HUMAN CONSEQUENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE REFUGEES: AN EXPLORATORY ESSAY

While planning my course schedule for the 2009 Spring Semester, I found myself desperately short of elective credits toward my Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography in order to graduate by the end of the 2010 Autumn Semester. From the limited course choices offered for the spring semester, only two worked with the other required courses I needed as well: Cultural & Global Competence and Global Hot Spots. Little did I know at the time, but the latter would prove to be the most stimulating course of my entire undergraduate geography program. Not only did this course forge within me a true interest in the current affairs of an ever-growing globalized society, it also provided me with a thesis topic to pursue during my anticipated master’s program. At the heart of the Global Hot Spots’ curriculum were three over-arching themes: the global food crisis, the global health crisis, and the global environment crisis. These themes laid the groundwork for all topics that fueled our daily projects and peer discussions. The topics included, but were not limited to, economic globalization; rising levels of obesity in Western countries; the insurgence of global “super bugs;” issues related to projected world population growth rates; the emergence of a global north versus a global south; and projected sea-level rise owing to rising temperatures. As a class, the first item we would broach each meeting were two questions meant to open our daily in-class discussions. But on March 12, 2009 we, as a class, failed to answer the questions for the first and only time. The two questions were: “What is a Climate Refugee; define and give examples?” and “What are ways potential Climate Refugees can alter their traditional/current homes to prevent climate/environmental displacement? Give examples if known?” Our entire group was thoroughly puzzled by the idea of a refugee being a displaced member of a society because of climate change, let alone methods by which humans could adapt fast enough to preserve their ways of life against something so powerful as the climate change. Ever since that day, the mounting realities of climate refugees, how they have come to exist from human prehistory to the present, and the growing global issues related to their ever-increasing numbers has provided not only my thesis topic but commanded (and haunted to a certain extent) my research interests for the last four years. However, about half way through my graduate program, my studies took a turn away from my original proposed topic of simply researching climate refugees. Through many lively discussions with my peers, co-workers, and anyone curious about my chosen topic of climate refugees, I began to realize over time that the vast majority of the people I interacted with had no idea what a climate refugee was, is, or will be. This ostensibly universal ignorance made the navigation of a discussion that revolved around climate refugees quite perilous at times. Eventually, I came to notice that there was a glaring common element among the vast majority of these people who could not come to grips with the idea of a climate refugee. Most of the individuals that I interacted with lacked the most basic understanding of how Earth functions, from a physical geographic standpoint, and the extent of codependent interaction among Earth’s systems. Once I provided that information as a foundation to understand the topic of climate refugees, then these people could engage in higher discussions that revolved around displaced individuals due to either minor or extreme environmental shifts. With that in mind, I was compelled to include in my research larger sections devoted to the elements of Earth’s systems, human consequences related to the interactions with those same systems and their processes, alongside my original topic of climate refugees

Radiocarbon Dating in Late-Roman and Medieval Contexts: An Archaeological Excavation in the Center of Florence, Italy

A series of samples for radiocarbon dating were collected in 2005 from the Biblioteca Magliabechiana archaeological excavation area in the center of Florence, Italy, in a project directed by the Dipartimento di Archeologia e Storia delle Arti of the University of Siena, in cooperation with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il Paesaggio per le province di Firenze e Prato. This area is located near the Uffizi Galleries, close to the Roman town, the Arno River and one of its former tributaries. The area is peculiar for the Florentine urban context because it was free from urban development until the 12th century AD. The exposed stratigraphy showed the presence of several layers composed of natural sediments, partly the result of historical floods. Here, we report a series of 14C measurements on charcoal and seed samples collected on this excavation. 14C dating has been performed in the LABEC laboratory in Florence, on the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) beam line of the AMS-IBA 3MV Tandetron accelerator. We also had the opportunity to compare the 14C dates obtained with several series of samples previously collected in nearby archaeological areas. Results were consistent with the data obtained previously and, moreover, offer interesting new aspects to the interpretation of the archaeological findings

HIV-Reverse Transcriptase Inhibition: Inclusion of Ligand-Induced Fit by Cross-Docking Studies

Nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) have, in addition to the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and protease inhibitors (PIs), a definitive role in the treatment of HIV-1 infections. Since the appearance of HEPT and TIBO, more than 30 structurally different classes of compounds have been reported as NNRTIs, which are specific inhibitors of HIV-1 replication, targeting the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT). Nevirapine and delavirdine are the first formally licensed for clinical use, and others have been licensed afterward, while several are in preclinical or clinical development. The NNRTIs interact with a specific site of HIV-1 RT (nonnucleoside binding site, NNBS) that is close to, but distinct from, the NRTI binding site. In this work we report the application of the Autodock program assessing its usability through reproduction of 41 NNRTI experimental bound conformations. Moreover, cross-docking experiments on the wild-type and mutated RT forms were conducted to take into account the enzyme flexibility as a valuable tool for structure-based drug design (SBDD) studies and to gain insight on the mode of action of new anti-HIV agents active against both wild-type and resistant strains

