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Fashion and Design at the Peabody Essex Museum
Get PDFPetra Slinkard uses her role as Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Peabody Essex Museum to challenge how we define design. Since joining the museum in 2018, she has facilitated the new Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery of Fashion and Design exhibit, which invites viewers to reflect on how design is inherent to human nature
The promise of media literacy education when “everything is at stake” and “everything is expected”
Get PDFIn the midst of a tumultuous time in American and global history, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference 2021 hosted a panel to explore the promise and limits of media literacy. Panelists discussed the vital role of media literacy education in responding to challenges to democracy, social justice, and public health. With “everything at stake,” the panelists moved through responses to current crises while grounding in a historical context and offering recommendations for the future. Curated transcripts share a pivotal moment when much was expected of media literacy and media literacy experts explored promise and possibility with an engaged audience of journalists and journalism educators
Pilot-scale evaluation of sulfite-activated ferrate for water reuse applications
Get PDFFerrate is a promising, “green” (i.e., iron-based) pre-oxidation technology in water treatment, but there has been limited research on its potential benefits in a water reuse (wastewater recycling) paradigm. Recent studies have shown ferrate treatment processes can be improved by activation, the addition of reductants (i.e., sulfite) to the reaction. Prior bench scale experimentation suggests sulfite-activated ferrate may be a feasible option for water reuse applications; however, extent questions need to be addressed. This study evaluated the viability of sulfite-activated ferrate in water reuse treatment through continuous-flow experiments using synthetic and field-collected secondary wastewater effluents. The effluents were processed through the piloting system which included various physicochemical processes such as ferrate pre-oxidation, coagulation, clarification, and dual-media filtration. In each trial, the system was run continuously for eight hours with data collected via grab samples and online instrumentation with real-time resolution. Results demonstrate that reuse systems using activated ferrate pre-oxidation can produce effluents with water quality meeting most regulatory requirements without major impacts on downstream physicochemical processes. When compared to traditional ferrate pre-oxidation, activation showed several improvements such as lower byproduct yields. Operationally, activated ferrate does increase the development of headloss across the dual-media filter. In general, sulfite-activated ferrate is viable in a water reuse setting, resulting in several improved water quality outcomes. Results from this work create a pathway for adaptation at scale
Berlin statement on legacy and emerging contaminants in polar regions
Get PDFPolar regions should be given greater consideration with respect to the monitoring, risk assessment, and management of potentially harmful chemicals, consistent with requirements of the precautionary principle. Protecting the vulnerable polar environments requires (i) raising political and public awareness and (ii) restricting and preventing global emissions of harmful chemicals at their sources. The Berlin Statement is the outcome of an international workshop with representatives of the European Commission, the Arctic Council, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), environmental specimen banks, and data centers, as well as scientists from various international research institutions. The statement addresses urgent chemical pollution issues in the polar regions and provides recommendations for improving screening, monitoring, risk assessment, research cooperation, and open data sharing to provide environmental policy makers and chemicals management decision-makers with relevant and reliable contaminant data to better protect the polar environments. The consensus reached at the workshop can be summarized in just two words: “Act now!”
Specifically, “Act now!” to reduce the presence and impact of anthropogenic chemical pollution in polar regions by. Establishing participatory co-development frameworks in a permanent multi-disciplinary platform for Arctic-Antarctic collaborations and establishing exchanges between the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) of the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AnMAP) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) to increase the visibility and exchange of contaminant data and to support the development of harmonized monitoring programs. Integrating environmental specimen banking, innovative screening approaches and archiving systems, to provide opportunities for improved assessment of contaminants to protect polar regions
Transfer of knowledge from model organisms to evolutionarily distant non-model organisms: The coral Pocillopora damicornis membrane signaling receptome
Get PDFWith the ease of gene sequencing and the technology available to study and manipulate non-model organisms, the extension of the methodological toolbox required to translate our understanding of model organisms to non-model organisms has become an urgent problem. For example, mining of large coral and their symbiont sequence data is a challenge, but also provides an opportunity for understanding functionality and evolution of these and other non-model organisms. Much more information than for any other eukaryotic species is available for humans, especially related to signal transduction and diseases. However, the coral cnidarian host and human have diverged over 700 million years ago and homologies between proteins in the two species are therefore often in the gray zone, or at least often undetectable with traditional BLAST searches. We introduce a two-stage approach to identifying putative coral homologues of human proteins. First, through remote homology detection using Hidden Markov Models, we identify candidate human homologues in the cnidarian genome. However, for many proteins, the human genome alone contains multiple family members with similar or even more divergence in sequence. In the second stage, therefore, we filter the remote homology results based on the functional and structural plausibility of each coral candidate, shortlisting the coral proteins likely to have conserved some of the functions of the human proteins. We demonstrate our approach with a pipeline for mapping membrane receptors in humans to membrane receptors in corals, with specific focus on the stony coral, P. damicornis. More than 1000 human membrane receptors mapped to 335 coral receptors, including 151 G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). To validate specific sub-families, we chose opsin proteins, representative GPCRs that confer light sensitivity, and Toll-like receptors, representative non-GPCRs, which function in the immune response, and their ability to communicate with microorganisms. Through detailed structure-function analysis of their ligand-binding pockets and downstream signaling cascades, we selected those candidate remote homologues likely to carry out related functions in the corals. This pipeline may prove generally useful for other non-model organisms, such as to support the growing field of synthetic biology
Concerted phenotypic flexibility of avian erythrocyte size and number in response to dietary anthocyanin supplementation
Get PDFBackground
Endurance flight impose substantial oxidative costs on the avian oxygen delivery system. In particular, the accumulation of irreversible damage in red blood cells can reduce the capacity of blood to transport oxygen and limit aerobic performance. Many songbirds consume large amounts of anthocyanin-rich fruit, which is hypothesized to reduce oxidative costs, enhance post-flight regeneration, and enable greater aerobic capacity. While their antioxidant benefits appear most straightforward, the effects of anthocyanins on blood composition remain so far unknown. We fed thirty hand-raised European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) two semisynthetic diets (with or without anthocyanin supplement) and manipulated the extent of flight activity in a wind tunnel (daily flying or non-flying for over two weeks) to test for their interactive effects on functionally important haematological variables.
