Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) in Attica Region, Greece using climate models upon the climate scenarios A1B and A2. ORIENTGATE Technical Report

The study was commissioned within the preparation of the River Basin Management Plan of Attica Water District (Ministry of Environment 2013). Its main purpose was to: a) quantify the effects of drought and water shortage in the water district of Attica, b) to examine possible methodologies for predicting future incidents and c) to propose remedies for various levels of risk. This essay aims to strengthen the effectiveness of the above "Drought and Water shortage Management Plan" of the Attica Water District, by enhancing the forecasting process of future drought incidents

A Multi-Year Study of Radioactivity in Surface Air and Its Relation to Climate Variables in Belgrade, Serbia

Activities of Be-7 and Pb-210 were monitored in surface air in Belgrade, Serbia, from 2004 to 2012. The measurements were taken from two locations, in an open field of a city suburb and in the central city area. The activities were determined on HPGe detectors by standard gamma spectrometry. The Be-7 activity shows a pronounced seasonal pattern, with the maximum in spring-summer and minimum in winter, while the Pb-210 activity exhibits two maxima, in autumn and late winter. The mean monthly concentrations measured at both sites are below 9 mBq/m(3) and 1.3 mBq/m(3) for Be-7 and Pb-210, respectively. The obtained correlation of the Be-7 activity with the number of sun-spots is not statistically significant. Relations of the radionuclides activities with climate variables (precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, sunshine hours, and atmospheric pressure) are also investigated, but the only significant correlations are found for the Be-7 activity with temperature and sunshine hours, and the Pb-210 activity with atmospheric pressure. The maximum Be-7 and Pb-210 activities corresponding to binned total monthly precipitation data imply different modes of the radionuclide scavenging from the atmosphere. During dry periods, accumulation of the radionuclides in the atmosphere leads to their increased activities, but no correlation was found between the activities and the number of consecutive dry days

Deciduous Trees and the Application of Universal DNA Barcodes: A Case Study on the Circumpolar Fraxinus

The utility of DNA barcoding for identifying representative specimens of the circumpolar tree genus Fraxinus (56 species) was investigated. We examined the genetic variability of several loci suggested in chloroplast DNA barcode protocols such as matK, rpoB, rpoC1 and trnH-psbA in a large worldwide sample of Fraxinus species. The chloroplast intergenic spacer rpl32-trnL was further assessed in search for a potentially variable and useful locus. The results of the study suggest that the proposed cpDNA loci, alone or in combination, cannot fully discriminate among species because of the generally low rates of substitution in the chloroplast genome of Fraxinus. The intergenic spacer trnH-psbA was the best performing locus, but genetic distance-based discrimination was moderately successful and only resulted in the separation of the samples at the subgenus level. Use of the BLAST approach was better than the neighbor-joining tree reconstruction method with pairwise Kimura's two-parameter rates of substitution, but allowed for the correct identification of only less than half of the species sampled. Such rates are substantially lower than the success rate required for a standardised barcoding approach. Consequently, the current cpDNA barcodes are inadequate to fully discriminate Fraxinus species. Given that a low rate of substitution is common among the plastid genomes of trees, the use of the plant cpDNA “universal” barcode may not be suitable for the safe identification of tree species below a generic or sectional level. Supplementary barcoding loci of the nuclear genome and alternative solutions are proposed and discussed

Strength-ductility behaviour of Al-Si-Cu-Mg casting alloys in T6 temper

A comparative study of the mechanical properties of 20 experimental alloys has been carried out. The effect of different contents of Si, Cu, Mg, Fe and Mn, as well as solidification rate, has been assessed using a strength-ductility chart and a quality index-strength chart developed for the alloys. The charts show that the strength generally increases and the ductility decreases with an increasing content of Cu and Mg. Increased Fe (at Fe/Mn ratio 0.5) dramatically lowers the ductility and strength of low Si alloys. Increased Si content generally increases the strength and the ductility. The increase in ductility with increased Si is particularly significant when the Fe content is high. The charts are used to show that the cracking of second phase particles imposes a limit to the maximum achievable strength by limiting the ductility of strong alloys. The (Cu + Mg) content (at.%), which determines the precipitation strengthening and the volume fraction of Cu-rich and Mg-rich intermetallics, can be used to select the alloys for given strength and ductility, provided the Fe content stays below the Si-dependent critical level for the formation of pre-eutectic alpha-phase particles or beta-phase plates

Cardiopoietic cell therapy for advanced ischemic heart failure: results at 39 weeks of the prospective, randomized, double blind, sham-controlled CHART-1 clinical trial

Cardiopoietic cells, produced through cardiogenic conditioning of patients' mesenchymal stem cells, have shown preliminary efficacy. The Congestive Heart Failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative Therapy (CHART-1) trial aimed to validate cardiopoiesis-based biotherapy in a larger heart failure cohort

Towards rational de novo design of peptides for inorganic interfaces

Proteins at inorganic interfaces occur across science, technology and nature – protein arrays, prostheses such as stents and artificial heart valves, biomimetic assembly of nanoparticles, and anti-freeze proteins are just a few examples from many. Despite the clear importance of proteins at inorganic interfaces, elucidation of the structure and behaviour of proteins at such interfaces and the design of associated systems is still dominated by experiment, and trial and error. We at Edinburgh are developing computational tools that will complement this experimental effort. In this presentation, I will outline the overall approach we are seeking to develop for the rational de novo design of systems involving proteins at solid interfaces – which exploits in silico evolutionary processes – and then provide details (with examples) of the various elements involved. As part of this, I will present results for the ab initio prediction of protein conformations in the gas and liquid phases and at solid surfaces, and a molecular switching phenomenon we have observed in polyalanine that may be of relevance to nanotechnology and disease processes.M.J. Biggshttp://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=589447766776188;res=IELEN