‘Sub-Prime’ Water, Low-Security Entitlements and Policy Challenges in Over-Allocated River Basins: the Case of the Murray–Darling Basin

Environmental policy is often implemented using market instruments. In some cases, including carbon taxing, the links between financial products and the environmental objectives, are transparent. In other cases, including water markets, the links are less transparent. In Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), financial water products are known as ‘entitlements’, and are similar to traditional financial products, such as shares. The Australian water market includes ‘Low Security’ entitlements, which are similar to ‘sub-prime’ mortgage bonds because they are unlikely to yield an amount equal to their financial worth. Nearly half the water purchased under the Murray–Darling Basin Plan for environmental purposes is ‘Low Security’. We suggest that the current portfolio of water held by the Australian Government for environmental purposes reflects the mortgage market in the lead-up to the global financial crisis. Banks assumed that the future value of the mortgage market would reflect past trends. Similarly, it is assumed that the future value of water products will reflect past trends, without considering climate change. Historic records of allocations to ‘Low Security’ entitlements in the MDB suggest that, in the context of climate change, the Basin Plan water portfolio may fall short of the target annual average yield of 2075 GL by 511 GL. We recommend adopting finance sector methods including ‘hedging’ ‘Low Security’ entitlements by purchasing an additional 322–2755 GL of ‘Low Security’, or 160–511 GL of ‘High Security’ entitlements. Securing reliable environmental water is a global problem. Finance economics present opportunities for increasing the reliability of environmental flows

Uptake and Metabolism of the Novel Peptide Angiotensin-(1-12) by Neonatal Cardiac Myocytes

Angiotensin-(1-12) [Ang-(1-12)] functions as an endogenous substrate for the productions of Ang II and Ang-(1-7) by a non-renin dependent mechanism. This study evaluated whether Ang-(1-12) is incorporated by neonatal cardiac myocytes and the enzymatic pathways of ¹²⁵I-Ang-(1-12) metabolism in the cardiac myocyte medium from WKY and SHR rats.The degradation of ¹²⁵I-Ang-(1-12) (1 nmol/L) in the cultured medium of these cardiac myocytes was evaluated in the presence and absence of inhibitors for angiotensin converting enzymes 1 and 2, neprilysin and chymase. In both strains uptake of ¹²⁵I-Ang-(1-12) by myocytes occurred in a time-dependent fashion. Uptake of intact Ang-(1-12) was significantly greater in cardiac myocytes of SHR as compared to WKY. In the absence of renin angiotensin system (RAS) enzymes inhibitors the hydrolysis of labeled Ang-(1-12) and the subsequent generation of smaller Ang peptides from Ang-(1-12) was significantly greater in SHR compared to WKY controls. ¹²⁵I-Ang-(1-12) degradation into smaller Ang peptides fragments was significantly inhibited (90% in WKY and 71% in SHR) in the presence of all RAS enzymes inhibitors. Further analysis of peptide fractions generated through the incubation of Ang-(1-12) in the myocyte medium demonstrated a predominant hydrolytic effect of angiotensin converting enzyme and neprilysin in WKY and an additional role for chymase in SHR.These studies demonstrate that neonatal myocytes sequester angiotensin-(1-12) and revealed the enzymes involved in the conversion of the dodecapeptide substrate to biologically active angiotensin peptides

Physiology and biochemistry of reduction of azo compounds by Shewanella strains relevant to electron transport chain

Azo dyes are toxic, highly persistent, and ubiquitously distributed in the environments. The large-scale production and application of azo dyes result in serious environmental pollution of water and sediments. Bacterial azo reduction is an important process for removing this group of contaminants. Recent advances in this area of research reveal that azo reduction by Shewanella strains is coupled to the oxidation of electron donors and linked to the electron transport and energy conservation in the cell membrane. Up to date, several key molecular components involved in this reaction have been identified and the primary electron transportation system has been proposed. These new discoveries on the respiration pathways and electron transfer for bacterial azo reduction has potential biotechnological implications in cleaning up contaminated sites

