Microtopography on Mountains:Complex terrain augments heterogeneity of belowground carbon and nitrogen in the Swiss Central Alps

Mountain ecosystems are experiencing accelerated climate change and more frequent climatic extremes. Mountain soils play a critical role in local and regional biogeochemistry, while underpinning ecological stability and ecosystem multifunctionality. In the European Alps, mountain soils represent a critical carbon pool with the potential to modulate climate change through the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, climate warming may exacerbate soil carbon (C) and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes to the atmosphere. Consequently, European mountain ecosystems may become strong sources of atmospheric greenhouse gases, however, the environmental factors controlling the distribution of belowground C and N in mountain ecosystems and their relative importance across different spatial scales are largely unexplored. I aim to demonstrate that heterogeneity in the distribution of total soil C and N, and total organic C and N in microbial biomass, would occur with elevation and be augmented by microtopography. I explore elevation gradients stratified by life zone, underlying geology, parent material, vegetation composition and land-use type, differing only in proxy variables for microtopography. Heterogeneity in belowground C and N occurred with elevation and between sites of the same altitude for all transects. Slope angle was the most important topographic variable at lower elevations, likely due to the relationship with aboveground vegetation. Heterogeneity was constrained across the treeline ecotone, likely due to the overarching effect of declining temperature with increasing elevation on aboveground vegetation and second-order soil physicochemical drivers. The effect of slope was closely linked to response values at higher altitudes but was augmented by the effects of microtopography which became more pronounced with elevation. Overall, it emerged that the macro-scale effects of elevation-dependent factors may control belowground C and N in a general way, and site-specific conditions as a consequence of microtopographic and microclimatic dynamics may augment their heterogeneity at smaller scales

“It’s as political a choice as you’ll ever make”: A Qualitative Case Study of Middle-Class, White Parents Navigating School Choice

For the better part of three decades, charter schools have been seen as a successful bipartisan solution to the difficulties plaguing the American education system. While much of the political rhetoric surrounding school choice suggests an overwhelming influence on public education and that it has either been a resounding success or a total failure, the reality is slightly more muddled. In order to see that muddled reality more clearly, in this dissertation I utilize qualitative case study methodology to investigate the ways in which neoliberal language manifests itself in the way three white, middle-class families in Tennessee perceive public and charter school quality, as well as discuss their overall opinions of American education. It was my hope that by studying the perceptions of parents regarding school quality and any neoliberal rhetoric that might affect these perceptions, I could begin to understand the politically charged rhetoric in support of and against school choice in comparison to what is actually important to the families dealing most with its existence. These three parents utilized three different methods of school choice in an effort to achieve the best possible public education for their children. These parents enrolled their child[ren] in a charter school, relocated to a new school zone, and/or utilized within district transfers. Overall, the parents held a high esteem for public education, in some cases working for years to find a high quality traditional public school for their children. Parents also displayed significant skepticism of charter schools and school choice reforms on a national level, but trusted these institutions and procedures when they had a proven, local record of success. That being said, these parents affirmed that their first choice for education would be a strong and robust traditional public school system, even if they were reticent to outright state an opposition to school choice. These findings suggest that parents would prefer more funding and effort be put in to fixing traditional public schools than enforcing and expanding school choice reforms informed by neoliberal economic theory

Residential building energy conservation and avoided power plant emissions by urban and community trees in the United States

Urban trees and forests alter building energy use and associated emissions from power plants by shading buildings, cooling air temperatures and altering wind speeds around buildings. Field data on urban trees were combined with local urban/community tree and land cover maps, modeling of tree effects on building energy use and pollutant emissions, and state energy and pollutant costs to estimate tree effects on building energy use and associated pollutant emissions at the state to national level in the conterminous United States. Results reveal that trees and forests in urban/community areas in the conterminous United States annually reduce electricity use by 38.8 million MWh ($4.7 billion), heating use by 246 million MMBtus ($3.1 billion) and avoid thousands of tonnes of emissions of several pollutants valued at $3.9 billion per year. Average reduction in national residential energy use due to trees is 7.2percent. Specific designs to reduce energy use using urban trees could increase these values and further reduce energy use and improve air quality in the United States

Forced mobilization accelerates pathogenesis: characterization of a preclinical surgical model of osteoarthritis

Preclinical osteoarthritis (OA) models are often employed in studies investigating disease-modifying OA drugs (DMOADs). In this study we present a comprehensive, longitudinal evaluation of OA pathogenesis in a rat model of OA, including histologic and biochemical analyses of articular cartilage degradation and assessment of subchondral bone sclerosis. Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent joint destabilization surgery by anterior cruciate ligament transection and partial medial meniscectomy. The contralateral joint was evaluated as a secondary treatment, and sham surgery was performed in a separate group of animals (controls). Furthermore, the effects of walking on a rotating cylinder (to force mobilization of the joint) on OA pathogenesis were assessed. Destabilization-induced OA was investigated at several time points up to 20 weeks after surgery using Osteoarthritis Research Society International histopathology scores, in vivo micro-computed tomography (CT) volumetric bone mineral density analysis, and biochemical analysis of type II collagen breakdown using the CTX II biomarker. Expression of hypertrophic chondrocyte markers was also assessed in articular cartilage. Cartilage degradation, subchondral changes, and subchondral bone loss were observed as early as 2 weeks after surgery, with considerable correlation to that seen in human OA. We found excellent correlation between histologic changes and micro-CT analysis of underlying bone, which reflected properties of human OA, and identified additional molecular changes that enhance our understanding of OA pathogenesis. Interestingly, forced mobilization exercise accelerated OA progression. Minor OA activity was also observed in the contralateral joint, including proteoglycan loss. Finally, we observed increased chondrocyte hypertrophy during pathogenesis. We conclude that forced mobilization accelerates OA damage in the destabilized joint. This surgical model of OA with forced mobilization is suitable for longitudinal preclinical studies, and it is well adapted for investigation of both early and late stages of OA. The time course of OA progression can be modulated through the use of forced mobilization

