One of the biggest planetary challenges is the accelerating loss of biodiversity threatening ecosystem functioning on a global scale. The WWF Living Planet Report (https://livingplanet.panda.org/) ...estimates a 69% decline in populations since 1970. The Convention on Biological Diversity and related international treaties ask countries to monitor shifts in community composition and assess rates of species decline to quantify extant biodiversity relative to global targets1. However, quantifying biodiversity is a challenge, and monitoring continual change is impossible at almost any scale due to a lack of standardized data and indicators2,3. A common problem is that the required infrastructure for such global monitoring does not exist. Here, we challenge this notion by analysing environmental DNA (eDNA) captured along with particulate matter by routine ambient air quality monitoring stations in the UK. In our samples, we identified eDNA from >180 vertebrate, arthropod, plant and fungal taxa representative of local biodiversity. We contend that air monitoring networks are in fact gathering eDNA data reflecting local biodiversity on a continental scale, as a result of their routine function. In some regions, air quality samples are stored for decades, presenting the potential for high resolution biodiversity time series. With minimal modification of current protocols, this material provides the best opportunity to date for detailed monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity using an existing, replicated transnational design and it is already in operation.
Littlefair and colleagues demonstrate that networks of air quality monitoring stations also collect eDNA as a byproduct of regular operation, which may represent an opportunity to collect high resolution biodiversity data.
Black carbon (BC) from incomplete combustion of biomass or fossil fuels is the strongest absorbing aerosol component in the atmosphere. Optical properties of BC are essential in climate models for ...quantification of their impact on radiative forcing. The global climate models, however, consider BC to be spherical particles, which causes uncertainties in their optical properties. Based on this, an increasing number of model-based studies provide databases and parameterization schemes for the optical properties of BC, using more realistic fractal aggregate morphologies. In this study, the reliability of the different modelling techniques of BC was investigated by comparing them to laboratory measurements. The modelling techniques were examined for bare BC particles in the first step and for BC particles with organic material in the second step. A total of six morphological representations of BC particles were compared, three each for spherical and fractal aggregate morphologies. In general, the aggregate representation performed well for modelling the particle light absorption coefficient Ï.sub.abs, single-scattering albedo SSA, and mass absorption cross-section MAC.sub.BC for laboratory-generated BC particles with volume mean mobility diameters d.sub.p,V larger than 100 nm. However, for modelling Ãngström absorption exponent AAE, it was difficult to suggest a method due to size dependence, although the spherical assumption was in better agreement in some cases. The BC fractal aggregates are usually modelled using monodispersed particles, since their optical simulations are computationally expensive. In such studies, the modelled optical properties showed a 25 % uncertainty in using the monodisperse size method. It is shown that using the polydisperse size distribution in combination with fractal aggregate morphology reduces the uncertainty in measured Ï.sub.abs to 10 % for particles with d.sub.p,V between 60-160 nm.
Measurement of the composition of ambient air has become increasingly widespread over the last 50 years as the detrimental health effects of some air pollutants have become clearer and requirements ...for these measurements has been embedded in national and international legislation. The aim of this has been not only to assess exposure of the general population to air pollutants but also to assess the effectiveness of abatement strategies to reduce emissions of these pollutants at source. With a rich industrial heritage, the Swansea Valley (South Wales, UK) has long been associated with the refining and production of metal products, especially nickel. Despite a decline in output during the latter part of the twentieth century there is still sufficient activity to prompt a requirement for targeted air monitoring in the area. This is most important for nickel where there is a local history of measured concentrations exceeding legislative target values. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of nickel emissions abatement strategies over the last 50 years by tracking the falling air concentration of nickel over this period. It also demonstrates how the monitoring network in the Swansea Valley has expanded over this time and become significantly more sensitive to nickel emissions. The data presented represents a significant public health achievement - it is likely that the exposure to nickel in air of the population in the Swansea Valley has decreased more than 100-fold over the last 50 years - and reflects the progress in regulation, industrial efficiency, emissions abatement technology and air quality monitoring science achieved during this period.
The effect on population exposure of falling nickel concentrations in air in the Swansea Valley over the last 50 years is assessed.
The monitoring of metals in ambient air has been undertaken for over 40 years on a national basis in the UK. During this period, the UK pollution landscape has continued to evolve in terms of ...emission sources, and the measurement framework for metals in ambient air, the UK Heavy Metals Monitoring Network, has also been subject to significant configuration changes. Therefore, this work provides a timely review of more recent concentration trends in the context of current emission profiles. Overall, throughout this time period, there has been a significant downward trend in the emissions and consequently, the measured concentrations of most metals in UK ambient air. Ambient concentrations were generally found to be well correlated with emission estimates. Analysis of the sensitivity of measured concentrations to emissions suggests that concentrations have fallen faster than the reduction in emission estimates would have predicted at typical median urban background sites.
Early Chinese ethics has attracted increasing scholarly and social attention in recent years, as the virtue ethics movement in Western philosophy sparked renewed interest in Confucianism and Daoism. ...Meanwhile, intellectuals and social commentators throughout greater China have looked to the Chinese ethical tradition for resources to evaluate the role of traditional cultural values in the contemporary world. Publications on early Chinese ethics have tended to focus uncritical attention toward Confucianism, while neglecting Daoism, Mohism, and shared features of Chinese moral psychology. This book aims to rectify this imbalance with provocative interpretations of classical ethical theories including widely neglected views of the Mohists and newly reconstructed accounts of the “embodied virtue” tradition, which ties ethics to physical cultivation. The volume also addresses the broader question of the value of comparative philosophy generally and of studying early Chinese ethics in particular. The book should have a wide readership among professional scholars and graduate students in Chinese philosophy, specifically Confucian ethics, Daoist ethics, and comparative ethics.
Media do not simply portray places that already exist; they actually produce them. In exploring how world populations experience “place” through media technologies, the essays included here examine ...how media construct the meanings of home, community, work, nation, and citizenship. Contributors: Asu Aksoy, Istanbul Bilgi U; Charlotte Brunsdon, U of Warwick; Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, York U (Toronto); Tamar Liebes-Plesnar, Hebrew U; David Morley, Goldsmiths, U of London; Lisa Nakamura, U of Illinois; Arvind Rajgopal, New York U; Kevin Robins, Goldsmiths, U of London; Jeffrey Sconce, Northwestern U; Marita Sturken, New York U; and Shunya Yoshimi, U of Tokyo._x000B_
DNA methylases of the restriction-modifications (R-M) systems are promising enzymes for the development of novel molecular and synthetic biology tools. Their use
in vitro
enables the deployment of ...independent and controlled catalytic reactions. This work aimed to produce recombinant DNA methylases belonging to the R-M systems, capable of
in vitro
inhibition of the type IIS restriction enzymes
Bsa
I,
Bpi
I, or
Lgu
I. Non-switchable methylases are those whose recognition sequences fully overlap the recognition sequences of their associated endonuclease. In switch methylases, the methylase and endonuclease recognition sequences only partially overlap, allowing sequence engineering to alter methylation without altering restriction. In this work, ten methylases from type I and II R-M systems were selected for cloning and expression in
E. coli
strains tolerant to methylation. Isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) concentrations and post-induction temperatures were tested to optimize the soluble methylases expression, which was achieved with 0.5 mM IPTG at 20 °C. The C-terminal His6-Tag versions showed better expression than the N-terminal tagged versions. DNA methylation was analyzed using purified methylases and custom test plasmids which, after the methylation reactions, were digested using the corresponding associated type IIS endonuclease. The non-switchable methylases M2.
Eco
31I, M2.
Bsa
I, M2.
Hpy
AII, and M1.
Mbo
II along with the switch methylases M.
Osp
807II and M2.
Nme
MC58II showed the best activity for site-selective inhibition of type IIS restriction enzyme activity. This work demonstrates that our recombinant methylases were able to block the activity of type IIS endonucleases
in vitro
, allowing them to be developed as valuable tools in synthetic biology and DNA assembly techniques.
Key points
• Non-switchable methylases always inhibit the relevant type IIS endonuclease activity
• Switch methylases inhibit the relevant type IIS endonuclease activity depending on the sequence engineering of their recognition site
• Recombinant non-switchable and switch methylases were active in vitro and can be deployed as tools in synthetic biology and DNA assembly
Graphical Abstract
We examine the critical viscous mode of the Taylor–Couette strato-rotational instability, concentrating on cases where the buoyancy frequency
$N$
and the inner cylinder rotation rate
...$\unicodeSTIX{x1D6FA}_{in}$
are comparable, giving a detailed account for
$N=\unicodeSTIX{x1D6FA}_{in}$
. The ratio of the outer to the inner cylinder rotation rates
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D707}=\unicodeSTIX{x1D6FA}_{out}/\unicodeSTIX{x1D6FA}_{in}$
and the ratio of the inner to the outer cylinder radius
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D702}=r_{in}/r_{out}$
satisfy
$0<\unicodeSTIX{x1D707}<1$
and
$0<\unicodeSTIX{x1D702}<1$
. We find considerable variation in the structure of the mode, and the critical Reynolds number
$Re_{c}$
at which the flow becomes unstable. For
$N=\unicodeSTIX{x1D6FA}_{in}$
, we classify different regions of the
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D702}\unicodeSTIX{x1D707}$
-plane by the critical viscous mode of each region. We find that there is a triple point in the
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D702}\unicodeSTIX{x1D707}$
-plane where three different viscous modes all onset at the same Reynolds number. We also find a discontinuous change in
$Re_{c}$
along a curve in the
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D702}\unicodeSTIX{x1D707}$
-plane, on one side of which exist closed unstable domains where the flow can restabilise when the Reynolds number is increased. A new form of viscous instability occurring for wide gaps has been detected. We show for the first time that there is a region of the parameter space for which the critical viscous mode at the onset of instability corresponds to the inviscid radiative instability of Le Dizès & Riedinger (
J. Fluid Mech.
, vol. 660, 2010, pp. 147–161). Focusing on small-to-moderate wavenumbers, we demonstrate that the viscous and inviscid systems are not always correlated. We explore which viscous modes relate to inviscid modes and which do not. For asymptotically large vertical wavenumbers, we have extended the inviscid analysis of Park & Billant (
J. Fluid Mech.
, vol. 725, 2013, pp. 262–280) to cover the cases where
$N$
and
$\unicodeSTIX{x1D6FA}_{in}$
are comparable.
The present research examined personality continuity and change in a sample of young men and women assessed at the beginning and end of college. Two‐hundred seventy students completed measures of the ...Big Five personality traits when they first entered college and then four years later. Analyses indicate small‐ to medium‐sized normative (i.e., mean‐level) changes, large rank‐order stability correlations, high levels of stability in personality structure, and moderate levels of ipsative (i.e. profile) stability. Overall, the findings are consistent with the perspective that personality traits exhibits considerable continuity over time, yet can change in systematic ways.
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