014-01-01

Over the past 15 years, in New York City and across the country, expectations for high schools--and high school students--have changed dramatically. Increasingly, high schools are being asked not only to reduce dropout rates and boost graduation rates, but also to impart knowledge, skills, and experiences that will prepare students to succeed in…

Dramatic Increases of Soil Microbial Functional Gene Diversity at the Treeline Ecotone of Changbai Mountain

PubMed Central

Shen, Congcong; Shi, Yu; Ni, Yingying; Deng, Ye; Van Nostrand, Joy D.; He, Zhili; Zhou, Jizhong; Chu, Haiyan

2016-01-01

The elevational and latitudinal diversity patterns of microbial taxa have attracted great attention in the past decade. Recently, the distribution of functional attributes has been in the spotlight. Here, we report a study profiling soil microbial communities along an elevation gradient (500–2200 m) on Changbai Mountain. Using a comprehensive functional gene microarray (GeoChip 5.0), we found that microbial functional gene richness exhibited a dramatic increase at the treeline ecotone, but the bacterial taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing did not exhibit such a similar trend. However, the β-diversity (compositional dissimilarity among sites) pattern for both bacterial taxa and functional genes was similar, showing significant elevational distance-decay patterns which presented increased dissimilarity with elevation. The bacterial taxonomic diversity/structure was strongly influenced by soil pH, while the functional gene diversity/structure was significantly correlated with soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC). This finding highlights that soil DOC may be a good predictor in determining the elevational distribution of microbial functional genes. The finding of significant shifts in functional gene diversity at the treeline ecotone could also provide valuable information for predicting the responses of microbial functions to climate change. PMID:27524983

Spatio-Temporal Changes of Lymphatic Contractility and Drainage Patterns following Lymphadenectomy in Mice

PubMed Central

Kwon, Sunkuk; Agollah, Germaine D.; Wu, Grace; Sevick-Muraca, Eva M.

2014-01-01

Objective To investigate the redirection of lymphatic drainage post-lymphadenectomy using non-invasive near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging, and to subsequently assess impact on metastasis. Background Cancer-acquired lymphedema arises from dysfunctional fluid transport after lymphadenectomy performed for staging and to disrupt drainage pathways for regional control of disease. However, little is known about the normal regenerative processes of the lymphatics in response to lymphadenectomy and how these responses can be accelerated, delayed, or can impact metastasis. Methods Changes in lymphatic “pumping” function and drainage patterns were non-invasively and longitudinally imaged using NIRF lymphatic imaging after popliteal lymphadenectomy in mice. In a cohort of mice, B16F10 melanoma was inoculated on the dorsal aspect of the paw 27 days after lymphadenectomy to assess how drainage patterns affect metastasis. Results NIRF imaging demonstrates that, although lymphatic function and drainage patterns change significantly in early response to popliteal lymph node (PLN) removal in mice, these changes are transient and regress dramatically due to a high regenerative capacity of the lymphatics and co-opting of collateral lymphatic pathways around the site of obstruction. Metastases followed the pattern of collateral pathways and could be detected proximal to the site of lymphadenectomy. Conclusions Both lymphatic vessel regeneration and co-opting of contralateral vessels occur following lymphadenectomy, with contractile function restored within 13 days, providing a basis for preclinical and clinical investigations to hasten lymphatic repair and restore contractile lymphatic function after surgery to prevent cancer-acquired lymphedema. Patterns of cancer metastasis after lymphadenectomy were altered, consistent with patterns of re-directed lymphatic drainage. PMID:25170770

A microbial perspective of human developmental biology.

PubMed

Charbonneau, Mark R; Blanton, Laura V; DiGiulio, Daniel B; Relman, David A; Lebrilla, Carlito B; Mills, David A; Gordon, Jeffrey I

2016-07-07

When most people think of human development, they tend to consider only human cells and organs. Yet there is another facet that involves human-associated microbial communities. A microbial perspective of human development provides opportunities to refine our definitions of healthy prenatal and postnatal growth and to develop innovative strategies for disease prevention and treatment. Given the dramatic changes in lifestyles and disease patterns that are occurring with globalization, we issue a call for the establishment of 'human microbial observatories' designed to examine microbial community development in birth cohorts representing populations with diverse anthropological characteristics, including those undergoing rapid change.

Human developmental biology viewed from a microbial perspective

PubMed Central

Charbonneau, Mark R.; Blanton, Laura V.; DiGiulio, Daniel B.; Relman, David A.; Lebrilla, Carlito B.; Mills, David A.; Gordon, Jeffrey I.

2017-01-01

Preface Most people think of human development only in terms of ‘human’ cells and organs. Here, we discuss another facet involving human-associated microbial communities. A microbial perspective of human development provides opportunities to refine our definitions of healthy pre- and postnatal growth and to develop new strategies for disease prevention and treatment. Considering the dramatic changes in lifestyles and disease patterns that are occurring with globalization, we issue a call for human microbial observatory programs designed to examine microbial community development in birth cohorts representing populations with diverse anthropologic characteristics, including those undergoing rapid change. PMID:27383979

Facile patterning of hybrid CdSe nanoparticle films by photoinduced surface defects.

PubMed

Park, Yushin; Felipe, Mary Jane; Advincula, Rigoberto C

2011-11-01

The photopatterning of CdSe quantum dots (QDs) films is facilitated by preparing defect-rich QDs on selective sites on the film. A key step is UV irradiation in the presence of a polar solvent such as methanol in situ as a "developer" which readily dissolves trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) but not the QDs. This results in a dramatically reduced photopatterning time and irradiation intensity requirement. The optical property changes were examined by UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. Furthermore, the photo-oxidized pattern of the CdSe QD film was readily observed by fluorescence microscopy. The chemical change due to attenuation of the P═O vibration of TOPO (due to its removal) could be detected by FT-IR imaging or FT-IR chemical mapping. Thus, the protocol is a simple yet effective way of patterning PL properties of QD films at much reduced exposure time compared to previously reported methods. It may find utility for a host of cell-based film assays and PL display device applications at various resolutions.

RS- and GIS-based study on landscape pattern change in the Poyang Lake wetland area, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Xiaoling; Li, Hui; Bao, Shuming; Wu, Zhongyi; Fu, Weijuan; Cai, Xiaobin; Zhao, Hongmei; Guo, Peng

2006-10-01

As wetland has been recognized as an important component of ecosystem, it is received ever-increasing attention worldwide. Poyang Lake wetlands, the international wetlands and the largest bird habitat in Asia, play an important role in biodiversity and ecologic protection. However, with the rapid economic growth and urbanization, landscape patterns in the wetlands have dramatically changed in the past three decades. To better understand the wetland landscape dynamics, remote sensing, geographic information system technologies, and the FRAGSTATS landscape analysis program were used to measure landscape patterns. Statistical approach was employed to illustrate the driving forces. In this study, Landsat images (TM and ETM+) from 1989 and 2000 were acquired for the wetland area. The landscapes in the wetland area were classified as agricultural land, urban, wetland, forest, grassland, unused land, and water body using a combination of supervised and unsupervised classification techniques integrated with Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Landscape indices, which are popular for the quantitative analysis of landscape pattern, were then employed to analyze the landscape pattern changes between the two dates in a GIS. From this analysis an understanding of the spatial-temporal patterns of landscape evolution was generated. The results show that wetland area was reduced while fragmentation was increased over the study period. Further investigation was made to examine the relationship between landscape metrics and some other parameters such as urbanization to address the driving forces for those changes. The urban was chosen as center to conduct buffer analysis in a GIS to study the impact of human-induced activities on landscape pattern dynamics. It was found that the selected parameters were significantly correlated with the landscape metrics, which may well indicate the impact of human-induced activities on the wetland landscape pattern dynamics and account for the driving forces.

Socio-cultural and economic factors affecting food consumption patterns in the Arab countries.

PubMed

Musaiger, A O

1993-04-01

Several factors have been found to determine the dietary habits of the people in the Arab world. Food consumption pattern has dramatically changed in some Arab countries as a result of sudden increase in income from oil revenue. It is believed that food subsidy policy has adversely affected the food habits in the Gulf states by encouraging the intake of fat, sugar, rice, wheat flour and meat. Socio-cultural factors such as religion, beliefs, food preferences, gender discrimination, education and women's employment all have a noticeable influence on food consumption patterns in this region. Mass media, especially televised food advertisements, play an important role in modifying the dietary habits. The migration movement, particularly that which was carried out during the 70s has a great impact on the food practices in many Arab countries. Comprehensive studies on social, cultural and economic factors associated with food consumption patterns in the Arab region are highly recommended.

Biological response to climate change on a tropical mountain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pounds, J. Alan; Fogden, Michael P. L.; Campbell, John H.

1999-04-01

Recent warming has caused changes in species distribution and abundance, but the extent of the effects is unclear. Here we investigate whether such changes in highland forests at Monteverde, Costa Rica, are related to the increase in air temperatures that followed a step-like warming of tropical oceans in 1976 (refs4, 5). Twenty of 50 species of anurans (frogs and toads) in a 30-km2 study area, including the locally endemic golden toad (Bufo periglenes), disappeared following synchronous population crashes in 1987 (refs 6-8). Our results indicate that these crashes probably belong to a constellation of demographic changes that have altered communities of birds, reptiles and amphibians in the area and are linked to recent warming. The changes are all associated with patterns of dry-season mist frequency, which is negatively correlated with sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific and has declined dramatically since the mid-1970s. The biological and climatic patterns suggest that atmospheric warming has raised the average altitude at the base of the orographic cloud bank, as predicted by the lifting-cloud-base hypothesis,.

A review of the Southern Oscillation - Oceanic-atmospheric circulation changes and related rainfall anomalies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kousky, V. E.; Kagano, M. T.; Cavalcanti, I. F. A.

1984-01-01

The region of South America is emphasized in the present consideration of the Southern Oscillation (SO) oceanic and atmospheric circulation changes. The persistence of climate anomalies associated with El Nino-SO events is due to strong atmosphere-ocean coupling. Once initiated, the SO follows a certain sequence of events with clearly defined effects on tropical and subtropical rainfall. Excessive rainfall related to the SO in the central and eastern Pacific, Peru, Ecuador, and southern Brazil, are complemented by drought in Australia, Indonesia, India, West Africa, and northeast Brazil. El Nino-SO events are also associated with dramatic changes in the tropospheric flow pattern over a broad area of both hemispheres.

Marital stability and cancer of the uterine cervix: changing patterns in post-war Britain.

PubMed

Murphy, M F; Goldblatt, P O; Mant, D

1993-06-01

This study investigates the extent to which the distinctive cross-sectional marital status picture of risk for cancer of the uterine cervix (single, married, widowed, divorced in ascending order of risk) has persisted in post-war Britain. Incidence and mortality due to invasive cervical cancer amongst single women now exceeds that of the married, and for both has become much closer to that of the widowed and divorced. A dramatic increase in carcinoma in situ in Scotland, seen particularly in the single since 1982, must partly reflect changes in screening and diagnostic classification, but is also consistent with the later occurrence of the sexual revolution in Scotland. Overall in Britain, the distribution of screening and hysterectomy cannot account for the present day pattern of the disease. Available data on patterns of smoking and oral contraceptive use are broadly consistent with a role for them in determining the current disease pattern associated with marital status but their possible involvement cannot be disentangled from the more likely effect of changing levels of sexual activity increasing the risk of sexually transmitted disease. As marital status becomes a less important social indicator of sexual behaviour, it has also become a much less reliable marker of cervical cancer risk.

Functional implications of Major Histocompatibility (MH) variation using estuarine fish populations.

PubMed

Cohen, Sarah; Tirindelli, Joëlle; Gomez-Chiarri, Marta; Nacci, Diane

2006-12-01

Recently, there has been a dramatic expansion of studies of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) variation aimed at discovering functional differences in immunity across wild populations of diverse vertebrate species. Some species with relatively low genetic diversity or under strong directional selection by pathogens have revealed fascinating cases of MHC allelic disease linkage. More generally in genetically diverse species, however, these linkages may be hard to find. In this paper, we review approaches for assessing functional variation in MHC and discuss their potential use for discovering smaller-scale intraspecific spatial and temporal patterns of MHC variation. Then, we describe and illustrate an approach using the structural model to produce a population composite of variation in antigen-binding regions by mapping population-specific substitutions onto functional regions of the molecule. We are producing models of variation in major histocompatibility (MH) loci for populations of non-migratory fish (killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus) resident at sites that vary dramatically in environmental quality. We discuss the goal of relating MH population variation to functional differences in disease susceptibility such as those inferred by observations of parasitic infection and direct measurement of bacterial challenges in the laboratory. Our study has focused on relatively well-studied killifish populations, including those resident in a highly disturbed, chemically contaminated estuary and nearby less contaminated sites. Population-specific genetic changes at MHC antigen-binding loci are described, and evidence relevant to functional implications of these changes is reviewed. Population-specific patterns of variation in antigen-binding regions in combination with a range of assessments of immune function will provide a powerful new approach to reveal functional changes in MHC.

Yearly fluctuations of flower landscape in a Mediterranean scrubland: Consequences for floral resource availability.

PubMed

Flo, Víctor; Bosch, Jordi; Arnan, Xavier; Primante, Clara; Martín González, Ana M; Barril-Graells, Helena; Rodrigo, Anselm

2018-01-01

Species flower production and flowering phenology vary from year to year due to extrinsic factors. Inter-annual variability in flowering patterns may have important consequences for attractiveness to pollinators, and ultimately, plant reproductive output. To understand the consequences of flowering pattern variability, a community approach is necessary because pollinator flower choice is highly dependent on flower context. Our objectives were: 1) To quantify yearly variability in flower density and phenology; 2) To evaluate whether changes in flowering patterns result in significant changes in pollen/nectar composition. We monitored weekly flowering patterns in a Mediterranean scrubland community (23 species) over 8 years. Floral resource availability was estimated based on field measures of pollen and nectar production per flower. We analysed inter-annual variation in flowering phenology (duration and date of peak bloom) and flower production, and inter-annual and monthly variability in flower, pollen and nectar species composition. We also investigated potential phylogenetic effects on inter-annual variability of flowering patterns. We found dramatic variation in yearly flower production both at the species and community levels. There was also substantial variation in flowering phenology. Importantly, yearly fluctuations were far from synchronous across species, and resulted in significant changes in floral resources availability and composition at the community level. Changes were especially pronounced late in the season, at a time when flowers are scarce and pollinator visitation rates are particularly high. We discuss the consequences of our findings for pollinator visitation and plant reproductive success in the current scenario of climate change.

Yearly fluctuations of flower landscape in a Mediterranean scrubland: Consequences for floral resource availability

PubMed Central

Primante, Clara; Martín González, Ana M.; Barril-Graells, Helena

2018-01-01

Species flower production and flowering phenology vary from year to year due to extrinsic factors. Inter-annual variability in flowering patterns may have important consequences for attractiveness to pollinators, and ultimately, plant reproductive output. To understand the consequences of flowering pattern variability, a community approach is necessary because pollinator flower choice is highly dependent on flower context. Our objectives were: 1) To quantify yearly variability in flower density and phenology; 2) To evaluate whether changes in flowering patterns result in significant changes in pollen/nectar composition. We monitored weekly flowering patterns in a Mediterranean scrubland community (23 species) over 8 years. Floral resource availability was estimated based on field measures of pollen and nectar production per flower. We analysed inter-annual variation in flowering phenology (duration and date of peak bloom) and flower production, and inter-annual and monthly variability in flower, pollen and nectar species composition. We also investigated potential phylogenetic effects on inter-annual variability of flowering patterns. We found dramatic variation in yearly flower production both at the species and community levels. There was also substantial variation in flowering phenology. Importantly, yearly fluctuations were far from synchronous across species, and resulted in significant changes in floral resources availability and composition at the community level. Changes were especially pronounced late in the season, at a time when flowers are scarce and pollinator visitation rates are particularly high. We discuss the consequences of our findings for pollinator visitation and plant reproductive success in the current scenario of climate change. PMID:29346453

Forelimb kinematics and motor patterns of swimming loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta): are motor patterns conserved in the evolution of new locomotor strategies?

PubMed

Rivera, Angela R V; Wyneken, Jeanette; Blob, Richard W

2011-10-01

Novel functions in animals may evolve through changes in morphology, muscle activity or a combination of both. The idea that new functions or behavior can arise solely through changes in structure, without concurrent changes in the patterns of muscle activity that control movement of those structures, has been formalized as the neuromotor conservation hypothesis. In vertebrate locomotor systems, evidence for neuromotor conservation is found across evolutionary transitions in the behavior of terrestrial species, and in evolutionary transitions from terrestrial species to flying species. However, evolutionary transitions in the locomotion of aquatic species have received little comparable study to determine whether changes in morphology and muscle function were coordinated through the evolution of new locomotor behavior. To evaluate the potential for neuromotor conservation in an ancient aquatic system, we quantified forelimb kinematics and muscle activity during swimming in the loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta. Loggerhead forelimbs are hypertrophied into wing-like flippers that produce thrust via dorsoventral forelimb flapping. We compared kinematic and motor patterns from loggerheads with previous data from the red-eared slider, Trachemys scripta, a generalized freshwater species exhibiting unspecialized forelimb morphology and anteroposterior rowing motions during swimming. For some forelimb muscles, comparisons between C. caretta and T. scripta support neuromotor conservation; for example, the coracobrachialis and the latissimus dorsi show similar activation patterns. However, other muscles (deltoideus, pectoralis and triceps) do not show neuromotor conservation; for example, the deltoideus changes dramatically from a limb protractor/elevator in sliders to a joint stabilizer in loggerheads. Thus, during the evolution of flapping in sea turtles, drastic restructuring of the forelimb was accompanied by both conservation and evolutionary novelty in limb motor patterns.

Changes in bacterial meningitis.

PubMed Central

Carter, P E; Barclay, S M; Galloway, W H; Cole, G F

1990-01-01

In 1964, one of us (WHG) undertook a retrospective study of bacterial meningitis in childhood in the north east of Scotland during the period 1946-61. We have recently carried out a similar review of cases occurring during 1971-86, to compare the incidence, mortality, and bacteriological patterns. During the earlier period 285 cases occurred, a total incidence of 16.9/100,000 children per year. In the later period 274 children were affected, an annual incidence of 17.8/100,000. The overall mortality rate fell dramatically from 11.9% to 1.8%, the latter figure comparing favourably with recent published studies from Scandinavia and the United States. There was a change in the bacteriological profile in the second period with a significant rise in cases due to Haemophilus influenzae at all ages. A fall in cases of meningococcal meningitis was significant in infants under 1 year of age only. Possible reasons for the change in the bacteriological pattern are discussed. PMID:2357086

Residual currents and long-term transport

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cheng, R.T.

1990-01-01

Estuaries, bays, and contiguous coastal seas of the world are the most valuable and yet most vulnerable marine ecosystems. For centuries, society has placed enormous value on coastal areas for living, working, and recreation. In nearly all regions of the world, the largest population is distributed along the coastlines. The marine ecosystems provide food, shelter, and spawning grounds for fisheries, and refuge and sanctuary for wildlife. Dramatic increases in the population living in coastal regions have changed the pattern of land use and the movement of sediments. Obviously, these changes have not come without a price. Accompanying the coastal population increase is competition for the use of estuarine and coastal resources: the diversion of fresh water for irrigation and the discharge of waste water into these systems. The changing patterns of water use have resulted in deterioration of water quality, and in irreversible impacts on many marine ecosystems. All of these alterations directly affect the economic development and the quality of life in adjacent regions.

All-optical quantum fluid spin beam splitter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Askitopoulos, A.; Nalitov, A. V.; Sedov, E. S.; Pickup, L.; Cherotchenko, E. D.; Hatzopoulos, Z.; Savvidis, P. G.; Kavokin, A. V.; Lagoudakis, P. G.

2018-06-01

We investigate the spin behavior of the first excited state of a polariton condensate in an optical trap by means of polarization resolved spectroscopy. The interplay between the repulsive polariton interactions and the gain saturation results in a nontrivial spontaneous switching between the two quasidegenerate spatial modes of the polariton condensate. As a result, the polarization pattern of the emitted light dramatically changes. Successful harnessing of this effect can lead to a spin-demultiplexing device for polariton-based optical integrated circuits.

Patterns of Gondwana plant colonisation anddiversification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, J. M.; Anderson, H. M.; Archangelsky, S.; Bamford, M.; Chandra, S.; Dettmann, M.; Hill, R.; McLoughlin, S.; Rösler, O.

Charting the broad patterns of vascular plant evolution for Gondwana againstthe major global environmental shifts and events is attempted here for the first time. This is based on the analysis of the major vascular plant-bearing formations of the southern continents (plus India) correlated against the standard geological time-scale. Australia, followed closely by South America, are shown to yield by far the most complete sequences of productive strata. Ten seminal turnover pulses in the unfolding evolutionary picture are identified and seen to be linked to continental drift, climate change and mass global extinctions. The rise of vascular plants along the tropical belt, for instance, followed closely after the end-Ordovician warming and extinction. Equally remarkable is that the Late Devonian extinction may have caused both the terrestrialisation of the vertebrates and the origin of the true gymnosperms. The end-Permian extinction, closure of Iapetus, together with warming, appears to have set in motion an unparalleled, explosive, gymnosperm radiation; whilst the Late Triassic extinction dramatically curtailed it. It is suggested that the latitudinal diversity gradient clearly recognised today, where species richness increases towards the tropics, may have been partly reversed during phases of Hot House climate. Evidence hints at this being particularly so at the heyday of the gymnosperms in the Late Triassic super-Hot House world. As for the origin of terrestrial, vascular, plant life, the angiosperms seem closely linked to a phase of marked shift from Ice House to Hot House. Insect and tetrapod evolutionary patterns are discussed in the context of the plants providing the base of the ever-changing ecosystems. Intimate co-evolution is often evident. This isn't always the case, for example the non-linkage between the dominant, giant, long-necked, herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs and the dramatic radiation of the flowering plants in the Mid Cretaceous.

Global patterns of phytoplankton dynamics in coastal ecosystems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Paerl, H.; Yin, Kedong; Cloern, J.

2011-01-01

Scientific Committee on Ocean Research Working Group 137 Meeting; Hangzhou, China, 17-21 October 2010; Phytoplankton biomass and community structure have undergone dramatic changes in coastal ecosystems over the past several decades in response to climate variability and human disturbance. These changes have short- and long-term impacts on global carbon and nutrient cycling, food web structure and productivity, and coastal ecosystem services. There is a need to identify the underlying processes and measure the rates at which they alter coastal ecosystems on a global scale. Hence, the Scientific Committee on Ocean Research (SCOR) formed Working Group 137 (WG 137), "Global Patterns of Phytoplankton Dynamics in Coastal Ecosystems: A Comparative Analysis of Time Series Observations" (http://wg137.net/). This group evolved from a 2007 AGU-sponsored Chapman Conference entitled "Long Time-Series Observations in Coastal Ecosystems: Comparative Analyses of Phytoplankton Dynamics on Regional to Global Scales.".

Temporal patterns of change in vital signs and Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage scores over the 48 hours preceding fatal in-hospital cardiac arrest.

PubMed

Oh, HyunSoo; Lee, KangIm; Seo, WhaSook

2016-05-01

To determine temporal patterns of vital sign and Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage score changes over the 48-hour period preceding cardiac arrest in an ICU setting. Vital sign instability usually occurs prior to cardiac arrest. However, few studies have been conducted on the temporal patterns of individual vital signs preceding cardiac arrest. A retrospective case-control study. The study subjects were 140 ICU patients (1 June 2011-31 December 2012): 46 died of cardiac arrest (case group), 45 died of other illnesses (control I group) and 49 were discharged after recovering (control II group). Initial detectable changes in blood pressure appeared 18-20 hours and became dramatic at 5-10 hours before cardiac arrest. Noticeable changes in heart rates began at 4 hours and became more prominent at 2 hours pre-arrest. No apparent patterns in respiratory rate changes were observed. Body temperatures usually indicated a hypothermic state pre-arrest. Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage scores were 16-18 at 48 hours pre-arrest and then continuously increased to 20. Only mean values of systolic blood pressures were significantly different between the three study groups. Mean diastolic blood pressures, heart rates, respiratory rates and Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage scores differed between the case and control II groups and between the control I and II groups. The study demonstrates vital sign instability preceded cardiac arrest and that the temporal patterns of changes in individual vital signs and Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage scores differed between groups. The findings of this study may aid the development of management strategies for cardiac arrest. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Changes in intrapopulation resource use patterns of an endangered raptor in response to a disease-mediated crash in prey abundance.

PubMed

Moleón, Marcos; Sebastián-González, Esther; Sánchez-Zapata, José A; Real, Joan; Pires, Mathias M; Gil-Sánchez, José M; Bautista, Jesús; Palma, Luís; Bayle, Patrick; Guimarães, Paulo R; Beja, Pedro

2012-11-01

1. A long-standing question in ecology is how natural populations respond to a changing environment. Emergent optimal foraging theory-based models for individual variation go beyond the population level and predict how its individuals would respond to disturbances that produce changes in resource availability. 2. Evaluating variations in resource use patterns at the intrapopulation level in wild populations under changing environmental conditions would allow to further advance in the research on foraging ecology and evolution by gaining a better idea of the underlying mechanisms explaining trophic diversity. 3. In this study, we use a large spatio-temporal scale data set (western continental Europe, 1968-2006) on the diet of Bonelli's Eagle Aquila fasciata breeding pairs to analyse the predator trophic responses at the intrapopulation level to a prey population crash. In particular, we borrow metrics from studies on network structure and intrapopulation variation to understand how an emerging infectious disease [the rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD)] that caused the density of the eagle's primary prey (rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus) to dramatically drop across Europe impacted on resource use patterns of this endangered raptor. 4. Following the major RHD outbreak, substantial changes in Bonelli's Eagle's diet diversity and organisation patterns at the intrapopulation level took place. Dietary variation among breeding pairs was larger after than before the outbreak. Before RHD, there were no clusters of pairs with similar diets, but significant clustering emerged after RHD. Moreover, diets at the pair level presented a nested pattern before RHD, but not after. 5. Here, we reveal how intrapopulation patterns of resource use can quantitatively and qualitatively vary, given drastic changes in resource availability. 6. For the first time, we show that a pathogen of a prey species can indirectly impact the intrapopulation patterns of resource use of an endangered predator. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2012 British Ecological Society.

Learning to Recognize Patterns: Changes in the Visual Field with Familiarity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bebko, James M.; Uchikawa, Keiji; Saida, Shinya; Ikeda, Mitsuo

1995-01-01

Two studies were conducted to investigate changes which take place in the visual information processing of novel stimuli as they become familiar. Japanese writing characters (Hiragana and Kanji) which were unfamiliar to two native English speaking subjects were presented using a moving window technique to restrict their visual fields. Study time for visual recognition was recorded across repeated sessions, and with varying visual field restrictions. The critical visual field was defined as the size of the visual field beyond which further increases did not improve the speed of recognition performance. In the first study, when the Hiragana patterns were novel, subjects needed to see about half of the entire pattern simultaneously to maintain optimal performance. However, the critical visual field size decreased as familiarity with the patterns increased. These results were replicated in the second study with more complex Kanji characters. In addition, the critical field size decreased as pattern complexity decreased. We propose a three component model of pattern perception. In the first stage a representation of the stimulus must be constructed by the subject, and restricting of the visual field interferes dramatically with this component when stimuli are unfamiliar. With increased familiarity, subjects become able to reconstruct a previous representation from very small, unique segments of the pattern, analogous to the informativeness areas hypothesized by Loftus and Mackworth [J. Exp. Psychol., 4 (1978) 565].

Effect of cessation of late-night landing noise on sleep electrophysiology in the home

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pearsons, K. S.; Fidell, S.; Bennett, R. L.; Friedman, J.; Globus, G.

1974-01-01

Simultaneous measurements of noise exposure and sleep electrophysiology were made in homes before and after cessation of nighttime aircraft landing noise. Six people were tested, all of whom had been exposed to intense aircraft noise for at least two years. Noise measurements indicated a large reduction in the hourly noise level during nighttime hours, but no charge during the daytime hours. Sleep measures indicated no dramatic changes in sleep patterns either immediately after a marked change in nocturnal noise exposure or approximately a month thereafter. No strong relationship was observed between noise level and sleep disturbances over the range from 60 to 90 db(A).

Social insect genomes exhibit dramatic evolution in gene composition and regulation while preserving regulatory features linked to sociality

PubMed Central

Simola, Daniel F.; Wissler, Lothar; Donahue, Greg; Waterhouse, Robert M.; Helmkampf, Martin; Roux, Julien; Nygaard, Sanne; Glastad, Karl M.; Hagen, Darren E.; Viljakainen, Lumi; Reese, Justin T.; Hunt, Brendan G.; Graur, Dan; Elhaik, Eran; Kriventseva, Evgenia V.; Wen, Jiayu; Parker, Brian J.; Cash, Elizabeth; Privman, Eyal; Childers, Christopher P.; Muñoz-Torres, Monica C.; Boomsma, Jacobus J.; Bornberg-Bauer, Erich; Currie, Cameron R.; Elsik, Christine G.; Suen, Garret; Goodisman, Michael A.D.; Keller, Laurent; Liebig, Jürgen; Rawls, Alan; Reinberg, Danny; Smith, Chris D.; Smith, Chris R.; Tsutsui, Neil; Wurm, Yannick; Zdobnov, Evgeny M.; Berger, Shelley L.; Gadau, Jürgen

2013-01-01

Genomes of eusocial insects code for dramatic examples of phenotypic plasticity and social organization. We compared the genomes of seven ants, the honeybee, and various solitary insects to examine whether eusocial lineages share distinct features of genomic organization. Each ant lineage contains ∼4000 novel genes, but only 64 of these genes are conserved among all seven ants. Many gene families have been expanded in ants, notably those involved in chemical communication (e.g., desaturases and odorant receptors). Alignment of the ant genomes revealed reduced purifying selection compared with Drosophila without significantly reduced synteny. Correspondingly, ant genomes exhibit dramatic divergence of noncoding regulatory elements; however, extant conserved regions are enriched for novel noncoding RNAs and transcription factor–binding sites. Comparison of orthologous gene promoters between eusocial and solitary species revealed significant regulatory evolution in both cis (e.g., Creb) and trans (e.g., fork head) for nearly 2000 genes, many of which exhibit phenotypic plasticity. Our results emphasize that genomic changes can occur remarkably fast in ants, because two recently diverged leaf-cutter ant species exhibit faster accumulation of species-specific genes and greater divergence in regulatory elements compared with other ants or Drosophila. Thus, while the “socio-genomes” of ants and the honeybee are broadly characterized by a pervasive pattern of divergence in gene composition and regulation, they preserve lineage-specific regulatory features linked to eusociality. We propose that changes in gene regulation played a key role in the origins of insect eusociality, whereas changes in gene composition were more relevant for lineage-specific eusocial adaptations. PMID:23636946

Is Acute Myocardial Infarction Disappearing?

PubMed Central

Luepker, Russell V.; Berger, Alan K.

2017-01-01

Following a peak in the mid 1960s, there has been a steady decline in coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the United States of 2.8%/y to 5.1%/y.1,2 This shift in mortality patterns is most dramatic in the age-adjusted rates. Age adjustment compensates for the transition of CHD in older age groups and the increase in the aged population. The absolute number of total CHD deaths showed little change until recently (Figure 1). Life expectancy of adults dramatically increased, largely as a result of these improved CHD outcomes.3 However, the reduction in mortality was not associated with a decline in hospital morbidity as CHD was pushed into the older age groups.1 Prevalence actually increased with more individuals diagnosed, treated, and surviving.1 CHD hospitalizations for those >65 years of age increased from 1965 to 2000 while declining in younger age groups.1 PMID:20212286

Accidental poisoning in childhood: five year urban population study with 15 year analysis of fatality.

PubMed Central

Pearn, J; Nixon, J; Ansford, A; Corcoran, A

1984-01-01

Patterns of accidental poisoning in children are changing dramatically. A five year population study (1977-81) was undertaken in urban children from Brisbane (population 1 000 000). A total of 2098 children were poisoned during this period with only one fatality, which represents a dramatic reduction in mortality. Over the past 15 years (1968-82) 13 children have died from accidental poisoning from this population, and two were murdered with drugs. A study of secular trends has indicated that peak incidence occurred in 1979, and the rate has been falling progressively since. The current age corrected rate of poisoning is 393 per 100 000 children per year (0-5 year olds). The rank order of poisons, drugs, and chemicals causing hospital admission and death is: petroleum distillates 13%; antihistamines 9%; benzodiazepines 9%; bleach and detergents 7%; and aspirin 6%. The ratio of fatalities to ingestions requiring hospital admission was calculated to give an index of a practical danger of noxious agents to which children are currently exposed and the rank order is: cardiotoxic drugs, one fatality to 25 ingestions; tricyclic antidepressants, one to 44; sympathomimetic drugs, one to 54; caustic soda, one to 68; aspirin, one fatality to 350 ingestions. Accidental poisoning of children leading to death has been reduced because patterns of drug prescriptions have changed, packaging of dangerous drugs has been made safer, and substances such as kerosene have been coloured blue. PMID:6140065

Changes seen in gut bacteria content and distribution with obesity: causation or association?

PubMed

Bell, David S H

2015-01-01

In the microbiota of both obese animals and humans there is an increased ratio of the gram positive Firmicutes to the gram negative Bacteroidetes (the obesity pattern). To assess if altering this ratio in animals and humans would prevent obesity or reduce body weight in the obese subject this review was preformed. A survey of all the available English language literature utilizing Medline on this topic was obtained and critically reviewed. The key words that were utilized were gut microbiota, diet and obesity. In both humans and animals changes in diet, particularly the utilization of the high fat, high calorie Western diet, utilization of artificial sweeteners and disruption of the diurnal rhythm will quickly change the microbiota from a thin to an obese pattern. In animals, the transfer of an obese microbiota to germ free animals and thin animals results in obesity and the introduction of a lean microbiota will result in weight loss in obese animals. However, in humans similar changes in the gut microbiota induced with probiotics and prebiotics have not been shown to result in weight loss. In both animals and humans the most dramatic changes in the gut microbiota occur following weight loss resulting from a gastric bypass where there is a restoration to a normal Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio. These changes could either be due to the dramatic change in the composition of the diet which occurs following this surgery or due to down-regulation of the Farnesoid X Receptor which causes a decrease in bile acid production and an elevation of the gut pH which in turn allows the regrowth of bacteria associated with weight loss which were previously unable to grow in the acidic intestinal environment caused by excess production of bile acids. In both humans and animals there are characteristic changes in the gut microbiota associated with obesity. In animals but not in humans altering the microbiota can result in weight loss and weight gain which does not occur in humans. This suggests that in humans the changes in gut microbiota are an association with rather than the cause of obesity.

Oasis dynamics change and its influence on landscape pattern on Jinta oasis in arid China from 1963a to 2010a: Integration of multi-source satellite images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Yuchu; Gong, Jie; Sun, Peng; Gou, Xiaohua

2014-12-01

As one of the vital research highlights of global land use and cover change, oasis change and its interaction with landscape pattern have been regarded as an important content of regional environmental change research in arid areas. Jinta oasis, a typical agricultural oasis characterized by its dramatic exploitation and use of water and land resources in Hexi corridor, northwest arid region in China, was selected as a case to study the spatiotemporal oasis change and its effects on oasis landscape pattern. Based on integration of Keyhole satellite photographs, KATE-200 photographs, Landsat MSS, TM and ETM+ images, we evaluated and analyzed the status, trend and spatial pattern change of Jinta oasis and the characteristics of landscape pattern change by a set of mathematical models and combined this information with landscape metrics and community surveys. During the period of 1963a-2010a, Jinta oasis expanded gradually with an area increase of 219.15 km2, and the conversion between oasis and desert was frequent with a state of “imbalance-balance-extreme imbalance conditions”. Moreover, most of the changes took place in the ecotone between oasis and desert and the interior of oasis due to the reclamation of abandoned land, such as Yangjingziwan and Xiba townships. Furthermore, the area, size and spatial distribution of oasis were influenced by human activities and resulted in fundamental changes of oasis landscape pattern. The fractal characteristics, dispersion degree and fragmentation of Jinta oasis decreased and the oasis landscape tended to be simple and uniform. Oasis change trajectories and its landscape pattern were mainly influenced by water resource utilization, policies (especially land policies), demographic factors, technological advancements, as well as regional economic development. We found that time series analysis of multi-source remote sensing images and the application of an oasis change model provided a useful approach to monitor oasis change over a long-term period in arid area. It is recommended that the government and farmers should pay more attention to the fragility of the natural system and the government should enhance the leading role of environmental considerations in the development process of oasis change, particularly with respect to the utilization of the limited water and land resources in arid China.

Many human accelerated regions are developmental enhancers

PubMed Central

Capra, John A.; Erwin, Genevieve D.; McKinsey, Gabriel; Rubenstein, John L. R.; Pollard, Katherine S.

2013-01-01

The genetic changes underlying the dramatic differences in form and function between humans and other primates are largely unknown, although it is clear that gene regulatory changes play an important role. To identify regulatory sequences with potentially human-specific functions, we and others used comparative genomics to find non-coding regions conserved across mammals that have acquired many sequence changes in humans since divergence from chimpanzees. These regions are good candidates for performing human-specific regulatory functions. Here, we analysed the DNA sequence, evolutionary history, histone modifications, chromatin state and transcription factor (TF) binding sites of a combined set of 2649 non-coding human accelerated regions (ncHARs) and predicted that at least 30% of them function as developmental enhancers. We prioritized the predicted ncHAR enhancers using analysis of TF binding site gain and loss, along with the functional annotations and expression patterns of nearby genes. We then tested both the human and chimpanzee sequence for 29 ncHARs in transgenic mice, and found 24 novel developmental enhancers active in both species, 17 of which had very consistent patterns of activity in specific embryonic tissues. Of these ncHAR enhancers, five drove expression patterns suggestive of different activity for the human and chimpanzee sequence at embryonic day 11.5. The changes to human non-coding DNA in these ncHAR enhancers may modify the complex patterns of gene expression necessary for proper development in a human-specific manner and are thus promising candidates for understanding the genetic basis of human-specific biology. PMID:24218637

Toward Developmental Connectomics of the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Cao, Miao; Huang, Hao; Peng, Yun; Dong, Qi; He, Yong

2016-01-01

Imaging connectomics based on graph theory has become an effective and unique methodological framework for studying structural and functional connectivity patterns of the developing brain. Normal brain development is characterized by continuous and significant network evolution throughout infancy, childhood, and adolescence, following specific maturational patterns. Disruption of these normal changes is associated with neuropsychiatric developmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. In this review, we focused on the recent progresses regarding typical and atypical development of human brain networks from birth to early adulthood, using a connectomic approach. Specifically, by the time of birth, structural networks already exhibit adult-like organization, with global efficient small-world and modular structures, as well as hub regions and rich-clubs acting as communication backbones. During development, the structure networks are fine-tuned, with increased global integration and robustness and decreased local segregation, as well as the strengthening of the hubs. In parallel, functional networks undergo more dramatic changes during maturation, with both increased integration and segregation during development, as brain hubs shift from primary regions to high order functioning regions, and the organization of modules transitions from a local anatomical emphasis to a more distributed architecture. These findings suggest that structural networks develop earlier than functional networks; meanwhile functional networks demonstrate more dramatic maturational changes with the evolution of structural networks serving as the anatomical backbone. In this review, we also highlighted topologically disorganized characteristics in structural and functional brain networks in several major developmental neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and developmental dyslexia). Collectively, we showed that delineation of the brain network from a connectomics perspective offers a unique and refreshing view of both normal development and neuropsychiatric disorders. PMID:27064378

Projected distributions and diversity of flightless ground beetles within the Australian Wet Tropics and their environmental correlates.

PubMed

Staunton, Kyran M; Robson, Simon K A; Burwell, Chris J; Reside, April E; Williams, Stephen E

2014-01-01

With the impending threat of climate change, greater understanding of patterns of species distributions and richness and the environmental factors driving them are required for effective conservation efforts. Species distribution models enable us to not only estimate geographic extents of species and subsequent patterns of species richness, but also generate hypotheses regarding environmental factors determining these spatial patterns. Projected changes in climate can then be used to predict future patterns of species distributions and richness. We created distribution models for most of the flightless ground beetles (Carabidae) within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of Australia, a major component of regionally endemic invertebrates. Forty-three species were modelled and the environmental correlates of these distributions and resultant patterns of species richness were examined. Flightless ground beetles generally inhabit upland areas characterised by stable, cool and wet environmental conditions. These distribution and richness patterns are best explained using the time-stability hypothesis as this group's primary habitat, upland rainforest, is considered to be the most stable regional habitat. Projected changes in distributions indicate that as upward shifts in distributions occur, species currently confined to lower and drier mountain ranges will be more vulnerable to climate change impacts than those restricted to the highest and wettest mountains. Distribution models under projected future climate change suggest that there will be reductions in range size, population size and species richness under all emission scenarios. Eighty-eight per cent of species modelled are predicted to decline in population size by over 80%, for the most severe emission scenario by the year 2080. These results suggest that flightless ground beetles are among the most vulnerable taxa to climate change impacts so far investigated in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. These findings have dramatic implications for all other flightless insect taxa and the future biodiversity of this region.

Projected Distributions and Diversity of Flightless Ground Beetles within the Australian Wet Tropics and Their Environmental Correlates

PubMed Central

Staunton, Kyran M.; Robson, Simon K. A.; Burwell, Chris J.; Reside, April E.; Williams, Stephen E.

2014-01-01

With the impending threat of climate change, greater understanding of patterns of species distributions and richness and the environmental factors driving them are required for effective conservation efforts. Species distribution models enable us to not only estimate geographic extents of species and subsequent patterns of species richness, but also generate hypotheses regarding environmental factors determining these spatial patterns. Projected changes in climate can then be used to predict future patterns of species distributions and richness. We created distribution models for most of the flightless ground beetles (Carabidae) within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of Australia, a major component of regionally endemic invertebrates. Forty-three species were modelled and the environmental correlates of these distributions and resultant patterns of species richness were examined. Flightless ground beetles generally inhabit upland areas characterised by stable, cool and wet environmental conditions. These distribution and richness patterns are best explained using the time-stability hypothesis as this group’s primary habitat, upland rainforest, is considered to be the most stable regional habitat. Projected changes in distributions indicate that as upward shifts in distributions occur, species currently confined to lower and drier mountain ranges will be more vulnerable to climate change impacts than those restricted to the highest and wettest mountains. Distribution models under projected future climate change suggest that there will be reductions in range size, population size and species richness under all emission scenarios. Eighty-eight per cent of species modelled are predicted to decline in population size by over 80%, for the most severe emission scenario by the year 2080. These results suggest that flightless ground beetles are among the most vulnerable taxa to climate change impacts so far investigated in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. These findings have dramatic implications for all other flightless insect taxa and the future biodiversity of this region. PMID:24586362

Bacterial cooperative organization under antibiotic stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ben-Jacob, Eshel; Cohen, Inon; Golding, Ido; Gutnick, David L.; Tcherpakov, Marianna; Helbing, Dirk; Ron, Ilan G.

2000-07-01

Bacteria have developed sophisticated modes of cooperative behavior to cope with unfavorable environmental conditions. Here we report the effect of antibiotic stress on the colonial development of Paenibacillus dendritiformis and P. vortex. We focus on the effect of co-trimoxazole on the colonial organization of P. dendritiformis. We find that the exposure to non-lethal concentrations of antibiotic leads to dramatic changes in the colonial growth patterns. Branching, tip-splitting patterns are affected by reduction in the colonial fractal dimension from Df=2.0 to 1.7, appearance of pronounced weak chirality and pronounced radial orientation of the growth. We combine the experimental observations with numerical studies of both discrete and continuous generic models to reveal the causes for the modifications in the patterns. We conclude that the bacteria adjust their chemotactic signaling together with variations in the bacteria length and increase in the metabolic load.

Cell segmentation in time-lapse fluorescence microscopy with temporally varying sub-cellular fusion protein patterns.

PubMed

Bunyak, Filiz; Palaniappan, Kannappan; Chagin, Vadim; Cardoso, M

2009-01-01

Fluorescently tagged proteins such as GFP-PCNA produce rich dynamically varying textural patterns of foci distributed in the nucleus. This enables the behavioral study of sub-cellular structures during different phases of the cell cycle. The varying punctuate patterns of fluorescence, drastic changes in SNR, shape and position during mitosis and abundance of touching cells, however, require more sophisticated algorithms for reliable automatic cell segmentation and lineage analysis. Since the cell nuclei are non-uniform in appearance, a distribution-based modeling of foreground classes is essential. The recently proposed graph partitioning active contours (GPAC) algorithm supports region descriptors and flexible distance metrics. We extend GPAC for fluorescence-based cell segmentation using regional density functions and dramatically improve its efficiency for segmentation from O(N(4)) to O(N(2)), for an image with N(2) pixels, making it practical and scalable for high throughput microscopy imaging studies.

Aedes aegypti in south Vietnam: ecology, genetic structure, vectorial competence and resistance to insecticides.

PubMed

Huber, Karine; Le Loan, Luu; Hoang, Tran Huu; Tien, Tran Khanh; Rodhain, François; Failloux, Anna-Bella

2003-03-01

In Vietnam, dengue hemorrhagic fever has been detected since the 1950s. In Southeast Asia, urban centers expanded rapidly in an uncontrolled and unplanned way. The Aedes aegypti populations and dengue viruses thrived in these new ecological and demographic settings. The result of these changes was a greatly extended geographic distribution, increased densities of Ae. aegypti and the maintenance of the four dengue serotypes leading to a dramatic increase in dengue transmission. To assess the role of the vector in the changing pattern of the disease in Southeast Asia, we studied the ecology of Ae. aegypti, genetic differentiation, variability in competence as a vector for dengue 2 virus, and resistance to insecticides.

Spike Train Similarity Space (SSIMS) Method Detects Effects of Obstacle Proximity and Experience on Temporal Patterning of Bat Biosonar

PubMed Central

Accomando, Alyssa W.; Vargas-Irwin, Carlos E.; Simmons, James A.

2018-01-01

Bats emit biosonar pulses in complex temporal patterns that change to accommodate dynamic surroundings. Efforts to quantify these patterns have included analyses of inter-pulse intervals, sonar sound groups, and changes in individual signal parameters such as duration or frequency. Here, the similarity in temporal structure between trains of biosonar pulses is assessed. The spike train similarity space (SSIMS) algorithm, originally designed for neural activity pattern analysis, was applied to determine which features of the environment influence temporal patterning of pulses emitted by flying big brown bats, Eptesicus fuscus. In these laboratory experiments, bats flew down a flight corridor through an obstacle array. The corridor varied in width (100, 70, or 40 cm) and shape (straight or curved). Using a relational point-process framework, SSIMS was able to discriminate between echolocation call sequences recorded from flights in each of the corridor widths. SSIMS was also able to tell the difference between pulse trains recorded during flights where corridor shape through the obstacle array matched the previous trials (fixed, or expected) as opposed to those recorded from flights with randomized corridor shape (variable, or unexpected), but only for the flight path shape in which the bats had previous training. The results show that experience influences the temporal patterns with which bats emit their echolocation calls. It is demonstrated that obstacle proximity to the bat affects call patterns more dramatically than flight path shape. PMID:29472848

Spike Train Similarity Space (SSIMS) Method Detects Effects of Obstacle Proximity and Experience on Temporal Patterning of Bat Biosonar.

PubMed

Accomando, Alyssa W; Vargas-Irwin, Carlos E; Simmons, James A

2018-01-01

Bats emit biosonar pulses in complex temporal patterns that change to accommodate dynamic surroundings. Efforts to quantify these patterns have included analyses of inter-pulse intervals, sonar sound groups, and changes in individual signal parameters such as duration or frequency. Here, the similarity in temporal structure between trains of biosonar pulses is assessed. The spike train similarity space (SSIMS) algorithm, originally designed for neural activity pattern analysis, was applied to determine which features of the environment influence temporal patterning of pulses emitted by flying big brown bats, Eptesicus fuscus . In these laboratory experiments, bats flew down a flight corridor through an obstacle array. The corridor varied in width (100, 70, or 40 cm) and shape (straight or curved). Using a relational point-process framework, SSIMS was able to discriminate between echolocation call sequences recorded from flights in each of the corridor widths. SSIMS was also able to tell the difference between pulse trains recorded during flights where corridor shape through the obstacle array matched the previous trials (fixed, or expected) as opposed to those recorded from flights with randomized corridor shape (variable, or unexpected), but only for the flight path shape in which the bats had previous training. The results show that experience influences the temporal patterns with which bats emit their echolocation calls. It is demonstrated that obstacle proximity to the bat affects call patterns more dramatically than flight path shape.

Genome wide analysis reveals Zic3 interaction with distal regulatory elements of stage specific developmental genes in zebrafish.

PubMed

Winata, Cecilia L; Kondrychyn, Igor; Kumar, Vibhor; Srinivasan, Kandhadayar G; Orlov, Yuriy; Ravishankar, Ashwini; Prabhakar, Shyam; Stanton, Lawrence W; Korzh, Vladimir; Mathavan, Sinnakaruppan

2013-10-01

Zic3 regulates early embryonic patterning in vertebrates. Loss of Zic3 function is known to disrupt gastrulation, left-right patterning, and neurogenesis. However, molecular events downstream of this transcription factor are poorly characterized. Here we use the zebrafish as a model to study the developmental role of Zic3 in vivo, by applying a combination of two powerful genomics approaches--ChIP-seq and microarray. Besides confirming direct regulation of previously implicated Zic3 targets of the Nodal and canonical Wnt pathways, analysis of gastrula stage embryos uncovered a number of novel candidate target genes, among which were members of the non-canonical Wnt pathway and the neural pre-pattern genes. A similar analysis in zic3-expressing cells obtained by FACS at segmentation stage revealed a dramatic shift in Zic3 binding site locations and identified an entirely distinct set of target genes associated with later developmental functions such as neural development. We demonstrate cis-regulation of several of these target genes by Zic3 using in vivo enhancer assay. Analysis of Zic3 binding sites revealed a distribution biased towards distal intergenic regions, indicative of a long distance regulatory mechanism; some of these binding sites are highly conserved during evolution and act as functional enhancers. This demonstrated that Zic3 regulation of developmental genes is achieved predominantly through long distance regulatory mechanism and revealed that developmental transitions could be accompanied by dramatic changes in regulatory landscape.

Gene expression analysis of the ovary of hybrid females of Xenopus laevis and X. muelleri

PubMed Central

2008-01-01

Background Interspecific hybrids of frogs of the genus Xenopus result in sterile hybrid males and fertile hybrid females. Previous work has demonstrated a dramatic asymmetrical pattern of misexpression in hybrid males compared to the two parental species with relatively few genes misexpressed in comparisons of hybrids and the maternal species (X. laevis) and dramatically more genes misexpressed in hybrids compared to the paternal species (X. muelleri). In this work, we examine the gene expression pattern in hybrid females of X. laevis × X. muelleri to determine if this asymmetrical pattern of expression also occurs in hybrid females. Results We find a similar pattern of asymmetry in expression compared to males in that there were more genes differentially expressed between hybrids and X. muelleri compared to hybrids and X. laevis. We also found a dramatic increase in the number of misexpressed genes with hybrid females having about 20 times more genes misexpressed in ovaries compared to testes of hybrid males and therefore the match between phenotype and expression pattern is not supported. Conclusion We discuss these intriguing findings in the context of reproductive isolation and suggest that divergence in female expression may be involved in sterility of hybrid males due to the inherent sensitivity of spermatogenesis as defined by the faster male evolution hypothesis for Haldane's rule. PMID:18331635

Predicting wolf (Canis lupus)-cattle (Bos Taurus) encounters and consequential effects on cattle resource selection patterns

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The gray wolf population in Idaho has grown dramatically from the original 35 reintroduced individuals in 1995-1996 to 94 documented packs and a minimum population of 835 individuals in 2009. Wolf depredation on livestock has also increased dramatically with this population growth. Substantial spa...

THE SECOND DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION THEORY: A Review and Appraisal.

PubMed

Zaidi, Batool; Morgan, S Philip

2017-07-01

References to the second demographic transition (SDT) concept/theoretical framework have increased dramatically in the last two decades. The SDT predicts unilinear change toward very low fertility and a diversity of union and family types. The primary driver of these changes is a powerful, inevitable and irreversible shift in attitudes and norms in the direction of greater individual freedom and self-actualization. First, we describe the origin of this framework and its evolution over time. Second, we review the empirical fit of the framework to major changes in demographic and family behavior in the U.S., the West, and beyond. As has been the case for other unilinear, developmental theories of demographic/family change, the SDT failed to predict many contemporary patterns of change/difference. Finally, we review previous critiques and identify fundamental weaknesses of this perspective, and provide brief comparisons to selected alternative approaches.

THE SECOND DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION THEORY: A Review and Appraisal

PubMed Central

Zaidi, Batool; Morgan, S. Philip

2017-01-01

References to the second demographic transition (SDT) concept/theoretical framework have increased dramatically in the last two decades. The SDT predicts unilinear change toward very low fertility and a diversity of union and family types. The primary driver of these changes is a powerful, inevitable and irreversible shift in attitudes and norms in the direction of greater individual freedom and self-actualization. First, we describe the origin of this framework and its evolution over time. Second, we review the empirical fit of the framework to major changes in demographic and family behavior in the U.S., the West, and beyond. As has been the case for other unilinear, developmental theories of demographic/family change, the SDT failed to predict many contemporary patterns of change/difference. Finally, we review previous critiques and identify fundamental weaknesses of this perspective, and provide brief comparisons to selected alternative approaches. PMID:28798523

Modeling attitude towards drug treament: the role of internal motivation, external pressure, and dramatic relief.

PubMed

Conner, Bradley T; Longshore, Douglas; Anglin, M Douglas

2009-04-01

Motivation for change has historically been viewed as the crucial element affecting responsiveness to drug treatment. Various external pressures, such as legal coercion, may engender motivation in an individual previously resistant to change. Dramatic relief may be the change process that is most salient as individuals internalize such external pressures. Results of structural equation modeling on data from 465 drug users (58.9% male; 21.3% Black, 34.2% Hispanic/Latino, and 35.1% White) entering drug treatment indicated that internal motivation and external pressure significantly and positively predicted dramatic relief and that dramatic relief significantly predicted attitudes towards drug treatment: chi (2) = 142.20, df = 100, p < 0.01; Robust Comparative Fit Index = 0.97, Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation = 0.03. These results indicate that when external pressure and internal motivation are high, dramatic relief is also likely to be high. When dramatic relief is high, attitudes towards drug treatment are likely to be positive. The findings indicate that interventions to get individuals into drug treatment should include processes that promote Dramatic Relief. Implications for addictions health services are discussed.

The lateral somitic frontier: dorso-ventral aspects of anterio-posterior regionalization in avian embryos.

PubMed

Nowicki, Julie L; Takimoto, Ryoko; Burke, Ann Campbell

2003-02-01

Patterning events along the anterior-posterior (AP) axis of vertebrate embryos result in the distribution of muscle and bone forming a highly effective functional system. A key aspect of regionalized AP patterning results from variation in the migratory pattern of somite cells along the dorsal-ventral (DV) axis of the body. This occurs as somite cell populations expand around the axis or migrate away from the dorsal midline and cross into the lateral plate. The fate of somitic cells has been intensely studied and many details have been reported about inductive signaling from other tissues that influence somite cell fate and behavior. We are interested in understanding the specific differences between somites in particular AP regions and how these differences contribute to the global pattern of the organism. Using orthotopic transplants of segmental plate between quail and chick embryos, we have mapped the interface of the somitic and lateral plate mesoderm during the formation of the body wall in cervical and thoracic regions. This interface does not change dramatically in the mid-cervical region, but undergoes extensive changes in the thoracic region. Based on this regional mapping and consistent with the extensive literature, we suggest a revised method of classifying regions of the body wall that relies on embryonic cell lineages rather than adult functional criteria.

Cellular organization of pre-mRNA splicing factors in several tissues. Changes in the uterus by hormone action.

PubMed

George-Téllez, R; Segura-Valdez, M L; González-Santos, L; Jiménez-García, L F

2002-05-01

In the mammalian cell nucleus, splicing factors are distributed in nuclear domains known as speckles or splicing factor compartments (SFCs). In cultured cells, these domains are dynamic and reflect transcriptional and splicing activities. We used immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy to monitor whether splicing factors in differentiated cells display similar features. Speckled patterns are observed in rat hepatocytes, beta-cells, bronchial and intestine epithelia and also in three cell types of the uterus. Moreover, the number, distribution and sizes of the speckles vary among them. In addition, we studied variations in the circular form (shape) of speckles in uterine cells that are transcriptionally modified by a hormone action. During proestrus of the estral cycle, speckles are irregular in shape while in diestrus I they are circular. Experimentally, in castrated rats luminal epithelial cells show a pattern where speckles are dramatically rounded, but they recover their irregular shape rapidly after an injection of estradiol. The same results were observed in muscle and gland epithelial cells of the uterus. We concluded that different speckled patterns are present in various cells types in differentiated tissues and that these patterns change in the uterus depending upon the presence or absence of hormones such as estradiol.

Population structure and infectious disease risk in southern Africa.

PubMed

Uren, Caitlin; Möller, Marlo; van Helden, Paul D; Henn, Brenna M; Hoal, Eileen G

2017-06-01

The KhoeSan populations are the earliest known indigenous inhabitants of southern Africa. The relatively recent expansion of Bantu-speaking agropastoralists, as well as European colonial settlement along the south-west coast, dramatically changed patterns of genetic diversity in a region which had been largely isolated for thousands of years. Owing to this unique history, population structure in southern Africa reflects both the underlying KhoeSan genetic diversity as well as differential recent admixture. This population structure has a wide range of biomedical and sociocultural implications; such as changes in disease risk profiles. Here, we consolidate information from various population genetic studies that characterize admixture patterns in southern Africa with an aim to better understand differences in adverse disease phenotypes observed among groups. Our review confirms that ancestry has a direct impact on an individual's immune response to infectious diseases. In addition, we emphasize the importance of collaborative research, especially for populations in southern Africa that have a high incidence of potentially fatal infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis.

The Effect of a Dissipative Ladle Shroud on Mixing in Tundish: Mathematical and Experimental Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jiangshan; Yang, Shufeng; Li, Jingshe; Tang, Haiyan; Jiang, Zhengyi

2018-01-01

The effect of a dissipative ladle shroud (DLS) on mixing in tundish was investigated, compared with that of a conventional ladle shroud (CLS) using mathematical and physical modelling. The tracer profiles of mathematical results, achieved using large eddy simulation, were validated by physical observations employing high-speed cinephotography. The design of a DLS dramatically changed the flow patterns and contributed the intermixing of fluid elements inside the ladle shroud. The vortex flow encouraged the turbulent mixing and was verified by tracking of physical tracer dispersion inside the DLS. Residence Time Distribution (RTD) curves were obtained in two different sized tundishes to examine the mixing behaviours. The findings indicated that the DLS benefited the tundish mixing in terms of increasing active volume. The effect seemed to be more remarkable in the smaller tundish. The DLS gave rise to a more plug-like flow pattern inside the tundish, showing potential to shorten the transition length during grade change.

Effects of restructuring of international trade on changing energy use patterns and CO{sub 2} emissions in Taiwan: 1981-1991

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

Chia-Yon Chen; Rong-Hwa Wu

1995-12-31

Over the past two decades, as a result of the increasing complexity of world-wide economic developments, many countries have experienced dramatical changes in energy use patterns which in turn have affected the associated CO{sub 2} emission patterns. This is especially true with the major economic restructuring now underway in Taiwan. The Taiwan economy is highly export-oriented and trade-dependent. However, owing to the persistent trade surplus with its trading partners over the past years, The Taiwan economy was confronted with two phenomenon, namely, escalating excess savings and mounting trade surpluses. The latter exerted a great degree of upward pressure on themore » New Taiwan dollar. Furthermore, since the turn of the 80s, Taiwan is no longer a labor-surplus economy and wages have been on the rise, thereby blunting the competitive edge of its exports. Taiwan lost its comparative advantage in low-cost labor-intensive products to other emerging developing countries. To cope with the problems, the government has dedicated itself to a program of reorientation of trade policy, economic restructuring, and expansion of domestic demand.« less

Modular evolution of the Cetacean vertebral column.

PubMed

Buchholtz, Emily A

2007-01-01

Modular theory predicts that hierarchical developmental processes generate hierarchical phenotypic units that are capable of independent modification. The vertebral column is an overtly modular structure, and its rapid phenotypic transformation in cetacean evolution provides a case study for modularity. Terrestrial mammals have five morphologically discrete vertebral series that are now known to be coincident with Hox gene expression patterns. Here, I present the hypothesis that in living Carnivora and Artiodactyla, and by inference in the terrestrial ancestors of whales, the series are themselves components of larger precaudal and caudal modular units. Column morphology in a series of fossil and living whales is used to predict the type and sequence of developmental changes responsible for modification of that ancestral pattern. Developmental innovations inferred include independent meristic additions to the precaudal column in basal archaeocetes and basilosaurids, stepwise homeotic reduction of the sacral series in protocetids, and dissociation of the caudal series into anterior tail and fluke subunits in basilosaurids. The most dramatic change was the novel association of lumbar and anterior caudal vertebrae in a module that crosses the precaudal/caudal boundary. This large unit is defined by shared patterns of vertebral morphology, count, and size in all living whales (Neoceti).

Preliminarily Assessment of Long-term Cloud Top Heights in Central Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lai, Y. J.; Po-Hsiung, L.

2015-12-01

The Xitou region, as the epitome of mid-elevation forest ecosystem and known as a famous forest recreation area in Taiwan. Although two disasters, "921 earthquake" in 1999 and typhoon Toraji in 2001, heavily hit this area and cause a significant reduction in visitors from 1 to about 0.4 million per year, the tourists have returned after the reconstruction in 2003 and approached 1.5 million high since 2010. The high quantity of tourists obviously drives the development of tourism industry which, unfortunately, increases the local sources of heating. A preliminarily analysis showed the warming rate was 0.29 oC/decade for June 2005 to May 2013 while from the 1940s to the 1980s, it was only 0.1 oC/decade. The warming pattern in Xitou region is similar to the global warming situation that a more dramatic trend happened during the past 10 years. The change of land use, which derived from the pressure of tourism industry, might accelerate regional climate warming. For the purpose of understanding cloud response to anthropogenic forcing, the long-term 1-km spatial resolution cloud top heights (cth) data sets (collection 6) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were assessed. The results showed the annual cloud event amounts of the Terra and Aqua changed insignificantly since 2003 disregard of the cth. However, the cloud fraction of the cth less than 2000m was 18% in 2003 and dropped dramatically to 7% since 2011. Correspondingly, the cth between 2000m to 4000m was increased from 35% in 2003 to 45% in 2014. Further analysis the nighttime events indicated similar pattern but only 6% different between 2003 and 2014. The Aqua daytime events showed a more dramatic fraction anomaly which was decreased 18% at the cth less than 2000m and increased 18% at the cth between 2000m to 4000m. This preliminary assessment represents the cloud is pushing higher which might be caused by the anthropogenic forcing during the last decade. However, this study also found that the cth data sets were sensitive to the upgrade of inversion model and satellite calibration in 2010 which might also be another important consideration. A total solution of integrating ceilometer, ground lidar, spaceborne lidar and UAV profile observations for monitoring/understanding the characteristics of Xitou microclimate change are still on-going.

Transcriptional analysis of product-concentration driven changes in cellular programs of recombinant Clostridium acetobutylicumstrains.

PubMed

Tummala, Seshu B; Junne, Stefan G; Paredes, Carlos J; Papoutsakis, Eleftherios T

2003-12-30

Antisense RNA (asRNA) downregulation alters protein expression without changing the regulation of gene expression. Downregulation of primary metabolic enzymes possibly combined with overexpression of other metabolic enzymes may result in profound changes in product formation, and this may alter the large-scale transcriptional program of the cells. DNA-array based large-scale transcriptional analysis has the potential to elucidate factors that control cellular fluxes even in the absence of proteome data. These themes are explored in the study of large-scale transcriptional analysis programs and the in vivo primary-metabolism fluxes of several related recombinant C. acetobutylicum strains: C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824(pSOS95del) (plasmid control; produces high levels of butanol snd acetone), 824(pCTFB1AS) (expresses antisense RNA against CoA transferase (ctfb1-asRNA); produces very low levels of butanol and acetone), and 824(pAADB1) (expresses ctfb1-asRNA and the alcohol-aldehyde dahydrogenase gene (aad); produce high alcohol and low acetone levels). DNA-array based transcriptional analysis revealed that the large changes in product concentrations (snd notably butanol concentration) due to ctfb1-asRNA expression alone and in combination with aad overexpression resulted in dramatic changes of the cellular transcriptome. Cluster analysis and gene expression patterns of established and putative operons involved in stress response, motility, sporulation, and fatty-acid biosynthesis indicate that these simple genetic changes dramatically alter the cellular programs of C. acetobutylicum. Comparison of gene expression and flux analysis data may point to possible flux-controling steps and suggest unknown regulatory mechanisms. Copyright 2003; Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Changing patterns of brain activation during maze learning.

