National Recovery and Resilience Plan Denmark

This article outlines Denmark’s implementation of the funds aimed at economic recovery after the Covid-19 crisis. Denmark applied only for grants, not loans, as the Danish economy is strong, and has not suffered significantly during the crisis. With this in mind, the article concludes that EU grants have had only a minor impact in the social dimension and the labour market

From Learning Objectives to Multi-Media Tutorials

Participants will get hands-on experience with tutorial creation. This workshop will guide participants through the process of developing learning objectives and a theme, writing content, and planning a storyboard. There will also be opportunities to learn techniques for finding free images to use and/or modify for your tutorials and to discover development software that can help create simple to complex multi-media tutorials. Interactive Sessio

Historic maps meet Google maps : the University of Louisville\u27s Kentucky Maps collection.

Online access to historic maps, enhanced by JPEG2000 format and, in some cases, Google Maps, has proved popular with scholars, students, community members, and librarians. This article will discuss the planning, scanning, metadata creation, and Google mapping of the University of Louisville\u27s Kentucky Maps Collection (http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/maps/)

The kynurenine pathway and development of schizophrenia : Immunological and genetic aspects

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder with symptoms ranging from hallucinations to poor social functioning and cognitive deficits. Despite decades of research, the etiology of the disease remains puzzling. Genetic aberrations as well as exposure to infection during early life are associated with an increased risk for development of the disease. Recent studies also describe an immune activation in schizophrenia. The immune-related and neuroactive compound kynurenic acid (KYNA), is implicated in the pathophysiology of the disease. KYNA is an astrocyte-derived end product of the kynurenine pathway, the main metabolic route of tryptophan degradation. The aim of the present thesis was to evaluate if disturbances – genetic or caused by early-life infection – in the kynurenine pathway, in particular with regard to KYNA, could contribute to the development of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. Our results show that infection with the neurotropic influenza A/WSN/33 virus generates a profound induction of the kynurenine pathway in vitro in mouse cell cultures of cortical glial cells and hippocampal neurons, including a robust increase of transcripts encoding IDO and TDO, the enzymes regulating the first and rate-limiting reaction of KYNA production. A systemic injection of the influenza A/WSN/33 virus to wild-type and immune-deficient mice (Tap1-/-), that lack CD8+ T cells, at postnatal day (P) 3 or 4 showed that the infection stimulated the kynurenine pathway in early life. The Tap1-/- mice showed a more persistent induction of the kynurenine pathway enzymes. At P13, infiltration of T cells was observed in the brains of infected wild-type mice, accompanied by a transient elevation of brain KYNA, which was also observed in the Tap1-/- mice. When investigating the long-term behavioral effects of the neonatal infection, we found that Tap1-/-, but not wild-type mice, displayed impaired prepulse inhibition (PPI) in adult life. In adult wild-type mice, the neonatal virus infection was associated with a potentiated D-amphetamine-induced increase in horizontal activity, a behavioral response proposed to reflect schizophrenia. To assess the specific role of brain KYNA in the behavioral abnormalities seen following neonatal infection, brain KYNA was elevated in wild-type mice at P7-16 by the administration of its immediate precursor Lkynurenine. Similar to infected Tap1-/- mice, these mice showed a mild disruption in PPI in adulthood. Furthermore, these mice showed a tendency of hyper-responsiveness to Damphetamine in locomotor activity. These results indicate that induction of the kynurenine pathway, involving a transient accumulation of brain KYNA in early life, could contribute to behavioral aberrations in adulthood related to schizophrenia. Thus, elevated levels of brain KYNA during a critical period in neurodevelopment might offer a molecular basis of infection as a risk factor for schizophrenia. Furthermore, this thesis reveals that elevated levels of CSF KYNA in human subjects of a Swedish population are associated with a missense single nucleotide polymorphism in the KMO gene, rs1053230. This genetic deficit could result in a dysfunctional KMO enzyme, thereby shunting kynurenine metabolism to KYNA, in line with the increased levels of kynurenine and KYNA observed in patients with schizophrenia. Altogether, this thesis suggests that an early-life CNS induction and/or a genetic deficit of the kynurenine pathway could predispose for development of schizophrenia through the elevation of brain KYNA

Demonstration of Nitrate-Enhanced In Situ Bioremediation at a Petroleum Hydrocarbon Contaminated Site

