Single Particle Tracking reveals two distinct environments for CD4 receptors at the surface of living T lymphocytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mascalchi, Patrice; Lamort, Anne Sophie; Salomé, Laurence; Dumas, Fabrice

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We studied the diffusion of single CD4 receptors on living lymphocytes. ► This study reveals that CD4 receptors have either a random or confined diffusion. ► The dynamics of unconfined CD4 receptors was accelerated by a temperature raise. ► The dynamics of confined CD4 receptors was unchanged by a temperature raise. ► Our results suggest the existence of two different environments for CD4 receptors. -- Abstract: We investigated the lateral diffusion of the HIV receptor CD4 at the surface of T lymphocytes at 20 °C and 37 °C by Single Particle Tracking using Quantum Dots. We found that the receptors presented two major distinct behaviors that were not equally affected by temperature changes. About half of the receptors showed a random diffusion with a diffusion coefficient increasing upon raising the temperature. The other half of the receptors was permanently or transiently confined with unchanged dynamics on raising the temperature. These observations suggest that two distinct subpopulations of CD4 receptors with different environments are present at the surface of living T lymphocytes.

Transcriptional profiling reveals gland-specific differential expression in the three major salivary glands of the adult mouse.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Xin; Oei, Maria S; Ovitt, Catherine E; Sincan, Murat; Melvin, James E

2018-04-01

RNA-Seq was used to better understand the molecular nature of the biological differences among the three major exocrine salivary glands in mammals. Transcriptional profiling found that the adult murine parotid, submandibular, and sublingual salivary glands express greater than 14,300 protein-coding genes, and nearly 2,000 of these genes were differentially expressed. Principle component analysis of the differentially expressed genes revealed three distinct clusters according to gland type. The three salivary gland transcriptomes were dominated by a relatively few number of highly expressed genes (6.3%) that accounted for more than 90% of transcriptional output. Of the 912 transcription factors expressed in the major salivary glands, greater than 90% of them were detected in all three glands, while expression for ~2% of them was enriched in an individual gland. Expression of these unique transcription factors correlated with sublingual and parotid specific subsets of both highly expressed and differentially expressed genes. Gene ontology analyses revealed that the highly expressed genes common to all glands were associated with global functions, while many of the genes expressed in a single gland play a major role in the function of that gland. In summary, transcriptional profiling of the three murine major salivary glands identified a limited number of highly expressed genes, differentially expressed genes, and unique transcription factors that represent the transcriptional signatures underlying gland-specific biological properties.

Associations between Psychosocial Aspects of English Classroom Environments and Motivation Types of Chinese Tertiary-Level English Majors

Science.gov (United States)

Bi, Xuefei

2015-01-01

This study involved whether psychosocial aspects of English classroom environments had associations with the English learning motivation types of Chinese tertiary-level English majors based on a case study of approximate 1,000 English majors in their first 2 years at one of the key universities located in South China. Canonical correlation…

The environment in France - Major trends 2014

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joassard, Irenee; Bousseau, Brigitte; Kochert, Thomas; Garderet, Agnes; Baron, Anne; Bousseau, Brigitte; Yousfi, Sarah; Lambert, Mathilde; Flegeo, Isabelle; Chevallier, Florence

2015-01-01

What is the state of the environment? How is it changing? Thanks to monitoring and research, knowledge of the different environments has improved. Some monitoring indicators are positive thanks to technical progress, investment and the impetus created by regulations, incentive-led measures and behavioural change. The situation nonetheless remains a concern

Built Environment, Selected Risk Factors and Major Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes: A Systematic Review.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pasmore Malambo

Full Text Available Built environment attributes have been linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD risk. Therefore, identifying built environment attributes that are associated with CVD risk is relevant for facilitating effective public health interventions.To conduct a systematic review of literature to examine the influence of built environmental attributes on CVD risks.Multiple database searches including Science direct, CINAHL, Masterfile Premier, EBSCO and manual scan of reference lists were conducted.Studies published in English between 2005 and April 2015 were included if they assessed one or more of the neighborhood environmental attributes in relation with any major CVD outcomes and selected risk factors among adults.Author(s, country/city, sex, age, sample size, study design, tool used to measure neighborhood environment, exposure and outcome assessments and associations were extracted from eligible studies.Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies used both cross-sectional design and Geographic Information System (GIS to assess the neighborhood environmental attributes. Neighborhood environmental attributes were significantly associated with CVD risk and CVD outcomes in the expected direction. Residential density, safety from traffic, recreation facilities, street connectivity and high walkable environment were associated with physical activity. High walkable environment, fast food restaurants, supermarket/grocery stores were associated with blood pressure, body mass index, diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. High density traffic, road proximity and fast food restaurants were associated with CVDs outcomes.This study confirms the relationship between neighborhood environment attributes and CVDs and risk factors. Prevention programs should account for neighborhood environmental attributes in the communities where people live.

SHOCKING TAILS IN THE MAJOR MERGER ABELL 2744

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Owers, Matt S.; Couch, Warrick J. [Center for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122 (Australia); Nulsen, Paul E. J.; Randall, Scott W., E-mail: mowers@aao.gov.au [Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

2012-05-01

We identify four rare 'jellyfish' galaxies in Hubble Space Telescope imagery of the major merger cluster Abell 2744. These galaxies harbor trails of star-forming knots and filaments which have formed in situ in gas tails stripped from the parent galaxies, indicating they are in the process of being transformed by the environment. Further evidence for rapid transformation in these galaxies comes from their optical spectra, which reveal starburst, poststarburst, and active galactic nucleus features. Most intriguingly, three of the jellyfish galaxies lie near intracluster medium features associated with a merging 'Bullet-like' subcluster and its shock front detected in Chandra X-ray images. We suggest that the high-pressure merger environment may be responsible for the star formation in the gaseous tails. This provides observational evidence for the rapid transformation of galaxies during the violent core passage phase of a major cluster merger.

Metagenomes Reveal Global Distribution of Bacterial Steroid Catabolism in Natural, Engineered, and Host Environments

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Johannes Holert

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Steroids are abundant growth substrates for bacteria in natural, engineered, and host-associated environments. This study analyzed the distribution of the aerobic 9,10-seco steroid degradation pathway in 346 publically available metagenomes from diverse environments. Our results show that steroid-degrading bacteria are globally distributed and prevalent in particular environments, such as wastewater treatment plants, soil, plant rhizospheres, and the marine environment, including marine sponges. Genomic signature-based sequence binning recovered 45 metagenome-assembled genomes containing a majority of 9,10-seco pathway genes. Only Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were identified as steroid degraders, but we identified several alpha- and gammaproteobacterial lineages not previously known to degrade steroids. Actino- and proteobacterial steroid degraders coexisted in wastewater, while soil and rhizosphere samples contained mostly actinobacterial ones. Actinobacterial steroid degraders were found in deep ocean samples, while mostly alpha- and gammaproteobacterial ones were found in other marine samples, including sponges. Isolation of steroid-degrading bacteria from sponges confirmed their presence. Phylogenetic analysis of key steroid degradation proteins suggested their biochemical novelty in genomes from sponges and other environments. This study shows that the ecological significance as well as taxonomic and biochemical diversity of bacterial steroid degradation has so far been largely underestimated, especially in the marine environment.

13C-NMR reveals glycerol as an unexpected major metabolite of the protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chapman, A.; Lloyd, D.; Linstead, D.J.; Williams, J.

1985-01-01

13 C-NMR has been used to study the kinetics of the formation of metabolites from [l- 13 C]glucose in intact cells of Trichomonas vaginalis during anaerobic incubation. As well as the expected metabolites lactate and acetate, this technique revealed glycerol as an additional major product, present in amounts equimolar with acetate. The formation of glycerol is readily explained in terms of the need to maintain redox balance. This protozoan now joins the small group of organisms which are known to produce glycerol as a result of normal metabolic activities. (Auth.)

Tactical and operational response to major incidents: feasibility and reliability of skills assessment using novel virtual environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Daniel; Sevdalis, Nick; Patel, Vishal; Taylor, Michael; Lee, Henry; Vokes, Mick; Heys, Mick; Taylor, David; Batrick, Nicola; Darzi, Ara

2013-07-01

To determine feasibility and reliability of skills assessment in a multi-agency, triple-site major incident response exercise carried out in a virtual world environment. Skills assessment was carried out across three scenarios. The pre-hospital scenario required paramedics to triage and treat casualties at the site of an explosion. Technical skills assessment forms were developed using training syllabus competencies and national guidelines identified by pre-hospital response experts. Non-technical skills were assessed using a seven-point scale previously developed for use by pre-hospital paramedics. The two in-hospital scenarios, focusing on a trauma team leader and a silver/clinical major incident co-ordinator, utilised the validated Trauma-NOTECHS scale to assess five domains of performance. Technical competencies were assessed using an ATLS-style competency scale for the trauma scenario. For the silver scenario, the assessment document was developed using competencies described from a similar role description in a real-life hospital major incident plan. The technical and non-technical performance of all participants was assessed live by two experts in each of the three scenarios and inter-assessor reliability was computed. Participants also self-assessed their performance using identical proformas immediately after the scenarios were completed. Self and expert assessments were correlated (assessment cross-validation). Twenty-three participants underwent all scenarios and assessments. Performance assessments were feasible for both experts as well as the participants. Non-technical performance was generally scored higher than technical performance. Very good inter-rater reliability was obtained between expert raters across all scenarios and both technical and non-technical aspects of performance (reliability range 0.59-0.90, Psassessment in technical skills across all three scenarios (correlation range 0.52-0.84, Psskills. This study establishes feasibility and

Gene-environment interaction in Major Depression: focus on experience-dependent biological systems

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Nicola eLopizzo

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Major Depressive Disorder (MDD is a multifactorial and polygenic disorder, where multiple and partially overlapping sets of susceptibility genes interact each other and with the environment, predisposing individuals to the development of the illness. Thus, MDD results from a complex interplay of vulnerability genes and environmental factors that act cumulatively throughout individual's lifetime. Among these environmental factors, stressful life experiences, especially those occurring early in life, have been suggested to exert a crucial impact on brain development, leading to permanent functional changes that may contribute to life long risk for mental health outcomes. In this review we will discuss how genetic variants (polymorphisms, SNPs within genes operating in neurobiological systems that mediate stress response and synaptic plasticity, can impact, by themselves, the vulnerability risk for MDD; we will also consider how this MDD risk can be further modulated when gene X environment interaction is taken into account. Finally, we will discuss the role of epigenetic mechanisms, and in particular of DNA methylation and miRNAs expression changes, in mediating the effect of the stress on the vulnerability risk to develop MDD. Taken together, in this review we aim to underlie the role of genetic and epigenetic processes involved in stress and neuroplasticity related biological systems on development of MDD after exposure to early life stress, thereby building the basis for future research and clinical interventions.

How revealing rankings affects student attitude and rerformance in a peer review learning environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Papadopoulos, Pantelis M.; Lagkas, Thomas D.; Demetriadis, Stavros N.

2015-01-01

This paper investigates the possible benefits as well as the overall impact on the behaviour of students within a learning environment, which is based on double-blinding reviewing of freely selected peer works. Fifty-six sophomore students majoring in Informatics and Telecommunications Engi....... The students that participated in the other two conditions were provided with their usage information (logins, peer work viewed/reviewed, etc.), while members of the last group could also have access to ranking information about their positioning in their group, based on their usage data. According to our...

Biogenic non-crystalline U(IV) revealed as major component in uranium ore deposits

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharyya, Amrita; Campbell, Kate M.; Kelly, Shelly D.; Roebbert, Yvonne; Weyer, Stefan; Bernier-Latmani, Rizlan; Borch, Thomas

2017-06-01

Historically, it is believed that crystalline uraninite, produced via the abiotic reduction of hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) is the dominant reduced U species formed in low-temperature uranium roll-front ore deposits. Here we show that non-crystalline U(IV) generated through biologically mediated U(VI) reduction is the predominant U(IV) species in an undisturbed U roll-front ore deposit in Wyoming, USA. Characterization of U species revealed that the majority (~58-89%) of U is bound as U(IV) to C-containing organic functional groups or inorganic carbonate, while uraninite and U(VI) represent only minor components. The uranium deposit exhibited mostly 238U-enriched isotope signatures, consistent with largely biotic reduction of U(VI) to U(IV). This finding implies that biogenic processes are more important to uranium ore genesis than previously understood. The predominance of a relatively labile form of U(IV) also provides an opportunity for a more economical and environmentally benign mining process, as well as the design of more effective post-mining restoration strategies and human health-risk assessment.

Metagenomics of Kamchatkan hot spring filaments reveal two new major (hyper)thermophilic lineages related to Thaumarchaeota.

Science.gov (United States)

Eme, Laura; Reigstad, Laila J; Spang, Anja; Lanzén, Anders; Weinmaier, Thomas; Rattei, Thomas; Schleper, Christa; Brochier-Armanet, Céline

2013-06-01

Based on phylogenetic analyses and gene distribution patterns of a few complete genomes, a new distinct phylum within the Archaea, the Thaumarchaeota, has recently been proposed. Here we present analyses of six archaeal fosmid sequences derived from a microbial hot spring community in Kamchatka. The phylogenetic analysis of informational components (ribosomal RNAs and proteins) reveals two major (hyper-)thermophilic clades ("Hot Thaumarchaeota-related Clade" 1 and 2, HTC1 and HTC2) related to Thaumarchaeota, representing either deep branches of this phylum or a new archaeal phylum and provides information regarding the ancient evolution of Archaea and their evolutionary links with Eukaryotes. Copyright © 2013 Institut Pasteur. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Hopanoid-producing bacteria in the Red Sea include the major marine nitrite-oxidizers

KAUST Repository

Kharbush, Jenan J

2018-04-10

Hopanoids, including the extended side chain-containing bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs), are bacterial lipids found abundantly in the geological record and across Earth\\'s surface environments. However, the physiological roles of this biomarker remain uncertain, limiting interpretation of their presence in current and past environments. Recent work investigating the diversity and distribution of hopanoid producers in the marine environment implicated low-oxygen regions as important loci of hopanoid production, and data from marine oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) suggested that the dominant hopanoid producers in these environments are nitrite-utilizing organisms, revealing a potential connection between hopanoid production and the marine nitrogen cycle. Here we use metagenomic data from the Red Sea to investigate the ecology of hopanoid producers in an environmental setting that is biogeochemically distinct from those investigated previously. The distributions of hopanoid production and nitrite oxidation genes in the Red Sea are closely correlated, and the majority of hopanoid producers are taxonomically affiliated with the major marine nitrite oxidizers, Nitrospinae and Nitrospirae. These results suggest that the relationship between hopanoid production and nitrite oxidation is conserved across varying biogeochemical conditions in dark ocean microbial ecosystems.

Hopanoid-producing bacteria in the Red Sea include the major marine nitrite-oxidizers

KAUST Repository

Kharbush, Jenan J; Thompson, Luke R; Haroon, Mohamed; Knight, Rob; Aluwihare, Lihini I

2018-01-01

Hopanoids, including the extended side chain-containing bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs), are bacterial lipids found abundantly in the geological record and across Earth's surface environments. However, the physiological roles of this biomarker remain uncertain, limiting interpretation of their presence in current and past environments. Recent work investigating the diversity and distribution of hopanoid producers in the marine environment implicated low-oxygen regions as important loci of hopanoid production, and data from marine oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) suggested that the dominant hopanoid producers in these environments are nitrite-utilizing organisms, revealing a potential connection between hopanoid production and the marine nitrogen cycle. Here we use metagenomic data from the Red Sea to investigate the ecology of hopanoid producers in an environmental setting that is biogeochemically distinct from those investigated previously. The distributions of hopanoid production and nitrite oxidation genes in the Red Sea are closely correlated, and the majority of hopanoid producers are taxonomically affiliated with the major marine nitrite oxidizers, Nitrospinae and Nitrospirae. These results suggest that the relationship between hopanoid production and nitrite oxidation is conserved across varying biogeochemical conditions in dark ocean microbial ecosystems.

Gene-environment effects on hippocampal neurodevelopment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rosenthal, Eva Helga

Mental disorders like schizophrenia and autism put a heavy load on today’s societies, creating a steady call for revealing underlying disease mechanisms and the development of effective treatments. The etiology of major psychiatric illnesses is complex involving gene by environment susceptibility...... factors. Hence, a deeper understanding is needed of how cortical neurodevelopmental deficiencies can arise from such gene-environment interactions. The convergence of genetic and environmental risk factors is a recent field of research. It is now clear that disease, infection and stress factors may...... and antipsychotics mediate their effects on hippocampal neurodevelopment through deregulation of the Zbtb20 gene. A short presentation of the status of this work will shown....

A Comparative Study on Cooperative Learning in Multimedia and Network Environment Used by English Majors between China Mainland and Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Gong; Lingling, Liu

2018-01-01

This paper first based on the theory of cooperative learning research. It analyses the characteristics and advantages of cooperative learning under the multimedia network environment. And then take China Three Gorges University and Taiwan I-Shou University English major students for example, using questionnaires and interviews to investigate the…

A genome scan revealed significant associations of growth traits with a major QTL and GHR2 in tilapia

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Feng; Sun, Fei; Xia, Jun Hong; Li, Jian; Fu, Gui Hong; Lin, Grace; Tu, Rong Jian; Wan, Zi Yi; Quek, Delia; Yue, Gen Hua

2014-01-01

Growth is an important trait in animal breeding. However, the genetic effects underpinning fish growth variability are still poorly understood. QTL mapping and analysis of candidate genes are effective methods to address this issue. We conducted a genome-wide QTL analysis for growth in tilapia. A total of 10, 7 and 8 significant QTLs were identified for body weight, total length and standard length at 140 dph, respectively. The majority of these QTLs were sex-specific. One major QTL for growth traits was identified in the sex-determining locus in LG1, explaining 71.7%, 67.2% and 64.9% of the phenotypic variation (PV) of body weight, total length and standard length, respectively. In addition, a candidate gene GHR2 in a QTL was significantly associated with body weight, explaining 13.1% of PV. Real-time qPCR revealed that different genotypes at the GHR2 locus influenced the IGF-1 expression level. The markers located in the major QTL for growth traits could be used in marker-assisted selection of tilapia. The associations between GHR2 variants and growth traits suggest that the GHR2 gene should be an important gene that explains the difference in growth among tilapia species. PMID:25435025

The Revealed Competitiveness of Major Ports in the East Asian Region: An Additive Market Share Analysis

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Tae Seung Kim

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the single cargo market, the ordinary market share analysis method has been the representative tool for revealed competitiveness analysis. This paper develops and employs an applied market share index called the additive market share (AMS. Data are collected from 15 major container ports for the 1998-2013 period. In comparison to the results of an ordinary market share analysis, the highest AMS is observed for the Bohai Rim port cluster from 2008, not for the Yangtze River cluster or the Pearl River cluster. There are substitutable relationships between Yangtze River and non-Chinese ports and between Pearl River and Bohai Rim ports from 2001. Finally, there is an internal competition at Pearl River and Yangtze River ports, whereas Bohai Rim and non-Chinese ports show internally complementary relationships.

Adaptations to a Subterranean Environment and Longevity Revealed by the Analysis of Mole Rat Genomes

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Xiaodong Fang

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Subterranean mammals spend their lives in dark, unventilated environments that are rich in carbon dioxide and ammonia and low in oxygen. Many of these animals are also long-lived and exhibit reduced aging-associated diseases, such as neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. We sequenced the genome of the Damaraland mole rat (DMR, Fukomys damarensis and improved the genome assembly of the naked mole rat (NMR, Heterocephalus glaber. Comparative genome analyses, along with the transcriptomes of related subterranean rodents, revealed candidate molecular adaptations for subterranean life and longevity, including a divergent insulin peptide, expression of oxygen-carrying globins in the brain, prevention of high CO2-induced pain perception, and enhanced ammonia detoxification. Juxtaposition of the genomes of DMR and other more conventional animals with the genome of NMR revealed several truly exceptional NMR features: unusual thermogenesis, an aberrant melatonin system, pain insensitivity, and unique processing of 28S rRNA. Together, these genomes and transcriptomes extend our understanding of subterranean adaptations, stress resistance, and longevity.

Major soybean maturity gene haplotypes revealed by SNPViz analysis of 72 sequenced soybean genomes.

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Tiffany Langewisch

Full Text Available In this Genomics Era, vast amounts of next-generation sequencing data have become publicly available for multiple genomes across hundreds of species. Analyses of these large-scale datasets can become cumbersome, especially when comparing nucleotide polymorphisms across many samples within a dataset and among different datasets or organisms. To facilitate the exploration of allelic variation and diversity, we have developed and deployed an in-house computer software to categorize and visualize these haplotypes. The SNPViz software enables users to analyze region-specific haplotypes from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP datasets for different sequenced genomes. The examination of allelic variation and diversity of important soybean [Glycine max (L. Merr.] flowering time and maturity genes may provide additional insight into flowering time regulation and enhance researchers' ability to target soybean breeding for particular environments. For this study, we utilized two available soybean genomic datasets for a total of 72 soybean genotypes encompassing cultivars, landraces, and the wild species Glycine soja. The major soybean maturity genes E1, E2, E3, and E4 along with the Dt1 gene for plant growth architecture were analyzed in an effort to determine the number of major haplotypes for each gene, to evaluate the consistency of the haplotypes with characterized variant alleles, and to identify evidence of artificial selection. The results indicated classification of a small number of predominant haplogroups for each gene and important insights into possible allelic diversity for each gene within the context of known causative mutations. The software has both a stand-alone and web-based version and can be used to analyze other genes, examine additional soybean datasets, and view similar genome sequence and SNP datasets from other species.

Predicting Virtual Learning Environment Adoption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Penjor, Sonam; Zander, Pär-Ola Mikael

2016-01-01

This study investigates the significance of Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory with regard to the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). The focus is on different adoption types and characteristics of users. Rogers’ DOI theory is applied...... to investigate the influence of five predictors (relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability and observability) and their significance in the perception of academic staff at the RUB in relation to the probability of VLE adoption. These predictors are attributes of the VLE that determine the rate...... of adoption by various adopter group memberships (Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards). Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were deployed to analyse adopter group memberships and predictor significance in VLE adoption and use. The results revealed varying attitudes...

The performance environment of the England youth soccer teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Pain, Matthew A; Harwood, Chris

2007-10-01

In the present study, we examined the performance environment of the England youth soccer teams. Using a semi-structured protocol with a prospective sample, national coaches (n = 6), sport scientists (n = 3), and players (n = 4) were interviewed directly following international tournaments about the factors that positively and negatively influenced performance. Qualitative content analysis revealed the following factors as major positive influences on performance: adhering to a consistent tournament strategy, player understanding, strong team cohesion, organized entertainment activities, detailed knowledge of opposition, an effective physical rest/recovery strategy, and previous tournament experience. Major factors perceived to have negatively influenced performance included: over-coaching, player boredom, player anxiety, physical superiority of the opposition, physical fatigue over the tournament, problems sleeping, and lack of information on the opposition. Eight overall dimensions emerged to describe the performance environment: planning and organization, physical environment, tactical factors, development and performance philosophy, psychological factors, physical factors, social factors, and coaching. The findings support recent work that suggests the performance environment is multifaceted, with performance being contingent upon a broad range of interacting factors that go beyond the traditional psychosocial and physical domains.

Sunflower mega-environments in Serbia revealed by GGE biplot analysis

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Balalić Igor

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Sunflower mega-environment analysis was conducted for the grain yield data of 20 hybrids and 19 test locations during 2006, and 20 hybrids and 16 test locations during 2007. Combined data included 15 hybrids and 9 test locations common for both years and it was analyzed as balanced experiment. The analysis of variance components showed that hybrid by location interaction explained 2.74, 5.8, and 3.72 times more variation than hybrid, for grain yield, for 2006, 2007, combined data, respectively, and indicated potential mega-environment existence. Our results showed the existence of two mega-environments in Serbia sunflower growing region: (1 Kula Vitovnica, Aleksa Šantić, Sombor and (2 Rimski Šančevi, Kikinda. It has been concluded that if we want promising sunflower hybrids to be optimally used, they should be cropped differently for the two determined mega-environments.

Revealing Nanoscale Passivation and Corrosion Mechanisms of Reactive Battery Materials in Gas Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yuzhang; Li, Yanbin; Sun, Yongming; Butz, Benjamin; Yan, Kai; Koh, Ai Leen; Zhao, Jie; Pei, Allen; Cui, Yi

2017-08-09

Lithium (Li) metal is a high-capacity anode material (3860 mAh g -1 ) that can enable high-energy batteries for electric vehicles and grid-storage applications. However, Li metal is highly reactive and repeatedly consumed when exposed to liquid electrolyte (during battery operation) or the ambient environment (throughout battery manufacturing). Studying these corrosion reactions on the nanoscale is especially difficult due to the high chemical reactivity of both Li metal and its surface corrosion films. Here, we directly generate pure Li metal inside an environmental transmission electron microscope (TEM), revealing the nanoscale passivation and corrosion process of Li metal in oxygen (O 2 ), nitrogen (N 2 ), and water vapor (H 2 O). We find that while dry O 2 and N 2 (99.9999 vol %) form uniform passivation layers on Li, trace water vapor (∼1 mol %) disrupts this passivation and forms a porous film on Li metal that allows gas to penetrate and continuously react with Li. To exploit the self-passivating behavior of Li in dry conditions, we introduce a simple dry-N 2 pretreatment of Li metal to form a protective layer of Li nitride prior to battery assembly. The fast ionic conductivity and stable interface of Li nitride results in improved battery performance with dendrite-free cycling and low voltage hysteresis. Our work reveals the detailed process of Li metal passivation/corrosion and demonstrates how this mechanistic insight can guide engineering solutions for Li metal batteries.

Multiple spectroscopic analyses reveal the fate and metabolism of sulfamide herbicide triafamone in agricultural environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Mengcen; Qian, Yuan; Liu, Xiaoyu; Wei, Peng; Deng, Man; Wang, Lei; Wu, Huiming; Zhu, Guonian

2017-01-01

Triafamone, a sulfamide herbicide, has been extensively utilized for weed control in rice paddies in Asia. However, its fate and transformation in the environment have not been established. Through a rice paddy microcosm-based simulation trial combined with multiple spectroscopic analyses, we isolated and identified three novel metabolites of triafamone, including hydroxyl triafamone (HTA), hydroxyl triafamone glycoside (HTAG), and oxazolidinedione triafamone (OTA). When triafamone was applied to rice paddies at a concentration of 34.2 g active ingredient/ha, this was predominantly distributed in the paddy soil and water, and then rapidly dissipated in accordance with the first-order rate model, with half-lives of 4.3–11.0 days. As the main transformation pathway, triafamone was assimilated by the rice plants and was detoxified into HTAG, whereas the rest was reduced into HTA with subsequent formation of OTA. At the senescence stage, brown rice had incurred triafamone at a concentration of 0.0016 mg/kg, but the hazard quotient was <1, suggesting that long-term consumption of the triafamone-containing brown rice is relatively safe. The findings of the present study indicate that triafamone is actively metabolized in the agricultural environment, and elucidation of the link between environmental exposure to these triazine or oxazolidinedione moieties that contain metabolites and their potential impacts is warranted. - Highlights: • Multiple spectroscopic analyses were applied to investigate agrochemicals transformation in environment. • Three novel compounds were isolated and identified as triafamone metabolites. • The fate and transformation pathway of triafamone in rice paddy were revealed. • Long-term consumption of the triafamone-containing brown rice is relatively safe. • Elucidation of environmental impacts by exposure to these triazine or oxazolidinedione metabolites is warranted. - Triafamone rapidly dissipates in agricultural environments

Campylobacter in the environment: A major threat to public health

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Hussein Hasan Abulreesh

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Epidemiological data suggest that Campylobacter remains a worldwide leading cause of gastrointestinal infections. Improperly prepared meat products, unpasteurized milk as well as non chlorinated drinking water were shown to be the main sources of campylobacteriosis. The Campylobacter survival mechanism in various environments facilitated the transmission of Campylobacter-associated infections; however the exact mode of transmission remains to be elucidated. This review aims to summarize recent insights on the incidence and survival of Campylobacter in the environment. Besides, methods of detection and risk assessment for public health safety are also addressed.

Big Sib Students' Perceptions of the Educational Environment at the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, using Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) Inventory.

Science.gov (United States)

Arzuman, Hafiza; Yusoff, Muhamad Saiful Bahri; Chit, Som Phong

2010-07-01

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among Big Sib students to explore their perceptions of the educational environment at the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and its weak areas using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) inventory. The DREEM inventory is a validated global instrument for measuring educational environments in undergraduate medical and health professional education. The English version of the DREEM inventory was administered to all Year 2 Big Sib students (n = 67) at a regular Big Sib session. The purpose of the study as well as confidentiality and ethical issues were explained to the students before the questionnaire was administered. The response rate was 62.7% (42 out of 67 students). The overall DREEM score was 117.9/200 (SD 14.6). The DREEM indicated that the Big Sib students' perception of educational environment of the medical school was more positive than negative. Nevertheless, the study also revealed some problem areas within the educational environment. This pilot study revealed that Big Sib students perceived a positive learning environment at the School of Medical Sciences, USM. It also identified some low-scored areas that require further exploration to pinpoint the exact problems. The relatively small study population selected from a particular group of students was the major limitation of the study. This small sample size also means that the study findings cannot be generalised.

Salt resistance genes revealed by functional metagenomics from brines and moderate-salinity rhizosphere within a hypersaline environment

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Salvador eMirete

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Hypersaline environments are considered one of the most extreme habitats on earth and microorganisms have developed diverse molecular mechanisms of adaptation to withstand these conditions. The present study was aimed at identifying novel genes involved in salt resistance from the microbial communities of brines and the rhizosphere from the Es Trenc saltern (Mallorca, Spain. The microbial diversity assessed by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene libraries revealed the presence of communities that are typical in such environments. Metagenomic libraries from brine and rhizosphere samples, were transferred to the osmosensitive strain Escherichia coli MKH13, and screened for salt resistance. As a result, eleven genes that conferred salt resistance were identified, some encoding for well known proteins previously related to osmoadaptation as a glycerol and a proton pump, whereas others encoded for proteins not previously related to this function in microorganisms as DNA/RNA helicases, an endonuclease III (Nth and hypothetical proteins of unknown function. Furthermore, four of the retrieved genes were cloned and expressed in Bacillus subtilis and they also exhibited salt resistance in this bacterium, broadening the spectrum of bacterial species where these genes can operate. This is the first report of salt resistance genes recovered from metagenomes of a hypersaline environment.

Differential co-expression and regulation analyses reveal different mechanisms underlying major depressive disorder and subsyndromal symptomatic depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Fan; Yang, Jing; Chen, Jin; Wu, Qingyuan; Gong, Wei; Zhang, Jianguo; Shao, Weihua; Mu, Jun; Yang, Deyu; Yang, Yongtao; Li, Zhiwei; Xie, Peng

2015-04-03

Recent depression research has revealed a growing awareness of how to best classify depression into depressive subtypes. Appropriately subtyping depression can lead to identification of subtypes that are more responsive to current pharmacological treatment and aid in separating out depressed patients in which current antidepressants are not particularly effective. Differential co-expression analysis (DCEA) and differential regulation analysis (DRA) were applied to compare the transcriptomic profiles of peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with two depressive subtypes: major depressive disorder (MDD) and subsyndromal symptomatic depression (SSD). Six differentially regulated genes (DRGs) (FOSL1, SRF, JUN, TFAP4, SOX9, and HLF) and 16 transcription factor-to-target differentially co-expressed gene links or pairs (TF2target DCLs) appear to be the key differential factors in MDD; in contrast, one DRG (PATZ1) and eight TF2target DCLs appear to be the key differential factors in SSD. There was no overlap between the MDD target genes and SSD target genes. Venlafaxine (Efexor™, Effexor™) appears to have a significant effect on the gene expression profile of MDD patients but no significant effect on the gene expression profile of SSD patients. DCEA and DRA revealed no apparent similarities between the differential regulatory processes underlying MDD and SSD. This bioinformatic analysis may provide novel insights that can support future antidepressant R&D efforts.

Assessment of noise environment during construction of a major bridge and associated approach road.

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, T K; Mukhopadhyay, A R; Ghosh, S K; Majumder, G

2011-10-01

In this paper a methodology to quantify the noise environment, during a major bridge construction and upgrading approach road connectivity, has been provided. Noise levels were monitored at eleven sites. These eleven sites have been classified into three categories - commercial, residential and silence zones. The study was carried out to measure the ambient noise levels in all the eleven sites falling in the above three categories during both day and night times considering both "working" and "non-working" days. It was found that the mean noise level during night time was more, compared to that during day time for commercial, residential as well as silence zones. The likely causes of more noise during night time have been explored. Appropriate remedial measures have been suggested to reduce the noise levels. In addition, the noise levels in the above three zones have been compared, wherever feasible statistically, with the respective zonal standards. Significance has been found in all the cases. The underlying causes and remedies have been provided.

Component resolution reveals additional major allergens in patients with honeybee venom allergy.

Science.gov (United States)

Köhler, Julian; Blank, Simon; Müller, Sabine; Bantleon, Frank; Frick, Marcel; Huss-Marp, Johannes; Lidholm, Jonas; Spillner, Edzard; Jakob, Thilo

2014-05-01

Detection of IgE to recombinant Hymenoptera venom allergens has been suggested to improve the diagnostic precision in Hymenoptera venom allergy. However, the frequency of sensitization to the only available recombinant honeybee venom (HBV) allergen, rApi m 1, in patients with HBV allergy is limited, suggesting that additional HBV allergens might be of relevance. We performed an analysis of sensitization profiles of patients with HBV allergy to a panel of HBV allergens. Diagnosis of HBV allergy (n = 144) was based on history, skin test results, and allergen-specific IgE levels to HBV. IgE reactivity to 6 HBV allergens devoid of cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants (CCD) was analyzed by ImmunoCAP. IgE reactivity to rApi m 1, rApi m 2, rApi m 3, nApi m 4, rApi m 5, and rApi m 10 was detected in 72.2%, 47.9%, 50.0%, 22.9%, 58.3%, and 61.8% of the patients with HBV allergy, respectively. Positive results to at least 1 HBV allergen were detected in 94.4%. IgE reactivity to Api m 3, Api m 10, or both was detected in 68.0% and represented the only HBV allergen-specific IgE in 5% of the patients. Limited inhibition of IgE binding by therapeutic HBV and limited induction of Api m 3- and Api m 10-specific IgG4 in patients obtaining immunotherapy supports recent reports on the underrepresentation of these allergens in therapeutic HBV preparations. Analysis of a panel of CCD-free HBV allergens improved diagnostic sensitivity compared with use of rApi m 1 alone, identified additional major allergens, and revealed sensitizations to allergens that have been reported to be absent or underrepresented in therapeutic HBV preparations. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Improved perceived indoor environment in renovated and energy-retrofitted social housing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Henrik Nellemose

2017-01-01

, noise from outside and too little daylight. The evaluation shows that it is possible to achieve a win-win situation, with both energy savings and improved perceived indoor environment. The evaluation also reveals that careful attention is needed to avoid introducing annoying noise from new technical......The purpose of the present study was, among other things, to evaluate how tenants perceived the indoor environment in renovated and energy-retrofitted social housing erected in the 1960s. Tenants answered a questionnaire to quantify problems and satisfaction with the indoor environment before...... and after the renovation work. A majority of tenants perceived the indoor environment improved for all parameters: temperature, draught, air quality, noise and daylight, after the renovation work. In particular, the tenants experienced fewer problems with too low temperature and draught during the winter...

Metabolomics of dates (Phoenix dactylifera) reveals a highly dynamic ripening process accounting for major variation in fruit composition.

Science.gov (United States)

Diboun, Ilhame; Mathew, Sweety; Al-Rayyashi, Maryam; Elrayess, Mohamed; Torres, Maria; Halama, Anna; Méret, Michaël; Mohney, Robert P; Karoly, Edward D; Malek, Joel; Suhre, Karsten

2015-12-16

Dates are tropical fruits with appreciable nutritional value. Previous attempts at global metabolic characterization of the date metabolome were constrained by small sample size and limited geographical sampling. In this study, two independent large cohorts of mature dates exhibiting substantial diversity in origin, varieties and fruit processing conditions were measured by metabolomics techniques in order to identify major determinants of the fruit metabolome. Multivariate analysis revealed a first principal component (PC1) significantly associated with the dates' countries of production. The availability of a smaller dataset featuring immature dates from different development stages served to build a model of the ripening process in dates, which helped reveal a strong ripening signature in PC1. Analysis revealed enrichment in the dry type of dates amongst fruits with early ripening profiles at one end of PC1 as oppose to an overrepresentation of the soft type of dates with late ripening profiles at the other end of PC1. Dry dates are typical to the North African region whilst soft dates are more popular in the Gulf region, which partly explains the observed association between PC1 and geography. Analysis of the loading values, expressing metabolite correlation levels with PC1, revealed enrichment patterns of a comprehensive range of metabolite classes along PC1. Three distinct metabolic phases corresponding to known stages of date ripening were observed: An early phase enriched in regulatory hormones, amines and polyamines, energy production, tannins, sucrose and anti-oxidant activity, a second phase with on-going phenylpropanoid secondary metabolism, gene expression and phospholipid metabolism and a late phase with marked sugar dehydration activity and degradation reactions leading to increased volatile synthesis. These data indicate the importance of date ripening as a main driver of variation in the date metabolome responsible for their diverse nutritional and

Fetal Environment Is a Major Determinant of the Neonatal Blood Thyroxine Level: Results of a Large Dutch Twin Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zwaveling-Soonawala, Nitash; van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E M; Mesfum, Ertirea T; Wiedijk, Brenda; Oomen, Petra; Finken, Martijn J J; Boomsma, Dorret I; van Trotsenburg, A S Paul

2015-06-01

The interindividual variability in thyroid hormone function parameters is much larger than the intraindividual variability, suggesting an individual set point for these parameters. There is evidence to suggest that environmental factors are more important than genetic factors in the determination of this individual set point. This study aimed to quantify the effect of genetic factors and (fetal) environment on the early postnatal blood T4 concentration. This was a classical twin study comparing the resemblance of neonatal screening blood T4 concentrations in 1264 mono- and 2566 dizygotic twin pairs retrieved from the population-based Netherlands Twin Register. Maximum-likelihood estimates of variance explained by genetic and environmental influences were obtained by structural equation modeling in data from full-term and preterm twin pairs. In full-term infants, genetic factors explained 40%/31% of the variance in standardized T4 scores in boys/girls, and shared environment, 27%/22%. The remaining variance of 33%/47% was due to environmental factors not shared by twins. For preterm infants, genetic factors explained 34%/0% of the variance in boys/girls, shared environment 31%/57%, and unique environment 35%/43%. In very preterm twins, no significant contribution of genetic factors was observed. Environment explains a large proportion of the resemblance of the postnatal blood T4 concentration in twin pairs. Because we analyzed neonatal screening results, the fetal environment is the most likely candidate for these environmental influences. Genetic influences on the T4 set point diminished with declining gestational age, especially in girls. This may be due to major environmental influences such as immaturity and nonthyroidal illness in very preterm infants.

Salmon migration patterns revealed the temporal and spatial fluctuations of the radiocesium levels in terrestrial and ocean environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Arai, Takaomi

2014-01-01

The disabling of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (F1NPP) resulted in the release of radionuclides, including 134Cs and 137Cs, into the air and the ocean. The unpredicted nuclear accident is of global concern for human health and the ecosystem. Although investigations of radionuclides in environments were performed shortly after the accident started, the temporal and spatial impacts and fluctuations on the releasing radionuclides to natural environment remain unclear. I focused on salmon, which migrate from inland to the open ocean globally, to reveal the three-year (May 2011 to February 2014) fluctuations and accumulations of 134Cs and 137Cs from terrestrial to open ocean environments after the F1NPP accident. The 134Cs and 137Cs concentrations in six salmonids exhibited lower temporal variations for three years after the F1NPP accident, suggesting that these radionuclides are widely distributed and these radionuclides remain in the natural environment globally with less convergence. The accumulation patterns were significantly different among the different salmon species. Fluvial (freshwater residence) type salmons exhibited significantly higher accumulation in 134Cs (25.3-40.2 Bq kg(-1) in mean) and 137Cs (41.4-51.7 Bq kg(-1) in mean) than did the anadromous (sea-run) type salmons (0.64-8.03 Bq kg(-1) in mean 134Cs and 0.42-10.2 Bq kg(-1) in mean 137Cs) suggesting widespread contamination in terrestrial environments versus the coastal and open ocean environments. Salmonids are the most highly migratory animals and are characterised by their strong tendency to return home to their natal site for reproduction. Salmonids have a potential to be a good indicator as an effective monitoring animal.

Environment and safety: major goals for MARS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maninger, R.C.

1983-01-01

The Mirror Advanced Reactor Study (MARS) is a conceptual design study for a commercial fusion power reactor. One of the major goals of MARS is to develop design guidance so that fusion reactors can meet reasonable expectations for environmental health and safety. One of the first steps in the assessment of health and safety requirements was to examine what the guidelines might be for health and safety in disposal of radioactive wastes from fusion reactors. Then, using these quidelines as criteria, the impact of materials selection upon generation of radioactive wastes through neutron activation of structural materials was investigated. A conclusion of this work is that fusion power systems may need substantial engineering effort in new materials development and selection to meet the probable publicly acceptable levels of radioactivity for waste disposal in the future

Terrestrial Gamma Radiation Exposure Measurement and Risk Estimates in the Environments of Major Industries In Ota, Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abodunrin Oluwasayo Peter

2016-11-01

Full Text Available When fast estimates are required, the in-situ method is more appropriate as this allows for quick results; preventing further exposure of the public and permitting quick intervention. Measurements of the terrestrial gamma radiation exposure have been carried out in the environments of major industries in Ota using a portable survey meter. The motivation for this study resulted from the uncertainty in the general public opinion on the effect of the presence, and activities of some of these industries in their environment. Measurements were taken twice daily within the vicinity of each industry to determine the dose levels. The mean values obtained range from 0.11 – 1.80 µSv/h. These values are within the results obtained from normal background areas except for site number 10. Annual effective dose values range from 0.25 – 5.21 mSv with a mean value of 1.21 mSv. Routine activities in some of these environments may have contributed significantly to the ambient natural background radiation resulting in high values as obtained in some of these locations. The total risks disparately estimated for cancer and genetic effects resulting from the results obtained range from 0.17 x 10-4 – 3.80 x 10-4 with a mean value of 0.94 x 10-4. These levels are within the range of the average annual risk for accidental death for all industries.

Environmental Barcoding Reveals Massive Dinoflagellate Diversity in Marine Environments

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Stern, R. F.; Horák, Aleš; Andrew, R. L.; Coffroth, M. A.; Andersen, R. A.; Kupper, F. C.; Jameson, I.; Hoppenrath, M.; Véron, B.; Kasai, F.; Brand, J.; James, E. R.; Keeling, P. J.

2010-01-01

Roč. 5, č. 11 (2010), e13991 E-ISSN 1932-6203 Keywords : RIBOSOMAL-RNA GENE * FREE-LIVING STRAIN * SP-NOV DINOPHYCEAE * TOXIC DINOFLAGELLATE * MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY * COASTAL WATERS * NATURAL-ENVIRONMENT * RDNA SEQUENCES * SYMBIODINIUM Impact factor: 4.411, year: 2010

Virtually naked: virtual environment reveals sex-dependent nature of skin disclosure.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna M Lomanowska

Full Text Available The human tendency to reveal or cover naked skin reflects a competition between the individual propensity for social interactions related to sexual appeal and interpersonal touch versus climatic, environmental, physical, and cultural constraints. However, due to the ubiquitous nature of these constraints, isolating on a large scale the spontaneous human tendency to reveal naked skin has remained impossible. Using the online 3-dimensional virtual world of Second Life, we examined spontaneous human skin-covering behavior unhindered by real-world climatic, environmental, and physical variables. Analysis of hundreds of avatars revealed that virtual females disclose substantially more naked skin than virtual males. This phenomenon was not related to avatar hypersexualization as evaluated by measurement of sexually dimorphic body proportions. Furthermore, analysis of skin-covering behavior of a population of culturally homogeneous avatars indicated that the propensity of female avatars to reveal naked skin persisted despite explicit cultural norms promoting less revealing attire. These findings have implications for further understanding how sex-specific aspects of skin disclosure influence human social interactions in both virtual and real settings.

Major planning enquiries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shore, P

1978-11-01

This is a speech delivered by the U.K. Secretary of State for the Environment in Manchester (UK) on September 13th 1978. It outlines the Minister's views on the role and significance of major planning inquiries - such as that proposed to be held on the Commercial Demonstration Fast Reactor. (CDFR) (author).

Human environment and cultural influence on the development of international business

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolae ȚÂU

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Peoples always seek to improve their life conditions. This sought had significantly contributed to the improvement of human life. Urbanization was a major turning point in the history of human development. It contributed to a change of lifestyle and a progress of business. The establishment of urban areas led to a transformation in the human and cultural environments. Furthermore, globalization processes contributed considerably to the alteration of human and cultural environments. In this work, we are going to explore the components of the human and cultural environment. The main aim of this work is reveal how can human environment and cultural influence the development of international business. This work is similarly meant to exhibit how cultural differences can and cultural transformation caused by globalization processes, affect communication, negotiation and management processes, thus influencing the development of international business.

Interoperability in healthcare: major challenges in the creation of the enterprise environment

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsköld, L.; Wintell, M.; Lundberg, N.

2009-02-01

There is today a lack of interoperability in healthcare although the need for it is obvious. A new healthcare enterprise environment has been deployed for secure healthcare interoperability in the Western Region in Sweden (WRS). This paper is an empirical overview of the new enterprise environment supporting regional shared and transparent radiology domain information in the WRS. The enterprise environment compromises 17 radiology departments, 1,5 million inhabitants, using different RIS and PACS in a joint work-oriented network and additional cardiology, dentistry and clinical physiology departments. More than 160 terabytes of information are stored in the enterprise repository. Interoperability is developed according to the IHE mission, i.e. applying standards such as Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) and Health Level 7 (HL7) to address specific clinical communication needs and support optimal patient care. The entire enterprise environment is implemented and used daily in WRS. The central prerequisites in the development of the enterprise environment in western region of Sweden were: 1) information harmonization, 2) reuse of standardized messages e.g. HL7 v2.x and v3.x, 3) development of a holistic information domain including both text and images, and 4) to create a continuous and dynamic update functionality. The central challenges in this project were: 1) the many different vendors acting in the region and the negotiations with them to apply communication roles/profiles such as HL7 (CDA, CCR), DICOM, and XML, 2) the question of whom owns the data, and 3) incomplete technical standards. This study concludes that to create a workflow that runs within an enterprise environment there are a number of central prerequisites and challenges that needs to be in place. This calls for negotiations on an international, national and regional level with standardization organizations, vendors, health management and health personnel.

Prevention of Major Accident Hazards (MAHs) in major Hazard Installation (MHI) premises via land use planning (LUP): a review

Science.gov (United States)

Khudbiddin, M. Q.; Rashid, Z. A.; Yeong, A. F. M. S.; Alias, A. B.; Irfan, M. F.; Fuad, M.; Hayati, H.

2018-03-01

For a number of years, there is a concern about the causes of major hazards, their identification, risk assessment and the process of its management from the global perspective on the activities of the industries due to the protection of the environment, human and property. Though, industries cannot take pleasure in their business by harming the nature of the land, there are a number of measures that need to be put into consideration by the industries. Such measures are in terms of management and safety for the businesses, lives, properties, as well as the environment. The lack of consideration in the selected appropriate criteria can result in major accidental hazards (MAHs). This paper will review the land use planning (LUP) methods used in the past and present to prevent major accident hazards at major hazard installation (MHI).

Mutual Impacts of Geocaching and Natural Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiří Schneider

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Rising popularity of geocaching is linked to increased risk of negative impacts on natural environment. Based on that, this paper intends to present possible approach of how to evaluate these impacts in the Landscape protected area Moravian Karst (Czech Republic and in the Vrátna dolina valley (National park Malá Fatra, Slovak Republic. Recreation along with nature conservation has been solved in these areas in the log-run and geocaching has been steadily extending offer of recreational activities. Therefore, it seems desirable to examine how geocaching affects environment and simultaneously how topography or land cover influences availability or difficulty of caches. 57 caches (i.e. one third of the total has been analyzed in the Moravian Karst and 11 caches in the Vrátna dolina valley. To assess impacts, own classification of indicators has been suggested, such as cache attendance, environment attractiveness or visually detected impacts of geocaching on natural environment. Our study revealed the major risk lies primarily in geo-highways which – with respect to soil type, land cover and intensity of cache attendance – grow rather fast. Despite the local nature of detected impacts, an increased attention shall be devoted to environment care and specifically to regulation of attendance.

Metagenomic Analysis of Hot Springs in Central India Reveals Hydrocarbon Degrading Thermophiles and Pathways Essential for Survival in Extreme Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Saxena, Rituja; Dhakan, Darshan B.; Mittal, Parul; Waiker, Prashant; Chowdhury, Anirban; Ghatak, Arundhuti; Sharma, Vineet K.

2017-01-01

, the results of this study reveal a novel consortium of microbes, genes, and pathways associated with the hot spring environment. PMID:28105025

A Comparative Study on Cooperative Learning in Multimedia and Network Environment Used by English Majors between China Mainland and Taiwan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gong Xue

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper first based on the theory of cooperative learning research. It analyses the characteristics and advantages of cooperative learning under the multimedia network environment.And then take China Three Gorges University and Taiwan I-Shou University English major students for example, using questionnaires and interviews to investigate the students's cooperative learning in the network environment. Survey results showed that cooperative learning teaching mode has been widely used in English classrooms across the Taiwan Strait. Students think highly of cooperative learning in the multimedia-aided, and it can have a positive effect on learning; but on cooperative learning ability and the specific learning process, students still have some problems.Nowadays,cooperative learning in the network environment has various ways, but there exist certain differences in the learning styles across the Strait. Taiwan students rely more on teachers’ help and teachers feedback, while students in mainland depend mainly on networking and panel discussion. On qualitative analysis of interview is a supplement to the questionnaire and further explore its deeper causes, which provide valuable evidence for the study and learning practice. Finally, according to the comparative analysis ,the author puts forward some constructive suggestions.

Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Selective Metabolic Adaptation of Streptococcus suis to Porcine Blood and Cerebrospinal Fluid

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Koczula

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic pathogen that can cause severe pathologies such as septicemia and meningitis in its natural porcine host as well as in humans. Establishment of disease requires not only virulence of the infecting strain but also an appropriate metabolic activity of the pathogen in its host environment. However, it is yet largely unknown how the streptococcal metabolism adapts to the different host niches encountered during infection. Our previous isotopologue profiling studies on S. suis grown in porcine blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF revealed conserved activities of central carbon metabolism in both body fluids. On the other hand, they suggested differences in the de novo amino acid biosynthesis. This prompted us to further dissect S. suis adaptation to porcine blood and CSF by RNA deep sequencing (RNA-seq. In blood, the majority of differentially expressed genes were associated with transport of alternative carbohydrate sources and the carbohydrate metabolism (pentose phosphate pathway, glycogen metabolism. In CSF, predominantly genes involved in the biosynthesis of branched-chain and aromatic amino acids were differentially expressed. Especially, isoleucine biosynthesis seems to be of major importance for S. suis in CSF because several related biosynthetic genes were more highly expressed. In conclusion, our data revealed niche-specific metabolic gene activity which emphasizes a selective adaptation of S. suis to host environments.

How community environment shapes physical activity: perceptions revealed through the PhotoVoice method.

Science.gov (United States)

Belon, Ana Paula; Nieuwendyk, Laura M; Vallianatos, Helen; Nykiforuk, Candace I J

2014-09-01

A growing body of evidence shows that community environment plays an important role in individuals' physical activity engagement. However, while attributes of the physical environment are widely investigated, sociocultural, political, and economic aspects of the environment are often neglected. This article helps to fill these knowledge gaps by providing a more comprehensive understanding of multiple dimensions of the community environment relative to physical activity. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore how people's experiences and perceptions of their community environments affect their abilities to engage in physical activity. A PhotoVoice method was used to identify barriers to and opportunities for physical activity among residents in four communities in the province of Alberta, Canada, in 2009. After taking pictures, the thirty-five participants shared their perceptions of those opportunities and barriers in their community environments during individual interviews. Using the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) framework, themes emerging from these photo-elicited interviews were organized in four environment types: physical, sociocultural, economic, and political. The data show that themes linked to the physical (56.6%) and sociocultural (31.4%) environments were discussed more frequently than the themes of the economic (5.9%) and political (6.1%) environments. Participants identified nuanced barriers and opportunities for physical activity, which are illustrated by their quotes and photographs. The findings suggest that a myriad of factors from physical, sociocultural, economic, and political environments influence people's abilities to be physically active in their communities. Therefore, adoption of a broad, ecological perspective is needed to address the barriers and build upon the opportunities described by participants to make communities more healthy and active. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

Assessing The Representative And Discriminative Ability Of Test Environments For Rice Breeding In Malaysia Using GGE Biplot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuff Oladosu

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Identification of outstanding rice genotype for target environments is complicated by genotype environment interactions. Using genotype main effect plus genotype by environment interaction GGE Biplot software fifteen rice genotypes were evaluated at five locations representing the major rice producing areas in peninsula Malaysia in two cropping seasons to i identify ideal test environment for selecting superior rice genotype and ii identify discriminative and representative ability of test locations. Genotypes locations years and genotypes by environment interaction effect revealed high significant difference P 0.01 for number of tillers per hill grains per panicle grain weight per hill and yield per hectare. Grain yield per hectare had a non-repeatable crossover pattern that formed a complex and single mega-environment. Based on the crossover pattern a set of cultivars were selected for the whole region on the merit of mean performance and their stability analysis. The tested environments were divided into two mega-environments. An ideal test environment that measures the discriminative and representative ability of test location reveal that environment Sekinchan SC is the best environment while Kedah KD and Penang PN can also be considered as favorable environment whereas Serdang SS and Tanjung Karang TK were the poorest locations for selecting genotypes adapted to the whole region. This study serves a reference for genotypes evaluation as well as identification of test locations for rice breeding in Malaysia.

Major causes of poultry mortality in Nairobi and its environs ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study was undertaken to determine the causes of mortalities in broiler and layer chicken in Nairobi and its environs during a 20 years period (1990-2010) and the trends of identified important disease between 2006 and 2010 among birds of different age groups. Data used was obtained from post-mortem examination ...

Molluscan subfossil assemblages reveal the long-term deterioration of coral reef environments in Caribbean Panama.

Science.gov (United States)

Cramer, Katie L; Leonard-Pingel, Jill S; Rodríguez, Félix; Jackson, Jeremy B C

2015-07-15

Caribbean reef corals have declined sharply since the 1980s, but the lack of prior baseline data has hindered identification of drivers of change. To assess anthropogenic change in reef environments over the past century, we tracked the composition of subfossil assemblages of bivalve and gastropod mollusks excavated from pits below lagoonal and offshore reefs in Bocas del Toro, Panama. The higher prevalence of (a) infaunal suspension-feeding bivalves and herbivorous and omnivorous gastropods in lagoons and (b) epifaunal and suspension-feeding bivalves and carnivorous and suspension-feeding gastropods offshore reflected the greater influence of land-based nutrients/sediments within lagoons. Temporal changes indicated deteriorating environmental conditions pre-1960 in lagoons and post-1960 offshore, with offshore communities becoming more similar to lagoonal ones since 1960. Relative abundances of dominant bivalve species tracked those of their coral hosts, revealing broader ecosystem effects of coral community change. The nature and timing of changes implicate land-based runoff in reef deterioration. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Radioactivity and environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trivedi, R N [Fertilizer Association of India, New Delhi

1977-12-01

Power generation from radioisotopes is one of the major applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and is in practice in over twenty countries including India. Other well-known applications of radioactive substances are in medicine, industry, scientific and industrial research programs, and nuclear weapons. The only serious disadvantage with the radioisotopes and their waste products is the constant release of radiation energy which contaminates the environment and endangers the life. An attempt has been made to identify the major sources of radioactivity in the environment and assess its potential impact on the environment. Recent developments in safety measures for prevention of contamination and control of radioactivity and in radioactive wastes management are also discussed.

Whole brain resting-state analysis reveals decreased functional connectivity in major depression

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veer, I.M.; Beckmann, C.F.; van Tol, M.J.; Ferrarini, L.; Milles, J.; Veltman, D.J.; Aleman, A.; van Buchem, M.A.; van der Wee, N.J.; Rombouts, S.A.R.B.

2010-01-01

Recently, both increases and decreases in resting-state functional connectivity have been found in major depression. However, these studies only assessed functional connectivity within a specific network or between a few regions of interest, while comorbidity and use of medication was not always

Whole brain resting-state analysis reveals decreased functional connectivity in major depression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilya M. Veer

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Recently, both increases and decreases in resting-state functional connectivity have been found in major depression. However, these studies only assessed functional connectivity within a specific network or between a few regions of interest, while comorbidity and use of medication was not always controlled for. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate whole-brain functional connectivity, unbiased by a priori definition of regions or networks of interest, in medication-free depressive patients without comorbidity. We analyzed resting-state fMRI data of 19 medication-free patients with a recent diagnosis of major depression (within six months before inclusion and no comorbidity, and 19 age- and gender-matched controls. Independent component analysis was employed on the concatenated data sets of all participants. Thirteen functionally relevant networks were identified, describing the entire study sample. Next, individual representations of the networks were created using a dual regression method. Statistical inference was subsequently done on these spatial maps using voxelwise permutation tests. Abnormal functional connectivity was found within three resting-state networks in depression: 1 decreased bilateral amygdala and left anterior insula connectivity in an affective network, 2 reduced connectivity of the left frontal pole in a network associated with attention and working memory, and 3 decreased bilateral lingual gyrus connectivity within ventromedial visual regions. None of these effects were associated with symptom severity or grey matter density. We found abnormal resting-state functional connectivity not previously associated with major depression, which might relate to abnormal affect regulation and mild cognitive deficits, both associated with the symptomatology of the disorder.

