A survey of DNA methylation across social insect species, life stages, and castes reveals abundant and caste-associated methylation in a primitively social wasp

DNA methylation plays an important role in the epigenetic control of developmental and behavioral plasticity, with connections to the generation of striking phenotypic differences between castes (larger, reproductive queens and smaller, non-reproductive workers) in honeybees and ants. Here, we provide the first comparative investigation of caste- and life stage-associated DNA methylation in several species of bees and vespid wasps displaying different levels of social organization. Our results reveal moderate levels of DNA methylation in most bees and wasps, with no clear relationship to the level of sociality. Strikingly, primitively social Polistes dominula paper wasps show unusually high overall DNA methylation and caste-related differences in site-specific methylation. These results suggest DNA methylation may play a role in the regulation of behavioral and physiological differences in primitively social species with more flexible caste differences.     

Crayfish Use of Trash Versus Natural Cover in Incised, Sand-Bed Streams

Historic land use changes and subsequent river channelization created deeply incised, unstable stream channels largely devoid of natural cover throughout the Yazoo River basin, Mississippi, USA. Large trash (e.g., televisions, toilets, car parts) dumped in streams provided shelter for some aquatic fauna. To determine whether trash served as a surrogate for natural cover, I examined crayfish use of both cover types. I sampled crayfishes by kick-seining 2 × 1-m plots in three cover classes: trash, natural cover, and no cover. I captured 415 crayfishes from 136 of the 294 plots. Most crayfishes were in natural cover (253), followed by trash (154), and no-cover (8) plots. Trash use varied by crayfish genus and size. Frequencies of all size classes of Procambarus and of the smallest Cambarus were higher in natural cover than trash. Many of the smallest individuals were found in live root mats. As Cambarus and Orconectes grew, they shifted more toward trash, and the largest Orconectes size class was significantly more abundant than expected in trash. Trash served as “artificial reefs,” providing cover for crayfishes and other fauna, but functioned differently than the remaining natural cover. The results confirmed that stream substrate did not provide adequate instream cover for crayfishes in the study area and suggested that high-quality natural cover for large crayfishes was in short supply, at least for some species. Land management that provides for abundant, ongoing input and retention of complex cover, such as trees and live roots, to stream channels should be beneficial for crayfish assemblages.     

Coastal zone management challenges in Ghana: issues associated with coastal sediment mining

Coastal erosion is a serious environmental problem that has caused the loss of private infrastructure and national assets along Ghana’s coast. Several hard engineering measures have thus been used to protect some communities and vital state assets when they became threatened. Regardless of this problem, sediment mining activities are increasingly practiced along most of Ghana’s coast, further exacerbating coastal erosion intensity and degrading coastal ecosystems. This paper provides an overview of the activities of coastal sediment miners along four administrative Districts in the Central Region of Ghana and identifies how issues arising from the practice are managed at the local community level as well as by state environmental regulators. The study uses a mixed-method approach, involving individual and group interviews, administration of a set of structured questionnaire and field observations, to identify coastal sediment mining and emerging management issues. Overall, three main categories of coastal sediment mining activities were identified in the area. Results indicate that coastal sediment mining is widely practiced by both commercial contractors and community members, giving rise to the high perception among residents that it is the reason for the degradation of the coastline in the studied areas. The study also established that state environmental regulators have weak inter-agency cooperation leading to poor enforcement of environmental laws and non-prosecution of offending individuals. The paper suggests that since each identified sediment mining activity has its own peculiar issues and mode of operation, coastal managers should address each category independently in order to derive lasting impacts in curtailing the practice.     

Diffusion of oxygen through activated sludge flocs: experimental measurement, modeling, and implications for simultaneous nitrification and denitrification.

