Planning for mitigating climate change risk to metropolitan areas (USA)

In the last couple of decades, there has been increasing evidence of changes in global climate. With urban areas identified as the primary contributors to the climate change, there is an impetus for initiatives to persuade major contributors of greenhouse gases to undertake policy measures for climate change mitigation. The support for such initiatives at the international level has been mixed with many nations, including the United States, not accepting the Kyoto protocol. In view of the evident disagreement at the international level, initiatives promoting local communities to adopt self regulating policies for climate change mitigation have gained importance. One such initiative is the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) supported by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. This research explores the differences in the socio-economic and civic characteristics of metropolitan areas in the contiguous United States that have committed to CCP (as a policy measure for climate change mitigation) to those that have not. The data in this study has been primarily collected from the census documents and government publications. The indicators are grouped into risk, stress and civic variables. The differences amongst the metropolitan areas with CCP committed jurisdictions and those with non-committed jurisdictions have been analyzed through statistical t-tests and use of geographical information system (GIS). The research reveals that metropolitan areas with a higher degree of risk are more likely to commit to climate change mitigation policies whereas those with higher stress index are less likely to commit. The metropolitan areas with higher civic index were also found more likely to commit to policy measures for climate change mitigation. The results of the study are significant as they reveal that communities that are at risk are not necessarily adding to the climate stress and those contributing the most to the climatic stress are not committed to climate change mitigation. The results of the study support the need to discontinue the closed box approach and instead adopt an approach with vertical integration. Cooperation and coordination amongst the hierarchical aggregate levels of communities, from a place to a region, are imperative for effective implementation of climate mitigation initiatives

Context-sensitive Markov Models for Peptide Scoring and Identification from Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Computational methods for peptide identification via tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) lie at the heart of proteomic characterization of biological samples. Due to the complex nature of peptide fragmentation process inside mass spectrometers, most extant methods underutilize the intensity information available in the tandem mass spectrum. Further, high noise content and variability in MS/MS datasets present significant data analysis challenges. These factors contribute to loss of identifications, necessitating development of more complex approaches. This dissertation develops and evaluates a novel probabilistic framework called Context-Sensitive Peptide Identification (CSPI) for improving peptide scoring and identification from MS/MS data. Employing Input-Output Hidden Markov Models (IO-HMM), CSPI addresses the above computational challenges by modeling the effect of peptide physicochemical features ("context") on their observed (normalized) MS/MS spectrum intensities. Flexibility and scalability of the CSPI framework enables incorporation of many different kinds of features from the domain into the modeling task. Design choices also include the underlying parameter representation and allow learning complex probability distributions and dependencies embedded in the data. Empirical evaluation on multiple datasets of varying sizes and complexity demonstrates that CSPI's intensity-based scores significantly improve peptide identification performance, identifying up to ~25% more peptides at 1% False Discovery Rate (FDR) as compared with popular state-of-the-art approaches. It is further shown that a weighted score combination procedure that includes CSPI scores along with other commonly used scores leads to greater discrimination between true and false identifications, achieving ~4-8% more correct identifications at 1% FDR compared with the case without CSPI features. Superior performance of the CSPI framework has the potential to impact downstream proteomic investigations (like protein identification, quantification and differential expression) that utilize results from peptide-level analyses. Being computationally intensive, the design and implementation of CSPI supports efficient handling of large MS/MS datasets, achieved through database indexing and parallelization of the computational workflow using multiprocessing architecture

Local Response to Global Climate Change: The Role of Local Development Plans in Climate Change Management

