Methods for interdisciplinary research on problems in human ecology

У статті розглядаються проблеми екології людини як комплексне, міждисциплінарне й взаємопов’язане явище. Методи дослідження екології людини повинні включати безліч зацікавлених кіл суспільства, а також, використовувати багатокритеріальні цінності. У роботі проблеми вивчення екології людини розглядаються із двох сторін. По-перше, значна увага приділяється методам дослідження екології людини, і підкреслюється, що в даному науковому напрямі використаються методи інших наукових шкіл та дисциплін. По-друге, у роботі за допомогою багатокритеріальних методів екології людини, розглядається програма впровадження системи екологічного менеджменту в початкових школах Південної Африки. Для дослідження було вибрано 39 шкіл в північних та центральних провінціях Південно-Африканської Республіки (ПАР), зокрема досліджувалися північна частина Гаутенгу і східна частина Лімпопо. З цих 39 шкіл 7 було класифіковано як міські, 19 – сільські, і 13 – школи в селищах міського типу. Результати дослідження показують наскільки програма екологічної освіти ефективна в вирішенні екологічних проблем. В кожній з 39 було запропоновано такі природоохоронні напрями: • збереження води, з фокусуванням на споживанні і забрудненні; • поводження в твердими побутовими відходами (ресайклінг); • проблеми енергетичного характеру; • озеленення територій. Освітні програми по збереженні води проводилися протягом двох років. На початкових етапах проведення програми в усіх освітніх закладах було проведено попереднє оцінювання стану використання води і було встановлено, що в 90% міських шкіл і лише 30% сільських та 45% селищах міського типу, впроваджували заходи по раціональному використанню та збереженні води. Через два роки, після проведення освітніх програм, 70% сільських та селищних шкіл запровадили заходи по більш ефективному використанню води, для міських шкіл даний показник склав 100%. Покращання ефективності використання води виражалося в відсутності непрацюючих кранів, через які текла б вода, використання дощової води, більш якісне водозберігаюче обладнання в шкільних закладах. Зокрема для сільських шкіл значний прогрес після дворічної освітньої програми полягав в тому, що з’явилося більш ефективне водозберігаюче обладнання, в той же час як збільшення об’ємів збирання дощової води в баки майже не спостерігалося. Одним із важливих результатів дослідження є те, що при проведенні окремих програм з водозбереження автоматично підвищувались досягнення в інших напрямах: озеленення, енергозбереження. При цитуванні документа, використовуйте посилання http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/8842Problems in human ecology are complex, interrelated, incommensurable and interdisciplinary. The often need to involve stakeholder approaches and show a plurality of values. Research strategies should deal with these characteristics and research methods reflect these characteristics. The paper analyses these aspects in two ways. In the first part the results of the analysis of 15 research papers are discussed. The focus is on the methods that are used in these papers. It is shown that research in human ecology uses a mix of methods that stem from a broad group of scientific disciplines. The heterogeneous set of data that results from this array of approaches necessitates methods to integrate and structure these data. The second part of the paper addresses in a synoptical way the results of the implementation of an environmental management system in 39 primary schools in South Africa. The results show how such an environmental education programme illustrates to characteristics of approaches to environmental problems. При цитировании документа, используйте ссылку http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/884

Exciton spin dynamics and photoluminescence polarization of CdSe/CdS dot-in-rod nanocrystals in high magnetic fields

The exciton spin dynamics and polarization properties of the related emission are investigated in colloidal CdSe/CdS dot-in-rod (DiR) and spherical core/shell nanocrystal (NC) ensembles by magneto-optical photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy in magnetic fields up to 15 T. It is shown that the degree of circular polarization (DCP) of the exciton emission induced by the magnetic field is affected by the NC geometry as well as the exciton fine structure and can provide information on nanorod orientation. A theory to describe the circular and linear polarization properties of the NC emission in magnetic field is developed. It takes into account phonon mediated coupling between the exciton fine structure states as well as the dielectric enhancement effect resulting from the anisotropic shell of DiR NCs. This theoretical approach is used to model the experimental results and allows us to explain most of the measured features. The spin dynamics of the dark excitons is investigated in magnetic fields by time-resolved photoluminescence. The results highlight the importance of confined acoustic phonons in the spin relaxation of dark excitons. The bare core surface as well as the core/shell interface give rise to an efficient spin relaxation channel, while the surface of core/shell NCs seems to play only a minor role.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figure

