scholarly journals Saving living diversity in the face of the unstoppable 6th mass extinction: a call for urgent international action

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Naggs
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Numerous Species ◽  
Damage Limitation ◽  
The Face

The global scale and impact of current and increasing human population size is incompatible with the survival of biological diversity and the 6th mass extinction cannot be stopped. For the vast majority of species we have neither the knowledge of when they will go extinct nor the capacity to find out. Conventional conservation measures can only amount to token damage limitation. Advances in molecular biology allow low cost options for storing the genetic diversity of numerous species and maximising future options for restoring species.

scholarly journals Ecology and evolution of mammalian biodiversity

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1577) ◽  
pp. 2451-2461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate E. Jones ◽  
Kamran Safi
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The Past ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
Global Extinction ◽  
The Face ◽  
Insect Populations ◽  
Current Species

Mammals have incredible biological diversity, showing extreme flexibility in eco-morphology, physiology, life history and behaviour across their evolutionary history. Undoubtedly, mammals play an important role in ecosystems by providing essential services such as regulating insect populations, seed dispersal and pollination and act as indicators of general ecosystem health. However, the macroecological and macroevolutionary processes underpinning past and present biodiversity patterns are only beginning to be explored on a global scale. It is also particularly important, in the face of the global extinction crisis, to understand these processes in order to be able to use this knowledge to prevent future biodiversity loss and loss of ecosystem services. Unfortunately, efforts to understand mammalian biodiversity have been hampered by a lack of data. New data compilations on current species' distributions, ecologies and evolutionary histories now allow an integrated approach to understand this biodiversity. We review and synthesize these new studies, exploring the past and present ecology and evolution of mammalian biodiversity, and use these findings to speculate about the mammals of our future.

scholarly journals Engineering and characterization of gymnosperm sapwood toward enabling the design of water filtration devices

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krithika Ramchander ◽  
Megha Hegde ◽  
Anish Paul Antony ◽  
Luda Wang ◽  
Kendra Leith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shelf Life ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Coliform Bacteria ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Water Filter ◽  
Synthetic Test ◽  
Xylem Tissue ◽  
Filtration Material

AbstractNaturally-occurring membranes in the xylem tissue of gymnosperm sapwood enable its use as an abundantly-available material to construct filters, with potential to facilitate access to safe drinking water in resource-constrained settings. However, the material’s behavior as a filter is poorly understood, and challenges such as short shelf life have not been addressed. Here, we characterize the operational attributes of xylem filters and show that the material exhibits a highly non-linear dependence of flow resistance on thickness upon drying, and a tendency for self-blocking. We develop guidelines for the design and fabrication of xylem filters, demonstrate gravity-operated filters with shelf life >2 years, and show that the filters can provide >3 log removal of E. coli, MS-2 phage, and rotavirus from synthetic test waters and coliform bacteria from contaminated spring, tap, and ground waters. Through interviews and workshops in India, we use a user-centric approach to design a prototype filtration device with daily- to weekly-replaceable xylem filters, and uncover indicators of social acceptance of xylem as a natural water filter. Our work enhances the understanding of xylem as a filtration material, and opens opportunities for engineering a diverse range of low-cost, biodegradable xylem-based filtration products on a global scale.

scholarly journals Maintaining paediatric cardiac services during the COVID-19 pandemic in a developing country in sub-Saharan Africa: guidelines for a “scale up” in the face of a global “scale down”

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 1588-1594
Author(s):  
Ogochukwu J. Sokunbi ◽  
Ogadinma Mgbajah ◽  
Augustine Olugbemi ◽  
Bassey O. Udom ◽  
Ariyo Idowu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Scale Up ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Tertiary Centre ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scale Down ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
International Experts

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic is currently ravaging the globe and the African continent is not left out. While the direct effects of the pandemic in regard to morbidity and mortality appear to be more significant in the developed world, the indirect harmful effects on already insufficient healthcare infrastructure on the African continent would in the long term be more detrimental to the populace. Women and children form a significant vulnerable population in underserved areas such as the sub-Saharan region, and expectedly will experience the disadvantages of limited healthcare coverage which is a major fall out of the pandemic. Paediatric cardiac services that are already sparse in various sub-Saharan countries are not left out of this downsizing. Restrictions on international travel for patients out of the continent to seek medical care and for international experts into the continent for regular mission programmes leave few options for children with cardiac defects to get the much-needed care.There is a need for a region-adapted guideline to scale-up services to cater for more children with congenital heart disease (CHD) while providing a safe environment for healthcare workers, patients, and their caregivers. This article outlines measures adapted to maintain paediatric cardiac care in a sub-Saharan tertiary centre in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic and will serve as a guide for other institutions in the region who will inadvertently need to provide these services as the demand increases.