Cross-shelf investigation of coral reef cryptic benthic organisms reveals diversity patterns of the hidden majority

KAUST Repository

Pearman, John K.

2018-05-18

Coral reefs harbor diverse assemblages of organisms yet the majority of this diversity is hidden within the three dimensional structure of the reef and neglected using standard visual surveys. This study uses Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) and amplicon sequencing methodologies, targeting mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and 18S rRNA genes, to investigate changes in the cryptic reef biodiversity. ARMS, deployed at 11 sites across a near- to off-shore gradient in the Red Sea were dominated by Porifera (sessile fraction), Arthropoda and Annelida (mobile fractions). The two primer sets detected different taxa lists, but patterns in community composition and structure were similar. While the microhabitat of the ARMS deployment affected the community structure, a clear cross-shelf gradient was observed for all fractions investigated. The partitioning of beta-diversity revealed that replacement (i.e. the substitution of species) made the highest contribution with richness playing a smaller role. Hence, different reef habitats across the shelf are relevant to regional diversity, as they harbor different communities, a result with clear implications for the design of Marine Protected Areas. ARMS can be vital tools to assess biodiversity patterns in the generally neglected but species-rich cryptic benthos, providing invaluable information for the management and conservation of hard-bottomed habitats over local and global scales.

NDH expression marks major transitions in plant evolution and reveals coordinate intracellular gene loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruhlman, Tracey A; Chang, Wan-Jung; Chen, Jeremy J W; Huang, Yao-Ting; Chan, Ming-Tsair; Zhang, Jin; Liao, De-Chih; Blazier, John C; Jin, Xiaohua; Shih, Ming-Che; Jansen, Robert K; Lin, Choun-Sea

2015-04-11

Key innovations have facilitated novel niche utilization, such as the movement of the algal predecessors of land plants into terrestrial habitats where drastic fluctuations in light intensity, ultraviolet radiation and water limitation required a number of adaptations. The NDH (NADH dehydrogenase-like) complex of Viridiplantae plastids participates in adapting the photosynthetic response to environmental stress, suggesting its involvement in the transition to terrestrial habitats. Although relatively rare, the loss or pseudogenization of plastid NDH genes is widely distributed across diverse lineages of photoautotrophic seed plants and mutants/transgenics lacking NDH function demonstrate little difference from wild type under non-stressed conditions. This study analyzes large transcriptomic and genomic datasets to evaluate the persistence and loss of NDH expression across plants. Nuclear expression profiles showed accretion of the NDH gene complement at key transitions in land plant evolution, such as the transition to land and at the base of the angiosperm lineage. While detection of transcripts for a selection of non-NDH, photosynthesis related proteins was independent of the state of NDH, coordinate, lineage-specific loss of plastid NDH genes and expression of nuclear-encoded NDH subunits was documented in Pinaceae, gnetophytes, Orchidaceae and Geraniales confirming the independent and complete loss of NDH in these diverse seed plant taxa. The broad phylogenetic distribution of NDH loss and the subtle phenotypes of mutants suggest that the NDH complex is of limited biological significance in contemporary plants. While NDH activity appears dispensable under favorable conditions, there were likely sufficiently frequent episodes of abiotic stress affecting terrestrial habitats to allow the retention of NDH activity. These findings reveal genetic factors influencing plant/environment interactions in a changing climate through 450 million years of land plant

Quantitative proteomics reveals protein profiles underlying major transitions in aspen wood development.

Science.gov (United States)

Obudulu, Ogonna; Bygdell, Joakim; Sundberg, Björn; Moritz, Thomas; Hvidsten, Torgeir R; Trygg, Johan; Wingsle, Gunnar

2016-02-18

Wood development is of outstanding interest both to basic research and industry due to the associated cellulose and lignin biomass production. Efforts to elucidate wood formation (which is essential for numerous aspects of both pure and applied plant science) have been made using transcriptomic analyses and/or low-resolution sampling. However, transcriptomic data do not correlate perfectly with levels of expressed proteins due to effects of post-translational modifications and variations in turnover rates. In addition, high-resolution analysis is needed to characterize key transitions. In order to identify protein profiles across the developmental region of wood formation, an in-depth and tissue specific sampling was performed. We examined protein profiles, using an ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry system, in high-resolution tangential sections spanning all wood development zones in Populus tremula from undifferentiated cambium to mature phloem and xylem, including cell expansion and cell death zones. In total, we analyzed 482 sections, 20-160 μm thick, from four 47-year-old trees growing wild in Sweden. We obtained high quality expression profiles for 3,082 proteins exhibiting consistency across the replicates, considering that the trees were growing in an uncontrolled environment. A combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures (OPLS) modeling and an enhanced stepwise linear modeling approach identified several major transitions in global protein expression profiles, pinpointing (for example) locations of the cambial division leading to phloem and xylem cells, and secondary cell wall formation zones. We also identified key proteins and associated pathways underlying these developmental landmarks. For example, many of the lignocellulosic related proteins were upregulated in the expansion to the early developmental xylem zone, and for laccases with a rapid decrease

What are the major global threats and impacts in marine environments? Investigating the contours of a shared perception among marine scientists from the bottom-up

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boonstra, W.J.; Maj Ottosen, Katharina; Ferreira, Ana Sofia

2015-01-01

academics in marine science this article explores if a shared research agenda in relation to global change in marine environments exists. The analysis demonstrates that marine scientists across disciplines are largely in agreement on some common features of global marine change. Nevertheless, the analysis...... also highlights where natural and social scientists diverge in their assessment. The article ends discussing what these findings imply for further improvement of interdisciplinary marine science......Marine scientists broadly agree on which major processes influence the sustainability of marine environments worldwide. Recent studies argue that such shared perceptions crucially shape scientific agendas and are subject to a confirmation bias. Based on these findings a more explicit engagement...

Medial prefrontal aberrations in major depressive disorder revealed by cytoarchitectonically informed voxel-based morphometry

Science.gov (United States)

Bludau, Sebastian; Bzdok, Danilo; Gruber, Oliver; Kohn, Nils; Riedl, Valentin; Sorg, Christian; Palomero-Gallagher, Nicola; Müller, Veronika I.; Hoffstaedter, Felix; Amunts, Katrin; Eickhoff, Simon B.

2017-01-01

Objective The heterogeneous human frontal pole has been identified as a node in the dysfunctional network of major depressive disorder. The contribution of the medial (socio-affective) versus lateral (cognitive) frontal pole to major depression pathogenesis is currently unclear. The present study performs morphometric comparison of the microstructurally informed subdivisions of human frontal pole between depressed patients and controls using both uni- and multivariate statistics. Methods Multi-site voxel- and region-based morphometric MRI analysis of 73 depressed patients and 73 matched controls without psychiatric history. Frontal pole volume was first compared between depressed patients and controls by subdivision-wise classical morphometric analysis. In a second approach, frontal pole volume was compared by subdivision-naive multivariate searchlight analysis based on support vector machines. Results Subdivision-wise morphometric analysis found a significantly smaller medial frontal pole in depressed patients with a negative correlation of disease severity and duration. Histologically uninformed multivariate voxel-wise statistics provided converging evidence for structural aberrations specific to the microstructurally defined medial area of the frontal pole in depressed patients. Conclusions Across disparate methods, we demonstrated subregion specificity in the left medial frontal pole volume in depressed patients. Indeed, the frontal pole was shown to structurally and functionally connect to other key regions in major depression pathology like the anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala via the uncinate fasciculus. Present and previous findings consolidate the left medial portion of the frontal pole as particularly altered in major depression. PMID:26621569

Identity of major sulfur-cycle prokaryotes in freshwater lake ecosystems revealed by a comprehensive phylogenetic study of the dissimilatory adenylylsulfate reductase.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Tomohiro; Kojima, Hisaya; Fukui, Manabu

2016-11-08

Adenylylsulfate reductase is a heterodimeric complex of two subunits, AprB and AprA, and is a key enzyme in dissimilatory sulfate reduction and sulfur oxidation. Common use of aprA as a functional marker gene has revealed the diversity of sulfur-cycle prokaryotes in diverse environments. In this study, we established a comprehensive sequence set of apr genes and employed it to reanalyze apr phylogeny, evaluate the coverage of a widely used primer set (AprA-1-FW/AprA-5-RV), and categorize environmental aprA sequences. Phylogenetic tree construction revealed new members of Apr lineage II and several previously unrecognized lateral gene transfer events. Using the established phylogenetic tree, we classified all previously reported aprA sequences amplified from freshwater lakes with the primer pair AprA-1-FW/AprA-5-RV in addition to the aprA sequences newly retrieved from freshwater lakes; the obtained results were complemented by 16S rRNA clone library analysis. Apr-based classifications of some of operational taxonomic units were supported by 16S rRNA-based analysis. This study updates our knowledge on the phylogeny of aprBA and shows the identities of several sulfur-cycle bacteria, which could not be classified to a known taxa until now. The established apr sequence set is publicly available and can be applied to assign environmental sequences to known lineages.

Work environment quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Herman; Busck, Ole Gunni; Lind, Jens

2011-01-01

The article explores how employee participation influences the quality of the work environment and workers’ well-being at 11 Danish workplaces from within six different industries. Both direct participation and representative forms of participation at the workplace level were studied. Statistical...... as well as qualitative comparative analyses reveal that work environment quality and high levels of participation go hand in hand. Within a typology of participation models the highest level of participation, including strong elements of collective participation, and also the best work environment...

Differential Survival between Visual Environments Supports a Role of Divergent Sensory Drive in Cichlid Fish Speciation.

Science.gov (United States)

Maan, Martine E; Seehausen, Ole; Groothuis, Ton G G

2017-01-01

Identifying the selective forces that initiate ecological speciation is a major challenge in evolutionary biology. Sensory drive has been implicated in speciation in various taxa, largely based on phenotype-environment correlations and signatures of selection in sensory genes. Here, we present a reciprocal transplant experiment revealing species differences in performance in alternative visual environments, consistent with speciation by divergent sensory drive. The closely related cichlids Pundamilia pundamilia and Pundamilia nyererei inhabit different visual environments in Lake Victoria and show associated differences in visual system properties. Mimicking the two light environments in the laboratory, we find a substantial reduction in survival of both species when reared in the other species' visual environment. This implies that the observed differences in Pundamilia color vision are indeed adaptive and substantiates the implicit assumption in sensory drive speciation models that divergent environmental selection is strong enough to drive divergence in sensory properties.

Effect of Insecurity of School Environment on the Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Imo State

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Ojukwu M.O.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The major aim of this study was to investigate the effect of insecurity of school environment on the academic performance of secondary school students in Imo state, Nigeria. A total of 1000 made up of 500 each of male and female students responded to a self-structured validated questionnaire designed for the study. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Means and standard deviations were calculated to answer the research questions and independent samples t-tests were used for testing the hypotheses. Major findings revealed that insecurity of school environment significantly affects the academic performance of secondary school students while students’ gangsterism, smoking of Indian hemp, abusing other hard drugs, cult and related violent activities were some of the factors that constituted insecurity of the school environment which eventually cause boys to leave school and join trading while leading girls to drop out and settle for marriage. Based on the findings, it was recommended that owners of schools and other stakeholders in education should take bold steps to fence and protect school environments from intruders to ensure safety of the students.

The physical environment and major plant communities of the Karoo National Park, South Africa

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Francine Rubin

1996-08-01

Full Text Available The major plant communities of the Karoo National Park are described using the methods of the Zurich-Montpellier school of phytosociology, to assist with the formulation of a management strategy for the park. The vegetation physiognomy consists of Montane Karoo grassy shrublands. Karoo grassy dwarf shrublands. Karoo succulent dwarf shrublands and riparian thicket. Steep elevation and precipitation gradients within the study area have a direct impact on gradients in the vegetation. High elevation (1 800 m, and relatively high rainfall (406 mm montane grasslands occupy communities dominated by grasses (Merxmuellera disticha, Themeda triandra and woody species (Diospyros austro-africana, Elytropappus rhinocerotis, Euryops annae, Passerina montana. The increasing aridity away from the escarpment edge in a northerly direction is steep, and Montane Karoo dwarf shrublands replace these mesic communities. Species such as Eriocephalus ericoides, Rosenia oppositifolia and Pteronia tricephala dominate. At lower elevation (800 m the precipitation is very low (175 mm and uncertain (coefficient of variation of 78 . The substrata influence the vegetation, with the sandy substrata of the drainage lines supporting more woody taxa (Acacia karroo, Lycium cinereum and grasses (Hyparrhenia hirta, Stipagrostis namaquensis, Cenchrus ciliaris. Moving away from the mesic environment of the riparian zone, rapid desiccation occurs and the most xeric communities are encountered, dominated by Stipagrostis obtusa, S. ciliata and Pent-da incana. This document provides descriptions of the general communities and their associated landscape, lithology and soils.

Working Environment and Technological Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clausen, Christian; Nielsen, Klaus T.; Jensen, Per Langaa

1997-01-01

and their and their concept of working environment2) Technology renewal, which considers the role of the working environment in connection with the development and use of concrete technologies3) Working environment planning, which considers the existing efforts to place the working environment in a planning process.......The paper describes the purpose, themes, overarching research questions and specific projects of the programme: Working Environment and Technological Development. The major research themes are:1) Management concepts and the working environment, which considers the visions...

CONSERVATION. Genetic assignment of large seizures of elephant ivory reveals Africa's major poaching hotspots.

Science.gov (United States)

Wasser, S K; Brown, L; Mailand, C; Mondol, S; Clark, W; Laurie, C; Weir, B S

2015-07-03

Poaching of elephants is now occurring at rates that threaten African populations with extinction. Identifying the number and location of Africa's major poaching hotspots may assist efforts to end poaching and facilitate recovery of elephant populations. We genetically assign origin to 28 large ivory seizures (≥0.5 metric tons) made between 1996 and 2014, also testing assignment accuracy. Results suggest that the major poaching hotspots in Africa may be currently concentrated in as few as two areas. Increasing law enforcement in these two hotspots could help curtail future elephant losses across Africa and disrupt this organized transnational crime. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Engineering Compensations in Web Service Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schäfer, Micahel; Dolog, Peter; Nejdl, Wolfgang

2007-01-01

Business to business integration has recently been performed by employing Web service environments. Moreover, such environments are being provided by major players on the technology markets. Those environments are based on open specifications for transaction coordination. When a failure in such a......Business to business integration has recently been performed by employing Web service environments. Moreover, such environments are being provided by major players on the technology markets. Those environments are based on open specifications for transaction coordination. When a failure...... in such an environment occurs, a compensation can be initiated to recover from the failure. However, current environments have only limited capabilities for compensations, and are usually based on backward recovery. In this paper, we introduce an engineering approach and an environment to deal with advanced...... compensations based on forward recovery principles. We extend the existing Web service transaction coordination architecture and infrastructure in order to support flexible compensation operations. A contract-based approach is being used, which allows the specification of permitted compensations at runtime. We...

Two Antarctic penguin genomes reveal insights into their evolutionary history and molecular changes related to the Antarctic environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Cai; Zhang, Yong; Li, Jianwen; Kong, Lesheng; Hu, Haofu; Pan, Hailin; Xu, Luohao; Deng, Yuan; Li, Qiye; Jin, Lijun; Yu, Hao; Chen, Yan; Liu, Binghang; Yang, Linfeng; Liu, Shiping; Zhang, Yan; Lang, Yongshan; Xia, Jinquan; He, Weiming; Shi, Qiong; Subramanian, Sankar; Millar, Craig D; Meader, Stephen; Rands, Chris M; Fujita, Matthew K; Greenwold, Matthew J; Castoe, Todd A; Pollock, David D; Gu, Wanjun; Nam, Kiwoong; Ellegren, Hans; Ho, Simon Yw; Burt, David W; Ponting, Chris P; Jarvis, Erich D; Gilbert, M Thomas P; Yang, Huanming; Wang, Jian; Lambert, David M; Wang, Jun; Zhang, Guojie

2014-01-01

Penguins are flightless aquatic birds widely distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The distinctive morphological and physiological features of penguins allow them to live an aquatic life, and some of them have successfully adapted to the hostile environments in Antarctica. To study the phylogenetic and population history of penguins and the molecular basis of their adaptations to Antarctica, we sequenced the genomes of the two Antarctic dwelling penguin species, the Adélie penguin [Pygoscelis adeliae] and emperor penguin [Aptenodytes forsteri]. Phylogenetic dating suggests that early penguins arose ~60 million years ago, coinciding with a period of global warming. Analysis of effective population sizes reveals that the two penguin species experienced population expansions from ~1 million years ago to ~100 thousand years ago, but responded differently to the climatic cooling of the last glacial period. Comparative genomic analyses with other available avian genomes identified molecular changes in genes related to epidermal structure, phototransduction, lipid metabolism, and forelimb morphology. Our sequencing and initial analyses of the first two penguin genomes provide insights into the timing of penguin origin, fluctuations in effective population sizes of the two penguin species over the past 10 million years, and the potential associations between these biological patterns and global climate change. The molecular changes compared with other avian genomes reflect both shared and diverse adaptations of the two penguin species to the Antarctic environment.

Comparative sequence analyses of the major quantitative trait locus phosphorus uptake 1 (Pup1) reveal a complex genetic structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Heuer, Sigrid; Lu, Xiaochun; Chin, Joong Hyoun; Tanaka, Juan Pariasca; Kanamori, Hiroyuki; Matsumoto, Takashi; De Leon, Teresa; Ulat, Victor Jun; Ismail, Abdelbagi M; Yano, Masahiro; Wissuwa, Matthias

2009-06-01

The phosphorus uptake 1 (Pup1) locus was identified as a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for tolerance of phosphorus deficiency in rice. Near-isogenic lines with the Pup1 region from tolerant donor parent Kasalath typically show threefold higher phosphorus uptake and grain yield in phosphorus-deficient field trials than the intolerant parent Nipponbare. In this study, we report the fine mapping of the Pup1 locus to the long arm of chromosome 12 (15.31-15.47 Mb). Genes in the region were initially identified on the basis of the Nipponbare reference genome, but did not reveal any obvious candidate genes related to phosphorus uptake. Kasalath BAC clones were therefore sequenced and revealed a 278-kbp sequence significantly different from the syntenic regions in Nipponbare (145 kb) and in the indica reference genome of 93-11 (742 kbp). Size differences are caused by large insertions or deletions (INDELs), and an exceptionally large number of retrotransposon and transposon-related elements (TEs) present in all three sequences (45%-54%). About 46 kb of the Kasalath sequence did not align with the entire Nipponbare genome, and only three Nipponbare genes (fatty acid alpha-dioxygenase, dirigent protein and aspartic proteinase) are highly conserved in Kasalath. Two Nipponbare genes (expressed proteins) might have evolved by at least three TE integrations in an ancestor gene that is still present in Kasalath. Several predicted Kasalath genes are novel or unknown genes that are mainly located within INDEL regions. Our results highlight the importance of sequencing QTL regions in the respective donor parent, as important genes might not be present in the current reference genomes.

Glycoproteomic analysis of seven major allergenic proteins reveals novel post-translational modifications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halim, Adnan; Carlsson, Michael C; Mathiesen, Caroline Benedicte K

2015-01-01

Allergenic proteins such as grass pollen and house dust mite (HDM) proteins are known to trigger hypersensitivity reactions of the immune system, leading to what is commonly known as allergy. Key allergenic proteins including sequence variants have been identified but characterization of their post...... allergens. Moreover, we identified more complex glycan structures than previously reported on the major grass pollen group 1 and 5 allergens, implicating important roles for carbohydrates in allergen recognition and response by the immune system. The new findings are important for understanding basic...

Outdoor-indoor air pollution in urban environment: Challenges and opportunity

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Dennis Y.C. eLeung

2015-01-01

Full Text Available With the continual improvement in our quality of life, indoor air quality has become an important area of concern in the 21st century. Indoor air quality is affected by many factors including the type and running conditions of indoor pollution sources, ventilation conditions, as well as indoor activities. Studies revealed that the outdoor environment is also an important factor that cannot be neglected for indoor air quality studies. In this review, the indoor and outdoor air pollution relationships obtained from different studies are discussed in order to identify the key factors affecting the indoor air quality. As climate change is recognized as imposing impacts on the environment, how it affects the indoor air quality and the health impacts to the occupants will be evaluated in this paper. The major challenges and opportunities in indoor/outdoor air pollution studies will be highlighted.

Decision Making and Revealed Preference

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

de la Rosa, Leonidas Enrique

If our decision-making processes are to some extent shaped by evolutionary pressures and our environment is different from that to which we adapted, some of our choices will not be in our best interest. But revealed preference is the only tool that we have so far to conduct a normative analysis...

Increased cortical-limbic anatomical network connectivity in major depression revealed by diffusion tensor imaging.

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Peng Fang

Full Text Available Magnetic resonance imaging studies have reported significant functional and structural differences between depressed patients and controls. Little attention has been given, however, to the abnormalities in anatomical connectivity in depressed patients. In the present study, we aim to investigate the alterations in connectivity of whole-brain anatomical networks in those suffering from major depression by using machine learning approaches. Brain anatomical networks were extracted from diffusion magnetic resonance images obtained from both 22 first-episode, treatment-naive adults with major depressive disorder and 26 matched healthy controls. Using machine learning approaches, we differentiated depressed patients from healthy controls based on their whole-brain anatomical connectivity patterns and identified the most discriminating features that represent between-group differences. Classification results showed that 91.7% (patients=86.4%, controls=96.2%; permutation test, p<0.0001 of subjects were correctly classified via leave-one-out cross-validation. Moreover, the strengths of all the most discriminating connections were increased in depressed patients relative to the controls, and these connections were primarily located within the cortical-limbic network, especially the frontal-limbic network. These results not only provide initial steps toward the development of neurobiological diagnostic markers for major depressive disorder, but also suggest that abnormal cortical-limbic anatomical networks may contribute to the anatomical basis of emotional dysregulation and cognitive impairments associated with this disease.

Interaction patterns of major air pollutants in Hong Kong territory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, W.Z.; Wang, X.K.

2004-01-01

Air pollution in a metropolitan city like Hong Kong is a major obstacle to improve air quality and living environment due to the high population density and the vehicle emission increases. The high air pollutant levels impose harm to the human health and impair the city image. The characteristic analysis of air pollutants is very important and necessary to pollutant monitoring, forecasting and controlling. In this study, the interaction patterns of principle air pollutants, e.g. nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), nitric oxide (NO), nitric oxides (NO x ) and ozone (O 3 ), a secondary pollutant, are investigated based on the measured database in four selected areas, which covers two urban types (i.e. residential area, mixed residential/commercial/industrial area) in Hong Kong, during the period of 1999-2001. The study involves analyzing the chemical and physical properties, the characteristics of air pollutants and the factors affecting such interactions using statistical method. The results reveal several routines in urban air pollutants' variations, interaction and trends from macro aspect

Identifying the Components of Effective Learning Environments Based on Health Students\\' Perception

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Yousefi Afrashteh M

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Aims: Effective learning environment can lead to establish and strengthen the appropriate conditions of learning in higher education. This study aimed to identify and define the factors associated with effective learning environment in the field of health education. Participants & Methods: This qualitative study with content analysis approach was conducted in 2013. Participants were 9 graduate and 7 undergraduate students of health majors that were selected using purposive sampling method. Data were recorded by interview and were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings: Analysis of the data revealed 4 themes and 13 classes active and interactive teaching (participating viewpoints of students in educational planning, engaging students in class discussions, providing practical examples to understand the content, relaxing about expressed thoughts, the possibility of constructive criticism master plan of activities and according to the conditions and individual differences between students, Joyful atmosphere (academic motivation, the joy of learning and attendance, a sense of acceptance and respect from teachers and classroom dynamics and vitality and fatigue, relation of courses with professional needs (knowledge of the needs of the job in training course content and related training to the needs of job opportunities and professors’ scientific and power and expert (expertise and scientific capabilities in the field of teaching. Conclusion: 4 major themes and their characteristics can help to organize the learning environment in medical education.

Road Environments: Impact of Metals on Human Health in Heavily Congested Cities of Poland.

Science.gov (United States)

Adamiec, Ewa

2017-06-29

Road dust as a by-product of exhaust and non-exhaust emissions can be a major cause of systemic oxidative stress and multiple disorders. Substantial amounts of road dust are repeatedly resuspended, in particular at traffic lights and junctions where more braking is involved, causing potential threat to pedestrians, especially children. In order to determine the degree of contamination in the heavily traffic-congested cities of Poland, a total of 148 samples of road dust (RD), sludge from storm drains (SL) and roadside soil (RS) were collected. Sixteen metals were analysed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) in all samples. Chemical evaluation followed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed that road environments have been severely contaminated with traffic-related elements. Concentration of copper in all road-environment samples is even higher, exceeding even up to 15 times its average concentrations established for the surrounding soils. Non-carcinogenic health risk assessment revealed that the hazard index (HI) for children in all road-environment samples exceeds the safe level of 1. Therefore, greater attention should be paid to potential health risks caused by the ingestion of traffic-related particles during outdoor activities.

Multiple oxygen tension environments reveal diverse patterns of transcriptional regulation in primary astrocytes.

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Wayne Chadwick

Full Text Available The central nervous system normally functions at O(2 levels which would be regarded as hypoxic by most other tissues. However, most in vitro studies of neurons and astrocytes are conducted under hyperoxic conditions without consideration of O(2-dependent cellular adaptation. We analyzed the reactivity of astrocytes to 1, 4 and 9% O(2 tensions compared to the cell culture standard of 20% O(2, to investigate their ability to sense and translate this O(2 information to transcriptional activity. Variance of ambient O(2 tension for rat astrocytes resulted in profound changes in ribosomal activity, cytoskeletal and energy-regulatory mechanisms and cytokine-related signaling. Clustering of transcriptional regulation patterns revealed four distinct response pattern groups that directionally pivoted around the 4% O(2 tension, or demonstrated coherent ascending/decreasing gene expression patterns in response to diverse oxygen tensions. Immune response and cell cycle/cancer-related signaling pathway transcriptomic subsets were significantly activated with increasing hypoxia, whilst hemostatic and cardiovascular signaling mechanisms were attenuated with increasing hypoxia. Our data indicate that variant O(2 tensions induce specific and physiologically-focused transcript regulation patterns that may underpin important physiological mechanisms that connect higher neurological activity to astrocytic function and ambient oxygen environments. These strongly defined patterns demonstrate a strong bias for physiological transcript programs to pivot around the 4% O(2 tension, while uni-modal programs that do not, appear more related to pathological actions. The functional interaction of these transcriptional 'programs' may serve to regulate the dynamic vascular responsivity of the central nervous system during periods of stress or heightened activity.

Environment, safety and health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luzianovich, L.Ch.; Fardeau, J.C.; Darras, M.

2000-01-01

Environment, safety and health were the three topics discussed by the WOC 8 working group of the worldwide gas congress. Environment protection has become a major preoccupation and constraint for natural gas industry at the dawn of the new millennium. It is closely linked with the safety of installation and with the health of workmen who exploit or use natural gas energy: methane emissions, health and safety in gas industry, environment management and evaluation. (J.S.)

Star formation history of Canis Major OB1. II. A bimodal X-ray population revealed by XMM-Newton

Science.gov (United States)

Santos-Silva, T.; Gregorio-Hetem, J.; Montmerle, T.; Fernandes, B.; Stelzer, B.

2018-02-01

Aims: The Canis Major OB1 Association has an intriguing scenario of star formation, especially in the region called Canis Major R1 (CMa R1) traditionally assigned to a reflection nebula, but in reality an ionized region. This work is focussed on the young stellar population associated with CMa R1, for which our previous results from ROSAT, optical, and near-infrared data had revealed two stellar groups with different ages, suggesting a possible mixing of populations originated from distinct star formation episodes. Methods: The X-ray data allow the detected sources to be characterized according to hardness ratios, light curves, and spectra. Estimates of mass and age were obtained from the 2MASS catalogue and used to define a complete subsample of stellar counterparts for statistical purposes. Results: A catalogue of 387 XMM-Newton sources is provided, of which 78% are confirmed as members or probable members of the CMa R1 association. Flares (or similar events) were observed for 13 sources and the spectra of 21 bright sources could be fitted by a thermal plasma model. Mean values of fits parameters were used to estimate X-ray luminosities. We found a minimum value of log(LX [erg/s] ) = 29.43, indicating that our sample of low-mass stars (M⋆ ≤ 0.5 M⊙), which are faint X-ray emitters, is incomplete. Among the 250 objects selected as our complete subsample (defining our "best sample"), 171 are found to the east of the cloud, near Z CMa and dense molecular gas, of which 50% of them are young (10 Myr). The opposite happens to the west, near GU CMa, in areas lacking molecular gas: among 79 objects, 30% are young and 50% are older. These findings confirm that a first episode of distributed star formation occurred in the whole studied region 10 Myr ago and dispersed the molecular gas, while a second, localized episode (<5 Myr) took place in the regions where molecular gas is still present.

Regional Variations in the Prevalence of Major Congenital Malformations in Quebec: The Importance of Fetal Growth Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Jin-Ping; Sheehy, Odile; Bérard, Anick

2015-01-01

Congenital anomalies are the consequence of a complex interaction between genetic predisposition and fetal environment. Based on the Congenital Anomalies Surveillance in Canada Report, between 1998 and 2007 the rate of congenital heart defects in Quebec was significantly higher than the Canadian average; no data on the overall prevalence of congenital anomalies for Quebec or data on regional variations in any province are available. To estimate the prevalence of major congenital malformations (MCMs) in all of the 17 administrative regions of Quebec. Using data from the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort, we included infants if they were born between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2008. MCMs were identified within the infant's first year of life using validated ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. The rate of MCMs was calculated and stratified on Quebec's administrative regions. Among 152,353 eligible infants, the prevalence of MCMs was 36.6 (all rates were reported as per 1,000 live births). The regions with the highest rate of MCMs were Lanaudière (48.1), Laval (45.8), and Mauricie (45.1). Regions with the lowest rate were Outaouais (13.4), Côte-Nord (19.1), Abitibi-Témiscamingue (27.5), Gaspésie-îles-de-la-Madeleine (27.9), and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (28.9). Congenital heart defects (10.3) and musculoskeletal anomalies (12.6) were the most common. Laval had the highest rate of heart defects (16.1), and Lanaudière had the highest rate of musculoskeletal anomalies (22.0). The central regions of Quebec had high rate of MCMs, whereas the relatively genetically homogenous peripheral regions of Quebec had lower rate of MCM, suggesting the importance of fetal growth environment in the etiology of MCMs in Quebec.

MODERN INFORMATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AS A FACTOR OF IMPROVEMENT OF FUTURE UNIVERSITY TEACHER’S PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Наталія Гунька

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The article presents the analysis of the notion of “informational and educational environment”. The difference between the “informational environment” and the “informational and educational environment” has been shown. The main functions of the informational and educational environment and its facilities to enhance the quality of education have been revealed. There have been defined major components of the informational and educational environment. A connection has been detected between the informational and educational environment and the formation of the foundations of pedagogical skills. The research also presents a description of the electronic system “Socrates” of Vinnytsia State Agrarian University, and shows possible ways of its use in the educational process with an aim of the formation and improvement of higher educational institution teacher’s professional skills.

Analytical strategies for assessing ionophores in the environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Martin; Bjørklund, E.; Krogh, K A

2009-01-01

Ionophores are antiparasitic compounds used worldwide as prophylactic chemotherapeutics and growth promoters in livestock production. Several reports have revealed that ionophores are emerging environmental contaminants occurring in the environment in ......Ionophores are antiparasitic compounds used worldwide as prophylactic chemotherapeutics and growth promoters in livestock production. Several reports have revealed that ionophores are emerging environmental contaminants occurring in the environment in ...

Association between toll-like receptors expression and major depressive disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Yi-Yung; Kang, Hong-Yo; Huang, Kai-Wei; Huang, Tiao-Lai

2014-12-15

Accumulating evidences suggest that Toll-like receptors (TLRs) were involved in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder. TLR4 was thought to be associated with major depressive disorder in animal model, but the others were still unknown. In order to examine TLR1-9 mRNA expression levels in peripheral blood and their relationships with the psychopathology of major depressive disorder, 30 patients with major depressive disorder were compared with 29 healthy controls. The 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) was used to assess the severity of major depression. The mRNA expression levels of TLRs were examined in parallel with a housekeeping gene using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Analysis of covariance with age and body mass index adjustment revealed a significantly higher expression of TLR3, 4, 5 and 7 mRNA but lower expression of TLR1 and 6 in patients with major depressive disorder as compared with healthy controls. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that TLR4 was an independent risk factor relating to severity of major depression. These findings suggest that TLRs, especially TLR4, may be involved in the psychopathology of major depression. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sympatric Asian felid phylogeography reveals a major Indochinese-Sundaic divergence.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Shu-Jin; Zhang, Yue; Johnson, Warren E; Miao, Lin; Martelli, Paolo; Antunes, Agostinho; Smith, James L D; O'Brien, Stephen J

2014-04-01

The dynamic geological and climatological history of Southeast Asia has spawned a complex array of ecosystems and 12 of the 37 known cat species, making it the most felid-rich region in the world. To examine the evolutionary histories of these poorly studied fauna, we compared phylogeography of six species (leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, fishing cat P. viverrinus, Asiatic golden cat Pardofelis temminckii, marbled cat P. marmorata, tiger Panthera tigris and leopard P. pardus) by sequencing over 5 kb of DNA each from 445 specimens at multiple loci of mtDNA, Y and X chromosomes. All species except the leopard displayed significant phylogenetic partitions between Indochina and Sundaland, with the central Thai-Malay Peninsula serving as the biogeographic boundary. Concordant mtDNA and nuclear DNA genealogies revealed deep Indochinese-Sundaic divergences around 2 MYA in both P. bengalensis and P. marmorata comparable to previously described interspecific distances within Felidae. The divergence coincided with serial sea level rises during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene, and was probably reinforced by repeated isolation events associated with environmental changes throughout the Pleistocene. Indochinese-Sundaic differentiations within P. tigris and P. temminckii were more recent at 72-108 and 250-1570 kya, respectively. Overall, these results illuminate unexpected, deep vicariance events in Southeast Asian felids and provide compelling evidence of species-level distinction between the Indochinese and Sundaic populations in the leopard cat and marbled cat. Broader sampling and further molecular and morphometric analyses of these species will be instrumental in defining conservation units and effectively preserving Southeast Asian biodiversity. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A fifth major genetic group among honeybees revealed in Syria.

Science.gov (United States)

Alburaki, Mohamed; Bertrand, Bénédicte; Legout, Hélène; Moulin, Sibyle; Alburaki, Ali; Sheppard, Walter Steven; Garnery, Lionel

2013-12-06

Apiculture has been practiced in North Africa and the Middle-East from antiquity. Several thousand years of selective breeding have left a mosaic of Apis mellifera subspecies in the Middle-East, many uniquely adapted and survived to local environmental conditions. In this study we explore the genetic diversity of A. mellifera from Syria (n = 1258), Lebanon (n = 169) and Iraq (n = 35) based on 14 short tandem repeat (STR) loci in the context of reference populations from throughout the Old World (n = 732). Our data suggest that the Syrian honeybee Apis mellifera syriaca occurs in both Syrian and Lebanese territories, with no significant genetic variability between respective populations from Syria and Lebanon. All studied populations clustered within a new fifth independent nuclear cluster, congruent with an mtDNA Z haplotype identified in a previous study. Syrian honeybee populations are not associated with Oriental lineage O, except for sporadic introgression into some populations close to the Turkish and Iraqi borders. Southern Syrian and Lebanese populations demonstrated high levels of genetic diversity compared to the northern populations. This study revealed the effects of foreign queen importations on Syrian bee populations, especially for the region of Tartus, where extensive introgression of A. m. anatolica and/or A. m. caucasica alleles were identified. The policy of creating genetic conservation centers for the Syrian subspecies should take into consideration the influence of the oriental lineage O from the northern Syrian border and the large population of genetically divergent indigenous honeybees located in southern Syria.

Major Environmental Policy in 2000

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Hong Jin [Ministry Of Environment, Kwachon (Korea)

2000-04-01

As a new millennium has started, there are active movements developing a basic paradigm of vision and policy over a nation-wide to prepare changes actively. For the environmental sector, it is possible to live in a pleasant environment if everyone prepare and work together like dealing with Y2K problem. With a goal of being an environmentally advanced country in the early new millennium, it is planned to improve a basic life environment such as water and air and to promote an advanced environmental management policy for showing results of its reform in 2000. Therefore, it examines environmental management circumstances and a direction of environmental policy first and it discusses more about major environmental policy related to petroleum industry. 7 tabs.

REVEAL: Software Documentation and Platform Migration

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Michael A.; Veibell, Victoir T.; Freudinger, Lawrence C.

2008-01-01

The Research Environment for Vehicle Embedded Analysis on Linux (REVEAL) is reconfigurable data acquisition software designed for network-distributed test and measurement applications. In development since 2001, it has been successfully demonstrated in support of a number of actual missions within NASA s Suborbital Science Program. Improvements to software configuration control were needed to properly support both an ongoing transition to operational status and continued evolution of REVEAL capabilities. For this reason the project described in this report targets REVEAL software source documentation and deployment of the software on a small set of hardware platforms different from what is currently used in the baseline system implementation. This report specifically describes the actions taken over a ten week period by two undergraduate student interns and serves as a final report for that internship. The topics discussed include: the documentation of REVEAL source code; the migration of REVEAL to other platforms; and an end-to-end field test that successfully validates the efforts.

Population information on major technological risks and specially on nuclear risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Choudens, H.

1992-01-01

Following Chernobyl accident which has revealed in France a strong need for information on technological risks among population and a lack in its organization, the Mayor of Grenoble City who was also at this time, Environment Minister in French Government had initiated in lsere Region an important operation of consideration of action, which has to been undertaken to correct theses lacks. Among ten actions retained one of them was the creation of an Association for Information of the public for Prevention of major risks. This Association has first initiated a consultation on the perception by the population of the different major risks (Industrial and Naturals) in view of the results of this consultation, Medical Professions were the first concerned and a publication 'Medicine and Nuclear risk' has been elaborated and distributed to all doctors of the Region. A Memento on Nuclear risk as then been written and largely distributed in the region, especially in the medias. A booklet on nuclear risk and behavior in case of nuclear accident has then been realized and distributed to all people around Electronuclear Reactors of the Region and to children in the schools. In complement, public meetings have been organized in these sectors to inform, and discuss with the population. (author)

Comparative genomics of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens ZW3 and related members of Lactobacillus. spp reveal adaptations to dairy and gut environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Xing, Zhuqing; Geng, Weitao; Li, Chao; Sun, Ye; Wang, Yanping

2017-10-09

It is important for probiotics that are currently utilized in the dairy industry to have clear genetic backgrounds. In this study, the genetic characteristics of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens ZW3 were studied by undertaking a comparative genomics study, and key genes for adaptation to different environments were investigated and validated in vitro. Evidence for horizontal gene transfer resulting in strong self-defense mechanisms was detected in the ZW3 genome. We identified a series of genes relevant for dairy environments and the intestinal tract, particularly for extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) production. Reverse transcription-qPCR (RT-qPCR) revealed significant increases in the relative expression of pgm, ugp, and uge during the mid-logarithmic phase, whereas the expression of pgi was higher at the beginning of the stationary phase. The enzymes encoded by these four genes concertedly regulated carbon flux, which in turn modulated the production of EPS precursors. Moreover, ZW3 tolerated pH 3.5 and 3% bile salt and retained cell surface hydrophobicity and auto-aggregation. In conclusion, we explored the potential of ZW3 for utilization in both the dairy industry and in probiotic applications. Additionally, we elucidated the regulation of the relevant genes involved in EPS production.

Women and environment. A socio-ecological study for women on the reformation of the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kappel, I.

2000-05-01

. Because a majority of the population rejects such foodstuffs outright. Nevertheless, genetically engineered food products have already found their way into Austrian groceries stores, and this development is set to gather pace in years to come. This study gives priority to the question whether women can improve the environment. As I have mentioned before, women can indeed contribute to an improvement of the environment. However, only big ecological organizations can return nature to its pristine state, but any such efforts are currently foiled by the greed for profit of large corporations. As a conclusion of this study, it is fair to say that women can contribute to the reformation of the environment, for instance by reducing the toxic discharge into rivers and lakes, by separating waste and promoting recycled products, and by relying on biological products to promote a healthier lifestyle. The substitution of fossil fuels with electric power or natural gas for heating purposes clearly improves the quality of the air in one's own private environment. Green belts in residential areas and plants in the house are sources of oxygen that protect the respiratory system against damaging environmental influences. The survey also showed that women do not know enough about a healthy lifestyle, but they are eager to learn more about this issue. Several statements revealed interesting experiences. If women are increasingly interested in a healthy environment and turn to biologically farmed natural products, the soil will be able to regenerate, and this would clearly benefit the environment. (author)

Environment and host as large-scale controls of ectomycorrhizal fungi.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Linde, Sietse; Suz, Laura M; Orme, C David L; Cox, Filipa; Andreae, Henning; Asi, Endla; Atkinson, Bonnie; Benham, Sue; Carroll, Christopher; Cools, Nathalie; De Vos, Bruno; Dietrich, Hans-Peter; Eichhorn, Johannes; Gehrmann, Joachim; Grebenc, Tine; Gweon, Hyun S; Hansen, Karin; Jacob, Frank; Kristöfel, Ferdinand; Lech, Paweł; Manninger, Miklós; Martin, Jan; Meesenburg, Henning; Merilä, Päivi; Nicolas, Manuel; Pavlenda, Pavel; Rautio, Pasi; Schaub, Marcus; Schröck, Hans-Werner; Seidling, Walter; Šrámek, Vít; Thimonier, Anne; Thomsen, Iben Margrete; Titeux, Hugues; Vanguelova, Elena; Verstraeten, Arne; Vesterdal, Lars; Waldner, Peter; Wijk, Sture; Zhang, Yuxin; Žlindra, Daniel; Bidartondo, Martin I

2018-06-06

Explaining the large-scale diversity of soil organisms that drive biogeochemical processes-and their responses to environmental change-is critical. However, identifying consistent drivers of belowground diversity and abundance for some soil organisms at large spatial scales remains problematic. Here we investigate a major guild, the ectomycorrhizal fungi, across European forests at a spatial scale and resolution that is-to our knowledge-unprecedented, to explore key biotic and abiotic predictors of ectomycorrhizal diversity and to identify dominant responses and thresholds for change across complex environmental gradients. We show the effect of 38 host, environment, climate and geographical variables on ectomycorrhizal diversity, and define thresholds of community change for key variables. We quantify host specificity and reveal plasticity in functional traits involved in soil foraging across gradients. We conclude that environmental and host factors explain most of the variation in ectomycorrhizal diversity, that the environmental thresholds used as major ecosystem assessment tools need adjustment and that the importance of belowground specificity and plasticity has previously been underappreciated.

Consensus states of local majority rule in stochastic process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luo, Yu-Pin [Department of Electronic Engineering, National Formosa University, Huwei, 63201, Taiwan (China); Tang, Chia-Wei; Xu, Hong-Yuan [Department of Physics, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Chungli, 32023, Taiwan (China); Wu, Jinn-Wen [Department of Applied Mathematics, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Chungli, 32023, Taiwan (China); Huang, Ming-Chang, E-mail: mchuang@cycu.edu.tw [Center for Theoretical Science and Department of Physics, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Chungli, 32023, Taiwan (China)

2015-04-03

A sufficient condition for a network system to reach a consensus state of the local majority rule is shown. The influence of interpersonal environment on the occurrence probability of consensus states for Watts–Strogatz and scale-free networks with random initial states is analyzed by numerical method. We also propose a stochastic local majority rule to study the mean first passage time from a random state to a consensus and the escape rate from a consensus state for systems in a noisy environment. Our numerical results show that there exists a window of fluctuation strengths for which the mean first passage time from a random to a consensus state reduces greatly, and the escape rate of consensus states obeys the Arrhenius equation in the window. - Highlights: • A sufficient condition for reaching a consensus. • The relation between the geometry of networks and the reachability of a consensus. • Stochastic local majority rule. • The mean first-passage time and the escape rate of consensus states.

Consensus states of local majority rule in stochastic process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo, Yu-Pin; Tang, Chia-Wei; Xu, Hong-Yuan; Wu, Jinn-Wen; Huang, Ming-Chang

2015-01-01

A sufficient condition for a network system to reach a consensus state of the local majority rule is shown. The influence of interpersonal environment on the occurrence probability of consensus states for Watts–Strogatz and scale-free networks with random initial states is analyzed by numerical method. We also propose a stochastic local majority rule to study the mean first passage time from a random state to a consensus and the escape rate from a consensus state for systems in a noisy environment. Our numerical results show that there exists a window of fluctuation strengths for which the mean first passage time from a random to a consensus state reduces greatly, and the escape rate of consensus states obeys the Arrhenius equation in the window. - Highlights: • A sufficient condition for reaching a consensus. • The relation between the geometry of networks and the reachability of a consensus. • Stochastic local majority rule. • The mean first-passage time and the escape rate of consensus states

Nest design in a changing world: great tit Parus major nests from a Mediterranean city environment as a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lambrechts, Marcel M; Charmantier, Anne; Demeyrier, Virginie; Lucas, Annick; Perret, Samuel; Abouladzé, Matthieu; Bonnet, Michel; Canonne, Coline; Faucon, Virginie; Grosset, Stéphanie; le Prado, Gaëlle; Lidon, Frédéric; Noell, Thierry; Pagano, Pascal; Perret, Vincent; Pouplard, Stéphane; Spitaliéry, Rémy; Bernard, Cyril; Perret, Philippe; Blondel, Jacques; Grégoire, Arnaud

2017-12-01

Investigations of urbanization effects on birds have focused mainly on breeding traits expressed after the nest-building stage (e.g. first-egg date, clutch size, breeding success, and offspring characteristics). Urban studies largely ignored how and why the aspects of nest building might be associated with the degree of urbanization. As urban environments are expected to present novel environmental changes relative to rural environments, it is important to evaluate how nest-building behavior is impacted by vegetation modifications associated with urbanization. To examine nest design in a Mediterranean city environment, we allowed urban great tits ( Parus major ) to breed in nest boxes in areas that differed in local vegetation cover. We found that different measures of nest size or mass were not associated with vegetation cover. In particular, nests located adjacent to streets with lower vegetation cover were not smaller or lighter than nests in parks with higher vegetation cover. Nests adjacent to streets contained more pine needles than nests in parks. In addition, in nests adjacent to streets, nests from boxes attached to pine trees contained more pine needles than nests from boxes attached to other trees. We suggest that urban-related alterations in vegetation cover do not directly impose physical limits on nest size in species that are opportunistic in the selection of nesting material. However, nest composition as reflected in the use of pine needles was clearly affected by habitat type and the planted tree species present, which implies that rapid habitat change impacts nest composition. We do not exclude that urbanization might impact other aspects of nest building behaviour not covered in our study (e.g. costs of searching for nest material), and that the strengths of the associations between urbanization and nest structures might differ among study populations or species.

DARK MATTER HALO MERGERS: DEPENDENCE ON ENVIRONMENT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hester, J. A.; Tasitsiomi, A.

2010-01-01

This paper presents a study of the specific major merger rate as a function of group membership, local environment, and redshift in a very large, 500 h -1 Mpc, cosmological N-body simulation, the Millennium Simulation. The goal is to provide environmental diagnostics of major merger populations in order to test simulations against observations and provide further constraints on major merger driven galaxy evolution scenarios. A halo sample is defined using the maximum circular velocity, which is both well defined for subhalos and closely correlated with galaxy luminosity. Subhalos, including the precursors of major mergers, are severely tidally stripped. Major mergers between subhalos are therefore rare compared to mergers between subhalos and their host halos. Tidal stripping also suppresses dynamical friction, resulting in long major merger timescales when the more massive merger progenitor does not host other subhalos. When other subhalos are present, however, major merger timescales are several times shorter. This enhancement may be due to inelastic unbound collisions between subhalos, which deplete their orbital angular momentum and lead to faster orbital decay. Following these results, we predict that major mergers in group environments are dominated by mergers involving the central galaxy, that the specific major merger rate is suppressed in groups when all group members are considered together, and that the frequency of fainter companions is enhanced for major mergers and their remnants. We also measure an 'assembly bias' in the specific major merger rate in that major mergers of galaxy-like halos are slightly suppressed in overdense environments while major mergers of group-like halos are slightly enhanced. A dynamical explanation for this trend is advanced which calls on both tidal effects and interactions between bound halos beyond the virial radii of locally dynamically dominant halos.

Tree rings reveal a major episode of forest mortality in the late 18th century on the Tibetan Plateau

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Fang, Ouya; Alfaro, René I.; Zhang, Qi-Bin

2018-04-01

There is a growing research interest on studying forest mortality in relation to ongoing climate warming, but little is known about such events in past history. The study of past forest mortality provides valuable information for determining baselines that establish the normal parameters of functioning in forest ecosystems. Here we report a major episode of previously undocumented forest mortality in the late 18th century on the northern Tibetan Plateau, China. The event was not spatially uniform, in which a more severe mortality happened in dryer sites. We used dendrochronology to compare radial growth trajectories of individual trees from 11 sites in the region, and found that many trees showed positive growth trend, or growth release, during 1796-1800 CE. Growth releases are a proxy indicator of stand thinning caused by tree mortality. The growth release was preceded by an almost two-decade long growth reduction. Long-term drought related to weakened North Atlantic Oscillation and frequent El Niño events are the likely factors causing the tree mortality in a large area of the plateau. Our findings suggest that, besides the effect of drought in the late 18th century, large-scale forest mortality may be an additional factor that further deteriorated the environment and increased the intensity of dust storms.

CUSTOMER-PERCEIVED INSECURITY OF ONLINE SHOPPING ENVIRONMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matea Matic

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Customer-perceived insecurity of online shopping environment has become one of the major obstacles to the growth of electronic commerce. The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of insecurity of Internet usage towards online purchase decision as well as consumers’ attitudes and intentions towards online purchasing. The data was collected through survey questionnaire using the purposive sample of 253 Croatian students from the University of Dubrovnik. Research results indicate a significant relationship between the insecurity of Internet usage and online purchase decision. Additionally, a significant relationship was found between the insecurity of Internet usage and consumers’ attitudes and intentions towards online purchasing. The overall analysis reveals that consumers have positive attitudes and intentions towards online purchasing whilst insecurity towards online purchasing lowers when online purchases are made more frequently.

Removal of cytostatic drugs from aquatic environment: A review

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Jiefeng [Division of Environmental and Water Resources, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 (Singapore); Chang, Victor W.C., E-mail: wcchang@ntu.edu.sg [Division of Environmental and Water Resources, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 (Singapore); Giannis, Apostolos [Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore 637141 (Singapore); Wang, Jing-Yuan [Division of Environmental and Water Resources, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 (Singapore); Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, Singapore 637141 (Singapore)

2013-02-15

Cytostatic drugs have been widely used for chemotherapy for decades. However, many of them have been categorized as carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic compounds, triggering widespread concerns about their occupational exposure and ecotoxicological risks to the environment. This review focuses on trace presence, fate and ecotoxicity of various cytostatic compounds in the environment, with an emphasis on the major sources contributing to their environmental concentrations. Past records have documented findings mainly on hospital effluents though little effort has been directed to household discharges. There is also a lack in physico-chemical data for forecasting the chemodynamics of cytostatics in natural waters along with its human metabolites and environmental transformation products. In this light, obtaining comprehensive ecotoxicity data is becoming pressingly crucial to determine their actual impacts on the ecosystem. Literature review also reveals urinary excretion as a major contributor to various cytostatic residues appeared in the water cycle. As such, engaging urine source-separation as a part of control strategy holds a rosy prospect of addressing the “emerging” contamination issue. State-of-the-art treatment technologies should be incorporated to further remove cytostatic residues from the source-separating urine stream. The benefits, limitations and trends of development in this domain are covered for membrane bio-reactor, reverse/forward osmosis and advanced oxidation processes. Despite the respective seeming advantages of source separation and treatment technology, a combined strategy may cost-effectively prevent the cytostatic residues from seeping into the environment. However, the combination calls for further evaluation on the associated technological, social-economic and administrative issues at hand. Highlights: ► We review the environmental occurrence, fate and ecotoxicity of cytostatic drugs. ► Four major sources contributing to

Brain microstructural abnormalities revealed by diffusion tensor images in patients with treatment-resistant depression compared with major depressive disorder before treatment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou Yan, E-mail: clare1475@hotmail.com [Department of Radiology, Ren-Ji Hospital, Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai 200127 (China); Qin Lingdi, E-mail: flyfool318@hotmail.com [Department of Radiology, Ren-Ji Hospital, Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai 200127 (China); Chen Jun, E-mail: doctor_cj@msn.com [Shanghai Mental Health Center, Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai, 200030 (China); Qian Lijun, E-mail: dearqlj@hotmail.com [Department of Radiology, Ren-Ji Hospital, Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai 200127 (China); Tao Jing, E-mail: jing318@hotmail.com [Department of Radiology, Ren-Ji Hospital, Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai 200127 (China); Fang Yiru, E-mail: fangyr@sina.com [Shanghai Mental Health Center, Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai, 200030 (China); Xu Jianrong, E-mail: xujianr@hotmail.com [Department of Radiology, Ren-Ji Hospital, Jiao Tong University Medical School, Shanghai 200127 (China)

2011-11-15

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a therapeutic challenge for clinicians. Despite a growing interest in this area, an understanding of the pathophysiology of depression, particularly TRD, remains lacking. This study aims to detect the white matter abnormalities of whole brain fractional anisotropy (FA) in patients with TRD compared with major depressive disorder (MDD) before treatment by voxel-based analysis using diffusion tensor imaging. A total of 100 patients first diagnosed with untreated MDD underwent diffusion tensor imaging scans. 8 weeks after the first treatment, 54 patients showed response to the medication, whereas 46 did not. Finally, 20 patients were diagnosed with TRD after undergoing another treatment. A total of 20 patients with TRD and another 20 with MDD before treatment matched in gender, age, and education was enrolled in the research. For every subject, an FA map was generated and analyzed using SPM5. Subsequently, t-test was conducted to compare the FA values voxel to voxel between the two groups (p < 0.001 [FDR corrected], t > 7.57, voxel size > 30). Voxel-based morphometric (VBM) analysis was performed using T1W images. Significant reductions in FA were found in the white matter located in the bilateral of the hippocampus (left hippocampus: t = 7.63, voxel size = 50; right hippocampus: t = 7.82, voxel size = 48). VBM analysis revealed no morphological abnormalities between the two groups. Investigation of brain anisotropy revealed significantly decreased FA in both sides of the hippocampus. Although preliminary, our findings suggest that microstructural abnormalities in the hippocampus indicate vulnerability to treatment resistance.

Brain microstructural abnormalities revealed by diffusion tensor images in patients with treatment-resistant depression compared with major depressive disorder before treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Yan; Qin Lingdi; Chen Jun; Qian Lijun; Tao Jing; Fang Yiru; Xu Jianrong

2011-01-01

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a therapeutic challenge for clinicians. Despite a growing interest in this area, an understanding of the pathophysiology of depression, particularly TRD, remains lacking. This study aims to detect the white matter abnormalities of whole brain fractional anisotropy (FA) in patients with TRD compared with major depressive disorder (MDD) before treatment by voxel-based analysis using diffusion tensor imaging. A total of 100 patients first diagnosed with untreated MDD underwent diffusion tensor imaging scans. 8 weeks after the first treatment, 54 patients showed response to the medication, whereas 46 did not. Finally, 20 patients were diagnosed with TRD after undergoing another treatment. A total of 20 patients with TRD and another 20 with MDD before treatment matched in gender, age, and education was enrolled in the research. For every subject, an FA map was generated and analyzed using SPM5. Subsequently, t-test was conducted to compare the FA values voxel to voxel between the two groups (p 7.57, voxel size > 30). Voxel-based morphometric (VBM) analysis was performed using T1W images. Significant reductions in FA were found in the white matter located in the bilateral of the hippocampus (left hippocampus: t = 7.63, voxel size = 50; right hippocampus: t = 7.82, voxel size = 48). VBM analysis revealed no morphological abnormalities between the two groups. Investigation of brain anisotropy revealed significantly decreased FA in both sides of the hippocampus. Although preliminary, our findings suggest that microstructural abnormalities in the hippocampus indicate vulnerability to treatment resistance.

HmsC Controls Yersinia pestis Biofilm Formation in Response to Redox Environment

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Gai-Xian Ren

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Yersinia pestis biofilm formation, controlled by intracellular levels of the second messenger molecule cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP, is important for blockage-dependent plague transmission from fleas to mammals. HmsCDE is a tripartite signaling system that modulates intracellular c-di-GMP levels to regulate biofilm formation in Y. pestis. Previously, we found that Y. pestis biofilm formation is stimulated in reducing environments in an hmsCDE-dependent manner. However, the mechanism by which HmsCDE senses the redox state remains elusive. Using a dsbA mutant and the addition of Cu2+ to simulate reducing and oxidizing periplasmic environments, we found that HmsC protein levels are decreased and the HmsC-HmsD protein-protein interaction is weakened in a reducing environment. In addition, we revealed that intraprotein disulphide bonds are critical for HmsC since breakage lowers protein stability and diminishes the interaction with HmsD. Our results suggest that HmsC might play a major role in sensing the environmental changes.

