461 results match your criteria: "School of Science and the Environment[Affiliation]"

As agricultural regions are threatened by climate change, warming of high latitude regions and increasing food demands may lead to northward expansion of global agriculture. While socio-economic demands and edaphic conditions may govern the expansion, climate is a key limiting factor. Extant literature on future crop projections considers established agricultural regions and is mainly temperature based.

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Restored habitats, such as saltmarsh created through managed realignment, sometimes fail to meet targets for biological equivalence with natural reference sites. Understanding why this happens is important in order to improve restoration outcomes.Elevation in the tidal frame and sediment redox potential are major controls on the distribution of saltmarsh plants.

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Poultry manure (PM), a rich source for crop nutrients, is produced in ample quantities worldwide. It provides necessary nutrient to soil and has a potential to improve plant water holding availability under semiarid environment. The effect of composted poultry manure (CPM) and irrigation regimes on morpho-physiology of selective maize (Zea mays L.

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Our use, misuse, and abandonment of a concept: Whither habitat?

Ecol Evol

April 2018

Natural Resource Conservation, Parks Canada Gatineau QC Canada.

The foundational concept of habitat lies at the very root of the entire science of ecology, but inaccurate use of the term compromises scientific rigor and communication among scientists and nonscientists. In 1997, Hall, Krausman & Morrison showed that 'habitat' was used correctly in only 55% of articles. We ask whether use of the term has been more accurate since their plea for standardization and whether use varies across the broader range of journals and taxa in the contemporary literature (1998-2012).

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Using agro-industrial wastes for the cultivation of microalgae and duckweeds: Contamination risks and biomass safety concerns.

Biotechnol Adv

February 2019

School of Science and the Environment, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 20 University Drive, Corner Brook, NL A2H 5G4, Canada.

Aquatic organisms, such as microalgae (Chlorella, Arthrospira (Spirulina), Tetrasselmis, Dunalliela etc.) and duckweed (Lemna spp., Wolffia spp.

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Engineering molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the selective extraction and quantification of the novel psychoactive substance (NPS) methoxphenidine and its regioisomers.

Analyst

April 2018

Manchester Metropolitan University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, School of Science and the Environment, Division of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Chester Street, Manchester M1 5GD, UK.

In this communication, we present the first developed Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for the specific detection of a New Psychoactive Substance (NPS); namely, methoxphenidine (MXP) and its regioisomers. Selectivity of the MIP towards MXP is studied by analysing mixtures and an acquired street sample with High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to UV detection. The study demonstrates that the engineered polymers selectively extract MXP from heterogeneous samples, which makes for a very powerful diagnostic tool that can detect traces of MXP in complicated NPS samples.

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A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

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Characterisation, coverage, and orientation of functionalised graphene using sum-frequency generation spectroscopy.

Phys Chem Chem Phys

March 2018

Photon Science Institute, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK and School of Science and the Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK.

We report the unambiguous detection of phenyl groups covalently attached to functionalised graphene using non-linear spectroscopy. Sum-frequency generation was employed to probe graphene on a gold surface after chemical functionalisation using a benzene diazonium salt. We observe a distinct resonance at 3064 cm-1 which can clearly be assigned to an aromatic C-H stretch by comparison with a self-assembled monolayer on a gold substrate formed from benzenethiol.

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Article Synopsis
  • Members of the Aparallactinae snake subfamily are found across various habitats in sub-Saharan Africa, with their evolutionary relationships not fully understood despite their monophyly being established.
  • By analyzing 158 individuals from six of the eight genera using multiple genetic markers, the study identifies cryptic lineages and promotes one lineage to full species status.
  • Diversification primarily occurred during the Miocene era, influenced by the Zambezian region's environment, with subsequent species fragmentation linked to climatic changes leading to further diversification events.
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Populations of fishes provide valuable services for billions of people, but face diverse and interacting threats that jeopardize their sustainability. Human population growth and intensifying resource use for food, water, energy and goods are compromising fish populations through a variety of mechanisms, including overfishing, habitat degradation and declines in water quality. The important challenges raised by these issues have been recognized and have led to considerable advances over past decades in managing and mitigating threats to fishes worldwide.

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Chromatographic retention behaviour, modelling and optimization of a UHPLC-UV separation of the regioisomers of the Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) methoxphenidine (MXP).

J Pharm Biomed Anal

May 2018

MANchester DRug Analysis and Knowledge Exchange (MANDRAKE), School of Science and the Environment, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Manchester Metropolitan University, John Dalton Building, Chester Street, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK. Electronic address:

A detailed investigation into the chromatographic retention behaviour and separation of the three regioisomers of the Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) methoxphenidine (i.e. 2-, 3- and 4-MXP isomers) has revealed the ionization state of the analyte and stationary phase, to be the controlling factor in dictating which retention mechanism is in operation.

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Successful microbial invasions are determined by a species' ability to occupy a niche in the new habitat whilst resisting competitive exclusion by the resident community. Despite the recognised importance of biotic factors in determining the invasiveness of microbial communities, the success and impact of multiple concurrent invaders on the resident community has not been examined. Simultaneous invasions might have synergistic effects, for example if resident species need to exhibit divergent phenotypes to compete with the invasive populations.

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There are various climate risks that are caused or influenced by climate change. They are known to have a wide range of physical, economic, environmental and social impacts. Apart from damages to the physical environment, many climate risks (climate variability, extreme events and climate-related hazards) are associated with a variety of impacts on human well-being, health, and life-supporting systems.

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Phylogenetic classification of the world's tropical forests.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

February 2018

Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.

Article Synopsis
  • Understanding the biogeographic affinities of tropical forests helps explain regional differences in their structure, diversity, and responses to global changes.
  • The study classifies the world's tropical forests into five main floristic regions based on their phylogenetic relationships: Indo-Pacific, Subtropical, African, American, and Dry forests.
  • Findings challenge the traditional division of tropical forests and suggest a connection between northern-hemisphere Subtropical forests in Asia and America, as well as the existence of a global dry forest region.
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Temporal dynamism of plant resource capture, and its impacts on plant-plant interactions, can have important regulatory roles in multispecies communities. For example, by modifying resource acquisition timing, plants might reduce competition and promote their coexistence. However, despite the potential wide ecological relevance of this topic, short-term (within growing season) temporal dynamism has been overlooked.

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Trading off Aircraft Fuel Burn and NO Emissions for Optimal Climate Policy.

Environ Sci Technol

March 2018

School of Science and the Environment, Faculty of Science and Engineering , Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD , U.K.

Aviation emits pollutants that affect the climate, including CO and NO , NO indirectly so, through the formation of tropospheric ozone and reduction of ambient methane. To improve the fuel performance of engines, combustor temperatures and pressures often increase, increasing NO emissions. Conversely, combustor modifications to reduce NO may increase CO.

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Antimicrobial activity of Ti-ZrN/Ag coatings for use in biomaterial applications.

Sci Rep

January 2018

Microbiology at Interfaces Group, School of Healthcare Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK.

Severely broken bones often require external bone fixation pins to provide support but they can become infected. In order to reduce such infections, novel solutions are required. Titanium zirconium nitride (Ti-ZrN) and Ti-ZrN silver (Ti-ZrN/Ag) coatings were deposited onto stainless steel.

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The original version of this Article contained an error in the third sentence of the abstract and incorrectly read "Here, using long-term plot monitoring records of up to half a century, we find that intact forests in Borneo gained 0.43 Mg C ha year (95% CI 0.14-0.

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Fetal development of the Poeppig's woolly monkey (Lagothrix poeppigii).

Theriogenology

April 2018

Federal Rural University of the Amazon (UFRA), Postgraduate Program in Animal Health and Production in Amazonia (PPGSPAA), Belém, PA, Brazil; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Departament de Sanitat i d'Anatomia Animals, Facultat de Veterinària, Barcelona, Spain.

The intrauterine development is an evolutionary strategy that prepares the neonate for extra-uterine life, thus providing important information on the life history of species. In this study, we described the external and internal morphology of 25 fetuses of Poeppig's woolly monkeys (Lagothrix poeppigii) by taking advantage of a 10-year participatory collection of biological samples originated from animals hunted for subsistence purposes in the Peruvian Amazon. Logistic regressions estimated the probability of occurrence of each external morphological characteristic in relation to the crown-rump length (CRL).

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Fluorinated ligands have a variety of uses in chemistry and industry, but it is their medical applications as F-labelled positron emission tomography (PET) tracers where they are most visible. In this work, we illustrate the potential of using F-containing ligands as future magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents and as probes in magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies by significantly increasing their magnetic resonance detectability through the signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) hyperpolarization method. We achieve F SABRE polarization in a wide range of molecules, including those essential to medication, and analyze how their steric bulk, the substrate loading, polarization transfer field, pH, and rate of ligand exchange impact the efficiency of SABRE.

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A new family of heterometallic pentanuclear complexes of formulas [MnMnLnO(benz)(mdea)(NO)(MeOH)] (Ln = Dy (1-Dy), Tb (2-Tb), Gd (3-Gd), Eu (4-Eu), Sm (5-Sm), Nd (6-Nd), Pr (7-Pr); benz(H) = benzoic acid; mdeaH= N-methyldiethanolamine) and [MnMnLnO(o-tol)(mdea)(NO)(MeOH)] (Ln = Gd (8-Gd), Eu (9-Eu); o-tol(H) = o-toluic acid) have been isolated and structurally, magnetically, and theoretically characterized. dc magnetic susceptibility measurements reveal dominant antiferromagnetic magnetic interactions for each complex, except for 2-Tb and 3-Gd, which reveal an upturn in the χT product at low temperatures. The magnetic interactions between the spin centers in the Gd derivatives, 3-Gd and 8-Gd, which display markedly different χT vs T profiles, were found to be due to the interactions of the Gd-Gd ions which change from ferromagnetic (3-Gd) to antiferromagnetic (8-Gd) due to structural differences.

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Background: Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) demonstrate clinical potential for drug delivery and imaging diagnostics. As AuNPs aggregate in physiological fluids, polymer-surface modifications are utilized to allow their stabilization and enhance their retention time in blood. However, the impact of AuNPs on blood vessel function remains poorly understood.

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Less than half of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere. While carbon balance models imply large carbon uptake in tropical forests, direct on-the-ground observations are still lacking in Southeast Asia. Here, using long-term plot monitoring records of up to half a century, we find that intact forests in Borneo gained 0.

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The impacts of climate changes on cities, which are home to over half of the world's population, are already being felt. In many cases, the intensive speed with which urban centres have been growing means that little attention has been paid to the role played by climatic factors in maintaining quality of life. Among the negative consequences of rapid city growth is the expansion of the problems posed by urban heat islands (UHIs), defined as areas in a city that are much warmer than other sites, especially in comparison with rural areas.

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