Five-Year Growth of Rock Lichens in a Low-Arctic Mountain Environment, Northern Labrador

In 1978, three lichen growth stations were established for Rhizocarpon section Rhizocarpon species and one for Alectoria miniscula in the Cirque Mountain area of the Torngat mountains. Five years later, in 1983, the lichens were remeasured. The five-year growth represented by the change in the theoretical diameter is very variable, between 0.10 and 0.54 mm per year. These rates are larger than expected and exceed rates previously determined for an eastern Arctic area, the Northern Cumberland Peninsula of Baffin Island, by more than 3 to more than 20 times. Similar rates are known for 'great period' growth outside Arctic regions. If the growth rates represent long-term growth, the ages of recessional moraines in the Torngat Mountains should be recalculated. Moraines formerly described as Late Wisconsin to mid-Holocene may be of Neoglacial age. Variability of growth rates from one individual to another precludes using these data for constructing growth curves which may be used, even locally, in lichenometric dating.En 1978, on a établi quatre sites de croissance du lichen dans la région du mont du Cirque dans les monts Torngat: trois sites des espèces Rhizocarpon de la section Rhizocarpon et un site de Alectoria miniscula. Cinq ans plus tard, en 1983, on a mesuré de nouveau les lichens pour constater que le diamètre moyen, qui témoigne de la croissance, a crû de manière très variable, soit de 0,10 à 0,54 mm par année. Ces taux de croissance sont plus élevés que prévu puisqu'ils dépassent de 3 à 20 fois les taux déjà mesurés dans le nord de la péninsule de Cumberland, île de Baffin. De tels taux de croissance du lichen s'apparentent davantage à ceux que l'on a observé dans les régions non arctiques au cours de sa période dite de grande croissance. Si ces taux s'appliquent à de longues périodes, il faudrait réévaluer la date de dépôt des moraines de récession dans les monts Torngat. Les moraines, que l'on croit dater de la période s'étendant du Wisconsinien supérieur à l'Holocène moyen, pourraient en fait dater du néoglaciaire. Toutefois, les variations observées entre les taux de croissance ne permettent pas d'utiliser ces données, même à l'échelle locale, pour tracer des courbes de croissance qui serviraient à établir des datations lichénométriques.1978 wurden im Cirque-Mountain-Gebiet der Torngat mountains vier Stationen zur Beobachtung des Flechten-Wachstums eingerichtet : drei Stationen fur Rhizocarpon-Arten der Sektion Rhizocarpon und eine Station fur Alectoria miniscula. Fùnf Jahre spâter, 1983, wurden die Flechten wieder gemessen. Der Fùnfjahreswuchs, der sich im Wechsel des durchschnittlichen Durchmessers ablesen IaBt, ist sehr unterschiedlich, zwischen 0.10 und 0.54 mm pro Jahr. Dièse Wachstumsraten sind grôfîer als erwartet und gehen ùber die zuvor fur ein ôstliches arktisches Gebiet, die Nord-Cumberland HaIbinsel der lnsel Baffin, bestimmten Raten mehr als dreifach bis zu mehr als zwanzigfach hinaus. Àhnliche Wachstumsraten sind fur die "groBe Periode" des Flechten-Wachstums auBerhalb der arktischen Gebiete bekannt. Wenn die Wachstumsraten Langzeit-Wachstum reprâsentieren, mûfite das Alter der Rùckzugs-Morànen in den Torngat-Bergen neu berechnet werden. Morànen, die zuvor dem spàten Wisconsin bis mittleren Holozân zugeschrieben wurden, kônnten aus der Neoglazialzeit stammen. Die Variationen der Wachstumsraten von einer Person zur anderen schlieBen eine Nutzung dieser Daten zum Aufbau von Wachstumskurven aus, welche, selbst lokal, zur Datierung auf der Basis der Flechten benutzt werden kônnten

Mechanism of Vanadium Leaching during Surface Weathering of Basic Oxygen Furnace Steel Slag Blocks: A Microfocus X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Electron Microscopy Study

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking slag is enriched in potentially toxic V which may become mobilized in high pH leachate during weathering. BOF slag was weathered under aerated and air-excluded conditions for 6 months prior to SEM/EDS and μXANES analysis to determine V host phases and speciation in both primary and secondary phases. Leached blocks show development of an altered region in which free lime and dicalcium silicate phases were absent and Ca-Si-H was precipitated (CaCO 3 was also present under aerated conditions). μXANES analyses show that V was released to solution as V(V) during dicalcium silicate dissolution and some V was incorporated into neo-formed Ca-Si-H. Higher V concentrations were observed in leachate under aerated conditions than in the air-excluded leaching experiment. Aqueous V concentrations were controlled by Ca 3 (VO 4 ) 2 solubility, which demonstrate an inverse relationship between Ca and V concentrations. Under air-excluded conditions Ca concentrations were controlled by dicalcium silicate dissolution and Ca-Si-H precipitation, leading to relatively high Ca and correspondingly low V concentrations. Formation of CaCO 3 under aerated conditions provided a sink for aqueous Ca, allowing higher V concentrations limited by kinetic dissolution rates of dicalcium silicate. Thus, V release may be slowed by the precipitation of secondary phases in the altered region, improving the prospects for slag reuse