Results
Supplemented birds had on average 15% more and 4% smaller red blood cells compared to non-supplemented individuals and these diet effects were independent of flight manipulation. Haemoglobin content was 7% higher in non-supplemented flying birds compared to non-flying birds, while similar haemoglobin content was observed among supplemented birds that were flown or not. Neither diet nor flight activity influenced haematocrit.
Conclusion
The concerted adjustments suggest that supplementation generally improved antioxidant protection in blood, which could prevent the excess removal of cells from the bloodstream and may have several implications on the oxygen delivery system, including improved gas exchange and blood flow. The flexible haematological response to dietary anthocyanins may also suggest that free-ranging species preferentially consume anthocyanin-rich fruits for their natural blood doping, oxygen delivery-enhancement effects
Avoiding “Bad” Design in the Age of DEI
Get PDFThis insightful presentation focused on the crucial topic of avoiding “bad” design in the current era of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). One of the most pressing issues in this area is cultural appropriation, which occurs when designers adopt customs, practices, or ideas from a particular culture without giving proper credit or acknowledgment to its creators. It is essential to differentiate between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, where designers can integrate elements from different cultures into their designs while respecting their origins and meaning. Several examples of designers, fashion shows, and runways that have been accused of cultural appropriation were highlighted
Electric grid resilience: The effects of conductor coverings, enhanced tree trimming, and line characteristics on tree-related power outages
No full textTree damage is a major cause of storm power outages in forested regions of the world which results in substantial economic losses each year. Utilities must understand the effectiveness of resilience programs to make the best use of limited resources. Our study evaluated the effectiveness of covered conductors and enhanced tree trimming (ETT) in reducing tree-related outages during storms for an electric overhead distribution system. Our study area was the Eversource Energy service area in Connecticut which has heavy forest cover coinciding with areas of high population density. We controlled for the effects of confounding factors including weather, power line phase, and tree canopy cover. Covered conductors and ETT were similarly effective in reducing power outages with median rate reductions of 0.19 - 0.29 outages/km/year. When used in combination, covered conductors with ETT had a significant additive effect with median reductions of 0.29 – 0.33 outages/km/year compared to bare conductors with no ETT. Multiphase power lines had median outage rates that were 0.17 – 0.37 outages/km/year lower than outage rates for single-phase power lines. Our findings will help utilities select and justify their choices of resilience strategies and more accurately predict outage locations in advance of approaching storms
Spatial–seasonal characteristics and influencing factors of dissolved organic carbon and chromophoric dissolved organic matter in Poyang Lake
No full textAs the largest organic carbon pool in water, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) plays a key role in the carbon cycle. In inland rivers and lakes, DOC is closely related to chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) with optical attenuation. In this study, the spatial distribution and seasonal variations of DOC and CDOM in Poyang Lake in 2014–2016 were investigated. The results demonstrated that the DOC concentration in Poyang Lake had a range of 1.34–5.56 mg/L with an average of 2.12 ± 0.54 mg/L. The absorption coefficient of CDOM at 355 nm had a range of 1.24–5.70 m−1 with an average of 2.71 ± 0.83 m−1. In terms of the spatial distribution, the concentrations of DOC and CDOM in the south of Poyang Lake were higher than those in the north of the lake. In terms of seasonal variations, the concentrations of DOC and CDOM were higher in spring and summer than in autumn and winter. The absorption coefficients of CDOM and DOC concentrations in Poyang Lake exhibited a significant linear correlation. The correlation between DOC and CDOM in some sections of Poyang Lake varied spatially and seasonally. The highest correlation was observed in wetland waters of the southern Poyang Lake in spring, while there was no significant correlation in northern section of the lake in most of the periods. The results revealed that water level, precipitation and the vegetation cover pattern had determining effects on the spatial heterogeneity of DOC and CDOM. The spectral characteristic parameters demonstrated that the main source of the CDOM in Poyang Lake was from terrestrial input
