Plant-Derived Bioactive Lipids Impacts Glucose Homeostasis and Energy Metabolism in Mice

There is a crucial need to identify and test sustainable alternatives to fish oil as a means to supplement dietary omega (n-3) fatty acids which have demonstrated health benefits to humans with metabolic syndrome and its associated diseases. Echium oil has a high content of the n-3 fatty acid stearidonic acid (SDA), a precursor of the bioactive lipids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) found in fatty cold-water fish, with known or possible functions to improve metabolism and delay the onset of or prevent diabetes. To characterize the effects of dietary Echium oil (EO) vs. fish oil (FO), the oils were formulated into either a low-fat (10% kcal; LF) or high fat (60% kcal; HF) diabetogenic diet and fed to male C57BL/6 Tac mice for 12 weeks. Compared to the low-fat or high-fat controls without the supplementation of EO or FO, EO and FO diets had no effect on blood glucose concentrations or plasma insulin levels throughout the study. The EO-enriched HF diet improved glucose tolerance by week 12 compared to the HF-CON (p\u3c0.05) and HF-FO (p\u3c0.1) groups. EO supplementation reduced visceral fat weight without affecting body mass, promoted a metabolically favorable high polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) to saturated fatty acid (SFA) ratio in adipose and muscle tissues compared to the HF-CON and HF-FO diet groups, and led to higher tissue EPA and DHA concentrations compared to both LF and HF CON (p\u3c0.1). Tissue EPA and DHA in EO were not as high as the concentrations found in mice fed the FO diets for both HF and LF. In conclusion, EO-supplemented diets in mice appear to have distinct effects from FO diets that may be exploited in future strategies to curtail metabolic disorders

Coping Skills for Daily Life: Cost-Effective Strategies to Prevent and Address Mental Health Disorders

Mental health disorders, along with their associated cost and negative outcomes, have continued to persist in Vermont and have become one of the largest, growing challenges to public health in the United States. Unfortunately, Vermont does not appear to have enough resources or providers to optimally address it. Concurrently, coping strategies of minimal cost that have the potential to prevent or address mental health disorders may often be underutilized or misconstrued by the population. A pamphlet providing information on evidenced, cost-effective coping strategies was designed and distributed to providers and patients to enable patients with the skills to help themselves and adapt to their mental health needs, independently.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1622/thumbnail.jp

Leaf wetness: implications for agriculture and remote sensing

Information regarding leaf wetness duration (LWD) has been used in disease management schemes for decades by researchers in the plant disease and agricultural meteorology communities. LWD is currently measured predominantly by electronic leaf wetness sensors or through the use of a model that represents latent heat transfer. Studies have been conducted that examine the placement, orientation and treatment of leaf wetness sensors. Some studies have compared empirical and physical models to LWD measurements obtained from leaf wetness sensors. However, an article that summarizes all aspects of leaf wetness sensors and models, addressing the benefits and disadvantages, has not been provided to extension personnel that need to provide accurate information to growers regarding disease risk associated with LWD. It is recommended that LWD should be estimated using a relative humidity greater than or equal to 90% for operational use. The vertical variability of dew has been examined for a variety of crops. Studies regarding the horizontal spatial variability of dew amount and duration has been limited to small areas, on the order of a few meters. Traditionally, information regarding LWD for disease warning systems has been obtained from a single sensor at a single point in a field. We sought to examine whether or not this provided accurate information regarding LWD, but also sought to determine if dew amount varies within a field. Our study examined how the spatial variability of both dew amount and duration differ within a field by examining locations that were hundreds of meters apart. Dew amount was measured manually, and simultaneously, at three locations within the field on seven mornings. The three sampling locations were chosen based on changes in topography and soil textures. Information regarding LWD was obtained by leaf wetness sensors placed at each of the three locations. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in both dew amount and dew duration between the sites due to changes in the distillation contribution to the overall dew amount. The study found that there was high leaf-to-leaf variability regarding dew amount, and no variability between sites was seen. It was found that there was no significant difference in dew duration at the three locations. The Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite provides the first global estimates of soil moisture using microwave radiometry. This satellite makes passes at 6 pm and 6 am local solar time. The remote-sensing community have indicated that data from the 6 am pass time should be preferred over the 6 pm pass time for a variety of reasons, however land-based studies of soil moisture using microwave radiometry have indicated that the presence of free water on canopy can cause errors in the estimations of soil moisture. Evaluation of the influence of dew on vegetative canopies for satellite measurements has not previously been possible. Our study examined a region in north-central Iowa, where the land-cover is uniform consisting of row crops. We hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in brightness temperature or soil moisture between evening and morning SMOS passes. We examined the soil moisture product and found that there was a significant difference in soil moisture between evening and morning SMOS passes for days when precipitation had not occurred after noon prior to the evening pass, nor during the time period between the evening and morning pass time. The soil moisture product is obtained from measurements of brightness temperature, however no significant difference in brightness temperature was seen between evening and morning passes. We indicate that there may be issues with retrieved values of optical depth during the SMOS processing phase that is resulting in errors in soil moisture measurements. We also highlight the possibility that decreases in the polarization index (a normalization of brightness temperature) could falsely indicate a decrease in soil moisture when it maybe the result of an increase either of the volumetric water content of a vegetative canopy or the presence of free water on the canopy surface

Gully cut- and- fill cycles as related to agromanagement : a historical curve number simulation in the Tigray Highlands

