1,114 research outputs found
Interview with Eliza Atkinson
An interview with Eliza Atkinson regarding her experiences in a one-room school house.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/ors/1046/thumbnail.jp
Deep Impression: Audiovisual Deep Residual Networks for Multimodal Apparent Personality Trait Recognition
Here, we develop an audiovisual deep residual network for multimodal apparent
personality trait recognition. The network is trained end-to-end for predicting
the Big Five personality traits of people from their videos. That is, the
network does not require any feature engineering or visual analysis such as
face detection, face landmark alignment or facial expression recognition.
Recently, the network won the third place in the ChaLearn First Impressions
Challenge with a test accuracy of 0.9109
Hydrology influences carbon flux through metabolic pathways in the hypolimnion of a Mediterranean reservoir
Global change is modifying meteorological and hydrological factors that influence the thermal regime of water bodies. These modifications can lead to longer stratification periods with enlarged hypolimnetic anoxic periods, which can promote heterotrophic anaerobic processes and alter reservoir carbon cycling. Here, we quantified aerobic and anaerobic heterotrophic processes (aerobic respiration, denitrification, iron and manganese reduction, sulfate reduction, and methanogenesis) on dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) production in the hypolimnion of a Mediterranean reservoir (El Gergal, Spain) under two contrasting hydrological conditions: a wet year with heavy direct rainfall and frequent water inputs from upstream reservoirs, and a dry year with scarce rainfall and negligible water inputs. During the wet year, water inputs and rainfall induced low water column thermal stability and earlier turnover. By contrast, thermal stratification was longer and more stable during the dry year. During wet conditions, we observed lower DIC accumulation in the hypolimnion, mainly due to weaker sulfate reduction and methanogenesis. By contrast, longer stratification during the dry year promoted higher hypolimnetic DIC accumulation, resulting from enhanced methanogenesis and sulfate reduction, thus increasing methane emissions and impairing reservoir water quality. Aerobic respiration, denitrification and metal reduction produced a similar amount of DIC in the hypolimnion during the two studied years. All in all, biological and geochemical (calcite dissolution) processes explained most of hypolimnetic DIC accumulation during stratification regardless of the hydrological conditions, but there is still ~ 30% of hypolimnetic DIC production that cannot be explained by the processes contemplated in this study and the assumptions made.This research was funded by project Alter-C (PID2020-114024GB-C31, PID2020-114024GB-C32, PID2020-114024GB-C33) of Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spanish Research Agency, AEI). JJM-P was supported by a Spanish FPI grant (RE2018-083596). EMASESA staff provide essential technical support during field surveys. R.M. acknowledges funding from Generalitat de Catalunya through the Consolidated Research Group 2017SGR1124 and the CERCA programme. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA
Biodegradation kinetics of dissolved organic matter chromatographic fractions
Controls on the degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) are complex but key to understand the role of freshwaters in the carbon cycle. Both the origin and previous degradation history have been suggested to determine DOM reactivity, but it is still a major challenge to understand the links between DOM composition and biodegradation kinetics. An appropriate context to study these links are intermittent rivers, as summer drought naturally diversifies DOM sources and sinks. Here we investigated the biodegradation kinetics of DOM in the main aquatic environments present in a temporary river. During dark incubations we traced the dynamics of bulk DOM and its main chromatographic fractions defined using LC-OCD: high molecular weight substances (HMWS), low molecular weight substances (LMWS), and humic substances and building blocks. Bulk DOM decay patterns were successfully fitted to the reactivity continuum (RC) biodegradation model. The RC parameters depicted running waters as the sites presenting a more reactive DOM, and temporary pools, enriched in leaf litter, as the ones with slowest DOM decay. The decay patterns of each DOM fraction were consistent throughout sites. LMWS and HMWS decayed in all cases and could be modeled using the RC model. Notably, the dynamics of LMWS controlled the bulk DOM kinetics. We discuss the mechanistic basis for the chromatographic fractions' kinetics during biodegradation and the implications that preconditioning and summer drought can have for DOM biodegradation in intermittent rivers
Altered synaptic plasticity and behavioral abnormalities in CNGA3-deficient mice
The role of the cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channel CNGA3 is well established in cone photoreceptors and guanylyl cyclase-D-expressing olfactory neurons. To assess a potential function of CNGA3 in the mouse amygdala and hippocampus, we examined synaptic plasticity and performed a comparative analysis of spatial learning, fear conditioning and step-down avoidance in wild-type mice and CNGA3 null mutants (CNGA3(-/-) ). CNGA3(-/-) mice showed normal basal synaptic transmission in the amygdala and the hippocampus. However, cornu Ammonis (CA1) hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by a strong tetanus was significantly enhanced in CNGA3(-/-) mice as compared with their wild-type littermates. Unlike in the hippocampus, LTP was not significantly altered in the amygdala of CNGA3(-/-) mice. Enhanced hippocampal LTP did not coincide with changes in hippocampus-dependent learning, as both wild-type and mutant mice showed a similar performance in water maze tasks and contextual fear conditioning, except for a trend toward higher step-down latencies in a passive avoidance task. In contrast, CNGA3(-/-) mice showed markedly reduced freezing to the conditioned tone in the amygdala-dependent cued fear conditioning task. In conclusion, our study adds a new entry on the list of physiological functions of the CNGA3 channel. Despite the dissociation between physiological and behavioral parameters, our data describe a so far unrecognized role of CNGA3 in modulation of hippocampal plasticity and amygdala-dependent fear memory
