The Impact of Demographic Change on the Accessibility to Public Services for the Elderly on Children of Hannover, Germany

Late in 2009, the German government conducted an exercise to determine population trends for the next 50 years. This study indicated that the German population, which is approximately 82 million, is expected to decrease by 12 to 17 million people as well as experience a significant shift in its demographic profile (Statitistisches Bundesamt, 2009). The most significant finding from this exercise is the projection for a shift in the share of senior citizens and children with respect to the economically active population; children and seniors are expected to account for half of the entire population of Germany, whereas they currently only represent 40%. Additionally, the ratio of senior citizens to children is expected to increase to 2:1 by the year 2040, indicating a trend towards an ageing population. With this expected declining population and changes in the age pyramid, a renewed focus on planning for future investments has been initiated with an eye on effective and efficient resource allocation of social services

Termodinamičko ispitivanje prijelaza acetanilida i fenacetina iz vode u organska otapala

The molar (KCo/w) and rational (KXo/w) partition coefficients in the octanol/buffer, i-propyl myristate/buffer, chloroform/buffer, and cyclohexane/buffer systems were determined for acetanilide and phenacetin at 25.0, 30.0, 35.0, and 40.0 °C. In all cases except for cyclohexane, the KCo/w and KXo/w values were greater than unity. This demonstrates that these two drugs have predominantly lipophilic behavior. Gibbs and van\u27t Hoff thermodynamic analyses have revealed that the transfer of these drugs from water to organic solvents is spontaneous and that it is mainly driven enthalpically for i-propyl myristate and chloroform, and entropy-driven for octanol and cyclohexane.U radu su određeni molarni (KCo/w) i razdjelni (Kxo/w) particijski koeficijenti acetanilida i fenacetina u sustavima oktanol/pufer, i-propil-miristat/pufer, kloroform/pufer i cikloheksan/pufer na 25,0, 30,0, 35,0 i 40 C. U svim slučajevima osim za cikloheksan, vrijednosti KCo/w i Kxo/w bile su veće od jedan. To ukazuje da su ova dva lijeka pretežno lipofilna. Gibbsova i van’t Hoffova termodinamička analiza su otkrile da je prijelaz tih lijekova iz vode u organska otapala spontan i da su uglavnom pokrenuti entalpijski za i-propil-miristat i kloroform te entropijski za oktanol i cikloheksan

Does Warming Enhance the Effects of Eutrophication in the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica?

Seagrass meadows are disappearing at rates comparable to those reported for mangroves, coral reefs, and tropical rainforests. One of the main causes of their decline is the so-called cultural eutrophication, i.e., the input of abnormal amounts of nutrients derived from human activities. Besides the impact of eutrophication at a local scale, the occurrence of additional stress factors such as global sea warming may create synergisms in detriment of seagrass meadows’ health. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate if plants undergoing chronic cultural eutrophication and plants growing in relatively pristine waters are more (or less) sensitive to heat stress, nutrient load and the combination of both stressors. To address this question, a mesocosm experiment was conducted using Posidonia oceanica collected from two environments with different nutrients load history. Plants were exposed in controlled conditions to high nutrient concentrations, increased temperature and their combination for 5 weeks, to assess the effect of the single stressors and their interaction. Our results revealed that plants experiencing chronic cultural eutrophication (EU) are more sensitive to further exposure to multiple stressors than plants growing in oligotrophic habitats (OL). OL and EU plants showed different morphological traits and physiological performances, which corroborates the role of local pressures in activating different strategies in response to global environmental changes. EU-plants appeared to be weaker during the treatments, showing the greatest percentage of mortality, particularly under increased temperature. Temperature and nutrient treatments showed opposite effects when tested individually and an offset response when combined. The activation of physiological strategies with high energetic expenses to cope with excess of nutrients and other stressors, could affect plants present and future persistence, particularly under eutrophic conditions. Our results represent a step forward in understanding the complex interactions that occur in natural environments. Moreover, unraveling intraspecific strategies and the role of local acclimation/adaptation in response to multiple stressors could be crucial for seagrass conservation strategies under a climate change scenario

Does Warming Enhance the Effects of Eutrophication in the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica?

En prens

Benthic microbial biogeographic trends in the North Sea are shaped by an interplay of environmental drivers and bottom trawling effort

Microbial composition and diversity in marine sediments are shaped by environmental, biological, and anthropogenic processes operating at different scales. However, our understanding of benthic microbial biogeography remains limited. Here, we used 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing to characterize benthic microbiota in the North Sea from the top centimeter of 339 sediment samples. We utilized spatially explicit statistical models, to disentangle the effects of the different predictors, including bottom trawling intensity, a prevalent industrial fishing practice which heavily impacts benthic ecosystems. Fitted models demonstrate how the geographic interplay of different environmental and anthropogenic drivers shapes the diversity, structure and potential metabolism of benthic microbial communities. Sediment properties were the primary determinants, with diversity increasing with sediment permeability but also with mud content, highlighting different underlying processes. Additionally, diversity and structure varied with total organic matter content, temperature, bottom shear stress and bottom trawling. Changes in diversity associated with bottom trawling intensity were accompanied by shifts in predicted energy metabolism. Specifically, with increasing trawling intensity, we observed a transition toward more aerobic heterotrophic and less denitrifying predicted metabolism. Our findings provide first insights into benthic microbial biogeographic patterns on a large spatial scale and illustrate how anthropogenic activity such as bottom trawling may influence the distribution and abundances of microbes and potential metabolism at macroecological scales

Mixed integer programming in production planning with backlogging and setup carryover : modeling and algorithms

This paper proposes a mixed integer programming formulation for modeling the capacitated multi-level lot sizing problem with both backlogging and setup carryover. Based on the model formulation, a progressive time-oriented decomposition heuristic framework is then proposed, where improvement and construction heuristics are effectively combined, therefore efficiently avoiding the weaknesses associated with the one-time decisions made by other classical time-oriented decomposition algorithms. Computational results show that the proposed optimization framework provides competitive solutions within a reasonable time

Identification of glucose transporters in Aspergillus nidulans

o characterize the mechanisms involved in glucose transport, in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, we have identified four glucose transporter encoding genes hxtB-E. We evaluated the ability of hxtB-E to functionally complement the Saccharomyces cerevisiae EBY.VW4000 strain that is unable to grow on glucose, fructose, mannose or galactose as single carbon source. In S. cerevisiae HxtB-E were targeted to the plasma membrane. The expression of HxtB, HxtC and HxtE was able to restore growth on glucose, fructose, mannose or galactose, indicating that these transporters accept multiple sugars as a substrate through an energy dependent process. A tenfold excess of unlabeled maltose, galactose, fructose, and mannose were able to inhibit glucose uptake to different levels (50 to 80 %) in these s. cerevisiae complemented strains. Moreover, experiments with cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP), strongly suggest that hxtB, -C, and –E mediate glucose transport via active proton symport. The A. nidulans ΔhxtB, ΔhxtC or ΔhxtE null mutants showed ~2.5-fold reduction in the affinity for glucose, while ΔhxtB and -C also showed a 2-fold reduction in the capacity for glucose uptake. The ΔhxtD mutant had a 7.8-fold reduction in affinity, but a 3-fold increase in the capacity for glucose uptake. However, only the ΔhxtB mutant strain showed a detectable decreased rate of glucose consumption at low concentrations and an increased resistance to 2-deoxyglucose.The authors would like to thank the Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico, Brazil for financial support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript