Процеси сучасної інтернаціоналізації в Азійсько-Тихоокеанському регіоні у вимірах глобальної конкуренції

In 2012, governments worldwide renewed their commitments to a more sustainable development that would eradicate poverty, halt climate change and conserve ecosystems, and initiated a process to create a long-term vision by formulating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although progress in achieving a more sustainable development has been made in some areas, overall, actions have not been able to bend the trend in critical areas (including those related to the so-called food-water-energy nexus). Here, we analyze how different combinations of technological measures and behavioral changes could contribute to achieving a set of sustainability objectives, taking into account the interlinkages between them. The objectives include eradicating hunger, providing universal access to modern energy, preventing dangerous climate change, conserving biodiversity and controlling air pollution. The analysis identifies different pathways that achieve these objectives simultaneously, but they all require substantial transformations in the energy and food systems, that go far beyond historic progress and currently formulated policies. The analysis also shows synergies and trade-offs between achieving the different objectives, concluding that achieving them requires a comprehensive approach. The scenario analysis does not point at a fundamental trade-off between the objectives related to poverty eradication and those related to environmental sustainability. The different pathways of achieving the set of long-term objectives and their implications for short-term action can contribute to building a comprehensive strategy to meet the SDGs by proposing near-term actions

Nature and well‐being in seven European cities: The moderating effect of connectedness to nature

Background: Well-being is transversal to different urban-related challenges such as increasing urbanization or adaptation to the effects of climate change. One possible response to these challenges is the use of nature in cities. The aim of this study is to investigate how the objective quantity of natural space near the home, the perception of these natural elements, and their perceived availability, moderated by the effect of connectedness to nature, could explain levels of well-being. Methods: A survey was conducted among a sample of 1,343 participants living in seven European cities. Data was collected online via a questionnaire. Indicators of the objective quantity of urban natural space based on remotely‐sensed satellite imagery were also used.Results: Regression models highlight the association between well-being and perceived amount of nature, accessibility to a community garden, and level of connectedness to nature. A moderating and negative effect of connectedness to nature on the association between the perceived quantity of nature and well-being was also identified. Conclusions: Perception of nature seems to be a better indicator of well-being than the objective one. Results highlight the importance of the social dimension of collective gardens in enhancing well-being. Connectedness to nature could facilitate appropriation of natural elements and its effects on well-being

How Regime Shifts in Connected Aquatic Ecosystems Are Affected by the Typical Downstream Increase of Water Flow

All over the world freshwater ecosystems like ponds, ditches and lakes suffer from nutrient-driven regime shifts from submerged plants to dominance by algae or free-floating plants. Although freshwaters are often connected and part of a network, most of our current knowledge on regime shifts comes from studies of isolated ecosystems. The few studies that have assessed the spatial manifestation of regime shifts overlooked the hydrological fact that the water flow through connected waters typically increases in the downstream direction. Here, we use a complex ecosystem model to show that this increase in flow does not lead to spatial differences in ecosystem state. We support these findings with a simple, analytically tractable, nutrient retention model on connected waterbodies. The model shows that all bodies have the same nutrient concentration despite spatial gradients in the flow of water as well as nutrients carried by the water. As a consequence, each connected waterbody is equally vulnerable to a regime shift, implying a regime shift to be system-wide. Furthermore, it appeared that each connected waterbody behaves the same as an isolated waterbody, implying that the vast body of theory on isolated systems, like alternative stable states theory, can still be useful for connected systems. Although these findings are violated when there is heterogeneity in lateral runoff or waterbody characteristics—leading to spatial differences in ecosystem state and therefore to differences in the vulnerability to a regime shift—they show that the typical downstream build-up of water flow does not necessarily lead to differences in ecological state, and thereby provide a basic concept to better understand the ecology of connected freshwaters

Electronic Wiring of a Multi-Redox Site Membrane Protein in a Biomimetic Surface Architecture