Diffusion of dissolved oxygen through activated sludge flocs was studied, as it represents a potential mechanism for simultaneous nitrification and denitrification in activated sludge systems. Dissolved oxygen profiles through six floc particles collected at different times from a full-scale activated sludge plant demonstrated that that the dissolved oxygen concentration declines through all floc particles. For larger floc particles (2-mm diameter and greater), the dissolved oxygen concentration reached near-zero values at depths depending on process operating conditions. A mathematical model based on diffusion of dissolved oxygen, organic substrate (methanol), ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate through a spherical floc and consumption of dissolved oxygen by heterotrophs and autotrophs accurately predicted the dissolved oxygen profile and required adjustment of only one model parameter--the concentration of heterotrophs. A different dissolved oxygen decline pattern was exhibited for the smaller floc particles characterized, with the dissolved oxygen reaching a non-zero plateau toward the center of the floc. This pattern was not reproduced with the mathematical model developed and suggests that additional mechanisms are responsible for the transport of dissolved oxygen into the center of these flocs. Implications of these results regarding the occurrence of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification include consideration of the factors that affect floc size and distribution (simultaneous nitrification and denitrification is maximized with larger floc particles), coupling of the International Water Association (London) activated models to predict activated sludge composition with diffusion models to consider intrafloc effects, and the effects of substrate diffusion on the apparent half-saturation constant for various substrates in activated sludge systems.     

Omphalocele—What should we tell the prospective parents?

An omphalocele is a congenital defect in the abdominal wall characterized by absent abdominal muscles, fascia, and skin. The characteristic ultrasound appearance includes a midline defect with herniation of abdominal contents into the base of the umbilical cord. Other anatomic abnormalities are seen in approximately 50% of cases, most notably cardiac defects (19%–32%). Approximately, 50% of cases are associated with genetic and multiple malformation syndromes including trisomy 13/18, pentalogy of Cantrell and Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome. Therefore, a thorough evaluation is recommended, including detailed anatomic survey, fetal echocardiogram, genetic counseling, and prenatal diagnostic testing. Overall prognosis depends on the size of the omphalocele, genetic studies, and associated anomalies. Early prenatal diagnosis remains important in order to provide parental counseling and assist in pregnancy management. Delivery should occur at a tertiary care center. Timing and mode of delivery should be based on standard obstetric indications with cesarean delivery reserved for large omphalocele (>5 cm) or those that involve the fetal liver. Neonatal management involves either primary or staged reduction, both of which can be associated with a prolonged neonatal hospitalization.     

Standardized reporting of the costs of management interventions for biodiversity conservation

Effective conservation management interventions must combat threats and deliver benefits at costs that can be achieved within limited budgets. Considerable effort has focused on measuring the potential benefits of conservation interventions, but explicit quantification of the financial costs of implementation is rare. Even when costs have been quantified, haphazard and inconsistent reporting means published values are difficult to interpret. This reporting deficiency hinders progress toward a collective understanding of the financial costs of management interventions across projects and thus limits the ability to identify efficient solutions to conservation problems or attract adequate funding. We devised a standardized approach to describing financial costs reported for conservation interventions. The standards call for researchers and practitioners to describe the objective and outcome, context and methods, and scale of costed interventions, and to state which categories of costs are included and the currency and date for reported costs. These standards aim to provide enough contextual information that readers and future users can interpret the cost data appropriately. We suggest these standards be adopted by major conservation organizations, conservation science institutions, and journals so that cost reporting is comparable among studies. This would support shared learning and enhance the ability to identify and perform cost‐effective conservation.     

Comparative mobility of sulfonamides and bromide tracer in three soils

In animal agriculture, sulfonamides are one of the routinely used groups of antimicrobials for therapeutic and sub-therapeutic purposes. It is observed that, the animals when administered the antimicrobials, often do not completely metabolize them; and excrete the partially metabolized forms into the environment. Due to the continued use of antimicrobials and disposal of untreated waste, widespread occurrence of partially metabolized antimicrobials in aquatic and terrestrial environments has been reported in various scientific journals. In this research, the mobility of two sulfonamides - sulfamethazine (SMN), sulfathiazole (STZ) and a conservative bromide tracer was investigated in three soils collected from regions in the United States with large number of concentrated animal-feed operations. Results of a series of column studies indicate that the mobility of these two sulfonamides was dependent on pH, soil charge density, and contact time. At low pH and high charge density, substantial retention of sulfonamides was observed in all three soils investigated, due to the increased fraction of cationic and neutral forms of the sulfonamides. Conversely, enhanced mobility was observed at high pH, where the sulfonamides are predominantly in the anionic form. The results indicate that when both SMN and STZ are predominantly in anionic forms, their mobility approximates the mobility of a conservative bromide tracer. This observation is consistent for the mobility of both SMN and STZ individually, and also in the presence of several other antimicrobials in all three soils investigated. Higher contact time indicates lower mobility due to increased interaction with soil material.     

