Simulating the response of land-cover changes to road paving and governance along a major Amazon highway: the Santarém–Cuiabá corridor

The spatial distribution of human activities in forest frontier regions is strongly influenced by transportation infrastructure. With the planned paving of 6000 km of highway in the Amazon Basin, agricultural frontier expansion will follow, triggering potentially large changes in the location and rate of deforestation. We developed a land‐cover change simulation model that is responsive to road paving and policy intervention scenarios for the BR‐163 highway in central Amazonia. This corridor links the cities of Cuiabá, in central Brazil, and Santarém, on the southern margin of the Amazon River. It connects important soybean production regions and burgeoning population centers in Mato Grosso State with the international port of Santarém, but 1000 km of this road are still not paved. It is within this context that the Brazilian government has prioritized the paving of this road to turn it into a major soybean exportation facility. The model assesses the impacts of this road paving within four scenarios: two population scenarios (high and moderate growth) and two policy intervention scenarios. In the ‘business‐as‐usual’ policy scenario, the responses of deforestation and land abandonment to road paving are estimated based on historical rates of Amazon regions that had a major road paved. In the ‘governance’ scenario, several plausible improvements in the enforcement of environmental regulations, support for sustainable land‐use systems, and local institutional capacity are invoked to modify the historical rates. Model inputs include data collected during expeditions and through participatory mapping exercises conducted with agents from four major frontier types along the road. The model has two components. A scenario‐generating submodel is coupled to a landscape dynamics simulator, ‘DINAMICA’, which spatially allocates the land‐cover transitions using a GIS database. The model was run for 30 years, divided into annual time steps. It predicted more than twice as much deforestation along the corridor in business‐as‐usual vs. governance scenarios. The model demonstrates how field data gathered along a 1000 km corridor can be used to develop plausible scenarios of future land‐cover change trajectories that are relevant to both global change science and the decision‐making process of governments and civil society in an important rainforest region.     

An atlas of human kinase regulation

The coordinated regulation of protein kinases is a rapid mechanism that integrates diverse cues and swiftly determines appropriate cellular responses. However, our understanding of cellular decision‐making has been limited by the small number of simultaneously monitored phospho‐regulatory events. Here, we have estimated changes in activity in 215 human kinases in 399 conditions derived from a large compilation of phosphopeptide quantifications. This atlas identifies commonly regulated kinases as those that are central in the signaling network and defines the logic relationships between kinase pairs. Co‐regulation along the conditions predicts kinase–complex and kinase–substrate associations. Additionally, the kinase regulation profile acts as a molecular fingerprint to identify related and opposing signaling states. Using this atlas, we identified essential mediators of stem cell differentiation, modulators of Salmonella infection, and new targets of AKT1. This provides a global view of human phosphorylation‐based signaling and the necessary context to better understand kinase‐driven decision‐making.     

Validation of TOF-SIMS and FE-SEM/EDS Techniques Combined with Sorption and Desorption Experiments to Check Competitive and Individual Pb2+ and Cd2+ Association with Components of B Soil Horizons

Sorption and desorption experiments were performed by the batch method on the B horizons of five natural soils: Umbric Cambisol, Endoleptic Luvisol, Mollic Umbrisol, Dystric Umbrisol, and Dystric Fluvisol. Individual and competitive sorption and desorption capacity and hysteresis were determined. The results showed that Pb²⁺ was sorbed and retained in a greater quantity than Cd²⁺ and that the hysteresis of the first was greater than that of the second. The most influential characteristics of the sorption and retention of Pb²⁺ were pH, ECEC, Fe and Mn oxides and clay contents. For Cd²⁺ they were mainly pH and, to a lesser extent, Mn oxides and clay content. The combined use of TOF-SIMS, FE-SEM/EDS and sorption and desorption analyses was suitable for achieving a better understanding of the interaction between soil components and the two heavy metals. They show the preferential association of Pb²⁺ with vermiculite, chlorite, Fe and Mn oxides, and of Cd²⁺ with the same components, although to a much lesser extent and intensity. This was due to the latter’s higher mobility as it competed unfavourably with the Pb²⁺ sorption sites. TOF-SIMS and FE-SEM/EDS techniques confirmed the results of the sorption experiments, and also provided valuable information on whether the soil components (individually or in association) retain Cd²⁺ and / or Pb²⁺; this could help to propose effective measures for the remediation of contaminated soils.     

Production, characterization and evaluation of methylcellulose from sugarcane bagasse for applications as viscosity enhancing admixture for cement based material

In previous works, methylcellulose (MC) was prepared from sugarcane bagasse cellulose in heterogeneous medium using dimethyl sulfate (DMS) as etherification agent. MC was produced in a range of degrees of substitution (DS) from 0.70 to 1.40 and the materials showed low water solubility. In this work methylcellulose was prepared with 5 h (MC5h) of reaction with reagent substitution at each hour. MC5h showed a DS of 1.89 ± 0.04. An aqueous viscous suspension was produced with MC5h for application as viscosity enhancing admixture of cimentitious adhesive mortars. It was observed a 40.37% increase on the consistency index (CI) and a 27.70% increase on the Potential Tensile Adhesion Strength. Such characteristics show the potential of this material for the utilization in situations that require good workability, improve viscosity and adhesive properties such as for tile setting in civil engineering.     

Assessment of nuclear abnormalities in exfoliated cells from the oral epithelium of mobile phone users

Transmission and reception of mobile telephony signals take place through electromagnetic wave radiation, or electromagnetic radiofrequency fields, between the mobile terminal and the radio base station. Based on reports in the literature on adverse effects from exposure to this type of radiation, the objective of this study was to evaluate the genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of such exposure, by means of the micronucleus test on exfoliated cells from the oral epithelium. The sample included 45 individuals distributed in 3 groups according to the amount of time in hours per week (t) spent using mobile phones: group I, t?>?5?h; group II, t?>?1?h and ≤?5?h; and group III, t?≤?1?h. Cells from the oral mucosa were analyzed to assess the numbers of micronuclei, broken egg structures and degenerative nuclear abnormalities indicative of apoptosis (condensed chromatin, karyorrhexis and pyknosis) or necrosis (karyolysis in addition to these changes). The occurrences of micronuclei and degenerative nuclear abnormalities did not differ between the groups, but the number of broken egg (structures that may be associated with gene amplification) was significantly greater in the individuals in group I (p?相似文献