Technical Note: High-resolution mineralogical database of dust-productive soils for atmospheric dust modeling

Dust storms and associated mineral aerosol transport are driven primarily by meso- and synoptic-scale atmospheric processes. It is therefore essential that the dust aerosol process and background atmospheric conditions that drive dust emissions and atmospheric transport are represented with sufficiently well-resolved spatial and temporal features. The effects of airborne dust interactions with the environment determine the mineral composition of dust particles. The fractions of various minerals in aerosol are determined by the mineral composition of arid soils; therefore, a high-resolution specification of the mineral and physical properties of dust sources is needed. <br></br> Several current dust atmospheric models simulate and predict the evolution of dust concentrations; however, in most cases, these models do not consider the fractions of minerals in the dust. The accumulated knowledge about the impacts of the mineral composition in dust on weather and climate processes emphasizes the importance of including minerals in modeling systems. Accordingly, in this study, we developed a global dataset consisting of the mineral composition of the current potentially dust-producing soils. In our study, we (a) mapped mineral data to a high-resolution 30 s grid, (b) included several mineral-carrying soil types in dust-productive regions that were not considered in previous studies, and (c) included phosphorus

Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) in Attica Region, Greece using climate models upon the climate scenarios A1B and A2. ORIENTGATE Technical Report

The study was commissioned within the preparation of the River Basin Management Plan of Attica Water District (Ministry of Environment 2013). Its main purpose was to: a) quantify the effects of drought and water shortage in the water district of Attica, b) to examine possible methodologies for predicting future incidents and c) to propose remedies for various levels of risk. This essay aims to strengthen the effectiveness of the above "Drought and Water shortage Management Plan" of the Attica Water District, by enhancing the forecasting process of future drought incidents

SINTA - SImulations of climate chaNge in the mediTerranean Area - Final scientific report

This SINTA Project establish a scientific cooperation between the Italian Scientific Institution INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and the Serbian Scientific Institutions such as the Republic HydroMeteorological Service (RHMSS) and the University of Belgrade (UB). INGV contributes the global models, University of Belgrade and RHMSS contribute their expertise on regional models, parameterization ofphysical processes and numerical schemes. In particular, the main objectives of this Project are: 1) Perform a set of global simulations with a Global Climate Model (GCM) available at INGV; 2) Perform a set of regional simulations with the UB Regional Climate Model (RCM) forced by boundary conditions from the GCM simulations; 3) Test the convection parameterization developed at UB in the INGV global model; 4) Training and visit exchanges of Serbian scientists in Italy

A Multi-Year Study of Radioactivity in Surface Air and Its Relation to Climate Variables in Belgrade, Serbia

Activities of Be-7 and Pb-210 were monitored in surface air in Belgrade, Serbia, from 2004 to 2012. The measurements were taken from two locations, in an open field of a city suburb and in the central city area. The activities were determined on HPGe detectors by standard gamma spectrometry. The Be-7 activity shows a pronounced seasonal pattern, with the maximum in spring-summer and minimum in winter, while the Pb-210 activity exhibits two maxima, in autumn and late winter. The mean monthly concentrations measured at both sites are below 9 mBq/m(3) and 1.3 mBq/m(3) for Be-7 and Pb-210, respectively. The obtained correlation of the Be-7 activity with the number of sun-spots is not statistically significant. Relations of the radionuclides activities with climate variables (precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, sunshine hours, and atmospheric pressure) are also investigated, but the only significant correlations are found for the Be-7 activity with temperature and sunshine hours, and the Pb-210 activity with atmospheric pressure. The maximum Be-7 and Pb-210 activities corresponding to binned total monthly precipitation data imply different modes of the radionuclide scavenging from the atmosphere. During dry periods, accumulation of the radionuclides in the atmosphere leads to their increased activities, but no correlation was found between the activities and the number of consecutive dry days

Effect of Phosphorus and Strontium Additions on Formation Temperature and Nucleation Density of Primary Silicon in Al-19 Wt Pct Si Alloy and Their Effect on Eutectic Temperature

