Acquiring, managing and applying knowledge for environmental conservation

We are experiencing an explosion of knowledge with relevance to conserving biodiversity and protecting the environment necessary to sustain life on earth. Many science disciplines are involved in generating this ne, knowledge and real progress can be made when scientists collaborate across disciplines to generate both macro- and micro-environmental knowledge and then communicate and interact with specialists in sociology, economics and public policy. An important requirement is that the often complex scientific concepts and their voluminous supporting data are managed in such ways as to make them accessible across the many specializations involved. Horticultural science has much to contribute to the knowledge base for environmental conservation. While it seems that production horticulture has been slow to embrace knowledge and concepts that would reduce the heavy reliance on agricultural chemicals, the use of peat as a growing medium, and lead to more sustainable use of water and other resources, environmental horticulture is providing valuable opportunities to rescue or protect endangered species, educate the public about plants and plant science, and demonstrate environmental stewardship and sustainable production practices. Likewise, social horticulture is drawing, attention to the many contributions of horticultural foods and parks and gardens to human health and welfare. Overall, horticulture has a vital role to play in integrating, knowledge from other scientific, social, economic and political disciplines.

Forum - The Stern review: implications for construction

The SternReview(2006) on the economics of climate change has changed the ground onwhich arguments over climate change are fought. In making the economic case for mitigation over adaptation, Stern has sought to undermine one of the primary arguments against decisive early action - that the immediate costs outweigh the long-term benefits. While this argument is made at the global level, it is appropriate to ask what implications Stern's arguments might have at the construction sectoral level. The implications of the Stern Review for construction can be divided into three main questions. How construction would be different if Stern's economics were applied? How would construction companies act differently if Stern's ethics were adopted? How will the political response to the Stern Review change construction's policy and regulatory landscape? The impact of the Review has shifted the debate from the natural science community into the public policy domain and onto an economic rationale. There seems to have been a pronounced shift away from the debate over the science and towards the economics of mitigation versus adaptation. In this context, the academic debate over Stern's methods is irrelevant - it is his findings, authority and use of the hegemonic power of economic argument that carry the day. This is likely to be Stern's true legacy, and through this will come his greatest impact on construction.

Opening up climate research: A linked data approach to publishing data provenance

Traditionally, the formal scientific output in most fields of natural science has been limited to peer- reviewed academic journal publications, with less attention paid to the chain of intermediate data results and their associated metadata, including provenance. In effect, this has constrained the representation and verification of the data provenance to the confines of the related publications. Detailed knowledge of a dataset’s provenance is essential to establish the pedigree of the data for its effective re-use, and to avoid redundant re-enactment of the experiment or computation involved. It is increasingly important for open-access data to determine their authenticity and quality, especially considering the growing volumes of datasets appearing in the public domain. To address these issues, we present an approach that combines the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) – a widely adopted citation technique – with existing, widely adopted climate science data standards to formally publish detailed provenance of a climate research dataset as an associated scientific workflow. This is integrated with linked-data compliant data re-use standards (e.g. OAI-ORE) to enable a seamless link between a publication and the complete trail of lineage of the corresponding dataset, including the dataset itself.

Divergence Involving Global Regulatory Gene Mutations in an Escherichia coli Population Evolving under Phosphate Limitation

