Natural capital and ecosystem service concepts are embodied in the ecosystems approach to sustainable development, which is a framework being consistently adopted by decision making bodies ranging ...from national governments to the United Nations. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment soils are given the vital role of a supporting service, but many of the other soil goods and services remain obscured. In this review we address this using and earth-system approach, highlighting the final goods and services soils produce, in a stock-fund, fund-service model of the pedosphere. We also argue that focusing on final goods and services will be counterproductive in the long run and emphasize that final goods and services are derived from an ecosystem supply chain that relies on ecological infrastructure. We propose that an appropriate ecosystems framework for soils should incorporate soil stocks (natural capital) showing their contribution to stock-flows and emergent fund-services as part of the supply chain. By so doing, an operational ecosystems concept for soils can draw on much more supporting data on soil stocks as demonstrated in a case study with soils data from England and Wales showing stocks, gaps in monitoring and drivers of change. Although the focus of this review is on soils, we believe the earth-system approach and principles of the ecosystem supply chain are widely applicable to the ecosystems approach and bring clarity in terms of where goods and services are derived from.
► We critically review natural capital and ecosystem service concepts for soil science. ► We present a new soil framework based on the stock-flow, fund-service concepts and the ecosystem supply chain. ► We identify explicit soil provisioning goods and emergent ecosystem services soils provide. ► We present a synthesis of soil data for England and Wales within the soil ecosystem service framework.
The standard model for the origin of galactic magnetic fields is through the amplification of seed fields via dynamo or turbulent processes to the level consistent with present observations. Although ...other mechanisms may also operate, currents from misaligned pressure and temperature gradients (the Biermann battery process) inevitably accompany the formation of galaxies in the absence of a primordial field. Driven by geometrical asymmetries in shocks associated with the collapse of protogalactic structures, the Biermann battery is believed to generate tiny seed fields to a level of about 10(-21) gauss (refs 7, 8). With the advent of high-power laser systems in the past two decades, a new area of research has opened in which, using simple scaling relations, astrophysical environments can effectively be reproduced in the laboratory. Here we report the results of an experiment that produced seed magnetic fields by the Biermann battery effect. We show that these results can be scaled to the intergalactic medium, where turbulence, acting on timescales of around 700 million years, can amplify the seed fields sufficiently to affect galaxy evolution.
: Nonenzymatic deamidation rates for 52 glutaminyl and 52 asparaginyl pentapeptides in pH 7.4, 37.0 °C. 0.15 m Tris‐HCl buffer have been determined by direct injection mass spectrometry. These and ...the previously reported 306 asparginyl rates have been combined in a self‐consistent model for peptide deamidation. This model depends quantitatively upon peptide structure and involves succinimide, glutarimide and hydrolysis mechanisms. The experimental values and suitable interpolated values have been combined to provide deamidation rate values in pH 7.4, 37.0 °C. 0.15 m Tris‐HCl buffer for the entire set of 648 single‐amide permutations of ordinary amino acid residues in GlyXxxAsnYyyGly and GlyXxxGlnYyyGly. Thus, knowledge about sequence‐dependent deamidation in peptides is extended to include very long deamidation half‐times in the range of 2–50 years.
Abstract
Materials with strongly correlated electrons often exhibit interesting physical properties. An example of these materials is the layered oxide perovskite Sr
2
RuO
4
, which has been ...intensively investigated due to its unusual properties. Whilst the debate on the symmetry of the superconducting state in Sr
2
RuO
4
is still ongoing, a deeper understanding of the Sr
2
RuO
4
normal state appears crucial as this is the background in which electron pairing occurs. Here, by using low-energy muon spin spectroscopy we discover the existence of surface magnetism in Sr
2
RuO
4
in its normal state. We detect static weak dipolar fields yet manifesting at an onset temperature higher than 50 K. We ascribe this unconventional magnetism to orbital loop currents forming at the reconstructed Sr
2
RuO
4
surface. Our observations set a reference for the discovery of the same magnetic phase in other materials and unveil an electronic ordering mechanism that can influence electron pairing with broken time reversal symmetry.
Background:
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely integrated into cancer care in China. An overview in 2011 identified 2384 randomized and non-randomized controlled trials (RCTs, non-RCTs) on ...TCM for cancer published in the Chinese literature. This article summarizes updated evidence of RCTs on TCM for cancer care.
Methods:
We searched 4 main Chinese databases: China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, SinoMed, and Wanfang. RCTs on TCM used in cancer care were analyzed in this bibliometric study.
Results:
Of 5834 RCTs (477 157 cancer patients), only 62 RCTs were indexed in MEDLINE. The top 3 cancers treated were lung, stomach, and breast cancer. About 4752 RCTs (81.45%) tested TCM combined with conventional treatment, and 1082 RCTs (18.55%) used TCM alone for treating symptoms and side-effects. Herbal medicine was the most frequently used TCM modality (5087 RCTs; 87.20%). The most frequently reported outcome was symptom improvement (3712 RCTs; 63.63%) followed by quality of life (2725 RCTs; 46.71%), and biomarkers (2384 RCTs; 40.86%). The majority of RCTs (4051; 69.44%) concluded there were beneficial effects using either TCM alone or TCM plus conventional treatment compared with conventional treatment.
Conclusion:
Substantial randomized trials demonstrated different types/stages of cancer were treated by various TCM modalities, alone or in combination with conventional medicine. Further evaluation on the effects and safety of TCM modalities focusing on outcomes such as quality of life is required.
