Making Ripples: How Individual Action Can Contribute to Large Scale Effects

Fisheries ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne H. Roulson
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Individual Action

scholarly journals A non-targeted LC–MS metabolic profiling of pregnancy: longitudinal evidence from healthy and pre-eclamptic pregnancies

Metabolomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiina Jääskeläinen ◽  
◽  
Olli Kärkkäinen ◽  
Jenna Jokkala ◽  
Anton Klåvus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Late Pregnancy ◽  
Metabolite Profile ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Targeted Metabolomics ◽  
Serum Samples ◽  
Healthy Women ◽  
Maternal Metabolism

Abstract Introduction Maternal metabolism changes substantially during pregnancy. However, few studies have used metabolomics technologies to characterize changes across gestation. Objectives and methods We applied liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) based non-targeted metabolomics to determine whether the metabolic profile of serum differs throughout the pregnancy between pre-eclamptic and healthy women in the FINNPEC (Finnish Genetics of Preeclampsia Consortium) Study. Serum samples were available from early and late pregnancy. Results Progression of pregnancy had large-scale effects to the serum metabolite profile. Altogether 50 identified metabolites increased and 49 metabolites decreased when samples of early pregnancy were compared to samples of late pregnancy. The metabolic signatures of pregnancy were largely shared in pre-eclamptic and healthy women, only urea, monoacylglyceride 18:1 and glycerophosphocholine were identified to be increased in the pre-eclamptic women when compared to healthy controls. Conclusions Our study highlights the need of large-scale longitudinal metabolomic studies in non-complicated pregnancies before more detailed understanding of metabolism in adverse outcomes could be provided. Our findings are one of the first steps for a broader metabolic understanding of the physiological changes caused by pregnancy per se.

scholarly journals Glucose-Limited Fed-Batch Cultivation Strategy to Mimic Large-Scale Effects in Escherichia coli Linked to Accumulation of Non-Canonical Branched-Chain Amino Acids by Combination of Pyruvate Pulses and Dissolved Oxygen Limitation

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1110
Author(s):  
Ángel Córcoles García ◽  
Peter Hauptmann ◽  
Peter Neubauer
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Dissolved Oxygen ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Branched Chain Amino Acids ◽  
Oxygen Limitation ◽  
Fed Batch ◽  
Fermentation Products ◽  
Cultivation Strategy ◽  
Branched Chain

Insufficient mixing in large-scale bioreactors provokes gradient zones of substrate, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and other parameters. E. coli responds to a high glucose, low oxygen feeding zone with the accumulation of mixed acid fermentation products, especially formate, but also with the synthesis of non-canonical amino acids, such as norvaline, norleucine and β-methylnorleucine. These amino acids can be mis-incorporated into recombinant products, which causes a problem for pharmaceutical production whose solution is not trivial. While these effects can also be observed in scale down bioreactor systems, these are challenging to operate. Especially the high-throughput screening of clone libraries is not easy, as fed-batch cultivations would need to be controlled via repeated glucose pulses with simultaneous oxygen limitation, as has been demonstrated in well controlled robotic systems. Here we show that not only glucose pulses in combination with oxygen limitation can provoke the synthesis of these non-canonical branched-chain amino acids (ncBCAA), but also that pyruvate pulses produce the same effect. Therefore, we combined the enzyme-based glucose delivery method Enbase® in a PALL24 mini-bioreactor system and combined repeated pyruvate pulses with simultaneous reduction of the aeration rate. These cultivation conditions produced an increase in the non-canonical branched chain amino acids norvaline and norleucine in both the intracellular soluble protein and inclusion body fractions with mini-proinsulin as an example product, and this effect was verified in a 15 L stirred tank bioreactor (STR). To our opinion this cultivation strategy is easy to apply for the screening of strain libraries under standard laboratory conditions if no complex robotic and well controlled parallel cultivation devices are available.

