Role of sea ice on satellite-observed chlorophyll-a concentration variations during spring bloom in the East/Japan sea

The relationship between the spring bloom along the Primorye coast and the sea ice of the Tatarskiy Strait in the northern region of the East/Japan Sea, a semi-enclosed marginal sea in the North Pacific, was investigated using the ten-year SeaWiFS chlorophyll-a concentration data and DMSP/SSMI sea ice concentration data from 1998 to 2007. Year-to-year variations in the chlorophyll-a concentrations in the spring were positively correlated with those of the sea ice concentrations in the Tatarskiy Strait in the previous winter with a correlation coefficient of 0.77. Abrupt increases in nutrients, essential for the spring bloom in the upper ocean during spring, were supplied from sea ice-melted waters. Time series of vertical distributions of the nutrients indicated that phosphate concentrations were extremely elevated in the upper ocean (less than 100 m) without any connection to high concentrations in the deep waters below. The water mass from sea ice provided preferable conditions for the spring bloom through changes in the vertical stratification structure of the water columns. Along-coast ratios of stability parameters between two neighboring months clearly showed the rapid progression of the generation of a shallow pycnocline due to fresh water originating from sea ice. This study addressed the importance of the physical environment for biogeochemical processes in semi-enclosed marginal seas affected by local sea ice. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.1166Ysciescopu

Trifun Dimić, Romane, romaja, sovlahimate thaj e bahtarimate = Narodne romske kletve, zakletve i blagoslovi, Srpska čitaonica i knjižnica Irig, Novi Sad 1985. (Edicija "Stražilovo")

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.ICT4D 2017: 14th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, 22-24 May 2017, Jarkata, IndonesiaInformation systems (IS) failure in developing countries has been often understood as the failure of development practitioners to think and act in accordance with the local context. Such explanatory accounts mostly take contingency as the situation in the local context in which multiple stakeholders can coordinate and adapt to the local conditions, while implementing the globally-applicable logic of dominant institutions. There is a lack of understanding of contingency as the global context of the international development field, in particular how IS failure can be shaped by the state actor. In this paper, we trace the change of the global aid governance that influenced the context of aid information management systems (AIMS) in Indonesia. We argue that understanding the failure of AIMS in Indonesia needs to move from the project’s local situation to the global-level, recursive relationship between the field of aid governance and the state actor. Interpreting AIMS failure as the result of Indonesia’s strategic agency in the shifting landscape of global aid agenda allows information communication and technology (ICTD) researchers to reflect upon the macro political economy of development, in particular how the emerging powers can shape the development agenda in which future ICT innovations unfold

Living apart, losing sympathy? How neighbourhood context affects attitudes to redistribution and to welfare recipients

Rising levels of income inequality have been directly linked to rising levels of spatial segregation. In this paper, we explore whether rising segregation may in turn erode support for the redistributive policies of the welfare state, further increasing levels of inequality – a form of positive feedback. The role of the neighbourhood has been neglected in attitudes research but, building on both political geography and ‘neighbourhood effects’ literatures, we theorise that neighbourhood context may shape attitudes through the transmission of attitudes directly and through the accumulation of relevant knowledge. We test this through multilevel modelling of data from England on individual attitudes to redistribution in general and to welfare benefit recipients in particular. We show that the individual factors shaping these attitudes are quite different and that the influence of neighbourhood context also varies as a result. The findings support the idea that neighbourhood context shapes attitudes, with the knowledge accumulation mechanism likely to be the more important. Rising spatial segregation would appear to erode support for redistribution but to increase support for welfare recipients – at least in a context where the dominant media discourse presents such a stigmatising image of those on welfare benefits

Изменение микроструктуры пружинного Сr-Ni сплава после старения

Установлено, что старение закаленного сплава 47ХНМ при температуре 500 °С в течение 5...10 ч не приводит к распаду пересыщенного твердого раствора, при повышении температуры старения до 600 °С начинают проявляться признаки распада в частицах ?-фазы гомогенного типа. Показано, что после старения при 700 °С закаленных образцов интенсивно развивается прерывистый распад с выделением некогерентной ?-фазы на основе хрома, причем объемная доля его возрастает с увеличением времени старения, достигая максимальных значений за 5...10 ч старения

Antiatherogenic Effect of Camellia japonica Fruit Extract in High Fat Diet-Fed Rats

© 2016 Hyun-Ho Lee et al. Hypercholesterolemia is a well-known etiological factor for cardiovascular disease and a common symptom of most types of metabolic disorders. Camellia japonica is a traditional garden plant, and its flower and seed have been used as a base oil of traditional cosmetics in East Asia. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of C. japonica fruit extracts (CJF) in a high fat diet- (HFD-) induced hypercholesterolemic rat model. CJF was administered orally at three different doses: 100, 400, and 800 mg·kg-1·day-1 (CJF 100, 400, and 800, resp.). Our results showed that CJF possessed strong cholesterol-lowering potency as indicated by the decrease in serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), accompanied by an increase in serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Furthermore, CJF reduced serum lipid peroxidation by suppressing the formation of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance. In addition, oil red O (ORO) staining of rat arteries showed decreased lipid-positive staining in the CJF-treated groups compared to the control HFD group. Taken together, these results suggest that CJF could be a potent herbal therapeutic option and source of a functional food for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis and other diseases associated with hypercholesterolemia

Cytosolic targeting factor AKR2A captures chloroplast outer membrane-localized client proteins at the ribosome during translation