Principles for retrofitting coal burners for oxy-combustion

Experiments were performed in a 1.5 MW pilot-scale furnace to investigate the differences between air- and oxy-fired flame behavior from a pulverized coal oxy-research burner designed for flexible operating conditions. The flame behavior was characterized by recording video images of the flames and by measuring radiation intensity along the flame length. Various strategies relating air- and oxy-fired operation of the burner primary register were investigated where the oxy-fired burner primary mass, momentum and velocity were matched to the air-fired conditions. Matching either burner primary mass or momentum under oxy-fired conditions with air-fired conditions resulted in a flame stabilized within the quarl. Matching primary velocity with air-fired conditions resulted in a detached flame indicating a delay in flame ignition for the oxyfired conditions. A decrease in primary velocity of 13% was necessary in order to stabilize a flame within the quarl similar to the air-fired case. Additional experiments also showed a flame could be stabilized with no oxygen enrichment of the primary (～3 vol.%, dry O₂ in the primary). Experiments where oxygen was injected at the burner face indicated injection at the boundary of the primary and secondary flow paths strongly attach a flame and injection at the coal rich primary flow path increased the radiative intensity of the flame.     

An investigation into the likely impact of oxy-coal retrofit on fire-side corrosion behavior in utility boilers

Real-time electrochemical measurements of corrosion rate were performed to evaluate the respective corrosion rates of one boiler waterwall material (SA210) and three boiler superheater materials (T22, P91 and 347H) while firing Utah Western bituminous, Illinois high-sulfur bituminous and Powder River Basin (PRB) sub-bituminous coals in a 1.5 MW pulverized coal-fired furnace. The raw average measured corrosion rates were very low, between 0.0003 and 0.016 mm/year (0.012 and 0.63 mils/year) for most materials under air- and oxy-fired conditions. For some high-sulfur conditions measured corrosion rates were as high as 0.72 mm/year (28 mils/year). Waterwall corrosion rates decreased consistently when converting from air- to oxy-firing while superheater corrosion rates generally increased, although they were less than twice the air-fired rate under most conditions. Corrosion rates for the lower alloyed materials (SA210 and T22) increased significantly during transients from reducing to oxidizing conditions. Measured increases in the corrosion rate of 347H material under high sulfur and low temperature conditions, and associated decrease in corrosion rate at higher temperatures on this alloy, were consistent with the formation of trisulphates in the superheater deposits. The increase of corrosion rate with increased metal temperatures was demonstrated, as was the consistently repeatable nature of the observed results.     

Application of Biochemical and Physiological Indicators for Assessing Recovery of Fish Populations in a Disturbed Stream

Recovery dynamics in a previously disturbed stream were investigated to determine the influence of a series of remedial actions on stream recovery and to evaluate the potential application of bioindicators as an environmental management tool. A suite of bioindicators, representing five different functional response groups, were measured annually for a sentinel fish species over a 15 year period during which a variety of remedial and pollution abatement actions were implemented. Trends in biochemical, physiological, condition, growth, bioenergetic, and nutritional responses demonstrated that the health status of a sentinel fish species in the disturbed stream approached that of fish in the reference stream by the end of the study. Two major remedial actions, dechlorination and water flow management, had large effects on stream recovery resulting in an improvement in the bioenergetic, disease, nutritional, and organ condition status of the sentinel fish species. A subset of bioindicators responded rather dramatically to temporal trends affecting all sites, but some indicators showed little response to disturbance or to restoration activities. In assessing recovery of aquatic systems, application of appropriate integrative structural indices along with a variety of sensitive functional bioindicators should be used to understand the mechanistic basis of stress and recovery and to reduce the risk of false positives. Understanding the mechanistic processes involved between stressors, stress responses of biota, and the recovery dynamics of aquatic systems reduces the uncertainty involved in environmental management and regulatory decisions resulting in an increased ability to predict the consequences of restoration and remedial actions for aquatic systems.