The Influence of Land Use on Fish Health and Fish Communities in Wadeable Steams in South Carolina

In 2011 the State of South Carolina population was over 4.6 million people and has increased at a rate of around 15% (1.5% per year) throughout the last decade. While the population density per square mile is relatively low compared to other US states, it seems certain the population will further increase in years to come. Increasing population density leads to urbanization resulting in an increase in impervious surfaces such as roadways, parking lots, and building roofs. This changing land use can have dramatic effects on smaller streams and creeks which form the upper reaches of watersheds. Although water systems can become fragmented, watersheds encompass the entire drainage area of a region. A changing landscape upstream can have dramatic effects many miles downstream from the initial source of disturbance. Freshwater species worldwide face accelerated extinction rates relative to most other wildlife taxa. The southeastern U.S. in particular is of high concern due to long term declines in native fish and aquatic species. Consequences of poor land management practices (i.e. siltation, excessive nutrients, flow disruption) can negatively impact flora and fauna that depend on these water sources for survival, reproduction, and/or development. Due to the interconnected nature of water systems, water flow will end up in larger rivers, reservoirs, and coastal areas. Because of the importance and uniqueness of these habitats, local flora and fauna could be at high risk if the wadeable streams in the upper reaches are developed. Currently there is not enough information on how the surrounding landscape influences the quality of water and aquatic ecosystems to make informed decisions regarding aquatic conservation and restoration. Because the human population is ever increasing, a better understanding of anthropogenic influences would allow us to make better, more informed land management decisions. The goal of this dissertation was to study effects of a changing land use on fish health and fish assemblage by measuring a set of biochemical biomarkers in an abundant fish species, Lepomis sp. (sunfish), commonly found in wadeable streams in South Carolina. The data set incorporates information on land use, fish species assemblage, abiotic habitat characteristics, and biomarker responses from over a hundred random wadeable stream sites throughout the state. Biomarker responses, which are changes at the biochemical and cellular level, were correlated with changes throughout multiple levels of organization (i.e. tissue, individual, population, and community). Results of this work indicate Lepomis sp. are a widely distributed fish type that can be used as a model to represent all fish species in an assemblage at a sampling location, the magnitude of chemical contamination detected in Lepomis sp. via biomarker response can be used to determine changes in overall fish assemblage structure, and 10% urban surface and greater is a threat pathway leading to deleterious effects on aquatic ecosystems (both in disruption of fish assemblage integrity and increasing biomarker response). Within a watershed, fish health at the organism, population, and community scales declines concomitantly in response to increasing urban surfaces. As the human population continues to increase, there will be an increased burden of aquatic contaminants resulting in a decline in the diversity of fish and other aquatic life. Sensitive species will be the first to disappear. Eventually, a watershed may become so badly deteriorated that only a few tolerant or specialized species will remain. Results of this research revealed threat pathways to fish health and aquatic resources, identify the magnitude of the anthropogenic impact on watersheds at a statewide level, and provide a scientific basis for sustainability from the scientific community to stakeholders, land developers, and policy creators

Rentiership, 'improperty', and moral economy

The rentier economy is not only dysfunctional but unjust. In this paper I use a moral economic approach to defend this proposition by going back to basic concepts. Drawing upon classical political economic theory and political theory, and the work of Hobson and Tawney and more recent theorists, I propose a set of complementary distinctions that deepen understanding of rentiership: earned and unearned income; wealth-creating and wealth-extracting investment; property and improperty. I then comment on the relations, similarities and differences between capitalists and rentiers. Next I review the changing relation between critiques of rentiership and notions of ‘free markets’ and ‘property-owning democracy’ in the history of capitalism, with particular emphasis on the relation of neoliberalism to rent-seeking. Finally, I briefly discuss the implications of rentiership for reducing inequality and averting global heating

Responding to the Troubled Families Programme:framing the injuries of inequality

Government initiatives such as the Troubled Families Programme present a difficult problem for social scientists: how to discuss the policies without accepting and appearing to legitimise the problematic framing of social problems that they embody. The programme is characteristically neoliberal in its silence on structural inequality and in its targeting of certain families as deficient and wholly responsible for their situation. Like so many such programmes, its primary addressee is arguably not merely those targeted by the policies but the wider electorate. The paper discusses the dilemmas of challenging the policy's framing. First it makes some general points about the different characters of political and academic discourses, before examining some key features of the framing of TFP, its conceptualisation of social causes of problems and individual responsibility, and how social scientists might respond. It then draws upon the work of George Lakoff to comment on how the impact of policy and political discourse depends on the kinds of value systems it invokes, before concluding