PubMed

Van Horn, J D; Gold, J M; Esposito, G; Ostrem, J L; Mattay, V; Weinberger, D R; Berman, K F

1998-05-18

Recent research has found that patterns of brain activation involving the frontal cortex during novel task performance change dramatically following practice and repeat performance. Evidence for differential left vs. right frontal lobe activation, respectively, during episodic memory encoding and retrieval has also been reported. To examine these potentially related issues regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 15 normal volunteers using positron emission tomography (PET) during the naive and practiced performance of a maze task paradigm. SPM analysis indicated a largely right-sided, frontal lobe activation during naive performance. Following training and practice, performance of the same maze task elicited a more posterior pattern of rCBF activation involving posterior cingulate and precuneus. The change in the pattern of rCBF activation between novel and practiced task conditions agrees with results found in previous studies using repeat task methodology, and indicates that the neural circuitry required for encoding novel task information differs from that required when the same task has become familiar and information is being recalled. The right-sided preponderance of activation during naive performance may relate to task novelty and the spatially-based nature of the stimuli, whereas posterior areas activated during repeat performance are those previously found to be associated with visuospatial memory recall. Activation of these areas, however, does not agree with previously reported findings of left-sided activation during verbal episodic memory encoding and right-sided activation during retrieval, suggesting different neural substrates for verbal and visuospatial processing within memory. Copyright 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Opportunities and challenges for the use of molecular proxies in environmental reconstructions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jansen, Boris

2017-04-01

The last decades have seen a dramatic increase in the use of organic matter from soils and sediments as molecular proxy for reconstructing past dynamics of vegetation and climate. Applications range from the use of changes in preserved leaf wax lipid patterns or d13C signatures of organic matter to reconstruct shifts in vegetation composition, to the use of changes in d2H patterns as a past humidity / precipitation proxy. Particularly exciting in this respect are recent developments with respect to combining various molecular proxies. For instance by compound specific d13C and d2H analysis of selected lipids that themselves are used as vegetation proxy. However, as with all scientific development, all that glitters is not gold. Together with great promise, successful application of molecular proxies to reconstruct past environmental change also comes with several important challenges. For instance, to what extent are plant lipid patterns used for vegetation reconstruction affected by genotypic plasticity of the producing plant species? How might the heterogeneity of environmental and biochemical processes on/in different plant species interfere with the successful use of d2H and d13C patterns? What is the influence of differences in input routes into a soil or sedimentary archive, e.g. aboveground vs. belowground, on the desired reconstruction? In this presentation I will discuss both the opportunities and the challenges of the use of organic matter as molecular proxy in environmental reconstructions, using several recent examples of research from our group.

Water footprint concept for a sustainable water resources management in Urmia Lake basin, Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jabbari, Anahita; Jarihani, Ben; Rezaie, Hossein; Aligholiniya, Tohid; Rasouli, Negar

2015-04-01

The fast shrinkage of Urmia Lake in West Azerbaijan, Iran is one of the most important environmental change hotspots. The dramatic water level reduction (up to 6 meters) has influential environmental, socio-economic and health impacts on Urmia plain and its habitants. The decline is generally blamed on a combination of drought, increased water diversion for irrigated agriculture within the lake's watershed and land use mismanagement. The Urmia Lake sub basins are the agricultural cores of the region and the agricultural activities are the major water consuming sections of the basin. Land use changes and mismanagement in the land use decisions and policies is one of the most important factors in lake shrinkage in recent decades. Fresh water is the main source of water for agricultural usages in the basin. So defining a more low water consuming land use pattern will put less pressure on limited water resources. The above mentioned fact in this study has been assessed through water footprint concept. The water footprint concept (as a quantitative measure showing the appropriation of natural resources) is a comprehensive indicator that can have a crucial role in efficient land use management. In order to evaluate the water use patterns, the water footprint of wheat (as a traditional crop) and apple (recently most popular) have been compared and the results have been discussed in the aspect of the impacts on Lake Urmia demands and its dramatic drying process. Results showed that, higher blue water consumption in such a regions that have severe blue water scarcity, is a major issue and the water consuming pattern must be modified to meet the lake demands. Lower blue water consumption through regionalizing crops for each area is an efficient solution to meet lake demands and consume lower amounts of blue water. So the proper land use practices can be an appropriate method to rescue the lake in a long time period.

Biodiversity patterns of rock encrusting fauna from the shallow sublittoral of the Admiralty Bay.

PubMed

Krzeminska, Malgorzata; Kuklinski, Piotr

2018-08-01

The Antarctic sublittoral is one of the most demanding habitat for polar bottom-dwelling organisms, as the disturbance of this zone is highly intense. Rapid changes in the marine environment, such as increases in atmosphere and surface water temperatures, can cause dramatic changes in biodiversity, especially in glacial fjords affected by heavy melt water inputs from the retreating glaciers. In such areas, rocks are often an important support for local diversity, providing habitats for a number of encrusting organisms. Thus, understanding the patterns of diversity of shallow rock encrusting fauna and factors controlling it are particularly important. The structure and diversity patterns of rock encrusting fauna were examined from four ecologically contrasting sites in the shallow sublittoral (6-20 m) of Admiralty Bay (King George Island). The results revealed a rich and abundant encrusting community with bryozoans and polychaetes outcompeting representatives of other fauna such as foraminifera and porifera. Spatial variability in species composition, as well as biological parameters, revealed the trend of encrusting assemblages declining towards the inner fjord areas - strongly affected by high sediment input (species richness: 13.3 ± 1.2, and abundance: 68,932.99 ± 11,915.98 individuals m -2  ± standard error). In contrast, at sites more open to the central basin, a peak of biological parameters was observed (24.8 ± 1.4 and 297,360.9 ± 30,314.72, respectively). We suggest that increased sedimentation was the major factor structuring the encrusting assemblages in Ezcurra Inlet, masking the influence of other parameters, such as food and light availability, which are important for the distribution of epifauna. Thus, if the increasing intensity of glacial processes will continue in the upcoming years, the diversity of the encrusting fauna in the shallow sublittoral could dramatically decrease. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling Attitude towards Drug Treament: The Role of Internal Motivation, External Pressure, and Dramatic Relief

PubMed Central

Longshore, Douglas; Anglin, M. Douglas

2009-01-01

Motivation for change has historically been viewed as the crucial element affecting responsiveness to drug treatment. Various external pressures, such as legal coercion, may engender motivation in an individual previously resistant to change. Dramatic relief may be the change process that is most salient as individuals internalize such external pressures. Results of structural equation modeling on data from 465 drug users (58.9% male; 21.3% Black, 34.2% Hispanic/Latino, and 35.1% White) entering drug treatment indicated that internal motivation and external pressure significantly and positively predicted dramatic relief and that dramatic relief significantly predicted attitudes towards drug treatment: χ2=142.20, df=100, p<0.01; Robust Comparative Fit Index=0.97, Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation=0.03. These results indicate that when external pressure and internal motivation are high, dramatic relief is also likely to be high. When dramatic relief is high, attitudes towards drug treatment are likely to be positive. The findings indicate that interventions to get individuals into drug treatment should include processes that promote Dramatic Relief. Implications for addictions health services are discussed. PMID:18535908

Faunal isotope records reveal trophic and nutrient dynamics in twentieth century Yellowstone grasslands.

PubMed

Fox-Dobbs, Kena; Nelson, Abigail A; Koch, Paul L; Leonard, Jennifer A

2012-10-23

Population sizes and movement patterns of ungulate grazers and their predators have fluctuated dramatically over the past few centuries, largely owing to overharvesting, land-use change and historic management. We used δ(13)C and δ(15)N values measured from bone collagen of historic and recent gray wolves and their potential primary prey from Yellowstone National Park to gain insight into the trophic dynamics and nutrient conditions of historic and modern grasslands. The diet of reintroduced wolves closely parallels that of the historic population. We suggest that a significant shift in faunal δ(15)N values over the past century reflects impacts of anthropogenic environmental changes on grassland ecosystems, including grazer-mediated shifts in grassland nitrogen cycle processes.

Faunal isotope records reveal trophic and nutrient dynamics in twentieth century Yellowstone grasslands

PubMed Central

Fox-Dobbs, Kena; Nelson, Abigail A.; Koch, Paul L.; Leonard, Jennifer A.

2012-01-01

Population sizes and movement patterns of ungulate grazers and their predators have fluctuated dramatically over the past few centuries, largely owing to overharvesting, land-use change and historic management. We used δ13C and δ15N values measured from bone collagen of historic and recent gray wolves and their potential primary prey from Yellowstone National Park to gain insight into the trophic dynamics and nutrient conditions of historic and modern grasslands. The diet of reintroduced wolves closely parallels that of the historic population. We suggest that a significant shift in faunal δ15N values over the past century reflects impacts of anthropogenic environmental changes on grassland ecosystems, including grazer-mediated shifts in grassland nitrogen cycle processes. PMID:22675135

Analysis of Land Use Change and Urbanization in the Kucukcekmece Water Basin (Istanbul, Turkey) with Temporal Satellite Data using Remote Sensing and GIS.

PubMed

Coskun, H Gonca; Alganci, Ugur; Usta, Gokce

2008-11-13

Accurate and timely information about land use and land cover (LULC) and its changes in urban areas are crucial for urban land management decision-making, ecosystem monitoring and urban planning. Also, monitoring and representation of urban sprawl and its effects on the LULC patterns and hydrological processes of an urbanized watershed is an essential part of water resource planning and management. This paper presents an image analysis study using multi temporal digital satellite imagery of LULC and changes in the Kucukcekmece Watershed (Metropolitan Istanbul, Turkey) from 1992 to 2006. The Kucukcekmece Basin includes portions of the Kucukcekmece District within the municipality of Istanbul so it faces a dramatic urbanization. An urban monitoring analysis approach was first used to implement a land cover classification. A change detection method controlled with ground truth information was then used to determine changes in land cover. During the study period, the variability and magnitude of hydrological components based on land-use patterns were cumulatively influenced by urban sprawl in the watershed. The proposed approach, which uses a combination of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques, is an effective tool that enhances land-use monitoring, planning, and management of urbanized watersheds.

Analysis of Land Use Change and Urbanization in the Kucukcekmece Water Basin (Istanbul, Turkey) with Temporal Satellite Data using Remote Sensing and GIS

PubMed Central

Coskun, H. Gonca; Alganci, Ugur; Usta, Gokce

2008-01-01

Accurate and timely information about land use and land cover (LULC) and its changes in urban areas are crucial for urban land management decision-making, ecosystem monitoring and urban planning. Also, monitoring and representation of urban sprawl and its effects on the LULC patterns and hydrological processes of an urbanized watershed is an essential part of water resource planning and management. This paper presents an image analysis study using multi temporal digital satellite imagery of LULC and changes in the Kucukcekmece Watershed (Metropolitan Istanbul, Turkey) from 1992 to 2006. The Kucukcekmece Basin includes portions of the Kucukcekmece District within the municipality of Istanbul so it faces a dramatic urbanization. An urban monitoring analysis approach was first used to implement a land cover classification. A change detection method controlled with ground truth information was then used to determine changes in land cover. During the study period, the variability and magnitude of hydrological components based on land-use patterns were cumulatively influenced by urban sprawl in the watershed. The proposed approach, which uses a combination of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques, is an effective tool that enhances land-use monitoring, planning, and management of urbanized watersheds. PMID:27873924

Sexual behavior, drugs, and relationship patterns on a college campus over thirteen years.

PubMed

Murstein, B I; Chalpin, M J; Heard, K V; Vyse, S A

1989-01-01

Three samples of college students at a small New England liberal arts college received questionnaires regarding their sexual philosophies, behavior, relationship with most recent partner, self-perceived attractiveness, relationship with parents, use of drugs and alcohol, attitudes toward marriage and abortion, and other subjects. The college was sampled in 1974, 1979, and 1986. Sexual behavior increased dramatically from 1974 to 1979 and then decreased in 1986 to approximately where it was in 1974. The reason for this change, and findings regarding the relationships between sexual behavior and many of the variables cited above are discussed.

The impact of psychopharmacology on contemporary clinical psychiatry.

PubMed

Vázquez, Gustavo H

2014-08-01

Clinical psychiatric evaluations of patients have changed dramatically in recent decades. Both initial assessments and follow-up visits have become brief and superficial, focused on searching for categorical diagnostic criteria from checklists, with limited inquiry into patient-reported symptomatic status and tolerability of treatments. The virtually exclusive therapeutic task has become selecting a plausible psychotropic, usually based on expert consensus guidelines. These guidelines and practice patterns rest mainly on published monotherapy trials that may or may not be applicable to particular patients but are having a profound impact, not only on modern psychiatric practice but also on psychiatric education, research, and theory.

Antarctic Pliocene Biotic and Environmental Change in a Global Context Changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quilty, P. G.; Whitehead, J.

2005-12-01

The Pliocene was globally an interval of dramatic climate change and often compared with the environment evolving through human-induced global change. Antarctic history needs to be integrated into global patterns. The Prydz Bay-Prince Charles Mountains region of East Antarctica is a major source of data on Late Paleozoic-Recent changes in Antarctic biota and environment. This paper reviews what is known of 13 marine transgressions in the Late Neogene of the region and attempts to compare the Antarctic pattern with global patterns, such as those identified through global sequence stratigraphic analysis. Although temporal resolution in Antarctic sections is not always as good as for sections elsewhere, enough data exist to indicate that many events can be construed as part of global changes. It is expected that further correlation will be effected. During much of the Pliocene, there was less continental ice, reduced sea-ice cover, probably higher sea-level, penetration of marine conditions deep into the hinterland, and independent evidence to indicate that this was due to warmth. The Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone probably was much farther south than currently. There have been major changes in the marine fauna, and distribution of surviving species since the mid-Pliocene. Antarctic fish faunas underwent major changes during this interval with evolution of a major new Subfamily and diversification in at least two subfamilies. No palynological evidence of terrestrial vegetation has been recovered from the Prydz Bay - Prince Charles Mountain region. Analysis of origin and extinction data for two global planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphic zonations shows that the interval Late Miocene-Pliocene was an interval of enhanced extinction and evolution, consistent with an interval of more rapid and high amplitude fluctuating environments.

Elucidating the nature and mechanism of tic improvement in tourette syndrome: a pilot study.

PubMed

Shprecher, David R; Gannon, Keenan; Agarwal, Nivedita; Shi, Xianfeng; Anderson, Jeffrey S

2014-01-01

For unclear reasons, many Tourette syndrome (TS) children report near-complete tic remission by young adulthood. Immature maturation of brain networks, observed with resting-state functional MRI (rs-fc-MRI) in adolescents and adults with TS, might evolve to a mature pattern in adults who experience tic improvement or remission. We explored the feasibility of testing this hypothesis in our population of young adult TS males, each with prior clinical assessments completed during childhood as part of a separate TS Association Genetics Consortium study. A total of 10 TS males (off tic suppressing drugs for at least 6 months) aged 19-32 years, mean follow-up interval 7.5 (2 to 13) years, and 11 neurologically normal controls were enrolled and underwent 3-Tesla structural and rs-fc-MRI sequences. The mean change in Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) was -31.5% (total) and -26.6% (YGTSS motor+vocal). Two subjects reported resolution of tic-related disability, with drops from mean 45 to 16.5 (YGTSS-total) and 25 to 11.5 (YGTSS motor+vocal.). Rs-fc-MRI revealed significantly increased connectivity between the ipsilateral anterior and mid cingulate cortex and striatum, increased connectivity between local connections, and decreased connectivity between more distant connections; representing an immature connectivity pattern. Similar to previous reports, we found immature patterns of functional connectivity in adult TS subjects. Despite a lack of complete tic remission, two subjects exhibited dramatic drops in tic severity that correlated with tic-related disability improvement. More work is needed to elucidate the mechanism of such dramatic improvement in TS.

Brain evolution, the determinates of food choice, and the omnivore's dilemma.

PubMed

Armelagos, George J

2014-01-01

A coevolutionary paradigm using a biocultural perspective can help to unravel the complex interactions that led to the contemporary pattern of eating. Evolutionary history helps to understand the adaptation of diet and its nutritional implications. Anatomical and behavioral changes linked to changing dietary patterns in the Paleolithic resulted in an adaptive framework that affects modern diet. The evolution of an expanding brain, a shrinking large intestine, and lengthening small intestine necessitated a demand for nutritionally dense foods. The key to these changes is an understanding of the response to the omnivore's dilemma. Omnivores in their search for new items to feed their varied diet (neophilia) have a challenge when they fear (neophobia) novel items that may be poisonous and can cause death. The inborn mechanism initiates palate fatigue (sensory-specific satiety) ensuring a variety of foods will be eaten. Variety will limit the impact of toxins ingested and provide a more balanced diet. The development of cuisine, a momentous event in history, mediated the conflict, and changed the course of human evolution. The cuisine, a biocultural construct, defines which items found in nature are edible, how these products are transformed into food, the flavors used to add a sensory dimension to foods, and rules of eating or etiquette. Etiquette defines how, when, and with whom we eat. Patterns of eating in the modern setting are the end product of the way that Homo sapiens evolved and resolved the omnivore's dilemma. Control of fire and cooking expanded the range of available foods by creating a class of foods that are "predigested." An essential element to the evolution of the human diet was the transition to agriculture as the primary mode of subsistence. The Neolithic revolution dramatically narrowed the dietary niche by decreasing the variety of available foods, with the shift to intensive agriculture creating a dramatic decline in human nutrition. The recent industrialization of the world food system has resulted in a nutritional transition in which developing nations are simultaneously experiencing undernutrition and obesity. In addition, an abundance of inexpensive, high-density foods laden with sugar and fats is available to a population that expends little energy to obtain such large numbers of calories. Furthermore, the abundant variety of ultraprocessed foods overrides the sensory-specific satiety mechanism leading to overconsumption.

Evaluation of urban sprawl and urban landscape pattern in a rapidly developing region.

PubMed

Lv, Zhi-Qiang; Dai, Fu-Qiang; Sun, Cheng

2012-10-01

Urban sprawl is a worldwide phenomenon happening particularly in rapidly developing regions. A study on the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban sprawl and urban pattern is useful for the sustainable management of land management and urban land planning. The present research explores the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban sprawl in the context of a rapid urbanization process in a booming economic region of southern China from 1979 to 2005. Three urban sprawl types are distinguished by analyzing overlaid urban area maps of two adjacent study years which originated from the interpretation of remote sensed images and vector land use maps. Landscape metrics are used to analyze the spatiotemporal pattern of urban sprawl for each study period. Study results show that urban areas have expanded dramatically, and the spatiotemporal landscape pattern configured by the three sprawl types changed obviously. The different sprawl type patterns in five study periods have transformed significantly, with their proportions altered both in terms of quantity and of location. The present research proves that urban sprawl quantification and pattern analysis can provide a clear perspective of the urbanization process during a long time period. Particularly, the present study on urban sprawl and sprawl patterns can be used by land use and urban planners.

Atmospheric circulation patterns and spatial climatic variations in Beringia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mock, Cary J.; Bartlein, Patrick J.; Anderson, Patricia M.

1998-08-01

Analyses of more than 40 years of climatic data reveal intriguing spatial variations in climatic patterns for Beringia (North-eastern Siberia and Alaska), aiding the understanding of the hierarchy of climatic controls that operate at different spatial scales within the Arctic. A synoptic climatology, using a subjective classification methodology on January and July sea level pressure, and July 500 hPa height anomaly patterns, identified 13 major atmospheric circulation patterns (26 pairs consisting of 13 synoptic/temperature and 13 synoptic/precipitation comparisons) that occur over Beringia. Composite anomaly maps of circulation, temperature, and precipitation described the spatial variability of surface climatic responses to circulation. Results indicate that nine synoptic pairs yield homogeneous surface climatic anomaly patterns throughout most of Beringia. However, many of the surface climatic responses illustrate heterogeneous anomaly patterns as a result of variations in circulation controls, such as troughing over East Asia and the Pacific subtropical high superimposed over topography, with small shifts in atmospheric circulation dramatically altering spatial variations of anomaly patterns. Distinctive contrasts in climatic responses, as suggested from ten synoptic pairs, are clearly evident for Western Beringia versus Eastern Beringia. These results offer important implications for scholars interested in assessing late Quaternary climatic change in the region from interannual to millennial timescales.

Decision support for integrated landscape evaluation and restoration planning.

Treesearch

Keith M. Reynolds; Paul F. Hessburg

2005-01-01

The historical patterns of Inland Northwest United States forests have been dramatically altered by a little more than two centuries of human settlement and land use. Spatial patterns of forest structural conditions, tree species composition, snags and down wood, and temporal variation in these patterns, have been altered to such an extent that the natural ebb and flow...

[Ignatius of Loyola--gifted or mentally ill?].

PubMed

Heinrich, K; Walter, C

1995-06-01

Subsequent to a severe injury and under the influence of religious reading, Loyola experienced a dramatic mental change in his spiritual values in the sense of a sublimation to an alternative knighthood. His behaviour patterns observed thereafter were determined by a totality of his attachment to God. Based on this certainty in his faith, which was free from any doubts, and on God, and with the background of fasting and praying, he had visionary and pseudo-hallucinatory experiences. As the founder of an order and head of the community of Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola proved to be diplomatically highly talented. There is no evidence of any psychotic disease. Also, there is no probability of a personality disorder in the sense of a neurosis. The numerous unusual behaviour patterns of Ignatius cannot be interpreted as psychopathological symptoms. It is justified to call him a genius.

Arousal and locomotion make distinct contributions to cortical activity patterns and visual encoding

PubMed Central

Vinck, Martin; Batista-Brito, Renata; Knoblich, Ulf; Cardin, Jessica A.

2015-01-01

Spontaneous and sensory-evoked cortical activity is highly state-dependent, yet relatively little is known about transitions between distinct waking states. Patterns of activity in mouse V1 differ dramatically between quiescence and locomotion, but this difference could be explained by either motor feedback or a change in arousal levels. We recorded single cells and local field potentials from area V1 in mice head-fixed on a running wheel and monitored pupil diameter to assay arousal. Using naturally occurring and induced state transitions, we dissociated arousal and locomotion effects in V1. Arousal suppressed spontaneous firing and strongly altered the temporal patterning of population activity. Moreover, heightened arousal increased the signal-to-noise ratio of visual responses and reduced noise correlations. In contrast, increased firing in anticipation of and during movement was attributable to locomotion effects. Our findings suggest complementary roles of arousal and locomotion in promoting functional flexibility in cortical circuits. PMID:25892300

In Vitro Assays for Mouse Müller Cell Phenotyping Through microRNA Profiling in the Damaged Retina.

PubMed

Reyes-Aguirre, Luis I; Quintero, Heberto; Estrada-Leyva, Brenda; Lamas, Mónica

2018-01-01

microRNA profiling has identified cell-specific expression patterns that could represent molecular signatures triggering the acquisition of a specific phenotype; in other words, of cellular identity and its associated function. Several groups have hypothesized that retinal cell phenotyping could be achieved through the determination of the global pattern of miRNA expression across specific cell types in the adult retina. This is especially relevant for Müller glia in the context of retinal damage, as these cells undergo dramatic changes of gene expression in response to injury, that render them susceptible to acquire a progenitor-like phenotype and be a source of new neurons.We describe a method that combines an experimental protocol for excitotoxic-induced retinal damage through N-methyl-D-aspartate subretinal injection with magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) of Müller cells and RNA isolation for microRNA profiling. Comparison of microRNA patterns of expression should allow Müller cell phenotyping under different experimental conditions.

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

The impact of illicit drug market changes on health agency operations in Sydney, Australia.

PubMed

Gibson, Amy; Day, Carolyn; Degenhardt, Louisa

2005-01-01

At the end of 2000, in Sydney, Australia, there was a dramatic reduction in heroin availability. This study examines how health agencies treating clients for drug and alcohol related issues were able to respond to the changes that took place in their clients and their treatment needs. Key informant interviews were conducted with 48 staff from a wide range of health services in Sydney to provide the data for a thematic analysis. Changes experienced by health agencies included changed patterns of drug use in their clients, increased aggressive incidents, changed numbers of clients accessing treatment services, and a need for more assistance from outside agencies. A strong evidence base for a range of drug treatment options, support of staff development in aggression management skills, and development of good interagency links between mental health, drug and alcohol, and law enforcement services would make health services better prepared for future changes in the drug use of their clients.

Considerations of Socio-Economic and Global Change Effects on Eurasian Steppes Ecosystem and Land-Atmosphere Interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojima, D. S.; Chuluun, T.; Temirbekov, S. S.; Mahowald, N.; Hicke, J.

2004-12-01

Dramatic changes occurred in pastoral systems of Eurasia ranging from Mongolia, China and Central Asia for the past decades. Recently, evaluation of the pastoral systems has been conducted in the region. Pastoral systems, where humans depend on livestock, exist largely in arid or semi-arid ecosystems where climate is highly variable. Interaction between ecosystems and nomadic land use systems co-shaped them in mutual adaptive ways for hundreds of years, thus making both the Mongolian rangeland ecosystem and nomadic pastoral system resilient and sustainable. Current changes in environmental conditions are affecting land-atmosphere interactions. Regional dust events, changes in hydrological cycle, and land use changes contribute to changing interactions between ecosystem and landscape processes which affect regional climate. The general trend involves greater intensification of resource exploitation at the expense of traditional patterns of extensive range utilization. This set of drivers is orthogonal to the above described climate drivers. Thus we expect climate-land use-land cover relationships to be crucially modified by the socio-economic forces.

Astronaut to Zoologist: Changing the Dramatic Play Area!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brouette, Scott J.

Changing the dramatic play area in a child care setting promotes creativity and gives children the chance to experience a place they may never experience in real life. Whenever possible, the children should be involved in the process of changing the area, by moving furniture and exchanging props, as well as brainstorming ideas for changes. The…

Analyzing Land Use Changes in the Metropolitan Jilin City of Northeastern China Using Remote Sensing and GIS.

PubMed

Hu, Dan; Yang, Guodong; Wu, Qiong; Li, Hongqing; Liu, Xusheng; Niu, Xuefeng; Wang, Zhiheng; Wang, Qiong

2008-09-03

Remote sensing and GIS have been widely employed to study temporal and spatial urban land use changes in southern and southeastern China. However, few studies have been conducted in northeastern regions. This study analyzed land use change and spatial patterns of urban expansion in the metropolitan area of Jilin City, located on the extension of Changbai Mountain, based on aerial photos from 1989 and 2005 Spot images. The results indicated that urban land and transportation land increased dramatically (by 94.04% and 211.20%, respectively); isolated industrial and mining land decreased moderately (by 29.54%); rural residential land increased moderately (by 26.48%); dry land and paddy fields increased slightly (by 15.68% and 11.78%, respectively); forest and orchards decreased slightly (by 5.27% and 4.61%, respectively); grasslands and unused land decreased dramatically (by 99.12% and 86.04%, respectively). Sloped dry land (more than 4 degrees) was mainly distributed on the land below 10 degrees with an east, southeastern and south sunny direction aspect, and most sloped dry land transformed to forest was located on an east aspect lower than 12 degrees, while forest changed to dry land were mainly distributed on east and south aspects lower than 10 degrees. A spatial dependency analysis of land use change showed that the increased urban land was a logarithmic function of distance to the Songhua River. This study also provided some data with spatial details about the uneven land development in the upstream areas of Songhua River basin.

How Are Fishing Patterns and Fishing Communities Responding to Climate Change? A Test Case from the Northwest Atlantic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, T.; Fuller, E.; Coleman, K.; Provost, M.; Pinsky, M. L.; St Martin, K.

2016-02-01

We know climate is changing and fish are moving in response to those changes. But we understand less about how harvesters are responding to these changes in fish distribution and the ramifications of those changes for fishing communities. Ecological and evolutionary theory suggests that organisms must move, adapt, or die in response to environmental changes, and a related frame may be relevant for human harvesters in the face of climate change. Furthermore, research suggests that there may be a portfolio effect: a wider diversity of catch may buffer harvesters from some effects of climate change. To get at these questions, we explored changes in fishing patterns among commercial fishing communities in the northeast US from 1997-2014 using NOAA-collected logbook data. We found that communities using more mobile gear (large trawl vessels) demonstrated a greater range of latitudinal shift than communities using any other gear. Latitudinal shift was also inversely related to species diversity of catch and port latitude in those communities: southern communities that caught few species shifted dramatically northward, and northern communities that caught many species did not demonstrate marked latitudinal shifts. Those communities that demonstrated larger latitudinal shifts also demonstrated smaller changes in catch composition than their more stationary counterparts. We also found that vessels are indeed leaving many, but not all, fisheries in this region. These results suggest that harvesters are moving, adapting, and leaving fisheries, and that there does appear to be a portfolio effect, with catch diversity mediating some of these responses. While these changes in fishing patterns cannot all be directly attributed to climate change per se, marine fishes in this region are shifting north rapidly, as is expected under climate change. This study provides a valuable test case for exploring the potential ramifications of climate change on coastal socio-ecological systems.

Pediatric fluoroquinolone prescription in South Korea before and after a regulatory intervention: A nationwide study, 2007-2015.

PubMed

Song, Seung Yeon; Shin, Joo Hee; Hyeon, Su Yeong; Kim, Donguk; Kang, Won Ku; Choi, Soo-Han; Kim, Yae-Jean; Kim, Eun Young

2017-01-01

To investigate the impact of national implementation of age restriction on fluoroquinolone prescription in children and adolescents. Data collected from the database of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in South Korea, a national health insurance system to analyze fluoroquinolone prescribing practice in children and adolescents younger than 18 years, between 2007 and 2015. The age restriction was implemented in December 2009. The annual prescription rate of FQ per 100,000 person-years was calculated and an autoregressive model was used to predict the prescription pattern if an intervention had not occurred. A total of 505,859 children received systemic fluoroquinolone during the study period-297,054 ciprofloxacin, and 208,805 levofloxacin. After implementation of the drug utilization review program, the annual prescription rate for ciprofloxacin declined by 97.5% (from 840 to 21 per 100,000 person-years, P < 0.001), and for levofloxacin by 96.4% (from 598 to 11 per 100,000 person-years, P < 0.001). The decline was more dramatic in the outpatient setting than in the inpatient setting for both drugs. The dramatic and sustained decline in prescription number and change in prescription pattern after the regulatory action suggests that the implementation under drug utilization review program was successful in controlling excessive and inappropriate use of fluoroquinolones in children, possibly guiding towards more judicious and selective prescription behavior.

Pediatric fluoroquinolone prescription in South Korea before and after a regulatory intervention: A nationwide study, 2007-2015

PubMed Central

Hyeon, Su Yeong; Kim, Donguk; Kang, Won Ku; Choi, Soo-Han; Kim, Yae-Jean

2017-01-01

Objective To investigate the impact of national implementation of age restriction on fluoroquinolone prescription in children and adolescents. Methods Data collected from the database of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in South Korea, a national health insurance system to analyze fluoroquinolone prescribing practice in children and adolescents younger than 18 years, between 2007 and 2015. The age restriction was implemented in December 2009. The annual prescription rate of FQ per 100,000 person-years was calculated and an autoregressive model was used to predict the prescription pattern if an intervention had not occurred. Results A total of 505,859 children received systemic fluoroquinolone during the study period—297,054 ciprofloxacin, and 208,805 levofloxacin. After implementation of the drug utilization review program, the annual prescription rate for ciprofloxacin declined by 97.5% (from 840 to 21 per 100,000 person-years, P < 0.001), and for levofloxacin by 96.4% (from 598 to 11 per 100,000 person-years, P < 0.001). The decline was more dramatic in the outpatient setting than in the inpatient setting for both drugs. Conclusion The dramatic and sustained decline in prescription number and change in prescription pattern after the regulatory action suggests that the implementation under drug utilization review program was successful in controlling excessive and inappropriate use of fluoroquinolones in children, possibly guiding towards more judicious and selective prescription behavior. PMID:28520738

Membrane Proteins Are Dramatically Less Conserved than Water-Soluble Proteins across the Tree of Life

PubMed Central

Sojo, Victor; Dessimoz, Christophe; Pomiankowski, Andrew; Lane, Nick

2016-01-01

Membrane proteins are crucial in transport, signaling, bioenergetics, catalysis, and as drug targets. Here, we show that membrane proteins have dramatically fewer detectable orthologs than water-soluble proteins, less than half in most species analyzed. This sparse distribution could reflect rapid divergence or gene loss. We find that both mechanisms operate. First, membrane proteins evolve faster than water-soluble proteins, particularly in their exterior-facing portions. Second, we demonstrate that predicted ancestral membrane proteins are preferentially lost compared with water-soluble proteins in closely related species of archaea and bacteria. These patterns are consistent across the whole tree of life, and in each of the three domains of archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes. Our findings point to a fundamental evolutionary principle: membrane proteins evolve faster due to stronger adaptive selection in changing environments, whereas cytosolic proteins are under more stringent purifying selection in the homeostatic interior of the cell. This effect should be strongest in prokaryotes, weaker in unicellular eukaryotes (with intracellular membranes), and weakest in multicellular eukaryotes (with extracellular homeostasis). We demonstrate that this is indeed the case. Similarly, we show that extracellular water-soluble proteins exhibit an even stronger pattern of low homology than membrane proteins. These striking differences in conservation of membrane proteins versus water-soluble proteins have important implications for evolution and medicine. PMID:27501943

Re-Shuffling of Species with Climate Disruption: A No-Analog Future for California Birds?

PubMed Central

Stralberg, Diana; Jongsomjit, Dennis; Howell, Christine A.; Snyder, Mark A.; Alexander, John D.; Wiens, John A.; Root, Terry L.

2009-01-01

By facilitating independent shifts in species' distributions, climate disruption may result in the rapid development of novel species assemblages that challenge the capacity of species to co-exist and adapt. We used a multivariate approach borrowed from paleoecology to quantify the potential change in California terrestrial breeding bird communities based on current and future species-distribution models for 60 focal species. Projections of future no-analog communities based on two climate models and two species-distribution-model algorithms indicate that by 2070 over half of California could be occupied by novel assemblages of bird species, implying the potential for dramatic community reshuffling and altered patterns of species interactions. The expected percentage of no-analog bird communities was dependent on the community scale examined, but consistent geographic patterns indicated several locations that are particularly likely to host novel bird communities in the future. These no-analog areas did not always coincide with areas of greatest projected species turnover. Efforts to conserve and manage biodiversity could be substantially improved by considering not just future changes in the distribution of individual species, but including the potential for unprecedented changes in community composition and unanticipated consequences of novel species assemblages. PMID:19724641

Rapid patterning of 'tunable' hydrophobic valves on disposable microchips by laser printer lithography.

PubMed

Ouyang, Yiwen; Wang, Shibo; Li, Jingyi; Riehl, Paul S; Begley, Matthew; Landers, James P

2013-05-07

We recently defined a method for fabricating multilayer microdevices using poly(ethylene terephthalate) transparency film and printer toner, and showed these could be successfully applied to DNA extraction and amplification (Duarte et al., Anal. Chem. 2011, 83, 5182-5189). Here, we advance the functionality of these microdevices with flow control enabled by hydrophobic valves patterned using laser printer lithography. Laser printer patterning of toner within the microchannel induces a dramatic change in surface hydrophobicity (change in contact angle of DI water from 51° to 111°) with good reproducibility. Moreover, the hydrophobicity of the surface can be controlled by altering the density of the patterned toner via varying the gray-scale setting on the laser printer, which consequently tunes the valve's burst pressure. Toner density provided a larger burst pressure bandwidth (158 ± 18 Pa to 573 ± 16 Pa) than could be achieved by varying channel geometry (492 ± 18 Pa to 573 ± 16 Pa). Finally, we used a series of tuned toner valves (with varied gray-scale) for passive valve-based fluidic transfer in a predictable manner through the architecture of a rotating PeT microdevice. While an elementary demonstration, this presents the possibility for simplistic and cost-effective microdevices with valved fluid flow control to be fabricated using nothing more than a laser printer, a laser cutter and a laminator.

Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Cancer Mortality, Incidence, and Survival in the United States, 1950–2014: Over Six Decades of Changing Patterns and Widening Inequalities

PubMed Central

Jemal, Ahmedin

2017-01-01

We analyzed socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in US mortality, incidence, and survival rates from all-cancers combined and major cancers from 1950 to 2014. Census-based deprivation indices were linked to national mortality and cancer data for area-based socioeconomic patterns in mortality, incidence, and survival. The National Longitudinal Mortality Study was used to analyze individual-level socioeconomic and racial/ethnic patterns in mortality. Rates, risk-ratios, least squares, log-linear, and Cox regression were used to examine trends and differentials. Socioeconomic patterns in all-cancer, lung, and colorectal cancer mortality changed dramatically over time. Individuals in more deprived areas or lower education and income groups had higher mortality and incidence rates than their more affluent counterparts, with excess risk being particularly marked for lung, colorectal, cervical, stomach, and liver cancer. Education and income inequalities in mortality from all-cancers, lung, prostate, and cervical cancer increased during 1979–2011. Socioeconomic inequalities in cancer mortality widened as mortality in lower socioeconomic groups/areas declined more slowly. Mortality was higher among Blacks and lower among Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics than Whites. Cancer patient survival was significantly lower in more deprived neighborhoods and among most ethnic-minority groups. Cancer mortality and incidence disparities may reflect inequalities in smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, diet, alcohol use, screening, and treatment. PMID:28408935

Differences in cold hardiness, carbohydrates, dehydrins and related gene expressions under an experimental deacclimation and reacclimation in Prunus persica.

PubMed

Shin, Hyunsuk; Oh, Youngjae; Kim, Daeil

2015-08-01

To boost our understanding of a recent outbreak of freezing injury, we sought to confirm distinctive features between the shoot tissues of the peach (Prunus persica) cultivars Daewol and Kiraranokiwami by mimicking unseasonable changes of temperatures that occur in the early spring through repeated deacclimation and reacclimation treatments. Patterns of cold hardiness declined dramatically during the deacclimation and rose during the reacclimation in both cultivars. Our results indicated that 'Daewol' possessed higher capacity in response to repeated deacclimation and reacclimation treatments than 'Kiraranokiwami'. 'Daewol' showed more sensitive changes in the carbohydrates in response to warm and low temperatures compared with 'Kiraranokiwami'. 'Daewol' indicated almost similar repeated down- and up-patterns in soluble sugar content in response to repeated deacclimation and reacclimation, whereas it indicated repeated up- and down-patterns in starch content. However, 'Kiraranokiwami' showed a progressive increase in the soluble sugar content and a progressive decrease in starch content. Notably, patterns of accumulation of a 60-kDa dehydrin protein encoded by the PpDhn1 gene were confirmed through western blotting and paralleled fluctuations of cold hardiness in both cultivars. Expression of this dehydrin was weak in both cultivars during deacclimation but its band intensity increased during reacclimation. Changes in related genes (β-amylase, PpDhn1, PpDhn2 and PpDhn3) were positively correlated with changes in cold hardiness throughout the experiment. Our results indicate that recent repeated warm periods may cause premature deacclimation in the early spring, and that more cold-tolerant cultivar may be more resilient to freezing injury caused by unstable temperature conditions. © 2014 Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society.

Sweeping Changes in Marriage, Cohabitation, and Childbearing in Central and Eastern Europe: New Insights from the Developmental Idealism Framework

PubMed Central

Thornton, Arland; Philipov, Dimiter

2009-01-01

In Central and Eastern Europe following the political transformations of the late 1980s and early 1990s there were dramatic declines in marriage and childbearing, significant increases in nonmarital cohabitation and childbearing, and a movement from reliance on abortion to a reliance on contraception for fertility limitation. Although many explanations have been offered for these trends, we offer new explanations based on ideational influences and the intersection of these ideational influences with structural factors. We focus on the political, economic, social, and cultural histories of the region, with particular emphasis on how countries in the region have interacted with and been influenced by Western European and North American countries. Our explanations emphasize the role of developmental models in guiding change in the region, suggesting that developmental idealism influenced family and demographic changes following the political transformations. Developmental idealism provides beliefs that modern family systems help to produce modern political and economic accomplishments and helps to establish the importance of freedom and equality as human rights in both the public and private spheres. The disintegration of the governments and the fall of the iron curtain in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought new understanding about social, economic, and family circumstances in the West, increasing consumption aspirations and expectations which clashed with both old economic realities and the dramatic declines in economic circumstances. In addition, the dissolution of the former governments removed or weakened systems supporting the bearing and rearing of children, and, the legitimacy of the former governments and their programs was largely destroyed, removing government support for old norms and patterns of behavior. In addition, the attacks of previous decades on the religious institutions in the region had in many places left these institutions weak. During this period many openly reached out to embrace the values, living standards, and economic, political, and familial systems of the West. And, the thirst for freedom—and its considerable expansion—operated in personal and familial as well as political and economic realms. These dramatic changes combined together to produce the many changes occurring in family and demographic behavior. PMID:19498956

Sweeping Changes in Marriage, Cohabitation, and Childbearing in Central and Eastern Europe: New Insights from the Developmental Idealism Framework.

PubMed

Thornton, Arland; Philipov, Dimiter

2009-01-01

In Central and Eastern Europe following the political transformations of the late 1980s and early 1990s there were dramatic declines in marriage and childbearing, significant increases in nonmarital cohabitation and childbearing, and a movement from reliance on abortion to a reliance on contraception for fertility limitation. Although many explanations have been offered for these trends, we offer new explanations based on ideational influences and the intersection of these ideational influences with structural factors. We focus on the political, economic, social, and cultural histories of the region, with particular emphasis on how countries in the region have interacted with and been influenced by Western European and North American countries. Our explanations emphasize the role of developmental models in guiding change in the region, suggesting that developmental idealism influenced family and demographic changes following the political transformations. Developmental idealism provides beliefs that modern family systems help to produce modern political and economic accomplishments and helps to establish the importance of freedom and equality as human rights in both the public and private spheres. The disintegration of the governments and the fall of the iron curtain in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought new understanding about social, economic, and family circumstances in the West, increasing consumption aspirations and expectations which clashed with both old economic realities and the dramatic declines in economic circumstances. In addition, the dissolution of the former governments removed or weakened systems supporting the bearing and rearing of children, and, the legitimacy of the former governments and their programs was largely destroyed, removing government support for old norms and patterns of behavior. In addition, the attacks of previous decades on the religious institutions in the region had in many places left these institutions weak. During this period many openly reached out to embrace the values, living standards, and economic, political, and familial systems of the West. And, the thirst for freedom-and its considerable expansion-operated in personal and familial as well as political and economic realms. These dramatic changes combined together to produce the many changes occurring in family and demographic behavior.

Spatial and overwinter changes in clam populations of San Pablo Bay, a semiarid estuary with highly variable freshwater inflow

USGS Publications Warehouse

Poulton, V.K.; Lovvorn, J.R.; Takekawa, John Y.

2004-01-01

In many estuaries worldwide, climate trends together with human diversion of fresh water have dramatically impacted the benthos. Such impacts have sometimes been complicated by exotic species, whose invasion and persistence can be mediated by wide variations in freshwater inflow. Monitoring such changes usually involves periodic samples at a few sites; but sampling that does not recognize variation at a range of spatial and seasonal scales may not reveal important benthic trends. San Pablo Bay, in northern San Francisco Bay, has extreme fluctuations in freshwater inflow. This bay also experienced a major benthic change with introduction of the Asian clam (Potamocorbula amurensis) in 1986. This species initially displaced the former community, but later appeared to vary in abundance depending on site and freshwater inflow. To investigate such patterns and provide guidelines for research and monitoring, we took 1746 core samples at six sites around San Pablo Bay from 19 October to 17 December 1999 and from 6 March to 19 April 2000. Most biomass consisted of the clams P. amurensis,Macoma balthica and Mya arenaria. Potamocorbula amurensis dominated the benthos at most sites in the fall and recruited a new cohort during winter, while there was weak recruitment in M. balthica and none in M. arenaria. At most but not all sites, densities of P. amurensis and M. arenaria declined dramatically over winter while M. balthica declined only slightly. The dominant clams had patch diameters >5 m at most but not all sites, and some showed inconsistent patch structure at scales of 100–1400 m. In this semiarid estuary with highly variable freshwater inflow, samples for research and monitoring should include multiple sites and seasons, and samples within sites should be ≥5 m apart to account for between-patch variation. Species abundance in winter 1999–2000 appeared to be affected by high freshwater inflows in 1997–1999, while spatial patterns were probably most affected by post-settlement dispersal and mortality.

Systematic Conservation Planning in the Face of Climate Change: Bet-Hedging on the Columbia Plateau

PubMed Central

Schloss, Carrie A.; Lawler, Joshua J.; Larson, Eric R.; Papendick, Hilary L.; Case, Michael J.; Evans, Daniel M.; DeLap, Jack H.; Langdon, Jesse G. R.; Hall, Sonia A.; McRae, Brad H.

2011-01-01

Systematic conservation planning efforts typically focus on protecting current patterns of biodiversity. Climate change is poised to shift species distributions, reshuffle communities, and alter ecosystem functioning. In such a dynamic environment, lands selected to protect today's biodiversity may fail to do so in the future. One proposed approach to designing reserve networks that are robust to climate change involves protecting the diversity of abiotic conditions that in part determine species distributions and ecological processes. A set of abiotically diverse areas will likely support a diversity of ecological systems both today and into the future, although those two sets of systems might be dramatically different. Here, we demonstrate a conservation planning approach based on representing unique combinations of abiotic factors. We prioritize sites that represent the diversity of soils, topographies, and current climates of the Columbia Plateau. We then compare these sites to sites prioritized to protect current biodiversity. This comparison highlights places that are important for protecting both today's biodiversity and the diversity of abiotic factors that will likely determine biodiversity patterns in the future. It also highlights places where a reserve network designed solely to protect today's biodiversity would fail to capture the diversity of abiotic conditions and where such a network could be augmented to be more robust to climate-change impacts. PMID:22174897

Examining the Cross-Roads: School Segregation in Indiana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moon, Jodi S.; Krull, Lauren

2017-01-01

Demographics in the U.S. have changed dramatically over the last three decades. Indiana's demographics are changing, too--albeit less dramatically. To explore how demographic shifts are changing the composition of Indiana's schools, the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) uses Common Core of Data (CCD) school enrollment data from the…

Fulcrum of Change: Leveraging 50 States to Turn around 5000 Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rhim, Lauren Morando; Redding, Sam

2011-01-01

In 2010, unprecedented levels of resources began to flow through state education agencies (SEAs) to support dramatic change in persistently low-performing schools under the expanded federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. The challenge for states is to leverage the federal investment to drive dramatic and sustainable change efforts in…

From jhum to broom: Agricultural land-use change and food security implications on the Meghalaya Plateau, India.

PubMed

Behera, Rabi Narayan; Nayak, Debendra Kumar; Andersen, Peter; Måren, Inger Elisabeth

2016-02-01

Human population growth in the developing world drives land-use changes, impacting food security. In India, the dramatic change in demographic dynamics over the past century has reduced traditional agricultural land-use through increasing commercialization. Here, we analyze the magnitude and implications for the farming system by the introduction of cash-cropping, replacing the traditional slash and burn rotations (jhum), of the tribal people on the Meghalaya Plateau, northeast India, by means of agricultural census data and field surveys conducted in seven villages. Land-use change has brought major alterations in hill agricultural practices, enhanced cash-cropping, promoted mono-cropping, changed food consumption patterns, underpinned the emergence of a new food system, and exposed farmers and consumers to the precariousness of the market, all of which have both long- and short-term food security implications. We found dietary diversity to be higher under jhum compared to any of the cash-crop systems, and higher under traditional cash-cropping than under modern cash-cropping.

Lake seasonality across the Tibetan Plateau and their varying relationship with regional mass changes and local hydrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, Yanbin; Yao, Tandong; Yang, Kun; Sheng, Yongwei; Kleinherenbrink, Marcel; Yi, Shuang; Bird, Broxton W.; Zhang, Xiaowen; Zhu, La; Zhang, Guoqing

2017-01-01

The recent growth and deepening of inland lakes in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) may be a salient indicator of the consequences of climate change. The seasonal dynamics of these lakes is poorly understood despite this being potentially crucial for disentangling contributions from glacier melt and precipitation, which are all sensitive to climate, to lake water budget. Using in situ observations, satellite altimetry and gravimetry data, we identified two patterns of lake level seasonality. In the central, northern, and northeastern TP, lake levels are characterized by considerable increases during warm seasons and decreases during cold seasons, which is consistent with regional mass changes related to monsoon precipitation and evaporation. In the northwestern TP, however, lake levels exhibit dramatic increases during both warm and cold seasons, which deviate from regional mass changes. This appears to be more connected with high spring snowfall and large summer glacier melt. The variable lake level response to different drivers indicates heterogeneous sensitivity to climate change between the northwestern TP and other regions.

Post-Little Landscape and Glacier Change in Glacier Bay National Park: Documenting More than a Century of Variability with Repeat Photography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molnia, B. F.; Karpilo, R. D.; Pranger, H. S.

2004-12-01

Historical photographs, many dating from the late-19th century are being used to document landscape and glacier change in the Glacier Bay area. More than 350 pre-1980 photographs that show the Glacier Bay landscape and glacier termini positions have been acquired by the authors. Beginning in 2003, approximately 150 of the sites from which historical photographs had been made were revisited. At each site, elevation and latitude and longitude were recorded using WAAS-enabled GPS. Compass bearings to photographic targets were also determined. Finally, using the historical photographs as a composition guide, new photographs were exposed using digital imaging and film cameras. In the laboratory, 21st century images and photographs were compared with corresponding historical photographs to determine, and to better understand rates, timing, and mechanics of Glacier Bay landscape evolution, as well as to clarify the response of specific glaciers to changing climate and environment. The comparisons clearly document rapid vegetative succession throughout the bay; continued retreat of larger glaciers in the East Arm of the bay; a complex pattern of readvance and retreat of the larger glaciers in the West Arm of the bay, coupled with short-term fluctuations of its smaller glaciers; transitions from tidewater termini to stagnant, debris-covered termini; fiord sedimentation and erosion; development of outwash and talus features; and many other dramatic changes. As might be expected, 100-year-plus photo comparisons show significant changes throughout the Glacier Bay landscape, especially at the southern ends of East and West Arms. Surprisingly, recent changes, occurring since the late-1970s were equally dramatic, especially documenting the rapid thinning and retreat of glaciers in upper Muir Inlet.

Geologic Drivers of Late Ordovician Faunal Change in Laurentia: Investigating Links between Tectonics, Speciation, and Biotic Invasions

PubMed Central

Wright, David F.; Stigall, Alycia L.

2013-01-01

Geologic process, including tectonics and global climate change, profoundly impact the evolution of life because they have the propensity to facilitate episodes of biogeographic differentiation and influence patterns of speciation. We investigate causal links between a dramatic faunal turnover and two dominant geologic processes operating within Laurentia during the Late Ordovician: the Taconian Orogeny and GICE related global cooling. We utilize a novel approach for elucidating the relationship between biotic and geologic changes using a time-stratigraphic, species-level evolutionary framework for articulated brachiopods from North America. Phylogenetic biogeographic analyses indicate a fundamental shift in speciation mode—from a vicariance to dispersal dominated macroevolutionary regime—across the boundary between the Sandbian to Katian Stages. This boundary also corresponds to the onset of renewed intensification of tectonic activity and mountain building, the development of an upwelling zone that introduced cool, nutrient-rich waters into the epieric seas of eastern Laurentia, and the GICE isotopic excursion. The synchronicity of these dramatic geologic, oceanographic, and macroevolutionary changes supports the influence of geologic events on biological evolution. Together, the renewed tectonic activity and oceanographic changes facilitated fundamental changes in habitat structure in eastern North America that reduced opportunities for isolation and vicariance. They also facilitated regional biotic dispersal of taxa that led to the subsequent establishment of extrabasinal (=invasive) species and may have led to a suppression of speciation within Laurentian faunas. Phylogenetic biogeographic analysis further indicates that the Richmondian Invasion was a multidirectional regional invasion event that involved taxa immigrating into the Cincinnati region from basins located near the continental margins and within the continental interior. PMID:23869215

Geologic drivers of late ordovician faunal change in laurentia: investigating links between tectonics, speciation, and biotic invasions.

PubMed

Wright, David F; Stigall, Alycia L

2013-01-01

Geologic process, including tectonics and global climate change, profoundly impact the evolution of life because they have the propensity to facilitate episodes of biogeographic differentiation and influence patterns of speciation. We investigate causal links between a dramatic faunal turnover and two dominant geologic processes operating within Laurentia during the Late Ordovician: the Taconian Orogeny and GICE related global cooling. We utilize a novel approach for elucidating the relationship between biotic and geologic changes using a time-stratigraphic, species-level evolutionary framework for articulated brachiopods from North America. Phylogenetic biogeographic analyses indicate a fundamental shift in speciation mode-from a vicariance to dispersal dominated macroevolutionary regime-across the boundary between the Sandbian to Katian Stages. This boundary also corresponds to the onset of renewed intensification of tectonic activity and mountain building, the development of an upwelling zone that introduced cool, nutrient-rich waters into the epieric seas of eastern Laurentia, and the GICE isotopic excursion. The synchronicity of these dramatic geologic, oceanographic, and macroevolutionary changes supports the influence of geologic events on biological evolution. Together, the renewed tectonic activity and oceanographic changes facilitated fundamental changes in habitat structure in eastern North America that reduced opportunities for isolation and vicariance. They also facilitated regional biotic dispersal of taxa that led to the subsequent establishment of extrabasinal (=invasive) species and may have led to a suppression of speciation within Laurentian faunas. Phylogenetic biogeographic analysis further indicates that the Richmondian Invasion was a multidirectional regional invasion event that involved taxa immigrating into the Cincinnati region from basins located near the continental margins and within the continental interior.

Exploring the structure of high temperature, iron-bearing liquids

DOE PAGES

Wilding, Martin; Benmore, Chris; Weber, Rick; ...

2015-06-25

This paper describes the direct measurements of the structure of iron-bearing liquids using a combination of containerless techniques and in–situ high energy x-ray diffraction. These capabilities provide data that is important to help model and optimize processes such as smelting, steel making, and controlling slag chemistry. A successful programme of liquid studies has been undertaken and the Advanced Photon Source using these combined techniques which include the provision of gas mixing and the control of pO₂ and the changing influence of mixed valance elements. It is possible to combine rapid image acquisition with quenching of liquids to obtain the fullmore » diffraction patterns of deeply supercooled liquids and the metastable supercooled liquid regime, where the liquid structures and viscosity change most dramatically, can also be explored.« less

Labial and vaginal blood volume responses to visual and tactile stimuli.

PubMed

Henson, D E; Rubin, H B; Henson, C

1982-02-01

Five women volunteers participated in two experimental sessions designed to evaluate the response patterns of two objective psychophysiological measure of women's sexual arousal to different methods (and intensities) of sexual stimulation (i.e., an erotic film and manual self-stimulation). A vaginal photoplethysmograph was used to measure vaginal blood volume response and a labial thermistor-clip was used to measure temperature changes of one of the minor labia. Both measures usually covaried in a highly significant manner during both types of stimulation, with the largest responses typically being evoked by the physical stimulation. The response patterns for the two measures were also similar following both methods of stimulation if the woman did not experience orgasm; both measures decreased to some extent after the stimulation ended but usually remained well above the prestimulatory baseline. Orgasm, however, affected the two genital measures differently. The vaginal blood volume measure decreased dramatically during the reported orgasm, possibly because of vaginal contractions, and then increased to at least the preorgasmic level that occurred during the stimulation. The labial measure did not change during the reported orgasm but decreased relatively rapidly soon after.

Agricultural landscapes: Can they support healthy bird populations as well as farm products?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Peterjohn, B.G.

2003-01-01

At the beginning of the twentieth century, prospects for bird populations occupying farmlands were promising. Agricultural expansion and the resulting deforestation produced wholesale changes to the landscape of eastern North America (Trautman 1977, Zeranski and Baptist 1990, Nicholson 1997). Regional avifaunas were transformed as Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestris), Dickcissels (Spiza americana), and other farmland birds undertook range expansions (Hurley and Franks 1976, Askins 1999). Those farmland birds became conspicuous, frequently in numbers that are hard to imagine today (Trautman 1940).One hundred years later, many of those once plentiful species experienced dramatic population declines (Askins 1993, Peterjohn and Sauer 1999). Those trends were evident for many decades, although pre-1965 trends were largely based on anecdotal accounts and were frequently attributed to changing regional landscapes due to urban expansion, farm abandonment resulting in increased forest cover, and the more intensive use of remaining agricultural fields (Trautman 1940, Herkert 1991, Askins 2000). However, numerous specific factors were implicated in local declines of individual species (Kantrud 1981, Bollinger et al. 1990, Lymn and Temple 1991, Bowen and Kruse 1993, Herkert 1994, Houston and Schmutz 1999, Blackwell and Dolbeer 2001).Understanding factors responsible for population changes can be approached at various geographic scales. Local studies identify specific factors influencing small populations, but the applicability of those results across broad geographic areas is often uncertain. Studies conducted at large geographic scales identify broad patterns of change, but those patterns frequently involve interrelated factors that may be only loosely related to the actual causes of population change. However, correlations between broad patterns of changes in bird populations and land-use characteristics provide a basis for directing future studies conducted at smaller geographic scales.

From Exotic to Mainstream: A 10-year Odyssey from Internet Speed to Boundary Spanning with Scrum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baskerville, Richard; Pries-Heje, Jan; Madsen, Sabine

Based on four empirical studies conducted over a 10-year time period from 1999 to 2008 we investigate how local software processes interact with global changes in the software development context. In 1999 companies were developing software at high speed in a desperate rush to be first-to-market. In 2001 a new high speed/quick results development process had become established practice. In 2003 changes in the market created the need for a more balanced view on speed and quality, and in 2008 companies were successfully combining agile and plan driven approaches to achieve the benefits of both. The studies reveal a twostage pattern in which dramatic changes in the market causes disruption of established practices, experimentation, and process adaptations followed by consolidation of lessons learnt into a new (and once again mature) software development process. Limitations, implications, and areas for future research are discussed.

THE EFFECT OF PROPRANOLOL ON GENE EXPRESSION DURING THE BLOOD ALCOHOL CYCLE OF RATS FED ETHANOL INTRAGASTRICALLY

PubMed Central

Li, Jun; Bardag-Gorce, F; Joan, Oliva; French, BA; Dedes, J; French, SW

2010-01-01

Propranolol, a beta adrenergic blocker prevents the blood alcohol (BAL) cycle in rats fed ethanol intragastrically at a constant rate by preventing the cyclic changes in the metabolic rate caused by fluctuating levels of norepinephrine released into the blood. The change in the rate of metabolism changes the rate of alcohol elimination in the blood which causes the BAL to cycle. Microarray analysis of the livers from the rats fed ethanol and propranolol showed similar changes in clusters of functionally related gene expressions. The controls and the trough of the cycle differed dramatically from the cluster pattern seen in the rats at the peaks of the blood alcohol cycle. The changes in gene expression induced by ethanol were similar when propranolol was fed without ethanol especially with the changes in the kinases and phosphatases, Toll-like receptor signaling and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction were also changed. The changes in gene expression caused by ethanol and propranolol feeding are alike probably because both drugs induce β adrenergic receptor desensitization. PMID:19925788

Dramatic action: A theater-based paradigm for analyzing human interactions

PubMed Central

Raindel, Noa; Alon, Uri

2018-01-01

Existing approaches to describe social interactions consider emotional states or use ad-hoc descriptors for microanalysis of interactions. Such descriptors are different in each context thereby limiting comparisons, and can also mix facets of meaning such as emotional states, short term tactics and long-term goals. To develop a systematic set of concepts for second-by-second social interactions, we suggest a complementary approach based on practices employed in theater. Theater uses the concept of dramatic action, the effort that one makes to change the psychological state of another. Unlike states (e.g. emotions), dramatic actions aim to change states; unlike long-term goals or motivations, dramatic actions can last seconds. We defined a set of 22 basic dramatic action verbs using a lexical approach, such as ‘to threaten’–the effort to incite fear, and ‘to encourage’–the effort to inspire hope or confidence. We developed a set of visual cartoon stimuli for these basic dramatic actions, and find that people can reliably and reproducibly assign dramatic action verbs to these stimuli. We show that each dramatic action can be carried out with different emotions, indicating that the two constructs are distinct. We characterized a principal valence axis of dramatic actions. Finally, we re-analyzed three widely-used interaction coding systems in terms of dramatic actions, to suggest that dramatic actions might serve as a common vocabulary across research contexts. This study thus operationalizes and tests dramatic action as a potentially useful concept for research on social interaction, and in particular on influence tactics. PMID:29518101

Land Use and Land Cover Change in Guangzhou, China, from 1998 to 2003, Based on Landsat TM /ETM+ Imagery

PubMed Central

Fan, Fenglei; Weng, Qihao; Wang, Yunpeng

2007-01-01

Land use and land cover change is a major issue in global environment change, and is especially significant in rapidly developing regions in the world. With its economic development, population growth, and urbanization, Guangzhou, a major metropolitan in South China, have experienced a dramatic land use and land cover (LULC) change over the past 30 years. Fast LULC change have resulted in degradation of its ecosystems and affected adversely the environment. It is urgently needed to monitor its LULC changes and to analyses the consequences of these changes in order to provide information for policymakers to support sustainable development. This study employed two Landsat TM/ETM+ images in the dry season to detect LULC patterns in 1998 and 2003, and to examine LULC changes during the period from 1998 to 2003. The type, rate, and pattern of the changes among five counties of Guangzhou Municipality were analyzed in details by post-classification method. LULC conversion matrix was produced for each county in order to explore and explain the urban expansion and cropland loss, the most significant types of LULC change. Land use conversion matrixes of five counties were discussed respectively in order to explore and explain the inherence of land use change. The results showed that urban expansion in these five counties kept an even rate of increase, while substantial amount of cropland vanished during the period. It is also noted that the conversion between cropland and orchard land was intensive. Forest land became the main source of new croplands.

The effect of signal acquisition and processing choices on ApEn values: towards a "gold standard" for distinguishing effort levels from isometric force records.

PubMed

Forrest, Sarah M; Challis, John H; Winter, Samantha L

2014-06-01

Approximate entropy (ApEn) is frequently used to identify changes in the complexity of isometric force records with ageing and disease. Different signal acquisition and processing parameters have been used, making comparison or confirmation of results difficult. This study determined the effect of sampling and parameter choices by examining changes in ApEn values across a range of submaximal isometric contractions of the first dorsal interosseus. Reducing the sample rate by decimation changed both the value and pattern of ApEn values dramatically. The pattern of ApEn values across the range of effort levels was not sensitive to the filter cut-off frequency, or the criterion used to extract the section of data for analysis. The complexity increased with increasing effort levels using a fixed 'r' value (which accounts for measurement noise) but decreased with increasing effort level when 'r' was set to 0.1 of the standard deviation of force. It is recommended isometric force records are sampled at frequencies >200Hz, template length ('m') is set to 2, and 'r' set to measurement system noise or 0.1SD depending on physiological process to be distinguished. It is demonstrated that changes in ApEn across effort levels are related to changes in force gradation strategy. Copyright © 2014 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Atypical dimensions of caregiver–adolescent interaction in an economically disadvantaged sample

PubMed Central

Kobak, Roger; Zajac, Kristyn; Abbott, Caroline; Zisk, Abby; Bounoua, Nadia

2018-01-01

The Goal-corrected Partnership Adolescent Coding System (GPACS) has shown promise in assessing a secure as well as three atypical patterns of parent-adolescent interaction during a conflict discussion. The current study of 186 economically disadvantaged families examines the degree to which four GPACS patterns: Secure/Collaborative, Punitive, Role Confused and Disoriented—account for residual change in adolescents’ social competence and maladaptive behavior (internalizing, externalizing, and risk behaviors) between ages 13 to 15. Adolescents from Secure/Collaborative dyads at age 13 were more likely to have a secure state of mind in the AAI at age 15 and showed increases in teachers’ ratings of empathy and decreases in teachers’ ratings of externalizing behaviors between ages 13 and 15. Adolescents in Disoriented dyads showed a dramatic increase in teacher-rated internalizing problems, while male adolescents in Role Confused dyads reported increased involvement in risk behaviors including unprotected sexual activity and substance use problems. PMID:28401833

Monolayer-Mediated Growth of Organic Semiconductor Films with Improved Device Performance.

PubMed

Huang, Lizhen; Hu, Xiaorong; Chi, Lifeng

2015-09-15

Increased interest in wearable and smart electronics is driving numerous research works on organic electronics. The control of film growth and patterning is of great importance when targeting high-performance organic semiconductor devices. In this Feature Article, we summarize our recent work focusing on the growth, crystallization, and device operation of organic semiconductors intermediated by ultrathin organic films (in most cases, only a monolayer). The site-selective growth, modified crystallization and morphology, and improved device performance of organic semiconductor films are demonstrated with the help of the inducing layers, including patterned and uniform Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers, crystalline ultrathin organic films, and self-assembled polymer brush films. The introduction of the inducing layers could dramatically change the diffusion of the organic semiconductors on the surface and the interactions between the active layer with the inducing layer, leading to improved aggregation/crystallization behavior and device performance.

Efficiency and Equity in the Time Pattern of Teacher Pension Benefits: An Analysis of Four State Systems. Working Paper 2007-01

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costrell, Robert M.; Podgursky, Michael J.

2007-01-01

Defined Benefit pension plans often generate odd time patterns of benefits. One typical pattern exhibits low accrual in early years, accelerating in mid-late years, followed by dramatic decline, or even negative returns in years that are relatively young for retirement. We consider four states for specific analysis: Arkansas, Missouri, California…

A mineralogical record of ocean change: Decadal and centennial patterns in the California mussel.

