1,718 research outputs found
Validation of the calcareous dinophyte Wallidinellum (Peridiniales), with notes on the status of fossils in the Code
No full textBauer, Wolfgang, Gottschling, Marc, Keupp, Helmut, Kusber, Wolf-Henning, Mertens, Kenneth N. (2021): Validation of the calcareous dinophyte Wallidinellum (Peridiniales), with notes on the status of fossils in the Code. Phytotaxa 520 (3): 296-300, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.520.3.9, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.520.3.
Evaluating carbon offsets from forestry and energy projects
Get PDFUnder the Kyoto Protocol, industrial countries accept caps on their emissions of greenhouse gases. They are permitted to acquire offsetting emissions reductions from developing countries - which do not have emissions limitations - to assist in complying with these caps. Because these emissions reductions are defined against a hypothetical baseline, practical issues arise in ensuring that the reductions are genuine. Forestry-related emissions reduction projects are often thought to present greater difficulties in measurement and implementation, than energy-related emissions reduction projects. The author discusses how project characteristics affect the process for determining compliance with each of the criteria for qualifying. Those criteria are: 1) Additionality. Would these emissions reductions not have taken place without the project? 2) Baseline and systems boundaries (leakage). What would business-as-usual emissions have been without the project? And in this comparison, how broad should spatial, and temporal system boundaries be? 3) Measurement (or sequestration). How accurately can we measure actual with-project emissions levels? 4) Duration or permanence. Will the project have an enduring mitigating effect? 5) Local impact. Will the project benefit its neighbors? For all the criteria except permanence, it is difficult to find generic distinctions between land use change and forestry and energy projects, since both categories comprise diverse project types. The important distinctions among projects have to do with such things as: a) The level and distribution of the project's direct financial benefits. b) How much the project is integrated with the larger system. c) The project components'internal homogeneity and geographic dispersion. d) The local replicability of project technologies. Permanence is an issue specific to land use and forestry projects. The author describes various approaches to ensure permanence, or adjust credits for duration: the ton-year approach (focusing on the benefits from deferring climatic damage, and rewarding longer deferral); the combination approach (bundling current land use change and forestry emissions reductions with future reductions in the buyer's allowed amount); a technology-acceleration approach; and an insurance approach.Montreal Protocol,Environmental Economics&Policies,Climate Change,Decentralization,Global Environment Facility,Environmental Economics&Policies,Energy and Environment,Carbon Policy and Trading,Montreal Protocol,Climate Change
Modification of nektonic fish distribution by piers and pile fields in an urban estuary
No full textLarge urban piers degrade habitat value for several estuarine benthic fish species by shading, but their effects on mobile nektonic species is less well understood due to sampling challenges. Dual Frequency Identification Sonar (DIDSON) allowed equal access to sampling in the water column of structured shaded and unshaded vs. open environments in both dark and light conditions by methods similar to video but without light. Sampling (n = 228, 5-minute transects) occurred under and around four large municipal piers of varying dimensions in the Hudson River estuary during day and night from summer and fall in 2007 - 2009. The distribution of small (5 - 25 cm in length) and large (25 – 850 cm) fishes were analyzed separately in recognition of functional guild differences. Small fishes occupied open water, shaded under-pier, and un-decked relict piling habitats, but were significantly more abundant during the day in open unshaded water than under adjacent piers or in piling habitats.. Small fish occurred under 3 of 4 piers of varying size and configuration at 10 - 20% of the median abundances of adjacent open water. However, while schools were rare under piers they could be very large, so that abundance greatly exceeded mean open water abundance variance so as to preclude confidence in differences among piers. The differences among habitats was not significant at night, and the difference among piers was also not significant at night. School membership for small fish appeared to mitigate adverse effects of shading and may influence scaling of their response to shading and could therefore influence pier design. Large (>25 cm) predatory fish were uncommon but responded similarly to habitat effects as did small fish. Habitats did not segregate fish by guild as small forage fish co-occurred in 65.8% of samples with large piscivores. Studies that provide species-specific and mechanistic interpretation of dynamic habitat use as well as further quantification of scaling effects could improve our understanding of how fishes respond to piers and other structures on urban shorelines.Peer reviewed
A biologically active peptide mimetic of N-acetylgalactosamine/galactose