Many of the important changes in evolution are regulatory in nature. Sequenced bacterial genomes point to flexibility in regulatory circuits but we do not know how regulation is remodeled in evolving bacteria. Here, we study the regulatory changes that emerge in populations evolving under controlled conditions during experimental evolution of Escherichia coli in a phosphate-limited chemostat culture. Genomes were sequenced from five clones with different combinations of phenotypic properties that coexisted in a population after 37 days. Each of the distinct isolates contained a different mutation in 1 of 3 highly pleiotropic regulatory genes (hfq, spoT, or rpoS). The mutations resulted in dissimilar proteomic changes, consistent with the documented effects of hfq, spoT, and rpoS mutations. The different mutations do share a common benefit, however, in that the mutations each redirect cellular resources away from stress responses that are redundant in a constant selection environment. The hfq mutation lowers several individual stress responses as well the small RNA-dependent activation of rpoS translation and hence general stress resistance. The spoT mutation reduces ppGpp levels, decreasing the stringent response as well as rpoS expression. The mutations in and upstream of rpoS resulted in partial or complete loss of general stress resistance. Our observations suggest that the degeneracy at the core of bacterial stress regulation provides alternative solutions to a common evolutionary challenge. These results can explain phenotypic divergence in a constant environment and also how evolutionary jumps and adaptive radiations involve altered gene regulation.

Worldwide sequence conservation of transmission-blocking vaccine candidate Pvs230 in Plasmodium vivax

Pfs230, surface protein of gametocyte/gamete of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is a prime candidate of malaria transmission-blocking vaccine. Plasmodium vivax has an ortholog of Pfs230 (Pvs230), however, there has been no study in any aspects on Pvs230 to date. To investigate whether Pvs230 can be a vivax malaria transmission-blocking vaccine, we performed evolutionary and population genetic analysis of the Pvs230 gene (pvs230: PVX_003905). Our analysis of Pvs230 and its orthologs in eight Plasmodium species revealed two distinctive parts: an interspecies variable part (IVP) containing species-specific oligopeptide repeats at the N-terminus and a 7.5 kb interspecies conserved part (ICP) containing 14 cysteine-rich domains. Pvs230 was closely related to its orthologs, Pks230 and Pcys230, in monkey malaria parasites. Analysis of 113 pvs230 sequences obtained from worldwide, showed that nucleotide diversity is remarkably low in the non-repeat 8-kb region of pvs230 (theta pi = 0.00118) with 77 polymorphic nucleotide sites, 40 of which results in amino acid replacements. A signature of purifying selection but not of balancing selection was seen on pvs230. Functional and/or structural constraints may limit the level of polymorphism in pvs230. The observed limited polymorphism in pvs230 should ground for utilization of Pvs230 as an effective transmission-blocking vaccine. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

QCD sum rule calculation for the charmonium-like structures in the J/psi phi and J/psi omega invariant mass spectra

Using the QCD sum rules we test if the charmonium-like structure Y(4274), observed in the J/psi phi invariant mass spectrum, can be described with a D(s)(D) over bar (s0)(2317)+ h.c. molecular current with J(PC) = 0(-+). We consider the contributions of condensates up to dimension ten and we work at leading order in alpha(s). We keep terms which are linear in the strange quark mass m(s). The mass obtained for such state is mD(s)D(s0) = (4.78 +/- 0.54) GeV. We also consider a molecular 0(-+) D (D) over bar (0)(2400)+ h.c. current and we obtain m(DD0) = (4.55 +/- 0.49) GeV. Our study shows that the newly observed Y(4274) in the J/psi phi invariant mass spectrum can be, considering the uncertainties, described using a molecular charmonium current. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Solvent effects on the electronic absorption spectrum of camphor using continuum, discrete or explicit approaches

We address the effect of solvation on the lowest electronic excitation energy of camphor. The solvents considered represent a large variation in-solvent polarity. We consider three conceptually different ways of accounting for the solvent using either an implicit, a discrete or an explicit solvation model. The solvatochromic shifts in polar solvents are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data for all three solvent models. However, both the implicit and discrete solvation models are less successful in predicting solvatochromic shifts for solvents of low polarity. The results presented suggest the importance of using explicit solvent molecules in the case of nonpolar solvents. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoproduction of J/psi and of high mass e(+)e(-) in ultra-peripheral Au plus Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV

We present the first measurement of photoproduction of J/psi and of two-photon production of high-mass e(+)e(-) pairs in electromagnetic (or ultra-peripheral) nucleus-nucleus interactions, using Au + Au data at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The events are tagged with forward neutrons emitted following Coulomb excitation of one or both Au* nuclei. The event sample consists of 28 events with m(e+e-) > 2 GeV/c(2) with zero like-sign background. The measured cross sections at midrapidity of d sigma/dy (J/psi + Xn, y = 0) = 76 +/- 33 (stat) +/- 11 (syst) pb and d(2)sigma /dm dy (e(+) e(-) + Xn, y = 0) = 86 +/- 23(stat) +/- 16(syst) mu b/ (GeV/c(2)) for m(e+e-) epsilon vertical bar 2.0, 2.8 vertical bar GeV/c(2) have been compared and found to be consistent with models for photoproduction of J/psi and QED based calculations of two-photon production of e(+)e(-) pairs. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dilepton mass spectra in p plus p collisions at root s=200 GeV

PHENIX has measured the electron-positron pair mass spectrum from 0 to 8 GeV/c(2) in p + p collisions at root s = 200 GeV. The contributions from light meson decays to e(+)e(-) pairs have been determined based on measurements of hadron production cross sections by PHENIX. Within the systematic uncertainty of similar to 20% they account for all e(+)e(-) pairs in the mass region below similar to 1 GeV/c(2). The e(+)e(-) pair yield remaining after subtracting these contributions is dominated by semileptonic decays of charmed hadrons correlated through flavor conservation. Using the spectral shape predicted by PYTHIA, we estimate the charm production cross section to be 544 +/- 39(stat) +/- 142(syst) +/- 200(model) pb. which is consistent with QCD calculations and measurements of single leptons by PHENIX. (C) 2008 Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.

The imprint of the interaction between dark sectors in galaxy clusters

Based on perturbation theory, we study the dynamics of how dark matter and dark energy in the collapsing system approach dynamical equilibrium when they are in interaction. We find that the interaction between dark sectors cannot ensure the dark energy to fully cluster along with dark matter. When dark energy does not trace dark matter, we present a new treatment on studying the structure formation in the spherical collapsing system. Furthermore we examine the cluster number counts dependence on the interaction between dark sectors and analyze how dark energy inhomogeneities affect cluster abundances. It is shown that cluster number counts can provide specific signature of dark sectors interaction and dark energy inhomogeneities.

A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE ENERGY TRANSFER BETWEEN THE DARK SECTORS OF THE UNIVERSE

We study the mutual interaction between the dark sectors (dark matter and dark energy) of the Universe by resorting to the extended thermodynamics of irreversible processes and constrain the former with supernova type Ia data. As a by-product, the present dark matter temperature results are not extremely small and can meet the independent estimate of the temperature of the gas of sterile neutrinos.

Signature of the interaction between dark energy and dark matter in galaxy clusters

We investigate the influence of ail interaction between dark energy and dark matter upon the dynamics of galaxy clusters. We obtain file general Layser-Irvine equation in the presence of interactions, and find how, in that case. the virial theorem stands corrected. Using optical, X-ray and weak lensing data from 33 relaxed galaxy clusters, we put constraints on the strength of the coupling between the dark sectors. Available data Suggests that this coupling is small but positive, indicating that dark energy might be decaying into dark matter. Systematic effects between the several mass estimates, however, should be better known, before definitive conclusions oil the magnitude and significance of this coupling could be established. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Stability of the curvature perturbation in dark sectors` mutual interacting models

We consider perturbations in a cosmological model with a small coupling between dark energy and dark matter. We prove that the stability of the curvature perturbation depends on the type of coupling between dark sectors. When the dark energy is of quintessence type, if the coupling is proportional to the dark matter energy density, it will drive the instability in the curvature perturbations: however if the coupling is proportional to the energy density of dark energy, there is room for the stability in the curvature perturbations. When the dark energy is of phantom type, the perturbations are always stable, no matter whether the coupling is proportional to the one or the other energy density. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.