Alternative strategies involving in situ remediation technologies have been developed to assist with property clean up, however, cost-effectiveness and discrepancies in success rates and timeliness continue. The objective of my research was to critically demonstrate the application and usefulness of an in situ remediation technology at a petroleum hydrocarbon impacted site. This project was proposed as part of the research programs: Groundwater Plume Formation and Remediation of Modern Gasoline Fuels in the Subsurface and Enhancing In Situ Bioremediation at Brownfield Sites funded by the Ontario Centres of Excellence for Earth and Environmental Technologies as part of the multiphase project entitled “Enhancing in situ Bioremediation at Brownfield Sites”. This research focused on the demonstration of nitrate-enhanced in situ bioremediation at a decommissioned service station. Petroleum hydrocarbon impacted soil and groundwater is a common occurrence at gasoline distribution facilities, where toxicological effects are known for gasoline constituents of interest such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and total xylenes (BTEX). These chemicals are volatile, readily soluble, and persistent in groundwater. In particular, residual contaminants present in the saturated zone were targeted for remediation as they serve as a long term source of contamination and contribute to mobile vapour phase and dissolved phase plumes. Site investigations characterized the complex hydrogeological conditions and contaminant distribution present in order to effectively design an in situ bioremediation treatment system. The addition of nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor (TEA) to an aquifer enhances in situ biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons, by providing the microbes with a sustainable energy source to promote cell maintenance and growth of the microbial population. The remediation strategy involved pulsed injections of remedial solution amended with a conservative bromide (200 mg/L Br-) and reactive nitrate (90 to 265 mg/L NO3-) tracers with the purpose of providing a continuous supply of TEA available to the indigenous microbial populations. Nitrate was selected as an alternative electron acceptor over the thermodynamically favoured O2 because of typical challenges encountered using O2 in bioremediation applications in addition to the existing anaerobic environment. In situ anaerobic degradation of BTEX compound using TEA amendments has been well documented; however benzene is often recalcitrant under denitrification conditions. The results of the Br- tracer breakthrough curves indicate that different preferential flow pathways were established under the transient saturated conditions present at the Site, although the behaviour of the injected remedial slug was generally consistent between the different units and the test solution was ultimately delivered to the target zone. The delivery of the remedial test solution was greatly influenced by the hydrogeological conditions present at the time of injection. The injectate was preferentially transported in the high permeability zone of sandy gravel aquifer Unit 3 under high saturated condition and background hydraulic gradients. However the seasonal decline in groundwater levels and hydraulic gradients resulted in the lower portion of Unit 4 comprised of higher permeable materials being able to transmit the test solution more effectively. Given the variable hydrogeological conditions present at the Site influenced by seasonal effects, the delivery of the remedial solution to target zones containing petroleum hydrocarbons at residual saturation is more effective under reduced saturated conditions. The delivery of TEA amended water to enhance the in situ biodegradation of petroleum contaminants is more effective when the treatment water has an increased residence time in the target remedial zone, attributed to low gradients and groundwater transport velocities at the Site. Longer residence periods enable the indigenous microbes to have increased contact time with the TEA which will be preferentially utilized to degrade the contaminants.   A reducing zone enriched with TEA in the anaerobic aquifer was established following consecutive injections of remedial test solution. A cumulative mass of 4 kg of NO3- was added to the target aquifer during the course of the remedial injections. Evidence demonstrating NO3- utilized as a terminal electron acceptor in the bioremediation of the petroleum-contaminated aquifer include: laboratory microcosm study confirming local indigenous microbial population’s ability to degrade hydrocarbons using NO3- as the TEA in addition to observed decrease in NO3- relative to a conservative Br- tracer and generation of nitrite, an intermediate product in denitrification in the pilot-scale operation. Contaminant mass removal likely occurred as Br- tracer evidence indicates that NO3- was utilized in the study area based on the inference of denitrification rates. Post-injection groundwater sampling indicate declining concentrations of toluene, however long term monitoring is recommended in order to evaluate the success of the remediation activity and assess the potential for rebound. Post-injection soil core results are unable to demonstrate the reduction in individual toluene, let alone BTEXTMB hydrocarbon levels, as a result of insufficient quantities of nitrate delivered to the target zone relative to the significant but heterogeneously distributed residual mass in the subsurface

Community as resource: crowdsourcing transcription of an historic newspaper.

Like many cultural heritage institutions, the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Louisville faces the dichotomy of material abundance and budgetary scarcity. Driven by the desire to make historical primary sources accessible online, this organization harnessed the power of the public to transcribe the Louisville Leader, an historic African American newspaper. The first sections of this article define crowdsourcing and describe how it was implemented at the University of Louisville, including the tools adopted and the process used. The latter sections outline the marketing strategy, the public response, and lessons learned from this ongoing project

Overcoming legacy processing in photographic collections through collaboration and digital technologies.

In the 1960s, a Louisville photography studio began donating its negatives, prints, and invoices to the University of Louisville Photographic Archives. The Caufield & Shook Collection remains a significant primary source for local history and a prime candidate for digitization. Unfortunately, on its receipt non-archivists processed the collection with little documentation of original order or organizational decision making. Additionally, workflow choices were determined largely by the desire to maximize student labor. In 2017, the Digital Initiatives Librarian worked with in-house application developers and archives staff to create a workflow that has significantly sped up the process of making this valuable photographic collection accessible online. This article describes how archivists recovered from the poor processing decisions, used technology to enhance the digitization workflow, and developed a list of best practices for future processing and digitization of large photographic collections

Bakterier renser drikkevand - ny metode til fjernelse af BAM undervejs

I hver femte af de danske drikkevandsboringerer vandet forurenet med stoffet BAM, der stammer fra brug af pesticider. To ufarlige bakterier fundet i jord kan sandsynligvis fjerne BAM fra drikkevandet, inden det når frem til din vandhane