PubMed

McCoy, Sophie J; Kamenos, Nicholas A; Chung, Peter; Wootton, Timothy J; Pfister, Catherine A

2018-06-01

Ocean acidification, a product of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, may already have affected calcified organisms in the coastal zone, such as bivalves and other shellfish. Understanding species' responses to climate change requires the context of long-term dynamics. This can be particularly difficult given the longevity of many important species in contrast with the relatively rapid onset of environmental changes. Here, we present a unique archival dataset of mussel shells from a locale with recent environmental monitoring and historical climate reconstructions. We compare shell structure and composition in modern mussels, mussels from the 1970s, and mussel shells dating back to 1000-2420 years BP. Shell mineralogy has changed dramatically over the past 15 years, despite evidence for consistent mineral structure in the California mussel, Mytilus californianus, over the prior 2500 years. We present evidence for increased disorder in the calcium carbonate shells of mussels and greater variability between individuals. These changes in the last decade contrast markedly from a background of consistent shell mineralogy for centuries. Our results use an archival record of natural specimens to provide centennial-scale context for altered minerology and variability in shell features as a response to acidification stress and illustrate the utility of long-term studies and archival records in global change ecology. Increased variability between individuals is an emerging pattern in climate change responses, which may equally expose the vulnerability of organisms and the potential of populations for resilience. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Multiple-scale Proximal Sensor and Remote Imagery Technology for Sustaining Agricultural Productivity During Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corwin, D. L.; Scudiero, E.

2016-12-01

Changes in climatic patterns have had dramatic influence on agricultural areas worldwide, particularly in irrigated arid-zone agricultural areas subjected to recurring drought, such as California's San Joaquin Valley. Climate change has impacted water availability, which subsequently has impacted soil salinity levels in the root zone, especially on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley (WSJV). Inventorying and monitoring the extent of climate change on soil salinity is crucial to evaluate the extent of the problem, to recognize trends, and to formulate state-wide and field-scale irrigation management strategies that will sustain the agricultural productivity of the WSJV. Over the past 3 decades, Corwin and colleagues at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory have developed proximal sensor (i.e., electrical resistivity and electromagnetic induction) and remote imagery (i.e., MODIS and Landsat 7) methodologies for assessing soil salinity at multiple scales: field (0.5 ha to 3 km2), landscape (3 to 10 km2), and regional (10 to 105 km2) scales. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of these scale-dependent salinity assessment technologies. Case studies for the WSJV are presented to demonstrate at multiple scales the utility of these approaches in assessing soil salinity changes due to management-induced changes and to changes in climate patterns, and in providing site-specific irrigation management information for salinity control. Land resource managers, producers, agriculture consultants, extension specialists, and Natural Resource Conservation Service field staff are the beneficiaries of this information.

Patterns of Genetic Diversity and Co-Existence in Open Ocean Diatoms: the Effects of Water Mass Structure, Selection and Sex

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rynearson, T. A.; Chen, G.

2016-02-01

The open ocean North Atlantic spring bloom influences regional ecology and global biogeochemistry. Diatoms dominate the peak of the bloom and significantly impact productivity and export of organic carbon from the bloom. Despite their key role in a yearly event with global impacts, the genetic diversity and population structure of diatoms that comprise this open ocean bloom are unknown. Here we investigated the population genetics of the diatom Thalassiosira gravida sampled during the 2008 North Atlantic Bloom Experiment using newly-developed microsatellite markers. Here, we show that the genetic diversity of open ocean diatoms is high and that their population structure differs dramatically from coastal diatoms. High levels of genetic diversity were observed across all water samples and did not change during the bloom. Four genetically distinct populations were identified but were not associated with different water masses, depths or time points during the bloom. Instead, all four populations co-existed within samples, spanning different water masses, stages of the bloom and depths of over >300 m. The pattern of genetically distinct, co-existing populations in the open ocean contrasts dramatically with coastal habitats, where distinct populations have not been observed to co-exist at the same time and place. It is likely that populations originate via transport from disparate locations combined with overwintering capacity in the water column or sediments. The pattern of co-existence suggests that the open ocean may serve as a gene pool that harbors different populations that are then available for selection to act upon, which may contribute to the ecological and biogeochemical success of diatoms and influence their long-term evolutionary survival.

Mosaics of Change: Cross-Scale Forest Cover Dynamics and Drivers in Tibetan Yunnan, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Den Hoek, Jamon

In reaction to devastating floods on the Yangtze River in the summer of 1998, the Chinese Central Government introduced a logging ban as part of the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) with the goal of dramatically increasing national forest cover. Since then, over 11 billion USD has been allocated to the program, but the NFPP's success at promoting reforestation is unclear as neither the extent of forest cover change, nor the potential factors influencing the spatial variability of change have been examined. This research employs a case study in northwest Yunnan Province, southwest China, to evaluate the spatial variability of forest cover change under the NFPP and investigate drivers that have influenced recent patterns of change. I employ a mixed methods, cross-scale research framework that includes the analysis of areal trajectories and spatial variability of Landsat-5 imagery-derived forest cover change at three administrative levels before and after the NFPP's introduction; landscape ecology-based metrics to measure the shifting patterns of forest cover change at the patch level; and household interview data on village-level forest resource use patterns and processes in three neighboring villages. Prefecture- and county-level analyses suggest rather stable forest cover across the three-county study area since the introduction of the ban, though township-level measures of forest cover change show a degree of spatial variability as well as a temporal delay in policy implementation effectiveness. Village-level remote sensing analysis shows comparable amounts of forest cover change between study villages but disparate forest resource use patterns in terms of location and amount. Though all research villages continue to exploit local forests for firewood and timber relatively unfettered by policy restrictions, villagers with tourism-derived income are able to buy forest products collected in outside forests much more often; this redistributes local-scale deforestation to the benefit of local and detriment of distant forests. Tourism is often heralded as the solution to rural development challenges in China's southwest, but this research shows the unintended consequences that may result from inconsistent participation at the village-level, consequences which merely redirect, not reduce, forest use pressures, and that are contrary to the goals of state policy.

Climate Change Impacts on North Dakota: Agriculture and Hydrology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirilenko, Andrei; Zhang, Xiaodong; Lim, Yeo Howe; Teng, William L.

2011-01-01

North Dakota is one of the principal producers of agricultural commodities in the USA, including over half of the total spring wheat production. While the region includes some of the best agricultural lands in the world, the steep temperature and precipitation gradients also make it one of the most sensitive to climate change. Over the 20th century, both the temperature and the pattern of precipitation in the state have changed; one of the most dramatic examples of the consequences of this change is the Devils Lake flooding. In two studies, we estimated the climate change impacts on crop yields and on the hydrology of the Devils Lake basin. The projections of six GCMs, driven by three SRES scenarios were statistically downscaled for multiple locations throughout the state, for the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s climate. Averaged over all GCMs, there is a small increase in precipitation, by 0.6 - 1.1% in 2020s, 3.1 - 3.5% in 2050s, and 3.0 - 7.6% in 2080s. This change in precipitation varies with the seasons, with cold seasons becoming wetter and warm seasons not changing.

Porites corals as recorders of mining and environmental impacts: Misima Island, Papua New Guinea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fallon, Stewart J.; White, Jamie C.; McCulloch, Malcolm T.

2002-01-01

In 1989 open-cut gold mining commenced on Misima Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Open-cut mining by its nature causes a significant increase in sedimentation via the exposure of soils to the erosive forces of rain and runoff. This increased sedimentation affected the nearby fringing coral reef to varying degrees, ranging from coral mortality (smothering) to relatively minor short-term impacts. The sediment associated with the mining operation consists of weathered quartz feldspar, greenstone, and schist. These rocks have distinct chemical characteristics (rare earth element patterns and high abundances of manganese, zinc, and lead) and are entering the near-shore environment in considerably higher than normal concentrations. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), we analyzed eight colonies (two from high sedimentation, two transitional, two minor, and two unaffected control sites) for Y, La, Ce, Mn, Zn, and Pb. All sites show low steady background levels prior to the commencement of mining in 1988. Subsequently, all sites apart from the control show dramatic increases of Y, La, and Ce associated with the increased sedimentation as well as rapid decreases following the cessation of mining. The elements Zn and Pb exhibit a different behavior, increasing in concentration after 1989 when ore processing began and one year after initial mining operations. Elevated levels of Zn and Pb in corals has continued well after the cessation of mining, indicating ongoing transport into the reef of these metals via sulfate-rich waters. Rare earth element (REE) abundance patterns measured in two corals show significant differences compared to Coral Sea seawater. The corals display enrichments in the light and middle REEs while the heavy REEs are depleted relative to the seawater pattern. This suggests that the nearshore seawater REE pattern is dominated by island sedimentation. Trace element abundances of Misima Island corals clearly record the dramatic changes in the environmental conditions at this site and provide a basis for identifying anthropogenic influences on corals reefs.

Abrupt increase in rat carotid blood flow induces rapid alteration of artery mechanical properties

PubMed Central

Monson, Kenneth L.; Matsumoto, Melissa M.; Young, William L.; Manley, Geoffrey T.; Hashimoto, Tomoki

2010-01-01

Vascular remodeling is essential to proper vessel function. Dramatic changes in mechanical environment, however, may initiate pathophysiological vascular remodeling processes that lead to vascular disease. Previous work by some of our group has demonstrated a dramatic rise in matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression shortly following an abrupt increase in carotid blood flow. We hypothesized that there would be a corresponding change in carotid mechanical properties. Unilateral carotid ligation surgery was performed to produce an abrupt, sustained increase in blood flow through the contralateral carotid artery of rats. The flow-augmented artery was harvested after sham surgery or 1, 2, or 6 days after flow augmentation. Vessel mechanical response in the circumferential direction was then evaluated through a series of pressure-diameter tests. Results show that the extent of circumferential stretch (normalized change in diameter) at in vivo pressure levels was significantly different (p<0.05) from normo-flow controls at 1 and 2 days following flow augmentation. Measurements at 1, 2, and 6 days were not significantly different from one another, but a trend in the data suggested that circumferential stretch was largest 1 day following surgery and subsequently decreased toward baseline values. Because previous work with this model indicated a similar temporal pattern for MMP-9 expression, an exploratory set of experiments was conducted where vessels were tested 1 day following surgery in animals treated with broad spectrum MMP inhibitors (either doxycycline or GM6001). Results showed a trend for the inhibitors to minimize changes in mechanical properties. Observations demonstrate that vessel mechanical properties change rapidly following flow augmentation and that alterations may be linked to expression of MMPs. PMID:21094476

The Dynamic Epigenetic Landscape of the Retina During Development, Reprogramming, and Tumorigenesis

PubMed Central

Aldiri, Issam; Xu, Beisi; Wang, Lu; Chen, Xiang; Hiler, Daniel; Griffiths, Lyra; Valentine, Marc; Shirinifard, Abbas; Thiagarajan, Suresh; Sablauer, Andras; Barabas, Marie-Elizabeth; Zhang, Jiakun; Johnson, Dianna; Frase, Sharon; Zhou, Xin; Easton, John; Zhang, Jinghui; Mardis, Elaine R.; Wilson, Richard K.; Downing, James R.; Dyer, Michael A.

2017-01-01

SUMMARY In the developing retina, multipotent neural progenitors undergo unidirectional differentiation in a precise spatiotemporal order. Here we profile the epigenetic and transcriptional changes that occur during retinogenesis in mice and humans. Although some progenitor genes and cell cycle genes were epigenetically silenced during retinogenesis, the most dramatic change was derepression of cell type–specific differentiation programs. We identified developmental stage–specific super-enhancers and showed that most epigenetic changes are conserved in humans and mice. To determine how the epigenome changes during tumorigenesis and reprogramming, we performed integrated epigenetic analysis of murine and human retinoblastomas and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from murine rod photoreceptors. The retinoblastoma epigenome mapped to the developmental stage when retinal progenitors switch from neurogenic to a terminal patterns of cell division. The epigenome of retinoblastomas was more similar to that of normal retina than was that of retina-derived iPSCs, and we identified retina-specific epigenetic memory. PMID:28472656

Tea polyphenols dominate the short-term tea (Camellia sinensis) leaf litter decomposition*

PubMed Central

Fan, Dong-mei; Fan, Kai; Yu, Cui-ping; Lu, Ya-ting; Wang, Xiao-chang

2017-01-01

Polyphenols are one of the most important secondary metabolites, and affect the decomposition of litter and soil organic matter. This study aims to monitor the mass loss rate of tea leaf litter and nutrient release pattern, and investigate the role of tea polyphenols played in this process. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and classical litter bag method were used to simulate the decomposition process of tea leaf litter and track the changes occurring in major polyphenols over eight months. The release patterns of nitrogen, potassium, calcium, and magnesium were also determined. The decomposition pattern of tea leaf litter could be described by a two-phase decomposition model, and the polyphenol/N ratio effectively regulated the degradation process. Most of the catechins decreased dramatically within two months; gallic acid (GA), catechin gallate (CG), and gallocatechin (GC) were faintly detected, while others were outside the detection limits by the end of the experiment. These results demonstrated that tea polyphenols transformed quickly and catechins had an effect on the individual conversion rate. The nutrient release pattern was different from other plants which might be due to the existence of tea polyphenols. PMID:28124839

Tea polyphenols dominate the short-term tea (Camellia sinensis) leaf litter decomposition.

PubMed

Fan, Dong-Mei; Fan, Kai; Yu, Cui-Ping; Lu, Ya-Ting; Wang, Xiao-Chang

Polyphenols are one of the most important secondary metabolites, and affect the decomposition of litter and soil organic matter. This study aims to monitor the mass loss rate of tea leaf litter and nutrient release pattern, and investigate the role of tea polyphenols played in this process. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and classical litter bag method were used to simulate the decomposition process of tea leaf litter and track the changes occurring in major polyphenols over eight months. The release patterns of nitrogen, potassium, calcium, and magnesium were also determined. The decomposition pattern of tea leaf litter could be described by a two-phase decomposition model, and the polyphenol/N ratio effectively regulated the degradation process. Most of the catechins decreased dramatically within two months; gallic acid (GA), catechin gallate (CG), and gallocatechin (GC) were faintly detected, while others were outside the detection limits by the end of the experiment. These results demonstrated that tea polyphenols transformed quickly and catechins had an effect on the individual conversion rate. The nutrient release pattern was different from other plants which might be due to the existence of tea polyphenols.

Controlling disease and creating disparities: a fundamental cause perspective.

PubMed

Phelan, Jo C; Link, Bruce G

2005-10-01

The United States and other developed countries experienced enormous improvements in population health during the 20th century. In the context of this dramatic positive change, health disparities by race and socioeconomic status emerged for several potent killers. Any explanation for current health disparities must take these changing patterns into account. Any explanation that ignores large improvements in population health and fails to account for the emergence of disparities for specific diseases is an inadequate explanation of current disparities. We argue that genetic explanations and some prominent social causation explanations are incompatible with these facts. We propose that the theory of "fundamental causes" can account for both vast improvements in population health and the creation of large socioeconomic and racial disparities in mortality for specific causes of death over time. Specifically, we argue that it is our enormously expanded capacity to control disease and death in combination with existing social and economic inequalities that create health disparities by race and socioeconomic status: When we develop the ability to control disease and death, the benefits of this new-found ability are distributed according to resources of knowledge, money, power, prestige, and beneficial social connections. We present data on changing mortality patterns by race and socioeconomic status for two types of diseases: those for which our capacity to prevent death has increased significantly and those for which we remain largely unable to prevent death. Time trends in mortality patterns are consistent with the fundamental cause explanation.

Dramatic Teaching for Dramatic Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graves, Julie

2010-01-01

Ressler's "Dramatic Changes" is a powerful guide for anyone brave enough to create a space for young people to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity. Her accessible style and tangible suggestions describe a creative and educationally sound approach to supporting youth in thoughtfully wrestling with one of the most controversial social…

Spatiotemporal patterns of evapotranspiration along the North American east coast as influenced by multiple environmental changes

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

Yang, Qichun; Tian, Hanqin; Li, Xia

The North American east coast has experienced significant land-use and climate changes since the beginning of the 20th century. In this study, using the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model 2.0 driven by time-series input data of land use, climate and atmospheric CO 2, we examined how these driving forces have affected the spatiotemporal trends and variability of evapotranspiration (ET) in this region during 1901–2008. Annual ET in the North American east coast during this period was 648.3 ± 38.6 mm/year and demonstrated an increasing trend. Factorial model simulations indicated that climate variability explained 76% of the inter-annual ET variability. Although land-usemore » change only explained 16% of the ET temporal variability, afforestation induced the upward trend of ET and increased annual ET by 12.8 mm/year. Elevated atmospheric CO 2 reduced annual ET by 0.84 mm, and its potential impacts under future atmospheric CO 2 levels could be much larger than estimates for the historical 1901–2008 period. Climate change determined the spatial pattern of ET changes across the entire study area, whereas land-use changes dramatically affected ET in watersheds with significant land conversions. In spite of the multiple benefits from afforestation, its impacts on water resources should be considered in future land-use policy making. As a result, elevated ET may also affect fresh water availability for the increasing social and economic water demands.« less

Spatiotemporal patterns of evapotranspiration along the North American east coast as influenced by multiple environmental changes

DOE PAGES

Yang, Qichun; Tian, Hanqin; Li, Xia; ...

2014-08-08

The North American east coast has experienced significant land-use and climate changes since the beginning of the 20th century. In this study, using the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model 2.0 driven by time-series input data of land use, climate and atmospheric CO 2, we examined how these driving forces have affected the spatiotemporal trends and variability of evapotranspiration (ET) in this region during 1901–2008. Annual ET in the North American east coast during this period was 648.3 ± 38.6 mm/year and demonstrated an increasing trend. Factorial model simulations indicated that climate variability explained 76% of the inter-annual ET variability. Although land-usemore » change only explained 16% of the ET temporal variability, afforestation induced the upward trend of ET and increased annual ET by 12.8 mm/year. Elevated atmospheric CO 2 reduced annual ET by 0.84 mm, and its potential impacts under future atmospheric CO 2 levels could be much larger than estimates for the historical 1901–2008 period. Climate change determined the spatial pattern of ET changes across the entire study area, whereas land-use changes dramatically affected ET in watersheds with significant land conversions. In spite of the multiple benefits from afforestation, its impacts on water resources should be considered in future land-use policy making. As a result, elevated ET may also affect fresh water availability for the increasing social and economic water demands.« less

Membrane Proteins Are Dramatically Less Conserved than Water-Soluble Proteins across the Tree of Life.

PubMed

Sojo, Victor; Dessimoz, Christophe; Pomiankowski, Andrew; Lane, Nick

2016-11-01

Membrane proteins are crucial in transport, signaling, bioenergetics, catalysis, and as drug targets. Here, we show that membrane proteins have dramatically fewer detectable orthologs than water-soluble proteins, less than half in most species analyzed. This sparse distribution could reflect rapid divergence or gene loss. We find that both mechanisms operate. First, membrane proteins evolve faster than water-soluble proteins, particularly in their exterior-facing portions. Second, we demonstrate that predicted ancestral membrane proteins are preferentially lost compared with water-soluble proteins in closely related species of archaea and bacteria. These patterns are consistent across the whole tree of life, and in each of the three domains of archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes. Our findings point to a fundamental evolutionary principle: membrane proteins evolve faster due to stronger adaptive selection in changing environments, whereas cytosolic proteins are under more stringent purifying selection in the homeostatic interior of the cell. This effect should be strongest in prokaryotes, weaker in unicellular eukaryotes (with intracellular membranes), and weakest in multicellular eukaryotes (with extracellular homeostasis). We demonstrate that this is indeed the case. Similarly, we show that extracellular water-soluble proteins exhibit an even stronger pattern of low homology than membrane proteins. These striking differences in conservation of membrane proteins versus water-soluble proteins have important implications for evolution and medicine. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

[Cleanliness in the operating room].

PubMed

Suzuki, Toshiyasu

2010-05-01

With regard to recent findings in the cleanliness of the operating room, concerning handwashing and performing operations, the traditional method of excessive scrubbing using a brush is not effective, and handwashing using only an alcohol-containing antiseptic hand rub (rubbing method) has become common practice. Use of a brush has already been abolished in some medical institutions. In addition, sterilized water used for handwashing when performing operations has no scientific basis and use of tap water is considered sufficient. Furthermore, the concept of operating room zoning has also undergone a dramatic change. It was discovered that a layout focusing on work efficiency is more desirable than the one that follows an excessively rigid zoning pattern. One-footwear System not requiring change of shoes also has various advantages in improving the efficiency of the operation room, and this is thought to become commonplace in the future.

Producing Production Level Tooling in Prototype Timing

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

Mc Hugh, Kevin Matthew; Knirsch, J.

A new rapid solidification process machine will be able to produce eight-inch diameter by six-inch thick finished cavities at the rate of one per hour - a rate that will change the tooling industry dramatically. Global Metal Technologies, Inc. (GMTI) (Solon, OH) has signed an exclusive license with Idaho National Engineered and Environmental Laboratories (INEEL) (Idaho Falls, ID) for the development and commercialization of the rapid solidification process (RSP tooling). The first production machine is scheduled for delivery in July 2001. The RSP tooling process is a method of producing production level tooling in prototype timing. The process' inventor, Kevinmore » McHugh, describes it as a rapid solidification method, which differentiates it from the standard spray forming methods. RSP itself is relatively straightforward. Molten metal is sprayed against the ceramic pattern, replicating the pattern's contours, surface texture and details. After spraying, the molten tool steel is cooled at room temperature and separated from the pattern. The irregular periphery of the freshly sprayed insert is squared off, either by machining or, in the case of harder tool steels, by wire EDM. XX« less

Variation pattern of terrestrial antibiotic resistances and bacterial communities in seawater/freshwater mixed microcosms.

PubMed

Zhang, Kai; Zhang, Ying; Xin, Rui; Zhang, Yongpeng; Niu, Zhiguang

2018-06-01

The ocean is the final place where pollutants generated by human activities are deposited. As a result, the long-range transport of the ocean can facilitate the diffusion of terrestrial contaminants, including ARGs. However, to our knowledge, little research has been devoted to discussing the content change of terrestrial ARGs and the reason for the change in coastal area. This study established various microcosms, in which seawater and freshwater were mixed at different ratio to simulate the environmental conditions of different regions in coastal areas. Four ARGs were quantified, and 16S pyrosequencing was conducted. The results showed that the terrestrial ARGs influenced the concentration of the corresponding ARGs in coastal areas, and the content change pattern of each ARG was distinct. The influence of salinity on the ARG content was limited in most cases. Moreover, most dominant bacteria from freshwater had significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) with selected ARGs, except for bla TEM . The dominant bacteria in freshwater diminished dramatically in microcosms with a high proportion of seawater. Freshwater may have a strong impact on the bacteria composition of seawater, and the materials from freshwater may prompt the growth of some bacteria (include potential hosts of ARGs) in coastal area. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changing pattern of the subcellular distribution of erythroblast macrophage protein (Emp) during macrophage differentiation.

PubMed

Soni, Shivani; Bala, Shashi; Kumar, Ajay; Hanspal, Manjit

2007-01-01

Erythroblast macrophage protein (Emp) mediates the attachment of erythroid cells to macrophages and is required for normal differentiation of both cell lineages. In erythroid cells, Emp is believed to be involved in nuclear extrusion, however, its role in macrophage differentiation is unknown. Information on the changes in the expression level and subcellular distribution of Emp in differentiating macrophages is essential for understanding the function of Emp. Macrophages of varying maturity were examined by immunofluorescence microscopy and biochemical methods. Our data show that Emp is expressed in all stages of maturation, but its localization pattern changes dramatically during maturation: in immature macrophages, a substantial fraction of Emp is associated with the nuclear matrix, whereas in more mature cells, Emp is expressed largely at cell surface. Pulse-chase experiments show that nascent Emp migrates intracellularly from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane more efficiently in mature macrophages than in immature cells. Incubation of erythroid cells with macrophages in culture shows that erythroid cells attach to mature macrophages but not to immature macrophage precursors. Together, our data show that the temporal and spatial expression of Emp correlates with its role in erythroblastic island formation and suggest that Emp may be involved in multiple cellular functions.

*CHANGING PATTERN OF THE SUBCELLULAR DISTRIBUTION OF ERYTHROBLAST MACROPHAGE PROTEIN (EMP) DURING MACROPHAGE DIFFERENTIATION

PubMed Central

Soni, Shivani; Bala, Shashi; Kumar, Ajay; Hanspal, Manjit

2007-01-01

Erythroblast macrophage protein (Emp), mediates the attachment of erythroid cells to macrophages, and is required for normal differentiation of both cell lineages. In erythroid cells Emp is believed to be involved in nuclear extrusion however, its role in macrophage differentiation is unknown. Information on the changes in the expression level and subcellular distribution of Emp in differentiating macrophages is essential for understanding the function of Emp. Macrophages of varying maturity were examined by immunofluorescence microscopy and biochemical methods. Our data shows that Emp is expressed in all stages of maturation, but its localization pattern changes dramatically during maturation: in immature macrophages, a substantial fraction of Emp is associated with the nuclear matrix, whereas in more mature cells, Emp is expressed largely at cell surface. Pulse-chase experiments show that nascent Emp migrates intracellularly from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane more efficiently in mature macrophages than in immature cells. Incubation of erythroid cells with macrophages in culture show that erythroid cells attach to mature macrophages but not to immature macrophage precursors. Together, our data shows that the temporal and spatial expression of Emp correlates with its role in erythroblastic island formation, and suggests that Emp may be involved in multiple cellular functions. PMID:17071116

Care initiation area yields dramatic results.

PubMed

2009-03-01

The ED at Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia, NC, has achieved dramatic results in key department metrics with a Care Initiation Area (CIA) and a physician in triage. Here's how the ED arrived at this winning solution: Leadership was trained in and implemented the Kaizen method, which eliminates redundant or inefficient process steps. Simulation software helped determine additional space needed by analyzing arrival patterns and other key data. After only two days of meetings, new ideas were implemented and tested.

Women as Workers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrett, Nancy S.

As increasing numbers of women make the transition from the household sector into the labor market, dramatic changes in household composition have occurred that have thrust many women into the role of provider. This new role for women has led to dramatic and rapid changes in attitudes, as well as in the institutions and laws relating to women's…

Genes involved in leukotriene synthesis pathway are dynamically regulated during lung development in Rhesus monkeys.

PubMed

Xia, Wanmin; Xie, Liang; Cao, Bangrong; Cheng, Shujun; Wan, Huajing; Liu, Hanmin

2017-07-01

Leukotrienes play critical roles in many inflammatory lung diseases and several antagonists of their receptors have been used in the clinical settings. However, the physiological functions of leukotrienes in lung development are still unclear. The expression levels of 34 genes involved in leukotriene synthesis and function pathway in the lungs of Rhesus monkey during different developmental time points were determined on a MiSeq platform and analyzed by the reads per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (RPKM) method. The results showed that the expression levels of PLA2G1B, PLA2G10, PLA2G2D, ALOX5, and ALOX5AP increased dramatically in the lung of Rhesus monkey, reflecting the changes in the pulmonary environment after delivery. Additionally, the different expression patterns between molecules related to LTB4 and LTC4 synthesis suggested distinct roles of LTB4 and LTC4 in lung development. Finally, the constant expression of CysLT1 during the development process provided new information to the pharmaceutical basis of the use of leukotriene receptor antagonists in the clinical setting. The expression levels of several key genes involved in leukotriene synthesis changed dramatically during lung development in Rhesus monkeys, suggesting the potential roles of leukotrienes in lung development in this animal model. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conservation genetics of managed ungulate populations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Scribner, Kim T.

1993-01-01

Natural populations of many species are increasingly impacted by human activities. Perturbations are particularly pronunced for large ungulates due in part to sport and commercial harvest, to reductions and fragmentation of native habitat, and as the result of reintroductions. These perturbations affect population size, sex and age composition, and population breeding structure, and as a consequence affect the levels and partitioning of genetic variation. Three case histories highlighting long-term ecological genetic research on mule deer Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817), white-tailed deer O. virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780), and Alpine ibex Capra i. ibex Linnaeus, 1758 are presented. Joint examinations of population ecological and genetic data from several populations of each species reveal: (1) that populations are not in genetic equilibrium, but that allele frequencies and heterozygosity change dramatically over time and among cohorts produced in successive years, (2) populations are genetically structured over short and large geographic distances reflecting local breeding structure and patterns of gene flow, respectively; however, this structure is quite dynamic over time, due in part to population exploitation, and (3) restocking programs are often undertaken with small numbers of founding individuals resulting in dramatic declines in levels of genetic variability and increasing levels of genetic differentiation among populations due to genetic drift. Genetic characteristics have and will continue to provide valuable indirect sources of information relating enviromental and human perturbations to changes in population processes.

The impact of alterations in lignin deposition on cellulose organization of the plant cell wall

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

Liu, Jiliang; Kim, Jeong Im; Cusumano, Joanne C.

Background: Coordination of synthesis and assembly of the polymeric components of cell walls is essential for plant growth and development. Given the degree of co-mingling and cross-linking among cell wall components, cellulose organization must be dependent on the organization of other polymers such as lignin. Here we seek to identify aspects of that codependency by studying the structural organization of cellulose fibrils in stems from Arabidopsis plants harboring mutations in genes encoding enzymes involved in lignin biosynthesis. Plants containing high levels of G-lignin, S-lignin, H-lignin, aldehyde-rich lignin, and ferulic acid-containing lignin, along with plants with very low lignin content weremore » grown and harvested and longitudinal sections of stem were prepared and dried. Scanning X-ray microdiffraction was carried out using a 5-micron beam that moved across the sections in 5-micron steps and complete diffraction patterns were collected at each raster point. Approximately, 16,000 diffraction patterns were analyzed to determine cellulose fibril orientation and order within the tissues making up the stems. Results: Several mutations-most notably those exhibiting (1) down-regulation of cinnamoyl CoA reductase which leads to cell walls deficient in lignin and (2) defect of cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase which greatly reduces lignin content-exhibited significant decrease in the proportion of oriented cellulose fibrils in the cell wall. Distinctions between tissues were maintained in all variants and even in plants exhibiting dramatic changes in cellulosic order the trends between tissues (where apparent) were generally maintained. The resilience of cellulose to degradative processes was investigated by carrying out the same analysis on samples stored in water for 30 days prior to data collection. This treatment led to significant loss of cellulosic order in plants rich in aldehyde or H-lignin, less change in wild type, and essentially no change in samples with high levels of G-or S-lignin. Conclusions: These studies demonstrate that changes in lignin biosynthesis lead to significant disruption in the orientation and order of cellulose fibrils in all tissues of the stem. These dramatic phenotypic changes, in mutants with lignin rich in aldehyde or H-units, correlate with the impact the mutations have on the enzymatic degradation of the plant cell wall.« less

How the Aridification of Australia Structured the Biogeography and Influenced the Diversification of a Large Lineage of Australian Cicadas.

PubMed

Owen, Christopher L; Marshall, David C; Hill, Kathy B R; Simon, Chris

2017-07-01

Over the last 30 million years, Australia's landscape has undergone dramatic cooling and drying due to the establishment of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and change in global CO$_{2}$ levels. Studies have shown that many Australian organisms went extinct during these major cooling events, while others experienced adaptive radiations and increases in diversification rates as a result of exploiting new niches in the arid zone. Despite the many studies on diversification and biogeography in Australia, few have been continent-wide and none have focused on a group of organisms adapted to feeding on plants. We studied 162 species of cicadas in the Australian Pauropsalta complex, a large generic lineage within the tribe Cicadettini. We asked whether there were changes in the diversification rate of Pauropsalta over time and if so: 1) which clades were associated with the rate change? 2) did timing of rate shifts correspond to known periods of dramatic historical climate change, 3) did increases in diversification rate along select lineages correspond to adaptive radiations with movement into the arid zone? To address these questions, we estimated a molecular phylogeny of the Pauropsalta complex using ${\\sim}$5300 bp of nucleotide sequence data distributed among five loci (one mtDNA locus and four nDNA loci). We found that this large group of cicadas did not diversify at a constant rate as they spread through Australia; instead the signature of decreasing diversification rate changed roughly around the time of the expansion of the east Antarctic ice sheets ${\\sim}$16 Ma and the glaciation of the northern hemisphere ${\\sim}$3 Ma. Unlike other Australian taxa, the Pauropsalta complex did not explosively radiate in response to an early invasion of the arid zone. Instead multiple groups invaded the arid zone and experienced rates of diversification similar to mesic-distributed taxa. We found evidence for relictual groups, located in pre-Mesozoic habitat, that have not diversified and continue to reside on mesic hosts in isolated "habitat islands". Future work should focus on groups of similar ages with similar distribution patterns to determine whether this tempo and pattern of diversification and biogeography is consistent with evidence from other phytophagous insects. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Understanding the perceived need for complementary and alternative nutraceuticals: lifestyle issues.

PubMed

Whitman, M

2001-01-01

Nutraceuticals are biological therapies used to promote wellness, prevent malignant processes, and control symptoms. The use of complementary and alternative nutraceuticals increased dramatically after passage of the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994. Motivations for use of these products include changes in eating patterns, concerns about adequacy of consumer food supply, and interactions with conventional healthcare providers that are perceived to be insensitive, too brief, or uncaring. By becoming knowledgeable about complementary and alternative nutraceuticals and the nutritional needs of people with cancer, communicating with empathy and patience, and involving dietitians, pharmacist, and other professional providers as needed, oncology nurses can provide accurate information and support for people with cancer and their families.

Investigation of histone H4 hyperacetylation dynamics in the 5S rRNA genes family by chromatin immunoprecipitation assay.

PubMed

Burlibașa, Liliana; Suciu, Ilinca

2015-12-01

Oogenesis is a critical event in the formation of female gamete, whose role in development is to transfer genomic information to the next generation. During this process, the gene expression pattern changes dramatically concomitant with genome remodelling, while genomic information is stably maintained. The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of H4 acetylation of the oocyte and somatic 5S rRNA genes in Triturus cristatus, using chromatin immunoprecipitation assay (ChIP). Our findings suggest that some epigenetic mechanisms such as histone acetylation could be involved in the transcriptional regulation of 5S rRNA gene families.

Dramatic Changes in Health Care Professions in the Past 40 Years.

PubMed

Goldfield, Norbert

During the forty-year life of the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, revolutionary transformations have occurred in the roles of existing health professions, as has the emergence of new categories of health professionals. This paper specifies the reasons for these dramatic changes, the new types of health care professions that have emerged, changes in existing professions, and suggestions of future directions. Many of these changes will be impacted by what occurs in Washington, DC in the debate over the Accountable Care Act.

Adolescence and changing family relations in the Central Canadian Arctic.

PubMed

Condon, R G

1990-04-01

This paper reports on a ten-year longitudinal study of adolescent development and socialization conducted in the Copper Inuit community of Holman. This research has documented how demographic, social, and economic changes have dramatically altered the patterning and sequencing of traditional Inuit life stages, thus giving rise to a prolonged adolescent life stage which was non-existent in the precontact period. At the same time, Inuit family relations have undergone drastic changes as a result of population increase, population concentration, access to government housing, introduction of formal schooling, and the availability of social subsides. Today, the Copper Inuit family has lost its focus as the primary agent of socialization and learning, and many young Inuit now spend most of their time within the context of a greatly expanded peer group which has gradually acquired the values and aspirations of the southern adolescent sub-culture. This paper will discuss the impact of these changing attitudes upon parent-child relations as well as the social adjustment problems experienced by young Inuit as they strive to find a place in the North's changing social landscape.

A contemporary decennial global sample of changing agricultural field sizes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, E.; Roy, D. P.

2011-12-01

In the last several hundred years agriculture has caused significant human induced Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) with dramatic cropland expansion and a marked increase in agricultural productivity. The size of agricultural fields is a fundamental description of rural landscapes and provides an insight into the drivers of rural LCLUC. Increasing field sizes cause a subsequent decrease in the number of fields and therefore decreased landscape spatial complexity with impacts on biodiversity, habitat, soil erosion, plant-pollinator interactions, diffusion of disease pathogens and pests, and loss or degradation in buffers to nutrient, herbicide and pesticide flows. In this study, globally distributed locations with significant contemporary field size change were selected guided by a global map of agricultural yield and literature review and were selected to be representative of different driving forces of field size change (associated with technological innovation, socio-economic conditions, government policy, historic patterns of land cover land use, and environmental setting). Seasonal Landsat data acquired on a decadal basis (for 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010) were used to extract field boundaries and the temporal changes in field size quantified and their causes discussed.

Strategies of TV News Dramatization: An Attempt of Discourse Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mancini, Paolo

This paper defines indicators related to the dramatization of television and formulates a methodology for analyzing the discourse of the television news based on empirical studies. This methodology is used to isolate some indicators of dramatization as it relates to the structure and form of the message. The changes that have affected the text of…

Stable Patterns of CENH3 Occupancy Through Maize Lineages Containing Genetically Similar Centromeres

PubMed Central

Gent, Jonathan I.; Wang, Kai; Jiang, Jiming; Dawe, R. Kelly

2015-01-01

While the approximate chromosomal position of centromeres has been identified in many species, little is known about the dynamics and diversity of centromere positions within species. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that DNA sequence has little or no impact in specifying centromeres in maize and in most multicellular organisms. Given that epigenetically defined boundaries are expected to be dynamic, we hypothesized that centromere positions would change rapidly over time, which would result in a diversity of centromere positions in isolated populations. To test this hypothesis, we used CENP-A/cenH3 (CENH3 in maize) chromatin immunoprecipitation to define centromeres in breeding pedigrees that included the B73 inbred as a common parent. While we found a diversity of CENH3 profiles for centromeres with divergent sequences that were not inherited from B73, the CENH3 profiles from centromeres that were inherited from B73 were indistinguishable from each other. We propose that specific genetic elements in centromeric regions favor or inhibit CENH3 accumulation, leading to reproducible patterns of CENH3 occupancy. These data also indicate that dramatic shifts in centromere position normally originate from accumulated or large-scale genetic changes rather than from epigenetic positional drift. PMID:26063660

Differential changes of fat-soluble vitamins and pollutants during lactation in northern elephant seal mother-pup pairs.

PubMed

Debier, Cathy; Crocker, Daniel E; Houser, Dorian S; Vanden Berghe, Marie; Fowler, Melinda; Mignolet, Eric; de Tillesse, Tanguy; Rees, Jean-François; Thomé, Jean-Pierre; Larondelle, Yvan

2012-08-01

We investigated the changes of vitamins A and E as well as PCBs and DDTs during lactation in northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) mother-pup pairs. On average, milk vitamin A concentrations were 6 times higher during late lactation than during early lactation, a pattern that differs dramatically from terrestrial mammals. Vitamin A concentrations also significantly increased in the inner blubber throughout lactation, whereas they remained constant in the outer blubber. Similar dynamics were observed for PCBs and DDTs in maternal blubber and milk. Blubber appears to be an important storage site for vitamin A and organochlorines in seals and a direct transfer of those molecules to the mammary gland may occur. The dynamics of vitamin A, PCBs and DDTs differed from those of vitamin E. There was a significant drop in milk vitamin E concentrations between early and late lactation, which is the usual pattern observed in terrestrial mammals. The dynamics of vitamin E in the blubber layers also differed from those of vitamin A, suggesting different mechanisms of mobilization and transfer into the milk. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gender-specific changes in physical activity pattern in Iran: national surveillance of risk factors of non-communicable diseases (2007-2011).

PubMed

Koohpayehzadeh, Jalil; Etemad, Koorosh; Abbasi, Mehrshad; Meysamie, Alipasha; Sheikhbahaei, Sara; Asgari, Fereshteh; Noshad, Sina; Hafezi-Nejad, Nima; Rafei, Ali; Mousavizadeh, Mostafa; Khajeh, Elias; Ebadi, Maryam; Nakhjavani, Manouchehr; Esteghamati, Alireza

2014-04-01

This study describes the gender-specific pattern of physical activity (PA) in Iran 2011. The 4-year changes in PA levels (domains) are also determined according to the Iran's national surveys conducted on 2007 and 2011. Physical activity assessed based on the global physical activity questionnaire. In all, 4,121 (2007), and 7,436 (2011) adults were analyzed. Based on 2011 survey, 56.4 %, 39.2 %, and 74.4 % of participants were physically inactive at work, commuting and recreation, respectively. In all domains of PA, males showed a higher degree of activity (min/day) than females (P value <0.001). The overall prevalence of physical inactivity was increased from 15 % (2007) to 21.5 % (2011) (P value <0.001). Over the 4 years, a significant decline in total physical activity (MET × min/week) and the duration of commuting activity were noted in both genders. Work-related activity was dramatically decreased in females. However, the time spent in recreational activity remained relatively constant. This report indicating that the Iranian population, particularly females, have become less active during the survey period. Physical inactivity should receive more attention as a public health issue.

Toyota's tips drive dramatic ED improvements.

PubMed

2002-11-01

The Toyota Motor Corp.'s key concepts of allowing workers to make changes, putting the customer first, and reducing waste can have a dramatic impact when implemented in emergency departments. Staff should be empowered to make changes to improve quality. A chain of events should be set in motion for each customer request. Identify and eliminate roadblocks that cause delays.

Marsh canopy structure changes and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ramsey, Elijah W.; Rangoonwala, Amina; Jones, Cathleen E.

2016-01-01

Marsh canopy structure was mapped yearly from 2009 to 2012 in the Barataria Bay, Louisiana coastal region that was impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. Based on the previously demonstrated capability of NASA's UAVSAR polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image data to map Spartina alterniflora marsh canopy structure, structure maps combining the leaf area index (LAI) and leaf angle distribution (LAD, orientation) were constructed for yearly intervals that were directly relatable to the 2010 LAI-LAD classification. The yearly LAI-LAD and LAI difference maps were used to investigate causes for the previously revealed dramatic change in marsh structure from prespill (2009) to postspill (2010, spill cessation), and the occurrence of structure features that exhibited abnormal spatial and temporal patterns. Water level and salinity records showed that freshwater releases used to keep the oil offshore did not cause the rapid growth from 2009 to 2010 in marsh surrounding the inner Bay. Photointerpretation of optical image data determined that interior marsh patches exhibiting rapid change were caused by burns and burn recovery, and that the pattern of 2010 to 2011 LAI decreases in backshore marsh and extending along some tidal channels into the interior marsh were not associated with burns. Instead, the majority of 2010 to 2011 shoreline features aligned with vectors displaying the severity of 2010 shoreline oiling from the DWH spill. Although the association is not conclusive of a causal oil impact, the coexistent pattern is a significant discovery. PolSAR marsh structure mapping provided a unique perspective of marsh biophysical status that enhanced detection of change and monitoring of trends important to management effectiveness.

Diurnal patterns of branch movement in a desert shrub (Larrea tridentata) track hydraulic stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hallmark, A.

2016-12-01

Near-surface, repeat digital photography has emerged as a powerful tool to collect continuous observations of plant traits of individuals and communities across daily, seasonal, and annual time scales. To date, this technology has largely been used to detect patterns of vegetative phenology or "canopy greenness." Little work has been done to use digital photographs to quantify changes in canopy structure or shifts in canopy function on shorter time scales. In this study, we tracked the position of creosote (Larrea tridentata) branches using a timeseries of photos taken in a creosote-dominated shrubland in central New Mexico, USA where radiation, temperature, humidity, soil water content, soil water potential, and stem water potential were also measured. We found that both living and dead woody branches displayed dramatic diurnal patterns of movement, with shrubs only 1-2 m in height sometimes undergoing vertical shifts in branch position of over 0.25 m and changes in branch angle of over 20 degrees. Although circadian rhythms in plants are often attributed to cyclical patterns of photoperiod or temperature, we found that creosote branch movements were best correlated with diurnal changes in stem water potential and atmospheric humidity and that this correlation was stronger under wetter soil conditions. Branches were straighter and oriented in higher positions in times of low hydraulic stress, possibly preparing the creosote to better capture moisture via stemflow. Branches were oriented lower to the ground in times of high hydraulic stress, possibly providing more shade and reducing soil evaporation beneath the base of the shrub. To our knowledge, this is the first study to describe diurnal patterns of branch movements in creosote and is the most extensive dataset of observations of diurnal movements in any woody plant. It provides more knowledge about the biology of a desert shrub, but also offers novel methods for using repeat digital photography to gain inferences about plant form and function.

Modeled historical land use and land cover for the conterminous United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sohl, Terry L.; Reker, Ryan R.; Bouchard, Michelle A.; Sayler, Kristi L.; Dornbierer, Jordan; Wika, Steve; Quenzer, Robert; Friesz, Aaron M.

2016-01-01

The landscape of the conterminous United States has changed dramatically over the last 200 years, with agricultural land use, urban expansion, forestry, and other anthropogenic activities altering land cover across vast swaths of the country. While land use and land cover (LULC) models have been developed to model potential future LULC change, few efforts have focused on recreating historical landscapes. Researchers at the US Geological Survey have used a wide range of historical data sources and a spatially explicit modeling framework to model spatially explicit historical LULC change in the conterminous United States from 1992 back to 1938. Annual LULC maps were produced at 250-m resolution, with 14 LULC classes. Assessment of model results showed good agreement with trends and spatial patterns in historical data sources such as the Census of Agriculture and historical housing density data, although comparison with historical data is complicated by definitional and methodological differences. The completion of this dataset allows researchers to assess historical LULC impacts on a range of ecological processes.

Microarray analysis on gene regulation by estrogen, progesterone and tamoxifen in human endometrial stromal cells.

PubMed

Ren, Chun-E; Zhu, Xueqiong; Li, Jinping; Lyle, Christian; Dowdy, Sean; Podratz, Karl C; Byck, David; Chen, Hai-Bin; Jiang, Shi-Wen

2015-03-13

Epithelial stromal cells represent a major cellular component of human uterine endometrium that is subject to tight hormonal regulation. Through cell-cell contacts and/or paracrine mechanisms, stromal cells play a significant role in the malignant transformation of epithelial cells. We isolated stromal cells from normal human endometrium and investigated the morphological and transcriptional changes induced by estrogen, progesterone and tamoxifen. We demonstrated that stromal cells express appreciable levels of estrogen and progesterone receptors and undergo different morphological changes upon hormonal stimulation. Microarray analysis indicated that both estrogen and progesterone induced dramatic alterations in a variety of genes associated with cell structure, transcription, cell cycle, and signaling. However, divergent patterns of changes, and in some genes opposite effects, were observed for the two hormones. A large number of genes are identified as novel targets for hormonal regulation. These hormone-responsive genes may be involved in normal uterine function and the development of endometrial malignancies.

Cross-boundary rotational working for neonatal nurses.

PubMed

Kane, Tina

2007-05-01

Neonatal services in England and Wales are undergoing significant changes as a result of technological advances as well as the development of new networks. These changes have had a dramatic effect on the neonatal workforce. The skills of the available staff govern the level of activity of neonatal units: many units have had to re-evaluate the services they can safely deliver with the available workforce. This has resulted in the re-configuration of some neonatal units and changes in the dependency levels of many. Units have had to undertake reviews of the patterns of working of their staff to ensure that a skilled and competent workforce is available to provide the level of care each neonatal service requires. Shortages in some areas have meant that units have had to find new ways to retain and update skilled staff. This article describes a rotational programme developed with the aim of providing a continued clinical development pathway for neonatal nursing staff. The programme incorporates competency assessments of emergency skills and clinical and technological advances in neonatal care.

In Brief: Arctic Report Card

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

2009-11-01

The 2009 annual update of the Arctic Report Card, issued on 22 October, indicates that “warming of the Arctic continues to be widespread, and in some cases dramatic. Linkages between air, land, sea, and biology are evident.” The report, a collaborative effort of 71 national and international scientists initiated in 2006 by the Climate Program Office of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), highlights several concerns, including a change in large-scale wind patterns affected by the loss of summer sea ice; the replacement of multiyear sea ice by first-year sea ice; warmer and fresher water in the upper ocean linked to new ice-free areas; and the effects of the loss of sea ice on Arctic plant, animal, and fish species. “Climate change is happening faster in the Arctic than any other place on Earth-and with wide-ranging consequences,” said NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco. “This year“s Arctic Report Card underscores the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas pollution and adapting to climate changes already under way.”

Movements of wintering surf scoters: Predator responses to different prey landscapes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kirk, M.; Esler, Daniel N.; Iverson, S.A.; Boyd, W.S.

2008-01-01

The distribution of predators is widely recognized to be intimately linked to the distribution of their prey. Foraging theory suggests that predators will modify their behaviors, including movements, to optimize net energy intake when faced with variation in prey attributes or abundance. While many studies have documented changes in movement patterns of animals in response to temporal changes in food, very few have contrasted movements of a single predator species naturally occurring in dramatically different prey landscapes. We documented variation in the winter movements, foraging range size, site fidelity, and distribution patterns of a molluscivorous sea duck, the surf scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), in two areas of coastal British Columbia with very different shellfish prey features. Baynes Sound has extensive tidal flats with abundant clams, which are high-quality and temporally stable prey for scoters. Malaspina Inlet is a rocky fjord-like inlet where scoters consume mussels that are superabundant and easily accessible in some patches but are heavily depleted over the course of winter. We used radio telemetry to track surf scoter movements in both areas and found that in the clam habitats of Baynes Sound, surf scoters exhibited limited movement, small winter ranges, strong foraging site fidelity, and very consistent distribution patterns. By contrast, in mussel habitats in the Malaspina Inlet, surf scoters displayed more movement, larger ranges, little fidelity to specific foraging sites, and more variable distribution patterns. We conclude that features associated with the different prey types, particularly the higher depletion rates of mussels, strongly influenced seasonal space use patterns. These findings are consistent with foraging theory and confirm that predator behavior, specifically movements, is environmentally mediated. ?? 2008 Springer-Verlag.

Arctic climatechange and its impacts on the ecology of the North Atlantic.

PubMed

Greene, Charles H; Pershing, Andrew J; Cronin, Thomas M; Ceci, Nicole

2008-11-01

Arctic climate change from the Paleocene epoch to the present is reconstructed with the objective of assessing its recent and future impacts on the ecology of the North Atlantic. A recurring theme in Earth's paleoclimate record is the importance of the Arctic atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere in regulating global climate on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. A second recurring theme in this record is the importance of freshwater export from the Arctic in regulating global- to basin-scale ocean circulation patterns and climate. Since the 1970s, historically unprecedented changes have been observed in the Arctic as climate warming has increased precipitation, river discharge, and glacial as well as sea-ice melting. In addition, modal shifts in the atmosphere have altered Arctic Ocean circulation patterns and the export of freshwater into the North Atlantic. The combination of these processes has resulted in variable patterns of freshwater export from the Arctic Ocean and the emergence of salinity anomalies that have periodically freshened waters in the North Atlantic. Since the early 1990s, changes in Arctic Ocean circulation patterns and freshwater export have been associated with two types of ecological responses in the North Atlantic. The first of these responses has been an ongoing series of biogeographic range expansions by boreal plankton, including renewal of the trans-Arctic exchanges of Pacific species with the Atlantic. The second response was a dramatic regime shift in the shelf ecosystems of the Northwest Atlantic that occurred during the early 1990s. This regime shift resulted from freshening and stratification of the shelf waters, which in turn could be linked to changes in the abundances and seasonal cycles of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and higher trophic-level consumer populations. It is predicted that the recently observed ecological responses to Arctic climate change in the North Atlantic will continue into the near future if current trends in sea ice, freshwater export, and surface ocean salinity continue. It is more difficult to predict ecological responses to abrupt climate change in the more distant future as tipping points in the Earth's climate system are exceeded.

Body image, health, and modernity: women's perspectives and experiences in the United Arab Emirates.

PubMed

Trainer, Sarah S

2010-07-01

The countries of the Arab Gulf have experienced accelerated development and urbanization over the last 50 years. Changes in health have likewise been dramatic: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE now have some of the highest proportions of obese/overweight people in the world, with correspondingly high rates of chronic disease. In the UAE, particularly high rates of obesity/overweight have been reported among middle-aged Emirati women, but other problems relating to health and nutrition are starting to be identified in younger age groups as well. This article describes preliminary data from a project among young Emirati women in the UAE. This study examines how these women cope with the increased availability of fast food, changing work patterns, and evolving ideas about body image, "risk," and health within a larger context of increasing chronic disease and weight gain throughout the UAE.

Clinical bioethics in china: the challenge of entering a market economy.

PubMed

Chen, Xiao-Yang

2006-02-01

Over the last quarter-century, China has experienced dramatic changes associated with its development of a market economy. The character of clinical practice is also profoundly influenced by the ways in which reimbursement scales are established in public hospitals. The market distortions that lead to the over-prescription of drugs and the medically unindicated use of more expensive drugs and more costly high-technology diagnostic and therapeutic interventions create the most significant threat to patients. The payment of red packets represents a black-market attempt to circumvent the non-market constraint on physicians' fees for services. These economic and practice pattern changes are taking place as China and many Pacific Rim societies are reconsidering the moral foundations of their professional ethics and their bioethics. The integrity of the medical profession and the trust of patients in physicians can only be restored and protected if the distorting forces of contemporary public policy are altered.

Cognitive Deficits in Breast Cancer Survivors After Chemotherapy and Hormonal Therapy.

PubMed

Frank, Jennifer Sandson; Vance, David E; Triebel, Kristen L; Meneses, Karen M

2015-12-01

Adjuvant treatments, specifically chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, have dramatically increased breast cancer survival, resulting in increased attention to the residual effects of treatment. Breast cancer survivors (BCS) frequently report that cognitive deficits are a particular source of distress, interfering with many aspects of quality of life. The literature on neuropsychological performance measures in BCS supports the reality of subtle cognitive deficits after both chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. This premise is supported by recent imaging studies, which reveal anatomical changes after chemotherapy as well as changes in patterns of neural activation while performing cognitive tasks. This review suggests that, even when performance on neuropsychological performance measures is within normal limits, BCS may be using increased cognitive resources in the face of reduced cognitive reserve. Potential interventions for cognitive deficits after adjuvant therapy include prescriptions for healthy living, pharmacotherapy, complementary therapy, and cognitive remediation therapy directed toward specific cognitive deficits or a combination of several strategies.

Effects of bioleaching on the mechanical and chemical properties of waste rocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Sheng-Hua; Wu, Ai-Xiang; Wang, Shao-Yong; Ai, Chun-Ming

2012-01-01

Bioleaching processes cause dramatic changes in the mechanical and chemical properties of waste rocks, and play an important role in metal recovery and dump stability. This study focused on the characteristics of waste rocks subjected to bioleaching. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the evolution of rock properties during the bioleaching process. Mechanical behaviors of the leached waste rocks, such as failure patterns, normal stress, shear strength, and cohesion were determined through mechanical tests. The results of SEM imaging show considerable differences in the surface morphology of leached rocks located at different parts of the dump. The mineralogical content of the leached rocks reflects the extent of dissolution and precipitation during bioleaching. The dump porosity and rock size change under the effect of dissolution, precipitation, and clay transportation. The particle size of the leached rocks decreased due to the loss of rock integrity and the conversion of dry precipitation into fine particles.

Photographic monitoring of soiling and decay of roadside walls in central Oxford, England

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thornbush, Mary J.; Viles, Heather A.

2008-12-01

As part of the Environmental Monitoring of Integrated Transport Strategies (EMITS) project, which examined the impact of the Oxford Transport Strategy (OTS) on the soiling and decay of buildings and structures in central Oxford, England, a simple photographic survey of a sample of roadside walls was carried out in 1997, with re-surveys in 1999 and 2003. Thirty photographs were taken each time, covering an area of stonework approximately 30 × 30 cm in dimensions at 1-1.3 m above pavement level. The resulting images have been used to investigate, both qualitatively as well as quantitatively, the progression of soiling and decay. Comparison of images by eye reveals a number of minor changes in soiling and decay patterns, but generally indicates stability except at one site where dramatic, superficial damage occurred over 2 years. Quantitative analysis of decay features (concavities resulting from surface blistering, flaking, and scaling), using simple techniques in Adobe Photoshop, shows variable pixel-based size proportions of concavities across 6 years of survey. Colour images (in Lab Color) generally have a reduced proportion of pixels, representing decay features in comparison to black and white (Grayscale) images. The study conveys that colour images provide more information both for general observations of soiling and decay patterns and for segmentation of decay-produced concavities. The study indicates that simple repeat photography can reveal useful information about changing patterns of both soiling and decay, although unavoidable variation in external lighting conditions between re-surveys is a factor limiting the accuracy of change detection.

Is nutritional quality of food-at-home purchases improving? 1969-2010: 40 years of household consumption surveys in France.

PubMed

Caillavet, France; Darmon, Nicole; Létoile, Flavie; Nichèle, Véronique

2018-02-01

The rise of nutrition-related diseases in developed countries prompts investigation into the role played by changing food patterns. Our aim was to observe changes in food-at-home purchases by French households and their impacts on nutritional quality over the past 40 years (1969-2010). Time-series of food-at-home purchases from representative samples of French households were built based on two sources of data: the INSEE National Food Survey (1969-1991) and the Kantar Food Consumption Panel (1989-2010). Food-at-home purchases were converted into energy and nutrients using the French CIQUAL food composition table. The nutritional quality of food-at-home purchases was estimated using the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) for 15 key nutrients. MAR was expressed per 2000 kcal to assess the nutrient density of food-at-home purchases. Between 1969 and 2010, food-at-home purchases showed dramatic changes in many food groups, with increasing processed vs raw products. The purchase of calories increased (+6.7%) and nutrient density improved (MAR per 2000 kcal + 12.9 points). However, this overall trend harbors heterogeneous patterns: food-at-home calories decreased and nutrient density improved up to 2002, but then calories increased while nutrient density stabilized. The nutritional quality of French households' food-at-home purchases improved over the last 40 years, as shown by increasing nutrient density. However, during the last decade, nutrient density ceased to increase and the purchase of calories increased, advocating a need for public action to promote healthier food purchasing patterns.

Conservation of Endo16 expression in sea urchins despite evolutionary divergence in both cis and trans-acting components of transcriptional regulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Romano, Laura A.; Wray, Gregory A.

2003-01-01

Evolutionary changes in transcriptional regulation undoubtedly play an important role in creating morphological diversity. However, there is little information about the evolutionary dynamics of cis-regulatory sequences. This study examines the functional consequence of evolutionary changes in the Endo16 promoter of sea urchins. The Endo16 gene encodes a large extracellular protein that is expressed in the endoderm and may play a role in cell adhesion. Its promoter has been characterized in exceptional detail in the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. We have characterized the structure and function of the Endo16 promoter from a second sea urchin species, Lytechinus variegatus. The Endo16 promoter sequences have evolved in a strongly mosaic manner since these species diverged approximately 35 million years ago: the most proximal region (module A) is conserved, but the remaining modules (B-G) are unalignable. Despite extensive divergence in promoter sequences, the pattern of Endo16 transcription is largely conserved during embryonic and larval development. Transient expression assays demonstrate that 2.2 kb of upstream sequence in either species is sufficient to drive GFP reporter expression that correctly mimics this pattern of Endo16 transcription. Reciprocal cross-species transient expression assays imply that changes have also evolved in the set of transcription factors that interact with the Endo16 promoter. Taken together, these results suggest that stabilizing selection on the transcriptional output may have operated to maintain a similar pattern of Endo16 expression in S. purpuratus and L. variegatus, despite dramatic divergence in promoter sequence and mechanisms of transcriptional regulation.

Tongue-driven sonar beam steering by a lingual-echolocating fruit bat

PubMed Central

Falk, Benjamin; Chiu, Chen; Krishnan, Anand; Arbour, Jessica H.; Moss, Cynthia F.

2017-01-01

Animals enhance sensory acquisition from a specific direction by movements of head, ears, or eyes. As active sensing animals, echolocating bats also aim their directional sonar beam to selectively “illuminate” a confined volume of space, facilitating efficient information processing by reducing echo interference and clutter. Such sonar beam control is generally achieved by head movements or shape changes of the sound-emitting mouth or nose. However, lingual-echolocating Egyptian fruit bats, Rousettus aegyptiacus, which produce sound by clicking their tongue, can dramatically change beam direction at very short temporal intervals without visible morphological changes. The mechanism supporting this capability has remained a mystery. Here, we measured signals from free-flying Egyptian fruit bats and discovered a systematic angular sweep of beam focus across increasing frequency. This unusual signal structure has not been observed in other animals and cannot be explained by the conventional and widely-used “piston model” that describes the emission pattern of other bat species. Through modeling, we show that the observed beam features can be captured by an array of tongue-driven sound sources located along the side of the mouth, and that the sonar beam direction can be steered parsimoniously by inducing changes to the pattern of phase differences through moving tongue location. The effects are broadly similar to those found in a phased array—an engineering design widely found in human-made sonar systems that enables beam direction changes without changes in the physical transducer assembly. Our study reveals an intriguing parallel between biology and human engineering in solving problems in fundamentally similar ways. PMID:29244805

Tongue-driven sonar beam steering by a lingual-echolocating fruit bat.

PubMed

Lee, Wu-Jung; Falk, Benjamin; Chiu, Chen; Krishnan, Anand; Arbour, Jessica H; Moss, Cynthia F

2017-12-01

Animals enhance sensory acquisition from a specific direction by movements of head, ears, or eyes. As active sensing animals, echolocating bats also aim their directional sonar beam to selectively "illuminate" a confined volume of space, facilitating efficient information processing by reducing echo interference and clutter. Such sonar beam control is generally achieved by head movements or shape changes of the sound-emitting mouth or nose. However, lingual-echolocating Egyptian fruit bats, Rousettus aegyptiacus, which produce sound by clicking their tongue, can dramatically change beam direction at very short temporal intervals without visible morphological changes. The mechanism supporting this capability has remained a mystery. Here, we measured signals from free-flying Egyptian fruit bats and discovered a systematic angular sweep of beam focus across increasing frequency. This unusual signal structure has not been observed in other animals and cannot be explained by the conventional and widely-used "piston model" that describes the emission pattern of other bat species. Through modeling, we show that the observed beam features can be captured by an array of tongue-driven sound sources located along the side of the mouth, and that the sonar beam direction can be steered parsimoniously by inducing changes to the pattern of phase differences through moving tongue location. The effects are broadly similar to those found in a phased array-an engineering design widely found in human-made sonar systems that enables beam direction changes without changes in the physical transducer assembly. Our study reveals an intriguing parallel between biology and human engineering in solving problems in fundamentally similar ways.

Advanced investigation on the change in the streamflow into the water source of the middle route of China's water diversion project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

She, Dunxian; Xia, Jun; Shao, Quanxi; Taylor, John A.; Zhang, Liping; Zhang, Xiang; Zhang, Yanjun; Gu, Huanghe

2017-07-01

To alleviate water shortage in northern China, the middle route of the South to North Water Diversion Project (MRP) was constructed by the Chinese government. A dramatic reduction in the annual streamflow into Danjiangkou Reservoir (ASDR), the water source of MRP, during 1990 has raised some concerns on the MRP's operation. This paper employed an advanced segmented regression model with more recent data to have a clear picture and understand the changing pattern of the ASDR. Our study first revealed a zigzag changing pattern (decreasing-increasing-decreasing-increasing) of ASDR during 1960-2013, which was supported by statistical criteria compared with a monotonic or single abrupt change. Particularly, the significantly decreasing trend from 1990s was reversed after 2000, and such change may relieve the concern about the water availability in the future. Sensitivity analysis showed that changes in streamflow were largely influenced by the combined effects of precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (ET0) and were more sensitive to P than ET0. As ET0 is estimated from other primary variables, further analysis was conducted to understand the sensitivities of ET0 to its primary driving variables (wind speed, actual vapor pressure, temperature, and sunshine duration) and indicated that ET0 is mostly sensitive to actual vapor pressure during 1960-2013. The findings will assist the MRP's operation and management. Moreover, the results in this study also indicate that an adaptive water diversion plan, rather than the current plan with a constant annual amount of diversion water, might be a better option in the MRP's operation.

A Rural School/Community: A Case Study of a Dramatic Turnaround & Its Implications for School Improvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Robert V.

This paper presents a case study of a rural community exhibiting a dramatic turnaround in community support for a new school bond issue. Demographic change was partly responsible for the change in community attitudes, with two waves of immigration altering the long-term conservative orientation of this community. After a series of failed…

Past and future impact of North Atlantic teleconnection patterns on the hydroclimate of the Caspian catchment area in CESM1.2.2 and observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nandini, Sri

2017-04-01

The Caspian Sea level has undergone dramatic variations of more than 3 m during the past century with important implications for the life of coastal people, economy and the ecosystem. The origin of these variations as well as future changes in the Caspian water budget are still a matter of debate. In this study, we examine the influence of the major seasonal North Atlantic teleconnection patterns, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the East Atlantic pattern (EA), the Scandinavian pattern (SCA), and the North Sea Caspian Pattern (NCP), on Caspian hydroclimate variability from 1850-2000 CE. Numerical experiments at different atmospheric grid resolutions (2° and 1°) are carried out with the coupled Community Earth System Model (CESM1.2.2). We test model skills under different resolutions through validation against observational data by various statistical methods (Empirical Orthogonal Functions, Taylor diagrams, linear regressions and Spearman rank correlation). Results reveal the strongest simulated signal in winter (DJF) with high explained variances for 1° CESM1.2.2 NAO (39%) and EA (15.7%), similar to observational data. The model is unable to reproduce the SCA pattern in the third EOF, which is found in the observations. The modelled NAO has a strong influence on winter temperature and rainfall over the Caspian catchment area. A strong winter NCP induces above-average 2-meter temperatures over north Caspian region and lower-than-normal precipitation over the eastern Caspian sea. Our study suggests that the 1° version of CESM1.2.2 (with CAM5 atmosphere physics) shows adequate performance with respect to teleconnection maps during the historical period. Lastly, 1° model climate projections (2005-2100 CE) are performed with different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) to examine potential changes in the teleconnection patterns and their influence on the Caspian region.