Grabbing Life by the Ballot: Creating an Effective Ballot through Design

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine McCoy
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
The World ◽  
Ballot Design ◽  
The Government ◽  
Democratic Elections ◽  
Effective Design ◽  
Undergraduate Thesis

This presentation, reflecting a politics undergraduate thesis, will explore the design process behind the ballots that voters use in democratic elections around the world. Ballots are an inherently political objects, and in many cases, the most direct line of communication a citizen has to the government of their country. As such, the design of the ballot affects the legitimacy of higher level electoral and democratic institutions. This project argues that by co-opting the language of product design, a universal ballot design process would make more efficient ballots across the globe.   Product design starts with a brainstorming stage that explores at the user, the goal of the object, and the context of its use to create an effective design. By applying these observations to the process of designing a ballot, each electoral commission can produce a more effective ballot. Currently there is no standardization for ballot design other than ensuring that electoral commissions tried to make it “friendly.” By examining cases of bad ballot design, it is possible to see what element of the design process was missed or misused to create a process that corrects for these mistakes. This project examines poorly designed ballots in Florida, Scotland, and Colombia to explore the large-scale effects these small design choices make, and how to fix them. 

scholarly journals 3D mapping of host-parasite-microbiome interactions reveals metabolic determinants of tissue tropism and disease tolerance in Chagas disease

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekram Hossain ◽  
Sharmily Khanam ◽  
Chaoyi Wu ◽  
Sharon Lostracco-Johnson ◽  
Diane Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chagas Disease ◽  
Large Intestine ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Parasitic Infection ◽  
Parasite Burden ◽  
Acute Stage ◽  
Disease Tolerance ◽  
Chronic Stage ◽  
Spatially Resolved

AbstractChagas disease (CD) is a parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi protozoa. Over 8 million people worldwide are T. cruzi-positive, 20-30% of which will develop cardiomyopathy, megaoesophagus and/or megacolon. The mechanisms leading to gastrointestinal (GI) symptom development are however poorly understood. To address this issue, we systematically characterized the spatial impact of experimental T. cruzi infection on the microbiome and metabolome across the GI tract. The largest microbiota perturbations were observed in the proximal large intestine in both acute and chronic disease, with chronic-stage effects also observed in the cecum. Strikingly, metabolomic impact of acute-to-chronic stage transition differed depending on the organ, with persistent large-scale effects of infection primarily in the oesophagus and large intestine, providing a potential mechanism for GI pathology tropism in CD. Infection particularly affected acylcarnitine and lipid metabolism. Building on these observations, treatment of infected mice with carnitine-supplemented drinking water prevented acute-stage mortality with no changes in parasite burden. Overall, these results identified a new mechanism of disease tolerance in CD, with potential for the development of new therapeutic regimens. More broadly, these results highlight the potential of spatially-resolved metabolomic approaches to provide insight into disease pathogenesis, with translational applications for infectious disease drug development.

Ergodic Capacity and Symbol Error Rate Analysis of a Wireless System with α-μ Composite Fading Channel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fereshteh salimian rizi ◽  
Abolfazl Falahati
Keyword(s):  
Error Rate ◽  
Fading Channel ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Ergodic Capacity ◽  
Symbol Error Rate ◽  
Performance Criteria ◽  
Rate Analysis ◽  
New Generation

Abstract A composite α-µ/Lognormal fading channel is proposed with several channel performance criteria. This model considers the most effective occurrences in a fading channel, mainly non-linearity, multi-cluster nature of propagation medium, and shadowing effects. The new generation of communication systems is moving towards the use of millimetre waves (mmW). In this type of propagation, large-scale effects of fading channel on the received signal are significant, so in the proposed composite model, the lognormal distribution is considered to model large-scale effects of fading, which is the most accurate distribution to model shadowing. The Gaussian-Hermite quadrature sum is used to approximate the probability distribution function (PDF) of the proposed model. After calculating the statistics, the symbol error rate (SER) and ergodic capacity are computed. The Mellin transform technique is used to calculate the SER expression of different modulation schemes; then, ergodic capacity is computed for a diverse frequency spectrum. Finally, the Monte Carlo method is used to evaluate the analyses.

