Friends of the Earth v. Haaland Case Summary

A federal district court vacated the U.S.’s largest offshore oil and gas lease sale ever because of an inadequate NEPA analysis. The court found that the BOEM’s decision to exclude estimations of reductions in foreign oil consumption if no lease took place was arbitrary and capricious

Meat Reimagined: the Ethics of Cultured Meat

In this paper I explore a relatively new technology that is being developed to try and solve some of the major issues with modern animal agriculture called cultured meat. I cover the short history of this technology and where it is at currently before addressing two different ways of evaluating the ethics of cultured meat. Responding to much of the praise for cultured meat based on consequentialist ethics, I lay out reasons for skepticism and how some of these estimates might be overblown due to those people advocating for it being situated in the ideology of ecomodernism. I argue that ecomodernism makes one more likely to accept technological solutions as the primary solution rather than seeing the fuller context of social and political conditions that have created the problem. In my final chapter, I address how cultured meat is not going to repair the damaged relationship humanity has to the nonhuman world and that it actually furthers an orientation of control and domination towards nature. I conclude that cultured meat cannot solve the complicated issue of animal agriculture but it may be useful as a addition to other solutions rather than the solution

Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation v. U.S. Dep\u27t of Interior

The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation brought 16 claims against federal agencies and the State of Utah for alleged mismanagement of water resources held in trust and for alleged discrimination in water allocation. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed several of the claims as time-barred and others as lacking a proper statutory basis to create an enforceable trust duty. The remaining claims were transferred to the United States District Court of the District of Utah because the events occurred in Utah and most of the parties reside there

Effect of N95 Masks on Furniture-cutting Workers with Respiratory Symptoms

In a preliminary survey of furniture workers in 2017, 8 out of 15 workers reported that the wood-cutting process always led to tightness in their chest and made them cough. This is because the wood-cutting process produces dust and the workers do not use any personal protective equipment such as mask at work. Therefore, the aim of this study was to find the effect of wearing masks on the respiratory symptoms of woodcutters in Sentra Mebel Kemirahan, Malang. The researchers distributed N95 masks to all the workers. The research used a pre-experimental with one group pre- and post-test design. The study included a total of 21 people, selected through purposive sampling. Data were analysed using the Wilcoxon test. The result of pre–post-tests in every variable were: (i) P-value 0.000 for chest tightness; (ii) P-value 0.001 for cough; (iii) P-value 0.000 for chest pain, which is P ≤ 0.005, meaning significant. Therefore, we conclude that there was a difference between before and after using N95 mask against the respiratory symptoms in the wood-cutting workers in Sentra Mebel Kemirahan Malang. Keywords: subjective respiratory symptom, chest tightness, cough, chest pain, N95 mas

Investigating time variability of X-ray absorption in Swift GRBs

The existence of excess absorption in the X-ray spectra of GRBs is well known, but the primary location of the absorbing material is still uncertain. To gain more knowledge about this, we have performed a time-resolved analysis of the X-ray spectra of 199 GRBs observed by the \textit{Swift} X-ray telescope, searching for evidence of a decreasing column density ($N_{\mathrm{H,intr}}$) that would indicate that the GRBs are ionizing matter in their surroundings. We structured the analysis as Bayesian inference and used an absorbed power-law as our baseline model. We also explored alternative spectral models in cases where decreasing absorption was inferred. The analysis reveals seven GRBs that show signs of a decrease in $N_{\mathrm{H,intr}}$, but we note that alternative models for the spectral evolution cannot be ruled out. We conclude that the excess absorption in the vast majority of GRBs must originate on large scales of the host galaxies and/or in the intergalactic medium. Our results also imply that an evolving column density is unlikely to affect the spectral analysis of the early X-ray spectra of GRBs. In line with this, we show that estimating the total $N_{\mathrm{H,intr}}$ from early {\it Swift} data in Window Timing mode reveals the same increasing trend with redshift as previous results based on data taken at later times, but with tighter constraints.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Skriving i idrettsfag : en casestudie av skrivekultur og skriveopplæring på idrettsfag

