Search results for "Water environment"

Short-term occupations at high elevation during the Middle Paleolithic at Kalavan 2 (Republic of Armenia).

2021

The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies. However, the role that elevated landscapes played in hunter-gatherer settlement systems during the Late Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic [MP]) remains poorly understood. At 1640 m above sea level, the MP site of Kalavan 2 (Armenia) is ideally positioned for testing hypotheses involving elevation-dependent seasonal mobility and subsistence strateg…

Current status of Schistosoma mansoni infection among previously treated rural communities in the Abbey and Didessa Valleys, Western Ethiopia: Implic…

2021

Background Schistosoma constitutes a major public health problem and developmental challenges in the majority of developing and subtropical regions. The World Health Organization has set guidelines for the control and elimination of schistosomiasis. Ethiopia is providing school-based Mass Drug Administration (MDA) at the study areas of the Abbey and Didessa Valleys of western Ethiopian since 2015. Moreover, mass treatment was already done in the same villages 30 years ago. However, the current Schistosoma mansoni infection status among humans and snails in the study areas is not known. Hence, the present study aims to determine the current status. Methods A community-based cross-sectional …

Muscle Activation in Young Men During a Lower Limb Aquatic Resistance Exercise With Different Devices

2014

Little research has been reported on the effects of using different devices with resistance exercises in a water environment. This study compared muscular activation of lower extremity and core muscles during leg adduction performed at maximum velocity with drag and floating devices of different sizes. A total of 24 young men (mean age 23.20 ± 1.18 years) performed 3 repetitions of leg adduction at maximum velocity using 4 different devices (ie, large/small and drag/floating). The maximum amplitude of the electromyographic root mean square of the adductor longus, rectus abdominis, external oblique on the dominant side, external oblique on the nondominant side, and erector lumbar spinae were…

Surface plasmon polariton propagation across a gentle silver step

2001

Abstract Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are excited with light of wavelength λ1=632.8 nm on or near a gentle Ag/Ag step structure using focused beam, prism coupling and detected using a bare, sharpened fibre tip. The tip–sample separation is controlled by means of an evanescent optical field at wavelength λ2=543.5 nm in a photon scanning tunnelling microscope (PSTM). The SPP propagation properties are first characterised on both the thin and thick sections of the Ag film structure either side of the step, both macroscopically, using attenuated total reflection, and microscopically from the PSTM images; the two techniques yield very good agreement. It is found that the SPP propagation len…

Identification of microplastics using 4‐dimethylamino‐4′‐nitrostilbene solvatochromic fluorescence

2021

In this work, we introduce the use of 4-dimethylamino-4'-nitrostilbene (DANS) fluorescent dye for applications in the detection and analysis of microplastics, an impendent source of pollution made of synthetic organic polymers with a size varying from less than 5 mm to nanometer scale. The use of this dye revealed itself as a versatile, fast and sensitive tool for readily discriminate microplastics in water environment. The experimental evidences herein presented demonstrate that DANS efficiently absorbs into a variety of polymers constituting microplastics, and its solvatochromic properties lead to a positive shift of the fluorescence emission spectrum according to the polarity of the poly…

Solvent effects on the conformational preferences of model peptoids. MP2 study.

2014

The influence of aqueous environment on the main-chain conformation (ω0, ϕ, and ψ dihedral angles) of two model peptoids: N-acetyl-N-methylglycine N’-methylamide (Ac-N(Me)-Gly-NHMe) (1) and N-acetyl-N-methylglycine N’,N’-dimethylamide (Ac-N(Me)-Gly-NMe2) (2) was investigated by MP2/6-311++G(d,p) method. The Ramachandran maps of both studied molecules with cis and trans configuration of the N-terminal amide bond in the gas phase and in water environment were obtained and all energy minima localized. The polarizable continuum model was applied to estimate the solvation effect on conformation. Energy minima of the Ac-N(Me)-Gly-NHMe and Ac-N(Me)-Gly-NMe2 have been analyzed in terms of the possi…

Interactions of zinc octacarboxyphthalocyanine with selected amino acids and with albumin

2015

Effect of selected amino acids (glycine, l-histidine, l-cysteine, l-serine, l-tryptophan) and albumin on the spectroscopic properties and photostability of zinc octacarboxyphthalocyanine (ZnPcOC) was explored in the phosphate buffer at a pH of 7.0. The photodegradation of ZnPcOC alone and in the presence of amino acids or albumin has been investigated in aqueous phase using UV-366 nm and daylight irradiation. Kinetic analysis showed that the interaction with amino acids or albumin enhances the photostability of ZnPcOC. To answer the question of how zinc phthalocyanine interacts with amino acids extensive DFT calculations were performed. Analysis of the optimized geometry features of ZnPcOC:…

Origin of the natural variation in the storage of dietary carotenoids in freshwater amphipod crustaceans

2020

16 pages; International audience; Carotenoids are diverse lipophilic natural pigments which are stored in variable amounts by animals. Given the multiple biological functions of carotenoids, such variation may have strong implications in evolutionary biology. Crustaceans such as Gammarus amphipods store large amounts of these pigments and inter-population variation occurs. While differences in parasite selective pressure have been proposed to explain this variation, the contribution of other factors such as genetic differences in the gammarid ability to assimilate and/or store pigments, and the environmental availability of carotenoids cannot be dismissed. This study investigates the relati…

Vertical transmission of naturally occurring Bunyamwera and insect-specific flavivirus infections in mosquitoes from islands and mainland shores of L…

2018

Background Many arboviruses transmitted by mosquitoes have been implicated as causative agents of both human and animal illnesses in East Africa. Although epidemics of arboviral emerging infectious diseases have risen in frequency in recent years, the extent to which mosquitoes maintain pathogens in circulation during inter-epidemic periods is still poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate whether arboviruses may be maintained by vertical transmission via immature life stages of different mosquito vector species. Methodology We collected immature mosquitoes (egg, larva, pupa) on the shores and islands of Lake Baringo and Lake Victoria in western Kenya and reared them to adults. Mo…

Geochemistry of Zr, Hf and REE in extreme water environments: hyperacid, hyper saline and lake waters in hydrothermal systems

This PhD thesis concerns the geochemistry of Zr, Hf and REE in extreme water environments characterized by a wide spectrum of chemical physical-parameters and compositions. The investigations were carried out in hypersaline waters covering a wide range of Eh values along Dead Sea Fault (Israel), in hyperacid waters circulating in Nevado del Ruiz volcano-hydrothermal system (Colombia) and in CO2-rich waters belonging to the Pantelleria volcano-hydrothermal system (Italy), including the alkaline lake “Specchio di Venere” formed within a calderic depression. The wide spectrum of chemical-physical conditions and various water chemical compositions interacting with different solid phases allowed…