The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism edited by Greg Garrard

Camilla Nelson reviews The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism, edited by Greg Garrar

Self-diffusion in a monatomic glassforming liquid embedded in the hyperbolic plane

We study by Molecular Dynamics simulation the slowing down of particle motion in a two-dimensional monatomic model: a Lennard-Jones liquid on the hyperbolic plane. The negative curvature of the embedding space frustrates the long-range extension of the local hexagonal order. As a result, the liquid avoids crystallization and forms a glass. We show that, as temperature decreases, the single particle motion displays the canonical features seen in real glassforming liquids: the emergence of a "plateau" at intermediate times in the mean square displacement and a decoupling between the local relaxation time and the (hyperbolic) diffusion constant.Comment: Article for the "11th International Workshop on Complex Systems

Stressful Experiences in Children and Adolescents: Initial Report from the PSEI-NCPV Honolulu Study

As part of a federal study of the biology of stress and resilience, a comprehensive, structured stress-history interview (PSEI-NCPV) was administered to 307 participants recruited in Honolulu. A moderate correlation between childhood stress and current depression was found. A relatively high rate of "severe bullying/hazing," and a high mean stress-intensity reating for "blood-drawing induced anxiety" call for further research

Landscapes of light and text and layer: a projection poetry performance

A digital poetry performance in seven locations. This online performance mixes pre-recorded video of projection poetry in seven places/landscapes around SE Queensland, Australia with a live digital poetry reading. The theme of this performance is landscapes of change, exploring places in SE Queensland impacted by bushfires, deviated by floods, altered by drought, damaged by weapon testing, trees thousands of years old, home of non-human creatures and the revealed geology that roads carve. Using pico/portable projectors, digital poet Jason Nelson, will add a poetic light-based skin to these landscapes, recording the results, replaying them during the performance. As the projection videos play, live performance, digital spoken and animated texts will add a layer of personal and experiential meaning to these landscapes

Does Wheat Cultivar Choice Affect Crop Quality and Soil Microbial Communities in Cropping Systems?

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars may have differential effects on soil microbial communities and the breadmaking quality of harvested grain. We compared six Canadian spring wheat cultivars under organic and conventional management systems for yield, breadmaking quality and soil phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) profile. Yields were lower, but protein levels were higher in the organic system. Cultivars differed for quality traits, but all cultivars had acceptable levels for processing. There were small differences in PLFA profiles for cultivars in the conventional system, but none in the organic system. More significant correlations between grain quality and PLFA measures were present in the organic system. Protein levels and breadmaking quality at least equal to conventional systems can be achieved in organic systems. Wheat cultivars differed for grain quality in both organic and conventional systems, and culivars altered the soil microbial profile in conventional systems. Microbes may play a greater role in determining crop quality in organic systems than in conventional systems

Effect of Baladi Thalam in the management of Ardhavabhedaka (Migraine)

Almost all our ancient Acharayas have mentioned about the Shiro-roga of which Shirah-shoola as the main symptom and also they have taken Shirah-shoola as the synonym of Shiro-roga. all the Acharyas have mentioned Ardhavabhedaka in Shiro-roga. Acharya Sushruta has mentioned 11 types of Shiro-roga in Uttar Tantra. Among them, one of them is Ardhavabhedaka in which paroxysmal unilateral headache associated with vertigo and pain of varying intensity is seen. This can be correlated with Migraine. In the present era, a boom in the Alternative and Complementary systems of medicine has led to deep introspection of their utility based on scientific validation. Hence it is the need of the hour to establish a firm clinical research based scientific data for classical treatments. Thalam is one such treatment modality implicated for the use in Shiroroga. An attempt has been made in the present clinical research to assess the effect of Baladi Thalam in the management of Migraine (Ardhavbhedaka). Total 30 patients were registered. Result of the study revealed that Baladi Thalam therapy is effective in reducing the sign and symptoms as well as physical assessment

How Obstacles Perturb Population Fronts and Alter Their Genetic Structure

This is the final version of the article. Available from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this record.As populations spread into new territory, environmental heterogeneities can shape the population front and genetic composition. We focus here on the effects of an important building block of heterogeneous environments, isolated obstacles. With a combination of experiments, theory, and simulation, we show how isolated obstacles both create long-lived distortions of the front shape and amplify the effect of genetic drift. A system of bacteriophage T7 spreading on a spatially heterogeneous Escherichia coli lawn serves as an experimental model system to study population expansions. Using an inkjet printer, we create well-defined replicates of the lawn and quantitatively study the population expansion of phage T7. The transient perturbations of the population front found in the experiments are well described by a model in which the front moves with constant speed. Independent of the precise details of the expansion, we show that obstacles create a kink in the front that persists over large distances and is insensitive to the details of the obstacle’s shape. The small deviations between experimental findings and the predictions of the constant speed model can be understood with a more general reaction-diffusion model, which reduces to the constant speed model when the obstacle size is large compared to the front width. Using this framework, we demonstrate that frontier genotypes just grazing the side of an isolated obstacle increase in abundance, a phenomenon we call ‘geometry-enhanced genetic drift’, complementary to the founder effect associated with spatial bottlenecks. Bacterial range expansions around nutrient-poor barriers and stochastic simulations confirm this prediction. The effect of the obstacle on the genealogy of individuals at the front is characterized by simulations and rationalized using the constant speed model. Lastly, we consider the effect of two obstacles on front shape and genetic composition of the population illuminating the effects expected from complex environments with many obstacles.Support for this work was provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Grant P50GM068763 of the National Centers for Systems Biology (www.nih.gov, awarded to AWM), by the National Science Foundation through grant DMR1306367 and through the Harvard Materials Research and Engineering Center through Grant DMR-1420570 (www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=DMR, awarded to DRN). WM was supported by the Leopoldina Postdoc Scholarship LPDS 2009-51 (www.leopoldina.org) and by grants from the National Philanthropic Trust Grant RFP-12-15 (www.templeton.org, awarded to AWM), and from the Human Frontiers Science Program Grant RGP0041/2014 (www.hfsp.org, awarded to AWM). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Perceptions of Shop Operators on Packaging of Made-in-Ghana Products

