Progress with the Prime Focus Spectrograph for the Subaru Telescope: a massively multiplexed optical and near-infrared fiber spectrograph

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is an optical/near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph with 2394 science fibers, which are distributed in 1.3 degree diameter field of view at Subaru 8.2-meter telescope. The simultaneous wide wavelength coverage from 0.38 um to 1.26 um, with the resolving power of 3000, strengthens its ability to target three main survey programs: cosmology, Galactic archaeology, and galaxy/AGN evolution. A medium resolution mode with resolving power of 5000 for 0.71 um to 0.89 um also will be available by simply exchanging dispersers. PFS takes the role for the spectroscopic part of the Subaru Measurement of Images and Redshifts project, while Hyper Suprime-Cam works on the imaging part. To transform the telescope plus WFC focal ratio, a 3-mm thick broad-band coated glass-molded microlens is glued to each fiber tip. A higher transmission fiber is selected for the longest part of cable system, while one with a better FRD performance is selected for the fiber-positioner and fiber-slit components, given the more frequent fiber movements and tightly curved structure. Each Fiber positioner consists of two stages of piezo-electric rotary motors. Its engineering model has been produced and tested. Fiber positioning will be performed iteratively by taking an image of artificially back-illuminated fibers with the Metrology camera located in the Cassegrain container. The camera is carefully designed so that fiber position measurements are unaffected by small amounts of high special-frequency inaccuracies in WFC lens surface shapes. Target light carried through the fiber system reaches one of four identical fast-Schmidt spectrograph modules, each with three arms. Prototype VPH gratings have been optically tested. CCD production is complete, with standard fully-depleted CCDs for red arms and more-challenging thinner fully-depleted CCDs with blue-optimized coating for blue arms.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, submitted to "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, Suzanne K. Ramsay, Ian S. McLean, Hideki Takami, Editors, Proc. SPIE 9147 (2014)

Database Survey of Anti-Inflammatory Plants in South America: A Review

Inflammation is a complex event linked to tissue damage whether by bacteria, physical trauma, chemical, heat or any other phenomenon. This physiological response is coordinated largely by a variety of chemical mediators that are released from the epithelium, the immunocytes and nerves of the lamina propria. However, if the factor that triggers the inflammation persists, the inflammation can become relentless, leading to an intensification of the lesion. The present work is a literature survey of plant extracts from the South American continent that have been reported to show anti-inflammatory activity. This review refers to 63 bacterial families of which the following stood out: Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae and Celastraceae, with their countries, parts used, types of extract used, model bioassays, organisms tested and their activity

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

On the need of soil data for environmental assessments: The biofuel example

absen

Allometry and sexual dimorphism of the Neotropical freshwater anomuran Aegla marginata Bond-Buckup & Buckup, 1994 (Crustacea, Anomura, Aeglidae)

Abstract This study analyzes ontogenetic allometry in Aegla marginata Bond-Buckup & Buckup, 1994, a freshwater crustacean, in order to evaluate the growth pattern and the presence of sexual dimorphism, using a multivariate approach. The specimens were sampled from streams in Intervales State Park, São Paulo State, Brazil. For each specimen, we measured the following structures: carapace length and width, chelae height and length, and abdomen length. Allometry was evaluated using Jolicoeur’s multivariate allometric coefficient. Our results showed that for females, ABL (abdomen length) and LCH (left chelae heigh) presented positive allometry; LCL (left chelae length) and RCH (right chelae heigh) isometry; and CL (carapace length), CW (carapace width), and RCL (right chelae length) negative allometry. For males, RCH, LCH, and LCL presented positive allometry; RCL (right chelae length) isometry; and CL, CW, and ABL negative allometry. In addition, sexual dimorphism was amplified with body size

Revue critique des études évaluant l'effet des changements d'affectation des sols sur les bilans environnementaux des biocarburants

Un objectif d'incorporation de 10 % d'énergie renouvelable en 2020 a été fixé pour le secteur des transports au niveau européen. Les biocarburants représentent la solution la plus largement disponible pour atteindre cet objectif. En 2010, ils étaient incorporés à hauteur de 6,7 % dans les carburants français. Un débat existe toutefois sur leurs bénéfices réels, en termes d'émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES) en cas d'augmentation de la quantité de biocarburants consommés. L'Analyse de Cycle de Vie (ACV) des filières "biocarburants" réalisée en 2009 pour l'ADEME et les ministères avait montré la forte sensibilité des bilans GES du développement de l'utilisation des biocarburants en France aux différentes hypothèses des changements d'affectation des sols (CAS), sujet sur lequel l’état des connaissances ne permettait toutefois pas de conclure. Afin d'améliorer les connaissances, l'ADEME a confié à l'INRA la réalisation d’une revue de littérature visant à analyser les publications au niveau international sur l'impact potentiel du développement des biocarburants sur le changement d'affectation des sols et ses conséquences dans les bilans GES. L’étude s’est déroulée en 2011. Elle a été suivie par un Comité technique d’Orientation associant l’ADEME, l’INRA, les Ministères de l’Ecologie et de l’Agriculture, France Agrimer, ainsi que des représentants des parties prenantes : filières agricoles et des biocarburants, associations de protection de l’environnement. Elle a fait l’objet en octobre 2011 d’une revue critique par des experts internationaux