Designers of collaboration mandates for sustainable natural resource management must address public agencies’ concerns about losing autonomy and influence

With climate change now influencing entire regions, there is a greater need for organizational collaboration to manage natural resources sustainably. Using California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which mandates collaboration between groundwater sustainability agencies, as a case study, Brian An and Shui-Yan Tang examine what drives integrative collaborations between agencies. They find that agencies are more likely to joint integrative collaborations if their mission addresses a broader focus, their core stakeholder groups have less concentrated interests in the policy issue, and their organizational culture is less rigid and risk averse

Using Common-Pool Resource Principles to Design Local Government Fiscal Sustainability

This article analyzes local government fiscal sustainability as a common-pool resource (CPR) problem. By comparing the experiences of Los Angeles County, San Bernardino City, and San Bernardino County, the analysis applies a framework developed from three decades of CPR research to show the importance of six micro-situational variables — communications with the full set of participants, known reputations of participants, high marginal per capita return, entry or exit capabilities, longer time horizon, and agreed-upon sanctioning capabilities — in shaping collective-action dynamics and building the trust and reciprocity among stakeholders needed for achieving fiscal sustainability. The underlying contextual conditions for these micro-situational variables vary based on specific socio-economic and political settings, but the findings suggest that institutions and processes can be designed based on several well-tested principles in CPR governance to encourage stakeholders to look beyond their immediate self-interests and to make decisions that account for the community’s long-term fiscal sustainability

In the early global fight against COVID-19, quick mask mandates were most effective

Before the development of an effective vaccine, policymakers had to use other approaches such as mask mandates and stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of COVID-19. In new research covering 164 countries, Brian An, Simon Porcher, Shui-Yan Tang, and Eunji Emily Kim examine the effectiveness of these measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19, finding that mask mandates, if adopted early, were the most effective. They also find that countries with less individualistic cultures, and those with better healthcare capacity prior to the pandemic, were more likely to adopt early mask mandates

All CPR's Are Not Created Equal: Two Important Physical Characteristics and Their Relation to the Resolution of Commons Dilemmas

Workshop Abstract: "Policy prescriptions offered in the now-voluminous literature on common-pool resources (CPRs) frequently focus upon the strategic situation of resource users, paying relatively less attention (or none at all) to the characteristics of the common-pool resources themselves. In short, most contributions to the policy literature presume that all CPRs are alike. Based on our reconsideration of the strategic situations users face, and our empirical observation of three kinds of CPRs fisheries, irrigation systems, and groundwater basins we conclude that two physical characteristics of CPRs have vital implications for the likelihood of successful resolution of difficulties over resource use, and for the types of resolutions users develop. Those physical characteristics are the degree of stationarity of flow units and the existence of storage capacity. Speaking generally, fisheries are CPRs with fugitive flow units and without storage capacity, irrigation systems have fugitive flow units but possible availability of storage, and groundwater basins have relatively stationary flow units and storage capacity. Using comparisons among these types of CPRs, we analyze the effects of these physical characteristics upon the. prospects for the emergence- of successful cooperation in resource use.

Molecules in the peculiar age-defying source IRAS 19312+1950

Context. IRAS 19312+1950 is an isolated infrared source that exhibits a characteristic quasi-point-symmetric morphology in the near- and mid-infrared images and is also very bright in molecular radio lines. Because of its unique observational characteristics, various observational studies have been conducted and several hypotheses have been proposed regarding its origin, which is still unclear. So far, it has been suggested that it could be a peculiar evolved star, a young stellar object, or even a red nova remnant. Regardless of which type of object it is ultimately classified as, IRAS 19312+1950 is exceptionally bright in the infrared and molecular radio lines and therefore will undoubtedly be crucial as a prototype of this kind of object having a peculiar nature or unusual evolutionary phase. Aims. This study aims to reveal the molecular composition of the central part of IRAS 19312+1950 by performing an unbiased molecular radio line survey and discussing the origin of the object from a molecular chemical point of view. Methods. We carried out a spectral line survey with the IRAM 30 m telescope towards the center of IRAS 19312+1950 in the 3 and 1.3 mm windows. Results. In total, 28 transition lines of 22 molecular species and those isotopologues are detected towards IRAS 19312+1950, some of which exhibit a broad and a narrow components. Seventeen thermal lines and 1 maser line are newly detected. The molecular species of C$^{17}$O, $^{30}$SiO, HN$^{13}$C, HC$^{18}$O$^{+}$, H$_{2}$CO, and $c$-C$_{3}$H$_{2}$ are detected for the first time in this object. Conclusions. Our results, in combination with previous studies, favor the hypothesis that IRAS 19312+1950 might be a red nova remnant, in which the progenitors that merged to become a red nova may have contained at least two evolved stars with oxygen-rich and carbon-rich chemistry, respectively.Comment: 30 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in A&

