Flight is a key adaptive trait. Despite its advantages, flight has been lost in several groups of birds, notably among seabirds, where flightlessness has evolved independently in at least five lineages. One hypothesis for the loss of flight among seabirds is that animals moving between different media face tradeoffs between ...

We present a method for adapting a biologically optimized treatment planning for particle beams to a spatially inhomogeneous tumor sensitivity due to hypoxia, and detected e.g., by PET functional imaging. The TRiP98 code, established treatment planning system for particles, has been extended for including explicitly the oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) ...

Historic data from many countries demonstrate that on average no more than 50-70% of the uranium in a deposit could be mined. An analysis of more recent data from Canada and Australia leads to a mining model with an average deposit extraction lifetime of 10±2years. This simple model provides an ...

Neural activation triggers a rapid, focal increase in blood flow and thus oxygen delivery. Local oxygen consumption also increases, although not to the same extent as oxygen delivery. This 'uncoupling' enables a number of widely-used functional neuroimaging techniques; however, the physiologic mechanisms that govern oxygen transport under these conditions remain ...

The successful engineering of secondary metabolite production relies on the availability of detailed computational models of metabolism. In this brief review we discuss the types of models used for synthetic biology and their application for the engineering of metabolism. We then highlight some of the major modeling challenges, in particular ...

Seven different models of oxygen concentrators were purchased. The manufacturer's data were evaluated by a ranking method for operation at high temperature and high relative humidity, power consumption, warranty and cost. Measurements were then made of the oxygen concentration produced at maximum operating temperature. All the concentrators were CE marked ...

Household consumption, apart from governmental consumption, is the main driver of worldwide economy. Attached to each household purchase are economic activities along the preceding supply chain, with the associated resource use and emissions. A method to capture and assess all these resource uses and emissions is life cycle assessment. We ...

Inhomogeneities in production-scale bioreactors influence microbial growth and product quality due to insufficient mixing and mass transfer. For this reason, lots of efforts are being made to investigate the effects of gradients that impose stress in large-scale reactors in laboratory scale. We have implemented a scale-down model which allows separating ...

In order to optimize the operating points of the dissolved oxygen concentration and the nitrate level in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) benchmark, a data-driven adaptive optimal controller (DDAOC) based on adaptive dynamical programming is proposed. This DDAOC consists of an evaluation module and an optimization module. When a certain ...

Carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a fundamental parameter for ecological models based on the physiology of microorganisms. CUE determines energy and material flows to higher trophic levels, conversion of plant-produced carbon into microbial products and rates of ecosystem carbon storage. Thermodynamic calculations support a maximum CUE value of ~ 0.60 (CUE ...

A bioreactor landfill operated in Sainte-Sophie, Québec, Canada was instrumented to better understand the waste stabilization process in northern climates. Instrument bundles were placed within the waste to monitor temperature, oxygen, moisture content, settlement, total load, mounding of leachate and electrical conductivity. A finite element model was developed to simulate ...

Growing concerns that contemporary patterns of economic development are unsustainable have given rise to an extensive empirical literature on population growth, consumption increases, and our growing use of nature's products and services. However, far less has been done to reach a theoretical understanding of the socio-ecological processes at work at ...

Some pilots flying modern high-performance fighter aircraft develop "hypoxia-like" incidents characterized by short periods of confusion and cognitive impairment. The problem is serious and recently led to the grounding of a fleet of aircraft. Extensive discussions of the incidents have taken place but some people believe that there is inadequate ...

The important biological macromolecule, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) producing Bacillus subtilis was isolated from the marine sponge Callyspongia diffusa and identified by means of 16S rRNA analysis. The central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the PHB production using cheap raw materials such as pulp industry waste (PIW), tamarind kernel powder ...

In recent years, an increase in the number of donkeys farmed in Italy as a consequence of the growing demand for donkey milk for direct consumption has been observed. Some research has been carried out on jenny milk composition and on its nutritional properties, whereas milk production features are scarcely ...

Mitochondrial density in skeletal muscle fibers is governed by the demand for aerobic ATP production, but the heterogeneous distribution of these mitochondria appears to be governed by constraints associated with oxygen diffusion. We propose that each muscle fiber has an optimal mitochondrial distribution at which it attains a near maximal ...

The artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA) were combined to optimize the fermentation process for enhancing production of marine bacteriocin 1701 in a 5-L-stirred-tank. Fermentation time, pH value, dissolved oxygen level, temperature and turbidity were used to construct a "5-10-1" ANN topology to identify the nonlinear relationship between ...

Cloud computing is usually regarded as being energy efficient and thus emitting less greenhouse gases (GHG) than traditional forms of computing. When the energy consumption of Microsoft's cloud computing Office 365 (O365) and traditional Office 2010 (O2010) software suites were tested and modeled, some cloud services were found to consume ...

We introduce a novel ageism scale, focusing on prescriptive beliefs concerning potential intergenerational tensions: active, envied resource succession, symbolic identity avoidance, and passive, shared-resource consumption (SIC). Four studies (2,010 total participants) were used to develop the scale. Exploratory factor analysis formed an initial 20-item, 3-factor solution (Study 1). The scale ...

This paper presents a Gaussian-process (GP) model for the design of sequencing batch-reactor (SBR) control for wastewater treatment. The GP model is a probabilistic, nonparametric model with uncertainty predictions. In the case of SBR control, it is used for the on-line optimisation of the batch-phases duration. The control algorithm follows ...

The development of an Electrochemical System for Oxygen Control (ESOC) for examining algal photosynthetic activity as a function of dissolved oxygen (DO) is outlined. The main innovation of the tool is coulombic titration in order to balance the electrochemical reduction of oxygen with the oxygen input to achieve a steady ...

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a capability to measure the absolute activity concentration of gaseous radionuclides using length-compensated proportional-counting. This capability will enable the validation of low-level calibration standards for use in PNNL's new shallow underground laboratory. Two sets of unequal length proportional counters have been fabricated; one ...

An integrated approach is required to optimise fish farming systems by maximising output while minimising their negative environmental impacts. We developed a holistic approach to assess the environmental performances by combining two methods based on energetic and physical flow analysis. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a normalised method that estimates ...

The partial pressure of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere has increased dramatically through time, and this increase is thought to have occurred in two rapid steps at both ends of the Proterozoic Eon (∼2.5-0.543 Ga). However, the trajectory and mechanisms of Earth's oxygenation are still poorly constrained, and little is known ...

Complex networks of biochemical reactions, such as intracellular protein signaling pathways and genetic networks, are often conceptualized in terms of modules-semiindependent collections of components that perform a well-defined function and which may be incorporated in multiple pathways. However, due to sequestration of molecular messengers during interactions and other effects, collectively ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of extraction conditions (i.e., culture filtrate concentration, extraction temperature, and extraction time) on the removal of metals from chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood particles by using an unknown Polyporales sp. KUC8959. As the first research, a 20-run central composite design ...

Bioelectroanalytical procedures based on cathodic processes are often subject to interference from dissolved oxygen. At the potentials applied for analyte detection, oxygen reduction may occur directly at the electrode or may be catalyzed by the electron mediators or the sensing enzyme of the biosensor. These processes affect the background current ...

Traditionally, physiologists have estimated the ability of organisms to withstand lower partial pressures of oxygen by estimating the partial pressure at which oxygen consumption begins to decrease (known as the 'critical Po2' or 'Pc'). For almost 30 years, the principal way in which Pc has been estimated has been via ...

Disease dynamics hinge on parasite transmission among hosts. However, canonical models for transmission often fit data poorly, limiting predictive ability. One solution involves building mechanistic yet general links between host behaviour and disease spread. To illustrate, we focus on the exposure component of transmission for hosts that consume their parasites, ...

Emerging technologies such as information and communication-, photovoltaic- or battery technologies are expected to increase significantly the demand for scarce metals in the near future. The recently developed methods to evaluate the criticality of mineral raw materials typically provide a 'snapshot' of the criticality of a certain material at one ...

Steel production accounts for 25% of industrial carbon emissions. Long-term forecasts of steel demand and scrap supply are needed to develop strategies for how the steel industry could respond to industrialization and urbanization in the developing world while simultaneously reducing its environmental impact and in particular, its carbon footprint. We ...

For more than 40 y, there has been an active discussion over the presence and economic importance of maize (Zea mays) during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 B.C.) in ancient Peru. The evidence for Late Archaic maize has been limited, leading to the interpretation that it was present but used ...

A landfill operated in Ste. Sophie, Québec, Canada was instrumented to better understand the waste stabilization process in northern climates. Instrument bundles were placed within the waste to monitor temperature, settlement, oxygen, moisture content, total load, mounding of leachate and electrical conductivity. A finite element model was developed to simulate ...

Ectoparasites can reduce individual fitness by negatively affecting behavioural, morphological and physiological traits. In fishes, there are potential costs if ectoparasites decrease streamlining, thereby directly compromising swimming performance. Few studies have examined the effects of ectoparasites on fish swimming performance and none distinguish between energetic costs imposed by changes in ...

