The resealing process of lipid bilayers after reversible electrical breakdown

The resealing process of lipid bilayer membranes after reversible electrical breakdown was investigated using two voltage pulses switched on together. Electrical breakdown of the membranes was induced with a voltage pulse of high intensity and short duration. The time course of the change in membrane conductance after the application of the high (short) voltage pulse was measured with a longer voltage pulse of low amplitude. The decrease in membrane conductance during the resealing process could be fitted to a single exponential curve with a time constant of 10-2 μs in the temperature range between 2 and 20°C. The activation energy for this exponential decay process was found to be about 50 kJ/mol, which might indicate a diffusion process. Above 25°C the resealing process is controlled by two exponential processes.The data obtained for the time course of the resealing process can be explained in terms of pore formation in the membranes in response to the high electrical field strength. A radius of about 4 nm is calculated for the initial pore size. From the assumed exponential change of the pore area with progressive resealing time a diffusion constant of 10^?8 cm²/s for lateral lipid diffusion can be estimated.     

Spatial and structural interrelationships between secretory cells of the subcommissural organ and blood vessels

Summary In 76 specimens (amphibians, reptilians, mammals) belonging to 25 different vertebrate species, the region of the subcommissural organ (SCO) was investigated with the use of a primary antiserum raised against an extract of bovine Reissner's fiber+the immunoperoxidase procedure according to Sternberger et al. (1970).In the SCO of a toad (Bufo arenarum) and several species of reptiles (lacertilians, ophidians, crocodilians), the ependymal cells were the only type of secretory cell displaying vascular contacts, whereas in mammals ependymal and hypendymal cells established intimate spatial contacts with blood vessels. In Bufo arenarum, but especially in the reptilian species examined, the ependymo-vascular relationship was exerted by a population of ependymal cells having a rather constant location within the SCO and projecting to capillaries that showed a remarkably constant pattern of anatomical distribution. In the SCO of mammals the modality and degree of the structural relationships between secretory cells and blood vessels varied greatly from species to species. In the SCO of the armadillo and dog the secretory tissue was organized as a thick, highly vascularized layer with most of the cells oriented toward the capillaries. A rather opposite situation was found in the SCO of New-and Old-World monkeys, where vascular contacts were restricted to a few ependymal cells.Supported by Grant I/38259 from the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk, Federal Republic of Germany, and Grant RS-82-18 from the Dirección de Investigaciones, Universidal Austral de Chile     

The supercritical birth,death and catastrophe process: Limit theorems on the set of non-extinction

The skip-free property of the super-critical linear birth and death process with a linear catastrophe component is exploited to obtain an almost sure convergence theorem for the population size without any extra moment assumptions. This completes some earlier work of the author. A proof is sketched of a central limit theorem for the logarithm of the population size. Identification of the form of the norming constants for this result requires estimates of the extinction probabilities as functions of the initial population size. This is related to moment conditions on the decrement distribution.Most of this research was carried out at Colorado State University with the partial support of N.S.F. grant DMS-8501763.     

An Indicator to Evaluate the Thermodynamic Maturity of Industrial Process Units in Industrial Ecology

The article suggests a measure to evaluate the thermodynamic maturity of industrial systems at the level of single process units. The measure can be quantified with reasonable confidence on the basis of entropy production as defined by irreversible thermodynamics theory. It quantifies, for one process unit, the distance between its actual state of operation and its state with minimum entropy production or optimum exergy efficiency, when the two states are constrained with a fixed production capacity of the process unit. We suggest that the minimum entropy production state is a mature state, or that processes that operate at this state are mature. We propose to call the measure "the thermodynamic maturity indicator" (π), and we define it as the ratio between the minimum entropy production and the actual entropy production. We calculated π on the basis of literature data for some examples of industrial process units in the chemical and process industry (i.e., heat exchanger, chemical reactor, distillation column, and paper drying machine). The proposed thermodynamic measure should be of interest for industrial ecology because it emerges from the entropy production rate, a dynamic function that can be optimized and used to understand the thermodynamic limit to improving the exergy efficiency of industrial processes. Although not a tool for replacing one process with another or comparing one technology to another, π may be used to assess actual operation states of single process units in industrial ecology.     