The Story Titan Dunes Tell

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-06-10

An intricate, fingerprint-like pattern of dunes is seen in this dramatic radar image of Saturn moon Titan captured by NASA Cassini spacecraft on May 21, 2009 from an altitude of 965 kilometers about 600 miles.

The effect of incentive-based formularies on prescription-drug utilization and spending.

PubMed

Huskamp, Haiden A; Deverka, Patricia A; Epstein, Arnold M; Epstein, Robert S; McGuigan, Kimberly A; Frank, Richard G

2003-12-04

Many employers and health plans have adopted incentive-based formularies in an attempt to control prescription-drug costs. We used claims data to compare the utilization of and spending on drugs in two employer-sponsored health plans that implemented changes in formulary administration with those in comparison groups of enrollees covered by the same insurers. One plan simultaneously switched from a one-tier to a three-tier formulary and increased all enrollee copayments for medications. The second switched from a two-tier to a three-tier formulary, changing only the copayments for tier-3 drugs. We examined the utilization of angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, proton-pump inhibitors, and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins). Enrollees covered by the employer that implemented more dramatic changes experienced slower growth than the comparison group in the probability of the use of a drug and a major shift in spending from the plan to the enrollee. Among the enrollees who were initially taking tier-3 statins, more enrollees in the intervention group than in the comparison group switched to tier-1 or tier-2 medications (49 percent vs. 17 percent, P<0.001) or stopped taking statins entirely (21 percent vs. 11 percent, P=0.04). Patterns were similar for ACE inhibitors and proton-pump inhibitors. The enrollees covered by the employer that implemented more moderate changes were more likely than the comparison enrollees to switch to tier-1 or tier-2 medications but not to stop taking a given class of medications altogether. Different changes in formulary administration may have dramatically different effects on utilization and spending and may in some instances lead enrollees to discontinue therapy. The associated changes in copayments can substantially alter out-of-pocket spending by enrollees, the continuation of the use of medications, and possibly the quality of care. Copyright 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society

One pediatric burn unit's experience with sleepwear related injuries

PubMed Central

McLoughlin, E.; Clarke, N.; Stahl, K.; Crawford, J.

1998-01-01

Review of the records of 678 children with acute injuries referred during an eight year period to this burn unit indicated that flame burns from a single ignition source (50%) outranked scalds (27%) or house fires (12%) as causes of injury. There was no temporal trend in the rank pattern. The majority of these single-source flame injuries were severe and involved ignition of the child's clothing. From 1969 through 1973, sleepwear was the clothing involved in 32% of the instances. Since that time and coincident with promulgation of strict federal and state standards for flammability of children's night clothing, a dramatic decline in the number of children referred with injuries of this type has taken place. It is probable that the single factor most important to the decline, in our experience with these injuries, is lower fabric flammability but, because our data may not be representative, corroboration is needed before one can exclude factors such as altered garment design, fire safety related practices at home, or changing patterns of hospital referral. PMID:9887427

Radial fingering under arbitrary viscosity and density ratios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anjos, Pedro H. A.; Dias, Eduardo O.; Miranda, José A.

2017-08-01

We study viscous fingering formation in radial Hele-Shaw cell geometry considering the combined action of capillary and inertial effects for arbitrary values of viscosity and density ratios. We tackle the problem by employing a perturbative mode-coupling approach and focus our attention on weakly nonlinear stages of the dynamics. If inertial effects are neglected, our theoretical results indicate that the shape of the resulting interfacial patterns is significantly affected by changes in the viscosity ratio. Under such conditions, the growing fingers tend to proliferate through a repeated ramification process (e.g., by finger bifurcation, quadrifurcation, etc.) as the capillary number is increased. Nevertheless, we find that this scenario is dramatically altered when inertia is taken into account. When inertia is relevant, the conventional finger splitting morphologies are replaced by three-lobed structures, characterized by the occurrence of sidebranching phenomena. We verify that slightly different types of sidebranched patterns arise, presenting either wide or sharp fingertips, for a range of capillary numbers and density ratios.

Pigmentary and photonic coloration mechanisms reveal taxonomic relationships of the Cattlehearts (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae: Parides)

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The colorful wing patterns of butterflies, a prime example of biodiversity, can change dramatically within closely related species. Wing pattern diversity is specifically present among papilionid butterflies. Whether a correlation between color and the evolution of these butterflies exists so far remained unsolved. Results We here investigate the Cattlehearts, Parides, a small Neotropical genus of papilionid butterflies with 36 members, the wings of which are marked by distinctly colored patches. By applying various physical techniques, we investigate the coloration toolkit of the wing scales. The wing scales contain two different, wavelength-selective absorbing pigments, causing pigmentary colorations. Scale ridges with multilayered lamellae, lumen multilayers or gyroid photonic crystals in the scale lumen create structural colors that are variously combined with these pigmentary colors. Conclusions The pigmentary and structural traits strongly correlate with the taxonomical distribution of Parides species. The experimental findings add crucial insight into the evolution of butterfly wing scales and show the importance of morphological parameter mapping for butterfly phylogenetics. PMID:25064167

Multiple-object permanence tracking: limitation in maintenance and transformation of perceptual objects.

PubMed

Saiki, Jun

2002-01-01

Research on change blindness and transsaccadic memory revealed that a limited amount of information is retained across visual disruptions in visual working memory. It has been proposed that visual working memory can hold four to five coherent object representations. To investigate their maintenance and transformation in dynamic situations, I devised an experimental paradigm called multiple-object permanence tracking (MOPT) that measures memory for multiple feature-location bindings in dynamic situations. Observers were asked to detect any color switch in the middle of a regular rotation of a pattern with multiple colored disks behind an occluder. The color-switch detection performance dramatically declined as the pattern rotation velocity increased, and this effect of object motion was independent of the number of targets. The MOPT task with various shapes and colors showed that color-shape conjunctions are not available in the MOPT task. These results suggest that even completely predictable motion severely reduces our capacity of object representations, from four to only one or two.

Relationship between structure of macrobenthic assemblages and environmental variables in shallow sublittoral soft bottoms.

PubMed

Veiga, Puri; Redondo, Waldo; Sousa-Pinto, Isabel; Rubal, Marcos

2017-08-01

We establish baseline knowledge of abundance, diversity and multivariate structure of macrobenthos from shallow sublitoral soft bottoms in the North Portuguese coast and elucidate main environmental factors that shape their spatial patterns. In this area distribution of soft bottoms is patchy, surrounded by boulders and rocky substrates. This particular landscape and the lack of significant anthropogenic disturbances are values for the conservation of this habitat. Sediment and physicochemical properties of the water column were studied to provide models for each studied macrobenthic variable. Our models highlighted that most of variation (59%-72%) in macrobenthic spatial patterns was explained by the studied environmental variables. Sedimentary variables were more relevant that those of the water column. Therefore, disturbances affecting sedimentary environment could cause dramatic changes in macrobenthic assemblages because of the limited availability of soft bottoms in the area. In this way, results are useful to adopt right management and conservation strategies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Novel mechanisms for self-assembled pattern formation in nanoscopic metal films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalyanaraman, R.; Trice, J.; Favazza, C.; Thomas, D.; Sureshkumar, R.

2007-03-01

Classical hydrodynamic theory of dewetting of spinodally unstable thin films (Vrij, Disc. farad. Soc. 1966) predicts a monotonic increase in patterning length scales with increasing film thickness. We verified this effect for nanoscopic Co metal films following melting by ns laser pulses for thickness regime h<=hc˜8,m (Favazza et al. Nanotechnology, 2006). However, a dramatic change is observed beyond this thickness hc, with length scales decreasing with increasing h. This novel behavior arises from strong thickness dependence of heating by ultrafast laser light resulting in thermocapillary effects, whose magnitude and sign are thickness dependent. We modified the classical theory, according to which the instability occurs when the stabilizing capillary force is overcome by destabilizing attractive long-range interactions, to include thermocapillary effects. The modified theory accurately predicts the experimentally observed trend. This result suggests that a variety of new length scales can be accessed by robust self-assembly via dewetting of metal films under ultrafast light.

The comparative phylogeography of east coast estuarine fishes in formerly glaciated sites: Persistence versus recolonization in Cyprinodon variegatus ovinus and Fundulus heteroclitus macrolepidotus.

PubMed

Haney, Robert A; Dionne, Michelle; Puritz, Jon; Rand, David M

2009-01-01

Species distributions may be dramatically affected by climatic variability, such as occurred during Pleistocene glaciation. Populations of coastal organisms could have been affected directly by ice movement or through sea level change. Response could involve shifts in distribution southwards or persistence through the full range or in limited high-latitude refugia. Comparative studies of the response of ecologically similar species can provide a useful complement to those examining response across disparate species in defining what parameters influence persistence. Patterns of mitochondrial genetic variation in 2 estuarine fish subspecies from the Northwest Atlantic, Fundulus heteroclitus macrolepidotus and Cyprinodon variegatus ovinus, indicate that ecological similarity does not necessarily predict propensity for glacial persistence. Fundulus heteroclitus macrolepidotus is highly diverse in glaciated regions, with isolated populations whose origins predate the last glacial maximum and may have recently expanded it's range to the south from New England. However, within glaciated regions, signals of population growth and distributional shifts indicate a dynamic Pleistocene history for F. h. macrolepidotus, in contrast with recent studies involving microsatellites. A different pattern is found in C. v. ovinus, which is depauperate in formerly glaciated sites, with a clear signal of recent recolonization of glaciated regions from the south. Genetic differentiation in glaciated areas is consistent with isolation after glacial withdrawal. In C. v. ovinus, rapidly evolving microsatellite loci show a similar pattern to mitochondrial DNA but may be reaching equilibrium on small spatial scales. These contrasting patterns of variation illustrate how ecologically similar species can respond to large-scale environmental change in distinct ways.

Impact of decadal cloud variations on the Earth’s energy budget

DOE PAGES

Zhou, Chen; Zelinka, Mark D.; Klein, Stephen A.

2016-10-31

Feedbacks of clouds on climate change strongly influence the magnitude of global warming. Cloud feedbacks, in turn, depend on the spatial patterns of surface warming, which vary on decadal timescales. Therefore, the magnitude of the decadal cloud feedback could deviate from the long-term cloud feedback. We present climate model simulations to show that the global mean cloud feedback in response to decadal temperature fluctuations varies dramatically due to time variations in the spatial pattern of sea surface temperature. Here, we find that cloud anomalies associated with these patterns significantly modify the Earth’s energy budget. Specifically, the decadal cloud feedback betweenmore » the 1980s and 2000s is substantially more negative than the long-term cloud feedback. This is a result of cooling in tropical regions where air descends, relative to warming in tropical ascent regions, which strengthens low-level atmospheric stability. Under these conditions, low-level cloud cover and its reflection of solar radiation increase, despite an increase in global mean surface temperature. Our results suggest that sea surface temperature pattern-induced low cloud anomalies could have contributed to the period of reduced warming between 1998 and 2013, and o er a physical explanation of why climate sensitivities estimated from recently observed trends are probably biased low.« less

Impact of decadal cloud variations on the Earth’s energy budget

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

Zhou, Chen; Zelinka, Mark D.; Klein, Stephen A.

Feedbacks of clouds on climate change strongly influence the magnitude of global warming. Cloud feedbacks, in turn, depend on the spatial patterns of surface warming, which vary on decadal timescales. Therefore, the magnitude of the decadal cloud feedback could deviate from the long-term cloud feedback. We present climate model simulations to show that the global mean cloud feedback in response to decadal temperature fluctuations varies dramatically due to time variations in the spatial pattern of sea surface temperature. Here, we find that cloud anomalies associated with these patterns significantly modify the Earth’s energy budget. Specifically, the decadal cloud feedback betweenmore » the 1980s and 2000s is substantially more negative than the long-term cloud feedback. This is a result of cooling in tropical regions where air descends, relative to warming in tropical ascent regions, which strengthens low-level atmospheric stability. Under these conditions, low-level cloud cover and its reflection of solar radiation increase, despite an increase in global mean surface temperature. Our results suggest that sea surface temperature pattern-induced low cloud anomalies could have contributed to the period of reduced warming between 1998 and 2013, and o er a physical explanation of why climate sensitivities estimated from recently observed trends are probably biased low.« less

Athletic equipment microbiota are shaped by interactions with human skin

DOE PAGES

Wood, Mariah; Gibbons, Sean M.; Lax, Simon; ...

2015-06-19

Background: Americans spend the vast majority of their lives in built environments. Even traditionally outdoor pursuits, such as exercising, are often now performed indoors. Bacteria that colonize these indoor ecosystems are primarily derived from the human microbiome. The modes of human interaction with indoor surfaces and the physical conditions associated with each surface type determine the steady-state ecology of the microbial community. Results: Bacterial assemblages associated with different surfaces in three athletic facilities, including floors, mats, benches, free weights, and elliptical handles, were sampled every other hour (8 am to 6 pm) for 2 days. Surface and equipment type hadmore » a stronger influence on bacterial community composition than the facility in which they were housed. Surfaces that were primarily in contact with human skin exhibited highly dynamic bacterial community composition and non-random co-occurrence patterns, suggesting that different host microbiomes—shaped by selective forces—were being deposited on these surfaces through time. Bacterial assemblages found on the floors and mats changed less over time, and species co-occurrence patterns appeared random, suggesting more neutral community assembly. Conclusions: These longitudinal patterns highlight the dramatic turnover of microbial communities on surfaces in regular contact with human skin. By uncovering these longitudinal patterns, this study promotes a better understanding of microbe-human interactions within the built environment.« less

Impact of decadal cloud variations on the Earth's energy budget

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Chen; Zelinka, Mark D.; Klein, Stephen A.

2016-12-01

Feedbacks of clouds on climate change strongly influence the magnitude of global warming. Cloud feedbacks, in turn, depend on the spatial patterns of surface warming, which vary on decadal timescales. Therefore, the magnitude of the decadal cloud feedback could deviate from the long-term cloud feedback. Here we present climate model simulations to show that the global mean cloud feedback in response to decadal temperature fluctuations varies dramatically due to time variations in the spatial pattern of sea surface temperature. We find that cloud anomalies associated with these patterns significantly modify the Earth's energy budget. Specifically, the decadal cloud feedback between the 1980s and 2000s is substantially more negative than the long-term cloud feedback. This is a result of cooling in tropical regions where air descends, relative to warming in tropical ascent regions, which strengthens low-level atmospheric stability. Under these conditions, low-level cloud cover and its reflection of solar radiation increase, despite an increase in global mean surface temperature. These results suggest that sea surface temperature pattern-induced low cloud anomalies could have contributed to the period of reduced warming between 1998 and 2013, and offer a physical explanation of why climate sensitivities estimated from recently observed trends are probably biased low.

Ordered roughness effects on NACA 0026 airfoil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harun, Z.; Abbas, A. A.; Dheyaa, R. Mohammed; Ghazali, M. I.

2016-10-01

The effects of highly-ordered rough surface - riblets, applied onto the surface of a NACA 0026 airfoil, are investigated experimentally using wind tunnel. The riblets are arranged in directionally converging - diverging pattern with dimensions of height, h = 1 mm, pitch or spacing, s = 1 mm, yaw angle α = 0o and 10o The airfoil with external geometry of 500 mm span, 600 mm chord and 156 mm thickness has been built using mostly woods and aluminium. Turbulence quantities are collected using hotwire anemometry. Hotwire measurements show that flows past converging and diverging pattern inherit similar patterns in the near-wall region for both mean velocity and turbulence intensities profiles. The mean velocity profiles in logarithmic regions for both flows past converging and diverging riblet pattern are lower than that with yaw angle α = 0o. Converging riblets cause the boundary layer to thicken and the flow with yaw angle α = 0o produces the thinnest boundary layer. Both the converging and diverging riblets cause pronounced outer peaks in the turbulence intensities profiles. Most importantly, flows past converging and diverging pattern experience 30% skin friction reductions. Higher order statistics show that riblet surfaces produce similar effects due to adverse pressure gradient. It is concluded that a small strip of different ordered roughness features applied at a leading edge of an airfoil can change the turbulence characteristics dramatically.

Geographical variation of St. Lucia Parrot flight vocalizations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kleeman, Patrick M.; Gilardi, James D.

2005-01-01

Parrots are vocal learners and many species of parrots are capable of learning new calls, even as adults. This capability gives parrots the potential to develop communication systems that can vary dramatically over space. St. Lucia Parrot (Amazona versicolor) flight vocalizations were examined for geographic variation between four different sites on the island of St. Lucia. Spectrographic cross-correlation analysis of a commonly used flight vocalization, the p-chow call, demonstrated quantitative differences between sites. Additionally, the similarity of p-chows decreased as the distance between sites increased. Flight call repertoires also differed among sites; parrots at the Des Bottes and Quilesse sites each used one flight call unique to those sites, while parrots at the Barre de L'Isle site used a flight call that Quilesse parrots gave only while perched. It is unclear whether the vocal variation changed clinally with distance, or whether there were discrete dialect boundaries as in a congener, the Yellow-naped Parrot (Amazona auropalliata, Wright 1996). The geographical scale over which the St. Lucia Parrot's vocal variation occurred was dramatically smaller than that of the Yellow-naped Parrot. Similar patterns of fine-scale vocal variation may be more widespread among other parrot species in the Caribbean than previously documented.

Nutrient fluxes and the recent collapse of coastal California salmon populations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Moore, Jonathan W.; Hayes, Sean A.; Duffy, Walter; Gallagher, Sean; Michel, Cyril J.; Wright, David

2011-01-01

Migratory salmon move nutrients both in and out of fresh waters during the different parts of their life cycle. We used a mass-balance approach to quantify recent changes in phosphorus (P) fluxes in six coastal California, USA, watersheds that have recently experienced dramatic decreases in salmon populations. As adults, semelparous Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) salmon imported 8.3 and 10.4 times more P from the ocean, respectively, than they exported as smolts, while iteroparous steelhead (i.e., sea-run rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss) imported only 1.6 times more than they exported as kelts and smolts. Semelparous species whose life histories led them to import more nutrients were also the species whose populations decreased the most dramatically in California in recent years. In addition, the relationship between import and export was nonlinear, with export being proportionally more important at lower levels of import. This pattern was driven by two density-dependent processes — smolts were larger and disproportionately more abundant at lower spawner abundances. In fact, in four of our six streams we found evidence that salmon can drive net export of P at low abundance, evidence for the reversal of the "conveyor belt" of nutrients.

International Trade Drives Global Resource Use: A Structural Decomposition Analysis of Raw Material Consumption from 1990-2010.

PubMed

Plank, Barbara; Eisenmenger, Nina; Schaffartzik, Anke; Wiedenhofer, Dominik

2018-04-03

Globalization led to an immense increase of international trade and the emergence of complex global value chains. At the same time, global resource use and pressures on the environment are increasing steadily. With these two processes in parallel, the question arises whether trade contributes positively to resource efficiency, or to the contrary is further driving resource use? In this article, the socioeconomic driving forces of increasing global raw material consumption (RMC) are investigated to assess the role of changing trade relations, extended supply chains and increasing consumption. We apply a structural decomposition analysis of changes in RMC from 1990 to 2010, utilizing the Eora multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model. We find that changes in international trade patterns significantly contributed to an increase of global RMC. Wealthy developed countries play a major role in driving global RMC growth through changes in their trade structures, as they shifted production processes increasingly to less material-efficient input suppliers. Even the dramatic increase in material consumption in the emerging economies has not diminished the role of industrialized countries as drivers of global RMC growth.

Landscape metrics for assessment of landscape destruction and rehabilitation.

PubMed

Herzog, F; Lausch, A; Müller, E; Thulke, H H; Steinhardt, U; Lehmann, S

2001-01-01

This investigation tested the usefulness of geometry-based landscape metrics for monitoring landscapes in a heavily disturbed environment. Research was carried out in a 75 sq km study area in Saxony, eastern Germany, where the landscape has been affected by surface mining and agricultural intensification. Landscape metrics were calculated from digital maps (1912, 1944, 1973, 1989) for the entire study area and for subregions (river valleys, plains), which were defined using the original geology and topography of the region. Correlation and factor analyses were used to select a set of landscape metrics suitable for landscape monitoring. Little land-use change occurred in the first half of the century, but political decisions and technological developments led to considerable change later. Metrics showed a similar pattern with almost no change between 1912 and 1944, but dramatic changes after 1944. Nonparametric statistical methods were used to test whether metrics differed between river valleys and plains. Significant differences in the metrics for these regions were found in the early maps (1912, 1944), but these differences were not significant in 1973 or 1989. These findings indicate that anthropogenic influences created a more home geneous landscape.

The shifting gender composition of psychology. Trends and implications for the discipline.

PubMed

Pion, G M; Mednick, M T; Astin, H S; Hall, C C; Kenkel, M B; Keita, G P; Kohout, J L; Kelleher, J C

1996-05-01

Psychology, along with the majority of professions and scientific disciplines, has undergone dramatic shifts in gender composition over the past two decades. These changes have prompted concern that this increased participation by women may lead to erosion in the status of these occupations. This article describes the results of a case study of psychology conducted by a subcommittee of the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Task Force on the Changing Gender Composition of Psychology to examine the discipline's changing gender composition and the factors related to these shifts. Societal and disciplinary trends are examined, along with data on the patterns of men's and women's involvement in the educational pipeline and workplace. The results provide little support for the concern over the increasing representation of women and its impact on the prestige of the discipline. Rather, they suggest that changes in the nature and status of psychology per se may be at least partly responsible for the changes in male and female participation and that the nature, magnitude, and causes of these disciplinary changes require further examination. Specific recommendations for the APA prepared by another subcommittee of the Task Force are also presented in the Appendix.

Monitoring urban growth and detection of land use with GIS and remote sensing: a case study of the Kyrenia region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kara, Can; Akçit, Nuhcan

2016-08-01

Land-cover change is considered one of the central components in current strategies for managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes. It is important to manage land resources in a sustainable manner which targets at compacting and consolidating urban development. From 2005 to 2015,urban growth in Kyrenia has been quite dramatic, showing a wide and scattered pattern, lacking proper plan. As a result of this unplanned/unorganized expansion, agricultural areas, vegetation and water bodies have been lost in the region. Therefore, it has become a necessity to analyze the results of this urban growth and compare the losses between land-cover changes. With this goal in mind, a case study of Kyrenia region has been carried out using a supervised image classification method and Landsat TM images acquired in 2005 and 2015 to map and extract land-cover changes. This paper tries to assess urban-growth changes detected in the region by using Remote Sensing and GIS. The study monitors the changes between different land cover types. Also, it shows the urban occupation of primary soil loss and the losses in forest areas, open areas, etc.

Neuroimaging Mechanisms of Therapeutic Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Major Depressive Disorder.

PubMed

Philip, Noah S; Barredo, Jennifer; Aiken, Emily; Carpenter, Linda L

2018-03-01

Research into therapeutic transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for major depression has dramatically increased in the last decade. Understanding the mechanism of action of TMS is crucial to improve efficacy and develop the next generation of therapeutic stimulation. Early imaging research provided initial data supportive of widely held assumptions about hypothesized inhibitory or excitatory consequences of stimulation. Early work also indicated that while TMS modulated brain activity under the stimulation site, effects at deeper regions, in particular, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, were associated with clinical improvement. Concordant with earlier findings, functional connectivity studies also demonstrated that clinical improvements were related to changes distal, rather than proximal, to the site of stimulation. Moreover, recent work suggests that TMS modulates and potentially normalizes functional relationships between neural networks. An important observation that emerged from this review is that similar patterns of connectivity changes are observed across studies regardless of TMS parameters. Though promising, we stress that these imaging findings must be evaluated cautiously given the widespread reliance on modest sample sizes and little implementation of statistical validation. Additional limitations included use of imaging before and after a course of TMS, which provided little insight into changes that might occur during the weeks of stimulation. Furthermore, as studies to date have focused on depression, it is unclear whether our observations were related to mechanisms of action of TMS for depression or represented broader patterns of functional brain changes associated with clinical improvement. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Effects of smoking marijuana on focal attention and brain blood flow.

PubMed

O'Leary, Daniel S; Block, Robert I; Koeppel, Julie A; Schultz, Susan K; Magnotta, Vincent A; Ponto, Laura Boles; Watkins, G Leonard; Hichwa, Richard D

2007-04-01

Using an attention task to control cognitive state, we previously found that smoking marijuana changes regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). The present study measured rCBF during tasks requiring attention to left and right ears in different conditions. Twelve occasional marijuana users (mean age 23.5 years) were imaged with PET using [15O]water after smoking marijuana or placebo cigarettes as they performed a reaction time (RT) baseline task, and a dichotic listening task with attend-right- and attend-left-ear instructions. Smoking marijuana, but not placebo, resulted in increased normalized rCBF in orbital frontal cortex, anterior cingulate, temporal pole, insula, and cerebellum. RCBF was reduced in visual and auditory cortices. These changes occurred in all three tasks and replicated our earlier studies. They appear to reflect the direct effects of marijuana on the brain. Smoking marijuana lowered rCBF in auditory cortices compared to placebo but did not alter the normal pattern of attention-related rCBF asymmetry (i.e., greater rCBF in the temporal lobe contralateral to the direction of attention) that was also observed after placebo. These data indicate that marijuana has dramatic direct effects on rCBF, but causes relatively little change in the normal pattern of task-related rCBF on this auditory focused attention task. Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dynamic Skin Patterns in Cephalopods

PubMed Central

How, Martin J.; Norman, Mark D.; Finn, Julian; Chung, Wen-Sung; Marshall, N. Justin

2017-01-01

Cephalopods are unrivaled in the natural world in their ability to alter their visual appearance. These mollusks have evolved a complex system of dermal units under neural, hormonal, and muscular control to produce an astonishing variety of body patterns. With parallels to the pixels on a television screen, cephalopod chromatophores can be coordinated to produce dramatic, dynamic, and rhythmic displays, defined collectively here as “dynamic patterns.” This study examines the nature, context, and potential functions of dynamic patterns across diverse cephalopod taxa. Examples are presented for 21 species, including 11 previously unreported in the scientific literature. These range from simple flashing or flickering patterns, to highly complex passing wave patterns involving multiple skin fields. PMID:28674500

Perturbations to trophic interactions and the stability of complex food webs

PubMed Central

O'Gorman, Eoin J.; Emmerson, Mark C.

2009-01-01

The pattern of predator–prey interactions is thought to be a key determinant of ecosystem processes and stability. Complex ecological networks are characterized by distributions of interaction strengths that are highly skewed, with many weak and few strong interactors present. Theory suggests that this pattern promotes stability as weak interactors dampen the destabilizing potential of strong interactors. Here, we present an experimental test of this hypothesis and provide empirical evidence that the loss of weak interactors can destabilize communities in nature. We ranked 10 marine consumer species by the strength of their trophic interactions. We removed the strongest and weakest of these interactors from experimental food webs containing >100 species. Extinction of strong interactors produced a dramatic trophic cascade and reduced the temporal stability of key ecosystem process rates, community diversity and resistance to changes in community composition. Loss of weak interactors also proved damaging for our experimental ecosystems, leading to reductions in the temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem process rates, community diversity, and resistance. These results highlight the importance of conserving species to maintain the stabilizing pattern of trophic interactions in nature, even if they are perceived to have weak effects in the system. PMID:19666606

Changing pattern of poisoning in children in Newcastle, 1974-81.

PubMed Central

Lawson, G R; Craft, A W; Jackson, R H

1983-01-01

All children aged under 15 years admitted to hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne between 1974 and 1981 with a diagnosis of poisoning were studied. After the introduction in 1976 of child resistant containers for salicylates and paracetamol, salicylate poisonings fell dramatically. The other most important medicines to cause poisoning in young children were tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazapines, Lomotil (diphenoxylate and atropine), and iron preparations; these should also be packaged in child resistant containers by regulation. Few children had symptoms after poisoning with household products, but bleach, turpentine, and paraffin might also be packaged in child resistant containers. The numbers of adolescent girls admitted after deliberate self poisoning and of teenage boys admitted after ingestion of alcohol increased over the study period. PMID:6134564

Aerodynamic Characteristics of High Speed Trains under Cross Wind Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, W.; Wu, S. P.; Zhang, Y.

2011-09-01

Numerical simulation for the two models in cross-wind was carried out in this paper. The three-dimensional compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations(RANS), combined with the standard k-ɛ turbulence model, were solved on multi-block hybrid grids by second order upwind finite volume technique. The impact of fairing on aerodynamic characteristics of the train models was analyzed. It is shown that, the flow separates on the fairing and a strong vortex is generated, the pressure on the upper middle car decreases dramatically, which leads to a large lift force. The fairing changes the basic patterns around the trains. In addition, formulas of the coefficient of aerodynamic force at small yaw angles up to 24° were expressed.

The osteogenic capacity of biomimetic hierarchical micropore/nanorod-patterned Sr-HA coatings with different interrod spacings.

PubMed

Zhou, Jianhong; Li, Bo; Han, Yong; Zhao, Lingzhou

2016-07-01

Advanced titanium based bone implant with fast established, rigid and stable osseointegration is stringently needed in clinic. Here the hierarchical micropore/nanorod-patterned strontium doped hydroxyapatite (Ca9Sr1(PO4)6(OH)2, Sr1-HA) coatings (MNRs) with different interrod spacings varying from about 300 to 33nm were developed. MNRs showed dramatically differential biological performance closely related to the interrod spacing. Compared to micropore/nanogranule-patterned Sr1-HA coating (MNG), MNRs with an interrod spacing of larger than 137nm resulted in inhibited in vitro mesenchymal stem cell functions and in vivo osseointegration, while those of smaller than 96nm gave rise to dramatically enhanced the biological effect, especially those of mean 67nm displayed the best effect. The differential biological effect of MNRs was related to their modulation on the focal adhesion mediated mechanotransduction. These results suggest that MNRs with a mean interrod spacing of 67nm may give rise to an advanced implant of improved clinical performance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dissociation between diurnal cycles in locomotor activity, feeding behavior and hepatic PERIOD2 expression in chronic alcohol-fed mice

PubMed Central

Zhou, Peng; Werner, John H.; Lee, Donghoon; Sheppard, Aaron D.; Liangpunsakul, Suthat; Duffield, Giles E.

2015-01-01

Chronic alcohol consumption contributes to fatty liver disease. Our studies revealed that the hepatic circadian clock is disturbed in alcohol-induced hepatic steatosis, and effects of chronic alcohol administration upon the clock itself may contribute to steatosis. We extended these findings to explore the effects of chronic alcohol treatment on daily feeding and locomotor activity patterns. Mice were chronically pair-fed ad libitum for 4 weeks using the Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet, with calorie-controlled liquid and standard chow diets as control groups. Locomotor activity, feeding activity, and real-time bioluminescence recording of PERIOD2::LUCIFERASE expression in tissue explants were measured. Mice on liquid control and chow diets exhibited normal profiles of locomotor activity, with a ratio of 22:78% day/night activity and a peak during early night. This pattern was dramatically altered in alcohol-fed mice, marked by a 49:51% ratio and the absence of a distinct peak. While chow-diet fed mice had a normal 24:76% ratio of feeding activity, with a peak in the early night, this pattern was dramatically altered in both liquid-diet groups: mice had a 43:57% ratio, and an absence of a distinct peak. Temporal differences were also observed between the two liquid-diet groups during late day. Cosinor analysis revealed a ~4-h and ~6-h shift in the alcohol-fed group feeding and locomotor activity rhythms, respectively. Analysis of hepatic PER2 expression revealed that the molecular clock in alcohol-fed and control liquid-diet mice was shifted by ~11 h and ~6 h, respectively. No differences were observed in suprachiasmatic nucleus explants, suggesting that changes in circadian phase in the liver were generated independently from the central clock. These results suggest that chronic alcohol consumption and a liquid diet can differentially modulate the daily rhythmicity of locomotor and feeding behaviors, aspects that might contribute to disturbances in the circadian timing system and development of hepatic steatosis. PMID:25960184

Understanding how lake populations of arctic char are structured and function with special consideration of the potential effects of climate change: a multi-faceted approach.

PubMed

Budy, Phaedra; Luecke, Chris

2014-09-01

Size dimorphism in fish populations, both its causes and consequences, has been an area of considerable focus; however, uncertainty remains whether size dimorphism is dynamic or stabilizing and about the role of exogenous factors. Here, we explored patterns among empirical vital rates, population structure, abundance and trend, and predicted the effects of climate change on populations of arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) in two lakes. Both populations cycle dramatically between dominance by small (≤300 mm) and large (>300 mm) char. Apparent survival (Φ) and specific growth rates (SGR) were relatively high (40-96%; SGR range 0.03-1.5%) and comparable to those of conspecifics at lower latitudes. Climate change scenarios mimicked observed patterns of warming and resulted in temperatures closer to optimal for char growth (15.15 °C) and a longer growing season. An increase in consumption rates (28-34%) under climate change scenarios led to much greater growth rates (23-34%). Higher growth rates predicted under climate change resulted in an even greater predicted amplitude of cycles in population structure as well as an increase in reproductive output (Ro) and decrease in generation time (Go). Collectively, these results indicate arctic char populations (not just individuals) are extremely sensitive to small changes in the number of ice-free days. We hypothesize years with a longer growing season, predicted to occur more often under climate change, produce elevated growth rates of small char and act in a manner similar to a "resource pulse," allowing a sub-set of small char to "break through," thus setting the cycle in population structure.

Understanding how lake populations of arctic char are structured and function with special consideration of the potential effects of climate change: A multi-faceted approach.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Budy, Phaedra; Luecke, Chris

2014-01-01

Size dimorphism in fish populations, both its causes and consequences, has been an area of considerable focus; however, uncertainty remains whether size dimorphism is dynamic or stabilizing and about the role of exogenous factors. Here, we explored patterns among empirical vital rates, population structure, abundance and trend, and predicted the effects of climate change on populations of arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) in two lakes. Both populations cycle dramatically between dominance by small (≤300 mm) and large (>300 mm) char. Apparent survival (Φ) and specific growth rates (SGR) were relatively high (40–96 %; SGR range 0.03–1.5 %) and comparable to those of conspecifics at lower latitudes. Climate change scenarios mimicked observed patterns of warming and resulted in temperatures closer to optimal for char growth (15.15 °C) and a longer growing season. An increase in consumption rates (28–34 %) under climate change scenarios led to much greater growth rates (23–34 %). Higher growth rates predicted under climate change resulted in an even greater predicted amplitude of cycles in population structure as well as an increase in reproductive output (Ro) and decrease in generation time (Go). Collectively, these results indicate arctic char populations (not just individuals) are extremely sensitive to small changes in the number of ice-free days. We hypothesize years with a longer growing season, predicted to occur more often under climate change, produce elevated growth rates of small char and act in a manner similar to a “resource pulse,” allowing a sub-set of small char to “break through,” thus setting the cycle in population structure.

Monitoring the Impact of Climate Change on Soil Salinity in Agricultural Areas Using Ground and Satellite Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corwin, D. L.; Scudiero, E.

2017-12-01

Changes in climatic patterns have had dramatic influence on agricultural areas worldwide, particularly in irrigated arid-zone agricultural areas subjected to recurring drought, such as California's San Joaquin Valley (SJV), or areas receiving above average rainfall for a decade or more, such as Minnesota's Red River Valley (RRV). Climate change has impacted water availability with an under or over abundance, which subsequently has impacted soil salinity levels in the root zone primarily from the upward movement of salts from shallow water tables. Inventorying and monitoring the impact of climate change on soil salinity is crucial to evaluate the extent of the problem, to recognize trends, and to formulate state-wide and field-scale irrigation, drainage, and crop management strategies that will sustain the agricultural productivity of the SJV and RRV. Over the past 3 decades, Corwin and colleagues at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory have developed proximal sensor (i.e., electrical resistivity and electromagnetic induction) and remote imagery (i.e., MODIS and Landsat 7) methodologies for assessing soil salinity at multiple scales: field (0.5 ha to 3 km2), landscape (3 to 10 km2), and regional (10 to 105 km2) scales. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of these scale-dependent salinity assessment technologies. Case studies for SJV and RRV are presented to demonstrate at multiple scales the utility of these approaches in assessing soil salinity changes due to management-induced changes and to changes in climate patterns, and in providing site-specific irrigation management information for salinity control. Decision makers in state and federal agencies, irrigation and drainage district managers, soil and water resource managers, producers, agriculture consultants, extension specialists, and Natural Resource Conservation Service field staff are the beneficiaries of this information.

Complex and changing patterns of natural selection explain the evolution of the human hip.

PubMed

Grabowski, Mark; Roseman, Charles C

2015-08-01

Causal explanations for the dramatic changes that occurred during the evolution of the human hip focus largely on selection for bipedal function and locomotor efficiency. These hypotheses rest on two critical assumptions. The first-that these anatomical changes served functional roles in bipedalism-has been supported in numerous analyses showing how postcranial changes likely affected locomotion. The second-that morphological changes that did play functional roles in bipedalism were the result of selection for that behavior-has not been previously explored and represents a major gap in our understanding of hominin hip evolution. Here we use evolutionary quantitative genetic models to test the hypothesis that strong directional selection on many individual aspects of morphology was responsible for the large differences observed across a sample of fossil hominin hips spanning the Plio-Pleistocene. Our approach uses covariance among traits and the differences between relatively complete fossils to estimate the net selection pressures that drove the major transitions in hominin hip evolution. Our findings show a complex and changing pattern of natural selection drove hominin hip evolution, and that many, but not all, traits hypothesized to play functional roles in bipedalism evolved as a direct result of natural selection. While the rate of evolutionary change for all transitions explored here does not exceed the amount expected if evolution was occurring solely through neutral processes, it was far above rates of evolution for morphological traits in other mammalian groups. Given that stasis is the norm in the mammalian fossil record, our results suggest that large shifts in the adaptive landscape drove hominin evolution. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The stranded individualizer under compressed modernity: South Korean women in individualization without individualism.

PubMed

Kyung-Sup, Chang; Min-Young, Song

2010-09-01

South Korean families have functioned as a highly effective receptacle for the country's highly compressed conditions of modernity and late modernity. It is as much due to the success of South Korean families as an engine of compressed modernity as due to their failure that they have become functionally overloaded and socially risk-ridden. Such familial burdens and risks are particularly onerous to South Korean women because of the fundamentally gender-based structure of family relations and duties that has in part been recycled from the Confucian past and in part manufactured under industrial capitalism. Under these complicated conditions, South Korean women have had to dramatically restructure their family relations and duties as well as their individual life choices. Furthermore, under the most recent condition of what Beck calls second modernity, other institutions of modernity, such as the state, industrial economy, firms, unions, schools, and welfare systems, have become increasingly ineffective in helping to alleviate such (gender-based) familial burdens and dilemmas. As a result South Korean women have experienced dramatic changes in marriage patterns, fertility, family relations, etc. South Korean women's individualization has thereby taken place primarily as a matter of practicality rather than ideational change. A brief analysis of the situation in the neighbouring societies of Japan and Taiwan reinforces the conclusion that individualization without individualism, particularly among women, is a region-wide phenomenon in East Asia. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2010.

Information for decision making from imperfect national data: tracking major changes in health care use in Kenya using geostatistics.

PubMed

Gething, Peter W; Noor, Abdisalan M; Goodman, Catherine A; Gikandi, Priscilla W; Hay, Simon I; Sharif, Shahnaaz K; Atkinson, Peter M; Snow, Robert W

2007-12-11

Most Ministries of Health across Africa invest substantial resources in some form of health management information system (HMIS) to coordinate the routine acquisition and compilation of monthly treatment and attendance records from health facilities nationwide. Despite the expense of these systems, poor data coverage means they are rarely, if ever, used to generate reliable evidence for decision makers. One critical weakness across Africa is the current lack of capacity to effectively monitor patterns of service use through time so that the impacts of changes in policy or service delivery can be evaluated. Here, we present a new approach that, for the first time, allows national changes in health service use during a time of major health policy change to be tracked reliably using imperfect data from a national HMIS. Monthly attendance records were obtained from the Kenyan HMIS for 1 271 government-run and 402 faith-based outpatient facilities nationwide between 1996 and 2004. A space-time geostatistical model was used to compensate for the large proportion of missing records caused by non-reporting health facilities, allowing robust estimation of monthly and annual use of services by outpatients during this period. We were able to reconstruct robust time series of mean levels of outpatient utilisation of health facilities at the national level and for all six major provinces in Kenya. These plots revealed reliably for the first time a period of steady nationwide decline in the use of health facilities in Kenya between 1996 and 2002, followed by a dramatic increase from 2003. This pattern was consistent across different causes of attendance and was observed independently in each province. The methodological approach presented can compensate for missing records in health information systems to provide robust estimates of national patterns of outpatient service use. This represents the first such use of HMIS data and contributes to the resurrection of these hugely expensive but underused systems as national monitoring tools. Applying this approach to Kenya has yielded output with immediate potential to enhance the capacity of decision makers in monitoring nationwide patterns of service use and assessing the impact of changes in health policy and service delivery.

[Characteristics of temporal-spatial differentiation in landscape pattern vulnerability in Nansihu Lake wetland, China.

PubMed

Liang, Jia Xin; Li, Xin Ju

2018-02-01

With remote sensing images from 1985, 2000 Lantsat 5 TM and 2015 Lantsat 8 OLI as data sources, we tried to select the suitable research scale and examine the temporal-spatial diffe-rentiation with such scale in the Nansihu Lake wetland by using landscape pattern vulnerability index constructed by sensitivity index and adaptability index, and combined with space statistics such as semivariogram and spatial autocorrelation. The results showed that 1 km × 1 km equidistant grid was the suitable research scale, which could eliminate the influence of spatial heterogeneity induced by random factors. From 1985 to 2015, the landscape pattern vulnerability in the Nansihu Lake wetland deteriorated gradually. The high-risk area of landscape pattern vulnerability dramatically expanded with time. The spatial heterogeneity of landscape pattern vulnerability increased, and the influence of non-structural factors on landscape pattern vulnerability strengthened. Spatial variability affected by spatial autocorrelation slightly weakened. Landscape pattern vulnerability had strong general spatial positive correlation, with the significant form of spatial agglomeration. The positive spatial autocorrelation continued to increase and the phenomenon of spatial concentration was more and more obvious over time. The local autocorrelation mainly based on high-high accumulation zone and low-low accumulation zone had stronger spatial autocorrelation among neighboring space units. The high-high accumulation areas showed the strongest level of significance, and the significant level of low-low accumulation zone increased with time. Natural factors, such as temperature and precipitation, affected water-level and landscape distribution, and thus changed the landscape patterns vulnerability of Nansihu Lake wetland. The dominant driver for the deterioration of landscape patterns vulnerability was human activities, including social economy activity and policy system.

Assessment of the impact of climate shifts on malaria transmission in the Sahel.

PubMed

Bomblies, Arne; Eltahir, Elfatih A B

2009-09-01

Climate affects malaria transmission through a complex network of causative pathways. We seek to evaluate the impact of hypothetical climate change scenarios on malaria transmission in the Sahel by using a novel mechanistic, high spatial- and temporal-resolution coupled hydrology and agent-based entomology model. The hydrology model component resolves individual precipitation events and individual breeding pools. The impact of future potential climate shifts on the representative Sahel village of Banizoumbou, Niger, is estimated by forcing the model of Banizoumbou environment with meteorological data from two locations along the north-south climatological gradient observed in the Sahel--both for warmer, drier scenarios from the north and cooler, wetter scenarios from the south. These shifts in climate represent hypothetical but historically realistic climate change scenarios. For Banizoumbou climatic conditions (latitude 13.54 N), a shift toward cooler, wetter conditions may dramatically increase mosquito abundance; however, our modeling results indicate that the increased malaria transmissibility is not simply proportional to the precipitation increase. The cooler, wetter conditions increase the length of the sporogonic cycle, dampening a large vectorial capacity increase otherwise brought about by increased mosquito survival and greater overall abundance. Furthermore, simulations varying rainfall event frequency demonstrate the importance of precipitation patterns, rather than simply average or time-integrated precipitation, as a controlling factor of these dynamics. Modeling results suggest that in addition to changes in temperature and total precipitation, changes in rainfall patterns are very important to predict changes in disease susceptibility resulting from climate shifts. The combined effect of these climate-shift-induced perturbations can be represented with the aid of a detailed mechanistic model.

Accessing Transgenerational Themes Through Dreamwork.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrews, Jennifer; And Others

1988-01-01

Proposes use of dreamwork to evoke historical patterns or transgenerational themes. Describes new variant of dreamwork which combines aspects of both gestalt and family systems therapies. Implications of therapeutic dramatization for couple therapy are suggested. Examples are included. (Author/NB)

Comparison of extrinsic and intrinsic neuromodulation in two central pattern generator circuits in invertebrates.

PubMed

Katz, P S

1998-05-01

There are many sources of modulatory input to CPGs and other types of neuronal circuits. These inputs can change the properties of cells and synapses and dramatically alter the production of motor patterns. Sometimes this enables the production of motor patterns by the circuit. At other times, the modulation allows alternate motor patterns to be produced by a single circuit. Modulatory neurones have fast as well as slow actions. In some cases, such as with GPR, the two types of effects are due to the release of co-transmitters. In other cases, such as with the DSIs, a single substance can act at different receptors to cause fast and slow postsynaptic actions. The effect of a neuromodulatory neurone is determined by the type of receptor on the target neurone. Thus a single modulatory neurone evokes a suite of actions in a circuit and thereby produces a co-ordinated output. Extrinsic and intrinsic sources of neuromodulation have different sets of constraints acting upon them. For example, extrinsic neuromodulation can easily be used for motor pattern selection; a different pattern is produced depending upon which modulatory inputs are active. However, intrinsic neuromodulation is not well suited to that task. Instead, it is useful for self-organizing properties and experience-dependent effects. One clear conclusion from this work and other work in the field is that neuromodulation by neurones intrinsic and extrinsic to CPGs is not uncommon (Katz, 1995; Katz & Frost, 1996). It is part of the normal process of motor pattern generation. As such, it needs to be considered when discussing mechanisms for neuronal circuit actions.

Characterizing Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Thermal Environment and Air Quality in Taipei Metropolitan Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juang, J. Y.; Sun, C. H.; Jiang, J. A.; Wen, T. H.

2017-12-01

The urban heat island effect (UHI) caused by the regional-to-global environmental changes, dramatic urbanization, and shifting in land-use compositions has becoming an important environmental issue in recent years. In the past century, the coverage of urban area in Taipei Basin has dramatically increasing by ten folds. The strengthen of UHI effect significantly enhances the frequency of warm-night effect, and strongly influences the thermal environment of the residents in the Greater Taipei Metropolitan. In addition, the urban expansions due to dramatic increasing in urban populations and traffic loading significantly impacts the air quality and causes health issue in Taipei. In this study, the main objective is to quantify and characterize the temporal and spatial distributions of thermal environmental and air quality in the Greater Taipei Metropolitan Area by using monitoring data from Central Weather Bureau, Environmental Protection Administration. In addition, in this study, we conduct the analysis on the distribution of physiological equivalent temperature in the micro scale in the metropolitan area by using the observation data and quantitative simulation to investigate how the thermal environment is influenced under different conditions. Furthermore, we establish a real-time mobile monitoring system by using wireless sensor network to investigate the correlation between the thermal environment, air quality and other environmental factors, and propose to develop the early warning system for heat stress and air quality in the metropolitan area. The results from this study can be integrated into the management and planning system, and provide sufficient and important background information for the development of smart city in the metropolitan area in the future.

Computational analysis of microbubble flows in bifurcating airways: role of gravity, inertia, and surface tension.

PubMed

Chen, Xiaodong; Zielinski, Rachel; Ghadiali, Samir N

2014-10-01

Although mechanical ventilation is a life-saving therapy for patients with severe lung disorders, the microbubble flows generated during ventilation generate hydrodynamic stresses, including pressure and shear stress gradients, which damage the pulmonary epithelium. In this study, we used computational fluid dynamics to investigate how gravity, inertia, and surface tension influence both microbubble flow patterns in bifurcating airways and the magnitude/distribution of hydrodynamic stresses on the airway wall. Direct interface tracking and finite element techniques were used to simulate bubble propagation in a two-dimensional (2D) liquid-filled bifurcating airway. Computational solutions of the full incompressible Navier-Stokes equation were used to investigate how inertia, gravity, and surface tension forces as characterized by the Reynolds (Re), Bond (Bo), and Capillary (Ca) numbers influence pressure and shear stress gradients at the airway wall. Gravity had a significant impact on flow patterns and hydrodynamic stress magnitudes where Bo > 1 led to dramatic changes in bubble shape and increased pressure and shear stress gradients in the upper daughter airway. Interestingly, increased pressure gradients near the bifurcation point (i.e., carina) were only elevated during asymmetric bubble splitting. Although changes in pressure gradient magnitudes were generally more sensitive to Ca, under large Re conditions, both Re and Ca significantly altered the pressure gradient magnitude. We conclude that inertia, gravity, and surface tension can all have a significant impact on microbubble flow patterns and hydrodynamic stresses in bifurcating airways.

[Dynamic changes of landscape pattern and hemeroby in Ximen Island wetland, Zhejiang Province, China].

PubMed

Xiao, Cui; Xie, Xue-Fen; Wu, Tao; Jiang, Guo-Jun; Bian, Hua-Jing; Xu, Wei

2014-11-01

Abstract: The hemeroby type classification system of Ximen Island wetland of Zhejiang Province was established based on the multiple datasets: SOPT-5 image data with a spatial resolution of 5 m in 2007 and 2010, its wetland land cover and land use status, the National Land Use Classification (on trail), and sea area use classification of marine industry standards as well as remote sensing data features. Meanwhile, the dynamic relationship between the landscape pattern and the degree of hemeroby in Ximen Island was investigated with the landscape indices and hemeroby index (HI) derived from the landscape pattern index and GIS spatial analysis. The results showed that the wetland landscape spatial heterogeneity, fragmentation and dominance index dropped, and the landscape shape index complexity was low. The human disturbance center developed from a dispersion type to a concentration type. The landscape type of the disturbance center was bare land and settlement. The HI rose up from the sea to the land. Settlement, wharf and traffic land had the highest HI. The HI of the mudflat cultivation, mudflats and raft-cultivation dramatically changed. Marine-terrestrial interlaced zone showed a low total HI with unstable characteristics. The number of patches declined of undisturbed, partially disturbed and completely disturbed landscapes. Mean patch areas of partially disturbed and completely disturbed landscapes increased, and that of the undisturbed decreased. Mean shape index of the undisturbed landscape decreased, while the partially disturbed and completely disturbed landscapes showed a trend of shape complication.

Land Use and Land Cover Change, Urban Heat Island Phenomenon, and Health Implications: A Remote Sensing Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lo, C. P.; Quattrochi, Dale A.

2003-01-01

Land use and land cover maps of Atlanta Metropolitan Area in Georgia were produced from Landsat MSS and TM images for 1973,1979,1983,1987,1992, and 1997, spanning a period of 25 years. Dramatic changes in land use and land cover have occurred with loss of forest and cropland to urban use. In particular, low-density urban use, which includes largely residential use, has increased by over 119% between 1973 and 1997. These land use and land cover changes have drastically altered the land surface characteristics. An analysis of Landsat images revealed an increase in surface temperature and a decline in NDVI from 1973 to 1997. These changes have forced the development of a significant urban heat island effect and an increase in ground level ozone production to such an extent, that Atlanta has violated EPA's ozone level standard in recent years. The urban heat island initiated precipitation events that were identified between 1996 and 2000 tended to occur near high-density urban areas but outside the I-285 loop that traverses around the Central Business District, i.e. not in the inner city area, but some in close proximity to the highways. The health implications were investigated by comparing the spatial patterns of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, the two ingredients that form ozone by reacting with sunlight, with those of rates of cardiovascular and chronic lower respiratory diseases. A clear core-periphery pattern was revealed for both VOC and NOx emissions, but the spatial pattern was more random in the cases of rates of cardiovascular and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Clearly, factors other than ozone pollution were involved in explaining the rates of these diseases. Further research is therefore needed to understand the health geography and its relationship to land use and land cover change as well as urban heat island effect. This paper illustrates the usefulness of a remote sensing approach for this purpose.

Acidosis downregulates platelet haemostatic functions and promotes neutrophil proinflammatory responses mediated by platelets.

PubMed

Etulain, Julia; Negrotto, Soledad; Carestia, Agostina; Pozner, Roberto Gabriel; Romaniuk, María Albertina; D'Atri, Lina Paola; Klement, Giannoula Lakka; Schattner, Mirta

2012-01-01

Acidosis is one of the hallmarks of tissue injury such as trauma, infection, inflammation, and tumour growth. Although platelets participate in the pathophysiology of all these processes, the impact of acidosis on platelet biology has not been studied outside of the quality control of laboratory aggregation assays or platelet transfusion optimization. Herein, we evaluate the effect of physiologically relevant changes in extracellular acidosis on the biological function of platelets, placing particular emphasis on haemostatic and secretory functions. Platelet haemostatic responses such as adhesion, spreading, activation of αIIbβ3 integrin, ATP release, aggregation, thromboxane B2 generation, clot retraction and procoagulant activity including phosphatidilserine exposure and microparticle formation, showed a statistically significant inhibition of thrombin-induced changes at pH of 7.0 and 6.5 compared to the physiological pH (7.4). The release of alpha granule content was differentially regulated by acidosis. At low pH, thrombin or collagen-induced secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor and endostatin were dramatically reduced. The release of von Willebrand factor and stromal derived factor-1α followed a similar, albeit less dramatic pattern. In contrast, the induction of CD40L was not changed by low pH, and P-selectin exposure was significantly increased. While the generation of mixed platelet-leukocyte aggregates and the increased chemotaxis of neutrophils mediated by platelets were further augmented under acidic conditions in a P-selectin dependent manner, the increased neutrophil survival was independent of P-selectin expression. In conclusion, our results indicate that extracellular acidosis downregulates most of the haemostatic platelet functions, and promotes those involved in amplifying the neutrophil-mediated inflammatory response.

Harnessing Solute Carrier Transporters for Precision Oncology.

PubMed

Nyquist, Michael D; Prasad, Bhagwat; Mostaghel, Elahe A

2017-03-28

Solute Carrier (SLC) transporters are a large superfamily of transmembrane carriers involved in the regulated transport of metabolites, nutrients, ions and drugs across cellular membranes. A subset of these solute carriers play a significant role in the cellular uptake of many cancer therapeutics, ranging from chemotherapeutics such as antimetabolites, topoisomerase inhibitors, platinum-based drugs and taxanes to targeted therapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. SLC transporters are co-expressed in groups and patterns across normal tissues, suggesting they may comprise a coordinated regulatory circuit serving to mediate normal tissue functions. In cancer however, there are dramatic changes in expression patterns of SLC transporters. This frequently serves to feed the increased metabolic demands of the tumor cell for amino acids, nucleotides and other metabolites, but also presents a therapeutic opportunity, as increased transporter expression may serve to increase intracellular concentrations of substrate drugs. In this review, we examine the regulation of drug transporters in cancer and how this impacts therapy response, and discuss novel approaches to targeting therapies to specific cancers via tumor-specific aberrations in transporter expression. We propose that among the oncogenic changes in SLC transporter expression there exist emergent vulnerabilities that can be exploited therapeutically, extending the application of precision medicine from tumor-specific drug targets to tumor-specific determinants of drug uptake.

Importance of the cutoff value in the quadratic adaptive integrate-and-fire model.

PubMed

Touboul, Jonathan

2009-08-01

The quadratic adaptive integrate-and-fire model (Izhikevich, 2003 , 2007 ) is able to reproduce various firing patterns of cortical neurons and is widely used in large-scale simulations of neural networks. This model describes the dynamics of the membrane potential by a differential equation that is quadratic in the voltage, coupled to a second equation for adaptation. Integration is stopped during the rise phase of a spike at a voltage cutoff value V(c) or when it blows up. Subsequently the membrane potential is reset, and the adaptation variable is increased by a fixed amount. We show in this note that in the absence of a cutoff value, not only the voltage but also the adaptation variable diverges in finite time during spike generation in the quadratic model. The divergence of the adaptation variable makes the system very sensitive to the cutoff: changing V(c) can dramatically alter the spike patterns. Furthermore, from a computational viewpoint, the divergence of the adaptation variable implies that the time steps for numerical simulation need to be small and adaptive. However, divergence of the adaptation variable does not occur for the quartic model (Touboul, 2008 ) and the adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire model (Brette & Gerstner, 2005 ). Hence, these models are robust to changes in the cutoff value.

Stable Patterns of CENH3 Occupancy Through Maize Lineages Containing Genetically Similar Centromeres.

PubMed

Gent, Jonathan I; Wang, Kai; Jiang, Jiming; Dawe, R Kelly

2015-08-01

While the approximate chromosomal position of centromeres has been identified in many species, little is known about the dynamics and diversity of centromere positions within species. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that DNA sequence has little or no impact in specifying centromeres in maize and in most multicellular organisms. Given that epigenetically defined boundaries are expected to be dynamic, we hypothesized that centromere positions would change rapidly over time, which would result in a diversity of centromere positions in isolated populations. To test this hypothesis, we used CENP-A/cenH3 (CENH3 in maize) chromatin immunoprecipitation to define centromeres in breeding pedigrees that included the B73 inbred as a common parent. While we found a diversity of CENH3 profiles for centromeres with divergent sequences that were not inherited from B73, the CENH3 profiles from centromeres that were inherited from B73 were indistinguishable from each other. We propose that specific genetic elements in centromeric regions favor or inhibit CENH3 accumulation, leading to reproducible patterns of CENH3 occupancy. These data also indicate that dramatic shifts in centromere position normally originate from accumulated or large-scale genetic changes rather than from epigenetic positional drift. Copyright © 2015 by the Genetics Society of America.

Genome-wide Selective Sweeps in Natural Bacterial Populations Revealed by Time-series Metagenomics

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

Chan, Leong-Keat; Bendall, Matthew L.; Malfatti, Stephanie

2014-06-18

Multiple evolutionary models have been proposed to explain the formation of genetically and ecologically distinct bacterial groups. Time-series metagenomics enables direct observation of evolutionary processes in natural populations, and if applied over a sufficiently long time frame, this approach could capture events such as gene-specific or genome-wide selective sweeps. Direct observations of either process could help resolve how distinct groups form in natural microbial assemblages. Here, from a three-year metagenomic study of a freshwater lake, we explore changes in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) frequencies and patterns of gene gain and loss in populations of Chlorobiaceae and Methylophilaceae. SNP analyses revealedmore » substantial genetic heterogeneity within these populations, although the degree of heterogeneity varied considerably among closely related, co-occurring Methylophilaceae populations. SNP allele frequencies, as well as the relative abundance of certain genes, changed dramatically over time in each population. Interestingly, SNP diversity was purged at nearly every genome position in one of the Chlorobiaceae populations over the course of three years, while at the same time multiple genes either swept through or were swept from this population. These patterns were consistent with a genome-wide selective sweep, a process predicted by the ‘ecotype model’ of diversification, but not previously observed in natural populations.« less

Genome-wide Selective Sweeps in Natural Bacterial Populations Revealed by Time-series Metagenomics

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

Chan, Leong-Keat; Bendall, Matthew L.; Malfatti, Stephanie

2014-05-12

Multiple evolutionary models have been proposed to explain the formation of genetically and ecologically distinct bacterial groups. Time-series metagenomics enables direct observation of evolutionary processes in natural populations, and if applied over a sufficiently long time frame, this approach could capture events such as gene-specific or genome-wide selective sweeps. Direct observations of either process could help resolve how distinct groups form in natural microbial assemblages. Here, from a three-year metagenomic study of a freshwater lake, we explore changes in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) frequencies and patterns of gene gain and loss in populations of Chlorobiaceae and Methylophilaceae. SNP analyses revealedmore » substantial genetic heterogeneity within these populations, although the degree of heterogeneity varied considerably among closely related, co-occurring Methylophilaceae populations. SNP allele frequencies, as well as the relative abundance of certain genes, changed dramatically over time in each population. Interestingly, SNP diversity was purged at nearly every genome position in one of the Chlorobiaceae populations over the course of three years, while at the same time multiple genes either swept through or were swept from this population. These patterns were consistent with a genome-wide selective sweep, a process predicted by the ecotype model? of diversification, but not previously observed in natural populations.« less

Implications of climate change for potamodromous fishes.

PubMed

Beatty, Stephen J; Morgan, David L; Lymbery, Alan J

2014-06-01

There is little understanding of how climate change will impact potamodromous freshwater fishes. Since the mid 1970s, a decline in annual rainfall in south-western Australia (a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot) has resulted in the rivers of the region undergoing severe reductions in surface flows (ca. 50%). There is universal agreement amongst Global Climate Models that rainfall will continue to decline in this region. Limited data are available on the movement patterns of the endemic freshwater fishes of south-western Australia or on the relationship between their life histories and hydrology. We used this region as a model to determine how dramatic hydrological change may impact potamodromous freshwater fishes. Migration patterns of fishes in the largest river in south-western Australia were quantified over a 4 year period and were related to a number of key environmental variables including discharge, temperature, pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen. Most of the endemic freshwater fishes were potamodromous, displaying lateral seasonal spawning migrations from the main channel into tributaries, and there were significant temporal differences in movement patterns between species. Using a model averaging approach, amount of discharge was clearly the best predictor of upstream and downstream movement for most species. Given past and projected reductions in surface flow and groundwater, the findings have major implications for future recruitment rates and population viabilities of potamodromous fishes. Freshwater ecosystems in drying climatic regions can only be managed effectively if such hydro-ecological relationships are considered. Proactive management and addressing existing anthropogenic stressors on aquatic ecosystems associated with the development of surface and groundwater resources and land use is required to increase the resistance and resilience of potamodromous fishes to ongoing flow reductions. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Improved systemic treatment for early breast cancer improves cure rates, modifies metastatic pattern and shortens post-metastatic survival: 35-year results from the Munich Cancer Registry.

PubMed

Hölzel, Dieter; Eckel, Renate; Bauerfeind, Ingo; Baier, Bernd; Beck, Thomas; Braun, Michael; Ettl, Johannes; Hamann, Ulrich; Kiechle, Marion; Mahner, Sven; Schindlbeck, Christian; de Waal, Johann; Harbeck, Nadia; Engel, Jutta

2017-09-01

Systemic therapies (ATHs) in early breast cancer have improved the survival of breast cancer (BC) patients in recent decades. The magnitude of the changes in overall, metastasis-free (MFS) and post-metastatic (PMS) survival and in the metastasis (MET) pattern will be described. We analysed 60,227 patients with a diagnosis of T-N-M0 BC between 1978 and 2013 and 11,983 patients with metastases (MET) in the Munich Cancer Registry. Patients will be divided into four time periods to identify relationships between BC and METs. Survival was estimated using Kaplan-Meier curves, and Cox proportional hazards models were used to explore the impact of the BC subtype and MET status on survival with the time periods as surrogate markers for ATH evolution. During the observation period, 5-year relative survival has improved from 80.3 to 93.6% with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.54 (P < 0.0001). Successful implementation of ATH has changed the MET pattern. The percentage of liver and CNS METs has more than doubled, the rate of lung METs remains stable, and the rate of bone METs has been reduced by approximately 50%. MFS has been prolonged with a hazard ratio 0.75 (P < 0.0001), but PMS has declined (hazard ratio 1.36; P < 0.0001); however, effects of adjuvant and palliative treatments cannot be separated. These results do not contradict improvements in advanced BC and do not suggest alterations of MET tumour biology by ATH. Over the past three decades, ATHs have dramatically improved patient survival after BC diagnosis-most likely, by eradicating prevalent micro-METs; as a result, the MET pattern has changed. Eradicating only a portion of the first METs results in delaying the onset of subsequent MET, which leads to an apparently paradoxical effect: an extension of the MET-free interval and a reduction in PMS.

Shifting Patterns of Boreal Forest Succession and Browning Over the Last 30 Years

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goulden, M.; Czimczik, C. I.; Randerson, J. T.

2017-12-01

Climate and fire largely control the productivity ("greenness") and biodiversity of boreal forests in North America. Our research focuses on better understanding: 1) the patterns of, controls on, and recent changes in North American Boreal Forest "Browning" and the declining Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) observed in satellite records, and 2) the patterns of, controls on, and recent changes in North American Boreal Forest fire recovery and succession. Much of our effort has used the Landsat archive to analyze the patterns of wildfire and forest recovery along a transect cutting across central Canada; this study areas covers 3 Landsat rows x 25 paths with 2500 summer images. Key findings include: 1) Most (80-90%) of the recent NDVI trends in our study area are attributable to wildfire (areas that burned after 1995 and also before 1975 show browning; areas that burned in 1975-1995 show greening). 2) There are a significant number of non-fire related patches that show either browning or greening; some of these patches are related to fires or human disturbances that aren't in our disturbance database, but others occur in wetter areas, where there is a general tendency toward browning with many specific cases of greening. 3) Various remote sensing metrics yield complementary information providing a clearer sense of the biophysical trends during succession. 4) We see evidence of accelerating succession from 1985-1995 to 2005-2015. This acceleration isn't dramatic, just 1-3 years during early recovery and more during later succession, but it is a consistent feature of the analysis. We are not seeing a systematic decline in old-stand LAI. While NDVI declines in old stands with the loss of deciduous trees, we are not seeing a systematic decrease in old stand LAI or wide spread mortality.

