Prenatal diagnosis and obstetrical management of multicystic dysplastic kidney disease

Multicystic dysplastic kidney disease (MDKD) is one of the most common congenital renal anomalies. We report 16 consecutive cases of MDKD recognized in the antenatal period by sonography. Diagnosis is usually easy as MDKD has in the vast majority of cases a striking ultrasound appearance including enlargement of the kidney and multiple renal cysts. However, differentiation from obstructive uropathy may be difficult, and we made a total of five erroneous diagnoses. Unilateral MDKD has almost invariably a good prognosis. However, severe life-threatening associated anomalies were found in six cases. Therefore, a detailed survey of fetal anatomy and determination of karyotype are strongly recommended.     

Assessing the carbon balance of circumpolar Arctic tundra using remote sensing and process modeling.

This paper reviews the current status of using remote sensing and process-based modeling approaches to assess the contemporary and future circumpolar carbon balance of Arctic tundra, including the exchange of both carbon dioxide and methane with the atmosphere. Analyses based on remote sensing approaches that use a 20-year data record of satellite data indicate that tundra is greening in the Arctic, suggesting an increase in photosynthetic activity and net primary production. Modeling studies generally simulate a small net carbon sink for the distribution of Arctic tundra, a result that is within the uncertainty range of field-based estimates of net carbon exchange. Applications of process-based approaches for scenarios of future climate change generally indicate net carbon sequestration in Arctic tundra as enhanced vegetation production exceeds simulated increases in decomposition. However, methane emissions are likely to increase dramatically, in response to rising soil temperatures, over the next century. Key uncertainties in the response of Arctic ecosystems to climate change include uncertainties in future fire regimes and uncertainties relating to changes in the soil environment. These include the response of soil decomposition and respiration to warming and deepening of the soil active layer, uncertainties in precipitation and potential soil drying, and distribution of wetlands. While there are numerous uncertainties in the projections of process-based models, they generally indicate that Arctic tundra will be a small sink for carbon over the next century and that methane emissions will increase considerably, which implies that exchange of greenhouse gases between the atmosphere and Arctic tundra ecosystems is likely to contribute to climate warming.     

Thermodynamic behaviour of sodium and calcium based sorbents in the emission control of waste incinerators

The dry treatment of flue gas produced by incineration processes is discussed thermodynamically. The study investigates the theoretical limits achieved by sodium and calcium based sorbents in the removal of the pollutant species HCl, NOx and SO2. Calculations were performed varying the temperature and the molar ratio between the amount of the injected alkaline sorbent and the content of the pollutant gaseous species in the flue gas. Results show that sodium cation based sorbents are more efficient than calcium based ones in the whole investigated temperature range (100-600 degrees C). The higher effectiveness of sodium based sorbents is particularly remarkable towards hydrogen chloride, whose concentration can always be reduced below the values set by the environmental regulations. Possible improvements in the treatment efficiency of combustion fumes obtainable with sodium based sorbents can be mainly summarised in a lower concentration of HCl in the treated gas and in a partial reduction of NOx concentration.     

Length of index and ring fingers differentially influence sexual attractiveness of men’s and women’s hands

Humans show intra- and intersexual variation in second (2D) relative to fourth (4D) finger length, men having smaller 2D:4D ratio, possibly because of differential exposure to sex hormones during fetal life. The relations between 2D:4D and phenotypic traits including fitness components reported by several studies may originate from the organizational effects that sex hormones have on diverse organs and their concomitant effect on 2D:4D. Evolutionary theory posits that sexual preferences are adaptations whereby choosy individuals obtain direct or genetic indirect benefits by choosing a particular mate. Since sex hormones influence both fitness and 2D:4D, hand sexual attractiveness should depend on 2D:4D, a hypothesis tested only in one correlational study so far. We first presented hand computer images to undergraduates and found that opposite-sex hands with long 2D and 4D were considered more sexually attractive. When we experimentally manipulated hand images by increasing or decreasing 2D and/or 4D length, women preferred opposite-sex hands that had been masculinized by elongating 4D, whereas men avoided masculinized opposite-sex right hands with shortened 2D. Hence, consensus exists about which hands are attractive among different opposite-sex judges. Finger length may signal desirable sex hormone-dependent traits or genetic quality of potential mates. Psychological mechanisms mediating hand attractiveness judgments may thus reflect adaptations functioning to provide direct or indirect benefits to choosy individuals. Because the genetic mechanisms that link digit development to sex hormones may be mediated by Hox genes which are conserved in vertebrates, present results have broad implications for sexual selection studies also in nonhuman taxa.     

Vitamin E supplementation enhances growth and condition of nestling barn swallows (Hirundo rustica)

To optimize fitness, organisms may have to trade the number and quality of individual offspring against their own condition and survival. Limiting micronutrients such as antioxidants may be crucial to this trade-off. We investigated whether vitamin E, a major antioxidant in the diet of vertebrates, is limiting to barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) nestlings. We manipulated brood size to alter the intensity of sib–sib competition and supplemented nestlings with two different physiological doses of vitamin E while establishing a control group. Treatment effects were measured on body mass and size, feather growth, T cell-mediated immune response and hematocrit. Supplementation with vitamin E at intermediate physiological doses improved nestling mass and condition and feather growth, whereas higher physiological doses did not enhance offspring quality compared to a control treatment. The positive effects of vitamin E on body mass and condition were only detectable from days 6 to 10 when maximum growth rate is attained. Experimental enlargement of broods reduced body mass and size and T cell-mediated immune response only during the late nestling period. The effect of vitamin E supplementation did not depend on brood size manipulation, as revealed by the nonsignificant statistical interaction. This result contradicts the hypothesis that availability of vitamin E depends on intrabrood competition and instead suggests that it depends on concentration of vitamin E in the insect prey of swallows. Thus, antioxidants may be available in limited amounts to barn swallow nestlings and such limitation affects growth. In addition, present results confirm that barn swallow parents trade progeny number against growth and immunity of individual offspring.     

Green tenants: practicing a sustainability ethics for the rental housing sector

The shift towards social, government and corporate ethics which value environmental sustainability has also embraced householders in a plethora of educational guides, policies, regulations and consumer information about green home improvements, purchasing choices and household practices. In this paper, we make the claim that the rental housing sector, and in particular the private rental sector, has yet to participate, structurally, culturally and materially, in this shift to an ethics of sustainability. We argue, however, that even on such otherwise arid ground, an alternative ethic is developing, a sustainability ethic practiced by green tenants whose activities inside and outside their homes go beyond the considerable material constraints of their dwellings and incomes, and beyond the purely transactional utility of the rental contract. These activities, relational, interconnected and resilient, offer both glimpses of a greening rental housing sector, and a clearer picture of the areas where work remains to be done. Based on a research study, we conducted of the rental sector in regional Australia, and in particular of the everyday sustainability practices of tenants, we suggest that these activities are a practice-based form of care for the world, in many ways similar to Maria Puig de la Bellacasa's practice-based, human-decentred ethics which she suggests is exemplified in the permaculture movement. The stories of the tenants we interviewed for our study also point the way to other changes which are needed to enable a practice-based sustainability ethic to flourish across the rental housing sector as a whole.