Analysis of chromosome positions in the interphase nucleus of Chinese hamster cells by laser-UV-microirradiation experiments

Unsynchronized cells of an essentially diploid strain of female Chinese hamster cells derived from lung tissue (CHL) were laser-UV-microirradiated (=257 nm) in the nucleus either at its central part or at its periphery. After 7–9 h postincubation with 0.5 mM caffeine, chromosome preparations were made in situ. Twenty-one and 29 metaphase spreads, respectively, with partial chromosome shattering (PCS) obtained after micro-irradiation at these two nuclear sites, were Q-banded and analyzed in detail. A positive correlation was observed between the frequency of damage of chromosomes and both their DNA content and length at metaphase. No significant difference was observed between the frequencies of damage obtained for individual chromosomes at either site of microirradiation. The frequency of joint damage of homologous chromosomes was low as compared to nonhomologous ones. Considerable variation was noted in different cells in the combinations of jointly shattered chromosomes. Evidence which justifies an interpretation of these data in terms of an interphase arrangement of chromosome territories is discussed. Our data strongly argue against somatic pairing as a regular event, and suggest a considerable variability of chromosome positions in different nuclei. However, present data do not exclude the possibility of certain non-random chromosomal arrangements in CHL-nuclei. The interphase chromosome distribution revealed by these experiments is compared with centromere-centromere, centromere-center and angle analyses of metaphase spreads and the relationship between interphase and metaphase arrangements of chromosomes is discussed

COVID-19: impact by and on the environment, health and economy

COVID-19 is now recognized as the one of the most tempting challenges and largest tragedy of the century after the Second World War (Gautam 2020a). A novel respiratory disease has been reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan a city of the Hubei Province of China, and its now underlined by WHO (World Health Organization) as coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) (WHO 2020; Gautam and Hens 2020)

SARS‑CoV‑2 pandemic in India: what might we expect?

As of April 07, 2020, 1,348,628 cases of, including 74,834 deaths attributed to, novel Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) had been informed worldwide (WHO 2019; Gautam and Trivedi 2020; aajtak.intoday.in/: 7 April 2020). The incidence of known cases of novel coronavirus originated from Wuhan City of China has now been decreased by using prevention measures including strict social distancing; however, the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is continued transmitting in the developing countries including India

EpiLPS: A fast and flexible Bayesian tool for estimation of the time-varying reproduction number.

In infectious disease epidemiology, the instantaneous reproduction number [Formula: see text] is a time-varying parameter defined as the average number of secondary infections generated by an infected individual at time t. It is therefore a crucial epidemiological statistic that assists public health decision makers in the management of an epidemic. We present a new Bayesian tool (EpiLPS) for robust estimation of the time-varying reproduction number. The proposed methodology smooths the epidemic curve and allows to obtain (approximate) point estimates and credible intervals of [Formula: see text] by employing the renewal equation, using Bayesian P-splines coupled with Laplace approximations of the conditional posterior of the spline vector. Two alternative approaches for inference are presented: (1) an approach based on a maximum a posteriori argument for the model hyperparameters, delivering estimates of [Formula: see text] in only a few seconds; and (2) an approach based on a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme with underlying Langevin dynamics for efficient sampling of the posterior target distribution. Case counts per unit of time are assumed to follow a negative binomial distribution to account for potential overdispersion in the data that would not be captured by a classic Poisson model. Furthermore, after smoothing the epidemic curve, a "plug-in'' estimate of the reproduction number can be obtained from the renewal equation yielding a closed form expression of [Formula: see text] as a function of the spline parameters. The approach is extremely fast and free of arbitrary smoothing assumptions. EpiLPS is applied on data of SARS-CoV-1 in Hong-Kong (2003), influenza A H1N1 (2009) in the USA and on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (2020-2021) for Belgium, Portugal, Denmark and France

The Belgian PCB and dioxin incident of January-June 1999: exposure data and potential impact on health.

