Stringency and Distribution in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme –The 2005 Evidence

With the release of the verified emissions for installations covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme for the first trading year 2005 we are able to compare actual emissions and allowances for each installation. Based on data available for 24 Member States as of January 2007, this paper uses a thorough data analysis for about 9,900 installations to investigate evidence on three issues: first, the stringency of the total allocation cap and allocation differences both among the Member States and a selection of emission intensive sectors; second, the distribution of the size of installations; and third, the spread of allocation discrepancies and possible allocation biases regarding the size of installations.Emission Trading, EU Emissions Trading Scheme, Climate Policy

ASSISIbf: A new pathway to examine collective behaviours in honeybees

Dissertação de mestrado em Biologia Celular e Molecular, apresentada ao Departamento de Ciências da Vida da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra.Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a degenerative disease representing one of the greatest concerns to modern global health, and worryingly with its incidence increasing worldwide at epidemic rates. DM is associated with the emergence of a variety of clinical complications, including reproductive dysfunction. Given the extension and multifactorial nature of diabetes-induced physiological changes, it remains unclear what are the mechanisms that may contribute for the reproductive dysfunction described in male diabetic patients. Considering that hyperglycemia has been described as a major effector of the disease pathophysiology, two different in vitro approaches were used to address the isolated effect of high glucose conditions on sperm function and spermatogenesis, thus avoiding other in vivo confounding players. A complete and integrated analysis, through a diversity of important indicators of spermatozoa functionality (motility, viability, capacitation status, acrosomal integrity, mitochondrial superoxide production and mitochondrial membrane potential) suggests that high glucose concentrations does not seem to directly affect spermatozoa, at least in vitro. Organ culture experiments, mimicking the spermatogenic process, determined that high glucose levels increase Sertoli cell number while decreasing tubular luminal area, therefore suggesting an impairment of this somatic cell type with hub importance in spermatogenic control. Taken together, this study suggests that high glucose levels per se seems to influence the male reproductive system only at the spermatogenesis level, stressing the importance of other factors involved in the disease.A Diabetes mellitus (DM) é uma doença degenerativa cuja incidência está a aumentar de forma galopante, sendo actualmente considerada um grave problema de saúde pública. A DM está ainda associada ao surgimento de uma grande variedade de complicações clínicas afectando todos os sistemas de órgãos, não sendo o sistema reprodutor masculino uma excepção. Dada a extensão e natureza multifatorial das alterações fisiológicas induzidas pela DM, permanecem ainda por esclarecer quais os mecanismos responsáveis pela disfunção reprodutora frequentemente reportada em pacientes diabéticos do sexo masculino, incluindo alterações na espermatogénese ou em vários parâmetros seminais. Considerando que a hiperglicémia tem sido descrita como um dos principais efectores das alterações associadas à DM, no presente projecto, foi estudado, através de duas abordagens in vitro distintas, o efeito isolado da hiperglicémia na função espermática e na progressão do processo espermatogénico. Estes sistemas permitiram assim excluir outros factores envolvidos na doença. Uma análise completa e integrada, realizada através da avaliação de uma grande diversidade de importantes indicadores da funcionalidade espermática (mobilidade, viabilidade, estado de capacitação, integridade acrossomal, produção de superóxido mitocondrial e potencial membranar mitocondrial) sugere que, pelo menos in vitro, elevadas concentrações de glucose não afectam directamente o espermatozóide. Os resultados obtidos com um sistema de cultura de órgãos permitiram verificar que elevados níveis de glucose levaram a um aumento do número de células de Sertoli e a uma diminuição da área luminal tubular. Estes resultados sugerem, portanto, uma disfunção neste tipo de células somáticas essenciais para o controlo da espermatogénese. Através deste estudo foi possível verificar e sugerir que a disfunção reprodutora de pacientes do sexo masculino parece não resultar apenas da influência da glucose, apesar de terem sido detectadas alterações ao nível da espermatogénese, sublinhando a importância da natureza multifactorial da doença

Lifeforms potentially useful for automated underwater monitoring systems

Biohybrids combine artificial robotic elements with living organisms. These novel technologies allow for obtaining useful data on the environment by implementing organisms as “living sensors”. Natural water resources are under serious ecological threat and there is always a need for new, more efficient methods for aquatic monitoring. Project Robocoenosis introduces the use of biohybrid entities as low-cost and long-term environmental monitoring devices. This will be done by combining lifeforms with technical parts which will be powered with the use of MFCs. This concept will allow for a more well-rounded data collection and provide an insight into the water body with minimal human impact

Habitat tracking, range dynamics and palaeoclimatic significance of Eurasian giant salamanders (Cryptobranchidae) - indications for elevated Central Asian humidity during Cenozoic global warm periods