Get PDFAbstract Background Glycosylated proteins and lipids are important regulatory factors whose functions can be altered by addition or removal of sugars to the glycan structure. The glycans are recognized by sugar-binding lectins that serve as receptors on the surface of many cells and facilitate initiation of an intracellular signal that changes the properties of the cells. We identified a peptide that mimics the ligand of an N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc)-specific lectin and asked whether the peptide would express specific biological activity. Findings A 12-mer phage display library was screened with a GalNAc-specific lectin to identify an amino acid sequence that binds to the lectin. Phage particles that were eluted from the lectin with free GalNAc were considered to have been bound to a GalNAc-binding site. Peptides were synthesized with the selected sequence as a quadravalent structure to facilitate receptor crosslinking. Treatment of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells for 24 h with the peptide stimulated secretion of interleukin-8 (IL-8) but not of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, or tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). The secretion of IL-21 was stimulated as strongly with the peptide as with interferon-γ. Conclusion The data indicate that the quadravalent peptide has biological activity with a degree of specificity. These effects occurred at concentrations in the nanomolar range, in contrast to free sugars that generally bind to proteins in the micro- to millimolar range.</p
Durability of an inorganic polymer concrete coating
No full textThe objective of the research p4rogram reported in this thesis is to evaluate the durability of an inorganic polymer composite coating exposed to freeze/thaw cycling and wet-dry cycling. Freeze/thaw cycling is performed following ASTM D6944-09 Standard Practice for Resistance of Cured Coatings to Thermal Cycling and wet/dry cycling is performed following guidelines set forth in a thesis written by Ronald Garon at Rutgers University. For both sets of experiments, four coating mixture proportions were evaluated. The variables were: silica/alumina ratio, mixing protocol using high shear and normal shear mixing, curing temperatures of 70 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit and use of nano size constituent materials. The mix with highest silica/alumina ratio was designated as Mix 1 and mixes with lower ratios were designated as Mix 2 and Mix 3. Mix 4 had nano silica particles. Four prisms were used for each variable including control that had no coating. The performance of the coating was evaluated using adhesion strength measured using: ASTM D7234 Test Method for Pull-Off Strength of Coatings on Concrete Using Portable Adhesion Testers. Tests were performed after every five consecutive cycles of thermal conditioning and six consecutive cycles of wet-dry exposure. Results from the thermal cycling and wet-dry testing demonstrate that all coating formulations are durable. The minimum adhesion strength was 300 psi even though a relatively weak base concrete surface was chosen for the study. The weak surface was chosen to simulate aged concrete surfaces present in actual field conditions. Due to the inherent nature of the test procedure the variation in test results is high. However, based on the test results, high shear mixer and high temperature curing are not recommended. As expected nano size constituent materials provide better performance.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Kenneth Wasserma
Neuroprotective effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy monitored by MR-imaging after embolic stroke in rats
No full textCo-author Kenneth Sicard is a doctoral student in the MD/PhD Program in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) at UMass Medical School.The potential neuroprotective effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) were tested in an embolic model of focal cerebral ischemia with partially spontaneous reperfusion. Rats (n = 10) were subjected to embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and diffusion weighted MRI (DWI) was performed at baseline, 1, 3, and 6 h after MCAO to determine the ADC viability threshold yielding the lesion volumes that best approximated the 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) infarct volumes at 24 h (experiment 1). For assessment of neuroprotective effects, rats were treated with 100% oxygen at 2.5 atmospheres absolute (ATA, n = 15) or normobaric room air (n = 15) for 60 min beginning 180 min after MCAO (experiment 2). DWI-, perfusion (PWI)- and T2-weighted MRI (T2WI) started within 0.5 h after MCAO and was continued 5 h, 24 h (PWI and T2WI only), and 168 h (T2WI only). Infarct volume was calculated based on TTC-staining at 24 h (experiment 1) or 168 h (experiment 2) post-MCAO. ADC-lesion evolution was maximal between 3 and 6 h. In experiment 2, the relative regional cerebral blood volume (rCBV) of both groups showed similar incomplete spontaneous reperfusion in the ischemic core. HBO reduced infarct volume to 145.3 +/- 39.6 mm3 vs. 202.5 +/- 58.3 mm3 (control, P = 0.029). As shown by MRI and TTC, HBO treatment demonstrated significant neuroprotection at 5 h after embolic focal cerebral ischemia that lasted for 168 h.MD/Ph
Unraveling the chemical composition of modern, resistant, organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts via FTIR spectroscopy
No full textThe chemical nature of resistant, organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) is highly understudied and the suite of resistant macromolecules (i.e. ‘dinosporin’) present in their walls is incompletely characterized. Past studies used microscopic Fourier transform infrared (micro-FTIR) spectroscopy to determine that dinosporin is different from other resistant biomolecules like sporopollenin (pollen and spores) and algaenan (green algae); that it is a strongly cross-linked carbohydrate-like polymer (somewhat similar to cellulose; Versteegh et al. 2012); that its composition slightly varies with the nutritional strategy of associated motile cells (heterotrophic cysts contain N, autotrophs do not; Bogus et al. 2014). Using a more robust spectral data collection method based on attenuated total reflectance micro-FTIR spectroscopy (Meyvisch et al. 2022), this study further explores the compositional diversity of dinosporin in modern dinocysts from surface sediments, characterizes it in more detail, and re-evaluates the previously established dietary relationship.
