Documentary based evidence for sardine run events, east coast of South Africa: 1946-2012

A dissertation submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science (MSc) (Geography Archaeology and Environmental Studies) Faculty of Science. University of the Witwatersrand. Johannesburg, March 2016.The southern African sardine run is an annually recurring phenomenon involving vast schools of sardines travelling northwards along the east coast of South Africa. Climate change is assumed responsible for recently observed changes in the occurrence of sardine runs, yet data have been absent to quantify any phenological changes over time. The National Library of South Africa has extensive archives of Kwa-Zulu Natal based newspapers which were scrutinized to determine the annual arrival of sardines at specific places along the east coast between 1946 and 2012. In particular, ‘The Natal Mercury’, ‘South Coast Herald’ and ‘South Coast Sun’ newspapers were consulted. This yielded an uninterrupted sardine run record spanning 66 consecutive years. This is the first such study examining historical fish phenology in the southern Hemisphere. A variety of environmental conditions is thought to influence the sardine runs and may include, oceanic temperatures, oceanic currents, visibility of the water, wind speed/direction and air temperature. We thus also demonstrate historical climate variability and change along the east coast for the period between 1936 and 2012, based on data obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the South African Weather Service. In particular, we examine the parameters: temperature, wind, the occurrence of westerly wave disturbances (i.e. cold fronts), the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and the Southern Oscillation Index. The sardine run data are then compared against the various climate parameters to ascertain which variables most influence their phenology. It is found that the sardine runs have become more temporally delayed during recent years, particularly since the late 1960s/early 1970s, and may be associated with considerable increases in Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) since that time.TG201

Sherpany: should I stay or should I go; successful IT nearshoring of a tech startup

The sun slowly sinks into the Atlantic Ocean, casting its last golden rays onto the aggressively breaking waves below the Cabo da Roca. Their fury and power is not lost on Tobias Häckermann, the CEO of Sherpany. The idyllic scene in front of him has come to symbolize his Portuguese adventure - beautiful and rewarding. The Swiss CEO paused in the striking sunset for a moment of reflection. The events of the last year (2014) had been remarkable. Sherpany, his invention and a technology company providing solutions for boardroom communication, was gaining traction. Sales were now in the millions of Euros.1 Demand for services was high and the future was bright. This success story is not the result of just good fortune but rather the culmination of many strategic milestones. Häckermann’s hometown of Zurich (Switzerland) is one of the most expensive cities in the world (see Exhibit 1). It was impossible to enlist IT talent and exorbitant fixed operating costs threatened the viability of his business model. In short, Sherpany faced the classic “valley of death” scenario2a that every startup must overcome. In Häckermann’s case, the need for a fast and cost-effective way to securely grow the company and keep ahead of the competition forced him to nearshore a significant part of his operations - to Portugal. In hindsight, it all seemed so logical: a short flight from Zurich, great weather, 1-hour time difference, lower costs of labour, and abundant local IT talent looking for international opportunities, and all under the security blanket of the EU

Taxonomies of Model-theoretically Defined Topological Properties

A topological classification scheme consists of two ingredients: (1) an abstract class K of topological spaces; and (2) a taxonomy , i.e. a list of first order sentences, together with a way of assigning an abstract class of spaces to each sentence of the list so that logically equivalent sentences are assigned the same class.K, is then endowed with an equivalence relation, two spaces belonging to the same equivalence class if and only if they lie in the same classes prescribed by the taxonomy. A space X in K is characterized within the classification scheme if whenever Y E K, and Y is equivalent to X, then Y is homeomorphic to X. As prime example, the closed set taxonomy assigns to each sentence in the first order language of bounded lattices the class of topological spaces whose lattices of closed sets satisfy that sentence. It turns out that every compact two-complex is characterized via this taxonomy in the class of metrizable spaces, but that no infinite discrete space is so characterized. We investigate various natural classification schemes, compare them, and look into the question of which spaces can and cannot be characterized within them

Surfactant protein a in cystic fibrosis: supratrimeric structure and pulmonary outcome.

