2,817 research outputs found
Less government intervention in biodiversity management: risks and opportunities
n a changing global environment, with increasing pressure on ecosystem goods and services, biodiversity conservation is likely to become increasingly important. However, with the current global financial crisis, governments are increasingly trying to stabilise economies through spending cuts aiming to reduce national deficits. Within such an economic climate, the devolution of governance through public participation is an intrinsically appealing concept. We outline a number of challenges that explain why increased participation in biodiversity management has been and may continue to be problematic. Using as a case study the local stakeholder-driven Moray Firth Seal Management Plan in Scotland, we identify four key conditions that were crucial to the successful participatory management of a biodiversity conflict: a local champion, the emergence of a crisis point, the involvement of decision-makers, and long-term financial and institutional support. Three of the four conditions point to the role of direct government involvement, highlighting the risk of devolving responsibility for biodiversity conflict management to local communities. We argue that without an informed debate, the move towards a more participatory approach could pose a danger to hard-won policy gains in relation to public participation, biodiversity conservation and conflict management
A Comparison of Resveratrol and Other Polyphenolic Compounds on Notch Activation and Endothelial Cell Activity
Resveratrol is a polyphenolic compound produced by plants which makes its way into the human diet through plant-based foods. It has been shown to provide many health benefits, helping to ward of age-related diseases and promoting cardiovascular health. Additionally, resveratrol is a potent activator of the Notch signaling pathway. While resveratrol receives the most attention as a polyphenolic nutraceutical, other compounds with similar structures may be more potent regulators of specific cellular processes. Here, we compare resveratrol, apigenin, chrysin, genistein, luteolin, myricetin, piceatannol, pterostilbene, and quercetin for their ability to regulate Notch signaling. In addition, we compare the ability of these polyphenolic compounds to regulate endothelial cell viability, proliferation, and migration. Out of these compounds we found that resveratrol is the best activator of Notch signaling, however, other similar compounds are also capable of stimulating Notch. We also discovered that several of these polyphenols were able to inhibit endothelial cell proliferation. Finally, we found that many of these polyphenols are potent inhibitors of endothelial migration during wound healing assays. These findings provide the first side-by-side comparison of the regulation of Notch signaling, and endothelial cell proliferation and migration, by nine polyphenolic compounds
Proceedings of the 23rd annual Central Plains irrigation conference
Presented at Proceedings of the 23rd annual Central Plains irrigation conference held in Burlington, Colorado on February 22-23, 2011.Includes bibliographical references.Irrigation water management practices could greatly benefit from using soil moisture sensors that accurately measure soil water content or potential. Therefore, an assessment on soil moisture sensor reading accuracy is important. In this study, a performance evaluation of selected sensor calibration was performed considering factory- laboratory- and field-based calibrations. The selected sensors included: the Digitized Time Domain Transmissometry (TDT, Acclima, Inc., Meridian, ID) which is a volumetric soil water content sensor, and a resistance-based soil water potential sensor (Watermark 200, Irrometer Company, Inc., Riverside, CA). Measured soil water content/potential values, on a sandy clay loam soil, were compared with corresponding values derived from gravimetric samples. Under laboratory and field conditions, the factory-based calibrations for the TDT sensor accurately measured volumetric soil water content. Therefore, the use of the TDT sensor for irrigation water management seems very promising. Laboratory tests indicated that a linear calibration for the TDT sensor and a logarithmic calibration for the watermark sensor improved the factory calibration. In the case of the watermark, a longer set of field data is needed to properly establish its accuracy and reliability
Abelian varieties isogenous to a power of an elliptic curve
Let be an elliptic curve over a field . Let .
There is a functor from the category of
finitely presented torsion-free left -modules to the category of abelian
varieties isogenous to a power of , and a functor in the
opposite direction. We prove necessary and sufficient conditions on for
these functors to be equivalences of categories.Comment: 21 pages, comments welcom
Does stakeholder involvement really benefit biodiversity conservation?