The importance of packaging in the marketing of a product cannot be overemphasized. It raises the appeal of the product and becomes its silent salesman. Proper packaging is a less expensive means of advertisement and leads to a direct reduction in production cost and indirectly increases sales by attracting the final consumer. The use of packaging as a marketing and sales promotional tool has been very well developed in the advanced countries with developing countries such as Ghana lagging far behind. In Ghana, many products are poorly labelled and packaged. This paper seeks to ascertain the views of sellers/traders about how the packaging of Made-in-Ghana products affects their marketability. Geographically, the study focused on Kumasi Metropolis given that it is a commercialized city in Ghana. The research employed the case study and qualitative approaches. Survey respondents were sampled through the cluster and accidental sampling techniques. The major road corridors served as the bases for clustering while the accidental sampling technique was employed for the selection of the shops to be interviewed given the absence of reliable information on the number and location of shops in the Kumasi Metropolis. A random accessible population of 100 was taken. A structured questionnaire was employed in a more interactive manner upon a pre-test of 10 shops. Data obtained was edited and presented in the forms of tables and charts to facilitate the analysis. The study revealed that indeed, the final purchasing decision of consumers are made at the point of sale and that packaging serves as the silent salesman through its aesthetic value and the adequacy of information provided on the label of the product. To the traders, the foreign products have their packaging really acting as their silent salesman better than the local ones, thus, their low patronage. Also, the incidence of product rejection due to its packaging was greater in the instances of locally manufactured products based on faded labels, exposed products’ contents and doubtful expiry dates. The use of right quality packaging materials, appropriate colour schemes, improvements in product branding, embossment of Ghanaian logos were suggested strategies for increasing the patronage of Made-in-Ghana products. Until and unless, the local manufacturer is “pushed” to ensure that their products are properly packaged to attract the final consumer, they would continue to struggle with reduction in sales

Isolation and characterization of the full-length cDNA encoding a member of a novel cytochrome p450 family (CYP320A1) from the tropical freshwater snail, Biomphalaria glabrata, intermediate host for Schistosoma mansoni

Cytochrome p450s (cyp450s) are a family of structurally related proteins, with diverse functions, including steroid synthesis and breakdown of toxins. This paper reports the full-length sequence of a novel cyp450 gene, the first to be isolated from the tropical freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata, an important intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni. The nucleotide sequence is 2291 bp with a predicted amino acid sequence of 584aa. The sequence demonstrates conserved cyp450 structural motifs, but is sufficiently different from previously reported cyp450 sequences to be given a new classification, CYP320A1. Initially identified as down-regulated in partially resistant snails in response to S. mansoni infection, amplification of this gene using RT-PCR in both totally resistant or susceptible snail lines when exposed to infection, and all tissues examined, suggests ubiquitous expression. Characterization of the first cyp450 from B. glabrata is significant in understanding the evolution of these metabolically important proteins

Foster Youth Perspectives: Self-Reported Strengths and Resilience

This study examines the relational resilience, emotional self-efficacy, and self-reported strengths of foster youth, using a community based participatory research framework. The aggregate of research to date focuses on detrimental circumstances foster youth have experienced and the associated psychopathology. The present study expands the focus to individual strengths, informing our understanding of resiliency among foster youth. A survey was co-created with foster youth focused on demographic background, perceptions of strengths, and resilience. This survey included items from the positive acceptance of change / secure relationships subscale of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-CDSC), and emotional self-efficacy subscale of the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C). Open-ended questions focused on youth’s strengths, helping them overcome challenges. Foster youth ages 16-24 were recruited from non-profit organizations serving foster youth in Bay Area and were provided a $25 gift-card incentive to participate. Participants (n = 85) self-identified as feminine/female (51.2%, n = 43), as African-American/Black (40.5%, n = 34), Hispanic/Latinx (25%, n = 21) and Multi-Ethnic (15.5%, n = 14), and reported a mean age of 21.06 (SD = 2.12). Mean age at entry into care was 10.7 (SD = 5.3) years; average duration in care was 6.7 (SD = 5.8) years. Analysis indicated that, on average, youth reported moderate - high levels of positive acceptance of change / secure relationships, and emotional self-efficacy. Specifically, 92% (n = 72) reported an ability to deal with whatever comes, most to all of the time. Seventy-one percent (n = 56) reported an ability to prevent becoming nervous sometimes or often. These frequencies were higher than those reported with non-foster youth samples, including samples on which the CD-CDSC and SEQ-C were normed. Qualitative data further indicated themes of strengths used to overcome challenges to include reliance on friends, reminders of overcoming adversity, and optimism about the future. The results suggest that, despite increased rates of negative outcomes and mental health problems, foster youth self-identify as strong and resilient. Future research is needed to replicate and further extend these findings and determine the extent to which they generalize to younger foster youth and those living in non-urban settings