In January 1999, 500 tons of feed contaminated with approximately 50 kg of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and 1 g of dioxins were distributed to animal farms in Belgium, and to a lesser extent in the Netherlands, France, and Germany. This study was based on 20,491 samples collected in the database of the Belgian federal ministries from animal feed, cattle, pork, poultry, eggs, milk, and various fat-containing food items analyzed for their PCB and/or dioxin content. Dioxin measurements showed a clear predominance of polychlorinated dibenzofuran over polychlorinated dibenzodioxin congeners, a dioxin/PCB ratio of approximately 1:50,000 and a PCB fingerprint resembling that of an Aroclor mixture, thus confirming contamination by transformer oil rather than by other environmental sources. In this case the PCBs contribute significantly more to toxic equivalents (TEQ) than dioxins. The respective means +/- SDs and the maximum concentrations of dioxin (expressed in TEQ) and PCB observed per gram of fat in contaminated food were 170.3 +/- 487.7 pg, 2613.4 pg, 240.7 +/- 2036.9 ng, and 51059.0 ng in chicken; 1.9 +/- 0.8 pg, 4.3 pg, 34.2 +/- 30.5 ng, and 314.0 ng in milk; and 32.0 +/- 104.4 pg, 713.3 pg, 392.7 +/- 2883.5 ng, and 46000.0 ng in eggs. Assuming that as a consequence of this incident between 10 and 15 kg PCBs and from 200 to 300 mg dioxins were ingested by 10 million Belgians, the mean intake per kilogram of body weight is calculated to maximally 25,000 ng PCBs and 500 pg international TEQ dioxins. Estimates of the total number of cancers resulting from this incident range between 40 and 8,000. Neurotoxic and behavioral effects in neonates are also to be expected but cannot be quantified. Because food items differed widely (more than 50-fold) in the ratio of PCBs to dioxins, other significant sources of contamination and a high background contamination are likely to contribute substantially to the exposure of the Belgian population

Casein genetic variants in ovine Merino breed

The genetic polymorphism on Merina ewe milk was investigated, using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at pH 8.6 and ultra thin-layer isoelectric focusing techniques, according to Krause et al. (1988), and Chianese et al. (1992). The casein fractions identified were: - Seven as1-casein phenotypes: CC, BB, BC, AB, AC, BD and CD (Chianese et al.,1996). - Three as2-casein phenotypes, provisionally nominated F, S, and I. - Three b-casein phenotypes, also provisionally nominated K, L and M, because their genetic segregation is not well known yet. The phenotypical distribution of the observed casein fractions and their adjustment to a normal distribution is presented.El polimorfismo genético de la leche de oveja Merina fue investigado mediante electroforesis en gel de poliacrilamida a pH 8,6 (PAGE) e isoelectroenfoque en gel ultrafino (UTLIEF), siguiendo las técnicas descritas por Krause et al. (1988) y Chianese et al. (1992). Dentro de las fracciones caseínicas se identificaron siete fenotipos de as1-caseína (CC, BB, BC, AB, AC, BD y CD), según la nomenclatura establecida por Chianese et al. (1996). Mientras que, a nivel de as2- y b-caseína se han observado tres perfiles electroforéticos, denominados provisionalmente F, S e I; K, L y M respectivamente, ya que no se conoce su segregación genética. Se presenta la distribución fenotípica de las fracciones caseínicas estudiadas, así como su ajuste a la distribución normal