A large dataset of 216 spectra (10 families, 25 genera, 51 species) from 17 locations across the Northern hemisphere reveals that dinosporin is more variable than previously thought, leading to the erection of four spectrochemical groups, some with striking similarities to sporopollenin and algaenan. It is also shown that pigments significantly contribute to the spectral composition of colored dinocysts, and that eumelanin is likely present in these forms acting as a sunscreen against harmful ultraviolet radiation. Finally, detailed spectral analyses suggest that N is present in all observed dinosporin types and that it originates from sunscreen pigments rather than through heterotrophic prey accumulation. Therefore, the previously established dietary relationship by Bogus et al. (2014) is evaluated to be ambiguous.
This study provides a reference framework for a more systematic investigation of resistant biomolecules in dinocysts and other resting stages, as well as their associated ecological roles. Furthermore, the spectral dataset can be used for comparisons with fossil dinocysts and other microorganisms/-fossils with unknown affinities (i.e. acritarchs) in the light of chemotaxonomic studies.
References
— Bogus, K., Mertens, K.N., Lauwaert, J., Harding, I.C., Vrielinck, H., Zonneveld, K.A.F. & Versteegh, G.J.M. 2014. J Phycol. 50:254–66.
— Meyvisch, P., Gurdebeke, P.R., Vrielinck, H., Mertens, K.N., Versteegh, G. & Louwye, S. 2022. Appl Spectrosc. 76.
— Versteegh, G.J.M., Blokker, P., Bogus, K., Harding, I.C., Lewis, J., Oltmanns, S., Rochon, A. et al. 2012. Org Geochem. 43:92–102
Batsto Nature Area brochure front
No full textFront of brochure features a year by year history of the Batsto family lands, furnace and glass works. There is also a small road map showing directions to Batsto. Brochure and historical village administered by the state Department of Conservation and Economic Development, Robert A. Roe, Commissioner and Kenneth H. Creveling, Director, Division of Resource Development. Arthur D. Pierce, author and Raymond N. Baker, artist
Chronicle (Paterson, NJ) Vol. 33, No. 27, Jul. 2, 1961
No full textLocal information pertaining to Paterson, N.J. and surrounding Passaic County. Issues may include events, government, business, political cartoons, engagement and marriage announcements, and birth announcements. This publication was also known as the Paterson Chronicle (1952) and the Paterson Sunday Chronicle (1951-1952)
N‐interface problem revisited
No full textPT: J; CR: BARTOS I, 1978, PHYS STATUS SOLIDI B, V85, K127 GARCIAMOLINER F, 1969, J PHYS C, V2, P1789 PARENT LG, 1982, PHYS REV B, V26, P753 SCHULMAN JN, 1979, PHYS REV B, V19, P6341 SCHULMAN JN, 1981, PHYS REV B, V24, P4445 UEBA H, 1980, J PHYS C SOLID STATE, V13, P1175 YANIV A, 1978, PHYS REV B, V17, P3904; NR: 7; TC: 3; J9: PHYS STATUS SOLIDI B-BASIC RE; PG: 6; GA: RY732Source type: Electronic(1
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