ALBERT

Description: Building Collaborative Health Promotion Partnerships: The Jackson Heart Study. Background: Building a collaborative health promotion partnership that effectively employs principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR) involves many dimensions. To ensure that changes would be long-lasting, it is imperative that partnerships be configured to include groups of diverse community representatives who can develop a vision for long-term change. This project sought to enumerate processes used by the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) Community Outreach Center (CORC) to create strong, viable partnerships that produce lasting change. Methods: JHS CORC joined with community representatives to initiate programs that evolved into comprehensive strategies for addressing health disparities and the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This collaboration was made possible by first promoting an understanding of the need for combined effort, the desire to interact with other community partners, and the vision to establish an effective governance structure. Results: The partnership between JHS CORC and the community has empowered and inspired community members to provide leadership to other health promotion projects. Conclusion: Academic institutions must reach out to local community groups and together address local health issues that affect the community. When a community understands the need for change to respond to negative health conditions, formalizing this type of collaboration is a step in the right direction.

Description: In the context of monitoring abundance of artificial light at night, the year-to-year stability of Sky Quality Meters (SQMs) is investigated by analysing intercalibrations derived from two measurement campaigns that were held in 2011 and 2012. An intercalibration comprises a light sensitivity factor and an offset for each SQM. The campaigns were concerned with monitoring measurements, each lasting one month. Nine SQMs, together forming the Night Sky Brightness Monitoring network (MHN) in The Netherlands, were involved in both campaigns. The stability of the intercalibration of these instruments leads to a year-to-year uncertainty (standard deviation) of 5% in the measured median luminance occurring at the MHN monitoring locations. For the 10-percentiles and 90-percentiles, we find 8% and 4%, respectively. This means that, for urban and industrial areas, changes in the sky brightness larger than 5% become detectable. Rural and nature areas require an 8%–9% change of the median luminance to be detectable. The light sensitivety agrees within 8% for the whole group of SQMs.

Description: Nine Sky Quality Meters (SQMs) have been intercompared during a night time measurement campaign held in the Netherlands in April 2011. Since then the nine SQMs have been distributed across the Netherlands and form the Dutch network for monitoring night sky brightness. The goal of the intercomparison was to infer mutual calibration factors and obtain insight into the variability of the SQMs under different meteorological situations. An ensemble average is built from the individual measurements and used as a reference to infer the mutual calibration factors. Data required additional synchronization prior to the calibration determination, because the effect of moving clouds combined with small misalignments emerges as time jitter in the measurements. Initial scatter of the individual instruments lies between ±14%. Individual night time sums range from −16% to +20%. Intercalibration reduces this to 0.5%, and −7% to +9%, respectively. During the campaign the smallest luminance measured was 0.657 ± 0.003 mcd/m2 on 12 April, and the largest value was 5.94 ± 0.03 mcd/m2 on 2 April. During both occurrences interfering circumstances like snow cover or moonlight were absent.

Description: The last decade has witnessed an intensive research effort in the field of electrochemical sensors, with a particular focus on the design of amperometric biosensors for diverse analytical applications. In this context, nanomaterial integration in the construction of amperometric biosensors may constitute one of the most exciting approaches. The attractive properties of nanomaterials have paved the way for the design of a wide variety of biosensors based on various electrochemical detection methods to enhance the analytical characteristics. However, most of these nanostructured materials are not explored in the design of amperometric biosensors. This review aims to provide insight into the diverse properties of nanomaterials that can be possibly explored in the construction of amperometric biosensors.

Description: Sensors, Vol. 18, Pages 2016: European In-Situ Snow Measurements: Practices and Purposes Sensors doi: 10.3390/s18072016 Authors: Roberta Pirazzini Leena Leppänen Ghislain Picard Juan Ignacio Lopez-Moreno Christoph Marty Giovanni Macelloni Anna Kontu Annakaisa von Lerber Cemal Melih Tanis Martin Schneebeli Patricia de Rosnay Ali Nadir Arslan In-situ snow measurements conducted by European institutions for operational, research, and energy business applications were surveyed in the framework of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action ES1404, called “A European network for a harmonised monitoring of snow for the benefit of climate change scenarios, hydrology, and numerical weather prediction”. Here we present the results of this survey, which was answered by 125 participants from 99 operational and research institutions, belonging to 38 European countries. The typologies of environments where the snow measurements are performed range from mountain to low elevated plains, including forests, bogs, tundra, urban areas, glaciers, lake ice, and sea ice. Of the respondents, 93% measure snow macrophysical parameters, such as snow presence, snow depth (HS), snow water equivalent (SWE), and snow density. These describe the bulk characteristics of the whole snowpack or of a snow layer, and they are the primary snow properties that are needed for most operational applications (such as hydrological monitoring, avalanche forecast, and weather forecast). In most cases, these measurements are done with manual methods, although for snow presence, HS, and SWE, automatized methods are also applied by some respondents. Parameters characterizing precipitating and suspended snow (such as the height of new snow, precipitation intensity, flux of drifting/blowing snow, and particle size distribution), some of which are crucial for the operational services, are measured by 74% of the respondents. Parameters characterizing the snow microstructural properties (such as the snow grain size and shape, and specific surface area), the snow electromagnetic properties (such as albedo, brightness temperature, and backscatter), and the snow composition (such as impurities and isotopes) are measured by 41%, 26%, and 13% of the respondents, respectively, mostly for research applications. The results of this survey are discussed from the perspective of the need of enhancing the efficiency and coverage of the in-situ observational network applying automatic and cheap measurement methods. Moreover, recommendations for the enhancement and harmonization of the observational network and measurement practices are provided.