The state of oligomerization of surfactant associated protein-A (SP-A) monomers differs between individuals. This likely affects SP-A's functional properties and could thereby influence clinical status in patients with lung diseases. In this study we focus on SP-A structure in cystic fibrosis (CF) compared to both healthy subjects and disease controls. SP-A composition and function were assessed in both bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and serum of 46 CF patients with mild disease, 25 patients with chronic bronchitis and 22 healthy subjects by gel chromatography and a functional agglutination assay. Relation of SP-A agglutination ability to disease severity of the subjects was explored. SP-A was present in seven major oligomeric forms with the majority of SP-A being structurally organized as complex oligomeric forms. More complex oligomeric forms were associated with better SP-A function with regard to its agglutination ability. These forms were more frequently observed in BAL than in serum, but there were no differences between disease groups. In CF patients, more complex forms of SP-A were associated with better lung function. Organizational structure of SP-A affects its functional activity and is linked to disease severity in CF

Schnellschaltende Aktoren für adaptive Sicherheitssysteme im Kraftfahrzeugbau

Der Einsatz von adaptiv arbeitenden Sicherheitssystemen im Kraftfahrzeugbereich wird ständig zunehmen. Im vorliegenden Projekt soll ein einfach arbeitendes und schnellschaltendendes Aktorprinzip mit Hilfe des Einsatzes von Formgedächtniselementen realisiert werden. Ein solch kostengünstiges und sehr sicher arbeitendes System wird nicht nur vorhandene teure und aufwendige Systeme ersetzen können, sondern es wird auch durch die hohe Integrierbarkeit und günstige Recyclebarkeit den Einsatz von Aktoren im Kraftfahrzeugbereich erhöhen. Gegenstand dieses Projektes ist die werkstoffkundliche Entwicklung eines adaptiven Sicherheitssystems mit Formgedächtnislegierungen zum Einsatz in Kraftfahrzeugen. Durch die spontane Umwandlung der FGL beim Überschreiten einer kritischen Temperatur, können sehr schnell und funktionssicher Linearbewegungen ausgeführt werden. Das Problem der Langzeitstabilität des Formgedächtniseffektes soll in diesem Forschungsvorhaben betrachtet werden. Hierzu werden durch Auslagerungsversuche sowohl die Auswirkungen von Ausscheidungen, als auch die metallkundlichen Hintergründe für die Entstehung der Ausscheidungen betrachtet. Durch die Kenntnis der ablaufenden Vorgänge sollte es möglich sein Legierungen einzusetzen, welche die erforderliche Langzeitstabilität aufweisen. In einem weiteren Projektschritt sollen Schnellerwärmungssysteme entwickelt und erprobt werden, die es ermöglichen mit dem vorhandenen Bordstromnetz eine schnellstmögliche und sichere Erwärmung der FG-Elemente zu gewährleisten

A parametric building energy simulation case study on the potential and limitations of passive design in the Mediterranean climate of Malta

The present case study sets out to investigate the potential and limitations of passive building design in a typical Mediterranean climate. The Maltese Islands were taken as the case study location. Assuming a fully detached, cuboid-shaped, generic multi-storey office building, one representative storey was modelled by means of the building energy simulation code WUFI®Plus. Thermal comfort was analysed based on the adaptive acceptable operative room temperature concept of EN 15251 for buildings without mechanical cooling systems. Assuming neither artificial heating nor cooling, the free-running operative room temperature was evaluated. By means of a parametric study, the robustness of the concept was analysed and the impact of orientation, window to wall area ratio, glazing, shading, thermal insulation, nighttime ventilation and thermal mass on the achievable level of thermal comfort is shown and discussed. It is concluded that in a well-designed building and by means of decent insulation (present case: Uwall = 0.54 W/(m2 · K)), double glazing, variable external shading devices and passive cooling by nighttime ventilation, a high level of thermal comfort is achievable in this climate using only very minor amounts of energy for artificial heating and cooling or possibly even none at all.peer-reviewe

