136 research outputs found
Electrokinetic desalination of protruded areas of stone avoiding the direct contact with electrodes
Micro-scale Modelling of the Urban Wind Speed for Air Pollution Applications
Modelling wind speeds in urban areas have many applications e.g. in relation to assessment of wind energy, modelling air pollution, and building design and engineering. Models for extrapolating the urban wind speed exist, but little attention has been paid to the
influence of the upwind terrain and the foundations for the extrapolation schemes. To analyse the influence of the upwind terrain and the foundations for the extrapolation of the urban wind speed, measurements from six urban and non-urban stations were explored, and a model for the urban wind speed with and without upwind influence was developed and validated. The agreement
between the wind directions at the stations is found to be good, and the influence of atmospheric stability, horizontal temperature gradients, land-sea breeze, temperature, global radiation and Monin-Obukhov Length is found to be small, although future work should explore if this is valid for other urban areas. Moreover, the model is found to perform reasonably well, but the upwind
influence is overestimated. Areas of model improvement are thus identified. The upwind terrain thus influences the modelling of the urban wind speed to a large extent, and the fundamental assumptions for the extrapolation scheme are fulfilled for this specific case
Developing the Improving Post-event Analysis and Communication Together (IMPACT) Tool to Involve Patients and Families in Post-Event Analysis
The analysis of harmful errors is typically led by a team within the hospital and includes clinicians and staff who were involved at the time of the event. However, the patient and family are often left out of this process and are not asked to participate in the investigation. Because little guidance is available for facilitating patient input, an interprofessional team convened to develop a semi-structured tool to be used in eliciting patient feedback. Some 72 persons who had experienced adverse events were interviewed. Using a thematic analysis approach, the team learned that 51% of the interviewees preferred to participate in event analysis directly through an interview and 47% recommended that patients and families should be offered the opportunity to provide their views immediately (within 24-48 hours of the event). The resulting tool, IMPACT, incorporates a conversational flow of questions that allows patients to tell their story, focus their attention on specific causative factors, and give recommendations to improve healthcare in their institutions or to prevent further harm
Analysis of the impact of inhomogeneous emissions in the Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM)
Semi-parameterized street canyon models, as e.g. the Operational Street
Pollution Model (OSPM<sup>®</sup>), have been
frequently applied for the last two decades to analyse levels and
consequences of air pollution in streets. These models are popular due to
their speed and low input requirements. One often-used simplification is the
assumption that emissions are homogeneously distributed in the entire length
and width of the street canyon. It is thus the aim of the present study to
analyse the impact of this assumption by implementing an inhomogeneous
emission geometry scheme in OSPM. The homogeneous and the inhomogeneous
emission geometry schemes are validated against two real-world cases:
Hornsgatan, Stockholm, a sloping street canyon; and Jagtvej, Copenhagen;
where the morning rush hour has more traffic on one lane compared to the
other. The two cases are supplemented with a theoretical calculation of the
impact of street aspect (height / width) ratio and emission inhomogeneity
on the concentrations resulting from inhomogeneous emissions. The results
show an improved performance for the inhomogeneous emission geometry over the
homogeneous emission geometry. Moreover, it is shown that the impact of
inhomogeneous emissions is largest for near-parallel wind directions and for
high aspect ratio canyons. The results from the real-world cases are however
confounded by challenges estimating the emissions accurately
Avoiding pitfalls in interdisciplinary education
As the world's social-environmental problems increasingly extend across boundaries, both disciplinary and political, there is a growing need for interdisciplinarity, not only in research per se, but also in doctoral education. We present the common pitfalls of interdisciplinary research in doctoral education, illustrating approaches towards solutions using the Nordic Centre for Research on Marine Ecosystems and Resources under Climate Change (NorMER) research network as a case study. We provide insights and detailed examples of how to overcome some of the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research within doctoral studies that can be applied within any doctoral/postdoctoral education programme, and beyond. Results from a self-evaluation survey indicate that early-career workshops, annual meetings and research visits to other institutions were the most effective learning mechanisms, whereas single discipline-focused courses and coursework were among the least effective learning mechanisms. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of components of NorMER, this case study can inform the design of future programmes to enhance interdisciplinarity in doctoral education, as well as be applied to science collaboration and academic research in general.Peer reviewe
Hv-CBF2A overexpression in barley accelerates COR gene transcript accumulation and acquisition of freezing tolerance during cold acclimation
Abstract C-Repeat Binding Factors (CBFs) are DNAbinding
transcriptional activators of gene pathways imparting
freezing tolerance. Poaceae contain three CBF subfamilies,
two of which, HvCBF3/CBFIII and HvCBF4/CBFIV,
are unique to this taxon. To gain mechanistic insight into
HvCBF4/CBFIV CBFs we overexpressed Hv-CBF2A in
spring barley (Hordeum vulgare) cultivar ‘Golden Promise’.
