In this article, I investigate the social organising of a process leading up to a Somali single parent I call Maryam receiving a letter from the Norwegian child protection services (CPS). Using ...institutional ethnography, I show how Maryam’s experience is shaped by generalised, objectified understandings that transcend the relations she has at specific points in time; by what Dorothy Smith labels ruling relations. Based on Maryam’s story about the process leading up to the letter from the CPS, but also on documents connected to her case and other interviews with her, I show how she is constructed as a mother lacking knowledge and needing help, and how she is constructed as a suspicious mother when she declines this help – and the role of generalising, objectifying understandings in this process.
•Ecosystem service models are widely used but rarely evaluated with empirical data.•We evaluated the InVEST nutrient retention model across multiple UK catchments.•We investigated model sensitivity ...and performance with alternative input data.•The model was highly sensitive to variation in some input parameters.•The model can give good estimates of relative nutrient export between catchments.
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A wide variety of tools aim to support decision making by modelling, mapping and quantifying ecosystem services. If decisions are to be properly informed, the accuracy and potential limitations of these tools must be well understood. However, dedicated studies evaluating ecosystem service models against empirical data are rare, especially over large areas. In this paper, we report on the national-scale assessment of a new ecosystem service model for nutrient delivery and retention, the InVEST Nutrient Delivery Ratio model. For 36 river catchments across the UK, we modelled total catchment export of phosphorus (P) and/or nitrogen (N) and compared model outputs to measurements derived from empirical water chemistry data.
The model performed well in terms of relative magnitude of nutrient export among catchments (best Spearman's rank correlation for N and P, respectively: 0.81 and 0.88). However, there was wide variation among catchments in the accuracy of the model, and absolute values of nutrient exports frequently showed high percentage differences between modelled and empirically-derived exports (best median absolute percentage difference for N and P, respectively: ±64%, ±44%). The model also showed a high degree of sensitivity to nutrient loads and hydrologic routing input parameters and these sensitivities varied among catchments.
These results suggest that the InVEST model can provide valuable information on nutrient fluxes to decision makers, especially in terms of relative differences among catchments. However, caution is needed if using the absolute modelled values for decision-making. Our study also suggests particular attention should be paid to researching input nutrient loadings and retentions, and the selection of appropriate input data resolutions and threshold flow accumulation values. Our results also highlight how availability of empirical data can improve model calibration and performance assessment and reinforce the need to include such data in ecosystem service modelling studies.
To determine the effects of exercise during pregnancy on the neuromotor development of 1-month-old offspring. We hypothesized that aerobic exercise during pregnancy would be associated with higher ...neuromotor scores in infants at 1 month of age, based on standard pediatric assessment of neuromotor skills.
Seventy-one healthy, pregnant women between 18 and 35 yr were randomly assigned to either aerobic exercise intervention or no exercise (control) group. Women in the exercise group performed 50 min of moderate-intensity, supervised aerobic exercise, three times per week; those in control group maintained usual activity. Neuromotor skills were measured at 1 month of age using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, 2nd Edition (PDMS-2). Unpaired t-tests were used to compare infants' PDMS-2 subtest percentiles, Gross Motor Quotients, and Gross Motor Quotient percentile between groups.
Infants of women in the exercise group had higher PDMS-2 scores on four of the five variables analyzed relative to infants of nonexercisers. Female infants tended to have improved scores relative to male infants of controls; this difference was attenuated in infants of exercisers.
Exercise during pregnancy can positively influence developing systems allowing for improved neuromotor development, thus leading to infants who are more adept at movement, and presumably more likely to be active. Because physical activity is a modifiable risk factor of childhood obesity, these findings suggest that exercise during pregnancy may potentially reduce childhood risk of obesity.
The lipid phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(3,5)P 2), synthesised by PIKfyve, regulates a number of intracellular membrane trafficking pathways. Genetic alteration of the PIKfyve complex, ...leading to even a mild reduction in PtdIns(3,5)P 2, results in marked neurodegeneration via an uncharacterised mechanism. In the present study we have shown that selectively inhibiting PIKfyve activity, using YM-201636, significantly reduces the survival of primary mouse hippocampal neurons in culture. YM-201636 treatment promoted vacuolation of endolysosomal membranes followed by apoptosis-independent cell death. Many vacuoles contained intravacuolar membranes and inclusions reminiscent of autolysosomes. Accordingly, YM-201636 treatment increased the level of the autophagosomal marker protein LC3-II, an effect that was potentiated by inhibition of lysosomal proteases, suggesting that alterations in autophagy could be a contributing factor to neuronal cell death.