When the same hydraulics conditions lead to different depositional patterns: case of an idealised delta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peltier, Yann; Erpicum, Sébastien; Archambeau, Pierre; Pirotton, Michel; Dewals, Benjamin

2016-04-01

Deltas are complex hydrosystems and ecosystems resulting from the interactions of a river system with a water body almost at rest. Anthropogenic factors (hydropower, flood management, development in the floodplains) lead to dramatic changes in sediment transport in the rivers and in sediment management practice. From continuous, the sediment transport becomes increasingly intermittent, with long periods of deficit in the sediment supply and short periods characterized by large supplies. Understanding how these intermittencies in the sediment supply affect the delta morphodynamics is of paramount importance for predicting the possible evolution and functioning of deltas. Deltas can reasonably be idealised as a reservoir, with an inlet channel representing the river and the sudden enlargement of the reservoir representing the water body at rest. Using such an ideal configuration enables the assessment of the influence of individual geometric and hydraulic parameters on the depositional patterns responsible for the morphodynamic evolution of the delta. Recent literature has shown that for very similar hydraulic boundary conditions, two very different types of flow fields may develop ("straight jet" vs. "meandering jet"), leading to totally different depositional patterns. In turn, these distinct depositional patterns affect the flow itself through a two-way coupling between the hydrodynamics and the morphodynamics of the deposits. These complex processes will be discussed in the proposed presentation, based on the results of over 160 experimental tests and corresponding numerical simulations.

Quantum ghost imaging through turbulence

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

Dixon, P. Ben; Howland, Gregory A.; Howell, John C.

2011-05-15

We investigate the effect of turbulence on quantum ghost imaging. We use entangled photons and demonstrate that for a specific experimental configuration the effect of turbulence can be greatly diminished. By decoupling the entangled photon source from the ghost-imaging central image plane, we are able to dramatically increase the ghost-image quality. When imaging a test pattern through turbulence, this method increases the imaged pattern visibility from V=0.15{+-}0.04 to 0.42{+-}0.04.

RAPID EVOLUTION CAUSED BY POLLINATOR LOSS IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS

PubMed Central

Bodbyl Roels, Sarah A.; Kelly, John K.

2018-01-01

Anthropogenic perturbations including habitat loss and emerging disease are changing pollinator communities and generating novel selection pressures on plant populations. Disruption of plant–pollinator relationships is predicted to cause plant mating system evolution, although this process has not been directly observed. This study demonstrates the immediate evolutionary effects of pollinator loss within experimental populations of a predominately outcrossing wildflower. Initially equivalent populations evolved for five generations within two pollination treatments: abundant bumblebee pollinators versus no pollinators. The populations without pollinators suffered greatly reduced fitness in early generations but rebounded as they evolved an improved ability to self-fertilize. All populations diverged in floral, developmental, and life-history traits, but only a subset of characters showed clear association with pollination treatment. Pronounced treatment effects were noted for anther–stigma separation and autogamous seed set. Dramatic allele frequency changes at two chromosomal polymorphisms occurred in the no pollinator populations, explaining a large fraction of divergence in pollen viability. The pattern of phenotypic and genetic changes in this experiment favors a sequential model for the evolution of the multitrait “selfing syndrome” observed throughout angiosperms. PMID:21884055

Soft-matter composites with electrically tunable elastic rigidity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shan, Wanliang; Lu, Tong; Majidi, Carmel

2013-08-01

We use a phase-changing metal alloy to reversibly tune the elastic rigidity of an elastomer composite. The elastomer is embedded with a sheet of low-melting-point Field’s metal and an electric Joule heater composed of a serpentine channel of liquid-phase gallium-indium-tin (Galinstan®) alloy. At room temperature, the embedded Field’s metal is solid and the composite remains elastically rigid. Joule heating causes the Field’s metal to melt and allows the surrounding elastomer to freely stretch and bend. Using a tensile testing machine, we measure that the effective elastic modulus of the composite reversibly changes by four orders of magnitude when powered on and off. This dramatic change in rigidity is accurately predicted with a model for an elastic composite. Reversible rigidity control is also accomplished by replacing the Field’s metal with shape memory polymer. In addition to demonstrating electrically tunable rigidity with an elastomer, we also introduce a new technique to rapidly produce soft-matter electronics and multifunctional materials in several minutes with laser-patterned adhesive film and masked deposition of liquid-phase metal alloy.

Woodland restoration in Scotland: ecology, history, culture, economics, politics and change.

PubMed

Hobbs, Richard

2009-07-01

In the latter half of the 20th century, native pine woodlands in Scotland were restricted to small remnant areas within which there was little regeneration. These woodlands are important from a conservation perspective and are habitat for numerous species of conservation concern. Recent developments have seen a large increase in interest in woodland restoration and a dramatic increase in regeneration and woodland spread. The proximate factor enabling this regeneration is a reduction in grazing pressure from sheep and, particularly, deer. However, this has only been possible as a result of a complex interplay between ecological, political and socio-economic factors. We are currently seeing the decline of land management practices instituted 150-200 years ago, changes in land ownership patterns, cultural revival, and changes in societal perceptions of the Scottish landscape. These all feed into the current move to return large areas of the Scottish Highlands to tree cover. I emphasize the need to consider restoration in a multidisciplinary framework which accounts not just for the ecology involved but also the historical and cultural context.

Rapid evolution caused by pollinator loss in Mimulus guttatus.

PubMed

Roels, Sarah A Bodbyl; Kelly, John K

2011-09-01

Anthropogenic perturbations including habitat loss and emerging disease are changing pollinator communities and generating novel selection pressures on plant populations. Disruption of plant-pollinator relationships is predicted to cause plant mating system evolution, although this process has not been directly observed. This study demonstrates the immediate evolutionary effects of pollinator loss within experimental populations of a predominately outcrossing wildflower. Initially equivalent populations evolved for five generations within two pollination treatments: abundant bumblebee pollinators versus no pollinators. The populations without pollinators suffered greatly reduced fitness in early generations but rebounded as they evolved an improved ability to self-fertilize. All populations diverged in floral, developmental, and life-history traits, but only a subset of characters showed clear association with pollination treatment. Pronounced treatment effects were noted for anther-stigma separation and autogamous seed set. Dramatic allele frequency changes at two chromosomal polymorphisms occurred in the no pollinator populations, explaining a large fraction of divergence in pollen viability. The pattern of phenotypic and genetic changes in this experiment favors a sequential model for the evolution of the multitrait "selfing syndrome" observed throughout angiosperms. © 2011 The Author(s).

Impacts of climate change on distributions and diversity of ungulates on the Tibetan Plateau.

PubMed

Luo, Zhenhua; Jiang, Zhigang; Tang, Songhua

2015-01-01

Climate change has significant impacts on species' distributions and diversity patterns. Understanding range shifts and changes in richness gradients under climate change is crucial for conservation. The Tibetan Plateau, home to wild yak, chiru, and kiang, contains a biome with many endemic ungulates. It is highly sensitive to climate change and a region that merits particular attention with regard to the impacts of global climate change on its biomes. Maximum entropy approaches were used to estimate current and future potential distributions, in response to climate change, for 22 ungulate species. We used three general circulation (MK3, HADCM3, MIROC3_2-MED) and three emissions scenarios (Bl, A1B, A2) to derive estimated future measurements of 14 environmental variables over three time periods (2020, 2050, 2080), and then modeled species distributions using these predicted environmental measurements for each time period under two dispersal hypotheses (full and zero, respectively). This resulted in a total of 6160 prediction models. We found that these ungulates, on average, may lose 30-50% of their distributional areas, depending on the dispersal scenarios. In addition, 55-68% of the ungulate species were predicted to become locally endangered under the different dispersal assumptions, 23-32% to become locally critically endangered, and 4-7 endemic species to become globally endangered. Furthermore, ungulate species ranges may experience average poleward shifts of ~300 km. We also predict west-to-east reductions in species richness: southeastern mountainous areas currently have the highest species richness, but are predicted to face the greatest diversity losses, whereas the northern areas are predicted to see increasing numbers of ungulate species in the 21st century. Our study indicates much more severe range reductions of ungulates on the Tibetan Plateau than those anticipated elsewhere in the world, and species richness patterns will change dramatically with climate change. For conservation, we suggest (1) securing existing protected areas, and (2) establishing new nature reserves to counterbalance climate change impacts.

Regional-Scale Forcing and Feedbacks from Alternative Scenarios of Global-Scale Land Use Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, A. D.; Chini, L. P.; Collins, W.; Janetos, A. C.; Mao, J.; Shi, X.; Thomson, A. M.; Torn, M. S.

2011-12-01

Future patterns of land use change depend critically on the degree to which terrestrial carbon management strategies, such as biological carbon sequestration and biofuels, are utilized in order to mitigate global climate change. Furthermore, land use change associated with terrestrial carbon management induces biogeophysical changes to surface energy budgets that perturb climate at regional and possibly global scales, activating different feedback processes depending on the nature and location of the land use change. As a first step in a broader effort to create an integrated earth system model, we examine two scenarios of future anthropogenic activity generated by the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) within the full-coupled Community Earth System Model (CESM). Each scenario stabilizes radiative forcing from greenhouse gases and aerosols at 4.5 W/m^2. In the first, stabilization is achieved through a universal carbon tax that values terrestrial carbon equally with fossil carbon, leading to modest afforestation globally and low biofuel utilization. In the second scenario, stabilization is achieved with a tax on fossil fuel and industrial carbon alone. In this case, biofuel utilization increases dramatically and crop area expands to claim approximately 50% of forest cover globally. By design, these scenarios exhibit identical climate forcing from atmospheric constituents. Thus, differences among them can be attributed to the biogeophysical effects of land use change. In addition, we utilize offline radiative transfer and offline land model simulations to identify forcing and feedback mechanisms operating in different regions. We find that boreal deforestation has a strong climatic signature due to significant albedo change coupled with a regional-scale water vapor feedback. Tropical deforestation, on the other hand, has more subtle effects on climate. Globally, the two scenarios yield warming trends over the 21st century that differ by 0.5 degrees Celsius. This work demonstrates the importance of land use in shaping future patterns of climate change, both globally and regionally.

At the intersection of micro and macro: opportunities and challenges for physician-patient communication research.

PubMed

Cline, Rebecca J Welch

2003-05-01

The health care relationship model is undergoing dramatic change. Micro-level communication patterns yield health care relationship models (e.g. paternalism, mutual participation, consumerism). At the same time, macro-level systems appear increasingly likely to influence the nature of micro-level interaction. The intersections of health care communication micro-level and macro-level phenomena provide important venues for research and interventions. This essay identifies theoretical premises regarding the relationships between communication and health-related behavior; explores three prominent and growing macro-level phenomena that observers argue likely influence the physical-patient relationship and communication therein: complementary and alternative medicine, the Internet, and direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs; and offers a research agenda for exploring macro-level influences on micro-level physician-patient communication.

Controllable and reversible inversion of the electronic structure in nickel N-confused porphyrin: a case when MCD matters.

PubMed

Sripothongnak, Saovalak; Ziegler, Christopher J; Dahlby, Michael R; Nemykin, Victor N

2011-08-01

Nickel N-confused tetraphenylporphyrin, 1, and nickel 2-N-methyl-N-confused tetraphenylporphyrin, 1-Me, exhibit unusual sign-reversed (positive-to-negative intensities in ascending energy) MCD spectra in the Q-type band region, suggesting a rare ΔHOMO < ΔLUMO relationship between π and π* MOs in the porphyrin core. Simple and reversible deprotonation of the external NH proton in 1 dramatically changes the electronic structure of the porphyrin core into the ΔHOMO > ΔLUMO combination characteristic for the meso-(tetraaryl)porphyrins. DFT, time-dependent DFT, and semiempirical ZINDO/S calculations on 1, 1-Me, and 1(-) confirm the experimental finding and successfully explain the MCD pattern in the target compounds. © 2011 American Chemical Society

No longer just a pretty face: fashion magazines' depictions of ideal female beauty from 1959 to 1999.

PubMed

Sypeck, Mia Foley; Gray, James J; Ahrens, Anthony H

2004-11-01

The print media's depiction of the ideal of feminine beauty as presented to American women was examined for the years 1959-1999. Trends were investigated through an analysis of cover models appearing on the four most popular American fashion magazines. Body size for fashion models decreased significantly during the 1980s and 1990s. There was also a dramatic increase in the frequency with which the media depicted the entire bodies of the models from the 1960s to the 1990s. Both the increasingly thin images and the striking increase in full-body portrayals suggest an increase in the value placed by American society on a thin ideal for women, a change that is concurrent with the increase in disturbed eating patterns among American women.

ECTODERMAL WNT/β-CATENIN SIGNALING SHAPES THE MOUSE FACE

PubMed Central

Reid, Bethany S.; Yang, Hui; Melvin, Vida Senkus; Taketo, Makoto M.; Williams, Trevor

2010-01-01

The canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway is an essential component of multiple developmental processes. To investigate the role of this pathway in the ectoderm during facial morphogenesis, we generated conditional β-catenin mouse mutants using a novel ectoderm-specific Cre recombinase transgenic line. Our results demonstrate that ablating or stabilizing β-catenin in the embryonic ectoderm causes dramatic changes in facial morphology. There are accompanying alterations in the expression of Fgf8 and Shh, key molecules that establish a signaling center critical for facial patterning, the frontonasal ectodermal zone (FEZ). These data indicate that Wnt/β-catenin signaling within the ectoderm is critical for facial development and further suggest that this pathway is an important mechanism for generating the diverse facial shapes of vertebrates during evolution. PMID:21087601

Evidence of plasticity in the pontocerebellar conditioned stimulus pathway during classical conditioning of the eyeblink response in the rabbit.

PubMed

Tracy, Jo Anne; Thompson, Judith K; Krupa, David J; Thompson, Richard F

2013-10-01

Electrical stimulation thresholds required to elicit eyeblinks with either pontine or cerebellar interpositus stimulation were measured before and after classical eyeblink conditioning with paired pontine stimulation (conditioned stimulus, CS) and corneal airpuff (unconditioned stimulus, US). Pontine stimulation thresholds dropped dramatically after training and returned to baseline levels following extinction, whereas interpositus thresholds and input-output functions remained stable across training sessions. Learning rate, magnitude of threshold change, and electrode placements were correlated. Pontine projection patterns to the cerebellum were confirmed with retrograde labeling techniques. These results add to the body of literature suggesting that the pons relays CS information to the cerebellum and provide further evidence of synaptic plasticity in the cerebellar network. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Demographic and life history characteristics influence the cytonuclear composition of mosquitofish populations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Scribner, Kim T.; Avise, John C.; Beaumont, A.

1994-01-01

Experimental laboratory crosses and population experiments reveal significant differences in individual life-history traits and population demography between two related species of mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis and G. holbrooki. With respect to life-history traits, progeny from G. holbrooki exhibit larger size at birth and earlier age at sexual maturity than do progeny from G. affinis parents. With respect to demography, populations of G. holbrooki exhibit higher recruitment and carrying capacity and loser overwinter mortality than do populations of G. affinis. These differences help t explain the dramatic changes in cytonuclear genotype frequency observed in replicated experimental hybrid populations of Gambusia monitored over 52 weeks. These experimental results are interpreted in the context of introgression patterns previously studied indirectly from distributions of cytonuclear genotypes in a natural mosquitofish hybrid zone.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: historical origins and current perspective.

PubMed

Montenigro, Philip H; Corp, Daniel T; Stein, Thor D; Cantu, Robert C; Stern, Robert A

2015-01-01

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease that is most often identified in postmortem autopsies of individuals exposed to repetitive head impacts, such as boxers and football players. The neuropathology of CTE is characterized by the accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in a pattern that is unique from that of other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. The clinical features of CTE are often progressive, leading to dramatic changes in mood, behavior, and cognition, frequently resulting in debilitating dementia. In some cases, motor features, including parkinsonism, can also be present. In this review, the historical origins of CTE are revealed and an overview of the current state of knowledge of CTE is provided, including the neuropathology, clinical features, proposed clinical and pathological diagnostic criteria, potential in vivo biomarkers, known risk factors, and treatment options.

Gigantism in unique biogenic magnetite at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

PubMed

Schumann, Dirk; Raub, Timothy D; Kopp, Robert E; Guerquin-Kern, Jean-Luc; Wu, Ting-Di; Rouiller, Isabelle; Smirnov, Aleksey V; Sears, S Kelly; Lücken, Uwe; Tikoo, Sonia M; Hesse, Reinhard; Kirschvink, Joseph L; Vali, Hojatollah

2008-11-18

We report the discovery of exceptionally large biogenic magnetite crystals in clay-rich sediments spanning the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) in a borehole at Ancora, NJ. Aside from previously described abundant bacterial magnetofossils, electron microscopy reveals novel spearhead-like and spindle-like magnetite up to 4 microm long and hexaoctahedral prisms up to 1.4 microm long. Similar to magnetite produced by magnetotactic bacteria, these single-crystal particles exhibit chemical composition, lattice perfection, and oxygen isotopes consistent with an aquatic origin. Electron holography indicates single-domain magnetization despite their large crystal size. We suggest that the development of a thick suboxic zone with high iron bioavailability--a product of dramatic changes in weathering and sedimentation patterns driven by severe global warming--drove diversification of magnetite-forming organisms, likely including eukaryotes.

The longitudinal interplay between negative and positive symptom trajectories in patients under antipsychotic treatment: a post hoc analysis of data from a randomized, 1-year pragmatic trial.

PubMed

Chen, Lei; Johnston, Joseph A; Kinon, Bruce J; Stauffer, Virginia; Succop, Paul; Marques, Tiago R; Ascher-Svanum, Haya

2013-11-28

Schizophrenia is a highly heterogeneous disorder with positive and negative symptoms being characteristic manifestations of the disease. While these two symptom domains are usually construed as distinct and orthogonal, little is known about the longitudinal pattern of negative symptoms and their linkage with the positive symptoms. This study assessed the temporal interplay between these two symptom domains and evaluated whether the improvements in these symptoms were inversely correlated or independent with each other. This post hoc analysis used data from a multicenter, randomized, open-label, 1-year pragmatic trial of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder who were treated with first- and second-generation antipsychotics in the usual clinical settings. Data from all treatment groups were pooled resulting in 399 patients with complete data on both the negative and positive subscale scores from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Individual-based growth mixture modeling combined with interplay matrix was used to identify the latent trajectory patterns in terms of both the negative and positive symptoms. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationship between the changes of these two symptom domains within each combined trajectory pattern. We identified four distinct negative symptom trajectories and three positive symptom trajectories. The trajectory matrix formed 11 combined trajectory patterns, which evidenced that negative and positive symptom trajectories moved generally in parallel. Correlation coefficients for changes in negative and positive symptom subscale scores were positive and statistically significant (P < 0.05). Overall, the combined trajectories indicated three major distinct patterns: (1) dramatic and sustained early improvement in both negative and positive symptoms (n = 70, 18%), (2) mild and sustained improvement in negative and positive symptoms (n = 237, 59%), and (3) no improvement in either negative or positive symptoms (n = 82, 21%). This study of symptom trajectories over 1 year shows that changes in negative and positive symptoms were neither inversely nor independently related with each other. The positive association between these two symptom domains supports the notion that different symptom domains in schizophrenia may depend on each other through a unified upstream pathological disease process.

Development and characterization of amorphous acrylate networks for use as switchable adhesives inspired from shapememory behavior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lakhera, Nishant

Several types of insects and animals such as spiders and geckos are inherently able to climb along vertical walls and ceilings. This remarkable switchable adhesive behavior has been attributed to the fibrillar structures on their feet, with size ranging from few nanometers to a few micrometers depending on the species. Several studies have attempted to create synthetic micro-patterned surfaces trying to imitate this adhesive behavior seen in nature. The experimental procedures are scattered, with sole purpose of trying to increase adhesion, thereby making direct comparison between studies very difficult. There is a lack of fundamental understanding on adhesion of patterned surfaces. The influence of critical parameters like material modulus, glass transition temperature, viscoelastic effects, temperature and water absorption on adhesion is not fully explored and characterized. These parameters are expected to have a decisive influence on adhesion behavior of the polymer. Previous studies have utilized conventional "off-the-shelf" materials like epoxy, polyurethanes etc. It is however, impossible to change the material modulus, glass transition temperature etc. of these polymer systems without changing the base constituents itself, thereby explaining the gaps in the current research landscape. The purpose of this study was to use acrylate shape-memory polymers (SMPs) for their ability to be tailored to specific mechanical properties by control of polymer chemistry, without changing the base constituents. Polymer networks with tailorable glass transition, material modulus, water absorption etc. were developed and adhesion studies were performed to investigate the influence of temperature, viscoelastic effects, material modulus on the adhesion behavior of flat acrylate polymer surfaces. The knowledge base gained from these studies was utilized to better understand the fundamental mechanisms associated with adhesion behavior of patterned acrylate surfaces. Thermally induced switchable adhesion and water induced switchable adhesion of patterned acrylate surfaces was investigated. The viscoelastic energy dissipation occurring during the detachment phase was shown to dramatically increase adhesion under both thermally induced and water induced conditions. This effect was most pre-dominant at the glass transition temperature of the material. Increase in pre-load force and unloading velocity were also shown to increase the adhesive capability of the patterned acrylate SMPs.

Quaternary Charcoal Records from Western North and South America: Linkages to Fire, Climate, and Vegetation Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitlock, C.; Marlon, J.; Bartlein, P.

2006-12-01

Particulate charcoal preserved in lake sediments has become an important tool for examining the long-term role of fire as an ecosystem process. The record of microscopic charcoal (100 micron diameter or less) offers information on regional burning patterns, whereas macroscopic particles travel less far and are used to infer local fire history. Reconstruction of past fire activity is based on observations of modern charcoal production, transport, and deposition; modeling; and information on current fire regimes. Approaches and statistics used to interpret charcoal records generally focus on (1) quantifying charcoal content in contiguous samples, (2) determining an appropriate age model, (3) converting raw data to charcoal accumulation rates, and (4) extracting fire signal from noise. Detection of signal in charcoal time series is based on knowledge of recent fires provided by dendrochronological and documentary data. Additional paleofire information is obtained from stratigraphic changes in charcoal composition, pollen assemblages adapted to fire, and other paleoenvironmental proxy. Fire-history studies from western North and South America provide examples of Holocene fire-history reconstructions at spatial scales ranging from watershed to regional. Individual sites show dramatic shifts from crown to surface fire regimes associated with major changes in vegetation. Networks of records reveal regional variations in fire activity and vegetation that are attributed to insolation- driven shifts in atmospheric circulation and changes in short-term climate variability. A global database of paleofire records under development offers an opportunity to consider continental-scale fire patterns and their broad consequences for vegetation dynamics, biogeochemical cycling, and atmospheric chemistry.

The relative importance of body size and paleoclimatic change as explanatory variables influencing lineage diversification rate: an evolutionary analysis of bullhead catfishes (Siluriformes: Ictaluridae).

PubMed

Hardman, Michael; Hardman, Lotta M

2008-02-01

We applied Bayesian phylogenetics, divergence time estimation, diversification pattern analysis, and parsimony-based methods of ancestral state reconstruction to a combination of nucleotide sequences, maximum body sizes, fossils, and paleoclimate data to explore the influence of an extrinsic (climate change) and an intrinsic (maximum body size) factor on diversification rates in a North American clade of catfishes (Ictaluridae). We found diversification rate to have been significantly variable over time, with significant (or nearly significant) rate increases in the early history of Noturus. Though the latter coincided closely with a period of dramatic climate change at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, we did not detect evidence for a general association between climate change and diversification rate during the entire history of Ictaluridae. Within Ictaluridae, small body size was found to be a near significant predictor of species richness. Morphological stasis of several species appears to be a consequence of a homoplastic increase in body size. We estimated the maximum standard length of the ictalurid ancestor to be approximately 50 cm, comparable to Eocene ictalurids (Astephus) and similar to modern sizes of Ameiurus and their Asian sister-taxon Cranoglanis. During the late Paleocene and early Eocene, the ictalurid ancestor diversified into the lineages represented by the modern epigean genera. The majority of modern species originated in the Oligocene and Miocene, most likely according to a peripheral isolates model of speciation. We discuss the difficulties of detecting macroevolutionary patterns within a lineage history and encourage the scrutiny of the terminal Eocene climatic event as a direct promoter of diversification.

Temporal Trends and Changing Racial/ethnic Disparities in Alcohol Problems: Results from the 2000 to 2010 National Alcohol Surveys.

PubMed

Zemore, Sarah E; Karriker-Jaffe, Katherine J; Mulia, Nina

2013-09-28

Economic conditions and drinking norms have been in considerable flux over the past 10 years. Accordingly, research is needed to evaluate both overall trends in alcohol problems during this period and whether changes within racial/ethnic groups have affected racial/ethnic disparities. We used 3 cross-sectional waves of National Alcohol Survey data (2000, 2005, and 2010) to examine a) temporal trends in alcohol dependence and consequences overall and by race/ethnicity, and b) the effects of temporal changes on racial/ethnic disparities. Analyses involved bivariate tests and multivariate negative binomial regressions testing the effects of race/ethnicity, survey year, and their interaction on problem measures. Both women and men overall showed significant increases in dependence symptoms in 2010 (vs. 2000); women also reported increases in alcohol-related consequences in 2010 (vs. 2000). (Problem rates were equivalent across 2005 and 2000.) However, increases in problems were most dramatic among Whites, and dependence symptoms actually decreased among Latinos of both genders in 2010. Consequently, the long-standing disparity in dependence between Latino and White men was substantially reduced in 2010. Post-hoc analyses suggested that changes in drinking norms at least partially drove increased problem rates among Whites. Results constitute an important contribution to the literature on racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol problems. Findings are not inconsistent with the macroeconomic literature suggesting increases in alcohol problems during economic recession, but the pattern of effects across race/ethnicity and findings regarding norms together suggest, at the least, a revised understanding of how recessions affect drinking patterns and problems.

Epigenetic reprogramming in mammalian species after SCNT-based cloning.

PubMed

Niemann, Heiner

2016-07-01

The birth of "Dolly," the first mammal cloned from an adult mammary epithelial cell, abolished the decades-old scientific dogma implying that a terminally differentiated cell cannot be reprogrammed into a pluripotent embryonic state. The most dramatic epigenetic reprogramming occurs in SCNT when the expression profile of a differentiated cell is abolished and a new embryo-specific expression profile, involving 10,000 to 12,000 genes, and thus, most genes of the entire genome is established, which drives embryonic and fetal development. The initial release from somatic cell epigenetic constraints is followed by establishment of post-zygotic expression patterns, X-chromosome inactivation, and adjustment of telomere length. Somatic cell nuclear transfer may be associated with a variety of pathologic changes of the fetal and placental phenotype in a proportion of cloned offspring, specifically in ruminants, that are thought to be caused by aberrant epigenetic reprogramming. Improvements in our understanding of this dramatic epigenetic reprogramming event will be instrumental in realizing the great potential of SCNT for basic research and for important agricultural and biomedical applications. Here, current knowledge on epigenetic reprogramming after use of SCNT in livestock is reviewed, with emphasis on gene-specific and global DNA methylation, imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, and telomere length restoration in early development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Coincident patterns of waste water suspended solids reduction, water transparency increase and chlorophyll decline in Narragansett Bay.

PubMed

Borkman, David G; Smayda, Theodore J

2016-06-15

Dramatic changes occurred in Narragansett Bay during the 1980s: water clarity increased, while phytoplankton abundance and chlorophyll concentration decreased. We examine how changes in total suspended solids (TSS) loading from wastewater treatment plants may have influenced this decline in phytoplankton chlorophyll. TSS loading, light and phytoplankton observations were compiled and a light- and temperature-dependent Skeletonema-based phytoplankton growth model was applied to evaluate chlorophyll supported by TSS nitrogen during 1983-1995. TSS loading declined 75% from ~0.60×10(6)kgmonth(-1) to ~0.15×10(6)kgmonth(-1) during 1983-1995. Model results indicate that nitrogen reduction related to TSS reduction was minor and explained a small fraction (~15%) of the long-term chlorophyll decline. The decline in NBay TSS loading appears to have increased water clarity and in situ irradiance and contributed to the long-term chlorophyll decline by inducing a physiological response of a ~20% reduction in chlorophyll per cell. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Community Context, Land Use and First Birth

PubMed Central

Ghimire, Dirgha J.; Axinn, William G.

2010-01-01

This paper examines the influence of community context and land use on the monthly odds of first birth in a society in the midst of dramatic fertility transition. The theoretical framework guiding our work predicts that proximity to non-family services should delay first births by creating opportunities for competing non-family activities and spreading new ideas that change expectations about family life. On the other hand, living in agricultural settings that provide opportunities for higher returns to the child labor should speed first births. We use a longitudinal, multilevel, mixed-method data from the Nepalese Himalayas to test these predictions. The empirical results reveal that non-family services during childhood and during early adulthood both have important independent influences on the odds of first birth. Also, as predicted, a high density of agricultural land use affects the odds of first births in the opposite direction, speeding first births. This clear pattern of contrasting effects provides important new evidence of the contextual dynamics that produce watershed changes in post-marital birth timing. PMID:20877584

Gender and changing generational relations: spouse choice in Indonesia.

PubMed

Malhotra, A

1991-11-01

Many Asian societies are undergoing a nuptiality transition that is not only tied integrally to other aspects of family organization, but is also often more complex than standard studies of female age at marriage can reveal. To comprehend some of this complexity, we focus on the patterns of spouse choice for both men and women in central Java. The extent of parental control over mate selection is examined for change over time, gender differences, and likely determinants, including family class, education, premarital work, and residence. It is argued that the current marriage transition in Indonesia reflects both gender and generational hierarchies in the Javanese family system. The analysis is conducted using a multinomial logit model; in general, it yields results strongly supportive of the argument that the determinants of spouse selection differ by gender. The results also show that although there is a dramatic shift towards self-choice marriages, it is occurring within the context of historical and institutional factors specific to Javanese society.

State-of-the-Art Diagnosis and Treatment of Melanoma: Optimal Multidetector Computed Tomographic Practice to Identify Metastatic Disease and Review of Innovative Therapeutic Agents.

PubMed

Jones, Blake C; Lipson, Evan J; Childers, Brandon; Fishman, Elliot K; Johnson, Pamela T

The incidence of melanoma has risen dramatically over the past several decades. Oncologists rely on the ability of radiologists to identify subtle radiographic changes representing metastatic and recurrent melanoma in uncommon locations on multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) as the front-line imaging surveillance tool. To accomplish this goal, MDCT acquisition and display must be optimized and radiologist interpretation and search patterns must be tailored to identify the unique and often subtle metastatic lesions of melanoma. This article describes MDCT acquisition and display techniques that optimize the visibility of melanoma lesions, such as high-contrast display windows and multiplanar reconstructions. In addition, innovative therapies for melanoma, such as immunotherapy and small-molecule therapy, have altered clinical management and outcomes and have also changed the spectrum of therapeutic complications that can be detected on MDCT. Recent advances in melanoma therapy and potential complications that the radiologist can identify on MDCT are reviewed.

Population differentiation decreases with depth in deep-sea gastropods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Etter, Ron J.; Rex, Michael A.

1990-08-01

The evolutionary processes that have generated the rich and highly endemic deep-sea benthic invertebrate fauna remain largely unstudied. Patterns of geographic variation constitute the most basic and essential information for understanding speciation and adaptive radiation. Here we present a multivariate analysis of phenotypic distance to quantify geographic variation in shell form among populations of eight deep-sea gastropod species distributed along a depth gradient in the western North Atlantic. Our primary aim is to identify regions within the deep sea that may promote population differentiation. The degree of interpopulation divergence is highest at the shelf-slope transition (200 m), and then decreases dramatically with increasing depth across the bathyal region (200-4000 m) to the abyssal plain (>4000 m). Phenotypic change parallels faunal change along the depth gradient, suggesting that the selective regime becomes more uniform with increasing depth. Results indicate that the potential for gastropod radiation within the deep-sea environment (>200 m) varies geographically and is highest in the narrow upper bathyal region.

Diversity partitioning during the Cambrian radiation

PubMed Central

Na, Lin; Kiessling, Wolfgang

2015-01-01

The fossil record offers unique insights into the environmental and geographic partitioning of biodiversity during global diversifications. We explored biodiversity patterns during the Cambrian radiation, the most dramatic radiation in Earth history. We assessed how the overall increase in global diversity was partitioned between within-community (alpha) and between-community (beta) components and how beta diversity was partitioned among environments and geographic regions. Changes in gamma diversity in the Cambrian were chiefly driven by changes in beta diversity. The combined trajectories of alpha and beta diversity during the initial diversification suggest low competition and high predation within communities. Beta diversity has similar trajectories both among environments and geographic regions, but turnover between adjacent paleocontinents was probably the main driver of diversification. Our study elucidates that global biodiversity during the Cambrian radiation was driven by niche contraction at local scales and vicariance at continental scales. The latter supports previous arguments for the importance of plate tectonics in the Cambrian radiation, namely the breakup of Pannotia. PMID:25825755

Cell-Cell Contact Area Affects Notch Signaling and Notch-Dependent Patterning.

PubMed

Shaya, Oren; Binshtok, Udi; Hersch, Micha; Rivkin, Dmitri; Weinreb, Sheila; Amir-Zilberstein, Liat; Khamaisi, Bassma; Oppenheim, Olya; Desai, Ravi A; Goodyear, Richard J; Richardson, Guy P; Chen, Christopher S; Sprinzak, David

2017-03-13

During development, cells undergo dramatic changes in their morphology. By affecting contact geometry, these morphological changes could influence cellular communication. However, it has remained unclear whether and how signaling depends on contact geometry. This question is particularly relevant for Notch signaling, which coordinates neighboring cell fates through direct cell-cell signaling. Using micropatterning with a receptor trans-endocytosis assay, we show that signaling between pairs of cells correlates with their contact area. This relationship extends across contact diameters ranging from micrometers to tens of micrometers. Mathematical modeling predicts that dependence of signaling on contact area can bias cellular differentiation in Notch-mediated lateral inhibition processes, such that smaller cells are more likely to differentiate into signal-producing cells. Consistent with this prediction, analysis of developing chick inner ear revealed that ligand-producing hair cell precursors have smaller apical footprints than non-hair cells. Together, these results highlight the influence of cell morphology on fate determination processes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A 'dynamic' landscape of fear: prey responses to spatiotemporal variations in predation risk across the lunar cycle.

PubMed

Palmer, M S; Fieberg, J; Swanson, A; Kosmala, M; Packer, C

2017-11-01

Ambiguous empirical support for 'landscapes of fear' in natural systems may stem from failure to consider dynamic temporal changes in predation risk. The lunar cycle dramatically alters night-time visibility, with low luminosity increasing hunting success of African lions. We used camera-trap data from Serengeti National Park to examine nocturnal anti-predator behaviours of four herbivore species. Interactions between predictable fluctuations in night-time luminosity and the underlying risk-resource landscape shaped herbivore distribution, herding propensity and the incidence of 'relaxed' behaviours. Buffalo responded least to temporal risk cues and minimised risk primarily through spatial redistribution. Gazelle and zebra made decisions based on current light levels and lunar phase, and wildebeest responded to lunar phase alone. These three species avoided areas where likelihood of encountering lions was high and changed their behaviours in risky areas to minimise predation threat. These patterns support the hypothesis that fear landscapes vary heterogeneously in both space and time. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Community Context, Land Use and First Birth.

PubMed

Ghimire, Dirgha J; Axinn, William G

2010-09-01

This paper examines the influence of community context and land use on the monthly odds of first birth in a society in the midst of dramatic fertility transition. The theoretical framework guiding our work predicts that proximity to non-family services should delay first births by creating opportunities for competing non-family activities and spreading new ideas that change expectations about family life. On the other hand, living in agricultural settings that provide opportunities for higher returns to the child labor should speed first births. We use a longitudinal, multilevel, mixed-method data from the Nepalese Himalayas to test these predictions. The empirical results reveal that non-family services during childhood and during early adulthood both have important independent influences on the odds of first birth. Also, as predicted, a high density of agricultural land use affects the odds of first births in the opposite direction, speeding first births. This clear pattern of contrasting effects provides important new evidence of the contextual dynamics that produce watershed changes in post-marital birth timing.

Detection of the relationship between peak temperature and extreme precipitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Y.; Liu, J.; Zhiyong, Y.

2017-12-01

Under the background of climate change and human activities, the characteristics and pattern of precipitation have changed significantly in many regions. As the political and cultural center of China, the structure and character of precipitation in Jingjinji District has varied dramatically in recent years. In this paper, the daily precipitation data throughout the period 1960-2013 are selected for analyzing the spatial-temporal variability of precipitation. The results indicate that the frequency and intensity of precipitation presents an increasing trend. Based on the precipitation data, the maximum, minimum and mean precipitation in different temporal and spatial scales is calculated respectively. The temporal and spatial variation of temperature is obtained by using statistical methods. The relationship between temperature and precipitation in different range is analyzed. The curve relates daily precipitation extremes with local temperatures has a peak structure, increasing at the low-medium range of temperature variations but decreasing at high temperatures. The relationship between extreme precipitation is stronger in downtown than that in suburbs.

Cell-cell contact area affects Notch signaling and Notch-dependent patterning

PubMed Central

Shaya, Oren; Binshtok, Udi; Hersch, Micha; Rivkin, Dmitri; Weinreb, Sheila; Amir-Zilberstein, Liat; Khamaisi, Bassma; Oppenheim, Olya; Desai, Ravi A.; Goodyear, Richard J.; Richardson, Guy P.; Chen, Christopher S.; Sprinzak, David

2017-01-01

Summary During development, cells undergo dramatic changes in their morphology. By affecting contact geometry, these morphological changes could influence cellular communication. However, it has remained unclear whether and how signaling depends on contact geometry. This question is particularly relevant for Notch signaling, which coordinates neighboring cell fates through direct cell-cell signaling. Using micropatterning with a receptor trans-endocytosis assay, we show that signaling between pairs of cells correlates with their contact area. This relationship extends across contact diameters ranging from microns to tens of microns. Mathematical modeling predicts that dependence of signaling on contact area can bias cellular differentiation in Notch-mediated lateral inhibition processes, such that smaller cells are more likely to differentiate into signal-producing cells. Consistent with this prediction, analysis of developing chick inner ear revealed that ligand-producing hair cell precursors have smaller apical footprints than non-hair cells. Together, these results highlight the influence of cell morphology on fate determination processes. PMID:28292428

Junkie Script.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, Robert J.

1995-01-01

Discussess the use of psychodrama as a therapeutic technique involving reenactments of situations that have emotional significance to participants. Through drama participants obtain a deeper understanding of who they are, where they have been, their internal drives, and their behavior patterns. Discusses a spontaneous dramatic script that was…

Psychosocial aspects of women's lives: work, family, and life cycle issues.

PubMed

Shrier, Diane K

2003-09-01

Over the past century and continuing to evolve into the twenty-first century, there have been dramatic changes in work and personal/family lives within the United States. These changes, though strongly affecting men and children, have impacted most dramatically on women's lives, particularly white, middle-class women. Psychiatrists and other mental health clinicians need to be aware of the scope and nature of these changes and to recognize that their own personal experiences and values might differ from those of women of different generations as well as different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

The debt of nations and the distribution of ecological impacts from human activities

PubMed Central

Srinivasan, U. Thara; Carey, Susan P.; Hallstein, Eric; Higgins, Paul A. T.; Kerr, Amber C.; Koteen, Laura E.; Smith, Adam B.; Watson, Reg; Harte, John; Norgaard, Richard B.

2008-01-01

As human impacts to the environment accelerate, disparities in the distribution of damages between rich and poor nations mount. Globally, environmental change is dramatically affecting the flow of ecosystem services, but the distribution of ecological damages and their driving forces has not been estimated. Here, we conservatively estimate the environmental costs of human activities over 1961–2000 in six major categories (climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, agricultural intensification and expansion, deforestation, overfishing, and mangrove conversion), quantitatively connecting costs borne by poor, middle-income, and rich nations to specific activities by each of these groups. Adjusting impact valuations for different standards of living across the groups as commonly practiced, we find striking imbalances. Climate change and ozone depletion impacts predicted for low-income nations have been overwhelmingly driven by emissions from the other two groups, a pattern also observed for overfishing damages indirectly driven by the consumption of fishery products. Indeed, through disproportionate emissions of greenhouse gases alone, the rich group may have imposed climate damages on the poor group greater than the latter's current foreign debt. Our analysis provides prima facie evidence for an uneven distribution pattern of damages across income groups. Moreover, our estimates of each group's share in various damaging activities are independent from controversies in environmental valuation methods. In a world increasingly connected ecologically and economically, our analysis is thus an early step toward reframing issues of environmental responsibility, development, and globalization in accordance with ecological costs. PMID:18212119

A conceptual life-history model for pallid and shovelnose sturgeon

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wildhaber, Mark L.; DeLonay, Aaron J.; Papoulias, Diana M.; Galat, David L.; Jacobson, Robert B.; Simpkins, Darin G.; Braaten, P. J.; Korschgen, Carl E.; Mac, Michael J.

2007-01-01

Intensive management of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers has resulted in dramatic physical changes to these rivers. These changes have been implicated as causative agents in the decline of pallid sturgeon. The pallid sturgeon, federally listed as endangered, is endemic to the turbid waters of the Missouri River and the Lower Mississippi River. The sympatric shovelnose sturgeon historically was more common and widespread than the pallid sturgeon. Habitat alteration, river regulation, pollution, and over-harvest have resulted in the now predictable patterns of decline and localized extirpation of sturgeon across species and geographic areas. Symptomatic of this generalized pattern of decline is poor reproductive success, and low or no recruitment of wild juveniles to the adult population. The purpose of this report is to introduce a conceptual life-history model of the factors that affect reproduction, growth, and survival of shovelnose and pallid sturgeons. The conceptual model provided here was developed to organize the understanding about the complex life history of Scaphirhynchus sturgeons. It was designed to be used for communication, planning, and to provide the structure for a population-forecasting model. These models are intended to be dynamic and responsive to new information and changes in river management, thereby providing scientists, stakeholders, and managers with ways to improve understanding of the effects of management actions on the ecological requirements of Scaphirhynchus sturgeons. As new scientific knowledge becomes available, it could be included in the model in many ways at various integration levels.

Reconciling fisheries catch and ocean productivity

PubMed Central

Stock, Charles A.; Asch, Rebecca G.; Cheung, William W. L.; Dunne, John P.; Friedland, Kevin D.; Lam, Vicky W. Y.; Sarmiento, Jorge L.; Watson, Reg A.

2017-01-01

Photosynthesis fuels marine food webs, yet differences in fish catch across globally distributed marine ecosystems far exceed differences in net primary production (NPP). We consider the hypothesis that ecosystem-level variations in pelagic and benthic energy flows from phytoplankton to fish, trophic transfer efficiencies, and fishing effort can quantitatively reconcile this contrast in an energetically consistent manner. To test this hypothesis, we enlist global fish catch data that include previously neglected contributions from small-scale fisheries, a synthesis of global fishing effort, and plankton food web energy flux estimates from a prototype high-resolution global earth system model (ESM). After removing a small number of lightly fished ecosystems, stark interregional differences in fish catch per unit area can be explained (r = 0.79) with an energy-based model that (i) considers dynamic interregional differences in benthic and pelagic energy pathways connecting phytoplankton and fish, (ii) depresses trophic transfer efficiencies in the tropics and, less critically, (iii) associates elevated trophic transfer efficiencies with benthic-predominant systems. Model catch estimates are generally within a factor of 2 of values spanning two orders of magnitude. Climate change projections show that the same macroecological patterns explaining dramatic regional catch differences in the contemporary ocean amplify catch trends, producing changes that may exceed 50% in some regions by the end of the 21st century under high-emissions scenarios. Models failing to resolve these trophodynamic patterns may significantly underestimate regional fisheries catch trends and hinder adaptation to climate change. PMID:28115722

Reconciling fisheries catch and ocean productivity.

PubMed

Stock, Charles A; John, Jasmin G; Rykaczewski, Ryan R; Asch, Rebecca G; Cheung, William W L; Dunne, John P; Friedland, Kevin D; Lam, Vicky W Y; Sarmiento, Jorge L; Watson, Reg A

2017-02-21

Photosynthesis fuels marine food webs, yet differences in fish catch across globally distributed marine ecosystems far exceed differences in net primary production (NPP). We consider the hypothesis that ecosystem-level variations in pelagic and benthic energy flows from phytoplankton to fish, trophic transfer efficiencies, and fishing effort can quantitatively reconcile this contrast in an energetically consistent manner. To test this hypothesis, we enlist global fish catch data that include previously neglected contributions from small-scale fisheries, a synthesis of global fishing effort, and plankton food web energy flux estimates from a prototype high-resolution global earth system model (ESM). After removing a small number of lightly fished ecosystems, stark interregional differences in fish catch per unit area can be explained ( r = 0.79) with an energy-based model that ( i ) considers dynamic interregional differences in benthic and pelagic energy pathways connecting phytoplankton and fish, ( ii ) depresses trophic transfer efficiencies in the tropics and, less critically, ( iii ) associates elevated trophic transfer efficiencies with benthic-predominant systems. Model catch estimates are generally within a factor of 2 of values spanning two orders of magnitude. Climate change projections show that the same macroecological patterns explaining dramatic regional catch differences in the contemporary ocean amplify catch trends, producing changes that may exceed 50% in some regions by the end of the 21st century under high-emissions scenarios. Models failing to resolve these trophodynamic patterns may significantly underestimate regional fisheries catch trends and hinder adaptation to climate change.

Long-term fluctuations in circalunar Beach aggregations of the box jellyfish Alatina moseri in Hawaii, with links to environmental variability.

PubMed

Chiaverano, Luciano M; Holland, Brenden S; Crow, Gerald L; Blair, Landy; Yanagihara, Angel A

2013-01-01

The box jellyfish Alatina moseri forms monthly aggregations at Waikiki Beach 8-12 days after each full moon, posing a recurrent hazard to swimmers due to painful stings. We present an analysis of long-term (14 years: Jan 1998- Dec 2011) changes in box jellyfish abundance at Waikiki Beach. We tested the relationship of beach counts to climate and biogeochemical variables over time in the North Pacific Sub-tropical Gyre (NPSG). Generalized Additive Models (GAM), Change-Point Analysis (CPA), and General Regression Models (GRM) were used to characterize patterns in box jellyfish arrival at Waikiki Beach 8-12 days following 173 consecutive full moons. Variation in box jellyfish abundance lacked seasonality, but exhibited dramatic differences among months and among years, and followed an oscillating pattern with significant periods of increase (1998-2001; 2006-2011) and decrease (2001-2006). Of three climatic and 12 biogeochemical variables examined, box jellyfish showed a strong, positive relationship with primary production, >2 mm zooplankton biomass, and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) index. It is clear that that the moon cycle plays a key role in synchronizing timing of the arrival of Alatina moseri medusae to shore. We propose that bottom-up processes, likely initiated by inter-annual regional climatic fluctuations influence primary production, secondary production, and ultimately regulate food availability, and are therefore important in controlling the inter-annual changes in box jellyfish abundance observed at Waikiki Beach.

Long-Term Fluctuations in Circalunar Beach Aggregations of the Box Jellyfish Alatina moseri in Hawaii, with Links to Environmental Variability

PubMed Central

Chiaverano, Luciano M.; Holland, Brenden S.; Crow, Gerald L.; Blair, Landy; Yanagihara, Angel A.

2013-01-01

The box jellyfish Alatina moseri forms monthly aggregations at Waikiki Beach 8–12 days after each full moon, posing a recurrent hazard to swimmers due to painful stings. We present an analysis of long-term (14 years: Jan 1998– Dec 2011) changes in box jellyfish abundance at Waikiki Beach. We tested the relationship of beach counts to climate and biogeochemical variables over time in the North Pacific Sub-tropical Gyre (NPSG). Generalized Additive Models (GAM), Change-Point Analysis (CPA), and General Regression Models (GRM) were used to characterize patterns in box jellyfish arrival at Waikiki Beach 8–12 days following 173 consecutive full moons. Variation in box jellyfish abundance lacked seasonality, but exhibited dramatic differences among months and among years, and followed an oscillating pattern with significant periods of increase (1998–2001; 2006–2011) and decrease (2001–2006). Of three climatic and 12 biogeochemical variables examined, box jellyfish showed a strong, positive relationship with primary production, >2 mm zooplankton biomass, and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) index. It is clear that that the moon cycle plays a key role in synchronizing timing of the arrival of Alatina moseri medusae to shore. We propose that bottom-up processes, likely initiated by inter-annual regional climatic fluctuations influence primary production, secondary production, and ultimately regulate food availability, and are therefore important in controlling the inter-annual changes in box jellyfish abundance observed at Waikiki Beach. PMID:24194856

Patterning nonisometric origami in nematic elastomer sheets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plucinsky, Paul; Kowalski, Benjamin A.; White, Timothy J.; Bhattacharya, Kaushik

Nematic elastomers dramatically change their shape in response to diverse stimuli including light and heat. In this paper, we provide a systematic framework for the design of complex three dimensional shapes through the actuation of heterogeneously patterned nematic elastomer sheets. These sheets are composed of \\textit{nonisometric origami} building blocks which, when appropriately linked together, can actuate into a diverse array of three dimensional faceted shapes. We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that: 1) the nonisometric origami building blocks actuate in the predicted manner, 2) the integration of multiple building blocks leads to complex multi-stable, yet predictable, shapes, 3) we can bias the actuation experimentally to obtain a desired complex shape amongst the multi-stable shapes. We then show that this experimentally realized functionality enables a rich possible design landscape for actuation using nematic elastomers. We highlight this landscape through theoretical examples, which utilize large arrays of these building blocks to realize a desired three dimensional origami shape. In combination, these results amount to an engineering design principle, which we hope will provide a template for the application of nematic elastomers to emerging technologies.

Spectrally tuned structural and pigmentary coloration of birdwing butterfly wing scales.

PubMed

Wilts, Bodo D; Matsushita, Atsuko; Arikawa, Kentaro; Stavenga, Doekele G

2015-10-06

The colourful wing patterns of butterflies play an important role for enhancing fitness; for instance, by providing camouflage, for interspecific mate recognition, or for aposematic display. Closely related butterfly species can have dramatically different wing patterns. The phenomenon is assumed to be caused by ecological processes with changing conditions, e.g. in the environment, and also by sexual selection. Here, we investigate the birdwing butterflies, Ornithoptera, the largest butterflies of the world, together forming a small genus in the butterfly family Papilionidae. The wings of these butterflies are marked by strongly coloured patches. The colours are caused by specially structured wing scales, which act as a chirped multilayer reflector, but the scales also contain papiliochrome pigments, which act as a spectral filter. The combined structural and pigmentary effects tune the coloration of the wing scales. The tuned colours are presumably important for mate recognition and signalling. By applying electron microscopy, (micro-)spectrophotometry and scatterometry we found that the various mechanisms of scale coloration of the different birdwing species strongly correlate with the taxonomical distribution of Ornithoptera species. © 2015 The Author(s).

Spectrally tuned structural and pigmentary coloration of birdwing butterfly wing scales

PubMed Central

Wilts, Bodo D.; Matsushita, Atsuko; Arikawa, Kentaro; Stavenga, Doekele G.

2015-01-01

The colourful wing patterns of butterflies play an important role for enhancing fitness; for instance, by providing camouflage, for interspecific mate recognition, or for aposematic display. Closely related butterfly species can have dramatically different wing patterns. The phenomenon is assumed to be caused by ecological processes with changing conditions, e.g. in the environment, and also by sexual selection. Here, we investigate the birdwing butterflies, Ornithoptera, the largest butterflies of the world, together forming a small genus in the butterfly family Papilionidae. The wings of these butterflies are marked by strongly coloured patches. The colours are caused by specially structured wing scales, which act as a chirped multilayer reflector, but the scales also contain papiliochrome pigments, which act as a spectral filter. The combined structural and pigmentary effects tune the coloration of the wing scales. The tuned colours are presumably important for mate recognition and signalling. By applying electron microscopy, (micro-)spectrophotometry and scatterometry we found that the various mechanisms of scale coloration of the different birdwing species strongly correlate with the taxonomical distribution of Ornithoptera species. PMID:26446560

Landslides Are Common In The Amazon Rainforests Of SE Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khanal, S. P.; Muttiah, R. S.; Janovec, J. P.

2005-12-01

The recent landslides in La Conchita, California, Mumbai, India, Ratnapura, Sri Lanka and Sugozu village, Turkey have dramatically illustrated prolonged rainfall on water induced change in soil shear stress. In these examples, the human footprint may have also erased or altered the natural river drainage from small to large scales. By studying patterns of landslides in natural ecosystems, government officials, policy makers, engineers, geologists and others may be better informed about likely success of prevention or amelioration programs in risk prone areas. Our study area in the Los Amigos basin in Amazon rainforests of Southeastern Peru, has recorded several hundred landslides. The area has no large human settlements. The basin is characterized by heavy rainfall, dense vegetation, river meander and uniform soils. Our objectives were: 1). Determine the spatial pattern of landslides using GIS and Remotely sensed data, 2). Model the statistical relationship between environmental variables and, 3). Evaluate influence of drainage on landscape and soil loss. GIS layers consisted of: 50cm aerial imagery, DEMs, digitized streams, soils, geology, rainfall from the TRMM satellite, and vegetation cover from the LANDSAT and MODIS sensors.

Pattern formation, social forces, and diffusion instability in games with success-driven motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helbing, Dirk

2009-02-01

A local agglomeration of cooperators can support the survival or spreading of cooperation, even when cooperation is predicted to die out according to the replicator equation, which is often used in evolutionary game theory to study the spreading and disappearance of strategies. In this paper, it is shown that success-driven motion can trigger such local agglomeration and may, therefore, be used to supplement other mechanisms supporting cooperation, like reputation or punishment. Success-driven motion is formulated here as a function of the game-theoretical payoffs. It can change the outcome and dynamics of spatial games dramatically, in particular as it causes attractive or repulsive interaction forces. These forces act when the spatial distributions of strategies are inhomogeneous. However, even when starting with homogeneous initial conditions, small perturbations can trigger large inhomogeneities by a pattern-formation instability, when certain conditions are fulfilled. Here, these instability conditions are studied for the prisoner’s dilemma and the snowdrift game. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that asymmetrical diffusion can drive social, economic, and biological systems into the unstable regime, if these would be stable without diffusion.

The impacts of climate change on the annual cycles of birds

PubMed Central

Carey, Cynthia

2009-01-01

Organisms living today are descended from ancestors that experienced considerable climate change in the past. However, they are currently presented with many new, man-made challenges, including rapid climate change. Migration and reproduction of many avian species are controlled by endogenous mechanisms that have been under intense selection over time to ensure that arrival to and departure from breeding grounds is synchronized with moderate temperatures, peak food availability and availability of nesting sites. The timing of egg laying is determined, usually by both endogenous clocks and local factors, so that food availability is near optimal for raising young. Climate change is causing mismatches in food supplies, snow cover and other factors that could severely impact successful migration and reproduction of avian populations unless they are able to adjust to new conditions. Resident (non-migratory) birds also face challenges if precipitation and/or temperature patterns vary in ways that result in mismatches of food and breeding. Predictions that many existing climates will disappear and novel climates will appear in the future suggest that communities will be dramatically restructured by extinctions and changes in range distributions. Species that persist into future climates may be able to do so in part owing to the genetic heritage passed down from ancestors who survived climate changes in the past. PMID:19833644

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.

From Teeth to Baleen and Raptorial to Bulk Filter Feeding in Mysticete Cetaceans: The Role of Paleontological, Genetic, and Geochemical Data in Feeding Evolution and Ecology.

PubMed

Berta, Annalisa; Lanzetti, Agnese; Ekdale, Eric G; Deméré, Thomas A

2016-12-01

The origin of baleen and filter feeding in mysticete cetaceans occurred sometime between approximately 34 and 24 million years ago and represents a major macroevolutionary shift in cetacean morphology (teeth to baleen) and ecology (raptorial to filter feeding). We explore this dramatic change in feeding strategy by employing a diversity of tools and approaches: morphology, molecules, development, and stable isotopes from the geological record. Adaptations for raptorial feeding in extinct toothed mysticetes provide the phylogenetic context for evaluating morphological apomorphies preserved in the skeletons of stem and crown edentulous mysticetes. In this light, the presence of novel vascular structures on the palates of certain Oligocene toothed mysticetes is interpreted as the earliest evidence of baleen and points to an intermediate condition between an ancestral condition with teeth only and a derived condition with baleen only. Supporting this step-wise evolutionary hypothesis, evidence from stable isotopes show how changes in dental chemistry in early toothed mysticetes tracked the changes in diet and environment. Recent discoveries also demonstrate how this transition was made possible by radical changes in cranial ontogeny. In addition, genetic mutations and the possession of dental pseudogenes in extant baleen whales support a toothed ancestry for mysticetes. Molecular and morphological data also document the dramatic developmental shifts that take place in extant fetal baleen whales, in skull development, resorption of a fetal dentition and growth of baleen. The mechanisms involved in this complex evolutionary transition that entails multiple, integrated aspects of anatomy and ecology are only beginning to be understood, and future work will further clarify the processes underlying this macroevolutionary pattern. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A three-dimensional microelectrode array composed of vertically aligned ultra-dense carbon nanotube networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nick, C.; Yadav, S.; Joshi, R.; Schneider, J. J.; Thielemann, C.

2015-07-01

Electrodes based on carbon nanotubes are a promising approach to manufacture highly sensitive sensors with a low limit of signal detection and a high signal-to-noise ratio. This is achieved by dramatically increasing the electrochemical active surface area without increasing the overall geometrical dimensions. Typically, carbon nanotube electrodes are nearly planar and composed of randomly distributed carbon nanotube networks having a limited surface gain for a specific geometrical surface area. To overcome this limitation, we have introduced vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) networks as electrodes, which are arranged in a microelectrode pattern of 60 single electrodes. Each microelectrode features a very high aspect ratio of more than 300 and thus a dramatically increased surface area. These microelectrodes composed of VACNT networks display dramatically decreased impedance over the entire frequency range compared to planar microelectrodes caused by the enormous capacity increase. This is experimentally verified by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry.

The change in the sex ratio in multiple sclerosis is driven by birth cohort effects.

PubMed

Ajdacic-Gross, V; Schmid, M; Mutsch, M; Steinemann, N; von Wyl, V; Bopp, M

2017-01-01

Birth cohort effects have greatly shaped long-term trends in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study examined whether birth cohort effects have also determined trends in the sex ratio. Age-period-cohort analyses were applied to Swiss mortality data, 1901-2010, using logit models. Sex was introduced as an additional main effect (overall effect) and in interaction terms with A, P and C. Birth cohort effects strongly impacted the trends of MS risk in Switzerland, with a peak in cohorts born in the 1910s and 1920s. Similarly, birth cohort effects accounted for the change in the sex ratios during the 20th century. The balanced sex ratio at the beginning of the 20th century has been superseded by a ratio with a preponderance of women. Despite similarities in timing, the patterns of overall and sex-specific birth cohort estimates were not congruent. The change in the sex ratio in MS is driven by birth cohort related factors. Overall and sex-specific trends indicate that the appearance of MS has changed dramatically in the 20th century. The driving force behind these trends is related to yet unknown environmental factors. © 2016 EAN.

The secret lives of corals: Climate records from coral chemistry

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

Beck, J.W.; Smoker, M.; Burr, G.

1995-12-01

Corals can provide archives of a diverse suite of information about the ocean surface mixed layer, including records of ocean surface temperature (via coral Sr/Ca or U/Ca measurements), salinity (via {gamma}{sup 18}O measurements), biologic activity (via {gamma}{sup 13}C measurements), and ocean/atmosphere CO{sub 2} exchange rates (via {sup 14}C/{sup 12}C measurements). Recently, it has been shown that corals record evidence of large seasonal oscillations in {sup 14}C concentration of the ocean surface mixed layer, and that such oscillations are modulated by ENSO. These oscillations are related to seasonal changes in the surface wind velocity field, changes in the patterns of regionalmore » upwelling, as well as seasonal changes in the strength of the thermocline. High frequency AMS {sup 14}C analyses of corals shows that ENSO events can dramatically diminish the annual range in ocean mixed layer {sup 14}C concentration in this region. Our work on a coral from Vanuatu in the western equatorial Pacific also documents large seasonal changes in {sup 14}C concentration (3-5%) as well as ENSO modulation of these variations during the 82-83 ENSO event.« less

Impact of Real-world Factors Influencing Investment Decisions on the Costs and Distribution of Climate Change Mitigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edmonds, J.; Iyer, G.; McJeon, H. C.; Leon, C.; Hultman, N.

2015-12-01

Strategies to mitigate dangerous anthropogenic climate change require a dramatic transformation of the energy system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, that in turn requires large-scale investments. Investment decisions depend not only on investment capital availability but also on investment risks. A number of factors such as national policy environments, quality of public and private institutions, sector, firm and technology specific characteristics can affect investors' assessments of risks, leading to a wide variation in the business climate for investment. Such heterogeneity in investment risks can have important implications, as investors usually respond to risks by requiring higher returns for riskier projects; delaying or forgoing the investments; or preferring to invest in existing, familiar projects. We study the impact of variation in investment risks on regional patterns of emissions mitigation, the cost of emissions mitigation and patterns of technology deployment. We modify an integrated assessment model, widely used in global climate policy analyses (the Global Change Assessment Model) and incorporate decisions on investments based on risks along two dimensions. Along the first dimension, we vary perceived risks associated with particular technologies. To do so, we assign a higher cost of capital for investment in low-carbon technologies as these involve intrinsically higher levels of regulatory and market risk. The second dimension uses a proxy to vary investment risks across regions, based on an institutional quality metric published by the World Economic Forum. Explicit representation of investment risks has two major effects. First, it raises the cost of emissions mitigation relative to a world with uniform investment risks. Second, it shifts the pattern of emissions mitigation, with industrialized countries mitigating more, and developing countries mitigating less. Our results suggest that institutional reforms aimed at lowering investment risks could be an important element in lowering the cost of climate change mitigation solutions.

The Post-Glacial Species Velocity of Picea glauca following the Last Glacial Maximum in Alaska.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrison, B. D.; Napier, J.; Kelly, R.; Li, B.; Heath, K.; Hug, B.; Hu, F.; Greenberg, J. A.

2015-12-01

Anthropogenic climate change is leading to dramatic fluctuations to Earth's biodiversity that has not been observed since past interglacial periods. There is rising concern that Earth's warming climate will have significant impacts to current species ranges and the ability of a species to persist in a rapidly changing environment. The paleorecord provides information on past species distributions in relation to climate change, which can illuminate the patterns of potential future distributions of species. Particularly in areas where there are multiple potential limiting factors on a species' range, e.g. temperature, radiation, and evaporative demand, the spatial patterns of species migrations may be particularly complex. In this study, we assessed the change in the distributions of white spruce (Picea glauca) from the Last Glacial Maxima (LGM) to present-day for the entire state of Alaska. To accomplish this, we created species distribution models (SDMs) calibrated from modern vegetation data and high-resolution, downscaled climate surfaces at 60m. These SDMs were applied to downscaled modern and paleoclimate surfaces to produce estimated ranges of white spruce during the LGM and today. From this, we assessed the "species velocity", the rate at which white spruce would need to migrate to keep pace with climate change, with the goal of determining whether the expansion from the LGM to today originated from microclimate refugia. Higher species velocities indicate locations where climate changed drastically and white spruce would have needed to migrate rapidly to persist and avoid local extinction. Conversely, lower species velocities indicated locations where the local climate was changing less rapidly or was within the center of the range of white spruce, and indicated locations where white spruce distributions were unlikely to have changed significantly. Our results indicate the importance of topographic complexity in buffering the effects of climate change, particularly near the edges of the species' range.

Conformational Changes of Blood ACE in Chronic Uremia

PubMed Central

Petrov, Maxim N.; Shilo, Valery Y.; Tarasov, Alexandr V.; Schwartz, David E.; Garcia, Joe G. N.; Kost, Olga A.; Danilov, Sergei M.

