275 research outputs found
Dung beetle community composition data
No full textData was collected using either dung-baited pitfall traps or flight interception traps. Each row represents one trap, with the author/study information, name of study site, sampling period, trap type and habitat type. Dung beetle species and their abundances are listed. See metadata.csv for more details
Overcoming the Irrational Land Use in Africa and Other Regions of the World - A Critique to the Myths of Nobel Laureate Schultz and Nominee Hirschman
No full textPaper presented at the UNU-WIDER (United Nations University – World Institute for Development Economics Research) Project Conference on African Development: Myths and Realities Accra, Ghana, 10-11 December 2009Land Economics/Use,
Inward currents in mouse corpus cavernosum smooth muscle cells
No full textTonic contraction of CCSM is a pivotal component of the erectile dysfunction mechanism.
Numerous studies have suggested that the penile contractile tone is regulated by its
membrane potential. However, the precise expression and functional contributions of ion
channels in corpus cavernosum smooth muscle of the mouse species have yet to be fully
ascertained.
Whole cell ruptured patch and perforated patch technique revealed the presence of 1)
voltage-gated sodium channels and 2) Ca2+
-activated Cl- channels, respectively, in freshly
dispersed mouse CCSM cells. Pharmacology studies revealed 2 populations of sodium
currents, where TTX-insensitive current was mediated by NaV1.5, and TTX-sensitive
current was mediated by a mixture of subtypes. Immunocytochemistry studies confirmed
the presence of NaV1.4, NaV1.5, and TMEM16A. Steady-state activation and inactivation
curves revealed a small NaV window current at the resting membrane potential.
Veratridine, a NaV activator, reduced time-dependent inactivation of the current and
increased the duration of evoked action potentials. In CCSM tissue, veratridine-induced
phasic contractions were a result of direct membrane depolarisation by sustained Na2+
-
influx, hence activating L-type Ca2+ current to cause contractions. Phenylephrine induced
phasic contractions of intact corpus cavernosum muscle strips were inhibited by NaV and
CaCC antagonists, highlighting the importance of these ion channels in the regulation of
contractility by the sympathetic nerves. CCSM cells exhibited spontaneous transient
inward currents and spontaneous transient depolarisations when voltage-clamped at -60
mV, and in current clamp mode, respectively. STICs were carried by Cl- ions. Both STICs
and STDs involved Ca2+
-activated Cl- channels. They were dependent on Ca2+ release
from intracellular Ca2+ stores involving RyR and IP3R and were also reliant on store-
operated calcium entry. L-type Ca2+ currents contributed to the plateau of STDs.
This study suggests that contraction of CCSM is regulated by activation of NaV channels
and TMEM16A channels and therefore inhibition of these channels could lead to penile
erection
Non-meat diet and its contribution to environmentalism in Singapore
No full textThis paper seeks to address the gaps in the Singapore state’s efforts towards promoting environmental sustainability and raise awareness that veg*anism (to refer to non-meat diets such as vegetarianism and veganism), when adopted as a lifestyle, and not just a diet, is valuable in supplementing the state’s promotion of environmentalism. Through the use of ecological modernisation as a framework, I argue that the state’s primary focus on economic development and technocracy often compromises the scope of green initiatives and hinder individual efforts. Further, the restrictive political economy in Singapore hinders the use of contentious politics. As such, this study proposes that veg*ans in Singapore may negotiate the restrictive political economy through a form of bottom-up environmentalism that is carried out primarily at the individual level.Bachelor of Art
Zebrafish Mms2 promotes K63-linked polyubiquitination and is involved in p53-mediated DNA-damage response
No full textThe ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Ubc13 together with a Ubc/E2 variant (Uev) form a stable complex and mediate K63-linked polyubiquitination, which is implicated in DNA damage tolerance in yeast and mammalian cells. The zebrafish Danio rerio is a lower vertebrate model organism widely used in the studies of vertebrate development and environmental stress responses. Here we report the identification and functional characterization of two zebrafish UEV genes, Drmms2 and Druev1. Their deduced amino acid sequences indicate that the two UEV genes evolved separately prior to the appearance of vertebrates. Both zebrafish Uevs form a stable complex with DrUbc13 as well as Ubc13s from yeast and human, and are able to promote Ubc13-mediated K63 polyubiquitination in vitro, suggesting that their biochemical activities are conserved. Despite the fact that both zebrafish UEV genes can functionally replace the yeast MMS2 DNA-damage tolerance function, they exhibited differences in DNA-damage response in zebrafish embryos: ablation of DrMms2, but not DrUev1, enhances both spontaneous and DNA-damage induced expression of p53 effectors p21 and mdm2. In addition, DrUbc13 specifically binds Drp53 in an in vitro assay. These observations collectively indicate that zebrafish Mms2 and Ubc13 form a stable complex, which is required for p53-mediated DNA-damage response. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.The ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Ubc13 together with a Ubc/E2 variant (Uev) form a stable complex and mediate K63-linked polyubiquitination, which is implicated in DNA damage tolerance in yeast and mammalian cells. The zebrafish Danio rerio is a lower vertebrate model organism widely used in the studies of vertebrate development and environmental stress responses. Here we report the identification and functional characterization of two zebrafish UEV genes, Drmms2 and Druev1. Their deduced amino acid sequences indicate that the two UEV genes evolved separately prior to the appearance of vertebrates. Both zebrafish Uevs form a stable complex with DrUbc13 as well as Ubc13s from yeast and human, and are able to promote Ubc13-mediated K63 polyubiquitination in vitro, suggesting that their biochemical activities are conserved. Despite the fact that both zebrafish UEV genes can functionally replace the yeast MMS2 DNA-damage tolerance function, they exhibited differences in DNA-damage response in zebrafish embryos: ablation of DrMms2, but not DrUev1, enhances both spontaneous and DNA-damage induced expression of p53 effectors p21 and mdm2. In addition, DrUbc13 specifically binds Drp53 in an in vitro assay. These observations collectively indicate that zebrafish Mms2 and Ubc13 form a stable complex, which is required for p53-mediated DNA-damage response. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
濁水溪下游南岸農民對風災識覺與調適的空間差異
No full text[[abstract]]本研究乃是透過地理學的觀點，以野外實察及問卷調查資料為基礎，將本區分為「蔬
菜區」、「水稻區」、「水稻旱作區」、「旱作區」等五區，探討農民對當地風災特
性識覺之空間差異，及各區所採取的調適方式及其變遷，進行瞭解調適行為與識覺之
間的關係，研究結果發現：
１．對風災特性識覺方面：
（１）在風害型態上，本區有「風、沙、鹽害」、「風沙害」、「純風害」之別。
（２）在風災大小上，「以抽穗期逢強勁東北季風及颱風時的損失率」為指標，發現
颱風災害較東北季風嚴重，且影響範圍大。
（３）在風災警覺與預期上，風災越嚴重地區對風災的警覺地越高。對颱風發生的預
典，大多數的人都認為不確定。
（４）造成本區風災識覺差異的主要原因是距海的遠近。
２．對風災調適方式方面：蔬菜區與水稻區的主要調適方式以防風林為主，而水稻旱
作區、旱作區、養殖區等風災較嚴重地區尚須採取調整耕作時間，休耕、改變土地利
用．．．．．．等措施。依識覺風災嚴重性不同對防風林的反應有所差異。
３．識覺風災嚴重性與調適行為有顯著正相關，相關係數達０．八五。
Constraining dark energy with Hubble parameter measurements: an analysis including future redshift-drift observations
No full textThe nature of dark energy affects the Hubble expansion rate (namely, the expansion history) H(z) by an integral over w(z). However, the usual observables are the luminosity distances or the angular diameter distances, which measure the distance-redshift relation. Actually, the property of dark energy affects the distances (and the growth factor) by a further integration over functions of H(z). Thus, the direct measurements of the Hubble parameter H(z) at different redshifts are of great importance for constraining the properties of dark energy. In this paper, we show how the typical dark energy models, for example, the CDM, wCDM, CPL, and holographic dark energy models, can be constrained by the current direct measurements of H(z) (31 data used in total in this paper, covering the redshift range of ). In fact, the future redshift-drift observations (also referred to as the Sandage-Loeb test) can also directly measure H(z) at higher redshifts, covering the range of . We thus discuss what role the redshift-drift observations can play in constraining dark energy with the Hubble parameter measurements. We show that the constraints on dark energy can be improved greatly with the H(z) data from only a 10-year observation of redshift drift.Top-Notch Young Talents Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China [11522540, 11175042]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [N140505002, N140506002, L1505007]SCI(E)[email protected]