Climate change is possibly the greatest threat facing human society in this century. The response to this challenge has been dominated by international negotiations for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. More recently there are efforts by the international community to engage other levels of governance in mitigation and adaptation response. While the framework for international action on climate change continues to evolve, there is mounting pressure from researchers to include cities as significant actors in the global climate change management strategy. Cities are centers of production and consumption in our society and as such will be crucial for global climate change management strategy. Despite these links, demands for consideration of climate change management issues in local policy making have remained a research rhetoric and have not yet translated into planning action. This gap between planning research and practice is probably due to lack of evidence based research on this issue. This study fills in this gap and provides empirical evidence supporting the key role of local development plans in climate change management. Specifically, in the first step, this research investigates the influence of local development plans on climate change mitigation by comparing change in carbon dioxide emissions in groups of cities with and without plans. Thereafter, climate change management capacity in local development plans is analyzed through policy analysis. Finally, this research study examines the effect of plan quality on the change in carbon dioxide emissions, while controlling for socio-economic, landscape and policy characteristics. Results of this study support the demands for using local development plans as tools for climate change management. This study identifies numerous planning policies in local development plans with potential to influence climate change management. The analysis also reveals wide variation in the quality of the climate change management policies. For example, policies related to site planning regulations and transportation are fairly detailed, whereas acquisition and incentive/disincentive tools are not. The detailed review of plan quality suggests that although development plans have the potential to significantly influence climate change, there is need for further improvement, especially of the overall plan implementation capacity. Finally, the research findings show that the quality of climate change management planning policies in local development plans have a significant impact on a communities’ emissions. Communities with better plan quality had significantly lower increase in per-capita emissions over the period of analysis. The study also discovered significant effects of wealth, travel behavior, occupation base and state policy on the change in emissions. Based on the research findings this study recommends evolving integrated local development policies that focus on dual goals of climate change management and sustainable development. Further studies are recommended to examine the opportunities and challenges to use of local development plans for climate change management

Current initiatives in proteomics research: the plant perspective

The recent upsurge in structural genomics is leading to the accumulation of a huge wealth of literature on nucleotide sequences. After the nucleotide sequence of a given stretch of DNA is obtained (by manual or robotic methods), the next step is to use some software program to distinguish the possible open reading frames in the thick of sequences. However, the acid test, whether the new sequence corresponds to any functionality in terms of transcription and translation is to identify the protein which it encodes. Functional genomics and proteomics are the buzzwords in modern-day genomics. The science of proteomics is a possible approach to relate the skeletal nucleotide sequence information to functional attributes of the cell. The identification and isolation of novel genes with potential biotechnological applications warrant that genomics and proteomics must go hand in hand. Three major steps in proteome analysis are the separation of complex protein mixtures by two-dimensional protein gel electrophoresis (2D), characterization of the separated proteins by mass spectrometer (MS) and database searching. The power of 2D is such that it allows even minor changes in gene expression caused by internal or external cues to be effectively scored. Most proteins resolved by 2D have high purity, which can facilitate their identification by MS. In recent years, methods for automated proteomics based on incorporation of new ideas in both hardware and software development have been optimized to a great deal. We discuss the progress and applications of the proteomics science, with special reference to plants

Miswak as an Alternative Treatment Modality in Medicine and Dentistry: A review

Herbal chewing sticks, commonly known as Miswak, are among the ancient and traditional oral hygiene aids. It is considered as Nature's little toothbrush†as it is a popular chewing stick throughout Indian subcontinent. Nowadays, because of low cost, free availability, unique chemical composition, and spiritual beliefs, miswak is being used worldwide.  It also serves as a natural toothpaste with antibacterial, anti-caries, anti-periopathic disinfectant having anti-plaque and anti-fungal properties and it can be used effectively as a natural tool for teeth cleansing and as a natural analgesic for the disturbing toothache. This review gives a bird's eye view mainly on the biological activities of the miswak and plausible medicinal and dental applications

Pomegranate as an Curative Therapy in Medical and Dental Sciences: A review

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L), in addition to its ancient historical uses, has been used in several systems of medicine for a variety of ailments. Pomegranate juice is a polyphenol-rich juice with high antioxidant capacity pomegranate consumption possesses a diverse array of biological actions and may be helpful in the prevention of some inflammatory mediated diseases, including cancer. In the past decade, numerous studies on the antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and anti-inflammatory properties of pomegranate constituents, focusing on treatment and prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dental conditions . Currently, numerous clinical trials are in progress exploring the therapeutic potential of pomegranate extracts