A Soluble C1b Protein and Its Regulation of Soluble Type 7 Adenylyl Cyclase†

Adenylyl cyclase (AC) is a prototypical cell-signaling molecule expressed in virtually all organisms from bacteria to man. While C1b, a poorly conserved region within mammalian AC, has been implicated in numerous isoform-specific regulatory properties, no one has purified the C1b region as a functional protein to homogeneity in order to study its role in enzyme function. We hypothesize that C1b is an internal regulatory subunit. To pursue this hypothesis, we constructed several soluble C1b proteins from type VII AC, arriving at one, 7C1b-S, which can be expressed and purified from Escherichia coli. 7C1b-S is relatively stable, as demonstrated by limited proteolytic analysis, circular dichroism, and UV Raman spectroscopy. Using size-exclusion chromatography and co-immunoprecipitation we demonstrate that 7C1b-S interacts with a cardinal activator of AC (Gsα) and with the conserved first catalytic domain (C1a) of type VII AC. We show that 7C1b-S inhibits Gsα-stimulated and Gsα-forskolin stimulated activity in our soluble ACVII model system. On the basis of these results, we suggest that 7C1b-S meets basic criteria to serve as a model protein for the C1b region and may be used as a prototype to develop other isoform C1b soluble model proteins to further investigate the role of this domain in isoform-specific regulation of adenylyl cyclase

Building Strong for Tomorrow: Recommendations for the Organizational Design of the NOAA Climate Service

The U.S. Congress asked an expert panel of the National Academy of Public Administration to assist NOAA with a study and analysis of organizational options for a Climate Service within NOAA. Further, NOAA formally asked the Panel to provide an independent assessment of how NOAA should organize its climate capabilities and make recommendations for a Climate Service line office structure that would integrate NOAA's climate science and research with service delivery.Main FindingsThe Panel strongly supports the creation of a Climate Service to be established as a line office within NOAA.The Panel concluded that a NOAA Climate Service, properly configured and implemented, would be uniquely qualified to serve the public and private sectors as a lead federal agency for climate research and services, and to provide an ongoing accessible, authoritative clearinghouse for all federal science and services related to climate.The report also includes the Panel's observations and recommendations regarding the larger federal climate enterprise, key elements of support needed by the NOAA Climate Service and the importance to the new organization of a clear strategic plan and a comprehensive implementation plan. Additionally, the Panel offered observations about institutional change management in the federal sector, identified several management recommendations for implementation and addressed operational priorities and budget challenges

In Vitro/Vivo Activity of Potential MCR-1 Inhibitor in Combination With Colistin Againsts mcr-1-Positive Klebsiella pneumonia

Carbapenem resistance among strains of the nosocomial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae is increasing worldwide, causing serious clinical infections and higher mortality rates. Polymyxins are some of the few “last resort” options for treatment of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, including K. pneumoniae, however, the emergence of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene mcr-1 has largely rendered polymyxin-class antibiotics ineffective in a clinical setting. We previously identified a natural compound, pterostilbene, which has a synergistic effect in combination with polymyxins. Here, we aimed to determine whether pterostilbene application can restore the bactericidal activity of polymyxins against mcr-1-positive K. pneumoniae. Checkerboard MIC studies confirmed that pterostilbene reduces the MIC of colistin against mcr-1-positive clinical K. pneumoniae isolates, with the bacteria going from resistant to sensitive, and also demonstrated a synergistic effect with colistin (FIC index = 0.11 ± 0.04 or 0.28 ± 0.00). Time-killing assays showed that individually, both pterostilbene and colistin failed to eradicate K. pneumoniae strains, while in combination, the two drugs effectively eliminated K. pneumoniae ZJ02 and K. pneumoniae ZJ05 by 1–3 h post-inoculation. The combined disk test also showed increases in the zones of inhibition only for mcr-1-positive Escherichia coli and K. pneumoniae isolates. A mouse infection model demonstrated that the survival rate of mice at 7 days post-intraperitoneal injection with a lethal dose of K. pneumoniae ZJ05 was significantly promoted from 0 to 67% following combination therapy. This is the first time a MCR-1 inhibitor has successfully been used in combination with colistin against human clinical MCR-1 producing K. pneumoniae ZJ05 isolate