State and trait olfactory markers of major depression.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marine Naudin

Full Text Available Nowadays, depression is a major issue in public health. Because of the partial overlap between the brain structures involved in depression, olfaction and emotion, the study of olfactory function could be a relevant way to find specific cognitive markers of depression. This study aims at determining whether the olfactory impairments are state or trait markers of major depressive episode (MDE through the study of the olfactory parameters involving the central olfactory pathway. In a pilot study, we evaluated prospectively 18 depressed patients during acute episodes of depression and 6 weeks after antidepressant treatment (escitalopram against 54 healthy volunteers, matched by age, gender and smoking status. We investigated the participants' abilities to identify odors (single odors and in binary mixture, to evaluate and discriminate the odors' intensity, and determine the hedonic valence of odors. The results revealed an "olfactory anhedonia" expressed by decrease of hedonic score for high emotional odorant as potential state marker of MDE. Moreover, these patients experienced an "olfactory negative alliesthesia", during the odor intensity evaluation, and failed to identify correctly two odorants with opposite valences in a binary iso-mixture, which constitute potential trait markers of the disease. This study provides preliminary evidence for olfactory impairments associated with MDE (state marker that are persistent after the clinical improvement of depressive symptoms (trait marker. These results could be explained by the chronicity of depression and/or by the impact of therapeutic means used (antidepressant treatment. They need to be confirmed particularly the ones obtained in complex olfactory environment which corresponds a more objective daily life situation.

Mining the Home Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Diane J; Krishnan, Narayanan

2014-12-01

Individuals spend a majority of their time in their home or workplace and for many, these places are our sanctuaries. As society and technology advance there is a growing interest in improving the intelligence of the environments in which we live and work. By filling home environments with sensors and collecting data during daily routines, researchers can gain insights on human daily behavior and the impact of behavior on the residents and their environments. In this article we provide an overview of the data mining opportunities and challenges that smart environments provide for researchers and offer some suggestions for future work in this area.

Mining the Home Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Diane J.; Krishnan, Narayanan

2014-01-01

Individuals spend a majority of their time in their home or workplace and for many, these places are our sanctuaries. As society and technology advance there is a growing interest in improving the intelligence of the environments in which we live and work. By filling home environments with sensors and collecting data during daily routines, researchers can gain insights on human daily behavior and the impact of behavior on the residents and their environments. In this article we provide an overview of the data mining opportunities and challenges that smart environments provide for researchers and offer some suggestions for future work in this area. PMID:25506128

Fungal contamination in hospital environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Perdelli, F; Cristina, M L; Sartini, M; Spagnolo, A M; Dallera, M; Ottria, G; Lombardi, R; Grimaldi, M; Orlando, P

2006-01-01

To assess the degree of fungal contamination in hospital environments and to evaluate the ability of air conditioning systems to reduce such contamination. We monitored airborne microbial concentrations in various environments in 10 hospitals equipped with air conditioning. Sampling was performed with a portable Surface Air System impactor with replicate organism detection and counting plates containing a fungus-selective medium. The total fungal concentration was determined 72-120 hours after sampling. The genera most involved in infection were identified by macroscopic and microscopic observation. The mean concentration of airborne fungi in the set of environments examined was 19 +/- 19 colony-forming units (cfu) per cubic meter. Analysis of the fungal concentration in the different types of environments revealed different levels of contamination: the lowest mean values (12 +/- 14 cfu/m(3)) were recorded in operating theaters, and the highest (45 +/- 37 cfu/m(3)) were recorded in kitchens. Analyses revealed statistically significant differences between median values for the various environments. The fungal genus most commonly encountered was Penicillium, which, in kitchens, displayed the highest mean airborne concentration (8 +/- 2.4 cfu/m(3)). The percentage (35%) of Aspergillus documented in the wards was higher than that in any of the other environments monitored. The fungal concentrations recorded in the present study are comparable to those recorded in other studies conducted in hospital environments and are considerably lower than those seen in other indoor environments that are not air conditioned. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of air-handling systems in reducing fungal contamination.

454 sequencing reveals extreme complexity of the class II Major Histocompatibility Complex in the collared flycatcher

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustafsson Lars

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Because of their functional significance, the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC class I and II genes have been the subject of continuous interest in the fields of ecology, evolution and conservation. In some vertebrate groups MHC consists of multiple loci with similar alleles; therefore, the multiple loci must be genotyped simultaneously. In such complex systems, understanding of the evolutionary patterns and their causes has been limited due to challenges posed by genotyping. Results Here we used 454 amplicon sequencing to characterize MHC class IIB exon 2 variation in the collared flycatcher, an important organism in evolutionary and immuno-ecological studies. On the basis of over 152,000 sequencing reads we identified 194 putative alleles in 237 individuals. We found an extreme complexity of the MHC class IIB in the collared flycatchers, with our estimates pointing to the presence of at least nine expressed loci and a large, though difficult to estimate precisely, number of pseudogene loci. Many similar alleles occurred in the pseudogenes indicating either a series of recent duplications or extensive concerted evolution. The expressed alleles showed unambiguous signals of historical selection and the occurrence of apparent interlocus exchange of alleles. Placing the collared flycatcher's MHC sequences in the context of passerine diversity revealed transspecific MHC class II evolution within the Muscicapidae family. Conclusions 454 amplicon sequencing is an effective tool for advancing our understanding of the MHC class II structure and evolutionary patterns in Passeriformes. We found a highly dynamic pattern of evolution of MHC class IIB genes with strong signals of selection and pronounced sequence divergence in expressed genes, in contrast to the apparent sequence homogenization in pseudogenes. We show that next generation sequencing offers a universal, affordable method for the characterization and, in perspective

Phylogenomics reveals rapid, simultaneous diversification of three major clades of Gondwanan frogs at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary

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Feng, Yan-Jie; Liang, Dan; Hillis, David M.; Cannatella, David C.; Zhang, Peng

2017-01-01

Frogs (Anura) are one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates and comprise nearly 90% of living amphibian species. Their worldwide distribution and diverse biology make them well-suited for assessing fundamental questions in evolution, ecology, and conservation. However, despite their scientific importance, the evolutionary history and tempo of frog diversification remain poorly understood. By using a molecular dataset of unprecedented size, including 88-kb characters from 95 nuclear genes of 156 frog species, in conjunction with 20 fossil-based calibrations, our analyses result in the most strongly supported phylogeny of all major frog lineages and provide a timescale of frog evolution that suggests much younger divergence times than suggested by earlier studies. Unexpectedly, our divergence-time analyses show that three species-rich clades (Hyloidea, Microhylidae, and Natatanura), which together comprise ∼88% of extant anuran species, simultaneously underwent rapid diversification at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary (KPB). Moreover, anuran families and subfamilies containing arboreal species originated near or after the KPB. These results suggest that the K–Pg mass extinction may have triggered explosive radiations of frogs by creating new ecological opportunities. This phylogeny also reveals relationships such as Microhylidae being sister to all other ranoid frogs and African continental lineages of Natatanura forming a clade that is sister to a clade of Eurasian, Indian, Melanesian, and Malagasy lineages. Biogeographical analyses suggest that the ancestral area of modern frogs was Africa, and their current distribution is largely associated with the breakup of Pangaea and subsequent Gondwanan fragmentation. PMID:28673970

Phylogenomics reveals rapid, simultaneous diversification of three major clades of Gondwanan frogs at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yan-Jie; Blackburn, David C; Liang, Dan; Hillis, David M; Wake, David B; Cannatella, David C; Zhang, Peng

2017-07-18

Frogs (Anura) are one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates and comprise nearly 90% of living amphibian species. Their worldwide distribution and diverse biology make them well-suited for assessing fundamental questions in evolution, ecology, and conservation. However, despite their scientific importance, the evolutionary history and tempo of frog diversification remain poorly understood. By using a molecular dataset of unprecedented size, including 88-kb characters from 95 nuclear genes of 156 frog species, in conjunction with 20 fossil-based calibrations, our analyses result in the most strongly supported phylogeny of all major frog lineages and provide a timescale of frog evolution that suggests much younger divergence times than suggested by earlier studies. Unexpectedly, our divergence-time analyses show that three species-rich clades (Hyloidea, Microhylidae, and Natatanura), which together comprise ∼88% of extant anuran species, simultaneously underwent rapid diversification at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary (KPB). Moreover, anuran families and subfamilies containing arboreal species originated near or after the KPB. These results suggest that the K-Pg mass extinction may have triggered explosive radiations of frogs by creating new ecological opportunities. This phylogeny also reveals relationships such as Microhylidae being sister to all other ranoid frogs and African continental lineages of Natatanura forming a clade that is sister to a clade of Eurasian, Indian, Melanesian, and Malagasy lineages. Biogeographical analyses suggest that the ancestral area of modern frogs was Africa, and their current distribution is largely associated with the breakup of Pangaea and subsequent Gondwanan fragmentation.

Personalized gesture interactions for cyber-physical smart-home environments

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yihua LOU; Wenjun WU; Radu-Daniel VATAVU; Wei-Tek TSAI

2017-01-01

A gesture-based interaction system for smart homes is a part of a complex cyber-physical environment,for which researchers and developers need to address major challenges in providing personalized gesture interactions.However,current research efforts have not tackled the problem of personalized gesture recognition that often involves user identification.To address this problem,we propose in this work a new event-driven service-oriented framework called gesture services for cyber-physical environments (GS-CPE) that extends the architecture of our previous work gesture profile for web services (GPWS).To provide user identification functionality,GS-CPE introduces a two-phase cascading gesture password recognition algorithm for gesture-based user identification using a two-phase cascading classifier with the hidden Markov model and the Golden Section Search,which achieves an accuracy rate of 96.2％ with a small training dataset.To support personalized gesture interaction,an enhanced version of the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm with multiple gestural input sources and dynamic template adaptation support is implemented.Our experimental results demonstrate the performance of the algorithm can achieve an average accuracy rate of 98.5％ in practical scenarios.Comparison results reveal that GS-CPE has faster response time and higher accuracy rate than other gesture interaction systems designed for smart-home environments.

Major ions in spitsbergen snow samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Semb, A.; Braekkan, R.; Joranger, E.

1984-01-01

Chemical analysis of Spitsbergen snow cores sampled in spring 1983, reveals a spatial pattern consistent with orographic deposition of major anthropogenic pollutants with air movements from southeast towards northwest. The highest concentrations of pollutant species were found at an altitude of 700 metres above sea level, and are higher than for any other recorded snow samples from the Arctic

Deep sequencing of the Camellia sinensis transcriptome revealed candidate genes for major metabolic pathways of tea-specific compounds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shi, CY; Yang, H; Wei, CL; Yu, O; Zhang, ZZ; Sun, J; Wan, XC

2011-01-01

Tea is one of the most popular non-alcoholic beverages worldwide. However, the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, is difficult to culture in vitro, to transform, and has a large genome, rendering little genomic information available. Recent advances in large-scale RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) provide a fast, cost-effective, and reliable approach to generate large expression datasets for functional genomic analysis, which is especially suitable for non-model species with un-sequenced genomes. Using high-throughput Illumina RNA-seq, the transcriptome from poly (A){sup +} RNA of C. sinensis was analyzed at an unprecedented depth (2.59 gigabase pairs). Approximate 34.5 million reads were obtained, trimmed, and assembled into 127,094 unigenes, with an average length of 355 bp and an N50 of 506 bp, which consisted of 788 contig clusters and 126,306 singletons. This number of unigenes was 10-fold higher than existing C. sinensis sequences deposited in GenBank (as of August 2010). Sequence similarity analyses against six public databases (Uniprot, NR and COGs at NCBI, Pfam, InterPro and KEGG) found 55,088 unigenes that could be annotated with gene descriptions, conserved protein domains, or gene ontology terms. Some of the unigenes were assigned to putative metabolic pathways. Targeted searches using these annotations identified the majority of genes associated with several primary metabolic pathways and natural product pathways that are important to tea quality, such as flavonoid, theanine and caffeine biosynthesis pathways. Novel candidate genes of these secondary pathways were discovered. Comparisons with four previously prepared cDNA libraries revealed that this transcriptome dataset has both a high degree of consistency with previous EST data and an approximate 20 times increase in coverage. Thirteen unigenes related to theanine and flavonoid synthesis were validated. Their expression patterns in different organs of the tea plant were analyzed by RT-PCR and quantitative real

Deep sequencing of the Camellia sinensis transcriptome revealed candidate genes for major metabolic pathways of tea-specific compounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Qi

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Tea is one of the most popular non-alcoholic beverages worldwide. However, the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, is difficult to culture in vitro, to transform, and has a large genome, rendering little genomic information available. Recent advances in large-scale RNA sequencing (RNA-seq provide a fast, cost-effective, and reliable approach to generate large expression datasets for functional genomic analysis, which is especially suitable for non-model species with un-sequenced genomes. Results Using high-throughput Illumina RNA-seq, the transcriptome from poly (A+ RNA of C. sinensis was analyzed at an unprecedented depth (2.59 gigabase pairs. Approximate 34.5 million reads were obtained, trimmed, and assembled into 127,094 unigenes, with an average length of 355 bp and an N50 of 506 bp, which consisted of 788 contig clusters and 126,306 singletons. This number of unigenes was 10-fold higher than existing C. sinensis sequences deposited in GenBank (as of August 2010. Sequence similarity analyses against six public databases (Uniprot, NR and COGs at NCBI, Pfam, InterPro and KEGG found 55,088 unigenes that could be annotated with gene descriptions, conserved protein domains, or gene ontology terms. Some of the unigenes were assigned to putative metabolic pathways. Targeted searches using these annotations identified the majority of genes associated with several primary metabolic pathways and natural product pathways that are important to tea quality, such as flavonoid, theanine and caffeine biosynthesis pathways. Novel candidate genes of these secondary pathways were discovered. Comparisons with four previously prepared cDNA libraries revealed that this transcriptome dataset has both a high degree of consistency with previous EST data and an approximate 20 times increase in coverage. Thirteen unigenes related to theanine and flavonoid synthesis were validated. Their expression patterns in different organs of the tea plant were

[Working environment and educational environment are two sides of the same coin].

Science.gov (United States)

Kannegaard, Pia Nimann; Holm, Ellen Astrid

2014-01-20

Educational environment is of major importance for job satisfaction and it consists of several components including curriculum and values of the organization. Educational climate is the environment, as the individual physicians perceive it. Motivation is important for job satisfaction as well as for learning. Autonomy, responsibility, supervision, feedback are all important factors influencing motivation and learning. These factors must be supported through appropriate organization of work in hospital departments and in general practice.

Trace elements status in children with B-thalassaemia major

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moawad, A.T.

2005-01-01

This study was conducted on 30 children suffering from ft-thalassaemia major (15 males and 15 females) with mean age of 10.3 ± 5.1 years and 17 apparently healthy children with the same age and sex and served as controls. Patients as well as controls were subjected to careful history, clinical examination and laboratoiy investigations. Patients with jB-thalassaemia major had low body mass index (BMI) of 15.6± 3.5 compared to 19.5± 3.7 for the control (P<0.05). Hematological profile revealed that the mean This study was conducted on 30 children suffering from ft-thalassaemia major (15 males and 15 females) with mean age of 10.3 ± 5.1 years and 17 apparently healthy children with the same age and sex and served as controls. Patients as well as controls were subjected to careful history, clinical examination and laboratoiy investigations. Patients with jB-thalassaemia major had low body mass index (BMI) of 15.6± 3.5 compared to 19.5 ± 3.7 for the control (P<0.05). Hematological profile revealed that the mean

TYPES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY TERTIARY ENGLISH MAJORS

OpenAIRE

TAN KHYE CHUIN; SARJIT KAUR

2015-01-01

This study investigated the types of language learning strategies used by 73 English majors from the School of Humanities in Universiti Sains Malaysia. Using questionnaires adopted from Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) and focus group interviews, the study also examined the English major students’ perceptions of using language learning strategies while learning English. The results revealed that the English majors were generally high users of all six types of lan...

Short Communications Strength Properties and Groups of Major ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Short Communications Strength Properties and Groups of Major Commercial Timbers Grown in Kenya. ... The strength groups developed revealed that most species in Kenya are suitable for heavy engineering works and building construction. ... strength properties, commercial timber, physical and mechanical properties

Polarized bow shocks reveal features of the winds and environments of massive stars

Science.gov (United States)

Shrestha, Manisha

2018-01-01

Massive stars strongly affect their surroundings through their energetic stellar winds and deaths as supernovae. The bow shock structures created by fast-moving massive stars contain important information about the winds and ultimate fates of these stars as well as their local interstellar medium (ISM). Since bow shocks are aspherical, the light scattered in the dense shock material becomes polarized. Analyzing this polarization reveals details of the bow shock geometry as well as the composition, velocity, density, and albedo of the scattering material. With these quantities, we can constrain the properties of the stellar wind and thus the evolutionary state of the star, as well as the dust composition of the local ISM.In my dissertation research, I use a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code that I optimized to simulate the polarization signatures produced by both resolved and unresolved stellar wind bow shocks (SWBS) illuminated by a central star and by shock emission. I derive bow shock shapes and densities from published analytical calculations and smooth particle hydrodynamic (SPH) models. In the case of the analytical SWBS and electron scattering, I find that higher optical depths produce higher polarization and position angle rotations at specific viewing angles compared to theoretical predictions for low optical depths. This is due to the geometrical properties of the bow shock combined with multiple scattering effects. For dust scattering, the polarization signature is strongly affected by wavelength, dust grain properties, and viewing angle. The behavior of the polarization as a function of wavelength in these cases can distinguish among different dust models for the local ISM. In the case of SPH density structures, I investigate how the polarization changes as a function of the evolutionary phase of the SWBS. My dissertation compares these simulations with polarization data from Betelgeuse and other massive stars with bow shocks. I discuss the

Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Adoptive Parents' Experiences in Preschool Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldberg, Abbie E

2014-01-01

Little research has examined the school experiences of lesbian/gay (LG) parent families or adoptive parent families. The current exploratory study examined the experiences of 79 lesbian, 75 gay male, and 112 heterosexual adoptive parents of preschool-age children with respect to their (a) level of disclosure regarding their LG parent and adoptive family status at their children's schools; (b) perceived challenges in navigating the preschool environment and advocating on behalf of their children and families; and (c) recommendations to teachers and schools about how to create affirming school environments with respect to family structure, adoption, and race/ethnicity. Findings revealed that the majority of parents were open about their LG and adoptive family status, and had not encountered challenges related to family diversity. Those parents who did experience challenges tended to describe implicit forms of marginalization, such as insensitive language and school assignments. Recommendations for teachers included discussing and reading books about diverse families, tailoring assignments to meet the needs of diverse families, and offering school community-building activities and events to help bridge differences across families.

The environment of the fast rotating star Achernar. III. Photospheric parameters revealed by the VLTI

Science.gov (United States)

Domiciano de Souza, A.; Kervella, P.; Moser Faes, D.; Dalla Vedova, G.; Mérand, A.; Le Bouquin, J.-B.; Espinosa Lara, F.; Rieutord, M.; Bendjoya, P.; Carciofi, A. C.; Hadjara, M.; Millour, F.; Vakili, F.

2014-09-01

Context. Rotation significantly impacts on the structure and life of stars. In phases of high rotation velocity (close to critical), the photospheric structure can be highly modified, and present in particular geometrical deformation (rotation flattening) and latitudinal-dependent flux (gravity darkening). The fastest known rotators among the nondegenerate stars close to the main sequence, Be stars, are key targets for studying the effects of fast rotation on stellar photospheres. Aims: We seek to determine the purely photospheric parameters of Achernar based on observations recorded during an emission-free phase (normal B phase). Methods: Several recent works proved that optical/IR long-baseline interferometry is the only technique able to sufficiently spatially resolve and measure photospheric parameters of fast rotating stars. We thus analyzed ESO-VLTI (PIONIER and AMBER) interferometric observations of Achernar to measure its photospheric parameters by fitting our physical model CHARRON using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. This analysis was also complemented by spectroscopic, polarimetric, and photometric observations to investigate the status of the circumstellar environment of Achernar during the VLTI observations and to cross-check our model-fitting results. Results: Based on VLTI observations that partially resolve Achernar, we simultaneously measured five photospheric parameters of a Be star for the first time: equatorial radius (equatorial angular diameter), equatorial rotation velocity, polar inclination, position angle of the rotation axis projected on the sky, and the gravity darkening β coefficient (effective temperature distribution). The close circumstellar environment of Achernar was also investigated based on contemporaneous polarimetry, spectroscopy, and interferometry, including image reconstruction. This analysis did not reveal any important circumstellar contribution, so that Achernar was essentially in a normal B phase at least from mid

REVEAL: Software Documentation and Platform Migration

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Michael A.; Veibell, Victoir T.

2011-01-01

The Research Environment for Vehicle Embedded Analysis on Linux (REVEAL) is reconfigurable data acquisition software designed for network-distributed test and measurement applications. In development since 2001, it has been successfully demonstrated in support of a number of actual missions within NASA's Suborbital Science Program. Improvements to software configuration control were needed to properly support both an ongoing transition to operational status and continued evolution of REVEAL capabilities. For this reason the project described in this report targets REVEAL software source documentation and deployment of the software on a small set of hardware platforms different from what is currently used in the baseline system implementation. This presentation specifically describes the actions taken over a ten week period by two undergraduate student interns and serves as an overview of the content of the final report for that internship.

Spontaneous cortical activity reveals hallmarks of an optimal internal model of the environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Berkes, Pietro; Orbán, Gergo; Lengyel, Máté; Fiser, József

2011-01-07

The brain maintains internal models of its environment to interpret sensory inputs and to prepare actions. Although behavioral studies have demonstrated that these internal models are optimally adapted to the statistics of the environment, the neural underpinning of this adaptation is unknown. Using a Bayesian model of sensory cortical processing, we related stimulus-evoked and spontaneous neural activities to inferences and prior expectations in an internal model and predicted that they should match if the model is statistically optimal. To test this prediction, we analyzed visual cortical activity of awake ferrets during development. Similarity between spontaneous and evoked activities increased with age and was specific to responses evoked by natural scenes. This demonstrates the progressive adaptation of internal models to the statistics of natural stimuli at the neural level.

Population genomics of Fusarium graminearum reveals signatures of divergent evolution within a major cereal pathogen

Science.gov (United States)

The cereal pathogen Fusarium graminearum is the primary cause of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and a significant threat to food safety and crop production. To elucidate population structure and identify genomic targets of selection within major FHB pathogen populations in North America we sequenced the...

Genome analysis of Pseudoalteromonas flavipulchra JG1 reveals various survival advantages in marine environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Min; Tang, Kaihao; Liu, Jiwen; Shi, Xiaochong; Gulder, Tobias A M; Zhang, Xiao-Hua

2013-10-16

Competition between bacteria for habitat and resources is very common in the natural environment and is considered to be a selective force for survival. Many strains of the genus Pseudoalteromonas were confirmed to produce bioactive compounds that provide those advantages over their competitors. In our previous study, P. flavipulchra JG1 was found to synthesize a Pseudoalteromonas flavipulchra antibacterial Protein (PfaP) with L-amino acid oxidase activity and five small chemical compounds, which were the main competitive agents of the strain. In addition, the genome of this bacterium has been previously sequenced as Whole Genome Shotgun project (PMID: 22740664). In this study, more extensive genomic analysis was performed to identify specific genes or gene clusters which related to its competitive feature, and further experiments were carried out to confirm the physiological roles of these genes when competing with other microorganisms in marine environment. The antibacterial protein PfaP may also participate in the biosynthesis of 6-bromoindolyl-3-acetic acid, indicating a synergistic effect between the antibacterial macromolecule and small molecules. Chitinases and quorum quenching enzymes present in P. flavipulchra, which coincide with great chitinase and acyl homoserine lactones degrading activities of strain JG1, suggest other potential mechanisms contribute to antibacterial/antifungal activities. Moreover, movability and rapid response mechanisms to phosphorus starvation and other stresses, such as antibiotic, oxidative and heavy metal stress, enable JG1 to adapt to deleterious, fluctuating and oligotrophic marine environments. The genome of P. flavipulchra JG1 exhibits significant genetic advantages against other microorganisms, encoding antimicrobial agents as well as abilities to adapt to various adverse environments. Genes involved in synthesis of various antimicrobial substances enriches the antagonistic mechanisms of P. flavipulchra JG1 and affords

Analysis of major risk factors affecting those working in the agrarian sector (based on a sociological survey).

Science.gov (United States)

Krekoten, Olena M; Dereziuk, Anatolii V; Ihnaschuk, Olena V; Holovchanska, Svitlana E

Issues related to labour potential, its state and problems have consistently been a focus of attention for the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Its respective analysis shows that labour potential problems remain unresolved in many countries of the world. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), adverse working conditions are among major factors of occupational disease development in Europe and the reason for disabilities of economically active population during 2.5% of their lifetime. The aim of the present study is to identify and analyse major risk factors, which have a bearing on people working in agriculture in the course of exercising their occupation, with account of forms of ownership of agricultural enterprises. Carried out was a cross-sectional study involving a sociological survey of 412 respondents - those working in agriculture - who made up the primary group and the control group. The study revealed 21 risk factors, 9 of which were work-related. A modified elementary cybernetic model of studying impact efficiency was developed with the view of carrying out a structural analysis of the sample group and choosing relevant methodological approaches. It has been established that harmful factors related to working environment and one's lifestyle are decisive in the agrarian sector, particularly for workers of privately owned businesses. For one out of three respondents harmful working conditions manifested themselves as industrial noise (31.7±3.4), vibration (29.0±2.1) trunk bending and constrained working posture (36.6±3.4). The vast majority of agricultural workers (91.6±2.5) admitted they could not afford proper rest during their annual leave; male respondents abused alcohol (70.6±3.0) and smoking (41.4±2.0 per 100 workers). The research established the structure of risk factors, which is sequentially represented by the following groups: behavioral (smoking, drinking of alcohol, rest during annual leave, physical culture), working

Major identity transformations - movements beyond criminal life and the biker gang environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mørck, Line Lerche; Hansen, Peter

2015-01-01

. Empirically the paper illustrates these transitions and transformations with an empirical case of a young man, called Peter, changing his life conduct becoming less of a criminal member of the (biker) gang environment becoming more of a member of academia. The paper explore the action reasons of Peter...... logs, biographical documentaries and life story presentations to reflect identity change, which also becomes reflected part of the moment-movement research. The paper explore the struggles to move beyond marginal positions and how collective processes of recognition and reification might help about...

Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments. Second Edition

Science.gov (United States)

Jonassen, David, Ed.; Land, Susan, Ed.

2012-01-01

"Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments" provides students, faculty, and instructional designers with a clear, concise introduction to the major pedagogical and psychological theories and their implications for the design of new learning environments for schools, universities, or corporations. Leading experts describe the most…

Quantum Darwinism in a Mixed Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Zwolak, Michael; Quan, H. T.; Zurek, Wojciech H.

2009-09-01

Quantum Darwinism recognizes that we—the observers—acquire our information about the “systems of interest” indirectly from their imprints on the environment. Here, we show that information about a system can be acquired from a mixed-state, or hazy, environment, but the storage capacity of an environment fragment is suppressed by its initial entropy. In the case of good decoherence, the mutual information between the system and the fragment is given solely by the fragment’s entropy increase. For fairly mixed environments, this means a reduction by a factor 1-h, where h is the haziness of the environment, i.e., the initial entropy of an environment qubit. Thus, even such hazy environments eventually reveal the state of the system, although now the intercepted environment fragment must be larger by ˜(1-h)-1 to gain the same information about the system.

El Entorno en la Preescolar (The Environment in Preschool).

Science.gov (United States)

Cebrian, Maria Jesus

1992-01-01

Underscores the importance of the physical and social environment experienced by infants and young children. Notes major conclusions emanating from international conferences on environmental education. Defines "environment," contends that environmental education must be interdisciplinary, compares rural and urban environments, stresses the…

The CLEM Model: Path Analysis of the Mediating Effects of Attitudes and Motivational Beliefs on the Relationship between Perceived Learning Environment and Course Performance in an Undergraduate Non-Major Biology Course

Science.gov (United States)

Partin, Matthew L.; Haney, Jodi J.

2012-01-01

In this study, the following questions were addressed in an undergraduate non-major biology course using a large lecture format: Is there a relationship between students' perceptions of their learning environment and course performance, and what roles do motivation and attitudes play in mediating that relationship? The purpose of this study was to…

Composition of bracken: some major- and trace-element constituents

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hunter, J G

1953-01-01

Periodic samples of bracken taken during the growing season have shown that the concentration of major elements (except calcium and sodium) decreases with age in fronds, and remains relatively constant in rhizomes, whereas trace-element concentration varies widely. Soil type has little effect on the mineral composition of fronds. Examination of three rhizome types revealed no wide differences in the content of major elements; pinnules generally contained higher concentrations of major and trace elements than fronds. Comparison of results with those published elsewhere for moorland plants grown under similar conditions indicates that bracken contains more potassium and less molybdenum.

Identification of major factors in Australian primary care pharmacists' practice environment that have a bearing on the implementation of professional models of practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, John K; Hussainy, Safeera Y; Kirkpatrick, Carl M J

2017-08-01

Objective The aim of the present study was to describe an environmental framework for pharmacists in primary care in Australia and determine the major factors within that environment that have the greatest bearing on their capacity to implement patient-focused models of professional practice. Methods A draft framework for pharmacists' practice was developed by allocating structures, systems and related factors known to the researchers or identified from the literature as existing within pharmacists' internal, operational and external environments to one of five domains: Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental or Political [STEEP]. Focus groups of pharmacists used an adapted nominal group technique to assess the draft and add factors where necessary. Where applicable, factors were consolidated into groups to establish a revised framework. The three major factors or groups in each domain were identified. The results were compared with the enabling factors described in the profession's vision statement. Results Seventy-eight individual factors were ultimately identified, with 86% able to be grouped. The three dominant groups in each of the five domains that had a bearing on the implementation of professional models of practice were as follows: (1) Social: the education of pharmacists, their beliefs and the capacity of the pharmacist workforce; (2) Technological: current and future practice models, technology and workplace structures; (3) Economic: funding of services, the viability of practice and operation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme; (4) Environmental: attitudes and expectations of stakeholders, including consumers, health system reform and external competition; and (5) Political: regulation of practice, representation of the profession and policies affecting practice. Conclusions The three dominant groups of factors in each of the five STEEP environmental domains, which have a bearing on pharmacists' capacity to implement patient-focused models of

Transparency Trade-offs for a 3-channel Controller Revealed by the Bounded Environment Passivity Method

OpenAIRE

Willaert, Bert; Corteville, Brecht; Reynaerts, Dominiek; Van Brussel, Hendrik; Vander Poorten, Emmanuel

2010-01-01

In this paper, the Bounded Environment Passivity method [1] is applied to a 3-channel controller. This method enables the design of teleoperation controllers that show passive behaviour for interactions with a bounded range of environments. The resulting tuning guidelines, derived analytically, provide interesting tuning flexibility, which allows to focus on different aspects of transparency. As telesurgery is the motivation behind this work, the focus lies on correctly r...

Revealing vilazodone's binding mechanism underlying its partial agonism to the 5-HT1A receptor in the treatment of major depressive disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Guoxun; Xue, Weiwei; Yang, Fengyuan; Zhang, Yang; Chen, Yuzong; Yao, Xiaojun; Zhu, Feng

2017-11-01

It has been estimated that major depressive disorder (MDD) will become the second largest global burden among all diseases by 2030. Various types of drugs, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), and serotonin receptor partial agonist/reuptake inhibitors (SPARIs), have been approved and become the primary or first-line medications prescribed for MDD. SPARI was expected to demonstrate more enhanced drug efficacy and a rapid onset of action as compared to SSRI and SNRI. As one of the most famous SPARIs, vilazodone was approved by the FDA for the treatment of MDD. Because of the great clinical importance of vilazodone, its binding mechanism underlying its partial agonism to the 5-HT 1A receptor (5-HT 1A R) could provide valuable information to SPARIs' drug-like properties. However, this mechanism has not been reported to date; consequently, the rational design of new efficacious SPARI-based MDD drugs is severely hampered. To explore the molecular mechanism of vilazodone, an integrated computational strategy was adopted in this study to reveal its binding mechanism and prospective structural feature at the agonist binding site of 5-HT 1A R. As a result, 22 residues of this receptor were identified as hotspots, consistently favoring the binding of vilazodone and its analogues, and a common binding mechanism underlying their partial agonism to 5-HT 1A R was, therefore, discovered. Moreover, three main interaction features between vilazodone and 5-HT 1A R have been revealed and schematically summarized. In summary, this newly identified binding mechanism will provide valuable information for medicinal chemists working in the field of rational design of novel SPARIs for MDD treatment.

The construct validity of the Major Depression Inventory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Marie Germund; Ørnbøl, Eva; Vestergaard, Mogens

2017-01-01

Objective We aimed to assess the measurement properties of the ten-item Major Depression Inventory when used on clinical suspicion in general practice by performing a Rasch analysis. Methods General practitioners asked consecutive persons to respond to the web-based Major Depression Inventory...... on clinical suspicion of depression. We included 22 practices and 245 persons. Rasch analysis was performed using RUMM2030 software. The Rasch model fit suggests that all items contribute to a single underlying trait (defined as internal construct validity). Mokken analysis was used to test dimensionality...... for gender, age, work status and education. The Rasch and Mokken analyses revealed two dimensions, but the Major Depression Inventory showed fit to one scale if items 9 and 10 were excluded. Conclusion Our study indicated scalability problems in the current version of the Major Depression Inventory...

SITO, Environmental Impact of Major Industrial Activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazzini, M.; Oriolo, F.

1982-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: SITO evaluates the impact of major industrial activities on the environment. The method applied accounts for the alterations of ecological, physico-chemical, aesthetical and social values caused by the development of the considered activity. Such values are usually considered as not quantifiable but very important for the quality of the environment. 2 - Method of solution: The territory affected by the industrial project is described in a one-dimensional (for example a coast development) or two-dimensional representation as a lattice of square meshes of equal size. A major feature of the model is that the impact factors are considered with reference to each single mesh. The following vectors and matrices are evaluated: a) Matrix of environmental quality characteristics. It is the product of the environmental quality index matrix and the vector of weighting factors. b) Vector of the initial environmental values. It is the sum of the columns of matrix (a). c) Matrix obtained when the environmental quality characteristics matrix is multiplied by the vector of project action factors, taking into account distance effects. d) Vector of the final environmental values. This is the sum of columns of matrix (c)

Building partnerships for healthy environments: research, leadership and education.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Susan; Kent, Jennifer; Lyons, Claudine

2014-12-01

As populations across the globe face an increasing health burden from rising rates of obesity, diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases, health professionals are collaborating with urban planners to influence city design that supports healthy ways of living. This paper details the establishment and operation of an innovative, interdisciplinary collaboration that brings together urban planning and health. Situated in a built environment faculty at one of Australia's most prestigious universities, the Healthy Built Environments Program (HBEP) partners planning academics, a health non-government organisation, local councils and private planning consultants in a state government health department funded consortium. The HBEP focuses on three strategic areas: research, workforce development and education, and leadership and advocacy. Interdisciplinary research includes a comprehensive literature review that establishes Australian-based evidence to support the development, prioritisation and implementation of healthy built environment policies and practices. Another ongoing study examines the design features, social interventions and locational qualities that positively benefit human health. Formal courses, workshops, public lectures and e-learning develop professional capacity, as well as skills in interdisciplinary practice to support productive collaborations between health professionals and planners. The third area involves working with government and non-government agencies, and the private sector and the community, to advocate closer links between health and the built environment. Our paper presents an overview of the HBEP's major achievements. We conclude with a critical review of the challenges, revealing lessons in bringing health and planning closer together to create health-supportive cities for the 21st century.

Natural radiation environment III

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gesell, T.F.; Lowder, W.M.

1980-01-01

Separate abstracts were prepared for the 52 research papers presented at this symposium in April 1978. The major topics in this volume deal with penetrating radiation measurements, radiation surveys and population exposure, radioactivity in the indoor environment, and technologically enhanced natural radioactivity

Genome-Wide Analysis of the World's Sheep Breeds Reveals High Levels of Historic Mixture and Strong Recent Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Kijas, James W.; Lenstra, Johannes A.; Hayes, Ben; Boitard, Simon; Porto Neto, Laercio R.; San Cristobal, Magali; Servin, Bertrand; McCulloch, Russell; Whan, Vicki; Gietzen, Kimberly; Paiva, Samuel; Barendse, William; Ciani, Elena; Raadsma, Herman; McEwan, John; Dalrymple, Brian

2012-01-01

Through their domestication and subsequent selection, sheep have been adapted to thrive in a diverse range of environments. To characterise the genetic consequence of both domestication and selection, we genotyped 49,034 SNP in 2,819 animals from a diverse collection of 74 sheep breeds. We find the majority of sheep populations contain high SNP diversity and have retained an effective population size much higher than most cattle or dog breeds, suggesting domestication occurred from a broad genetic base. Extensive haplotype sharing and generally low divergence time between breeds reveal frequent genetic exchange has occurred during the development of modern breeds. A scan of the genome for selection signals revealed 31 regions containing genes for coat pigmentation, skeletal morphology, body size, growth, and reproduction. We demonstrate the strongest selection signal has occurred in response to breeding for the absence of horns. The high density map of genetic variability provides an in-depth view of the genetic history for this important livestock species. PMID:22346734

Genome-wide analysis of the world's sheep breeds reveals high levels of historic mixture and strong recent selection.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James W Kijas

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Through their domestication and subsequent selection, sheep have been adapted to thrive in a diverse range of environments. To characterise the genetic consequence of both domestication and selection, we genotyped 49,034 SNP in 2,819 animals from a diverse collection of 74 sheep breeds. We find the majority of sheep populations contain high SNP diversity and have retained an effective population size much higher than most cattle or dog breeds, suggesting domestication occurred from a broad genetic base. Extensive haplotype sharing and generally low divergence time between breeds reveal frequent genetic exchange has occurred during the development of modern breeds. A scan of the genome for selection signals revealed 31 regions containing genes for coat pigmentation, skeletal morphology, body size, growth, and reproduction. We demonstrate the strongest selection signal has occurred in response to breeding for the absence of horns. The high density map of genetic variability provides an in-depth view of the genetic history for this important livestock species.

Misalignment with the external light environment drives metabolic and cardiac dysfunction.

Science.gov (United States)

West, Alexander C; Smith, Laura; Ray, David W; Loudon, Andrew S I; Brown, Timothy M; Bechtold, David A

2017-09-12

Most organisms use internal biological clocks to match behavioural and physiological processes to specific phases of the day-night cycle. Central to this is the synchronisation of internal processes across multiple organ systems. Environmental desynchrony (e.g. shift work) profoundly impacts human health, increasing cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we characterise the impact of desynchrony between the internal clock and the external light-dark (LD) cycle on mammalian physiology. We reveal that even under stable LD environments, phase misalignment has a profound effect, with decreased metabolic efficiency and disrupted cardiac function including prolonged QT interval duration. Importantly, physiological dysfunction is not driven by disrupted core clock function, nor by an internal desynchrony between organs, but rather the altered phase relationship between the internal clockwork and the external environment. We suggest phase misalignment as a major driver of pathologies associated with shift work, chronotype and social jetlag.The misalignment between internal circadian rhythm and the day-night cycle can be caused by genetic, behavioural and environmental factors, and may have a profound impact on human physiology. Here West et al. show that desynchrony between the internal clock and the external environment alter metabolic parameters and cardiac function in mice.

Collision avoidance in robotic environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kreifeldt, J.G.

1984-01-01

A generalized approach to the problem of collision avoidance in robotic environments is presented. This approach transforms the three dimensional but dynamic real-world changing geometric space of the robot in its environment into a multidimensional but static space such that any possible geometric arrangement of the robotic space becomes a point in hyperspace. Major advantages of this approach include clarification of and potential solution to the basic problem of finding optimized, collision free movements from an initial to a final configuration. A major disadvantage of the approach is related to computational and data storage problems. However these latter are technically solvable while the clarification of the control and guidance problem gained through the transformational approach and its general elucidation power remain prime conceptual tools for the problem of robot design and operation

Authorization policy in a PKI environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thompson, Mary R.; Mudumbai, Srilekha S.; Essiari, Abdelilah; Chin, Willie

2002-04-10

The major emphasis of Public Key Infrastructure has been to provide a cryptographically secure means of authenticating identities. While there are a number of proposed standards for authorization structures and protocols based on X.509 or other key-based identities, none have been widely adopted. As part of an effort to use X.509 identities to provide authorization in highly distributed environments, we have developed and deployed an authorization service based on X.509 identified users and access policy contained in certificates signed by X.509 identified stakeholders. The major goal of this system, called Akenti, is to produce a usable authorization system for an environment consisting of distributed resources used by geographically and administratively distributed users.

Authorization policy in a PKI environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thompson, Mary R.; Mudumbai, Srilekha S.; Essiari, Abdelilah; Chin, Willie

2002-01-01

The major emphasis of Public Key Infrastructure has been to provide a cryptographically secure means of authenticating identities. While there are a number of proposed standards for authorization structures and protocols based on X.509 or other key-based identities, none have been widely adopted. As part of an effort to use X.509 identities to provide authorization in highly distributed environments, we have developed and deployed an authorization service based on X.509 identified users and access policy contained in certificates signed by X.509 identified stakeholders. The major goal of this system, called Akenti, is to produce a usable authorization system for an environment consisting of distributed resources used by geographically and administratively distributed users

The Influence of Major Life Events on Economic Attitudes in a World of Gene-Environment Interplay.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatemi, Peter K

2013-10-01

The role of "genes" on political attitudes has gained attention across disciplines. However, person-specific experiences have yet to be incorporated into models that consider genetic influences. Relying on a gene-environment interplay approach, this study explicates how life-events, such as losing one's job or suffering a financial loss, influence economic policy attitudes. The results indicate genetic and environmental variance on support for unions, immigration, capitalism, socialism and property tax is moderated by financial risks. Changes in the magnitude of genetic influences, however, are temporary. After two years, the phenotypic effects of the life events remain on most attitudes, but changes in the sources of individual differences do not. Univariate twin models that estimate the independent contributions of genes and environment on the variation of attitudes appear to provide robust baseline indicators of sources of individual differences. These estimates, however, are not event or day specific. In this way, genetic influences add stability, while environment cues change, and this process is continually updated.

Ecological roles of dominant and rare prokaryotes in acid mine drainage revealed by metagenomics and metatranscriptomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hua, Zheng-Shuang; Han, Yu-Jiao; Chen, Lin-Xing; Liu, Jun; Hu, Min; Li, Sheng-Jin; Kuang, Jia-Liang; Chain, Patrick S G; Huang, Li-Nan; Shu, Wen-Sheng

2015-06-01

High-throughput sequencing is expanding our knowledge of microbial diversity in the environment. Still, understanding the metabolic potentials and ecological roles of rare and uncultured microbes in natural communities remains a major challenge. To this end, we applied a 'divide and conquer' strategy that partitioned a massive metagenomic data set (>100 Gbp) into subsets based on K-mer frequency in sequence assembly to a low-diversity acid mine drainage (AMD) microbial community and, by integrating with an additional metatranscriptomic assembly, successfully obtained 11 draft genomes most of which represent yet uncultured and/or rare taxa (relative abundance 90%) and its metabolic potentials and gene expression profile, providing initial molecular insights into the ecological role of these lesser known, but potentially important, microorganisms in the AMD environment. Gene transcriptional analysis of the active taxa revealed major metabolic capabilities executed in situ, including carbon- and nitrogen-related metabolisms associated with syntrophic interactions, iron and sulfur oxidation, which are key in energy conservation and AMD generation, and the mechanisms of adaptation and response to the environmental stresses (heavy metals, low pH and oxidative stress). Remarkably, nitrogen fixation and sulfur oxidation were performed by the rare taxa, indicating their critical roles in the overall functioning and assembly of the AMD community. Our study demonstrates the potential of the 'divide and conquer' strategy in high-throughput sequencing data assembly for genome reconstruction and functional partitioning analysis of both dominant and rare species in natural microbial assemblages.

Identification of the major allergens of Indian scad (Decapterus russelli).

Science.gov (United States)

Misnan, Rosmilah; Murad, Shahnaz; Jones, Meinir; Taylor, Graham; Rahman, Dinah; Arip, Masita; Abdullah, Noormalin; Mohamed, Jamaluddin

2008-12-01

The purpose of this study was to characterize major allergens of Indian scad (Decapterus russelli) which is among the most commonly consumed fish in Malaysia. Raw and cooked extracts of the fish were prepared. Protein profiles and IgE binding patterns were produced by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and immunoblotting using sera from subjects with fish allergy. The major allergens of the fish were then identified by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), followed by mass spectrometry of the peptide digests. The SDS-PAGE of the raw extract revealed 27 protein fractions over a wide molecular weight range, while the cooked extract demonstrated only six protein fractions. The 1-DE immunoblotting detected 14 IgE-binding proteins, with a molecular weight range from 90 to fish. The approximately 12 kDa band was a heat-resistant protein while the approximately 51 and 46 kDa proteins were sensitive to heat. The 2-DE gel profile of the raw extract demonstrated > 100 distinct protein spots and immunoblotting detected at least 10 different major IgE reactive spots with molecular masses as expected and isoelectric point (pI) values ranging from 4.0 to 7.0. A comparison of the major allergenic spot sequences of the 12 kDa proteins with known protein sequences in databases revealed extensive similarity with fish parvalbumin. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that a parvalbumin which is similar to Gad c 1 is the major allergen of Indian scad. Interestingly, we also detected heat-sensitive proteins as major allergenic components in our fish allergy patients.

Gene Environment Interactions and Predictors of Colorectal Cancer in Family-Based, Multi-Ethnic Groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Shiao, S Pamela K; Grayson, James; Yu, Chong Ho; Wasek, Brandi; Bottiglieri, Teodoro

2018-02-16

For the personalization of polygenic/omics-based health care, the purpose of this study was to examine the gene-environment interactions and predictors of colorectal cancer (CRC) by including five key genes in the one-carbon metabolism pathways. In this proof-of-concept study, we included a total of 54 families and 108 participants, 54 CRC cases and 54 matched family friends representing four major racial ethnic groups in southern California (White, Asian, Hispanics, and Black). We used three phases of data analytics, including exploratory, family-based analyses adjusting for the dependence within the family for sharing genetic heritage, the ensemble method, and generalized regression models for predictive modeling with a machine learning validation procedure to validate the results for enhanced prediction and reproducibility. The results revealed that despite the family members sharing genetic heritage, the CRC group had greater combined gene polymorphism rates than the family controls ( p relation to gene-environment interactions in the prevention of CRC.

Assessing Microplastic Loads in the Mississippi River and Its Major Tributaries

Science.gov (United States)

Hasenmueller, E. A.; Martin, K. M.; Conkle, J. L.; White, J. R.

2017-12-01

Plastic debris is ubiquitous in marine environments and can cause significant harm to aquatic life when organisms become entangled in the plastic or mistake it for food. Macroplastic debris (plastic >5 mm in diameter) has received significant attention from the public, government agencies, and the scientific community. However, the majority of plastics in aquatic environments are microplastics (plastic Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, has quantified and characterized microplastics (i.e., size, shape, and resin type) at the surface and at depth along the mainstem of the Mississippi River, including near major cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans, as well as in some of the Mississippi River's major tributaries (i.e., the Missouri River, Ohio River, and Illinois River). Sampling is ongoing, but our datasets will allow us to characterize: 1) total microplastic concentrations and loads, 2) spatial and temporal trends in microplastic abundances, and 3) land-use effects on microplastic levels across the Mississippi River watershed. Our data will also provide estimates of the total discharge of microplastics from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. These efforts will provide a baseline for future research relating to the fate and effects of microplastics in aquatic environments and can guide federal and local policy makers in creating and assessing mitigation strategies to improve water quality.

Infectious diseases of marine molluscs and host responses as revealed by genomic tools

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Susan E.

2016-01-01

More and more infectious diseases affect marine molluscs. Some diseases have impacted commercial species including MSX and Dermo of the eastern oyster, QPX of hard clams, withering syndrome of abalone and ostreid herpesvirus 1 (OsHV-1) infections of many molluscs. Although the exact transmission mechanisms are not well understood, human activities and associated environmental changes often correlate with increased disease prevalence. For instance, hatcheries and large-scale aquaculture create high host densities, which, along with increasing ocean temperature, might have contributed to OsHV-1 epizootics in scallops and oysters. A key to understanding linkages between the environment and disease is to understand how the environment affects the host immune system. Although we might be tempted to downplay the role of immunity in invertebrates, recent advances in genomics have provided insights into host and parasite genomes and revealed surprisingly sophisticated innate immune systems in molluscs. All major innate immune pathways are found in molluscs with many immune receptors, regulators and effectors expanded. The expanded gene families provide great diversity and complexity in innate immune response, which may be key to mollusc's defence against diverse pathogens in the absence of adaptive immunity. Further advances in host and parasite genomics should improve our understanding of genetic variation in parasite virulence and host disease resistance. PMID:26880838

Combined genomic and structural analyses of a cultured magnetotactic bacterium reveals its niche adaptation to a dynamic environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Carolina Vieira Araujo

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB are a unique group of prokaryotes that have a potentially high impact on global geochemical cycling of significant primary elements because of their metabolic plasticity and the ability to biomineralize iron-rich magnetic particles called magnetosomes. Understanding the genetic composition of the few cultivated MTB along with the unique morphological features of this group of bacteria may provide an important framework for discerning their potential biogeochemical roles in natural environments. Results Genomic and ultrastructural analyses were combined to characterize the cultivated magnetotactic coccus Magnetofaba australis strain IT-1. Cells of this species synthesize a single chain of elongated, cuboctahedral magnetite (Fe3O4 magnetosomes that cause them to align along magnetic field lines while they swim being propelled by two bundles of flagella at velocities up to 300 μm s−1. High-speed microscopy imaging showed the cells move in a straight line rather than in the helical trajectory described for other magnetotactic cocci. Specific genes within the genome of Mf. australis strain IT-1 suggest the strain is capable of nitrogen fixation, sulfur reduction and oxidation, synthesis of intracellular polyphosphate granules and transporting iron with low and high affinity. Mf. australis strain IT-1 and Magnetococcus marinus strain MC-1 are closely related phylogenetically although similarity values between their homologous proteins are not very high. Conclusion Mf. australis strain IT-1 inhabits a constantly changing environment and its complete genome sequence reveals a great metabolic plasticity to deal with these changes. Aside from its chemoautotrophic and chemoheterotrophic metabolism, genomic data indicate the cells are capable of nitrogen fixation, possess high and low affinity iron transporters, and might be capable of reducing and oxidizing a number of sulfur compounds. The relatively

The State of The Environment 1972-1982.

Science.gov (United States)

United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi (Kenya).

This report focuses on the changes (positive or negative) that occurred in the state of the world environment in the decade following the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment convened at Stockholm in June 1972. It also brings into focus the major environmental issues encountered or likely to be encountered. The first section focuses…

Development and the global environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colombo, U.

1992-01-01

The development of the Third World and the protection of the environment are two major global problems interconnected by energy - the motor of economic growth and the main cause of deterioration of the global environment. They can no longer be separated. The threats of ozone, acid rain, and global warming are global in scope and solutions must involve energy consumption, conservations, and renewable resources. The precept that development should hinge on sound management of natural resources and the environment no longer has merely local or regional significance. It is a global concern and each person should feel a sense of ethical commitment as a world citizen

Promoting Participation Through the Universal Design of Built Environments: Making it Happen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valerie Watchorn

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Environmental design is a determinant of social inclusion and people’s participation in life roles. Design that does not cater for a diverse range of ages, abilities and cultures restricts people’s access to, and use of, domestic or public premises. Universal design is an approach that acknowledges diversity of populations and encourages designers to create objects and places that are usable by the greatest majority of users. Although there are potential benefits to the widest application of universal design within society, such application is not mandatory within Australia. This paper presents findings from an Australian qualitative study that explored universal design as a means of facilitating greater environmental access for all. The views of experts working within the field of architecture and environmental access were explored regarding factors that restrict or facilitate application of universal design to the design of built environments. Study findings revealed a number of themes relating to factors that may restrain, ‘what’s holding us back?’ and factors that may facilitate application of universal design, ‘making it happen’. These findings have direct relevance to those involved in the planning and design of built environments, policy developers and educators. Keywords: Universal design, architecture, occupational therapy, built environments, barriers, facilitators, inter-professional education

Students' Groupwork Management in Online Collaborative Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jianzhong; Du, Jianxia; Fan, Xitao

2015-01-01

The present study investigates empirical models of groupwork management in online collaborative learning environments, based on the data from 298 students (86 groups) in United States. Data revealed that, at the group level, groupwork management was positively associated with feedback and help seeking. Data further revealed that, at the individual…

Owner Ethnicity: the Determinant of Relationship Between Environment Uncertainty and Performance

OpenAIRE

Andriany, Lussia Mariesti

2017-01-01

The aim of this research is to reveal effect of environment uncertainty which seen through competition level and costumer to performance. This research reveals the difference of relationship in environment uncertainty to performance between Chinese and non-Chinese business. Data are collected through direct survey to traditional retail owners by questionnaire and interview. Then, those data analyze in two stages, confirmatory factor analysis and simple regression with dummy variable. This res...

The Components of Non-Punitive Environment in Nursing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sepp Jaana

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In nursing homes, managers need to create work environment which considers patient’s and worker’s needs and helps the organization to respond to a complicated and changing environment. The aim of the study is to investigate the influence of working environment on care workers’ safe behavior. We used KIVA questionnaire (characterizes the wellbeing workers. Our study reveals that in order to create the blame-free culture and non-punitive environment, the managers should pay attention to several factors: commitment, communication, leadership, collaboration, teamwork and learning.

Application of the major capsid protein as a marker of the phylogenetic diversity of Emiliania huxleyi viruses.

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Janet M; Fabre, Marie-Françoise; Gobena, Daniel; Wilson, William H; Wilhelm, Steven W

2011-05-01

Studies of the Phycodnaviridae have traditionally relied on the DNA polymerase (pol) gene as a biomarker. However, recent investigations have suggested that the major capsid protein (MCP) gene may be a reliable phylogenetic biomarker. We used MCP gene amplicons gathered across the North Atlantic to assess the diversity of Emiliania huxleyi-infecting Phycodnaviridae. Nucleotide sequences were examined across >6000 km of open ocean, with comparisons between concentrates of the virus-size fraction of seawater and of lysates generated by exposing host strains to these same virus concentrates. Analyses revealed that many sequences were only sampled once, while several were over-represented. Analyses also revealed nucleotide sequences distinct from previous coastal isolates. Examination of lysed cultures revealed a new richness in phylogeny, as MCP sequences previously unrepresented within the existing collection of E. huxleyi viruses (EhV) were associated with viruses lysing cultures. Sequences were compared with previously described EhV MCP sequences from the North Sea and a Norwegian Fjord, as well as from the Gulf of Maine. Principal component analysis indicates that location-specific distinctions exist despite the presence of sequences common across these environments. Overall, this investigation provides new sequence data and an assessment on the use of the MCP gene. © 2011 Federation of European Microbiological Societies Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Low frequency of extra-pair fertilizations in the Great Tit Parus major revealed by DNA fingerprinting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verboven, N.; Mateman, A.C.

1997-01-01

Multilocus DNA fingerprinting was used to estimate the frequency of extra-pair fertilizations in a low density, island population of Great Tits Parus major. A total of 69 pairs and 516 offspring from 82 breeding attempts were examined. Only 18 offspring (3.5%) in seven different nests were not

Diversity of extracellular vesicles in human ejaculates revealed by cryo-electron microscopy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johanna L. Höög

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Human ejaculates contain extracellular vesicles (EVs, that to a large extent are considered to originate from the prostate gland, and are often denominated “prostasomes.” These EVs are important for human fertility, for example by promoting sperm motility and by inducing immune tolerance of the female immune system to the spermatozoa. So far, the EVs present in human ejaculate have not been studied in their native state, inside the seminal fluid without prior purification and isolation procedures. Using cryo-electron microscopy and tomography, we performed a comprehensive inventory of human ejaculate EVs. The sample was neither centrifuged, fixed, filtered or sectioned, nor were heavy metals added. Approximately 1,500 extracellular structures were imaged and categorized. The extracellular environment of human ejaculate was found to be diverse, with 5 major subcategories of EVs and 6 subcategories of extracellular membrane compartments, including lamellar bodies. Furthermore, 3 morphological features, including electron density, double membrane bilayers and coated surface, are described in all subcategories. This study reveals that the extracellular environment in human ejaculate is multifaceted. Several novel morphological EV subcategories are identified and clues to their cellular origin may be found in their morphology. This inventory is therefore important for developing future experimental approaches, and to interpret previously published data to understand the role of EVs for human male fertility.

An Underlying Common Factor, Influenced by Genetics and Unique Environment, Explains the Covariation Between Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Burnout: A Swedish Twin Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mather, Lisa; Blom, Victoria; Bergström, Gunnar; Svedberg, Pia

2016-12-01

Depression and anxiety are highly comorbid due to shared genetic risk factors, but less is known about whether burnout shares these risk factors. We aimed to examine whether the covariation between major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and burnout is explained by common genetic and/or environmental factors. This cross-sectional study included 25,378 Swedish twins responding to a survey in 2005-2006. Structural equation models were used to analyze whether the trait variances and covariances were due to additive genetics, non-additive genetics, shared environment, and unique environment. Univariate analyses tested sex limitation models and multivariate analysis tested Cholesky, independent pathway, and common pathway models. The phenotypic correlations were 0.71 (0.69-0.74) between MDD and GAD, 0.58 (0.56-0.60) between MDD and burnout, and 0.53 (0.50-0.56) between GAD and burnout. Heritabilities were 45% for MDD, 49% for GAD, and 38% for burnout; no statistically significant sex differences were found. A common pathway model was chosen as the final model. The common factor was influenced by genetics (58%) and unique environment (42%), and explained 77% of the variation in MDD, 69% in GAD, and 44% in burnout. GAD and burnout had additive genetic factors unique to the phenotypes (11% each), while MDD did not. Unique environment explained 23% of the variability in MDD, 20% in GAD, and 45% in burnout. In conclusion, the covariation was explained by an underlying common factor, largely influenced by genetics. Burnout was to a large degree influenced by unique environmental factors not shared with MDD and GAD.

