Co-using Infrastructure for Sustainability in Maritime Transports

Sustainable transportation systems require optimal co-use of infrastructure. Different means of transportation use infrastructure for its operations. At certain points these means of transportation utilizes the same infrastructure, such as e.g. passages on or under bridges, which require co-modal coordination. To create means for such coordination, situational awareness needs to be established among involved actors by digitalization and principles for information sharing. In this short paper, a co-modal transport system, GOTRIS (Göta Älv River Information Services), is used as a basis for a deeper understanding of the challenges for reaching an optimal co-use of infrastructure. By integrating information from maritime transports as one source in this coordination effort, sustainable transportation systems can be reached. This challenge is formulated in a research question and a preferred approach is stated

Androgen receptor-beta mRNA levels in different tissues in breeding and post-breeding male and female sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Androgens induce male characters by activating androgen receptors (AR). Previous quantitative studies on AR in fishes have been limited to few tissues and/or a single season/reproductive state. The aim of this investigation was to study the possible role of AR-beta expression levels in the control of male traits in the three-spined stickleback. To that end, AR-beta expression levels in major tissues in breeding and post-breeding male and female sticklebacks were examined.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>AR-beta mRNA levels were quantified in ten tissues; eye, liver, axial muscle, heart, brain, intestine, ovary, testis, kidney and pectoral muscle in six breeding and post-breeding males and females using reverse transcription quantitative PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Breeding in contrast to post-breeding males built nests and showed secondary sexual characters (e.g. kidney hypertrophy) and elevated androgen levels. Post-breeding females had lower ovarian weights and testosterone levels than breeding females. AR-beta was expressed in all studied tissues in both sexes and reproductive states with the highest expression in the gonads and in the kidneys. The kidney is an androgen target organ in sticklebacks, from which breeding males produce the protein spiggin, which is used in nest-building. There was also high AR-beta expression in the intestine, an organ that appears to take over hyperosmo-regulation in fresh water when the kidney hypertrophies in mature males and largely loses this function. The only tissue that showed effects of sex or reproductive state on AR-beta mRNA levels was the kidneys, where post-breeding males displayed higher AR-beta mRNA levels than breeding males.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results indicate that changes in AR-beta mRNA levels play no or little role in changes in androgen dependent traits in the male stickleback.</p

GOTRIS - Göta Älv River Information Services Final report - Swedish

GOTRI

A Conceptual Landscape-Level Approach to Assess the Impacts of Forestry on Biodiversity

In this study, we propose a conceptual approach to assessing biodiversity impacts in the life-cycle assessments (LCAs) of forest wood production with a focus on Nordic managed forests at the landscape level. As a basis for our methodology, we suggest assessing the proportion of the total land area of productive forest under the control of a forest owner that fulfils certain criteria that can be regarded as having a positive impact on the development of forest biodiversity. A similar assessment of the forest management performed on the surrounding land is used to define a site-specific reference situation. In the context of an attributional LCA, the suggested method for the specification of business-as-usual (BAU) or environmental quality objectives (EQO) baselines encourages forest owners to choose forest management options that increase the proportion of productive forest land with properties that are more favorable to biodiversity over time. We illustrate the BAU baseline approach with two examples in Sweden to calculate the biodiversity impact from wood production for individual forest owners using four biodiversity indicators from the Swedish national Environmental Quality Objectives (EQOS)-'Living Forests'. The approach defined in this study is at this stage only applicable to forestry assessments. Using a BAU baseline approach similar to that used for international climate reporting is a simple but novel approach that makes use of consensuses that have already been drawn and approaches that have already been established

Characterization of antibodies for quantitative determination of spiggin protein levels in male and female three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Spiggin is an adhesive glycoprotein produced in the kidney of sticklebacks during the breeding season and is subsequently secreted into the urinary bladder from where it is employed for nest building. Since the production of the protein has been shown to be under androgenic control, spiggin has been suggested to be a useful biomarker for androgenic substances in the environment. In this study, two polyclonal spiggin antibodies based on synthetic peptides and one polyclonal antibody directed against native spiggin have been characterized. The antibodies ability to identify spiggin was investigated by quantitative immunoassay. For both peptide antibodies the quantification range was determined to be between 1 and 80 ng spiggin and determination of renal spiggin levels from immature and mature males displayed a 15-fold increase in total spiggin content of the kidney resulting in a 6-fold increase in male kidney weight due to hypertrophy. The kidney somatic index (KSI) was found to correlate well with the total renal spiggin content and therefore it appears that KSI in sticklebacks could be used as an initial method to identify substances displaying androgenic effects. Furthermore, western blot analysis revealed that the polyclonal antibodies recognize different spiggin isoforms and that spiggin can be detected in the urinary bladder and kidney of both males and female sticklebacks. In order to develop a quantitative detection method for native spiggin it is necessary to produce a standard that can be used in a bioassay. Due to the adhesive and polymerization characteristics of spiggin the protein is difficult to use as a standard in bioassays. So far spiggin has been shown to exist in at least 14 isoforms, all of which contain polymerization domains. To overcome the solubility problem we have produced recombinant spiggin gamma, with only one polymerization domain, that can be expressed in E. coli. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the polyclonal antibodies were able to detect recombinant spiggin gamma protein in bacterial cell lysate, suggesting that it may be developed into a useful source of standard spiggin to be used for quantitative determination of androgen induced spiggin production in sticklebacks

