Assessment of pesticide concentrations in environmental and biological parameters from two Kenyan Rift Valley Lakes

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.In the last two decades Kenyan agriculture has developed rapidly. In particular, horticultural and floricultural activities have intensified on the riparian fringe of Lake Naivasha, a RAMSAR site. The lake supports a large variety of wildlife and avifauna in particular. In the 1980s, the African Fish-Eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer) population on the lake was the densest in Africa. As a top predator resident in the Kenyan Rift Valley Lakes the African Fish-Eagle is a good indicator of general ecosystem health but is also highly susceptible to toxic effects of pesticide contamination...Globally, most organochlorine pesticides have been banned, but endosulfan, HCH and methoxychlor are widely used in Kenya, while aldrin, dieldrin and lindane are restricted and DDT, endrin, and heptachlor banned. Studies examining residue levels of these harmful chemicals in African Fish-Eagles are limited to small sample sizes examined in the 1970s and 1980s. This study is the first comprehensive investigation of organochlorine residue contamination in biological and environmental parameters from Lake Naivasha and the control water body at Lake Baringo

Lock Inference for Java

Atomicity is an important property for concurrent software, as it provides a stronger guarantee against errors caused by unanticipated thread interactions than race-freedom does. However, concurrency control in general is tricky to get right because current techniques are too low-level and error-prone. With the introduction of multicore processors, the problems are compounded. Consequently, a new software abstraction is gaining popularity to take care of concurrency control and the enforcing of atomicity properties, called atomic sections. One possible implementation of their semantics is to acquire a global lock upon entry to each atomic section, ensuring that they execute in mutual exclusion. However, this cripples concurrency, as non-interfering atomic sections cannot run in parallel. Transactional memory is another automated technique for providing atomicity, but relies on the ability to rollback conflicting atomic sections and thus places restrictions on the use of irreversible operations, such as I/O and system calls, or serialises all sections that use such features. Therefore, from a language designer's point of view, the challenge is to implement atomic sections without compromising performance or expressivity. This thesis explores the technique of lock inference, which infers a set of locks for each atomic section, while attempting to balance the requirements of maximal concurrency, minimal locking overhead and freedom from deadlock. We focus on lock-inference techniques for tackling large Java programs that make use of mature libraries. This improves upon existing work, which either (i) ignores libraries, (ii) requires library implementors to annotate which locks to take, or (iii) only considers accesses performed up to one-level deep in library call chains. As a result, each of these prior approaches may result in atomicity violations. This is a problem because even simple uses of I/O in Java programs can involve large amounts of library code. Our approach is the first to analyse library methods in full and thus able to soundly handle atomic sections involving complicated real-world side effects, while still permitting atomic sections to run concurrently in cases where their lock sets are disjoint. To validate our claims, we have implemented our techniques in Lockguard, a fully automatic tool that translates Java bytecode containing atomic sections to an equivalent program that uses locks instead. We show that our techniques scale well and despite protecting all library accesses, we obtain performance comparable to the original locking policy of our benchmarks

Emissions from the combustion of torrefied and raw biomass fuels in a domestic heating stove

Biomass (pellets, briquettes, logs) are a key contributor to many countries' strategies for decarbonising heat, particularly in domestic applications. The emissions from these small devices can be high and severely impact air quality, but their levels depend on the design, control, abatement and fuel options. This paper is concerned with the last case. A comparative study shows the emissions from a domestic wood stove for three biomass fuels and their torrefied counterparts. The fuels were burned in a multi-fuel stove along with two reload batches creating continuous combustion cycles: the initial cold start data is presented but not included in averaging and calculation of emission factors. Measurements were made using an FTIR instrument for carbon and nitrogen based gaseous emissions, particulates were measured using a smoke meter with micro-quartz filters as well as a size-selective impactor to obtain the particle size distribution. Particulate emissions were significantly reduced from the torrefied fuels and this is thought to be related to their pyrolysis fingerprint, which was investigated by pyrolysis-GC–MS. NOx was slightly reduced, despite increased fuel-N after torrefaction. In addition, the reduced moisture in the torrefied fuels decreases emissions of CO and CH4 because of increased time of flaming combustion

Fecal microbial transplantation as a novel therapeutic for autism spectrum disorders: a review of the current literature

This is the final version. Available from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this record. Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are complex neurobiological conditions with poor long-term outcomes and limited treatment options. The microbiota–gut–brain axis indicates a pathway by which the gut microbiota links to ASDs. Fecal microbial transplantation (FMT), whereby the gut microbiota is replaced with that of a healthy individual, shows promise for the treatment of neurobiological conditions. This review examines the current evidence for the use of FMT as a therapeutic for ASD. Discussion: ASDs and their associated gastrointestinal symptoms are improved with FMT, potentially due to the engraftment of features of a healthy gut. Longer treatment regimens that include daily maintenance doses appear to be the most effective long-term therapeutic option, with benefits persisting 2 years post-intervention. Evidence is mixed regarding the use of preparatory treatments. Considering the sex bias in ASD research, small sample sizes and the lack of placebo control arms, randomized controlled trials would be of benefit to the evidence base regarding the use of FMT as a therapeutic option for ASD. Conclusion: FMT is a promising new therapeutic for ASD, but the evidence base is in its infancy

Feeling the heat: Elevated temperature affects male display activity of a lekking grassland bird