Managing major chemical accidents in China: Towards effective risk information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

He, G.; Zhang, L.; Lu, Y.; Mol, A.P.J.

2011-01-01

Chemical industries, from their very inception, have been controversial due to the high risks they impose on safety of human beings and the environment. Recent decades have witnessed increasing impacts of the accelerating expansion of chemical industries and chemical accidents have become a major

Early morning fledging improves recruitment in great tits Parus major

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Radersma, Reinder; Komdeur, Jan; Tinbergen, Joost M.

A potential key event linking the nestling phase to first-year survival is fledging (nest leaving) because this process is characterized by a major change of environments and therefore a sudden shift in selective forces. Here we assessed whether different facets of fledging predicted subsequent

Deep aquifers: last resort water resources in case of major pollution crisis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mesny, M.; Comte, J.P.

1996-01-01

Within the framework of a reflection dealing with the possibility to insure sufficient drinking water supply in case of major crisis, the Ministry of the Environment undertook an inventory of the aquiferous systems on the whole French (continental) territory. In case of a generalized surface water and groundwater contamination, these aquifers could provide substitution water, qualified as 'a last resorted water' because of its temporary - fast definitive - protection statute. A scale of value relative to the protection level was created, which enables the researchers to identify three levels of protection and to draw up a 1/1,500,000 scale map of France, on which the limits of 98 phreatic water-tables, identified as protected, have been reported. The great majority of the aquifers corresponds to confined waters. A statistical analysis on the existence of protected resources reveals that 16 departments out of 96 have got protected resources on the whole territory, and that 22 others haven't got any that are registered at national scale. Otherwise, 61 towns out of 103 which count more that 50,000 inhabitants have got protected resources, which correspond to 61 % of the urban population. In a second time, the cases of the urban centres of Paris and Lyon will be looked into more in detail, stating precisely the protected resources which could be mobilized and the existing collecting equipments which could possibility be integrated in a device used as a last resort. (authors). 3 figs

Major salt beds of the Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins, Texas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-12-01

Major salt beds are defined as salt intervals at least 75 feet thick that contain no interbeds greater than 10 feet thick and include no more than 15 percent non-salt interbeds. Maps based on the interpretation of geophysical logs from hundreds of oil and gas exploration wells reveal seven major salt beds in the Palo Duro Basin and one major salt bed in the Dalhart Basin. The most extensive major salt beds are in the central and northern Palo Duro Basin, in the Upper San Andres Formation and the Lower San Andres Formation Units 4 and 5. Of these, the major salt bed within the Lower San Andres Formation Unit 4 is the most widespread and generally the thickest. 7 references, 15 figures, 2 tables

Environment Committee report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenhalgh, Geoffrey.

1986-01-01

The findings of the House of Commons Environment Committee (March 1986) on radioactive waste are examined. The report includes 43 recommendations and conclusions, many of which are directed at improving public acceptance of nuclear power, rather than constituting an attack on the nuclear industry. Some of the major topics considered in the report include: waste disposal, waste classification, waste disposal policy, discharges, reprocessing, and public acceptance. (UK)

The Industrial Engineer and Energy and Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sirichan Thongprasert

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Industries have always been a major consumer of energy and a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, causing environmental problems. Concerns about the impact of industries on the environment have led industries to change or adapt their methodologies to be more efficient and environmentally responsible. This article explains the impact that has on the industrial engineer.

The Industrial Engineer and Energy and Environment

OpenAIRE

Sirichan Thongprasert

2009-01-01

Industries have always been a major consumer of energy and a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, causing environmental problems. Concerns about the impact of industries on the environment have led industries to change or adapt their methodologies to be more efficient and environmentally responsible. This article explains the impact that has on the industrial engineer.

Neighborhood food environment role in modifying psychosocial stress-diet relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Zenk, Shannon N; Schulz, Amy J; Izumi, Betty T; Mentz, Graciela; Israel, Barbara A; Lockett, Murlisa

2013-06-01

Exposure to highly palatable foods may increase eating in response to stress, but this behavioral response has not been examined in relation to the neighborhood food environment. This study examined whether the neighborhood food environment modified relationships between psychosocial stress and dietary behaviors. Probability-sample survey (n=460) and in-person food environment audit data were used. Dietary behaviors were measured using 17 snack food items and a single eating-out-of-home item. Chronic stress was derived from five subscales; major life events was a count of nine items. The neighborhood food environment was measured as availability of large grocery stores, small grocery stores, and convenience stores, as well as proportion of restaurants that were fast food. Two-level hierarchical regression models were estimated. Snack food intake was positively associated with convenience store availability and negatively associated with large grocery store availability. The measures of chronic stress and major life events were generally not associated with either dietary behavior overall, although Latinos were less likely to eat out at high levels of major life events than African Americans. Stress-neighborhood food environment interactions were not statistically significant. Important questions remain regarding the role of the neighborhood food environment in the stress-diet relationship that warrant further investigation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sampling Terrestrial Environments for Bacterial Polyketides

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick Hill

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Bacterial polyketides are highly biologically active molecules that are frequently used as drugs, particularly as antibiotics and anticancer agents, thus the discovery of new polyketides is of major interest. Since the 1980s discovery of polyketides has slowed dramatically due in large part to the repeated rediscovery of known compounds. While recent scientific and technical advances have improved our ability to discover new polyketides, one key area has been under addressed, namely the distribution of polyketide-producing bacteria in the environment. Identifying environments where producing bacteria are abundant and diverse should improve our ability to discover (bioprospect new polyketides. This review summarizes for the bioprospector the state-of-the-field in terrestrial microbial ecology. It provides insight into the scientific and technical challenges limiting the application of microbial ecology discoveries for bioprospecting and summarizes key developments in the field that will enable more effective bioprospecting. The major recent efforts by researchers to sample new environments for polyketide discovery is also reviewed and key emerging environments such as insect associated bacteria, desert soils, disease suppressive soils, and caves are highlighted. Finally strategies for taking and characterizing terrestrial samples to help maximize discovery efforts are proposed and the inclusion of non-actinomycetal bacteria in any terrestrial discovery strategy is recommended.

Patterns of ecological specialization among microbial populations in the Red Sea and diverse oligotrophic marine environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Luke R; Field, Chris; Romanuk, Tamara; Ngugi, David; Siam, Rania; El Dorry, Hamza; Stingl, Ulrich

2013-06-01

Large swaths of the nutrient-poor surface ocean are dominated numerically by cyanobacteria (Prochlorococcus), cyanobacterial viruses (cyanophage), and alphaproteobacteria (SAR11). How these groups thrive in the diverse physicochemical environments of different oceanic regions remains poorly understood. Comparative metagenomics can reveal adaptive responses linked to ecosystem-specific selective pressures. The Red Sea is well-suited for studying adaptation of pelagic-microbes, with salinities, temperatures, and light levels at the extreme end for the surface ocean, and low nutrient concentrations, yet no metagenomic studies have been done there. The Red Sea (high salinity, high light, low N and P) compares favorably with the Mediterranean Sea (high salinity, low P), Sargasso Sea (low P), and North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (high light, low N). We quantified the relative abundance of genetic functions among Prochlorococcus, cyanophage, and SAR11 from these four regions. Gene frequencies indicate selection for phosphorus acquisition (Mediterranean/Sargasso), DNA repair and high-light responses (Red Sea/Pacific Prochlorococcus), and osmolyte C1 oxidation (Red Sea/Mediterranean SAR11). The unexpected connection between salinity-dependent osmolyte production and SAR11 C1 metabolism represents a potentially major coevolutionary adaptation and biogeochemical flux. Among Prochlorococcus and cyanophage, genes enriched in specific environments had ecotype distributions similar to nonenriched genes, suggesting that inter-ecotype gene transfer is not a major source of environment-specific adaptation. Clustering of metagenomes using gene frequencies shows similarities in populations (Red Sea with Pacific, Mediterranean with Sargasso) that belie their geographic distances. Taken together, the genetic functions enriched in specific environments indicate competitive strategies for maintaining carrying capacity in the face of physical stressors and low nutrient availability.

Patterns of ecological specialization among microbial populations in the Red Sea and diverse oligotrophic marine environments

KAUST Repository

Thompson, Luke R

2013-05-11

Large swaths of the nutrient-poor surface ocean are dominated numerically by cyanobacteria (Prochlorococcus), cyanobacterial viruses (cyanophage), and alphaproteobacteria (SAR11). How these groups thrive in the diverse physicochemical environments of different oceanic regions remains poorly understood. Comparative metagenomics can reveal adaptive responses linked to ecosystem-specific selective pressures. The Red Sea is well-suited for studying adaptation of pelagic-microbes, with salinities, temperatures, and light levels at the extreme end for the surface ocean, and low nutrient concentrations, yet no metagenomic studies have been done there. The Red Sea (high salinity, high light, low N and P) compares favorably with the Mediterranean Sea (high salinity, low P), Sargasso Sea (low P), and North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (high light, low N). We quantified the relative abundance of genetic functions among Prochlorococcus, cyanophage, and SAR11 from these four regions. Gene frequencies indicate selection for phosphorus acquisition (Mediterranean/Sargasso), DNA repair and high-light responses (Red Sea/Pacific Prochlorococcus), and osmolyte C1 oxidation (Red Sea/Mediterranean SAR11). The unexpected connection between salinity-dependent osmolyte production and SAR11 C1 metabolism represents a potentially major coevolutionary adaptation and biogeochemical flux. Among Prochlorococcus and cyanophage, genes enriched in specific environments had ecotype distributions similar to nonenriched genes, suggesting that inter-ecotype gene transfer is not a major source of environment-specific adaptation. Clustering of metagenomes using gene frequencies shows similarities in populations (Red Sea with Pacific, Mediterranean with Sargasso) that belie their geographic distances. Taken together, the genetic functions enriched in specific environments indicate competitive strategies for maintaining carrying capacity in the face of physical stressors and low nutrient availability. 2013 The

Why Are Home Literacy Environment and Children's Reading Skills Associated? What Parental Skills Reveal

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Bergen, Elsje; Van Zuijen, Titia L.; Bishop, Dorothy; de Jong, Peter F.

2017-01-01

Associations between home literacy environment and children's reading ability are often assumed to reflect a direct influence. However, heritability could account for the association between parent and child literacy-related measures. We used data from 101 mother/father/child triads to consider the

The Influence of Social Environment on Smoking Behavior Among Adolescents in Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angela Scriven

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Background:Research suggests that factors in the environment are major determinants of health behavior for populations. This cross-sectional study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods to determine the prevalence of smoking and identify the possible associations between smoking and environmental variables among school pupils in Iran. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was administrated and collected data from 2200, students15-18 from 100 high schools who agreed to take part in the research. The sample was selected from the Iranian Education System Database using a two-stage cluster sample based on a random sample of schools and pupils as a representative sample of this population. Almost 90% of respondents had completed the questionnaires. Examination of the test-retest answers over all questions among 70 students in two weeks interval revealed reliability coefficient ranges 0.72 to 0.98. The Adjusted Enter Logistic Regression Models were applied to significant variables identified through Chi square tests. In addition, 40 of the sample took part in focus groups exploring the facilitators and barriers to smoking behavior. Content analysis was also used to extract themes from the focus group discussions. Results: The effects of social environment variables including peers', mothers', and sisters' smoking on cigarette consumption among young people were explored in this study. Levels of cigarette availability and exposure, effects of parents' attitudes and supervision, legislation on tobacco control, expanding life opportunities and more options for leisure activities perceived as influencing factors on adolescent smoking were all highlighted in the focus group discussions. Conclusion: The qualitative and quantitative findings revealed the impact of social environment on smoking behavior among young people. This study provides strong evidence to support environmentally oriented smoking prevention

Phylogenetic Analysis Reveals Common Antimicrobial Resistant Campylobacter coli Population in Antimicrobial-Free (ABF) and Commercial Swine Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Quintana-Hayashi, Macarena P.; Thakur, Siddhartha

2012-01-01

The objective of this study was to compare the population biology of antimicrobial resistant (AR) Campylobacter coli isolated from swine reared in the conventional and antimicrobial-free (ABF) swine production systems at farm, slaughter and environment. A total of 200 C. coli isolates selected from fecal, environmental, and carcass samples of ABF (n = 100) and conventional (n = 100) swine production systems were typed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Sequence data from seven housekeeping genes was analyzed for the identification of allelic profiles, sequence types (STs) and clonal complex determination. Phylogenetic trees were generated to establish the relationships between the genotyped isolates. A total of 51 STs were detected including two novel alleles (glnA 424 and glyA 464) and 14 novel STs reported for the first time. The majority of the C. coli isolates belonged to ST-854 (ABF: 31, conventional: 17), and were grouped in clonal complex ST-828 (ABF: 68%, conventional: 66%). The mean genetic diversity (H) for the ABF (0.3963+/−0.0806) and conventional (0.4655+/−0.0714) systems were similar. The index of association () for the ABF ( = 0.1513) and conventional ( = 0.0991) C. coli populations were close to linkage equilibrium, indicative of a freely recombining population. Identical STs were detected between the pigs and their environment both at farm and slaughter. A minimum spanning tree revealed the close clustering of C. coli STs that originated from swine and carcass with those from the environment. In conclusion, our study reveals a genotypic diverse C. coli population that shares a common ancestry in the conventional and ABF swine production systems. This could potentially explain the high prevalence of antimicrobial resistant C. coli in the ABF system in the absence of antimicrobial selection pressure. PMID:22984540

THE COMPATIBILITY STUDENT CHOICE OF UNIVERSITY MAJORING; A PRELIMINARY STUDIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daharnis Daharnis

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The continuous improvements in order to optimize the basic education to higher education are still running. Based on that purpose, there are many factors to supporting the students' learning activities success; one of the factors is suitability with majors in university. The purpose of this study is to reveal the condition of the compatibility of students majoring with their interest, then to describe the information when the student choose their majoring. Samples in this study were 122 peoples, taken by random sampling from the Padang State University. Data obtained by distributing questionnaires. The results showed that there are students that their major do not match with their interest (22.13%, only 3.28% of students who feel compatible with their major. This result should be a major concern, particularly for counselor in schools for design counseling services to solve these problems. The result of this study used as a grand tour or a preliminary study for further research.

Nuclear science and a better environment - an oxymoron?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laurence, G.

1998-01-01

The Environmental Specialist Committee of AINSE is a relatively recent addition to the areas of special interest but AINSE and ANSTO have supported environmental research for many years in areas such as environmental engineering studies, insect control, sensitive analytical techniques (which are in many cases at the heart of an improved understanding of environmental processes) and environmental radioactivity and the control of radioactive waste. Such techniques make a direct contribution to the remediation of contaminated industrial and mining sites and to monitoring the continued effect of these sites on the environment. Recently the spread of quaternary studies with distinct environmental importance has increased the AINSE involvement in supporting the use of AMS techniques involving cosmogenic radionuclides, not only for studies of current processes but also for historic studies designed to reveal past climates and geomorphology. Nuclear science of this kind contributes to a better understanding of patterns of atmospheric circulation, underground water resources and climate change. Even a simple application of nuclear science, the neutron soil moisture probe, improves the efficiency of water use in agriculture and reduces the environmental impact of irrigation. The environmental impact of development in the third world will have major environmental consequences in the next twenty years. Developments in nuclear science in chemical analysis, the dynamics of environmental processes and in monitoring resources will help in controlling a sustainable and rational use of the environment

Does Economic Education Make a Difference in Congress? How Economics Majors Vote on Trade

Science.gov (United States)

O'Roark, J. Brian

2012-01-01

The author of this article expands the background theory of voting to incorporate the undergraduate majors of members of Congress. Examining nine votes on trade across the 109th and 110th Congresses reveals that economics majors are the only category of college major to vote in favor of free trade in a predictable way. Controls for a variety of…

The Tangled Tale of Genes and Environment: Moore's The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “nature VS. Nurture”

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Susan M

2007-01-01

Nature–nurture views that smack of genetic determinism remain prevalent. Yet, the increasing knowledge base shows ever more clearly that environmental factors and genes form a fully interactional system at all levels. Moore's book covers the major topics of discovery and dispute, including behavior genetics and the twin studies, developmental psychobiology, and developmental systems theory. Knowledge of this larger life-sciences context for behavior principles will become increasingly important as the full complexity of gene–environment relations is revealed. Behavior analysis both contributes to and gains from the larger battle for the recognition of how nature and nurture really work.

Anthropogenic radionuclides in the environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Q; Weng, J; Wang, J

2007-11-15

Studies of radionuclides in the environment have entered a new era with the renaissance of nuclear energy and associated fuel reprocessing, geological disposal of high-level nuclear wastes, and concerns about national security with respect to nuclear non-proliferation. This work presents an overview of anthropogenic radionuclide contamination in the environment, as well as the salient geochemical behavior of important radionuclides. We first discuss the following major anthropogenic sources and current development that contribute to the radionuclide contamination of the environment: (1) nuclear weapons program; (2) nuclear weapons testing; (3) nuclear power plants; (4) commercial fuel reprocessing; (5) geological repository of high-level nuclear wastes, and (6) nuclear accidents. Then, we summarize the geochemical behavior for radionuclides {sup 99}Tc, {sup 129}I, and {sup 237}Np, because of their complex geochemical behavior, long half-lives, and presumably high mobility in the environment. Biogeochemical cycling and environment risk assessment must take into account speciation of these redox-sensitive radionuclides.

Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA reveals a complete lineage sorti ng ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Glossogobius callidus exhibits broad salinity tolerance and is distributed in both estuarine and freshwater environments in southern Africa. Previous studies revealed substantial morphological and molecular variation among populations, suggesting they constitute a species complex. The present study utilised phylogenetic ...

The effects of problem-based learning on the self-efficacy and attitudes of beginning biology majors

Science.gov (United States)

Rajab, Adel Mohammad

The problem of low persistence of science majors has resulted in calls for changes in undergraduate instruction toward environments that foster positive self-efficacy among beginning science majors. Low science self-efficacy and poor attitudes toward science may contribute to high attrition rates of science majors. Classroom environments that foster positive self-efficacy development include pedagogies that promote authentic learning contexts and involve collaborative learning teams. Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional model that attempts to create both conditions and may provide every source of information needed for the development of self-efficacy (i.e., mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological states) as postulated by Albert Bandura. The degree to which these sources of self-efficacy are delivered to individuals within a PBL group may depend on how the group members interact and how students perceive the PBL process itself. This study examined the development of biology self-efficacy and attitudes among biology majors in a PBL setting and in a traditional lecture-based setting. Specifically, this project investigated changes in students' biology self-efficacy beliefs, mediating aspects of PBL in self-efficacy development, the relationship between PBL processes and group collective efficacy, the predictive nature of entering self-efficacy levels on attitudes toward PBL and mid-term grades, and changes in student attitudes toward biology. The study design was quasi-experimental and included quantitative pre- and post-surveys, qualitative interviews, and classroom observations. Findings revealed that students enrolled in a PBL class exhibited greater gains in biology self-efficacy and were likely to report more favorable attitudes toward biology compared to students enrolled in a traditional class. The aspects of PBL that most accounted for these findings were students' ownership of the learning process, their

Investigation of major phenolic antioxidants from Camellia sinensis fruits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ajay Rana

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The present study unveils major phenolic antioxidant compounds from Camellia sinensis fruits, followed by their investigation, purification and characterization using HPLC, ESI-MS and NMR studies. The spectrophotometric estimation results have clearly demonstrated that C. sinensis (tea fruits contain up to 14% of total polyphenols (as gallic acid equivalent and 7% of flavonoids (as quercetin equivalent on dry weight basis. Differential solvent-mediated extractions have been performed for quantitative assessment of major phytoconstituents by RP-HPLC analysis. And the results have revealed that these fruits contain adequate amount of tea catechins (4% along with caffeine (1% and theanine (0.4% on dry weight basis. Moreover, purification and characterization of major phytoconstituents such as epigallocatechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin gallate and epicatechin gallate along with caffeine have been accomplished. Thus, it is clearly demonstrated that tea fruits could act as a possible and reliable source for obtaining major phenolic antioxidants.

Adaptation of maize to temperate climates: mid-density genome-wide association genetics and diversity patterns reveal key genomic regions, with a major contribution of the Vgt2 (ZCN8 locus.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophie Bouchet

Full Text Available The migration of maize from tropical to temperate climates was accompanied by a dramatic evolution in flowering time. To gain insight into the genetic architecture of this adaptive trait, we conducted a 50K SNP-based genome-wide association and diversity investigation on a panel of tropical and temperate American and European representatives. Eighteen genomic regions were associated with flowering time. The number of early alleles cumulated along these regions was highly correlated with flowering time. Polymorphism in the vicinity of the ZCN8 gene, which is the closest maize homologue to Arabidopsis major flowering time (FT gene, had the strongest effect. This polymorphism is in the vicinity of the causal factor of Vgt2 QTL. Diversity was lower, whereas differentiation and LD were higher for associated loci compared to the rest of the genome, which is consistent with selection acting on flowering time during maize migration. Selection tests also revealed supplementary loci that were highly differentiated among groups and not associated with flowering time in our panel, whereas they were in other linkage-based studies. This suggests that allele fixation led to a lack of statistical power when structure and relatedness were taken into account in a linear mixed model. Complementary designs and analysis methods are necessary to unravel the architecture of complex traits. Based on linkage disequilibrium (LD estimates corrected for population structure, we concluded that the number of SNPs genotyped should be at least doubled to capture all QTLs contributing to the genetic architecture of polygenic traits in this panel. These results show that maize flowering time is controlled by numerous QTLs of small additive effect and that strong polygenic selection occurred under cool climatic conditions. They should contribute to more efficient genomic predictions of flowering time and facilitate the dissemination of diverse maize genetic resources under a wide

Convergent evidence for widespread rock nitrogen sources in Earth’s surface environment

Science.gov (United States)

Houlton, B. Z.; Morford, S. L.; Dahlgren, R. A.

2018-04-01

Nitrogen availability is a pivotal control on terrestrial carbon sequestration and global climate change. Historical and contemporary views assume that nitrogen enters Earth’s land-surface ecosystems from the atmosphere. Here we demonstrate that bedrock is a nitrogen source that rivals atmospheric nitrogen inputs across major sectors of the global terrestrial environment. Evidence drawn from the planet’s nitrogen balance, geochemical proxies, and our spatial weathering model reveal that ~19 to 31 teragrams of nitrogen are mobilized from near-surface rocks annually. About 11 to 18 teragrams of this nitrogen are chemically weathered in situ, thereby increasing the unmanaged (preindustrial) terrestrial nitrogen balance from 8 to 26%. These findings provide a global perspective to reconcile Earth’s nitrogen budget, with implications for nutrient-driven controls over the terrestrial carbon sink.

Familism, Family Environment, and Suicide Attempts among Latina Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Pena, Juan B.; Kuhlberg, Jill A.; Zayas, Luis H.; Baumann, Ana A.; Gulbas, Lauren; Hausmann-Stabile, Carolina; Nolle, Allyson P.

2011-01-01

In this study, we examined the relationship between familism and family environment type as well as the relationship between family environment type and suicide attempts among Latina youth. Latina teen attempters (n = 109) and nonattempters (n = 107) were recruited from the New York City area. Latent class analysis revealed three family…

Dynamic changes in display architecture and function across environments revealed by a systems approach to animal communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenthal, Malcolm F; Wilkins, Matthew R; Shizuka, Daizaburo; Hebets, Eileen A

2018-02-20

Animal communication is often structurally complex and dynamic, with signaler and receiver behavior varying in response to multiple environmental factors. To date, studies assessing signal dynamics have mostly focused on the relationships between select signaling traits and receiver responses in a single environment. We use the wolf spider Schizocosa floridana to explore the relationships between courtship display form and function across two social contexts (female presence vs absence) and two light environments (light vs dark). We use traditional analytical methods to determine predictors of copulation success (i.e., signal function) and examine these predictors in a structural context by overlaying them on signal phenotype networks (Wilkins et al. 2015). This allows us to explore system design principles (degeneracy, redundancy, pluripotentiality), providing insight into hypotheses regarding complex signal evolution. We found that both social context and light environment affect courtship structure, although the predictors of mating success remain similar across light environments, suggesting system degeneracy. Contrastingly, the same display traits may serve different functions across social environments, suggesting pluripotentiality. Ultimately, our network approach uncovers a complexity in display structure and function that is missed by functional analyses alone, highlighting the importance of systems-based methodologies for understanding the dynamic nature of complex signals. © 2018 The Author(s). Evolution © 2018 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Generalized Database Management System Support for Numeric Database Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Dominick, Wayne D.; Weathers, Peggy G.

1982-01-01

This overview of potential for utilizing database management systems (DBMS) within numeric database environments highlights: (1) major features, functions, and characteristics of DBMS; (2) applicability to numeric database environment needs and user needs; (3) current applications of DBMS technology; and (4) research-oriented and…

Students’ digital learning environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Caviglia, Francesco; Dalsgaard, Christian; Davidsen, Jacob

2018-01-01

The objective of the paper is to examine the nature of students’ digital learning environments to understand the interplay of institutional systems and tools that are managed by the students themselves. The paper is based on a study of 128 students’ digital learning environments. The objectives...... used tools in the students’ digital learning environments are Facebook, Google Drive, tools for taking notes, and institutional systems. Additionally, the study shows that the tools meet some very basic demands of the students in relation to collaboration, communication, and feedback. Finally...... of the study are 1) to provide an overview of tools for students’ study activities, 2) to identify the most used and most important tools for students and 3) to discover which activities the tools are used for. The empirical study reveals that the students have a varied use of digital media. Some of the most...

[Surveillance on pesticides: quantification of use and prediction of impact on health, work and the environment for Brazilian municipalities].

Science.gov (United States)

Pignati, Wanderlei; Oliveira, Noemi Pereira; da Silva, Ageo Mário Cândido

2014-12-01

This paper analyzes the quantity, type and toxicity of pesticides used per hectare in the State of Mato Grosso as a surveillance strategy for the health of workers, the population in general and the environment, and to serve as a surveillance indicator for Brazilian cities. Brazil cultivated 95 million hectares in 2012, and Mato Grosso was the major consumer of pesticides. In this research, the database of the Agriculture and Livestock Defense Institute was consulted, as it records the prescribed agronomic data and place of use in sales invoices. The results reveal the average consumption of pesticides per hectare per crop: 12 liters for soy; 6 liters for corn; 4.8 liters for sugarcane; and 24 liters for cotton. The toxicological types and classes of pesticides used per hectare per crop were also monitored. Using a matrix of agricultural production and pesticide consumption, it was also found that certain health problems are correlated with the major producing regions. Based on pesticide consumption, agricultural production and pesticide toxicity it is possible to ascertain health problems in Brazilian cities and establish prevention and surveillance strategies for the workers, the environment and the populations exposed to pesticides.

An Environment for Flexible Advanced Compensations of Web Service Transactions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schaefer, Michael; Dolog, Peter; Nejdl, Wolfgang

2008-01-01

Business to business integration has recently been performed by employing Web service environments. Moreover, such environments are being provided by major players on the technology markets. Those environments are based on open specifications for transaction coordination. When a failure...... in such an environment occurs, a compensation can be initiated to recover from the failure. However, current environments have only limited capabilities for compensations, and are usually based on backward recovery. In this article, we introduce an environment to deal with advanced compensations based on forward...

Sorghum root-system classification in contrasting P environments reveals three main rooting types and root-architecture-related marker-trait associations.

Science.gov (United States)

Parra-Londono, Sebastian; Kavka, Mareike; Samans, Birgit; Snowdon, Rod; Wieckhorst, Silke; Uptmoor, Ralf

2018-02-12

Roots facilitate acquisition of macro- and micronutrients, which are crucial for plant productivity and anchorage in the soil. Phosphorus (P) is rapidly immobilized in the soil and hardly available for plants. Adaptation to P scarcity relies on changes in root morphology towards rooting systems well suited for topsoil foraging. Root-system architecture (RSA) defines the spatial organization of the network comprising primary, lateral and stem-derived roots and is important for adaptation to stress conditions. RSA phenotyping is a challenging task and essential for understanding root development. In this study, 19 traits describing RSA were analysed in a diversity panel comprising 194 sorghum genotypes, fingerprinted with a 90-k single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and grown under low and high P availability. Multivariate analysis was conducted and revealed three different RSA types: (1) a small root system; (2) a compact and bushy rooting type; and (3) an exploratory root system, which might benefit plant growth and development if water, nitrogen (N) or P availability is limited. While several genotypes displayed similar rooting types in different environments, others responded to P scarcity positively by developing more exploratory root systems, or negatively with root growth suppression. Genome-wide association studies revealed significant quantitative trait loci (P root-system development on chromosomes SBI-02 and SBI-03. Sorghum genotypes with a compact, bushy and shallow root system provide potential adaptation to P scarcity in the field by allowing thorough topsoil foraging, while genotypes with an exploratory root system may be advantageous if N or water is the limiting factor, although such genotypes showed highest P uptake levels under the artificial conditions of the present study. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Familism, Family Environment, and Suicide Attempts among Latina Youth

OpenAIRE

Peña, Juan B.; Kuhlberg, Jill A.; Zayas, Luis H.; Baumann, Ana A.; Gulbas, Lauren; Hausmann-Stabile, Carolina; Nolle, Allyson P.

2011-01-01

This study examined the relationship between familism and family environment type as well as the relationship between family environment type and suicide attempts among Latina youth. Latina teen attempters (n=109) and non-attempters (n=107) were recruited from the NYC area. Latent class analysis revealed three family environment types: tight-knit; intermediate-knit; and loose-knit. Tight-knit families (high cohesion and low conflict) were significantly less likely to have teens that attempted...

General versus gender-specific attributes of the psychology major.

Science.gov (United States)

McCray, Jason A; King, Alan R; Bailly, Matthew D

2005-04-01

In the present study, the authors extended the search for general and gender-specific factors associated with the selection of psychology as a college major by using the Family Environment Scale (FES; R. H. Moos & B. S. Moos, 1994) and Coolidge Axis II Inventory (CATI; F. L. Coolidge & M. M. Merwin, 1992). The findings were restricted to one general (Schizoid) and one gender-specific (Self-Defeating) set of personality traits that seemed to be associated with the selection of a college major. The intuitive role of many presumed gender-specific factors (e.g., women are more open to discussing personal problems with others) may prove difficult to establish empirically.

Environment. 1980-1994. International Atomic Energy Agency publications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-06-01

The catalogue lists all publications of the International Atomic Energy Agency dealing with the Environment issued during the period 1980-1993. The major subjects covered include: effect of agrochemical residues on soils and aquatic ecosystems, application of radioisotopes in conservation of the environment, siting of nuclear power plants, environmental isotope data and environmental contamination due to nuclear accidents

Impaired intuition in patients with major depressive disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Remmers, Carina; Topolinski, Sascha; Dietrich, Detlef E; Michalak, Johannes

2015-06-01

In daily life, many decisions of minor and major importance have to be made. Thereby, intuitive judgments serve as useful guides and help us to adapt to our environment. People with major depressive disorder (MDD) often have difficulties to come to decisions. Is their intuition impaired? Since this question has not been addressed until now, the present study explored intuition in MDD. Depressed patients (n = 29) and healthy control participants (n = 27) completed the Judgment of Semantic Coherence Task, a well-established paradigm used in basic cognitive research to measure intuition. Furthermore, participants' severity of depressive symptoms (BDI-II), negative affect (PANAS), and rumination (RSQ) were assessed. All participants were interviewed with the SCID. Depressed patients showed impaired intuition compared to healthy control participants. In the depressed sample, negative affect accounts for the association between rumination and impaired intuition. Results further reveal that negative affect overall mediates the depression-intuition relationship. Patients with diminished ability to concentrate or indecisiveness had lower intuition indices compared to patients who did not fulfil this diagnostic criterion of MDD. The study introduces the phenomenon of intuition into depression research. Additionally, these results extent findings from basic research showing that induced negative mood as well difficulties to down-regulate negative affect impair intuitive coherence judgments. Current results indicate that the negative affectivity of patients is the crucial mediator in the association between depression and impaired intuition. Limitations of the study as well as the potential etiological role of intuition in MDD are discussed. The finding that intuition is impaired in depressed patients extends our knowledge as to the cognitive profile of patients with MDD. Patients who suffer from indecisiveness have lower intuition indices compared to patients who do not

Intelligent Motion and Interaction Within Virtual Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, Stephen R. (Editor); Slater, Mel (Editor); Alexander, Thomas (Editor)

2007-01-01

What makes virtual actors and objects in virtual environments seem real? How can the illusion of their reality be supported? What sorts of training or user-interface applications benefit from realistic user-environment interactions? These are some of the central questions that designers of virtual environments face. To be sure simulation realism is not necessarily the major, or even a required goal, of a virtual environment intended to communicate specific information. But for some applications in entertainment, marketing, or aspects of vehicle simulation training, realism is essential. The following chapters will examine how a sense of truly interacting with dynamic, intelligent agents may arise in users of virtual environments. These chapters are based on presentations at the London conference on Intelligent Motion and Interaction within a Virtual Environments which was held at University College, London, U.K., 15-17 September 2003.

Immunostaining for Homer reveals the majority of excitatory synapses in laminae I?III of the mouse spinal dorsal horn

OpenAIRE

Gutierrez-Mecinas, Maria; Kuehn, Emily D.; Abraira, Victoria E.; Polg?r, Erika; Watanabe, Masahiko; Todd, Andrew J.

2016-01-01

The spinal dorsal horn processes somatosensory information before conveying it to the brain. The neuronal organization of the dorsal horn is still poorly understood, although recent studies have defined several distinct populations among the interneurons, which account for most of its constituent neurons. All primary afferents, and the great majority of neurons in laminae I–III are glutamatergic, and a major factor limiting our understanding of the synaptic circuitry has been the difficulty i...

Fabrication and characterization of ultrathin dextran layers: Time dependent nanostructure in aqueous environments revealed by OWLS.

Science.gov (United States)

Saftics, Andras; Kurunczi, Sándor; Szekrényes, Zsolt; Kamarás, Katalin; Khánh, Nguyen Quoc; Sulyok, Attila; Bősze, Szilvia; Horvath, Robert

2016-10-01

Surface coatings of the polysaccharide dextran and its derivatives are key ingredients especially in label-free biosensors for the suppression of non-specific binding and for receptor immobilization. Nevertheless, the nanostructure of these ultrathin coatings and its tailoring by the variation of the preparation conditions have not been profoundly characterized and understood. In this work carboxymethylated dextran (CMD) was prepared and used for fabricating ultrathin surface coatings. A grafting method based on covalent coupling to aminosilane- and epoxysilane-functionalized surfaces was applied to obtain thin CMD layers. The carboxyl moiety of the CMD was coupled to the aminated surface by EDC-NHS reagents, while CMD coupling through epoxysilane molecules was performed without any additional reagents. The surface analysis following the grafting procedures consisted of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy (OWLS). The XPS and AFM measurements showed that the grafting resulted in a very thin dextran layer of a few nanometers. The OWLS method allowed devising the structure of the interfacial dextran layers by the evaluation of the optogeometrical parameters. The alteration in the nanostructure of the CMD layer with the chemical composition of the silane coverage and the pH of the grafting solution was revealed by in situ OWLS, specifically, lain down chains were found to be prevalent on the surface under neutral and basic conditions on epoxysilylated surfaces. The developed methodologies allowed to design and fabricate nanometer scale CMD layers with well-controlled surface structure, which are very difficult to characterize in aqueous environments using present instrumentations and highly hydrated surface layers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Transcriptome of Leishmania major Developmental Stages in Their Natural Sand Fly Vector.

Science.gov (United States)

Inbar, Ehud; Hughitt, V Keith; Dillon, Laura A L; Ghosh, Kashinath; El-Sayed, Najib M; Sacks, David L

2017-04-04

The life cycle of the Leishmania parasite in the sand fly vector involves differentiation into several distinctive forms, each thought to represent an adaptation to specific microenvironments in the midgut of the fly. Based on transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) results, we describe the first high-resolution analysis of the transcriptome dynamics of four distinct stages of Leishmania major as they develop in a natural vector, Phlebotomus duboscqi The early transformation from tissue amastigotes to procyclic promastigotes in the blood-fed midgut was accompanied by the greatest number of differentially expressed genes, including the downregulation of amastins, and upregulation of multiple cell surface proteins, sugar and amino acid transporters, and genes related to glucose metabolism and cell cycle progression. The global changes accompanying post-blood meal differentiation of procyclic promastigotes to the nectomonad and metacyclic stages were less extensive, though each displayed a unique signature. The transcriptome of nectomonads, which has not been studied previously, revealed changes consistent with cell cycle arrest and the upregulation of genes associated with starvation and stress, including autophagic pathways of protein recycling. Maturation to the infective, metacyclic stage was accompanied by changes suggesting preadaptation to the intracellular environment of the mammalian host, demonstrated by the amastigote-like profiles of surface proteins and metabolism-related genes. Finally, a direct comparison between sand fly-derived and culture-derived metacyclics revealed a reassuring similarity between the two forms, with the in vivo forms distinguished mainly by a stronger upregulation of transcripts associated with nutrient stress. IMPORTANCE The life cycle of Leishmania parasites in the sand fly vector includes their growth and development as morphologically distinct forms of extracellular promastigotes found within the different microenvironments of the

Retail environments and spatial shopping behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Timmermans, H.J.P.; Gaerling, T.; Golledge, R.G.

1993-01-01

The interplay between aspects of retail environments and consumer spatial shopping behavior has traditionally been an area of major concern in geography, urban planning and related disciplines. It reflects an interest in explaining the relationship between locational and nonlocational attributes of

Warmer springs lead to mistimed reproduction in great tits (Parus major)

Science.gov (United States)

Visser, M. E.; Noordwijk, A. J. van; Tinbergen, J. M.; Lessells, C. M.

1998-01-01

In seasonal environments, the main selection pressure on the timing of reproduction (the ultimate factor) is synchrony between offspring requirements and food availability. However, reproduction is initiated much earlier than the time of maximum food requirement of the offspring. Individuals should therefore start reproduction in response to cues (the proximate factors), available in the environment of reproductive decision making, which predict the later environment of selection. With increasing spring temperatures over the past decades, vegetation phenology has advanced, with a concomitant advancement in the reproduction of some species at higher trophic levels. However, a mismatch between food abundance and offspring needs may occur if changes in the environment of decision making do not match those in the environment of selection. Date of egg laying in a great tit (Parus major) population has not advanced over a 23-year period, but selection for early laying has intensified. We believe that this is the first documented case of an adaptive response being hampered because a changing abiotic factor affects the environment in which a reproductive decision is made differently from the environment in which selection occurs.

Astroglial Pentose Phosphate Pathway Rates in Response to High-Glucose Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shinichi Takahashi

2012-02-01

Full Text Available ROS (reactive oxygen species play an essential role in the pathophysiology of diabetes, stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. Hyperglycaemia associated with diabetes enhances ROS production and causes oxidative stress in vascular endothelial cells, but adverse effects of either acute or chronic high-glucose environments on brain parenchymal cells remain unclear. The PPP (pentose phosphate pathway and GSH participate in a major defence mechanism against ROS in brain, and we explored the role and regulation of the astroglial PPP in response to acute and chronic high-glucose environments. PPP activity was measured in cultured neurons and astroglia by determining the difference in rate of 14CO2 production from [1-14C]glucose and [6-14C]glucose. ROS production, mainly H2O2, and GSH were also assessed. Acutely elevated glucose concentrations in the culture media increased PPP activity and GSH level in astroglia, decreasing ROS production. Chronically elevated glucose environments also induced PPP activation. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that chronic high-glucose environments induced ER (endoplasmic reticulum stress (presumably through increased hexosamine biosynthetic pathway flux. Nuclear translocation of Nrf2 (nuclear factor-erythroid 2 p45 subunit-related factor 2, which regulates G6PDH (glyceraldehyde-6-phosphate dehydrogenase by enhancing transcription, was also observed in association with BiP (immunoglobulin heavy-chain-binding protein expression. Acute and chronic high-glucose environments activated the PPP in astroglia, preventing ROS elevation. Therefore a rapid decrease in glucose level seems to enhance ROS toxicity, perhaps contributing to neural damage when insulin levels given to diabetic patients are not properly calibrated and plasma glucose levels are not adequately maintained. These findings may also explain the lack of evidence for clinical benefits from strict glycaemic control during the acute phase of stroke.

Astroglial pentose phosphate pathway rates in response to high-glucose environments

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Shinichi; Izawa, Yoshikane; Suzuki, Norihiro

2012-01-01

ROS (reactive oxygen species) play an essential role in the pathophysiology of diabetes, stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. Hyperglycaemia associated with diabetes enhances ROS production and causes oxidative stress in vascular endothelial cells, but adverse effects of either acute or chronic high-glucose environments on brain parenchymal cells remain unclear. The PPP (pentose phosphate pathway) and GSH participate in a major defence mechanism against ROS in brain, and we explored the role and regulation of the astroglial PPP in response to acute and chronic high-glucose environments. PPP activity was measured in cultured neurons and astroglia by determining the difference in rate of 14CO2 production from [1-14C]glucose and [6-14C]glucose. ROS production, mainly H2O2, and GSH were also assessed. Acutely elevated glucose concentrations in the culture media increased PPP activity and GSH level in astroglia, decreasing ROS production. Chronically elevated glucose environments also induced PPP activation. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that chronic high-glucose environments induced ER (endoplasmic reticulum) stress (presumably through increased hexosamine biosynthetic pathway flux). Nuclear translocation of Nrf2 (nuclear factor-erythroid 2 p45 subunit-related factor 2), which regulates G6PDH (glyceraldehyde-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) by enhancing transcription, was also observed in association with BiP (immunoglobulin heavy-chain-binding protein) expression. Acute and chronic high-glucose environments activated the PPP in astroglia, preventing ROS elevation. Therefore a rapid decrease in glucose level seems to enhance ROS toxicity, perhaps contributing to neural damage when insulin levels given to diabetic patients are not properly calibrated and plasma glucose levels are not adequately maintained. These findings may also explain the lack of evidence for clinical benefits from strict glycaemic control during the acute phase of stroke. PMID:22300409

Adolescent perspectives of the recreational ice hockey food environment and influences on eating behaviour revealed through photovoice.

Science.gov (United States)

Caswell, M Susan; Hanning, Rhona M

2018-05-01

Unhealthy dietary behaviours are prevalent among adolescents. This might relate, in part, to obesogenic environments, including recreation food facilities. The REFRESH Study (Recreation Environment and Food Research: Experiences from Hockey) aimed to explore, from the perspectives of adolescent ice hockey players and parents, broad social and physical environmental influences on adolescent food behaviours associated with hockey participation. Players used photovoice to describe their food experiences in relation to ice hockey. The approach included photos, individual interviews and focus groups. Exemplar photographs were exhibited for stakeholders, including five parents who were interviewed. Interview and focus group transcripts were thematically analysed. Recreational ice hockey environment, Ontario, Canada, 2015-16. Ice hockey players (n 24) aged 11-15 years recruited from five leagues. Dominant influences among players included: their perceived importance of nutrients (e.g. protein) or foods (e.g. chocolate milk) for performance and recovery; marketing and branding (e.g. the pro-hockey aura of Tim Horton's®, Canada's largest quick-service restaurant); social aspects of tournaments and team meals; and moral values around 'right' and 'wrong' food choices. Both players and parents perceived recreational facility food options as unhealthy and identified that travel and time constraints contributed to less healthy choices. Results indicate recreation facilities are only one of a range of environments that influence eating behaviours of adolescent ice hockey players. Players' susceptibility to advertising/brand promotion and the value of healthy food choices for performance are findings that can inform policy and interventions to support healthy environments and behaviours.

Diet and environment 1.2 million years ago revealed through analysis of dental calculus from Europe's oldest hominin at Sima del Elefante, Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Hardy, Karen; Radini, Anita; Buckley, Stephen; Blasco, Ruth; Copeland, Les; Burjachs, Francesc; Girbal, Josep; Yll, Riker; Carbonell, Eudald; Bermúdez de Castro, Jose María

2017-02-01

Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain contains one of the earliest hominin fragments yet known in Europe, dating to 1.2 Ma. Dental calculus from a hominin molar was removed, degraded and analysed to recover entrapped remains. Evidence for plant use at this time is very limited and this study has revealed the earliest direct evidence for foods consumed in the genus Homo. This comprises starchy carbohydrates from two plants, including a species of grass from the Triticeae or Bromideae tribe, meat and plant fibres. All food was eaten raw, and there is no evidence for processing of the starch granules which are intact and undamaged. Additional biographical detail includes fragments of non-edible wood found adjacent to an interproximal groove suggesting oral hygiene activities, while plant fibres may be linked to raw material processing. Environmental evidence comprises spores, insect fragments and conifer pollen grains which are consistent with a forested environment.

Who possesses drug resistance genes in the aquatic environment?: sulfamethoxazole (SMX) resistance genes among the bacterial community in water environment of Metro-Manila, Philippines.

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, Satoru; Ogo, Mitsuko; Miller, Todd W; Shimizu, Akiko; Takada, Hideshige; Siringan, Maria Auxilia T

2013-01-01

Recent evidence has shown that antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are ubiquitous in natural environments, including sites considered pristine. To understand the origin of ARGs and their dynamics, we must first define their actual presence in the natural bacterial assemblage. Here we found varying distribution profiles of sul genes in "colony forming bacterial assemblages" and "natural bacterial assemblages." Our monitoring for antibiotic contamination revealed that sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is a major contaminant in aquatic environments of Metro-Manila, which would have been derived from human and animal use, and subsequently decreased through the process of outflow from source to the sea. The SMX-resistant bacterial rate evaluated by the colony forming unit showed 10 to 86% of the total colony numbers showed higher rates from freshwater sites compared to marine sites. When sul genes were quantified by qPCR, colony-forming bacteria conveyed sul1 and sul2 genes in freshwater and seawater (10(-5)-10(-2) copy/16S) but not sul3. Among the natural bacterial assemblage, all sul1, sul2, and sul3 were detected (10(-5)-10(-3) copy/16S), whereas all sul genes were at an almost non-detectable level in the freshwater assemblage. This study suggests that sul1 and sul2 are main sul genes in culturable bacteria, whereas sul3 is conveyed by non-culturable bacteria in the sea. As a result marine bacteria possess sul1, sul2 and sul3 genes in the marine environment.

Who Possesses Drug Resistance Genes in the Aquatic Environment? : Sulfamethoxazole (SMX Resistance Genes among the Bacterial Community in Water Environment of Metro-Manila, Philippines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satoru eSuzuki

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Recent evidence has shown that antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG are ubiquitous in natural environments, including sites considered pristine. To understand the origin of ARGs and their dynamics, we must first define their actual presence in the natural bacterial assemblage. Here we found varying distribution profiles of sul genes in colony forming bacterial assemblages and natural bacterial assemblages. Our monitoring for antibiotic contamination revealed that sulfamethoxazole (SMX is a major contaminant in aquatic environments of Metro-Manila, which would have been derived from human and animal use, and subsequently decreased through the process of outflow from source to the sea. The SMX-resistant bacterial rate evaluated by the colony forming unit showed 10 to 86 % of the total colony numbers showed higher rates from freshwater sites compared to marine sites. When sul genes were quantified by qPCR, colony-forming bacteria conveyed sul1 and sul2 genes in freshwater and seawater (10-5-10-2 copy/16S but not sul3. Among the natural bacterial assemblage, all sul1, sul2 and sul3 were detected (10-5-10-3 copy/16S, whereas all sul genes were at an almost non-detectable level in the freshwater assemblage. This study suggests that sul1 and sul2 are main sul genes in culturable bacteria, whereas sul3 is conveyed by non-culturable bacteria in the sea. As a result marine bacteria possess sul1, sul2 and sul3 genes in the marine environment.

Expression of hsa Let-7a MicroRNA of Macrophages Infected by Leishmania Major

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nooshin Hashemi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Leishmaniasis is a vector-born disease caused by species of the genus Leishmania and is transmitted from host to host through the bite of an infected sandfly. MicroRNAs (miRNAs are non-coding small RNAs with 22-nucleotide length. They are involved in some biological and cellular processes. We aimed to evaluate the expression of let-7a in human macrophages miRNA when are infected by Leishmania major. We also evaluated the impact of Leishmania major infection on the expression of let-7a at two different times, 24 and 48 hours, after infection. Blood samples were collected from ten healthy volunteers with no history of leishmaniasis. Development of macrophages from peripheral monocytes and infection with stationary phase of Leishmania major promastigotes were done through serial cultures under 5% CO2 environment and 37C. To measure the expression levels of let-7a real-time PCR was performed with specific related primers using the SYBR® Green master mix Kit™. The real-time PCR showed let-7a was expressed in cells infected with parasites after 24 and 48h post-infection. Comparison of let-7a miRNA expression after 24 and 48 h revealed that let-7a miRNAs were down-regulated at 48 h post-infection more than 24h after infection. The results of this study suggest that according to the main function of miRNA in repression of mRNA translation it could be possible to manipulate host cells in order to alter miRNA levels and regulate macrophage functions after establishment of intracellular parasites such as Leishmania.

Organizational structures in Collaborative Work Environments: the return of the matrix?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guldemond, E.; Have, K. ten; Knoppe, R.

2010-01-01

After major petroleum companies successfully implemented the hardware, tools and applications in Collaborative Work Environments (CWE), human factor issues remain unsolved. Working in these Collaborative Work Environments cuts across traditional disciplinary and geographically dispersed boundaries.

Environmental influences on the at-sea behaviour of a major consumer, Mirounga leonina, in a rapidly changing environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Trevor McIntyre

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Understanding the distribution and foraging ecology of major consumers within pelagic systems, specifically in relation to physical parameters, can be important for the management of bentho-pelagic systems undergoing rapid change associated with global climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances such as fishing (i.e., the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea. We tracked 11 adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina, during their five-month post-moult foraging migrations from King George Island (Isla 25 de Mayo, northern Antarctic Peninsula, using tags capable of recording and transmitting behavioural data and in situ temperature and salinity data. Seals foraged mostly within the Weddell–Scotia Confluence, while a few foraged along the western Antarctic Peninsula shelf of the Bellingshausen Sea. Mixed model outputs suggest that the at-sea behaviour of seals was associated with a number of environmental parameters, especially seafloor depth, sea-ice concentrations and the temperature structure of the water column. Seals increased dive bottom times and travelled at slower speeds in shallower areas and areas with increased sea-ice concentrations. Changes in dive depth and durations, as well as relative amount of time spent during the bottom phases of dives, were observed in relation to differences in overall temperature gradient, likely as a response to vertical changes in prey distribution associated with temperature stratification in the water column. Our results illustrate the likely complex influences of bathymetry, hydrography and sea ice on the behaviour of male southern elephant seals in a changing environment and highlight the need for region-specific approaches to studying environmental influences on behaviour.

Modelling Virtual Environments for Geovisualization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bodum, Lars

2005-01-01

The use of virtual environments in geovisualization has become a major topic within the last few years. The main reason for this interest in the growing use of 3D models and visual realizations in a wide range of applications concerned with the geographic element of information. The implementation...... within the geographic domain. A categorization of the virtual environments is offered through which the differences between them are highlighted. It is possible to achieve this categorization in many ways from many perspectives since this is not and will not be research of a purely positive nature...

Natural radiation environment III. [Lead Abstract

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gesell, T.F.; Lowder, W.M. (eds.)

1980-01-01

Separate abstracts were prepared for the 52 research papers presented at this symposium in April 1978. The major topics in this volume deal with penetrating radiation measurements, radiation surveys and population exposure, radioactivity in the indoor environment, and technologically enhanced natural radioactivity. (KRM)

A Comparison of the Basic Song Repertoire of Vocal/Choral and Instrumental Music Education Majors.

Science.gov (United States)

Prickett, Carol A.; Bridges, Madeline S.

2000-01-01

Explores whether the basic song repertoire of vocal/choral music education majors is significantly better than instrumental music education majors. Participants attempted to identify 25 standard songs. Reveals no significant difference between the two groups, indicating that neither had developed a strong repertoire of songs. (CMK)

A major and stable QTL associated with seed weight in soybean across multiple environments and genetic backgrounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Kato, Shin; Sayama, Takashi; Fujii, Kenichiro; Yumoto, Setsuzo; Kono, Yuhi; Hwang, Tae-Young; Kikuchi, Akio; Takada, Yoshitake; Tanaka, Yu; Shiraiwa, Tatsuhiko; Ishimoto, Masao

2014-06-01

We detected a QTL for single seed weight in soybean that was stable across multiple environments and genetic backgrounds with the use of two recombinant inbred line populations. Single seed weight (SSW) in soybean is a key determinant of both seed yield and the quality of soy food products, and it exhibits wide variation. SSW is under genetic control, but the molecular mechanisms of such control remain unclear. We have now investigated quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for SSW in soybean and have identified such a QTL that is stable across multiple environments and genetic backgrounds. Two populations of 225 and 250 recombinant inbred lines were developed from crosses between Japanese and US cultivars of soybean that differ in SSW by a factor of ~2, and these populations were grown in at least three different environments. A whole-genome panel comprising 304 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci was applied to mapping in each population. We identified 15 significant QTLs for SSW dispersed among 11 chromosomes in the two populations. One QTL located between Sat_284 and Sat_292 on chromosome 17 was detected (3.6 soybean.

Molecular Characterization of Barrier Properties in Follicle-Associated Epithelium of Porcine Peyer's Patches Reveals Major Sealing Function of Claudin-4

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Judith Radloff

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The pig represents a preferred model for the analysis of intestinal immunology. However, the barrier of the follicle-associated epithelium (FAE covering porcine Peyer's patches (PP has not yet been characterized in detail. This study aimed to perform this characterization in order to pave the way toward an understanding of the functional contribution of epithelial barrier properties in gut immunology. Porcine tissue specimens were taken from the distal small intestine in order to obtain electrophysiological data of PP FAE and neighboring villous epithelium (VE, employing the Ussing chamber technique. Transepithelial resistance (TER and paracellular fluorescein flux were measured, and tissues were morphometrically compared. In selfsame tissues, expression and localization of major tight junction (TJ proteins (claudin-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, and -8 were analyzed. PP FAE specimens showed a higher TER and a lower apparent permeability for sodium fluorescein than VE. Immunoblotting revealed an expression of all claudins within both epithelia, with markedly stronger expression of the sealing TJ protein claudin-4 in PP FAE compared with the neighboring VE. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the expression and localization of all claudins in both PP FAE and VE, with stronger claudin-4 abundance in PP FAE. The results are in accordance with the physiological function of the FAE, which strongly regulates and limits antigen uptake determining a mandatory transcellular route for antigen presentation, highlighting the importance of this structure for the first steps of the intestinal immune response. Thus, this study provides detailed insights into the specific barrier properties of the porcine FAE covering intestinal PP, at the interface of intestinal immunology and barriology.

Lead Contamination and Microbial Lead Tolerance in Soils at Major ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Devika

ABSTRACT: Lead pollution and lead tolerance levels of microbes in soil at major road junctions in Benin. City were investigated. Results revealed that distance from the road junctions affected the concentrations of lead in soil, as well as the microbial population density and types of microbes present in the soil. The highest ...

Lead Contamination and Microbial Lead Tolerance in Soils at Major ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Lead pollution and lead tolerance levels of microbes in soil at major road junctions in Benin City were investigated. Results revealed that distance from the road junctions affected the concentrations of lead in soil, as well as the microbial population density and types of microbes present in the soil. The highest concentrations ...

State of the environment report of the Slovak Republic 2001

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon

2002-01-01

The report on state of environment of the Slovak Republic in 2001 is presented. In this report the following parts are reviewed: Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Compositions of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental pressures; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regional classification of Slovakia and endangered regions; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International cooperation

Anorexia nervosa and major depression: shared genetic and environmental risk factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Wade, T D; Bulik, C M; Neale, M; Kendler, K S

2000-03-01

The authors sought to derive heritability estimates for anorexia nervosa and to explore the etiology of the comorbid relationship between anorexia nervosa and major depression. They applied bivariate structural equation modeling to a broad definition of anorexia nervosa and lifetime major depression as assessed in a population-based sample of 2,163 female twins. Anorexia nervosa was estimated to have a heritability of 58% (95% confidence interval=33%-84%). The authors were unable to completely rule out a contribution of shared environment. The comorbidity between anorexia nervosa and major depression is likely due to genetic factors that influence the risk for both disorders. Although the study was limited by the small number of affected twins, the results suggest that genetic factors significantly influence the risk for anorexia nervosa and substantially contribute to the observed comorbidity between anorexia nervosa and major depression.

Nuclear Energy and the Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria).

"Nuclear Energy and the Environment" is a pocket folder of removable leaflets concerned with two major topics: Nuclear energy and Nuclear Techniques. Under Nuclear Energy, leaflets concerning the topics of "Radiation--A Fact of Life,""The Impact of a Fact: 1963 Test Ban Treaty,""Energy Needs and Nuclear Power,""Power Reactor Safety,""Transport,"…

Molecular investigation of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from the patients, personnel, air and environment of an ICU in a hospital in Tehran.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirzaii, Mehdi; Emaneini, Mohammad; Jabalameli, Fereshteh; Halimi, Shahnaz; Taherikalani, Morovat

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from the patients, staff, air and environments of an ICU in a hospital in Tehran. During this study, 37 S. aureus isolates were collected and analyzed via the spa typing method. Of the 37 S. aureus isolates, 35 (94%) were methicillin resistant (MRSA), 28 (76%) were identified as SCCmec types III or IIIA, four (10%) were identified as SCCmec types I or IA and three (8%) were identified a SCCmec type IV. All of the MRSA isolates were resistant to oxacillin and contained mecA. The isolates were all spa typed and found to comprise 11 spa types, including t7688, t7689, and t7789, which have not previously been reported. The spa type t7688 was isolated from the hands of two ICU personnel. The spa type t7689 was observed among five isolates from the air and the environment. The spa type t7789 was observed among three isolates from the patients, ventilators and the air. The majority of the isolates (43%) belonged to spa types t030 and t037. Our results revealed that MRSA strains that were isolated from the air, the environment of the ICU and the patients who were colonized or infected with MRSA often exhibited the same spa and SCCmec types. These results also reveal that the isolates from the patients and environment were usually indistinguishable. Copyright © 2014 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hidden acoustic information revealed by intentional nonlinearity

Science.gov (United States)

Dowling, David R.