Origin of Nepheline-normative High-K Ankaramites and the Evolution of Eastern Srednogorie Arc in SE Europe

Eastern Srednogorie is part of the Apuseni-Banat-Timok-Srednogorie magmatic belt in SE Europe, the main arc related to the Late Cretaceous subduction and closure of the Tethys Ocean between Africa and Europe. Extrusive and shallow intrusive magmatism in the Eastern Srednogorie is abundant and extremely diverse in composition, covering a wide range from ultramafic volcanic rocks to granites; this provides a unique opportunity to study processes of primitive melt formation and magma evolution in an arc environment. In contrast to other parts of the belt, relatively mafic lavas predominate here. Three magmatic regions are distinguished within Eastern Srednogorie from south to north: Strandzha, Yambol-Burgas and East Balkan. Systematic differences exist between these regions, notably the increased alkalinity of samples from the Yambol-Burgas region in the central part. All rocks display a clear subduction-like signature in their trace-element patterns, particularly the enrichment in large ion lithophile elements and light rare earth elements relative to high field strength elements. A distinct primitive nepheline-normative ankaramite magma type is recognized among the mafic volcanic rocks from the Yambol-Burgas region and melt inclusions entrapped in olivine and clinopyroxene from a cumulitic rock. Lower crustal clinopyroxene and amphibole cumulates carried to the surface as xenoliths in a mafic dike represent a possible source for the ankaramite. Modeling of the melting process suggests that low degrees of batch melting of a clinopyroxene-rich, amphibole-bearing source similar to the cumulate xenoliths at 1 GPa, temperatures of 1240-1300°C, oxidized conditions and a water content of 0·2 wt % reproduce accurately most of the observed major- and trace-element characteristics of the studied ankaramites. The elevated Rb, K2O, Th, Ba content and higher Pb isotope ratios of the predicted liquids compared with the ankaramites are explained by mixing of the ankaramite magma with lherzolite partial melts derived from the subduction-modified mantle wedge. Underplating of such mantle-derived magmas at the crust-mantle boundary in an extensional environment as a response to slab roll-back provides also the necessary heat to melt lower crustal cumulates. Fractional crystallization of mainly clinopyroxene plus olivine and Fe-Ti oxides in a deep (equivalent to 8 kbar pressure) magma chamber produced most of the observed range of shoshonitic basalts and basaltic andesites in Eastern Srednogorie. The more evolved intermediate varieties were probably formed by mixing and crystallization at lower temperatures in lower pressure magma chambers. Whole-rock Sr and Pb isotope compositions indicate variable degrees of admixing of basement rocks to generate the intermediate to acid Late Cretaceous magmas, but assimilation was minimal for magmas with less than 53 wt % SiO2. The proposed model for the evolution of the magmatism in Eastern Srednogorie involves initial formation of the calc-alkaline and high-K arc magmatism in the Strandzha and East Balkan regions, followed by roll-back induced intra-arc rifting and the formation of high-K, shoshonitic and ultra-high-K magmatism, including primitive ankaramites in the Yambol-Burgas regio

Telocytes in minor salivary glands of primary Sjogren’s syndrome: association with the extent of inflammation and ectopic lymphoid neogenesis

It has been recently reported that telocytes, a stromal (interstitial) cell subset involved in the control of local tissue homeostasis, are hampered in the target organs of inflammatory/autoimmune disorders. Since no data concerning telocytes in minor salivary glands (MSGs) are currently available, aim of the study was to evaluate telocyte distribution in MSGs with normal architecture, non-specific chronic sialadenitis (NSCS) and primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS)-focal lymphocytic sialadenitis. Twelve patients with pSS and 16 sicca non-pSS subjects were enrolled in the study. MSGs were evaluated by haematoxylin and eosin staining and immunofluorescence for CD3/CD20 and CD21 to assess focus score, Tarpley biopsy score, T/B cell segregation and germinal center (GC)-like structures. Telocytes were identified by immunoperoxidase-based immunohistochemistry for CD34 and CD34/platelet-derived growth factor receptor α double immunofluorescence. Telocytes were numerous in the stromal compartment of normal MSGs, where their long cytoplasmic processes surrounded vessels and encircled both the excretory ducts and the secretory units. In NSCS, despite the presence of a certain degree of inflammation, telocytes were normally represented. Conversely, telocytes were markedly reduced in MSGs from pSS patients compared to normal and NSCS MSGs. Such a decrease was associated with both worsening of glandular inflammation and progression of ectopic lymphoid neogenesis, periductal telocytes being reduced in the presence of smaller inflammatory foci and completely absent in the presence of GC-like structures. Our findings suggest that a loss of MSG telocytes might have important pathophysiological implications in pSS. The specific pro-inflammatory cytokine milieu of pSS MSGs might be one of the causes of telocyte loss