Transforming Students Through Two Literacies: The Integration of Sustainability Literacy into Information Literacy Classes

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Land-atmosphere interactions during winter at a permafrost site in Northern Siberia with a focus on water vapor isotopic composition

Land and atmosphere processes influence the isotopic composition of water vapor during winter. Depending on climatic conditions, stable isotope fractionation occurs during each phase change. Thus, isotopes are valuable proxies for air temperatures and tracers of atmospheric moisture. Hourly data records from 01 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 of meteorological and soil parameters and of water vapor isotopic composition from Samoylov Island, Lena Delta, Siberia at 72°22’ N, 126°29’ E, were investigated to observe local environmental processes during winter and correlations between land, atmosphere, and water vapor isotopes. Winter was defined by the presence of snow (23 September 2015 to 15 May 2016). During winter, water is present in gaseous, liquid, and solid state. The latter was identified in frozen ground, as the active layer froze from 21 October 2015 to 05 June 2016, and on water bodies, as Molo Lake on Samoylov Island had an ice cover from 29 September 2015 to 21 June 2016 and the Lena River had an ice cover from 07 October 2015 to 06 June 2016. Liquid water was though available under the ice cover of Molo and the Lena River. The air was with a mean specific humidity of 1.4 g/kg very dry during winter. Also both δ18O and δD were very low during winter, with means of -41.3‰ for δ18O and -299.6‰ for δD. But large ranges of δ18O and δD were especially observed during four periods of long-term peaks with δ values up to -27.4‰ for δ18O and -201.0‰ for δD on 27 April 2016. This variability is mostly caused by changes of local air temperatures and humidity levels. With 30.4‰, a high mean of deuterium excess during winter provides information about low humidity conditions and strong kinetic fractionation at evaporation and sublimation at the moisture source location. A slope of 7.4 for the δD-δ18O correlation during winter suggests local moisture sources. These results show the possibility to explain water vapor isotopic composition with local land and atmosphere processes with the existing data. Additionally, the exploration of recent water vapor on Samoylov Island and its isotopic composition provides findings which can be used as a reference for the assessment of large-scale variations of climate and the hydrological cycle in the Arctic

The butterfly (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) diversity of the Barać Caves Significant Landscape (Kordun, Croatia)

We studied the butterfly fauna of the protected area Barać Caves Significant Landscape, which is located in the southern part of the Kordun region. The surveys,carried out during 2020 and 2021, recorded a total of 79 butterfly species. The species recorded in the area outnumber those far recorded in northern Kordun (74) and Plitvice Lakes NP (71), but this is probably due to the lack of systematic surveys of those two areas. The comparison of habitat and biogeographical affiliation between these three areas revealed a similar number of species per habitat and affiliation type. During this survey, several interesting or rare species were recorded like Lycaena hippothoe, L. dispar, Phengaris arion, Melitaea aurelia, M. britomartis, Euphydryas aurinia, Apatura ilia, A. iris, and Boloria selene and their records are discussed. The results of the present study greatly contribute to the knowledge of the butterfly fauna of the Barać Caves Significant Landscape, and they can be used as a basis for the future conservation of butterfly species of the Kordun and Lika region

Voice recognition in safety systems

This article discusses the problem of biometric way of identifying a person, in particular, voice recognition for safety system. The algorithm for obtaining the speaker's voice model is described. In this paper, the method of Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) is considered for distinguishing the distinctive features of the speaker. Besides, speaker recognition by voice may be used in criminal investigations, forensics and radio reconnaissance

Silent synapses generate sparse and orthogonal action potential firing in adult-born hippocampal granule cells.

In adult neurogenesis young neurons connect to the existing network via formation of thousands of new synapses. At early developmental stages, glutamatergic synapses are sparse, immature and functionally 'silent', expressing mainly NMDA receptors. Here we show in 2- to 3-week-old young neurons of adult mice, that brief-burst activity in glutamatergic fibers is sufficient to induce postsynaptic AP firing in the absence of AMPA receptors. The enhanced excitability of the young neurons lead to efficient temporal summation of small NMDA currents, dynamic unblocking of silent synapses and NMDA-receptor-dependent AP firing. Therefore, early synaptic inputs are powerfully converted into reliable spiking output. Furthermore, due to high synaptic gain, small dendritic trees and sparse connectivity, neighboring young neurons are activated by different distinct subsets of afferent fibers with minimal overlap. Taken together, synaptic recruitment of young neurons generates sparse and orthogonal AP firing, which may support sparse coding during hippocampal information processing

Perspective: How to overcome dynamical density functional theory

We argue in favour of developing a comprehensive dynamical theory for rationalizing, predicting, designing, and machine learning nonequilibrium phenomena that occur in soft matter. To give guidance for navigating the theoretical and practical challenges that lie ahead, we discuss and exemplify the limitations of dynamical density functional theory. Instead of the implied adiabatic sequence of equilibrium states that this approach provides as a makeshift for the true time evolution, we posit that the pending theoretical tasks lie in developing a systematic understanding of the dynamical functional relationships that govern the genuine nonequilibrium physics. While static density functional theory gives a comprehensive account of the equilibrium properties of many-body systems, we argue that power functional theory is the only present contender to shed similar insights into nonequilibrium dynamics, including the recognition and implementation of exact sum rules that result from the Noether theorem. As~a~demonstration of the power functional point of view, we consider an idealized steady sedimentation flow of the three-dimensional Lennard-Jones fluid and machine-learn the kinematic map from the mean motion to the internal force field. The trained model is capable of both predicting and designing the steady state dynamics universally for various target density modulations. This demonstrates the significant potential of using such techniques in nonequilibrium many-body physics and overcomes both the conceptual constraints of dynamical density functional theory as well as the limited availability of its analytical functional approximations.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Moisture origin as a driver of temporal variabilities of the water vapour isotopic composition in the Lena River Delta, Siberia

