Ozone Monitoring and Canopy Effect in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Vegetative uptake of ozone, or canopy effect can cause considerable differences in ozone concentration. The ability to quantify and determine the presence of canopy effect is of importance when relating ozone exposure to a health effects study being conducted in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The concentrations seen inside and outside of the canopy differed by as much as 13 ppb and 16%. The canopy effect was quantified and evaluated to determine if the ozone concentrations measured at the trailhead at New Found Gap warranted an adjustment to accommodate for the different ozone concentrations the participants of the hiker-health study were exposed to while hiking. The ozone monitor at the New Found Gap trailhead was also investigated for the presence of a canopy effect. The monitor showed no significant effect from the bordering trees. However, the hikers, when on the trail, were within the canopy where lower than ambient ozone concentrations were present. The final recommendation was to lower ambient ozone concentrations measured at New Found Gap by 13% for the time spent on the trail by one of the three approaches presented

Kimberley points of Western Australia: Pressure flaking, projections and prestige

Kimberley points are pressure flaked bifaces with marginal projections, produced within the last millennium, in north Western Australia. These points were hafted for hunting and fighting in recent times, although there is some suggestion that smaller points tended to be hafted for use in favour of larger points, which were reserved for trade and exchange. Kimberley Points are imbued with strong social signalling and prestige qualities, known from Historic times. This paper examines whether these qualities are reflected archaeologically in their marginal projections produced with pressure flaking; and their morphology and production. Multiple sources of Kimberley Point archaeology, ethnography, and production are critically reviewed. As prestige items, the marginal projections are found to very likely relate to their social value, rather than functional drive, which this study investigates using morphological approaches. Samples from both ethnographic collections and archaeological surface assemblages are analysed. The study finds that biface elongation, length and perimeter length each greatly influenced the number of and size of marginal projections, regardless of raw material. This aspect of production probably reflects the value and social prestige for large serrated points, likely produced by the knapper before an audience in virtuoso displays of pressure flaking. It is conceivable that these complex social practices emerged around 1,000 years ago. This study provides a rare glimpse into the social values of stone tool produces, and links archaeological data to social values in the past

What Does a Drone See?: How Aerial Data Resolution Impacts Data Protection

The introduction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) means that organisations are responsible for data protection for all individuals within the E.U. One area of operation that is unclear is to what degree aerial camera systems capture personal data. Mega-pixels and ground sampling distance are normally used as metrics for camera resolution but they ignore a multitude of factors and do not re ect the actual resolving power of the camera system. This work examines the resolution gap by detailing what is actually captured in the image output and how this can be used as an objective measure when addressing privacy concerns. A methodology is described for easily benchmarking the output for different camera systems at different heights and then two of the most commonly used capture systems on modern drones are evaluated. Finally, we examine how this can be applied to GDPR policy and how aerial surveys can be constructed that remove any personal data from the dataset

Gelatin-Nanodiamond Hydrogel for Drug Delivery and Bone Tissue Engineering

As one of the few human tissues to recover without scars, bone’s capacity to remodel itself and recover from injury is undoubtedly impressive. However, non-union fractures and critical sized defects, often the result of trauma, disease-related fractures, and tumor resection, have great difficulty healing without intervention. Common treatments for these maladies include using bone autografts and allografts to fill the defect, though each of these treatments have their own potential complications and drawbacks. Tissue engineering strategies aim to recreate bone or bone’s natural healing processes on a lab-made scaffold along with cells and therapeutics for implantation. In addition, recreation of bone-like functions by improving in vitro models is crucial for drug testing and mechanistic studies. One class of materials used for both therapeutics and in vitro modeling are hydrogels, water-swollen polymeric networks that often exhibit great biocompatibility due to their similarity to native extracellular matrix. Hydrogels’ fragile mechanical properties relative to the remarkable strength of bone limit their application in heavy load-bearing regions of bone. Including nanomaterials within the polymeric network can both increase the strength of the network and allow exploitation of their unique abilities to interact with encapsulated cells and therapeutics. Here, we hypothesize that the inclusion of nanodiamonds, octahedral carbon-based nanoparticles, can both improve the mechanical properties of a gelatin methacrylamide system and enable dexamethasone loading and delivery to encapsulated human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. In the first section, we review bone tissue engineering strategies with a focus on hydrogels and carbon nanomaterials. In the second section, this project and its results are reported and analyzed, and finally, ideas for future work with nanodiamonds and hydrogels are discussed

