Ecological Footprint Inequality across countries: the role of environment intensity, income and interaction effects

Recently, White (2007) analysed the international inequalities in Ecological Footprints per capita (EF hereafter) based on a two-factor decomposition of an index from the Atkinson family (Atkinson (1970)). Specifically, this paper evaluated the separate role of environment intensity (EF/GDP) and average income as explanatory factors for these global inequalities. However, in addition to other comments on their appeal, this decomposition suffers from the serious limitation of the omission of the role exerted by probable factorial correlation (York et al. (2005)). This paper proposes, by way of an alternative, a decomposition of a conceptually similar index like Theil’s (Theil, 1967) which, in effect, permits clear decomposition in terms of the role of both factors plus an inter-factor correlation, in line with Duro and Padilla (2006). This decomposition might, in turn, be extended to group inequality components (Shorrocks, 1980), an analysis that cannot be conducted in the case of the Atkinson indices. The proposed methodology is implemented empirically with the aim of analysing the international inequalities in EF per capita for the 1980-2007 period and, amongst other results, we find that, indeed, the interactive component explains, to a significant extent, the apparent pattern of stability observed in overall international inequalities. Key words: ecological footprint; international environmental distribution; inequality decomposition

Sandfly species diversity in association with human activities in the Kani tribe settlements of the Western Ghats, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Sandfly prevalence in the Kani tribe settlements of Western Ghats in India was investigated. A total of 1,279 sandflies comprising 17 species was obtained. Sandfly abundance showed a negative correlation (r = -0.97, p = 0.003) with increase in altitudinal ranges from 0-1,000 m. When sandfly samples were grouped according to landscape characteristics of the location, the estimated Shannon-Weiner index (H) and species richness index (S) were high and species evenness index (J) was low in settlements located at 0-300 m altitudinal range. On the contrary, the values of H and J were high, while S was low at 301-600 m altitudinal range. With further increase in altitude, species diversity, S and J were low. Though the relative abundance of sandflies decreased with increase in altitude, the influence of altitudinal variation could not be attributed to determine sandfly diversity, since the number of sampling units were not uniform at all the altitudinal gradients due to nonavailability of suitable resting shelters. Sandfly species showed great aggregation at 0-300 m altitude interval, where not only the number of settlements were maximum (n = 19), but also the environmental conditions favoured sandfly abundance due to the concentration of tribal settlements, human dwellings and his activities.

Correlation of intra- and extraepidermal CD8 T cell numbers with development of psoriatic epidermal pathology

The development of psoriatic plaques is T cell dependent. Recently, Th17 CD4 T cells have been proposed to be the main effector cells. However, development of psoriasis is critically dependent on accumulation of epidermal T cells, among the majority express CD8. Here we show that numbers of epidermal CD8 T cells correlated with development of psoriasis in human biopsies, and that blockade of CD8 T cells by depleting antibodies inhibited development of psoriasis in the AGR xenotransplantation mouse model. In human dermis, both CD4 and CD8 T cell numbers correlated significantly with epidermal pathology, indicating a role for dermal CD4 T cells in orchestrating the development of psoriasiform changes induced by epidermis-infiltrating CD8 T cells.

Exploring the environmental diversity of kinetoplastid flagellates in the high-throughput DNA sequencing era

The class Kinetoplastea encompasses both free-living and parasitic species from a wide range of hosts. Several representatives of this group are responsible for severe human diseases and for economic losses in agriculture and livestock. While this group encompasses over 30 genera, most of the available information has been derived from the vertebrate pathogenic genera Leishmaniaand Trypanosoma. Recent studies of the previously neglected groups of Kinetoplastea indicated that the actual diversity is much higher than previously thought. This article discusses the known segment of kinetoplastid diversity and how gene-directed Sanger sequencing and next-generation sequencing methods can help to deepen our knowledge of these interesting protists.