In the context of the Arctic amplification of climate change affecting the regional atmospheric hydrological cycle, it is crucial to characterize the present-day moisture sources of the Arctic. The isotopic composition is an important tool to enhance our understanding of the drivers of the hydrological cycle due to the different molecular characteristics of water stable isotopes during phase change. This study introduces 2 years of continuous in situ water vapour and precipitation isotopic observations conducted since July 2015 in the eastern Siberian Lena delta at the research station on Samoylov Island. The vapour isotopic signals are dominated by variations at seasonal and synoptic timescales. Diurnal variations of the vapour isotopic signals are masked by synoptic variations, indicating low variations of the amplitude of local sources at the diurnal scale in winter, summer and autumn. Low-amplitude diurnal variations in spring may indicate exchange of moisture between the atmosphere and the snow-covered surface. Moisture source diagnostics based on semi-Lagrangian backward trajectories reveal that different air mass origins have contrasting contributions to the moisture budget of the Lena delta region. At the seasonal scale, the distance from the net moisture sources to the arrival site strongly varies. During the coldest months, no contribution from local secondary evaporation is observed. Variations of the vapour isotopic composition during the cold season on the synoptic timescale are strongly related to moisture source regions and variations in atmospheric transport: warm and isotopically enriched moist air is linked to fast transport from the Atlantic sector, while dry and cold air with isotopically depleted moisture is generally associated with air masses moving slowly over northern Eurasia

Psychological Science Accelerator: A Promising Resource for Clinical Psychological Science

The Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA) is an international collaborative network of psychological scientists that facilitates rigorous and generalizable research. In this chapter, we describe how the PSA can help clinical psychologists and clinical psychological science more broadly. We first describe the PSA and outline how individual clinical psychologists can use the PSA as a helpful resource in numerous capacities: leading or contributing to clinical research or research with clinical relevance, building collaborative relationships, obtaining experience and expertise, and learning about systems and tools, particularly those related to open science practices, that they can adapt to their own research. We then describe how the PSA supports rigor and transparency at each stage of the research process. Finally, we discuss the challenges of the PSA’s large, collaborative approach to research

Follow-Up Assessment of Intracranial Aneurysms Treated with Endovascular Coiling: Comparison of Compressed Sensing and Parallel Imaging Time-of-Flight Magnetic Resonance Angiography

The aim of our study was to compare compressed sensing (CS) time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with parallel imaging (PI) TOF MRA in the evaluation of patients with intracranial aneurysms treated with coil embolization or stent-assisted coiling. We enrolled 22 patients who underwent follow-up imaging after intracranial aneurysm coil embolization. All patients underwent both PI TOF and CS TOF MRA during the same examination. Image evaluation aimed to compare the performance of CS to PI TOF MRA in determining the degree of aneurysm occlusion, as well as the depiction of parent vessel and vessels adjacent to the aneurysm dome. The reference standard for the evaluation of aneurysm occlusion was PI TOF MRA. The inter-modality agreement between CS and PI TOF MRA in the evaluation of aneurysm occlusion was almost perfect (κ = 0.98, p < 0.001) and the overall inter-rater agreement was substantial (κ = 0.70, p < 0.001). The visualization of aneurysm parent vessel in CS TOF images compared with PI TOF images was evaluated to be better in 11.4%, equal in 86.4%, and worse in 2.3%. CS TOF MRA, with almost 70% scan time reduction with respect to PI TOF MRA, yields comparable results for assessing the occlusion status of coiled intracranial aneurysms. Short scan times increase patient comfort, reduce the risk of motion artifacts, and increase patient throughput, with a resulting reduction in costs. CS TOF MRA may therefore be a potential replacement for PI TOF MRA as a first-line follow-up examination in patients with intracranial aneurysms treated with coil embolization

Distinct roles of NMDA receptors at different stages of granule cell development in the adult brain.

NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-dependent forms of synaptic plasticity are thought to underlie the assembly of developing neuronal circuits and to play a crucial role in learning and memory. It remains unclear how NMDAR might contribute to the wiring of adult-born granule cells (GCs). Here we demonstrate that nascent GCs lacking NMDARs but rescued from apoptosis by overexpressing the pro-survival protein Bcl2 were deficient in spine formation. Insufficient spinogenesis might be a general cause of cell death restricted within the NMDAR-dependent critical time window for GC survival. NMDAR loss also led to enhanced mushroom spine formation and synaptic AMPAR activity throughout the development of newborn GCs. Moreover, similar elevated synapse maturation in the absence of NMDARs was observed in neonate-generated GCs and CA1 pyramidal neurons. Together, these data suggest that NMDAR operates as a molecular monitor for controlling the activity-dependent establishment and maturation rate of synaptic connections between newborn neurons and others