Global

The IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Conservation Congress called for the full protection of 30% of each marine habitat globally and at least 30% of all the ocean. Thus, we quantitatively prioritized the top 30% areas for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) globally using global scale measures of biodiversity from the species to ecosystem level.
We examined whether cognitive reserve (CR) impacts level of, or rate of change in, biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and small-vessel cerebrovascular disease in >250 individuals who were cognitively normal and middle-aged and older at the baseline. The four primary biomarker categories commonly examined in studies of AD were measured longitudinally: cerebrospinal fluid measures of amyloid (A) and tau (T); cerebrospinal fluid and neuroimaging measures of neuronal injury (N); and neuroimaging measures of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) to assess cerebrovascular pathology (V).
Improvements in the effectiveness of packaging materials can help to prevent foodborne pathogens and reduce environmental waste. Traditionally, food is packaged in plastic that is rarely recyclable, negatively impacting the environment. Biodegradable packaging materials play an important role in maintaining the health of ecosystems. However, there are limitations in the utilization of bio-based materials, including poor barrier and mechanical properties which frequently cause a shorter shelf life compared to conventional food packaging materials.
With female names, voices and characters, artificially intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants such as Alexa, Cortana, and Siri appear to be decisively gendered female. Through an exploration of the various facets of gendering at play in the design of Siri, Alexa and Cortana, we argue that this gendering of VPAs as female may pose a societal harm, insofar as they reproduce normative assumptions about the role of women as submissive and secondary to men. In response, this article turns to examine the potential role and scope of data protection law as one possible solution to this problem.
Elsevier, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, Volume 292, 15 April 2020
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is the most important greenhouse gas produced by agricultural soils and is a byproduct of microbial nitrification and denitrification processes. The N2O emission rates depend on soil, climatic and management factors. The objectives of this study were i) to evaluate N2O emissions during a barley crop period and its subsequent barley-maize interperiod, under two management systems, and ii) to relate the N2O flux rates with soil mineral N content, waterfilled pore space (WFPS) and soil temperature.
Elsevier, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Volume 162, April 2020
Mountains provide essential ecosystem services to billions of people and are home to a majority of the global biodiversity hotspots. However, mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate and environmental changes. The protection and sustainable management of mountain ecosystems are thus of great importance and are listed as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 15.4) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
Background: The nuclear factor erythroid2-related factor2 (Nrf2), a chief transcriptional regulator of antioxidant response element (ARE), is considered a promising target for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Vitamin D has been recognized to have a crucial role in improving AD cognitive functions. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of active vitamin D analogue, Maxacalcitol, on Keap1-Nrf2 signaling pathway in experimental Alzheimer's disease in rats.
Multiple lines of evidence indicate that amyloid beta (Aβ) peptide is responsible for the pathological devastation caused in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ aggregation species predominantly contribute to multifaceted toxicity observed in neuronal cells including generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial dysfunction, interfering with synaptic signaling, and activation of premature apoptosis. Herein, we report a natural product berberine-derived (Ber-D) multifunctional inhibitor to ameliorate in cellulo multifaceted toxicity of AD.
Improvements in the effectiveness of packaging materials can help to prevent foodborne pathogens and reduce environmental waste. Traditionally, food is packaged in plastic that is rarely recyclable, negatively impacting the environment. Biodegradable packaging materials play an important role in maintaining the health of ecosystems. However, there are limitations in the utilization of bio-based materials, including poor barrier and mechanical properties which frequently cause a shorter shelf life compared to conventional food packaging materials.
Elsevier, Current Opinion in Food Science, Volume 32, April 2020
Driven by current climate discussions, the search for alternatives to animal proteins has been intensified in recent years. Although soy and wheat proteins have long had an important share of the protein market, other protein ingredients are gradually becoming available for food purposes. This review provides a concise overview of publications (mainly from the past two years) dealing with alternative protein sources from plants and fungi, along with their nutritional, physico-chemical and sensory characteristics.

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