2017-11-01

Acoustic waves are omnipresent in modern life and are well described by the linearized equations of fluid dynamics. Once generated, acoustic waves carry and collect information about their source and the environment through which they propagate, respectively, and this information may be retrieved by analyzing recordings of these waves. Because of this, acoustics is the primary means for observation, surveillance, reconnaissance, and remote sensing in otherwise opaque environments, such as the Earth's oceans and crust, and the interior of the human body. For such information-retrieval tasks, acoustic fields are nearly always interrogated within their recorded frequency range or bandwidth. However, this frequency-range restriction is not general; acoustic fields may also carry (hidden) information at frequencies outside their bandwidth. Although such a claim may seem counter intuitive, hidden acoustic-field information can be revealed by re-introducing a marquee trait of fluid dynamics: nonlinearity. In particular, an intentional quadratic nonlinearity - a form of intra-signal heterodyning - can be used to obtain acoustic field information at frequencies outside a recorded acoustic field's bandwidth. This quadratic nonlinearity enables a variety of acoustic remote sensing applications that were long thought to be impossible. In particular, it allows the detrimental effects of sparse recordings and random scattering to be suppressed when the original acoustic field has sufficient bandwidth. In this presentation, the topic is developed heuristically, with a just brief exposition of the relevant mathematics. Hidden acoustic field information is then revealed from simulated and measured acoustic fields in simple and complicated acoustic environments involving frequencies from a few Hertz to more than 100 kHz, and propagation distances from tens of centimeters to hundreds of kilometers. Sponsored by ONR, NAVSEA, and NSF.

Role of a reducing environment in disassembly of the herpesvirus tegument

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Newcomb, William W. [Department of Microbiology Immunology and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia Health System, Box 800734, University of Virginia Health System, 1300 Jefferson Park Ave. Charlottesville, VA 22908 (United States); Jones, Lisa M. [Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130 (United States); Dee, Alexander [Department of Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030 (United States); Chaudhry, Farid [Department of Microbiology Immunology and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia Health System, Box 800734, University of Virginia Health System, 1300 Jefferson Park Ave. Charlottesville, VA 22908 (United States); Brown, Jay C., E-mail: JCB2G@VIRGINIA.EDU [Department of Microbiology Immunology and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia Health System, Box 800734, University of Virginia Health System, 1300 Jefferson Park Ave. Charlottesville, VA 22908 (United States)

2012-09-15

Initiation of infection by herpes family viruses involves a step in which most of the virus tegument becomes detached from the capsid. Detachment takes place in the host cell cytosol near the virus entry site and it is followed by dispersal of tegument proteins and disappearance of the tegument as a distinct entity. Here we describe the results of experiments designed to test the idea that the reducing environment of the cytosol may contribute to tegument detachment and disassembly. Non-ionic detergent was used to remove the membrane of purified herpes simplex virus under control and reducing conditions. The effects on the tegument were then examined by SDS-PAGE and electron microscopy. Protein analysis demonstrated that most major tegument proteins were removed under both oxidizing and reducing conditions except for UL49 which required a reducing environment. It is proposed therefore that the reducing conditions in the cytosol are involved in removal of UL49 protein. Electron microscopic analysis revealed that capsids produced under oxidizing conditions contained a coating of protein that was absent in reduced virions and which correlated uniquely with the presence of UL49. This capsid-associated layer is suggested to be the location of UL49 in the extracted virion.

Microbial diversity in a permanently cold and alkaline environment in Greenland.

Science.gov (United States)

Glaring, Mikkel A; Vester, Jan K; Lylloff, Jeanette E; Al-Soud, Waleed Abu; Sørensen, Søren J; Stougaard, Peter

2015-01-01

The submarine ikaite columns located in the Ikka Fjord in Southern Greenland represent a unique, permanently cold (less than 6°C) and alkaline (above pH 10) environment and are home to a microbial community adapted to these extreme conditions. The bacterial and archaeal community inhabiting the ikaite columns and surrounding fjord was characterised by high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Analysis of the ikaite community structure revealed the presence of a diverse bacterial community, both in the column interior and at the surface, and very few archaea. A clear difference in overall taxonomic composition was observed between column interior and surface. Whereas the surface, and in particular newly formed ikaite material, was primarily dominated by Cyanobacteria and phototrophic Proteobacteria, the column interior was dominated by Proteobacteria and putative anaerobic representatives of the Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. The results suggest a stratification of the ikaite columns similar to that of classical soda lakes, with a light-exposed surface inhabited by primary producers and an anoxic subsurface. This was further supported by identification of major taxonomic groups with close relatives in soda lake environments, including members of the genera Rhodobaca, Dethiobacter, Thioalkalivibrio and Tindallia, as well as very abundant groups related to uncharacterised environmental sequences originally isolated from Mono Lake in California.

Mesocosm Community Response Sensitivities to Specific Conductivity Comprised of Different Major Ions

Science.gov (United States)

Traditional toxicity test assays have been used to evaluate the relative sensitivity to different major ion mixtures as a proxy for understanding what the response of aquatic species growing in their natural environment would be during exposure to specific conductivity stress ema...

CONSTRUCTIVE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT SCHOOL-UNIVERSITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalya Petrovna Shatalova

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The article presents the results of the study the key components of the development of constructive thinking of students on the basis of model building constructive educational environment school-University. It was conducted from a position of constructive approach in education, as a process of systemic-structural methodology of cognitive and creative activity of the student, promotes development and formation of various constructive qualities of the individual. The functions of constructive educational environment school-University aimed at developing constructive thinking of students, defined by its structural components and connections, shows the consistency of self-development of constructive thinking and job satisfaction the development of constructive skills. The findings reveal innovative possibilities of cooperation of schools and universities in the design and functioning model of constructive educatio-nal space that contributes to the development of constructive thinking of all its stakeholders.Purpose: measuring the effectiveness of the model constructive educational environment school-University aimed at the development of students.Methodology: the Programme of research included: (1 diagnosis of the development level of constructive thinking on the questionnaire developed in the context of the constructive theory of education, (2 augmented and revised by the author the diagnosis of satisfaction and importance model of constructive educational environment school-University by the method of G.A. Gagarin, as well as theoretical modeling, method of involved observation, formal teaching method.Results. The article introduces the concept of «constructive learning environments», which are considered in relation to the organization and conduct of joint activities of teachers, teachers and students. The authors give a theoretical comparative analysis of scientific works of colleagues in the context of the problem. Offer a brief

Community College Enrollment, College Major, and the Gender Wage Gap.

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, Andrew M.; Leigh, Duane E.

2000-01-01

Independent cross-sections developed using National Longitudinal Survey data reveal a decrease in the gender wage gap from 1989-1994 due to fewer differences in tenure and full-time employment. Disaggregating education by two- and four-year providers and college major accounts for 8.5-11% of the narrower wage gap for the period. (SK)

Major, Trace, and Volatile (CO2, H2O, S, F, and Cl) Elements from 1000+ Hawaiian Olivine-hosted Melt Inclusions Reveal the Dynamics of Crustal Recycling

Science.gov (United States)

Marske, J. P.; Hauri, E. H.; Trusdell, F.; Garcia, M. O.; Pietruszka, A. J.

2015-12-01

Global cycling of volatile elements (H2O, CO2, F, S, Cl) via subduction to deep mantle followed by entrainment and melting within ascending mantle plumes is an enigmatic process that controls key aspects of hot spot volcanism (i.e. melting rate, magma supply, degassing, eruptive style). Variations in radiogenic isotope ratios (e.g.187Os/188Os) at hot spots such as Hawaii reveal magmatic processes within deep-seated mantle plumes (e.g. mantle heterogeneity, lithology, and melt transport). Shield-stage lavas from Hawaii likely originate from a mixed plume source containing peridotite and recycled oceanic crust (pyroxenite) based on variations of radiogenic isotopes. Hawaiian lavas display correlations among isotopes, major and trace elements [1] that might be expected to have an expression in the volatile elements. To investigate this link, we present Os isotopic ratios (n=51), and major, trace, and volatile elements from 1003 olivine-hosted melt inclusions (MI) and their host minerals from tephra from Koolau, Mauna Loa, Hualalai, Kilauea, and Loihi volcanoes. The data show a strong correlation between MI volatile contents and incompatible trace element ratios (La/Yb) with Os isotopes of the same host olivines and reveal large-scale volatile heterogeneity and zonation exists within the Hawaiian plume. 'Loa' chain lavas, which are thought to originate from greater proportions of recycled oceanic crust/pyroxenite, have MIs with lower H2O, S, F, and Cl contents compared to 'Kea' chain lavas that were derived from more peridotite-rich sources. The depletion of volatile elements in the 'Loa' volcano MIs can be explained if they tapped an ancient dehydrated oceanic crust component within the Hawaiian plume. Higher extents of melting beneath 'Loa' volcanoes can also explain these depletions. The presence of dehydrated recycled mafic material in the plume source suggests that subduction effectively devolatilizes part of the oceanic crust. These results are similar to the

Sex segregation in undergraduate engineering majors

Science.gov (United States)

Litzler, Elizabeth

Gender inequality in engineering persists in spite of women reaching parity in college enrollments and degrees granted. To date, no analyses of educational sex segregation have comprehensively examined segregation within one discipline. To move beyond traditional methods of studying the long-standing stratification by field of study in higher education, I explore gender stratification within one field: engineering. This dissertation investigates why some engineering disciplines have a greater representation of women than other engineering disciplines. I assess the individual and institutional factors and conditions associated with women's representation in certain engineering departments and compare the mechanisms affecting women's and men's choice of majors. I use national data from the Engineering Workforce Commission, survey data from 21 schools in the Project to Assess Climate in Engineering study, and Carnegie Foundation classification information to study sex segregation in engineering majors from multiple perspectives: the individual, major, institution, and country. I utilize correlations, t-tests, cross-tabulations, log-linear modeling, multilevel logistic regression and weighted least squares regression to test the relative utility of alternative explanations for women's disproportionate representation across engineering majors. As a whole, the analyses illustrate the importance of context and environment for women's representation in engineering majors. Hypotheses regarding hostile climate and discrimination find wide support across different analyses, suggesting that women's under-representation in certain engineering majors is not a question of choice or ability. However, individual level factors such as having engineering coursework prior to college show an especially strong association with student choice of major. Overall, the analyses indicate that institutions matter, albeit less for women, and women's under-representation in engineering is not

Landmark Study Reveals Antarctic Glacier's Long History of Retreat

OpenAIRE

Kuska, Dale M.

2016-01-01

Faculty Showcase Archive Article Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. A major study, released in late November in the journal “Nature,” reveals the history of retreat of the massive Pine Island Glacier (PIG) in western Antarctica, widely considered one of the largest contributors to global sea-level rise.

Programming in an object-oriented environment

CERN Document Server

Ege, Raimund K

1992-01-01

Programming in an Object-Oriented Environment provides an in-depth look at the concepts behind the technology of object-oriented programming.This book explains why object-oriented programming has the potential to vastly improve the productivity of programmers and how to apply this technology in a practical environment. Many programming examples are included, focusing on how different programming languages support the core of object-oriented concepts. C++ is used as the main sample language throughout this text.This monograph consists of two major parts. Part I provides an introduction to objec

The physical environment and major plant communities of the Karoo National Park, South Africa

OpenAIRE

Francine Rubin; A.R. Palmer

1996-01-01

The major plant communities of the Karoo National Park are described using the methods of the Zurich-Montpellier school of phytosociology, to assist with the formulation of a management strategy for the park. The vegetation physiognomy consists of Montane Karoo grassy shrublands. Karoo grassy dwarf shrublands. Karoo succulent dwarf shrublands and riparian thicket. Steep elevation and precipitation gradients within the study area have a direct impact on gradients in the vegetation. High elevat...

Nuclear and the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frot, J.

2002-06-01

After having discussed the evolution of energy needs in relationship with economic and demographic evolutions, the evolution of energy resources and of the energy mix in different part of the world, the evolution of energy costs, the author comments the different impacts of the different energies, and more particularly nuclear energy, on the environment. He identifies six major impacts: energy congestion management, greenhouse effect, wastes, radioactivity, accidents, and nuclear proliferation

Microstructural characterization of copper corrosion in aqueous and soil environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Srivastava, A.; Balasubramaniam, R.

2005-01-01

Scanning electron microscopy has been used to investigate the surface films on pure copper after exposure to different aqueous and soil environments, containing chloride, sulfide and ammonium salts. The morphology of the films formed on copper surface in aqueous and soil environments was different for the same amount of pollutants. The surface films formed in soil environments were not homogenous in contrast to the films formed in aqueous environments. The damaging effect of chloride ions and the benign role of sulfide ions were revealed in both the environments. Local compositional analysis confirmed that the surface films formed on copper consisted predominantly of copper and oxygen

Right and left amygdalae activation in patients with major depression receiving antidepressant treatment, as revealed by fMRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yen-Ting; Huang, Min-Wei; Hung, I-Chung; Lane, Hsien-Yuan; Hou, Chun-Ju

2014-10-08

treatment for each emotion tested. In the future, changes in BOLD signals as revealed by fMRI might be useful in evaluating the clinical manifestation of major depression.

The Bottom Line: Industry and the Environment in South Africa ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

All economic activity depends on the environment. This simple fact has spurred the international community into giving more and more attention to the environment in general and the environmental performance of industry in particular. The Bottom Line is a major new contribution to the debates on industry and the ...

Do Biology Majors Really Differ from Non–STEM Majors?

Science.gov (United States)

Cotner, Sehoya; Thompson, Seth; Wright, Robin

2017-01-01

Recent calls to action urge sweeping reform in science education, advocating for improved learning for all students—including those majoring in fields beyond the sciences. However, little work has been done to characterize the differences—if any exist—between students planning a career in science and those studying other disciplines. We describe an attempt to clarify, in broad terms, how non–STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors differ from life sciences majors, and how they are similar. Using survey responses and institutional data, we find that non–STEM majors are not unilaterally science averse; non–STEM majors are more likely than biology majors to hold misconceptions about the nature of science, yet they are not completely ignorant of how science works; non–STEM majors are less likely than biology majors to see science as personally relevant; and non–STEM majors populations are likely to be more diverse—with respect to incoming knowledge, perceptions, backgrounds, and skills—than a biology majors population. We encourage science educators to consider these characteristics when designing curricula for future scientists or simply for a well-informed citizenry. PMID:28798210

Wellness health care and the architectural environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Verderber, S; Grice, S; Gutentag, P

1987-01-01

The stress management-wellness health care environment is emerging as a distinct facility type in the 1980s. Yet the idea is not a new one, with roots based in the Greek Asklepieon dating from 480 B.C. This and later Western transformations for health promotion embraced the therapeutic amenity inherent in meditation, solace and communality with nature based on the premise that the need for refuge from the stress inherent in one's daily life is deep-rooted in humans. A two-phase study is reported on wellness health care provider priorities, relative to the architectural features of stress-wellness centers. Representatives of 11 health care organizations responded to a telephone survey questionnaire, and 128 respondents completed a user needs questionnaire. Four major issues were addressed: image and appearance, location and setting, services provided and costs, and patterns of use. Convenience to one's place of work, a balanced mixture of clinical and nonclinical programs, a noninstitutional retreat-like environment, and membership cost structures were found to be major user considerations with respect to planning and design concepts for wellness health care environments. Directions for further research are discussed.

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon

2009-01-01

State of the Environment Report in the Slovak Republic in 2007 is the fifteenth report of its kind, published annually since the mentioned year of 1993. Its objective over the recent years has been to offer a summary on the actual state of the components of environment - air, water, soil, rocks, biota, as well as to assess the existing situation in the protection of nature and landscape, and describe which factors and in what way impact the environment. The document, at the same time, supplies new information on specific steps in the area of environmental protection - be it environmental impact assessment, integrated prevention and control of pollution, prevention of major industrial accidents, as well as funding environmental solutions through selected economic instruments, EU-funded projects, and projects implemented through international cooperation from other sources, especially the Environmental fund. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental pressures; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regionalization; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Abbreviations and texts to figures.

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klinda, J.; Lieskovska, Z.

2008-01-01

State of the Environment Report in the Slovak Republic in 2007 is the fifteenth report of its kind, published annually since the mentioned year of 1993. Its objective over the recent years has been to offer a summary on the actual state of the components of environment - air, water, soil, rocks, biota, as well as to assess the existing situation in the protection of nature and landscape, and describe which factors and in what way impact the environment. The document, at the same time, supplies new information on specific steps in the area of environmental protection - be it environmental impact assessment, integrated prevention and control of pollution, prevention of major industrial accidents, as well as funding environmental solutions through selected economic instruments, EU-funded projects, and projects implemented through international cooperation from other sources, especially the Environmental fund. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental problems; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regional classification of Slovakia; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; Science, research and environmental culture; International co-operation; Abbreviations and texts to figures.

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PC USER

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension. Volume 12 ... proper financial analysis of beneficiaries' enterprises with the view to effectively ascertaining the quantum of ..... Quantitative Analysis of the Major ...

The Microbiology of Perchlorate in the Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Coates, J. D.

2007-12-01

In the last decade perchlorate has been identified as an important groundwater component that poses potential health threat. Although primarily sourced anthropogenically, many recent studies have identified significant natural pools throughout the US and the natural mechanisms of its synthesis remain a mystery. As such, the true perchlorate concentrations naturally present in the environment are still unknown making its regulation problematic. Because of its solubility and non-reactivity the fate and transport of perchlorate in the environment is primarily a function of microbial activity. In the last seven years more than forty specialized perchlorate respiring organisms have been identified and characterized. These dissimilatory perchlorate reducing bacteria (DPRB) are metabolically diverse and environmental populations tend to be dominated by two primary genotypes, the Dechloromonas and the Azospira species. As such, the majority of our understanding of this metabolism is based on these organisms. These organisms are readily found in soil and sedimentary environments and often associate with the rhizosphere. Recent research has demonstrated an accumulation of these organisms along plant roots suggesting their catabolism of root exudates and molecular studies has demonstrated their existence as endophytic infections of the stem and leaves of actively growing Brachypodium grass plants although their exact role under these conditions is unknown. These microorganisms are generally not nutritionally fastidious and vitamin supplementation is unnecessary for growth although molybdenum is a required trace element for perchlorate reduction. The Dechloromonas and Azospira species generally grow optimally at pH values near neutrality in freshwater environments. Even so, recent field studies have shown that related deep-branching members of these genera often predominate in sites of adverse pH or salinity with some species being capable of growth and perchlorate respiration

Resolving the infection process reveals striking differences in the contribution of environment, genetics and phylogeny to host-parasite interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Duneau, David; Luijckx, Pepijn; Ben-Ami, Frida; Laforsch, Christian; Ebert, Dieter

2011-02-22

Infection processes consist of a sequence of steps, each critical for the interaction between host and parasite. Studies of host-parasite interactions rarely take into account the fact that different steps might be influenced by different factors and might, therefore, make different contributions to shaping coevolution. We designed a new method using the Daphnia magna - Pasteuria ramosa system, one of the rare examples where coevolution has been documented, in order to resolve the steps of the infection and analyse the factors that influence each of them. Using the transparent Daphnia hosts and fluorescently-labelled spores of the bacterium P. ramosa, we identified a sequence of infection steps: encounter between parasite and host; activation of parasite dormant spores; attachment of spores to the host; and parasite proliferation inside the host. The chances of encounter had been shown to depend on host genotype and environment. We tested the role of genetic and environmental factors in the newly described activation and attachment steps. Hosts of different genotypes, gender and species were all able to activate endospores of all parasite clones tested in different environments; suggesting that the activation cue is phylogenetically conserved. We next established that parasite attachment occurs onto the host oesophagus independently of host species, gender and environmental conditions. In contrast to spore activation, attachment depended strongly on the combination of host and parasite genotypes. Our results show that different steps are influenced by different factors. Host-type-independent spore activation suggests that this step can be ruled out as a major factor in Daphnia-Pasteuria coevolution. On the other hand, we show that the attachment step is crucial for the pronounced genetic specificities of this system. We suggest that this one step can explain host population structure and could be a key force behind coevolutionary cycles. We discuss how different

Resolving the infection process reveals striking differences in the contribution of environment, genetics and phylogeny to host-parasite interactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laforsch Christian

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Infection processes consist of a sequence of steps, each critical for the interaction between host and parasite. Studies of host-parasite interactions rarely take into account the fact that different steps might be influenced by different factors and might, therefore, make different contributions to shaping coevolution. We designed a new method using the Daphnia magna - Pasteuria ramosa system, one of the rare examples where coevolution has been documented, in order to resolve the steps of the infection and analyse the factors that influence each of them. Results Using the transparent Daphnia hosts and fluorescently-labelled spores of the bacterium P. ramosa, we identified a sequence of infection steps: encounter between parasite and host; activation of parasite dormant spores; attachment of spores to the host; and parasite proliferation inside the host. The chances of encounter had been shown to depend on host genotype and environment. We tested the role of genetic and environmental factors in the newly described activation and attachment steps. Hosts of different genotypes, gender and species were all able to activate endospores of all parasite clones tested in different environments; suggesting that the activation cue is phylogenetically conserved. We next established that parasite attachment occurs onto the host oesophagus independently of host species, gender and environmental conditions. In contrast to spore activation, attachment depended strongly on the combination of host and parasite genotypes. Conclusions Our results show that different steps are influenced by different factors. Host-type-independent spore activation suggests that this step can be ruled out as a major factor in Daphnia-Pasteuria coevolution. On the other hand, we show that the attachment step is crucial for the pronounced genetic specificities of this system. We suggest that this one step can explain host population structure and could be a key

Major Approaches to Medical Diagnosis and their Drawbacks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabina MUNTEANU

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The ability to reason within a dynamical environment is of a crucial importance in Artificial Intelligence. Medical diagnosis is a dynamic and very complex field which needs special attention Our quest is for a system for medical diagnosis, that could model its search space efficiently and dynamically, while confronted with sequential tests. We present below some of the major approaches from literature, with their drawbacks, and conclude that a combinative hybridization of a certain type would be useful to overcome the failures.

Sensorimotor Interference When Reasoning About Described Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Avraamides, Marios N.; Kyranidou, Melina-Nicole

The influence of sensorimotor interference was examined in two experiments that compared pointing with iconic arrows and verbal responding in a task that entailed locating target-objects from imagined perspectives. Participants studied text narratives describing objects at locations around them in a remote environment and then responded to targets from memory. Results revealed only minor differences between the two response modes suggesting that bodily cues do not exert severe detrimental interference on spatial reasoning from imagined perspective when non-immediate described environments are used. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Air ion concentrations in various urban outdoor environments

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, Xuan; Jayaratne, Rohan; Morawska, Lidia

2010-06-01

Atmospheric ions are produced by many natural and anthropogenic sources and their concentrations vary widely between different environments. There is very little information on their concentrations in different types of urban environments, how they compare across these environments and their dominant sources. In this study, we measured airborne concentrations of small ions, particles and net particle charge at 32 different outdoor sites in and around a major city in Australia and identified the main ion sources. Sites were classified into seven groups as follows: park, woodland, city centre, residential, freeway, power lines and power substation. Generally, parks were situated away from ion sources and represented the urban background value of about 270 ions cm -3. Median concentrations at all other groups were significantly higher than in the parks. We show that motor vehicles and power transmission systems are two major ion sources in urban areas. Power lines and substations constituted strong unipolar sources, while motor vehicle exhaust constituted strong bipolar sources. The small ion concentration in urban residential areas was about 960 cm -3. At sites where ion sources were co-located with particle sources, ion concentrations were inhibited due to the ion-particle attachment process. These results improved our understanding on air ion distribution and its interaction with particles in the urban outdoor environment.

Comparison of views of the nature of science between natural science and nonscience majors.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Marie C Desaulniers; Montplaisir, Lisa M; Offerdahl, Erika G; Cheng, Fu-Chih; Ketterling, Gerald L

2010-01-01

Science educators have the common goal of helping students develop scientific literacy, including understanding of the nature of science (NOS). University faculties are challenged with the need to develop informed NOS views in several major student subpopulations, including science majors and nonscience majors. Research into NOS views of undergraduates, particularly science majors, has been limited. In this study, NOS views of undergraduates in introductory environmental science and upper-level animal behavior courses were measured using Likert items and open-ended prompts. Analysis revealed similarities in students' views between the two courses; both populations held a mix of naïve, transitional, and moderately informed views. Comparison of pre- and postcourse mean scores revealed significant changes in NOS views only in select aspects of NOS. Student scores on sections addressing six aspects of NOS were significantly different in most cases, showing notably uninformed views of the distinctions between scientific theories and laws. Evidence-based insight into student NOS views can aid in reforming undergraduate science courses and will add to faculty and researcher understanding of the impressions of science held by undergraduates, helping educators improve scientific literacy in future scientists and diverse college graduates.

Administrative Effectiveness in a Political Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Isherwood, G. B.; And Others

Of 35 prominent Chief Executive Officers (CEO's) from 10 Canadian provinces participating in this study, 31 were interviewed by telephone and 4 in writing. The vast majority of CEO's (82 percent) agreed that they work in an increasingly political environment. Many CEO's perform a "screening function" between community groups and the…

Ecological environment changes in Daya Bay, China, from 1982 to 2004

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang Youshao [Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Environmental Dynamics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301 (China)], E-mail: yswang@scsio.ac.cn; Lou Zhiping; Sun Cuici [Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Environmental Dynamics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301 (China); Sun Song [Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071 (China)

2008-11-15

Data collected from 12 marine monitoring stations in Daya Bay from 1982 to 2004 reveal a substantial change in the ecological environment of this region. The average N/P ratio increased from 1.377 in 1985 to 49.09 in 2004. Algal species changed from 159 species of 46 genera in 1982 to 126 species of 44 genera in 2004. Major zooplankton species went from 46 species in 1983 to 36 species in 2004. The annual mean biomass of benthic animals was recorded at 123.10 g m{sup -2} in 1982 and 126.68 g m{sup -2} in 2004. Mean biomass and species of benthic animals near nuclear power plants ranged from 317.9 g m{sup -2} in 1991 to 45.24 g m{sup -2} in 2004 and from 250 species in 1991 to 177 species in 2004. A total of 12-19 species of hermatypic corals and 13 species of mangrove plants were observed in Daya Bay from 1984 to 2002.

Ecological environment changes in Daya Bay, China, from 1982 to 2004

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Youshao; Lou Zhiping; Sun Cuici; Sun Song

2008-01-01

Data collected from 12 marine monitoring stations in Daya Bay from 1982 to 2004 reveal a substantial change in the ecological environment of this region. The average N/P ratio increased from 1.377 in 1985 to 49.09 in 2004. Algal species changed from 159 species of 46 genera in 1982 to 126 species of 44 genera in 2004. Major zooplankton species went from 46 species in 1983 to 36 species in 2004. The annual mean biomass of benthic animals was recorded at 123.10 g m -2 in 1982 and 126.68 g m -2 in 2004. Mean biomass and species of benthic animals near nuclear power plants ranged from 317.9 g m -2 in 1991 to 45.24 g m -2 in 2004 and from 250 species in 1991 to 177 species in 2004. A total of 12-19 species of hermatypic corals and 13 species of mangrove plants were observed in Daya Bay from 1984 to 2002

Ecological environment changes in Daya Bay, China, from 1982 to 2004.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, You-Shao; Lou, Zhi-Ping; Sun, Cui-Ci; Sun, Song

2008-11-01

Data collected from 12 marine monitoring stations in Daya Bay from 1982 to 2004 reveal a substantial change in the ecological environment of this region. The average N/P ratio increased from 1.377 in 1985 to 49.09 in 2004. Algal species changed from 159 species of 46 genera in 1982 to 126 species of 44 genera in 2004. Major zooplankton species went from 46 species in 1983 to 36 species in 2004. The annual mean biomass of benthic animals was recorded at 123.10 g m(-2) in 1982 and 126.68 g m(-2) in 2004. Mean biomass and species of benthic animals near nuclear power plants ranged from 317.9 g m(-2) in 1991 to 45.24 g m(-2) in 2004 and from 250 species in 1991 to 177 species in 2004. A total of 12-19 species of hermatypic corals and 13 species of mangrove plants were observed in Daya Bay from 1984 to 2002.

Convergent evidence for widespread rock nitrogen sources in Earth's surface environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Houlton, B Z; Morford, S L; Dahlgren, R A

2018-04-06

Nitrogen availability is a pivotal control on terrestrial carbon sequestration and global climate change. Historical and contemporary views assume that nitrogen enters Earth's land-surface ecosystems from the atmosphere. Here we demonstrate that bedrock is a nitrogen source that rivals atmospheric nitrogen inputs across major sectors of the global terrestrial environment. Evidence drawn from the planet's nitrogen balance, geochemical proxies, and our spatial weathering model reveal that ~19 to 31 teragrams of nitrogen are mobilized from near-surface rocks annually. About 11 to 18 teragrams of this nitrogen are chemically weathered in situ, thereby increasing the unmanaged (preindustrial) terrestrial nitrogen balance from 8 to 26%. These findings provide a global perspective to reconcile Earth's nitrogen budget, with implications for nutrient-driven controls over the terrestrial carbon sink. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Classroom Environment as Related to Contest Ratings among High School Performing Ensembles.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamann, Donald L.; And Others

1990-01-01

Examines influence of classroom environments, measured by the Classroom Environment Scale, Form R (CESR), on vocal and instrumental ensembles' musical achievement at festival contests. Using random sample, reveals subjects with higher scores on CESR scales of involvement, affiliation, teacher support, and organization received better contest…

Environment and initial state engineered dynamics of quantum and classical correlations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Cheng-Zhi, E-mail: czczwang@outlook.com; Li, Chun-Xian; Guo, Yu; Lu, Geng-Biao; Ding, Kai-He

2016-11-15

Based on an open exactly solvable system coupled to an environment with nontrivial spectral density, we connect the features of quantum and classical correlations with some features of the environment, initial states of the system, and the presence of initial system–environment correlations. Some interesting features not revealed before are observed by changing the structure of environment, the initial states of system, and the presence of initial system–environment correlations. The main results are as follows. (1) Quantum correlations exhibit temporary freezing and permanent freezing even at high temperature of the environment, for which the necessary and sufficient conditions are given by three propositions. (2) Quantum correlations display a transition from temporary freezing to permanent freezing by changing the structure of environment. (3) Quantum correlations can be enhanced all the time, for which the condition is put forward. (4) The one-to-one dependency relationship between all kinds of dynamic behaviors of quantum correlations and the initial states of the system as well as environment structure is established. (5) In the presence of initial system–environment correlations, quantum correlations under local environment exhibit temporary multi-freezing phenomenon. While under global environment they oscillate, revive, and damp, an explanation for which is given. - Highlights: • Various interesting behaviors of quantum and classical correlations are observed in an open exactly solvable model. • The important effects of the bath structure on quantum and classical correlations are revealed. • The one-to-one correspondence between the type of dynamical behavior of quantum discord and the initial state is given. • Quantum correlations are given in the presence of initial qubits–bath correlations.

Environment and initial state engineered dynamics of quantum and classical correlations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Cheng-Zhi; Li, Chun-Xian; Guo, Yu; Lu, Geng-Biao; Ding, Kai-He

2016-01-01

Based on an open exactly solvable system coupled to an environment with nontrivial spectral density, we connect the features of quantum and classical correlations with some features of the environment, initial states of the system, and the presence of initial system–environment correlations. Some interesting features not revealed before are observed by changing the structure of environment, the initial states of system, and the presence of initial system–environment correlations. The main results are as follows. (1) Quantum correlations exhibit temporary freezing and permanent freezing even at high temperature of the environment, for which the necessary and sufficient conditions are given by three propositions. (2) Quantum correlations display a transition from temporary freezing to permanent freezing by changing the structure of environment. (3) Quantum correlations can be enhanced all the time, for which the condition is put forward. (4) The one-to-one dependency relationship between all kinds of dynamic behaviors of quantum correlations and the initial states of the system as well as environment structure is established. (5) In the presence of initial system–environment correlations, quantum correlations under local environment exhibit temporary multi-freezing phenomenon. While under global environment they oscillate, revive, and damp, an explanation for which is given. - Highlights: • Various interesting behaviors of quantum and classical correlations are observed in an open exactly solvable model. • The important effects of the bath structure on quantum and classical correlations are revealed. • The one-to-one correspondence between the type of dynamical behavior of quantum discord and the initial state is given. • Quantum correlations are given in the presence of initial qubits–bath correlations.

Evaluation of major polluting accidents in China-Results and perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hou Yu; Zhang Tianzhu

2009-01-01

Lessons learnt from accidents are essential sources for updating state-of-the-art requirements in pollution accident prevention. To improve this input in the People's Republic of China in a systematic way, a database for collecting and evaluating major pollution accidents is being established. This is being done in co-operation with Chinese Society for Environment Sciences and other national Institutions. At the time of writing over 80 major events from 2002-2006 have been collected. In this paper, a summary evaluation on the major polluting events in China from 2002 to 2006 is presented and some basic lessons drawn shown. There is no a systematic pollution accident notification system currently in China. The results from root cause analysis underline the importance of emergency measures, maintenance, human factor issues and the role of safety organization. Chronic pollution, especially water pollution and air pollution should be paid the same attention as the sudden pollution. It is important to keep in mind that collecting information from major accidents represents a small percentage of the actual number of events taking place.

Identification of copy number variants defining genomic differences among major human groups.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lluís Armengol

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Understanding the genetic contribution to phenotype variation of human groups is necessary to elucidate differences in disease predisposition and response to pharmaceutical treatments in different human populations. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have investigated the genome-wide profile of structural variation on pooled samples from the three populations studied in the HapMap project by comparative genome hybridization (CGH in different array platforms. We have identified and experimentally validated 33 genomic loci that show significant copy number differences from one population to the other. Interestingly, we found an enrichment of genes related to environment adaptation (immune response, lipid metabolism and extracellular space within these regions and the study of expression data revealed that more than half of the copy number variants (CNVs translate into gene-expression differences among populations, suggesting that they could have functional consequences. In addition, the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs that are in linkage disequilibrium with the copy number alleles allowed us to detect evidences of population differentiation and recent selection at the nucleotide variation level. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our results provide a comprehensive view of relevant copy number changes that might play a role in phenotypic differences among major human populations, and generate a list of interesting candidates for future studies.

Applying Outdoor Environment to Develop Health, Comfort, and Energy Saving in the Office in Hot-Humid Climate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rong Chen

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A human life demand set to emerge in the future is the achievement of sustainability by maintaining a comfortable indoor environment without excessive reliance on energy-consuming air conditioners. The major research processes in this study are: (1 measuring indoor air quality and thermal comfort to evaluate the comfort of an indoor environment; (2 implementing questionnaire survey analysis to explore people’s environmental self-perceptions and conducting a meta-analysis of the measurement results for air quality and physical aspects; and (3 constructing an indoor monitoring and management system. The experimental and analysis results of this research reveal that most of the office occupants preferred a cooler environment with a lower temperature. Additionally, because the summers in Taiwan are humid and hot, the occupants of an indoor space tend to feel uncomfortable because of the high humidity and poor indoor air quality. Therefore, Variable Air Volume (VAV, two air intakes, and exhaust plant are installed to improve indoor environment. After improvement, a lower temperature (approximately 21.2–23.9°C indirectly reduces humidity, thereby making the occupants comfortable. Increasing air velocity to 0.1~0.15 m/s, the carbon dioxide concentrations decrease below the requirement of the WHO. Ninety-five percent of the workers corresponded to the standard comfort zone after this improvement.

Applying Outdoor Environment to Develop Health, Comfort, and Energy Saving in the Office in Hot-Humid Climate

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Rong; Sung, Wen-Pei; Chang, Hung-Chang; Chi, Yi-Rou

2013-01-01

A human life demand set to emerge in the future is the achievement of sustainability by maintaining a comfortable indoor environment without excessive reliance on energy-consuming air conditioners. The major research processes in this study are: (1) measuring indoor air quality and thermal comfort to evaluate the comfort of an indoor environment; (2) implementing questionnaire survey analysis to explore people's environmental self-perceptions and conducting a meta-analysis of the measurement results for air quality and physical aspects; and (3) constructing an indoor monitoring and management system. The experimental and analysis results of this research reveal that most of the office occupants preferred a cooler environment with a lower temperature. Additionally, because the summers in Taiwan are humid and hot, the occupants of an indoor space tend to feel uncomfortable because of the high humidity and poor indoor air quality. Therefore, Variable Air Volume (VAV), two air intakes, and exhaust plant are installed to improve indoor environment. After improvement, a lower temperature (approximately 21.2–23.9°C) indirectly reduces humidity, thereby making the occupants comfortable. Increasing air velocity to 0.1 ~ 0.15 m/s, the carbon dioxide concentrations decrease below the requirement of the WHO. Ninety-five percent of the workers corresponded to the standard comfort zone after this improvement. PMID:24311976

Compound-Specific Radiocarbon Dating Reveals the Age Distribution of Plant-Wax Biomarkers Exported to the Bengal Fan

Science.gov (United States)

Galy, V.; French, K. L.; Hein, C. J.; Haghipour, N.; Wacker, L.; Kudrass, H.; Eglinton, T. I.

2017-12-01

The stable isotope composition of leaf-wax compounds preserved in lacustrine and marine sediments has been widely used to reconstruct terrestrial paleo-environments. However, the timescales of plant-wax storage in continental reservoirs before riverine export are not well known, representing a key uncertainty in paleo-environment studies. We couple numerical models with bulk and leaf-wax fatty acid organic 13C and 14C signatures hosted in a high-deposition-rate sediment core from the Bengal shelf canyon in order to estimate storage timescales within the Ganges-Brahmaputra catchment area. The fatty acid 14C record reveals a muted nuclear weapons bomb spike, requiring that the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system exports a mixture of young and old (pre-aged) leaf-wax compounds. According to numerical simulations, 79-83% of the leaf-wax fatty acids in this core are sourced from continental reservoirs that store organic carbon on an average of 1000-1200 calendar years, while the remainder has an average age of 15 years. These results demonstrate that a majority of the leaf-wax compounds produced in the Ganges-Brahmaputra river basin was stored in soils, floodplains, and wetlands prior to its export to the Bengal Fan. We will discuss the implications of these findings for plant-wax based paleoenvironmental records.

Personality predicts spatial responses to food manipulations in free-ranging great tits (Parus major)

OpenAIRE

van Overveld, Thijs; Matthysen, Erik

2009-01-01

Personality differences measured under standardized lab-conditions are assumed to reflect differences in the way individuals cope with spatio-temporal changes in their natural environment, but few studies have examined how these are expressed in the field. We tested whether exploratory behaviour in a novel environment predicts how free-living individual great tits (Parus major) react to a change in food supply. We temporarily removed food at feeding stations during two summers and recorded th...

Fatigue management considering LWR coolant environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Heung Bae; Jin, Tae eun

2000-01-01

Design fatigue curve for structural material in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code do not explicitly address the effects of reactor coolant environments on fatigue life. Environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) of low-alloy steels in light water reactor (LWR) coolant environments has been a concern ever since the early 1970's. And, recent fatigue test data indicate a significant decrease in fatigue lives of carbon steels, low-alloy steels and austenitic stainless steels in LWR coolant environments. For these reasons, fatigue of major components has been identified as a technical issue remaining to be resolved for life management and license renewal of nuclear power plants. In the present paper, results of recent investigations by many organizations are reviewed to provide technical justification to support the development of utility approach regarding the management of fatigue considering LWR coolant environments for the purpose of life management and license renewal of nuclear power plants. (author)

Participation and Collaboration in New Information Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jørgen Lerche; Meyer, Kirsten

2004-01-01

in an International Environment , “Construction and Communication of Knowledge” and RUC-online . Because of trends in late modern society traditional ways of acquiring knowledge are no longer efficient. Instead students should collaboratively work on projects with a high degree of mo-tivation. Competencies like......In this paper we discuss the opportunities and possibilities the new information environment offers for collaboration and participation in learning processes. The findings are based on four major sources: “Scenarios in computer-mediated and net-based education” , CLIENT – Collaborative Learning...

Greening the built environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Maf; Whitelegg, John; Williams, Nick J.

1998-07-15

The built environment incorporates our homes, our workplaces and places of leisure. Under the influence of a complex web of social and economic processes, it is where many issues of human and environmental well-being come to a head - whether of space, mobility, energy consumption, pollution, health or security. All too often, concerns such as cost are put before the things we value for a fulfilling life, including peace and quiet and health and happiness. Getting the built environment right is fundamental to a sustainable society and requires an integrated approach. This important new book, published in association with the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF-UK), provides us with a firm understanding of the interrelationships of many of the issues and problems of the built environment and describes the holistic models of development, management and planning necessary for urban sustainability. It draws attention to the major challenges and policy implications and offers analysis, approaches and vision for moving towards sustainable towns and cities that in turn will facilitate sustainable lifestyles. (Author)

Toxicity of Metals to a Freshwater Ostracod: Stenocypris major

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Mohammad Shuhaimi-Othman

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Adults of freshwater ostracod Stenocypris major (Crustacea, Candonidae were exposed for a four-day period in laboratory conditions to a range of copper (Cu, cadmium (Cd, zinc (Zn, lead (Pb, nickel (Ni, iron (Fe, aluminium (Al, and manganese (Mn concentrations. Mortality was assessed, and median lethal times (LT50 and concentrations (LC50 were calculated. LT50 and LC50 increased with the decrease in mean exposure concentrations and times, respectively, for all metals. LC50s for 96 hours for Cu, Cd, Zn, Pb, Ni, Fe, Al, and Mn were 25.2, 13.1, 1189.8, 526.2, 19743.7, 278.9, 3101.9, and 510.2 μg/L, respectively. Metals bioconcentration in S. major increases with exposure to increasing concentrations, and Cd was the most toxic to S. major, followed by Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn, Al, and Ni (Cd>Cu>Fe>Mn>Pb>Zn>Al>Ni. Comparison of LC50 values for metals for this species with those for other freshwater crustacean reveals that S. major is equally or more sensitive to metals than most other tested crustacean.

Political communication in a high-choice media environment: a challenge for democracy?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Aelst, P.; Strömbäck, J.; Aalberg, T.; Esser, F.; de Vreese, C.; Matthes, J.; Hopmann, D.; Salgado, S.; Hubé, N.; Stępińska, A.; Papathanassopoulos, S.; Berganza, R.; Legnante, G.; Reinemann, C.; Sheafer, T.; Stanyer, J.

2017-01-01

During the last decennia media environments and political communication systems have changed fundamentally. These changes have major ramifications for the political information environments and the extent to which they aid people in becoming informed citizens. Against this background, the purpose of

Modeling the role of environment in addiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Caprioli, Daniele; Celentano, Michele; Paolone, Giovanna; Badiani, Aldo

2007-11-15

The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the main types of animal models used to investigate the modulatory role of environment on drug addiction. The environment can alter the responsiveness to addictive drugs in at least three major ways. First, adverse life experiences can make an individual more vulnerable to develop drug addiction or to relapse into drug seeking. Second, neutral environmental cues can acquire, through Pavlovian conditioning, the ability to trigger drug seeking even after long periods of abstinence. Third, the environment immediately surrounding drug taking can alter the behavioral, subjective, and rewarding effects of a given drug, thus influencing the propensity to use the same drug again. We have focused in particular on the results obtained using an animal model we have developed to study the latter type of drug-environment interaction.

Anatomy education environment measurement inventory: A valid tool to measure the anatomy learning environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Hadie, Siti Nurma Hanim; Hassan, Asma'; Ismail, Zul Izhar Mohd; Asari, Mohd Asnizam; Khan, Aaijaz Ahmed; Kasim, Fazlina; Yusof, Nurul Aiman Mohd; Manan Sulong, Husnaida Abdul; Tg Muda, Tg Fatimah Murniwati; Arifin, Wan Nor; Yusoff, Muhamad Saiful Bahri

2017-09-01

Students' perceptions of the education environment influence their learning. Ever since the major medical curriculum reform, anatomy education has undergone several changes in terms of its curriculum, teaching modalities, learning resources, and assessment methods. By measuring students' perceptions concerning anatomy education environment, valuable information can be obtained to facilitate improvements in teaching and learning. Hence, it is important to use a valid inventory that specifically measures attributes of the anatomy education environment. In this study, a new 11-factor, 132-items Anatomy Education Environment Measurement Inventory (AEEMI) was developed using Delphi technique and was validated in a Malaysian public medical school. The inventory was found to have satisfactory content evidence (scale-level content validity index [total] = 0.646); good response process evidence (scale-level face validity index [total] = 0.867); and acceptable to high internal consistency, with the Raykov composite reliability estimates of the six factors are in the range of 0.604-0.876. The best fit model of the AEEMI is achieved with six domains and 25 items (X 2  = 415.67, P education environment in Malaysia. A concerted collaboration should be initiated toward developing a valid universal tool that, using the methods outlined in this study, measures the anatomy education environment across different institutions and countries. Anat Sci Educ 10: 423-432. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

Data and methods in the environment-migration nexus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eklund, Lina; Romankiewicz, Clemens; Brandt, Martin Stefan

2016-01-01

The relationship between environment and migration has gained increased attention since the 1990s when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected climate change to become a major driver of human migration. Evaluations of this relationship include both quantitative and qualitative ass....... Several case studies base their results on data at very coarse resolutions that have undergone strong modifications and generalizations. We argue that scale-related shortcomings must be considered in all stages of environment-migration research....... assessments. This review article introduces the concept of scale to environment-migration research as an important methodological issue for the reliability of conclusions drawn. The review of case studies shows that scale issues are highly present in environment-migration research but rarely discussed...

Do Biology Majors Really Differ from Non-STEM Majors?

Science.gov (United States)

Cotner, Sehoya; Thompson, Seth; Wright, Robin

2017-01-01

Recent calls to action urge sweeping reform in science education, advocating for improved learning for all students-including those majoring in fields beyond the sciences. However, little work has been done to characterize the differences-if any exist-between students planning a career in science and those studying other disciplines. We describe an attempt to clarify, in broad terms, how non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors differ from life sciences majors, and how they are similar. Using survey responses and institutional data, we find that non-STEM majors are not unilaterally science averse; non-STEM majors are more likely than biology majors to hold misconceptions about the nature of science, yet they are not completely ignorant of how science works; non-STEM majors are less likely than biology majors to see science as personally relevant; and non-STEM majors populations are likely to be more diverse-with respect to incoming knowledge, perceptions, backgrounds, and skills-than a biology majors population. We encourage science educators to consider these characteristics when designing curricula for future scientists or simply for a well-informed citizenry. © 2017 S. Cotner et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2017 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Entanglement revive and information flow within the decoherent environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Jia-Dong; Wang, Dong; Ye, Liu

2016-08-10

In this paper, the dynamics of entanglement is investigated in the presence of a noisy environment. We reveal its revival behavior and probe the mechanisms of this behavior via an information-theoretic approach. By analyzing the correlation distribution and the information flow within the composite system including the qubit subsystem and a noisy environment, it has been found that the subsystem-environment coupling can induce the quasi-periodic entanglement revival. Furthermore, the dynamical relationship among tripartite correlations, bipartite entanglement and local state information is explored, which provides a new insight into the non-Markovian mechanisms during the evolution.

Fatty acid profiles of great tit ( Parus major) eggs differ between urban and rural habitats, but not between coniferous and deciduous forests

Science.gov (United States)

Toledo, Alejandra; Andersson, Martin N.; Wang, Hong-Lei; Salmón, Pablo; Watson, Hannah; Burdge, Graham C.; Isaksson, Caroline

2016-08-01

Early-life nutrition is an important determinant of both short- and long-term performance and fitness. The avian embryo develops within an enclosed package of nutrients, of which fatty acids (FA) are essential for many aspects of development. The FA composition of yolk depends on maternal nutrition and condition prior to egg formation, which may be affected by the external environment. To test if maternal environment affects yolk FA composition, we investigated whether the FA composition of great tit ( Parus major) egg yolks differed between urban and rural habitats, and between deciduous and coniferous habitats. The results reveal differences in FA composition between eggs laid in urban and rural habitats, but not between eggs from the coniferous and deciduous habitats. To a large extent, this difference likely reflects dietary differences associated with urban habitats rather than dominating vegetation type. Specifically, urban yolks contained lower proportions of both ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated FAs (PUFA), which are important for chick development. We also found a positive association between the proportion of saturated fatty acids and laying date, and a negative association between the proportion of ω-6 PUFA and clutch size. Given that urbanization is expanding rapidly, future studies should investigate whether factors such as anthropogenic food in the urban environment underlie these differences and whether they impair chick development.

Secretome analysis of Aspergillus fumigatus reveals Asp-hemolysin as a major secreted protein.

Science.gov (United States)

Wartenberg, Dirk; Lapp, Katrin; Jacobsen, Ilse D; Dahse, Hans-Martin; Kniemeyer, Olaf; Heinekamp, Thorsten; Brakhage, Axel A

2011-11-01

Surface-associated and secreted proteins represent primarily exposed components of Aspergillus fumigatus during host infection. Several secreted proteins are known to be involved in defense mechanisms or immune evasion, thus, probably contributing to pathogenicity. Furthermore, several secreted antigens were identified as possible biomarkers for the verification of diseases caused by Aspergillus species. Nevertheless, there is only limited knowledge about the composition of the secretome and about molecular functions of particular proteins. To identify secreted proteins potentially essential for virulence, the core secretome of A. fumigatus grown in minimal medium was determined. Two-dimensional gel electrophoretic separation and subsequent MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analyses resulted in the identification of 64 different proteins. Additionally, secretome analyses of A. fumigatus utilizing elastin, collagen or keratin as main carbon and nitrogen source were performed. Thereby, the alkaline serine protease Alp1 was identified as the most abundant protein and hence presumably represents an important protease during host infection. Interestingly, the Asp-hemolysin (Asp-HS), which belongs to the protein family of aegerolysins and which was often suggested to be involved in fungal virulence, was present in the secretome under all growth conditions tested. In addition, a second, non-secreted protein with an aegerolysin domain annotated as Asp-hemolysin-like (HS-like) protein can be found to be encoded in the genome of A. fumigatus. Generation and analysis of Asp-HS and HS-like deletion strains revealed no differences in phenotype compared to the corresponding wild-type strain. Furthermore, hemolysis and cytotoxicity was not altered in both single-deletion and double-deletion mutants lacking both aegerolysin genes. All mutant strains showed no attenuation in virulence in a mouse infection model for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive

The effects of higher-order questioning strategies on nonscience majors' achievement in an introductory environmental science course and their attitudes toward the environment

Science.gov (United States)

Eason, Grace Teresa

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effect a higher-order questioning strategy (Bloom, 1956) had on undergraduate non-science majors' attitudes toward the environment and their achievement in an introductory environmental science course, EDS 1032, "Survey of Science 2: Life Science," which was offered during the Spring 2000 term. Students from both treatment and control groups (N = 63), which were determined using intact classes, participated in eight cooperative group activities based on the Biological Sciences Curriculum Studies (BSCS) 5E model (Bybee, 1993). The treatment group received a higher-order questioning method combined with the BSCS 5E model. The control group received a lower-order questioning method, combined with the BSCS 5E model. Two instruments were used to measure students' attitude and achievement changes. The Ecology Issue Attitude (EIA) survey (Schindler, 1995) and a comprehensive environmental science final exam. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (KLSI, 1985) was used to measure students' learning style type. After a 15-week treatment period, results were analyzed using MANCOVA. The overall MANCOVA model used to test the statistical difference between the collective influences of the independent variables on the three dependent variables simultaneously was found to be not significant at alpha = .05. This differs from findings of previous studies in which higher-order questioning techniques had a significant effect on student achievement (King 1989 & 1992; Blosser, 1991; Redfield and Rousseau, 1981; Gall 1970). At the risk of inflated Type I and Type II error rates, separate univariate analyses were performed. However, none of the research factors, when examined collectively or separately, made any significant contribution to explaining the variability in EIA attitude, EIA achievement, and comprehensive environmental science final examination scores. Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence from student's self

Social and Nonsocial Home Environments of Infants with Nonorganic Failure-to-Thrive.

Science.gov (United States)

Casey, Patrick H.; And Others

1984-01-01

Comparison of 23 infants with nonorganic failure to thrive (NOFT) and 23 controls revealed that scores on the total Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Scale and subscales of maternal acceptance, organization of physical environment, and emotional responsivity were significantly less favorable for NOFT Ss. (Author/CL)

The Gender Differences: Hispanic Females and Males Majoring in Science or Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Susan Wightman

Documented by national statistics, female Hispanic students are not eagerly rushing to major in science or engineering. Using Seidman's in-depth interviewing method, 22 Hispanic students, 12 female and 10 male, majoring in science or engineering were interviewed. Besides the themes that emerged with all 22 Hispanic students, there were definite differences between the female and male Hispanic students: role and ethnic identity confusion, greater college preparation, mentoring needed, and the increased participation in enriched additional education programs by the female Hispanic students. Listening to these stories from successful female Hispanic students majoring in science and engineering, educators can make changes in our school learning environments that will encourage and enable more female Hispanic students to choose science or engineering careers.

The value of the pre-hospital learning environment as part of the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Results: Four major themes were identified: an unpredictable environment, role players in emergency medical services, team work, and competencies. Conclusion: The research findings support the value and continuation of utilising the prehospital clinical learning environment for placing post-basic emergency nursing ...

Iodine in the environment revisited

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Christiansen, J.V.; Carlsen, L.

1989-05-01

The report gives an overview of the environmental cycle of iodine, especially focusing on the possible reactions being responsible for the retention of iodine in the terrestrial environment. During the last two decades evidence for the presence of iodine in soil as organically bound has been presented. The major part of inorganic iodine in the terrestrial environment will, under physical and chemical conditions normally prevailing, exist as iodide. No evidence for a direct reaction between iodide and organic material has been presented, whereas strong support for the engagement of microbial activity in the formation of organic iodine compounds in soil has been obtained. Incorporation of iodine in humic substances as a result of enzymatic catalysis, involving an enzyme of the perozidase group apperas reasonable. It is concluded that microbiological activity involving extracellular enzymes most probably is responsible for the possible retention of iodine in the terrestrial environment. It is suggested that these reactions in detail should be studied experimentally. (author) 3 tabs., 2 ills., 51 refs

Residual life assessment of major LWR components: NPAR approach and results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, V.N.; Weidenhamer, G.H.; Vora, J.P.

1991-01-01

The nuclear plant aging research (NPAR) program is systematically addressing the technical issues associated with understanding and managing aging of major LWR components. Twenty-one major components have been identified and prioritized according to their relevance to plant safety. Qualitative aging assessment has identified pertinent design features, materials, stressors, environments, aging mechanisms. and failure modes for each of the components. Emerging inspection, surveillance, and monitoring methods to characterize aging damage and mitigation methods to reduce the damage are currently being assessed. The results of all these assessments are used to develop life-assessment procedures for the components and are included in appropriate documents supporting the regulatory requirements for license renewal. (author)

Conceptual apparatus of analysis of the national economy institutional environment

OpenAIRE

Ляховець, О. О.

2017-01-01

In the paper the sense of the notions «institutional environment», «institutional framework», «institutional structure» is revealed. The difference between these notions is determined. The structural elements of institutional environment classified by the theoretical approaches criterion are considered. The origins of approaches are: 1) the scientific direction of economic theory (institutional economics, neoinstitutionsl economic theory, evolutionary economic theory, political economy); 2) t...

Health sciences students’ perception of the educational environment of KLE University, India as measured with the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohan A. Sunkad

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to evaluate the educational environment of the health sciences programs of KLE University, Belgaum, Karnataka, India, to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and to suggest strategies to improve the educational environment to be on par with global standards. A cross-sectional study was conducted using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM questionnaire, filled out by 914 of the 1,004 students (91.0% who were majoring in medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, and public health. The data were analysed according to the DREEM guidelines. Responses were received from 914 students, of whom 34.03% were men and 65.9% were women. The majority (67.1% of students were 20-24 years of age. The mean overall DREEM score was 120.21±22.4 (maximum, 200 and approached the normal distribution (Lilliefors test, P<0.01. The DREEM scores of each group of students were as follows: dental, 125.0; medical, 122.4; public health, 121.0; physiotherapy, 117.0; and nursing, 116.3. Male students had more positive perceptions than female students (P<0.05, and postgraduate students had more positive perceptions than undergraduate students (P<0.05. The overall DREEM score (120.21 indicates that the educational environment was found to be more positive than negative.

Microbial diversity in a permanently cold and alkaline environment in Greenland.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikkel A Glaring

Full Text Available The submarine ikaite columns located in the Ikka Fjord in Southern Greenland represent a unique, permanently cold (less than 6°C and alkaline (above pH 10 environment and are home to a microbial community adapted to these extreme conditions. The bacterial and archaeal community inhabiting the ikaite columns and surrounding fjord was characterised by high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Analysis of the ikaite community structure revealed the presence of a diverse bacterial community, both in the column interior and at the surface, and very few archaea. A clear difference in overall taxonomic composition was observed between column interior and surface. Whereas the surface, and in particular newly formed ikaite material, was primarily dominated by Cyanobacteria and phototrophic Proteobacteria, the column interior was dominated by Proteobacteria and putative anaerobic representatives of the Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. The results suggest a stratification of the ikaite columns similar to that of classical soda lakes, with a light-exposed surface inhabited by primary producers and an anoxic subsurface. This was further supported by identification of major taxonomic groups with close relatives in soda lake environments, including members of the genera Rhodobaca, Dethiobacter, Thioalkalivibrio and Tindallia, as well as very abundant groups related to uncharacterised environmental sequences originally isolated from Mono Lake in California.

