ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF USING BRUSH CONTROL TO ENHANCE OFF-SITE WATER YIELD

A feasibility study of brush for off-site water yield was undertaken in 1998 on the North Concho River near San Angelo, Texas. Subsequently, studies were conducted on eight additional Texas watersheds. Economic analysis was based on estimated control costs of the different options compared to the estimated rancher benefits of brush control. Control costs included initial and follow-up treatments required to reduce brush canopy to between 3 and 8%, and maintain it at the reduced level for 10 years. The state cost-share was estimated by subtracting the present value of rancher benefits from the present value of the total cost of the control program. The total cost of additional water was determined by dividing the total state cost-share if all eligible acreage were enrolled by the total added water estimated to result from the brush control program. This procedure resulted in present values of total control costs per acre ranging from $33.75 to$159.45. Rancher benefits, based on the present value of the improved net returns to typical cattle, sheep, goat, and wildlife enterprises, ranged from $8.95 to$52.12 per acre. Present values of the state cost-share per acre ranged from $21.70 to$138.85. The cost of added water estimated for the eight watersheds ranged from $16.41 to$204.05 per acre-foot averaged over each watershed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Transcriptome Analysis of Gene Expression Provides New Insights into the Effect of Mild Therapeutic Hypothermia on Primary Human Cortical Astrocytes Cultured under Hypoxia

Hypothermia is increasingly used as a therapeutic measure to treat brain injury. However, the cellular mechanisms underpinning its actions are complex and are not yet fully elucidated. Astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the brain and are likely to play a critical role. In this study, transcriptional changes and the protein expression profile of human primary cortical astrocytes cultured under hypoxic conditions for 6 h were investigated. Cells were treated either with or without a mild hypothermic intervention 2 h post-insult to mimic the treatment of patients following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and/or stroke. Using human gene expression microarrays, 411 differentially expressed genes were identified following hypothermic treatment of astrocytes following a 2 h hypoxic insult. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that these genes were mainly enriched in the Wnt and p53 signaling pathways, which were inhibited following hypothermic intervention. The expression levels of 168 genes involved in Wnt signaling were validated by quantitative real-time-PCR (qPCR). Among these genes, 10 were up-regulated and 32 were down-regulated with the remainder unchanged. Two of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs), p38 and JNK, were selected for validation at the protein level using cell based ELISA. Hypothermic intervention significantly down-regulated total protein levels for the gene products of p38 and JNK. Moreover, hypothermia significantly up-regulated the phosphorylated (activated) forms of JNK protein, while downregulating phosphorylation of p38 protein. Within the p53 signaling pathway, 35 human apoptosis-related proteins closely associated with Wnt signaling were investigated using a Proteome Profiling Array. Hypothermic intervention significantly down-regulated 18 proteins, while upregulating one protein, survivin. Hypothermia is a complex intervention; this study provides the first detailed longitudinal investigation at the transcript and protein expression levels of the molecular effects of therapeutic hypothermic intervention on hypoxic human primary cortical astrocytes. The identified genes and proteins are targets for detailed functional studies, which may help to develop new treatments for brain injury based on an in-depth mechanistic understanding of the astrocytic response to hypoxia and/or hypothermia

Generalizations of Tucker-Fan-Shashkin lemmas

Tucker and Ky Fan's lemma are combinatorial analogs of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem (BUT). In 1996, Yu. A. Shashkin proved a version of Fan's lemma, which is a combinatorial analog of the odd mapping theorem (OMT). We consider generalizations of these lemmas for BUT-manifolds, i.e. for manifolds that satisfy BUT. Proofs rely on a generalization of the OMT and on a lemma about the doubling of manifolds with boundaries that are BUT-manifolds.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Basis of Intentions as a Moderator of the Intention–Health Behavior Relationship

