All quiet on the sea bottom front? Lessons from the morphodynamic monitoring

The impact of the construction of the offshore wind farms on the turbidity was local and temporary, with no significant difference between the before and after situation. Erosion pits were formed, both around gravity based foundations and monopiles, though erosion protection provided the necessary stability. Dredging/filling works were more complex than expected. Large volumes of sand were lost and sand pits did not refill naturally. In dune migrating areas the coverage of export cables could not be guaranteed. As a result they are now buried 1 m below the base of the dunes

Spatial and temporal occurrence of bats in the southern North Sea area

Since a few years it is known that bats migrate over sea on a regular basis. As numerous land-based studies have shown that wind turbines can cause high fatality rates amongst bats Rijkswaterstaat started a bat monitoring programme for 2015 and 2016 in order to reduce uncertainties about possible impacts. At the same time Eneco commissioned a bat monitoring programme for 2015 and 2016 as part of the Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (MEP) for the offshore windfarm Luchterduinen. In 2016 Gemini conducted a bat monitoring campaign in windfarm Buitengaats and Wageningen Marine Research executed a bat monitoring programme at Wintershall platform P6-A and offshore research station FINO3 in the same year. The joint monitoring effort included 12 different offshore locations and 5 locations at the coast. The specific aims of these monitoring programmes are an assessment of : 1. The species composition at sea and at the coast. 2. The spatiotemporal pattern of occurrence, including the flight height. 3. The relation between environmental conditions and the occurrence of bats. 4. The function of the Dutch Territorial Sea for bats. The monitoring results at the coast showed that Nathusius’ pipistrelle is very common during both spring and autumn migration, but is also regular throughout the summer. It is also the most frequently recorded species at sea, albeit much less frequently recorded in comparison to the coast. At sea it was recorded from late August until late October (and one observation in November), and –to a lesser extent- from early April until the end of June. There were no records in July until mid-August. The observed pattern of occurrence matches previous offshore monitoring studies in the German and Dutch North Sea

Aerial Measurement of Radioxenon Concentration off the West Coast of Vancouver Island following the Fukushima Reactor Accident

In response to the Fukushima nuclear reactor accident, on March 20th, 2011, Natural Resources Canada conducted aerial radiation surveys over water just off of the west coast of Vancouver Island. Dose-rate levels were found to be consistent with background radiation, however a clear signal due to Xe-133 was observed. Methods to extract Xe-133 count rates from the measured spectra, and to determine the corresponding Xe-133 volumetric concentration, were developed. The measurements indicate that Xe-133 concentrations on average lie in the range of 30 to 70 Bq/m3.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Environmental Radioactivit

Bidding for Success? Impacts of the European Capital of Culture Bid

The increasingly multifaceted nature of event impacts makes them even more attractive as a potential solution to a range of urban and regional problems. As a result, competition to stage major cultural and sporting events is intensifying, and the cost of bidding is also rising. Given that such bidding processes only produce one winner, this means that a growing number of disappointed cities have to justify the costs of bidding for major events. In this context, we analyse the bidding process for the European Capital of Culture in the Netherlands (2018) and its impacts on local social structures. In particular the article focuses on the less tangible, non-economic effects of bidding for events, establishing a framework based on network formation, public support for the bidding process and social cohesion. The conclusions point to the key role of sociality and networking for events, which should therefore be developed throughout the bidding process for successful impacts, either the event is won or not

Optimising the future Belgian offshore wind farm monitoring programme

Six years of monitoring triggered a reflection on how to best continue with the monitoring programme. The basic monitoring has to be rationalised at the level of the likelihood of impact detection, the meaningfulness of impact size and representativeness of the findings. Targeted monitoring should continue to disentangle processes behind the observed impact, for instance the overarching artificial reef effect created by wind farms. The major challenge however remains to achieve a reliable assessment of the cumulative impacts. Continuing consultation and collaboration within the Belgian offshore wind farm monitoring team and with foreign marine scientists and managers will ensure an optimisation of the future monitoring programme

Sit down, relax and unwind: structural insights into RecQ helicase mechanisms

Helicases are specialized molecular motors that separate duplex nucleic acids into single strands. The RecQ family of helicases functions at the interface of DNA replication, recombination and repair in bacterial and eukaryotic cells. They are key, multifunctional enzymes that have been linked to three human diseases: Bloom's, Werner's and Rothmund–Thomson's syndromes. This review summarizes recent studies that relate the structures of RecQ proteins to their biochemical activities

HIV-1 Tat protein directly induces mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and inactivates cytochrome c oxidase

The Trans-activator protein (Tat) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a pleiotropic protein involved in different aspects of AIDS pathogenesis. As a number of viral proteins Tat is suspected to disturb mitochondrial function. We prepared pure synthetic full-length Tat by native chemical ligation (NCL), and Tat peptides, to evaluate their direct effects on isolated mitochondria. Submicromolar doses of synthetic Tat cause a rapid dissipation of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) as well as cytochrome c release in mitochondria isolated from mouse liver, heart, and brain. Accordingly, Tat decreases substrate oxidation by mitochondria isolated from these tissues, with oxygen uptake being initially restored by adding cytochrome c. The anion-channel inhibitor 4,4′-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DIDS) protects isolated mitochondria against Tat-induced mitochondrial membrane permeabilization (MMP), whereas ruthenium red, a ryanodine receptor blocker, does not. Pharmacologic inhibitors of the permeability transition pore, Bax/Bak inhibitors, and recombinant Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL proteins do not reduce Tat-induced MMP. We finally observed that Tat inhibits cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity in disrupted mitochondria isolated from liver, heart, and brain of both mouse and human samples, making it the first described viral protein to be a potential COX inhibitor