Design, baseline characteristics, and retention of African American light smokers into a randomized trial involving biological data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>African Americans experience significant tobacco-related health disparities despite the fact that over half of African American smokers are light smokers (use ≤10 cigarettes per day). African Americans have been under-represented in smoking cessation research, and few studies have evaluated treatment for light smokers. This paper describes the study design, measures, and baseline characteristics from <it>Kick It at Swope III </it>(KIS-III), the first treatment study of bupropion for African American light smokers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Five hundred forty African American light smokers were randomly assigned to receive bupropion (150mg bid) (n = 270) or placebo (n = 270) for 7 weeks. All participants received written materials and health education counseling. Participants responded to survey items and provided blood samples for evaluation of phenotype and genotype of CYP2A6 and CYP2B6 enzymes involved in nicotine and bupropion metabolism. Primary outcome was cotinine-verified 7-day point prevalence smoking abstinence at Week 26 follow-up.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 2,628 individuals screened, 540 were eligible, consented, and randomized to treatment. Participants had a mean age of 46.5 years and 66.1% were women. Participants smoked an average of 8.0 cigarettes per day, had a mean exhaled carbon monoxide of 16.4ppm (range 1-55) and a mean serum cotinine of 275.8ng/ml. The mean Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence was 3.2, and 72.2% of participants smoked within 30 minutes of waking. The average number of quit attempts in the past year was 3.7 and 24.2% reported using pharmacotherapy in their most recent quit attempt. Motivation and confidence to quit were high.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>KIS-III is the first study designed to examine both nicotine and bupropion metabolism, evaluating CYP2A6 and CYP2B6 phenotype and genotype in conjunction with psychosocial factors, in the context of treatment of African American light smokers. Of 1629 smokers screened for study participation, only 18 (1.1%) were ineligible to participate in the study because they refused blood draws, demonstrating the feasibility of recruiting and enrolling African American light smokers into a clinical treatment trial involving biological data collection and genetic analyses. Future evaluation of individual factors associated with treatment outcome will contribute to advancing tailored tobacco use treatment with the goal of enhancing treatment and reducing health disparities for African American light smokers.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="URL">NCT00666978</a></p

Distorted body representations are robust to differences in experimental instructions

Several recent reports have shown that even healthy adults maintain highly distorted representations of the size and shape of their body. These distortions have been shown to be highly consistent across different study designs and dependent measures. However, previous studies have found that visual judgments of size can be modulated by the experimental instructions used, for example, by asking for judgments of the participant’s subjective experience of stimulus size (i.e., apparent instructions) versus judgments of actual stimulus properties (i.e., objective instructions). Previous studies investigating internal body representations have relied exclusively on ‘apparent’ instructions. Here, we investigated whether apparent versus objective instructions modulate findings of distorted body representations underlying position sense (Exp. 1), tactile distance perception (Exp. 2), as well as the conscious body image (Exp. 3). Our results replicate the characteristic distortions previously reported for each of these tasks and further show that these distortions are not affected by instruction type (i.e., apparent vs. objective). These results show that the distortions measured with these paradigms are robust to differences in instructions and do not reflect a dissociation between perception and belief

Transient Response of a Hollow Cylindrical-Cross-Section Solid Sensible Heat: Storage Unit- Single Fluid

plosion which have been interpreted in terms of the kinetic theory of nucleation can likewise be viewed in terms of film boiling destabilization with attendant fine scale fragmentation of the hot material. Vol. 77, No. 23, 1973, pp. 2730-2736 26 Cronenberg, A. W., Benz, R., to be published, Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology, 1978. 27 Anderson, R. P., Armstrong, D. R., ASME Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Safety Heat Transfer, Atlanta, Ga., Nov. 1977. 28 Henry, R. E., Fauske, H. K., McUmber, L. M., Proceedings of ANS Conference on Fast Reactor Safety, Chicago, 111. (Oct. 1976). Conclusions 29 Fauske, H. K., Nuclear Science and Engineering, Vol. 51, 1973, pp. 95-101. 30 Fauske, H. K., Reactor Technology, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1972-1973 3

Boundaries and Bridges: the influence of James Cooksey Culwick on the development of the teaching and learning of music in nineteenth century Ireland

James Cooksey Culwick (1845-1907) was born in England. Trained as chorister and organist in Lichfield Cathedral, he moved to Ireland at twenty- one and remained until his death in 1907. Although his reputation as scholar, musician and teacher was acknowledged widely during his lifetime - he received an honorary doctorate from University of Dublin (1893) - little is known about the contribution he made to music education. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and argues that it was Culwick's singular achievement to pay attention to music pedagogy at secondary level, by recognizing that music could be seen as a serious career option for girls, and by providing resources for teachers which emphasised the development of an 'art-feeling' in pupils of all abilities. In addition, he considered Irish music as an art which had significance as music first, and Irish music second, and advocated a 'laudable tolerance' for opposing views on matters of cultural identity to Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century