The influence of P and Sr additions on the formation temperature and nucleation density of primary silicon in Al-19 wt pct Si alloy has been determined, for small volumes of melt solidified at cooling rates _T of ~0.3 and 1 K/s. The proportion of ingot featuring primary silicon decreased progressively with increased Sr addition, which also markedly reduced the temperature for first formation of primary silicon and the number of primary silicon particles per unit volume �Nv: When combined with previously published results, the effects of amount of P addition and cooling rate on �Nv are in reasonable accord with �Nv� _T ¼ ðp=6fÞ1=2 109 [250 � 215 (wt pct P)0.17]�3, where �Nv is in mm�3, _T is in K/s, and f is volume fraction of primary silicon. Increased P addition reduces the eutectic temperature, while increased Sr appears to generate a minimum in eutectic temperature at about 100 ppmw Sr

Shape: automatic conformation prediction of carbohydrates using a genetic algorithm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Detailed experimental three dimensional structures of carbohydrates are often difficult to acquire. Molecular modelling and computational conformation prediction are therefore commonly used tools for three dimensional structure studies. Modelling procedures generally require significant training and computing resources, which is often impractical for most experimental chemists and biologists. <monospace>Shape</monospace> has been developed to improve the availability of modelling in this field.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The <monospace>Shape</monospace> software package has been developed for simplicity of use and conformation prediction performance. A trivial user interface coupled to an efficient genetic algorithm conformation search makes it a powerful tool for automated modelling. Carbohydrates up to a few hundred atoms in size can be investigated on common computer hardware. It has been shown to perform well for the prediction of over four hundred bioactive oligosaccharides, as well as compare favourably with previously published studies on carbohydrate conformation prediction.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The <monospace>Shape</monospace> fully automated conformation prediction can be used by scientists who lack significant modelling training, and performs well on computing hardware such as laptops and desktops. It can also be deployed on computer clusters for increased capacity. The prediction accuracy under the default settings is good, as it agrees well with experimental data and previously published conformation prediction studies. This software is available both as open source and under commercial licenses.</p

Disulfiram moderately restores impaired hepatic redox status of rats subchronically exposed to cadmium

Examination of cadmium (Cd) toxicity and disulfiram (DSF) effect on liver was focused on oxidative stress (OS), bioelements status, morphological and functional changes. Male Wistar rats were intraperitoneally treated with 1mg CdCl2/kg BW/day; orally with 178.5 mg DSF/kg BW/day for 1, 3, 10 and 21 days; and co-exposed from 22nd to 42nd day. The co-exposure nearly restored previously suppressed total superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and increased glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities; increased previously reduced glutathione reductase (GR) and total glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activities; reduced previously increased superoxide anion radical (O-2(center dot-)) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels; increased zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe), and decreased copper (Cu) (yet above control value), while magnesium (Mg) was not affected; and decreased serum alanine aminotransferases (ALT) levels. Histopathological examination showed signs of inflammation process as previously demonstrated by exposure to Cd. Overall, we ascertained partial liver redox status improvement, compared with the formerly Cd-induced impact

Deciduous Trees and the Application of Universal DNA Barcodes: A Case Study on the Circumpolar Fraxinus

The utility of DNA barcoding for identifying representative specimens of the circumpolar tree genus Fraxinus (56 species) was investigated. We examined the genetic variability of several loci suggested in chloroplast DNA barcode protocols such as matK, rpoB, rpoC1 and trnH-psbA in a large worldwide sample of Fraxinus species. The chloroplast intergenic spacer rpl32-trnL was further assessed in search for a potentially variable and useful locus. The results of the study suggest that the proposed cpDNA loci, alone or in combination, cannot fully discriminate among species because of the generally low rates of substitution in the chloroplast genome of Fraxinus. The intergenic spacer trnH-psbA was the best performing locus, but genetic distance-based discrimination was moderately successful and only resulted in the separation of the samples at the subgenus level. Use of the BLAST approach was better than the neighbor-joining tree reconstruction method with pairwise Kimura's two-parameter rates of substitution, but allowed for the correct identification of only less than half of the species sampled. Such rates are substantially lower than the success rate required for a standardised barcoding approach. Consequently, the current cpDNA barcodes are inadequate to fully discriminate Fraxinus species. Given that a low rate of substitution is common among the plastid genomes of trees, the use of the plant cpDNA “universal” barcode may not be suitable for the safe identification of tree species below a generic or sectional level. Supplementary barcoding loci of the nuclear genome and alternative solutions are proposed and discussed