The establishment of protected areas, such as Natura 2000, is a common approach to curbing biodiversity loss. But many of these areas are owned or managed by private actors. Policies indicate that their involvement should be encouraged to ensure long term success. However, to date there have been no systematic evaluations of whether local actor involvement in the management of protected areas does in fact contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, which is the expressed policy goal. Research incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data was carried out in three case studies in Scotland where local actor input was required in the development and/or implementation of Natura 2000 management plans. No relationship was found between the characteristics of the process of stakeholder involvement and stakeholdersâ perceptions of future biodiversity outcomes. Social outcomes of increased stakeholder involvement, such as increased trust, did however increase the perceived likelihood of positive future biodiversity outcomes. The findings indicate that efforts aimed at increasing stakeholder involvement in the management of protected areas need to consider making processes more independent, and acknowledge and address underlying biodiversity conflicts. The findings also emphasise the need to evaluate multi-level conservation efforts in terms of processes, social outcomes and biodiversity outcomes
Annals of a Fishing Village
Dialecto literario inglés. -- Dialecto de Kent. -- Pertecece a la colección LD 1800-1950 de The Salamanca Corpus. -- Denham Jordan, 1836-1920. -- Ps. A Son of the Marshes. -- Jean Allan Owen, 1841-1922, ed. -- Annals of a Fishing Village. -- 1892.[ES]Colección de relatos breves que contienen dialecto de Kent.
[EN]Collection of short stories containing Kentish dialect
Reflections on the value of autistic participation in a triânational teacherâtraining project through discourses of acceptance, othering and power
The Transform Autism Education (TAE) project is a triânational teacher training scheme involving Greece, Italy and the UK, whose purpose is to set up training projects to facilitate the educational inclusion of autistic children. Running over three years from 2014 to 2017, the involvement of autistic participants has been the source of some discussion. Here, TAE team members Wood and Milton reflect on narratives of participation, acceptance and struggle which emerged during a workshop they ran in Greece. Derived from 11 nonâautistic and two autistic participants, and analysed via discourse analysis, these stories suggest a high value placed on autistic participation by nonâautistic TAE team members, but an unwitting tendency to âotherâ autistic people and a lack of awareness of the power differential. Meanwhile, as the autistic team members describe how educational and social participation can be achieved, the implications for autism education researchers and practitioners are discussed
Discovery of a gatekeeper residue in the C terminal tail of the extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 5 (ERK5)
The extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 5 (ERK5) is a non-redundant mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) that exhibits a unique C terminal extension which comprises distinct structural and functional properties. Here, we sought to elucidate the significance of phosphoacceptor sites in the C terminal transactivation domain of ERK5. We have found that Thr732 acted as a functional gatekeeper residue controlling C terminal-mediated nuclear translocation and transcriptional enhancement. Consistently, using a non-bias quantitative mass spectrometry approach, we demonstrated that phosphorylation at Thr732 conferred selectivity for binding interactions of ERK5 with proteins related to chromatin and RNA biology, whereas a number of metabolic regulators were associated with full-length wild type ERK5. Additionally, our proteomic analysis revealed that phosphorylation of the Ser730-Glu-Thr732-Pro motif could occur independently of dual phosphorylation at Thr218-Glu-Tyr220 in the activation loop. Together these results firmly establish the significance of C terminal phosphorylation in regulating ERK5 function, independently of MEK5. This novel mechanism may be of particular relevance in cancer cells where ERK5 has be found to be hyperphosphoryated on its C terminal tail
Thermal entanglement in three-qubit Heisenberg models
We study pairwise thermal entanglement in three-qubit Heisenberg models and
obtain analytic expressions for the concurrence. We find that thermal
entanglement is absent from both the antiferromagnetic model, and the
ferromagnetic model with anisotropy parameter . Conditions
for the existence of thermal entanglement are discussed in detail, as is the
role of degeneracy and the effects of magnetic fields on thermal entanglement
and the quantum phase transition. Specifically, we find that the magnetic field
can induce entanglement in the antiferromagnetic model, but cannot induce
entanglement in the ferromagnetic model.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, minor revisions, resubmitted to J. Phys.
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