Bioelectronic coupling of multi-redox-site membrane proteins was accomplished with cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) as an example. A biomimetic membrane system was used for the oriented immobilization of the CcO oxidase on a metal electrode. When the protein is immobilized with the CcO binding side directed toward the electrode and reconstituted in situ into a lipid bilayer, it is addressable by direct electron transfer to the redox centers. Electron transfer to the enzyme via the spacer, referred to as electronic wiring, shows an exceptionally high rate constant. This allows a kinetic analysis of all four consecutive electron transfer steps within the enzyme to be carried out. Electron transfer followed by rapid scan cyclic voltametry in combination with surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy provides mechanistic and structural information about the heme centers. Probing the enzyme under turnover conditions showed mechanistic insights into proton translocation coupled to electron transfer. This bioelectronic approach opens a new field of activity to investigate complex processes in a wide variety of membrane proteins

Preparing pathology for personalized medicine: possibilities for improvement of the pre-analytical phase

Item does not contain fulltextWith the introduction of new biological agents for cancer treatment enabling 'personalized medicine', treatment decisions based on the molecular features of the tumour are more common. Consequently, tissue evaluation in tumour pathology is becoming increasingly based on a combination of classical morphological and molecular analysis. The results of diagnostic tests rely not only on the quality of the method used but, to a large extent, also on the quality of specimens, which is dependent on the pre-analytical procedures and storage. With the introduction of predictive immunohistochemical and molecular tests in clinical pathology, improvement and standardization of pre-analytical procedures has become crucial. The aim of this review is to increase awareness with regard to tissue handling and for standardization of the pre-analytical phase of a diagnostic process. In addition, several processing steps in tissue handling that need to be improved in order to obtain the quality needed for modern molecular medicine will be discussed. Optimal, standardized procedures are crucial if a high standard of test results is to be achieved, which is what each patient deserves

Thermal fluctuations determine the electron-transfer rates of cytochrome c in electrostatic and covalent complexes

The heterogeneous electron-transfer (ET) reaction of cytochrome c (Cyt-c) electrostatically or covalently immobilized on electrodes coated with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of ω-functionalized alkanethiols is analyzed by surface-enhanced resonance Raman (SERR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Electrostatically bound Cyt-c on pure carboxyl-terminated and mixed carboxyl/hydroxyl-terminated SAMs reveals the same distance dependence of the rate constants, that is, electron tunneling at long distances and a regime controlled by the protein orientational distribution and dynamics that leads to a nearly distance-independent rate constant at short distances. Qualitatively, the same behavior is found for covalently bound Cyt-c, although the apparent ET rates in the plateau region are lower since protein mobility is restricted due to formation of amide bonds between the protein and the SAM. The experimental findings are consistent with the results of MD simulations indicating that thermal fluctuations of the protein and interfacial solvent molecules can effectively modulate the electron tunneling probability. © 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.Fil: Ly, Hoang Khoa. Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Marti, Marcelo Adrian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Martín, Diego Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Álvarez Paggi, Damián Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Meister, Wiebke. Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Kranich, Anja. Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Weidinger, Inez M.. Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Hildebrandt, Peter. Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Murgida, Daniel Horacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; Argentin

Advantages of concurrent use of multiple software frameworks in water quality modelling using a database approach

Water quality modelling deals with multidisciplinary questions ranging from fundamental to applied. Addressing this broad range of questions requires multiple analysis techniques and therefore multiple frameworks. Through the recently developed database approach to modelling (DATM), it has become possible to run a model in multiple software frameworks without much overhead. Here we apply DATM to the ecosystem model for ditches. PCDitch and its twin model for shallow lakes PCLake. Using DATM, we run these models in six frameworks (ACSL, DELWAQ, DUFLOW, GRIND for MATLAB, OSIRIS and R), and report on the possible model analyses with tools provided by each framework. We conclude that the dynamic link between frameworks and models resulting from DATM has the following main advantages: it allows one to use the framework one is familiar with for most model analyses and eases switching between frameworks for complementary model analyses, including the switch between a 0-D and 1-D to 3-D setting. Moreover, the strength of each framework – including runtime performance – can now be easily exploited. We envision that a community-based further development of the concept can contribute to the future development of water quality modelling, not only by addressing multidisciplinary questions but also by facilitating the exchange of models and process formulations within the community of water quality modellers