This paper shows how, with the aid of computer models developed in close collaboration with decision makers and other stakeholders, it is possible to quantify and map how policy decisions are likely ...to affect multiple ecosystem services in future. In this way, potential trade-offs and complementarities between different ecosystem services can be identified, so that policies can be designed to avoid the worst trade-offs, and where possible, enhance multiple services. The paper brings together evidence from across the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme’s Sustainable Uplands project for the first time, with previously unpublished model outputs relating to runoff, agricultural suitability, biomass, heather cover, age, and utility for Red Grouse (Lagopus scotica), grass cover, and accompanying scenario narratives and video. Two contrasting scenarios, based on policies to extensify or intensify land management up to 2030, were developed through a combination of interviews and discussions during site visits with stakeholders, literature review, conceptual modeling, and process-based computer models, using the Dark Peak of the Peak District National Park in the UK as a case study. Where extensification leads to a significant reduction in managed burning and grazing or land abandonment, changes in vegetation type and structure could compromise a range of species that are important for conservation, while compromising provisioning services, amenity value, and increasing wildfire risk. However, where extensification leads to the restoration of peatlands damaged by former intensive management, there would be an increase in carbon sequestration and storage, with a number of cobenefits, which could counter the loss of habitats and species elsewhere in the landscape. In the second scenario, land use and management was significantly intensified to boost UK self-sufficiency in food. This would benefit certain provisioning services but would have negative consequences for carbon storage and water quality and would lead to a reduction in the abundance of certain species of conservation concern. The paper emphasizes the need for spatially explicit models that can track how ecosystem services might change over time, in response to policy or environmental drivers, and in response to the changing demands and preferences of society, which are far harder to anticipate. By developing such models in close collaboration with decision makers and other stakeholders, it is possible to depict scenarios of real concern to those who need to use the research findings. By engaging these collaborators with the research findings through film, it was possible to discuss adaptive options to minimize trade-offs and enhance the provision of multiple ecosystem services under the very different future conditions depicted by each scenario. By preparing for as wide a range of futures as possible in this way, it may be possible for decision makers to act rapidly and effectively to protect and enhance the provision of ecosystem services in the face of unpredictable future change.
FLASH radiotherapy is a rapidly developing field which promises improved normal tissue protection compared to conventional irradiation and no compromise on tumour control. The transient hypoxic state ...induced by the depletion of oxygen at high dose rates provides one possible explanation. However, studies have mostly focused on uniform fields of dose and there is a lack of investigation into the spatial and temporal variation of dose from proton pencil-beam scanning (PBS). A model of oxygen reaction and diffusion in tissue has been extended to simulate proton PBS delivery and its impact on oxygen levels. This provides a tool to predict oxygen effects from various PBS treatments, and explore potential delivery strategies. Here we present a number of case applications to demonstrate the use of this tool for FLASH-related investigations. We show that levels of oxygen depletion could vary significantly across a large parameter space for PBS treatments, and highlight the need for in silico models such as this to aid in the development and optimisation of FLASH radiotherapy.
Overland flow is an important component of peatland hydrology. Hydrological models of peatlands are being developed that require estimates of flow velocity and its controls. However, surprisingly ...little is known about overland flow velocities in peatlands. Some peatlands have also been drained using open ditches, and these need to be incorporated into flow models. This paper presents field data on the velocity of overland flow and drain flow in upland peatlands. The relationships between flow velocity, vegetation cover, slope, and water depth are explored. Sphagnum provided a significantly greater effective hydraulic roughness to overland flow than peatland grasses. In all cases, a significant break in process occurred for flows with water depths of around 1 cm so that there were two components of the roughness curve. This is consistent with partial submergence theory for very shallow flows where resistance increases with depth as the soil surface first becomes fully submerged. While each surface cover type should be considered separately, the results also suggest that a first‐order estimate of Darcy‐Weisbach roughness and mean velocity can be based on a single parameter for each surface cover. This paper presents an empirical overland flow velocity forecasting model that can be applied to peatlands. The model combines the partially submerged component for flows with water depths below 1 cm with the fully submerged component for flows with depths up to 5 cm, which are representative of the depths of flows that occur across peatlands.
There is considerable interest in how headwater management may influence downstream flood peaks in temperate humid regions. However, there is a dearth of data on flow velocities across headwater ...hillslopes and limited understanding of whether surface flow velocity is influenced by seasonal changes in roughness through vegetation cycles or management. A portable hillslope flume was used to investigate overland flow velocities for four common headwater grassland habitats in northern England: Low‐density Grazing, Hay Meadow, Rank Grassland and Juncus effusus Rush pasture. Overland flow velocity was measured in replicate plots for each habitat, in response to three applied flow rates, with the experiments repeated during five different periods of the annual grassland cycle. Mean annual overland flow velocity was significantly lower for the Rank Grassland habitat (0.026 m/s) followed by Low‐density Grazing and Rushes (0.032 and 0.029 m/s), then Hay Meadows (0.041 m/s), which had the greatest mean annual velocity (examples from 12 L/min flow rate). Applying our mean overland flow velocities to a theoretical 100 m hillslope suggests overland flow is delayed by >1 hr on Rank Grassland when compared to Hay Meadows in an 18 mm storm. Thus grassland management is important for slowing overland flow and delaying peak flows across upland headwaters. Surface roughness was also strongly controlled by annual cycles of vegetation growth, decay, grazing and cutting. Winter overland flow velocities were significantly higher than in summer, varying between 0.004 m/s (Rushes, November) and 0.034 m/s (Rushes, June); and velocities significantly increased after cutting varying between 0.006 m/s (Hay meadows, July) and 0.054 m/s (Hay meadows, September). These results show that seasonal vegetation change should be incorporated into flood modelling, as cycles of surface roughness in grasslands strongly modify overland flow, potentially having a large impact on downstream flood peak and timing. Our data also showed that Darcy‐Weisbach roughness approximations greatly over‐estimated measured flow velocities.