Oppgaven er en del av skriveprosjektet Skriving på tvers av fag og er en casestudie av skriving og skriveopplæring på idrettsfag.Målet med undersøkelsen var å finne ut hva som kjennetegner skrivingen og skriveopplæringen i en klasse på idrettsfag.Den overordna problemstillingen er:Hva karakteriserer skrivekulturen på idrettsfag? Fremgangsmåten har vært kvalitativ, intervju, gruppeintervju,tekststudier og observasjon. De viktigste funnene i studien er: Det foregår et omfattende skrivearbeid i studieretningsfagen.Den overordna sjangeren er journal,som sett i forhold til tradisjonelle sjangerkriterier har mer til felles med vitenskapelig artikkel enn journalsjangeren. Skrivingen i studieretningsfagene blir noe uklar for både elever og faglærer p.g.a. manglende konkretisering av skriving og skriveopplæring i læreplanmålene,manglende kriterier for skrivingen og liten bevissthet om skrivingens hensikt og funksjon

Lagring av ubefruktede egg fra Atlantisk laks (Salmo salar L.). Effekter av medier og lagringstid på indikatorer for eggkvalitet

Eggkvalitet er definert som evnen et egg har til å bli befruktet og utvikles til et normalt embryo. Dårlig eggkvalitet kan føre til problemer med aktivering/befruktning eller senere stoppe embryonalutviklingen. Eggkvalitet baseres i hovedsak på egenskaper fra moren (maternale faktorer), men ytre faktorer kan påvirke eggkvaliteten. I kommersiell stamfiskproduksjon av Atlantisk laks (Salmo salar L.) blir ovarievæsken vasket bort før befruktning pga. at den kan smittsomme agens som kan bli med en spermie inn i egget under befruktning. I dette forsøket ble ubefruktede egg fra Atlantisk laks lagret i ulike medier; ovarievæske, NaCl, Cortland-løsning og Cortland-løsning uten Ca2+. Oppgavens formål var å se hvordan sammensetning av ioner i medier påvirket embryonalutviklingen (eggkvalitet) etter lagring av ubefruktede egg. Ubefruktede egg ble lagret i de overnevnte mediene i 0, 24, 48 og 96 timer før de ble befruktet. For å se effekten av selve vaskeprosessen ble egg ved 0 timer lagring vasket i de ulike ioneløsningene. Indikatorer på eggkvalitet som ble undersøkt var svellegrad, befruktningsrate, celledeling, og overlevelse ved gastrulasjon og øyerognstadiet. Endring som følge av lagringstid i osmolalitet, pH og kalsiumkonsentrasjon ble også studert i de ulike lagringsmediene. Ubefruktede egg lagret i ovarievæske hadde høy overlevelse ved øyerognstadiet ved lagringstidene 0-48 timer (78-87%), og noe litt lavere ved 96 timer (64%). Denne høye overlevelsen var som forventet. Lagring av egg i ovarievæske hadde ingen negative påvirker på eggkvalitet. Ubefruktede egg vasket i NaCl og Cortland-løsning uten Ca2+ hadde lavere overlevelse ved øyerognstadiet (63%) sammenlignet med egg vasket i Cortland-løsning (82%). Ubefruktede egg lagret Cortland-løsning fram til 48 timer hadde høy (68-86%) overlevelse ved øyerognstadiet, og ingen negative påvirkninger på embryonalutvikling. Etter 96 timer lagring av egg i Cortland-løsning var overlevelsen ved øyerognstadiet betydelig lavere. Lagring av ubefruktede egg i NaCl i 24 timer ga nesten ingen overlevende egg ved øyerognstadiet. Lav pH og osmolalitet, og mangelen på ioner har hatt tydelig effekt på befruktningsevnen og embryonalutviklingen for egg lagret i NaCl i 24, 48 og 96 timer. Egg lagret i Cortland-løsning uten Ca2+ hadde en jevn nedgang i overlevelse ved øyerognstadiet utover lagringstidene. Fraværet av kalsium hadde påvirkning på embryonalutviklingen for egg lagret i 24, 48 og 96 timer i Cortland-løsning uten Ca2+

Significant increase in negative impacts on vegetation and soils at informal campsites in a Norwegian national park in the period 1988–2020

publishedVersio

Hypersaline Actinomycetes and Their Biological Applications

Actinomycetes are the potential sources of novel metabolites, therapeutic compounds, enzymes, and other chemicals. Among them, the applications of halophilic actinomycetes toward the medically and industrially important metabolites and enzymes are gaining increasing attention by the scientific community. A large number of novel compounds and enzymes from halophilic actinomycetes have been isolated and characterized from various geographic regions around the world. In this chapter, occurrence, characterization, halotolerant mechanisms, medical importance, metabolites, enzymes, and industrial applications of halophilic actinomycetes are discussed. Halophilic actinomycetes may also serve as good models for the production of important metabolites and enzymes with respect to stress response