The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence

The catastrophic impact of fishing pressure on species such as cod and herring is well documented. However, the antiquity of their intensive exploitation has not been established. Systematic catch statistics are only available for ca. 100 years, but large-scale fishing industries existed in medieval Europe and the expansion of cod fishing from the fourteenth century (first in Iceland, then in Newfoundland) played an important role in the European colonization of the Northwest Atlantic. History has demonstrated the scale of these late medieval and post-medieval fisheries, but only archaeology can illuminate earlier practices. Zooarchaeological evidence shows that the clearest changes in marine fishing in England between AD 600 and 1600 occurred rapidly around AD 1000 and involved large increases in catches of herring and cod. Surprisingly, this revolution predated the documented post-medieval expansion of England's sea fisheries and coincided with the Medieval Warm Period-when natural herring and cod productivity was probably low in the North Sea. This counterintuitive discovery can be explained by the concurrent rise of urbanism and human impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The search for 'pristine' baselines regarding marine ecosystems will thus need to employ medieval palaeoecological proxies in addition to recent fisheries data and early modern historical records

Ancient DNA reveals the chronology of walrus ivory trade from Norse Greenland.

The importance of the Atlantic walrus ivory trade for the colonization, peak, and collapse of the medieval Norse colonies on Greenland has been extensively debated. Nevertheless, no studies have directly traced medieval European ivory back to distinct Arctic populations of walrus. Analysing the entire mitogenomes of 37 archaeological specimens from Europe, Svalbard, and Greenland, we here discover that Atlantic walrus comprises two monophyletic mitochondrial (MT) clades, which diverged between 23 400 and 251 120 years ago. Our improved genomic resolution allows us to reinterpret the geographical distribution of partial MT data from 306 modern and nineteenth-century specimens, finding that one of these clades was exclusively accessible to Greenlanders. With this discovery, we ascertain the biological origin of 23 archaeological specimens from Europe (most dated between 900 and 1400 CE). These results reveal a significant shift in trade from an early, predominantly eastern source towards a near exclusive representation of Greenland ivory. Our study provides empirical evidence for how this remote Arctic resource was progressively integrated into a medieval pan-European trade network, contributing to both the resilience and vulnerability of Norse Greenland society.This work was supported by the Nansenfondet, the Research Council of Norway projects 262777 and 230821, and the Leverhulme Trust project ‘Northern Journeys’ MRF-2013-065

Pultenaea williamsii (Fabaceae: Mirbelieae), a new species endemic to the New England Tableland Bioregion of New South Wales

Pultenaea williamsii I.Telford, Clugston & R.L.Barrett (Fabaceae, Faboideae, Mirbelieae), endemic to the New England Bioregion, New South Wales, Australia, is described as new, segregated from the P. flexilis–P. juniperina–P. blakelyi species assemblage. Its distribution is mapped, and habitat and conservation status discussed

Key ethical issues discussed at CDC-sponsored international, regional meetings to explore cultural perspectives and contexts on pandemic influenza preparedness and response

Background: Recognizing the importance of having a broad exploration of how cultural perspectives may shape thinking about ethical considerations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded four regional meetings in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Eastern Mediterranean to explore these perspectives relevant to pandemic influenza preparedness and response. The meetings were attended by 168 health professionals, scientists, academics, ethicists, religious leaders, and other community members representing 40 countries in these regions. Methods: We reviewed the meeting reports, notes and stories and mapped outcomes to the key ethical challenges for pandemic influenza response described in the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) guidance, Ethical Considerations in Developing a Public Health Response to Pandemic Influenza: transparency and public engagement, allocation of resources, social distancing, obligations to and of healthcare workers, and international collaboration. Results: The important role of transparency and public engagement were widely accepted among participants. However, there was general agreement that no “one size fits all” approach to allocating resources can address the variety of economic, cultural and other contextual factors that must be taken into account. The importance of social distancing as a tool to limit disease transmission was also recognized, but the difficulties associated with this measure were acknowledged. There was agreement that healthcare workers often have competing obligations and that government has a responsibility to assist healthcare workers in doing their job by providing appropriate training and equipment. Finally, there was agreement about the importance of international collaboration for combating global health threats. Conclusion: Although some cultural differences in the values that frame pandemic preparedness and response efforts were observed, participants generally agreed on the key ethical principles discussed in the WHO’s guidance. Most significantly the input gathered from these regional meetings pointed to the important role that procedural ethics can play in bringing people and countries together to respond to the shared health threat posed by a pandemic influenza despite the existence of cultural differences