Performance Characteristics of Combinations of Host Biomarkers to Identify Women with Occult Placental Malaria: A Case-Control Study from Malawi

Because of its propensity to sequester in the placental intervillous space, Plasmodium falciparum can evade detection by peripheral smear in women with placental malaria (PM). We evaluated host biomarkers as potential indicators of occult PM infections.Using a case-control design, we evaluated the ability of biomarkers to identify PM in the absence of circulating peripheral parasites (n = 24) compared to placental smear-negative controls (n = 326). We measured levels of biomarkers (C3a, C5a, CRP, angiopoietin-1, angiopoietin-2, sTie-2, sEndoglin, VEGF, sFlt-1, tissue factor, and leptin) in maternal peripheral plasma at delivery. Using ROC curve analysis, we assessed the ability of clinical parameters and biomarkers to accurately detect PM infections identified by placental smear. We show that decreases in sFlt-1 and leptin and increases in CRP were associated with occult PM infections (p<0.01) and correlated with placental parasitaemia (p<0.01). Individually, all markers had moderate ability to diagnose occult PM infections with areas under the ROC between 0.62 and 0.72. In order to improve diagnostic performance, we generated simple scoring systems to identify PM infections using either a clinical score (0-2), a biomarker score (0-3) or a clinical plus biomarker score (0-5). The combinatorial model that incorporated both clinical parameters and biomarkers had an area under curve (AUC) of 0.85 (95% CI, 0.81-0.89), which was significantly better at identifying occult PM infections than the clinical score alone (p = 0.001).These data suggest that host biomarkers in the maternal peripheral blood may improve the detection of PM in the absence of peripheral parasitaemia

Pili Pono Practice: A Qualitative Study on Reimagining Native Hawaiian Food Sovereignty through MALAMA Backyard Aquaponics

Living in one of the most remote island chains in the world, Native Hawaiians developed sophisticated food cultivation systems that sustained a thriving and robust population for centuries. These systems were disrupted by colonization, which has contributed to the health disparities that Native Hawaiians face today. MALAMA, a culturally-grounded backyard aquaponics program, was developed to promote food sovereignty among Native Hawaiians. This study utilized participant interview and focus group data to identify how participating in the MALAMA program impacts the wellbeing. The findings demonstrate that MALAMA enhanced the participants’ pilina (relationship, connection) to traditional foods, land, cultural identity, family, and community, which contributed to the quick adoption of the program into Native Hawaiian communities. To address food insecurity, it is imperative to seek Indigenous-developed, community-based, and culturally-grounded programs and solutions like the MALAMA program

Using an Improved Phagocytosis Assay to Evaluate the Effect of HIV on Specific Antibodies to Pregnancy-Associated Malaria

Background: Pregnant women residing in malaria endemic areas are highly susceptible to Plasmodium falciparum malaria, particularly during their first pregnancy, resulting in low birth weight babies and maternal anaemia. This susceptibility is associated with placental sequestration of parasitised red blood cells expressing pregnancy-specific variant surface antigens. Acquisition of antibodies against these variant surface antigens may protect women and their offspring. Functions of such antibodies may include prevention of placental sequestration or opsonisation of parasitised cells for phagocytic clearance. Methodology/Findings: Here we report the development and optimisation of a new high-throughput flow cytometry-based phagocytosis assay using undifferentiated Thp-1 cells to quantitate the amount of opsonizing antibody in patient sera, and apply this assay to measure the impact of HIV on the levels of antibodies to a pregnancy malaria-associated parasite line in a cohort of Malawian primigravid women. The assay showed high reproducibility, with inter-experimental correlation of r2 = 0.99. In primigravid women, concurrent malaria infection was associated with significantly increased antibodies, whereas HIV decreased the ability to acquire opsonising antibodies (Mann-Whitney ranksum: p = 0.013). This decrease was correlated with HIV-induced immunosuppression, with women with less than 350×106 CD4+ T- cells/L having less opsonising antibodies (coef: −11.95,P = 0.002). Levels of antibodies were not associated with protection from low birth weight or anaemia. Conclusions/Significance: This flow cytometry-based phagocytosis assay proved to be efficient and accurate for the measurement of Fc-receptor mediated phagocytosis-inducing antibodies in large cohorts. HIV was found to affect mainly the acquisition of antibodies to pregnancy-specific malaria in primigravidae. Further studies of the relationship between opsonising antibodies to malaria in pregnancy and HIV are indicated.Ricardo Ataíde, Wina Hasang, Danny W. Wilson, James G. Beeson, Victor Mwapasa, Malcolm E. Molyneux, Steven R. Meshnick, Stephen J. Rogerso

Undernutrition and malaria in pregnancy – a dangerous dyad?