Multiple web-based calculators have come on the market as tools to support sustainable decision making, but few are available to agriculture. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has proved to be an objective, transparent tool for calculating environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of products and services, but can often be too ...

Sustainable regional management (development) requires an understanding of interactions between the social, economic, and ecological systems within the boundaries of a region. In this paper, application of emergy (an environmental accounting method) for regional planning is discussed through a case study. Emergy (spelled with an "m") methodology is an environmental ...

Abstract Purpose. To determine whether Transtheoretical Model (TTM) constructs differ between individuals making successful versus unsuccessful stage transitions for consumption of five or more servings of fruit and vegetables each day and thus provide a useful basis for designing health promotion interventions. Design. Longitudinal, observational study. A randomly selected, multiethnic ...

Repaglinide is mainly metabolized by cytochrome-P-450 (CYP)2C8 and CYP3A4, and is also a substrate to hepatic uptake transporter, organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP)1B1. The purpose of this study is to predict the "dosing-time" dependent pharmacokinetic interactions of repaglinide with rifampicin, using mechanistic models. In vitro hepatic transport of repaglinide, characterized ...

Perceived lack of realism in alcohol advertising messages promising positive outcomes and antialcohol and antidrug messages portraying negative outcomes of alcohol consumption has been a cause for public health concern. This study examined the effects of perceived realism dimensions on personal probability estimation through identification and message minimization. Data collected ...

Do mundane daily choices, such as what brands people buy in a supermarket, reflect aspects of values and ideologies? This article presents a large-scale field study performed to determine whether traits associated with a conservative ideology, as measured by voting behavior and religiosity, are manifested in consumers' routine, seemingly inconsequential ...

The purpose was to develop new maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) prediction models using a perceptually regulated 3-minute walk test. VO2max was measured with a maximal incremental cycle test in 283 Japanese adults. A 3-minute walk test was conducted at a self-regulated intensity corresponding to ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) 13. ...

Consumer-mediated nutrient supply is increasingly recognized as an important functional process in many ecosystems. Yet, experimentation at relevant spatial and temporal scales is needed to fully integrate this bottom-up pathway into ecosystem models. Artificial reefs provide a unique approach to explore the importance of consumer nutrient supply for ecosystem function ...

BackgroundOxygen desaturation during walking can have important consequence on prognosis of COPD patients. However, a standard 6-minute walking test (6MWT) useful to detect walking desaturators (WD(+)), can be difficult to execute in some settings of COPD management, as in the community health care service. Aim of our study was to ...

Acipenser schrenckii, the Amur Sturgeon, was a commercially valuable fish species inhabiting the Amur (Heilongjiang) River but populations have rapidly declined in recent years. Dams impede A. schrenckii spawning migration and wild populations were critically endangered. Building fishways helped maintain fish populations but data on swimming performance and behavior was ...

Steel production is energy intensive so already has achieved impressive levels of energy efficiency. If the emissions associated with steel must be reduced in line with the requirements of the UK Climate Change Act, demand for new steel must be reduced. The strategies of 'material efficiency' aim to achieve such ...

Material efficiency, as discussed in this Meeting Issue, entails the pursuit of the technical strategies, business models, consumer preferences and policy instruments that would lead to a substantial reduction in the production of high-volume energy-intensive materials required to deliver human well-being. This paper, which introduces a Discussion Meeting Issue on ...

Hyperoxia is known to cause an increase in the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal that is primarily localised to the venous vasculature. This contrast mechanism has been proposed as a way to measure venous cerebral blood volume (CBVv) without the need for more invasive contrast media. In the existing ...

Packaging materials are one of the largest contributors to municipal solid waste generation. In this paper, we evaluate the material impacts of packaging policy in The Netherlands, focusing on the role of material efficiency (or waste prevention). Since 1991, five different policies have been implemented to reduce the environmental impact ...

Sustaining high quality respirometry measurements on animals for estimating metabolic rate and fuel use is challenging. I present a general discussion and selected methods for automated measurements spanning over >4 months with little need for adjustments or maintenance: 1) Lack of compensation for respiratory volume change may cause 6% error ...

In this work, we develop methodologies for analyzing and cross comparing metabolic models. We investigate three important metabolic networks to discuss the complexity of biological organization of organisms, modeling, and system properties. In particular, we analyze these metabolic networks because of their biotechnological and basic science importance: the photosynthetic carbon ...