Uses population viability analyses (PVA) to calculate the net effects of ecotourism on expected time to extinction, in the presence of other anthropogenic threats such as poaching, primary industries ...and habitat loss, for one or more subpopulations of the threatened species : orangutan, hoolock gibbon, golden lion tamarin, cheetah, African wild dog, New Zealand sealion, great green macaw, Egyptian vulture, and African penguin. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Cyclic tensile responses of fourteen polyurethane elastomers were studied, with respect to their chemical composition and physical structure. Hard segment, soft segment and chain extender were ...varied, while keeping the hard segment fraction at ca 40% and soft segment molar mass at 2000 g/mol. Hard segments were generated from 4,4′-methylene bis(phenyl di-isocyanate) (MDI), or 4,4′-dibenzyl di-isocyanate (DBDI). Physical structure was characterized by X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS), revealing significant variations in degree of phase separation and degree of crystallinity, especially in the DBDI-based polymers. Large differences were found in the mechanical responses during first loading to a given strain. Tensile modulus and work input increased significantly with degree of hard phase crystallinity, but were independent of degree of phase separation. First cycle hysteresis was found to increase with reduced phase separation and with replacement of MDI by DBDI. In second and subsequent load cycles, however, in which the Mullins effect was observed, a remarkable degree of uniformity of response was discovered. A unique linear relation was obtained between second cycle hysteresis and second cycle work input, for all strain levels, and for all materials except for two (with highest phase separation) which showed slightly lower second cycle hysteresis. The results can be explained in terms of pull-out of segments from the hard phase on the first cycle, to form a new series-coupled soft phase, whose constitutive response then appears almost independent of chemical and physical structure.
Display omitted
Academics are required by their university employers both to raise research funding and to publish research findings, but conditions imposed by research funders may conflict with the requirements of ...research publishers. These conflicts create risks, with potentially severe consequences, that differ between research fields and funders, and must be navigated by individual academics. I propose that universities report cases of conflict, including causes and resolutions, to national registries accessible to all research organisations. These could serve both as a warning to grant applicants, and a deterrent to future interference by funders.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Emotions are a signaling system, evolved by providing selective advantage through enhanced survival and reproduction. The selective advantage conferred by thrill or exhilaration, however, remains ...unknown. Hypotheses, as yet untested, include overcoming phobias or honing physical skills as juveniles, or exhibiting desirability during mate selection. Extreme sports can provide an ethically and experimentally feasible tool to analyze thrill. To use this tool, extreme sports must first be defined in a non-circular way, independent of participant psychology. Existing concepts, from different disciplines, focus, respectively, on drama, activity types, or consequences of error. Here, I draw upon academic and popular literature, and autoethnographic experience, to distinguish extreme from adventurous levels for a range of different outdoor sports. I conclude that extreme outdoor adventure sports can be defined objectively as those activities, conditions, and levels, where participant survival relies on moment-by-moment skill, and any error is likely to prove fatal. This allows us to examine the motivations, experiences, and transformations of individuals who undertake these activities. In particular, it will allow us to examine the emotional experience of thrill, previously studied principally as an aspect of personality, from new neurophysiological and evolutionary perspectives.
Background
There is no common understanding about the role of the advanced practice nurse across the globe and there is wide variation in the regulation of advanced practice nursing roles as well as ...their educational, licensing and credentialing requirements.
Aim
The goal of this research was to examine the status of advanced practice nursing regulation globally.
Methods
An online survey link was emailed to National Nursing Associations and nursing health policy makers worldwide from June to December 2011. Questions focused on regulation, education, scope of practice, and barriers and opposition. Analysis included frequency statistics and descriptive data for survey questions and content analysis for two open‐ended questions.
Limitations
The survey was offered online and only in English. Therefore, technology and language barriers may have influenced the results.
