Spirituality and Conservation in Tujiin Nars

For centuries, Mongolians have relied heavily on the land for their survival. In Selenge aimag, the surrounding Tujiin Nars forest is an integral part of their lives. An area with many uses, it was once so heavily deforested that the majority of the area lost its ecological function. Now, these impacts are being reversed by dedicated government workers, community groups, and regular citizens. The people of this area believe that they are intimately connected with the forest, and that spirits reside within the trees and the land itself. As such, they stake importance in treating the land with respect. This spiritual environment has constructed a moral philosophy in this community, shaping the way in which they relate to and use the land. This paper discusses the formulation of this morality, and how daily practices either compliment or counter the spiritual beliefs of this area

Characterization of three types of silicon solar cells for SEPS Deep Space Mission. Volume 3: Current-voltage characteristics of spectrolab sculptured BSR/P+ (K7), BSR/P+ (K6.5) and BSR (K4.5) cells as a function of temperature and intensity

Three types of high performance silicon solar cells, sculptured BSR/P+(K7), BSR/P+(K6.5) and BSR(K4.5) manufactured by Spectrolab were evaluated for their low temperature and low intensity performance. Sixteen cells of each type were subjected to 11 temperatures and 9 intensities. The sculptured BSR/P+(K7) cells provided the greatest maximum power output both at 1 AU and at LTLI conditions. The average efficiencies of this cell were 14.4 percent at 1 SC/+25 deg C and 18.5 percent at 0.086 SC/-100 deg C

Ocean hazards at Bandon, Oregon and scenario for coastal development

The community of Bandon is located on the southern half of the Oregon coast, 140 kilometers north of the California border and 40 kilometers south of Coos Bay (Figure 1). Part of the city occupies the low-lying (average 3-meter elevation) area along the south bank of the Coquille River, while another portion is positioned on a generally flat terrace having elevations of 25-30 meters (Figure 2). In a 1963 development study, the Bandon Planning Commission wrote: "the long sandy beach below the bluff, the high rocks offshore, the mouth of the river flanked by rock jetties -- these are features that help to give Bandon its special quality." Bandon's 'special quality' remains to this day. There has been only a small population growth since the early 1960s, increasing from 1653 inhabitants in 1960 to 2490 in 1989, primarily a result of tourism and the subsequent retirement by individuals who found Bandon an agreeable place to live. One local business that has catered to the tourist trade is the cranberry industry, with Bandon the nation's fifth-largest producer. The fishing and timber industries, once mainstays, have declined significantly over the last decade. Reduced employment for young adults has resulted in many having to leave Bandon. The lack of replacement industries has accentuated the image of Bandon as a tourist resort. With its natural charms, the city of Bandon now appears to be approaching a crossroads. With an increasing reliance on tourists, there are growing pressures for development. This has sparked controversy, particularly over the possible development of a land parcel located on the low-lying accreted land between the south jetty at the mouth of the Coquille River and the terrace (bluff area) (Figure 3). The north portion of the lowland, immediately adjacent to the jetty, is county park • property; the rest is privately owned. Specific attention is focused on the property immediately behind the dune ridge. Development of this site could bring condominiums, motels, and high-density housing. Longtime residents -- and a good many newcomers -- decry the developers' intent to build new resorts on privately held ground that they would prefer to see left in a more natural condition [Halliday, 1991]. If development does occur, whether on the accreted lands or on the terrace periphery, what are the potential ocean hazards implicit in this scenario? This report will survey the coastally-oriented parcels of property in the city of Bandon in order to judge the resistance of the land to withstand the forces of the ocean. Included among the hazards are winter storm waves and their accompanying erosional patterns, the changing level of the sea relative to land levels which are also shifting due to tectonic activity, the potential for severe earthquakes, and the occurrence of tsunamis generated by seismic events. In short, this study will attempt to ascertain the degree of harmony between the city of Bandon and the forces of the dynamic ocean. New development must be reasonably sure of a lasting presence

LD-Spline: Mapping SNPs on genotyping platforms to genomic regions using patterns of linkage disequilibrium

Background Gene-centric analysis tools for genome-wide association study data are being developed both to annotate single locus statistics and to prioritize or group single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) prior to analysis. These approaches require knowledge about the relationships between SNPs on a genotyping platform and genes in the human genome. SNPs in the genome can represent broader genomic regions via linkage disequilibrium (LD), and population-specific patterns of LD can be exploited to generate a data-driven map of SNPs to genes. Methods In this study, we implemented LD-Spline, a database routine that defines the genomic boundaries a particular SNP represents using linkage disequilibrium statistics from the International HapMap Project. We compared the LD-Spline haplotype block partitioning approach to that of the four gamete rule and the Gabriel et al. approach using simulated data; in addition, we processed two commonly used genome-wide association study platforms. Results We illustrate that LD-Spline performs comparably to the four-gamete rule and the Gabriel et al. approach; however as a SNP-centric approach LD-Spline has the added benefit of systematically identifying a genomic boundary for each SNP, where the global block partitioning approaches may falter due to sampling variation in LD statistics. Conclusion LD-Spline is an integrated database routine that quickly and effectively defines the genomic region marked by a SNP using linkage disequilibrium, with a SNP-centric block definition algorithm

The effects of linkage disequilibrium in large scale SNP datasets for MDR

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the analysis of large-scale genomic datasets, an important consideration is the power of analytical methods to identify accurate predictive models of disease. When trying to assess sensitivity from such analytical methods, a confounding factor up to this point has been the presence of linkage disequilibrium (LD). In this study, we examined the effect of LD on the sensitivity of the Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR) software package.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four relative amounts of LD were simulated in multiple one- and two-locus scenarios for which the position of the functional SNP(s) within LD blocks varied. Simulated data was analyzed with MDR to determine the sensitivity of the method in different contexts, where the sensitivity of the method was gauged as the number of times out of 100 that the method identifies the correct one- or two-locus model as the best overall model. As the amount of LD increases, the sensitivity of MDR to detect the correct functional SNP drops but the sensitivity to detect the disease signal and find an indirect association increases.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Higher levels of LD begin to confound the MDR algorithm and lead to a drop in sensitivity with respect to the identification of a direct association; it does not, however, affect the ability to detect indirect association. Careful examination of the solution models generated by MDR reveals that MDR can identify loci in the correct LD block; though it is not always the functional SNP. As such, the results of MDR analysis in datasets with LD should be carefully examined to consider the underlying LD structure of the dataset.</p

Recurrent Tissue-Specific Mtdna Mutations are Common in Humans

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation can affect phenotypic variation; therefore, knowing its distribution within and among individuals is of importance to understanding many human diseases. Intra-individual mtDNA variation (heteroplasmy) has been generally assumed to be random. We used massively parallel sequencing to assess heteroplasmy across ten tissues and demonstrate that in unrelated individuals there are tissue-specific, recurrent mutations. Certain tissues, notably kidney, liver and skeletal muscle, displayed the identical recurrent mutations that were undetectable in other tissues in the same individuals. Using RFLP analyses we validated one of the tissue-specific mutations in the two sequenced individuals and replicated the patterns in two additional individuals. These recurrent mutations all occur within or in very close proximity to sites that regulate mtDNA replication, strongly implying that these variations alter the replication dynamics of the mutated mtDNA genome. These recurrent variants are all independent of each other and do not occur in the mtDNA coding regions. The most parsimonious explanation of the data is that these frequently repeated mutations experience tissue-specific positive selection, probably through replication advantage