Environmental Risk Assessment of Dams by Using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods: A Case Study of the Polrood Dam,Guilan Province,Iran

A dam's construction always imposes some risks to the environment. In this article, the environmental risks of the Polrood dam, located in a northern province of Iran, during its construction phase, were identified, ranked, and evaluated. The risk factors were initially identified by Delphi questionnaire and then rated using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Subsequently, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to classify the risk factors into four major categories, and Expert Choice software was used to weight them. Based on the obtained results, Physicochemical; Biological; Economic, Social, and Cultural; and Health and Safety risks were rated by the weights of 0.124, 0.080, 0.048, and 0.021, respectively. Among the physicochemical risks, Erosion and Sedimentation weighted 0.061 and 0.047, respectively, were identified as the most serious risks. Among the biological risks, the highest negative impact was assigned to Land Cover with the weight of 0.189. In the third category, the most important risk was Population Displacement, weighted 0.114. Workers’ Falls with the weight of 0.109 was also determined as the highest risk in the last category. A comprehensive risk response plan will be required for dealing with the identified risks and their mitigation.     

Crown dieback events as key processes creating cavity habitat for magellanic woodpeckers

Abstract Woodpeckers are considered keystone species for webs of cavity nesters and habitat and resource specialists that strongly depend on availability of trees suitable for cavity excavation. Most studies carried out in northern hemisphere temperate coniferous forests emphasize the importance of old growth stages of forests or large dead trees as habitat for cavity builders. We present a study of Nothofagus pumilio tree selection by the magellanic woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) that incorporates dendroecological data on long‐term growth trends of trees that provides new insights into the processes that create suitable habitat for cavity excavating species. We analysed 351 cavity and neighbouring control trees in terms of age and radial growth patterns, as well as external tree characteristics. In addition, from a subsample of these trees we developed tree‐ring chronologies for each group using standard methods in order to analyse potential differences in radial growth patterns between cavity and non‐cavity trees. Multivariate models that account for differences between paired cavities versus control trees indicated that growth decline and the degree of crown dieback were the primary variables explaining magellanic woodpecker tree selection for cavity building. In contrast to previous work, neither diameter (above a certain threshold) nor age, were important determinants of selection. Furthermore, trees that became present cavity are those that had synchronously declined in radial growth during the 1943–44 and 1956–57 droughts and the 1985–86 massive caterpillar defoliation. Insect outbreaks and extreme climatic events may episodically reduce vigour, induce partial crown mortality, trigger increased fungal attack and heart rot formation at different tree heights on the bole in a group of trees and thus increase availability of soft substrate and their likelihood of cavity excavation by the magellanic woodpecker. These results underscore the importance of drought/biotically‐induced canopy dieback events in creating habitat for woodpeckers and their dependent cavity users.     

海马神经元ROS和Ca2+对极低频电磁场实时响应的方法研究

现有极低频电磁场(extremely low frequency-electromagnetic fields,ELF-EMFs)生物效应的研究方法是非实时组间对照,这种方法无法排除细胞对电磁场反应个体敏感性的差异,以及实验过程中条件变化的差异.本文提出一种对同一个细胞在同一条件下的前后对照实时观察ELF-EMFs反应的方法.采用稳定域鉴别ELF-EMFs暴露前海马神经元的稳定性,在电磁场加入时刻(t=60 s)分别用0、0.09、0.38、0.76、7.33、14.78 mT的ELF-EMFs作用于海马神经元,实时记录海马神经元活性氧(reactive oxygen species,ROS)和Ca~(2+)荧光响应曲线,建立ELF-EMFs与ROS和Ca~(2+)的自相关函数.结果表明:a.在ROS暴发时间和Ca~(2+)暴发时间,ROS和Ca~(2+)荧光响应具有阶跃性,这是判断实时响应的重要标志;b. ROS和Ca~(2+)对ELF-EMFs响应时间具有延时性,并且不一致;c. ROS和Ca~(2+)对ELF-EMFs实时响应具有剂量性;d.海马神经元ROS对ELF-EMFs响应具有复杂性;e.海马神经元Ca~(2+)对电磁场响应主要是渐进稳定.当ELF-EMFs与ROS和Ca~(2+)实时响应的相关函数大于0.3可以判定具有相关性.由此得出,一种ELF-EMFs暴露下细胞ROS和胞内Ca~(2+)的实时响应方法对电磁生物效应评价是可行的.     

Trunk-Top Relations in a Siberian Pine Forest

In this paper we study relations between trunks and tops of pines in natural Siberian forests. By statistical methods we show that the tops tend to deviate in the direction away from the nearest neighbour tree or from a summary of the trees in a given neighbourhood. In an alternative approach we show that the tops deviate into the direction of the empty space near the trunk position defined by the corresponding Voronoi polygon.