2012-01-01

Background The pattern of binding of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to 16 epitopes on human angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) comprise a conformational ACE fingerprint and is a sensitive marker of subtle protein conformational changes. Hypothesis Toxic substances in the blood of patients with uremia due to End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) can induce local conformational changes in the ACE protein globule and alter the efficacy of ACE inhibitors. Methodology/Principal Findings The recognition of ACE by 16 mAbs to the epitopes on the N and C domains of ACE was estimated using an immune-capture enzymatic plate precipitation assay. The precipitation pattern of blood ACE by a set of mAbs was substantially influenced by the presence of ACE inhibitors with the most dramatic local conformational change noted in the N-domain region recognized by mAb 1G12. The “short” ACE inhibitor enalaprilat (tripeptide analog) and “long” inhibitor teprotide (nonapeptide) produced strikingly different mAb 1G12 binding with enalaprilat strongly increasing mAb 1G12 binding and teprotide decreasing binding. Reduction in S-S bonds via glutathione and dithiothreitol treatment increased 1G12 binding to blood ACE in a manner comparable to enalaprilat. Some patients with uremia due to ESRD exhibited significantly increased mAb 1G12 binding to blood ACE and increased ACE activity towards angiotensin I accompanied by reduced ACE inhibition by inhibitory mAbs and ACE inhibitors. Conclusions/Significance The estimation of relative mAb 1G12 binding to blood ACE detects a subpopulation of ESRD patients with conformationally changed ACE, which activity is less suppressible by ACE inhibitors. This parameter may potentially serve as a biomarker for those patients who may need higher concentrations of ACE inhibitors upon anti-hypertensive therapy. PMID:23166630

Integration of Photo-Patternable Low-κ Material into Advanced Cu Back-End-Of-The-Line

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Qinghuang; Nelson, Alshakim; Chen, Shyng-Tsong; Brock, Philip; Cohen, Stephan A.; Davis, Blake; Kaplan, Richard; Kwong, Ranee; Liniger, Eric; Neumayer, Debra; Patel, Jyotica; Shobha, Hosadurga; Sooriyakumaran, Ratnam; Purushothaman, Sampath; Miller, Robert; Spooner, Terry; Wisnieff, Robert

2010-05-01

We report herein the demonstration of a simple, low-cost Cu back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) dual-damascene integration using a novel photo-patternable low-κ dielectric material concept that dramatically reduces Cu BEOL integration complexity. This κ=2.7 photo-patternable low-κ material is based on the SiCOH-based material platform and has sub-200 nm resolution capability with 248 nm optical lithography. Cu/photo-patternable low-κ dual-damascene integration at 45 nm node BEOL fatwire levels has been demonstrated with very high electrical yields using the current manufacturing infrastructure. The photo-patternable low-κ concept is, therefore, a promising technology for highly efficient semiconductor Cu BEOL manufacturing.

Continuous 1.3-million-year record of East African hydroclimate, and implications for patterns of evolution and biodiversity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyons, Robert P.; Scholz, Christopher A.; Cohen, Andrew S.; King, John W.; Brown, Erik T.; Ivory, Sarah J.; Johnson, Thomas C.; Deino, Alan L.; Reinthal, Peter N.; McGlue, Michael M.; Blome, Margaret W.

2015-12-01

The transport of moisture in the tropics is a critical process for the global energy budget and on geologic timescales, has markedly influenced continental landscapes, migratory pathways, and biological evolution. Here we present a continuous, first-of-its-kind 1.3-My record of continental hydroclimate and lake-level variability derived from drill core data from Lake Malawi, East Africa (9-15° S). Over the Quaternary, we observe dramatic shifts in effective moisture, resulting in large-scale changes in one of the world's largest lakes and most diverse freshwater ecosystems. Results show evidence for 24 lake level drops of more than 200 m during the Late Quaternary, including 15 lowstands when water levels were more than 400 m lower than modern. A dramatic shift is observed at the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), consistent with far-field climate forcing, which separates vastly different hydroclimate regimes before and after ∼800,000 years ago. Before 800 ka, lake levels were lower, indicating a climate drier than today, and water levels changed frequently. Following the MPT high-amplitude lake level variations dominate the record. From 800 to 100 ka, a deep, often overfilled lake occupied the basin, indicating a wetter climate, but these highstands were interrupted by prolonged intervals of extreme drought. Periods of high lake level are observed during times of high eccentricity. The extreme hydroclimate variability exerted a profound influence on the Lake Malawi endemic cichlid fish species flock; the geographically extensive habitat reconfiguration provided novel ecological opportunities, enabling new populations to differentiate rapidly to distinct species.

Continuous 1.3-million-year record of East African hydroclimate, and implications for patterns of evolution and biodiversity

PubMed Central

Lyons, Robert P.; Scholz, Christopher A.; Cohen, Andrew S.; King, John W.; Brown, Erik T.; Ivory, Sarah J.; Johnson, Thomas C.; Deino, Alan L.; Reinthal, Peter N.; McGlue, Michael M.; Blome, Margaret W.

2015-01-01

The transport of moisture in the tropics is a critical process for the global energy budget and on geologic timescales, has markedly influenced continental landscapes, migratory pathways, and biological evolution. Here we present a continuous, first-of-its-kind 1.3-My record of continental hydroclimate and lake-level variability derived from drill core data from Lake Malawi, East Africa (9–15° S). Over the Quaternary, we observe dramatic shifts in effective moisture, resulting in large-scale changes in one of the world’s largest lakes and most diverse freshwater ecosystems. Results show evidence for 24 lake level drops of more than 200 m during the Late Quaternary, including 15 lowstands when water levels were more than 400 m lower than modern. A dramatic shift is observed at the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), consistent with far-field climate forcing, which separates vastly different hydroclimate regimes before and after ∼800,000 years ago. Before 800 ka, lake levels were lower, indicating a climate drier than today, and water levels changed frequently. Following the MPT high-amplitude lake level variations dominate the record. From 800 to 100 ka, a deep, often overfilled lake occupied the basin, indicating a wetter climate, but these highstands were interrupted by prolonged intervals of extreme drought. Periods of high lake level are observed during times of high eccentricity. The extreme hydroclimate variability exerted a profound influence on the Lake Malawi endemic cichlid fish species flock; the geographically extensive habitat reconfiguration provided novel ecological opportunities, enabling new populations to differentiate rapidly to distinct species. PMID:26644580

Continuous 1.3-million-year record of East African hydroclimate, and implications for patterns of evolution and biodiversity.

PubMed

Lyons, Robert P; Scholz, Christopher A; Cohen, Andrew S; King, John W; Brown, Erik T; Ivory, Sarah J; Johnson, Thomas C; Deino, Alan L; Reinthal, Peter N; McGlue, Michael M; Blome, Margaret W

2015-12-22

The transport of moisture in the tropics is a critical process for the global energy budget and on geologic timescales, has markedly influenced continental landscapes, migratory pathways, and biological evolution. Here we present a continuous, first-of-its-kind 1.3-My record of continental hydroclimate and lake-level variability derived from drill core data from Lake Malawi, East Africa (9-15° S). Over the Quaternary, we observe dramatic shifts in effective moisture, resulting in large-scale changes in one of the world's largest lakes and most diverse freshwater ecosystems. Results show evidence for 24 lake level drops of more than 200 m during the Late Quaternary, including 15 lowstands when water levels were more than 400 m lower than modern. A dramatic shift is observed at the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), consistent with far-field climate forcing, which separates vastly different hydroclimate regimes before and after ∼800,000 years ago. Before 800 ka, lake levels were lower, indicating a climate drier than today, and water levels changed frequently. Following the MPT high-amplitude lake level variations dominate the record. From 800 to 100 ka, a deep, often overfilled lake occupied the basin, indicating a wetter climate, but these highstands were interrupted by prolonged intervals of extreme drought. Periods of high lake level are observed during times of high eccentricity. The extreme hydroclimate variability exerted a profound influence on the Lake Malawi endemic cichlid fish species flock; the geographically extensive habitat reconfiguration provided novel ecological opportunities, enabling new populations to differentiate rapidly to distinct species.

The transition of dynamic rupture styles in elastic media under velocity-weakening friction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabriel, A.-A.; Ampuero, J.-P.; Dalguer, L. A.; Mai, P. M.

2012-09-01

Although kinematic earthquake source inversions show dominantly pulse-like subshear rupture behavior, seismological observations, laboratory experiments and theoretical models indicate that earthquakes can operate with different rupture styles: either as pulses or cracks, that propagate at subshear or supershear speeds. The determination of rupture style and speed has important implications for ground motions and may inform about the state of stress and strength of active fault zones. We conduct 2D in-plane dynamic rupture simulations with a spectral element method to investigate the diversity of rupture styles on faults governed by velocity-and-state-dependent friction with dramatic velocity-weakening at high slip rate. Our rupture models are governed by uniform initial stresses, and are artificially initiated. We identify the conditions that lead to different rupture styles by investigating the transitions between decaying, steady state and growing pulses, cracks, sub-shear and super-shear ruptures as a function of background stress, nucleation size and characteristic velocity at the onset of severe weakening. Our models show that small changes of background stress or nucleation size may lead to dramatic changes of rupture style. We characterize the asymptotic properties of steady state and self-similar pulses as a function of background stress. We show that an earthquake may not be restricted to a single rupture style, but that complex rupture patterns may emerge that consist of multiple rupture fronts, possibly involving different styles and back-propagating fronts. We also demonstrate the possibility of a super-shear transition for pulse-like ruptures. Finally, we draw connections between our findings and recent seismological observations.

Higher Education Affordability: Two Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiSalvo, Steven R.

2017-01-01

There are two initiatives that can dramatically change the way college pricing and student debt are being handled under the current system. Both are commonsense solutions that would, if accepted, dramatically help students, graduates and families burdened by the cost of tuition and the loans they take to earn their degrees. First, income-based…

From the stand-scale to the landscape-scale: predicting the spatial patterns of forest regeneration after disturbance.

PubMed

Shive, Kristen L; Preisler, Haiganoush K; Welch, Kevin R; Safford, Hugh D; Butz, Ramona J; O'Hara, Kevin L; Stephens, Scott L

2018-05-29

Shifting disturbance regimes can have cascading effects on many ecosystems processes. This is particularly true when the scale of the disturbance no longer matches the regeneration strategy of the dominant vegetation. In the yellow pine and mixed conifer forests of California, over a century of fire exclusion and the warming climate are increasing the incidence and extent of stand-replacing wildfire; such changes in severity patterns are altering regeneration dynamics by dramatically increasing the distance from live tree seed sources. This has raised concerns about limitations to natural reforestation and the potential for conversion to non-forested vegetation types, which in turn has implications for shifts in many ecological processes and ecosystem services. We used a California region-wide dataset with 1,848 plots across 24 wildfires in yellow pine and mixed conifer forests to build a spatially-explicit habitat suitability model for forecasting postfire forest regeneration. To model the effect of seed availability, the critical initial biological filter for regeneration, we used a novel approach to predicting spatial patterns of seed availability by estimating annual seed production from existing basal area and burn severity maps. The probability of observing any conifer seedling in a 60m 2 area (the field plot scale) was highly dependent on 30-year average annual precipitation, burn severity and seed availability. We then used this model to predict regeneration probabilities across the entire extent of a "new' fire (the 2014 King Fire), which highlights the spatial variability inherent in postfire regeneration patterns. Such accurate forecasts of postfire regeneration patterns are of importance to land managers and conservationists interested in maintaining forest cover on the landscape. Our tool can also help anticipate shifts in ecosystem properties, supporting researchers interested in investigating questions surrounding alternative stable states, and the interaction of altered disturbance regimes and the changing climate. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Spatial-temporal variations of natural suitability of human settlement environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area—A case study in Fengjie County, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Jieqiong; Zhou, Tinggang; Du, Peijun; Xu, Zhigang

2018-01-01

With rapid environmental degeneration and socio-economic development, the human settlement environment (HSE) has experienced dramatic changes and attracted attention from different communities. Consequently, the spatial-temporal evaluation of natural suitability of the human settlement environment (NSHSE) has become essential for understanding the patterns and dynamics of HSE, and for coordinating sustainable development among regional populations, resources, and environments. This study aims to explore the spatialtemporal evolution of NSHSE patterns in 1997, 2005, and 2009 in Fengjie County near the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA). A spatially weighted NSHSE model was established by integrating multi-source data (e.g., census data, meteorological data, remote sensing images, DEM data, and GIS data) into one framework, where the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) linear regression model was applied to calculate the weights of indices in the NSHSE model. Results show that the trend of natural suitability has been first downward and then upward, which is evidenced by the disparity of NSHSE existing in the south, north, and central areas of Fengjie County. Results also reveal clustered NSHSE patterns for all 30 townships. Meanwhile, NSHSE has significant influence on population distribution, and 71.49% of the total population is living in moderate and high suitable districts.

Health management and pattern analysis of daily living activities of people with dementia using in-home sensors and machine learning techniques

PubMed Central

Markides, Andreas; Skillman, Severin; Acton, Sahr Thomas; Elsaleh, Tarek; Hassanpour, Masoud; Ahrabian, Alireza; Kenny, Mark; Klein, Stuart; Rostill, Helen; Nilforooshan, Ramin; Barnaghi, Payam

2018-01-01

The number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to rise in the coming years. Given that there is currently no definite cure for dementia and the cost of care for this condition soars dramatically, slowing the decline and maintaining independent living are important goals for supporting people with dementia. This paper discusses a study that is called Technology Integrated Health Management (TIHM). TIHM is a technology assisted monitoring system that uses Internet of Things (IoT) enabled solutions for continuous monitoring of people with dementia in their own homes. We have developed machine learning algorithms to analyse the correlation between environmental data collected by IoT technologies in TIHM in order to monitor and facilitate the physical well-being of people with dementia. The algorithms are developed with different temporal granularity to process the data for long-term and short-term analysis. We extract higher-level activity patterns which are then used to detect any change in patients’ routines. We have also developed a hierarchical information fusion approach for detecting agitation, irritability and aggression. We have conducted evaluations using sensory data collected from homes of people with dementia. The proposed techniques are able to recognise agitation and unusual patterns with an accuracy of up to 80%. PMID:29723236

Synergistic effects between analogs of DNA and RNA improve the potency of siRNA-mediated gene silencing

PubMed Central

Deleavey, Glen F.; Watts, Jonathan K.; Alain, Tommy; Robert, Francis; Kalota, Anna; Aishwarya, Veenu; Pelletier, Jerry; Gewirtz, Alan M.; Sonenberg, Nahum; Damha, Masad J.

2010-01-01

We report that combining a DNA analog (2′F-ANA) with rigid RNA analogs [2′F-RNA and/or locked nucleic acid (LNA)] in siRNA duplexes can produce gene silencing agents with enhanced potency. The favored conformations of these two analogs are different, and combining them in a 1–1 pattern led to reduced affinity, whereas alternating short continuous regions of individual modifications increased affinity relative to an RNA:RNA duplex. Thus, the binding affinity at key regions of the siRNA duplex could be tuned by changing the pattern of incorporation of DNA-like and RNA-like nucleotides. These heavily or fully modified duplexes are active against a range of mRNA targets. Effective patterns of modification were chosen based on screens using two sequences targeting firefly luciferase. We then applied the most effective duplex designs to the knockdown of the eIF4E binding proteins 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2. We identified modified duplexes with potency comparable to native siRNA. Modified duplexes showed dramatically enhanced stability to serum nucleases, and were characterized by circular dichroism and thermal denaturation studies. Chemical modification significantly reduced the immunostimulatory properties of these siRNAs in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. PMID:20413581

Multi-species patterns of avian cholera mortality in Nebraska's rainwater basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Blanchong, Julie A.; Samuel, M.D.; Mack, G.

2006-01-01

Nebraska's Rainwater Basin (RWB) is a key spring migration area for millions of waterfowl and other avian species. Avian cholera has been endemic in the RWB since the 1970s and in some years tens of thousands of waterfowl have died from the disease. We evaluated patterns of avian cholera mortality in waterfowl species using the RWB during the last quarter of the 20th century. Mortality patterns changed between the years before (1976 - 1988) and coincident with (1989 - 1999) the dramatic increases in lesser snow goose abundance and mortality. Lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) have commonly been associated with mortality events in the RWB and are known to carry virulent strains of Pasteurella multocida, the agent causing avian cholera. Lesser snow geese appeared to be the species most affected by avian cholera during 1989 - 1999; however, mortality in several other waterfowl species was positively correlated with lesser snow goose mortality. Coincident with increased lesser snow goose mortality, spring avian cholera outbreaks were detected earlier and ended earlier compared to 1976 - 1988. Dense concentrations of lesser snow geese may facilitate intraspecific disease transmission through bird-to-bird contact and wetland contamination. Rates of interspecific avian cholera transmission within the waterfowl community, however, are difficult to determine.

Health management and pattern analysis of daily living activities of people with dementia using in-home sensors and machine learning techniques.

PubMed

Enshaeifar, Shirin; Zoha, Ahmed; Markides, Andreas; Skillman, Severin; Acton, Sahr Thomas; Elsaleh, Tarek; Hassanpour, Masoud; Ahrabian, Alireza; Kenny, Mark; Klein, Stuart; Rostill, Helen; Nilforooshan, Ramin; Barnaghi, Payam

2018-01-01

The number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to rise in the coming years. Given that there is currently no definite cure for dementia and the cost of care for this condition soars dramatically, slowing the decline and maintaining independent living are important goals for supporting people with dementia. This paper discusses a study that is called Technology Integrated Health Management (TIHM). TIHM is a technology assisted monitoring system that uses Internet of Things (IoT) enabled solutions for continuous monitoring of people with dementia in their own homes. We have developed machine learning algorithms to analyse the correlation between environmental data collected by IoT technologies in TIHM in order to monitor and facilitate the physical well-being of people with dementia. The algorithms are developed with different temporal granularity to process the data for long-term and short-term analysis. We extract higher-level activity patterns which are then used to detect any change in patients' routines. We have also developed a hierarchical information fusion approach for detecting agitation, irritability and aggression. We have conducted evaluations using sensory data collected from homes of people with dementia. The proposed techniques are able to recognise agitation and unusual patterns with an accuracy of up to 80%.

The health care industry: in evolution or revolution?

PubMed

Cleverley, W O

1999-01-01

The health care industry has experienced dramatic changes during the last 25 years and will likely undergo even more dramatic changes in the next 25 years. Many firms in the health care industry will thrive just as many firms have thrived during the last 25 years. The ultimate key to success will be management and their attention to the basics of good business management. Management has always been the key ingredient and will continue to be the most critical success factor.

Land use pattern, socio-economic development, and assessment of their impacts on ecosystem service value: study on natural wetlands distribution area (NWDA) in Fuzhou city, southeastern China.

PubMed

Cai, Yuan-Bin; Zhang, Hao; Pan, Wen-Bin; Chen, Yan-Hong; Wang, Xiang-Rong

2013-06-01

This paper quantifies the allocation of ecosystem services value (ESV) associated with land use pattern and qualitatively examined impacts of land use changes and socio-economic factors on spatiotemporal variation of ESV in the Natural Wetland Distribution Area (NWDA), Fuzhou city, China. The results showed that total ESV of the study area decreased from 4,332.16 × 10(6) RMB Yuan in 1989 to 3,697.42 × 10(6) RMB Yuan in 2009, mainly due to the remarkable decreases in cropland (decreased by 55.3 %) and wetland (decreased by 74.2 %). Forest, water, and wetland played major roles in providing ecosystem services, accounting for over 90 % of the total ESV. Based on time series Landsat TM/ETM+ imagery, geographic information system, and historical data, analysis of the spatiotemporal variation of ESV from 1989 to 2009 was performed. It indicated that rapid expansion of urban areas along the Minjiang River resulted in significant changes in land use types, leading to a dramatic decline in ecosystem services. Meanwhile, because of land scarcity and unique ecosystem functions, the emergency of wetland and cropland protection in built-up area has become an urgent task of local authorities to the local government. Furthermore, there was still a significant negative correlation between ESV of cropland and wetland and the GDP. The results suggest that future planning of land use pattern should control encroachment of urban areas into cropland and wetland in addition to scientific and rational policies towards minimizing the adverse effects of urbanization.

Temporal Patterns of Airborne Pesticides in Alpine Lakes of the Sierra Nevada, California

EPA Science Inventory

Airborne agricultural pesticides are being transported many tens of kilometers to remote mountain areas, and have been implicated as a causal agent for recent, dramatic population declines of several amphibian species in such locations. Largely unmeasured, however, are the magnit...

a Landsat Time-Series Stacks Model for Detection of Cropland Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, J.; Chen, J.; Zhang, J.

2017-09-01

Global, timely, accurate and cost-effective cropland monitoring with a fine spatial resolution will dramatically improve our understanding of the effects of agriculture on greenhouse gases emissions, food safety, and human health. Time-series remote sensing imagery have been shown particularly potential to describe land cover dynamics. The traditional change detection techniques are often not capable of detecting land cover changes within time series that are severely influenced by seasonal difference, which are more likely to generate pseuso changes. Here,we introduced and tested LTSM ( Landsat time-series stacks model), an improved Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) proposed previously approach to extract spectral trajectories of land surface change using a dense Landsat time-series stacks (LTS). The method is expected to eliminate pseudo changes caused by phenology driven by seasonal patterns. The main idea of the method is that using all available Landsat 8 images within a year, LTSM consisting of two term harmonic function are estimated iteratively for each pixel in each spectral band .LTSM can defines change area by differencing the predicted and observed Landsat images. The LTSM approach was compared with change vector analysis (CVA) method. The results indicated that the LTSM method correctly detected the "true change" without overestimating the "false" one, while CVA pointed out "true change" pixels with a large number of "false changes". The detection of change areas achieved an overall accuracy of 92.37 %, with a kappa coefficient of 0.676.

Changing landscapes and the cosmopolitism of the eastern Colorado avifauna

USGS Publications Warehouse

Knopf, Fritz L.

1986-01-01

The avifauna of continental North America has changed dramatically since colonial times. Excessive hunting contributed, at least in part, to the extinction of birds such as the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) and passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), while more recently organochlorine insecticide residues have resulted in drastic reductions in numbers of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) (Anderson et al. 1975) and other species. Generally, however, vertebrate populations change in direct response to changes in their habitats. For example, herring gulls (Larus argentatus) have increased in numners (Kadlec and Drury 1968) with urbanization of the New England coastline, in the same locations formerly occupied by the extinct heath hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido). Also, passerine birds of forest interiors have declined in numbers with fragmentation of the eastern deciduous forest into small stands; this fragmentation has led to increases in numbers of edge species (Robbins 1979, Ambuel and Temple 1983). Even subtle community shifts can introduce new competitive processes that can augment population changes among species (Brittingham and Temple 1983). Such studies of broad-scale changes in vegetative communities and their influence on native wildlife species have fostered the recent topical emphasis on "conservation biology" (Soule and Wilcox 1980, Soule 1985) and "landscape ecology" (Burgess and Sharpe 1981, Harris 1984:25-43). As changes in landscapes are causing subtle (but potentially dramatic) changes in the distribution of native species, conservation biologists are finding that mere presence-absence data on populations, or even accurate information on reproductive success, is inadequate to evaluate management activities or environmental perturbations. The principles of "conservation genetics" are attracting interest in the management of natural preserves especially (Schonewald-Cox et al. 1983). Changing patterns in landscape complexion or genetic makeup of a population are difficult to detect locally. Contemporary issues in the conservation of native species demand regional and continental perspectives (Samson and Knopf 1982). Thus, management activities at specific sites are often viewed as short-sighted by planners and conservation critics. This paper illustrates how these contemporary theories can influence a local conservation perspective. That perspective is developed around historical processes that have led to cosmopolitism of the local avifauna on the Colorado Division of Wildlife's South Platte Wildlife Management Area (SPWMA) near Crook, Colorado.

Negotiating for Change: Modifying Collective Bargaining Agreements for School Turnaround

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weinberg, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Dramatically improving student achievement in a school that has been failing for many years requires dramatically different conditions. Only the most effective teachers and leaders should be in the building, and the leadership must have the flexibility to respond strategically to the needs of the students, with regular input from teachers.…

Dramatic Declines in Higher Education Appropriations: State Conditions for Budget Punctuations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Amy Y.

2017-01-01

Public colleges and universities depend heavily on state appropriations and legislatures must decide how much to fund higher education. This study applies punctuated equilibrium theory to characterize the distribution of annual changes in higher education appropriations and defines the threshold for a dramatic budget cut. Using data for the 50…

Handedness Patterns in Autism Suggest Subtypes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soper, Henry V.; And Others

1986-01-01

Preliminary data from two samples of autistic children and adults and an assessment procedure appropriate for lower-functioning autistic Ss revealed a dramatic shift away from right-handedness in both autistic samples, due to a raised incidence of two phenotypes: manifest left-handedness and ambiguous handedness. (Author/CL)

Temporal Patterns and Sources of Atmospherically Deposited Pesticides in Alpine Lakes of the Sierra Nevada, California , USA

EPA Science Inventory

Airborne agricultural pesticides are being transported large distances to remote mountain areas, and have been implicated as a cause or contributing factor for recent, dramatic population declines of several amphibian species in such locations. Largely unmeasured, however, are ...

Impacts of land use and climate change on carbon dynamics in south-central Senegal

USGS Publications Warehouse

Liu, Shu-Guang; Kaire, M.; Wood, Eric C.; Diallo, O.; Tieszen, Larry L.

2004-01-01

Total carbon stock in vegetation and soils was reduced 37% in south-central Senegal from 1900 to 2000. The decreasing trend will continue during the 21st century unless forest clearing is stopped, selective logging dramatically reduced, and climate change, if any, relatively small. Developing a sustainable fuelwood and charcoal production system could be the most feasible and significant carbon sequestration project in the region. If future climate changes dramatically as some models have predicted, cropland productivity will drop more than 65% around 2100, posing a serious threat to food security and the efficiency of carbon sequestration projects.

Predictions replaced by facts: a keystone species' behavioural responses to declining arctic sea-ice.

PubMed

Hamilton, Charmain D; Lydersen, Christian; Ims, Rolf A; Kovacs, Kit M

2015-11-01

Since the first documentation of climate-warming induced declines in arctic sea-ice, predictions have been made regarding the expected negative consequences for endemic marine mammals. But, several decades later, little hard evidence exists regarding the responses of these animals to the ongoing environmental changes. Herein, we report the first empirical evidence of a dramatic shift in movement patterns and foraging behaviour of the arctic endemic ringed seal (Pusa hispida), before and after a major collapse in sea-ice in Svalbard, Norway. Among other changes to the ice-regime, this collapse shifted the summer position of the marginal ice zone from over the continental shelf, northward to the deep Arctic Ocean Basin. Following this change, which is thought to be a 'tipping point', subadult ringed seals swam greater distances, showed less area-restricted search behaviour, dived for longer periods, exhibited shorter surface intervals, rested less on sea-ice and did less diving directly beneath the ice during post-moulting foraging excursions. In combination, these behavioural changes suggest increased foraging effort and thus also likely increases in the energetic costs of finding food. Continued declines in sea-ice are likely to result in distributional changes, range reductions and population declines in this keystone arctic species. © 2015 The Author(s).

Climate change and marine ecosystems (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chavez, F.

2013-12-01

Impacts of climate variability on marine ecosystems are pervasive. Those associated with the interannual El Ni~no phenomena are the most studied and better understood. Longer term variations associated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) have become more evident as the present-day instrumental record has increased in length. The biological (chlorophyll to fish) and chemical (nutrients, oxygen, carbon) consequences of these climate-driven variations are discussed with an emphasis on the eastern and equatorial Pacific. During warmer periods biological productivity in the eastern Pacific is reduced and larger mobile organisms dramatically change their abundance and/or geographic distributions. At the same time biological productivity in the western Pacific increases highlighting that present (and future) climate-driven changes in biological productivity and chemical distributions are not (and will not) be uniform. The presentation documents present day variations using global scale information from satellites and in situ databases, model simulations and data collected by intensive local time series. Paradoxically longer term changes associated with phenomena like the Little Ice Age (LIA), captured in the sedimentary record, do not seem to follow the same warm (poor), cold (productive) patterns in the eastern Pacific, in fact these are reversed. The presentation ends with speculation regarding long term changes associated with a warmer world.

The impact of the 2008/2009 financial crisis on specialist physician activity in Canada.

PubMed

Lavergne, M Ruth; Hedden, Lindsay; Law, Michael R; McGrail, Kim; Ahuja, Megan; Barer, Morris

2018-06-19

Fee-for-service physicians are responsible for planning for their retirements, and there is no mandated retirement age. Changes in financial markets may influence how long they remain in practice and how much they choose to work. The 2008 crisis provides a natural experiment to analyze elasticity in physician service supply in response to dramatic financial market changes. We examined quarterly fee-for-service data for specialist physicians over the period from 1999/2000 to 2013/2014 in Canada. We used segmented regression to estimate changes in the number of physicians receiving payments, per-physician service counts, and per-physician payments following the 2008 financial crisis and explored whether patterns differed by physician age. The number of specialist physicians increased more rapidly in the period since 2008 than in earlier years, but increases were largest within the youngest age group, and we observed no evidence of delayed retirement among older physicians. Where changes in service volume and payments were observed, they occurred across all ages and not immediately following the 2008 financial crisis. We conclude that any response to the financial crisis was small compared with demographic shifts in the physician population and changes in payments per service over the same time period. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Geospatiotemporal Data Mining of Remotely Sensed Phenology for Unsupervised Forest Threat Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mills, R. T.; Hoffman, F. M.; Kumar, J.; Vulli, S. S.; Hargrove, W. W.; Spruce, J.

2010-12-01

Hargrove and Hoffman have previously developed and applied a scalable geospatiotemporal data mining approach to define a set of categorical, multivariate classes or states for describing and tracking the behavior of ecosystem properties through time within a multi-dimensional phase or state space. The method employs a standard k-means cluster analysis with enhancements that reduce the number of required comparisons, dramatically accelerating iterative convergence. In support of efforts by the USDA Forest Service to develop a National Early Warning System for Forest Disturbances, we have applied this geospatiotemporal cluster analysis procedure to annual phenology patterns derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for unsupervised change detection. We will present initial results from the analysis of seven years of 250-m MODIS NDVI data for the conterminous United States. While determining what constitutes a "normal" phenological pattern for any given location is challenging due to interannual climate variability, a spatially varying climate change trend, and the relatively short record of MODIS NDVI observations, these results demonstrate the utility of the method for detecting significant mortality events, like the progressive damage from mountain pine beetle, and suggest that the technique may be successfully implemented as a key component in an early warning system for identifying forest threats from natural and anthropogenic disturbances at a continental scale.

Gene expression patterns during the larval development of European sea bass (dicentrarchus labrax) by microarray analysis.

PubMed

Darias, M J; Zambonino-Infante, J L; Hugot, K; Cahu, C L; Mazurais, D

2008-01-01

During the larval period, marine teleosts undergo very fast growth and dramatic changes in morphology, metabolism, and behavior to accomplish their metamorphosis into juvenile fish. Regulation of gene expression is widely thought to be a key mechanism underlying the management of the biological processes required for harmonious development over this phase of life. To provide an overall analysis of gene expression in the whole body during sea bass larval development, we monitored the expression of 6,626 distinct genes at 10 different points in time between 7 and 43 days post-hatching (dph) by using heterologous hybridization of a rainbow trout cDNA microarray. The differentially expressed genes (n = 485) could be grouped into two categories: genes that were generally up-expressed early, between 7 and 23 dph, and genes up-expressed between 25 and 43 dph. Interestingly, among the genes regulated during the larval period, those related to organogenesis, energy pathways, biosynthesis, and digestion were over-represented compared with total set of analyzed genes. We discuss the quantitative regulation of whole-body contents of these specific transcripts with regard to the ontogenesis and maturation of essential functions that take place over larval development. Our study is the first utilization of a transcriptomic approach in sea bass and reveals dynamic changes in gene expression patterns in relation to marine finfish larval development.

Robust stochastic Turing patterns in the development of a one-dimensional cyanobacterial organism.

PubMed

Di Patti, Francesca; Lavacchi, Laura; Arbel-Goren, Rinat; Schein-Lubomirsky, Leora; Fanelli, Duccio; Stavans, Joel

2018-05-01

Under nitrogen deprivation, the one-dimensional cyanobacterial organism Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 develops patterns of single, nitrogen-fixing cells separated by nearly regular intervals of photosynthetic vegetative cells. We study a minimal, stochastic model of developmental patterns in Anabaena that includes a nondiffusing activator, two diffusing inhibitor morphogens, demographic fluctuations in the number of morphogen molecules, and filament growth. By tracking developing filaments, we provide experimental evidence for different spatiotemporal roles of the two inhibitors during pattern maintenance and for small molecular copy numbers, justifying a stochastic approach. In the deterministic limit, the model yields Turing patterns within a region of parameter space that shrinks markedly as the inhibitor diffusivities become equal. Transient, noise-driven, stochastic Turing patterns are produced outside this region, which can then be fixed by downstream genetic commitment pathways, dramatically enhancing the robustness of pattern formation, also in the biologically relevant situation in which the inhibitors' diffusivities may be comparable.

Graptolite community responses to global climate change and the Late Ordovician mass extinction.

PubMed

Sheets, H David; Mitchell, Charles E; Melchin, Michael J; Loxton, Jason; Štorch, Petr; Carlucci, Kristi L; Hawkins, Andrew D

2016-07-26

Mass extinctions disrupt ecological communities. Although climate changes produce stress in ecological communities, few paleobiological studies have systematically addressed the impact of global climate changes on the fine details of community structure with a view to understanding how changes in community structure presage, or even cause, biodiversity decline during mass extinctions. Based on a novel Bayesian approach to biotope assessment, we present a study of changes in species abundance distribution patterns of macroplanktonic graptolite faunas (∼447-444 Ma) leading into the Late Ordovician mass extinction. Communities at two contrasting sites exhibit significant decreases in complexity and evenness as a consequence of the preferential decline in abundance of dysaerobic zone specialist species. The observed changes in community complexity and evenness commenced well before the dramatic population depletions that mark the tipping point of the extinction event. Initially, community changes tracked changes in the oceanic water masses, but these relations broke down during the onset of mass extinction. Environmental isotope and biomarker data suggest that sea surface temperature and nutrient cycling in the paleotropical oceans changed sharply during the latest Katian time, with consequent changes in the extent of the oxygen minimum zone and phytoplankton community composition. Although many impacted species persisted in ephemeral populations, increased extinction risk selectively depleted the diversity of paleotropical graptolite species during the latest Katian and early Hirnantian. The effects of long-term climate change on habitats can thus degrade populations in ways that cascade through communities, with effects that culminate in mass extinction.

Graptolite community responses to global climate change and the Late Ordovician mass extinction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheets, H. David; Mitchell, Charles E.; Melchin, Michael J.; Loxton, Jason; Štorch, Petr; Carlucci, Kristi L.; Hawkins, Andrew D.

2016-07-01

Mass extinctions disrupt ecological communities. Although climate changes produce stress in ecological communities, few paleobiological studies have systematically addressed the impact of global climate changes on the fine details of community structure with a view to understanding how changes in community structure presage, or even cause, biodiversity decline during mass extinctions. Based on a novel Bayesian approach to biotope assessment, we present a study of changes in species abundance distribution patterns of macroplanktonic graptolite faunas (˜447-444 Ma) leading into the Late Ordovician mass extinction. Communities at two contrasting sites exhibit significant decreases in complexity and evenness as a consequence of the preferential decline in abundance of dysaerobic zone specialist species. The observed changes in community complexity and evenness commenced well before the dramatic population depletions that mark the tipping point of the extinction event. Initially, community changes tracked changes in the oceanic water masses, but these relations broke down during the onset of mass extinction. Environmental isotope and biomarker data suggest that sea surface temperature and nutrient cycling in the paleotropical oceans changed sharply during the latest Katian time, with consequent changes in the extent of the oxygen minimum zone and phytoplankton community composition. Although many impacted species persisted in ephemeral populations, increased extinction risk selectively depleted the diversity of paleotropical graptolite species during the latest Katian and early Hirnantian. The effects of long-term climate change on habitats can thus degrade populations in ways that cascade through communities, with effects that culminate in mass extinction.

Investigating the causes and consequences of symbiont shuffling in a multi-partner reef coral symbiosis under environmental change.

PubMed

Cunning, R; Silverstein, R N; Baker, A C

2015-06-22

Dynamic symbioses may critically mediate impacts of climate change on diverse organisms, with repercussions for ecosystem persistence in some cases. On coral reefs, increases in heat-tolerant symbionts after thermal bleaching can reduce coral susceptibility to future stress. However, the relevance of this adaptive response is equivocal owing to conflicting reports of symbiont stability and change. We help reconcile this conflict by showing that change in symbiont community composition (symbiont shuffling) in Orbicella faveolata depends on the disturbance severity and recovery environment. The proportion of heat-tolerant symbionts dramatically increased following severe experimental bleaching, especially in a warmer recovery environment, but tended to decrease if bleaching was less severe. These patterns can be explained by variation in symbiont performance in the changing microenvironments created by differentially bleached host tissues. Furthermore, higher proportions of heat-tolerant symbionts linearly increased bleaching resistance but reduced photochemical efficiency, suggesting that any change in community structure oppositely impacts performance and stress tolerance. Therefore, even minor symbiont shuffling can adaptively benefit corals, although fitness effects of resulting trade-offs are difficult to predict. This work helps elucidate causes and consequences of dynamism in symbiosis, which is critical to predicting responses of multi-partner symbioses such as O. faveolata to environmental change. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Structural change in industry and futures for the electricity industry. Final report

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

Schwartz, P.; Harris, G.

1995-06-01

The electricity supply industry in the United States has been experiencing major technological changes and economics of the business have altered dramatically since the passage of the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). This opening of power generation business to competition was under-pinned by significant increases in gas turbine efficiency, commercialization of smaller units with high efficiencies, low gas prices, and cost consciousness on the part of independent power producers (IPPs) and major industrial customers. The pace of change continues to accelerate, driven by ongoing technological innovations and customer demands for better, more customized services and lower costs.more » The purpose of this report is to provoke further thought on the likely course of structural change in the electric utility industry over the next twenty years. The prime focus of the report is on technological change and its impact on economics, and the resulting organizational and structural change. This report begins with a brief look at structural change in several capital-intensive industries to identify common patterns applicable to the electricity industry. The industries selected have network-like operations, similar to the electric utility industry. This is followed by two scenarios which illuminate different plausible futures for the electric power industry. The report concludes with insights on the potential course of regulations and suitable strategies to prosper during the transition phase.« less

Remote Sensing of Climate-Driven Range Shifts of Vegetation across North American Mountain Ranges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kendrick, J. A.; Sax, D. F.; Kellner, J. R.

2015-12-01

Global climate change is driving shifts in local environmental conditions, and many organisms are projected to become poorly adapted to their current ranges. Some species may respond by gradually shifting their range limits to track environmental change. This adaptation strategy is expected to be most feasible in regions with sharp climatic gradients, such as mountain ranges. However, the extent to which this process is taking place is poorly understood, and some evidence suggests that shifts upwards in elevation might be more difficult than expected. Direct empirical evidence of range shifts in response to recent climate change could inform models and conservation strategies. Here we used Monte Carlo spectral unmixing of Landsat surface reflectance data to characterize changes in vegetation cover across major North American mountain ranges over the past 30 years. This approach allows us to observe changes in photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic vegetation as well as absolute change in vegetation cover. We found evidence of a gradual increase in total vegetation cover at increasing elevations, but this pattern varied in its strength both within and among mountain ranges. We also observed more dramatic changes in vegetation type which differed strongly between regions with different climates. Our analysis shows that upslope range shift is a possible climate response in many cases, but that this process does not occur uniformly.

Phrenic motoneuron discharge patterns following chronic cervical spinal cord injury

PubMed Central

Lee, Kun-Ze; Dougherty, Brendan J.; Sandhu, Milapjit S.; Lane, Michael A.; Reier, Paul J.; Fuller, David D.

2013-01-01

Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) dramatically disrupts synaptic inputs and triggers biochemical, as well as morphological, plasticity in relation to the phrenic motor neuron (PhMN) pool. Accordingly, our primary purpose was to determine if chronic SCI induces fundamental changes in the recruitment profile and discharge patterns of PhMNs. Individual PhMN action potentials were recorded from the phrenic nerve ipsilateral to lateral cervical (C2) hemisection injury (C2Hx) in anesthetized adult male rats at 2, 4 or 8 wks post-injury and in uninjured controls. PhMNs were phenotypically classified as early (Early-I) or late inspiratory (Late-I), or silent according to discharge patterns. Following C2Hx, the distribution of PhMNs was dominated by Late-I and silent cells. Late-I burst parameters (e.g., spikes per breath, burst frequency and duration) were initially reduced but returned towards control values by 8 wks post-injury. In addition, a unique PhMN burst pattern emerged after C2Hx in which Early-I cells burst tonically during hypocapnic inspiratory apnea. We also quantified the impact of gradual reductions in end-tidal CO2 partial pressure (PETCO2) on bilateral phrenic nerve activity. Compared to control rats, as PETCO2 declined, the C2Hx animals had greater inspiratory frequencies (breaths*min−1) and more substantial decreases in ipsilateral phrenic burst amplitude. We conclude that the primary physiological impact of C2Hx on ipsilateral PhMN burst patterns is a persistent delay in burst onset, transient reductions in burst frequency, and the emergence of tonic burst patterns. The inspiratory frequency data suggest that plasticity in brainstem networks is likely to play an important role in phrenic motor output after cervical SCI. PMID:23954215

Novel software for analysis of root gravitropism: comparative response patterns of Arabidopsis wild-type and axr1 seedlings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ishikawa, H.; Evans, M. L.

1997-01-01

In an earlier study (Evans, Ishikawa & Estelle 1994, Planta 194, 215-222) we used a video digitizer system to compare the kinetics of auxin action on root elongation in wild-type seedlings and seedlings of auxin response mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. We have since modified the system software to allow determination of elongation on opposite sides of vertical or gravistimulated roots and to allow continuous measurement of the angle of orientation of sequential subsections of the root during the response. We used this technology to compare the patterns of differential growth that generate curvature in roots of the Columbia ecotype and in the mutants axr1-3, axr1-12 and axr2, which show reduced gravitropic responsiveness and reduced sensitivity to inhibition by auxin. The pattern of differential growth during gravitropism differed in roots of wild-type and axr1 seedlings. In wild-type roots, initial curvature resulted from differential inhibition of elongation in the distal elongation zone (DEZ). This was followed by an acceleration of elongation along the top side of the DEZ. In roots of axr1-3, curvature resulted from differential stimulation of elongation whereas in roots of axr1-12 the response was variable. Roots of axr2 did not exhibit gravitropic curvature. The observation that the pattern of differential growth causing curvature is dramatically altered by a change in sensitivity to auxin is consistent with the classical Cholodny-Went theory of gravitropism which maintains that differential growth patterns induced by gravistimulation are mediated primarily by gravi-induced shifts in auxin distribution. The new technology introduced with this report allows automated determination of stimulus response patterns in the small but experimentally popular roots of Arabidopsis.

CYP98A6 from Lithospermum erythrorhizon encodes 4-coumaroyl-4'-hydroxyphenyllactic acid 3-hydroxylase involved in rosmarinic acid biosynthesis.

PubMed

Matsuno, Michiyo; Nagatsu, Akito; Ogihara, Yukio; Ellis, Brian E; Mizukami, Hajime

2002-03-13

Rosmarinic acid is the dominant hydroxycinnamic acid ester accumulated in Boraginaceae and Lamiaceae plants. A cytochrome P450 cDNA was isolated by differential display from cultured cells of Lithospermum erythrorhizon, and the gene product was designated CYP98A6 based on the deduced amino acid sequence. After expression in yeast, the P450 was shown to catalyze the 3-hydroxylation of 4-coumaroyl-4'-hydroxyphenyllactic acid, one of the final two steps leading to rosmarinic acid. The expression level of CYP98A6 is dramatically increased by addition of yeast extract or methyl jasmonate to L. erythrorhizon cells, and its expression pattern reflected the elicitor-induced change in rosmarinic acid production, indicating that CYP98A6 plays an important role in regulation of rosmarinic acid biosynthesis.

Life and death on the coral reef: an ecological perspective on scholarly publishing in the health sciences*†

PubMed Central

Forsman, Rick B.

2005-01-01

Objective: Reflecting patterns evident in past Janet Doe lectures, the 2004 address draws on the foundations of biology to provide a model that offers insights into the advent of electronic publications and choices for the future. Setting: The lecture sketches a picture of the fragile relationships found in complex ecosystems and illustrates how such interdependencies function in the environment of the coral reef. Analysis: Deriving lessons from the marine world, the lecture then shifts to a description of similarities in the realm of scholarly publishing, the impact of digital innovations in the marketplace, and the controversies and choices inherent in open access publications. Conclusions: Lessons from ecology and publishing lead to the conclusion that librarians must take action and risks in this time of dramatic environmental change. PMID:15685268

Hormones in the city: endocrine ecology of urban birds.

PubMed

Bonier, Frances

2012-05-01

Urbanization dramatically changes the landscape, presenting organisms with novel challenges and often leading to reduced species diversity. Urban ecologists have documented numerous biotic and abiotic consequences of urbanization, such as altered climate, species interactions, and community composition, but we lack an understanding of the mechanisms underlying organisms' responses to urbanization. Here, I review findings from the nascent field of study of the endocrine ecology of urban birds. Thus far, no clear or consistent patterns have been revealed, but we do have evidence that urban habitat can shape endocrine traits, and that those traits might contribute to adaptation to the urban environment. I suggest strong approaches for future work addressing exciting questions about the role of endocrine traits in mediating responses to urbanization within species across the globe. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Crossing the quasi-threshold manifold of a noise-driven excitable system

PubMed Central

Zhu, Jinjie; Liu, Xianbin

2017-01-01

We consider the noise-induced escapes in an excitable system possessing a quasi-threshold manifold, along which there exists a certain point of minimal quasi-potential. In the weak noise limit, the optimal escaping path turns out to approach this particular point asymptotically, making it analogous to an ordinary saddle. Numerical simulations are performed and an elaboration on the effect of small but finite noise is given, which shows that the ridges where the prehistory probability distribution peaks are located mainly within the region where the quasi-potential increases gently. The cases allowing anisotropic noise are discussed and we found that varying the noise term in the slow variable would dramatically raise the whole level of quasi-potentials, leading to significant changes in both patterns of optimal paths and exit locations. PMID:28588411

Investigation of Techniques for Inventorying Forested Regions. Volume 1: Reflectance Modeling and Empirical Multispectral Analysis of Forest Canopy Components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nalepka, R. F. (Principal Investigator); Sadowski, F. G.; Malila, W. A.

1977-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Effects of vegetation density on overall canopy reflectance differed dramatically, depending on spectral band, base material, and vegetation type. For example, reflectance changes caused by variations in vegetation density were hardly apparant for a simulated burned surface in LANDSAT band 5, while large changes occurred in band 7. When increasing densities of tree overstory were placed over understories, intermediate to dense overstories effectively masked the understories and dominated the spectral signatures. Dramatic changes in reflectance occurred for canopies placed on a number of varying topographic positions. Such changes were seen to result in the spectral overlap of some nonforested with densely forested situations.

The assessment of land use change impact on watersheds runoff using SWAT: case study of Urmia Lake in Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jabbari, Anahita; Jarihani, Ben; Rezaie, Hossein

2015-04-01

Lake Urmia, long counted among the world's largest saltwater lakes, contains only 5% of the amount of water it did just 20 years ago. The decline is generally blamed on a combination of drought, increased water diversion for irrigated agriculture within the lake's watershed and land use mismanagement. It has been believed that land use changes in Lake Urmia basin is one of the most important factors in shrinkage of Urmia Lake in recent decades. Transforming the traditional agricultural practices (i.e., wheat) to the more water consuming practices (i.e., apple orchards) is one of the most important reasons increased agricultural water consumption in the watershed. In this study we assessed the effect of the land use changes of watershed in hydrological runoff processing in the Nazloo chai watershed, one of the most important river basins of the Urmia Lake basin. Actually the rapid and at the same time unreasonable transformations of land use in farm lands of Urmia lake sub basins, extremely has been raised the amount of blue water (surface or groundwater) consumption in watershed which leads to dramatic decrement of watershed runoff amounts. One of the most unfavorable consequences of land use change was changing the blue and green (rainwater insofar as it does not become runoff) water usage patterns in watershed, in addition to water use increment. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT), one of the most important and reliable models which was used to model the rainfall runoff, has been used in current study. The land use maps were extracted from Landsat images archives for the most severe turning points in respect of land use change in the recent 30 years. After calibrating the model, several land use patterns of historical data were used in the model to produce the runoff. The results showed the strong relation between land use change and runoff reduction in the Lake Urmia basin.

Burning Fossil Fuels: Impact of Climate Change on Health.

PubMed

Sommer, Alfred

2016-01-01

A recent, sophisticated granular analysis of climate change in the United States related to burning fossil fuels indicates a high likelihood of dramatic increases in temperature, wet-bulb temperature, and precipitation, which will dramatically impact the health and well-being of many Americans, particularly the young, the elderly, and the poor and marginalized. Other areas of the world, where they lack the resources to remediate these weather impacts, will be even more greatly affected. Too little attention is being paid to the impending health impact of accumulating greenhouse gases. © The Author(s) 2015.

Developmental Reversals in False Memory: A Review of Data and Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brainerd, C. J.; Reyna V. F.; Ceci, S. J.

2008-01-01

Can susceptibility to false memory and suggestion increase dramatically with age? The authors review the theoretical and empirical literatures on this counterintuitive possibility. Until recently, the well-documented pattern was that susceptibility to memory distortion had been found to decline between early childhood and young adulthood. That…

The EQUIP for Educators Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiBiase, Ann-Marie; Potter, Granville Bud; Gibbs, John C.

2011-01-01

There is a need for proactive support and early intervention to meet the needs of behaviorally at-risk students. There is limited opportunity to intervene with effective results, given that stability of antisocial behavior increases dramatically over time. Moreover, if antisocial behavior patterns are not addressed early on, these children tend to…

Stochastic game theory: for playing games, not just for doing theory.

PubMed

Goeree, J K; Holt, C A

1999-09-14

Recent theoretical advances have dramatically increased the relevance of game theory for predicting human behavior in interactive situations. By relaxing the classical assumptions of perfect rationality and perfect foresight, we obtain much improved explanations of initial decisions, dynamic patterns of learning and adjustment, and equilibrium steady-state distributions.

Caffeine Consumption Patterns and Beliefs of College Freshmen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIlvain, Gary E.; Noland, Melody P.; Bickel, Robert

2011-01-01

Background: Caffeine consumption by young people has increased dramatically over the last decade through increased coffee consumption and "energy drinks." In higher amounts, caffeine causes many adverse effects that are cause for concern. Purpose: Purposes of this study were to determine: (1) the amount of caffeine consumed by a sample…

Developmental Patterning: Putting the Squeeze on Mis-specified Cells.

PubMed

Nakajima, Yu-Ichiro; Gibson, Matthew C

2016-03-07

Widely implicated in human disease, abnormal cellular cysts reflect dramatic defects in the maintenance of epithelial integrity. A new study reports that epithelial cysts may arise as a surprisingly general consequence of clonal defects in the specification of cell identity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Shifting Patterns of Deadly Violence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seiden, Richard H.; Freitas, Raymond P.

1980-01-01

While it is true that the total suicide rates has varied little, this composite figure masks a dramatic shift in the risk of suicide by age. In recent years there has been a reduction of suicide at older ages reciprocated by an unprecedented increase of suicide and homicide at younger ages. (Author)

TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF AIRBORNE PESTICIDES IN THE HABITATE OF THE MOUNTAIN YELLOW-LEGGED FROG IN THE SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA

EPA Science Inventory

Airborne agricultural pesticides from the Central Valley of California have been implicated as a possible cause for recent, dramatic population declines of several amphibian species in remote mountain locations. To determine the temporal variation of pesticide levels in the habit...

Culture and Imperialism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Said, Edward W.

Growing out of a series of lectures given at universities in the United States, Canada, and England, this book reopens the dialogue between literature and the life of its time. It draws dramatic connections between the imperial endeavor and the culture that both reflected and reinforced it, describing a general pattern of relationships between the…

Weather Fundamentals: Climate & Seasons. [Videotape].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

1998

The videos in this educational series for grades 4-7, help students understand the science behind weather phenomena through dramatic live-action footage, vivid animated graphics, detailed weather maps, and hands-on experiments. This episode (23 minutes), describes weather patterns and cycles around the globe. The various types of climates around…

Sexual Behavior, Drugs, and Relationship Patterns on a College Campus over Thirteen Years.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murstein, Bernard I; And Others

1989-01-01

In 1974, 1979, and 1986, college students completed questionnaires regarding their sexual philosophies, behavior, relationships, self-perceived attractiveness, relationship with parents, use of drugs and alcohol, attitudes toward marriage and abortion, and other issues. Found that sexual behavior increased dramatically from 1974 to 1979, and then…

"The City": The Rhetoric of Rhythm.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medhurst, Martin J.; Benson, Thomas W.

1981-01-01

Case study of Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke's classic documentary, "The City," a work of cinematic art and a record of the problems confronting urban planners. Discusses how the film builds a rhythmic pattern through dramatic structure, image content and composition, editing, music, and narration to enhance its rhetorical appeal. (JMF)

Women at Work: A Chartbook. Bulletin 2168.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bureau of Labor Statistics (DOL), Washington, DC.

This chartbook focuses on women's economic activity including labor force trends, occupational and industrial employment patterns, unemployment, and market work of women in a family context. The 15 charts show that women play an important role in the labor market; women's participation has grown dramatically; a smaller proportion of women fill the…

Patterns of patient safety culture: a complexity and arts-informed project of knowledge translation.

PubMed

Mitchell, Gail J; Tregunno, Deborah; Gray, Julia; Ginsberg, Liane

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe patterns of patient safety culture that emerged from an innovative collaboration among health services researchers and fine arts colleagues. The group engaged in an arts-informed knowledge translation project to produce a dramatic expression of patient safety culture research for inclusion in a symposium. Scholars have called for a deeper understanding of the complex interrelationships among structure, process and outcomes relating to patient safety. Four patterns of patient safety culture--blinding familiarity, unyielding determination, illusion of control and dismissive urgency--are described with respect to how they informed creation of an arts-informed project for knowledge translation.

Critical aspects of substrate nanopatterning for the ordered growth of GaN nanocolumns.

PubMed

Barbagini, Francesca; Bengoechea-Encabo, Ana; Albert, Steven; Martinez, Javier; Sanchez García, Miguel Angel; Trampert, Achim; Calleja, Enrique

2011-12-14

Precise and reproducible surface nanopatterning is the key for a successful ordered growth of GaN nanocolumns. In this work, we point out the main technological issues related to the patterning process, mainly surface roughness and cleaning, and mask adhesion to the substrate. We found that each of these factors, process-related, has a dramatic impact on the subsequent selective growth of the columns inside the patterned holes. We compare the performance of e-beam lithography, colloidal lithography, and focused ion beam in the fabrication of hole-patterned masks for ordered columnar growth. These results are applicable to the ordered growth of nanocolumns of different materials.

How to Know when Dramatic Change Is on Track: Leading Indicators of School Turnarounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kowal, Julie; Ableidinger, Joe

2011-01-01

In recent years, national policymakers have placed new emphasis on "school turnarounds" as a strategy for rapid, dramatic improvement in chronically failing schools, calling on education leaders to turn around performance in the 5,000 lowest-achieving schools nationwide. This goal may seem daunting, given the dismal success rates of…

Climate change and Arctic ecosystems: 1. Vegetation changes north of 55°N between the last glacial maximum, mid-Holocene, and present

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bigelow, N.H.; Brubaker, L.B.; Edwards, M.E.; Harrison, S.P.; Prentice, I.C.; Anderson, P.M.; Andreev, A.A.; Bartlein, P.J.; Christensen, T.R.; Cramer, W.; Kaplan, J.O.; Lozhkin, A.V.; Matveyeva, N.V.; Murray, D.F.; McGuire, A.D.; Razzhivin, V.Y.; Ritchie, J.C.; Smith, B.; Walker, D.A.; Gajewski, K.; Wolf, V.; Holmqvist, B.H.; Igarashi, Y.; Kremenetskii, K.; Paus, A.; Pisaric, M.F.J.; Volkova, V.S.

2003-01-01

A unified scheme to assign pollen samples to vegetation types was used to reconstruct vegetation patterns north of 55??N at the last glacial maximum (LGM) and mid-Holocene (6000 years B.P.). The pollen data set assembled for this purpose represents a comprehensive compilation based on the work of many projects and research groups. Five tundra types (cushion forb tundra, graminoid and forb tundra, prostrate dwarf-shrub tundra, erect dwarf-shrub tundra, and low- and high-shrub tundra) were distinguished and mapped on the basis of modern pollen surface samples. The tundra-forest boundary and the distributions of boreal and temperate forest types today were realistically reconstructed. During the mid-Holocene the tundra-forest boundary was north of its present position in some regions, but the pattern of this shift was strongly asymmetrical around the pole, with the largest northward shift in central Siberia (???200 km), little change in Beringia, and a southward shift in Keewatin and Labrador (???200 km). Low- and high-shrub tundra extended farther north than today. At the LGM, forests were absent from high latitudes. Graminoid and forb tundra abutted on temperate steppe in northwestern Eurasia while prostrate dwarf-shrub, erect dwarf-shrub, and graminoid and forb tundra formed a mosaic in Beringia. Graminoid and forb tundra is restricted today and does not form a large continuous biome, but the pollen data show that it was far more extensive at the LGM, while low- and high-shrub tundra were greatly reduced, illustrating the potential for climate change to dramatically alter the relative areas occupied by different vegetation types.

Regionalizing Africa: Patterns of Precipitation Variability in Observations and Global Climate Models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Badr, Hamada S.; Dezfuli, Amin K.; Zaitchik, Benjamin F.; Peters-Lidard, Christa D.

2016-01-01

Many studies have documented dramatic climatic and environmental changes that have affected Africa over different time scales. These studies often raise questions regarding the spatial extent and regional connectivity of changes inferred from observations and proxies and/or derived from climate models. Objective regionalization offers a tool for addressing these questions. To demonstrate this potential, applications of hierarchical climate regionalizations of Africa using observations and GCM historical simulations and future projections are presented. First, Africa is regionalized based on interannual precipitation variability using Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data for the period 19812014. A number of data processing techniques and clustering algorithms are tested to ensure a robust definition of climate regions. These regionalization results highlight the seasonal and even month-to-month specificity of regional climate associations across the continent, emphasizing the need to consider time of year as well as research question when defining a coherent region for climate analysis. CHIRPS regions are then compared to those of five GCMs for the historic period, with a focus on boreal summer. Results show that some GCMs capture the climatic coherence of the Sahel and associated teleconnections in a manner that is similar to observations, while other models break the Sahel into uncorrelated subregions or produce a Sahel-like region of variability that is spatially displaced from observations. Finally, shifts in climate regions under projected twenty-first-century climate change for different GCMs and emissions pathways are examined. A projected change is found in the coherence of the Sahel, in which the western and eastern Sahel become distinct regions with different teleconnections. This pattern is most pronounced in high-emissions scenarios.

What Physiological Changes and Cerebral Traces Tell Us about Adhesion to Fiction During Theater-Watching?

PubMed

Metz-Lutz, Marie-Noëlle; Bressan, Yannick; Heider, Nathalie; Otzenberger, Hélène

2010-01-01

Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators' offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects' adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects' state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction.

Rising Tides or Rising Stars?: Dynamics of Shared Attention on Twitter during Media Events

PubMed Central

Lin, Yu-Ru; Keegan, Brian; Margolin, Drew; Lazer, David

2014-01-01

“Media events” generate conditions of shared attention as many users simultaneously tune in with the dual screens of broadcast and social media to view and participate. We examine how collective patterns of user behavior under conditions of shared attention are distinct from other “bursts” of activity like breaking news events. Using 290 million tweets from a panel of 193,532 politically active Twitter users, we compare features of their behavior during eight major events during the 2012 U.S. presidential election to examine how patterns of social media use change during these media events compared to “typical” time and whether these changes are attributable to shifts in the behavior of the population as a whole or shifts from particular segments such as elites. Compared to baseline time periods, our findings reveal that media events not only generate large volumes of tweets, but they are also associated with (1) substantial declines in interpersonal communication, (2) more highly concentrated attention by replying to and retweeting particular users, and (3) elite users predominantly benefiting from this attention. These findings empirically demonstrate how bursts of activity on Twitter during media events significantly alter underlying social processes of interpersonal communication and social interaction. Because the behavior of large populations within socio-technical systems can change so dramatically, our findings suggest the need for further research about how social media responses to media events can be used to support collective sensemaking, to promote informed deliberation, and to remain resilient in the face of misinformation. PMID:24854030

Less is More: Comparing the 2015 and 2009 American Thyroid Association Guidelines for Thyroid Nodules and Cancer.

PubMed

Kim, Brian W; Yousman, Wina; Wong, Wei Xiang; Cheng, Cheng; McAninch, Elizabeth A

2016-06-01

The American Thyroid Association (ATA) has recently revised its guidance pertaining to thyroid nodules and follicular cell-derived thyroid cancer. The 2015 guidelines are massive in both scope and scale, with changes in the organizational approach to risk stratification of nodules and cancer, as well as multiple sections covering new material. This review highlights the major structural and organizational changes, focusing attention on the most dramatically changed recommendations, that is, those recommendations that clinicians will find striking because they call for significant divergence from prior clinical practice. The revised approach to thyroid nodule risk stratification is based on sonographic pattern, with an emphasis on pattern rather than growth in the long-term surveillance of nodules. Accumulating data have also been incorporated into an updated risk stratification scheme for thyroid cancer that increases the size of the low-risk pool, in part because low-volume lymph nodal metastases are now considered low risk. The most fundamentally altered recommendation is that lobectomy might be considered as the initial surgical approach for follicular cell-derived thyroid cancers from 1 to 4 cm in size. The underlying theme of the 2015 ATA guidelines is that "less is more." As these new recommendations are adopted, fewer fine-needle aspiration biopsies will need to be done, less extensive surgeries will become more common, less radioactive iodine will be used either for treatment or for diagnostics, and less stimulated thyroglobulin testing will be done. Mastery of these guidelines will help clinicians know when it is reasonable to do less, thus providing responsibly individualized therapy for their patients.

Diffraction contrast as a sensitive indicator of femtosecond sub-nanoscale motion in ultrafast transmission electron microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cremons, Daniel R.; Schliep, Karl B.; Flannigan, David J.

2013-09-01

With ultrafast transmission electron microscopy (UTEM), access can be gained to the spatiotemporal scales required to directly visualize rapid, non-equilibrium structural dynamics of materials. This is achieved by operating a transmission electron microscope (TEM) in a stroboscopic pump-probe fashion by photoelectrically generating coherent, well-timed electron packets in the gun region of the TEM. These probe photoelectrons are accelerated down the TEM column where they travel through the specimen before reaching a standard, commercially-available CCD detector. A second laser pulse is used to excite (pump) the specimen in situ. Structural changes are visualized by varying the arrival time of the pump laser pulse relative to the probe electron packet at the specimen. Here, we discuss how ultrafast nanoscale motions of crystalline materials can be visualized and precisely quantified using diffraction contrast in UTEM. Because diffraction contrast sensitively depends upon both crystal lattice orientation as well as incoming electron wavevector, minor spatial/directional variations in either will produce dynamic and often complex patterns in real-space images. This is because sections of the crystalline material that satisfy the Laue conditions may be heterogeneously distributed such that electron scattering vectors vary over nanoscale regions. Thus, minor changes in either crystal grain orientation, as occurs during specimen tilting, warping, or anisotropic expansion, or in the electron wavevector result in dramatic changes in the observed diffraction contrast. In this way, dynamic contrast patterns observed in UTEM images can be used as sensitive indicators of ultrafast specimen motion. Further, these motions can be spatiotemporally mapped such that direction and amplitude can be determined.

What Physiological Changes and Cerebral Traces Tell Us about Adhesion to Fiction During Theater-Watching?

PubMed Central

Metz-Lutz, Marie-Noëlle; Bressan, Yannick; Heider, Nathalie; Otzenberger, Hélène

2010-01-01

Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators’ offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects’ adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects’ state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction. PMID:20838472

Tipping points in Anthropocene fluvial dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Notebaert, Bastiaan; Broothaerts, Nils; Verstraeten, Gert; Berger, Jean-François; Houbrechts, Geoffrey

2016-04-01

Many rivers have undergone dramatic changes over the last millennia due to anthropogenic on- and offsite impacts. These changes have important implications for the geomorphic and hydrological functioning of the river. In this study we compare the influence of large-scaled off-site anthropogenic impact on three European river systems. We do this using traditional geomorphological methods, combined with palynological and archaeological data; for each catchment a Holocene sediment budget was constructed. The Dijle catchment is located in the central Belgian loess belt, and has undergone intense agriculture for at least the last 2000 year. Pre-Anthropocene floodplain are big marshes lacking a well-established river channel. Anthropogenic deforestation in the headwaters resulted in a sediment pulse from the Bronze Age on. In the main floodplain sediments gradually covered the peat layer, starting near a newly formed river channel and expanding over time towards the floodplain edges. In contrast, this transition is abrupt in the smaller tributary floodplains. Comparison with palynological data shows that this abrupt transition occurs when human impact reaches a certain threshold. The Valdaine region is located in the French Pre-Alps. Floodplain deposition increased over time since the Neolithic time period due to human induced and fire related soil erosion. This general aggradation trend is however interrupted by three major river incision phases which are caused by human land abandonment and dry periods. A second major change in floodplain geomorphology occurs during the High Roman Period and the last 800 year: the fine-grained meandering river changes to a gravel loaded braided river. During this period the upstream mountain reaches became a major sediment source due to deforestation, possibly combined with climate change. During the last century reforestation and land abandonment has led to a new incision phases, and floodplain are now a major source of gravel while the river partially maintains its braided pattern. The Amblève River in the Belgian Ardennes uplands underwent less dramatic changes. Large parts of the catchment are deforested during the last 700 years, leading to an increase in floodplain sedimentation. Despite this major sediment pulse, change in floodplain morphology remained limited to an increase in bank height. We argue that a combination of floodplain and channel morphology, the fine texture of supplied sediment and the high stream power of channel forming events result is a system that is less sensitive to change. Also the relative short time of impact may play a role. These three examples demonstrate the varying impact of human deforestation on floodplain geomorphology. For the Dijle and Valdaine region this lead to dramatic changes once a certain tipping point is reached. In contrast the Amblève river is more resilient to human impact due to its specific morphological setting. The morphology of the catchments and the nature of supplied sediments plays a major role in the sensitivity of fluvial systems to environmental impact. Once the tipping points are reached, it is difficult for the river to revert to its original state and floodplains remain highly impacted.

