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Freshwater ecosystems are increasingly threatened by persistent chemical pollutants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which pose long-term risks to both ecosystems and human health. Small streams downstream of urban and industrial areas are often underrepresented in monitoring programmes, despite their potential vulnerability to PFAS contamination. Furthermore, environmental r
As humanity faces multiple mutually-reinforcing social-ecological crises, rhetoric on transformations abounds. However, transformations are normative, politically-contested processes that risk perpetuating, or even exacerbating, the ecological and socio-economic crises of today. We argue that transformations should seek to enhance human and non-human well-being within the planetary boundaries; a g
Food systems have enormous impacts on people and the planet, with agriculture and food research becoming strategic for many countries. However, the way this research is conducted and the rise of new agri-food technologies have ethical and socio-economic implications. To address these, many scholars are gaining interest in participatory methods, such as citizen science, but are unfamiliar with the
The carnivorous pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea is native to North America, but has been introduced into Europe, where it is now widespread. Understanding of how this species functions in its non-native range is limited. We measured pitcher morphology and prey capture by S. purpurea in its non-native range in Britain and Ireland. Pitchers were removed from different plants at each of six bogs co
There is increasing interest in the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) for ecological restoration, as AMF can improve plant nutrition and growth. However, some AMF can have negative effects on plant growth. It is therefore critical that restoration strategies incorporate appropriate AMF. This research investigated differences in growth and survival of Podocarpus cunninghamii (mountain tōtar
Plant size is a major predictor of ecological functioning. We tested the hypothesis that feeding damage to plants increases with plant size, as the conspicuousness of large plants makes resource finding and colonisation easier. Further, large plants can be attractive to herbivores, as they offer greater amounts and ranges of resources and niches, but direct evidence from experiments testing size e
To address the problems of climate change and energy security, Chinese government strived to develop renewable power as an important alternative of conventional electricity. In this paper, the learning curve model is employed to describe the decreasing unit investment cost due to accumulated installed capacity; the technology diffusion model is used to analyze the potential of renewable power. Com
This study aims to verify the effect of physically removing the outer surface of contaminated concrete on total contents and on potential mobility of pollutants by means of leaching tests. Reclaimed concrete from 3 industrial sites in Sweden were included: A tar impregnated military storage, a military tar track-depot, as well as concrete constructions used for disposing of pesticide production su
Predictive models used in decision making, such as QSARs in chemical regulation or drug discovery, call for evaluated approaches to quantitatively assess associated uncertainty in predictions. Uncertainty in less reliable predictions may be captured by locally varying predictive errors. In the current study, model-based bootstrapping was combined with analogy reasoning to generate predictive distr
Over the past 30 years a vast number of studies have demonstrated the presence of pharmaceutical residues in the environment. But still knowledge is scarce regarding the interaction of these emerging pollutants with various matrices in nature. A chromatographic system with on-line detection was devel- oped to perform a sorption study of six selected pharmaceuticals to four natural sediments and de
Fish are more sensitive to introduced disturbances from synthetic endocrine disrupting compounds during early life phases compared with mature stages. 17α-Ethinylestradiol (EE2), which is the active compound in human oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapies, is today ever present in the effluents from sewage treatment plants. EE2 targets and interacts with the endogenous biological sy
Ancient DNA trapped in the matrices of ceramic transport jars from Mediterranean shipwrecks can reveal the goods traded in the earliest markets. Scholars generally assume that the amphora cargoes of 5th-3rd century B.C. Greek shipwrecks contained wine, or to a much lesser extent olive oil. Remnant DNA inside empty amphoras allows us to test that assumption. We show that short 100 nucleotides of an
Estrogen receptors (ers) not only are activated by hormones but also interact with many human-derived environmental contaminants. Here, we present evidence for four expressed er genes in Atlantic salmon cDNA - two more ers (erα2 and erβ2) than previously published. To determine if er gene expression differs between two adult life-stages we sampled 20 adult salmon from the feeding phase in the Balt
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the long-term benefits of progressive resistance training in chronic stroke. DESIGN: A 4-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of progressive resistance training. SUBJECTS: Eighteen women and men (mean age 66 (standard deviation 4) from the original group of 24 post-stroke participants. METHODS: The training group (n = 11) had participated in supervised progres
This paper focuses on future scenarios of demand and supply of grain in China. Economic development has been growing at a steady pace for decades and there are no signs of a decline in the near future. Projections of population trends show that the population will continue to expand until 2050, when a levelling- off is predicted. The growth of both population and economy drives industrialisation a
A new fragmentation model for multigluon strings is presented
The old city of Fez, Morocco, classified as Heritage of Humankind by the UNESCO, is subject to an integrated rehabilitation plan running over 15 years. The plan aims at restoring and preserving the economy, cultural value, and social heritage of the old city. The study follows a system dynamics approach to describe and analyze the rehabilitation plan in order to identify the strengths and defects
Various proteases in the brain contribute to ischemic brain injury. We investigated the involvement of the asparaginyl endopeptidase legumain after experimental stroke. On the basis of gene array studies and in situ hybridizations, we observed an increase of legumain expression in the peri-infarct area of rats after transient occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO) for 120 mins with a maxim
An alternative formulation of the Lund fragmentation model for string states without gluons is presented. It is shown that the fragmentation process can be factorised into a product of transition operators with well-defined eigenfunctions and corresponding eigenvalues. The physical properties of these functions are studied and possible applications are suggested. A fragmentation model for multigl
This second edition of the infrared microwindow atlas contains a collection of spectral mi- crowindows commonly used or recently suggested for ground-based, high resolution, infrared solar absoption spectroscopy. These solar observations are aimed at quantifying the abun- dance of trace species in the terrestrial atmosphere. A microwindow is a narrow spectral interval that allows to observe a spec