Gully cut-and-fill dynamics are often thought to be driven by climate and/or deforestation related to population pressure. However, in this case-study of nine representative catchments in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands, we find that neither climate changes nor deforestation can explain gully morphology changes over the twentieth century. Firstly, by using a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate historical catchment-wide curve numbers, we show that the landscape was already heavily degraded in the nineteenth and early twentieth century – a period with low population density. The mean catchment-wide curve number (> 80) one century ago was, under the regional climatic conditions, already resulting in considerable simulated historical runoff responses. Secondly, twentieth century land-cover and runoff coefficient changes were confronted with twentieth century changing gully morphologies. As the results show, large-scale land-cover changes and deforestation cannot explain the observed processes. The study therefore invokes interactions between authigenic factors, small-scale plot boundary changes, cropland management and sociopolitical forces to explain the gully cut processes. Finally, semi-structured interviews and sedistratigraphic analysis of three filled gullies confirm the dominant impact of (crop)land management (tillage, check dams in gullies and channel diversions) on gully cut-and-fill processes. Since agricultural land management – including land tenure and land distribution – has been commonly neglected in earlier related research, we argue therefore that it can be a very strong driver of twentieth century gully morphodynamics

Toward Process-Resilient Lignin-Derived Activated Carbons for Hydrogen Storage Applications

Activated carbons are promising sorbents that have been heavily investigated for the physisorptive storage of hydrogen. The industrial process for production of activated carbons is finely tuned and requires a reliable and uniform feedstock. While the natural biopolymer lignin, a by-product of several industries, has received increasing interest as a potentially sustainable and inexpensive activated carbon feedstock, the ratio of the three aromatic monomers (S, G, and H) in lignin can be heavily affected by the lignin source and growing conditions. The aromatic ratio is known to influence the thermal behavior of the polymer, which could be problematic for production of consistent activated carbons at scale. With the goal of improving the consistency of activated carbons produced from lignins derived from different feedstocks, here we present a route to limiting the influence of lignin feedstock on activated carbon porosity and performance, resulting in a carbonization process that is resilient to changes in lignin source. Two different types of organosolv lignin (representing high S-unit content and high G-unit content feedstocks) were investigated. Resulting activated carbons exhibited a high surface area (> 1000 m2·g-1) with consistent adsorptive properties and reasonable hydrogen uptake of up to 1.8 wt.% at 1 bar and -196 °C. These findings indicate that low temperature carbonization conditions can be used to produce a consistent carbon material using organosolv lignins from any source, paving the way for more widespread use of lignin in large-scale carbon production

Auguste Barbier: Sa Vie et son oeuvre

The thesis constitutes a study of the life and work of the French poet, Henry-Augustd Barbier, (1805-1882, ) examined in their relations to each other and to the age in which the writer lived. After a preliminary chapter on the family and home life of Barbier, his education, his training as a student of law, and his first introduction t4 literary circles, the lambes. (1832,) his greatest, and first published work of any importance, have been studied in detail. Their influence left the age has been emphasised, their literary importance revealed. This is the high point of Barbier's career. Coming does so early in his life, an attempt has been made to throw into sharp contrast the increasing mediocrity of the works which follow. Two volumes of verse, II Pianto, (l833,) Lazare,(1837,) inspired by visits to Italy and England respectively, claimed considerable attention and the question of Italian and English influences generally on the young poet proved a fruitful field of research. After 1840 Barbier's life is rarely relieved from the monotony of the bourgeois ease his increased fortune now permits; and though the works which follow Lazare are numerous, rarely has the genius and enthusiasm of the poet's youth revealed itself afresh. Almost all literary genres are represented in thisi^ later work, poems, short stories, travel, literary and artistic criticism, memoirs, translations^ moral observations. Much of his work was published in his lifetime much also remained for posthumous publication by the poet's literary executors

‘I Would Rather Go On Being Underdeveloped.’ Re-Reading and Recontextualising Edmundo Desnoes’ 1965 Novel Memorias Del Subdesarrollo

This article follows two lines of inquiry. Firstly, it provides a re-reading of the novel Memorias del subdesarrollo (Desnoes 1965), suggesting that the protagonist, Sergio, is affected by the threat of nuclear war throughout the novel and that this fear dominates the text from the outset, and not just the novel’s ending during the Missile Crisis of October 1962. It argues that Sergio’s state of anxiety and inertia derive as much from this fear as from his intellectual detachment and problematic relationship with the Cuban Revolution, where critical attention has tended to focus. This re-reading gives texture to Sergio’s inaction and nihilism, revealing a coherent response of an individual to the threat of catastrophe. Secondly, this article sets this re-reading against a new context of catastrophe: that of climate change, ecosystem collapse and species extinction. In this context an overlooked revolutionary fervour is detected in Sergio that provides a reading of hope in the narrative that, when read analogously against the present, may reflect a sense of hope against calamity

SLAPex Freeze/Thaw 2015: The First Dedicated Soil Freeze/Thaw Airborne Campaign

Soil freezing and thawing is an important process in the terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycles, marking the change between two very different hydraulic, thermal, and biological regimes. NASA's Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission includes a binary freeze/thaw data product. While there have been ground-based remote sensing field measurements observing soil freeze/thaw at the point scale, and airborne campaigns that observed some frozen soil areas (e.g., BOREAS), the recently-completed SLAPex Freeze/Thaw (F/T) campaign is the first airborne campaign dedicated solely to observing frozen/thawed soil with both passive and active microwave sensors and dedicated ground truth, in order to enable detailed process-level exploration of the remote sensing signatures and in situ soil conditions. SLAPex F/T utilized the Scanning L-band Active/Passive (SLAP) instrument, an airborne simulator of SMAP developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and was conducted near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in October/November, 2015. Future soil moisture missions are also expected to include soil freeze/thaw products, and the loss of the radar on SMAP means that airborne radar-radiometer observations like those that SLAP provides are unique assets for freeze/thaw algorithm development. This paper will present an overview of SLAPex F/T, including descriptions of the site, airborne and ground-based remote sensing, ground truth, as well as preliminary results