scholarly journals Body-size distributions and size-spectra: universal indicators of ecological status?

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen L. Petchey ◽  
Andrea Belgrano
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Status ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Government Employees ◽  
European Science Foundation ◽  
Size Spectra ◽  
Terrestrial Ecology ◽  
European Science ◽  
Working Groups ◽  
Management And Conservation

The sizes of individual organisms, rather than their taxonomy, are used to inform management and conservation in some aquatic ecosystems. The European Science Foundation Research Network, SIZEMIC, facilitates integration of such approaches with the more taxonomic approaches used in terrestrial ecology. During its 4-year tenure, the Network is bringing together researchers from disciplines including theorists, empiricists, government employees, and practitioners, via a series of meetings, working groups and research visits. The research conducted suggests that organismal size, with a generous helping of taxonomy, provides the most probable route to universal indicators of ecological status.

scholarly journals Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (SMIRES)

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e21774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibault Datry ◽  
Gabriel Singer ◽  
Eric Sauquet ◽  
Dídac Jorda-Capdevila ◽  
Daniel Von Schiller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Status ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Research Network ◽  
River Networks ◽  
Ephemeral Streams ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Water Demands ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Intermittent Rivers ◽  
Working Groups

More than half of the global river network is composed of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which are expanding in response to climate change and increasing water demands. After years of obscurity, the science of IRES has bloomed recently and it is being recognised that IRES support a unique and high biodiversity, provide essential ecosystem services and are functionally part of river networks and groundwater systems. However, they still lack protective and adequate management, thereby jeopardizing water resources at the global scale. This Action brings together hydrologists, biogeochemists, ecologists, modellers, environmental economists, social researchers and stakeholders from 14 different countries to develop a research network for synthesising the fragmented, recent knowledge on IRES, improving our understanding of IRES and translating this into a science-based, sustainable management of river networks. Deliverables will be provided through i) research workshops synthesising and addressing key challenges in IRES science, supporting research exchange and educating young researchers, and ii) researcher-stakeholder workshops translating improved knowledge into tangible tools and guidelines for protecting IRES and raising awareness of their importance and value in societal and decision-maker spheres. This Action is organized within six Working Groups to address: (i) the occurrence, distribution and hydrological trends of IRES; (ii) the effects of flow alterations on IRES functions and services; (iii) the interaction of aquatic and terrestrial biogeochemical processes at catchment scale; (iv) the biomonitoring of the ecological status of IRES; (v) synergies in IRES research at the European scale, data assemblage and sharing; (vi) IRES management and advocacy training.

Nanobiotics: Challenging the anti-microbial perspective - The game changer?

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 5518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepak Narang ◽  
Jeevan Singh Tityal ◽  
Amit Jain ◽  
Reena Kulshreshtra ◽  
Fatima Khan
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Resistance ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
European Science Foundation ◽  
Resistance Development ◽  
Bacterial Diseases ◽  
European Science ◽  
Tremendous Impact ◽  
New Strategies ◽  
Game Changer

Antibiotics are the most important medical inventions in human history and are the invaluable weapons to fight against various infectious diseases. Multi drug resistant microorganisms are becoming a serious issue and increasingly public health problem in present day scenario. Antibiotics are becoming less useful due to increasing bacterial resistance. Development of new and more powerful antibiotics leading to drastic pathogens response by developing resistance to the point where the most powerful drugs in our arsenal are no longer effective against them. New strategies for the management of bacterial diseases are urgently needed and nanomaterials can be a very promising approach. Nanobiotics uses nano-sized tools for the successful management bacterial diseases and to gain increased understanding of the complex underlying patho-physiology of disease. (European Science Foundation. Forward Look Nanomedicine: An EMRC Consensus Opinion 2005. Available online: http://www.esf.org (accessed on 15 July 2017). The application of nanotechnologies to medicine, or nanomedicine, which has already demonstrated its tremendous impact on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, is rapidly becoming a major driving force behind ongoing changes in the antimicrobial field. Present review providing important insights on nanobiotics, and their preparation, mechanism of action, as well as perspectives on the opportunities and challenges in nanobiotics.

