Endogenous antioxidant systems of two teleost fish,the rainbow trout and the black bullhead,and the effect of age

Antioxidant enzyme activities and glutathione status were determined in different tissues of two teleost species, the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and the black bullhead (Ameiurus melas) to establish whether age-related changes exist between mature and immature individuals. Glutathione reductase and superoxide dismutase activities were significantly lower in hepatic and extrahepatic tissues of 3+ year than 1+ year trout and bullheads. Activities of glutathione peroxidase, catalase and glutathione S-transferase did not exhibit a clear pattern, with decreases in liver and kidney, but increases in gill and muscle tissues. Glutathione concentrations were significantly higher in most tissues of 3+ year than in 1+ year trout, but remained unchanged or decreased in tissues of older bullheads. The results imply an age- or maturation-dependent effect on key antioxidant enzymes in various tissues of these 2 teleost species. Thus, age and maturation may impact upon the use of oxidative stress parameters as indicators of contaminant exposure in environmental studies.     

Carbon footprint including effect of carbon storage for selected wooden facade materials

Abstract

The outer facade constitutes a substantial volume of the total consumption of materials used in a building and the need for maintenance of the facade makes it especially interesting from a life cycle perspective. The range of wooden materials and products used for facades has different impacts over the life cycle, but the analyses so far have not included a time-adjusted global warming potential (GWP). Wooden facade materials were assessed with respect to their life cycle carbon footprint based on the environmental product declarations (EPD) and adjusted according to EN15804. The results showed low impacts of untreated Scots pine heartwood (≈1 kg CO₂-eq. per square meter [m²]), medium for thermally modified Scots pine, coated Norway spruce and oil/copper–organic preservative-treated Scots pine (1–5 kg CO₂-eq. per m²) and high for furfurylated Scots pine and acetylated Radiata pine (5–10 kg CO₂-eq. per m²). The results with time-adjustment showed that these methods have a potential large effect on the carbon footprint of wooden claddings. The inclusion of biogenic carbon flows and timing seems to be more important than the difference between the product when biogenic carbon is not included. This fact highlights the importance time-adjusted GWP would have for wood products EPDs.     

Disseminating Equine Research and Teaching Videos Through the Institutional Repository: A Collaboration

Institutional repositories manage and disseminate a University's scholarly output and provide a multitude of benefits to the organization and society. Rutgers University Libraries is actively expanding its repository to include materials with scholarly merit that are currently siloed in academic departments or otherwise unpreserved and unavailable to the public. This article describes a collaboration between Rutgers Libraries faculty and Rutgers teaching faculty which is enabling discovery of a significant collection of video data relating to equine behavioral responses. The article describes the research, the repository tools, and the process of developing and customizing metadata to bring this collection to light.     

Physiological Changes in Mink (Mustela vison) Dams Subjected to Weaning at Different Times during Lactation

The influence of time of weaning on weight changes, and on hormone and electrolyte status in domestic mink (Mustela vison) dams raising at least five kits per litter was examined. The kits were weaned at either day 42 (group 1) or day 49 (group 2) after birth. The dams were weighed and urine and blood were sampled from day 29 to day 56 after delivery. A considerable loss of dams' body weight, constituting 6.3% in group 1 and 8.1% in group 2, was noticed on the day after weaning, indicating a greatly reduced food consumption on the day of weaning. No changes in plasma aldosterone and no significant decrease in urinary sodium concentration were seen in dams after removal from their litters, whereas, irrespective of time of weaning, urinary sodium and chloride concentrations were halved a few days after weaning compared with the other group. The plasma cortisol concentration was high before and during weaning and was nearly halved 1 week after weaning, implying less strain on the dams after weaning. It is concluded that the weaning period is a most vulnerable and stressful period to the dams irrespective of the actual time of weaning.     