Techno-economic and environmental evaluation of producing chemicals and drop-in aviation biofuels via aqueous phase processing

Novel aqueous-phase processing (APP) techniques can thermochemically convert cellulosic biomass into chemicals and liquid fuels. Here, we evaluate these technologies through process design and simulation, and from a techno-economic and environmental point of view. This is the first peer-reviewed study that conducts such an assessment taking into account different biomass pretreatment methods, process yields, product slates, and hydrogen sources, as well as the historical price variation of a number of core commodities involved in the production. This paper undertakes detailed process simulations for seven biorefinery models designed to convert red maple wood using a set of APP technologies into chemicals (e.g. furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural and gamma-valerolactone) and liquid fuels (e.g. naphtha, jet fuel and diesel). The simulation results are used to conduct a well-to-wake (WTW) lifecycle analysis for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and minimum selling price (MSP) calculations based on historical commodity price data from January 2010 to December 2015. An emphasis has been given towards aviation fuels throughout this work, and the results have been reported and discussed extensively for these fuels. It is found that the WTW GHG emissions and the MSP of jet fuel vary across the different refinery configurations from 31.6–104.5 gCO2e per MJ (64% lower and 19% higher, respectively, than a reported petroleum-derived fuel baseline) and $1.00–6.31 per gallon ($0.26–1.67 per liter, which is 61% lower and 146% higher, respectively, than the average conventional jet fuel price of the above time frame). It has been shown that the variation in the estimated emissions and fuel selling prices is primarily driven by the choice of hydrogen source and the relative production volumes of chemicals to fuels, respectively. The latter is a consequence of the fact that the APP chemicals considered here have a higher economic value than the liquid transportation fuels, and that their production is less carbon intensive compared to these fuels. However, the chemical market may get saturated if they are produced in large quantities, and increasing biofuel production over that of chemicals can help the biorefinery benefit under renewable fuel programs

Quantifying the climate impacts of albedo changes due to biofuel production: a comparison with biogeochemical effects

Lifecycle analysis is a tool widely used to evaluate the climate impact of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the production and use of biofuels. In this paper we employ an augmented lifecycle framework that includes climate impacts from changes in surface albedo due to land use change. We consider eleven land-use change scenarios for the cultivation of biomass for middle distillate fuel production, and compare our results to previous estimates of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for the same set of land-use change scenarios in terms of CO2e per unit of fuel energy. We find that two of the land-use change scenarios considered demonstrate a warming effect due to changes in surface albedo, compared to conventional fuel, the largest of which is for replacement of desert land with salicornia cultivation. This corresponds to 222 gCO2e/MJ, equivalent to 3890% and 247% of the lifecycle GHG emissions of fuels derived from salicornia and crude oil, respectively. Nine of the land-use change scenarios considered demonstrate a cooling effect, the largest of which is for the replacement of tropical rainforests with soybean cultivation. This corresponds to − 161 gCO2e/MJ, or − 28% and − 178% of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of fuels derived from soybean and crude oil, respectively. These results indicate that changes in surface albedo have the potential to dominate the climate impact of biofuels, and we conclude that accounting for changes in surface albedo is necessary for a complete assessment of the aggregate climate impacts of biofuel production and use.Federal Aviation AdministrationUnited States. Air Force Research LaboratoryUnited States. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA Energy, Project 47 of the Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction (PARTNER)

Report from the PredictER Expert Panel Meeting, November 2, 2007

On November 2, 2007, the Indiana University Center for Bioethics convened an expert panel on predictive health research (PHR) as part of the Center’s Program in Predictive Health Ethics Research (http://www.bioethics.iu.edu/predicter.asp) which is supported by a grant from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The goal of this meeting was to identify the major obstacles and opportunities for engaging the community in PHR. PredictER intends to use the results of this meeting as a first step toward more fully engaging the Indianapolis community in discussions about PHR.Richard M. Fairbanks Foundatio

