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The extensive abandonment of agricultural lands in the Mediterranean basin has led to large landscapes being dominated by early-successional species, characterized by high flammability and an increasing fire risk. This fact promotes fire occurrence and places ecosystems in a state of arrested succession. In this work, we assessed the effectiveness of several restoration actions in redirecting these ecosystems toward more resilient communities dominated by resprouting species. These actions included the mechanical clearing of early-successional species, the plantation of resprouting species, and the combination of both treatments. For 13 years, we assessed shifts in the successional trajectory and ecosystem flammability by changes in: species composition, species richness, ecosystem evenness, the natural colonization of resprouting species, total biomass and proportion of dead biomass. We observed that the plantation and clearing combination was a suitable strategy to promote resilience. Species richness increased as well as the presence of the resprouting species introduced by planting. The natural colonization of the resprouting species was also enhanced. These changes in the successional trajectory were accompanied by a possible reduction of fire risk by reducing dead fuel proportion. These findings are relevant for the management of Mediterranean basin areas, but also suggest new tools for redirecting systems in fire-prone areas worldwide.

Samples of two hundred finger‐ and toenails cultured after a 70% alcohol disinfection for 2 min were compared with non‐disinfected samples cultured on a classical way. Alcohol treatment caused a significant decrease in isolation of yeast and moulds. Both organisms were cultivated at 25.5 and 31%, respectively, when not treated with alcohol, whereas the isolation rate dropped to 10 and 17.5%, respectively, after alcohol treatment. Isolation of dermatophytes decreased from 27.5 to 23.5% when alcohol disinfection was used. In conclusion, although alcohol disinfection of nail samples in the laboratory effectively decreases the isolation rate of unwanted contaminants on Sabouraud glucose agar without cycloheximide, it hampers the isolation of dermatophytes and pathogenic yeasts on cycloheximide‐containing media.

Balancing financial performance and corporate sustainability is a challenge, especially in today’s economic environment. Based on the idea that there’s a trade-off between what’s “good for the business” and what’s “good for the environment and society,” companies sometimes perceive corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an add-on cost, or they may perceive sustainability as an opportunity for “green PR.” By doing so, they may miss significant opportunities for business growth, innovation, and organizational change. In this article, we describe how General Electric (GE) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) have operationalized corporate sustainability initiatives using management control and management accounting systems. Current forces of change are driving a general rethinking of business in a more sustainable direction. Pressures come from national and international regulatory bodies as well as from business partners, stakeholders, and activists. For instance, many companies require their suppliers to comply with standards for environmental management systems certification, such as the ISO 14000 series or the European Union’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme.Moreover, thanks to new technologies, customers are increasingly informed, empowered, and active, and their demand for products that are clearly identified as sustainable is growing. Employees are also looking for companies that operate in a socially responsible way, which can impact the ability of an organization to recruit and retain talent. In addition, the financial community is paying closer attention to socially responsible investments (SRI) and investment rating systems such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. These internal and external stakeholder views shouldn’t be neglected by companies aiming to achieve superior corporate sustainability performance. As suggested in the May 2009 Strategic Finance article “Co-Creating Strategic Risk-Return Management” by Mark Frigo and Venkat Ramaswamy, “Sustainable wealth creation requires balanced risk taking by focusing on co-creation opportunities that can generate superior returns while simultaneously reducing risks for companies and their stakeholders.” Since shareholder value creation is driven from creating value for others (customers, employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders), organizations can think in terms of how these stakeholders can be engaged to help define and achieve sustainability performance. This process can help identify new sustainability opportunities that will create mutual value with internal and external stakeholders. The current drivers of change and the economic downturn provide an opportunity for more integrated, strategic, and value-creating sustainability efforts.

There is a growing need to assist those who have suffered an amputation due to vascular diseases, especially in those who have general lower limb weakness and need additional assistance to retain independence and overall quality of life. The CYBERLEGs system is a new artificial physical and cognitive lower-limb replacement system for dysvascular transfemoral amputees intended for assistance in activities of daily living. By lowering the cognitive and metabolic effort of using a prosthetic system, CYBERLEGs is intended to increase the number of amputees using prosthetic systems as well as expand the capabilities of those who use currently available technology.