Net exchanges of CO2, CH4, and N2O between China's terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere and their contributions to global climate warming

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 116 (2011): G02011, doi:10.1029/2010JG001393.China's terrestrial ecosystems have been recognized as an atmospheric CO2 sink; however, it is uncertain whether this sink can alleviate global warming given the fluxes of CH4 and N2O. In this study, we used a process-based ecosystem model driven by multiple environmental factors to examine the net warming potential resulting from net exchanges of CO2, CH4, and N2O between China's terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere during 1961–2005. In the past 45 years, China's terrestrial ecosystems were found to sequestrate CO2 at a rate of 179.3 Tg C yr−1 with a 95% confidence range of (62.0 Tg C yr−1, 264.9 Tg C yr−1) while emitting CH4 and N2O at rates of 8.3 Tg C yr−1 with a 95% confidence range of (3.3 Tg C yr−1, 12.4 Tg C yr−1) and 0.6 Tg N yr−1 with a 95% confidence range of (0.2 Tg N yr−1, 1.1 Tg N yr−1), respectively. When translated into global warming potential, it is highly possible that China's terrestrial ecosystems mitigated global climate warming at a rate of 96.9 Tg CO2eq yr−1 (1 Tg = 1012 g), substantially varying from a source of 766.8 Tg CO2eq yr−1 in 1997 to a sink of 705.2 Tg CO2eq yr−1 in 2002. The southeast and northeast of China slightly contributed to global climate warming; while the northwest, north, and southwest of China imposed cooling effects on the climate system. Paddy land, followed by natural wetland and dry cropland, was the largest contributor to national warming potential; forest, followed by woodland and grassland, played the most significant role in alleviating climate warming. Our simulated results indicate that CH4 and N2O emissions offset approximately 84.8% of terrestrial CO2 sink in China during 1961–2005. This study suggests that the relieving effects of China's terrestrial ecosystems on climate warming through sequestering CO2 might be gradually offset by increasing N2O emission, in combination with CH4 emission.This study has been supported by NASA LCLUC Program (NNX08AL73G_S01) , NASA IDS Program (NNG04GM39C), and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) 973 Program (2002CB412500)

Electrospinning as a route to advanced carbon fibre materials for selected low-temperature electrochemical devices: a review

Electrospinning has been proven as a highly versatile fabrication method for producing nano-structured fibres with controllable morphology, of both the fibres themselves and the void structure of the mats. Additionally, it is possible to use heteroatom doped polymers or to include catalytic precursors in the electrospinning solution to control the surface properties of the fibres. These factors make it an ideal method for the production of electrodes and flow media for a variety of electrochemical devices, enabling reduction in mass transport and activation overpotentials and therefore increasing efficiency. Moreover, the use of biomass as a polymer source has recently gained attention for the ability to embed sustainable principles in the materials of electrochemical devices, complementing their ability to allow an increase in the use of renewable electricity via their application. In this review, the historical and recent developments of electrospun materials for application in redox flow batteries, fuel cells, metal air batteries and supercapacitors are thoroughly reviewed, including an overview of the electrospinning process and a guide to best practice. Finally, we provide an outlook for the emerging use of this process in the field of electrochemical energy devices with the hope that the combination of tailored microstructure, surface functionality and computer modelling will herald a new era of bespoke functional materials that can significantly improve the performance of the devices in which they are used