Environmental fluctuations are a driving force in vertebrate evolution,but cryptobranchids (giant salamanders) show little morphologic changesince the Jurassic. Here we analyze their fossil distribution in theCenozoic of Eurasia and show that morphologic stasis is also maintainedby stable environments, making giant salamanders an ideal proxy-groupfor environmental and palaeoclimatic studies. The climate space ofrecent and fossil cryptobranchids is best characterized by high humiditywith mean annual precipitation values over 900 mm. The recordedpatchiness of their fossil record can be explained by habitat trackingand/or range expansion from higher altitudes into lowland settingsduring humid periods with increased basinal relief. In Central Asiacryptobranchids are recorded from five intervals, four of them areglobal warm periods: Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Late Oligocenewarming, Miocene Climate Optimum, and Mio-Pliocene transition. Thisdistribution suggests that during global warmth the Asian cold highpressure zone during winter months may be weak or absent, thus moistwesterly winds penetrate far into the continent. The presence ofcryptobranchids also indicates that the aridification across theEocene-Oligocene boundary as reported from Mongolia and northwesternChina, does not occur in the Zaysan Basin, probably due to increasedupslope precipitation in the rising Altai Mountains

Kretzoiarctos gen. nov., the Oldest Member of the Giant Panda Clade

The phylogenetic position of the giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca (Carnivora: Ursidae: Ailuropodinae), has been one of the most hotly debated topics by mammalian biologists and paleontologists during the last century. Based on molecular data, it is currently recognized as a true ursid, sister-taxon of the remaining extant bears, from which it would have diverged by the Early Miocene. However, from a paleobiogeographic and chronological perspective, the origin of the giant panda lineage has remained elusive due to the scarcity of the available Miocene fossil record. Until recently, the genus Ailurarctos from the Late Miocene of China (ca. 8–7 mya) was recognized as the oldest undoubted member of the Ailuropodinae, suggesting that the panda lineage might have originated from an Ursavus ancestor. The role of the purported ailuropodine Agriarctos, from the Miocene of Europe, in the origins of this clade has been generally dismissed due to the paucity of the available material. Here, we describe a new ailuropodine genus, Kretzoiarctos gen. nov., based on remains from two Middle Miocene (ca. 12–11 Ma) Spanish localities. A cladistic analysis of fossil and extant members of the Ursoidea confirms the inclusion of the new genus into the Ailuropodinae. Moreover, Kretzoiarctos precedes in time the previously-known, Late Miocene members of the giant panda clade from Eurasia (Agriarctos and Ailurarctos). The former can be therefore considered the oldest recorded member of the giant panda lineage, which has significant implications for understanding the origins of this clade from a paleobiogeographic viewpoint

The Earliest Evidence of Holometabolan Insect Pupation in Conifer Wood

Background: The pre-Jurassic record of terrestrial wood borings is poorly resolved, despite body fossil evidence of insect diversification among xylophilic clades starting in the late Paleozoic. Detailed analysis of borings in petrified wood provides direct evidence of wood utilization by invertebrate animals, which typically comprises feeding behaviors.\ud \ud Methodology/Principal Findings: We describe a U-shaped boring in petrified wood from the Late Triassic Chinle Formation of southern Utah that demonstrates a strong linkage between insect ontogeny and conifer wood resources. Xylokrypta durossi new ichnogenus and ichnospecies is a large excavation in wood that is backfilled with partially digested xylem, creating a secluded chamber. The tracemaker exited the chamber by way of a small vertical shaft. This sequence of behaviors is most consistent with the entrance of a larva followed by pupal quiescence and adult emergence — hallmarks of holometabolous insect ontogeny. Among the known body fossil record of Triassic insects, cupedid beetles (Coleoptera: Archostemata) are deemed the most plausible tracemakers of Xylokrypta, based on their body size and modern xylobiotic lifestyle.\ud \ud Conclusions/Significance: This oldest record of pupation in fossil wood provides an alternative interpretation to borings once regarded as evidence for Triassic bees. Instead Xylokrypta suggests that early archostematan beetles were leaders in exploiting wood substrates well before modern clades of xylophages arose in the late Mesozoic

Social Integrating Robots Suggest Mitigation Strategies for Ecosystem Decay

We develop here a novel hypothesis that may generate a general research framework of how autonomous robots may act as a future contingency to counteract the ongoing ecological mass extinction process. We showcase several research projects that have undertaken first steps to generate the required prerequisites for such a technology-based conservation biology approach. Our main idea is to stabilise and support broken ecosystems by introducing artificial members, robots, that are able to blend into the ecosystem's regulatory feedback loops and can modulate natural organisms' local densities through participation in those feedback loops. These robots are able to inject information that can be gathered using technology and to help the system in processing available information with technology. In order to understand the key principles of how these robots are capable of modulating the behaviour of large populations of living organisms based on interacting with just a few individuals, we develop novel mathematical models that focus on important behavioural feedback loops. These loops produce relevant group-level effects, allowing for robotic modulation of collective decision making in social organisms. A general understanding of such systems through mathematical models is necessary for designing future organism-interacting robots in an informed and structured way, which maximises the desired output from a minimum of intervention. Such models also help to unveil the commonalities and specificities of the individual implementations and allow predicting the outcomes of microscopic behavioural mechanisms on the ultimate macroscopic-level effects. We found that very similar models of interaction can be successfully used in multiple very different organism groups and behaviour types (honeybee aggregation, fish shoaling, and plant growth). Here we also report experimental data from biohybrid systems of robots and living organisms. Our mathematical models serve as building blocks for a deep understanding of these biohybrid systems. Only if the effects of autonomous robots onto the environment can be sufficiently well predicted can such robotic systems leave the safe space of the lab and can be applied in the wild to be able to unfold their ecosystem-stabilising potential