Results
There is wide variation in educational requirements, regulation and scope of practice of advanced practice nurses. The barriers to advanced practice nursing are often linked to the status of legislation and credentialing in specific jurisdictions.
Conclusion
A database of advanced practice nursing regulation and issues related to practice has the potential to become a valuable resource for individual countries.
Implications for nursing and health policy
Each country has unique challenges related to health policy for advanced practice nursing roles. International nursing organizations have established programmes for regulation development; however, a stronger focus on monitoring regulation and more effective dissemination of information about available supports may have a bigger impact on the development and revision of health policy related to advanced practice nursing.
Disc disease is characterised by degeneration of the nucleus pulposus (NP), the central gelatinous tissue of the intervertebral disc (IVD). As degeneration progresses, the microenvironment of the IVD ...becomes more hostile (i.e. decrease in oxygen, glucose and pH), providing a significant challenge for regeneration using cell-based therapies. Tissue engineering strategies such as priming cells or micro tissues with growth factors prior to implantation may overcome some of these issues by providing a pre-formed protective niche composed of extracellular matrix. The present study investigated the effect of priming on bone-marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs) and articular chondrocytes (ACs) using transforming growth factor β3 (TGF-β3), cultured at different pH levels (pH 7.1, 6.8 and 6.5) representative of the in vivo disc microenvironment. Low pH was found to have a detrimental effect on both cell viability and matrix accumulation, which could be mitigated by priming cells using TGF-β3. Investigating the activation of the transmembrane acid-sensing ion channels (ASIC-1 and -3) showed an increased expression of ASIC-1 in BMSCs and ASIC-3 in ACs at lower pH levels post-priming. Metabolic activity in terms of lactic acid production was also found to be affected significantly by priming, whereas oxygen and glucose consumptions did not change considerably. Overall, the study demonstrated that cells could be equipped to sustain the harsh environment of the IVD and promote accumulation of NP-like matrix through priming. Such an approach may open new avenues to engineer tissues capable of sustaining challenging microenvironments such as those found in the IVD.
The area adjacent to the milking parlor, accessible for grazing by lactating dairy cows (i.e., the grazing platform GP), can be limited on fragmented pasture-based dairy farms. Such farms, with a ...moderate overall farm stocking rate, typically have a much higher stocking rate of dairy cows on the GP. This study quantified the effects of farm fragmentation on milk and herbage production and profitability in a whole-farm systems-scale study over 3 yr (2017–2019). Four systems, each with an overall farm stocking rate of 2.5 cows/ha but with different grazing platform stocking rates (GPSR), were examined. The proportions of the overall farm area within the GP were 100%, 83%, 71%, and 63% in each of the 4 systems, respectively. Hence, the 4 systems had a GPSR of 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 cows/ha. The GP was used for grazing and silage (ensiled herbage) production, and the non-GP portion of each GPSR system was used solely for silage production. Concentrate supplementation per cow was the same across all GPSR systems; approximately 10% of the annual feed budget. All systems were compact spring-calving with 24 cows per system. We discovered a lower proportion of grazed herbage in the diet with higher GPSR. All silage produced on the non-GP areas was required to support higher GPSR on each of the systems. Annual herbage production and milk production per cow were not different between GPSR systems, resulting in similar milk production per hectare of the overall system area. The economic implications of different GPSR on fragmented farms were modeled in 2 scenarios: (1) quantifying the cost associated with different levels of farm area fragmentation; (2) investigating the optimum GPSR on fragmented pasture-based dairy farms, depending on variable criteria. A greater level of farm fragmentation lowered the profitability of pasture-based dairy production. Costs of production increased with higher GPSR and longer distances between GP and non-GP areas. At a fixed GP area, it was most profitable to increase GPSR up to 4 cows/ha on the GP when milk price was high, land rental price was low, and shorter distance existed between GP and non-GP areas.
