Urban and agricultural soils: conflicts and trade-offs in the optimization of ecosystem services

On-going human population growth and changing patterns of resource consumption are increasing global demand for ecosystem services, many of which are provided by soils. Some of these ecosystem services are linearly related to the surface area of pervious soil, whereas others show non-linear relationships, making ecosystem service optimization a complex task. As limited land availability creates conflicting demands among various types of land use, a central challenge is how to weigh these conflicting interests and how to achieve the best solutions possible from a perspective of sustainable societal development. These conflicting interests become most apparent in soils that are the most heavily used by humans for specific purposes: urban soils used for green spaces, housing, and other infrastructure and agricultural soils for producing food, fibres and biofuels. We argue that, despite their seemingly divergent uses of land, agricultural and urban soils share common features with regards to interactions between ecosystem services, and that the trade-offs associated with decision-making, while scale- and context-dependent, can be surprisingly similar between the two systems. We propose that the trade-offs within land use types and their soil-related ecosystems services are often disproportional, and quantifying these will enable ecologists and soil scientists to help policy makers optimizing management decisions when confronted with demands for multiple services under limited land availability.

Evaluation of high-resolution surface wind products at global and regional scales

High resolution surface wind fields covering the global ocean, estimated from remotely sensed wind data and ECMWF wind analyses, have been available since 2005 with a spatial resolution of 0.25 degrees in longitude and latitude, and a temporal resolution of 6h. Their quality is investigated through various comparisons with surface wind vectors from 190 buoys moored in various oceanic basins, from research vessels and from QuikSCAT scatterometer data taken during 2005-2006. The NCEP/NCAR and NCDC blended wind products are also considered. The comparisons performed during January-December 2005 show that speeds and directions compare well to in-situ observations, including from moored buoys and ships, as well as to the remotely sensed data. The root-mean-squared differences of the wind speed and direction for the new blended wind data are lower than 2m/s and 30 degrees, respectively. These values are similar to those estimated in the comparisons of hourly buoy measurements and QuickSCAT near real time retrievals. At global scale, it is found that the new products compare well with the wind speed and wind vector components observed by QuikSCAT. No significant dependencies on the QuikSCAT wind speed or on the oceanic region considered are evident.Evaluation of high-resolution surface wind products at global and regional scales

The effects of flavonoid and other polyphenol consumption on cognitive performance: A systematic research review of human experimental and epidemiological studies

Literature reviews suggest flavonoids, a sub-class of polyphenols, are beneficial for cognition. This is the first review examining the effect of consumption of all polyphenol groups on cognitive function. Inclusion criteria were polyphenol vs. control interventions and epidemiological studies with an objective measure of cognitive function. Participants were healthy or mildly cognitively impaired adults. Studies were excluded if clinical assessment or diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or cognitive impairment was the sole measure of cognitive function, or if the polyphenol was present with potentially confounding compounds such as caffeine (e.g. tea studies) or Ginkgo Biloba. 28 studies were identified; 4 berry juice studies, 4 cocoa studies, 13 isoflavone supplement studies, 3 other supplement studies, and 4 epidemiological surveys. Overall, 16 studies reported cognitive benefits following polyphenol consumption. Evidence suggests that consuming additional polyphenols in the diet can lead to cognitive benefits, however, the observed effects were small. Declarative memory and particularly spatial memory appear most sensitive to polyphenol consumption and effects may differ depending on polyphenol source. Polyphenol berry fruit juice consumption was most beneficial for immediate verbal memory, whereas isoflavone based interventions were associated with significant improvements for delayed spatial memory and executive function. Comparison between studies was hampered by methodological inconsistencies. Hence, there was no clear evidence for an association between cognitive outcomes and polyphenol dose response, duration of intervention, or population studied. In conclusion, however, the findings do imply that polyphenol consumption has potential to benefit cognition both acutely and chronically.

Bridge-localized HOMO-binding character of divinylanthracene-bridged dinuclear ruthenium carbonyl complexes: spectroscopic, spectroelectrochemical, and computational studies

The electronic properties of four divinylanthracene-bridged diruthenium carbonyl complexes [{RuCl(CO)(PMe3)3}2(μ[BOND]CH[DOUBLE BOND]CHArCH[DOUBLE BOND]CH)] (Ar=9,10-anthracene (1), 1,5-anthracene (2), 2,6-anthracene (3), 1,8-anthracene (4)) obtained by molecular spectroscopic methods (IR, UV/Vis/near-IR, and EPR spectroscopy) and DFT calculations are reported. IR spectroelectrochemical studies have revealed that these complexes are first oxidized at the noninnocent bridging ligand, which is in line with the very small ν(C[TRIPLE BOND]O) wavenumber shift that accompanies this process and also supported by DFT calculations. Because of poor conjugation in complex 1, except oxidized 1+, the electronic absorption spectra of complexes 2+, 3+, and 4+ all display the characteristic near-IR band envelopes that have been deconvoluted into three Gaussian sub-bands. Two of the sub-bands belong mainly to metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) transitions according to results from time-dependent DFT calculations. EPR spectroscopy of chemically generated 1+–4+ proves largely ligand-centered spin density, again in accordance with IR spectra and DFT calculations results.