Most climate-species models relate range margins to long-term mean climate variables but lack mechanistic understanding of the ecological or demographic processes underlying the climate response. We examined the case of a climatically limited edge-of-range population of a medium-sized grassland bird, for which climate responses may involve a behavioural trade-off between temperature stress and reproduction. We hypothesised that temperature will be a limiting factor for the conspicuous, male snort-call display behaviour, and high temperatures would reduce the display activity of male birds. Using remote tracking technology with tri-axial accelerometers we classified and studied the display behaviour of 17 free-ranging male little bustards at 5 sites in the Iberian Peninsula. Display behaviour was related to temperature using two classes of Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) at different temporal resolutions. GAMMs showed that temperature, time of the day and Julian date explained variation in display behaviour within the day, with birds snort-calling significantly less during higher temperatures. We also showed that variation in daily snort-call activity was related to average daytime temperatures, with our model predicting an average decrease in daytime snort-call display activity of up to 10.9% for the temperature increases projected by 2100 in this region due to global warming. For little bustards and more widely in lekking grassland birds, reduced display behaviour could impact inter- and intra-sex mating behaviour interactions through sexual selection and mate choice mechanisms, with possible consequences on mating and reproductive success of this species. The study provides a reproducible example for how accelerometer data can be used to answer research questions with important conservation inferences related to the impacts of climate change on a range of taxonomic groups

Feeling the heat: Elevated temperature affects male display activity of a lekking grassland bird

Most climate-species models relate range margins to long-term mean climate variables but lack mechanistic understanding of the ecological or demographic processes underlying the climate response. We examined the case of a climatically limited edge-of-range population of a medium-sized grassland bird, for which climate responses may involve a behavioural trade-off between temperature stress and reproduction. We hypothesised that temperature will be a limiting factor for the conspicuous, male snort-call display behaviour, and high temperatures would reduce the display activity of male birds. Using remote tracking technology with tri-axial accelerometers we classified and studied the display behaviour of 17 free-ranging male little bustards at 5 sites in the Iberian Peninsula. Display behaviour was related to temperature using two classes of Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) at different temporal resolutions. GAMMs showed that temperature, time of the day and Julian date explained variation in display behaviour within the day, with birds snort-calling significantly less during higher temperatures. We also showed that variation in daily snort-call activity was related to average daytime temperatures, with our model predicting an average decrease in daytime snort-call display activity of up to 10.9% for the temperature increases projected by 2100 in this region due to global warming. For little bustards and more widely in lekking grassland birds, reduced display behaviour could impact inter- and intra-sex mating behaviour interactions through sexual selection and mate choice mechanisms, with possible consequences on mating and reproductive success of this species. The study provides a reproducible example for how accelerometer data can be used to answer research questions with important conservation inferences related to the impacts of climate change on a range of taxonomic groups

Fecal microbial transplantation as a novel therapeutic for autism spectrum disorders: a review of the current literature

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are complex neurobiological conditions with poor long-term outcomes and limited treatment options. The microbiota–gut–brain axis indicates a pathway by which the gut microbiota links to ASDs. Fecal microbial transplantation (FMT), whereby the gut microbiota is replaced with that of a healthy individual, shows promise for the treatment of neurobiological conditions. This review examines the current evidence for the use of FMT as a therapeutic for ASD.DiscussionASDs and their associated gastrointestinal symptoms are improved with FMT, potentially due to the engraftment of features of a healthy gut. Longer treatment regimens that include daily maintenance doses appear to be the most effective long-term therapeutic option, with benefits persisting 2 years post-intervention. Evidence is mixed regarding the use of preparatory treatments. Considering the sex bias in ASD research, small sample sizes and the lack of placebo control arms, randomized controlled trials would be of benefit to the evidence base regarding the use of FMT as a therapeutic option for ASD.ConclusionFMT is a promising new therapeutic for ASD, but the evidence base is in its infancy

Emissions performance of high moisture wood fuels burned in a residential stove

A study has been made of the effect of fuel moisture content on emissions from a wood burning domestic stove. Two fuel types were studied: beech which is a hardwood, and spruce which is a softwood. The moisture contents investigated were for a freshly felled wood, a seasoned wood and a kiln dried wood. The effect of the moisture measurement method was considered using a commercial electrical conductivity probe moisture meter which was compared with laboratory analysis by drying in an oven at 105 °C. It was shown that the probe can significantly underestimate the actual moisture content in certain cases. Correlations were made of the burning rate, the Emission Factors for the formation of gaseous and particulate pollutants as a function of the moisture content. We also studied the ratio of Black Carbon to Total Carbon (BC/TC) to obtain information on the organic content of the particles. The NOₓ emissions from this type of stove were only dependent on the fuel-nitrogen content and not on the moisture content

Paradox incentive structures and rules governing sharing of coastal and marine data in Kenya and Tanzania: Lessons for the Western Indian Ocean

Comprehensive and timely data-sharing is essential for effective ocean governance. This institutional analysis investigates pervasive data-sharing barriers in Kenya and Tanzania, using a collective action perspective. Existing data-sharing rules and regulations are examined in respect to boundaries, contextuality and incentive structures, compliance and settlement mechanisms, and integration across scales. Findings show that current institutional configurations create insufficient or incoherent incentives, simultaneously reducing and reproducing sharing barriers. Regional harmonisation efforts and strategically aligned data-sharing institutions are still underdeveloped. This article discusses proposals to increase capacities and incentives for data-sharing, as well as the limitations of the chosen analytical framework. The debate is extended to aspects beyond institutional issues, i.e., structural data-sharing barriers or ethical concerns. Key recommendations include the establishment of more compelling incentives structures for data-sharing, increased funding of capacity-building and sharing infrastructure, and further awareness creation on the importance of data-sharing