Trees remove air pollution by the interception of particulate matter on plant surfaces and the absorption of gaseous pollutants through the leaf stomata. However, the magnitude and value of the ...effects of trees and forests on air quality and human health across the United States remains unknown. Computer simulations with local environmental data reveal that trees and forests in the conterminous United States removed 17.4 million tonnes (t) of air pollution in 2010 (range: 9.0–23.2 million t), with human health effects valued at 6.8 billion U.S. dollars (range: $1.5–13.0 billion). This pollution removal equated to an average air quality improvement of less than one percent. Most of the pollution removal occurred in rural areas, while most of the health impacts and values were within urban areas. Health impacts included the avoidance of more than 850 incidences of human mortality and 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms.
•First broad-scale estimate of air pollution removal by U.S. trees nationwide.•Pollution removal was substantially higher in rural areas than urban areas.•Effects on human health were substantially greater in urban areas than rural areas.•Health effects nationwide are valued in the billions of dollars per year.
Air pollution modeling reveals broad-scale impacts of pollution removal by trees in urban and rural areas across the United States on air pollution concentrations and human health.
Scaling trends of FinFET architecture, with focus on Front-End-of-Line (FEOL), and Middle-of-Line (MOL) device parameters, is systematically investigated. It is concluded that the combined ...requirements of device electrostatics together with the demands on contact resistance, presents a Contacted-Gate-Pitch (CGP) scaling limit for horizontal-transport FETs. FET drive is expected to significantly degrade below this CGP ~ 40 nm as a result. Good agreement between hardware data and TCAD simulations is achieved and employed to estimate the contact resistance values for aggressively scaled FinFETs. These observations show that FinFETs scaled below CGP of 40 nm will require the contact resistivity (ρ C ) of ~8 × 10 -10 Ω-cm 2 , while fully ohmic contacts i.e., ρ C of ~1 × 10 -10 Ω-cm 2 will be required if FinFETs are to extend performance below CGP of 30 nm. Ultimately, transition to new device architectures in which contact area is independent of CGP and/or Fin-Pitch will be necessary.
Ethanol misuse is frequently associated with a multitude of profound medical conditions, contributing to health-, individual- and social-related damage. A particularly dangerous threat from this ...classification is coined as alcoholic liver disease (ALD), a liver condition caused by prolonged alcohol overconsumption, involving several pathological stages induced by alcohol metabolic byproducts and sustained cellular intoxication. Molecular, pathological mechanisms of ALD principally root in the innate immunity system and are especially associated with enhanced functionality of the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) pathway. NF-κB is an interesting and convoluted DNA transcription regulator, promoting both anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory gene expression. Thus, the abundancy of studies in recent years underlines the importance of NF-κB in inflammatory responses and the mechanistic stimulation of inner molecular motifs within the factor components. Hereby, in the following review, we would like to put emphasis on the correlation between the NF-κB inflammation signaling pathway and ALD progression. We will provide the reader with the current knowledge regarding the chronic and acute alcohol consumption patterns, the molecular mechanisms of ALD development, the involvement of the NF-κB pathway and its enzymatic regulators. Therefore, we review various experimental in vitro and in vivo studies regarding the research on ALD, including the recent active compound treatments and the genetic modification approach. Furthermore, our investigation covers a few human studies.
Trees remove air pollutants through dry deposition processes depending upon forest structure, meteorology, and air quality that vary across space and time. Employing nationally available forest, ...weather, air pollution and human population data for 2010, computer simulations were performed for deciduous and evergreen trees with varying leaf area index for rural and urban areas in every county in the conterminous United States. The results populated a national database of annual air pollutant removal, concentration changes, and reductions in adverse health incidences and costs for NO2, O3, PM2.5 and SO2. The developed database enabled a first order approximation of air quality and associated human health benefits provided by trees with any forest configurations anywhere in the conterminous United States over time.
Comprehensive national database of tree effects on air quality and human health in the United States was developed.
•National database of tree effects on air quality and human health was developed.•County-level air pollutant removal can be downscaled based on tree cover area.•County-level concentration change can be downscaled based on tree cover percent.•O3 concentration and removal by trees were higher than other air pollutants.•O3 and PM2.5 health benefits were substantially greater than others air pollutants.
Comprehensive national database of tree effects on air quality and human health in the United States was developed.
Carbon storage and sequestration by urban trees in the United States was quantified to assess the magnitude and role of urban forests in relation to climate change. Urban tree field data from 28 ...cities and 6 states were used to determine the average carbon density per unit of tree cover. These data were applied to statewide urban tree cover measurements to determine total urban forest carbon storage and annual sequestration by state and nationally. Urban whole tree carbon storage densities average 7.69 kg C m−2 of tree cover and sequestration densities average 0.28 kg C m−2 of tree cover per year. Total tree carbon storage in U.S. urban areas (c. 2005) is estimated at 643 million tonnes ($50.5 billion value; 95% CI = 597 million and 690 million tonnes) and annual sequestration is estimated at 25.6 million tonnes ($2.0 billion value; 95% CI = 23.7 million to 27.4 million tonnes).
•Total tree carbon storage in U.S. urban areas (c. 2005) is estimated at 643 million tonnes.•Total tree carbon storage in U.S. urban and community areas is estimated at 1.36 billion tonnes.•Net carbon sequestration in U.S. urban areas varies by state and is estimated at 18.9 million tonnes per year.•Overlap between U.S. forest and urban forest carbon estimates is between 247 million and 303 million tonnes.
Field and tree cover measurements reveal carbon storage and sequestration by trees in U.S. urban and community areas.
Anthropogenic climate change has created myriad stressors that threaten to cause local extinctions if wild populations fail to adapt to novel conditions. We studied individual and population‐level ...fitness costs of a climate change‐induced stressor: camouflage mismatch in seasonally colour molting species confronting decreasing snow cover duration. Based on field measurements of radiocollared snowshoe hares, we found strong selection on coat colour molt phenology, such that animals mismatched with the colour of their background experienced weekly survival decreases up to 7%. In the absence of adaptive response, we show that these mortality costs would result in strong population‐level declines by the end of the century. However, natural selection acting on wide individual variation in molt phenology might enable evolutionary adaptation to camouflage mismatch. We conclude that evolutionary rescue will be critical for hares and other colour molting species to keep up with climate change.
Sustainable aquatic resources management requires reliable methods for fish detection in various environmental conditions. Herein, we study fundamental mechanisms underlying the application of ...electrical impedance measurements in this regard. We present results of experimental studies conducted in laboratory conditions using a low-cost impedance measurement circuit, as well as the corresponding numerical models. We also present evaluation results of a newly developed, real-time detection algorithm based on adaptive thresholding. The numerical model was validated by extracting fish tracks in 3D space from the experimental datasets, and then comparing the calculated versus measured impedance values as functions of fish coordinates in time. Numerical predictions closely resemble the experimental data. The detection sensitivity and specificity values determined for various settings exceeded 90%. Electrode width to spacing ratio is demonstrated to be a crucial parameter influencing the system sensitivity distribution. The introduced approach can constitute a framework for designing electrical impedance-based fish counting systems.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy ...targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change mitigation in the municipality of Barcelona, Spain. We apply the i-Tree Eco model to quantify in biophysical and monetary terms the ecosystem services “air purification,” “global climate regulation,” and the ecosystem disservice “air pollution” associated with biogenic emissions. Our results show that the contribution of urban forests regulating services to abate pollution is substantial in absolute terms, yet modest when compared to overall city levels of air pollution and GHG emissions. We conclude that in order to be effective, green infrastructure-based efforts to offset urban pollution at the municipal level have to be coordinated with territorial policies at broader spatial scales.
An electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) method provides information about the crystallographic structure of materials. However, a surface subjected to analysis needs to be well-prepared. This ...usually requires following a time-consuming procedure of mechanical polishing. The alternative methods of surface preparation for EBSD are performed via electropolishing or focus ion beam (FIB). In the present study, plasma etching using a glow discharge optical emission spectrometer (GD-OES) was applied for surface preparation for EBSD analysis. The obtained results revealed that plasma etching through GD-OES can be successfully used for surface preparation for EBSD analysis. However, it was also found that the plasma etching is sensitive for the alloy microstructure, i.e., the presence of intermetallic phases and precipitates such as carbides possess a different sputtering rate, resulting in non-uniform plasma etching. Preparation of the cross-section of oxidized CM247 revealed a similar problem with non-uniformity of plasma etching. The carbides and oxide scale possess a lower sputtering rate than the metallic matrix, which caused formation of relief. Based on obtained results, possible resolutions to suppress the effect of different sputtering rates are proposed.
Hydroxyl radical (•OH) scavenging and the regeneration of Fe2+ may inhibit or enhance peroxidative damage induced by a Fenton system, respectively. Plant polyphenols reveal the afore-mentioned ...activities, and their cumulative net effect may determine anti- or pro-oxidant actions. We investigated the influence of 17 phenolics on ultra-weak photon emission (UPE) from a modified Fenton system (92.6 µmol/L Fe2+, 185.2 µmol/L EGTA (ethylene glycol-bis(β-aminoethyl-ether)-N,N,N′,N,-tetraacetic acid) and 2.6 mmol/L H2O2 pH = 7.4). A total of 8 compounds inhibited (antioxidant effect), and 5 enhanced (pro-oxidant effect) UPE at all studied concentrations (5 to 50 µmol/L). A total of 4 compounds altered their activity from pro- to antioxidant (or vice versa) along with increasing concentrations. A total of 3 the most active of those (ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid and cyanidin 3-O-glucoside; mean UPE enhancement by 63%, 5% and 445% at 5 µmol/L; mean UPE inhibition by 28%, 94% and 24% at 50 µmol/L, respectively) contained catechol or methoxyphenol structures that are associated with effective •OH scavenging and Fe2+ regeneration. Most likely, these structures can determine the bidirectional, concentration-dependent activity of some phenolics under stable in vitro conditions. This is because the concentrations of the studied compounds are close to those occurring in human fluids, and this phenomenon should be considered in the case of dietary supplementation with isolated phenolics.
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