AbstractThis study presents the chiral resolution of flurbiprofen enantiomers by preparative liquid chromatography using the simulated moving bed (SMB) technology. Flurbiprofen enantiomers are widely used as nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs, and although demonstrate different therapeutic actions, they are still marketed as a racemic mixture. The results presented here clearly show the importance of the selection of the proper solvent composition for the preparative separation of flurbiprofen enantiomers. Chiral SMB separation is carried out using a laboratory‐scale unit (the FlexSMB‐LSRE®) with six columns, packed with the Chiralpak AD® stationary phase (20 μm). Results presented include the experimental measurement of equilibrium and kinetic data for two very different solvent compositions, a traditional high hydrocarbon content [10%ethanol/90%n‐hexane/0.01% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)] and a strong polar organic composition (100%ethanol/0.01%TFA). Experimental data, obtained using the two mobile phase compositions, are used to predict and optimize the SMB operation. After selecting 10%ethanol/90%n‐hexane/0.01%TFA as the most appropriate solvent composition, three feed concentrations of racemic flurbiprofen were considered. Using 40 g/l of racemic flurbiprofen feed solution, the purities for both outlet streams were above 99.4%, the productivity was 13.1 gfeed/(Lbedh), and a solvent consumption of 0.41 Lsolvent/gfeedwas achieved. Chirality, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Abstract Fodder for feeding pork and poultry requires a large amount of cultivated and processed agricultural crops, which are often related to greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change (LUC). Given the rapid growth in meat production in Brazil for domestic consumption and international export, the link between LUC emissions and consumption of pork and poultry meat is central to evaluating the role of Brazilian meat production and the implications for international climate policies. In this paper, we first estimate LUC emissions from soybean production destined to feed pork and poultry in Brazil during the period 2008–2012. Second, we allocate such emissions to domestic and international consumption of pork and poultry meat. Concerning international consumption, Brazilian export of meat to 189 countries is evaluated. Although the majority of the LUC emissions from soybean production are tied to the domestic consumption, 17% and 39% of the emissions embodied in Brazilian pork and poultry, respectively, are exported to other countries. The most prominent destinations of Brazilian pork and poultry in terms of embodied LUC emissions are Eastern Europe, Asia and South America. In the case of pork, the fluxes of emissions from Brazil to Ukraine (1.28 Mt CO2-eq) and Russia (1.18 Mt CO2-eq) are particularly large. In the case of poultry, the largest transfers of embodied emissions are from Brazil to developing countries and especially the Middle East. These results are relevant to environmental policies and international agreements aimed at achieving the sustainability of Brazil's meat sector.

AbstractNitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas and causes stratospheric ozone depletion. While the emissions of N2O from soil are widely recognized, recent research has shown that terrestrial plants may also emit N2O from their leaves under controlled laboratory conditions. However, it is unclear whether foliar N2O emissions are universal across varying plant taxa, what the global significance of foliar N2O emissions is, and how the foliage produces N2O in situ. Here we investigated the abilities of 25 common plant taxa, including trees, shrubs and herbs, to emit N2O under in situ conditions. Using 15N isotopic labeling, we demonstrated that the foliage‐emitted N2O was predominantly derived from nitrate. Moreover, by selectively injecting biocide in conjunction with the isolating and back‐inoculating of endophytes, we demonstrated that the foliar N2O emissions were driven by endophytic bacteria. The seasonal N2O emission rates ranged from 3.2 to 9.2 ng N2O–N g−1 dried foliage h−1. Extrapolating these emission rates to global foliar biomass and plant N uptake, we estimated global foliar N2O emission to be 1.21 and 1.01 Tg N2O–N year−1, respectively. These estimates account for 6%–7% of the current global annual N2O emission of 17 Tg N2O–N year−1, indicating that in situ foliar N2O emission is a universal process for terrestrial plants and contributes significantly to the global N2O inventory. This finding highlights the importance of measuring foliar N2O emissions in future studies to enable the accurate assigning of mechanisms and the development of effective mitigation.

This paper introduces an adaptive current control strategy for DC-DC boost converters without input-output voltage sensing. In addition, accurate current control is achieved in the presence of dynamical uncertainties. Unlike many controllers available for DC-DC converters, the adaptive controller's stability is guaranteed by Lyapunov stability theory. A comparison to PI counterpart has been carried out. Results show higher performance, which lead to more efficient operations of DC-DC converters.