Towards delineating functions within the fasciola secreted cathepsin L protease family by integrating in vivo based sub-proteomics and phylogenetics

BACKGROUND: Fasciola hepatica, along with Fasciola gigantica, is the causative agent of fasciolosis, a foodborne zoonotic disease affecting grazing animals and humans worldwide. Pathology is directly related to the release of parasite proteins that facilitate establishment within the host. The dominant components of these excretory-secretory (ES) products are also the most promising vaccine candidates, the cathepsin L (Cat L) protease family. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The sub-proteome of Cat L proteases from adult F. hepatica ES products derived from in vitro culture and in vivo from ovine host bile were compared by 2-DE. The individual Cat L proteases were identified by tandem mass spectrometry with the support of an in-house translated liver fluke EST database. The study reveals plasticity within the CL1 clade of Cat L proteases; highlighted by the identification of a novel isoform and CL1 sub-clade, resulting in a new Cat L phylogenetic analysis including representatives from other adult Cat L phylogenetic clades. Additionally, for the first time, mass spectrometry was shown to be sufficiently sensitive to reveal single amino acid polymorphisms in a resolved 2-DE protein spot derived from pooled population samples. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have investigated the sub-proteome at the population level of a vaccine target family using the Cat L proteases from F. hepatica as a case study. We have confirmed that F. hepatica exhibits more plasticity in the expression of the secreted CL1 clade of Cat L proteases at the protein level than previously realised. We recommend that superfamily based vaccine discovery programmes should screen parasite populations from different host populations and, if required, different host species via sub-proteomic assay in order to confirm the relative expression at the protein level prior to the vaccine development phase

The influence of age, sex and visual dysfunction on reading ability in school-children

t. Binocular and accommodative dysfunctions affect the efficiency and coordination of the eyes, and this may impair reading performance. Reading can be evaluated using accuracy and speed measures. In this study, we searched for evidence that dysfunctions of accommodation (i.e. accommodation insufficiency, IA) and binocular vision (i.e. convergence insufficiency, CI) and also hyperopia have impact on reading ability. A sample of 292 children read a text following vision screening. The sample was composed of control children and children with the conditions: AI; CI and hyperopia. Multilinear regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of variables sex, age and visual condition (control, AI, CI and hyperopia) on reading accuracy and speed. The results showed that ~7% of the variation in reading accuracy was explained by a model where age (p=0.001), and presence of AI (p<0.001) and hyperopia (p=0.019) were statistically significant. On the other hand, ~38% of the variation in the index of speed was explained by age alone (p<0.001). These results confirm the importance of age on children’s ability to read, and suggests that AI and hyperopia, but not CI may affect reading accuracy. Reading speed does not appear to be affected by the presence of binocular or accommodative dysfunction.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013

The chronology of reindeer hunting on Norway's highest ice patches.

The melting of perennial ice patches globally is uncovering a fragile record of alpine activity, especially hunting and the use of mountain passes. When rescued by systematic fieldwork (glacial archaeology), this evidence opens an unprecedented window on the chronology of high-elevation activity. Recent research in Jotunheimen and surrounding mountain areas of Norway has recovered over 2000 finds-many associated with reindeer hunting (e.g. arrows). We report the radiocarbon dates of 153 objects and use a kernel density estimation (KDE) method to determine the distribution of dated events from ca 4000 BCE to the present. Interpreted in light of shifting environmental, preservation and socio-economic factors, these new data show counterintuitive trends in the intensity of reindeer hunting and other high-elevation activity. Cold temperatures may sometimes have kept humans from Norway's highest elevations, as expected based on accessibility, exposure and reindeer distributions. In times of increasing demand for mountain resources, however, activity probably continued in the face of adverse or variable climatic conditions. The use of KDE modelling makes it possible to observe this patterning without the spurious effects of noise introduced by the discrete nature of the finds and the radiocarbon calibration process