Spontaneous neutrophil migration patterns during sepsis after major burns.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Caroline N; Moore, Molly; Dimisko, Laurie; Alexander, Andrew; Ibrahim, Amir; Hassell, Bryan A; Warren, H Shaw; Tompkins, Ronald G; Fagan, Shawn P; Irimia, Daniel

2014-01-01

Finely tuned to respond quickly to infections, neutrophils have amazing abilities to migrate fast and efficiently towards sites of infection and inflammation. Although neutrophils ability to migrate is perturbed in patients after major burns, no correlations have yet been demonstrated between altered migration and higher rate of infections and sepsis in these patients when compared to healthy individuals. To probe if such correlations exist, we designed microfluidic devices to quantify the neutrophil migration phenotype with high precision. Inside these devices, moving neutrophils are confined in channels smaller than the neutrophils and forced to make directional decisions at bifurcations and around posts. We employed these devices to quantify neutrophil migration across 18 independent parameters in 74 blood samples from 13 patients with major burns and 3 healthy subjects. Blinded, retrospective analysis of clinical data and neutrophil migration parameters revealed that neutrophils isolated from blood samples collected during sepsis migrate spontaneously inside the microfluidic channels. The spontaneous neutrophil migration is a unique phenotype, typical for patients with major burns during sepsis and often observed one or two days before the diagnosis of sepsis is confirmed. The spontaneous neutrophil migration phenotype is rare in patients with major burns in the absence of sepsis, and is not encountered in healthy individuals. Our findings warrant further studies of neutrophils and their utility for early diagnosing and monitoring sepsis in patients after major burns.

Collaborative Management of Complex Major Construction Projects: AnyLogic-Based Simulation Modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Na Zhao

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Complex supply chain system collaborative management of major construction projects effectively integrates the different participants in the construction project. This paper establishes a simulation model based on AnyLogic to reveal the collaborative elements in the complex supply chain management system and the modes of action as well as the transmission problems of the intent information. Thus it is promoting the participants to become an organism with coordinated development and coevolution. This study can help improve the efficiency and management of the complex system of major construction projects.

Teamwork in high-risk environments analogous to space

Science.gov (United States)

Kanki, Barbara G.

1990-01-01

Mountaineering expeditions combine a number of factors which make them potentially good analogs to the planetary exploration facet of long-duration space missions. A study of mountain climbing teams was conducted in order to evaluate the usefulness of the environment as a space analog and to specifically identify the factors and issues surrounding teamwork and 'successful' team performance in two mountaineering environments. This paper focuses on social/organizational factors, including team size and structure, leadership styles and authority structure which were found in the sample of 22 climb teams (122 individuals). The second major issue discussed is the construction of a valid performance measure in this high-risk environment.

Surface heat loads during major disruptions in INTOR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mioduszewski, P.

1981-01-01

The thermal energy contained in the INTOR plasma is assumed to be about 200 MJ. In a major plasma disruption this energy is dumped into parts of the first wall in a time short compared to the energy confinement time. To estimate the surface heat load due to this energy dump, two major parameters are not sufficiently well known at present: the disruption time and the affected first wall surface area. To get a certain idea of the heat loads to be expected, we have employed the model of conserved flux tubes which are successively scraped-off at the first wall. The results reveal that even for a homogeneous deposition in the toroidal direction the heat load is too high for some parts of the first wall. Since, however, the presumptions are very uncertain to date, experiments will have to be set up to study the energy deposition during disruptions. (author)

Species-Dependent Effects of the Urban Environment on Fatty Acid Composition and Oxidative Stress in Birds

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Caroline Isaksson

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Ecological impacts of urbanization include the loss of biodiversity and changes in species composition and population densities. However, how the urban environment affects fundamental physiological parameters is largely unknown. Here, we investigated physiological components related to health and nutrition, namely, plasma fatty acids (FA and lipid peroxidation at inter-habitat and interspecific levels. Specifically, we compared four passerine bird species—the great tit (Parus major, the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus, and the tree sparrow (P. montanus—from urban and rural environments. Significant interactions between species and habitat were revealed for the majority of the FAs. Interestingly, the observed inter-habitat variation in FAs was frequently in opposite directions when comparing species from the two families (tits, Paridae; sparrows, Passeridae. These patterns suggest that sparrows and tits feed on different food sources, or modulate their FA metabolism differently, across the urban-rural gradient. By using canonical discriminant analyses (CDA, we further demonstrated species-specific signals in FA composition, with misclassification of species being <1% within habitats and <7% between habitats. Finally, the urban-rural FA differences between species and families were manifested in two indices of health. Firstly, urban blue tits had a higher total ω-6/ω-3 polyunsaturated FA ratio than rural conspecifics, which is believed to increase inflammatory responses. Secondly, urban sparrows of both species showed higher lipid peroxidation indices (indicating a higher susceptibility to lipid peroxidation if exposed to pro-oxidants, and consequently, a higher level of lipid peroxidation compared to their rural conspecifics. Collectively, the species- and habitat-specific differences in plasma FA composition, which are linked to nutrition and metabolism, suggest that the urban environment affect tits and

QTLs for heading date and plant height under multiple environments in rice.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Zhongmin; Hu, Wei; Tan, Cong; Xing, Yongzhong

2017-02-01

Both heading date and plant height are important traits related to grain yield in rice. In this study, a recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for both traits under 3 long-day (LD) environments and 1 short-day (SD) environment. A total of eight QTLs for heading date and three QTLs for plant height were detected by composite interval mapping under LD conditions. Additional one QTL for heading date and three QTLs for plant height were identified by Two-QTL model under LD conditions. Among them, major QTLs qHd7.1, qHd7.2 and qHd8 for heading date, and qPh1 and qPh7.1 for plant height were commonly detected. qHd7.1 and qHd7.2 were mapped to small regions of less than 1 cM. Genome position comparison of previously cloned genes with QTLs detected in this study revealed that qHd5 and qPh3.1 were two novel QTLs. The alleles of these QTLs increasing trait values were dispersed in both parents, which well explained the transgressive segregation observed in this population. In addition, the interaction between qHd7.1 and qHd8 was detected under all LD conditions. Multiple-QTL model analysis revealed that all QTLs and their interactions explained over 80% of heading date variation and 50% of plant height variation. Two heading date QTLs were detected under SD condition. Of them, qHd10 were commonly identified under LD condition. The difference in QTL detection between LD and SD conditions indicated most heading date QTLs are sensitive to photoperiod. These findings will benefit breeding design for heading date and plant height in rice.

Evolutionary engineering reveals divergent paths when yeast is adapted to different acidic environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fletcher, Eugene; Feizi, Amir; Bisschops, Markus M. M.

2017-01-01

Tolerance of yeast to acid stress is important for many industrial processes including organic acid production. Therefore, elucidating the molecular basis of long term adaptation to acidic environments will be beneficial for engineering production strains to thrive under such harsh conditions....... Previous studies using gene expression analysis have suggested that both organic and inorganic acids display similar responses during short term exposure to acidic conditions. However, biological mechanisms that will lead to long term adaptation of yeast to acidic conditions remains unknown and whether...... factor in the evolutionary process since cells evolved on two different carbon sources (raffinose and glucose) generated a different set of mutations in response to the presence of lactic acid. Therefore, different strategies are required for a rational design of low pH tolerant strains depending...

Fetal environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kinare, Arun

2008-01-01

The intrauterine environment has a strong influence on pregnancy outcome. The placenta and the umbilical cord together form the main supply line of the fetus. Amniotic fluid also serves important functions. These three main components decide whether there will be an uneventful pregnancy and the successful birth of a healthy baby. An insult to the intrauterine environment has an impact on the programming of the fetus, which can become evident in later life, mainly in the form of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and certain learning disabilities. The past two decades have witnessed major contributions from researchers in this field, who have included ultrasonologists, epidemiologists, neonatologists, and pediatricians. Besides being responsible for these delayed postnatal effects, abnormalities of the placenta, umbilical cord, and amniotic fluid also have associations with structural and chromosomal disorders. Population and race also influence pregnancy outcomes to some extent in certain situations. USG is the most sensitive imaging tool currently available for evaluation of these factors and can offer considerable information in this area. This article aims at reviewing the USG-related developments in this area and the anatomy, physiology, and various pathologies of the placenta, umbilical cord, and the amniotic fluid

The Virtual Environment for Rapid Prototyping of the Intelligent Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Francillette, Yannick; Boucher, Eric; Bouzouane, Abdenour; Gaboury, Sébastien

2017-11-07

Advances in domains such as sensor networks and electronic and ambient intelligence have allowed us to create intelligent environments (IEs). However, research in IE is being held back by the fact that researchers face major difficulties, such as a lack of resources for their experiments. Indeed, they cannot easily build IEs to evaluate their approaches. This is mainly because of economic and logistical issues. In this paper, we propose a simulator to build virtual IEs. Simulators are a good alternative to physical IEs because they are inexpensive, and experiments can be conducted easily. Our simulator is open source and it provides users with a set of virtual sensors that simulates the behavior of real sensors. This simulator gives the user the capacity to build their own environment, providing a model to edit inhabitants' behavior and an interactive mode. In this mode, the user can directly act upon IE objects. This simulator gathers data generated by the interactions in order to produce datasets. These datasets can be used by scientists to evaluate several approaches in IEs.

CONSEQUENCES OF EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ON ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTIVATION IN IRAN

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Hassan Gholipour Fereidouni

2010-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine importance of business environment, social status of entrepreneurs, and country external conflicts as predictors of motivation to start a business in an environment, such as that in Iran, in which the economy is highly dependent on government initiatives. Data are collected from 106 MBA students through questionnaires. Respondents are questioned regarding the perceived importance of the business environment, socio-cultural factors (social status, and country external conflicts. The results show that the importance of business environment and country external conflicts contribute considerably to the level of entrepreneurial motivation. Further, the results reveal that social status is not a critical factor in determining the level of motivation to start a business. In particular, business environment is the most important factor in predicting entrepreneurial motivation. The results contribute to the growing body of literature in entrepreneurship and provide some implications for Iranian policy makers to create favourable external environment for potential entrepreneurs.

Microbial rRNA sequencing analysis of evaporative cooler indoor environments located in the Great Basin Desert region of the United States†

Science.gov (United States)

Lemons, Angela R.; Hogan, Mary Beth; Gault, Ruth A.; Holland, Kathleen; Sobek, Edward; Olsen-Wilson, Kimberly A.; Park, Yeonmi; Park, Ju-Hyeong; Gu, Ja Kook; Kashon, Michael L.; Green, Brett J.

2017-01-01

Recent studies conducted in the Great Basin Desert region of the United States have shown that skin test reactivity to fungal and dust mite allergens are increased in children with asthma or allergy living in homes with evaporative coolers (EC). The objective of this study was to determine if the increased humidity previously reported in EC homes leads to varying microbial populations compared to homes with air conditioners (AC). Children with physician-diagnosed allergic rhinitis living in EC or AC environments were recruited into the study. Air samples were collected from the child's bedroom for genomic DNA extraction and metagenomic analysis of bacteria and fungi using the Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform. The analysis of bacterial populations revealed no major differences between EC and AC sampling environments. The fungal populations observed in EC homes differed from AC homes. The most prevalent species discovered in AC environments belonged to the genera Cryptococcus (20%) and Aspergillus (20%). In contrast, the most common fungi identified in EC homes belonged to the order Pleosporales and included Alternaria alternata (32%) and Phoma spp. (22%). The variations in fungal populations provide preliminary evidence of the microbial burden children may be exposed to within EC environments in this region. PMID:28091681

Distributed energy resources and benefits to the environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Akorede, Mudathir Funsho; Hizam, Hashim; Pouresmaeil, Edris

2010-01-01

generation in 2030 would be produced from fossil fuels. This global dependence on fossil fuels is dangerous to our environment in terms of their emissions unless specific policies and measures are put in place. Nevertheless, recent research reveals that a reduction in the emissions of these gases is possible...... on fossil fuels to our environment. The study finally justifies how DG technologies could substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions when fully adopted; hence, reducing the public concerns over human health risks caused by the conventional method of electricity generation....

A Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Genes Associated with Fusarium Ear Rot Resistance in a Maize Core Diversity Panel

Science.gov (United States)

Zila, Charles T.; Samayoa, L. Fernando; Santiago, Rogelio; Butrón, Ana; Holland, James B.

2013-01-01

Fusarium ear rot is a common disease of maize that affects food and feed quality globally. Resistance to the disease is highly quantitative, and maize breeders have difficulty incorporating polygenic resistance alleles from unadapted donor sources into elite breeding populations without having a negative impact on agronomic performance. Identification of specific allele variants contributing to improved resistance may be useful to breeders by allowing selection of resistance alleles in coupling phase linkage with favorable agronomic characteristics. We report the results of a genome-wide association study to detect allele variants associated with increased resistance to Fusarium ear rot in a maize core diversity panel of 267 inbred lines evaluated in two sets of environments. We performed association tests with 47,445 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) while controlling for background genomic relationships with a mixed model and identified three marker loci significantly associated with disease resistance in at least one subset of environments. Each associated SNP locus had relatively small additive effects on disease resistance (±1.1% on a 0–100% scale), but nevertheless were associated with 3 to 12% of the genotypic variation within or across environment subsets. Two of three identified SNPs colocalized with genes that have been implicated with programmed cell death. An analysis of associated allele frequencies within the major maize subpopulations revealed enrichment for resistance alleles in the tropical/subtropical and popcorn subpopulations compared with other temperate breeding pools. PMID:24048647

Assessing associations between socio-economic environment and self-reported health in Amsterdam using bespoke environments.

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Eleonore M Veldhuizen

Full Text Available The study of the relationship between residential environment and health at micro area level has a long time been hampered by a lack of micro-scale data. Nowadays data is registered at a much more detailed scale. In combination with Geographic Information System (GIS-techniques this creates opportunities to look at the relationship at different scales, including very local ones. The study illustrates the use of a 'bespoke environment' approach to assess the relationship between health and socio-economic environment.We created these environments by buffer-operations and used micro-scale data on 6-digit postcode level to describe these individually tailored areas around survey respondents in an accurate way. To capture the full extent of area effects we maximized variation in socio-economic characteristics between areas. The area effect was assessed using logistic regression analysis.Although the contribution of the socio-economic environment in the explanation of health was not strong it tended to be stronger at a very local level. A positive association was observed only when these factors were measured in buffers smaller than 200 meters. Stronger associations were observed when restricting the analysis to socioeconomically homogeneous buffers. Scale effects proved to be highly important but potential boundary effects seemed not to play an important role. Administrative areas and buffers of comparable sizes came up with comparable area effects.This study shows that socio-economic area effects reveal only on a very micro-scale. It underlines the importance of the availability of micro-scale data. Through scaling, bespoke environments add a new dimension to study environment and health.

Revealing spatio-spectral electroencephalographic dynamics of musical mode and tempo perception by independent component analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Yuan-Pin; Duann, Jeng-Ren; Feng, Wenfeng; Chen, Jyh-Horng; Jung, Tzyy-Ping

2014-02-28

Music conveys emotion by manipulating musical structures, particularly musical mode- and tempo-impact. The neural correlates of musical mode and tempo perception revealed by electroencephalography (EEG) have not been adequately addressed in the literature. This study used independent component analysis (ICA) to systematically assess spatio-spectral EEG dynamics associated with the changes of musical mode and tempo. Empirical results showed that music with major mode augmented delta-band activity over the right sensorimotor cortex, suppressed theta activity over the superior parietal cortex, and moderately suppressed beta activity over the medial frontal cortex, compared to minor-mode music, whereas fast-tempo music engaged significant alpha suppression over the right sensorimotor cortex. The resultant EEG brain sources were comparable with previous studies obtained by other neuroimaging modalities, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). In conjunction with advanced dry and mobile EEG technology, the EEG results might facilitate the translation from laboratory-oriented research to real-life applications for music therapy, training and entertainment in naturalistic environments.

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Petroleum Exploration And Production Activities On The Social Environment In Ogoni Land Nigeria

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Ibama Brown

2015-04-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT The exploration and production of petroleum and its subsequent transportation and distribution in the Niger Delta have led to pollution of aquatic habitats with serious threats to associated flora and fauna. Consequently most studies have concentrated on the effects of crude oil and its products on aquatic flora and fauna with little emphasis on the socio-economic environment. Evaluation of the effects of petroleum exploration and production activities on the social environment in Ogoni land of Rivers State is the main focus of this study. Therefore in order to fill this gap there is the need to investigate the effects of crude oil spills on the socio-economic environment including the livelihoods of people. This is done by examining the impact of intensive resource exploitation on the social environment of the oil producing communities in Ogoni land which has further degraded the environment to the peril of the inhabitants. Also to examine how the Oil and Gas Multinational Companies have contributed to the management of the environment in these selected communities. The target population comprised 478 respondents across 4 major Oil fields of Ogoni land which is a 5 probability sample. The study employed two sampling techniques Multi-stage Sampling technique and simple random sampling technique. The study revealed that the hazards and effects associated with crude oil spill are enormous and conspicuous. It was also found out that there is no proper mechanism for the dissemination of information about the environmental hazards associated with spills on the environment. The study proffered recommendations appropriate workable Environmental Management Programme EMP which will help mitigate and enhance the environmental quality of the Ogoni land through baseline studies of the environment and carrying out full Environmental Impact Assessments EIAs to understand the ecology of coastal environment for sustainable development to be achieved.

The concept 'environment' in exergy analysis Some special cases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Serova, E.N.; Brodianski, V.M.

2004-01-01

The concept 'environment' is of considerable importance in present-day engineering thermodynamics. Introduction of this concept in operation brings not only simplification of the methods of solving classical thermodynamic problems, but also gives the exergy method which forms the major new part of thermodynamics, including some parts of biology, economics and other fields of science. But practice shows that it is necessary to define the concept 'environment' more precisely in some cases

How the Non-Work Environment Can Affect Worker and Family Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Rittle, Chad

2016-10-19

Occupational health nurses are familiar with environmental exposures workers encounter in their workplaces. However, employees are only "on-the-job" about one third of each workday, with a multitude of potential exposures in other environments that can affect their health. This article addresses some of the major exposures employees encounter outside the workplace-air, water, and soil pollution, and hazardous wastes-including a discussion of several well-known national and international environmental incidents. The major sources of these pollutants and how they contaminate the environment were investigated. Finally, risk assessment and communication along with effective strategies for educating employees and the community are presented. © 2016 The Author(s).

IT-support for healthcare professionals acting in major incidents

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristensen, Margit; Kyng, Morten; Nielsen, Esben Toftdahl

2005-01-01

This paper focuses on development of it support for healthcare professionals acting in major incidents. We introduce the participatory design approach as adequate for analysis, design and development of technologies for use in complex environments and situations, and describe the actual...... the BlueBio biomonitor prototype, a wireless multifunction biomonitor. BlueBio data can be accessed by the healthcare professionals independent of where they are located and displayed on different types of devices tailored to the needs of the individual professional. Finally we discuss some challenges...

Viruses in acidic geothermal environments of the Kamchatka Peninsula

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bize, Ariane; Peng, Xu; Prokofeva, Maria

2008-01-01

Screening for viruses in samples taken from acidic hot springs of Kamchatka (Russia) revealed a collection of morphotypes, including linear, spherical and complex fusiform shapes, which show partial similarity to those found in acidic geothermal environments in other geographical locations. One...

Characterization of Escherichia coli MG1655 grown in a low-shear modeled microgravity environment

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Pierson Duane L

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Extra-cellular shear force is an important environmental parameter that is significant both medically and in the space environment. Escherichia coli cells grown in a low-shear modeled microgravity (LSMMG environment produced in a high aspect rotating vessel (HARV were subjected to transcriptional and physiological analysis. Results Aerobic LSMMG cultures were grown in rich (LB and minimal (MOPS + glucose medium with a normal gravity vector HARV control. Reproducible changes in transcription were seen, but no specific LSMMG responsive genes were identified. Instead, absence of shear and a randomized gravity vector appears to cause local extra-cellular environmental changes, which elicit reproducible cellular responses. In minimal media, the majority of the significantly up- or down-regulated genes of known function were associated with the cell envelope. In rich medium, most LSMMG down-regulated genes were involved in translation. No observable changes in post-culture stress responses and antibiotic sensitivity were seen in cells immediately after exposure to LSMMG. Comparison with earlier studies of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium conducted under similar growth conditions, revealed essentially no similarity in the genes that were significantly up- or down-regulated. Conclusion Comparison of these results to previous studies suggests that different organisms may dramatically differ in their responses to medically significant low-shear and space environments. Depending on their specific response, some organisms, such as Salmonella, may become preadapted in a manner that predisposes them to increased virulence.

Marine environment news. Vol. 2, no. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-09-01

This issue of the Newsletter carries articles on Tracers to reveal Global Role of Southern Oceans in Climate Change, a Technical Cooperation project on contamination in Mediterranean Sea and an article Marine Environment Laboratory (MEL) and Harmful Algal Blooms: nuclear methods serving seafood toxicity management. News items on training, personnel and intercomparison exercise are also covered

Water Pollution Prediction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and Countermeasures for Sustainable Development of the Water Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yinghui; Huang, Shuaijin; Qu, Xuexin

2017-10-27

The Three Gorges Project was implemented in 1994 to promote sustainable water resource use and development of the water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (hereafter "Reservoir Area"). However, massive discharge of wastewater along the river threatens these goals; therefore, this study employs a grey prediction model (GM) to predict the annual emissions of primary pollution sources, including industrial wastewater, domestic wastewater, and oily and domestic wastewater from ships, that influence the Three Gorges Reservoir Area water environment. First, we optimize the initial values of a traditional GM (1,1) model, and build a new GM (1,1) model that minimizes the sum of squares of the relative simulation errors. Second, we use the new GM (1,1) model to simulate historical annual emissions data for the four pollution sources and thereby test the effectiveness of the model. Third, we predict the annual emissions of the four pollution sources in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area for a future period. The prediction results reveal the annual emission trends for the major wastewater types, and indicate the primary sources of water pollution in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. Based on our predictions, we suggest several countermeasures against water pollution and towards the sustainable development of the water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.

Talent Management for Creating a Performance Work Environment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article examines the extent to which talent management can contribute towards creating a performance work environment (PWE) that can enhance sustainable talent identifi cation and development in the public service. The literature analysis results reveal that talent management is essential in creating a PWE in the ...

No evidence for heritability of male mating latency or copulation duration across social environments in Drosophila melanogaster.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle L Taylor

Full Text Available A key assumption underpinning major models of sexual selection is the expectation that male sexual attractiveness is heritable. Surprisingly, however, empirical tests of this assumption are relatively scarce. Here we use a paternal full-sib/half-sib breeding design to examine genetic and environmental variation in male mating latency (a proxy for sexual attractiveness and copulation duration in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster. As our experimental design also involved the manipulation of the social environment within each full-sibling family, we were able to further test for the presence of genotype-by-environment interactions (GEIs in these traits, which have the potential to compromise mate choice for genetic benefits. Our experimental manipulation of the social environment revealed plastic expression of both traits; males exposed to a rival male during the sensitive period of adult sexual maturation exhibited shorter mating latencies and longer copulation durations than those who matured in isolation. However, we found no evidence for GEIs, and no significant additive genetic variation underlying these traits in either environment. These results undermine the notion that the evolution of female choice rests on covariance between female preference and male displays, an expectation that underpins indirect benefit models such as the good genes and sexy sons hypotheses. However, our results may also indicate depletion of genetic variance in these traits in the natural population studied, thus supporting the expectation that traits closely aligned with reproductive fitness can exhibit low levels of additive genetic variance.

Thalassemia major and consanguinity in Shiraz city, Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Asadi-Pooya, Ali Akbar; Doroudchi, Mehrnoosh

2004-09-05

Beta-thalassemia is among the most common genetic disorders in the world and in Iran, with widespread occurrence. A cross-sectional study on 648 beta-thalassemia patients in Shiraz, Iran was carried out to determine the demography of beta-thalassemia major in Shiraz city, Fars province, Iran and also the rate of consanguinity and the significance of pre-marriage counseling in decreasing familial marriages and consequently preventing this autosomal recessive genetic disease. All interviewed patients had thalassemia major and their age, sex, and the consanguinity between parents were recorded. 40.6% of beta-thalassemia patients were outcomes of first-cousin marriages. Comparison of the percentages of familial marriages (consanguinity) between parents of beta-thalassemia patients and a sample of normal population, revealed a statistically significant difference (pmarriages among thalassemic families, however, more education and awareness of young women and men about the increased risk of beta-thalassemia after familial marriage through pre-marriage counseling is still necessary.

A compendium and functional characterization of mammalian genes involved in adaptation to Arctic or Antarctic environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Yudin, Nikolay S; Larkin, Denis M; Ignatieva, Elena V

2017-12-28

Many mammals are well adapted to surviving in extremely cold environments. These species have likely accumulated genetic changes that help them efficiently cope with low temperatures. It is not known whether the same genes related to cold adaptation in one species would be under selection in another species. The aims of this study therefore were: to create a compendium of mammalian genes related to adaptations to a low temperature environment; to identify genes related to cold tolerance that have been subjected to independent positive selection in several species; to determine promising candidate genes/pathways/organs for further empirical research on cold adaptation in mammals. After a search for publications containing keywords: "whole genome", "transcriptome or exome sequencing data", and "genome-wide genotyping array data" authors looked for information related to genetic signatures ascribable to positive selection in Arctic or Antarctic mammalian species. Publications related to Human, Arctic fox, Yakut horse, Mammoth, Polar bear, and Minke whale were chosen. The compendium of genes that potentially underwent positive selection in >1 of these six species consisted of 416 genes. Twelve of them showed traces of positive selection in three species. Gene ontology term enrichment analysis of 416 genes from the compendium has revealed 13 terms relevant to the scope of this study. We found that enriched terms were relevant to three major groups: terms associated with collagen proteins and the extracellular matrix; terms associated with the anatomy and physiology of cilium; terms associated with docking. We further revealed that genes from compendium were over-represented in the lists of genes expressed in the lung and liver. A compendium combining mammalian genes involved in adaptation to cold environment was designed, based on the intersection of positively selected genes from six Arctic and Antarctic species. The compendium contained 416 genes that have been

Environment-induced decay of teleportation fidelity of the one-qubit state

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu Mingliang, E-mail: mingliang0301@163.co [School of Science, Xi' an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi' an 710061 (China)

2011-05-23

The one-qubit teleportation protocol is reexamined when it is executed in the presence of various decohering environments. The results revealed that this quantum protocol is more robust under the influence of dephasing environment than those under the influence of dissipative or noisy environment. The environment may deprive the quantum advantage of teleportation over purely classical communication in a finite or infinite lifetime, which is dependent on the type of environment. Also we found that except entanglement, the purity of the entangled state resource is also crucial in determining the quality of the teleported state. - Highlights: Robustness of teleportation in the presence of various external environments. Environment deprives quantum advantage of teleportation over classical communication. A nonzero minimum entanglement is not always necessary for performing teleportation. Purity of the channel state is crucial in determining quality of the teleported state.

Measuring the clinical learning environment in anaesthesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, N A; Castanelli, D J

2015-03-01

The learning environment describes the way that trainees perceive the culture of their workplace. We audited the learning environment for trainees throughout Australia and New Zealand in the early stages of curriculum reform. A questionnaire was developed and sent electronically to a large random sample of Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists trainees, with a 26% final response rate. This new instrument demonstrated good psychometric properties, with Cronbach's α ranging from 0.81 to 0.91 for each domain. The median score was equivalent to 78%, with the majority of trainees giving scores in the medium range. Introductory respondents scored their learning environment more highly than all other levels of respondents (P=0.001 for almost all comparisons). We present a simple questionnaire instrument that can be used to determine characteristics of the anaesthesia learning environment. The instrument can be used to help assess curricular change over time, alignment of the formal and informal curricula and strengths and weaknesses of individual departments.

Obesogenic environments: environmental approaches to obesity prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Lipek, Tobias; Igel, Ulrike; Gausche, Ruth; Kiess, Wieland; Grande, Gesine

2015-05-01

Childhood obesity is a major concern for public health. There are multiple factors (e.g., genetic, social, and environmental) that contribute to unhealthy weight gain. Drawing from findings on "obesogenic environments" and core principles of preventive strategies to reduce health inequalities, this paper gives an overview of recent childhood prevention programs that target aspects of the physical environment ("environmental changes"). Out of the ten reviews we screened (including more than 300 studies), we identified very few that addressed aspects of the environment. We focus here on 14 programs that follow different approaches to environmental changes (e.g., access to/quality of playgrounds, changes in school cafeterias). Altering the environment offers opportunities for healthier behaviors and seems to be an effective strategy to prevent childhood obesity. However, the evaluation of those (mostly) multidimensional interventions does not allow drawing firm conclusions about the single effect of environmental changes. We conclude that obesity prevention programs should combine person-based and environmental approaches.

Assembly of the Lactuca sativa, L. cv. Tizian draft genome sequence reveals differences within major resistance complex 1 as compared to the cv. Salinas reference genome.

Science.gov (United States)

Verwaaijen, Bart; Wibberg, Daniel; Nelkner, Johanna; Gordin, Miriam; Rupp, Oliver; Winkler, Anika; Bremges, Andreas; Blom, Jochen; Grosch, Rita; Pühler, Alfred; Schlüter, Andreas

2018-02-10

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa, L.) is an important annual plant of the family Asteraceae (Compositae). The commercial lettuce cultivar Tizian has been used in various scientific studies investigating the interaction of the plant with phytopathogens or biological control agents. Here, we present the de novo draft genome sequencing and gene prediction for this specific cultivar derived from transcriptome sequence data. The assembled scaffolds amount to a size of 2.22 Gb. Based on RNAseq data, 31,112 transcript isoforms were identified. Functional predictions for these transcripts were determined within the GenDBE annotation platform. Comparison with the cv. Salinas reference genome revealed a high degree of sequence similarity on genome and transcriptome levels, with an average amino acid identity of 99%. Furthermore, it was observed that two large regions are either missing or are highly divergent within the cv. Tizian genome compared to cv. Salinas. One of these regions covers the major resistance complex 1 region of cv. Salinas. The cv. Tizian draft genome sequence provides a valuable resource for future functional and transcriptome analyses focused on this lettuce cultivar. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ising percolation in a three-state majority vote model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Balankin, Alexander S., E-mail: abalankin@ipn.mx [Grupo Mecánica Fractal, ESIME, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México D.F., 07738 (Mexico); Martínez-Cruz, M.A.; Gayosso Martínez, Felipe [Grupo Mecánica Fractal, ESIME, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México D.F., 07738 (Mexico); Mena, Baltasar [Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Procesos Costeros, Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Sisal, Yucatán, 97355 (Mexico); Tobon, Atalo; Patiño-Ortiz, Julián; Patiño-Ortiz, Miguel; Samayoa, Didier [Grupo Mecánica Fractal, ESIME, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México D.F., 07738 (Mexico)

2017-02-05

Highlights: • Three-state non-consensus majority voter model is introduced. • Phase transition in the absorbing state non-consensus is revealed. • The percolation transition belongs to the universality class of Ising percolation. • The effect of an updating rule for a tie between voter neighbors is highlighted. - Abstract: In this Letter, we introduce a three-state majority vote model in which each voter adopts a state of a majority of its active neighbors, if exist, but the voter becomes uncommitted if its active neighbors are in a tie, or all neighbors are the uncommitted. Numerical simulations were performed on square lattices of different linear size with periodic boundary conditions. Starting from a random distribution of active voters, the model leads to a stable non-consensus state in which three opinions coexist. We found that the “magnetization” of the non-consensus state and the concentration of uncommitted voters in it are governed by an initial composition of system and are independent of the lattice size. Furthermore, we found that a configuration of the stable non-consensus state undergoes a second order percolation transition at a critical concentration of voters holding the same opinion. Numerical simulations suggest that this transition belongs to the same universality class as the Ising percolation. These findings highlight the effect of an updating rule for a tie between voter neighbors on the critical behavior of models obeying the majority vote rule whenever a strict majority exists.

Ising percolation in a three-state majority vote model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balankin, Alexander S.; Martínez-Cruz, M.A.; Gayosso Martínez, Felipe; Mena, Baltasar; Tobon, Atalo; Patiño-Ortiz, Julián; Patiño-Ortiz, Miguel; Samayoa, Didier

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Three-state non-consensus majority voter model is introduced. • Phase transition in the absorbing state non-consensus is revealed. • The percolation transition belongs to the universality class of Ising percolation. • The effect of an updating rule for a tie between voter neighbors is highlighted. - Abstract: In this Letter, we introduce a three-state majority vote model in which each voter adopts a state of a majority of its active neighbors, if exist, but the voter becomes uncommitted if its active neighbors are in a tie, or all neighbors are the uncommitted. Numerical simulations were performed on square lattices of different linear size with periodic boundary conditions. Starting from a random distribution of active voters, the model leads to a stable non-consensus state in which three opinions coexist. We found that the “magnetization” of the non-consensus state and the concentration of uncommitted voters in it are governed by an initial composition of system and are independent of the lattice size. Furthermore, we found that a configuration of the stable non-consensus state undergoes a second order percolation transition at a critical concentration of voters holding the same opinion. Numerical simulations suggest that this transition belongs to the same universality class as the Ising percolation. These findings highlight the effect of an updating rule for a tie between voter neighbors on the critical behavior of models obeying the majority vote rule whenever a strict majority exists.

Coupled human-environment timelines of SWP small island societies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reenberg, Anette; Birch-Thomsen, Torben; Fog, Bjarne

2007-01-01

despite an increase in de facto population (47% from 1966-2006). A questionnaire survey of 48 households provide data on the entire household livelihood portfolio and reveal that the natural resources remains a widespread activity, yet increasingly supplemented by other income generating activities( ex....... shop keeping, private business, government employment). Group interviews have been employed to reveal how local farmers perceive cause-effect relationships between societal and ecological events and their individual and collective management of resources. The coupled human-environment timelines...

Students’ digital learning environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Caviglia, Francesco; Dalsgaard, Christian; Davidsen, Jacob

2018-01-01

of the study are 1) to provide an overview of tools for students’ study activities, 2) to identify the most used and most important tools for students and 3) to discover which activities the tools are used for. The empirical study reveals that the students have a varied use of digital media. Some of the most......, the study shows that most of the important tools are not related to the systems provided by the educational institutions. Based on the study, the paper concludes with a discussion of how institutional systems connect to the other tools in the students’ practices, and how we can qualify students’ digital......The objective of the paper is to examine the nature of students’ digital learning environments to understand the interplay of institutional systems and tools that are managed by the students themselves. The paper is based on a study of 128 students’ digital learning environments. The objectives...

Use of a virtual environment to facilitate instruction of an interprofessional home assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabus, Carla; Sabata, Dory; Antonacci, David

2011-01-01

Technology has become a ubiquitous part of our society and is largely embedded in today's educational system. 3D virtual reality technology can be used to simulate environments and activities and may be used as an instructional technology. The purpose of this research was to better understand the utility of a web-based virtual environment as a teaching tool to represent clinical assessment and interventions in the home environment. Specifically, students' learning outcomes related to interprofessional collaboration, patient-centered decision-making, and appreciation of the environmental and social context of functional mobility and occupational performance will be described through descriptive analysis. Thirty-four physical therapist students and 35 occupational therapist students participated in an instructor-guided virtual assessment of a client's function in a home environment utilizing a virtual environment, Second Life®. Teams formulated task-specific, functional client goals and home modification recommendations. Students revisited a solution virtual environment to view and evaluate recommendations in a follow-up instructor-guided tour. Students completed a web-based survey capturing student perception of the experience. Team assignments were analyzed based on a rubric representing learning objectives. Descriptive analysis was conducted on the survey. Assignment analysis revealed contextual and client-centered recommendations. Student surveys revealed that students found the virtual environment supportive of learning. Student surveys and reflection statements were supportive of the interprofessional collaboration. Use of a virtual environment in instruction allows an authentic means of representing interprofessional home assessment. The virtual environment allowed a temporal depiction of home environment issues and solutions providing the unique opportunity for students to evaluate home recommendations.

Metaproteomics and metabolomics analyses of chronically petroleum-polluted sites reveal the importance of general anaerobic processes uncoupled with degradation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bargiela, Rafael; Herbst, Florian-Alexander; Martínez-Martínez, Mónica; Seifert, Jana; Rojo, David; Cappello, Simone; Genovese, María; Crisafi, Francesca; Denaro, Renata; Chernikova, Tatyana N; Barbas, Coral; von Bergen, Martin; Yakimov, Michail M; Ferrer, Manuel; Golyshin, Peter N

2015-10-01

Crude oil is one of the most important natural assets for humankind, yet it is a major environmental pollutant, notably in marine environments. One of the largest crude oil polluted areas in the word is the semi-enclosed Mediterranean Sea, in which the metabolic potential of indigenous microbial populations towards the large-scale chronic pollution is yet to be defined, particularly in anaerobic and micro-aerophilic sites. Here, we provide an insight into the microbial metabolism in sediments from three chronically polluted marine sites along the coastline of Italy: the Priolo oil terminal/refinery site (near Siracuse, Sicily), harbour of Messina (Sicily) and shipwreck of MT Haven (near Genoa). Using shotgun metaproteomics and community metabolomics approaches, the presence of 651 microbial proteins and 4776 metabolite mass features have been detected in these three environments, revealing a high metabolic heterogeneity between the investigated sites. The proteomes displayed the prevalence of anaerobic metabolisms that were not directly related with petroleum biodegradation, indicating that in the absence of oxygen, biodegradation is significantly suppressed. This suppression was also suggested by examining the metabolome patterns. The proteome analysis further highlighted the metabolic coupling between methylotrophs and sulphate reducers in oxygen-depleted petroleum-polluted sediments. © 2015 The Authors. PROTEOMICS published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Metaproteomics and metabolomics analyses of chronically petroleum‐polluted sites reveal the importance of general anaerobic processes uncoupled with degradation

Science.gov (United States)

Bargiela, Rafael; Herbst, Florian‐Alexander; Martínez‐Martínez, Mónica; Seifert, Jana; Rojo, David; Cappello, Simone; Genovese, María; Crisafi, Francesca; Denaro, Renata; Chernikova, Tatyana N.; Barbas, Coral; von Bergen, Martin; Yakimov, Michail M.; Golyshin, Peter N.

2015-01-01

Crude oil is one of the most important natural assets for humankind, yet it is a major environmental pollutant, notably in marine environments. One of the largest crude oil polluted areas in the word is the semi‐enclosed Mediterranean Sea, in which the metabolic potential of indigenous microbial populations towards the large‐scale chronic pollution is yet to be defined, particularly in anaerobic and micro‐aerophilic sites. Here, we provide an insight into the microbial metabolism in sediments from three chronically polluted marine sites along the coastline of Italy: the Priolo oil terminal/refinery site (near Siracuse, Sicily), harbour of Messina (Sicily) and shipwreck of MT Haven (near Genoa). Using shotgun metaproteomics and community metabolomics approaches, the presence of 651 microbial proteins and 4776 metabolite mass features have been detected in these three environments, revealing a high metabolic heterogeneity between the investigated sites. The proteomes displayed the prevalence of anaerobic metabolisms that were not directly related with petroleum biodegradation, indicating that in the absence of oxygen, biodegradation is significantly suppressed. This suppression was also suggested by examining the metabolome patterns. The proteome analysis further highlighted the metabolic coupling between methylotrophs and sulphate reducers in oxygen‐depleted petroleum‐polluted sediments. PMID:26201687

An integrative model of employee responses to major organisational change.

OpenAIRE

Kimberley, Nellie Anne

2017-01-01

One of the enduring issues facing organisations relates to the high number of change initiatives that fail outright or only partially meet expectations (Beer & Nohria, 2000). Although there are many potential causes of failed change, much of the extant change identifies resistance to change as the major source of this problem. In order to bring about successful organisational change, it is important that managers create a change-ready environment, one where employees accept and affectively co...

Integrated Environment and Safety and Health Management System (ISMS) Implementation Project Plan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

MITCHELL, R.L.

2000-01-10

The Integrated Environment, Safety and Health Management System (ISMS) Implementation Project Plan serves as the project document to guide the Fluor Hanford, Inc (FHI) and Major Subcontractor (MSC) participants through the steps necessary to complete the integration of environment, safety, and health into management and work practices at all levels.

Integrated Environment and Safety and Health Management System (ISMS) Implementation Project Plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MITCHELL, R.L.

2000-01-01

The Integrated Environment, Safety and Health Management System (ISMS) Implementation Project Plan serves as the project document to guide the Fluor Hanford, Inc (FHI) and Major Subcontractor (MSC) participants through the steps necessary to complete the integration of environment, safety, and health into management and work practices at all levels

BEHA VI OUR OF TOPI IN A SHADELESS ENVIRONMENT ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

BEHA VI OUR OF TOPI IN A SHADELESS ENVIRONMENT ... one population for signs of behavioural adaptiveness in the species' environmental relation- .... The major change is obviously in the proportion of topi which had their heads up, as.

Writing virtual environments for software visualization

CERN Document Server

Jeffery, Clinton

2015-01-01

This book describes the software for creating networked, 3D multi-user virtual environments that allow users to create and remotely share visualizations of program behavior. The authors cover the major features of collaborative virtual environments and how to program them in a very high level language, and show how visualization can enable important advances in our ability to understand and reduce the costs of maintaining software. The book also examines the application of popular game-like software technologies.   • Discusses the acquisition of program behavior data to be visualized • Demonstrates the integration of multiple 2D and 3D dynamic views within a 3Dscene • Presents the network messaging capabilities to share those visualizations

Nuclear techniques for a cleaner environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

Highlights of the major IAEA programme for nuclear techniques and research which have direct contribution towards improvement of the environment are presented. These include topics in the areas of food and agriculture, hydrology, environmental monitoring, and marine sciences. Joint IAEA and FAO programmes in food and agriculture covers topics such as: control of insects and pests, monitoring of pesticides in ecosystem and food irradiation. In hydrology, development and management of water resources, water pollution assessment, cleaning of flue gases and sewage sludge, etc are being undertaken primarily in developing countries. Environmental monitoring is conducted with particular emphasis to when there is an accidental release of radioactivity into the environment, as happened to the Chernobyl accident

Metaproteomics reveals major microbial players and their biodegradation functions in a large-scale aerobic composting plant

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Dongming; Li, Mingxiao; Xi, Beidou; Zhao, Yue; Wei, Zimin; Song, Caihong; Zhu, Chaowei

2015-01-01

Composting is an appropriate management alternative for municipal solid waste; however, our knowledge about the microbial regulation of this process is still scare. We employed metaproteomics to elucidate the main biodegradation pathways in municipal solid waste composting system across the main phases in a large-scale composting plant. The investigation of microbial succession revealed that Bacillales, Actinobacteria and Saccharomyces increased significantly with respect to abundance in composting process. The key microbiologic population for cellulose degradation in different composting stages was different. Fungi were found to be the main producers of cellulase in earlier phase. However, the cellulolytic fungal communities were gradually replaced by a purely bacterial one in active phase, which did not support the concept that the thermophilic fungi are active through the thermophilic phase. The effective decomposition of cellulose required the synergy between bacteria and fungi in the curing phase. PMID:25989417

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klinda, J.; Lieskovska, Z.

2010-01-01

The State of the Environment Report in its content, targeting and evaluation of large amounts of data and information aims to promote environmental awareness of society and concern for the environment, environmental responsibility steadily increase the population of the Slovak Republic, as well as promoting public participation in decision-making concerning the environment. Therefore, the report in question has a unique place well in meeting other priorities resulting from the Manifesto of the Government - to promote environmental education in school and out-sphere. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Components of the environment and their protection; Nature and landscape protection; Cities and a rural environment; Regional classification; Environmental classification; Major cumulative environmental problems; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Abbreviations and texts to figures.

Plastics in the Marine Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Law, Kara Lavender

2017-01-03

Plastics contamination in the marine environment was first reported nearly 50 years ago, less than two decades after the rise of commercial plastics production, when less than 50 million metric tons were produced per year. In 2014, global plastics production surpassed 300 million metric tons per year. Plastic debris has been detected worldwide in all major marine habitats, in sizes from microns to meters. In response, concerns about risks to marine wildlife upon exposure to the varied forms of plastic debris have increased, stimulating new research into the extent and consequences of plastics contamination in the marine environment. Here, I present a framework to evaluate the current understanding of the sources, distribution, fate, and impacts of marine plastics. Despite remaining knowledge gaps in mass budgeting and challenges in investigating ecological impacts, the increasing evidence of the ubiquity of plastics contamination in the marine environment, the continued rapid growth in plastics production, and the evidence-albeit limited-of demonstrated impacts to marine wildlife support immediate implementation of source-reducing measures to decrease the potential risks of plastics in the marine ecosystem.

Plastics in the Marine Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Law, Kara Lavender

2017-01-01

Plastics contamination in the marine environment was first reported nearly 50 years ago, less than two decades after the rise of commercial plastics production, when less than 50 million metric tons were produced per year. In 2014, global plastics production surpassed 300 million metric tons per year. Plastic debris has been detected worldwide in all major marine habitats, in sizes from microns to meters. In response, concerns about risks to marine wildlife upon exposure to the varied forms of plastic debris have increased, stimulating new research into the extent and consequences of plastics contamination in the marine environment. Here, I present a framework to evaluate the current understanding of the sources, distribution, fate, and impacts of marine plastics. Despite remaining knowledge gaps in mass budgeting and challenges in investigating ecological impacts, the increasing evidence of the ubiquity of plastics contamination in the marine environment, the continued rapid growth in plastics production, and the evidence—albeit limited—of demonstrated impacts to marine wildlife support immediate implementation of source-reducing measures to decrease the potential risks of plastics in the marine ecosystem.

Associations between baccalaureate nursing students' perceptions of educational environment and HESI scores and GPA.

Science.gov (United States)

Payne, Leslie K; Glaspie, Tina

2014-06-01

Students' perceptions of their educational environment have been found to be related to their approaches to learning and learning outcomes. Educational environment is just beginning to be researched in nursing education with the vast majority of studies focusing on the clinical educational environment. Perception of educational environment has been shown to influence student implementation of a specific learning style and influences educational outcomes such as program completion and GPA. There is a need for sound research that explores the relationship, if any, between perceptions of environment and outcomes. To explore the relationship between baccalaureate nursing student (BSN) perception of educational environment (SPEE) and objective learning outcomes. Retrospective correlational descriptive study. Private School of Nursing in the Southwest. Convenience sample of 62 graduating baccalaureate students. All graduating BSN students were invited to complete the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) through the online survey application Qualtrics. A total of 62 students completed the DREEM survey. These results were compared with each student's GPA and HESI score. A total of 62 students completed the survey for an overall response rate of 57%. There was no correlation between total SPEE and nursing grade point average (NGPA) or HESI exit scores. Based on this study at this institution, it appears that students' performance was not influenced by SPEE. One of the major implications of this study is the possibility that an "acceptable" SPEE (one that is neither exceptional nor terrible) may not significantly influence student outcomes. Exploring this relationship has theoretical as well as practical implications as educators seek to determine the effectiveness of educational interventions. Student perception of learning environment is measured in various ways at the majority of institutions. It has been assumed that an educational environment that is

Major depression

Science.gov (United States)

Depression - major; Depression - clinical; Clinical depression; Unipolar depression; Major depressive disorder ... providers do not know the exact causes of depression. It is believed that chemical changes in the ...

Fifth International Symposium on the Natural Radiation Environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Porstendoerfer, J.; Swedjemark, G.A.; Baeverstam, U.; Lowder, W.M.; Miller, K.M.; Fisenne, I.M.

1993-01-01

The fifth International Symposium on the Natural Radiation Environment organized a series of tutorial sessions. One of the five major fields concerned with the radon issue. The tutorials dealt with important issues of the radon problem and covered the following aspects: Cosmic and Terrestrial Gamma Radiation Measurement, Properties and Behaviour of Radon and Thoron and Their Decay Products in the Air, Radon and Radon Daughters Metrology: Basic Aspects Long Lived Radionuclides in the Environment, in Food and in Human Beings, Design and Analysis of Radon Surveys with Epidemiological Utility

Modeling the C. elegans nematode and its environment using a particle system.

Science.gov (United States)

Rönkkö, Mauno; Wong, Garry

2008-07-21

A particle system, as understood in computer science, is a novel technique for modeling living organisms in their environment. Such particle systems have traditionally been used for modeling the complex dynamics of fluids and gases. In the present study, a particle system was devised to model the movement and feeding behavior of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in three different virtual environments: gel, liquid, and soil. The results demonstrate that distinct movements of the nematode can be attributed to its mechanical interactions with the virtual environment. These results also revealed emergent properties associated with modeling organisms within environment-based systems.

Mechanical properties of recycled concrete in marine environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jianxiu; Huang, Tianrong; Liu, Xiaotian; Wu, Pengcheng; Guo, Zhiying

2013-01-01

Experimental work was carried out to develop information about mechanical properties of recycled concrete (RC) in marine environment. By using the seawater and dry-wet circulation to simulate the marine environment, specimens of RC were tested with different replacement percentages of 0%, 30%, and 60% after immersing in seawater for 4, 8, 12, and 16 months, respectively. Based on the analysis of the stress-strain curves (SSCs) and compressive strength, it is revealed that RC' peak value and elastic modulus decreased with the increase of replacement percentage and corroding time in marine environment. And the failure of recycled concrete was speeded up with more obvious cracks and larger angles of 65° to 85° in the surface when compared with normal concrete. Finally, the grey model (GM) with equal time intervals was constructed to investigate the law of compressive strength of recycled concrete in marine environment, and it is found that the GM is accurate and feasible for the prediction of RC compressive strength in marine environment.

Organization of Teacher’s Professional Activity in Conditions of Innovative Educational Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liubov Kartashova

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The problem of organization of teacher’s professional activity in innovative educational environment is revealed in the article. The fundamental definitions of the concept of "innovative educational environment" in different aspects are determined. The analysis of researches of primary school teacher’s training in Ukraine and highly developed countries of the world is witnessed a number of contradictions that outlined necessity to generate the innovative (information educational environment. Effective organizational and methodical decision in formation of competitive teacher is the introduction subject "Methods of organization of teacher’s professional activity in conditions of innovative educational environment" to educational process of primary school teacher’s training. Its aim, objectives, information scope, requirements to level of mastering of content component, methods and forms of monitoring and evaluation of students’ competency have been revealed. The course is based on designed innovative IT-based (cloudy-oriented environment of pedagogical training of primary school teachers, and cloudy-oriented products are integrated in it, that will make the learning process interactive: OneNote, Skype, GoogleDisk, SkyDrive, teacher’s personal website, OneNote. The managing of students’ mastering process of pedagogical subjects is performed at lessons and using teacher’s electronic classroom

Ant-infecting Ophiocordyceps genomes reveal a high diversity of potential behavioral manipulation genes and a possible major role for enterotoxins

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Bekker, Charissa; Ohm, Robin A.; Evans, Harry C.; Brachmann, Andreas; Hughes, David P

2017-01-01

Much can be gained from revealing the mechanisms fungal entomopathogens employ. Especially intriguing are fungal parasites that manipulate insect behavior because, presumably, they secrete a wealth of bioactive compounds. To gain more insight into their strategies, we compared the genomes of five

Psychosocial functioning in prepubertal major depressive disorders. I. Interpersonal relationships during the depressive episode.

Science.gov (United States)

Puig-Antich, J; Lukens, E; Davies, M; Goetz, D; Brennan-Quattrock, J; Todak, G

1985-05-01

Psychosocial environment and relationships with parents, peers, and siblings of 115 prepubertal children were measured by interview with their parent(s) for the three-month period preceding the assessment. The children had a current diagnosis of major depression (52 children) or nondepressed neurotic disorder (23) or were assessed to be normal (40). Most aspects of psychosocial relationships were found to be significantly impaired in the psychiatric groups. This impairment was generally worse in the depressives and significantly worse for aspects of verbal and affective communication with parents and siblings. Prepubertal children with major depressive disorder regularly present social relation deficits in which two components can be distinguished: one general to childhood psychiatric disorder and another specific to major depression.

Virtual laboratories: Collaborative environments and facilities-on-line

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thomas, C.E. Jr. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). I and C Div.; Cavallini, J.S.; Seweryniak, G.R.; Kitchens, T.A.; Hitchcock, D.A.; Scott, M.A.; Welch, L.C. [Dept. of Energy, Germantown, MD (United States). Mathematical Information, and Computational Sciences Div.; Aiken, R.J. [Dept. of Energy, Germantown, MD (United States). Mathematical Information, and Computational Sciences Div.]|[Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); Stevens, R.L. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Mathematics and Computer Sciences Div.

1995-07-01

The Department of Energy (DOE) has major research laboratories in a number of locations in the US, typically co-located with large research instruments or research facilities valued at tens of millions to even billions of dollars. Present budget exigencies facing the entire nation are felt very deeply at DOE, just as elsewhere. Advances over the last few years in networking and computing technologies make virtual collaborative environments and conduct of experiments over the internetwork structure a possibility. The authors believe that development of these collaborative environments and facilities-on-line could lead to a ``virtual laboratory`` with tremendous potential for decreasing the costs of research and increasing the productivity of their capital investment in research facilities. The majority of these cost savings would be due to increased productivity of their research efforts, better utilization of resources and facilities, and avoiding duplication of expensive facilities. A vision of how this might all fit together and a discussion of the infrastructure necessary to enable these developments is presented.

Safety level assessment in the production environment using Fuzzy logic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2012-05-01

Conclusion: The application of the proposed method can reveal which safety items and factors are most important in improving workers safety, and therefore decide where to concentrate resources in order to improve the safety of the work environment.

Thermal, Thermophysical, and Compositional Properties of the Moon Revealed by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Greenhagen, B. T.; Paige, D. A.

2012-01-01

The Diviner Lunar Radiometer is the first multispectral thermal instrument to globally map the surface of the Moon. After over three years in operation, this unprecedented dataset has revealed the extreme nature of the Moon's thermal environment, thermophysical properties, and surface composition.

Environment, urban poverty and scavenging: review of relationship and its effectiveness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chamhuri Siwar; Amzad Hossain; Norshamleeda Chamhuri

2001-01-01

Urban poverty and environment is interrelated to each other. Environmental degradation is a crucial factor for urban poverty and vice-versa. The generation of solid waste all over the world has reached an alarming proportion and constitutes one of the world's greatest sources of environmental degradation (fagan, 1974). Solid waste is one of the three major environmental problems faced by municipalities in Malaysia (World Bank, 1993) which is one of the major cause or contributor to urban poverty. However, urban solid waste consists of two strata such as source of environmental degradation and income generating agents for urban poor scavengers. In Malaysia, full-time and part-time scavengers are recycling 6% of total generated residential solid waste in some selected areas other wise its emitted or disposed to the environment. On the other hand, by doing this work full-time scavengers are earning wages of RM750 per month which is equal to that of the majority of Third world urbanities; part-time scavengers are earning 33% of their daily income. This paper discusses a theoretical framework of the relationship of environment and urban poverty. Policies, issues and some case studies of scavenging as a means of urban poverty reduction and environmental improvements of sustainable urban development are also explored. (Author)

Plasma fibronectin in patients undergoing major surgery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sallam, M.H.M.

2003-01-01

Plasma fibronectin in patients undergoing major surgery had been determined before and after operation. The study was done on 15 patients and 15 normal healthy individuals. The study revealed that patients subjected to major operation, their fibronectin level was normal before operation followed by reduction one day post-operation. After one week, fibronectin level raised again nearly to the pre-operations levels. The probable mechanisms of fibronectin in healing processes were discussed. Fibronectin (FN) is a family of structurally and immunologically related high molecular weight glycoproteins that are present in many cell surfaces, in extracellular fluids, in connective tissues and in most membranes. Interaction with certain discrete extracellular substances, such as a glucosaminoglycans (e.g. heparin), fibrin and collagen and with cell surface structure seem to account for many of its biological activities, among which are regulation of adhesion, spreading and locomotion (Mosesson and amrani, 1980). The concentration of Fn in human plasma decreases after extensive destruction such as that occurs in major surgery, burns or other trauma. This decrease has been generally though to be due to increased consumption of soluble plasma Fn in opsonization of particulate and soluble debris from circulation by the reticuloendothelial (RE) system. Fn rapidly appears in injury areas, in experimentally induced blisters, wounded and epithelium tissues (Petersen et al., 1985). Fn accumulates at times of increased vascular permeability and it is produced by cell of blood vessels in response to injury

The airborne metagenome in an indoor urban environment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susannah G Tringe

Full Text Available The indoor atmosphere is an ecological unit that impacts on public health. To investigate the composition of organisms in this space, we applied culture-independent approaches to microbes harvested from the air of two densely populated urban buildings, from which we analyzed 80 megabases genomic DNA sequence and 6000 16S rDNA clones. The air microbiota is primarily bacteria, including potential opportunistic pathogens commonly isolated from human-inhabited environments such as hospitals, but none of the data contain matches to virulent pathogens or bioterror agents. Comparison of air samples with each other and nearby environments suggested that the indoor air microbes are not random transients from surrounding outdoor environments, but rather originate from indoor niches. Sequence annotation by gene function revealed specific adaptive capabilities enriched in the air environment, including genes potentially involved in resistance to desiccation and oxidative damage. This baseline index of air microbiota will be valuable for improving designs of surveillance for natural or man-made release of virulent pathogens.