Face recognition in an intelligent door lock with ResNet model based on deep learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Suphawimon Phawinee ◽  
Jing-Fang Cai ◽  
Zhe-Yu Guo ◽  
Hao-Ze Zheng ◽  
Guan-Chen Chen
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Graphics Recognition ◽  
Face Images ◽  
The Face ◽  
Door Lock

Internet of Things is considerably increasing the levels of convenience at homes. The smart door lock is an entry product for smart homes. This work used Raspberry Pi, because of its low cost, as the main control board to apply face recognition technology to a door lock. The installation of the control sensing module with the GPIO expansion function of Raspberry Pi also improved the antitheft mechanism of the door lock. For ease of use, a mobile application (hereafter, app) was developed for users to upload their face images for processing. The app sends the images to Firebase and then the program downloads the images and captures the face as a training set. The face detection system was designed on the basis of machine learning and equipped with a Haar built-in OpenCV graphics recognition program. The system used four training methods: convolutional neural network, VGG-16, VGG-19, and ResNet50. After the training process, the program could recognize the user’s face to open the door lock. A prototype was constructed that could control the door lock and the antitheft system and stream real-time images from the camera to the app.

scholarly journals Genetic diversity and evolution of hepatitis C virus – 15 years on

2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (11) ◽  
pp. 3173-3188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Simmonds
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Hepatitis C Virus ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
Human Liver ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Sequence Divergence ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Host Interactions ◽  
Persistent Viruses ◽  
The Face

In the 15 years since the discovery of hepatitis C virus (HCV), much has been learned about its role as a major causative agent of human liver disease and its ability to persist in the face of host-cell defences and the immune system. This review describes what is known about the diversity of HCV, the current classification of HCV genotypes within the family Flaviviridae and how this genetic diversity contributes to its pathogenesis. On one hand, diversification of HCV has been constrained by its intimate adaptation to its host. Despite the >30 % nucleotide sequence divergence between genotypes, HCV variants nevertheless remain remarkably similar in their transmission dynamics, persistence and disease development. Nowhere is this more evident than in the evolutionary conservation of numerous evasion methods to counteract the cell's innate antiviral defence pathways; this series of highly complex virus–host interactions may represent key components in establishing its ‘ecological niche’ in the human liver. On the other hand, the mutability and large population size of HCV enables it to respond very rapidly to new selection pressures, manifested by immune-driven changes in T- and B-cell epitopes that are encountered on transmission between individuals with different antigen-recognition repertoires. If human immunodeficiency virus type 1 is a precedent, future therapies that target virus protease or polymerase enzymes may also select very rapidly for antiviral-resistant mutants. These contrasting aspects of conservatism and adaptability provide a fascinating paradigm in which to explore the complex selection pressures that underlie the evolution of HCV and other persistent viruses.

scholarly journals IoT and Deep Learning Based Approach for Rapid Screening and Face Mask Detection for Infection Spread Control of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3495
Author(s):  
Shabir Hussain ◽  
Yang Yu ◽  
Muhammad Ayoub ◽  
Akmal Khan ◽  
Rukhshanda Rehman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
World Health ◽  
Rapid Screening ◽  
Screening System ◽  
Source Of Infection ◽  
The Face ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Vaccine Distribution

The spread of COVID-19 has been taken on pandemic magnitudes and has already spread over 200 countries in a few months. In this time of emergency of COVID-19, especially when there is still a need to follow the precautions and developed vaccines are not available to all the developing countries in the first phase of vaccine distribution, the virus is spreading rapidly through direct and indirect contacts. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides the standard recommendations on preventing the spread of COVID-19 and the importance of face masks for protection from the virus. The excessive use of manual disinfection systems has also become a source of infection. That is why this research aims to design and develop a low-cost, rapid, scalable, and effective virus spread control and screening system to minimize the chances and risk of spread of COVID-19. We proposed an IoT-based Smart Screening and Disinfection Walkthrough Gate (SSDWG) for all public places entrance. The SSDWG is designed to do rapid screening, including temperature measuring using a contact-free sensor and storing the record of the suspected individual for further control and monitoring. Our proposed IoT-based screening system also implemented real-time deep learning models for face mask detection and classification. This module classified individuals who wear the face mask properly, improperly, and without a face mask using VGG-16, MobileNetV2, Inception v3, ResNet-50, and CNN using a transfer learning approach. We achieved the highest accuracy of 99.81% while using VGG-16 and the second highest accuracy of 99.6% using MobileNetV2 in the mask detection and classification module. We also implemented classification to classify the types of face masks worn by the individuals, either N-95 or surgical masks. We also compared the results of our proposed system with state-of-the-art methods, and we highly suggested that our system could be used to prevent the spread of local transmission and reduce the chances of human carriers of COVID-19.

Giving when it costs

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 722-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa C. Day ◽  
Emily A. Impett
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Daily Experience ◽  
Self Construal ◽  
Interdependent Self ◽  
The Face ◽  
Willingness To Sacrifice

Do some people exhibit a greater willingness to sacrifice in romantic relationships and derive more satisfaction from doing so, even in the face of high costs? In a cross-sectional study and a daily experience study, we show that people low in interdependent self-construal were less willing to sacrifice when the costs were relatively high, whereas people high in interdependent self-construal were equally willing to make high- and low-cost sacrifices. Further, when people low in interdependent self-construal chose to sacrifice, they felt less authentic when the costs were high, which in turn, detracted from their satisfaction with sacrifice. In contrast, people high in interdependent self-construal did not feel less authentic and were buffered against feeling less satisfied when making more costly sacrifices. The findings identify a set of individuals who are more willing to sacrifice, even in the face of high costs, and who feel more satisfied and authentic when doing so.

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