Objective: Previous research has shown that the degree to which individuals base their intentions on particular underlying cognitions (i.e., motives) significantly moderates the intention– behavior relationship. Studies have individually examined the moderating effect of intentions based on overall attitude, affective attitudes, injunctive norms, and moral norms. The present research used a within-persons approach to simultaneously test the moderating effects of intentions based on instrumental attitude, affective attitude, anticipated affective reactions, injunctive norms, descriptive norms, and moral norms on the intention– behavior relationship and the impact of controlling for intention stability, self-efficacy, and past behavior. Method: The main outcome measures were the self-reported performance of 20 health behaviors. Adults (N 366) completed questionnaires assessing instrumental attitude, affective attitude, anticipated affective reactions, injunctive norms, descriptive norms, moral norms, self-efficacy and past behavior at baseline; intentions at baseline and 1-month follow-up; and behavior at 2-month follow-up for 20 health behaviors. Results: When tested simultaneously using multilevel modeling the only significant moderator of the intention– behavior relationship was the extent to which intentions were based on anticipated affective reactions (intentions more strongly based on anticipated affective reactions were significantly stronger predictors of behavior). This effect remained when we also controlled for intention stability (which also moderated the intention– behavior relationship), self-efficacy, and past behavior. Conclusions: Intentions based on anticipated affective reactions may be particularly important predictors of health behaviors. Studies manipulating such intentions to test their effects on behavior change are required

Moderating effects of pro-environmental self-identity on pro-environmental intentions and behaviour: a multi-behaviour study

Self-identity is considered as a useful additional predictor in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). However, previous research generally assessed the impact of pro-environmental self-identity in relation to single behaviours and no studies considered its potential role in moderating the impact of other predictors on behaviour. The present research used a within-persons approach to examine effects across behaviours and a longitudinal design to assess the moderating role of self-identity in the prediction of intentions and behaviours, controlling for past behaviour. Participants (N = 240) completed Time 1 questionnaires measuring TPB constructs in relation to five different pro-environmental behaviours. Two weeks later, participants (N = 220) responded to a questionnaire assessing self-reports of these behaviours during the intervening two-week period. Across pro-environmental behaviours the findings showed that pro-environmental self-identity significantly moderated the impact of perceived behavioural control on intentions and the effect of past behaviour on both intentions and behaviours

Leadership for Emergence: Exploring organisations through a living system lens

In this article, we outline a research project with adolescent-focused NGOs (non-government organisations) in Christchurch, New Zealand. This project involved 25 managers who used appreciative inquiry process methodology to explore their leadership practices, beliefs, and values. Throughout the article, we construct a conceptual leadership frame for fostering the emergence of adaptive, innovative and responsive organisational capacity that allows organisations to more readily adapt to the complex and changing conditions in which they operate. We describe this frame as a living system lens that is based on viewing organisations as complex adaptive systems of the kind readily found in the natural world. We go on to outline the leaders’ reflections as they drew strong connections between the dynamics found in complex adaptive systems and their own organisations. Proactive mentoring, fostering interaction and shared learning, strategies for distributing power and decentralising control, and exploration and articulation of deeply held values emerged as the key leadership enactments that these leaders implemented in their roles

The two components of the SO(3)-character space of the fundamental group of a closed surface of genus 2

We use geometric techniques to explicitly find the topological structure of the space of SO(3)-representations of the fundamental group of a closed surface of genus 2 quotient by the conjugation action by SO(3). There are two components of the space. We will describe the topology of both components and describe the corresponding SU(2)-character spaces by parametrizing them by spherical triangles. There is the sixteen to one branch-covering for each component, and the branch locus is a union of 2-spheres or 2-tori. Along the way, we also describe the topology of both spaces. We will later relate this result to future work into higher-genus cases and the SL(3,R)-representations

Simulation support for internet-based energy services

The rapidly developing Internet broadband network offers new opportunities for deploying a range of energy, environment and health-related services for people in their homes and workplaces. Several of these services can be enabled or enhanced through the application of building simulation. This paper describes the infrastructure for e-services under test within a European research project and shows the potential for simulation support for these services