The Airborne Metagenome in an Indoor Urban Environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tringe, Susannah; Zhang, Tao; Liu, Xuguo; Yu, Yiting; Lee, Wah Heng; Yap, Jennifer; Yao, Fei; Suan, Sim Tiow; Ing, Seah Keng; Haynes, Matthew; Rohwer, Forest; Wei, Chia Lin; Tan, Patrick; Bristow, James; Rubin, Edward M.; Ruan, Yijun

2008-02-12

The indoor atmosphere is an ecological unit that impacts on public health. To investigate the composition of organisms in this space, we applied culture-independent approaches to microbes harvested from the air of two densely populated urban buildings, from which we analyzed 80 megabases genomic DNA sequence and 6000 16S rDNA clones. The air microbiota is primarily bacteria, including potential opportunistic pathogens commonly isolated from human-inhabited environments such as hospitals, but none of the data contain matches to virulent pathogens or bioterror agents. Comparison of air samples with each other and nearby environments suggested that the indoor air microbes are not random transients from surrounding outdoor environments, but rather originate from indoor niches. Sequence annotation by gene function revealed specific adaptive capabilities enriched in the air environment, including genes potentially involved in resistance to desiccation and oxidative damage. This baseline index of air microbiota will be valuable for improving designs of surveillance for natural or man-made release of virulent pathogens.

The Safety Analysis of Shipborne Ammunition in Fire Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Junpeng; Wang, Xudong; Yue, Pengfei

2017-12-01

The safety of Ammunition has always been the focus of national military science and technology issues. And fire is one of the major safety threats to the ship’s ammunition storage environment, In this paper, Mk-82 shipborne aviation bomb has been taken as the study object, simulated the whole process of fire by using the FDS (Fire Detection System) software. According to the simulation results of FDS, ANSYS software was used to simulate the temperature field of Mk-82 carrier-based aviation bomb under fire environment, and the safety of aviation bomb in fire environment was analyzed. The result shows that the aviation bombs under the fire environment can occur the combustion or explosion after 70s constant cook-off, and it was a huge threat to the ship security.

An Ecohydrologic Model for a Shallow Groundwater Urban Environment

Science.gov (United States)

The urban environment is a patchwork of natural and artificial surfaces that results in complex interactions with and impacts to natural hydrologic cycles. Evapotranspiration (ET) is a major hydrologic flow that is often altered from urbanization, though the mechanisms of change ...

Plant Abiotic Stress Proteomics: The Major Factors Determining Alterations in Cellular Proteome

Science.gov (United States)

Kosová, Klára; Vítámvás, Pavel; Urban, Milan O.; Prášil, Ilja T.; Renaut, Jenny

2018-01-01

HIGHLIGHTS: Major environmental and genetic factors determining stress-related protein abundance are discussed.Major aspects of protein biological function including protein isoforms and PTMs, cellular localization and protein interactions are discussed.Functional diversity of protein isoforms and PTMs is discussed. Abiotic stresses reveal profound impacts on plant proteomes including alterations in protein relative abundance, cellular localization, post-transcriptional and post-translational modifications (PTMs), protein interactions with other protein partners, and, finally, protein biological functions. The main aim of the present review is to discuss the major factors determining stress-related protein accumulation and their final biological functions. A dynamics of stress response including stress acclimation to altered ambient conditions and recovery after the stress treatment is discussed. The results of proteomic studies aimed at a comparison of stress response in plant genotypes differing in stress adaptability reveal constitutively enhanced levels of several stress-related proteins (protective proteins, chaperones, ROS scavenging- and detoxification-related enzymes) in the tolerant genotypes with respect to the susceptible ones. Tolerant genotypes can efficiently adjust energy metabolism to enhanced needs during stress acclimation. Stress tolerance vs. stress susceptibility are relative terms which can reflect different stress-coping strategies depending on the given stress treatment. The role of differential protein isoforms and PTMs with respect to their biological functions in different physiological constraints (cellular compartments and interacting partners) is discussed. The importance of protein functional studies following high-throughput proteome analyses is presented in a broader context of plant biology. In summary, the manuscript tries to provide an overview of the major factors which have to be considered when interpreting data from proteomic

Revised Mimivirus major capsid protein sequence reveals intron-containing gene structure and extra domain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suzan-Monti Marie

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Acanthamoebae polyphaga Mimivirus (APM is the largest known dsDNA virus. The viral particle has a nearly icosahedral structure with an internal capsid shell surrounded with a dense layer of fibrils. A Capsid protein sequence, D13L, was deduced from the APM L425 coding gene and was shown to be the most abundant protein found within the viral particle. However this protein remained poorly characterised until now. A revised protein sequence deposited in a database suggested an additional N-terminal stretch of 142 amino acids missing from the original deduced sequence. This result led us to investigate the L425 gene structure and the biochemical properties of the complete APM major Capsid protein. Results This study describes the full length 3430 bp Capsid coding gene and characterises the 593 amino acids long corresponding Capsid protein 1. The recombinant full length protein allowed the production of a specific monoclonal antibody able to detect the Capsid protein 1 within the viral particle. This protein appeared to be post-translationnally modified by glycosylation and phosphorylation. We proposed a secondary structure prediction of APM Capsid protein 1 compared to the Capsid protein structure of Paramecium Bursaria Chlorella Virus 1, another member of the Nucleo-Cytoplasmic Large DNA virus family. Conclusion The characterisation of the full length L425 Capsid coding gene of Acanthamoebae polyphaga Mimivirus provides new insights into the structure of the main Capsid protein. The production of a full length recombinant protein will be useful for further structural studies.

Expression weighted cell type enrichments reveal genetic and cellular nature of major brain disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nathan Gerald Skene

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The cell types that trigger the primary pathology in many brain diseases remain largely unknown. One route to understanding the primary pathological cell type for a particular disease is to identify the cells expressing susceptibility genes. Although this is straightforward for monogenic conditions where the causative mutation may alter expression of a cell type specific marker, methods are required for the common polygenic disorders. We developed the Expression Weighted Cell Type Enrichment (EWCE method that uses single cell transcriptomes to generate the probability distribution associated with a gene list having an average level of expression within a cell type. Following validation, we applied EWCE to human genetic data from cases of epilepsy, Schizophrenia, Autism, Intellectual Disability, Alzheimer’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis and anxiety disorders. Genetic susceptibility primarily affected microglia in Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis; was shared between interneurons and pyramidal neurons in Autism and Schizophrenia; while intellectual disabilities and epilepsy were attributable to a range of cell-types, with the strongest enrichment in interneurons. We hypothesised that the primary cell type pathology could trigger secondary changes in other cell types and these could be detected by applying EWCE to transcriptome data from diseased tissue. In Autism, Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease we find evidence of pathological changes in all of the major brain cell types. These findings give novel insight into the cellular origins and progression in common brain disorders. The methods can be applied to any tissue and disorder and have applications in validating mouse models.

Aging management of major light water reactor components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, V.N.; Sinha, U.P.; Ware, A.G.

1992-01-01

Review of technical literature and field experience has identified stress corrosion cracking as one of the major degradation mechanisms for the major light water reactor components. Three of the stress corrosion cracking mechanisms of current concern are (a) primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) in pressurized water reactors, and (b) intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) and (c) irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) in boiling water reactors. Effective aging management of stress corrosion cracking mechanisms includes evaluation of interactions between design, materials, stressors, and environment; identification and ranking of susceptible sites; reliable inspection of any damage; assessment of damage rate; mitigation of damage; and repair and replacement using corrosion-resistant materials. Management of PWSCC includes use of lower operating temperatures, reduction in residual tensile stresses, development of reliable inspection techniques, and use of Alloy 690 as replacement material. Management of IGSCC of nozzle and attachment welds includes use of Alloy 82 as weld material, and potential use of hydrogen water chemistry. Management of IASCC also includes potential use of hydrogen water chemistry

Metabolic profiling reveals potential metabolic markers associated with Hypoxia Inducible Factor-mediated signalling in hypoxic cancer cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Armitage, Emily G; Kotze, Helen L; Allwood, J William; Dunn, Warwick B; Goodacre, Royston; Williams, Kaye J

2015-10-28

Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) plays an important role in oxygen compromised environments and therefore in tumour survival. In this research, metabolomics has been applied to study HIFs metabolic function in two cell models: mouse hepatocellular carcinoma and human colon carcinoma, whereby the metabolism has been profiled for a range of oxygen potentials. Wild type cells have been compared to cells deficient in HIF signalling to reveal its effect on cellular metabolism under normal oxygen conditions as well as low oxygen, hypoxic and anoxic environments. Characteristic responses to hypoxia that were conserved across both cell models involved the anti-correlation between 2-hydroxyglutarate, 2-oxoglutarate, fructose, hexadecanoic acid, hypotaurine, pyruvate and octadecenoic acid with 4-hydroxyproline, aspartate, cysteine, glutamine, lysine, malate and pyroglutamate. Further to this, network-based correlation analysis revealed HIF specific pathway responses to each oxygen condition that were also conserved between cell models. From this, 4-hydroxyproline was revealed as a regulating hub in low oxygen survival of WT cells while fructose appeared to be in HIF deficient cells. Pathways surrounding these hubs were built from the direct connections of correlated metabolites that look beyond traditional pathways in order to understand the mechanism of HIF response to low oxygen environments.

Creativity in Organizational Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szobiová Eva

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The contribution is focused on the conditions which allow the application of creativity in the context of an organization. The aim of the article is to reveal the work environment factors influencing the creativity of the employees. Another aim is to demonstrate how management style of an organization can affect the creativity of employees in order to successfully exploit their creative potential. The contribution also presents the manner how a manager can influence creativity of one’s own employees. Moreover, the article deals with the process of innovation and transmission of creative ideas and solutions into practice.

Four newly isolated fuselloviruses from extreme geothermal environments reveal unusual morphologies and a possible interviral recombination mechanism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Redder, Peter; Peng, Xu; Brügger, Kim

2009-01-01

Spindle-shaped virus-like particles are abundant in extreme geothermal environments, from which five spindle-shaped viral species have been isolated to date. They infect members of the hyperthermophilic archaeal genus Sulfolobus, and constitute the Fuselloviridae, a family of double-stranded DNA...

Achievements and lessons learned from the Benguela Environment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The founding of BENEFIT, its organisational structures, and the way in which the projects were planned, formulated and executed through these structures are outlined. The major findings and other achievements of the research on fish resources, the environment and the linkages between them are discussed under these ...

Corpora and corpus technology for translation purposes in professional and academic environments. Major achievements and new perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cécile Frérot

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The “use” of corpora and concordancers in translation teaching has grown increasingly attractive since the mid1990s’ with an abundant literature advocating their use and promoting their benefits in the translation classroom. In translator training, efforts are being made to incorporate the use of corpora and concordancers in masters’ programmes and to offer specific modules on corpora for translation as the use of translation memory (TM systems within Computer-Aided Translation (CAT courses still dominates. In the translation profession, while TM systems are part of the everyday working environment, the same cannot be said of corpora and concordancers even though the most recent surveys show that professional translators would like to learn more about the potential of corpora for translation. Overall, the “usefulness” of corpora and corpus technology at the different stages of the translation process remains poorly documented in translation but a growing number of empirical studies has started to show concern as it has now become of paramount importance to assess the extent to which corpora are of added value for translation quality in both professional and academic environments.

Corpora and corpus technology for translation purposes in professional and academic environments. Major achievements and new perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cécile Frérot

2016-04-01

The “use” of corpora and concordancers in translation teaching has grown increasingly attractive since the mid1990s’ with an abundant literature advocating their use and promoting their benefits in the translation classroom. In translator training, efforts are being made to incorporate the use of corpora and concordancers in masters’ programmes and to offer specific modules on corpora for translation as the use of translation memory (TM systems within Computer-Aided Translation (CAT courses still dominates. In the translation profession, while TM systems are part of the everyday working environment, the same cannot be said of corpora and concordancers even though the most recent surveys show that professional translators would like to learn more about the potential of corpora for translation. Overall, the “usefulness” of corpora and corpus technology at the different stages of the translation process remains poorly documented in translation but a growing number of empirical studies has started to show concern as it has now become of paramount importance to assess the extent to which corpora are of added value for translation quality in both professional and academic environments.

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2005

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon

2007-01-01

This State of the Environment Report in the Slovak Republic (SR) in 2005 represents an effective way of spreading environmental information pursuant to Act No. 17/1992 Coll. on environment, as amended. The Report also includes comparisons with other European Union countries, together with development trends. This Report becomes valuable source of information and will help not only in professional life, desire know more objective facts about the environment we live in, but will also become an inspirational reservoir of ideas in your quest for a better environment in the Slovak Republic. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Environmental monitoring and information technology; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental pressures; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regionalization of SR and loaded areas; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Abbreviations and SR districts.

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2005

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klinda, J.; Lieskovska, Z.

2007-01-01

This State of the Environment Report in the Slovak Republic in 2005 represents an effective way of spreading environmental information pursuant to Act No. 17/1992 Coll. on environment, as amended. The Report also includes comparisons with other European Union countries, together with development trends, this Report becomes valuable source of information and will help not only in professional life, desire know more objective facts about the environment we live in, but will also become an inspirational reservoir of ideas in your quest for a better environment in the Slovak Republic. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Environmental monitoring and information technology; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental pressures; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regionalization of SR and loaded areas; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Abbreviations and texts to figures.

Unsupervised classification of major depression using functional connectivity MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Ling-Li; Shen, Hui; Liu, Li; Hu, Dewen

2014-04-01

The current diagnosis of psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder based largely on self-reported symptoms and clinical signs may be prone to patients' behaviors and psychiatrists' bias. This study aims at developing an unsupervised machine learning approach for the accurate identification of major depression based on single resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans in the absence of clinical information. Twenty-four medication-naive patients with major depression and 29 demographically similar healthy individuals underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We first clustered the voxels within the perigenual cingulate cortex into two subregions, a subgenual region and a pregenual region, according to their distinct resting-state functional connectivity patterns and showed that a maximum margin clustering-based unsupervised machine learning approach extracted sufficient information from the subgenual cingulate functional connectivity map to differentiate depressed patients from healthy controls with a group-level clustering consistency of 92.5% and an individual-level classification consistency of 92.5%. It was also revealed that the subgenual cingulate functional connectivity network with the highest discriminative power primarily included the ventrolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal gyri and limbic areas, indicating that these connections may play critical roles in the pathophysiology of major depression. The current study suggests that subgenual cingulate functional connectivity network signatures may provide promising objective biomarkers for the diagnosis of major depression and that maximum margin clustering-based unsupervised machine learning approaches may have the potential to inform clinical practice and aid in research on psychiatric disorders. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Young Children's Color Preferences in the Interior Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Marilyn A.; Upington, Deborah

2009-01-01

This study focuses on children's color preferences in the interior environment. Previous studies highlight young children's preferences for the colors red and blue. The methods of this study used a rank ordering technique and a semi-structured interview process with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Findings reveal that children prefer the color…

Major gas projects in Latin America. Issues and perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khelil, C.

1997-01-01

The Latin American energy demand will reach 677 MTOE by 2010, a 50% increase over 1995. There will be a major shift towards use of natural gas in power generation. US 503 10 9 Dollars will be required over 1995-2010 to discover and develop hydrocarbon reserves, build the pipeline system as well as generate and distribute electricity. US 19 10 9 Dollars will be required for gas pipelines and LNG projects in the region. Improvements in the policy, legal and regulatory framework are required in many countries to attract the needed investments. Several major gas projects are being implemented or planned in the region: Colombia Enron-built pipeline, Peru Camisea project, Chile Nova gas pipeline from Argentina, the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline and others. The World Bank group has been assisting countries in developing a competitive business environment and can provide, when needed, comfort to lenders in project financing through a guarantee scheme in several large complex cross border projects. (au)

An updated review on tritium in the environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Eyrolle, Frédérique; Ducros, Loïc; Le Dizès, Séverine; Beaugelin-Seiller, Karine; Charmasson, Sabine; Boyer, Patrick; Cossonnet, Catherine

2018-01-01

Various studies indicated more or less recently that organically bound tritium (OBT) formed from gaseous or liquid tritium releases into the environment potentially accumulates in organisms contradicting hypotheses associated to methods used to assess the biological impact of tritium on humans (ASN, 2010). Increasing research works were then performed during the last decade in order to gain knowledge on this radionuclide expected to be increasingly released by nuclear installations in the near future within the environment. This review focusses on publications of the last decade. New unpublished observations revealing the presence of technogenic tritium in a sedimentary archive collected in the upper reaches of the Rhône river and findings from the Northwestern Mediterranean revealing in all likelihood the impact of terrigenous tritium inputs on OBT levels recorded in living organisms are also presented. Identifying and understanding the physicochemical forms of tritium and the processes leading to its persistence in environmental compartments would explain most observations regarding OBT concentrations in organisms and definitively excludes that tritium would "bio accumulate" within living organisms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE INTERACTION BETWEEN INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND INNOVATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Prylutska

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The paper evaluates the interaction between institutional environment and innovative entrepreneurship in Ukraine. The factors which effect on its development are revealed. The study substantiates the most effective institutions on the development of the innovative entrepreneurship in Ukraine.

Crowd behaviour during high-stress evacuations in an immersive virtual environment

Science.gov (United States)

Kapadia, Mubbasir; Thrash, Tyler; Sumner, Robert W.; Gross, Markus; Helbing, Dirk; Hölscher, Christoph

2016-01-01

Understanding the collective dynamics of crowd movements during stressful emergency situations is central to reducing the risk of deadly crowd disasters. Yet, their systematic experimental study remains a challenging open problem due to ethical and methodological constraints. In this paper, we demonstrate the viability of shared three-dimensional virtual environments as an experimental platform for conducting crowd experiments with real people. In particular, we show that crowds of real human subjects moving and interacting in an immersive three-dimensional virtual environment exhibit typical patterns of real crowds as observed in real-life crowded situations. These include the manifestation of social conventions and the emergence of self-organized patterns during egress scenarios. High-stress evacuation experiments conducted in this virtual environment reveal movements characterized by mass herding and dangerous overcrowding as they occur in crowd disasters. We describe the behavioural mechanisms at play under such extreme conditions and identify critical zones where overcrowding may occur. Furthermore, we show that herding spontaneously emerges from a density effect without the need to assume an increase of the individual tendency to imitate peers. Our experiments reveal the promise of immersive virtual environments as an ethical, cost-efficient, yet accurate platform for exploring crowd behaviour in high-risk situations with real human subjects. PMID:27605166

Crowd behaviour during high-stress evacuations in an immersive virtual environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Moussaïd, Mehdi; Kapadia, Mubbasir; Thrash, Tyler; Sumner, Robert W; Gross, Markus; Helbing, Dirk; Hölscher, Christoph

2016-09-01

Understanding the collective dynamics of crowd movements during stressful emergency situations is central to reducing the risk of deadly crowd disasters. Yet, their systematic experimental study remains a challenging open problem due to ethical and methodological constraints. In this paper, we demonstrate the viability of shared three-dimensional virtual environments as an experimental platform for conducting crowd experiments with real people. In particular, we show that crowds of real human subjects moving and interacting in an immersive three-dimensional virtual environment exhibit typical patterns of real crowds as observed in real-life crowded situations. These include the manifestation of social conventions and the emergence of self-organized patterns during egress scenarios. High-stress evacuation experiments conducted in this virtual environment reveal movements characterized by mass herding and dangerous overcrowding as they occur in crowd disasters. We describe the behavioural mechanisms at play under such extreme conditions and identify critical zones where overcrowding may occur. Furthermore, we show that herding spontaneously emerges from a density effect without the need to assume an increase of the individual tendency to imitate peers. Our experiments reveal the promise of immersive virtual environments as an ethical, cost-efficient, yet accurate platform for exploring crowd behaviour in high-risk situations with real human subjects. © 2016 The Authors.

Re-Aligning Government Bureaucracy to Fit the Democratic Environment of Ukraine

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Shutenko, Sergiy

1999-01-01

.... Contingency theory is used to explore how major problems related to organizational efficiency have arisen from a "misfit" between the traditional bureaucratic design and the new environment and tasks...

Galvanic corrosion of metals and coatings when coupled to uranium in severe environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winkle, J.R.; Childs, E.L.

1982-01-01

The results of galvanic testing were varied in each environment. The position of metals in the galvanic series was not fixed, but changed with environment. In all cases where high general and galvanic corrosion rates were observed, the conditions of potential, pH, and impurity content could be correlated with regions of oxide surface film instability outlined by Pourbaix Diagrams. The majority of the severe corrosion reactions were observed in the acidic environment, although a few were noted in the caustic environment. The presence of chlorides tended to enhance galvanic corrosion rates at the neutral environment. 10 tables

Has the "Equal Environments" assumption been tested in twin studies?

Science.gov (United States)

Eaves, Lindon; Foley, Debra; Silberg, Judy

2003-12-01

A recurring criticism of the twin method for quantifying genetic and environmental components of human differences is the necessity of the so-called "equal environments assumption" (EEA) (i.e., that monozygotic and dizygotic twins experience equally correlated environments). It has been proposed to test the EEA by stratifying twin correlations by indices of the amount of shared environment. However, relevant environments may also be influenced by genetic differences. We present a model for the role of genetic factors in niche selection by twins that may account for variation in indices of the shared twin environment (e.g., contact between members of twin pairs). Simulations reveal that stratification of twin correlations by amount of contact can yield spurious evidence of large shared environmental effects in some strata and even give false indications of genotype x environment interaction. The stratification approach to testing the equal environments assumption may be misleading and the results of such tests may actually be consistent with a simpler theory of the role of genetic factors in niche selection.

Perceptions of Business Teachers and Business Education Majors Regarding the Roles of Women

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Edward G.

1975-01-01

Findings revealed that: (1) male and female and black and white business teachers differed on some perceptual factor scores; (2) teachers with low and high family incomes differed from those with medium family incomes on some perceptual scores; and (3) business teachers and business education majors differed on only one score. (BP)

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions in college music majors and nonmusic majors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca L. Warner Henning

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The presence and absence of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs as well as DPOAE amplitudes were compared between college music majors and a control group of nonmusic majors. Participants included 28 music majors and 35 nonmusic majors enrolled at a university with ages ranging from 18-25 years. DPOAEs and hearing thresholds were measured bilaterally on all the participants. DPOAE amplitudes were analyzed at the following f2 frequencies: 1,187 Hz, 1,500 Hz, 1,906 Hz, 2,531 Hz, 3,031 Hz, 3812 Hz, 4,812 Hz, and 6,031 Hz. Significantly more music majors (7/28 than nonmusic majors (0/35 exhibited absent DPOAEs for at least one frequency in at least one ear. Both groups of students reported similar histories of recreational and occupational noise exposures that were unrelated to studying music, and none of the students reported high levels of noise exposure within the previous 48 h. There were no differences in audiometric thresholds between the groups at any frequency. At DPOAE f2 frequencies from 3,031 Hz to 6,031 Hz, nonsignificantly lower amplitudes of 2-4 dB were seen in the right ears of music majors versus nonmajors, and in the right ears of music majors playing brass instruments compared to music majors playing nonbrass instruments. Given the greater prevalence of absent DPOAEs in university music majors compared to nonmusic majors, it appears that early stages of cochlear damage may be occurring in this population. Additional research, preferably longitudinal and across multiple colleges/universities, would be beneficial to more definitively determine when the music students begin to show signs of cochlear damage, and to identify whether any particular subgroups of music majors are at a greater risk of cochlear damage.

Social science literature on the environment: review and prospects for energy studies. A preliminary literature survey

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sommers, P.

1975-01-01

Much of the social science literature on environment is of recent origin and represents the response of the social science research community to a complex societal problem in which technology is a major factor. Energy represents another such problem to which the social science research community is now turning its attention. Because energy problems and environment problems have some similarities and because energy-conversion processes have large effects on the environment, a review of the social science literature on environment was undertaken. The purposes of this review are as follows: (1) to study the possible utility in energy research of some of the concepts developed in social science research on the environment; (2) to study the possible utility in energy research of some of the methodologies utilized in social science research on the environment; and (3) to study the extent to which the results of social science research on the environment have contributed to the development of policy. The first two items above receive major attention in this preliminary literature survey. 50 references.

Job Satisfaction and Work Environment of Primary Health Care Nurses in Ekiti State, Nigeria: an Exploratory Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunday Joseph Ayamolowo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Job satisfaction, quality of work environment and morale of health practitioners is beginning to receive attention worldwide.Objectives: This study examined the nature of the work environment of community health nurses, and determined the level of job satisfaction among these nurses. It further explored the relationship between work environment and job satisfaction of these nurses, and perceived factors in the work environment that would increase their job satisfaction. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed. The study was conducted in public primary health care facilities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. All the 216 nurses in these facilities were recruited but only 161 nurses responded to the instrument administered. A 58- item semi-structured questionnaire was used to survey nurses currently practicing in the above health setting. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: Findings from the study revealed the mean score of nurses’ perception of their work environment to be 64.65±19.77. Forty four percent (44% of the nurses perceived their WE as of an average quality while 31% reported high quality WE. A majority (67.1% of the nurses had low degree of job satisfaction while only few nurses (3.1% reported high degree of satisfaction with job. A significant positive strong correlation was found between overall work environment and the general job satisfaction of the nurses(r = 0.55, p = < 0.01. “Provisions of modern equipment for work” and “increment/prompt payment of salary” were the most prominent factors in work environment that the nurses perceived as capable of increasing their job satisfaction (54.7% and 49.7% respectively. The least reported factor was “recommendation when one does a good job” (1.9%.Conclusion: The study concluded that a healthy work environment for nurses in the primary health care settings is an important factor in improving work satisfaction

Determination of the major compounds in the extract of the subterranean termite Macrotermes gilvus Hagen digestive tract by GC-MS method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Subekti

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Degradation of woody components by termites is associated with symbionts inside their digestive tract. In this study, the major compounds were determined in the extract of the termite guts by GC-MS method. Macrotermes gilvus Hagen (worker caste termites were collected and their dissected guts underwent methanol extraction. It was found that the gut of the termites has an alkaline environment (pH 8.83 ± 0.31 that supports the digestion of lignocellulose biomass and also helps to solubilize phenolic and recalcitrant compounds resul­ting from the depolymerization of woody components. The GC-MS analysis showed that termite guts contained hydrophobic organosilicon components including dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane, tetradecamethylcyclohexa­siloxane, hexadecamethylcyclooctasiloxane, and octasiloxane, 1,1,3,3,5,5,7,7,9,9,11,11,13,13,15,15-hexa­decamethyl. The guts also contained a phytosterol, which was identified as β-sitosterol. Further analysis of these water-insoluble compounds is needed to reveal their importance in termite digestion.

Proteomic Analysis Reveals a Role for Bcl2-associated Athanogene 3 and Major Vault Protein in Resistance to Apoptosis in Senescent Cells by Regulating ERK1/2 Activation*

Science.gov (United States)

Pasillas, Martina P.; Shields, Sarah; Reilly, Rebecca; Strnadel, Jan; Behl, Christian; Park, Robin; Yates, John R.; Klemke, Richard; Gonias, Steven L.; Coppinger, Judith A.

2015-01-01

Senescence is a prominent solid tumor response to therapy in which cells avoid apoptosis and instead enter into prolonged cell cycle arrest. We applied a quantitative proteomics screen to identify signals that lead to therapy-induced senescence and discovered that Bcl2-associated athanogene 3 (Bag3) is up-regulated after adriamycin treatment in MCF7 cells. Bag3 is a member of the BAG family of co-chaperones that interacts with Hsp70. Bag3 also regulates major cell-signaling pathways. Mass spectrometry analysis of the Bag3 Complex revealed a novel interaction between Bag3 and Major Vault Protein (MVP). Silencing of Bag3 or MVP shifts the cellular response to adriamycin to favor apoptosis. We demonstrate that Bag3 and MVP contribute to apoptosis resistance in therapy-induced senescence by increasing the level of activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2). Silencing of either Bag3 or MVP decreased ERK1/2 activation and promoted apoptosis in adriamycin-treated cells. An increase in nuclear accumulation of MVP is observed during therapy-induced senescence and the shift in MVP subcellular localization is Bag3-dependent. We propose a model in which Bag3 binds to MVP and facilitates MVP accumulation in the nucleus, which sustains ERK1/2 activation. We confirmed that silencing of Bag3 or MVP shifts the response toward apoptosis and regulates ERK1/2 activation in a panel of diverse breast cancer cell lines. This study highlights Bag3-MVP as an important complex that regulates a potent prosurvival signaling pathway and contributes to chemotherapy resistance in breast cancer. PMID:24997994

Spanish version of the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire for sport: Cultural adaptation and initial validation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javier Brazo-Sayavera

Full Text Available This study aimed to translate the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire into Spanish and provide an initial validation. A recommended methodology for translation and cultural adaptation of questionnaires was applied. Once this had been completed, three hundred and thirty-two young athletes completed the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire. The results revealed that the five factor solution Talent Development Environment Questionnaire was confirmed. With the exclusion of one item due to low factor loading, the Talent Development Environment Questionnaire-5 had robust statistical support for its factor structure (χ2 (df = 305 = 499.64, p<0.01, CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.045, SRMR = 0.055. It also demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validity. While the internal reliability was lower than in previous studies, it revealed acceptable levels. Specifically the overall 27 item Talent Development Environment Questionnaire-5 had a Cronbach α score of .877, and the reliability scores for individual factors 1-5 were .622; .761; .658; .605; .602 respectively. As such, it is recommended that the Spanish Talent Development Environment Questionnaire-5 can be used with confidence in Spain in both applied and research settings.

Revealed Preference Methods for Studying Bicycle Route Choice—A Systematic Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ray Pritchard

2018-03-01

Full Text Available One fundamental aspect of promoting utilitarian bicycle use involves making modifications to the built environment to improve the safety, efficiency and enjoyability of cycling. Revealed preference data on bicycle route choice can assist greatly in understanding the actual behaviour of a highly heterogeneous group of users, which in turn assists the prioritisation of infrastructure or other built environment initiatives. This systematic review seeks to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of the empirical approaches for evaluating whole journey route choices of bicyclists. Two electronic databases were systematically searched for a selection of keywords pertaining to bicycle and route choice. In total seven families of methods are identified: GPS devices, smartphone applications, crowdsourcing, participant-recalled routes, accompanied journeys, egocentric cameras and virtual reality. The study illustrates a trade-off in the quality of data obtainable and the average number of participants. Future additional methods could include dockless bikeshare, multiple camera solutions using computer vision and immersive bicycle simulator environments.

Mini-incubators improve the adventitious rooting performance of Corymbia and Eucalyptus microcuttings according to the environment in which they are conditioned.

Science.gov (United States)

Brondani, Gilvano E; Oliveira, Leandro S DE; Konzen, Enéas R; Silva, André L L DA; Costa, Jefferson L

2017-10-16

We addressed a major challenge in the in vitro clonal propagation of Corymbia citriodora, Eucalyptus urophylla and E. benthamii by using an ex vitro adventitious rooting strategy in a mini-incubator. Mini-incubators were placed in four environments for rooting. A shade house with no fogging system and a greenhouse with no ventilation but with a fogging environment had the best performance in terms of rooting, root growth and survival of microcuttings. Daily recording of the temperature within each mini-incubator in each environment allowed the verification of negative correlations between the maximum average temperature and the survival, adventitious rooting and root growth. The ideal maximum air temperature for the efficient production of clonal plants was 28.4°C (± 5.5°C), and the minimum was 20.3°C (± 6.2°C). E. benthamii was more sensitive to higher temperatures than C. citriodora and E. urophylla. Nevertheless, placing mini-incubators in the shade house with no fogging system resulted in a stable and uniform performance among the three species, with 100.0% survival and 81.4% rooting. Histological sections of the adventitious roots revealed connection with the stem vascular cambium. Therefore, our experimental system demonstrated the potential of mini-incubators coupled with the proper environment to optimize the adventitious rooting performance of microcuttings.

Simulation based virtual learning environment in medical genetics counseling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Makransky, Guido; Bonde, Mads T.; Wulff, Julie S. G.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Simulation based learning environments are designed to improve the quality of medical education by allowing students to interact with patients, diagnostic laboratory procedures, and patient data in a virtual environment. However, few studies have evaluated whether simulation based...... the perceived relevance of medical educational activities. The results suggest that simulations can help future generations of doctors transfer new understanding of disease mechanisms gained in virtual laboratory settings into everyday clinical practice....... learning environments increase students' knowledge, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy, and help them generalize from laboratory analyses to clinical practice and health decision-making. METHODS: An entire class of 300 University of Copenhagen first-year undergraduate students, most with a major...

The Software Management Environment (SME)

Science.gov (United States)

Valett, Jon D.; Decker, William; Buell, John

1988-01-01

The Software Management Environment (SME) is a research effort designed to utilize the past experiences and results of the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) and to incorporate this knowledge into a tool for managing projects. SME provides the software development manager with the ability to observe, compare, predict, analyze, and control key software development parameters such as effort, reliability, and resource utilization. The major components of the SME, the architecture of the system, and examples of the functionality of the tool are discussed.

Creating a school nutrition environment index and pilot testing it in elementary and middle schools in urban South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Sohyun; Kwon, Kwang-Il; Kweon, Soon Ju; Wang, Youfa; Gittelsohn, Joel

2017-10-01

The role of a school's nutrition environment in explaining students' eating behaviors and weight status has not been examined in an Asian setting. The purpose of this study was to create a school nutrition environment index and to pilot test the index in elementary and middle schools in urban South Korea. This study used a mixed-methods approach. Environment assessment tools were developed based on formative research, which comprised literature reviews, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Key elements from the formative research were included in the assessment tool, which consisted of a structured survey questionnaire for school dietitians. Fifteen school dietitians from 7 elementary and 8 middle schools in Seoul completed the questionnaire. The formative research revealed four main sections that guided a summary index to assess a school's nutrition environment: resource availability, education and programs, dietitians' perceptions and characteristics, and school lunch menu. Based on the literature reviews and interviews, an index scoring system was developed. The total possible score from the combined four index sections was 40 points. From the 15 schools participating in the pilot survey, the mean school nutrition-environment index was 22.5 (standard deviation ± 3.2; range 17-28). The majority of the schools did not offer classroom-based nutrition education or nutrition counseling for students and parents. The popular modes of nutrition education were school websites, posters, and newsletters. This paper illustrates the process used to develop an instrument to assess a school's nutrition environment. Moreover, it presents the steps used to develop a scoring system for creation of a school nutrition environment index. As pilot testing indicated the total index score has some variation across schools, we suggest applying this instrument in future studies involving a larger number of schools. Future studies with larger samples will allow investigation

Blended synchronous learning environment: Student perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Conklina Sheri

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Distance education environments can take many forms, from asynchronous to blended synchronous environments. Blended synchronous learning environment (BSLE can be defined as an innovative setting in which students can decide to attend classes either face-to-face or via a synchronous virtual connection. Many educators are unfamiliar teaching in BSLE because of lack of experience or exposure to this delivery method. Thus, it is important to understand the optimal organisational structures and the effective management of BSLE courses to facilitate student learning and interaction. Seeking to understand this teaching method, an exploratory mixed-method study was conducted to examine graduate students’ perceptions of the BSLE. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from a questionnaire and analysed. The findings revealed that students were satisfied with the BSLE, interactions, and the instructor. However, findings showed that the instructor divided attention between face-to-face and online synchronous students, which can cause cognitive overload and compromise the quality of instruction. Additionally, this study suggests that technical difficulties can affect students’ satisfaction with BSLE courses. Implications for further research and limitations are discussed.

Vulnerability Resilience in the Major Watersheds of the Korean Peninsula

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong Jung

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Water resources management requires policy enforcement in a changing environment. Climate change must be considered in major watershed river restorations in Korea. The aim of river restorations is to provide better water resource control - now and in the future. To aid in policy making in the government sector, ¡§vulnerability-resilience indexes¡¨ (VRIs with a Delphi survey method have been adopted to provide a possible reference. The Delphi survey offers prioritized vulnerability proxy variables based on expert opinions regarding the changing environment in terms of climate change and river restorations. The VRIs of watersheds were improved after river restorations, with the exception of some locations. However, when climate change was taken into consideration in the analysis of conditions after the restorations were completed, the results showed that governments need to provide better mitigation strategies to increase vulnerability resilience in the face of climate change.

Investigations of Methane Production in Hypersaline Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Bebout, Brad M.

2015-01-01

The recent reports of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, as well as the findings of hypersaline paleo-environments on that planet, have underscored the need to evaluate the importance of biological (as opposed to geological) trace gas production and consumption. Methane in the atmosphere of Mars may be an indication of life but might also be a consequence of geologic activity and/or the thermal alteration of ancient organic matter. Hypersaline environments have now been reported to be extremely likely in several locations in our solar system, including: Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. Modern hypersaline microbial mat communities, (thought to be analogous to those present on the early Earth at a period of time when Mars was experiencing very similar environmental conditions), have been shown to produce methane. However, very little is known about the physical and/or biological controls imposed upon the rates at which methane, and other important trace gases, are produced and consumed in these environments. We describe here the results of our investigations of methane production in hypersaline environments, including field sites in Chile, Baja California Mexico, California, USA and the United Arab Emirates. We have measured high concentrations of methane in bubbles of gas produced both in the sediments underlying microbial mats, as well as in areas not colonized by microbial mats in the Guerrero Negro hypersaline ecosystem, Baja California Mexico, in Chile, and in salt ponds on the San Francisco Bay. The carbon isotopic (d13C) composition of the methane in the bubbles exhibited an extremely wide range of values, (ca. -75 per mille ca. -25 per mille). The hydrogen isotopic composition of the methane (d2H) ranged from -60 to -30per mille and -450 to -350per mille. These isotopic values are outside of the range of values normally considered to be biogenic, however incubations of the sediments in contact with these gas bubbles reveals that the methane is indeed being

A novel photosynthetic strategy for adaptation to low-iron aquatic environments

Science.gov (United States)

Chauhan, D.; Folea, I.M.; Jolley, C.C.; Kouril, R.; Lubner, C.E.; Lin, S.; Kolber, D.; Wolfe-Simon, Felisa; Golbeck, J.H.; Boekema, E.J.; Fromme, P.

2011-01-01

Iron (Fe) availability is a major limiting factor for primary production in aquatic environments. Cyanobacteria respond to Fe deficiency by derepressing the isiAB operon, which encodes the antenna protein IsiA and flavodoxin. At nanomolar Fe concentrations, a PSI-IsiA supercomplex forms, comprising a PSI trimer encircled by two complete IsiA rings. This PSI-IsiA supercomplex is the largest photosynthetic membrane protein complex yet isolated. This study presents a detailed characterization of this complex using transmission electron microscopy and ultrafast fluorescence spectroscopy. Excitation trapping and electron transfer are highly efficient, allowing cyanobacteria to avoid oxidative stress. This mechanism may be a major factor used by cyanobacteria to successfully adapt to modern low-Fe environments. ?? 2010 American Chemical Society.

Catastrophic failures due to environment-assisted cracking of metals: Case histories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shipilov, S.A.

1999-01-01

One of the most serious problems in development of reliable equipment and structures in numerous major industries, namely a problem of the environment-assisted cracking of engineering materials, has been reviewed. This problem is directly related to the problems of maintenance of the safety and reliability of potentially dangerous engineering systems, such as nuclear power plants, fossil fuel power plants, oil and gas pipelines, field equipment, oil production platforms, aircraft and aerospace technologies, chemical plants, etc. At present, environment-assisted cracking, including stress corrosion cracking, corrosion fatigue, hydrogen-induced cracking, hydrogen embrittlement, sulfide stress cracking, irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking, and metal-induced embrittlement, has been a major cause of the premature failures of various components and equipment in these systems. (author)

Human Machine Interfaces for Teleoperators and Virtual Environments Conference

Science.gov (United States)

1990-01-01

In a teleoperator system the human operator senses, moves within, and operates upon a remote or hazardous environment by means of a slave mechanism (a mechanism often referred to as a teleoperator). In a virtual environment system the interactive human machine interface is retained but the slave mechanism and its environment are replaced by a computer simulation. Video is replaced by computer graphics. The auditory and force sensations imparted to the human operator are similarly computer generated. In contrast to a teleoperator system, where the purpose is to extend the operator's sensorimotor system in a manner that facilitates exploration and manipulation of the physical environment, in a virtual environment system, the purpose is to train, inform, alter, or study the human operator to modify the state of the computer and the information environment. A major application in which the human operator is the target is that of flight simulation. Although flight simulators have been around for more than a decade, they had little impact outside aviation presumably because the application was so specialized and so expensive.

Occurrence, degradation, and effect of polymer-based materials in the environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lambert, Scott; Sinclair, Chris; Boxall, Alistair

2014-01-01

There is now a plethora of polymer-based materials (PBMs) on the market, because of the increasing demand for cheaper consumable goods, and light-weight industrial materials. Each PBM constitutes a mixture of their representative polymer/sand their various chemical additives. The major polymer types are polyethylene, polypropylene,and polyvinyl chloride, with natural rubber and biodegradable polymers becoming increasingly more important. The most important additives are those that are biologically active, because to be effective such chemicals often have properties that make them resistant to photo-degradation and biodegradation. During their lifecycle,PBMs can be released into the environment form a variety of sources. The principal introduction routes being general littering, dumping of unwanted waste materials,migration from landfills and emission during refuse collection. Once in the environment,PBMs are primarily broken down by photo-degradation processes, but due to the complex chemical makeup of PBMs, receiving environments are potentially exposed to a mixture of macro-, meso-, and micro-size polymer fragments, leached additives, and subsequent degradation products. In environments where sunlight is absent (i.e., soils and the deep sea) degradation for most PBMs is minimal .The majority of literature to date that has addressed the environmental contamination or disposition of PBMs has focused on the marine environment. This is because the oceans are identified as the major sink for macro PBMs, where they are known to present a hazard to wildlife via entanglement and ingestion. The published literature has established the occurrence of microplastics in marine environment and beach sediments, but is inadequate as regards contamination of soils and freshwater sediments. The uptake of microplastics for a limited range of aquatic organisms has also been established, but there is a lack of information regarding soil organisms, and the long-term effects of

Emergence of microbial networks as response to hostile environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario eMadeo

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The majority of microorganisms live in complex communities under varying conditions. One pivotal question in evolutionary biology is the emergence of cooperative traits and their sustainment in altered environments or in the presence of free-riders. Co-occurrence patterns in the spatial distribution of biofilms can help define species' identities, and systems biology tools are revealing networks of interacting microorganisms. However, networks of inter-dependencies involving micro-organisms in the planktonic phase may be just as important, with the added complexity that they are not bounded in space. An integrated approach linking imaging, ``Omics'' and modeling has the potential to enable new hypothesis and working models. In order to understand how cooperation can emerge and be maintained without abilities like memory or recognition we use evolutionary game theory as the natural framework to model cell-cell interactions arising from evolutive decisions. We consider a finite population distributed in a spatial domain (biofilm, and divided into two interacting classes with different traits. This interaction can be weighted by distance, and produces physical connections between two elements allowing them to exchange finite amounts of energy and matter. Available strategies to each individual of one class in the population are the propensities or ``willingness'' to connect any individual of the other class. Following evolutionary game theory, we propose a mathematical model which explains the patterns of connections which emerge when individuals are able to find connection strategies that asymptotically optimize their fitness. The process explains the formation of a network for efficiently exchanging energy and matter among individuals and thus ensuring their survival in hostile environments.

Plan competitions reveal entrepreneurial talent

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Madison, Alison L.

2011-05-15

Monthly economic diversity column for Tri-City Herald business section. Excerpt below: There’s something to be said for gaining valuable real-world experience in a structured, nurturing environment. Take for instance learning to scuba dive in the comfort of my resort pool rather than immediately hanging out with sharks while I figure out little things like oxygen tanks and avoiding underwater panic attacks. Likewise, graduate students are getting some excellent, supportive real-world training through university business plan competitions. These competitions are places where smart minds, new technologies, months of preparation and coaching, and some healthy pre-presentation jitters collide to reveal not only solid new business ideas, but also some promising entrepreneurial talent. In fact, professionals from around our region descend upon college campuses every spring to judge these events, which help to bridge the gap between academics and the real technology and business-driven economy.

Finding gene-environment interactions for Phobias

OpenAIRE

Gregory, Alice M.; Lau, Jennifer Y. F.; Eley, Thalia C.

2008-01-01

Phobias are common disorders causing a great deal of suffering. Studies of gene-environment interaction (G × E) have revealed much about the complex processes underlying the development of various psychiatric disorders but have told us little about phobias. This article describes what is already known about genetic and environmental influences upon phobias and suggests how this information can be used to optimise the chances of discovering G × Es for phobias. In addition to the careful concep...

Robustness of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and W states for teleportation in external environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu Mingliang, E-mail: mingliang0301@163.co [School of Science, Xi' an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi' an 710061 (China)

2011-01-31

By solving analytically a master equation in the Lindblad form, we study quantum teleportation of the one-qubit state under the influence of different surrounding environments, and compared the robustness between Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) and W states in terms of their teleportation capacity. The results revealed that when subject to zero temperature environment, the GHZ state is always more robust than the W state, while the reverse situation occurs when the channel is subject to infinite temperature or dephasing environment.

Robustness of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and W states for teleportation in external environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Mingliang

2011-01-01

By solving analytically a master equation in the Lindblad form, we study quantum teleportation of the one-qubit state under the influence of different surrounding environments, and compared the robustness between Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) and W states in terms of their teleportation capacity. The results revealed that when subject to zero temperature environment, the GHZ state is always more robust than the W state, while the reverse situation occurs when the channel is subject to infinite temperature or dephasing environment.

Analysis of the Pseudoalteromonas tunicata genome reveals properties of a surface-associated life style in the marine environment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Torsten Thomas

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Colonisation of sessile eukaryotic host surfaces (e.g. invertebrates and seaweeds by bacteria is common in the marine environment and is expected to create significant inter-species competition and other interactions. The bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata is a successful competitor on marine surfaces owing primarily to its ability to produce a number of inhibitory molecules. As such P. tunicata has become a model organism for the studies into processes of surface colonisation and eukaryotic host-bacteria interactions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To gain a broader understanding into the adaptation to a surface-associated life-style, we have sequenced and analysed the genome of P. tunicata and compared it to the genomes of closely related strains. We found that the P. tunicata genome contains several genes and gene clusters that are involved in the production of inhibitory compounds against surface competitors and secondary colonisers. Features of P. tunicata's oxidative stress response, iron scavenging and nutrient acquisition show that the organism is well adapted to high-density communities on surfaces. Variation of the P. tunicata genome is suggested by several landmarks of genetic rearrangements and mobile genetic elements (e.g. transposons, CRISPRs, phage. Surface attachment is likely to be mediated by curli, novel pili, a number of extracellular polymers and potentially other unexpected cell surface proteins. The P. tunicata genome also shows a utilisation pattern of extracellular polymers that would avoid a degradation of its recognised hosts, while potentially causing detrimental effects on other host types. In addition, the prevalence of recognised virulence genes suggests that P. tunicata has the potential for pathogenic interactions. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The genome analysis has revealed several physiological features that would provide P. tunciata with competitive advantage against other members of the surface

Analysis of the Pseudoalteromonas tunicata genome reveals properties of a surface-associated life style in the marine environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Torsten; Evans, Flavia F; Schleheck, David; Mai-Prochnow, Anne; Burke, Catherine; Penesyan, Anahit; Dalisay, Doralyn S; Stelzer-Braid, Sacha; Saunders, Neil; Johnson, Justin; Ferriera, Steve; Kjelleberg, Staffan; Egan, Suhelen

2008-09-24

Colonisation of sessile eukaryotic host surfaces (e.g. invertebrates and seaweeds) by bacteria is common in the marine environment and is expected to create significant inter-species competition and other interactions. The bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata is a successful competitor on marine surfaces owing primarily to its ability to produce a number of inhibitory molecules. As such P. tunicata has become a model organism for the studies into processes of surface colonisation and eukaryotic host-bacteria interactions. To gain a broader understanding into the adaptation to a surface-associated life-style, we have sequenced and analysed the genome of P. tunicata and compared it to the genomes of closely related strains. We found that the P. tunicata genome contains several genes and gene clusters that are involved in the production of inhibitory compounds against surface competitors and secondary colonisers. Features of P. tunicata's oxidative stress response, iron scavenging and nutrient acquisition show that the organism is well adapted to high-density communities on surfaces. Variation of the P. tunicata genome is suggested by several landmarks of genetic rearrangements and mobile genetic elements (e.g. transposons, CRISPRs, phage). Surface attachment is likely to be mediated by curli, novel pili, a number of extracellular polymers and potentially other unexpected cell surface proteins. The P. tunicata genome also shows a utilisation pattern of extracellular polymers that would avoid a degradation of its recognised hosts, while potentially causing detrimental effects on other host types. In addition, the prevalence of recognised virulence genes suggests that P. tunicata has the potential for pathogenic interactions. The genome analysis has revealed several physiological features that would provide P. tunciata with competitive advantage against other members of the surface-associated community. We have also identified properties that could mediate interactions

Animated pedagogical agents: do they advance student motivation and learning in an inquiry learning environment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Meij, Hans; van der Meij, Jan; Harmsen, Ruth

2012-01-01

Student behavior in inquiry learning environments has often been found to be in need of (meta)cognitive support. Two pilots revealed that students might also benefit from motivational support in such an environment. An experiment with 61 junior high school students (ages 14-16) compared three

Animated Pedagogical Agents: Do they advance student motivation and learning in an inquiry learning environment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Meij, Hans; van der Meij, Jan; Harmsen, R.

2012-01-01

Student behavior in inquiry learning environments has often been found to be in need of (meta)cognitive support. Two pilots revealed that students might also benefit from motivational support in such an environment. An experiment with 61 junior high school students (ages 14-16) compared three

Speciation environments and centres of diversity in southern Africa. I. Conceptual framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. R. Robinson

1982-10-01

Full Text Available A knowledge of the nature and distribution of the environments where speciation (micro-evolution is or has been rapid would help explain plant distributions and give insight into the mechanisms of plant evolution. Before southern African speciation environments can be identified and described, a number of basic theoretical concepts have to be clarified. In this paper the major taxonomic, systematic, floristic, ecological and evolutionary ideas pertinent to speciation environments are reviewed and discussed. Despite many publications about species concepts, species diversity, modes of speciation and the relationship between environments and genetic variability within taxa, it is still not possible to make predictions about the kinds of environments that favour speciation.

Anatomy and Histology of Rodent and Human Major Salivary Glands

Science.gov (United States)

Amano, Osamu; Mizobe, Kenichi; Bando, Yasuhiko; Sakiyama, Koji

2012-01-01

Major salivary glands of both humans and rodents consist of three pairs of macroscopic glands: parotid, submandibular, and sublingual. These glands secrete serous, mucous or mixed saliva via the proper main excretory ducts connecting the glandular bodies with the oral cavity. A series of discoveries about the salivary ducts in the 17th century by Niels Stensen (1638–1686), Thomas Wharton (1614–1673), and Caspar Bartholin (1655–1738) established the concept of exocrine secretion as well as salivary glands. Recent investigations have revealed the endocrine functions of parotin and a variety of cell growth factors produced by salivary glands. The present review aims to describe macroscopic findings on the major salivary glands of rodents and the microscopic differences between those of humans and rodents, which review should be of interest to those researchers studying salivary glands. PMID:23209333

An Approach to Scoring Collaboration in Online Game Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Scoular, Claire; Care, Esther; Awwal, Nafisa

2017-01-01

With technological advances, it is now possible to use games to capture information-rich behaviours that reveal processes by which players interact and solve problems. Recent problem-based games have been designed to assess and record detailed interactions between the problem solver and the game environment, and thereby capture salient solution…

Assessment of the thermal environment in an aircraft cabin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ingers, S.; Melikov, Arsen Krikor

2004-01-01

equivalent temperature, up to 5.8°C, was identified in the outer seats. The results reveal that in an aircraft cabin, passengers in the outer seats may be exposed to thermal asymmetry and draught and may not find the thermal environment acceptable if the ventilation air is not properly supplied....

Water Pollution Prediction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and Countermeasures for Sustainable Development of the Water Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yinghui Li

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The Three Gorges Project was implemented in 1994 to promote sustainable water resource use and development of the water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (hereafter “Reservoir Area”. However, massive discharge of wastewater along the river threatens these goals; therefore, this study employs a grey prediction model (GM to predict the annual emissions of primary pollution sources, including industrial wastewater, domestic wastewater, and oily and domestic wastewater from ships, that influence the Three Gorges Reservoir Area water environment. First, we optimize the initial values of a traditional GM (1,1 model, and build a new GM (1,1 model that minimizes the sum of squares of the relative simulation errors. Second, we use the new GM (1,1 model to simulate historical annual emissions data for the four pollution sources and thereby test the effectiveness of the model. Third, we predict the annual emissions of the four pollution sources in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area for a future period. The prediction results reveal the annual emission trends for the major wastewater types, and indicate the primary sources of water pollution in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. Based on our predictions, we suggest several countermeasures against water pollution and towards the sustainable development of the water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.

Water Pollution Prediction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and Countermeasures for Sustainable Development of the Water Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Shuaijin; Qu, Xuexin

2017-01-01

The Three Gorges Project was implemented in 1994 to promote sustainable water resource use and development of the water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (hereafter “Reservoir Area”). However, massive discharge of wastewater along the river threatens these goals; therefore, this study employs a grey prediction model (GM) to predict the annual emissions of primary pollution sources, including industrial wastewater, domestic wastewater, and oily and domestic wastewater from ships, that influence the Three Gorges Reservoir Area water environment. First, we optimize the initial values of a traditional GM (1,1) model, and build a new GM (1,1) model that minimizes the sum of squares of the relative simulation errors. Second, we use the new GM (1,1) model to simulate historical annual emissions data for the four pollution sources and thereby test the effectiveness of the model. Third, we predict the annual emissions of the four pollution sources in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area for a future period. The prediction results reveal the annual emission trends for the major wastewater types, and indicate the primary sources of water pollution in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. Based on our predictions, we suggest several countermeasures against water pollution and towards the sustainable development of the water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. PMID:29077006

Cognitive Learning Strategy as a Partial Effect on Major Field Test in Business Results

Science.gov (United States)

Strang, Kenneth David

2014-01-01

An experiment was developed to determine if cognitive learning strategies improved standardized university business exam results. Previous studies revealed that factors such as prior ability, age, gender, and culture predicted a student's Major Field Test in Business (MFTB) score better than course content. The experiment control consisted of…

Teaching Biotechnology through Case Studies--Can We Improve Higher Order Thinking Skills of Nonscience Majors?

Science.gov (United States)

Dori, Yehudit J.; Tal, Revital T.; Tsaushu, Masha

2003-01-01

Teaching nonscience majors topics in biotechnology through case studies is the focus of this research. Our "Biotechnology, Environment, and Related Issues" module, developed within the "Science for All" framework, is aimed at elevating the level of students' scientific and technological literacy and their higher order thinking…

Genetic algorithms with memory- and elitism-based immigrants in dynamic environments

OpenAIRE

Yang, S

2008-01-01

Copyright @ 2008 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology In recent years the genetic algorithm community has shown a growing interest in studying dynamic optimization problems. Several approaches have been devised. The random immigrants and memory schemes are two major ones. The random immigrants scheme addresses dynamic environments by maintaining the population diversity while the memory scheme aims to adapt genetic algorithms quickly to new environments by reusing historical inform...

Photovoltaics and the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumann, A.E.

1994-01-01

This paper considers the impact of photovoltaics on the environment and its application and role in the energy supply sector. It discusses the environmental and health impacts associated with photovoltaics by using Life Cycle Analysis as an instrument to determine its environmental effects. Recent Life Cycle studies have shown that PV can be considered an environmentally low risk technology, with its major environmental impacts occurring at the module manufacturing and waste disposal stages. The employment of environmental control mechanisms and statutory health and safety regulations at PV production facilities have helped to further reduce occupational and public health hazards. (author)

Neurocognitive differential diagnosis of dementing diseases: Alzheimer's Dementia, Vascular Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Major Depressive Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Braaten, Alyssa J; Parsons, Thomas D; McCue, Robert; Sellers, Alfred; Burns, William J

2006-11-01

Similarities in presentation of Dementia of Alzheimer's Type, Vascular Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Major Depressive Disorder, pose differential diagnosis challenges. The current study identifies specific neuropsychological patterns of scores for Dementia of Alzheimer's Type, Vascular Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Major Depressive Disorder. Neuropsychological domains directly assessed in the study included: immediate memory, delayed memory, confrontational naming, verbal fluency, attention, concentration, and executive functioning. The results reveal specific neuropsychological comparative profiles for Dementia of Alzheimer's Type, Vascular Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Major Depressive Disorder. The identification of these profiles will assist in the differential diagnosis of these disorders and aid in patient treatment.

Use of Color in Child Care Environments: Application of Color for Wayfinding and Space Definition in Alabama Child Care Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Marilyn A.

2003-01-01

Compared the use of color in physical design features associated with the exterior and interior designs of 101 child care centers in Alabama. Found that color was evidenced on the exterior of the centers at just over half of the sample. The interior environments had warm colors and bright accents in the setting; however, the majority of centers…

FDG PET imaging of Ela1-myc mice reveals major biological differences between pancreatic acinar and ductal tumours

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abasolo, Ibane [Institut Municipal d' Investigacio Medica-Hospital del Mar, Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain); Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona, Departament de Ciencies Experimentals i de la Salut, Barcelona (Spain); Institut d' Alta Tecnologia - CRC, Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain); Pujal, Judit; Navarro, Pilar [Institut Municipal d' Investigacio Medica-Hospital del Mar, Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain); Rabanal, Rosa M.; Serafin, Anna [Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals, Barcelona (Spain); Millan, Olga [Institut d' Alta Tecnologia - CRC, Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain); Real, Francisco X. [Institut Municipal d' Investigacio Medica-Hospital del Mar, Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain); Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona, Departament de Ciencies Experimentals i de la Salut, Barcelona (Spain); Programa de Patologia Molecular, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas, Madrid (Spain)

2009-07-15

The aim was to evaluate FDG PET imaging in Ela1-myc mice, a pancreatic cancer model resulting in the development of tumours with either acinar or mixed acinar-ductal phenotype. Transversal and longitudinal FDG PET studies were conducted; selected tissue samples were subjected to autoradiography and ex vivo organ counting. Glucose transporter and hexokinase mRNA expression was analysed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR); Glut2 expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry. Transversal studies showed that mixed acinar-ductal tumours could be identified by FDG PET several weeks before they could be detected by hand palpation. Longitudinal studies revealed that ductal - but not acinar - tumours could be detected by FDG PET. Autoradiographic analysis confirmed that tumour areas with ductal differentiation incorporated more FDG than areas displaying acinar differentiation. Ex vivo radioactivity measurements showed that tumours of solely acinar phenotype incorporated more FDG than pancreata of non-transgenic littermates despite the fact that they did not yield positive PET images. To gain insight into the biological basis of the differential FDG uptake, glucose transporter and hexokinase transcript expression was studied in microdissected tumour areas enriched for acinar or ductal cells and validated using cell-specific markers. Glut2 and hexokinase I and II mRNA levels were up to 20-fold higher in ductal than in acinar tumours. Besides, Glut2 protein overexpression was found in ductal neoplastic cells but not in the surrounding stroma. In Ela1-myc mice, ductal tumours incorporate significantly more FDG than acinar tumours. This difference likely results from differential expression of Glut2 and hexokinases. These findings reveal previously unreported biological differences between acinar and ductal pancreatic tumours. (orig.)