Chemo- and Thermosensory Responsiveness of Grueneberg Ganglion Neurons Relies on Cyclic Guanosine Monophosphate Signaling Elements
Neurons of the Grueneberg ganglion (GG) in the anterior nasal region of mouse pups respond to cool temperatures and to a small set of odorants. While the thermosensory reactivity appears to be mediated by elements of a cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) cascade, the molecular mechanisms underlying the odor-induced responses are unclear. Since odor-responsive GG cells are endowed with elements of a cGMP pathway, specifically the transmembrane guanylyl cyclase subtype GC-G and the cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel CNGA3, the possibility was explored whether these cGMP signaling elements may also be involved in chemosensory GG responses. Experiments with transgenic mice deficient for GC-G or CNGA3 revealed that GG responsiveness to given odorants was significantly diminished in these knockout animals. These findings suggest that a cGMP cascade may be important for both olfactory and thermosensory signaling in the GG. However, in contrast to the thermosensory reactivity, which did not decline over time, the chemosensory response underwent adaptation upon extended stimulation, suggesting that the two transduction processes only partially overlap. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base
Acidification and solar drying of manure-based digestate to produce improved fertilizing products
The increase in energy and fertilizer consumption makes it necessary to develop sustainable alternatives for agriculture. Anaerobic digestion and digestates appeared to be suitable options. However, untreated digestates still have high water content and can increase greenhouse gas emissions during storage and land application. In this study, manure-derived digestate and solid fraction of digestate after separation were treated with a novel solar drying technology to reduce their water content, combined with acidification to reduce the gaseous emissions. The acidified digestate and acidified solid fraction of digestate recovered more nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen than their respective non-acidified products (1.5–1.3 times for TN; 14 times for TAN). Ammonia and methane emissions were reduced up to 94% and 72% respectively, compared to the non-acidified ones, while N2O increased more than 3 times. Dried digestate and dried acidified digestate can be labeled as NPK organic fertilizer regarding the European regulation, and the dried solid fraction and the improved dried acidified solid fraction can be labeled as N or P organic fertilizer. Moreover, plant tests showed that N concentrations in fresh lettuce leaves were within the EU limit with all products in all the cases. However, zinc concentration appeared to be a limitation in some of the products as their concentration exceeded the European legal limits.This work was funded by the European Union under the Circular Agronomics project (H2020 research and innovation project Nº.773649) and Nutry2Cycle project (H2020 research and innovation project Nº.773682). IRTA thanks the support of the CERCA Program and the Consolidated Research Group TERRA (ref.2017SGR1292), both from the Generalitat de Catalunya. L. Morey thanks the financial support of AGAUR, of the Generalitat de Catalunya (grant reference number 2019FI_B00694). We would like to thank the help of Celia Segura Godoy and Pau Berenguer i Planas during the sampling campaigns.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Acidification and solar drying of manure-based digestate to produce improved fertilizing products
The increase in energy and fertilizer consumption makes it necessary to develop sustainable alternatives for
agriculture. Anaerobic digestion and digestates appeared to be suitable options. However, untreated digestates
still have high water content and can increase greenhouse gas emissions during storage and land application. In
this study, manure-derived digestate and solid fraction of digestate after separation were treated with a novel
solar drying technology to reduce their water content, combined with acidification to reduce the gaseous
emissions. The acidified digestate and acidified solid fraction of digestate recovered more nitrogen and ammonia
nitrogen than their respective non-acidified products (1.5–1.3 times for TN; 14 times for TAN). Ammonia and
methane emissions were reduced up to 94% and 72% respectively, compared to the non-acidified ones, while
N2O increased more than 3 times. Dried digestate and dried acidified digestate can be labeled as NPK organic
fertilizer regarding the European regulation, and the dried solid fraction and the improved dried acidified solid
fraction can be labeled as N or P organic fertilizer. Moreover, plant tests showed that N concentrations in fresh
lettuce leaves were within the EU limit with all products in all the cases. However, zinc concentration appeared
to be a limitation in some of the products as their concentration exceeded the European legal limitsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Social Preferences, Skill Segregation and Wage Dynamics
We study the earning structure and the equilibrium asignment of workers to firms in a model in which workers have social preferences, and skills are perfectly substitutable in production. Firms offer long-term contracts, and we allow for frictions in the labour market in the form of mobility costs. The model delivers specific predictions about the nature of worker flows, about the characteristic of workplace skill segregation, and about wage dispersion both within and cross firms. We shows that long-term contracts in the resence of social preferences associate within-firm wage dispersion with novel "internal labour market" features such as gradual promotions, productivity-unrelated wage increases, and downward wage flexibility. These three dynamic features lead to productivity-unrelated wage volatily within firms.Publicad
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