Humans as agents of change in forest landscapes.

Forest systems play a crucial role in biogeochemical cycling and provide a variety of ecosystem services at multiple scales. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the dynamics of tropical and temperate deforestation and land-use and cover change. However, less attention has been dedicated to understanding the social and biophysical conditions under which reforestation occurs. Recent research documents the experiences of many countries that have undergone transitions from a period of high deforestation to a period of declining deforestation or even net reforestation. However, these transitions take place across a range of temporal and spatial scales. Here, we review global forest-cover trends and social processes affecting forest cover and then focus on a comparison of reforestation in the states of São Paulo, Brazil, and Indiana, United States. Both states have undergone extensive deforestation but now show forest restoration alongside continuing deforestation. Our focus on forest change at the state level permits a detailed examination of deforestation and reforestation dynamics and of the diverse social factors that underlie these changes. Among these factors, human values and attitudes appear most important

SERUM DIGOXIN CONCENTRATIONS DURING CHRONIC COR PULMONALE TREATMENT

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Technology Over-Consumption: Helping Students Find Balance in a World of Alluring Distractions

The last two decades has seen a fundamental shift in society with the growth in technology and the growth of social media. This shift has been embraced in the classroom as a tool to enhance the learning experience of the student. Students have experienced a fundamental shift in interaction with themselves and the world they inhabit with the exponential growth in technology and social media both inside and outside the classroom. The result is the multitasking student, who must constantly switch between a growing number of interactions. Attention spans have a finite limit, and eventually students experience an over-consumption of technology, characterized by increasing levels of anxiety and stress. To better serve our students, marketing educators must reconsider the technology experience in the classroom. Further, marketing educators should educate students on the detrimental effects of technology over-consumption and solutions to relieve themselves from their over-stressed plugged-in world

Dimensional Reduction of Dirac Operator

We construct an explicit example of dimensional reduction of the free massless Dirac operator with an internal SU(3) symmetry, defined on a twelve-dimensional manifold that is the total space of a principal SU(3)-bundle over a four-dimensional (nonflat) pseudo-Riemannian manifold. Upon dimensional reduction the free twelve-dimensional Dirac equation is transformed into a rather nontrivial four-dimensional one: a pair of massive Lorentz spinor SU(3)-octets interacting with an SU(3)-gauge field with a source term depending on the curvature tensor of the gauge field. The SU(3) group is complicated enough to illustrate features of the general case. It should not be confused with the color SU}(3) of quantum chromodynamics where the fundamental spinors, the quark fields, are SU(3) triplets rather than octets.Comment: 11 pages, LATEX

Implication of Complement System and its Regulators in Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease that affects approximately 24 million people worldwide. A number of different risk factors have been implicated in AD, however, neuritic (amyloid) plaques are considered as one of the defining risk factors and pathological hallmarks of the disease. Complement proteins are integral components of amyloid plaques and cerebral vascular amyloid in Alzheimer brains. They can be found at the earliest stages of amyloid deposition and their activation coincides with the clinical expression of Alzheimer's dementia. This review emphasizes on the dual key roles of complement system and complement regulators (CRegs) in disease pathology and progression. The particular focus of this review is on currently evolving strategies for design of complement inhibitors that might aid therapy by restoring the fine balance between activated components of complement system, thus improving the cognitive performance of patients. This review discusses these issues with a view to inspiring the development of new agents that could be useful for the treatment of AD

ASSESSMENT OF THE LEVEL OF MOTOR PREPAREDNESS OF BULGARIAN AND FOREIGN STUDENTS TRAINING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY

The process of managing students' motor level requires solving tasks, such as measuring and evaluating basic qualities, and is the basis of pedagogical activity. The purpose of the study is to evaluate and compare the level of physical preparedness of newly admitted Bulgarian and foreign students. They chose to practice table tennis or volleyball. As a result of a conducting ascertaining pedagogical experiment, the input level of indicators, such as upper and lower extremity explosive strength, grip strength, abdominal muscle strength, the state of sensory systems and the neuromuscular apparatus, the ability of the spine to fold and etc. The results of the sports-pedagogical testing were obtained using mathematical-statistical processing, through a specialized program IBM "SPSS" 19 and "Excel". Variational and comparative analysis have been applied

The role of the complement system in traumatic brain injury: a review

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an important cause of disability and mortality in the western world. While the initial injury sustained results in damage, it is the subsequent secondary cascade that is thought to be the significant determinant of subsequent outcomes. The changes associated with the secondary injury do not become irreversible until some time after the start of the cascade. This may present a window of opportunity for therapeutic interventions aiming to improve outcomes subsequent to TBI. A prominent contributor to the secondary injury is a multifaceted inflammatory reaction. The complement system plays a notable role in this inflammatory reaction; however, it has often been overlooked in the context of TBI secondary injury. The complement system has homeostatic functions in the uninjured central nervous system (CNS), playing a part in neurodevelopment as well as having protective functions in the fully developed CNS, including protection from infection and inflammation. In the context of CNS injury, it can have a number of deleterious effects, evidence for which primarily comes not only from animal models but also, to a lesser extent, from human post-mortem studies. In stark contrast to this, complement may also promote neurogenesis and plasticity subsequent to CNS injury. This review aims to explore the role of the complement system in TBI secondary injury, by examining evidence from both clinical and animal studies. We examine whether specific complement activation pathways play more prominent roles in TBI than others. We also explore the potential role of complement in post-TBI neuroprotection and CNS repair/regeneration. Finally, we highlight the therapeutic potential of targeting the complement system in the context of TBI and point out certain areas on which future research is needed