IsoCorrectoR: Isotope correction in stable isotope labeling experiments in metabolomics

In metabolomics, stable isotope labeling experiments with tracer isotopes like ¹³C or ¹⁵N can provide very valuable information. This includes, for example, the assessment of nutrient contributions to the synthesis of certain metabolites, contributions to metabolic pathways, or the estimation of metabolic fluxes via formal metabolic flux analysis. However, if mass spectrometry (MS) data from stable isotope labeling experiments is used without a prior correction for the abundance of naturally occurring stable heavy isotopes, and, possibly, the isotopic purity of the tracer substrate, this may lead to incorrect conclusions and flux estimates. This is because the mass shift introduced by the incorporation of the tracer isotope into the measured metabolites is also produced naturally, due to the natural abundance (NA) of stable heavy isotopes like ¹³C, ¹⁵N, ²H or ¹⁸O. Similarly, isotopic impurity of the tracer substrate can lead to a "loss" of label and mass shift, which also distorts the measured data. IsoCorrectoR, which is presented with this thesis, is a comprehensive R-based solution for the correction of stable isotope labeling data for NA and tracer purity. While there are already several tools available for that purpose, for example IsoCor (v2), ICT or PyNAC, IsoCorrectoR brings the advantage of combining many state-of-the-art correction features in a single implementation. This includes the low-resolution and resolution-dependent NA correction of MS and MS/MS (tandem MS) data, the NA correction of ultra-high resolution (UHR) data from experiments employing multiple tracer isotopes (e.g., ¹³C and ¹⁵N) simultaneously, as well as tracer purity correction and the applicability to any tracer isotope. Additionally, two modes of correction that IsoCorrectoR offers are unique, or were unique at the date of initial publication. The first is a UHR correction approach for UHR data from multiple-tracer experiments that also accounts for tracer purity. Correction for tracer purity can be crucial, especially in the case of multiple tracer isotopes, where impurities of different tracers may add up. While IsoCorrectoR was the first tool to provide this correction feature, the very recently published correction tool AccuCor2 is also capable of correcting multiple-tracer data for tracer purity. It however performs resolution-dependent correction, and not UHR correction. The second novel mode that IsoCorrectoR offers is the resolution-dependent correction of MS/MS data. If MS/MS data is corrected with a MS correction algorithm, this can result in substantial deviations. As a consequence, a correction approach specifically suited for MS/MS data must be applied. If MS/MS data is additionally acquired at high resolution (e.g., with orbitrap or FT-ICR devices), the correction procedure must adapt to this situation as well. In low-resolution correction, all natural abundance contributions that match the nominal mass shift resulting from tracer isotope incorporation are corrected for. In contrast, when applying resolution-dependent correction, natural abundance contributions are considered for correction depending on the instrument resolution at the given molecular ion or fragment m/z, because some of the NA contributions can already be resolved spectrometrically and, therefore, do not have to be corrected for. This is taken into account in resolution-dependent MS (which is also available in other tools, e.g., IsoCor v2) and MS/MS correction (which is a unique feature of IsoCorrectoR), and can have marked effects on the correction results. To ensure correct functioning, IsoCorrectoR has been thoroughly validated against other available tools (where possible), manual calculations and validation mixtures of known isotopologue composition, all of which yielded very good agreement. As an application of isotope correction, a ¹³C stable isotope labeling experiment conducted in P493-6 B-cells is part of this thesis. These cells have an inducible MYC allele, where the quickly proliferating MYC-high state may serve as a model for Burkitt lymphomas, while the hardly proliferating MYC-low state resembles normal B-cells. Combined addition of the microenvironmental factors IL10 and CpG to MYC-low cells induces proliferation, however, and this cellular state may also serve as a model for certain B-cell lymphomas