Unfrozen state by the supercooling of chuño for traditional agriculture in altiplano andes

The freezing point and supercooling process are discussed for their impact on the traditional Andean freeze-dried potatoes called chuño. The freezing point depends on potato species, but typically it is slightly below zero to −3 ​°C; supercooling always occurs before the potatoes freeze, and the lowest supercooling point (LSP) can reach −4.3 ​°C. Recently many of the potato fields near Lake Titicaca are not cold enough to freeze tubers for chuño, and the loss of this food source will be critical in the future

The Little Book on Permafrost

This e-learning material was created within the “PAGE21 – Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century“ project. The project is an EU Seventh Framework Programme funded large scale integrating collaborative project, aiming to understand the interactions between the global climate system and the frozen ground. The multidisciplinary nature of the science and the wide range of countries covered in the PAGE21 project combine to provide a wealth of opportunities for disseminating information. One of the tasks within the project was to create materials for education and training and that way ensure that the vast amount of knowledge entailed in the project consortium will be distributed to the widest possible audience for the benefit of community as a whole. This e-learning material “Little book on Permafrost” was created by the PAGE21 participant Arctic Portal in Iceland with the support of the PAGE21 project office as well as the project coordination team at Alfred Wegener Institute, Potsdam, Germany

Effects of a synthetic protease inhibitor (gabexate mesilate) and a neutrophil elastase inhibitor (sivelestat sodium) on acid-induced lung injury in rats

The present study was designed to examine the combined effects of a synthetic protease inhibitor, gabexate mesilate, with a specific neutrophil elastase inhibitor, sivelestat sodium, on acid-induced lung injury. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 300-350 g were anaesthetised intraperitoneally with pentobarbitone sodium and the right jugular vein was cannulated. Following tracheostomy, rats were ventilated mechanically and underwent intratracheal instillation of hydrochloric acid (HCl, 0.1 N 1.5 ml/kg) or normal saline. Gabexate mesilate (10 mg/kg, i.p.) and/or sivelestat sodium (10 mg/kg/h, i.v.) were administered 30 min before HCl instillation. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples were obtained 5 h after HCl instillation. in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, the HCl-induced increases in total nucleated cell counts, neutrophil counts, optical density at 412 nm as an index of pulmonary haemorrhage, concentrations of albumin and cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) were significantly attenuated by either gabexate mesilate or sivelestat sodium treatment. Gabexate mesilate or sivelestat sodium treatment also significantly attenuated the wet to dry weight ratio induced by HCl. However, combined treatment with both gabexate mesilate and sivelestat sodium did not show additive effects on HO-induced lung injury, compared with single treatments. These findings suggested that gabexate mesilate and sivelestat sodium each exhibited protective effects on acid-induced lung injury, but that synergistic effects of both agents are limited in this acid-induced lung injury model.ArticleEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 641(2-3):220-225 (2010)journal articl

Ground Thermal Regimes and Implications for Permafrost Distribution on Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Tropical mountain permafrost has a unique thermal regime due to ground surface exposure to strong solar radiation. The intensity of the surface offset resulting from snow cover also strongly affects the absence or presence of permafrost. Latent heat transfer and reflected solar radiation (higher albedo) that occur during the snow-covered season contribute to a positive feedback that cools the ground. Eleven ground temperature monitoring sites were established on the mountain at 2,780 to 5,820 m.a.s.l. The geothermal heat flow is locally high in the caldera of this volcano, as shown by borehole temperature data. Permafrost is located near the only glacier entirely within the caldera (Furtwangler). These three-year continuous records of ground temperature data encompass years of high and low snow cover. Our results show that the current lower boundary of permafrost is slightly above summit altitude and relict permafrost is present due to the influence of saturated sand on latent heat transfer. Permafrost tends to be lost more rapidly during drought years. The remaining permafrost seems likely to disappear in the future. The presence of permafrost and its thermal resistance depends on the ice content of caldera sand and the duration of snow cover

Bayesian inference to identify crystalline structures for XRD

Crystalline phase structure is essential for understanding the performance and properties of a material. Therefore, this study identified and quantified the crystalline phase structure of a sample based on the diffraction pattern observed when the crystalline sample was irradiated with electromagnetic waves such as X-rays. Conventional analysis necessitates experienced and knowledgeable researchers to shorten the list from many candidate crystalline phase structures. However, the Conventional diffraction pattern analysis is highly analyst-dependent and not objective. Additionally, there is no established method for discussing the confidence intervals of the analysis results. Thus, this study aimed to establish a method for automatically inferring crystalline phase structures from diffraction patterns using Bayesian inference. Our method successfully identified true crystalline phase structures with a high probability from 50 candidate crystalline phase structures. Further, the mixing ratios of selected crystalline phase structures were estimated with a high degree of accuracy. This study provided reasonable results for well-crystallized samples that clearly identified the crystalline phase structures

Activation of cAMP-dependent Protein Kinase in Epidermis by the Compounds which Increase Epidermal cAMP

Pig epidermal slices were incubated with various compounds which increased epidermal cAMP (adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate), and the change in cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity ratio was studied by the method of Cherrington et al (J Biol Chem 251:5209–5218, 1976) with modification.Epinephrine (5 × 10−5 m), histamine (10−4 m) and adenosine (10−3 m), potent agonists of epidermal adenyl cyclase, fully activated the protein kinase (PK) during an incubation of 30 to 45 seconds, that was much shorter than that required for maximal cAMP accumulation under the same conditions (5 min). With such a brief stimulus, the epidermal cAMP-PK system did not become refractory and responded to repeated stimuli. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and isobuthylmethylxanthine (IBMX) and ethanol only partially activated the enzyme. Prostaglandin F2α. (PGF2α) and theophylline which were much less effective in increasing epidermal cAMP, activated the enzyme to the same extent as PGE2 and IBMX respectively.These results suggest that protein kinase activation takes place in response to a cAMP increase in small locus of the cell. Such an increase in cAMP can be very small or even not measurable when measured as total cAMP in the tissue homogenate. Also, increases above this level may not be physiologic.It is concluded that measurement of cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity ratio is a more direct and more sensitive way to study the effect of compounds which act through cAMP mediated mechanism