Effects of seed predators of different body size on seed mortality in Bornean logged forest.

PubMed

Hautier, Yann; Saner, Philippe; Philipson, Christopher; Bagchi, Robert; Ong, Robert C; Hector, Andy

2010-07-19

The Janzen-Connell hypothesis proposes that seed and seedling enemies play a major role in maintaining high levels of tree diversity in tropical forests. However, human disturbance may alter guilds of seed predators including their body size distribution. These changes have the potential to affect seedling survival in logged forest and may alter forest composition and diversity. We manipulated seed density in plots beneath con- and heterospecific adult trees within a logged forest and excluded vertebrate predators of different body sizes using cages. We show that small and large-bodied predators differed in their effect on con- and heterospecific seedling mortality. In combination small and large-bodied predators dramatically decreased both con- and heterospecific seedling survival. In contrast, when larger-bodied predators were excluded small-bodied predators reduced conspecific seed survival leaving seeds coming from the distant tree of a different species. Our results suggest that seed survival is affected differently by vertebrate predators according to their body size. Therefore, changes in the body size structure of the seed predator community in logged forests may change patterns of seed mortality and potentially affect recruitment and community composition.

Changes in the Diurnal Rhythms during a 45-Day Head-Down Bed Rest

PubMed Central

Liang, Xiaodi; Zhang, Lin; Wan, Yufeng; Yu, Xinyang; Guo, Yiming; Chen, Xiaoping; Tan, Cheng; Huang, Tianle; Shen, Hanjie; Chen, Xianyun; Li, Hongying; Lv, Ke; Sun, Fei; Chen, Shanguang; Guo, Jinhu

2012-01-01

In spaceflight human circadian rhythms and sleep patterns are likely subject to change, which consequently disturbs human physiology, cognitive abilities and performance efficiency. However, the influence of microgravity on sleep and circadian clock as well as the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Placing volunteers in a prone position, whereby their heads rest at an angle of −6° below horizontal, mimics the microgravity environment in orbital flight. Such positioning is termed head-down bed rest (HDBR). In this work, we analysed the influence of a 45-day HDBR on physiological diurnal rhythms. We examined urinary electrolyte and hormone excretion, and the results show a dramatic elevation of cortisol levels during HDBR and recovery. Increased diuresis, melatonin and testosterone were observed at certain periods during HDBR. In addition, we investigated the changes in urination and defecation frequencies and found that the rhythmicity of urinary frequency during lights-off during and after HDBR was higher than control. The grouped defecation frequency data exhibits rhythmicity before and during HDBR but not after HDBR. Together, these data demonstrate that HDBR can alter a number of physiological processes associated with diurnal rhythms. PMID:23110150

The Changing Urban Landscape: Interconnections Between Racial/Ethnic Segregation and Exposure in the Study of Race-Specific Violence Over Time

PubMed Central

Stansfield, Richard

2015-01-01

Objectives. We investigated how racial/ethnic shifts in the urban landscape influence race-specific violence by considering changes in the size of the Hispanic population, racial/ethnic contact, and racial segregation patterns. Methods. We used a time-series approach incorporating 4 decennial periods (1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010) to determine whether racial/ethnic demographic changes in 144 US cities influenced White and Black homicide rates. Sources included census and Uniform Crime Reports Supplemental Homicide Report data. Results. The growing diversity in the residential population of US cities contributed to the dramatic decline in homicide rates over time, but the effects differed by racial group. Exposure between Hispanics and Blacks and the growing presence of Hispanics led to a reduced Black homicide trend but had no impact on Whites, after adjustment for economic shifts and other important structural features in US cities. Conclusions. Our research highlights the importance of paying closer attention to exposure and integration between immigrants and existing racial groups. Failure to consider racial/ethnic contact and the racial nature of urban violence may produce misleading results in studies of associations between Hispanic immigration and crime. PMID:26180967

The Changing Urban Landscape: Interconnections Between Racial/Ethnic Segregation and Exposure in the Study of Race-Specific Violence Over Time.

PubMed

Parker, Karen F; Stansfield, Richard

2015-09-01

We investigated how racial/ethnic shifts in the urban landscape influence race-specific violence by considering changes in the size of the Hispanic population, racial/ethnic contact, and racial segregation patterns. We used a time-series approach incorporating 4 decennial periods (1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010) to determine whether racial/ethnic demographic changes in 144 US cities influenced White and Black homicide rates. Sources included census and Uniform Crime Reports Supplemental Homicide Report data. The growing diversity in the residential population of US cities contributed to the dramatic decline in homicide rates over time, but the effects differed by racial group. Exposure between Hispanics and Blacks and the growing presence of Hispanics led to a reduced Black homicide trend but had no impact on Whites, after adjustment for economic shifts and other important structural features in US cities. Our research highlights the importance of paying closer attention to exposure and integration between immigrants and existing racial groups. Failure to consider racial/ethnic contact and the racial nature of urban violence may produce misleading results in studies of associations between Hispanic immigration and crime.

Direct Energy Consumption Associated Emissions by Rural-to-Urban Migrants in Beijing.

PubMed

Ru, Muye; Tao, Shu; Smith, Kirk; Shen, Guofeng; Shen, Huizhong; Huang, Ye; Chen, Han; Chen, Yilin; Chen, Xi; Liu, Junfeng; Li, Bengang; Wang, Xilong; He, Canfei

2015-11-17

Hundreds of millions of rural residents have migrated to cities in China in recent years. Different lifestyles and living conditions lead to substantial changes in their household energy. Here, we present the result of a survey on direct household energy use of low-skilled rural-to-urban migrants in Beijing. The migrants moved up the energy ladder immediately after arriving in the city by replacing biomass fuels with coal, electricity, and liquefied petroleum gas. After the original shift, pattern of household energy use by the migrants has not changed much over decades, likely due to the long-existing household registration system (Hukou). As a result, the mix of energy types used by the rural-to-urban migrants were different from those by long-term urban residents, although total quantities were similar. Shifting from biomass fuels to coal, the migrants emitted 2.4 times more non-neutral CO2 than rural residents and 14% more than urban residents. The migration also resulted in significant increase in emissions of SO2 and mercury but dramatic decreases in some incomplete combustion products including particulate matter. All these changes have significant implication on air quality, health, and climate considering the scale of urbanization in China.

Electronic Structure and Properties of Deformed Carbon Nanotubes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yang, Liu; Arnold, Jim (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

A theoretical framework based on Huckel tight-binding model has been formulated to analyze the electronic structure of carbon nanotubes under uniform deformation. The model successfully quantifies the dispersion relation, density of states and bandgap change of nanotubes under uniform stretching, compression, torsion and bending. Our analysis shows that the shifting of the Fermi point away from the Brillouin zone vertices is the key reason for these changes. As a result of this shifting, the electronic structure of deformed carbon nanotubes varies dramatically depending on their chirality and deformation mode. Treating the Fermi point as a function of strain and tube chirality, the analytical solution preserves the concise form of undeformed carbon nanotubes. It predicts the shifting, merging and splitting of the Van Hove singularities in the density of states and the zigzag pattern of bandgap change under strains. Four orbital tight-binding simulations of carbon nanotubes under uniform stretching, compression, torsion and bending have been performed to verify the analytical solution. Extension to more complex systems are being performed to relate this analytical solution to the spectroscopic characterization, device performance and proposed quantum structures induced by the deformation. The limitations of this model will also be discussed.

Effects of Seed Predators of Different Body Size on Seed Mortality in Bornean Logged Forest

PubMed Central

Hautier, Yann; Saner, Philippe; Philipson, Christopher; Bagchi, Robert; Ong, Robert C.; Hector, Andy

2010-01-01

Background The Janzen-Connell hypothesis proposes that seed and seedling enemies play a major role in maintaining high levels of tree diversity in tropical forests. However, human disturbance may alter guilds of seed predators including their body size distribution. These changes have the potential to affect seedling survival in logged forest and may alter forest composition and diversity. Methodology/Principal Findings We manipulated seed density in plots beneath con- and heterospecific adult trees within a logged forest and excluded vertebrate predators of different body sizes using cages. We show that small and large-bodied predators differed in their effect on con- and heterospecific seedling mortality. In combination small and large-bodied predators dramatically decreased both con- and heterospecific seedling survival. In contrast, when larger-bodied predators were excluded small-bodied predators reduced conspecific seed survival leaving seeds coming from the distant tree of a different species. Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest that seed survival is affected differently by vertebrate predators according to their body size. Therefore, changes in the body size structure of the seed predator community in logged forests may change patterns of seed mortality and potentially affect recruitment and community composition. PMID:20657841

Decadal changes of reference crop evapotranspiration attribution: Spatial and temporal variability over China 1960-2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Ze-Xin; Thomas, Axel

2018-05-01

Atmospheric evaporative demand can be used as a measure of the hydrological cycle and the global energy balance. Its long-term variation and the role of driving climatic factors have received increasingly attention in climate change studies. FAO-Penman-Monteith reference crop evapotranspiration rates were estimated for 644 meteorological stations over China for the period 1960-2011 to analyze spatial and temporal attribution variability. Attribution of climatic variables to reference crop evapotranspiration rates was not stable over the study period. While for all of China the contribution of sunshine duration remained relatively stable, the importance of relative humidity increased considerably during the last two decades, particularly in winter. Spatially distributed attribution analysis shows that the position of the center of maximum contribution of sunshine duration has shifted from Southeast to Northeast China while in West China the contribution of wind speed has decreased dramatically. In contrast relative humidity has become an important factor in most parts of China. Changes in the Asian Monsoon circulation may be responsible for altered patterns of cloudiness and a general decrease of wind speeds over China. The continuously low importance of temperature confirms that global warming does not necessarily lead to rising atmospheric evaporative demand.

Dynamics of the Chinese Diet and the Role of Urbanicity, 1991–2011

PubMed Central

Zhai, Fengying; Du, Shufa; Wang, Zhihong; Zhang, Jiguo; Du, Wenwen; Popkin, Barry

2013-01-01

China’s food consumption patterns and eating and cooking behaviors changed dramatically between 1991 and 2011. Macronutrient composition has shifted toward fats, and protein and sodium intakes remain high and potassium intake low. The rapid decline in intake of coarse grains and, later, of refined grains and increases in intake of edible oils and animal-source foods accompanied by major eating and cooking behavior shifts are leading to what might be characterized as an unhealthy Western type of diet, often based on traditional recipes with major additions and changes. The most popular animal-source food is pork, and consumption of poultry and eggs is increasing. The changes in cooking and eating styles include a decrease in the proportion of food steamed, baked, or boiled and an increase in snacking and eating away from home. Prior to the last decade there was essentially no snacking in China except for hot water or green tea. Most recently the intake of foods high in added sugar has increased. The dietary shifts are affected great by the country’s urbanization. The future, as exemplified by the diet of the 3 mega cities, promises major growth in consumption of processed foods and beverages. PMID:24341755

The roles of non-extensivity and dust concentration as bifurcation parameters in dust-ion acoustic traveling waves in magnetized dusty plasma

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

Narayan Ghosh, Uday; Kumar Mandal, Pankaj, E-mail: pankajwbmsd@gmail.com; Chatterjee, Prasanta

Dust ion-acoustic traveling waves are studied in a magnetized dusty plasma in presence of static dust and non-extensive distributed electrons in the framework of Zakharov-Kuznesstov-Burgers (ZKB) equation. System of coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations is derived from ZKB equation, and equilibrium points are obtained. Nonlinear wave phenomena are studied numerically using fourth order Runge-Kutta method. The change from unstable to stable solution and consequently to asymptotic stable of dust ion acoustic traveling waves is studied through dynamical system approach. It is found that some dramatical features emerge when the non-extensive parameter and the dust concentration parameters are varied. Behavior ofmore » the solution of the system changes from unstable to stable and stable to asymptotic stable depending on the value of the non-extensive parameter. It is also observed that when the dust concentration is increased the solution pattern is changed from oscillatory shocks to periodic solution. Thus, non-extensive and dust concentration parameters play crucial roles in determining the nature of the stability behavior of the system. Thus, the non-extensive parameter and the dust concentration parameters can be treated as bifurcation parameters.« less

Robustness in Regulatory Interaction Networks. A Generic Approach with Applications at Different Levels: Physiologic, Metabolic and Genetic

PubMed Central

Demongeot, Jacques; Ben Amor, Hedi; Elena, Adrien; Gillois, Pierre; Noual, Mathilde; Sené, Sylvain

2009-01-01

Regulatory interaction networks are often studied on their dynamical side (existence of attractors, study of their stability). We focus here also on their robustness, that is their ability to offer the same spatiotemporal patterns and to resist to external perturbations such as losses of nodes or edges in the networks interactions architecture, changes in their environmental boundary conditions as well as changes in the update schedule (or updating mode) of the states of their elements (e.g., if these elements are genes, their synchronous coexpression mode versus their sequential expression). We define the generic notions of boundary, core, and critical vertex or edge of the underlying interaction graph of the regulatory network, whose disappearance causes dramatic changes in the number and nature of attractors (e.g., passage from a bistable behaviour to a unique periodic regime) or in the range of their basins of stability. The dynamic transition of states will be presented in the framework of threshold Boolean automata rules. A panorama of applications at different levels will be given: brain and plant morphogenesis, bulbar cardio-respiratory regulation, glycolytic/oxidative metabolic coupling, and eventually cell cycle and feather morphogenesis genetic control. PMID:20057955

Transformers: the changing phases of low-dimensional vanadium oxide bronzes.

PubMed

Marley, Peter M; Horrocks, Gregory A; Pelcher, Kate E; Banerjee, Sarbajit

2015-03-28

In this feature article, we explore the electronic and structural phase transformations of ternary vanadium oxides with the composition MxV2O5 where M is an intercalated cation. The periodic arrays of intercalated cations ordered along quasi-1D tunnels or layered between 2D sheets of the V2O5 framework induce partial reduction of the framework vanadium atoms giving rise to charge ordering patterns that are specific to the metal M and stoichiometry x. This periodic charge ordering makes these materials remarkably versatile platforms for studying electron correlation and underpins the manifestation of phenomena such as colossal metal-insulator transitions, quantized charge corrals, and superconductivity. We describe current mechanistic understanding of these emergent phenomena with a particular emphasis on the benefits derived from scaling these materials to nanostructured dimensions wherein precise ordering of cations can be obtained and phase relationships can be derived that are entirely inaccessible in the bulk. In particular, structural transformations induced by intercalation are dramatically accelerated due to the shorter diffusion path lengths at nanometer-sized dimensions, which cause a dramatic reduction of kinetic barriers to phase transformations and facilitate interconversion between the different frameworks. We conclude by summarizing numerous technological applications that have become feasible due to recent advances in controlling the structural chemistry and both electronic and structural phase transitions in these versatile frameworks.

Land-cover change detection

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chen, Xuexia; Giri, Chandra; Vogelmann, James

2012-01-01

Land cover is the biophysical material on the surface of the earth. Land-cover types include grass, shrubs, trees, barren, water, and man-made features. Land cover changes continuously.  The rate of change can be either dramatic and abrupt, such as the changes caused by logging, hurricanes and fire, or subtle and gradual, such as regeneration of forests and damage caused by insects (Verbesselt et al., 2001).  Previous studies have shown that land cover has changed dramatically during the past sevearal centuries and that these changes have severely affected our ecosystems (Foody, 2010; Lambin et al., 2001). Lambin and Strahlers (1994b) summarized five types of cause for land-cover changes: (1) long-term natural changes in climate conditions, (2) geomorphological and ecological processes, (3) human-induced alterations of vegetation cover and landscapes, (4) interannual climate variability, and (5) human-induced greenhouse effect.  Tools and techniques are needed to detect, describe, and predict these changes to facilitate sustainable management of natural resources.

Mapping lake level changes using ICESat/GLAS satellite laser altimetry data: a case study in arid regions of central Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, JunLi; Fang, Hui; Yang, Liao

2011-12-01

Lakes in arid regions of Central Asia act as essential components of regional water cycles, providing sparse but valuable water resource for the fragile ecological environments and human lives. Lakes in Central Asia are sensitive to climate change and human activities, and great changes have been found since 1960s. Mapping and monitoring these inland lakes would improve our understanding of mechanism of lake dynamics and climatic impacts. ICESat/GLAS satellite laser altimetry provides an efficient tool of continuously measuring lake levels in these poorly surveyed remote areas. An automated mapping scheme of lake level changes is developed based on GLAS altimetry products, and the spatial and temporal characteristics of 9 typical lakes in Central Asia are analyzed to validate the level accuracies. The results show that ICESat/GLAS has a good performance of lake level monitoring, whose patterns of level changes are the same as those of field observation, and the max differences between GLAS and field data is 3cm. Based on the results, it is obvious that alpine lakes are increasing greatly in lake levels during 2003-2009 due to climate change, while open lakes with dams and plain endorheic lakes decrease dramatically in water levels due to human activities, which reveals the overexploitation of water resource in Central Asia.

Prediction of Reduction Potentials of Copper Proteins with Continuum Electrostatics and Density Functional Theory

PubMed Central

Fowler, Nicholas J.; Blanford, Christopher F.

2017-01-01

Abstract Blue copper proteins, such as azurin, show dramatic changes in Cu2+/Cu+ reduction potential upon mutation over the full physiological range. Hence, they have important functions in electron transfer and oxidation chemistry and have applications in industrial biotechnology. The details of what determines these reduction potential changes upon mutation are still unclear. Moreover, it has been difficult to model and predict the reduction potential of azurin mutants and currently no unique procedure or workflow pattern exists. Furthermore, high‐level computational methods can be accurate but are too time consuming for practical use. In this work, a novel approach for calculating reduction potentials of azurin mutants is shown, based on a combination of continuum electrostatics, density functional theory and empirical hydrophobicity factors. Our method accurately reproduces experimental reduction potential changes of 30 mutants with respect to wildtype within experimental error and highlights the factors contributing to the reduction potential change. Finally, reduction potentials are predicted for a series of 124 new mutants that have not yet been investigated experimentally. Several mutants are identified that are located well over 10 Å from the copper center that change the reduction potential by more than 85 mV. The work shows that secondary coordination sphere mutations mostly lead to long‐range electrostatic changes and hence can be modeled accurately with continuum electrostatics. PMID:28815759

Understanding land use change impacts on microclimate using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xia; Mitra, Chandana; Dong, Li; Yang, Qichun

2018-02-01

To explore potential climatic consequences of land cover change in the Kolkata Metropolitan Development area, we projected microclimate conditions in this area using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model driven by future land use scenarios. Specifically, we considered two land conversion scenarios including an urbanization scenario that all the wetlands and croplands would be converted to built-up areas, and an irrigation expansion scenario in which all wetlands and dry croplands would be replaced by irrigated croplands. Results indicated that land use and land cover (LULC) change would dramatically increase regional temperature in this area under the urbanization scenario, but expanded irrigation tended to have a cooling effect. In the urbanization scenario, precipitation center tended to move eastward and lead to increased rainfall in eastern parts of this region. Increased irrigation stimulated rainfall in central and eastern areas but reduced rainfall in southwestern and northwestern parts of the study area. This study also demonstrated that urbanization significantly reduced latent heat fluxes and albedo of land surface; while increased sensible heat flux changes following urbanization suggested that developed land surfaces mainly acted as heat sources. In this study, climate change projection not only predicts future spatiotemporal patterns of multiple climate factors, but also provides valuable insights into policy making related to land use management, water resource management, and agriculture management to adapt and mitigate future climate changes in this populous region.

Changes in size and trends of North American sea duck populations associated with North Pacific oceanic regime shifts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Flint, Paul L.

2013-01-01

Broad-scale multi-species declines in populations of North American sea ducks for unknown reasons is cause for management concern. Oceanic regime shifts have been associated with rapid changes in ecosystem structure of the North Pacific and Bering Sea. However, relatively little is known about potential effects of these changes in oceanic conditions on marine bird populations at broad scales. I examined changes in North American breeding populations of sea ducks from 1957 to 2011 in relation to potential oceanic regime shifts in the North Pacific in 1977, 1989, and 1998. There was strong support for population-level effects of regime shifts in 1977 and 1989, but little support for an effect of the 1998 shift. The continental-level effects of these regime shifts differed across species groups and time. Based on patterns of sea duck population dynamics associated with regime shifts, it is unclear if the mechanism of change relates to survival or reproduction. Results of this analysis support the hypothesis that population size and trends of North American sea ducks are strongly influenced by oceanic conditions. The perceived population declines appear to have halted >20 years ago, and populations have been relatively stable or increasing since that time. Given these results, we should reasonably expect dramatic changes in sea duck population status and trends with future oceanic regime shifts.

Regional Arctic and Hemispheric Teleconnections expressed in the paleoenvironmental record of El'gygytgyn Lake, NE Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brigham-Grette, J.; Melles, M.; Deconto, R.; Koenig, S.

2007-12-01

The common goal of recovering long high-resolution records is in testing relevant questions of Earth system dynamics, as well as documenting the drivers of regional and global scale change. Lake El'gygytgyn, located 100 km north of the Arctic Circle in NE Russia is a target for deep drilling a continuous record back to ~3.6 My in Spring 2009. Pilot cores dating to 250ka to 300 ka provide the impetus for evaluating the sensitivity of the Arctic to regional and global climate events on millennial timescales. A clear record of the Younger Dryas, rapid change within MIS 3, and events including interstadials 19, 20, events within Stage 5, and at the end of stage 6 seen in Greenland and marine records suggest that oceanographic and atmospheric changes over the North Atlantic are reflected in hydrologic and seasonal temperature proxies. Rapid events are recorded despite demonstrated precessional influences and the suggested upwind influence of the Eurasian Ice sheet and dramatic changes in continentality due to changes in sea level across the Bering/Chukchi shelves and the extent and seasonal persistence of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and deeper Bering Sea. Regionally, lake cores throughout Beringia reflect patterns of precipitation and temperature that point to persistent zonal differences in the response of the landscape to environmental change.

Predator stress-induced persistent emotional arousal is associated with alterations of plasma corticosterone and hippocampal steroid receptors in rat.

PubMed

Wang, Qingsong; Yu, Ke; Wang, Jun; Lin, Hang; Wu, Yuxian; Wang, Weiwen

2012-04-21

To investigate the long-term effects of psychological stress on emotionality, the emotional arousal of rats in 4 months after predator stress was assessed in both an open field environment and elevated plus maze. We also assessed the levels of plasma corticosterone (CORT) by radioimmunoassay, the distributions of brain glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) by immunohistochemistry, and the expressions of GR and MR by Western blot. The results showed that intense predator stress, which was adjusted to ensure consistent stressor intensity using rat tonic immobility behavior, successfully induced lasting decreased locomotor activity and habituation to novel environments, suppressed exploratory behavior, and increased anxiety-like behavior. The plasma CORT levels dramatically increased 1h after stress, then returned to basal levels at 1wk, decreased 1 month later, and remained significantly lower than control levels 4 months after exposure to stress. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that GR was markedly increased in the hippocampus and frontal cortexes of stressed rats and that the changes in the hippocampus were more pronounced. In contrast, MR expression was significantly decreased in both brain regions. Western analysis confirmed these dramatically elevated levels of GR expression and lower levels of MR expression in the hippocampus 4 months after stress. We conclude that acute severe psychological stress may induce long-term emotional behavioral changes, and that different patterns in plasma CORT, alterations in brain corticoid receptors, and increased hippocampal vulnerability to the effects of predator stress may play important roles in the persistent emotional arousal induced by intense psychological stress. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emotions induced by operatic music: psychophysiological effects of music, plot, and acting: a scientist's tribute to Maria Callas.

PubMed

Balteş, Felicia Rodica; Avram, Julia; Miclea, Mircea; Miu, Andrei C

2011-06-01

Operatic music involves both singing and acting (as well as rich audiovisual background arising from the orchestra and elaborate scenery and costumes) that multiply the mechanisms by which emotions are induced in listeners. The present study investigated the effects of music, plot, and acting performance on emotions induced by opera. There were three experimental conditions: (1) participants listened to a musically complex and dramatically coherent excerpt from Tosca; (2) they read a summary of the plot and listened to the same musical excerpt again; and (3) they re-listened to music while they watched the subtitled film of this acting performance. In addition, a control condition was included, in which an independent sample of participants succesively listened three times to the same musical excerpt. We measured subjective changes using both dimensional, and specific music-induced emotion questionnaires. Cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory responses were also recorded, and the participants kept track of their musical chills. Music listening alone elicited positive emotion and autonomic arousal, seen in faster heart rate, but slower respiration rate and reduced skin conductance. Knowing the (sad) plot while listening to the music a second time reduced positive emotions (peacefulness, joyful activation), and increased negative ones (sadness), while high autonomic arousal was maintained. Watching the acting performance increased emotional arousal and changed its valence again (from less positive/sad to transcendent), in the context of continued high autonomic arousal. The repeated exposure to music did not by itself induce this pattern of modifications. These results indicate that the multiple musical and dramatic means involved in operatic performance specifically contribute to the genesis of music-induced emotions and their physiological correlates. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Genotype–phenotype correlations in neonatal epilepsies caused by mutations in the voltage sensor of Kv7.2 potassium channel subunits

PubMed Central

Miceli, Francesco; Soldovieri, Maria Virginia; Ambrosino, Paolo; Barrese, Vincenzo; Migliore, Michele; Cilio, Maria Roberta; Taglialatela, Maurizio

2013-01-01

Mutations in the KV7.2 gene encoding for voltage-dependent K+ channel subunits cause neonatal epilepsies with wide phenotypic heterogeneity. Two mutations affecting the same positively charged residue in the S4 domain of KV7.2 have been found in children affected with benign familial neonatal seizures (R213W mutation) or with neonatal epileptic encephalopathy with severe pharmacoresistant seizures and neurocognitive delay, suppression-burst pattern at EEG, and distinct neuroradiological features (R213Q mutation). To examine the molecular basis for this strikingly different phenotype, we studied the functional characteristics of mutant channels by using electrophysiological techniques, computational modeling, and homology modeling. Functional studies revealed that, in homomeric or heteromeric configuration with KV7.2 and/or KV7.3 subunits, both mutations markedly destabilized the open state, causing a dramatic decrease in channel voltage sensitivity. These functional changes were (i) more pronounced for channels incorporating R213Q- than R213W-carrying KV7.2 subunits; (ii) proportional to the number of mutant subunits incorporated; and (iii) fully restored by the neuronal Kv7 activator retigabine. Homology modeling confirmed a critical role for the R213 residue in stabilizing the activated voltage sensor configuration. Modeling experiments in CA1 hippocampal pyramidal cells revealed that both mutations increased cell firing frequency, with the R213Q mutation prompting more dramatic functional changes compared with the R213W mutation. These results suggest that the clinical disease severity may be related to the extent of the mutation-induced functional K+ channel impairment, and set the preclinical basis for the potential use of Kv7 openers as a targeted anticonvulsant therapy to improve developmental outcome in neonates with KV7.2 encephalopathy. PMID:23440208

Abrupt pre-Bølling-Allerød warming and circulation changes in the deep ocean.

PubMed

Thiagarajan, Nivedita; Subhas, Adam V; Southon, John R; Eiler, John M; Adkins, Jess F

2014-07-03

Several large and rapid changes in atmospheric temperature and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere--probably linked to changes in deep ocean circulation--occurred during the last deglaciation. The abrupt temperature rise in the Northern Hemisphere and the restart of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at the start of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, 14,700 years ago, are among the most dramatic deglacial events, but their underlying physical causes are not known. Here we show that the release of heat from warm waters in the deep North Atlantic Ocean probably triggered the Bølling-Allerød warming and reinvigoration of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Our results are based on coupled radiocarbon and uranium-series dates, along with clumped isotope temperature estimates, from water column profiles of fossil deep-sea corals in a limited area of the western North Atlantic. We find that during Heinrich stadial 1 (the cool period immediately before the Bølling-Allerød interstadial), the deep ocean was about three degrees Celsius warmer than shallower waters above. This reversal of the ocean's usual thermal stratification pre-dates the Bølling-Allerød warming and must have been associated with increased salinity at depth to preserve the static stability of the water column. The depleted radiocarbon content of the warm and salty water mass implies a long-term disconnect from rapid surface exchanges, and, although uncertainties remain, is most consistent with a Southern Ocean source. The Heinrich stadial 1 ocean profile is distinct from the modern water column, that for the Last Glacial Maximum and that for the Younger Dryas, suggesting that the patterns we observe are a unique feature of the deglacial climate system. Our observations indicate that the deep ocean influenced dramatic Northern Hemisphere warming by storing heat at depth that preconditioned the system for a subsequent abrupt overturning event during the Bølling-Allerød interstadial.

Evolution of Sex-Specific Traits through Changes in HOX-Dependent doublesex Expression

PubMed Central

Tanaka, Kohtaro; Barmina, Olga; Sanders, Laura E.; Arbeitman, Michelle N.; Kopp, Artyom

2011-01-01

Almost every animal lineage is characterized by unique sex-specific traits, implying that such traits are gained and lost frequently in evolution. However, the genetic mechanisms responsible for these changes are not understood. In Drosophila, the activity of the sex determination pathway is restricted to sexually dimorphic tissues, suggesting that spatial regulation of this pathway may contribute to the evolution of sex-specific traits. We examine the regulation and function of doublesex (dsx), the main transcriptional effector of the sex determination pathway, in the development and evolution of Drosophila sex combs. Sex combs are a recent evolutionary innovation and show dramatic diversity in the relatively few Drosophila species that have them. We show that dsx expression in the presumptive sex comb region is activated by the HOX gene Sex combs reduced (Scr), and that the male isoform of dsx up-regulates Scr so that both genes become expressed at high levels in this region in males but not in females. Precise spatial regulation of dsx is essential for defining sex comb position and morphology. Comparative analysis of Scr and dsx expression reveals a tight correlation between sex comb morphology and the expression patterns of both genes. In species that primitively lack sex combs, no dsx expression is observed in the homologous region, suggesting that the origin and diversification of this structure were linked to the gain of a new dsx expression domain. Two other, distantly related fly lineages that independently evolved novel male-specific structures show evolutionary gains of dsx expression in the corresponding tissues, where dsx may also be controlled by Scr. These findings suggest that changes in the spatial regulation of sex-determining genes are a key mechanism that enables the evolution of new sex-specific traits, contributing to some of the most dramatic examples of phenotypic diversification in nature. PMID:21886483

Comparative transcriptomics of 5 high-altitude vertebrates and their low-altitude relatives

PubMed Central

Tang, Qianzi; Zhou, Xuming; Jin, Long; Guan, Jiuqiang; Liu, Rui; Li, Jing; Long, Kereng; Tian, Shilin; Che, Tiandong; Hu, Silu; Liang, Yan; Yang, Xuemei; Tao, Xuan; Zhong, Zhijun; Wang, Guosong; Chen, Xiaohui; Li, Diyan; Ma, Jideng; Wang, Xun; Mai, Miaomiao; Jiang, An’an; Luo, Xiaolin; Lv, Xuebin; Gladyshev, Vadim N; Li, Xuewei

2017-01-01

Abstract Background Species living at high altitude are subject to strong selective pressures due to inhospitable environments (e.g., hypoxia, low temperature, high solar radiation, and lack of biological production), making these species valuable models for comparative analyses of local adaptation. Studies that have examined high-altitude adaptation have identified a vast array of rapidly evolving genes that characterize the dramatic phenotypic changes in high-altitude animals. However, how high-altitude environment shapes gene expression programs remains largely unknown. Findings We generated a total of 910 Gb of high-quality RNA-seq data for 180 samples derived from 6 tissues of 5 agriculturally important high-altitude vertebrates (Tibetan chicken, Tibetan pig, Tibetan sheep, Tibetan goat, and yak) and their cross-fertile relatives living in geographically neighboring low-altitude regions. Of these, ∼75% reads could be aligned to their respective reference genomes, and on average ∼60% of annotated protein coding genes in each organism showed FPKM expression values greater than 0.5. We observed a general concordance in topological relationships between the nucleotide alignments and gene expression–based trees. Tissue and species accounted for markedly more variance than altitude based on either the expression or the alternative splicing patterns. Cross-species clustering analyses showed a tissue-dominated pattern of gene expression and a species-dominated pattern for alternative splicing. We also identified numerous differentially expressed genes that could potentially be involved in phenotypic divergence shaped by high-altitude adaptation. Conclusions These data serve as a valuable resource for examining the convergence and divergence of gene expression changes between species as they adapt or acclimatize to high-altitude environments. PMID:29149296

Life history diversity of Snake River finespotted cutthroat trout: managing for persistence in a rapidly changing environment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Homel, Kristen M.; Gresswell, Robert E.; Kershner, Jeffrey L.

2015-01-01

Over the last century, native trout have experienced dramatic population declines, particularly in larger river systems where habitats associated with different spawning life history forms have been lost through habitat degradation and fragmentation. The resulting decrease in life history diversity has affected the capacity of populations to respond to environmental variability and disturbance. Unfortunately, because few large rivers are intact enough to permit full expression of life history diversity, it is unclear what patterns of diversity should be a conservation target. In this study, radiotelemetry was used to identify spawning and migration patterns of Snake River Finespotted Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii behnkei in the upper Snake River. Individuals were implanted with radio tags in October 2007 and 2008, and monitored through October 2009. Radio-tagged cutthroat trout in the upper Snake River exhibited variation in spawning habitat type and location, migration distance, spawn timing, postspawning behavior, and susceptibility to mortality sources. Between May and July, Cutthroat Trout spawned in runoff-dominated tributaries, groundwater-dominated spring creeks, and side channels of the Snake River. Individuals migrated up to 101 km from tagging locations in the upper Snake River to access spawning habitats, indicating that the upper Snake River provided seasonal habitat for spawners originating throughout the watershed. Postspawning behavior also varied; by August each year, 28% of spring-creek spawners remained in their spawning location, compared with 0% of side-channel spawners and 7% of tributary spawners. These spawning and migration patterns reflect the connectivity, habitat diversity, and dynamic template of the Snake River. Ultimately, promoting life history diversity through restoration of complex habitats may provide the most opportunities for cutthroat trout persistence in an environment likely to experience increased variability from climate change and disturbance from invasive species.

Comparative transcriptomics of 5 high-altitude vertebrates and their low-altitude relatives.

PubMed

Tang, Qianzi; Gu, Yiren; Zhou, Xuming; Jin, Long; Guan, Jiuqiang; Liu, Rui; Li, Jing; Long, Kereng; Tian, Shilin; Che, Tiandong; Hu, Silu; Liang, Yan; Yang, Xuemei; Tao, Xuan; Zhong, Zhijun; Wang, Guosong; Chen, Xiaohui; Li, Diyan; Ma, Jideng; Wang, Xun; Mai, Miaomiao; Jiang, An'an; Luo, Xiaolin; Lv, Xuebin; Gladyshev, Vadim N; Li, Xuewei; Li, Mingzhou

2017-12-01

Species living at high altitude are subject to strong selective pressures due to inhospitable environments (e.g., hypoxia, low temperature, high solar radiation, and lack of biological production), making these species valuable models for comparative analyses of local adaptation. Studies that have examined high-altitude adaptation have identified a vast array of rapidly evolving genes that characterize the dramatic phenotypic changes in high-altitude animals. However, how high-altitude environment shapes gene expression programs remains largely unknown. We generated a total of 910 Gb of high-quality RNA-seq data for 180 samples derived from 6 tissues of 5 agriculturally important high-altitude vertebrates (Tibetan chicken, Tibetan pig, Tibetan sheep, Tibetan goat, and yak) and their cross-fertile relatives living in geographically neighboring low-altitude regions. Of these, ∼75% reads could be aligned to their respective reference genomes, and on average ∼60% of annotated protein coding genes in each organism showed FPKM expression values greater than 0.5. We observed a general concordance in topological relationships between the nucleotide alignments and gene expression-based trees. Tissue and species accounted for markedly more variance than altitude based on either the expression or the alternative splicing patterns. Cross-species clustering analyses showed a tissue-dominated pattern of gene expression and a species-dominated pattern for alternative splicing. We also identified numerous differentially expressed genes that could potentially be involved in phenotypic divergence shaped by high-altitude adaptation. These data serve as a valuable resource for examining the convergence and divergence of gene expression changes between species as they adapt or acclimatize to high-altitude environments. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Beyond precipitation: physiographic gradients dictate the relative importance of environmental drivers on Savanna vegetation.

PubMed

Campo-Bescós, Miguel A; Muñoz-Carpena, Rafael; Kaplan, David A; Southworth, Jane; Zhu, Likai; Waylen, Peter R

2013-01-01

Understanding the drivers of large-scale vegetation change is critical to managing landscapes and key to predicting how projected climate and land use changes will affect regional vegetation patterns. This study aimed to improve our understanding of the role, magnitude and spatial distribution of the key environmental factors driving vegetation change in southern African savanna, and how they vary across physiographic gradients. We applied Dynamic Factor Analysis (DFA), a multivariate times series dimension reduction technique to ten years of monthly remote sensing data (MODIS-derived normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI) and a suite of environmental covariates: precipitation, mean and maximum temperature, soil moisture, relative humidity, fire and potential evapotranspiration. Monthly NDVI was described by cyclic seasonal variation with distinct spatiotemporal patterns in different physiographic regions. Results support existing work emphasizing the importance of precipitation, soil moisture and fire on NDVI, but also reveal overlooked effects of temperature and evapotranspiration, particularly in regions with higher mean annual precipitation. Critically, spatial distributions of the weights of environmental covariates point to a transition in the importance of precipitation and soil moisture (strongest in grass-dominated regions with precipitation<750 mm) to fire, potential evapotranspiration, and temperature (strongest in tree-dominated regions with precipitation>950 mm). We quantified the combined spatiotemporal effects of an available suite of environmental drivers on NDVI across a large and diverse savanna region. The analysis supports known drivers of savanna vegetation but also uncovers important roles of temperature and evapotranspiration. Results highlight the utility of applying the DFA approach to remote sensing products for regional analyses of landscape change in the context of global environmental change. With the dramatic increase in global change research, this methodology augurs well for further development and application of spatially explicit time series modeling to studies at the intersection of ecology and remote sensing.

Beyond Precipitation: Physiographic Gradients Dictate the Relative Importance of Environmental Drivers on Savanna Vegetation

PubMed Central

Campo-Bescós, Miguel A.; Muñoz-Carpena, Rafael; Kaplan, David A.; Southworth, Jane; Zhu, Likai; Waylen, Peter R.

2013-01-01

Background Understanding the drivers of large-scale vegetation change is critical to managing landscapes and key to predicting how projected climate and land use changes will affect regional vegetation patterns. This study aimed to improve our understanding of the role, magnitude and spatial distribution of the key environmental factors driving vegetation change in southern African savanna, and how they vary across physiographic gradients. Methodology/Principal Findings We applied Dynamic Factor Analysis (DFA), a multivariate times series dimension reduction technique to ten years of monthly remote sensing data (MODIS-derived normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI) and a suite of environmental covariates: precipitation, mean and maximum temperature, soil moisture, relative humidity, fire and potential evapotranspiration. Monthly NDVI was described by cyclic seasonal variation with distinct spatiotemporal patterns in different physiographic regions. Results support existing work emphasizing the importance of precipitation, soil moisture and fire on NDVI, but also reveal overlooked effects of temperature and evapotranspiration, particularly in regions with higher mean annual precipitation. Critically, spatial distributions of the weights of environmental covariates point to a transition in the importance of precipitation and soil moisture (strongest in grass-dominated regions with precipitation<750 mm) to fire, potential evapotranspiration, and temperature (strongest in tree-dominated regions with precipitation>950 mm). Conclusions/Significance We quantified the combined spatiotemporal effects of an available suite of environmental drivers on NDVI across a large and diverse savanna region. The analysis supports known drivers of savanna vegetation but also uncovers important roles of temperature and evapotranspiration. Results highlight the utility of applying the DFA approach to remote sensing products for regional analyses of landscape change in the context of global environmental change. With the dramatic increase in global change research, this methodology augurs well for further development and application of spatially explicit time series modeling to studies at the intersection of ecology and remote sensing. PMID:24023616

Conserving biodiversity on Mongolian Rangelands: Implications for protected area development and pastoral uses

Treesearch

Richard P. Reading; Donald J. Bedunah; Sukhiin Amgalanbaatar

2006-01-01

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country with over 80 percent of its land used by pastoralists for extensive livestock grazing. Mongolia’s wildlife and pastoralists have faced dramatic challenges with the recent rapid socioeconomic changes. Livestock numbers increased dramatically in the 1990s following the transition from communism to democracy and capitalism. Yet,...

Regional and Local Glacial-Earthquake Patterns in Greenland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olsen, K.; Nettles, M.

2016-12-01

Icebergs calved from marine-terminating glaciers currently account for up to half of the 400 Gt of ice lost annually from the Greenland ice sheet (Enderlin et al., 2014). When large capsizing icebergs ( 1 Gt of ice) calve, they produce elastic waves that propagate through the solid earth and are observed as teleseismically detectable MSW 5 glacial earthquakes (e.g., Ekström et al., 2003; Nettles & Ekström, 2010 Tsai & Ekström, 2007; Veitch & Nettles, 2012). The annual number of these events has increased dramatically over the past two decades. We analyze glacial earthquakes from 2011-2013, which expands the glacial-earthquake catalog by 50%. The number of glacial-earthquake solutions now available allows us to investigate regional patterns across Greenland and link earthquake characteristics to changes in ice dynamics at individual glaciers. During the years of our study Greenland's west coast dominated glacial-earthquake production. Kong Oscar Glacier, Upernavik Isstrøm, and Jakobshavn Isbræ all produced more glacial earthquakes during this time than in preceding years. We link patterns in glacial-earthquake production and cessation to the presence or absence of floating ice tongues at glaciers on both coasts of Greenland. The calving model predicts glacial-earthquake force azimuths oriented perpendicular to the calving front, and comparisons between seismic data and satellite imagery confirm this in most instances. At two glaciers we document force azimuths that have recently changed orientation and confirm that similar changes have occurred in the calving-front geometry. We also document glacial earthquakes at one previously quiescent glacier. Consistent with previous work, we model the glacial-earthquake force-time function as a boxcar with horizontal and vertical force components that vary synchronously. We investigate limitations of this approach and explore improvements that could lead to a more accurate representation of the glacial earthquake source.

Navigating into, through, and beyond the middle grades: the role of middle grades attendance in staying on track for high school graduation.

PubMed

Kieffer, Michael J; Marinell, William H; Neugebauer, Sabina Rak

2014-12-01

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the use of attendance during middle school as a behavioral indicator of engagement to predict whether students are on track toward high school graduation. We used administrative data from four cohorts of students in New York City schools (N=303,845) to (a) explore patterns of change in attendance between Grades 4 and 8 and (b) determine the extent to which changes in attendance between Grades 4 and 8 predict which students are on track in Grade 9 for going on to graduate from high school. Results of latent growth modeling indicated that students demonstrate the most substantial declines in attendance during Grade 8 and that attendance changes are most variable in this year, with some students demonstrating much more dramatic declines than others. In addition, these changes in attendance were robust predictors of whether students were on track for high school graduation. To identify students who are at risk for not graduating for the purposes of providing appropriate interventions, educators should pay attention to their commonly collected data on attendance rates as a behavioral indicator of engagement. Copyright © 2014 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Soil Texture Mediates the Response of Tree Cover to Rainfall Intensity in African Savannas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Case, M. F.; Staver, A. C.

2017-12-01

Global circulation models predict widespread shifts in the frequency and intensity of rainfall, even where mean annual rainfall does not change. Resulting changes in soil moisture dynamics could have major consequences for plant communities and ecosystems, but the direction of potential vegetation responses can be challenging to predict. In tropical savannas, where tree and grasses coexist, contradictory lines of evidence have suggested that tree cover could respond either positively or negatively to less frequent, more intense rainfall. Here, we analyzed remote sensing data and continental-scale soils maps to examine whether soil texture or fire could explain heterogeneous responses of savanna tree cover to intra-annual rainfall variability across sub-Saharan Africa. We find that tree cover generally increases with mean wet-season rainfall, decreases with mean wet-season rainfall intensity, and decreases with fire frequency. However, soil sand content mediates these relationships: the response to rainfall intensity switches qualitatively depending on soil texture, such that tree cover decreases dramatically with less frequent, more intense rainfall on clay soils but increases with rainfall intensity on sandy soils in semi-arid savannas. We propose potential ecohydrological mechanisms for this heterogeneous response, and emphasize that predictions of savanna vegetation responses to global change should account for interactions between soil texture and changing rainfall patterns.

Changes in cell migration and survival in the olfactory bulb of the pcd/pcd mouse.

PubMed

Valero, J; Weruaga, E; Murias, A R; Recio, J S; Curto, G G; Gómez, C; Alonso, J R

2007-06-01

Postnatally, the Purkinje cell degeneration mutant mice lose the main projecting neurons of the main olfactory bulb (OB): mitral cells (MC). In adult animals, progenitor cells from the rostral migratory stream (RMS) differentiate into bulbar interneurons that modulate MC activity. In the present work, we studied changes in proliferation, tangential migration, radial migration patterns, and the survival of these newly generated neurons in this neurodegeneration animal model. The animals were injected with bromodeoxyuridine 2 weeks or 2 months before killing in order to label neuroblast incorporation into the OB and to analyze the survival of these cells after differentiation, respectively. Both the organization and cellular composition of the RMS and the differentiation of the newly generated neurons in the OB were studied using specific markers of glial cells, neuroblasts, and mature neurons. No changes were observed in the cell proliferation rate nor in their tangential migration through the RMS, indicating that migrating neuroblasts are only weakly responsive to the alteration in their target region, the OB. However, the absence of MC does elicit differences in the final destination of the newly generated interneurons. Moreover, the loss of MC also produces changes in the survival of the newly generated interneurons, in accordance with the dramatic decrease in the number of synaptic targets available.

Nuclear patterns of human breast cancer cells during apoptosis: characterisation by fractal dimension and co-occurrence matrix statistics.

PubMed

Losa, Gabriele A; Castelli, Christian

2005-11-01

An analytical strategy combining fractal geometry and grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) statistics was devised to investigate ultrastructural changes in oestrogen-insensitive SK-BR3 human breast cancer cells undergoing apoptosis in vitro. Apoptosis was induced by 1 microM calcimycin (A23187 Ca(2+) ionophore) and assessed by measuring conventional cellular parameters during the culture period. SK-BR3 cells entered the early stage of apoptosis within 24 h of treatment with calcimycin, which induced detectable changes in nuclear components, as documented by increased values of most GLCM parameters and by the general reduction of the fractal dimensions. In these affected cells, morphonuclear traits were accompanied by the reduction of distinct gangliosides and loss of unidentifiable glycolipid molecules at the cell surface. All these changes were shown to be involved in apoptosis before the detection of conventional markers, which were only measurable during the active phases of apoptotic cell death. In overtly apoptotic cells treated with 1 microM calcimycin for 72 h, most nuclear components underwent dramatic ultrastructural changes, including marginalisation and condensation of chromatin, as reflected in a significant reduction of their fractal dimensions. Hence, both fractal and GLCM analyses confirm that the morphological reorganisation of nuclei, attributable to a loss of structural complexity, occurs early in apoptosis.

Collagen IX is required for the integrity of collagen II fibrils and the regulation of vascular plexus formation in Zebrafish caudal fins

PubMed Central

Huang, Cheng-chen; Wang, Tai-Chuan; Lin, Bo-Hung; Wang, Yi-Wen; Johnson, Stephen L.; Yu, John

2013-01-01

Capillary plexuses form during both vasculogenesis and angiogenesis and are remodeled into mature vessel types and patterns which are delicately orchestrated with the sizes and shapes of other tissues and organs. We isolated a zebrafish mutation named prp (for persistent plexus) that causes persistent formation of vascular plexuses in the caudal fins and consequent mispatterning of bony fin rays and the fin shape. Detailed analyses revealed that the prp mutation causes a significant reduction in the size and dramatic structural defects in collagen II-rich extracellular matrices called actinotrichia of both embryonic finfolds and adult fins. prp was mapped to chromosome 19 and found to encode the zebrafish collagen9α1 (col9α1) gene which is abundantly expressed in developing finfolds. A point mutation resulting in a leucine-to-histidine change was detected in the thrombospondin domain of the col9α1 gene in prp. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of col9α1 phenocopied the prp small-finfold phenotype in wild-type embryos, and an injection of plasmids containing the col9α1 cDNA into prp embryos locally restored the finfold size. Furthermore, we found that osteoblasts in prp mutants were mispatterned apparently following the abnormal vascular plexus pattern, demonstrating that blood vessels play an important role in the patterning of bony rays in zebrafish caudal fins. PMID:19501583

Collagen IX is required for the integrity of collagen II fibrils and the regulation of vascular plexus formation in zebrafish caudal fins.

PubMed

Huang, Cheng-chen; Wang, Tai-Chuan; Lin, Bo-Hung; Wang, Yi-Wen; Johnson, Stephen L; Yu, John

2009-08-15

Capillary plexuses form during both vasculogenesis and angiogenesis and are remodeled into mature vessel types and patterns which are delicately orchestrated with the sizes and shapes of other tissues and organs. We isolated a zebrafish mutation named prp (for persistent plexus) that causes persistent formation of vascular plexuses in the caudal fins and consequent mispatterning of bony fin rays and the fin shape. Detailed analyses revealed that the prp mutation causes a significant reduction in the size and dramatic structural defects in collagen II-rich extracellular matrices called actinotrichia of both embryonic finfolds and adult fins. prp was mapped to chromosome 19 and found to encode the zebrafish collagen9alpha1 (col9alpha1) gene which is abundantly expressed in developing finfolds. A point mutation resulting in a leucine-to-histidine change was detected in the thrombospondin domain of the col9alpha1 gene in prp. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of col9alpha1 phenocopied the prp small-finfold phenotype in wild-type embryos, and an injection of plasmids containing the col9alpha1 cDNA into prp embryos locally restored the finfold size. Furthermore, we found that osteoblasts in prp mutants were mispatterned apparently following the abnormal vascular plexus pattern, demonstrating that blood vessels play an important role in the patterning of bony rays in zebrafish caudal fins.

[Succession pattern of artificial vegetation community and its ecological mechanism in an arid desert region].

PubMed

Xu, Cailin; Li, Zizhen

2003-09-01

Focusing on the artificial vegetation protection system of the Shapotou section of Baotou-Lanzhou railway in the arid desert region of China, this paper examined the dynamics of dominant plant species and the succession pattern of artificial plant community in the process of establishing and developing regional artificial vegetation. It also studied the driving force and the ecologically intrinsic mechanism of the community succession. The results demonstrated that the species composition of the artificial vegetation dramatically changed after 40 years of succession, from original artificial plant community of shrub and semi-shrub to artificial-natural desert plant community with annual herb dominated. During the process of succession, the importance values of artificial shrubs, such as Caragana korshinskii and Hedysarum scoparius, decreased and gradually retreated from the artificial plant community, while the naturally multiplied annual herb, such as Eragrostis poaeoides, Bassia dasyphylla, Salsola ruthenica, Chloris virgata and etc., were presented one after another and gradually became dominant. Besides, Artemisia ordosica always played a key role in the community due to its ability of naturally sowing and self-replacement. This type of succession pattern was closely related to the shortage of precipitation resource in this region and the formation of soil crust which inhibited the reproduction of shrub and perennial herb with deep root systems. This study provided a theoretical ground for realizing persistent development of artificial plant community.

Controlling mechanism and resulting spray characteristics of injection of fuel containing dissolved gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Zhen; Shao, Yiming; Shiga, Seiichi; Nakamura, Hisao

1994-09-01

This paper presents a recent advance in the study of injection of fuel containing dissolved gas (IFCDG). Using diesel fuel containing dissolved CO2, experiments were performed under atmospheric conditions on a diesel hole-type nozzle and simple nozzles. The effects of gas concentration in the fuel, injection pressure and the nozzle L/D ratio were examined. In order to reveal the controlling mechanism of IFCDG, the orifice flow pattern, pressure characteristics and their effects were also investigated. The result shows that IFCDG can produce a parabolic-shaped spray pattern with good atomization, which suggests the existence of a new atomization mechanism. In terms of atomization, the beneficial effect of the IFCDG is obtained at the dissolved gas concentration above the transition and in the region of larger nozzle L/D ratio. However, under unfavorable conditions, IFCDG will lead to deterioration of atomization with coarse fuel droplets. It is found that the big difference of the orifice pressure characteristics caused by the variation of the nozzle L/D ratio has a dominant influence on the separation of the dissolved gas from the fuel inside the orifice and is verified to account for a dramatic change in the spray pattern and determine the effect of IFCDG. It is considered that the concept of IFCDG could be attractive in producing more efficient, clean engine and find use in a wide range of application.

Japan's Democracy: How Much Change? Headline Series No. 305.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krauss, Ellis S.

This booklet analyzes the changes that have occurred in Japan in the postwar period. The book is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1, "Revolutionary Change: American Occupation, 1945-52," focuses on the dramatic changes brought by Occupation forces. Chapter 2, "Evolutionary Change: Japan's Democracy from the Occupation through the…

Some guidelines for helping natural resources adapt to climate change

Treesearch

Jill S. Baron; Susan Herrod Julius; Jordan M. West; Linda A. Joyce; Geoffrey Blate; Charles H. Peterson; Margaret Palmer; Brian D. Keller; Peter Kareiva; J. Michael Scott; Brad Griffith

2008-01-01

The changes occurring in mountain regions are an epitome of climate change. The dramatic shrinkage of major glaciers over the past century - and especially in the last 30 years - is one of several iconic images that have come to symbolize climate change.

Climate change damages to Alaska public infrastructure and the economics of proactive adaptation

EPA Science Inventory

Climate change in the circumpolar region is causing dramatic environmental change that increases the vulnerability of the built environment. We quantified the economic impacts of climate change on Alaska’s public infrastructure under relatively high and low climate forcing scenar...

Are we meeting the challenges of landscape-scale riverine research? A review

Treesearch

E. Ashley Steel; Robert M. Hughes; Aimee H. Fullerton; Stefan Schmutz; John A. Young; Michio Fukushima; Susanne Muhar; Michaela Poppe; Blake E. Feist; Clemens Trautwein

2010-01-01

Identifying and quantifying relationships among landscape patterns, anthropogenic disturbances, and aquatic ecosystems is a new and rapidly developing approach to riverine ecology. In this review, we begin by describing the policy and management drivers for landscape-scale riverine research and we synthesize the technological advances that have enabled dramatic...

Children's Organized Sports: A Developmental Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Frank

2004-01-01

Youth sports have become a childhood rite, yet they have a high dropout rate. Given the fact that participation rates decline dramatically as children grow older, coupled with the growing concern about the detrimental effects of a sedentary lifestyle, it is important that a greater understanding of the motivational patterns of children in physical…

"White Port and Lemon Juice": Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theatre

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steele, Shelby

1973-01-01

The New Black Theatre dramatizes the values it seeks to reaffirm from play to play: ritual is here achieved through the repetition of patterns, symbols and values from drama to drama, using the six literary devices of allegory, symbol, characterization, recurring themes, language styles, and repetition. (Author/JM)

A Journey with Chronic Pain: Self-Directed Learning as Survival

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Kathleen P.

2014-01-01

Over the past 20 years in the USA, increased insurance control of healthcare decisions, litigation and regulations, have contributed to a dramatic shift in the doctor-patient relationship and respective responsibilities. This paper presents an autoethnographic study of the self-directed learning (SDL) strategies and patterns used by an individual…

2004 Carolyn Sherif Award Address: Heart Disease and Gender Inequity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Travis, Cheryl Brown

2005-01-01

Individual patient records from the National Hospital Discharge Survey for 1988 and 1998 comprising approximately 10 million cases were the basis for a binary logistic regression model to predict coronary artery bypass graft. Patterns in 1988 and in 1998 indicated a dramatic and pernicious gender discrepancy in medical decisions involving bypass…

Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Airborne Contaminants Relative to Amphibian Population in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, California

EPA Science Inventory

Airborne agricultural pesticides are being transported many tens of kilometers to remote locations in mountain areas, and they have been implicated as a cause for recent, dramatic population declines of several amphibian species in such areas. The strongest case is for the mount...

Modeling landscapes and past vegetation patterns of New Mexico's Rio Del Oso Valley

Treesearch

Richard D. Periman

2005-01-01

Humans have interacted with the landscape and ecosystem of New Mexico's Rio del Oso Valley for thousands of years. Throughout the Holocene, various cultures have dramatically affected and altered the Rio del Oso. An interdisciplinary research approach, incorporating geomorphology, paleobotany, archaeology, and history, provides a broad range of methodologies and...

Perspectives on ... An Evaluation of Faculty Use of the Digital Library at Ankara University, Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atilgan, Dogan; Bayram, Ozlem

2006-01-01

New consortial buying models have dramatically increased the availability of online resources, particularly journal articles, in the universities and technical institutes of developing countries. The degree of acceptance and pattern of use of such materials is of great interest to library collection development. Ankara University surveyed faculty…

Perspectives on Inmate Communication and Interpersonal Relations in the Maximum Security Prison.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Voorhis, Patricia; Meussling, Vonne

In recent years, scholarly and applied inquiry has addressed the importance of interpersonal communication patterns and problems in maximum security institutions for males. As a result of this research, the number of programs designed to improve the interpersonal effectiveness of prison inmates has increased dramatically. Research suggests that…

Microenvironmental change as a mechanism to study global change.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lortie, C. J.

2016-12-01

Global change is a set of significant processes that influence all aspects of ecosystem functioning and often-natural services within Santa Barbara County. The sensitivity of coastal and urban systems is certainly very high. However, profound changes are also predicted for arid and semi-arid systems globally, and California is no exception. These dryland systems are less buffered by oceanic processes and typically express high inter-annual variation in precipitation and temperatures in addition to perturbations associated with long-term droughts. However, climate estimates and downscaled values can present challenges in providing evidence at the scale relevant to individual species or individuals, and the importance of biotic interactions must be coupled to these estimates in space and time. Coupled indicators of key micro-environmental measures to both positive and negative interactions between foundation species and other organisms provide a metric of buffering capacity and resilience to global change at fine spatial scales. Consequently, the primary objective of this research project is to provide both the a well-articulated, ecologically relevant micro-environmental big data measure of global change within Santa Barbara County and a coupled estimate of concurrent changes in interactions in key species within the region. Shrubs directly and indirectly buffered local changes in the microenvironment thereby functioning as refuges for other species within arid and semi-arid regions subject to dramatic global change drivers. The following major patterns were identified: (i) shrub micro-environments reduce the level of stress and amplitude of variation associated with temperature and moisture, (ii) many plant and animal species including threatened lizards are relatively more common with shrubs within the region, and (iii) the variation in the interaction patterns between species relates to the extent of amelioration provided by shrub-biodiversity complexes within the region. The ecological theory of positive plant interactions scaling to other species as a restoration and management tool is a dominant and rapidly evolving field of research. Micro-environmental sensor arrays are a scientifically valid approach to identify meaningful localized change with biotic interactions.

Boundaries of Mind and Nature - Human responses to changing landscapes over 2000 year during the Neolithic in Uppland, Sweden.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

von Hackwitz, Kim; Löwenborg, Daniel

2015-04-01

In the near future we are facing a global environmental situation where hydrological changes undoubtedly will take place. These changes will have an impact on the landscapes and affect socio-environmental systems. An understanding of the effects of the long-term interplay between society, hydrology and landscape must become one of the main platforms on which societies prospects for the next century will be based. In this paper I will present new information derived from a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to put forward the experience of the landscape and different boundaries; topographical, ideological and historical by using methods such as water catchment areas and regression equations. This is combined with the archaeological record and theories on experience derived from the concept of Historical Ecology. The main aim is to identify Neolithic territories from a long term perspective. The question to be discussed is: How did people experience and respond to different boundaries in a changing coastal landscape? Emphasis is given to the hydrological patterns and the role of water for the construction of geographically defined, social and sustainable landscapes. Just as human-environment interactions are crucial in creating landscapes, environmental changes are likely to have strong impacts on social constructions. Environmental changes cause diverse social effects and social relations are essential for understanding the responses to such changes as well as for understanding patterns of land use and the social and political construction of the landscape. An important aspect of reconstructing land use is therefore to analyse the cultural, social, and economic factors that drive land use decisions in relation to the initial conditions and emergent properties of the landscape. The Uppland area has undergone dramatic changes since the inland ice retreated around 10,000 BC. This process offered new land for occupation and at the same time changed waterways and access to places influencing the choice of locations and the outline of regions. The results point to historical maintenances of ancient territories that both ignore and follow natural topographies in a rapidly changing landscape. The paper is a result from a two year postdoc financed by the Swedish Research Council.

Olanzapine causes hypothermia, inactivity, a deranged feeding pattern and weight gain in female Wistar rats.

PubMed

Evers, S S; Calcagnoli, F; van Dijk, G; Scheurink, A J W

2010-11-01

Olanzapine is an a-typical antipsychotic drug antagonizing predominantly 5-HT and dopamine, but also histamine, muscarin, and α-adrenergic receptors. In humans, Olanzapine induces weight gain and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. The underlying mechanisms of Olanzapine-induced weight gain are unclear. To study this we administered Olanzapine (5mg/kg) in female Wistar rats on a medium fat diet for 14 days via a permanent gastric catheter twice a day, just prior to the onset and at the middle of dark phase. Food and water intake, locomotor activity and body temperature were measured. Olanzapine acutely induced hypothermia, markedly decreased locomotor activity and increased body weight during 14 days of treatment. Olanzapine treatment did not result in an alteration of 24h food intake, but diurnal patterns of feeding behavior and body temperature were dramatically changed. We conclude that in female Wistar rats Olanzapine has an acute hypothermic effect, that the effect of Olanzapine on feeding behavior is secondary to the effect on activity, and that Olanzapine-induced weight gain is primarily the result of reduction in locomotor activity. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Epidemiological, social and public health aspects of tuberculosis in Ferrara in the 19th century].

PubMed

Guidi, E; Angelini, L; Lupi, S; Vicentini, C B; Mares, D; Manfredini, S; Contini, C

2011-12-01

Our first study of tuberculosis in Ferrara during the nineteenth century, whose results have been recently published, focused on disease treatment. Here we present the descriptive analysis of mortality, with the following results being attained: two behavioural patterns are detected with regard to the onset of disease, before and after 1850; TB is a specific disease that affects all parts of the body in all age groups: childhood, and active and passive populations; there are no significant differences with regard to gender; as regards the occupations performed by the deceased, those related to industry and agriculture and to various other activities and services are those with the highest mortality; tuberculosis has a seasonal pattern; summer and autumn are the periods of greatest prevalence (hot weather and humidity are factors that affect the respiratory system); among the forms of tuberculosis it can be observed that up to the year 1850 people died in Ferrara either of pulmonary tuberculosis or TB localised in other areas; from 1851 onward there appears to have been a dramatic change, with a decrease in unspecific diagnosis but the appearance of disease manifestations in its various clinical forms.

Invisible Electronic States and Their Dynamics Revealed by Perturbations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merer, Anthony J.

2011-06-01

Sooner or later everyone working in the field of spectroscopy encounters perturbations. These can range in size from a small shift of a single rotational level to total destruction of the vibrational and rotational patterns of an electronic state. To some workers perturbations are a source of terror, but to others they are the most fascinating features of molecular spectra, because they give information about molecular dynamics, and about states that would otherwise be invisible as a result of unfavorable selection rules. An example of the latter is the essentially complete characterization of the tilde{b}^3A_2 state of SO_2 from the vibronic perturbations it causes in the tilde{a}^3B_1 state. The S_1-trans state of acetylene is a beautiful example of dynamics in action. The level patterns of the three bending vibrations change dramatically with increasing vibrational excitation as a result of the vibrational angular momentum and the approach to the isomerization barrier. Several vibrational levels of the S_1-cis isomer, previously thought to be unobservable, can now be assigned. They obtain their intensity through interactions with nearby levels of the trans isomer.

THE DELINKING OF SEX AND MARRIAGE: PATHWAYS TO FERTILITY AMONG YOUNG FILIPINO WOMEN.

PubMed

Gipson, Jessica D; Hicks, Andrew L

2017-01-01

Partnership and fertility patterns of young Filipinos have changed dramatically from previous generations, with a widening gap between sexual initiation and marriage, and concurrent increases in teenage pregnancy and unwanted fertility. Further understanding of young adults' social contexts and partnership patterns are needed to inform reproductive health programmes and policies affecting young Filipinos. Multivariate Poisson regression models were conducted with longitudinal and inter-generational data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (1998-2009) to examine the predictors of young women's fertility. Age at first sex, and number and duration of partnerships each independently and significantly predicted women's fertility by 2009 after controlling for contextual influences. Young women with more conservative attitudes towards dating, sex and marriage, and who perceived their mothers to have more conservative attitudes, had higher fertility than their peers, as did young women with mothers who reported more adolescent sexual behaviours. In contrast, fertility was lower among daughters who had higher levels of communication with their mothers. Given high levels of unintended fertility and teenage pregnancy in the Philippines, the findings indicate that the interval between sexual initiation and first and subsequent partnerships may be ideal intervention points for reproductive health services for young Filipinos.