Benthic Habitats and the Effects of Fishing

2005 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
Habitat Types ◽  
Benthic Habitats ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Ecosystem Effects ◽  
Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

<strong><em>Abstract. </em></strong>We review the impacts of towed gears on benthic habitats and communities and predict the consequences of these impacts for ecosystem processes. Our emphasis is on the additive and synergistic large-scale effects of fishing, and we assess how changes in the distribution of fishing activity following management action are likely to affect production, turnover time, and nutrient fluxes in ecosystems. Analyses of the large-scale effects of fishing disturbance show that the initial effects of fishing on a habitat have greater ecosystem consequences than repeated fishing in fished areas. As a result, patchy fishing effort distributions have lower total impacts on the ecosystem than random or uniform effort distributions. In most fisheries, the distribution of annual fishing effort within habitats is more patchy than random, and patterns of effort are maintained from year to year. Our analyses suggest that many vulnerable species and habitats have only persisted in heavily fished ecosystems because effort is patchy. Ecosystem-based fisheries management involves taking account of the ecosystem effects of fishing when setting management objectives. One step that can be taken toward ecosystem-based fisheries management is to make an a priori assessment of the ecosystem effects of proposed management actions such as catch controls, effort controls, and technical measures. We suggest a process for predicting the ecosystem consequences of management action. This requires information on habitat distributions, models to predict changes in the spatial distribution of fleets following management action, and models of the impacts of trawling disturbance on ecosystem processes. For each proposed management action, the change in disturbance affecting different habitat types would be predicted and used to forecast the consequences for the ecosystem. These simulations would be used to produce a decision table, quantifying the consequences of alternative management actions. Actions that minimize the ecosystem effects of fishing could then be identified. In data-poor situations, we suggest that management strategies that maintain or maximize the patchiness of effort within habitat types are more consistent with the precautionary approach than those that lead to more uniform fishing effort distributions.

scholarly journals Gender differences in utilization of services and tobacco cessation outcomes at a state quitline

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 663-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia M Allen ◽  
Nicole P Yuan ◽  
Betsy C Wertheim ◽  
Laurie Krupski ◽  
Melanie L Bell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Tobacco Cessation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Utilization Of Services ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Point Prevalence Abstinence ◽  
Current Tobacco

Abstract Research suggests that women may have poorer tobacco cessation outcomes than men; however, the literature is somewhat mixed. Less is known about gender differences in cessation within quitline settings. This study examined gender differences in the utilization of services (i.e., coaching sessions, pharmacotherapy) and tobacco cessation among callers to the Arizona Smokers’ Helpline (ASHLine). The study sample included callers enrolled in ASHLine between January 2011 and June 2016. We tracked number of completed coaching sessions. At the 7-month follow-up, callers retrospectively reported use of cessation pharmacotherapy (gum, patch, or lozenge), as well as current tobacco use. Associations between gender and tobacco cessation were tested using logistic regression models. At month 7, 36.4% of women (3,277/9,004) and 40.3% of men (2,960/7,341) self-reported 30-day point prevalence abstinence. Compared to men, fewer women reported using pharmacotherapy (women: 71.4% vs. men: 73.6%, p = .01) and completed at least five coaching sessions (women: 35.1% vs. men: 38.5%, p < .01). After adjusting for baseline characteristics, women had significantly lower odds of reporting tobacco cessation than men (OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.84 to 0.99). However, after further adjustment for use of pharmacotherapy and coaching, there was no longer a significant relationship between gender and tobacco cessation (OR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.87 to 1.06). Fewer women than men reported tobacco cessation. Women also had lower utilization of quitline cessation services. Although the magnitude of these differences were small, future research on improving the utilization of quitline services among women may be worth pursuing given the large-scale effects of tobacco.

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