The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and its watershed includes river drainages in six states and the District of Columbia. Sportfishing is of major economic interest, ...however, the rivers within the watershed provide numerous other ecological, recreational, cultural and economic benefits, as well as serving as a drinking water source for millions of people. Consequently, major fish kills and the subsequent finding of estrogenic endocrine disruption (intersex or testicular oocytes and plasma vitellogenin in male fishes) raised public and management concerns. Studies have occurred at various sites within the Bay watershed to document the extent and severity of endocrine disruption, identify risk factors and document temporal and spatial variability. Data from these focal studies, which began in 2004, were used in CART (classification and regression trees) analyses to better identify land use associations and potential management practices that influence estrogenic endocrine disruption. These analyses emphasized the importance of scale (immediate versus upstream catchment) and the complex mixtures of stressors which can contribute to surface water estrogenicity and the associated adverse effects of exposure. Both agricultural (percent cultivated, pesticide application, phytoestrogen cover crops) and developed (population density, road density, impervious surface) land cover showed positive relationships to estrogenic indicators, while percent forest and shrubs generally had a negative association. The findings can serve as a baseline for assessing ongoing restoration and management practices.
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•Estrogenic endocrine disruption is widespread within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.•Correlation and Regression Tree (CART) models illustrated land use associations.•Scale matters: upstream and immediate catchment models differed.•Indicator matters: estrogencity versus testicular oocytes and vitellogenin in male bass.
Reja domačih živali je ljudi od nekdaj fascinirala, z njo pa so se ukvarjali različni strokovnjaki in znanosti. V pričujočem članku skušam rezultate s terenskega dela na specifičnem primeru reje ...slovenskega toplokrvnega konja umestiti v širši kontekst reje domačih živali in rejstva nasploh. Z dodatno pomočjo teoretskih spoznanj osvetlim nekatere koncepte, kot so pasma, čistokrvnost, hibridnost in prilagoditev. Ti so vzporedno z velikim navdušenjem nad preučevanjem odnosov med ljudmi in živalmi še velikokrat nezadostno pojasnjeni.
This work is concerned with both theoretical studies and the experimental developments of a plasma device to be used in plasma-based accelerators. In the field of the particle accelerators is growing ...the interest in the development of compact accelerator machines that also have to be able to exceed the current limits of the conventional accelerator structures. This research activity is leading towards plasma-based devices able to produce accelerating gradients in the GV/m scale. The activity of the SPARC_LAB test-facility concerns the development of this kind of plasma devices, as the gas-filled capillary plasma sources. In these devices, to create the plasma, one or more gas inlets feed the channel with a neutral gas (hydrogen, argon, nitrogen, etc.), which will be ionized by using a high-voltage discharge. The plasma plumes produced at the ends of such a capillary can affect the beam, due to the stability and uniformity of the electron density in which in these areas decrease strongly and, consequently, the beam emittance can degrade. A study on the plasma plumes formation presented here, where also a possible solution based on the capillary shape modifications proposed to optimize the density profile at the ends.
Background The study was done in three villages in Nueva Ecija, Philippines. It surveys farmers’ belief system and pesticide practices relative to health and safety. Methods Initially it used a ...simulated market study on willingness to pay for personal protective equipment in the form of gloves and masks. Then a combination of semi-structured, formal, informal, and key-informant interviews, as well as focus groups, and field observations was done intermittently in a span of approximately 12 years. Results The farmers perceive illness in terms of inability to function. Pesticide to them may not be a threat because (i) they are immune, (ii) it is regarded as a medicine that is needed by the plants rather than poison, and (iii) exposure is only through inhalation and ingestion not through dermal contact. Added to that, they put value on pasma, and try to prevent it at the cost of exposure to pesticides. These perceptions lead to their practices showing inadequate protection. Conclusion There is the need for more health education programs that tap farmers’ belief system and cognitive categories to stress the need for precautions.
Abstract Atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome is a rare disease associated which genetic or acquired factors those cause defective regulation of the alternative complement pathway. We report the case ...of a 46-year-old woman who presented with thrombotic microangiopathy coinciding with a monocyclic evolution of adult-onset Still’s disease. Low C3 with decreased FB concentration, associated with normal C4 was present until the thrombotic microangiopathy’s resolution, indicative of an excessive production of alternative C3 convertase. She responded to plasma exchange. This observation reinforces the hypothesis for a common pathway in the pathogenesis for both of the diseases, and suggests alternative complement pathway mediation.
The results of a study of shock wave (SW) generation by means of underwater electrical wire explosion with different exploding wire configurations and two high-current microsecond and submicrosecond ...timescale generators are presented. By using aperiodical generator discharge, a ~85% and ~15% of the stored electrical energy was transferred to the exploding wire and energy of the generated water flow, respectively. The energy of the water flow is distributed between its internal (~25%) and kinetic (~75%) energies. It was shown that the exploding wire zigzag configuration, confinement of the SW propagation region, and an increase in the rate of the energy deposition into the exploding wire allow one to increase the SW pressure ges10 times that attained with microsecond timescale straight wire explosion. The averaged thermophysical properties of nonideal and weakly degenerated plasma formed as a result of the wire explosion were obtained and summarized.
V naši raziskavi smo pri konjih haflinške pasme v Sloveniji za lastnosti zunanjosti ocenjevali komponente (ko)varianc. V podatkovni zbirki je bilo skupaj 3371 živali, od tega smo jih v raziskavo ...vključili 600 (15 žrebcev in 585 kobil). Živali, ki smo jih vključili v analizo, so imele zapise desetih ocen in/ali devetih meritev ter znanega vsaj enega od staršev. Model je za vse ocenjene in izmerjene lastnosti vseboval leto ocenjevanja in/ali merjenja kot sistematski vpliv in naključni vpliv živali. Uporabili smo metodo omejene največje zanesljivosti (REML) v programu VCE. Pozitivno definitne matrike smo dobili s pomočjo postopka, ki se imenuje ukrivljanje matrik (ang. bending). Za ocenjene lastnosti so znašale heritabilitete od 0,40 za prednji del trupa do 0,78 za pasemsko značilnost. Heritabilitete za izmerjene lastnosti so se gibale med 0,20 za globino prsi in 0,62 za višino vihra, merjeno s palico. Genetske korelacije so bile v večini pozitivne. Najvišja genetska korelacija pri ocenjenih lastnostih je 0,92 med skupno oceno in zadnjim delom trupa. Med oceno pasemske značilnosti in oceno prednjih nog korelacije ni bilo. Pri izmerjenih lastnostih so bile genetske korelacije ocenjene od 0,38 med dolžino trupa in obsegom prsi do 0,95 med višino vihra, merjeno s palico in višino vihra, merjeno s trakom.
An investigation of plasma-polymers of hexamethyldisilane and oxygen was conducted, to allow optimization of the interfaces and surfaces of these plasma-polymers. For this study galvanized steel was ...used as a substrate. During this work the chemical structure (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy), morphology (atomic force microscopy) and water contact angles of films deposited at different pressures and oxygen partial pressures were measured. These studies have shown that gas pressure and oxygen partial pressure can be used independently to determine the surface roughness of plasma polymer films derived from hexamethyldisilane (HMDS). At high pressures and low oxygen partial pressures roughness of the films increased. The roughness is then also shown to determine the water contact angle within a certain range of oxygen concentrations although the chemical structure of the films changed. With a high roughness a contact angle of 160° was observed. The roughness was determined only by the plasma-polymer layer. Despite this high contact angle the samples could be painted; the adhesion of rough films onto the substrate was, however, reduced.
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