Morphological and fecundity traits of Culex mosquitoes caught in gravid traps in urban and rural Berkshire, UK

Culex pipiens s.l. is one of the primary vectors of West Nile Virus in the USA and Continental Europe. The seasonal abundance and eco-behavioural characteristics of the typical form, Cx. pipiens pipiens, make it a key putative vector in Britain. Surveillance of Culex larvae and adults is essential to detect any changes to spatial and seasonal activity or morphological traits that may increase the risk of disease transmission. Here we report the use of the modified Reiter gravid box trap, which is commonly used in the USA but scarcely used in the UK, to assess its suitability as a tool for British female Culex mosquito surveillance. Trapping was carried out at 110 sites in urban and rural gardens in Berkshire in May, July and September 2013. We tested if reproductively active adult female Culex are more abundant in urban than rural gardens and if wing characteristic traits and egg raft size are influenced by location and seasonal variations. Gravid traps were highly selective for Culex mosquitoes, on average catching significantly more per trap in urban gardens (32.4 ± 6.2) than rural gardens (19.3 ± 4.0) and more in July than in May or September. The majority of females were caught alive in a good condition. Wing lengths were measured as an indicator of size. Females flying in September were significantly smaller than females in May or July. Further non-significant differences in morphology and fecundity between urban and rural populations were found that should be explored further across the seasons.

Variation on the effects of the 2003 CAP reform and regional differences in the Italian olive oil sector

This paper analyses the impacts of the 2003 CAP reform on the production of Italian olive oil controlling for the regional differences in olive oil production as well as for the differences between years. Italian olive oil production time series data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network for the 2000-2010 period at regional level is used to examine the effect of the 2003 Fischler reform on the production of olive oil. Production costs and payments received by farmers to support their income are considered. The data were collected at micro level based on a sample of farms representative of the production systems in the country. In order to consider the differences in production among the regions, eight representative regions in terms of surveyed farms are considered: Liguria, Toscana, Umbria, Lazio, Campania, Calabria, Puglia and Sicilia. We found that the most important factors affecting the production of olive oil are the area under olive groves and labour productivity. Results also show no evidence that the level of payments have an impact to the level of production, however, the type of payments has. Future work should explore the impact of the 2003 reform into the technical and production efficiency of the Italian olive oil farmers. It would be interesting to link the measures introduced by the cross compliance and the management practices of the different farms to have a more complete picture of the various parameters influencing the production of olive oil.

The recuperated materiality of disability and animal studies

This chapter considers a perhaps unexpected connection between disability and animal studies, given disability studies' understandable reluctance to be associated with animal liberation/rights struggles. It finds that both fields remain rooted in ideas of experience and feeling, or the notion of an essential embodied experience, even while they offer up critiques of the way essentialism operates more broadly to disenfranchise or disadvantage the groups they represent. The chapter goes on to analyse what the implications are of this notion of 'embodiment' and the materialism that accompanies it, it foregrounds the contradictions that ensue, and then discusses what this means for the way political action is (and can be) conceived of.

Estrogens, brain and behavior: studies in fundamental neurobiology and observations related to women's health

Mechanisms and consequences of the effects of estrogen on the brain have been studied both at the fundamental level and with therapeutic applications in mind. Estrogenic hormones binding in particular neurons in a limbic-hypothalamic system and their effects on the electrophysiology and molecular biology of medial hypothalamic neurons were central in establishing the first circuit for a mammalian behavior, the female-typical mating behavior, lordosis. Notably, the ability of estradiol to facilitate transcription from six genes whose products are important for lordosis behavior proved that hormones can turn on genes in specific neurons at specific times, with sensible behavioral consequences. The use of a gene knockout for estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) revealed that homozygous mutant females simply would not do lordosis behavior and instead were extremely aggressive, thus identifying a specific gene as essential for a mammalian social behavior. In dramatic contrast, ERbeta knockout females can exhibit normal lordosis behavior. With the understanding, in considerable mechanistic detail, of how the behavior is produced, now we are also studying brain mechanisms for the biologically adaptive influences which constrain reproductive behavior. With respect to cold temperatures and other environmental or metabolic circumstances which are not consistent with successful reproduction, we are interested in thyroid hormone effects in the brain. Competitive relations between two types of transcription factors - thyroid hormone receptors and estrogen receptors have the potential of subserving the blocking effects of inappropriate environmental circumstances on female reproductive behaviors. TRs can compete with ERalpha both for DNA binding to consensus and physiological EREs and for nuclear coactivators. In the presence of both TRs and ERs, in transfection studies, thyroid hormone coadministration can reduce estrogen-stimulated transcription. These competitive relations apparently have behavioral consequences, as thyroid hormones will reduce lordosis, and a TRbeta gene knockout will increase it. In sum, we not only know several genes that participate in the selective control of this sex behavior, but also, for two genes, we know the causal routes. Estrogenic hormones are also the foci of widespread attention for their potential therapeutic effects improving, for example, certain aspects of mood and cognition. The former has an efficient animal analog, demonstrated by the positive effects of estrogen in the Porsolt forced swim test. The latter almost certainly depends upon trophic actions of estrogen on several fundamental features of nerve cell survival and growth. The hypothesis is raised that the synaptic effects of estrogens are secondary to the trophic actions of this type of hormone in the nucleus and nerve cell body.

War and culture studies in 2016. Putting 'translation' into the transnational?

The first issue of the 'Journal of War and Culture Studies' in 2008 mapped out the academic space which the discipline sought to occupy. Nearly a decade later, the location of war, traditionally within the nation-state, is being challenged in ways which arguably affect the analytical spaces of War and Culture Studies. The article argues for an overt engagement with a reconceptualization of the location of war as broader in both spatial and temporal terms than the nation-state. Within this framing, it identifies local 'contact zones' which are multi-vocal translational spaces, and calls for an incorporation of 'translation' into our analyses of war: translating identities, including associations of the material as well as of subjective identities, and espousing a conscious interdisciplinarity which might lead us to focus more on the performative than the representational. Putting 'translation' into the 'transnational' marks the spaces of War and culture studies as multilingual, making accessible the cultural products and cultural analyses of a much broader range of sources and reflections. The article calls for the discipline of Translation Studies to become a leading contributor to War and Culture Studies in the years to come.