Social Capital and Community Resilience Aldrich, Daniel P.; Meyer, Michelle A.
The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills),
02/2015, Letnik:
59, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Despite the ubiquity of disaster and the increasing toll in human lives and financial costs, much research and policy remain focused on physical infrastructure–centered approaches to such events. ...Governmental organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security, United States Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Agency for International Development, and United Kingdom’s Department for International Development continue to spend heavily on hardening levees, raising existing homes, and repairing damaged facilities despite evidence that social, not physical, infrastructure drives resilience. This article highlights the critical role of social capital and networks in disaster survival and recovery and lays out recent literature and evidence on the topic. We look at definitions of social capital, measurement and proxies, types of social capital, and mechanisms and application. The article concludes with concrete policy recommendations for disaster managers, government decision makers, and nongovernmental organizations for increasing resilience to catastrophe through strengthening social infrastructure at the community level.
Biogas is expected to play an important role in reaching the future energy policy targets of the European Union (EU). The sustainability of biogas substrates has however been recently critically ...discussed due to the increasing shares of agricultural land used for energy crop production.
The aim of this study was to project and map the biomass and biogas energy potential from a selection of potentially sustainable agricultural residues, which have been documented to improve in biogas yields when co-digested in biogas production, for the EU28 in year 2030. The investigated types of residual biomasses were animal manure, straw by-products from cereal production, and excess grass from rotational and permanent grasslands and meadows. The biogas energy potential from the investigated biomass was projected to range from 1.2·103 to 2.3·103 PJ y−1 in year 2030 in the EU28, depending on the biomass availability. Alone the biogas energy potential projected in the scenario representing low substrate availability corresponds to a doubling of the European biogas production in 2015. The results shows that sustainable alternatives to the use of maize are present in all the member states of the EU28 to an extent that is sufficient to ensure a continuous progressive development of the European biogas sector.
•We assessed the energy potential of manure, straw and surplus grass in the EU.•Potentials from 1.2·103 to 2.3·103 PJ y−1 was projected for the EU28 in 2030.•The biogas energy potential corresponds to 2–3% of the average EU gross energy consumption (2005–2015).
Abstract
The Cistrome Data Browser (DB) is a resource of human and mouse cis-regulatory information derived from ChIP-seq, DNase-seq and ATAC-seq chromatin profiling assays, which map the genome-wide ...locations of transcription factor binding sites, histone post-translational modifications and regions of chromatin accessible to endonuclease activity. Currently, the Cistrome DB contains approximately 47,000 human and mouse samples with about 24,000 newly collected datasets compared to the previous release two years ago. Furthermore, the Cistrome DB has a new Toolkit module with several features that allow users to better utilize the large-scale ChIP-seq, DNase-seq, and ATAC-seq data. First, users can query the factors which are likely to regulate a specific gene of interest. Second, the Cistrome DB Toolkit facilitates searches for factor binding, histone modifications, and chromatin accessibility in any given genomic interval shorter than 2Mb. Third, the Toolkit can determine the most similar ChIP-seq, DNase-seq, and ATAC-seq samples in terms of genomic interval overlaps with user-provided genomic interval sets. The Cistrome DB is a user-friendly, up-to-date, and well maintained resource, and the new tools will greatly benefit the biomedical research community. The database is freely available at http://cistrome.org/db, and the Toolkit is at http://dbtoolkit.cistrome.org.
Transcriptional events involved in the development of human cerebral neocortex are poorly understood. Here, we analyzed the temporal dynamics and laterality of gene expression in human and macaque ...monkey neocortex. We found that interareal differences exhibit a temporal hourglass pattern, dividing the human neocortical development into three major phases. The first phase, corresponding to prenatal development, is characterized by the highest number of differential expressed genes among areas and gradient-like expression patterns, including those that are different between human and macaque. The second, preadolescent phase, is characterized by lesser interareal expression differences and by an increased synchronization of areal transcriptomes. During the third phase, from adolescence onward, differential expression among areas increases again driven predominantly by a subset of areas, without obvious gradient-like patterns. Analyses of left-right gene expression revealed population-level global symmetry throughout the fetal and postnatal time span. Thus, human neocortical topographic gene expression is temporally specified and globally symmetric.
