Crosspollinating cities: Growing ecological literacy in the urban garden

Invertebrate conservation involves biophysical and human dimensions. Cities act as refuges for insect pollinators by offering year-round floral resources and a matrix of habitable greenspace. Greenspaces, gardening and urban garden education may also offer rich opportunities for people to interact and learn about invertebrate ecology and thereby nurture positive orientations toward nature and reduce the “extinction of experience”. In this thesis, I use participatory action research, interdisciplinary, and mixed-methods approaches across two cities; Sydney, Australia and Tokyo, Japan. In chapter 1, I detail the interconnection between community gardens and urban forests in Greater Sydney, Australia, by seeking evidence for the ‘spillover’ of insect pollinators between them. In chapter 2, I develop a framework for integrative STEAM learning in a pollinator-focused curriculum for primary and high school. The framework synthesizes place- based learning in the garden, an engineering design process, and a student-as-co-researcher pedagogy, where students co-design an experiment to learn about the ecology and diversity of local insect pollinators. I evaluate the framework and curriculum according to scientific literacy and science identity criteria in chapter 2, and on student’s understandings of pollinator morphology, diversity, and functioning in chapter 3. In chapter 4 I explore the relationships between gardening, time spent in nature, and attitudes towards invertebrates amongst adults in Japan through an online survey. In chapter 5, I investigate whether it is possible to change biophilia and biophobia towards invertebrates with an online urban gardening intervention, using a quantitative survey of course participants. Finally, in chapter 6, I use interviews of course participants to investigate the underlying process of attitudinal and behavioural change, in a pathway towards bio-respect via curiosity, empathy, and ecological literacy

Fysaire dysplasie van de femurkop bij een jonge golden retriever

A one-year-old, male, neutered Golden retriever was presented with chronic progressive symptoms of pain and lameness of the hind limbs. Orthopedic examination revealed muscle atrophy of both hind limbs, severe pain reaction at passive extension of the hips and crepitation on palpation of the coxofemoral joints. A ventrodorsal radiograph of the hips showed a heterogeneous appearance with the presence of osteolytic areas of both femoral necks. There was a bilateral cranial displacement of the femoral neck in respect to the head with a fracture through the physeal plate. Bilateral slipped capital femoral epiphysis disease was diagnosed. A bilateral femoral head and neck excision was performed, followed by fysio- and hydrotherapy. The diagnosis of femoral capital physeal dysplasia may be missed because of the subtle radiographic changes in the first stadia of the disease. An early diagnosis is of major importance because treatment options decrease with progression of the condition

Testing for Changes in Kendall's Tau

For a bivariate time series $((X_i,Y_i))_{i=1,...,n}$ we want to detect whether the correlation between $X_i$ and $Y_i$ stays constant for all $i = 1,...,n$. We propose a nonparametric change-point test statistic based on Kendall's tau and derive its asymptotic distribution under the null hypothesis of no change by means a new U-statistic invariance principle for dependent processes. The asymptotic distribution depends on the long run variance of Kendall's tau, for which we propose an estimator and show its consistency. Furthermore, assuming a single change-point, we show that the location of the change-point is consistently estimated. Kendall's tau possesses a high efficiency at the normal distribution, as compared to the normal maximum likelihood estimator, Pearson's moment correlation coefficient. Contrary to Pearson's correlation coefficient, it has excellent robustness properties and shows no loss in efficiency at heavy-tailed distributions. We assume the data $((X_i,Y_i))_{i=1,...,n}$ to be stationary and P-near epoch dependent on an absolutely regular process. The P-near epoch dependence condition constitutes a generalization of the usually considered $L_p$-near epoch dependence, $p \ge 1$, that does not require the existence of any moments. It is therefore very well suited for our objective to efficiently detect changes in correlation for arbitrarily heavy-tailed data

The Belgian Virtual Tumorbank: A Tool for Translational Cancer Research

Background: Biobanks play a critical role in cancer research by providing high quality biological samples for research. However, the availability of tumor samples in single research institutions is often limited, especially for rare cancers. In order to facilitate the search for samples scattered among different Belgian institutions, a nationwide virtual tumorbank project was launched and is operational since February 2012. The Belgian Virtual Tumorbank (BVT) network encompasses the tumor biobanks from eleven Belgian university hospitals that collect and store residual human tumor samples locally and is coordinated by the Belgian Cancer Registry.Materials and Methods: A web application was developed and consists of two modules. The registration module (BVTr) centralizes the tumor sample data from the local partner biobanks. The catalog module (BVTc) allows researchers to trace the tumor samples in the 11 tumor biobanks. The BVTc contains patient, medical and technical data, but excludes identifying information to ensure privacy of individuals. Automatic and manual controls guarantee high quality data on the samples requested by scientists for research purposes in oncology. A major advantage of the BVT network is that the available data can be linked to the data of the Belgian Cancer Registry for quality control purposes.Results: Currently, more than 92,000 registrations are available in the catalog. Twenty-seven percent of the residual primary tumor samples originate from breast tissue, but also less frequent localisations such as head and neck (4%), male genital organs (1.7%), and urinary tract (1%) are available. In addition to the residual tumor tissue samples, also other available material can be stored and registered by the local biobanks. The most common type is corresponding normal tissue (19%).Other frequently available materials are plasma, blood, serum, DNA, and buffy coat. Even PBMCs, RNA, cytology, and urine are available in some cases.Discussion and Conclusion: The BVT catalog is a valuable source of information for oncology research and the ultimate goal is to promote multidisciplinary cancer research (i.e., pathogenesis, disease prediction, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis) for the benefit of all cancer patients