Digital Emulation of Time-Varying PMD for Real-Time DSP Evaluations

We introduce a digital PMD emulator to accelerate BER analysis of coherent receiver DSPs. The emulator creates parameterizable, time-varying impairments, which we use to demonstrate real-time analysis of a CMA equalizer

Waveform Memory for Real-Time FPGA Test of Fiber-Optic Receiver DSPs

Verification of advanced circuit implementations poses many challenges. For complex digital signal processing (DSP) circuits, logic simulations may be prohibitively slow when non-stationary scenarios are considered. A real-time emulation technique like the Fiber-on-Chip (FoC) approach can significantly speed up DSP logic verification. However, a potential weakness with this type of emulation is that it does not use data obtained from experiments, but synthetically creates test data. We introduce a waveform memory, which can be integrated with FoC systems and similar emulators, and which allows measured waveforms to be stored and fed to DSP circuits under test. We perform real-time FPGA experiments where we evaluate a carrier-phase recovery (CPR) module that is tested using either waveform data or synthetic data. Our results for the two different data sets show that the CPR module behaves similarly, both qualitatively and quantitatively, which indicates that the synthetic phase-noise model is a valid replacement of measured data

Purification and characterization of two protein kinases acting on the aquaporin SoPIP2;1

AbstractAquaporins are water channel proteins that facilitate the movement of water and other small solutes across biological membranes. Plants usually have large aquaporin families, providing them with many ways to regulate the water transport. Some aquaporins are regulated post-translationally by phosphorylation. We have previously shown that the water channel activity of SoPIP2;1, an aquaporin in the plasma membrane of spinach leaves, was enhanced by phosphorylation at Ser115 and Ser274. These two serine residues are highly conserved in all plasma membrane aquaporins of the PIP2 subgroup. In this study we have purified and characterized two protein kinases phosphorylating Ser115 and Ser274 in SoPIP2;1. By anion exchange chromatography, the Ser115 kinase was purified from the soluble protein fraction isolated from spinach leaves. The Ca2+-dependent Ser274 kinase was purified by peptide affinity chromatography using plasma membranes isolated from spinach leaves. When characterized, the Ser115 kinase was Mg2+-dependent, Ca2+-independent and had a pH-optimum at 6.5. In accordance with previous studies using the oocyte expression system, site-directed mutagenesis and kinase and phosphatase inhibitors, the phosphorylation of Ser274, but not of Ser115, was increased in the presence of phosphatase inhibitors while kinase inhibitors decreased the phosphorylation of both Ser274 and Ser115. The molecular weight of the Ser274 kinase was approximately 50 kDa. The identification and characterization of these two protein kinases is an important step towards elucidating the signal transduction pathway for gating of the aquaporin SoPIP2;1

Prognostic and predictive impact of stroma cells defned by PDGFRb expression in early breast cancer: results from the randomized SweBCG91RT trial

Purpose Predictive biomarkers are needed to aid the individualization of radiotherapy (RT) in breast cancer. Cancer-associated fibroblasts have been implicated in tumor radioresistance and can be identified by platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta (PDGFRb). This study aims to analyze how PDGFRb expression affects RT benefit in a large randomized RT trial. Methods PDGFRb was assessed by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays from 989 tumors of the SweBCG91RT trial, which enrolled lymph node-negative, stage I/IIA breast cancer patients randomized to RT after breast-conserving surgery. Outcomes were analyzed at 10 years for ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) and any recurrence and 15 years for breast cancer specific death (BCSD). Results PDGFRb expression correlated with estrogen receptor negativity and younger age. An increased risk for any recurrence was noted in univariable analysis for the medium (HR 1.58, CI 95% 1.11–2.23, p = 0.011) or PDGFRb high group (1.49, 1.06–2.10, p = 0.021) compared to the low group. No differences in IBTR or BCSD risk were detected. RT benefit regarding IBTR risk was significant in the PDGFRb low (0.29, 0.12–0.67, p = 0.004) and medium (0.31, 0.16–0.59, p < 0.001) groups but not the PDGFRb high group (0.64, 0.36–1.11, p = 0.110) in multivariable analysis. Likewise, risk reduction for any recurrence was less pronounced in the PDGFRb high group. No significant interaction between RT and PDGFRb-score could be detected. Conclusion A higher PDGFRb-score conferred an increased risk of any recurrence, which partly can be explained by its association with estrogen receptor negativity and young age. Reduced RT benefit was noted among patients with high PDGFRb, however without significant interaction.publishedVersio