Lake Okeechobee, FL, USA, has been subjected to intensifying cyanobacterial blooms that can spread to the adjacent St. Lucie River and Estuary via natural and anthropogenically-induced flooding ...events. In July 2016, a large, toxic cyanobacterial bloom occurred in Lake Okeechobee and throughout the St. Lucie River and Estuary, leading Florida to declare a state of emergency. This study reports on measurements and nutrient amendment experiments performed in this freshwater-estuarine ecosystem (salinity 0-25 PSU) during and after the bloom. In July, all sites along the bloom exhibited dissolved inorganic nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratios < 6, while Microcystis dominated (> 95%) phytoplankton inventories from the lake to the central part of the estuary. Chlorophyll a and microcystin concentrations peaked (100 and 34 μg L-1, respectively) within Lake Okeechobee and decreased eastwards. Metagenomic analyses indicated that genes associated with the production of microcystin (mcyE) and the algal neurotoxin saxitoxin (sxtA) originated from Microcystis and multiple diazotrophic genera, respectively. There were highly significant correlations between levels of total nitrogen, microcystin, and microcystin synthesis gene abundance across all surveyed sites (p < 0.001), suggesting high levels of nitrogen supported the production of microcystin during this event. Consistent with this, experiments performed with low salinity water from the St. Lucie River during the event indicated that algal biomass was nitrogen-limited. In the fall, densities of Microcystis and concentrations of microcystin were significantly lower, green algae co-dominated with cyanobacteria, and multiple algal groups displayed nitrogen-limitation. These results indicate that monitoring and regulatory strategies in Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River and Estuary should consider managing loads of nitrogen to control future algal and microcystin-producing cyanobacterial blooms.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
The surroundings of massive protostars constitute an accretion disc which has numerically been shown to be subject to fragmentation and responsible for luminous accretion-driven outbursts. ...Moreover, it is suspected to produce close binary companions which will later strongly influence the star's future evolution in the Hertzsprung–Russel diagram. We present three-dimensional gravitation-radiation-hydrodynamic numerical simulations of 100 M⊙ pre-stellar cores. We find that accretion discs of young massive stars violently fragment without preventing the (highly variable) accretion of gaseous clumps on to the protostars. While acquiring the characteristics of a nascent low-mass companion, some disc fragments migrate on to the central massive protostar with dynamical properties showing that its final Keplerian orbit is close enough to constitute a close massive protobinary system, having a young high- and a low-mass components. We conclude on the viability of the disc fragmentation channel for the formation of such short-period binaries, and that both processes – close massive binary formation and accretion bursts – may happen at the same time. FU-Orionis-type bursts, such as observed in the young high-mass star S255IR−NIRS3, may not only indicate ongoing disc fragmentation, but also be considered as a tracer for the formation of close massive binaries – progenitors of the subsequent massive spectroscopic binaries – once the high-mass component of the system will enter the main-sequence phase of its evolution. Finally, we investigate the Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array observability of the disc fragments.
Wireless power technology offers the promise of cutting the last cord, allowing users to seamlessly recharge mobile devices as easily as data are transmitted through the air. Initial work on the use ...of magnetically coupled resonators for this purpose has shown promising results. We present new analysis that yields critical insight into the design of practical systems, including the introduction of key figures of merit that can be used to compare systems with vastly different geometries and operating conditions. A circuit model is presented along with a derivation of key system concepts, such as frequency splitting, the maximum operating distance (critical coupling), and the behavior of the system as it becomes undercoupled. This theoretical model is validated against measured data and shows an excellent average coefficient of determination of 0.9875. An adaptive frequency tuning technique is demonstrated, which compensates for efficiency variations encountered when the transmitter-to-receiver distance and/or orientation are varied. The method demonstrated in this paper allows a fixed-load receiver to be moved to nearly any position and/or orientation within the range of the transmitter and still achieve a near-constant efficiency of over 70% for a range of 0-70 cm.
Carbohydrate-active enzymes are found in all organisms and participate in key biological processes. These enzymes are classified in 274 families in the CAZy database but the sequence diversity within ...each family makes it a major task to identify new family members and to provide basis for prediction of enzyme function. A fast and reliable method for de novo annotation of genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes is to identify conserved peptides in the curated enzyme families followed by matching of the conserved peptides to the sequence of interest as demonstrated for the glycosyl hydrolase and the lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase families. This approach not only assigns the enzymes to families but also provides functional prediction of the enzymes with high accuracy.
We identified conserved peptides for all enzyme families in the CAZy database with Peptide Pattern Recognition. The conserved peptides were matched to protein sequence for de novo annotation and functional prediction of carbohydrate-active enzymes with the Hotpep method. Annotation of protein sequences from 12 bacterial and 16 fungal genomes to families with Hotpep had an accuracy of 0.84 (measured as F1-score) compared to semiautomatic annotation by the CAZy database whereas the dbCAN HMM-based method had an accuracy of 0.77 with optimized parameters. Furthermore, Hotpep provided a functional prediction with 86% accuracy for the annotated genes. Hotpep is available as a stand-alone application for MS Windows.
Hotpep is a state-of-the-art method for automatic annotation and functional prediction of carbohydrate-active enzymes.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This is the first updated Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society guideline presenting a consensus for optimal perioperative care in gynecologic/oncology surgery.
A database search of ...publications using Embase and PubMed was performed. Studies on each item within the ERAS gynecologic/oncology protocol were selected with emphasis on meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, and large prospective cohort studies. These studies were then reviewed and graded according to the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system.
All recommendations on ERAS protocol items are based on best available evidence. The level of evidence for each item is presented accordingly.
The updated evidence base and recommendation for items within the ERAS gynecologic/oncology perioperative care pathway are presented by the ERAS® Society in this consensus review.
Abstract Accretion-driven luminosity outbursts are a vivid manifestation of variable mass accretion on to protostars. They are known as the so-called FU Orionis phenomenon in the context of low-mass ...protostars. More recently, this process has been found in models of primordial star formation. Using numerical radiation hydrodynamics simulations, we stress that present-day forming massive stars also experience variable accretion and show that this process is accompanied by luminous outbursts induced by the episodic accretion of gaseous clumps falling from the circumstellar disc on to the protostar. Consequently, the process of accretion-induced luminous flares is also conceivable in the high-mass regime of star formation and we propose to regard this phenomenon as a general mechanism that can affect protostars regardless of their mass and/or the chemical properties of the parent environment in which they form. In addition to the commonness of accretion-driven outbursts in the star formation machinery, we conjecture that luminous flares from regions hosting forming high-mass stars may be an observational implication of the fragmentation of their accretion discs.
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