Loss of functionally unique species may gradually undermine ecosystems

PubMed Central

O'Gorman, Eoin J.; Yearsley, Jon M.; Crowe, Tasman P.; Emmerson, Mark C.; Jacob, Ute; Petchey, Owen L.

2011-01-01

Functionally unique species contribute to the functional diversity of natural systems, often enhancing ecosystem functioning. An abundance of weakly interacting species increases stability in natural systems, suggesting that loss of weakly linked species may reduce stability. Any link between the functional uniqueness of a species and the strength of its interactions in a food web could therefore have simultaneous effects on ecosystem functioning and stability. Here, we analyse patterns in 213 real food webs and show that highly unique species consistently tend to have the weakest mean interaction strength per unit biomass in the system. This relationship is not a simple consequence of the interdependence of both measures on body size and appears to be driven by the empirical pattern of size structuring in aquatic systems and the trophic position of each species in the web. Food web resolution also has an important effect, with aggregation of species into higher taxonomic groups producing a much weaker relationship. Food webs with fewer unique and less weakly interacting species also show significantly greater variability in their levels of primary production. Thus, the loss of highly unique, weakly interacting species may eventually lead to dramatic state changes and unpredictable levels of ecosystem functioning. PMID:21106593

Transient expression of collagen type II at epitheliomesenchymal interfaces during morphogenesis of the cartilaginous neurocranium.

PubMed

Thorogood, P; Bee, J; von der Mark, K

1986-08-01

In the avian embryo a matrix-mediated tissue interaction between retinal pigmented epithelium and neural crest-derived periocular mesenchyme leads to the differentiation of (scleral) cartilage. The composition of the extracellular matrix at the interface between these two tissues has been examined immunohistochemically, both during and after the interaction has taken place. Of the matrix components studied (fibronectin, laminin, and collagen types I, II, IV, and V) only collagen type II displayed a dramatic change in distribution between the two stages. During the interaction, at stage 15, type II was present in the extracellular compartment basal to the epithelium. After completion of the interaction, collagen type II was no longer detectable at the interface even though it was readily detectable in the vitreous humor, cornea, and perinotochordal sheath, and subsequently will be expressed by the chondrogenic tissue itself as overt differentiation commences. These results suggest that collagen type II might be causally involved in this particular epitheliomesenchymal interaction. Examination of the spatial and temporal patterns of collagen type II expression elsewhere in the developing craniofacial complex revealed a hitherto unreported pattern of distribution. In addition to its predictable locations (i.e., cornea, vitreous, and perinotochordal sheath) it was found to be present at certain other sites, for example, at the basal surfaces of some neuroepithelia. These additional locations are all known to be sites of chondrogenesis-promoting tissue interactions which result in the formation of the elements of the cartilaginous neurocranium (e.g., otic vesicle). Furthermore this spatial distribution exhibits a changing temporal pattern in that it is detectable at the time that the interactions are known to be taking place, but subsequently is no longer detectable by the immunohistochemical means employed. This definable pattern of transient collagen type II expression, occurring at very early stages of craniofacial development, is interpreted as reflecting one level of morphogenetic specification of chondrocranial/skull form in the developing vertebrate head.

The longitudinal interplay between negative and positive symptom trajectories in patients under antipsychotic treatment: a post hoc analysis of data from a randomized, 1-year pragmatic trial

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Schizophrenia is a highly heterogeneous disorder with positive and negative symptoms being characteristic manifestations of the disease. While these two symptom domains are usually construed as distinct and orthogonal, little is known about the longitudinal pattern of negative symptoms and their linkage with the positive symptoms. This study assessed the temporal interplay between these two symptom domains and evaluated whether the improvements in these symptoms were inversely correlated or independent with each other. Methods This post hoc analysis used data from a multicenter, randomized, open-label, 1-year pragmatic trial of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder who were treated with first- and second-generation antipsychotics in the usual clinical settings. Data from all treatment groups were pooled resulting in 399 patients with complete data on both the negative and positive subscale scores from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Individual-based growth mixture modeling combined with interplay matrix was used to identify the latent trajectory patterns in terms of both the negative and positive symptoms. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationship between the changes of these two symptom domains within each combined trajectory pattern. Results We identified four distinct negative symptom trajectories and three positive symptom trajectories. The trajectory matrix formed 11 combined trajectory patterns, which evidenced that negative and positive symptom trajectories moved generally in parallel. Correlation coefficients for changes in negative and positive symptom subscale scores were positive and statistically significant (P < 0.05). Overall, the combined trajectories indicated three major distinct patterns: 1) dramatic and sustained early improvement in both negative and positive symptoms (n = 70, 18%), 2) mild and sustained improvement in negative and positive symptoms (n = 237, 59%), and 3) no improvement in either negative or positive symptoms (n = 82, 21%). Conclusions This study of symptom trajectories over 1 year shows that changes in negative and positive symptoms were neither inversely nor independently related with each other. The positive association between these two symptom domains supports the notion that different symptom domains in schizophrenia may depend on each other through a unified upstream pathological disease process. PMID:24283222

Effect of high-latitude ionospheric convection on Sun-aligned polar caps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sojka, J. J.; Zhu, L.; Crain, D. J.; Schunk, R. W.

1994-01-01

A coupled magnetospheric-ionospheric (M-I) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model has been used to simulate the formation of Sun-aligned polar cap arcs for a variety of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) dependent polar cap convection fields. The formation process involves launching an Alfven shear wave from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere where the ionospheric conductance can react self-consistently to changes in the upward currents. We assume that the initial Alfven shear wave is the result of solar wind-magnetosphere interactions. The simulations show how the E region density is affected by the changes in the electron precipitation that are associated with the upward currents. These changes in conductance lead to both a modified Alfven wave reflection at the ionosphere and the generation of secondary Alfven waves in the ionosphere. The ensuing bouncing of the Alfven waves between the ionosphere and magnetosphere is followed until an asymptotic solution is obtained. At the magnetosphere the Alfven waves reflect at a fixed boundary. The coupled M-I Sun-aligned polar cap arc model of Zhu et al.(1993a) is used to carry out the simulations. This study focuses on the dependence of the polar cap arc formation on the background (global) convection pattern. Since the polar cap arcs occur for northward and strong B(sub y) IMF conditions, a variety of background convection patterns can exist when the arcs are present. The study shows that polar cap arcs can be formed for all these convection patterns; however, the arc features are dramatically different for the different patterns. For weak sunward convection a relatively confined single pair of current sheets is associated with the imposed Alfven shear wave structure. However, when the electric field exceeds a threshold, the arc structure intensifies, and the conductance increases as does the local Joule heating rate. These increases are faster than a linear dependence on the background electric field strength. Furthermore, above the threshold, the single current sheet pair splits into multiple current sheet pairs. For the fixed initial ionospheric and magnetospheric conditions used in this study, the separation distance between the current pairs was found to be almost independent of the background electric field strength. For either three-cell or distorted two-cell background convection patterns the arc formation favored the positive B(sub y) case in the northern hemisphere.

Quantitative challenges to our understanding of the tectonostratigraphic evolution of rift basin systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olsen, P. E.; Kent, D. V.

2012-12-01

Pervasive orbitally-paced lake level cycles combined with magnetic polarity stratigraphy in central Pangean early Mesozoic rift basins provide a thus far unique and very large-scale quantitative basis for observing patterns of basin fill and comparisons with other basins. The 32 Myr accumulation rate history of the Newark basin is segmented into intervals lasting millions of years with virtually no change in the long-term accumulation rate (at the 400-kyr-scale), and the transitions between segments are abrupt and apparently basin-wide. This is startling, because the basin geometry was, and is, a half graben - triangular in cross section and dish-shaped in along-strike section. The long periods of time with virtually no change is challenging given a simple model of basin growth (1), suggesting some kind of compensation in sediment input for the increasing surface of the area of the basin through time. Perhaps even more challenging are observations based on magnetic polarity stratigraphy and the cyclicity, that basins distributed over a huge area of central Pangea (~700,000 km2) show parallel and correlative quantitative changes in accumulation rate with those of the Newark basin. The synchronous changes in the accumulation rate in these basins suggests a very large-scale linkage, the only plausible mechanism for which would seem to be at the plate-tectonic scale, perhaps involving extension rates. Together, we can speculate that some kind of balance between extension rates, basin accommodation space and perhaps regional drainage basin size might have been in operation The most dramatic accumulation rate change in the basins' histories occurred close to, and perhaps causally related to, the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and end-Triassic extinction. The Newark basin, for example exhibits a 4-to-5-fold increase in accumulation rate during the emplacement of the brief (<1 Myr) and aerially massive Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) beginning at 201.5 Ma, the only igneous event known during this long rifting episode. Parallel and correlative accumulation rate changes are seen in several of the other northern basins within central Pangea. Surprisingly, the rate of accommodation growth apparently increased dramatically during this time, because not only did the accumulation rate dramatically increase, the lakes apparently deepened during the same time as a huge volume of CAMP igneous material entered the basins. At the same time, the more southern basins in the southeastern US, apparently ceased to subside (2). Our ability to measure time in these rift basins using the orbitally-paced cycles, coupled with the ability to correlate between the basins using magnetic polarity stratigraphy, challenges us to form new mechanistic explanations and quantitative models to test against this rich library of observations. References: 1) Schlische RW & Olsen PE, 1990, Jour. Geol. 98:135. 2) Schlische et al., 2003, in Hames WE et al. (eds), Geophys. Monogr. 136:61.

Collective Attention and Stock Prices: Evidence from Google Trends Data on Standard and Poor's 100

PubMed Central

Heiberger, Raphael H.

2015-01-01

Today´s connected world allows people to gather information in shorter intervals than ever before, widely monitored by massive online data sources. As a dramatic economic event, recent financial crisis increased public interest for large companies considerably. In this paper, we exploit this change in information gathering behavior by utilizing Google query volumes as a "bad news" indicator for each corporation listed in the Standard and Poor´s 100 index. Our results provide not only an investment strategy that gains particularly in times of financial turmoil and extensive losses by other market participants, but reveal new sectoral patterns between mass online behavior and (bearish) stock market movements. Based on collective attention shifts in search queries for individual companies, hence, these findings can help to identify early warning signs of financial systemic risk. However, our disaggregated data also illustrate the need for further efforts to understand the influence of collective attention shifts on financial behavior in times of regular market activities with less tremendous changes in search volumes. PMID:26258498

Zoogeomorphology in the Anthropocene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Butler, David R.

2018-02-01

The Anthropocene embodies the concept of human impacts on the natural environment, but disagreements exist as to when to identify its inception/starting date. In this paper I illustrate that regardless of the proposed starting date of the Anthropocene, important zoogeomorphic impacts were initiated at each of these proposed starting dates. Humans have profoundly altered geomorphic pathways through extinctions and the near-extirpation of native populations of animal species that strongly influenced hydrology and removal of surface sediment and through the introduction of populations of animals that bring to bear a suite of different geomorphic effects on environmental systems. Domestication of animals brought its own suite of zoogeomorphic implications. Introductions of exotic species, and the spread of feral species, often led to dramatic new geomorphic landscapes because of the absence of natural controls on population expansion. In the mountains of the western USA and elsewhere, the geomorphic actions of animals are being impacted by human-induced climate change. Climate change in some cases affects the spatial pattern and range of species, whereas in other cases it may lead to the extirpation of species with zoogeomorphic impacts.

Nanoscale capillary freezing of ionic liquids confined between metallic interfaces and the role of electronic screening

PubMed Central

Comtet, Jean; Niguès, Antoine; Kaiser, Vojtech; Coasne, Benoit; Bocquet, Lydéric; Siria, Alessandro

2017-01-01

Room temperature Ionic liquids (RTIL) are new materials with fundamental importance for energy storage and active lubrication. They are unsual liquids, which challenge the classical frameworks of electrolytes, whose behavior at electrified interfaces remains elusive with exotic responses relevant to their electrochemical activity. By means of tuning fork based AFM nanorheological measurements, we explore here the properties of confined RTIL, unveiling a dramatic change of the RTIL towards a solid-like phase below a threshold thickness, pointing to capillary freezing in confinement. This threshold is related to the metallic nature of the confining materials, with more metallic surfaces facilitating freezing. This is interpreted in terms of the shift of freezing transition, taking into account the influence of the electronic screening on RTIL wetting of the confining surfaces. Our findings provide fresh views on the properties of confined RTIL with implications for their properties inside nanoporous metallic structures and suggests applications to tune nanoscale lubrication with phase-changing RTIL, by varying the nature and patterning of the substrate, and application of active polarisation. PMID:28346432

Secular trends in new childhood epidemics: insights from evolutionary medicine.

PubMed

Brüne, Martin; Hochberg, Ze'ev

2013-10-21

In the last few decades, pediatric medicine has observed a dramatic increase in the prevalence of hitherto rare illnesses, among which obesity, diabetes, allergies and other autoimmune diseases stand out. In addition, secular trends towards earlier onset of puberty and sexual activity contribute to the psychological problems of youth and adolescents. All this has occurred in spite of the improved health care provision for children, yet traditional concepts of medicine have failed to explain these new "epidemics". A recent conference and science school of the European Society of Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) in Acre, Israel, has taken up this challenge. Experts across disciplines including medicine, anthropology and developmental psychology discussed potential causes of childhood ill-health from an evolutionary point-of-view. Seen from an evolutionary vantage point, the "epidemics" of childhood obesity, diabetes and psychological dysfunction appear, in part, to be related to a mismatch between ancestral adaptations and novel environmental contingencies. These include changing exposures to pathogens, which impact on the function of the immune system, as well as changing patterns of parenting, which influence the timing of puberty and the risk for developing psychopathology.

Long-term affects of experimental flows on riverine biota below a reservoir

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robinson, Chris; Ortlepp, Johannes

2010-05-01

Large dams have altered the flow regime of most rivers on the globe with consequent effects on riverine biota. Experimental flows (multiple floods per year) have been used on the regulated Spöl River below Livigno Reservoir for over 9 years to enhance the ecological condition of the river. The flow program has improved the brown trout fishery in the river as indicated by an increased number of redds. Floods have reset periphyton assemblages from a moss-dominated streambed to one dominated by diatoms and patches of filamentous algae. Zoobenthic assemblages have shown dramatic shifts in benthic structure in line with predictions from altered state models. Ecosystem regime shifts have been characterized with increases in parameter variances followed by periods of stable states. The system appears to be entering a second zoobenthic regime shift after year 8, perhaps in response to biotic interactions due to changes in the fishery. The response patterns clearly show that a long-term perspective must be in place when assessing biotic responses to changes in physical habitat properties resulting from flow experiments.

Nanoscale capillary freezing of ionic liquids confined between metallic interfaces and the role of electronic screening.

PubMed

Comtet, Jean; Niguès, Antoine; Kaiser, Vojtech; Coasne, Benoit; Bocquet, Lydéric; Siria, Alessandro

2017-06-01

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are new materials with fundamental importance for energy storage and active lubrication. They are unusual liquids, which challenge the classical frameworks of electrolytes, whose behaviour at electrified interfaces remains elusive, with exotic responses relevant to their electrochemical activity. Using tuning-fork-based atomic force microscope nanorheological measurements, we explore here the properties of confined RTILs, unveiling a dramatic change of the RTIL towards a solid-like phase below a threshold thickness, pointing to capillary freezing in confinement. This threshold is related to the metallic nature of the confining materials, with more metallic surfaces facilitating freezing. This behaviour is interpreted in terms of the shift of the freezing transition, taking into account the influence of the electronic screening on RTIL wetting of the confining surfaces. Our findings provide fresh views on the properties of confined RTIL with implications for their properties inside nanoporous metallic structures, and suggests applications to tune nanoscale lubrication with phase-changing RTILs, by varying the nature and patterning of the substrate, and application of active polarization.

Modeling bipolar stimulation of cardiac tissue

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galappaththige, Suran K.; Gray, Richard A.; Roth, Bradley J.

2017-09-01

Unipolar stimulation of cardiac tissue is often used in the design of cardiac pacemakers because of the low current required to depolarize the surrounding tissue at rest. However, the advantages of unipolar over bipolar stimulation are not obvious at shorter coupling intervals when the tissue near the pacing electrode is relatively refractory. Therefore, this paper analyzes bipolar stimulation of cardiac tissue. The strength-interval relationship for bipolar stimulation is calculated using the bidomain model and a recently developed parsimonious ionic current model. The strength-interval curves obtained using different electrode separations and arrangements (electrodes placed parallel to the fibers versus perpendicular to the fibers) indicate that bipolar stimulation results in more complex activation patterns compared to unipolar stimulation. An unusually low threshold stimulus current is observed when the electrodes are close to each other (a separation of 1 mm) because of break excitation. Unlike for unipolar stimulation, anode make excitation is not present during bipolar stimulation, and an abrupt switch from anode break to cathode make excitation can cause dramatic changes in threshold with very small changes in the interval. These results could impact the design of implantable pacemakers and defibrillators.

Does metabosensitive afferent fibers activity differ from slow- and fast-twitch muscles?

PubMed

Caron, Guillaume; Decherchi, Patrick; Marqueste, Tanguy

2015-09-01

This study was designed to investigate the metabosensitive afferent response evoked by electrically induced fatigue (EIF), lactic acid (LA) and potassium chloride (KCl) in three muscle types. We recorded the activity of groups III-IV afferents originating from soleus, gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles. Our data showed a same pattern of response in the three muscles after chemical injections, i.e., a bell curve with maximal discharge rate at 1 mM for LA injections and a linear relationship between KCl concentrations and the afferent discharge rate. Furthermore, a stronger response was recorded after EIF in the gastrocnemius muscle compared to the two other muscles. The change in afferent discharge after 1 mM LA injection was higher for the gastrocnemius muscle compared to the response obtained with the corresponding concentration applied in the two other muscles, whereas changes to KCl injections did not dramatically differ between the three muscles. We conclude that anatomical (mass, phenotype, vascularization, receptor and afferent density…) and functional (flexor vs. extensor) differences between muscles could explain the amplitude of these responses.

Nanoscale capillary freezing of ionic liquids confined between metallic interfaces and the role of electronic screening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Comtet, Jean; Niguès, Antoine; Kaiser, Vojtech; Coasne, Benoit; Bocquet, Lydéric; Siria, Alessandro

2017-06-01

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are new materials with fundamental importance for energy storage and active lubrication. They are unusual liquids, which challenge the classical frameworks of electrolytes, whose behaviour at electrified interfaces remains elusive, with exotic responses relevant to their electrochemical activity. Using tuning-fork-based atomic force microscope nanorheological measurements, we explore here the properties of confined RTILs, unveiling a dramatic change of the RTIL towards a solid-like phase below a threshold thickness, pointing to capillary freezing in confinement. This threshold is related to the metallic nature of the confining materials, with more metallic surfaces facilitating freezing. This behaviour is interpreted in terms of the shift of the freezing transition, taking into account the influence of the electronic screening on RTIL wetting of the confining surfaces. Our findings provide fresh views on the properties of confined RTIL with implications for their properties inside nanoporous metallic structures, and suggests applications to tune nanoscale lubrication with phase-changing RTILs, by varying the nature and patterning of the substrate, and application of active polarization.

Collective attention and stock prices: evidence from Google Trends data on Standard and Poor's 100.

PubMed

Heiberger, Raphael H

2015-01-01

Today´s connected world allows people to gather information in shorter intervals than ever before, widely monitored by massive online data sources. As a dramatic economic event, recent financial crisis increased public interest for large companies considerably. In this paper, we exploit this change in information gathering behavior by utilizing Google query volumes as a "bad news" indicator for each corporation listed in the Standard and Poor´s 100 index. Our results provide not only an investment strategy that gains particularly in times of financial turmoil and extensive losses by other market participants, but reveal new sectoral patterns between mass online behavior and (bearish) stock market movements. Based on collective attention shifts in search queries for individual companies, hence, these findings can help to identify early warning signs of financial systemic risk. However, our disaggregated data also illustrate the need for further efforts to understand the influence of collective attention shifts on financial behavior in times of regular market activities with less tremendous changes in search volumes.

BVI impulsive noise reduction by higher harmonic pitch control - Results of a scaled model rotor experiment in the DNW

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Splettstoesser, Wolf R.; Schultz, KLAUS-J.; Kube, Roland; Brooks, Thomas F.; Booth, Earl R., Jr.; Niesl, Georg; Streby, Olivier

1991-01-01

Results are presented of a model rotor acoustics test performed to examine the benefit of higher harmonic control (HHC) of blade pitch to reduce blade-vortex interaction (BVI) impulsive noise. A dynamically scaled, four-bladed, rigid rotor model, a 40-percent replica of the B0-105 main rotor, was tested in the German Dutch Wind Tunnel. Noise characteristics and noise directivity patterns as well as vibratory loads were measured and used to demonstrate the changes when different HHC schedules were applied. Dramatic changes of the acoustic signatures and the noise radiation directivity with the HHC phase variations are found. Compared to the baseline conditions (without HHC), significant mid-frequency noise reductions of locally 6 dB are obtained for low-speed descent conditions where GVI is most intense. For other rotor operating conditions with less intense BVI there is less or no benefit from the use of HHC. LF noise and vibratory loads, especially at optimum noise reduction control settings, are found to increase.

Coralline alga reveals first marine record of subarctic North Pacific climate change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Halfar, J.; Steneck, R.; Schone, B.; Moore, G.W.K.; Joachimski, M.; Kronz, A.; Fietzke, J.; Estes, James A.

2007-01-01

While recent changes in subarctic North Pacific climate had dramatic effects on ecosystems and fishery yields, past climate dynamics and teleconnection patterns are poorly understood due to the absence of century-long high-resolution marine records. We present the first 117-year long annually resolved marine climate history from the western Bering Sea/Aleutian Island region using information contained in the calcitic skeleton of the long-lived crustose coralline red alga Clathromorphum nereostratum, a previously unused climate archive. The skeletal ??18O-time series indicates significant warming and/or freshening of surface waters after the middle of the 20th century. Furthermore, the time series is spatiotemporally correlated with Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and tropical El Nio??-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices. Even though the western Bering Sea/Aleutian Island region is believed to be outside the area of significant marine response to ENSO, we propose that an ENSO signal is transmitted via the Alaskan Stream from the Eastern North Pacific, a region of known ENSO teleconnections. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

GaN grown on nano-patterned sapphire substrates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jing, Kong; Meixin, Feng; Jin, Cai; Hui, Wang; Huaibing, Wang; Hui, Yang

2015-04-01

High-quality gallium nitride (GaN) film was grown on nano-patterned sapphire substrates (NPSS) and investigated using XRD and SEM. It was found that the optimum thickness of the GaN buffer layer on the NPSS is 15 nm, which is thinner than that on micro-patterned sapphire substrates (MPSS). An interesting phenomenon was observed for GaN film grown on NPSS:GaN mainly grows on the trench regions and little grows on the sidewalls of the patterns at the initial growth stage, which is dramatically different from GaN grown on MPSS. In addition, the electrical and optical properties of LEDs grown on NPSS were characterized. Project supported by the Suzhou Nanojoin Photonics Co., Ltd and the High-Tech Achievements Transformation of Jiangsu Province, China (No.BA2012010).

Critical aspects of substrate nanopatterning for the ordered growth of GaN nanocolumns

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Precise and reproducible surface nanopatterning is the key for a successful ordered growth of GaN nanocolumns. In this work, we point out the main technological issues related to the patterning process, mainly surface roughness and cleaning, and mask adhesion to the substrate. We found that each of these factors, process-related, has a dramatic impact on the subsequent selective growth of the columns inside the patterned holes. We compare the performance of e-beam lithography, colloidal lithography, and focused ion beam in the fabrication of hole-patterned masks for ordered columnar growth. These results are applicable to the ordered growth of nanocolumns of different materials. PMID:22168918

Application of Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT) Patterns to Reduce Crew Operations (RCO)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shively, R. Jay; Brandt, Summer L.; Lachter, Joel; Matessa, Mike; Sadler, Garrett; Battiste, Henri

2011-01-01

Unmanned aerial systems, advanced cockpits, and air traffic management are all seeing dramatic increases in automation. However, while automation may take on some tasks previously performed by humans, humans will still be required to remain in the system for the foreseeable future. The collaboration between humans and these increasingly autonomous systems will begin to resemble cooperation between teammates, rather than simple task allocation. It is critical to understand this human-autonomy teaming (HAT) to optimize these systems in the future. One methodology to understand HAT is by identifying recurring patterns of HAT that have similar characteristics and solutions. This paper applies a methodology for identifying HAT patterns to an advanced cockpit project.

Mid-infrared Variability of Changing-look AGNs

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

Sheng, Zhenfeng; Wang, Tinggui; Jiang, Ning

2017-09-01

It is known that some active galactic nuclei (AGNs) transit from Type 1 to Type 2 or vice versa. There are two explanations for the so-called changing-look AGNs: one is the dramatic change of the obscuration along the line of sight, and the other is the variation of accretion rate. In this Letter, we report the detection of large amplitude variations in the mid-infrared luminosity during the transitions in 10 changing-look AGNs using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ) and newly released Near-Earth Object WISE Reactivation data. The mid-infrared light curves of 10 objects echo the variability inmore » the optical band with a time lag expected for dust reprocessing. The large variability amplitude is inconsistent with the scenario of varying obscuration, rather it supports the scheme of dramatic change in the accretion rate.« less

Application of FTIR microspectroscopy for the follow-up of childhood leukemia chemotherapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mordechai, Shaul; Mordehai, J.; Ramesh, Jagannathan; Levi, C.; Huleihal, Mahmud; Erukhimovitch, Vitaly; Moser, A.; Kapelushnik, J.

2001-11-01

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) accounts for majority of the childhood leukemia. Outcome of children with ALL treatment has improved dramatically. Sensitive techniques are available today for detection of minimal residual disease in children with ALL, which provide insight into the effective cytotoxic treatment. Here, we present a case study, where lymphocytes isolated from two children before and after the treatment were characterized using microscopic Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. Significant changes in the absorbance and spectral pattern in the wavenumber region between 800-1800 cm-1 were found after the treatment. Preliminary analysis of the spectra revealed that the protein content decreased in the T-lymphoma patient before the treatment in comparison to the age matched controls. The chemotherapy treatment resulted in decreased nucleic acids, total carbohydrates and cholesterol contents to a remarkable extent in both B and T lymphoma patients.

Decreased Flight Activity in Culex pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae) Naturally Infected With Culex flavivirus.

PubMed

Newman, Christina M; Anderson, Tavis K; Goldberg, Tony L

2016-01-01

Insect-specific flaviviruses (ISFVs) commonly infect vectors of mosquito-borne arboviruses. To investigate whether infection with an ISFV might affect mosquito flight behavior, we quantified flight behavior in Culex pipiens L. naturally infected with Culex flavivirus (CxFV). We observed a significant reduction in the scotophase (dark hours) flight activity of CxFV-positive mosquitoes relative to CxFV-negative mosquitoes, but only a marginal reduction in photophase (light hours) flight activity, and no change in the circadian pattern of flight activity. These results suggest that CxFV infection alters the flight activity of naturally infected Cx. pipiens most dramatically when these vectors are likely to be host seeking and may therefore affect the transmission of medically important arboviruses. © The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Effect of endosomal acidification on small ion transport through the anthrax toxin PA63 channel.

PubMed

Kalu, Nnanya; Alcaraz, Antonio; Yamini, Goli; Momben Abolfath, Sanaz; Lucas, Laura; Kenney, Clare; Aguilella, Vicente M; Nestorovich, Ekaterina M

2017-11-01

Tight regulation of pH is critical for the structure and function of cells and organelles. The pH environment changes dramatically along the endocytic pathway, an internalization transport process that is 'hijacked' by many intracellularly active bacterial exotoxins, including the anthrax toxin. Here, we investigate the role of pH on single-channel properties of the anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA 63 ). Using conductance and current noise analysis, blocker binding, ion selectivity, and poly(ethylene glycol) partitioning measurements, we show that the channel exists in two different open states ('maximum' and 'main') at pH ≥ 5.5, while only a maximum conductance state is detected at pH < 5.5. We describe two substantially distinct patterns of PA 63 conductance dependence on KCl concentration uncovered at pH 6.5 and 4.5. © 2017 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Older age becomes common late in human evolution

PubMed Central

Caspari, Rachel; Lee, Sang-Hee

2004-01-01

Increased longevity, expressed as number of individuals surviving to older adulthood, represents one of the ways the human life history pattern differs from other primates. We believe it is a critical demographic factor in the development of human culture. Here, we examine when changes in longevity occurred by assessing the ratio of older to younger adults in four hominid dental samples from successive time periods, and by determining the significance of differences in these ratios. Younger and older adult status is assessed by wear seriation of each sample. Whereas there is significant increased longevity between all groups, indicating a trend of increased adult survivorship over the course of human evolution, there is a dramatic increase in longevity in the modern humans of the Early Upper Paleolithic. We believe that this great increase contributed to population expansions and cultural innovations associated with modernity. PMID:15252198

A decade of innovation with laser speckle metrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ettemeyer, Andreas

2003-05-01

Speckle Pattern Interferometry has emerged from the experimental substitution of holographic interferometry to become a powerful problem solving tool in research and industry. The rapid development of computer and digital imaging techniques in combination with minaturization of the optical equipment led to new applications which had not been anticipated before. While classical holographic interferometry had always required careful consideration of the environmental conditions such as vibration, noise, light, etc. and could generally only be performed in the optical laboratory, it is now state of the art, to handle portable speckle measuring equipment at almost any place. During the last decade, the change in design and technique has dramatically influenced the range of applications of speckle metrology and opened new markets. The integration of recent research results into speckle measuring equipment has led to handy equipment, simplified the operation and created high quality data output.

Exploring Options for an Integrated Water Level Observation Network in Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCammon, M.

2016-02-01

Portions' of Alaska's remote coastlines are among the Nation's most vulnerable to geohazards such as tsunami, extra-tropical storm surge, and erosion; and the availability of observations of water levels, ocean waves, and river discharge are severely lacking to support water level warnings and forecasts. Alaska is experiencing dramatic reductions in sea ice cover, changes in extra-tropical storm surge patterns, and thawing permafrost. These conditions are endangering coastal populations throughout the State. Gaps in the ocean observing system limit our State's ability to provide useful marine and sea ice forecasts, especially in the Arctic. A spectrum of observation platforms may provide an optimal solution for filling the most critical gaps in these coastal and ocean areas. The collaborations described in this talk and better leveraging of resources and capabilities across federal, state, and academic partners will provide the best opportunity for advancing our science capacity and capabilities in this remote region.

Induced Seismicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keranen, Katie M.; Weingarten, Matthew

2018-05-01

The ability of fluid-generated subsurface stress changes to trigger earthquakes has long been recognized. However, the dramatic rise in the rate of human-induced earthquakes in the past decade has created abundant opportunities to study induced earthquakes and triggering processes. This review briefly summarizes early studies but focuses on results from induced earthquakes during the past 10 years related to fluid injection in petroleum fields. Study of these earthquakes has resulted in insights into physical processes and has identified knowledge gaps and future research directions. Induced earthquakes are challenging to identify using seismological methods, and faults and reefs strongly modulate spatial and temporal patterns of induced seismicity. However, the similarity of induced and natural seismicity provides an effective tool for studying earthquake processes. With continuing development of energy resources, increased interest in carbon sequestration, and construction of large dams, induced seismicity will continue to pose a hazard in coming years.

Energy effects associated with e-commerce: a case-study concerning online sales of personal computers in The Netherlands.

PubMed

Reijnders, L; Hoogeveen, M J

2001-07-01

The introduction of e-commerce is changing purchase and distribution patterns dramatically. One of the observed effects is that logistics become more efficient as products are directly shipped from a manufacturer or wholesaler to an end-user. Another effect is that market transparency increases, which has a downward pressure on prices of many products sold via the Internet. This article addresses the energy implications of e-commerce at the micro level. This is done by quantifying the transport related energy savings in the case of a Dutch online computer reseller and by assessing the extra energy expenditure associated with increased buying power of online buyers. It is found that energy use per article sold by the online computer reseller is lower. However, taking into account indirect effects such as increased consumer buying power, there are scenarios that lead to an overall increase in energy use.

Impacts of global change on landslide hazard and risk in Europe in 21st century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaedicke, C.; Nadim, F.; Kalsnes, B.; Sverdrup-Thygeson, K.; Radermacher, C.; Fischer, G.; Hervas, J.; Van Den Eeckhaut, M.

2012-04-01

The research done previously in the SafeLand project (www.safeland-fp7.eu) identified the hotspots of landslide hazard and risk in Europe using three different models. All models were, however, based on the same input data. The analyses covered entire Europe, such that differences between regions and countries in Europe could be identified. This homogenous and objective analysis allowed comparing and ranking European countries in absolute or relative numbers of exposed land area, population and infrastructure. All models identified Italy as the country with the highest exposure to landslide risk. However, the small alpine countries had the highest relative exposure compared to their total land area and population. Overall, 4 to 7 million people in Europe, as well as significant amount of infrastructure are exposed to landslide threat. In the expectation of a changing climate, the question arises on how the level and spatial pattern of landslide hazard and risk in Europe will develop in the 21st century. To answer this question, several factors must be considered. Not only will the climate change in the next 90 years, but also the demography and land cover in Europe will change significantly. Prognosis of landslide risk must take into account a possible reduction in the total population and significant urbanisation in most parts of Europe. This again leads to changes in land cover where for example the amount of forested areas and urban areas may change dramatically. The paper presents the results of a study in the SafeLand project that explores the possible changes in landslide risk and hazard in Europe. The main objective of the study was to quantify the landslide hazard and risk in Europe now and in the future and see if there will be significant changes. Changing precipitation pattern, land cover and population were used as input to assess the landslide hazard and risk in the years 2030, 2050, 2070 and 2090. The results were then compared to the present situation in 2010. The effect of climate change varies depending on the type of landslide. In this study the focus was on precipitation-induced landslides, which are a direct consequence of the extreme precipitation events and therefore closely coupled to a change in the frequency of extreme events. Other landslides caused by draught or melt-freeze cycles are often followed a complex sequence of weather events that are difficult, if not impossible to forecast into the future. The study showed that climate change and changes in land cover will only cause minor variations in landslide hazard. The risk associated with landslides, however, is expected to change significantly due to changing patterns of population in Europe.

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy of Ovarian Cancer Results in Three Patterns of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Response with Distinct Implications for Immunotherapy.

PubMed

Lo, Charlotte S; Sanii, Sanaz; Kroeger, David R; Milne, Katy; Talhouk, Aline; Chiu, Derek S; Rahimi, Kurosh; Shaw, Patricia A; Clarke, Blaise A; Nelson, Brad H

2017-02-15

Purpose: Some forms of chemotherapy can enhance antitumor immunity through immunogenic cell death, resulting in increased T-cell activation and tumor infiltration. Such effects could potentially sensitize tumors to immunotherapies, including checkpoint blockade. We investigated whether platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy for ovarian cancer induces immunologic changes consistent with this possibility. Experimental Design: Matched pre- and post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy tumor samples from 26 high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) patients were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for a large panel of immune cells and associated factors. The prognostic significance of post-chemotherapy TIL patterns was assessed in an expanded cohort ( n = 90). Results: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with increased densities of CD3 + , CD8 + , CD8 + TIA-1 + , PD-1 + and CD20 + TIL. Other immune subsets and factors were unchanged, including CD79a + CD138 + plasma cells, CD68 + macrophages, and MHC class I on tumor cells. Immunosuppressive cell types were also unchanged, including FoxP3 + PD-1 + cells (putative regulatory T cells), IDO-1 + cells, and PD-L1 + cells (both macrophages and tumor cells). Hierarchical clustering revealed three response patterns: (i) TIL high tumors showed increases in multiple immune markers after chemotherapy; (ii) TIL low tumors underwent similar increases, achieving patterns indistinguishable from the first group; and (iii) TIL negative cases generally remained negative. Despite the dramatic increases seen in the first two patterns, post-chemotherapy TIL showed limited prognostic significance. Conclusions: Chemotherapy augments pre-existing TIL responses but fails to relieve major immune-suppressive mechanisms or confer significant prognostic benefit. Our findings provide rationale for multipronged approaches to immunotherapy tailored to the baseline features of the tumor microenvironment. Clin Cancer Res; 23(4); 925-34. ©2016 AACR . ©2016 American Association for Cancer Research.

Tracking progress towards global drinking water and sanitation targets: A within and among country analysis.

PubMed

Fuller, James A; Goldstick, Jason; Bartram, Jamie; Eisenberg, Joseph N S

2016-01-15

Global access to safe drinking water and sanitation has improved dramatically during the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) period. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in progress between countries and inequality within countries. We assessed countries' temporal patterns in access to drinking water and sanitation using publicly available data. We then classified countries using non-linear modeling techniques as having one of the following trajectories: 100% coverage, linear growth, linear decline, no change, saturation, acceleration, deceleration, negative acceleration, or negative deceleration. We further assessed the degree to which temporal profiles follow a sigmoidal pattern and how these patterns might vary within a given country between rural and urban settings. Among countries with more than 10 data points, between 15% and 38% showed a non-linear trajectory, depending on the indicator. Overall, countries' progress followed a sigmoidal trend, but some countries are making better progress and some worse progress than would be expected. We highlight several countries that are not on track to meet the MDG for water or sanitation, but whose access is accelerating, suggesting better performance during the coming years. Conversely, we also highlight several countries that have made sufficient progress to meet the MDG target, but in which access is decelerating. Patterns were heterogeneous and non-linearity was common. Characterization of these heterogeneous patterns will help policy makers allocate resources more effectively. For example, policy makers can identify countries that could make use of additional resources or might be in need of additional institutional capacity development to properly manage resources; this will be essential to meet the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Light at night alters daily patterns of cortisol and clock proteins in female Siberian hamsters.

PubMed

Bedrosian, T A; Galan, A; Vaughn, C A; Weil, Z M; Nelson, R J

2013-06-01

Humans and other organisms have adapted to a 24-h solar cycle in response to life on Earth. The rotation of the planet on its axis and its revolution around the sun cause predictable daily and seasonal patterns in day length. To successfully anticipate and adapt to these patterns in the environment, a variety of biological processes oscillate with a daily rhythm of approximately 24 h in length. These rhythms arise from hierarchally-coupled cellular clocks generated by positive and negative transcription factors of core circadian clock gene expression. From these endogenous cellular clocks, overt rhythms in activity and patterns in hormone secretion and other homeostatic processes emerge. These circadian rhythms in physiology and behaviour can be organised by a variety of cues, although they are most potently entrained by light. In recent history, there has been a major change from naturally-occurring light cycles set by the sun, to artificial and sometimes erratic light cycles determined by the use of electric lighting. Virtually every individual living in an industrialised country experiences light at night (LAN) but, despite its prevalence, the biological effects of such unnatural lighting have not been fully considered. Using female Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus), we investigated the effects of chronic nightly exposure to dim light on daily rhythms in locomotor activity, serum cortisol concentrations and brain expression of circadian clock proteins (i.e. PER1, PER2, BMAL1). Although locomotor activity remained entrained to the light cycle, the diurnal fluctuation of cortisol concentrations was blunted and the expression patterns of clock proteins in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and hippocampus were altered. These results demonstrate that chronic exposure to dim LAN can dramatically affect fundamental cellular function and emergent physiology. © 2013 British Society for Neuroendocrinology.

Rhythmic activities of hypothalamic magnocellular neurons: autocontrol mechanisms.

PubMed

Richard, P; Moos, F; Dayanithi, G; Gouzènes, L; Sabatier, N

1997-12-01

Electrophysiological recordings in lactating rats show that oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) neurons exhibit specific patterns of activities in relation to peripheral stimuli: periodic bursting firing for OT neurons during suckling, phasic firing for AVP neurons during hyperosmolarity (systemic injection of hypertonic saline). These activities are autocontrolled by OT and AVP released somato-dentritically within the hypothalamic magnocellular nuclei. In vivo, OT enhances the amplitude and frequency of bursts, an effect accompanied with an increase in basal firing rate. However, the characteristics of firing change as facilitation proceeds: the spike patterns become very irregular with clusters of spikes spaced by long silences; the firing rate is highly variable and clearly oscillates before facilitated bursts. This unstable behaviour dramatically decreases during intense tonic activation which temporarily interrupts bursting, and could therefore be a prerequisite for bursting. In vivo, the effects of AVP depend on the initial firing pattern of AVP neurons: AVP excites weakly active neurons (increasing duration of active periods and decreasing silences), inhibits highly active neurons, and does not affect neurons with intermediate phasic activity. AVP brings the entire population of AVP neurons to discharge with a medium phasic activity characterised by periods of firing and silence lasting 20-40 s, a pattern shown to optimise the release of AVP from the neurohypophysis. Each of the peptides (OT or AVP) induces an increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration, specifically in the neurons containing either OT or AVP respectively. OT evokes the release of Ca2+ from IP3-sensitive intracellular stores. AVP induces an influx of Ca2+ through voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels of T-, L- and N-types. We postulate that the facilitatory autocontrol of OT and AVP neurons could be mediated by Ca2+ known to play a key role in the control of the patterns of phasic neurons.

Collagen type IV alpha 1 (COL4A1) and collagen type XIII alpha 1 (COL13A1) produced in cancer cells promote tumor budding at the invasion front in human urothelial carcinoma of the bladder

PubMed Central

Miyake, Makito; Hori, Shunta; Morizawa, Yosuke; Tatsumi, Yoshihiro; Toritsuka, Michihiro; Ohnishi, Sayuri; Shimada, Keiji; Furuya, Hideki; Khadka, Vedbar S.; Deng, Youping; Ohnishi, Kenta; Iida, Kota; Gotoh, Daisuke; Nakai, Yasushi; Inoue, Takeshi; Anai, Satoshi; Torimoto, Kazumasa; Aoki, Katsuya; Tanaka, Nobumichi; Konishi, Noboru; Fujimoto, Kiyohide

2017-01-01

Current knowledge of the molecular mechanism driving tumor budding is limited. Here, we focused on elucidating the detailed mechanism underlying tumor budding in urothelial cancer of the bladder. Invasive urothelial cancer was pathologically classified into three groups as follows: nodular, trabecular, and infiltrative (tumor budding). Pathohistological analysis of the orthotopic tumor model revealed that human urothelial cancer cell lines MGH-U3, UM-UC-14, and UM-UC-3 displayed typical nodular, trabecular, and infiltrative patterns, respectively. Based on the results of comprehensive gene expression analysis using microarray (25 K Human Oligo chip), we identified two collagens, COL4A1 and COL13A1, which may contribute to the formation of the infiltrative pattern. Visualization of protein interaction networks revealed that proteins associated with connective tissue disorders, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, growth hormone, and estrogen were pivotal factors in tumor cells. To evaluate the invasion pattern of tumor cells in vitro, 3-D collective cell invasion assay using Matrigel was performed. Invadopodial formation was evaluated using Gelatin Invadopodia Assay. Knockdown of collagens with siRNA led to dramatic changes in invasion patterns and a decrease in invasion capability through decreased invadopodia. The in vivo orthotopic experimental model of bladder tumors showed that intravesical treatment with siRNA targeting COL4A1 and COL13A1 inhibited the formation of the infiltrative pattern. COL4A1 and COL13A1 production by cancer cells plays a pivotal role in tumor invasion through the induction of tumor budding. Blocking of these collagens may be an attractive therapeutic approach for treatment of human urothelial cancer of the bladder. PMID:28415608

A Node Linkage Approach for Sequential Pattern Mining

PubMed Central

Navarro, Osvaldo; Cumplido, René; Villaseñor-Pineda, Luis; Feregrino-Uribe, Claudia; Carrasco-Ochoa, Jesús Ariel

2014-01-01

Sequential Pattern Mining is a widely addressed problem in data mining, with applications such as analyzing Web usage, examining purchase behavior, and text mining, among others. Nevertheless, with the dramatic increase in data volume, the current approaches prove inefficient when dealing with large input datasets, a large number of different symbols and low minimum supports. In this paper, we propose a new sequential pattern mining algorithm, which follows a pattern-growth scheme to discover sequential patterns. Unlike most pattern growth algorithms, our approach does not build a data structure to represent the input dataset, but instead accesses the required sequences through pseudo-projection databases, achieving better runtime and reducing memory requirements. Our algorithm traverses the search space in a depth-first fashion and only preserves in memory a pattern node linkage and the pseudo-projections required for the branch being explored at the time. Experimental results show that our new approach, the Node Linkage Depth-First Traversal algorithm (NLDFT), has better performance and scalability in comparison with state of the art algorithms. PMID:24933123

Evolution in an extreme environment: developmental biases and phenotypic integration in the adaptive radiation of antarctic notothenioids.

PubMed

Hu, Yinan; Ghigliotti, Laura; Vacchi, Marino; Pisano, Eva; Detrich, H William; Albertson, R Craig

2016-06-29

Over the past 40 million years water temperatures have dramatically dropped in the Southern Ocean, which has led to the local extinction of most nearshore fish lineages. The evolution of antifreeze glycoproteins in notothenioids, however, enabled these ancestrally benthic fishes to survive and adapt as temperatures reached the freezing point of seawater (-1.86 °C). Antarctic notothenioids now represent the primary teleost lineage in the Southern Ocean and are of fundamental importance to the local ecosystem. The radiation of notothenioids has been fostered by the evolution of "secondary pelagicism", the invasion of pelagic habitats, as the group diversified to fill newly available foraging niches in the water column. While elaborate craniofacial modifications have accompanied this adaptive radiation, little is known about how these morphological changes have contributed to the evolutionary success of notothenioids. We used a 3D-morphometrics approach to investigate patterns of morphological variation in the craniofacial skeleton among notothenioids, and show that variation in head shape is best explained by divergent selection with respect to foraging niche. We document further an accelerated rate of morphological evolution in the icefish family Channichthyidae, and show that their rapid diversification was accompanied by the evolution of relatively high levels of morphological integration. Whereas most studies suggest that extensive integration should constrain phenotypic evolution, icefish stand out as a rare example of increased integration possibly facilitating evolutionary potential. Finally, we show that the unique feeding apparatus in notothenioids in general, and icefish in particular, can be traced to shifts in early developmental patterning mechanisms and ongoing growth of the pharyngeal skeleton. Our work suggests that ecological opportunity is a major factor driving craniofacial variation in this group. Further, the observation that closely related lineages can differ dramatically in integration suggests that this trait can evolve quickly. We propose that the evolution of high levels of phenotypic integration in icefishes may be considered a key innovation that facilitated their morphological evolution and subsequent ecological expansion.

Seasonal influences on sleep and executive function in the migratory White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii)

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background We have previously shown that the White-crowned Sparrow (WCS) decreases sleep by 60% during a period of migratory restlessness relative to a non-migratory period when housed in a 12 h light: 12 h dark cycle. Despite this sleep reduction, accuracy of operant performance was not impaired, and in fact rates of responding were elevated during the migratory period, effects opposite to those routinely observed following enforced sleep deprivation. To determine whether the previously observed increases in operant responding were due to improved performance or to the effects of migration on activity level, here we assessed operant performance using a task in which optimal performance depends on the bird's ability to withhold a response for a fixed interval of time (differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate-behavior, or DRL); elevated response rates ultimately impair performance by decreasing access to food reward. To determine the influence of seasonal changes in day length on sleep and behavioral patterns, we recorded sleep and assessed operant performance across 4 distinct seasons (winter, spring, summer and fall) under a changing photoperiod. Results Sleep amount changed in response to photoperiod in winter and summer, with longest sleep duration in the winter. Sleep duration in the spring and fall migratory periods were similar to what we previously reported, and were comparable to sleep duration observed in summer. The most striking difference in sleep during the migratory periods compared to non-migratory periods was the change from discrete day-night temporal organization to an almost complete temporal fragmentation of sleep. The birds' ability to perform on the DRL task was significantly impaired during both migratory periods, but optimal performance was sustained during the two non-migratory periods. Conclusions Birds showed dramatic changes in sleep duration across seasons, related to day length and migratory status. Migration was associated with changes in sleep amount and diurnal distribution pattern, whereas duration of sleep in the non-migratory periods was largely influenced by the light-dark cycle. Elevated response rates on the DRL task were observed during migration but not during the short sleep duration of summer, suggesting that the migratory periods may be associated with decreased inhibition/increased impulsivity. Although their daily sleep amounts and patterns may vary by season, birds are susceptible to sleep loss throughout the year, as evidenced by decreased responding rates following enforced sleep deprivation. PMID:20670404

Broad-scale lake expansion and flooding inundates essential wood bison habitat in northwestern Canada.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blais, J. M.; Korosi, J.; Thienpont, J. R.; Pisaric, M. F.; Kokelj, S.; Smol, J. P.; Simpson, M. J.

2017-12-01

Climate change-induced landscape alterations have consequences for vulnerable wildlife. In high-latitude regions, dramatic changes in water levels have been linked to climate warming. While most attention has focused on shrinking Arctic lakes, here, we document the opposite scenario: extensive lake expansion in Canada's Northwest Territories that has implications for the conservation of ecologically-important wood bison. We quantified lake area changes since 1986 using remote sensing techniques, and recorded a net gain of > 500 km2, from 5.7% to 11% total water coverage. Inter-annual variability in water level was significantly correlated to the Pacific/North American pattern teleconnection and the summer sea surface temperature anomaly. Historical reconstructions using proxy data archived in dated sediment cores showed that recent lake expansion is outside the range of natural variability of these ecosystems over at least the last 300 years. Lake expansion resulted in increased allochthonous carbon transport, as shown unequivocally by increases in lignin-derived phenols, but with a greater proportional increase in the contribution of organic matter from phytoplankton, as a result of increased open-water habitat. We conclude that complex hydrological changes occurring as a result of recent climatic change have resulted in rapid and widespread lake expansion that may significantly affect at-risk wildlife populations. This study is based on results we reported in Nature Communications in 2017 (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14510).

Predicting impacts of climate change on habitat connectivity of Kalopanax septemlobus in South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Wanmo; Minor, Emily S.; Lee, Dowon; Park, Chan-Ryul

2016-02-01

Understanding the drivers of habitat distribution patterns and assessing habitat connectivity are crucial for conservation in the face of climate change. In this study, we examined a sparsely distributed tree species, Kalopanax septemlobus (Araliaceae), which has been heavily disturbed by human use in temperate forests of South Korea. We used maximum entropy distribution modeling (MaxEnt) to identify the climatic and topographic factors driving the distribution of the species. Then, we constructed habitat models under current and projected climate conditions for the year 2050 and evaluated changes in the extent and connectivity of the K. septemlobus habitat. Annual mean temperature and terrain slope were the two most important predictors of species distribution. Our models predicted the range shift of K. septemlobus toward higher elevations under medium-low and high emissions scenarios for 2050, with dramatic reductions in suitable habitat (51% and 85%, respectively). In addition, connectivity analysis indicated that climate change is expected to reduce future levels of habitat connectivity. Even under the Representative Construction Pathway (RCP) 4.5 medium-low warming scenario, the projected climate conditions will decrease habitat connectivity by 78%. Overall, suitable habitats for K. septemlobus populations will likely become more isolated depending on the severity of global warming. The approach presented here can be used to efficiently assess species and habitat vulnerability to climate change.

Changing Families, Changing Workplaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bianchi, Suzanne M.

2011-01-01

American families and workplaces have both changed dramatically over the past half-century. Paid work by women has increased sharply, as has family instability. Education-related inequality in work hours and income has grown. These changes, says Suzanne Bianchi, pose differing work-life issues for parents at different points along the income…

Ecuador's Higher Education System in Times of Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Hoof, Hubert B.; Estrella, Mateo; Eljuri, Marie-Isabel; León, Leonardo Torres

2013-01-01

Ecuador's higher education system is undergoing dramatic changes. The National Constitution of 2008 and the Higher Education Law of 2010 have changed the way Ecuador's universities are funded, administered, and accredited. The importance of research was elevated and drastic changes were made to the academic qualifications and employment conditions…

Social Change and Fathering: Change or Continuity in Vietnam?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jayakody, Rukmalie; Phuong, Pham Thi Thu

2013-01-01

Dramatic social changes have restructured virtually all aspects of Vietnam society. Although the economic consequences of these changes are well documented, little is known about how family roles and relationships have been affected. Because social and cultural contexts powerfully shape conceptions of parenting, the accelerated rate of social…

Sexually dimorphic expression of gonadotropin subunits in the pituitary of protogynous honeycomb grouper (Epinephelus merra): evidence that follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) induces gonadal sex change.

PubMed

Kobayashi, Yasuhisa; Alam, Mohammad Ashraful; Horiguchi, Ryo; Shimizu, Akio; Nakamura, Masaru

2010-06-01

Recent studies have suggested that the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis is involved in gonadal sex change in sex-changing teleosts. However, its underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. In this study, we focused on the distinct roles of two gonadotropins (GTHs), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), in the protogynous hermaphrodite teleost, honeycomb grouper (Epinephelus merra). First, we investigated the expression pattern of mRNAs for GTH subunits (cga, fshb, and lhb) in the pituitaries from fish at the different sexual phases. Real-time RT-PCR analyses showed that fhsb mRNA levels in the female pituitary were low. However, fshb transcripts increased dramatically in association with testis development. In contrast, levels of cga and lhb mRNAs did not significantly vary during sex change. In addition, immunohistochemical observations of Fshb- and Lhb-producing cells in the pituitary, through the use of specific antibodies for detections of teleost GTH subunits, were consistent with sexually dimorphic expression of Fshb. In order to identify the role of GTH in gonad of honeycomb grouper, we treated females with bovine FSH (50 or 500 ng/fish) or LH (500 ng/fish) in vivo. After 3 wk, FSH treatments induced female-to-male sex change and up-regulated endogenous androgen levels and fshb transcripts, whereas LH treatment had no effect on sex change. These results suggest that FSH may trigger the female-to-male sex change in honeycomb grouper.

Impact of integrated health system changes, accelerated due to an earthquake, on emergency department attendances and acute admissions: a Bayesian change-point analysis.

PubMed

Schluter, Philip J; Hamilton, Greg J; Deely, Joanne M; Ardagh, Michael W

2016-05-11

To chart emergency department (ED) attendance and acute admission following a devastating earthquake in 2011 which lead to Canterbury's rapidly accelerated integrated health system transformations. Interrupted time series analysis, modelling using Bayesian change-point methods, of ED attendance and acute admission rates over the 2008-2014 period. ED department within the Canterbury District Health Board; with comparison to two other district health boards unaffected by the earthquake within New Zealand. Canterbury's health system services ∼500 000 people, with around 85 000 ED attendances and 37 000 acute admissions per annum. De-seasoned standardised population ED attendance and acute admission rates overall, and stratified by age and sex, compared before and after the earthquake. Analyses revealed five global patterns: (1) postearthquake, there was a sudden and persisting decrease in the proportion of the population attending the ED; (2) the growth rate of ED attendances per head of population did not change between the pre-earthquake and postearthquake periods; (3) postearthquake, there was a sudden and persisting decrease in the proportion of the population admitted to hospital; (4) the growth rate of hospital admissions per head of the population declined between pre-earthquake and postearthquake periods and (5) the most dramatic reduction in hospital admissions growth after the earthquake occurred among those aged 65+ years. Extrapolating from the projected and fitted deseasoned rates for December 2014, ∼676 (16.8%) of 4035 projected hospital admissions were avoided. While both necessarily and opportunistically accelerated, Canterbury's integrated health systems transformations have resulted in a dramatic and sustained reduction in ED attendances and acute hospital admissions. This natural intervention experiment, triggered by an earthquake, demonstrated that integrated health systems with high quality out-of-hospital care models are likely to successfully curb growth in acute hospital demand, nationally and internationally. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

An Exploration of Smoking-to-Vaping Transition Attempts Using a "Smart" Electronic Nicotine Delivery System.

PubMed

Blank, Mei-Ling; Hoek, Janet; George, Mark; Gendall, Philip; Conner, Tamlin S; Thrul, Johannes; Ling, Pamela M; Langlotz, Tobias

2018-06-06

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are used to aid smoking cessation attempts; however, many smokers continue to smoke while using an ENDS (dual use). Although uncertainty remains regarding whether specific ENDS patterns hinder or support successful smoking cessation, recent advances in "smart" technology allow passive and active recording of behaviors in real time, enabling more detailed insights into how smoking and vaping patterns may coevolve. We describe patterns of ENDS initiation, and subsequent use, including any changes in cigarette consumption, among daily smokers using a "smart" ENDS (S-ENDS) to quit smoking. An 8-week long mixed-methods feasibility study used Bluetooth-enabled S-ENDS that passively recorded real-time device use by participants (n = 11). Daily surveys administered via smartphones collected data on self-reported cigarette consumption. All 11 participants were dual users, at least initially, during their quit attempt. We observed three provisional vaping and smoking patterns: immediate and intensive ENDS initiation coupled with immediate, dramatic, and sustained smoking reduction, leading to smoking abstinence; gradual ENDS uptake with gradual smoking reductions, leading to daily dual use throughout the study period; and ENDS experimentation with return to exclusive smoking. For six participants, the patterns observed in week 1 were similar to the vaping and smoking patterns observed throughout the rest of the study period. Technological advances now allow fine-grained description of ENDS use and smoking patterns. Larger and longer studies describing smoking-to-vaping patterns, and estimating associations with smoking outcomes, could inform ENDS-specific cessation advice promoting full transition from smoking to exclusive ENDS use. The use of an S-ENDS that recorded real-time device use among daily smokers engaged in a quit attempt provides insight into patterns and trajectories of dual use (continuing to smoke while using ENDS), and the possible associations between ENDS initiation, subsequent use, and smoking cessation outcomes. Such work could support more targeted cessation counseling and technical advice for smokers using ENDS to quit smoking, reduce the risk of users developing long-term dual use patterns, and enhance the contributions ENDS may make to reducing smoking prevalence.

Epigenetic control of vasopressin expression is maintained by steroid hormones in the adult male rat brain

PubMed Central

Auger, Catherine J.; Coss, Dylan; Auger, Anthony P.; Forbes-Lorman, Robin M.

2011-01-01

Although some DNA methylation patterns are altered by steroid hormone exposure in the developing brain, less is known about how changes in steroid hormone levels influence DNA methylation patterns in the adult brain. Steroid hormones act in the adult brain to regulate gene expression. Specifically, the expression of the socially relevant peptide vasopressin (AVP) within the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) of adult brain is dependent upon testosterone exposure. Castration dramatically reduces and testosterone replacement restores AVP expression within the BST. As decreases in mRNA expression are associated with increases in DNA promoter methylation, we explored the hypothesis that AVP expression in the adult brain is maintained through sustained epigenetic modifications of the AVP gene promoter. We find that castration of adult male rats resulted in decreased AVP mRNA expression and increased methylation of specific CpG sites within the AVP promoter in the BST. Similarly, castration significantly increased estrogen receptor α (ERα) mRNA expression and decreased ERα promoter methylation within the BST. These changes were prevented by testosterone replacement. This suggests that the DNA promoter methylation status of some steroid responsive genes in the adult brain is actively maintained by the presence of circulating steroid hormones. The maintenance of methylated or demethylated states of some genes in the adult brain by the presence of steroid hormones may play a role in the homeostatic regulation of behaviorally relevant systems. PMID:21368111

Shifting Patterns of the HIV Epidemic in Southwest China: A Case Study Based on Sentinel Surveillance, 1995-2012.

PubMed

Chow, Eric P F; Gao, Liangmin; Chen, Liang; Jing, Jun; Zhang, Lei

2015-06-01

The HIV epidemic is experiencing a rapid shift in transmission profile in China. This study aims to examine the changes in magnitude, transmission pattern, and trend of the HIV epidemic in a typical Southwest Chinese prefecture over the period of 1995-2012. HIV surveillance data from the web-based reporting system were analyzed during this period. We investigated the temporal trends in the changing characteristics of HIV transmission, the HIV disease burden in key affected populations, and assessed the impacts on HIV disease progression due to scale-up of antiretroviral treatment. A total of 3556 HIV/AIDS cases were reported in Yuxi prefecture, Yunnan, over the study period. The number of HIV tests conducted has dramatically increased from 1041 in 1995 to 247,859 in 2012, resulting in a substantial increase in HIV diagnoses from 11 cases to 327 cases over the same period. Since 2005, cumulatively 1250 eligible people living with HIV (PLHIV) have received combination antiretroviral therapy which reduced AIDS disease progression from 9.0% (95% CI: 6.7-11.4%) in 1995 to 0.1% (0-0.3%) in 2012 (ptrend=0.0002). The primary mode of HIV transmission has been shifted from injection sharing (71.9% diagnoses in 1995-2004) to unsafe sexual contacts (82.6% diagnoses in 2012). Yuxi prefecture is experiencing a concentrated but shifting HIV epidemic. Scale-up of HIV testing is essential to effective sentinel surveillance and enhancing early diagnosis and treatment in PLHIV.

Age-specific mortality patterns in Central Mozambique during and after the end of the Civil War.

PubMed

Noden, Bruce H; Pearson, R John C; Gomes, Aurelio

2011-05-26

In recent years, vigorous debate has developed concerning how conflicts contribute to the spread of infectious diseases, and in particular, the role of post-conflict situations in the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS. This study details the age-specific mortality patterns among the population in the central provincial capital of Beira, Mozambique, during and after the Mozambican civil war which ended in 1992. Data was collected from the death register at Beira's Central Hospital between 1985 and 2003 and descriptively analyzed. The data show two distinct periods: before and after the peace agreements in 1992. Before 1992 (during the civil war), the main impact of mortality was on children below 5 years of age, including still births, accounting for 58% of all deaths. After the war ended in 1992, the pattern shifted dramatically and rapidly to the 15-49 year old age group which accounted for 49% of all deaths by 2003. As under-5 mortality rates were decreasing at the end of the conflict, rates for 24-49 year old adults began to dramatically increase due to AIDS. This study demonstrates that strategies can be implemented during conflicts to decrease mortality rates in one vulnerable population but post-conflict dynamics can bring together other factors which contribute to the rapid spread of other infectious diseases in other vulnerable populations.

Changing times, changing stories: Generational differences in climate change perspectives from four remote indigenous communities in Subarctic Alaska

Treesearch

Nicole M. Herman-Mercer; Elli Matkin; Melinda J. Laituri; Ryan C. Toohey; Maggie Massey; Kelly Elder; Paul F. Schuster; Edda A. Mutter

2016-01-01

Indigenous Arctic and Subarctic communities currently are facing a myriad of social and environmental changes. In response to these changes, studies concerning indigenous knowledge (IK) and climate change vulnerability, resiliency, and adaptation have increased dramatically in recent years. Risks to lives and livelihoods are often the focus of adaptation...

Historical photometric evidence for volatile migration on Triton

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buratti, Bonnie J.; Goguen, Jay D.; Gibson, James; Mosher, Joel

1994-01-01

Analysis of CCD images of Triton obtained with the 1.5-m telescope on Palomar Mountain shows that in the time period surrounding the Voyager 2 encounter with the satellite (1985-1990), no changes in the satellite's visual albedo or color occurred. The published observations of Triton in the 0.35- to 0.60-micrometer spectral region obtained between 1950 and 1990 were reanalyzed to detect historical variability in both its albedo and visual color. Analysis of the photometry indicates that there is little, if any, change in Triton's visual geometric albedo. This result is consistent with the albedo pattern observed by Voyager and the change in sub-Earth latitude. Two distinct types of color changes are evident: a significant secular increase in the blue region of the visual spectrum since at least the 1950s, and the reported dramatic reddening of Triton's spectrum in the late 1970s. The latter change can be explained only by a short-lived geological phenomenon. Triton's changing pole orientation with respect to a terrestrial observer cannot explain the secular color changes. These changes imply volatile transport on a global scale on Triton's surface during the past 4 decades. We present two models which show that either removal of a red volatile from Triton's polar cap or deposition of a blue volatile in the equatorial regions can explain the secular color changes. A third possibility is that the changes are the result of the alpha-beta phase transition of nitrogen and subsequent fracturing of the polar cap region (N. S. Duxbury and R. H. Brown (1993).

Air Force Materiel Command Reorganization Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

proper leadership, training, force development, and execution of the sustainment processes 5. a culture of collaboration whereby each of the many...organization and the pattern of organizational communication. The “principles of organization” have been relativized by a stream of criticism, and...how dramatic perfor- mance improvements can be achieved by redesigning business processes, organization, and culture . The authors define reengineering

Bosnia-Herzegovina's Higher Education System: Issues of Governance and Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tiplic, Dijana; Welle-Strand, Anne

2006-01-01

Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) is seen as an intriguing case. Often described as a "miniature" of the Balkans due to its demographic pattern, the country has been exposed to a number of dramatic events during the past fifteen years. Today, international actors administer it as a sort of "semi-protectorate" concept, the definition of…

Patterns and trends of early successional forests in the Eastern United States

Treesearch

Margaret K. Trani; Robert T. Brooks; Thomas L. Schmidt; Victor A. Rudis; Christine M. Gabbard

2001-01-01

We assessed the status of early successional forest conditions for 33 Eastern States within the New England, Middle Atlantic, Great Lakes, Central Plains, Coastal South, and Interior South subregions. We used Forest Inventory and Analysis surveys to analyze trends from 1946 to 1998. Dramatic regional differences occurred in distribution of early successional forests....

Private Supplementary Tutoring: Comparative Perspectives on Patterns and Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bray, Mark

2006-01-01

Private supplementary tutoring has long been a major phenomenon in parts of East Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. In recent times it has grown dramatically in other parts of Asia and in Africa, Europe and North America. The factors underlying the growth of private tutoring vary, but in all settings it has major…