Technological organisation and points in the southern Kimberley

The anthropogenic manipulation of stone is ubiquitous in every part of the world, throughout human prehistory. The durability of stone technologies creates an enduring material link between the tool maker and the archaeologist, particularly in Australia, where stone tools are a dominant component of the extant archaeological record, and as such, provide fundamental access to our understanding of the technology and lifeways of Australia’s Indigenous ancestors. This research, which is part of the ARC Linkage project: Lifeways of the First Australians, analyses stone artefacts from excavated and surface assemblages in the southern Kimberley region. This thesis by compilation focuses on the technological development of points, which are a distinctive, Holocene component of the Australian lithic suite, in order to test a series of hypotheses, which are presented in a collection of published manuscripts, and unpublished manuscripts currently being reviewed. Lithic artefacts are produced by reduction. When a stone is worked into a tool, it reduces in size, with some fragments resulting in usable pieces, others in debitage. The process of reduction forms the basic premise for this thesis, where reduction is quantified by a morphological methodology outlined in Chapters 1 and 2, and applied to a number of assemblages in order to reconstruct the life history of stone tools from the Kimberley region (Chapters 3 – 7). Chapter 3 presents a robust chronology for point technology in the Kimberley region, where direct percussion points first appear in the archaeological record between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago, and Kimberley Points appear within the last 1,000 years. Chapter 4 provides detailed examination of a large, excavated point assemblage from the Mt Behn rock shelter. This analysis demonstrates that points were produced within a reduction continuum, where changes in reduction intensity and artefact morphology were sensitive to environmental change during the mid to late Holocene. Chapter 5 presents analyses of multiple surface assemblages across the Kimberley, where backing technology is shown to be a regular component of point technologies. The presence of the Kimberley Backed Point challenges the existing model of spatial distributions of backing in Australia. Chapter 6 presents a remarkable point from Carpenters Gap 1, which was recovered with sizable portions of adhering hafting resin, an organic resin which was directly dated. This artefact provides the most compelling evidence for hafting technology used in the mid to late Holocene, and reveals that people were hafting small, lightly reduced points with both mastic and binding. Chapter 7 employs a novel approach to model the level of pedagogy, or teaching and learning, present in two different point reduction sequences. This manuscript demonstrates that pedagogy can be gleaned from stone artefact assemblages, and shows that Kimberley Points represent a shift towards a greater emphasis on a formal pedagogy within the last millennium of Kimberley prehistory. Finally, this thesis culminates in Chapter 8, which presents a summary of the conclusions and discussions offered throughout the manuscripts, and recommends areas of research for further investigation

Leaf phenology and freeze tolerance of the invasive tree Pyrus calleryana (Roseaceae) and potential native competitors

Pyrus calleryana is one of the most problematic invasive species in the eastern United States. The mechanisms that enable Py. calleryana to establish and outcompete native plants are not fully understood but likely include a profile of advantageous traits. Extended leaf phenology is a characteristic noted in many woody invasive plants. Leaf phenology of Py. calleryana and two native woody species, Populus deltoides and Platanus occidentalis, was observed in natural areas near Dayton, OH from December 2019 to November 2020. A frost event in May also gave us the serendipitous opportunity to assess frost tolerance of these species. We found that Py. calleryana began leafing out almost a month before its native competitors in the spring and kept its leaves on significantly longer than both Po. deltoides and Pl. occidentalis throughout the fall. After the frost event, almost every leaf on Pl. occidentalis died and almost 70% of the leaves on Po. deltoides were damaged; however, Py. calleryana exhibited damage on only 6% of its leaves. Our study suggests that Py. calleryana has a nearly 1-mo advantage in leaf phenology in both spring and fall, and much greater frost tolerance, as compared with native species. These attributes likely contribute to its capacity to outcompete native trees in early successional habitats

Herb-Layer Dynamics in an Old-Growth Forest: Vegetation–Environment Relationships and Response to Invasion-Related Perturbations

Temperate forests of eastern North America are subject to multiple invasions from non-native species that have the potential to drive long-term dynamics in biodiversity. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata (M. Bieb.) Cavara and Grande) is an invasive plant in many deciduous forests, and management efforts often focus on removing this species to initiate native species restoration. Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (emerald ash borer; Coleoptera: Buprestidae) is a non-native insect pest that has caused substantial loss of ash trees (Fraxinus spp. L.) in North America. Our goal was to understand how the herbaceous layer in an old-growth forest responded to the removal of a significant invasion of A. petiolata and the loss of Fraxinus spp. due to A. planipennis. Herbaceous diversity and environmental parameters were measured in 32 permanent plots (1 m2 each) from 2012 to 2020 in an old-growth forest remnant that had experienced A. petiolata invasion and subsequent removal as well as mortality of Fraxinus spp. due to A. planipennis. Near-total loss of Fraxinus spp. as a canopy tree was not associated with changes in the understory light environment, possibly due to rapid canopy closure by adjacent trees not susceptible to the insect. Alliaria petiolata removal was associated with changes in herbaceous species richness and possibly shifts in individual species importance. Vegetation–environment relationships remained stable throughout the sampling period, suggesting that resource-related factors that structure the herb layer prevailed throughout the changes associated with Fraxinus spp. mortality and A. petiolata management. From a natural area management perspective, our data offer support for the idea that A. petiolata removal influences herb-layer diversity and indicate that in stands with a diverse tree community, the loss of Fraxinus spp. may not directly influence understory biodiversity

Stem cell secretome-rich nanoclay hydrogel: a dual action therapy for cardiovascular regeneration†

A nanocomposite hydrogel with photocrosslinkable micro-porous networks and a nanoclay component was successfully prepared to control the release of growth factor-rich stem cell secretome. The proven pro-angiogenic and cardioprotective potential of this new bioactive system provides a valuable therapeutic platform for cardiac tissue repair and regeneration