Performance of nitrification inhibitors with different nitrogen fertilizers and soil textures

Nitrification inhibitors (NIs), DCD (dicyandiamide), and DMPP (3,4‐dimethylpyrazole phosphate), in combination with urea (UR) and ammonium sulfate nitrate (ASN) fertilizers were studied under contrasting soil textures (sand, loam, and clay) from cultivated soils collected in Brazil and Germany. Soil samples were incubated over 50 days and the content of ammonium ( ), nitrate ( ), and soil pH were measured periodically. Applied NIs delayed the nitrification process across all soil textures. Correlation analysis indicated that combining ASN with NIs resulted in higher content and efficiency in delaying the nitrification process with high N‐conversion rate (r = –0.82). The combination of ASN+ DMPP increased the efficiency of the N‐conversion rate (r = –0.86) due to H⁺ release in soil, while UR+DCD (r = –0.50) had an efficiency of the N‐conversion rate similar to UR (r = –0.42). All the NIs had a better performance in reducing formation in sandy soils as compared to the loam and clay textured soils. Use of DMPP with an N fertilizer results in a soil pH decrease and can be an option to increase the efficiency of the N‐conversion rate, reducing N losses in soil. Overall, our results suggest that NIs have a better performance in reducing formation in sandy soils as compared to that of the loam and clay textured soils. Use of DMPP with ASN results in a soil pH decrease and can be an option to reduce N losses in soil.     

Effect of the thin cell layer technique in the induction of somatic embryos in Pinus patula Schl. et Cham

Pinus patula is a species commonly used for reforestation in Mexico.However,efficient methods for the mass production seedlings are required.Micropropagation particularly by somatic embryogenesis provides an option for the rapid multiplication of high-quality,genetically improved material.This study induces somatic embryogenesis in this species using the thin cell layer(TCL)technique.Two sources of explants(complete immature embryos;lTCL segments from immature embryos)were evaluated.The efficiency of TCL from longitudinal sections[lTCL]and transverse[tTCL]was evaluated.The results show using thin cell layers from immature embryos cultivated in 16 light/8 dark hours achieves induction of somatic embryos.A higher percentage of embryogenic callus was obtained when tTCL segments were used as an explant source.These results produced somatic embryos from tTCL segments of an immature embryo without germinating the seed,making the process more time efficient.In addition,this technique can be used to generate somatic embryogenesis in forest species that have low germination rates.     

Increasing net CO2 uptake by a Danish beech forest during the period from 1996 to 2009

The exchange of CO₂ between the atmosphere and a beech forest near Sorø, Denmark, was measured continuously over 14 years (1996-2009). The simultaneous measurement of many parameters that influence CO₂ uptake makes it possible to relate the CO₂ exchange to recent changes in e.g. temperature and atmospheric CO₂ concentration. The net CO₂ exchange (NEE) was measured by the eddy covariance method. Ecosystem respiration (RE) was estimated from nighttime values and gross ecosystem exchange (GEE) was calculated as the sum of RE and NEE. Over the years the beech forest acted as a sink of on average of 157 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹. In one of the years only, the forest acted as a small source. During 1996-2009 a significant increase in annual NEE was observed. A significant increase in GEE and a smaller and not significant increase in RE was also found. Thus the increased NEE was mainly attributed to an increase in GEE. The overall trend in NEE was significant with an average increase in uptake of 23 g C m⁻² yr⁻². The carbon uptake period (i.e. the period with daily net CO₂ gain) increased by 1.9 days per year, whereas there was a non significant tendency of increase of the leafed period. This means that the leaves stayed active longer. The analysis of CO₂ uptake by the forest by use of light response curves, revealed that the maximum rate of photosynthetic assimilation increased by 15% during the 14-year period. We conclude that the increase in the overall CO₂ uptake of the forest is due to a combination of increased growing season length and increased uptake capacity. We also conclude that long time series of flux measurements are necessary to reveal trends in the data because of the substantial inter-annual variation in the flux.     

Substrate-controlled succession of marine bacterioplankton populations induced by a phytoplankton bloom

Phytoplankton blooms characterize temperate ocean margin zones in spring. We investigated the bacterioplankton response to a diatom bloom in the North Sea and observed a dynamic succession of populations at genus-level resolution. Taxonomically distinct expressions of carbohydrate-active enzymes (transporters; in particular, TonB-dependent transporters) and phosphate acquisition strategies were found, indicating that distinct populations of Bacteroidetes, Gammaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria are specialized for successive decomposition of algal-derived organic matter. Our results suggest that algal substrate availability provided a series of ecological niches in which specialized populations could bloom. This reveals how planktonic species, despite their seemingly homogeneous habitat, can evade extinction by direct competition.