5,733 research outputs found

    Metabolites in fish and humans as a response to different food ingredients : a metabolomics approach

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    The main objective of this thesis was to evaluate metabolomics changes in humans and fish as a response to food/feed consumption. To alleviate the environmental impact of animal production and maximize the use of resources, the valorization of meat by-products might be an attractive alternative. A meat product containing heart and aorta tissue from pork was designed and analyzed for fatty acid and metabolite composition. In comparison with a control of similar qualities, the designed meat product (or test product) showed higher monounsaturated fatty acid and tyramine levels and lower levels of sugars. The test meat product was used in a randomized controlled clinical trial to test for potential health effects in patients showing atherosclerosis symptoms. Patients receiving the test product showed a decrease in blood levels of low-density lipoproteins, total cholesterol, atherogenic index and triacylglycerols. To reduce the impact of animal production on ecosystems, the replacement of feed ingredients by a microbial alternative was realized. In this study, vegetable oils included in the feed of Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) were replaced by biomass of the oleaginous yeast (Rhodotorula toruloides). The analysis of the yeast biomass showed safe levels of pollutants and heavy metals. Fish growth and muscle fatty acid profile were similar to the control. A higher liver weight and hepatosomatic index were observed in fish fed including the yeast biomass, albeit no significant difference in liver fat content or in hepatic enzyme activity was observed. Quantification of plasma metabolites revealed higher levels of metabolites involved in energy pathways such as one-carbon metabolism and gluconeogenesis.In conclusion, this thesis showed that metabolomics can be applied to evaluate effects of food/feed at the molecular level in complex systems. It adds knowledge on the effects of meat by-product consumption in the particular case of atherosclerosis symptoms. The fish feed trial showed the possibility of feed modification with a specific yeast

    Natural and Technological Hazards in Urban Areas

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    Natural hazard events and technological accidents are separate causes of environmental impacts. Natural hazards are physical phenomena active in geological times, whereas technological hazards result from actions or facilities created by humans. In our time, combined natural and man-made hazards have been induced. Overpopulation and urban development in areas prone to natural hazards increase the impact of natural disasters worldwide. Additionally, urban areas are frequently characterized by intense industrial activity and rapid, poorly planned growth that threatens the environment and degrades the quality of life. Therefore, proper urban planning is crucial to minimize fatalities and reduce the environmental and economic impacts that accompany both natural and technological hazardous events

    Spatial Distribution of Meso- and Microplastics in Floodplain Soilscapes: Novel Insights from Rural to Urban Floodplains in Central Germany

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    Plastics and especially microplastics have become an emerging threat to global ecosystems. Despite the manifold benefits and applications of the human-made material plastic, the uncontrolled release of plastics into the environment has led to a “global plastic crisis”. During the last decades it becomes apparent that this crisis leads to the presence of plastics within different environments including marine, aquatic and terrestrial systems under worldwide evidence. Furthermore, environmental plastic research was able to reveal that although plastic often ends up in oceans, the majority of plastics in the environment are transported as part of a “global plastic cycle” from the land to sea via river systems. Those river systems are not isolated in the landscape, but rather a part of an “aquatic-terrestrial interface” which also encompasses floodplains and their soilscapes. The present thesis focuses on the spatial distribution and spatio-temporal accumulation of meso- and microplastics in floodplain soilscapes following the overall objective to unravel the role of floodplain soilscapes as depositional areas of plastics within the global plastic cycle. In this context, a number of individual contributions have been published, reaching from conceptual spatial research approaches, over case studies conducted within two different floodplain soilscapes, to further opinions on the scientific benefit of plastic residues in floodplain soils. The individual contributions are linked by the major hypothesis that floodplain soilscapes act as temporal accumulation sites for plastics, driven by flood-related processes and land use over the last 70 years. To proof this major hypothesis and to overcome the lack of spatial reference in microplastics research, a geospatial sampling approach was conducted. Initial spatial data on meso- and microplastics in floodplain soils were obtained by a holistic analysis approach including the analysis of basic soil feature and metal analysis, the quantification of meso- and microplastics as well as sediment dating. Within both studied river floodplains geospatial sampling enables a detection of meso- and microplastics over the entire floodplain area and within the entire soil column reaching depths of two meters. Additionally, a frequent accumulation of plastics was found within the upper 50 cm of floodplain soils. In combination with dating of near-channel floodplain sites, it could be demonstrated that those plastic accumulations are related to recent sedimentary deposits since the 1960s. However, evidence of plastic from deeper soil layers suggests that vertical displacements in floodplain soils occur and that plastics become mobilized. Furthermore, the presence of plastics in upstream areas suggests that plastics are released to river systems and deposited via flood dynamics already in rural areas. Additionally it appears that anthropogenic impacts, such as tillage or floodplain restoration influence plastic distributions. The findings of this thesis clarify that floodplain soilscapes are part of the global plastic cycle as temporally depositional areas of plastics, but raising further questions on the mobility of plastics in soils and about the exact contribution of different environmental drivers towards plastic deposition. Finally, the present thesis indicates that the spatial reference of environmental plastic research should be rethought, in order to understand the spatial dynamics of plastics within the aquatic-terrestrial interface

    Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management

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    This book is a reprint of the Special Issue 'Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management' that was published in the journal Buildings

    SIMULATING CONSUMABLE ORDER FULFILLMENT VIA ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES

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    Operational availability of naval aircraft through material readiness is critical to ensuring combat power. Supportability of aircraft is a crucial aspect of readiness, influenced by several factors including access to 9B Cognizance Code (COG) aviation consumable repair parts at various supply echelons. Rapidly evolving additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are transforming supply chain dynamics and the traditional aircraft supportability construct. As of June 2022, there are 595 AM assets within the Navy’s inventory—all for research and development purposes. This report simulates 9B COG aviation consumable fulfillment strategies within the U.S. Indo-Pacific sustainment network for a three-year span, inclusive of traditional supply support avenues and a developed set of user-variable capability inputs. Simulated probabilistic demand configurations are modeled from historical trends that exploit a heuristic methodology to assign a “printability” score to each 9B COG requirement, accounting for uncertainty, machine failure rates, and other continuous characteristics of the simulated orders. The results measure simulated lead time across diverse planning horizons in both current and varied operationalized AM sustainment network configurations. This research indicates a measurable lead time reduction of approximately 10% across all 9B order lead times when AM is employed as an order fulfillment source for only 0.5% of orders.NPS Naval Research ProgramThis project was funded in part by the NPS Naval Research Program.Lieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

    APPLICATION OF HIERARCHICAL SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODELS TO AVIAN SPECIES OF SOUTH DAKOTA AND THE UPPER MISSOURI RIVER BASIN

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    Recognizing the distributional patterns of species can inform management actions and increase scientific knowledge about species. Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) are valuable tools in modeling species’ niches and effects of climate change and anthropogenic and natural disturbances on species’ distributions and abundances. In this dissertation, I expanded the application of hierarchical HSMs for a rare bird (Virginia’s warbler) and an economically valuable bird (ring-necked pheasant) in South Dakota. Also, we developed multiscale HSMs for grassland birds in the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB) to quantify current habitat associations and predict the influences of climate and landcover change associated with the implementation of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and other carbon mitigation scenarios. We found that applying an Ensemble of Small Models (ESMs) approach within a hierarchical framework can lead to detailed information about niches of rare species, limiting factors at each habitat selection order, and potential distribution, which could help inform multiscale management. At the broadest habitat selection order, Virginia’s warbler had a narrow climatic niche. The importance of environmental variables changed across finer orders, such that at broader orders many covariates were important whereas at finer orders certain covariates became more important than others. For the model of pheasant abundance, my results showed that our hierarchical Bayesian approach allows for simultaneous selection of variables and scales of effect. I found that pheasant abundance was positively affected by intermediate levels of grassland cover. Scales of effect and spatiotemporal variation influenced predictor variable impacts on pheasant abundance. For the modeling of grassland birds across the UMRB, my results showed that the influence of climate change on abundance, distribution and species richness of grassland species is more pronounced than the influence of landcover changes due to implementing BECCS scenarios. This finding implies that regardless of landcover and land-use changes, climate change may limit or expand abundance and distribution of grassland bird species in the UMRB. Further, we found that grassland birds will be more affected by regional increases in temperature than decreases in precipitation
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