The Hv-CBF2A overexpressing lines exhibited stunted
growth, poor yield, and greater freezing tolerance compared
to non-transformed ‘Golden Promise’. Differences in
freezing tolerance were apparent only upon cold acclimation.
During cold acclimation freezing tolerance of the
Hv-CBF2A overexpressing lines increased more rapidly
than that of ‘Golden Promise’ and paralleled the freezing
tolerance of the winter hardy barley ‘Dicktoo’. Transcript
levels of candidate CBF target genes, COR14B and DHN5
were increased in the overexpressor lines at warm temperatures,
and at cold temperatures they accumulated to much
higher levels in the Hv-CBF2A overexpressors than in
‘Golden Promise’. Hv-CBF2A overexpression also
increased transcript levels of other CBF genes at FROST
RESISTANCE-H2-H2 (FR-H2) possessing CRT/DRE sites
in their upstream regions, the most notable of which was
CBF12. CBF12 transcript levels exhibited a relatively constant
incremental increase above levels in ‘Golden Promise’
both at warm and cold. These data indicate that Hv-CBF2A
activates target genes at warm temperatures and that transcript
accumulation for some of these targets is greatly
enhanced by cold temperatures
Soybean Trihelix Transcription Factors GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B Improve Plant Tolerance to Abiotic Stresses in Transgenic Arabidopsis
BACKGROUND:Trihelix transcription factors play important roles in light-regulated responses and other developmental processes. However, their functions in abiotic stress response are largely unclear. In this study, we identified two trihelix transcription factor genes GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B from soybean and further characterized their roles in abiotic stress tolerance. FINDINGS:Both genes can be induced by various abiotic stresses, and the encoded proteins were localized in nuclear region. In yeast assay, GmGT-2B but not GmGT-2A exhibits ability of transcriptional activation and dimerization. The N-terminal peptide of 153 residues in GmGT-2B was the minimal activation domain and the middle region between the two trihelices mediated the dimerization of the GmGT-2B. Transactivation activity of the GmGT-2B was also confirmed in plant cells. DNA binding analysis using yeast one-hybrid assay revealed that GmGT-2A could bind to GT-1bx, GT-2bx, mGT-2bx-2 and D1 whereas GmGT-2B could bind to the latter three elements. Overexpression of the GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B improved plant tolerance to salt, freezing and drought stress in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Moreover, GmGT-2B-transgenic plants had more green seedlings compared to Col-0 under ABA treatment. Many stress-responsive genes were altered in GmGT-2A- and GmGT-2B-transgenic plants. CONCLUSION:These results indicate that GmGT-2A and GmGT-2B confer stress tolerance through regulation of a common set of genes and specific sets of genes. GmGT-2B also affects ABA sensitivity
Constraints on the applicability range of pressure-sensitive yield/failure criteria: strong orthotropy or transverse isotropy
A transcriptomic analysis of bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) provides novel insights into the basis of low temperature tolerance
- …