Seasonal vegetation and management influence overland flow velocity and roughness in upland grasslands. Overland flow velocity was measured in four common UK headwater grassland habitats. Seasonality and management were shown to significantly influence flow velocity and roughness. Therefore, these factors should be accounted for when modelling floods or planning Natural Flood Management initiatives.
Abstract
Purpose: Prognosis for patients with glioblastoma (GBM) remains poor, and new treatments are needed. Here we used a combination of two novel treatment modalities: Carbon ions and a histone ...deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi). We compared these to conventional X-rays, measuring the increased effectiveness of carbon ions as well as radiosensitization using HDACi.
Materials and methods: Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) was used at a non-toxic concentration of 0.5 μM in combination with 85 keV μm−1 carbon ions, and 250 kVp X-rays for comparison. Effects were assayed using clonogenic survival, γH2AX foci repair kinetics and measuring chromatin decondensation.
Results: Dose toxicity curves showed that human GBM LN18 cells were more sensitive to SAHA compared to U251 cells at higher doses, but there was little effect at low doses. When combined with radiation, clonogenic assays showed that the Sensitizer Enhancement Ratio with carbon ions at 50% survival (SER50) was about 1.2 and 1.5 for LN18 and U251, respectively, but was similar for X-rays at about 1.3. The repair half-life of γH2AX foci was slower for cells treated with SAHA and was most noticeable in U251 cells treated with carbon ions where after 24 h, more than double the number of foci remained in comparison to the untreated cells. Hoechst fluorescent dye incorporation into the nucleus showed significant chromatin decondensation and density homogenization with SAHA treatment for both cell lines.
Conclusion: Our results suggest a vital role of histone deacetylases (HDAC) in the modulation of DNA damage response and support the use of SAHA for the treatment of GBM through the combination with heavy ion therapy.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Despite the importance of soil processes for global biogeochemical cycles, our capability for predicting soil evolution over geological timescales is poorly constrained. We attempt to probe our ...understanding and predictive capability of this evolutionary process by developing a mechanistic soil evolution model, based on an existing model framework, and comparing the predictions with observations from soil chronosequences in Hawaii. Our soil evolution model includes the major processes of pedogenesis: mineral weathering, percolation of rainfall, leaching of solutes, surface erosion, bioturbation, the effects of vegetation in terms of organic matter input and nutrient cycling and can be applied to various bedrock compositions and climates. The specific properties the model simulates over timescales of tens to hundreds of thousand years are, soil depth, vertical profiles of elemental composition, soil solution pH and organic carbon distribution. We demonstrate with this model the significant role that vegetation plays in accelerating the rate of weathering and hence soil profile development. Comparisons with soils that have developed on Hawaiian basalts reveal a remarkably good agreement with Na, Ca and Mg profiles suggesting that the model captures well the key components of soil formation. Nevertheless, differences between modelled and observed K and P are substantial. The fact that these are important plant nutrients suggests that a process likely missing from our model is the active role of vegetation in selectively acquiring nutrients. This study therefore indirectly indicates the valuable role that vegetation can play in accelerating the weathering and thus release of these globally important nutrients into the biosphere.
Earth is unique in the combination of abundant liquid water, plate tectonics and life, providing the broad context within which the critical zone exists, as the surface skin of the land. Global ...differences in the availability of water provide a major control on the balance of processes operating in the soil, allowing the development of environments as diverse as those dominated by organic soils, by salty deserts or by deeply weathered lateritic profiles. Within the critical zone, despite the importance of water, the complexity of its relationships with the soil material continue to provide many fundamental barriers to our improved understanding, at the scales of pore, hillslope and landscape. Water is also a vital resource for the survival of increasing human populations. Intensive agriculture first developed in semi-arid areas where the availability of solar energy could be combined with irrigation water from more humid areas, minimising the problems of weed control with primitive tillage techniques. Today the challenge to feed the world requires improved, and perhaps novel, ways to optimise the combination of solar energy and water at a sustainable economic and environmental cost.
Woodlands can reduce downstream flooding, but it is not well known how the extent and distribution of woodland affects reductions in peak flow. We used the spatially distributed TOPMODEL to simulate ...peak flow during a 1 in 50 year storm event for a range of broadleaf woodland scenarios across a 2.6 km2 catchment in Northern England. Woodland reduced peak flow by 2.6%–15.3% depending on the extent and spatial distribution of woodland cover. Cross slope and riparian woodland resulted in larger reductions in peak flow, 4.9% and 3.3% for a 10‐percentage point increase in woodland cover respectively, compared to a 2.7% reduction for woodland randomly located across the catchment. Our results demonstrate that increased woodland cover can reduce peak flows during a large storm event and suggest that targeted placement of woodland can maximise the effectiveness of natural flood management interventions.
A new protocol using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) has been developed to identify the deposition order of a fingerprint overlapping an ink line on paper. By taking line ...scans of fragment ions characteristic of the ink molecules (m/z 358.2 and 372.2) where the fingerprint and ink overlap and by calculating the normalized standard deviation of the intensity variation across the line scan, it is possible to determine whether or not a fingerprint is above ink on a paper substrate. The protocol adopted works for a selection of fingerprints from four donors tested here and for a fingerprint that was aged for six months; for one donor, the very faint fingerprints could not be visualized using either standard procedures (ninhydrin development) or SIMS, and therefore the protocol correctly gives an inconclusive result.
PDF