Photosynthetic production of organic matter by microscopic oceanic phytoplankton fuels ocean ecosystems and contributes roughly half of the Earth's net primary production. For 13years, the ...Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) mission provided the first consistent, synoptic observations of global ocean ecosystems. Changes in the surface chlorophyll concentration, the primary biological property retrieved from SeaWiFS, have traditionally been used as a metric for phytoplankton abundance and its distribution largely reflects patterns in vertical nutrient transport. On regional to global scales, chlorophyll concentrations covary with sea surface temperature (SST) because SST changes reflect light and nutrient conditions. However, the ocean may be too complex to be well characterized using a single index such as the chlorophyll concentration. A semi-analytical bio-optical algorithm is used to help interpret regional to global SeaWiFS chlorophyll observations from using three independent, well-validated ocean color data products; the chlorophyll a concentration, absorption by CDM and particulate backscattering. First, we show that observed long-term, global-scale trends in standard chlorophyll retrievals are likely compromised by coincident changes in CDM. Second, we partition the chlorophyll signal into a component due to phytoplankton biomass changes and a component caused by physiological adjustments in intracellular chlorophyll concentrations to changes in mixed layer light levels. We show that biomass changes dominate chlorophyll signals for the high latitude seas and where persistent vertical upwelling is known to occur, while physiological processes dominate chlorophyll variability over much of the tropical and subtropical oceans. The SeaWiFS data set demonstrates complexity in the interpretation of changes in regional to global phytoplankton distributions and illustrates limitations for the assessment of phytoplankton dynamics using chlorophyll retrievals alone.
•Evaluation of the SeaWiFS climate data record of chlorophyll concentrations.•Colored dissolved organic matter obfuscates the empirical retrieval of chlorophyll.•Global trends and patterns depend on the choice of bio-optical model used.•Chlorophyll changes reflects both phytoplankton biomass and physiological changes.•The SeaWiFS mission laid out a blueprint for future satellite ocean color missions.
Circadian rhythms enable organisms to co-ordinate biological processes with the predictable 24h cycle of day and night. Given that molecular clocks that coordinate such biological timing have evolved ...in almost all organisms, it is clear that being synchronous with the external environment confers competitive advantage. Conversely, it is apparent that being out of phase is detrimental, resulting in a number of clinical conditions, many of which are linked to metabolic dysfunction. The canonical clockwork involves a core set of genes that negatively regulate themselves through a so-called transcription translation feedback loop. However, recent studies describing evolutionarily conserved oscillations in redox reactions link circadian rhythms to metabolic processes, and in particular, redox pathways. In this review we describe the evidence for the interaction between transcriptional loops, redox and metabolism in mammals and suggest the clock may be potential target for the treatment of disease.
Finfish aquaculture commonly releases waste material in the form of excess feed and faeces, which can impact the surrounding environment, often through increased oxygen demand in the benthos as a ...result of a buildup of organic matter. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) in the Bay of Fundy co-cultures extractive species such as mussels (Mytilus edulis) and kelps (Saccharina latissima) alongside of the fed finfish to partially mitigate the impacts associated with excess inorganic and organic nutrients. The orange-footed sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) is being examined as a potential extractive species to remove additional particulate organic waste in some of the larger particle size categories. Sea cucumbers were exposed to natural (IMTA sites and natural seston) particles and enhanced laboratory diets where the organic content (OC) of the food and faeces were determined to estimate absorption efficiency (AE). AE ranged between 68 and 85% for all the experimental trials but averaged 70±3% when evaluating their response to only the natural diets. Sea cucumbers were capable of consuming aquaculture waste material when exposed to it in the laboratory and when deployed at an IMTA site, feeding directly upon the particulates released. There was a strong positive relationship (R2=0.82) between food and faeces OC, making it possible to predict the faecal OC from the food supply OC. AE was not as readily predictable from the food supply OC although there was a significant positive relationship between food OC and AE. Sea cucumbers are efficient in absorbing organic material (70±3%) within the range (>30 and <50% OC) they are typically exposed to in their natural environment. When challenged with particulate material of higher organic content (>60% OC), such as cultured microalgae or salmon food and faeces they exhibit equal or enhanced (>80%) AE's. Our results show that C. frondosa has a great deal of potential to become an effective organic extractive IMTA species and aid in the reduction of organic loading occurring at aquaculture sites.
► Absorption efficiency measured in suspension-feeding sea cucumber. ► Sea cucumbers can consume aquaculture waste particulates. ► Organic material was efficiently extracted from natural and aquaculture particles. ► Sea cucumbers C. frondosa have potential as effective extractive IMTA species.
Many different algorithms have been developed in the last few decades for solving complex real-world search and optimization problems. The main focus in this research has been on the development of a ...single universal genetic operator for population evolution that is always efficient for a diverse set of optimization problems. In this paper, we argue that significant advances to the field of evolutionary computation can be made if we embrace a concept of self-adaptive multimethod optimization in which multiple different search algorithms are run concurrently, and learn from each other through information exchange using a common population of points. We present an evolutionary algorithm, entitled A Multialgorithm Genetically Adaptive Method for Single Objective Optimization (AMALGAM-SO), that implements this concept of self adaptive multimethod search. This method simultaneously merges the strengths of the covariance matrix adaptation (CMA) evolution strategy, genetic algorithm (GA), and particle swarm optimizer (PSO) for population evolution and implements a self-adaptive learning strategy to automatically tune the number of offspring these three individual algorithms are allowed to contribute during each generation. Benchmark results in 10, 30, and 50 dimensions using synthetic functions from the special session on real-parameter optimization of CEC 2005 show that AMALGAM-SO obtains similar efficiencies as existing algorithms on relatively simple unimodal problems, but is superior for more complex higher dimensional multimodal optimization problems. The new search method scales well with increasing number of dimensions, converges in the close proximity of the global minimum for functions with noise induced multimodality, and is designed to take full advantage of the power of distributed computer networks.
PDF