FDG PET imaging of Ela1-myc mice reveals major biological differences between pancreatic acinar and ductal tumours

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abasolo, Ibane; Pujal, Judit; Navarro, Pilar; Rabanal, Rosa M.; Serafin, Anna; Millan, Olga; Real, Francisco X.

2009-01-01

The aim was to evaluate FDG PET imaging in Ela1-myc mice, a pancreatic cancer model resulting in the development of tumours with either acinar or mixed acinar-ductal phenotype. Transversal and longitudinal FDG PET studies were conducted; selected tissue samples were subjected to autoradiography and ex vivo organ counting. Glucose transporter and hexokinase mRNA expression was analysed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR); Glut2 expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry. Transversal studies showed that mixed acinar-ductal tumours could be identified by FDG PET several weeks before they could be detected by hand palpation. Longitudinal studies revealed that ductal - but not acinar - tumours could be detected by FDG PET. Autoradiographic analysis confirmed that tumour areas with ductal differentiation incorporated more FDG than areas displaying acinar differentiation. Ex vivo radioactivity measurements showed that tumours of solely acinar phenotype incorporated more FDG than pancreata of non-transgenic littermates despite the fact that they did not yield positive PET images. To gain insight into the biological basis of the differential FDG uptake, glucose transporter and hexokinase transcript expression was studied in microdissected tumour areas enriched for acinar or ductal cells and validated using cell-specific markers. Glut2 and hexokinase I and II mRNA levels were up to 20-fold higher in ductal than in acinar tumours. Besides, Glut2 protein overexpression was found in ductal neoplastic cells but not in the surrounding stroma. In Ela1-myc mice, ductal tumours incorporate significantly more FDG than acinar tumours. This difference likely results from differential expression of Glut2 and hexokinases. These findings reveal previously unreported biological differences between acinar and ductal pancreatic tumours. (orig.)

Metabolomic Analyses of Leishmania Reveal Multiple Species Differences and Large Differences in Amino Acid Metabolism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gareth D Westrop

Full Text Available Comparative genomic analyses of Leishmania species have revealed relatively minor heterogeneity amongst recognised housekeeping genes and yet the species cause distinct infections and pathogenesis in their mammalian hosts. To gain greater information on the biochemical variation between species, and insights into possible metabolic mechanisms underpinning visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis, we have undertaken in this study a comparative analysis of the metabolomes of promastigotes of L. donovani, L. major and L. mexicana. The analysis revealed 64 metabolites with confirmed identity differing 3-fold or more between the cell extracts of species, with 161 putatively identified metabolites differing similarly. Analysis of the media from cultures revealed an at least 3-fold difference in use or excretion of 43 metabolites of confirmed identity and 87 putatively identified metabolites that differed to a similar extent. Strikingly large differences were detected in their extent of amino acid use and metabolism, especially for tryptophan, aspartate, arginine and proline. Major pathways of tryptophan and arginine catabolism were shown to be to indole-3-lactate and arginic acid, respectively, which were excreted. The data presented provide clear evidence on the value of global metabolomic analyses in detecting species-specific metabolic features, thus application of this technology should be a major contributor to gaining greater understanding of how pathogens are adapted to infecting their hosts.

Quality of the Home Learning Environment during Preschool Age--Domains and Contextual Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Kluczniok, Katharina; Lehrl, Simone; Kuger, Susanne; Rossbach, Hans-Guenther

2013-01-01

The quality of the home learning environment has been proven to be of major importance for child development, but little is known about the role of domain specificity in promoting early childhood learning at home and its dependence on family background. This article presents a framework of the home learning environment in early childhood that…

EXTREMELY METAL-POOR GALAXIES: THE ENVIRONMENT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Filho, M. E. [Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria–Universidad de La Laguna, CIE Canarias: Tri-Continental Atlantic Campus, Canary Islands (Spain); Almeida, J. Sánchez; Muñoz-Tuñón, C. [Instituto Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Nuza, S. E.; Kitaura, F.; Heß, S., E-mail: mfilho@astro.up.pt [Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam (Germany)

2015-04-01

We have analyzed bibliographical observational data and theoretical predictions, in order to probe the environment in which extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxies (XMPs) reside. We have assessed the H i component and its relation to the optical galaxy, the cosmic web type (voids, sheets, filaments and knots), the overdensity parameter and analyzed the nearest galaxy neighbors. The aim is to understand the role of interactions and cosmological accretion flows in the XMP observational properties, particularly the triggering and feeding of the star formation. We find that XMPs behave similarly to Blue Compact Dwarfs; they preferably populate low-density environments in the local universe: ∼60% occupy underdense regions, and ∼75% reside in voids and sheets. This is more extreme than the distribution of irregular galaxies, and in contrast to those regions preferred by elliptical galaxies (knots and filaments). We further find results consistent with previous observations; while the environment does determine the fraction of a certain galaxy type, it does not determine the overall observational properties. With the exception of five documented cases (four sources with companions and one recent merger), XMPs do not generally show signatures of major mergers and interactions; we find only one XMP with a companion galaxy within a distance of 100 kpc, and the H i gas in XMPs is typically well-behaved, demonstrating asymmetries mostly in the outskirts. We conclude that metal-poor accretion flows may be driving the XMP evolution. Such cosmological accretion could explain all the major XMP observational properties: isolation, lack of interaction/merger signatures, asymmetric optical morphology, large amounts of unsettled, metal-poor H i gas, metallicity inhomogeneities, and large specific star formation.

SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS AS PREDICTORS OF PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY IN RETAIL ENVIRONMENT

OpenAIRE

Jelčić, Sandra

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to determine service quality dimensions as predictors of perceived service quality in retail environment. Recent studies emphasised the multidimensional nature of service quality and multidimensional service quality measurement models. Literature reveals that SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al. 1988) and RSQS (Dabholkar et al. 1996) are the most common instruments used to measure service quality in retail. Considering different market environments neither SERVQUAL nor RS...

Does the Environment Exacerbate Effects of Stress on Black ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Diet and obesity are major risk factors for a large number of non-communicable diseases, for which black women experience disproportionately high morbidity and mortality. Psychosocial stress and the food environment have emerged as two potentially important influences on black women's food choices. The combination ...

ENC 2002: Setting the scene for a major public event

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

The series of European Conferences were coupled with the only major nuclear science and industry exhibitions of truly world dimension. They offer the perfect opportunity to serve as a platform for a clear and positive message on nuclear power in Europe to the public to promote an image of openness and sound business. Main objectives were: ease of access for the target groups; politically favourable environment; cost efficiency to be assured in the interest of the industry; state-of-the-art facilities; exhibition and conference under one roof

Revealing Forest Harvesting Effects on Large Peakflows in Rain-On-Snow Environment with a New Stochastic Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Rong, W. N.; Alila, Y.

2017-12-01

Using nine pairs of control-treatment watersheds with varying climate, physiography, and harvesting practices in the Rain-On-Snow (ROS) environment of the Pacific Northwest region, we explore the linkage between environmental control and the sensitivity of peakflow response to harvesting effects. Compared to previous paired watershed studies in ROS environment, we employed an experimental design of Frequency Pairing to isolate the effects of disturbances on systems' response. In contrary, the aspect of changing frequency distributions is not commonly invoked in previous literatures on the topic of forests and floods. Our results show how harvesting can dramatically increase the magnitude of all peakflows on record and how such effects can increase with increasing return periods, as a consequence of substantial increases to the mean and variance of the peakflow frequency distribution. Most critically, peakflows with return period larger than 10 years can increase in frequency, where the larger the peakflow event the more frequent it may become. The sensitivity of the upper tail of the frequency distribution of peakflows was found to be linked to the physiographic and climatic characteristics via a unifying synchronization / desynchronization spatial scaling mechanism that controls the generation of rain-on-snow runoff. This new physically-based stochastic hydrology understanding on the response of watersheds in ROS environments runs counter the deterministic prevailing wisdom of forest hydrology, which presumes a limited and diminishing role of forest cover as the magnitude of the peakflow event increases. By demonstrating the need for invoking the dimension of frequency in the understanding and prediction of the effects of harvesting on peakflows, findings from this study suggested that pure deterministic hypotheses and experimental designs that solely focusing on the changing magnitude of peakflows have been misguiding forest hydrology research for over a century

Poverty, Socio-Political Factors and Degradation of the Environment in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Need For a Holistic Approach to the Protection of the Environment and Realisation of the Right to Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emeka Polycarp Amechi

2009-09-01

Full Text Available The right to environment is a recognised human right in Africa. However, despite the legal and institutional frameworks designed to respect, promote, protect and fulfil the right, its enjoyment is still a mirage to majority of African citizens as a result of environmental degradation. This article aims to proffer a holistic or integrated approach to tackling the problem of environmental degradation in sub-Saharan Africa in order to enhance the protection of the environment and the realisation of this right in the region. It recognises that the problem of environmental degradation in the region is not due to lack of regulatory frameworks, but rather due to other factors that are mainly socio-economic and political in nature. It argues that to enhance the protection of the environment and realisation of this right in sub-Saharan Africa, African governments must adopt a holistic approach towards the protection of the environment, and proposes the promotion of good governance and socio-economic reform in the region as an integral core of such approach.

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klinda, J.; Lieskovska, Z.

2005-01-01

The State of the Environment Report 2008 is a result of a concentration of a wider range of specialists from different departments - from specialists providing for environmental monitoring, evaluation of particular indicators, creation and building of the information system, creation, implementation and evaluation of statistical evaluations, to specialists focused on aimed evaluation of the environment situation in the Slovak Republic (SR) and its comparison with other countries, especially in the European Union (EU) and closer in the area of Central Europe. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental problems; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regionalization; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Appendixes - maps; Abbreviations and texts to figures.

Hydrophobic environment is a key factor for the stability of thermophilic proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Gromiha, M Michael; Pathak, Manish C; Saraboji, Kadhirvel; Ortlund, Eric A; Gaucher, Eric A

2013-04-01

The stability of thermophilic proteins has been viewed from different perspectives and there is yet no unified principle to understand this stability. It would be valuable to reveal the most important interactions for designing thermostable proteins for such applications as industrial protein engineering. In this work, we have systematically analyzed the importance of various interactions by computing different parameters such as surrounding hydrophobicity, inter-residue interactions, ion-pairs and hydrogen bonds. The importance of each interaction has been determined by its predicted relative contribution in thermophiles versus the same contribution in mesophilic homologues based on a dataset of 373 protein families. We predict that hydrophobic environment is the major factor for the stability of thermophilic proteins and found that 80% of thermophilic proteins analyzed showed higher hydrophobicity than their mesophilic counterparts. Ion pairs, hydrogen bonds, and interaction energy are also important and favored in 68%, 50%, and 62% of thermophilic proteins, respectively. Interestingly, thermophilic proteins with decreased hydrophobic environments display a greater number of hydrogen bonds and/or ion pairs. The systematic elimination of mesophilic proteins based on surrounding hydrophobicity, interaction energy, and ion pairs/hydrogen bonds, led to correctly identifying 95% of the thermophilic proteins in our analyses. Our analysis was also applied to another, more refined set of 102 thermophilic-mesophilic pairs, which again identified hydrophobicity as a dominant property in 71% of the thermophilic proteins. Further, the notion of surrounding hydrophobicity, which characterizes the hydrophobic behavior of residues in a protein environment, has been applied to the three-dimensional structures of elongation factor-Tu proteins and we found that the thermophilic proteins are enriched with a hydrophobic environment. The results obtained in this work highlight the

Strategic focus on 3R principles reveals major reductions in the use of animals in pharmaceutical toxicity testing.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elin Törnqvist

Full Text Available The principles of the 3Rs, Replacement, Reduction and Refinement, are being increasingly incorporated into legislations, guidelines and practice of animal experiments in order to safeguard animal welfare. In the present study we have studied the systematic application of 3R principles to toxicological research in the pharmaceutical industry, with particular focus on achieving reductions in animal numbers used in regulatory and investigatory in vivo studies. The work also details major factors influencing these reductions including the conception of ideas, cross-departmental working and acceptance into the work process. Data from 36 reduction projects were collected retrospectively from work between 2006 and 2010. Substantial reduction in animal use was achieved by different strategies, including improved study design, method development and project coordination. Major animal savings were shown in both regulatory and investigative safety studies. If a similar (i.e. 53% reduction had been achieved simultaneously within the twelve largest pharmaceutical companies, the equivalent reduction world-wide would be about 150,000 rats annually. The results point at the importance of a strong 3R culture, with scientific engagement, collaboration and a responsive management being vital components. A strong commitment in leadership for the 3R is recommended to be translated into cross-department and inter-profession involvement in projects for innovation, validation and implementation. Synergies between all the three Rs are observed and conclude that in silico-, in vitro- and in vivo-methods all hold the potential for applying the reduction R and should be consequently coordinated at a strategic level.

Clustering of very luminous infrared galaxies and their environment

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, YU

1993-01-01

The IRAS survey reveals a class of ultraluminous infrared (IR) galaxies (ULIRG's) with IR luminosities comparable to the bolometric luminosities of quasars. The nature, origin, and evolution of ULIRG's are attracting more and more attention recently. Since galaxy morphology is certainly a function of environment, morphological observations show that ULIRG's are interacting/merging galaxies, and some ULIRG's might be the dust-enshrouded quasars (S88) or giant ellipticals, the study of ULIRG's environment and large scale clustering effects should be worthwhile. ULIRG's and very luminous IR galaxies have been selected from the 2Jy IRAS redshift survey. Meanwhile, a catalog of IRAS groups of galaxies has been constructed using a percolation-like algorithm. Therefore, whether ULIRG's and/or VLIRG's have a group environment can be checked immediately. Other aspects of the survey are discussed.

Proteomic analysis reveals a role for Bcl2-associated athanogene 3 and major vault protein in resistance to apoptosis in senescent cells by regulating ERK1/2 activation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pasillas, Martina P; Shields, Sarah; Reilly, Rebecca; Strnadel, Jan; Behl, Christian; Park, Robin; Yates, John R; Klemke, Richard; Gonias, Steven L; Coppinger, Judith A

2015-01-01

Senescence is a prominent solid tumor response to therapy in which cells avoid apoptosis and instead enter into prolonged cell cycle arrest. We applied a quantitative proteomics screen to identify signals that lead to therapy-induced senescence and discovered that Bcl2-associated athanogene 3 (Bag3) is up-regulated after adriamycin treatment in MCF7 cells. Bag3 is a member of the BAG family of co-chaperones that interacts with Hsp70. Bag3 also regulates major cell-signaling pathways. Mass spectrometry analysis of the Bag3 Complex revealed a novel interaction between Bag3 and Major Vault Protein (MVP). Silencing of Bag3 or MVP shifts the cellular response to adriamycin to favor apoptosis. We demonstrate that Bag3 and MVP contribute to apoptosis resistance in therapy-induced senescence by increasing the level of activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2). Silencing of either Bag3 or MVP decreased ERK1/2 activation and promoted apoptosis in adriamycin-treated cells. An increase in nuclear accumulation of MVP is observed during therapy-induced senescence and the shift in MVP subcellular localization is Bag3-dependent. We propose a model in which Bag3 binds to MVP and facilitates MVP accumulation in the nucleus, which sustains ERK1/2 activation. We confirmed that silencing of Bag3 or MVP shifts the response toward apoptosis and regulates ERK1/2 activation in a panel of diverse breast cancer cell lines. This study highlights Bag3-MVP as an important complex that regulates a potent prosurvival signaling pathway and contributes to chemotherapy resistance in breast cancer. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

TYPES AND QUANTITIES OF LEFTOVER DRUGS ENTERING THE ENVIRONMENT VIA DISPOSAL TO SEWAGE - REVEALED BY CORONERS' RECORDS

Science.gov (United States)

BACKGROUND: Pharmaceuticals designed for humans and animals often remain unused. Leftover and accumulated drugs represent suboptimal delivery of health care and environmentally unsound disposal, which can pose exposure risks for humans and wildlife.OBJECTIVES: A major unk...

Adaptive genomic evolution of opsins reveals that early mammals flourished in nocturnal environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Borges, Rui; Johnson, Warren E; O'Brien, Stephen J; Gomes, Cidália; Heesy, Christopher P; Antunes, Agostinho

2018-02-05

Based on evolutionary patterns of the vertebrate eye, Walls (1942) hypothesized that early placental mammals evolved primarily in nocturnal habitats. However, not only Eutheria, but all mammals show photic characteristics (i.e. dichromatic vision, rod-dominated retina) suggestive of a scotopic eye design. Here, we used integrative comparative genomic and phylogenetic methodologies employing the photoreceptive opsin gene family in 154 mammals to test the likelihood of a nocturnal period in the emergence of all mammals. We showed that mammals possess genomic patterns concordant with a nocturnal ancestry. The loss of the RH2, VA, PARA, PARIE and OPN4x opsins in all mammals led us to advance a probable and most-parsimonious hypothesis of a global nocturnal bottleneck that explains the loss of these genes in the emerging lineage (> > 215.5 million years ago). In addition, ancestral character reconstruction analyses provided strong evidence that ancestral mammals possessed a nocturnal lifestyle, ultra-violet-sensitive vision, low visual acuity and low orbit convergence (i.e. panoramic vision). Overall, this study provides insight into the evolutionary history of the mammalian eye while discussing important ecological aspects of the photic paleo-environments ancestral mammals have occupied.

OCCUPATIONAL ACCIDENTS AS INDICATORS OF INADEQUATE WORK CONDITIONS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

OpenAIRE

Petar Babović

2009-01-01

Occupational accidents due to inadequate working conditions and work environment present a major problem in highly industrialised countries, as well as in developing ones. Occupational accidents are a regular and accompanying phenomenon in all human activities and one of the main health related and economic problems in modern societies.The aim of this study is the analysis of the connections of unfavourable working conditions and working environment on occupational accidents. Occurrence of oc...

Proteome-metabolome profiling of ovarian cancer ascites reveals novel components involved in intercellular communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Shender, Victoria O; Pavlyukov, Marat S; Ziganshin, Rustam H; Arapidi, Georgij P; Kovalchuk, Sergey I; Anikanov, Nikolay A; Altukhov, Ilya A; Alexeev, Dmitry G; Butenko, Ivan O; Shavarda, Alexey L; Khomyakova, Elena B; Evtushenko, Evgeniy; Ashrafyan, Lev A; Antonova, Irina B; Kuznetcov, Igor N; Gorbachev, Alexey Yu; Shakhparonov, Mikhail I; Govorun, Vadim M

2014-12-01

Ovarian cancer ascites is a native medium for cancer cells that allows investigation of their secretome in a natural environment. This medium is of interest as a promising source of potential biomarkers, and also as a medium for cell-cell communication. The aim of this study was to elucidate specific features of the malignant ascites metabolome and proteome. In order to omit components of the systemic response to ascites formation, we compared malignant ascites with cirrhosis ascites. Metabolome analysis revealed 41 components that differed significantly between malignant and cirrhosis ascites. Most of the identified cancer-specific metabolites are known to be important signaling molecules. Proteomic analysis identified 2096 and 1855 proteins in the ovarian cancer and cirrhosis ascites, respectively; 424 proteins were specific for the malignant ascites. Functional analysis of the proteome demonstrated that the major differences between cirrhosis and malignant ascites were observed for the cluster of spliceosomal proteins. Additionally, we demonstrate that several splicing RNAs were exclusively detected in malignant ascites, where they probably existed within protein complexes. This result was confirmed in vitro using an ovarian cancer cell line. Identification of spliceosomal proteins and RNAs in an extracellular medium is of particular interest; the finding suggests that they might play a role in the communication between cancer cells. In addition, malignant ascites contains a high number of exosomes that are known to play an important role in signal transduction. Thus our study reveals the specific features of malignant ascites that are associated with its function as a medium of intercellular communication. © 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Technology-Supported Learning Environments in Science Classrooms in India

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Adit; Fisher, Darrell

2012-01-01

The adoption of technology has created a major impact in the field of education at all levels. Technology-supported classroom learning environments, involving modern information and communication technologies, are also entering the Indian educational system in general and the schools in Jammu region (Jammu & Kashmir State, India) in…

Interdisciplinary Project Experiences: Collaboration between Majors and Non-Majors

Science.gov (United States)

Smarkusky, Debra L.; Toman, Sharon A.

2014-01-01

Students in computer science and information technology should be engaged in solving real-world problems received from government and industry as well as those that expose them to various areas of application. In this paper, we discuss interdisciplinary project experiences between majors and non-majors that offered a creative and innovative…

MYCOTOXINS CONTAMINATION IN EDIBLE LAND SNAIL AT GRAZING PADDOCK ENVIRONMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ime Ebenso

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Mycotoxins contamination of animal products is under reported. Juvenile edible land snails (Archachatina marginata were exposed as sentinels in bottomless metal drums for 1 week at abandoned, new and reference sites respectively at grazing paddock environment, to assess the presence of foodborne microbiological mycotoxins contamination during the dry season. Mycological analysis of A. marginata samples revealed high (p<0.05 contamination at all paddocks ranged from 1.2-1.3 x 105 cfu-g. Results revealed values that were found to be unacceptable by FAO/WHO standards. The presence of Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus and Penicillum expansum were noted as potential toxicogenic mycoflora. Snails were tolerant to all levels of contamination with no clinical signs of infection or mortality. This finding could serve as basis for assessing pre-slaughter microbial contamination of livestock farm/field environment in order to establish data with comparative epidemiological value, which could highlight early warning signals of food safety risk and cross-contamination of mycotoxins in the food chain.

Energy forum 92: Efficiency, trade and the environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1992-01-01

In 1992 B.C. Hydro's annual Electric Energy Forum was held in conjunction with the National Energy Forum to provide an opportunity for delegates from utilities, government, industry, international development agencies, environmental groups, universities and interested members of the public to discuss major energy issues of today and tomorrow. Three main themes were addressed: Efficiency (the latest developments in energy-efficient technologies and their role in sustainable development), trade (strategies for trade in energy and related technologies), and environment (the effects of energy production, use and trade on the local, regional and global environment). This document presents opening remarks, speeches presented, and panel discussions.

DeepJet: a portable ML environment for HEP

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva; Mehta, Swapneel Sundeep

2018-01-01

In this presentation we will detail the evolution of the DeepJet python environment. Initially envisaged to support the development of the namesake jet flavour tagger in CMS, DeepJet has grown to encompass multiple purposes within the collaboration. The presentation will describe the major features the environment sports: simple out-of-memory training with a multi-treaded approach to maximally exploit the hardware acceleration, simple and streamlined I/O to help bookkeeping of the developments, and finally docker image distribution, to simplify the deployment of the whole ecosystem on multiple datacenters. The talk will also cover future development, mainly aimed at improving user experience.

A high molybdenum stainless steel and its resistance to chloride environments in the welded condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coppolecchia, V.D.; Jasner, M.; Rockel, M.B.

1988-01-01

Highly alloyed stainless steels, such as 1925 hMo UNS N08925 with 6 percent molybdenum, are finding widespread use in high chloride cooling water and process environments. This alloy has good general corrosion resistance to a variety of chloride environments but it's main attraction is excellent resistance to all forms of localized corrosion. In aggressive chloride environments weldments are generally the area of concern with regard to localized corrosion. Temperature-time-sensitization diagrams are presented that demonstrate the resistance of 1925 hMo weldments to intergranular attack. Immersion tests in 10% ferric chloride substantiate that autogenous tube welds, also have excellent pitting resistance. Various filler metals are compared both electrochemically and in immersion tests. These comparisons reveal that an overalloyed filler metal is required to achieve pitting and crevice corrosion resistance equal or better than that of the base metal. Alloy 625 (UNS NO6625) has been selected. Constant extension rate tests in boiling 62% calcium chloride reveal that 1925 hMo weldments are immune to stress corrosion cracking in this environment which virtually guarantees absence of SCC in seawater regardless of temperature as well as in most commercial chemical environments

Data link air traffic control and flight deck environments: Experiment in flight crew performance

Science.gov (United States)

Lozito, Sandy; Mcgann, Alison; Corker, Kevin

1993-01-01

This report describes an experiment undertaken in a full mission simulation environment to investigate the performance impact of, and human/system response to, data-linked Air Traffic Control (ATC) and automated flight deck operations. Subjects were twenty pilots (ten crews) from a major United States air carrier. Crews flew the Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator (ACFS), a generic 'glass cockpit' simulator at NASA Ames. The method of data link used was similar to the data link implementation plans for a next-generation aircraft, and included the capability to review ATC messages and directly enter ATC clearance information into the aircraft systems. Each crew flew experimental scenarios, in which data reflecting communication timing, errors and clarifications, and procedures were collected. Results for errors and clarifications revealed an interaction between communication modality (voice v. data link) and communication type (air/ground v. intracrew). Results also revealed that voice crews initiated ATC contact significantly more than data link crews. It was also found that data link crews performed significantly more extraneous activities during the communication task than voice crews. Descriptive data from the use of the review menu indicate the pilot-not-flying accessing the review menu most often, and also suggest diffulty in accessing the target message within the review menu structure. The overall impact of communication modality upon air/ground communication and crew procedures is discussed.

Magnetic studies of dusts in the urban environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie, S.

2000-12-01

Dusts are one of the major public health concerns in the urban environment. This study investigates the application of magnetic techniques in the studies of urban dust pollution. Measurements of magnetic properties, element concentrations, and the organic matter content were carried out on Liverpool (UK) street dust and/or Bootle (UK) deposited dust. Mixed dominant ferrimagnetic phases are found in Liverpool street dust although magnetite is probably a major one. The partial susceptibility technique is able to model the contributions of main magnetic components satisfactorily in Liverpool street dust. There are similar spatial distributions for some measurements, such as χLF and Pb, whilst there are different patterns for some measurements, such as χLF and the organic matter content. There are good linear correlations between the organic matter content and some magnetic mineral concentration-related parameters for < 1mm (bulk) samples. Among them, frequency dependent susceptibility (χFD) shows the highest correlation coefficient value. χFD percentage demonstrates a significant correlation with the organic matter content for size fraction and bulk samples. This suggests that re-entrainment of soil is probably a major source of the organic material present in street dust. The ratio χARM /SIRM shows a highly significant correlation with the organic matter content for <150μm fraction samples. The study demonstrates that the simple, rapid, and non-destructive magnetic measurements may be used as proxies for the organic matter content in street dust. Associations between magnetic properties and element concentrations are investigated by using correlation analysis and factor analysis, which may be a potential approach for source identification of magnetic material in the environment. The study suggests that ferrimagnetic minerals are the dominant magnetic component in Bootle dust samples. Both studied sites show similar magnetic properties, but they can be

[Training session on healthy environments: evaluation of an intervention for local stakeholders].

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Virginie; Rivard, Marie-Claude; Trudeau, François

2016-01-01

Around the world, various interventions have been developed to encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyles, particularly nutrition and physical activity. Physical, political, economic and socio-cultural environments have a major influence on individual attitudes in relation to healthy lifestyle. However, stakeholders with the greatest impact on improving these environments are not always well informed about the theory and their roles on the creation of environments favourable to healthy lifestyles. Various stakeholders from the province of Quebec were therefore invited to attend training sessions in order to prepare them to act on these four environments. 1) To describe the perceptions of the stakeholders who attended these sessions concerning the content and teaching methods and 2) to identify stakeholders’ changes of perceptions and practices following the training session. Twelve (12) focus groups and 52 individual interviews were conducted across Quebec with stakeholders who attended a training session. Our results indicate increased awareness of stakeholders on the importance of their role but also the need to more precisely target those aspects requiring increased awareness. A content better suited to the level of expertise is therefore proposed to maximize the benefits of these training sessions. Training sessions must be addressed to influential stakeholders with a limited knowledge on the subject, which is often the case for municipal decision-makers known to play a major role in promoting environments favourable to healthy eating and physical activity.

FEAST: Empowering Community Residents to Use Technology to Assess and Advocate for Healthy Food Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheats, Jylana L; Winter, Sandra J; Romero, Priscilla Padilla; King, Abby C

2017-04-01

Creating environments that support healthy eating is important for successful aging, particularly in light of the growing population of older adults in the United States. There is an urgent need to identify innovative upstream solutions to barriers experienced by older adults in accessing and buying healthy food. FEAST (Food Environment Assessment STudy) is an effort that is part of the global Our Voice initiative, which utilizes a combination of technology and community-engaged methods to empower citizen scientists (i.e., community residents) to: (1) use the Healthy Neighborhood Discovery Tool (Discovery Tool) mobile application to collect data (geocoded photos, audio narratives) about aspects of their environment that facilitate or hinder healthy living; and (2) use findings to advocate for change in partnership with local decision and policy makers. In FEAST, 23 racially/ethnically diverse, low-income, and food-insecure older adults residing in urban, North San Mateo County, CA, were recruited to use the Discovery Tool to examine factors that facilitated or hindered their access to food as well as their food-related behaviors. Participants collectively reviewed data retrieved from the Discovery Tool and identified and prioritized important, yet feasible, issues to address. Access to affordable healthy food and transportation were identified as the major barriers to eating healthfully and navigating their neighborhood food environments. Subsequently, participants were trained in advocacy skills and shared their findings with relevant decision and policymakers, who in turn dispelled myths and discussed and shared resources to address relevant community needs. Proximal and distal effects of the community-engaged process at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months were documented and revealed individual-, community-, and policy-level impacts. Finally, FEAST contributes to the evidence on multi-level challenges that low-income, racially/ethnically diverse older adults experience

18S rDNA Sequences from Microeukaryotes Reveal Oil Indicators in Mangrove Sediment

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Henrique F.; Cury, Juliano C.; Carmo, Flavia L.; Rosado, Alexandre S.; Peixoto, Raquel S.

2010-01-01

Background Microeukaryotes are an effective indicator of the presence of environmental contaminants. However, the characterisation of these organisms by conventional tools is often inefficient, and recent molecular studies have revealed a great diversity of microeukaryotes. The full extent of this diversity is unknown, and therefore, the distribution, ecological role and responses to anthropogenic effects of microeukaryotes are rather obscure. The majority of oil from oceanic oil spills (e.g., the May 2010 accident in the Gulf of Mexico) converges on coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, which are threatened with worldwide disappearance, highlighting the need for efficient tools to indicate the presence of oil in these environments. However, no studies have used molecular methods to assess the effects of oil contamination in mangrove sediment on microeukaryotes as a group. Methodology/Principal Findings We evaluated the population dynamics and the prevailing 18S rDNA phylotypes of microeukaryotes in mangrove sediment microcosms with and without oil contamination, using PCR/DGGE and clone libraries. We found that microeukaryotes are useful for monitoring oil contamination in mangroves. Our clone library analysis revealed a decrease in both diversity and species richness after contamination. The phylogenetic group that showed the greatest sensitivity to oil was the Nematoda. After contamination, a large increase in the abundance of the groups Bacillariophyta (diatoms) and Biosoecida was detected. The oil-contaminated samples were almost entirely dominated by organisms related to Bacillariophyta sp. and Cafeteria minima, which indicates that these groups are possible targets for biomonitoring oil in mangroves. The DGGE fingerprints also indicated shifts in microeukaryote profiles; specific band sequencing indicated the appearance of Bacillariophyta sp. only in contaminated samples and Nematoda only in non-contaminated sediment. Conclusions/Significance We believe that

Design of Virtual Environments for the Comprehension of Planetary Phenomena Based on Students' Ideas.

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Bakas, Christos; Mikropoulos, Tassos A.

2003-01-01

Explains the design and development of an educational virtual environment to support the teaching of planetary phenomena, particularly the movements of Earth and the sun, day and night cycle, and change of seasons. Uses an interactive, three-dimensional (3D) virtual environment. Initial results show that the majority of students enthused about…

Ore-forming environment identification and uranium metallogenic features in Manite depression

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Zhengyi; Liu Wusheng; Jia Licheng; Shi Qingping; Peng Cong; Chen Hua

2014-01-01

By using limonitization, the important indicator of uranium ore-forming identification as the product of acid water transportation from the reducing environment to the oxidation environment, based on the specimen examination naked eye, microscopic identification, electron microscopy, electron microprobe were used to study the major elements, trace elements, organic carbon, total sulfur, uranium valence and uranium, thorium isotope "2"3"4U/"2"3"8U, "2"3"0Th/"2"3"2Th ratio, hydrocarbons especially clay mineral species and the total amount, V/(V + Ni) water stratification and bottom hydrodynamic environment and other factors, which can indicate the microphase environment of all types of rocks in Manite depression, and uranium ore-forming factors were identified and evaluation are discussed and some suggestions were submitted. (authors)

Integration of optical fibers in radiative environments: Advantages and limitations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Girard, S.; Ouerdane, Y.; Boukenter, A.; Marcandella, C.; Bisutti, J.; Baggio, J.; Meunier, J. P.

2011-01-01

We review the advantages and limitations for the integration of optical fibers in radiative environments. Optical fibers present numerous advantages for applications in harsh environments such as their electromagnetic immunity. This explains the increasing interest of the radiation effects community to evaluate their vulnerability for future facilities. However, it is also well-known that optical fibers suffer from a degradation of their macroscopic properties under irradiation. We illustrate the major mechanisms and parameters that govern the degradation mechanism, mainly the radiation-induced attenuation phenomena. We focus on the fiber transient radiation responses when exposed to the pulsed and mixed environment associated with the Megajoule class lasers devoted to the fusion by inertial confinement study. (authors)

Politics in evaluation: Politically responsive evaluation in high stakes environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Azzam, Tarek; Levine, Bret

2015-12-01

The role of politics has often been discussed in evaluation theory and practice. The political influence of the situation can have major effects on the evaluation design, approach and methods. Politics also has the potential to influence the decisions made from the evaluation findings. The current study focuses on the influence of the political context on stakeholder decision making. Utilizing a simulation scenario, this study compares stakeholder decision making in high and low stakes evaluation contexts. Findings suggest that high stakes political environments are more likely than low stakes environments to lead to reduced reliance on technically appropriate measures and increased dependence on measures better reflect the broader political environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cultivar-Based Introgression Mapping Reveals Wild Species-Derived Pm-0, the Major Powdery Mildew Resistance Locus in Squash

Science.gov (United States)

Holdsworth, William L.; LaPlant, Kyle E.; Bell, Duane C.; Jahn, Molly M.; Mazourek, Michael

2016-01-01

Powdery mildew is a major fungal disease on squash and pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) in the US and throughout the world. Genetic resistance to the disease is not known to occur naturally within Cucurbita pepo and only infrequently in Cucurbita moschata, but has been achieved in both species through the introgression of a major resistance gene from the wild species Cucurbita okeechobeensis subsp. martinezii. At present, this gene, Pm-0, is used extensively in breeding, and is found in nearly all powdery mildew-resistant C. pepo and C. moschata commercial cultivars. In this study, we mapped C. okeechobeensis subsp. martinezii-derived single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) alleles in a set of taxonomically and morphologically diverse and resistant C. pepo and C. moschata cultivars bred at Cornell University that, by common possession of Pm-0, form a shared-trait introgression panel. High marker density was achieved using genotyping-by-sequencing, which yielded over 50,000 de novo SNP markers in each of the three Cucurbita species genotyped. A single 516.4 kb wild-derived introgression was present in all of the resistant cultivars and absent in a diverse set of heirlooms that predated the Pm-0 introgression. The contribution of this interval to powdery mildew resistance was confirmed by association mapping in a C. pepo cultivar panel that included the Cornell lines, heirlooms, and 68 additional C. pepo cultivars and with an independent F2 population derived from C. okeechobeensis subsp. martinezii x C. moschata. The interval was refined to a final candidate interval of 76.4 kb and CAPS markers were developed inside this interval to facilitate marker-assisted selection. PMID:27936008

Cultivar-Based Introgression Mapping Reveals Wild Species-Derived Pm-0, the Major Powdery Mildew Resistance Locus in Squash.

Science.gov (United States)

Holdsworth, William L; LaPlant, Kyle E; Bell, Duane C; Jahn, Molly M; Mazourek, Michael

2016-01-01

Powdery mildew is a major fungal disease on squash and pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) in the US and throughout the world. Genetic resistance to the disease is not known to occur naturally within Cucurbita pepo and only infrequently in Cucurbita moschata, but has been achieved in both species through the introgression of a major resistance gene from the wild species Cucurbita okeechobeensis subsp. martinezii. At present, this gene, Pm-0, is used extensively in breeding, and is found in nearly all powdery mildew-resistant C. pepo and C. moschata commercial cultivars. In this study, we mapped C. okeechobeensis subsp. martinezii-derived single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) alleles in a set of taxonomically and morphologically diverse and resistant C. pepo and C. moschata cultivars bred at Cornell University that, by common possession of Pm-0, form a shared-trait introgression panel. High marker density was achieved using genotyping-by-sequencing, which yielded over 50,000 de novo SNP markers in each of the three Cucurbita species genotyped. A single 516.4 kb wild-derived introgression was present in all of the resistant cultivars and absent in a diverse set of heirlooms that predated the Pm-0 introgression. The contribution of this interval to powdery mildew resistance was confirmed by association mapping in a C. pepo cultivar panel that included the Cornell lines, heirlooms, and 68 additional C. pepo cultivars and with an independent F2 population derived from C. okeechobeensis subsp. martinezii x C. moschata. The interval was refined to a final candidate interval of 76.4 kb and CAPS markers were developed inside this interval to facilitate marker-assisted selection.

Third Pole Environment (TPE): a new frontier for interdisciplinary research

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Z.; Yao, T.; Thompson, L. G.; Mosbrugger, V.; Zhang, F.; Ma, Y.; Yang, X.; Wang, W.; Joswiak, D.; Liu, X.; Devkota, L. P.; Tayal, S.; Luo, T.

2013-12-01

The Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain ranges, referred to by scientists as the Third Pole (TP), represent one of the largest ice masses of the Earth. The region is one of the most sensitive areas responding to global climate change due to its high altitude and the presence of permafrost and glaciers. The near 100,000 km2 of glaciers ensure the permanent flow of major rivers in this region and provide water to 1.4 billion people in Asia. Thus, environmental changes taking place on the TP significantly influences social and economic development of countries in this region such as China, India, Nepal, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan. With an average elevation higher than 4,000 metres above sea level, the Third Pole is characterized by complex interactions of atmospheric, cryospheric, hydrological, geological and environmental processes that bear special significance for the Earth's biodiversity, climate and water cycles. For a comprehensive understanding of the environment of the TP and its implications on the development of the region, we need to integrate different disciplines under a them of 'water-ice-air-ecosystem -human' interactions and reveal environmental change processes and mechanisms on the TP and their influences on and regional responses to global changes, and thus to serve for enhancement of human adaptation to the changing environment. Like Antarctica and the Arctic, the Third Pole region is drawing increased attention of the international academic community. A series of observations and monitoring programs in the Third Pole region has been widely implemented. However, data necessary to precisely assess the environmental, societal and economic changes caused by alterations in the Third Pole dynamics are either lacking or insufficient. The Third Pole Environment (TPE) program is thus established as a comprehensive and coordinated international research, monitoring and capacity building initiative, with goals to address the influence

Managing major chemical accidents in China: Towards effective risk information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Guizhen; Zhang Lei; Lu Yonglong; Mol, Arthur P.J.

2011-01-01

Chemical industries, from their very inception, have been controversial due to the high risks they impose on safety of human beings and the environment. Recent decades have witnessed increasing impacts of the accelerating expansion of chemical industries and chemical accidents have become a major contributor to environmental and health risks in China. This calls for the establishment of an effective chemical risk management system, which requires reliable, accurate and comprehensive data in the first place. However, the current chemical accident-related data system is highly fragmented and incomplete, as different responsible authorities adopt different data collection standards and procedures for different purposes. In building a more comprehensive, integrated and effective information system, this article: (i) reviews and assesses the existing data sources and data management, (ii) analyzes data on 976 recorded major hazardous chemical accidents in China over the last 40 years, and (iii) identifies the improvements required for developing integrated risk management in China.

The "Double-Edged Sword" of the Adult Learning Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Sara; Mitchell, Jane

2013-01-01

The vocational education and training sector plays a critical role in the provision of educational opportunities for young adults who have left school prior to completing a qualification. Some research has found that a major factor that supports student re-engagement in formal education is the "adult learning environment" that…

Molecular Cloning, Characterization, and Expression of Cuc m 2, a Major Allergen in Cucumis melo

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Mojtaba Sankian

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Several studies reported the clinical features of IgE-mediated hypersensitivity after ingestion of melon. Melon allergy is a common IgE-mediated fruit allergy in Iran. This prompted us to investigate immunochemical and molecular properties of the major allergen in melon fruit, to compare the IgE-binding capacity of the natural protein with the recombinant allergen, and to determine cross-reactivity of the major allergen with closely-related allergens from other plants displaying clinical cross-reactivity with melon. Methods: Identification and molecular characterization of the major melon allergen were performed using IgE immunoblotting, allergen-specific ELISA, affinity-based purifications, cross-inhibition assays, cloning, and expression of the allergen in Escherichia coli. Results: Melon profilin was identified and isolated as a major IgE-binding component and designated as Cuc m 2. Sequencing corresponding cDNA revealed an open reading frame of 363 bp coding for 131 amino acid residues and two fragments of 171 bp and 383 bps for the 5’and 3’ UTRs, respectively. Significant cross-reactivity was found between melon profilin and Cynodon dactylon, tomato, peach, and grape profilins in cross-inhibition assays. Although the highest degree of amino acid identity was revealed with watermelon profilin, there was no significant cross-reactivity between melon and watermelon profilins. Conclusion: Melon profilin is the major IgE-binding component in melon extract, and the recombinant and natural forms exhibited similar IgE-binding capacities. A part of the fruit-fruit and pollen-fruit cross-reactions could be explained by the presence of this conserved protein; however, sequence homology provides insufficient information to predict IgE cross-reactivity of profilins.

The energy-development-environment nexus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schneider, Bertrand

1992-01-01

Energy is the key factor in tackling two of the major problems now facing humanity: the environment and development. Adequate and appropriate energy supplies are essential to economic and social development, especially for Third World countries, but at the same time energy production and utilization are responsible for much of the damage being done to the environment. As everyone now knows, the combustion of fossil fuels is the main source of greenhouse gases and of the threat to the stability of world climate. Nuclear power, which once seemed an answer to the constantly increasing demand for energy, is now challenged by public opinion in many countries as a result of various nuclear accidents and the problems of processing and storing nuclear waste. So how do we extricate ourselves from the energy environment-development tangle? Clearly, advanced countries have an interest in transferring environment-friendly technologies to developing countries in order to reduce the pollution which puts the global as well as the local environment at risk. The North is, by and large, becoming aware of the choices involved in protecting the environment versus industrial growth and unlimited use of motor vehicles. For the South, these choices are a luxury they can ill afford, given the imperative of rapid development. The solution must be for greater international co-operation, with the North assisting the South (and the former Communist bloc) financially and through transfer of appropriate technologies at affordable cost. Reconciling the environment and development with respect to the energy cycle is a task of fundamental importance for the future. The prime responsibility for this task obviously lies with industries, but action is also required from governments, to enable them to play their part effectively. Advanced countries must demonstrate that development is fully compatible with protecting the environment. They can do so by using market forces, provided that the appropriate

Walking for Well-Being: Are Group Walks in Certain Types of Natural Environments Better for Well-Being than Group Walks in Urban Environments?

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Sara L. Warber

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The benefits of walking in natural environments for well-being are increasingly understood. However, less well known are the impacts different types of natural environments have on psychological and emotional well-being. This cross-sectional study investigated whether group walks in specific types of natural environments were associated with greater psychological and emotional well-being compared to group walks in urban environments. Individuals who frequently attended a walking group once a week or more (n = 708 were surveyed on mental well-being (Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, depression (Major Depressive Inventory, perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale and emotional well-being (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Compared to group walks in urban environments, group walks in farmland were significantly associated with less perceived stress and negative affect, and greater mental well-being. Group walks in green corridors were significantly associated with less perceived stress and negative affect. There were no significant differences between the effect of any environment types on depression or positive affect. Outdoor walking group programs could be endorsed through “green prescriptions” to improve psychological and emotional well-being, as well as physical activity.

2D-DIGE analysis of mango (Mangifera indica L.) fruit reveals major proteomic changes associated with ripening.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Jonathan de Magalhães; Toledo, Tatiana Torres; Nogueira, Silvia Beserra; Cordenunsi, Beatriz Rosana; Lajolo, Franco Maria; do Nascimento, João Roberto Oliveira

2012-06-18

A comparative proteomic investigation between the pre-climacteric and climacteric mango fruits (cv. Keitt) was performed to identify protein species with variable abundance during ripening. Proteins were phenol-extracted from fruits, cyanine-dye-labeled, and separated on 2D gels at pH 4-7. Total spot count of about 373 proteins spots was detected in each gel and forty-seven were consistently different between pre-climacteric and climacteric fruits and were subjected to LC-MS/MS analysis. Functional classification revealed that protein species involved in carbon fixation and hormone biosynthesis decreased during ripening, whereas those related to catabolism and the stress-response, including oxidative stress and abiotic and pathogen defense factors, accumulated. In relation to fruit quality, protein species putatively involved in color development and pulp softening were also identified. This study on mango proteomics provides an overview of the biological processes that occur during ripening. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transcriptional similarity in couples reveals the impact of shared environment and lifestyle on gene regulation through modified cytosines

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Ke Tang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Gene expression is a complex and quantitative trait that is influenced by both genetic and non-genetic regulators including environmental factors. Evaluating the contribution of environment to gene expression regulation and identifying which genes are more likely to be influenced by environmental factors are important for understanding human complex traits. We hypothesize that by living together as couples, there can be commonly co-regulated genes that may reflect the shared living environment (e.g., diet, indoor air pollutants, behavioral lifestyle. The lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs derived from unrelated couples of African ancestry (YRI, Yoruba people from Ibadan, Nigeria from the International HapMap Project provided a unique model for us to characterize gene expression pattern in couples by comparing gene expression levels between husbands and wives. Strikingly, 778 genes were found to show much smaller variances in couples than random pairs of individuals at a false discovery rate (FDR of 5%. Since genetic variation between unrelated family members in a general population is expected to be the same assuming a random-mating society, non-genetic factors (e.g., epigenetic systems are more likely to be the mediators for the observed transcriptional similarity in couples. We thus evaluated the contribution of modified cytosines to those genes showing transcriptional similarity in couples as well as the relationships these CpG sites with other gene regulatory elements, such as transcription factor binding sites (TFBS. Our findings suggested that transcriptional similarity in couples likely reflected shared common environment partially mediated through cytosine modifications.

Participatory Research Revealing the Work and Occupational Health Hazards of Cooperative Recyclers in Brazil

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Sonia M. N. Felipone

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Although informal waste collectors are sometimes organized in cooperatives, their working conditions remain extremely precarious and unsafe. The paper discusses the findings of action oriented, participatory qualitative research with several recycling groups in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil. During workshops with the recyclers mapping, acting, and drawing methods helped reveal health hazards from collection, separation and transportation of recyclable materials. Major health problems relate to chemical and biological hazards, musculoskeletal damage, mechanical trauma and poor emotional wellbeing. The recent federal legislation on solid waste management opens new avenues for the inclusion of recycling cooperatives in selective waste collection. Nevertheless, we express the need to consider the distinctive characteristics and vulnerabilities of recycling groups, when developing safer work environments in these social businesses. We also suggest that the workspace be ergonomically organized and that public awareness campaigns about selective waste collection are conducted regularly to increase the quality of source separation. The introduction of electric hand pushed carts can further reduce health strains. This research has produced a better understanding of the work of the recyclers and related health risks. The interactive qualitative research methodology has allowed for the co-creation and mobilization of specific knowledge on health and safety in recycling cooperatives.

Ion exchange reactions of major inorganic cations (H+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and K+) on beidellite: Experimental results and new thermodynamic database. Toward a better prediction of contaminant mobility in natural environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robin, Valentin; Tertre, Emmanuel; Beaufort, Daniel; Regnault, Olivier; Sardini, Paul; Descostes, Michael

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Multi-site ion exchange model for beidellite for Na + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + and H + . • Validity over the 1–7 pH range and total normality >5 × 10 −3 mol/L. • Application to equilibrium between smectite and acidic solution from mining sites. • Impact of crystal chemistry of smectites on their sorption properties. - Abstract: To our knowledge, no thermodynamic database is available in the literature concerning ion-exchange reactions occurring in low-charge smectite with tetrahedral charge (beidellite). The lack of this information makes it difficult to predict the mobility of contaminants in environments where beidellite and major cations, which act as competitors with contaminants for sorption on the clay phase, are present. The present study proposes a multi-site ion exchange model able to describe experimental data obtained for H + and the four major cations (Na + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and K + ) found in natural waters interacting with a <0.3 μm size fraction of Na-beidellite. The nature of the sites involved in the sorption processes is assessed using qualitative structural data. Moreover, the effect of the charge location in the smectite on the selectivity coefficient values is discussed by comparison with the results reported in the literature for smectite characterized by octahedral charge (montmorillonite). The new thermodynamic database proposed in this study is based on the same total sorption site density and distribution of sites regardless of the cations investigated. This database is valid for a large range of physico-chemical conditions: a [1–7] pH range, a total normality higher than 5 × 10 −3 mol/L corresponding to a flocculated state for water/clay systems, and when sorption of ions pairs can be neglected. Note that this study provides evidence that a thermodynamic database describing ion exchange reactions between H + and the four major cations of natural water for smectite cannot be valid irrespective of the total

Vibrio cholerae classical biotype strains reveal distinct signatures in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Alam, Munirul; Islam, M Tarequl; Rashed, Shah Manzur; Johura, Fatema-tuz; Bhuiyan, Nurul A; Delgado, Gabriela; Morales, Rosario; Mendez, Jose Luis; Navarro, Armando; Watanabe, Haruo; Hasan, Nur-A; Colwell, Rita R; Cravioto, Alejandro

2012-07-01

Vibrio cholerae O1 classical (CL) biotype caused the fifth and sixth pandemics, and probably the earlier cholera pandemics, before the El Tor (ET) biotype initiated the seventh pandemic in Asia in the 1970s by completely displacing the CL biotype. Although the CL biotype was thought to be extinct in Asia and although it had never been reported from Latin America, V. cholerae CL and ET biotypes, including a hybrid ET, were found associated with areas of cholera endemicity in Mexico between 1991 and 1997. In this study, CL biotype strains isolated from areas of cholera endemicity in Mexico between 1983 and 1997 were characterized in terms of major phenotypic and genetic traits and compared with CL biotype strains isolated in Bangladesh between 1962 and 1989. According to sero- and biotyping data, all V. cholerae strains tested had the major phenotypic and genotypic characteristics specific for the CL biotype. Antibiograms revealed the majority of the Bangladeshi strains to be resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, furazolidone, ampicillin, and gentamicin, while the Mexican strains were sensitive to all of these drugs, as well as to ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, and tetracycline. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of NotI-digested genomic DNA revealed characteristic banding patterns for all of the CL biotype strains although the Mexican strains differed from the Bangladeshi strains in 1 to 2 DNA bands. The difference was subtle but consistent, as confirmed by the subclustering patterns in the PFGE-based dendrogram, and can serve as a regional signature, suggesting the pre-1991 existence and evolution of the CL biotype strains in the Americas, independent from Asia.

A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of dalytyphloplanida (platyhelminthes: rhabdocoela reveals multiple escapes from the marine environment and origins of symbiotic relationships.

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Niels Van Steenkiste

Full Text Available In this study we elaborate the phylogeny of Dalytyphloplanida based on complete 18S rDNA (156 sequences and partial 28S rDNA (125 sequences, using a Maximum Likelihood and a Bayesian Inference approach, in order to investigate the origin of a limnic or limnoterrestrial and of a symbiotic lifestyle in this large group of rhabditophoran flatworms. The results of our phylogenetic analyses and ancestral state reconstructions indicate that dalytyphloplanids have their origin in the marine environment and that there was one highly successful invasion of the freshwater environment, leading to a large radiation of limnic and limnoterrestrial dalytyphloplanids. This monophyletic freshwater clade, Limnotyphloplanida, comprises the taxa Dalyelliidae, Temnocephalida, and most Typhloplanidae. Temnocephalida can be considered ectosymbiotic Dalyelliidae as they are embedded within this group. Secondary returns to brackish water and marine environments occurred relatively frequently in several dalyeliid and typhloplanid taxa. Our phylogenies also show that, apart from the Limnotyphloplanida, there have been only few independent invasions of the limnic environment, and apparently these were not followed by spectacular speciation events. The distinct phylogenetic positions of the symbiotic taxa also suggest multiple origins of commensal and parasitic life strategies within Dalytyphloplanida. The previously established higher-level dalytyphloplanid clades are confirmed in our topologies, but many of the traditional families are not monophyletic. Alternative hypothesis testing constraining the monophyly of these families in the topologies and using the approximately unbiased test, also statistically rejects their monophyly.

Mental state decoding impairment in major depression and borderline personality disorder: meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Richman, Mara J; Unoka, Zsolt

2015-12-01

Patients with major depression and borderline personality disorder are characterised by a distorted perception of other people's intentions. Deficits in mental state decoding are thought to be the underlying cause of this clinical feature. To examine, using meta-analysis, whether mental state decoding abilities in patients with major depression and borderline personality disorder differ from those of healthy controls. A systematic review of 13 cross-sectional studies comparing Reading in the Mind of the Eyes Test (RMET) accuracy performance of patients with major depression or borderline personality disorder and healthy age-matched controls (n = 976). Valence scores, where reported, were also assessed. Large significant deficits were seen for global RMET performance in patients with major depression (d = -0.751). The positive RMET valence scores of patients with depression were significantly worse; patients with borderline personality disorder had worse neutral scores. Both groups were worse than controls. Moderator analysis revealed that individuals with comorbid borderline personality disorder and major depression did better than those with borderline personality disorder alone on accuracy. Those with comorbid borderline personality disorder and any cluster B or C personality disorder did worse than borderline personality disorder alone. Individuals with both borderline personality disorder and major depression performed better then those with borderline personality disorder without major depression for positive valence. These findings highlight the relevance of RMET performance in patients with borderline personality disorder and major depression, and the importance of considering comorbidity in future analysis. © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015.

Rural Household Demographics, Livelihoods and the Environment

OpenAIRE

de Sherbinin, Alex; VanWey, Leah; McSweeney, Kendra; Aggarwal, Rimjhim; Barbieri, Alisson; Henry, Sabina; Hunter, Lori M.; Twine, Wayne

2008-01-01

This paper reviews and synthesizes findings from scholarly work on linkages among rural household demographics, livelihoods and the environment. Using the livelihood approach as an organizing framework, we examine evidence on the multiple pathways linking environmental variables and the following demographic variables: fertility, migration, morbidity and mortality, and lifecycles. Although the review draws on studies from the entire developing world, we find the majority of micro-level studie...

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2006

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon

2008-01-01

Environmental awareness is to be raised also through regular information on the state of environment, which forms the basis for political decisions to achieve the objectives of the National strategy for sustainable development, control and evaluation of outcomes of the national environmental policy and sectoral integration strategies. State of the Environment Report in the Slovak Republic in 2006 is only one of the forms of publishing this type of information. The Report informs the general public about environmental situation in Slovakia and also makes comparisons to other EU member states. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental pressures; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regionalization; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Abbreviations and SR districts.

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2004

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klinda, J.; Lieskovska, Z.

2005-01-01

The State of the Environment Report is a result of a concentration of a wider range of specialists from different departments - from specialists providing for environmental monitoring, evaluation of particular indicators, creation and building of the information system, creation, implementation and evaluation of statistical evaluations, to specialist focused on aimed evaluation of the environment situation in the Slovak Republic (SR) and its comparison with other countries, especially in the European Union (EU) and closer in the area of Central Europe. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental problems; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regional classification of Slovakia and deteriorated regions; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Abbreviations and texts to figures

State of the Environment Report of the Slovak Republic 2006

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klinda, J.; Lieskovska, Z.

2008-01-01

Environmental awareness is to be raised also through regular information on the state of environment, which forms the basis for political decisions to achieve the objectives of the National strategy for sustainable development, control and evaluation of outcomes of the national environmental policy and sectoral integration strategies. State of the Environment Report in the Slovak Republic in 2006 is only one of the forms of publishing this type of information. The Report informs the general public about environmental situation in Slovakia and also makes comparisons to other EU member states. The following sections of the report are included: Foreword; Complex environmental monitoring and information system; Components of the environment and their protection; Major cumulative environmental problems; Nature and landscape protection; Environmental regionalization; State of the environment - causes and consequences; Environmental risk factors; Environmental care; International co-operation; Abbreviations and texts to figures.

Genetic by environment interaction on fresh root yield, dry matter ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Eighteen yellow-fleshed cassava genotypes and two released white-fleshed clones (check) were evaluated in five locations representing the major cassava growing agroecological zones of Nigeria to access their performance for fresh root yield, dry matter content, total carotene content and genotypes by environment ...

Toward accountable land use mapping: Using geocomputation to improve classification accuracy and reveal uncertainty