Description: With multiple primary and secondary energy converters (diesel engines, steam turbines, waste heat recovery (WHR) and oil-fired boilers, etc.) and extensive energy networks (steam, cooling water, exhaust gases, etc.), ships may be considered as complex energy systems. Understanding and optimizing such systems requires advanced holistic energy modeling. This modeling can be done in two ways: The simpler approach focuses on energy flows, and has already been tested, approved and presented; a new, more complicated approach, focusing on energy quality, i.e., exergy, is presented in this paper. Exergy analysis has rarely been applied to ships, and, as a general rule, the shipping industry is not familiar with this tool. This paper tries to fill this gap. We start by giving a short reminder of what exergy is and describe the principles of exergy modeling to explain what kind of results should be expected from such an analysis. We then apply these principles to the analysis of a large two-stroke diesel engine with its cooling and exhaust systems. Simulation results are then presented along with the exergy analysis. Finally, we propose solutions for energy and exergy saving which could be applied to marine engines and ships in general.

Description: Forests, Vol. 9, Pages 377: Effects of Growing-Season Drought on Phenology and Productivity in the West Region of Central Hardwood Forests, USA Forests doi: 10.3390/f9070377 Authors: Shengwu Duan Hong S. He Marty Spetich Studying the effects of drought on forest ecosystems is important in developing a better understanding of forest phenology and productivity. Many previous studies were based on single drought events, whereas effects of recurrent droughts have not been yet fully investigated. This study jointly analyzed the spatial–temporal change of drought patterns with forest phenology and productivity between 2000–2015 in the western Central Hardwood Forests at Missouri, Arkansas Illinois, Oklahoma, and Kansas of the US. Characteristics of forest phenology and productivity were captured by utilizing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) remote sensing 16-day MOD13Q1 data and Savitsky–Golay (S-G) filtering method. Spatial-temporal drought patterns were assessed by empirical orthogonal function (EOF) on self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) time series. Our results revealed four drought zones: sporadic severe drought zone, cyclic light drought zone, minor drought zone, and moderate drought zone. The results showed that at the regional scale, drought effects on forest phenology and productivity depended on forest type and drought intensity. The cyclic light drought did not result in a notable decline of growing season length and productivity, while both minor drought and severe drought were followed by a significant decrease of forest growing season length and productivity. This research presents an alternative method to analyze the impacts of drought on regional forest dynamics.

Description: Food allergens are proteins from nuts and tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy, eggs or milk which trigger severe adverse reactions in the human body, involving IgE-type antibodies. Sensitive detection of allergens in a large variety of food matrices has become increasingly important considering the emergence of functional foods and new food manufacturing technologies. For example, proteins such as casein from milk or lysozyme and ovalbumin from eggs are sometimes used as fining agents in the wine industry. Nonetheless, allergen detection in processed foods is a challenging endeavor, as allergen proteins are degraded during food processing steps involving heating or fermentation. Detection of food allergens was primarily achieved via Enzyme-Linked Immuno Assay (ELISA) or by chromatographic methods. With the advent of biosensors, electrochemical affinity-based biosensors such as those incorporating antibodies and aptamers as biorecognition elements were also reported in the literature. In this review paper, we highlight the success achieved in the design of electrochemical affinity biosensors based on disposable screen-printed electrodes towards detection of protein allergens. We will discuss the analytical figures of merit for various disposable screen-printed affinity sensors in relation to methodologies employed for immobilization of bioreceptors on transducer surface.

Description: Sensors, Vol. 17, Pages 1947: An Overview on Recent Progress in Electrochemical Biosensors for Antimicrobial Drug Residues in Animal-Derived Food Sensors doi: 10.3390/s17091947 Authors: Marjan Majdinasab Mustansara Yaqub Abdur Rahim Gaelle Catanante Akhtar Hayat Jean Marty Anti-microbial drugs are widely employed for the treatment and cure of diseases in animals, promotion of animal growth, and feed efficiency. However, the scientific literature has indicated the possible presence of antimicrobial drug residues in animal-derived food, making it one of the key public concerns for food safety. Therefore, it is highly desirable to design fast and accurate methodologies to monitor antimicrobial drug residues in animal-derived food. Legislation is in place in many countries to ensure antimicrobial drug residue quantities are less than the maximum residue limits (MRL) defined on the basis of food safety. In this context, the recent years have witnessed a special interest in the field of electrochemical biosensors for food safety, based on their unique analytical features. This review article is focused on the recent progress in the domain of electrochemical biosensors to monitor antimicrobial drug residues in animal-derived food.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 1499: Development and Evolution of an Intermediate Wheatgrass Domestication Program Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10051499 Authors: Lee DeHaan Marty Christians Jared Crain Jesse Poland Ecological intensification of agriculture is a proposed strategy to enhance the production of food while expanding ecosystem services and reducing inputs. Perennial plants that are directly harvested for human food are a novel means of ecological intensification, by potentially providing unprecedented levels of ecological services, such as increased soil carbon and reduced nutrient leaching. However, existing herbaceous perennial plants produce low yields of harvestable seed. Therefore, we initiated a domestication program to improve the grain yield of the perennial intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium [Host] Barkworth & D.R. Dewey). The breeding program has adapted to changing resources and to results from previous generations, with methods becoming more elaborate as the program has matured over six breeding cycles. Average predicted gains from selection accumulated over five cycles were 143, 181 and 60% respectively, for seed yield per head, percent naked seed and mass per seed. We did not detect negative correlations that would indicate simultaneously achieving increased grain yield and sustained perenniality would be particularly difficult. Heritability estimates based on genetic markers were the same or higher than those calculated from a pedigree, indicating that markers have potential to expedite breeding efforts.