Major qtls for trunk height and correlated agronomic traits provide insights into multiple trait integration in oil palm breeding

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Superior oil yield is always the top priority of the oil palm industry. Short trunk height (THT) and compactness traits have become increasingly important to improve harvesting efficiency since the industry started to suffer yield losses due to labor shortages. Breeding populations with low THT and short frond length (FL) are actually available, such as Dumpy AVROS pisifera (DAV) and Gunung Melayu dura (GM). However, multiple trait stacking still remains a challenge for oil palm breeding, which usually requires 12–20 years to complete a breeding cycle. In this study, yield and height increment in the GM × GM (GM-3341) and the GM × DAV (GM-DAV-3461) crossing programs were evaluated and palms with good yield and smaller height increment were identified. In the GM-3341 family, non-linear THT growth between THT_2008 (seven years old) and THT_2014 (13 years old) was revealed by a moderate correlation, suggesting that inter-palm competition becomes increasingly important. In total, 19 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for THT_2008 (8), oil per palm (O/P) (7) and FL (4) were localized on the GM-3341 linkage map, with an average mapping interval of 2.01 cM. Three major QTLs for THT_2008, O/P and FL are co-located on chromosome 11 and reflect the correlation of THT_2008 with O/P and FL. Multiple trait selection for high O/P and low THT (based on the cumulative effects of positive alleles per trait) identified one palm from 100 palms, but with a large starting population of 1000–1500 seedling per cross, this low frequency could be easily compensated for during breeding selection

Shocked Molecular Hydrogen in the 3C 326 Radio Galaxy System

The Spitzer spectrum of the giant FR II radio galaxy 3C 326 is dominated by very strong molecular hydrogen emission lines on a faint IR continuum. The H2 emission originates in the northern component of a double-galaxy system associated with 3C 326. The integrated luminosity in H2 pure-rotational lines is 8.0E41 erg/s, which corresponds to 17% of the 8-70 micron luminosity of the galaxy. A wide range of temperatures (125-1000 K) is measured from the H2 0-0 S(0)-S(7) transitions, leading to a warm H2 mass of 1.1E9 Msun. Low-excitation ionic forbidden emission lines are consistent with an optical LINER classification for the active nucleus, which is not luminous enough to power the observed H2 emission. The H2 could be shock-heated by the radio jets, but there is no direct indication of this. More likely, the H2 is shock-heated in a tidal accretion flow induced by interaction with the southern companion galaxy. The latter scenario is supported by an irregular morphology, tidal bridge, and possible tidal tail imaged with IRAC at 3-9 micron. Unlike ULIRGs, which in some cases exhibit H2 line luminosities of comparable strength, 3C 326 shows little star-formation activity (~0.1 Msun/yr). This may represent an important stage in galaxy evolution. Starburst activity and efficient accretion onto the central supermassive black hole may be delayed until the shock-heated H2 can kinematically settle and coolComment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

A smart phone application for increasing fruit and vegetable knowledge and intakes: Development and inital testing

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The Spatial Extent of (U)LIRGs in the Mid-Infrared. II. Feature Emission

We present results from the second part of our analysis of the extended mid-infrared (MIR) emission of the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) sample based on 5-14 micron low-resolution spectra obtained with the IRS on Spitzer. We calculate the fraction of extended emission as a function of wavelength for all galaxies in the sample, FEE_lambda, and spatially separate the MIR spectrum of galaxies into their nuclear and extended components. We find that the [NeII] emission line is as compact as the hot dust MIR continuum, while the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission is more extended. The 6.2 and 7.7 micron PAH emission is more compact than that of the 11.3 micron PAH, which is consistent with the formers being enhanced in a more ionized medium. The presence of an AGN or a powerful nuclear starburst increases the compactness of the hot dust MIR continuum, but has a negligible effect on the spatial extent of the PAH emission on kpc-scales. Globally, the spectra of the extended emission component are homogeneous for all galaxies in GOALS. This suggests that the physical properties of star formation taking place at distances farther than 1.5 kpc from the nuclei of (U)LIRGs are very similar, resembling local star-forming galaxies with L_IR < 10^11 Lsun, as well as star formation-dominated ULIRGs at z~2. In contrast, the MIR spectra of the nuclear component of local (U)LIRGs are very diverse. This implies that the observed variety of their integrated MIR properties arise, on average, only from the processes that are taking place in their cores.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap