Development of technology for hot drape forming and nozzles for torus sections Final report, Jun. 1963 - Dec. 1965

Hot drape forming and heat treatment of aluminum base alloy toroidal shell segment

Health-Promoting and Sustainable Behavior in University Students in Germany: A Cross-Sectional Study

Health-promoting and sustainable behaviors, such as active transportation and sustainable diets, are associated with positive effects on human health and the environment. In order to unlock the potential of university students as key actors and multipliers, it is of interest to investigate their level of knowledge about the health effects of climate change and their willingness toward and implementation of health-promoting and sustainable behaviors. In November 2021, an online survey was conducted among students at the University of Regensburg, Germany. A total of 3756 participants (response rate 18%; mean age 23 years; 69% women) provided valid data. A large proportion of medical students (48%) considered themselves well-informed about the health-related effects of climate change, while only a small proportion (22%) of students within economic/computer/data sciences and law felt informed. Most participants knew about the impact of climate change on malnutrition (78%), but considerably fewer were aware of its impact on cardiovascular diseases (52%). Participants who considered themselves informed were consistently more willing to engage in climate-friendly behavior, and this willingness was also reflected in their actions, as they simultaneously promoted a healthy lifestyle. Across all academic disciplines, there is a strong need for knowledge transfer regarding topics that combine health and sustainable development

DNA-Based Arthropod Diversity Assessment in Amazonian Iron Mine Lands Show Ecological Succession Towards Undisturbed Reference Sites

Human activities change natural landscapes, and in doing so endanger biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. To reduce the net impacts of these activities, such as mining, disturbed areas are rehabilitated and restored. During this process, monitoring is important to ensure that desired trajectories are maintained. In the Carajás region of the Brazilian Amazon, exploration for iron ores has transformed the original ecosystem; natural forest and a savanna formation with lateritic iron duricrust outcrops named canga. Here, native vegetation is logged and topsoil removed and deposited in waste piles along with mine waste. During rehabilitation, these waste piles are hydroseeded with non-native plant species to achieve rapid revegetation. Further, seeds of native canga and forest plant species are planted to point ecological succession towards natural ecosystems. In this study, we investigate diversity and composition of the arthropod community along a post-mining rehabilitation and restoration gradient, taking seasonality and primer bias into account. We use DNA metabarcoding of bulk arthropod samples collected in both the dry and rainy seasons from waste-pile benches at various stages of revegetation: non-revegetated exposed soils, initial stage with one-to-three-year-old stands, intermediate stage with four-to-five-year-old stands, and advanced stage with six-to-seven-year-old stands. We use samples from undisturbed cangas and forests as reference sites. In addition, we vegetation diversity and structure were measured to investigate relations between arthropod community and vegetation structure. Our results show that, over time, the arthropod community composition of the waste piles becomes more similar to the reference forests, but not to the reference cangas. Nevertheless, even the communities in the advanced-stage waste piles are different from the reference forests, and full restoration in these highly diverse ecosystems is not achieved, even after 6 to 7 years. Finally, our results show seasonal variation in arthropod communities and primer bias

Nucleic acid extraction from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded cancer cell line samples: a trade off between quantity and quality?

Background: Advanced genomic techniques such as Next-Generation-Sequencing (NGS) and gene expression profiling, including NanoString, are vital for the development of personalised medicines, as they enable molecular disease classification. This has become increasingly important in the treatment of cancer, aiding patient selection. However, it requires efficient nucleic acid extraction often from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPE). Methods: Here we provide a comparison of several commercially available manual and automated methods for DNA and/or RNA extraction from FFPE cancer cell line samples from Qiagen, life Technologies and Promega. Differing extraction geometric mean yields were evaluated across each of the kits tested, assessing dual DNA/RNA extraction vs. specialised single extraction, manual silica column based extraction techniques vs. automated magnetic bead based methods along with a comparison of subsequent nucleic acid purity methods, providing a full evaluation of nucleic acids isolated. Results: Out of the four RNA extraction kits evaluated the RNeasy FFPE kit, from Qiagen, gave superior geometric mean yields, whilst the Maxwell 16 automated method, from Promega, yielded the highest quality RNA by quantitative real time RT-PCR. Of the DNA extraction kits evaluated the PicoPure DNA kit, from Life Technologies, isolated 2–14× more DNA. A miniaturised qPCR assay was developed for DNA quantification and quality assessment. Conclusions: Careful consideration of an extraction kit is necessary dependent on quality or quantity of material required. Here we provide a flow diagram on the factors to consider when choosing an extraction kit as well as how to accurately quantify and QC the extracted material

Purinergic inhibition of Na+,K+,Cl− cotransport in C11-MDCK cells: Role of stress-activated protein kinases

Previously, we observed that sustained activation of P2Y1 leads to inhibition of Na+,K+,Cl− cotransport (NKCC) in C11 cells resembling intercalated cells from collecting ducts of the Madin-Darby canine kidney. This study examined the role of stress-activated protein kinases (SAPK) in NKCC inhibition triggered by purinergic receptors. Treatment of C11 cells with ATP led to sustained phosphorylation of SAPK such as JNK and p38. Activation of these kinases also occurred in anisomycin-treated cells. Surprisingly, we observed that compounds SP600125 and SB202190, known as potent inhibitors of JNK and p38 in cell-free systems, activated rather than inhibited phosphorylation of the kinases in C11 cells. Importantly, similarly to ATP, all the above-listed activators of JNK and p38 phosphorylation inhibited NKCC. Thus, our results suggest that activation of JNK and/or p38 contributes to NKCC suppression detected in intercalated-like cells from distal tubules after their exposure to P2Y1 agonists

