130 research outputs found
Trace element levels in the muscles of three tern species (Aves: Laridae) from the western Arabian Gulf: environmental assessment and implications for conservation
No full textIn the Arabian Gulf (called also Persian Gulf; hereafter 'the Gulf'), Jana and Karan Islands are recognized as one of the most Important Bird Areas in the region. Many migratory breeding seabirds, like the Greater Crested Tern Thalasseus bergii, White-cheeked Tern Sterna repressa and Bridled Tern Onychoprion anaethetus, depend on these islands during the breeding season. However, these aquatic wildlife species are suffering from intensified urban and industrial coastal development and various contamination events including wars and related oil spills. In this study, we used these three piscivorous top predator birds to analyse the levels of 19 trace elements (TEs; i.e. Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sr, V and Zn) in 15 muscular tissue samples from Jana and Karan Islands. PERMANOVA analysis showed no difference in contamination profile between sites nor between species probably due to their spatial and ecological proximity and therefore similar levels of exposure to TEs. Comparing these levels with existing literature, our results showed no particular concern for all elements, except for Al (maximum values recorded = 116.5 mu g g-1 d.w.) and, in two samples, Ba (33.67 mu g g-1 d.w.) and Pb (5.6 mu g g-1 d.w.). The results can be considered as an initial step for supplementary evaluations with a larger number of samples and specified time intervals for the collection of specimens. This study provided baseline information on the pollution status of these two ecologically important sites which require a continuous biomonitoring programme
Bioaccumulation of trace elements and hydrocarbons in chondrichthyans of the western Arabian Gulf: Environmental and human health risk assessment and implications for conservation
No full textThis is a first attempt to assess the levels of trace elements, PAHs, and TPHs in six elasmobranch species (Carcharhinus dussumieri, C. sorrah, Chiloscyllium arabicum, Gymnura poecilura, Sphyrna lewini, S. mokarran) from the Arabian Gulf. The chemical analysis showed that the concentrations of contaminants differed significantly between liver and muscle samples with both pelagic and benthic species and all families. For all species, contaminant concentrations were significantly higher in the liver than in the muscle. While muscle contaminant concentrations differed significantly with respect to species' lifestyles and families, those of liver showed no significant differences between pelagic and benthic species, neither between the four families nor between the si
An Overview of Carbon-Based Materials for the Removal of Pharmaceutical Active Compounds
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Cartography of Mangled Minds: Mazen Maarouf’s Jokes for the Gunmen
No full text“Power was the most important subject, as far as we were concerned, during the war” (6).
The 20th century was dominated by the two World Wars, the Cold War and the post-Cold War conflicts. The 21st century appears to be no better. Just two decades into the new millennium and we are already experiencing the tremors of outbreaks across the globe, notably referred to as terrorism, ethnic conflict, civil wars and hybrid and special operations warfare. These nonstate, intrastate, and interstate violence have had an impact on the lives of millions of people. It is in this context that Booker longlisted work Jokes for the Gunmen (2019) by the Palestinian-Icelandic author Mazen Maarouf may be read. Maarouf weaves together twelve stories that offer a kaleidoscope of insights on the impact of war on the civilian population. Jokes for the Gunmen is grounded in a conflict zone that is for the most part unspecified, except in the “Gramophone” where it is Lebanon (55) while in “Juan and Ausa” it is Spain. Thus the narratives are universalized to reinforce the idea that war is an act of violence against the global citizen and everybody and everywhere is its target. The characters are never given names except for Hossam in “Other –People’s –Dreams - Syndrome” and Juan and Ausa in the eponymous story. This buttresses the design of the universality of the narratives. The author seems to drive home the fact that no one can claim immunity from war and this becomes only too obvious with the narrative space being inundated with fatalities. Again, as we march along the narratives, we find that the boundaries between combatants and civilians, battlefronts and domestic spaces have almost blurred. Everyone is now at the combat zone and the combat zone is everywhere. The private domain of the hearth and the home that once signified security and well-being has also been transformed into dangerous territory.
 
Resection of Brainstem Cavernous Malformations: Pearls and Pitfalls for Minimizing Complications.
No full textBACKGROUND: Surgical management of brainstem cavernous malformations (CMs) is a controversial topic in the field of neurosurgery. These lesions have a propensity to hemorrhage, thereby disrupting surrounding brainstem eloquence.
METHODS: This article provides the personal reflections of the senior author and a narrative literature review on resection of brainstem CMs.
RESULTS: Here we discuss the indications for microsurgery, microsurgical techniques and nuances, and perioperative management considerations necessary to minimize complications during resection of brainstem CMs, which are lesions of venous origin.
CONCLUSIONS: The natural history of the lesion, risk of future hemorrhage, and potential for symptom resolution should be carefully considered when planning to resect brainstem CMs. Nuanced microsurgical techniques with minimal disruption of normal tissues provide the best chance of satisfactory outcomes
State of the art metrics for aspect oriented programming
No full textThe quality evaluation of software, e.g., defect measurement, gains significance with higher use of software applications. Metric measurements are considered as the primary indicator of imperfection prediction and software maintenance in various empirical studies of software products. However, there is no agreement on which metrics are compelling quality indicators for novel development approaches such as Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP). AOP intends to enhance programming quality, by providing new and novel constructs for the development of systems, for example, point cuts, advice and inter-type relationships. Hence, it is not evident if quality pointers for AOP can be derived from direct expansions of traditional OO measurements. Then again, investigations of AOP do regularly depend on established coupling measurements. Notwithstanding the late reception of AOP in empirical studies, coupling measurements have been adopted as useful markers of flaw inclination in this context. In this paper we will investigate the state of the art metrics for measurement of Aspect Oriented systems development
Logit mixture with inter and intra-consumer heterogeneity and flexible mixing distributions
No full textLogit mixture models have gained increasing interest among researchers and practitioners because of their ability to capture unobserved taste heterogeneity. Becker et al. (2018) proposed a Hierarchical Bayes (HB) estimator for logit mixtures with inter- and intra-consumer heterogeneity (defined as taste variations among different individuals and among different choices made by the same individual respectively). However, the underlying model relies on strong assumptions on the inter- and intra-consumer mixing distributions; these distributions are assumed to be normal (or log-normal), and the intra-consumer covariance matrix is assumed to be the same for all individuals. This paper presents a latent class extension to the model and the estimator proposed by Becker et al. (2018) to account for flexible, semi-parametric mixing distributions. This relaxes the normality assumptions and allows different individuals to have different intra-consumer covariance matrices. The proposed model and the HB estimator are validated using real and synthetic data sets, and the models are evaluated using goodness-of-fit statistics and out-of-sample validation. Our results show that when the data comes from two or more distinct classes (with different population means and inter- and intra-consumer covariance matrices), this model results in a better fit and predictions compared to the single class model.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.Transport Engineering and Logistic
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