The Nordics are known as countries of gender equality. Still, the heterosexual gender and labour division arrangement in the nuclear family to a large degree persists. This particularly seems to be ...the case in Norway. In a Norwegian context, this is also particularly so in the southernmost region of Agder. In this article, I argue that work that is part of the heterosexual gender and labour division arrangement in the nuclear family in today's Norway is left largely unexplored and that the invisibility and silence of this work contributes to the inertia of this arrangement. I use insights and tools from institutional ethnography to explore what I call "breadwinning work" in the everyday lives of men living in nuclear families in Agder. I also explore how certain understandings of breadwinning and paid work have contributed to concealing this work. These understandings underpin social science research, contemporary public debate and gender equality policies in today's Norway. In order to move towards greater gender equality, I argue that these perceptions need to be challenged.
Abstract Background Previously, we reported that regular maternal aerobic exercise during pregnancy was associated with lower fetal heart rate (HR) and higher heart rate variability (HRV) at 36 weeks ...gestation. We now report the effect of maternal exercise on infant HR and HRV in subjects who remained active in the study at the one-month follow up visit. Aims We aimed to determine whether differences in fetal cardiac autonomic control related to maternal physical activity were an in utero phenomenon or would persist 1 month after birth. Study design Magnetocardiograms (MCGs) of infants born to regularly exercising (≥ 30 min of aerobic activity, 3 times per week; N = 16) and non-exercising (N = 27) pregnant women were recorded using a fetal biomagnetometer. Normal R-peaks were marked to derive infant HR and HRV in time and frequency domains, including the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), the standard deviation of normal-to-normal interbeat intervals (SDNN), and power in the low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) bands. Group differences were examined with Student's t -tests. Results Infants born to exercising women had significantly higher RMSSD ( P = 0.010), LF power ( P = 0.002), and HF power ( P = 0.004) than those born to women who did not engage in regular physical activity while pregnant. Conclusion Infants born to women who participated in regular physical activity during pregnancy continued to have higher HRV in the infant period. This suggests that the developing cardiac autonomic nervous system is sensitive to the effects of maternal physical activity and is a target for fetal programming.
Annual maximum lake surface temperature influences ecosystem structure and function and, in particular, the rates of metabolic activities, species survival and biogeography. Here, we evaluated ...50 years of observational data, from 1966 to 2015, for ten European lakes to quantify changes in the annual maximum surface temperature and the duration above a potentially critical temperature of 20 °C. Our results show that annual maximum lake surface temperature has increased at an average rate of +0.58 °C decade
−1
(95% confidence interval 0.18), which is similar to the observed increase in annual maximum air temperature of +0.42 °C decade
−1
(95% confidence interval 0.28) over the same period. Increments in lake maximum temperature among the ten lakes range from +0.1 in the west to +1.9 °C decade
−1
in the east. Absolute maximum lake surface water temperatures were reached in Wörthersee, 27.5 °C, and Neusiedler See, 31.7 °C. Periods exceeding a critical temperature of 20 °C each year became two to six times longer than the respective average (6 to 93). The depth at which water temperature exceeded 20 °C increased from less than 1 to more than 6 m in Mondsee, Austria, over the 50 years studied. As a consequence, the habitable environment became increasingly restricted for many organisms that are adapted to historic conditions.
Prenatal cannabis use is a significant problem and poses important health risks for the developing fetus. The molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are not fully elucidated but are thought to ...be attributed to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main bioactive constituent of cannabis. It has been reported that THC may target the mitochondria in several tissue types, including placental tissue and trophoblast cell lines, and alter their function. In the present study, in response to 48-h THC treatment of the human extravillous trophoblast cell line HTR8/SVneo, we demonstrate that cell proliferation and invasion are significantly reduced. We further demonstrate THC-treatment elevated levels of cellular reactive oxygen species and markers of lipid damage. This was accompanied by evidence of increased mitochondrial fission. We also observed increased expression of cellular stress markers, HSP70 and HSP60, following exposure to THC. These effects were coincident with reduced mitochondrial respiratory function and a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential. Taken together, our results suggest that THC can induce mitochondrial dysfunction and reduce trophoblast invasion; outcomes that have been previously linked to poor placentation. We also demonstrate that these changes in HTR8/SVneo biology may be variably mediated by cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2.
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