Impact of Single Links in Competitive Percolation -- How complex networks grow under competition

How a complex network is connected crucially impacts its dynamics and function. Percolation, the transition to extensive connectedness upon gradual addition of links, was long believed to be continuous but recent numerical evidence on "explosive percolation" suggests that it might as well be discontinuous if links compete for addition. Here we analyze the microscopic mechanisms underlying discontinuous percolation processes and reveal a strong impact of single link additions. We show that in generic competitive percolation processes, including those displaying explosive percolation, single links do not induce a discontinuous gap in the largest cluster size in the thermodynamic limit. Nevertheless, our results highlight that for large finite systems single links may still induce observable gaps because gap sizes scale weakly algebraically with system size. Several essentially macroscopic clusters coexist immediately before the transition, thus announcing discontinuous percolation. These results explain how single links may drastically change macroscopic connectivity in networks where links add competitively.Comment: non-final version, for final see Nature Physics homepag

Involving Citizen Scientists in Biodiversity Observation

The involvement of non-professionals in scientific research and environmental monitoring, termed Citizen Science (CS), has now become a mainstream approach for collecting data on earth processes, ecosystems and biodiversity. This chapter examines how CS might contribute to ongoing efforts in biodiversity monitoring, enhancing observation and recording of key species and systems in a standardised manner, thereby supporting data relevant to the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), as well as reaching key constituencies who would benefit Biodiversity Observation Networks (BONs). The design of successful monitoring or observation networks that rely on citizen observers requires a careful balancing of the two primary user groups, namely data users and data contributors (i.e., citizen scientists). To this end, this chapter identifies examples of successful CS programs as well as considering practical issues such as the reliability of the data, participant recruitment and motivation, and the use of emerging technologies

Molecular diet analysis of two african free-tailed bats (molossidae) using high throughput sequencing.

Given the diversity of prey consumed by insectivorous bats, it is difficult to discern the composition of their diet using morphological or conventional PCR-based analyses of their faeces. We demonstrate the use of a powerful alternate tool, the use of the Roche FLX sequencing platform to deep-sequence uniquely 5' tagged insect-generic barcode cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) fragments, that were PCR amplified from faecal pellets of two free-tailed bat species Chaerephon pumilus and Mops condylurus (family: Molossidae). Although the analyses were challenged by the paucity of southern African insect COI sequences in the GenBank and BOLD databases, similarity to existing collections allowed the preliminary identification of 25 prey families from six orders of insects within the diet of C. pumilus, and 24 families from seven orders within the diet of M. condylurus. Insects identified to families within the orders Lepidoptera and Diptera were widely present among the faecal samples analysed. The two families that were observed most frequently were Noctuidae and Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera). Species-level analysis of the data was accomplished using novel bioinformatics techniques for the identification of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU). Based on these analyses, our data provide little evidence of resource partitioning between sympatric M. condylurus and C. pumilus in the Simunye region of Swaziland at the time of year when the samples were collected, although as more complete databases against which to compare the sequences are generated this may have to be re-evaluated.This study was supported by Bat Conservation International, Etatsraad Georg Bestle og Hustrus Mindelegat and the Oticon Fonden (KB and CN), the Danish Council for Independent Research Natural Sciences ‘Skou’ award (MTPG), and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada post-doctoral fellowship (ELC). These funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This study was also supported by the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, who provided field assistance and therefore had a role in data collection

Association between circadian physical activity patterns and mortality in the UK Biobank

Abstract Background The benefit of physical activity (PA) for increasing longevity is well-established, however, the impact of diurnal timing of PA on mortality remains poorly understood. We aimed to derive circadian PA patterns and investigate their associations with all-cause mortality. Methods We used 24 h PA time series from 96,351 UK Biobank participants aged between 42 and 79 years at accelerometry in 2013–2015. Functional principal component analysis (fPCA) was applied to obtain circadian PA patterns. Using multivariable Cox proportional hazard models, we related the loading scores of these fPCs to estimate risk of mortality. Results During 6.9 years of follow-up, 2,850 deaths occurred. Four distinct fPCs accounted for 96% of the variation of the accelerometry data. Using a loading score of zero (i.e., average overall PA during the day) as the reference, a fPC1 score of + 2 (high overall PA) was inversely associated with mortality (Hazard ratio, HR = 0.91; 95% CI: 0.84–0.99), whereas a score of -2 (low overall PA) was associated with higher mortality (1.69; 95% CI: 1.57–1.81; p for non-linearity < 0.001). Significant inverse linear associations with mortality were observed for engaging in midday PA instead of early and late PA (fPC3) (HR for a 1-unit increase 0.88; 95% CI: 0.83–0.93). In contrast, midday and nocturnal PA instead of early and evening PA (fPC4) were positively associated with mortality (HR for a 1-unit increase 1.16; 95% CI: 1.08–1.25). Conclusion Our results suggest that it is less important during which daytime hours one is active but rather, to engage in some level of elevated PA for longevity