Down Where The Swanee River Flows

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4595/thumbnail.jp

Electrochemically stimulating developments in bioelectronic medicine

Cellular homeostasis is in part controlled by biological generated electrical activity. By interfacing biology with electronic devices this electrical activity can be modulated to actuate cellular behaviour. There are current limitations in merging electronics with biology sufficiently well to target and sense specific electrically active components of cells. By addressing this limitation, researchers give rise to new capabilities for facilitating the twoway transduction signalling mechanisms between the electronic and cellular components. This is required to allow significant advancement of bioelectronic technology which offers new ways of treating and diagnosing diseases. Most of the progress that has been achieved to date in developing bioelectronic therapeutics stimulate neural communication, which ultimately orchestrates organ function back to a healthy state. Some devices used in therapeutics include cochlear and retinal implants and vagus nerve stimulators. However, all cells can be effected by electrical inputs which gives rise to the opportunity to broaden the use of bioelectronic medicine for treating disease. Electronic actuation of non-excitable cells has been shown to lead to ‘programmed’ cell behaviour via application of electronic input which alter key biological processes. A neglected form of cellular electrical communication which has not yet been considered when developing bioelectronics therapeutics is faradaic currents. These are generated during redox reactions. A precedent of electrochemical technology being used to modulate these reactions thereby controlling cell behaviour has already been set. In this mini review we highlight the current state of the art of electronic routes to modulating cell behaviour and identify new ways in which electrochemistry could be used to contribute to the new field of bioelectronic medicine

Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Seagrass Populations Using DNA Fingerprinting: Implications for Population Stability and Management

Populations of the temperate seagrass, Zostera marina L. (eelgrass), often exist as discontinuous beds in estuaries, harbors, and bays where they can reproduce sexually or vegetatively through clonal propagation. We examined the genetic structure of three geographically and morphologically distinct populations from central California (Elkhorn Slough, Tomales Bay, and Del Monte Beach), using multilocus restriction fragment length polymorphisms (DNA fingerprints). Within-population genetic similarity (Sw) values for the three eelgrass populations ranged from 0.44 to 0.68. The Tomales Bay population located in an undisturbed, littoral site possessed a within-population genetic similarity (Sw = 0.44) that was significantly lower than those of the other two populations. Cluster analysis identified genetic substructure in only the undisturbed subtidal population (Del Monte Beach). Between-population similarity values Sb for all pairwise comparisons ranged from 0.47 to 0.51. The three eelgrass populations show significantly less between locale genetic similarity than found within populations, indicating that gene flow is restricted between locales even though two of the populations are separated by only 30 km. The study demonstrates that (i) natural populations of Z. marina from both disturbed and undisturbed habitats possess high genetic diversity and are not primarily clonal, (ii) gene flow is restricted even between populations in dose proximity, (iii) an intertidal population from a highly disturbed habitat shows much lower genetic diversity than an intertidal population from an undisturbed site, and (iv) DNA fingerprinting techniques can be exploited to understand gene flow and population genetic structure in Z. marina, a widespread and ecologically important species, and as such are relevant to the management of this coastal resource

Note About Hamiltonian Structure of Non-Linear Massive Gravity

We perform the Hamiltonian analysis of non-linear massive gravity action studied recently in arXiv:1106.3344 [hep-th]. We show that the Hamiltonian constraint is the second class constraint. As a result the theory possesses an odd number of the second class constraints and hence all non physical degrees of freedom cannot be eliminated.Comment: 15 page

Impacts of urbanization around Mediterranean cities : changes in ecosystem service supply

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Urbanization is an important driver of changes in land cover in the Mediterranean Basin and it is likely to impact the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES). The most significant land cover changes occur in the peri-urban zone, but little is known about how these changes affect the ES supply. For eight European and four North African cities, we have quantified changes in peri-urban land cover, for periods of sixteen years (1990-2006) in the Northern African, and twenty-two years (1990-2012) in the European cities, respectively. Using an expert-based method, we derived quantitative estimates of the dynamics in the supply of twenty-seven ES. The nature of land cover changes slightly differed between European and North African Mediterranean cities, but overall it increased in urban areas and decreased in agricultural land. The capacity of the peri-urban areas of Mediterranean cities to supply ES generally reduced over the last 20-30 years. For nine ES the potential supply actually increased for all four North African cities and three out of the eight European cities. Across all cities, the ES timber, wood fuel and religious and spiritual experience increased. Given the expected increase of urban population in the Mediterranean Basin and the current knowledge of ES deficits in urban areas, the overall decrease in ES supply capacity of peri-urban areas is a risk for human well-being in the Mediterranean and poses a serious challenge for the Sustainable Development Goals in the Mediterranean basin

Quantum Aspects of Massive Gravity II: Non-Pauli-Fierz Theory

We investigate the non-Pauli-Fierz(nPF) theory, a linearized massive gravity with a generic graviton mass term, which has been ignored due to a ghost in its spectrum and the resultant loss of unitarity. We first show that it is possible to use the Lee-Wick mechanism, a unitarization through the decay of a ghost, in order to handle the sixth mode ghost of nPF, and then check for the quantum consistency. Once proven to be consistent, nPF could become a viable candidate for a large distance modification of gravity, because it naturally solves the intrinsic problems that most dark energy/modified gravity models suffer from: It smoothly converges to general relativity at short distances, and the small graviton mass necessary to modify gravity at large scales can be stable under the radiative corrections from the minimal gravity-to-matter coupling.Comment: 1+16pp, accepted for JHE