In eukaryotic cells, organellar proteome biogenesis is pivotal for cellular function. Chloroplasts contain a complex proteome, the biogenesis of which includes post-translational import of nuclear-encoded proteins. However, the mechanisms determining when and how nascent chloroplast-targeted proteins are sorted in the cytosol are unknown. Here, we establish the timing and mode of interaction between ankyrin repeat-containing protein 2 (AKR2A), the cytosolic targeting factor of chloroplast outer membrane (COM) proteins, and its interacting partners during translation at the single-molecule level. The targeting signal of a nascent AKR2A client protein residing in the ribosomal exit tunnel induces AKR2A binding to ribosomal RPL23A. Subsequently, RPL23A-bound AKR2A binds to the targeting signal when it becomes exposed from ribosomes. Failure of AKR2A binding to RPL23A in planta severely disrupts protein targeting to the COM; thus, AKR2A-mediated targeting of COM proteins is coupled to their translation, which in turn is crucial for biogenesis of the entire chloroplast proteome.open1178Ysciescopu

Natural killer cells attenuate cytomegalovirus-induced hearing loss in mice

<div><p>Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the most common non-hereditary cause of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) yet the mechanisms of hearing loss remain obscure. Natural Killer (NK) cells play a critical role in regulating murine CMV infection via NK cell recognition of the Ly49H cell surface receptor of the viral-encoded m157 ligand expressed at the infected cell surface. This Ly49H NK receptor/m157 ligand interaction has been found to mediate host resistance to CMV in the spleen, and lung, but is much less effective in the liver, so it is not known if this interaction is important in the context of SNHL. Using a murine model for CMV-induced labyrinthitis, we have demonstrated that the Ly49H/m157 interaction mediates host resistance in the temporal bone. BALB/c mice, which lack functional Ly49H, inoculated with mCMV at post-natal day 3 developed profound hearing loss and significant outer hair cell loss by 28 days of life. In contrast, C57BL/6 mice, competent for the Ly49H/m157 interaction, had minimal hearing loss and attenuated outer hair cell loss with the same mCMV dose. Administration of Ly49H blocking antibody or inoculation with a mCMV viral strain deleted for the m157 gene rendered the previously resistant C57BL/6 mouse strain susceptible to hearing loss to a similar extent as the BALB/c mouse strain indicating a direct role of the Ly49H/m157 interaction in mCMV-dependent hearing loss. Additionally, NK cell recruitment to sites of infection was evident in the temporal bone of inoculated susceptible mouse strains. These results demonstrate participation of NK cells in protection from CMV-induced labyrinthitis and SNHL in mice.</p></div

6D supergravity without tensor multiplets

We systematically investigate the finite set of possible gauge groups and matter content for N = 1 supergravity theories in six dimensions with no tensor multiplets, focusing on nonabelian gauge groups which are a product of SU(N) factors. We identify a number of models which obey all known low-energy consistency conditions, but which have no known string theory realization. Many of these models contain novel matter representations, suggesting possible new string theory constructions. Many of the most exotic matter structures arise in models which precisely saturate the gravitational anomaly bound on the number of hypermultiplets. Such models have a rigid symmetry structure, in the sense that there are no moduli which leave the full gauge group unbroken.Comment: 31 pages, latex; v2, v3: minor corrections, references adde

Atomic layer deposition of Al-incorporated Zn(O,S) thin films with tunable electrical properties

Zinc oxysulfide, Zn(O,S), films grown by atomic layer deposition were incorporated with aluminum to adjust the carrier concentration. The electron carrier concentration increased up to one order of magnitude from 1019 to 1020 cm−3 with aluminum incorporation and sulfur content in the range of 0 ≤ S/(Zn+Al) ≤ 0.16. However, the carrier concentration decreased by five orders of magnitude from 1019 to 1014 cm−3 for S/(Zn+Al) = 0.34 and decreased even further when S/(Zn+Al) > 0.34. Such tunable electrical properties are potentially useful for graded buffer layers in thin-film photovoltaic applications.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ ameliorates experimental mouse colitis by suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated inflammatory cytokines

BACKGROUND: MitoQ is a mitochondria-targeted derivative of the antioxidant ubiquinone, with antioxidant and anti-apoptotic functions. Reactive oxygen species are involved in many inflammatory diseases including inflammatory bowel disease. In this study, we assessed the therapeutic effects of MitoQ in a mouse model of experimental colitis and investigated the possible mechanisms underlying its effects on intestinal inflammation. METHODS: Reactive oxygen species levels and mitochondrial function were measured in blood mononuclear cells of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. The effects of MitoQ were evaluated in a dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis mouse model. Clinical and pathological markers of disease severity and oxidative injury, and levels of inflammatory cytokines in mouse colonic tissue were measured. The effect of MitoQ on inflammatory cytokines released in the human macrophage-like cell line THP-1 was also analyzed. RESULTS: Cellular and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species levels in mononuclear cells were significantly higher in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (P <0.003, cellular reactive oxygen species; P <0.001, mitochondrial reactive oxygen species). MitoQ significantly ameliorated colitis in the dextran sulfate sodium-induced mouse model in vivo, reduced the increased oxidative stress response (malondialdehyde and 3-nitrotyrosine formation), and suppressed mitochondrial and histopathological injury by decreasing levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-1 beta and IL-18 (P <0.001 and P <0.01 respectively). By decreasing mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, MitoQ also suppressed activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome that was responsible for maturation of IL-1 beta and IL-18. In vitro studies demonstrated that MitoQ decreases IL-1 beta and IL-18 production in human THP-1 cells. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our results suggest that MitoQ may have potential as a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of acute phases of inflammatory bowel disease