Phytoplankton Response to South Louisiana Crude Oil Exposure: Determining Impacts at Individual, Community, Toxin Production, Enzymatic-Activity and Gene-Expression Levels

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) raised an important question. What is the ecological impact of the oil, the dispersant, and the dispersed oil to the GoM ecosystem? Significant and varying research efforts have contributed answers to this question. However, to better understand the complete ecological consequences of the spill in the GoM, the impact of the spill at the base of marine food web should be examined. This research aims to understand impact of the spilled oil, South Louisiana crude oil (LSC), the chemical dispersant, Corexit® EC9500A, and the dispersed oil on phytoplankton communities in the GoM at individual, community, toxin-production, enzymatic, and gene-expression levels. At the individual level, phytoplankton size influenced tolerance to crude oil, but taxonomic group seemed to be a more predominant criterion. In general, diatoms showed better tolerance to crude oil than dinoflagellates. Naphthalene and benzo(a)pyrene cannot be solely used as surrogates to assess crude oil toxicity on phytoplankton. Community-level effects were investigated under oligotrophic and eutrophic conditions. Diatoms showed the greatest tolerance to crude oil exposures under every condition that was assessed. Nevertheless, different diatom groups had distinct responses under different nutrient regimes. The amount of nutrients greatly influences phytoplankton response during crude oil exposure. Crude oil also affects toxin production of two ecologically important toxic phytoplankton species of the GoM, Karenia brevis and Prorocentrum minimum. It was revealed that reactive oxygen species are activated in phytoplankton exposed to crude oil. Phytoplankton species also displayed signs of oxidative stress and damage in their lipid structure under crude oil exposure. A gene expression study indicated that crude oil does not cause significant difference in the expression levels of selected genes between the control group and samples treated with crude oil. This research provides essential data for impact assessment of oil spills and pollution on phytoplankton ecology and bloom dynamics in the GoM. These datasets contribute substantially to existing scientific knowledge about the region and provide baseline information for subsequent research efforts that seek to further understand the impact of oil on the marine planktonic ecosystem in the GoM

Geotextile deformation analysis of geosynthetic clay liners with fem

This paper provides information on placing geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) as a lining material over coarse-grained soils in cover systems or irrigation ponds. The effects of the hydraulic head acting over the GCL and the void size of the subgrade material on deformation behavior of the GCL were analyzed by using finite element method (FEM) and a relation between the deformations and failure of the GCL was established by comparing the results with those obtained from an experimental study. Based upon these results, recommendations for the use of GCL as a barrier over coarse materials are given

Financial intermediation, resource allocation, and macroeconomic interdependence

During the first decade of the euro, southern countries experienced a boom-bust cycle in bank lending, non-tradable sector growth, and capital inflows. I develop a quantitative, open economy model of banking that is consistent with the banks’ behavior in credit allocation and foreign borrowing observed in Spanish data. I illustrate how movements in the frictions of cross-border deposits generate an endogenous asymmetric allocation of bank credit toward non-traded sectors, while producing a persistent and climbing current account deficit. A common central bank’s unconventional policies in response to sudden stops are successful at ameliorating the downturn.PostprintPeer reviewe

Investigations of SrRuO3 and Sr2RuO4

The structural and magnetic properties of perovskites SrRuO3, CaRuO3. Sr(1-x)CaxRuO3 (x=0.5, 0.75) and the layered perovskite Sr2Ru04 have been investigated using X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering and SQUID measurements. SrRuO3 is ferromagnetic with a transition temperature of Tc=162K. It remains orthorhombic up to 450K. CaRuO3 is paramagnetic down to 2K and shows no structural phase transition between 2K and 300K. Sr2RuO4 is neither magnetically ordered nor does it change its crystallographic structure between 2K and 450K. The nature of the magnetism in SrRuO3 has been found to originate from itinerant 4d band electrons. CaRuO3 possesses a narrower 4d band compared to SrRuO3. The width of the 4d band in CaRuO3 does not allow any magnetic order. The unit cell differences between SrRuO3 and CaRuO3 are also due to the band structure. Paramagnetic neutron scattering also supports the notion of itinerant 4d band magnetism in these ruthenates

Instanton bundles on two Fano threefolds of index 11

We deal with instanton bundles on the product ${\mathbb P}^1\times{\mathbb P}^2$ and the blow up of ${\mathbb P}^3$ along a line. We give an explicit construction leading to instanton bundles. Moreover, we also show that they correspond to smooth points of a unique irreducible component of their moduli space.Comment: 25 pages. The final version will appear in Forum Mathematicum. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1909.1028

KOBI’lerde ic kontrol sisteminin degerlendirilmesi ve Kayseri’deki imalat sanayi isletmeleri uzerine bir arastirma

In recent years, fraudulent financial reporting scandals have abused the stake holders’ confidence to company managements. The existence of welldesigned internal control system is very important in terms of the success of the business strategies and reliable financial reports. Reliability of financial reporting, effectiveness and efficiency of business operations, regulatory and other regulations compliance creates the objectives of internal control. In this context, the main objective of the study is to identify the problems and current situation regarding this issue by examining the approach of internal control systems of the SMEs especially which operating in the industrial field. According to the main findings which obtained in this connection, the majority of firms are aware of the benefits of internal control systems whether or not they have well-designed internal control system. Also, the significant relationships between SMEs’ current internal structure and attitudes of SMEs on internal control were found. Although internal control is a system which is designed and sustained by the participation of all managers and other personnel in an organisation, it is seen that responsibility about this subject is given only one department such as accounting-finance. On the other hand, according to the survey it is also observed that most of SME managers are used concepts of internal control and internal audit interchangeably despite being different from each other.peer-reviewe

Three-Dimensional Magnetic Page Memory

The increasing need to store large amounts of information with an ultra-dense, reliable, low power and low cost memory device is driving aggressive efforts to improve upon current perpendicular magnetic recording technology. However, the difficulties in fabricating small grain recording media while maintaining thermal stability and a high signal-to-noise ratio motivate development of alternative methods, such as the patterning of magnetic nano-islands and utilizing energy-assist for future applications. In addition, both from sensor and memory perspective three-dimensional spintronic devices are highly desirable to overcome the restrictions on the functionality in the planar structures. Here we demonstrate a three-dimensional magnetic-memory (magnetic page memory) based on thermally assisted and stray-field induced transfer of domains in a vertical stack of magnetic nanowires with perpendicular anisotropy. Using spin-torque induced domain shifting in such a device with periodic pinning sites provides additional degrees of freedom by allowing lateral information flow to realize truly three-dimensional integration

Behcet's Disease and Endocrine System

Behcet's disease (BD) is a chronic disease which is characterized by recurrent oral apthous ulcerations, recurrent genital ulcerations, skin eruptions, ocular involvements and other various systemic manifestations as well as systemic vasculitis. Endocrine involvement in BD regarding various systems can be seen. Hypophysis is one of the best and dense vascularized organs of the body, thus it is likely that it can be affected by BD. Not only anterior hypophysis functions, but posterior hypophysis functions as well can be affected. As BD is a disease of autoimmune process, it may be possible that adrenal insufficiency or alterations in the cortisol levels could be expected. Another concern is whether or not there is insulin resistance in patients with BD. The avaliable data suggests that there is an increased susceptibility to insulin resistance in patients with BD