Heaving modes in the world oceans
No full text© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Climate Dynamics 45 (2015): 3563-3591, doi:10.1007/s00382-015-2557-6.Part of climate changes on decadal time scales can be interpreted as the result of adiabatic motions associated with the adjustment of wind-driven circulation, i.e., the heaving of the isopycnal surfaces. Heat content changes in the ocean, including hiatus of global surface temperature and other phenomena, can be interpreted in terms of heaving associated with adjustment of wind-driven circulation induced by decadal variability of wind. A simple reduced gravity model is used to examine the consequence of adiabatic adjustment of the wind-driven circulation. Decadal changes in wind stress forcing can induce three-dimensional redistribution of warm water in the upper ocean. In particular, wind stress change can generate baroclinic modes of heat content anomaly in the vertical direction; in fact, changes in stratification observed in the ocean may be induced by wind stress change at local or in the remote parts of the world oceans. Intensification of the equatorial easterly can induce cooling in the upper layer and warming in the subsurface layer. The combination of this kind of heat content anomaly with the general trend of warming of the whole water column under the increasing greenhouse effect may offer an explanation for the hiatus of global surface temperature and the accelerating subsurface warming over the past 10–15 years. Furthermore, the meridional transport of warm water in the upper ocean can lead to sizeable transient meridional overturning circulation, poleward heat flux and vertical heat flux. Thus, heaving plays a key role in the oceanic circulation and climate
Lightweight and Accurate DNN-Based Anomaly Detection at Edge
No full textDeep neural networks (DNNs) have been showing significant success in various anomaly detection applications such as smart surveillance and industrial quality control. It is increasingly important to detect anomalies directly on edge devices, because of high responsiveness requirements and tight latency constraints. The accuracy of DNN-based solutions rely on large model capacity and thus long training and inference time, making them inapplicable on resource strenuous edge devices. It is hence imperative to scale DNN model sizes in correspondence to the run-time system requirements, i.e., meeting deadlines with minimal accuracy losses, which are highly dependent on the platforms and real-time system status. Existing scaling techniques either take long training time to pre-generate scaling options or disturb the unsteady training process of anomaly detection DNNs, lacking the adaptability to heterogeneous edge systems and incurring low inference accuracies. In this article, we present LightDNN to scale DNN models for anomaly detection applications at edge, featuring high detection accuracies with lightweight training and inference time. To this end, LightDNN quickly extracts and compresses blocks in a DNN, and provides large scaling space (e.g., 1 million options) by dynamically combining these compressed blocks online. At run-time, LightDNN predicts the DNN's inference latency according to the monitored system status, and optimizes the combination of blocks to maximize its accuracy under deadline constraints. We implement and extensively evaluate LightDNN on both CPU and GPU edge platforms using 8 popular anomaly detection workloads. Comparative experiments with state-of-the-art methods show that our approach provides 145.8 to 0.56 trillion times more scaling options without increasing training and inference overheads, thus achieving as much as 15.05% increase in accuracy under the same deadlines. Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Data-Intensive System
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