CSP (concentrating solar thermal power) is emerging as a viable and cost effective solution to renewable energy generation. Molten salts are currently used as heat storage media to enable power ...generation during the night-cycle. Metal hydrides offer the possibility of storing energy with an order of magnitude less raw material than molten salts due to their impressive energy densities. To test the viability of hydrogen storage materials for CSP applications we have designed and constructed a prototype scale apparatus for screening materials under dynamic conditions with active heat extraction. The apparatus is tested with 19 g of well-known MgH2 to assess the viability of the design for screening purposes. The metal hydride is thermally cycled up to 420 °C more than 20 times with a minimal loss in hydrogen capacity. Issues relating to testing on a prototype scale are discussed, where problems with environmental heat loss and powder compaction dominate the performance of the metal hydride in the prototype. Problems with heat loss are inherently minimised on scale-up, leading to thermal behaviour more representative of a full-scale CSP energy storage system.
Display omitted
•A prototype renewable energy storage system has been designed and tested.•Results indicate the system is feasible and reversible.•The design of the metal hydride vessel is critical to kinetic performance.•Practical issues and design considerations are highlighted.
People can speak, and this provides opportunities to analyze human emotions using perceived experiences communicated via language, as well as through measurement and imaging techniques that are also ...applicable to other higher animal species. Here I compare four qualitative methodological approaches to test if, and how, thrill depends on fear. I use eight high-risk, high-skill, real-life outdoor adventure recreation activities to provide the test circumstances. I present data from: >4000 person-days of participant observation; interviews with 40 expert practitioners; retrospective autoethnography of 50 critical incidents over 4 decades; and experimental autoethnography of 60 events. Results from different methods are congruent, but different approaches yield different insights. The principal findings are as follows. Individuals differ in their fear and thrill responses. The same individual may have different responses on different occasions. Fear boosts performance, but panic causes paralysis. Anxiety or apprehension prior to a risky action or event differs from fear experienced during the event itself. The intensity of pre-event fear generally increases with the immediacy of risk to life, and time to contemplate that risk. Fear must be faced, assessed and overcome in order to act. Thrill can occur either during or after a high-risk event. Thrill can occur without fear, and fear without thrill. Below a lower threshold of perceived risk, thrill can occur without fear. Between a lower and upper threshold, thrill increases with fear. Beyond the upper threshold, thrill vanishes but fear remains. This there is a sawtooth relation between fear and thrill. Perceived danger generates intense focus and awareness. Fear and other emotions can disappear during intense concentration and focus. Under high risk, the usual emotional sequence is fear before the action or event, then focus during the action or event, then thrill, relief, or triumph afterward. The emotionless state persists only during the most intense concentration. For events long enough to differentiate time within the events, fear and thrill can arise and fade in different fine-scale sequences.
Summary
All organisms are exposed constantly to a variety of infectious and injurious stimuli. These induce inflammatory responses tailored to the threat posed. While the innate immune system is the ...front line of response to each stimulant, it has been considered traditionally to lack memory, acting in a generic fashion until the adaptive immune arm can take over. This outmoded simplification of the roles of innate and acquired arms of the immune system has been challenged by evidence of myeloid cells altering their response to subsequent encounters based on earlier exposure. This concept of ‘innate immune memory’ has been known for nearly a century, and is accepted among myeloid biologists. In recent years other innate immune cells, such as natural killer cells, have been shown to display memory, suggesting that innate immune memory is a trait common to several cell types. During the last 30 years, evidence has slowly accumulated in favour of not only haematopoietic cells, but also stromal cells, being imbued with memory following inflammatory episodes. A recent publication showing this also to be true in epithelial cells suggests innate immune memory to be widespread, if under‐appreciated, in non‐haematopoietic cells. In this review, we will examine the evidence supporting the existence of innate immune memory in stromal cells. We will also discuss the ramifications of memory in long‐lived tissue‐resident cells. Finally, we will pose questions we feel to be important in the understanding of these forgotten cells in the field of innate memory.
PDF
