GIS Suitability Analysis to Identify Critical Habitat for the Cascades Frog (Rana cascadae)

The Cascades Frog (Rana cascadae) is listed as a near threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and is under review to be listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Species listed as endangered or threatened sometimes have critical habitat designated for them, which are areas that contain features essential to the conservation of the species. Typically, critical habitats are not designated until a species is listed under the ESA. However, it would be beneficial to know possible critical habitats beforehand in order to expedite the process should the Cascades Frog be listed. Critical habitats were defined by performing a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) suitability analysis. I used a dataset containing observations of the Cascades Frog to identify the land cover, elevation, and climate variables that were ideal for the species. I combined the results with the distance from freshwater sources to create an index of suitability. The most suitable areas were isolated to identify the potential critical habitats for the Cascades Frog. Even though the identified critical habitats would be suitable for the Cascades Frog based on their biological requirements, a percentage of the identified areas are not ideal due to human modification of the landscape. If the Cascades Frog is listed as endangered or threatened, further research should be completed to identify if critical habitat should be designated for the species and if so, which of the identified areas should be designated

Social epigenetics: a science of social science?

Epigenetics has considerable potential to transform social science by embedding mutually regulative reciprocal connections between biological and social processes within the human activities it studies. This paper highlights common epigenetic methods and outlines practical considerations in the design of ‘social epigenetics’ research addressing the identification of biomolecular pathways, statistical inference of causality, conceptualization of the environment as a biochemical event, heritability of epigenetic alterations and intergenerational accountability, and concept of time implied by attempts to capture complex, non‐linear gene‐environment interactions. Finally, we reflect on the social epigenome as a conceptual space and try to identify barriers to translation, and practical and ethical issues raised by epigenetics research. In order for social epigenetics and social science to contribute to the emergence of this putative ‘science of social science’ and to capture meaningful human experience they will both need to change significantly

Identification of vehicle related risk factors, deliverable 6.1 of the H2020 project SafetyCube

The present Deliverable (D6.1) describes the identification and evaluation of vehicle related risk factors. It outlines the results of Task 6.1 of Work Package 6 (WP6) of SafetyCube, which aimed to identify and evaluate vehicle related risk factors and related road safety problems by (i) presenting a taxonomy of vehicle related risks, (ii) identifying “hot topics” of concern for relevant stakeholders and (iii) evaluating the relative importance for road safety outcomes (crash risk, crash frequency and severity etc.) within the scientific literature for each identified risk factor. To reach this objective, Task 6.1 has initially exploited current knowledge (e.g. existing studies) and existing accident data (macroscopic and in-depth) in order to quantify scenarios (defined in Work Package 8) related to the vehicle element. This information will help further on in WP6 to identify countermeasures for addressing these risk factors and finally to undertake an assessment of the effects of these countermeasures (...continues)

Description of data-sources used in SafetyCube. Deliverable 3.1 of the H2020 project SafetyCube

Safety CaUsation, Benefits and Efficiency (SafetyCube) is a European Commission supported Horizon 2020 project with the objective of developing an innovative road safety Decision Support System (DSS) that will enable policy-makers and stakeholders to select and implement the most appropriate strategies, measures and cost-effective approaches to reduce casualties of all road user types and all severities. This deliverable describes the available data in the form of an inventory of databases that can be used for analyses within the project. Two general types of data are available: one describing the involvement of different components for the road safety (vehicles, infrastructure, and the road user) and one describing the injury outcomes of a crash. These two database categories are available to the partners of SafetyCube and gathered in two excel tables. One table contains traffic databases (accident and naturalistic driving studies) and the second table contains injury databases. The tables contain information on 58 and 35 variables, respectively. The key information describing the databases that was needed for the inventory were items such as: Type of data collected (crashes, injuries, etc.) Documentation of the variables Sampling criteria for the data collected SafetyCube partners with access to the data Extent of data access (raw data vs. summary tables) The tables contain 36 traffic accident databases, five naturalistic driving studies or field-tests and 22 injury databases where of four were coded in both sheets

Assessing sulfate reduction and methane cycling in a high salinity pore water system in the northern Gulf of Mexico

