Source and Management of Water Colour in the River Tees Is the blocking of peat drains an effective means of reducing water colour from upland peats at catchment scales?

Extensive drainage of UK peatlands has been associated with dehydration of the peat, an increase in water colour and a loss of carbon storage. Water colour has been found to be proportional to the concentration of fluvial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (McKnight et al. 1985). It has been considered that the blocking of drainage channels represents a means of peat restoration and a way of reducing DOC losses to surface waters. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of drain blocking at both an individual drain scale and at a larger catchment scale (up to 1km2). The effect of external parameters become more pronounced as the DOC record is examined at larger scales. The catchment is an open system and water chemistry will be influenced by mixing with water from other sources. Also it is likely that at some point the drains will cut across slope leading to the flow of any highly coloured water down slope, bypassing the blockages, and entering the surface waters downstream. Degradation of DOC will occur naturally downstream due to the effects of light and microbial activity. There is, consequently, a need to examine the wider effects of drain blocking at a catchment scale to ensure that what is observed for one drain transfers to the whole catchment. A series of blocked and unblocked catchments were studied in Upper Teesdale, Northern England. A detailed sampling programme of stream water, soil water and run off was undertaken in which a series of drains were studied in the 12 months prior to and post blocking. Water table depth, flow and weather parameters were also monitored. This study could not find a significant decline in DOC concentration at zero or first order scale post blocking; however a small yet significant decline of 2.5% in DOC concentration relative to the control catchment was recorded at the first order scale. A decrease in DOC concentration is recorded as water flows from the zero to the first order in the same catchment. The study found that the effects of DOC degradation in the catchments were very small and that DOC degradation could not solely explain the decrease in DOC concentration seen from zero to first order drains indicating the importance of dilution effects in the catchments. The blocking of peat drains does significantly decrease the export of DOC which is largely achieved by decreasing water yield. The size of the DOC export reduction caused by drain blocking is seen to decrease as scale increases providing evidence for the existence of bypass flow around the zero order drain blockages. Blocking was found to have little impact on the level of the catchment water table. This can be explained by the peat bog being naturally very wet before intervention such that when blocking did occur the soil had little capacity to take in additional water. Water yield, however, is seen to decrease post blocking indicating that water and potentially DOC is being lost from the system. Principle component analysis and event analysis were performed on the hydrological and chemical data in order to trace and define this missing component of the water balance yet the analysis found that the water chemistry in the study catchment can be defined by a relatively simple mixing trend. As such this missing water remains undefined. The presence of bypass flow and water mixing will reduce the efficiency of any drain blocking and have wider implications for upland management and its practitioners

A Story About A Girl With Snakes For Hair

My work is autobiographical. I use various art making processes to create a visual archive of my life. By abstracting these memories and experiences, I can examine how culture works surrounding issues of identity. This is my story

Aberrant anaplastic lymphoma kinase activity induces a p53 and Rb-dependent senescence-like arrest in the absence of detectable p53 stabilization.

Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) is a receptor tyrosine kinase aberrantly expressed in a variety of tumor types, most notably in Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) where a chromosomal translocation generates the oncogenic fusion protein, Nucleophosmin-ALK (NPM-ALK). Whilst much is known regarding the mechanism of transformation by NPM-ALK, the existence of cellular defence pathways to prevent this pathological process has not been investigated. Employing the highly tractable primary murine embryonic fibroblast (MEF) system we show that cellular transformation is not an inevitable consequence of NPM-ALK activity but is combated by p53 and Rb. Activation of p53 and/or Rb by NPM-ALK triggers a potent proliferative block with features reminiscent of senescence. While loss of p53 alone is sufficient to circumvent NPM-ALK-induced senescence and permit cellular transformation, sole loss of Rb permits continued proliferation but not transformation due to p53-imposed restraints. Furthermore, NPM-ALK attenuates p53 activity in an Rb and MDM2 dependent manner but this activity is not sufficient to bypass senescence. These data indicate that senescence may constitute an effective barrier to ALK-induced malignancies that ultimately must be overcome for tumor development

Case 14 : Rural Residence and Associated Health Disparities: The Case of Chatham-Kent

Rural populations face notably higher rates of chronic diseases than urban areas, specifically, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, and diabetes. This case focuses on Chatham-Kent, a small, rural town in Southwestern Ontario, to illustrate this point. More specifically, the case focuses on an epidemiological approach to provide evidence of the health disparities due to an individual’s place of residence. Based on the comparison of agestandardized rates, does the rural community of Chatham-Kent experience greater health disparities? This case provides the reader with practice in calculating and interpreting crude and agestandardized rates and the ability to disseminate findings about the health status of a given population

Investigating Neural Mechanisms Associated With the Double Empathy Problem Using fNIRS Hyperscanning

The Double Empathy Problem posits that autistic social difficulties are due to differences in communication styles rather than an autistic deficit in theory of mind (ToM). We used fNIRS hyperscanning to examine whether neural synchrony in pairs with varying levels of autistic traits during social interactions supports the Double Empathy Problem. Participants with low and high autistic trait expression were paired creating High-High, Low-High, and Low-Low groups. Pairs completed two trials where they 1) listened to and 2) discussed stories that contained or lacked theory of mind elements, while brain activity was recorded within the ToM network. During conversation, High-High pairs were less synchronous than Low-High pairs, but more synchronous than Low-Low pairs. We found significant synchrony for High-High pairs in ToM network during three of four conditions. Although we failed to find evidence in support the Double Empathy Problem, our results provide evidence against autism-specific theory of mind deficits

Serostatus disclosure among adults with HIV in the era of HIV therapy

Serostatus disclosure is an important component of secondary HIV prevention with potential benefits for both the individual by experiencing increased social support and society by reducing HIV transmission risk behaviors. This cross-sectional study assessed disclosure patterns to sex partners, family members, and friends by sociodemographic and HIV-related factors among an urban, Midwestern U.S. HIV clinic population (n=809); a majority of whom were African American and male with a mean age of 41 years. Almost three quarters (n=596) of the sample was currently receiving HIV therapy, with 68% (n=404) successfully suppressing their HIV viral loads. Among sexually activity individuals, 97% reported disclosing their serostatus to sex partners. This high rate of disclosure to sex partners suggests that social desirability may play a role in this self-reported measure. Approximately half of the sample (n=359) disclosed to at least one family member and 60% (n=474) disclosed to at least one friend. Disclosing to family members occurred more often among participants who were unemployed and endorsed depressive disorder symptoms (p<0.05 for all). Disclosing to friends occurred more frequently among women, Caucasians and those who completed higher levels of education (p<0.001 for all). HIV disclosure and disease severity were unassociated. Given the chronic nature of HIV care, additional research is needed to develop interventions to facilitate timely disclosure of HIV serostatus

Horizontal Inequalities and Ethnonationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison

Contemporary research on civil war has largely dismissed the role of political and economic grievances, focusing instead on opportunities for conflict. However, these strong claims rest on questionable theoretical and empirical grounds. Whereas scholars have examined primarily the relationship between individual inequality and conflict, we argue that horizontal inequalities between politically relevant ethnic groups and states at large can promote ethnonationalist conflict. Extending the empirical scope to the entire world, this article introduces a new spatial method that combines our newly geocoded data on ethnic groups’ settlement areas with spatial wealth estimates. Based on these methodological advances, we find that, in highly unequal societies, both rich and poor groups fight more often than those groups whose wealth lies closer to the country average. Our results remain robust to a number of alternative sample definitions and specifications.</jats:p