Genetic and environmental effects on early life-history traits in salmonids

Les changements environnementaux, tels la température ou les maladies infectieuses, peuvent influencer l'évolution en induisant de la sélection, mais ceci à la seule condition qu'il y ait assez de diversité génétique pour les traits en question ou pour l'expression plastique de ces traits. Au cours cette thèse, nous avons étudié l'effet de potentielles pressions environnementales sur différents phénotypes de trois représentants des sous familles des salmonidés: l'ombre commun (Thymallus thymallus; Thymallinae), la truite de rivière {Salmo trutta; Salmoninae) et le corégone Coregonus palaea (Coregoninae). Les salmonidés se prêtent particulièrement bien à ce type d'expériences car étant hautement sensibles aux conditions environnementales, ils montrent une large variabilité dans leurs traits morphologiques, comportementaux ainsi que d'histoire de vie, tout en bénéficiant d'un large intérêt général. Nous avons testé si le sexe de l'ombre commun pouvait être modifié par la température, ce qui pourrait ainsi expliquer un changement abrupte de sex ratio observé dans l'une des plus grandes populations de Suisse. Nous n'avons trouvé aucun indice permettant de conclure que la température puisse induire ce changement chez l'ombre commun ou chez la truite de rivière. De plus nous avons étudié la plasticité de développement ainsi que d'éclosion, et avons observé des différences entre familles ainsi qu'entre populations. Alors que ces différences comportementales entre populations suggéraient une adaptation aux conditions environnementales locales, cette prédiction n'a pas été confirmée par une expérience de transplantation réciproque d'embryons entre cinq rivières de la même région. Cette étude a montré que les embryons ne survivaient pas mieux dans leur rivière d'origine, indiquant donc une absence d'adaptation locale. Nous avons aussi montré que la mortalité embryonnaire était influencée autant par des "bons gènes" que par des "gènes compatibles", que la qualité des mâles pouvait être signalée par leur coloration, et que le fait d'élever des poissons dans une pisciculture pouvait aboutir a des relations contre-intuitives entre la coloration des mâles et la qualité de leur jeunes. Nos résultats contribuent ainsi à une meilleure compréhension de l'effet de diverses pressions environnementales sur la morphologie, le comportement ou les traits d'histoire de vie chez les salmonidés. - Environmental changes, such as changes in temperatures or infection levels, can induce selection and drive evolution if there is sufficient genetic variation for the traits or the plasticity in trait expression. In this thesis, we investigated the influence of potential environmental stressors on various phenotypes in representatives of the three salmonid subfamilies: the European grayling (Thymallus thymallus; Thymallinae), the brown trout (,Salmo trutta; Salmoninae), and the whitefish Coregonus palaea (Coregoninae). Salmonids are ideal study species, as they seem sensitive to changing environmental conditions, show considerable variability in morphological, behavioral, and life history traits, and are of broad public interest. We investigated whether temperature-induced sex reversal could explain the sex-ratio distortion found in one of Switzerland's largest grayling populations. We found no evidence of temperature-induced sex reversal in either graylings or brown trout. We also examined plasticity in embryo development and the timing of hatching. We found variation at the level of family and population. Although behavioral differences between populations suggested adaptation to local environmental conditions, no indications of local adaptation could be found in reciprocal transplant experiments carried out over five rivers in the same region. We also demonstrate that embryo development and viability is influenced by 'good genes' and 'compatible genes', that the genetic quality of sires can be signaled by their grey coloration, and that raising larvae in a hatchery environment can produce counter-intuitive relationships between male phenotypes and offspring viability. Our results contribute to the understanding of how changing environmental conditions affect the phenotypes and the heritability of early life-history traits in salmonids.

Is ENP good news for the transfer of environmental norms? Incentives and socialization for Eastern neighbours

The launching of the European Neighbourhood Policy has created some expectations. Cooperation between the EU and its partners is expected to get deeper, to the point that neighbouring countries have been promised to share “everything but institutions” with the EU. Moreover, cooperation is also expected to be broader, as it has been presented as including more and more issue areas. In other words, the ENP has the vocation of being a universal instrument to promote the transfer of EU norms. This paper focuses on one single issue area, the environment, and one group of ENP partners, the Western Newly Independent States and the South Caucasus, to revise to what extent neighbourhood policy can provide the mechanisms to encourage rule transfer. Are incentives and disincentives powerful enough? Can the ENP promote the socialization of neighbours into EU environmental norms?

Spatial analysis of the relationship between mortality from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and drinking water hardness.

Previously published scientific papers have reported a negative correlation between drinking water hardness and cardiovascular mortality. Some ecologic and case-control studies suggest the protective effect of calcium and magnesium concentration in drinking water. In this article we present an analysis of this protective relationship in 538 municipalities of Comunidad Valenciana (Spain) from 1991-1998. We used the Spanish version of the Rapid Inquiry Facility (RIF) developed under the European Environment and Health Information System (EUROHEIS) research project. The strategy of analysis used in our study conforms to the exploratory nature of the RIF that is used as a tool to obtain quick and flexible insight into epidemiologic surveillance problems. This article describes the use of the RIF to explore possible associations between disease indicators and environmental factors. We used exposure analysis to assess the effect of both protective factors--calcium and magnesium--on mortality from cerebrovascular (ICD-9 430-438) and ischemic heart (ICD-9 410-414) diseases. This study provides statistical evidence of the relationship between mortality from cardiovascular diseases and hardness of drinking water. This relationship is stronger in cerebrovascular disease than in ischemic heart disease, is more pronounced for women than for men, and is more apparent with magnesium than with calcium concentration levels. Nevertheless, the protective nature of these two factors is not clearly established. Our results suggest the possibility of protectiveness but cannot be claimed as conclusive. The weak effects of these covariates make it difficult to separate them from the influence of socioeconomic and environmental factors. We have also performed disease mapping of standardized mortality ratios to detect clusters of municipalities with high risk. Further standardization by levels of calcium and magnesium in drinking water shows changes in the maps when we remove the effect of these covariates.

