Sub-daily rates of degradation of fluvial carbon from a peat headwater stream

In-stream processing of allochthonous dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) in peat-sourced headwaters has been shown to be a significant part of the terrestrial carbon cycle, through photo- and bio-degradation, with both DOC and POC converted to carbon dioxide (CO2). This study reports a series of 70-h, in situ experiments investigating rates of degradation in unfiltered surface water from a headwater stream in the River Tees, North Pennines, UK. Half the samples were exposed to the normal day/night cycle (ambient); half were continuously dark. The study found that the DOC concentration of samples in the ambient treatment declined by 64 % over the 70 h, compared with 6 % decline for the samples kept in the dark. For POC, the loss in the ambient treatment was 13 %. The average initial rate of loss of DOC in the ambient treatment during the first day of the experiment was 3.36 mg C/l/h, and the average rate of photo-induced loss over the whole 70 h was 1.25 mg C/l/h. Scaling up these losses, the estimate of total organic carbon loss from UK rivers to the atmosphere is 9.4 Tg CO2/year which would be 0.94 % of the global estimate of CO2 emissions from streams and rivers from the 2013 IPCC report. Initial rate kinetics in the light were as high as 3rd order, but the study showed that no single rate law could describe the whole diurnal degradation cycle and that separate rate laws were required for night and day processes. The comparison of dark and ambient treatment processes showed no evidence of photo-stimulated bacterial degradation

Elder Investments: A Critique of Professional and Consumer Mediocrity

This article deals with the investing problems faced by many elderly today. Moody asserts that investor problems are primarily caused by a lack of knowledge in all levels of American financing, investing, and retirement planning. The article examines recent systemic failures that demonstrate how lack of knowledge continues to promote system failure, despite its grievous impact on the elderly who rely on their investments for income when they can no longer work

An Introduction to Community Detection in Multi-layered Social Network

Social communities extraction and their dynamics are one of the most important problems in today's social network analysis. During last few years, many researchers have proposed their own methods for group discovery in social networks. However, almost none of them have noticed that modern social networks are much more complex than few years ago. Due to vast amount of different data about various user activities available in IT systems, it is possible to distinguish the new class of social networks called multi-layered social network. For that reason, the new approach to community detection in the multi-layered social network, which utilizes multi-layered edge clustering coefficient is proposed in the paper.Comment: M.D. Lytras et al. (Eds.): WSKS 2011, CCIS 278, pp. 185-190, 201

Mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder involve robust and extensive increases in brain network connectivity.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); however, little is understood about its mechanisms related to brain network connectivity. We examined connectivity changes from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data pre-to-post-CBT in 43 OCD participants, randomized to receive either 4 weeks of intensive CBT or 4 weeks waitlist followed by 4 weeks of CBT, and 24 healthy controls before and after 4 weeks of no treatment. Network-based-statistic analysis revealed large-magnitude increases in OCD connectivity in eight networks. Strongest increases involved connectivity between the cerebellum and caudate/putamen, and between the cerebellum and dorsolateral/ventrolateral prefrontal cortices. Connectivity increases were associated with increased resistance to compulsions. Mechanisms of CBT may involve enhanced cross-network integration, both within and outside of classical cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical regions; those involving cerebellar to striatal and prefrontal regions may reflect acquisition of new non-compulsive goal-directed behaviors and thought patterns. Our findings have implications for identifying targets for enhancing treatment efficacy and monitoring treatment progress

Diverse Structural Evolution at z > 1 in Cosmologically Simulated Galaxies

From mock Hubble Space Telescope images, we quantify non-parametric statistics of galaxy morphology, thereby predicting the emergence of relationships among stellar mass, star formation, and observed rest-frame optical structure at 1 < z < 3. We measure automated diagnostics of galaxy morphology in cosmological simulations of the formation of 22 central galaxies with 9.3 < log10 M_*/M_sun < 10.7. These high-spatial-resolution zoom-in calculations enable accurate modeling of the rest-frame UV and optical morphology. Even with small numbers of galaxies, we find that structural evolution is neither universal nor monotonic: galaxy interactions can trigger either bulge or disc formation, and optically bulge-dominated galaxies at this mass may not remain so forever. Simulated galaxies with M_* > 10^10 M_sun contain relatively more disc-dominated light profiles than those with lower mass, reflecting significant disc brightening in some haloes at 1 < z < 2. By this epoch, simulated galaxies with specific star formation rates below 10^-9.7 yr^-1 are more likely than normal star-formers to have a broader mix of structural types, especially at M_* > 10^10 M_sun. We analyze a cosmological major merger at z ~ 1.5 and find that the newly proposed MID morphology diagnostics trace later merger stages while G-M20 trace earlier ones. MID is sensitive also to clumpy star-forming discs. The observability time of typical MID-enhanced events in our simulation sample is less than 100 Myr. A larger sample of cosmological assembly histories may be required to calibrate such diagnostics in the face of their sensitivity to viewing angle, segmentation algorithm, and various phenomena such as clumpy star formation and minor mergers.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, MNRAS accepted versio

Emergent role of gasotransmitters in ischemia-reperfusion injury

Nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are lipid-soluble, endogenously produced gaseous messenger molecules collectively known as gasotransmitters. Over the last several decades, gasotransmitters have emerged as potent cytoprotective mediators in various models of tissue and cellular injury. Specifically, when used at physiological levels, the exogenous and endogenous manipulation of these three gases has been shown to modulate ischemia/reperfusion injury by inducing a number of cytoprotective mechanisms including: induction of vasodilatation, inhibition of apoptosis, modulation of mitochondrial respiration, induction of antioxidants, and inhibition of inflammation. However, while the actions are similar, there are some differences in the mechanisms by which these gasotransmitters induce these effects and the regulatory actions of the enzyme systems can vary depending upon the gas being investigated. Furthermore, there does appear to be some crosstalk between the gases, which can provide synergistic effects and additional regulatory effects. This review article will discuss several models and mechanisms of gas-mediated cytoprotection, as well as provide a brief discussion on the complex interactions between the gasotransmitter systems

Once Upon a Time: Using Stories with Hard-to-Reach Audiences

When was the last time you listened to a good story? Remember the wonderful tales you heard while perched upon Grandmother\u27s knee

Perfection of materials technology for producing improved Gunn-effect devices

Chemical vapor deposition system for improved Gunn effect devices using arsenic chloride 3 metho