scholarly journals Evaluating the capabilities and uncertainties of droplet measurements for the fog droplet spectrometer (FM-100)

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 2237-2260 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. K. Spiegel ◽  
P. Zieger ◽  
N. Bukowiecki ◽  
E. Hammer ◽  
E. Weingartner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Size Distribution ◽  
Droplet Size ◽  
Cloud Droplet ◽  
Droplet Size Distribution ◽  
Stochastic Approach ◽  
Mie Scattering ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Size Spectra ◽  
Wind Speeds

Abstract. Droplet size spectra measurements are crucial to obtain a quantitative microphysical description of clouds and fog. However, cloud droplet size measurements are subject to various uncertainties. This work focuses on the error analysis of two key measurement uncertainties arising during cloud droplet size measurements with a conventional droplet size spectrometer (FM-100): first, we addressed the precision with which droplets can be sized with the FM-100 on the basis of the Mie theory. We deduced error assumptions and proposed a new method on how to correct measured size distributions for these errors by redistributing the measured droplet size distribution using a stochastic approach. Second, based on a literature study, we summarized corrections for particle losses during sampling with the FM-100. We applied both corrections to cloud droplet size spectra measured at the high alpine site Jungfraujoch for a temperature range from 0 °C to 11 °C. We showed that Mie scattering led to spikes in the droplet size distributions using the default sizing procedure, while the new stochastic approach reproduced the ambient size distribution adequately. A detailed analysis of the FM-100 sampling efficiency revealed that particle losses were typically below 10% for droplet diameters up to 10 μm. For larger droplets, particle losses can increase up to 90% for the largest droplets of 50 μm at ambient wind speeds below 4.4 m s−1 and even to >90% for larger angles between the instrument orientation and the wind vector (sampling angle) at higher wind speeds. Comparisons of the FM-100 to other reference instruments revealed that the total liquid water content (LWC) measured by the FM-100 was more sensitive to particle losses than to re-sizing based on Mie scattering, while the total number concentration was only marginally influenced by particle losses. Consequently, for further LWC measurements with the FM-100 we strongly recommend to consider (1) the error arising due to Mie scattering, and (2) the particle losses, especially for larger droplets depending on the set-up and wind conditions.

THE ACQUISITION OF TEMPORALITY IN A SECOND LANGUAGE.Rainer Dietrich, Wolfgang Klein, & Colette Noyau (Eds.). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1995. Pp. xii + 288. $59.00 cloth.

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-424
Author(s):  
Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Multiple Target ◽  
European Science Foundation ◽  
European Science ◽  
Actual Design ◽  
Target Languages

Imagine a three-year longitudinal study of the acquisition of multiple target languages by learners of different language backgrounds. It may sound like an idealized example from a research-methods lecture, but it is the actual design of the European Science Foundation inquiry into adult second language acquisition and the latest report released by Benjamins, a substantial revision of Volume 5 of the final report on temporality (Bhardwaj, Dietrich, & Noyau, 1988). This volume reports on the acquisition of temporality in five target languages (English, German, Dutch, French, and Swedish) by 21 learners of six source languages (Punjabi, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, and Finnish) with learners from two source languages for each target language. The volume has eight chapters written by the main authors and cooperating contributors: “Introduction” (Dietrich & Perdue), “Frame of Analysis” (Klein), five chapters on the acquisition of temporality by target language—English (Klein), German (Dietrich), Dutch (Klein, Coenen, van Helvert, & Hendricks), French (Noyau, Houdaïfa, Vasseur, & Véronique), and Swedish (Noyau, Dorriots, Sjöström, & Voionmaa)—and “Conclusions” (Klein, Dietrich, & Noyau).

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