Correlation between TH1 response standard cytokines as biomarkers in patients with the delta virus in the western Brazilian Amazon

Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is endemic in the Amazon Region and its pathophysiology is the most severe among viral hepatitis. Treatment is performed with pegylated interferon and the immune response appears to be important for infection control. HDV patients were studied: untreated and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive (n = 9), anti-HDV positive and PCR negative (n = 8), and responders to treatment (n = 12). The cytokines, interleukin (IL)-2 (p = 0.0008) and IL-12 (p = 0.02) were differentially expressed among the groups and were also correlated (p = 0.0143). Future studies will be conducted with patients at different stages of treatment, associating the viral load with serum cytokines produced, thereby attempting to establish a prognostic indicator of the infection.

Lack of correlation between the optimal glycaemic control and coronary micro vascular dysfunction in patients with diabetes mellitus: a cross sectional study.

Background Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) is associated with cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Optimal glycaemic control does not always preclude future events. We sought to assess the effect of the current target of HBA1c level on the coronary microcirculatory function and identify predictive factors for CMD in T2DM patients. Methods We studied 100 patients with T2DM and 214 patients without T2DM. All of them with a history of chest pain, non-obstructive angiograms and a direct assessment of coronary blood flow increase in response to adenosine and acetylcholine coronary infusion, for evaluation of endothelial independent and dependent CMD. Patients with T2DM were categorized as having optimal (HbA1c < 7 %) vs. suboptimal (HbA1c ≥ 7 %) glycaemic control at the time of catheterization. Results Baseline characteristics and coronary endothelial function parameters differed significantly between T2DM patients and control group. The prevalence of endothelial independent CMD (29.8 vs. 39.6 %, p = 0.40) and dependent CMD (61.7 vs. 62.2 %, p = 1.00) were similar in patients with optimal vs. suboptimal glycaemic control. Age (OR 1.10; CI 95 % 1.04–1.18; p < 0.001) and female gender (OR 3.87; CI 95 % 1.45–11.4; p < 0.01) were significantly associated with endothelial independent CMD whereas glomerular filtrate (OR 0.97; CI 95 % 0.95–0.99; p < 0.05) was significantly associated with endothelial dependent CMD. The optimal glycaemic control was not associated with endothelial independent (OR 0.60, CI 95 % 0.23–1.46; p 0.26) or dependent CMD (OR 0.99, CI 95 % 0.43–2.24; p = 0.98). Conclusions The current target of HBA1c level does not predict a better coronary microcirculatory function in T2DM patients. The appropriate strategy for prevention of CMD in T2DM patients remains to be addressed. Keywords: Endothelial dysfunction; Diabetes mellitus; Coronary microcirculation

Monitoring procedures in environmental geochemistry and compositional data analysis theory

First discussion on compositional data analysis is attributable to Karl Pearson, in 1897. However, notwithstanding the recent developments on algebraic structure of the simplex, more than twenty years after Aitchison’s idea of log-transformations of closed data, scientific literature is again full of statistical treatments of this type of data by using traditional methodologies. This is particularly true in environmental geochemistry where besides the problem of the closure, the spatial structure (dependence) of the data have to be considered. In this work we propose the use of log-contrast values, obtained by asimplicial principal component analysis, as LQGLFDWRUV of given environmental conditions. The investigation of the log-constrast frequency distributions allows pointing out the statistical laws able togenerate the values and to govern their variability. The changes, if compared, for example, with the mean values of the random variables assumed as models, or other reference parameters, allow definingmonitors to be used to assess the extent of possible environmental contamination. Case study on running and ground waters from Chiavenna Valley (Northern Italy) by using Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3-, SO4 2- and Cl- concentrations will be illustrated

Evolution of the correlation between expression divergence and protein divergence in mammals.

Divergence of protein sequences and gene expression patterns are two fundamental mechanisms that generate organismal diversity. Here, we have used genome and transcriptome data from eight mammals and one bird to study the positive correlation of these two processes throughout mammalian evolution. We demonstrate that the correlation is stable over time and most pronounced in neural tissues, which indicates that it is the result of strong negative selection. The correlation is not driven by genes with specific functions and may instead best be viewed as an evolutionary default state, which can nevertheless be evaded by certain gene types. In particular, genes with developmental and neural functions are skewed toward changes in gene expression, consistent with selection against pleiotropic effects associated with changes in protein sequences. Surprisingly, we find that the correlation between expression divergence and protein divergence is not explained by between-gene variation in expression level, tissue specificity, protein connectivity, or other investigated gene characteristics, suggesting that it arises independently of these gene traits. The selective constraints on protein sequences and gene expression patterns also fluctuate in a coordinate manner across phylogenetic branches: We find that gene-specific changes in the rate of protein evolution in a specific mammalian lineage tend to be accompanied by similar changes in the rate of expression evolution. Taken together, our findings highlight many new aspects of the correlation between protein divergence and expression divergence, and attest to its role as a fundamental property of mammalian genome evolution.