Autoregulation of Nisin Biosynthesis in Lactococcus lactis by Signal Transduction

The post-translationally modified, antimicrobial peptide nisin is secreted by strains of Lactococcus lactis that contain the chromosomally located nisin biosynthetic gene cluster nisABTCIPRKFEG. When a 4-base pair deletion is introduced into the structural nisA gene (ΔnisA), transcription of ΔnisA is abolished. Transcription of the ΔnisA gene is restored by adding subinhibitory amounts of nisin, nisin mutants, or nisin analogs to the culture medium, but not by the unmodified precursor peptide or by several other antimicrobial peptides. Upon disruption of the nisK gene, which encodes a putative sensor protein that belongs to the class of two-component regulators, transcription of ΔnisA was no longer inducible by nisin. Fusion of a nisA promoter fragment to the promoterless reporter gene gusA resulted in expression of gusA in L. lactis NZ9800 (ΔnisA) only upon induction with nisin species. The expression level of gusA was directly related to the amount of inducer that was added extracellularly. These results provide insight into a new mechanism of autoregulation through signal transduction in prokaryotes and demonstrate that antimicrobial peptides can exert a second function as signaling molecules.

Proper Motion Study of the Magellanic Clouds using SPM material

Absolute proper motions are determined for stars and galaxies to V=17.5 over a 450 square-degree area that encloses both Magellanic Clouds. The proper motions are based on photographic and CCD observations of the Yale/San Juan Southern Proper Motion program, which span over a baseline of 40 years. Multiple, local relative proper motion measures are combined in an overlap solution using photometrically selected Galactic Disk stars to define a global relative system that is then transformed to absolute using external galaxies and Hipparcos stars to tie into the ICRS. The resulting catalog of 1.4 million objects is used to derive the mean absolute proper motions of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud; (\mu_\alpha\cos\delta,\mu_\delta)_{LMC}=(1.89,+0.39)\pm (0.27,0.27)\;\;\{mas yr}^{-1} and (\mu_\alpha\cos\delta,\mu_\delta)_{SMC}=(0.98,-1.01)\pm (0.30,0.29)\;\;\{mas yr}^{-1}. These mean motions are based on best-measured samples of 3822 LMC stars and 964 SMC stars. A dominant portion (0.25 mas yr$^{-1}$) of the formal errors is due to the estimated uncertainty in the inertial system of the Hipparcos Catalog stars used to anchor the bright end of our proper motion measures. A more precise determination can be made for the proper motion of the SMC {\it relative} to the LMC; (\mu_{\alpha\cos\delta},\mu_\delta)_{SMC-LMC} = (-0.91,-1.49) \pm (0.16,0.15)\;\;\{mas yr}^{-1}. This differential value is combined with measurements of the proper motion of the LMC taken from the literature to produce new absolute proper-motion determinations for the SMC, as well as an estimate of the total velocity difference of the two clouds to within $\pm$54 kms$^{-1}$.Comment: 50 pages (referee format), 13 figures. Accepted for publication in A

Influence of incision rate, rock strength, and bedload supply on bedrock river gradients and valley-flat widths: Field-based evidence and calibrations from western Alpine rivers (southeast France)

Several process-based models of river incision have been proposed in recent years that attempt to describe fluvial landform development. Although some field tests have been performed, more data are required to test the ability of these models to predict the observed evolution of fluvial landforms. We have investigated several tens of rivers located in the French western Alps that flow across folded sedimentary rocks with strongly contrasting rock strengths. These rivers record significant variations in some of the parameters controlling river incision, notably bedrock lithology, stream power, incision rate, and sediment flux, potentially allowing discrimination between existing models. Variations in incision rates are driven by variations in the amount of disequilibrium introduced in the river profiles during the last glaciation. We use diagnostic indices to investigate transport- and detachment-limited conditions, which include the channel morphology, the occurrence of lithogenic knickpoints, the continuity of alluvial and bedrock reaches, and the slope-area scaling of the river long profile. We observe transitions from detachment-limited to transport-limited conditions with increasing discharge/drainage area and decreasing incision rate. Bedrock strength influences the location of the transition predictably. The formation of transport-limited rivers coincides with the development of a valley flat wider than the active channel, which accommodates variations in bedrock strength, stream power, and incision rate along the transport-limited reaches. We propose and calibrate a model for the development of valley flats along transport-limited rivers and explore some properties of landscape development in mountain ranges controlled by transport-limited rivers

Quantum and classical vibrational relaxation dynamics of N-methylacetamide on ab initio potential energy surfaces

Employing extensive quantum-chemical calculations at the DFT/B3LYP and MP2 level, a quartic force field of isolated N-methylacetamide is constructed. Taking into account 24 vibrational degrees of freedom, the model is employed to perform numerically exact vibrational configuration interaction calculations of the vibrational energy relaxation of the amide I mode. It is found that the energy transfer pathways may sensitively depend on details of the theoretical description. Moreover, the exact reference calculations were used to study the applicability and accuracy of (i) the quasiclassical trajectory method, (ii) time-dependent second-order perturbation theory, and (iii) the instantaneous normal mode description of frequency fluctuations. Based on the results, several strategies to describe vibrational energy relaxation in biomolecular systems are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Chem.