BACKGROUND: In low-resource settings, malaria and macronutrient undernutrition are major health problems in pregnancy, contributing significantly to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth and fetal growth restriction. Affected pregnancies may result in stillbirth and neonatal death, and surviving children are at risk of poor growth and infection in infancy, and of non-communicable diseases in adulthood. Populations exposed to macronutrient undernutrition frequently reside in malaria-endemic areas, and seasonal peaks of low food supply and malaria transmission tend to coincide. Despite these geographic and temporal overlaps, integrated approaches to these twin challenges are infrequent. DISCUSSION: This opinion article examines the current evidence for malaria-macronutrition interactions and discusses possible mechanisms whereby macronutrient undernutrition and malaria may interact to worsen pregnancy outcomes. Macronutrient undernutrition dysregulates the immune response. In pregnant women, undernutrition may worsen the already increased susceptibility to malarial infection and could impair development of protective immunity to malaria, and is likely to exacerbate the impact of placental malaria on fetal growth. Malarial infection, in turn, can drive nutritional depletion; poor gestational weight gain and weight loss in pregnancy increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Despite a commendable number of studies and trials that, in isolation, attempt to address the challenges of malaria and undernutrition in pregnancy, few dare to venture beyond the 'single disease - single solution' paradigm. We believe that this may be a lost opportunity: researching malaria-nutrition interactions, and designing and implementing integrated interventions to prevent and treat these commonly co-existing and intertwining conditions, may markedly reduce the high burden of preterm birth and fetal growth restriction in affected areas. CONCLUSION: We call for more collaboration between researchers studying malaria and nutrition in pregnancy, and propose a research agenda to address this important twin health problem.BioMed Central open acces

CR1 Knops blood group alleles are not associated with severe malaria in the Gambia

The Knops blood group antigen erythrocyte polymorphisms have been associated with reduced falciparum malaria-based in vitro rosette formation (putative malaria virulence factor). Having previously identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human complement receptor 1 (CR1/CD35) gene underlying the Knops antithetical antigens Sl1/Sl2 and McC(a)/McC(b), we have now performed genotype comparisons to test associations between these two molecular variants and severe malaria in West African children living in the Gambia. While SNPs associated with Sl:2 and McC(b+) were equally distributed among malaria-infected children with severe malaria and control children not infected with malaria parasites, high allele frequencies for Sl 2 (0.800, 1,365/1,706) and McC(b) (0.385, 658/1706) were observed. Further, when compared to the Sl 1/McC(a) allele observed in all populations, the African Sl 2/McC(b) allele appears to have evolved as a result of positive selection (modified Nei-Gojobori test Ka-Ks/s.e.=1.77, P-value &lt;0.05). Given the role of CR1 in host defense, our findings suggest that Sl 2 and McC(b) have arisen to confer a selective advantage against infectious disease that, in view of these case-control study data, was not solely Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Factors underlying the lack of association between Sl 2 and McC(b) with severe malaria may involve variation in CR1 expression levels

The Interstellar Environment of our Galaxy

We review the current knowledge and understanding of the interstellar medium of our galaxy. We first present each of the three basic constituents - ordinary matter, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields - of the interstellar medium, laying emphasis on their physical and chemical properties inferred from a broad range of observations. We then position the different interstellar constituents, both with respect to each other and with respect to stars, within the general galactic ecosystem.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures (including 3 figures in 2 parts

Latest Miocene restriction of the Mediterranean Outflow Water:a perspective from the Gulf of Cádiz

The Mediterranean-Atlantic water mass exchange provides the ideal setting for deciphering the role of gateway evolution in ocean circulation. However, the dynamics of Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) during the closure of the Late Miocene Mediterranean-Atlantic gateways are poorly understood. Here, we define the sedimentary evolution of Neogene basins from the Gulf of Cádiz to the West Iberian margin to investigate MOW circulation during the latest Miocene. Seismic interpretation highlights a middle to upper Messinian seismic unit of transparent facies, whose base predates the onset of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC). Its facies and distribution imply a predominantly hemipelagic environment along the Atlantic margins, suggesting an absence or intermittence of MOW preceding evaporite precipitation in the Mediterranean, simultaneous to progressive gateway restriction. The removal of MOW from the Mediterranean-Atlantic water mass exchange reorganized the Atlantic water masses and is correlated to a severe weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and a period of further cooling in the North Atlantic during the latest Miocene