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Marine and Petroleum Geology 25 (2008): 942-951, doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2008.01.016.Pore waters extracted from 18 piston cores obtained on and near a salt-cored bathymetric high in Keathley Canyon lease block 151 in the northern Gulf of Mexico contain elevated concentrations of chloride (up to 838 mM) and have pore water chemical concentration profiles that exhibit extensive departures (concavity) from steady-state (linear) diffusive equilibrium with depth. Minimum δ13C dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) values of −55.9‰ to −64.8‰ at the sulfate–methane transition (SMT) strongly suggest active anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) throughout the study region. However, the nonlinear pore water chemistry-depth profiles make it impossible to determine the vertical extent of active AOM or the potential role of alternate sulfate reduction pathways. Here we utilize the conservative (non-reactive) nature of dissolved chloride to differentiate the effects of biogeochemical activity (e.g., AOM and/or organoclastic sulfate reduction) relative to physical mixing in high salinity Keathley Canyon sediments. In most cases, the DIC and sulfate concentrations in pore waters are consistent with a conservative mixing model that uses chloride concentrations at the seafloor and the SMT as endmembers. Conservative mixing of pore water constituents implies that an undetermined physical process is primarily responsible for the nonlinearity of the pore water-depth profiles. In limited cases where the sulfate and DIC concentrations deviated from conservative mixing between the seafloor and SMT, the δ13C-DIC mixing diagrams suggest that the excess DIC is produced from a 13C-depleted source that could only be accounted for by microbial methane, the dominant form of methane identified during this study. We conclude that AOM is the most prevalent sink for sulfate and that it occurs primarily at the SMT at this Keathley Canyon site.This work was supported by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, and the Naval Research Laboratory. J.W.P was supported by a USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program during preparation of this manuscript

Evidence that talin alternative splice variants from Ciona intestinalis have different roles in cell adhesion

BACKGROUND: Talins are large, modular cytoskeletal proteins found in animals and amoebozoans such as Dictyostelium discoideum. Since the identification of a second talin gene in vertebrates, it has become increasingly clear that vertebrate Talin1 and Talin2 have non-redundant roles as essential links between integrins and the actin cytoskeleton in distinct plasma membrane-associated adhesion complexes. The conserved C-terminal I/LWEQ module is important for talin function. This structural element mediates the interaction of talins with F-actin. The I/LWEQ module also targets mammalian Talin1 to focal adhesion complexes, which are dynamic multicomponent assemblies required for cell adhesion and cell motility. Although Talin1 is essential for focal adhesion function, Talin2 is not targeted to focal adhesions. The nonvertebrate chordate Ciona intestinalis has only one talin gene, but alternative splicing of the talin mRNA produces two proteins with different C-terminal I/LWEQ modules. Thus, C. intestinalis contains two talins, Talin-a and Talin-b, with potentially different activities, despite having only one talin gene. RESULTS: We show here that, based on their distribution in cDNA libraries, Talin-a and Talin-b are differentially expressed during C. intestinalis development. The I/LWEQ modules of the two proteins also have different affinities for F-actin. Consistent with the hypothesis that Talin-a and Talin-b have different roles in cell adhesion, the distinct I/LWEQ modules of Talin-a and Talin-b possess different subcellular targeting determinants. The I/LWEQ module of Talin-a is targeted to focal adhesions, where it most likely serves as the link between integrin and the actin cytoskeleton. The Talin-b I/LWEQ module is not targeted to focal adhesions, but instead preferentially labels F-actin stress fibers. These different properties of C. intestinalis the Talin-a and Talin-b I/LWEQ modules mimic the differences between mammalian Talin1 and Talin2. CONCLUSION: Vertebrates and D. discoideum contain two talin genes that encode proteins with different functions. The urochordate C. intestinalis has a single talin gene but produces two separate talins by alternative splicing that vary in a domain crucial for talin function. This suggests that multicellular organisms require multiple talins as components of adhesion complexes. In C. intestinalis, alternative splicing, rather than gene duplication followed by neo-functionalization, accounts for the presence of multiple talins with different properties. Given that C. intestinalis is an excellent model system for chordate biology, the study of Talin-a and Talin-b will lead to a deeper understanding of cell adhesion in the chordate lineage and how talin functions have been parceled out to multiple proteins during metazoan evolution

The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia

International audienceAnatolia was the only major part of the Roman Empire that did not fall in late antiquity, but remained continuously under Roman rule through the eleventh century. Anatolia can, therefore, show the difference Roman administration continued to make, once pan-Mediterranean rule had collapsed. Urban decline did not set in before the fifth century, after Anatolia had already been thoroughly Christianized in the course of the fourth century. The urban decline, when it occurred from the fifth century onwards, was paired with rural prosperity, an increase in the number, size, and quality of rural settlements and in rural population. The ruralization was interrupted during the seventh to ninth centuries, when Anatolia was invaded first by the Persians and then by the Arabs and the population appears to have sought shelter behind new urban fortifications and in large cathedrals. Once the Arab threat was over in the ninth century, ruralization set in again and most cities seem to have been abandoned or reduced to villages during the ensuing peacetime, while the countryside experienced renewed prosperity and a resurgence of small rural church buildings. This trend was reversed once more, when the Seljuk Turks appeared on the scene in the eleventh century, devastated the countryside, and led to a revival and refortification of the former cities