Healing Effect of Propolis in Medicine and Dentistry: A review

Propolis is a natural product derived from plant resins collected by honeybees. Propolis has maintained its popularity over a long period of time.  The pharmacologically active molecules are flavonoids, phenolic acids, and their esters. Propolis has a degree of anti microbial action against fungi such as Candida Albicans and some bacteria including a range of oral micro organisms and viruses and may be as effective as acyclovir against herpes simplex virus. In addition, propolis and its components have anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory activities, and antitumor activity. In dentistry, Propolis has been used in dentifrices, as a storage medium for teeth that have avulsed, in periodontal therapy . Its use in canal debridement for endodontic procedures has been explored. Because of its strong, anti-infective activity, propolis has often been called a natural antibiotic.†Many studies show its strong inhibitory effect on a wide variety of pathogenic organisms.Propolis extract used as mouth rinse procure  anti microbial activity against streptococcus mutans present in the oral cavity. Subgingival irrigation with Propolis extract as an adjunct to periodontal treatment may also be more effective than scaling and root planning alone. Propolis extract possesses anti-plaque activity and improves gingival health. The extract might be used as an alternative measure to prevent periodontal and gingival problems.It has promising role in future medicine as well as dentistry

Identifying Potential Conflict Associated with Oil and Gas Exploration in Texas State Coastal Waters: A Multi-criteria Spatial Analysis

Recent interest in expanding offshore oil production within waters of the United States has been met with opposition by groups concerned with recreational, environmental, and aesthetic values associated with the coastal zone. Although the proposition of new oil platforms off the coast has generated conflict over how coastal resources should be utilized, little research has been conducted on where these user conflicts might be most intense and which sites might be most suitable for locating oil production facilities in light of the multiple, and often times, competing interests. In this article, we develop a multiple-criteria spatial decision support tool that identifies the potential degree of conflict associated with oil and gas production activities for existing lease tracts in the coastal margin of Texas. We use geographic information systems to measure and map a range of potentially competing representative values impacted by establishing energy extraction infrastructure and then spatially identify which leased tracts are the least contentious sites for oil and gas production in Texas state waters. Visual and statistical results indicate that oil and gas lease blocks within the study area vary in their potential to generate conflict among multiple stakeholders

Identifying Potential Conflict Associated with Oil and Gas Exploration in Texas State Coastal Waters: A Multi-criteria Spatial Analysis

Recent interest in expanding offshore oil production within waters of the United States has been met with opposition by groups concerned with recreational, environmental, and aesthetic values associated with the coastal zone. Although the proposition of new oil platforms off the coast has generated conflict over how coastal resources should be utilized, little research has been conducted on where these user conflicts might be most intense and which sites might be most suitable for locating oil production facilities in light of the multiple, and often times, competing interests. In this article, we develop a multiple-criteria spatial decision support tool that identifies the potential degree of conflict associated with oil and gas production activities for existing lease tracts in the coastal margin of Texas. We use geographic information systems to measure and map a range of potentially competing representative values impacted by establishing energy extraction infrastructure and then spatially identify which leased tracts are the least contentious sites for oil and gas production in Texas state waters. Visual and statistical results indicate that oil and gas lease blocks within the study area vary in their potential to generate conflict among multiple stakeholders

Curcumin: A medicinal plant and its effects in medicine and dentistry

Since ancient time plants have been a major source of medicine. Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is an orange-yellow component of turmeric (Curcuma longa), a spice often found in curry powder. Traditionally known for its anti-inflammatory effects, C. longa has a long history of the curative use in the Ayurvedic and Chinese systems of medicine. Curcumin, a polyphenolic constituent, is the active ingredient in dietary spice turmeric. While numerous pharmacological activities, including antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, anti-inflammatory properties have been attributed to curcumin, turmeric can also be used as a pit and fissure sealant, mouthwash, and subgingival irrigant in various preparations. In gel form, it is a component in local drugs delivery system. This review gives a bird’s eye view mainly on the biological activities of the miswak and plausible medicinal and dental application