Machiavelli on the art of the state and the true way

"This monograph reopens a central and contentious question about Machiavelli's thought: how does he understand the relation between morality and politics? In the twentieth century, three of the most influential answers were those of Benedetto Croce, Leo Strauss and Isaiah Berlin. In 1925, Croce argued that Machiavelli values morality and thus discovered the ""autonomy of politics"" with bitterness. In 1958, Strauss argued that Machiavelli is both ""an evil man"" and ""a teacher of evil."" And in 1972, Berlin argued that Machiavelli's political philosophy is moral-but based on a ""pagan morality."" My dissertation reexamines the question of Machiavelli through a close reading that analyzes his political vision in both its historical and intellectual context. I argue that Machiavelli esteems the moral virtues but insists that to be a successful ruler one must know how to act against them, when necessary. Throughout his writings, he takes for granted that the state's security is a necessity without which virtue, honour and greatness are themselves not possible; thus he argues that the necessity of security overrides moral considerations when the two come into conflict. Further, since expansion increases security, expansion itself is necessary. This is a far-reaching argument. First, it means that the struggle for power is inherent in affairs of state, not only due to avarice and ambition but also due to the desire for security itself; second, since expansion is necessary for security, the argument that rulers may violate moral norms for the end of security extends to expansion. At the same time, Machiavelli' s realist mode of analysis also puts limits on ambition, avarice and expansion, though they derive largely from a prudent understanding of necessity, the limits of power and the indignation aroused by injustice. When it comes to the art of the state, for Machiavelli, the true way is to be in accord with necessity. Necessity resolves the conflict between politics and morality and subordinates the orthodox notion of the true way-whether associated with Christianity, the middle way or both-to the true way revealed by necessity.

Characterization of a temperature-sensitive DNA ligase from Escherichia coli

DNA ligases are essential enzymes in cells due to their ability to join DNA strand breaks formed during DNA replication. Several temperature-sensitive mutant strains of Escherichia coli, including strain GR501, have been described which can be complemented by functional DNA ligases. Here, it is shown that the ligA251 mutation in E. coli GR501 strain is a cytosine to thymine transition at base 43, which results in a substitution of leucine by phenylalanine at residue 15. The protein product of this gene (LigA251) is accumulated to a similar level at permissive and non-permissive temperatures. Compared to wild-type LigA, at 20 °C purified LigA251 has 20-fold lower ligation activity in vitro, and its activity is reduced further at 42 °C, resulting in 60-fold lower ligation activity than wild-type LigA. It is proposed that the mutation in LigA251 affects the structure of the N-terminal region of LigA. The resulting decrease in DNA ligase activity at the non-permissive temperature is likely to occur as the result of a conformational change that reduces the rate of adenylation of the ligase

NAD+-dependent DNA ligases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Streptomyces coelicolor

Sequencing of the genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) identified putative genes for an NAD+-dependent DNA ligase. We have cloned both open reading frames and overexpressed the protein products in Escherichia coli. In vitro biochemical assays confirm that each of these proteins encodes a functional DNA ligase that uses NAD+ as its cofactor. Expression of either protein is able to complement E. coli GR501, which carries a temperature-sensitive mutation in ligA. Thus, in vitro and in vivo analyses confirm predictions that ligA genes from M. tuberculosis and S. coelicolor are NAD+-dependent DNA ligases

We need to challenge the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators

In this article Andrew Sayer revives some concepts – ‘unearned income’, ‘rentiers’, ‘functionless investors’, and ‘improperty’ – to explain why the very rich are unjust and dysfunctional. We need to challenge the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators, he argues

Critiquing - and rescuing - 'character'

The paper looks at how sociology might regard the concept of ‘character’, both in terms of the way it is used in public discourse and in its own accounts of social life. In the former, the concept is likely to regarded with suspicion, especially where it is used to explain individuals’ life outcomes in a way that ignores social structures and depoliticizes inequalities. Such usages are to be found in political discourse on welfare and in the character education movement as a solution to problems of ‘social mobility’. Yet if character refers to individuals’ settled dispositions to act in certain ways, then it has some affinities with the Bourdieusian concept of habitus. The paper argues both for developing the critique of ideological uses of the concept and for considering how it might be used in ways that do not misrepresent its explanatory and normative significance