text:
Impact fee fight signals historic power shift
Opinion // Commentary
Rick Casey, For the Express-News
May 16, 2014 Updated: May 19, 2014 7:51 a.m.
If I were writing a headline to entice your attention, the two words I would least likely include would be "impact fees." Yet the current battle over impact fees in San Antonio signals a historic shift in the city's political power structure.
To appreciate the shift, you have to understand the almost unfettered power real estate developers exercised at City Hall since at least the 1970s.
Nowhere was that power more pronounced than at the city's water utility.
The chairman of the City Water Board in the mid-1970s was housing developer John Schaefer. At that time, the water board was extending water mains into ranch land around the city at no cost to developers converting the land to subdivisions.
Meanwhile, residents of the older parts of the city couldn't flush their toilets while their mates were in the shower, for fear of scalding them. Maintaining the system in the older parts was not a priority.
Yet by using the rates paid by residents of older neighborhoods to subsidize suburban housing developments, the city was spending inner-city money to hasten inner-city demise.
As a former city manager and SAWS chairman, Alex Briseño has had plenty of experience with developer interests.
Tom Reel / San Antonio Express-News
The then-new Communities Organized for Public Service, or COPS, made these policies a centerpiece of their Saul Alinsky-inspired organizing campaigns. At one City Council meeting where Schaefer was making a presentation, COPS showed up with two hats and asked him to choose which one he wanted to wear.
One said "Developer." The other said "City Water Board Chairman."
But the power of the developer lobby remained. In 1977 a city master plan that would have favored closer-in growth and redevelopment over sprawl was summarily canned — literally. Councilman Cliff Morton, a powerful developer, slammed it into a trashcan.
Developer power showed itself again in the 1990s on a number of issues. One example: When City Manager Alex Briseño asked City Council members to approve new subdivision design regulations. Developers fought fiercely, objecting even to such minor changes as increasing sidewalk minimum widths from 3 feet to 4 feet.
"It's a family values issue," Briseño said. "Have you ever tried holding hands with your wife while walking on a 3-foot sidewalk?'
Briseño lost.
A new century would bring some distance between City Hall and developers, largely because of voters. In 2003, I wrote a column noting which City Council members were being backed by politically generous developers and other power players.
Seven of those candidates lost, despite the fact that most had more money than their opponents. The only ones who won had only token opposition.
Strains between City Hall and developers grew under Mayor Ed Garza and more under Mayor Phil Hardberger.
Hardberger managed to pass an ordinance to require developers to save trees or pay for their replacement, although the requirements were watered down before passage.
Hardberger did something else: He engineered the appointment of Briseño — the 4-foot sidewalk advocate who was no longer city manager — as chairman of the San Antonio Water System, the expanded agency that replaced the Water Board and took over the city's wastewater system.
While he was on the SAWS board, Briseño brought in an outside consultant to help lead a four-hour board session designed to do something you might think was automatic. It was to adopt a policy of supporting the city's growth policies. The pioneering proposal passed.
So now we have a SAWS board voting 6-1 to more than double some impact fees to developers after an advisory committee voted 11-1 for a much smaller increase.
The advisory board was heavily weighted with developer interests. The sole SAWS board member voting against the higher fees was Louis Rowe, whose engineering firm has developers as clients.
Now, with a vote coming up by City Council, we will see just how far we've come since the 1970s.
This column first appeared as the "Last Word" on KLRN's "Texas Week with Rick Casey." The program appears Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
Juneteenth is a day for cheer - and unfinished business
Targeting marginalized communities for political gain is nothing new for...
Now is the time to remember what Fox's own lawyers said about Tucker...
What to know if you're going to get tested for COVID
How 2021 could have been different for Biden
Rick Casey


Living with Cystic Fibrosis can continue its mission through its valuable partners and many individuals. We thank them warmly for their invaluable support.
The Foundation's mission is to raise money for various assistance programs. With the assistance of Living with Cystic Fibrosis, needs were identified and a program of educational incentives and a psychological assistance program were launched in 2005.
The mission of the Ministry is to maintain, improve and restore the health and well-being of Quebeckers by maintaining access to a range of integrated and quality health and social services, contributing to social development And economic development of Quebec.


text:
Investigate and prosecute espionage activity against the United States
Investigate and prosecute espionage activity against the United States, strengthen partnerships with potential targets of intelligence intrusions, and proactively prevent insider threats
Lead Office: FBI
National Defense Administration of Justice
Foreign espionage strikes at the heart of U.S. national security, impacting political, military and economic arenas. The foreign intelligence threat to the United States is expanding, becoming more complex and less predictable. While traditional threats to national defense, military operations and policy, and intelligence, and science and technology remain, many intelligence threats are expanding their targets to include the burgeoning population of cleared defense contractors and other sectors affecting U.S. security, most notably sensitive economic information and
Foreign espionage strikes at the heart of U.S. national security, impacting political, military and economic arenas. The foreign intelligence threat to the United States is expanding, becoming more complex and less predictable. While traditional threats to national defense, military operations and policy, and intelligence, and science and technology remain, many intelligence threats are expanding their targets to include the burgeoning population of cleared defense contractors and other sectors affecting U.S. security, most notably sensitive economic information and emerging proprietary technology. Concurrently, foreign threats now have sophisticated networks of governmental and non-governmental entities using a wide array of intelligence collection platforms and engaging in long-term efforts to obtain sensitive information and threaten the security of the United States.
The Department will combat espionage by, among other things, vigorously investigating and prosecuting violations of espionage statutes and regulations. Additionally, DOJ will investigate and prosecute violations of export control and embargo statutes and regulations by combining intelligence and law enforcement to target individuals and networks involved in the illicit trafficking of controlled technologies and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and will expand its export control initiative to ensure nationwide coverage.
Strategic Objective Review Summary of Findings: On track and making satisfactory progress
Liaison and outreach is central to the Department's counterespionage strategy. The FBI maintains thousands of liaison contacts nationwide, and initiated hundreds of investigations and threat assessments based on shared information. The Department surpassed its targets for both key performance measures under this objective, as 14 percent of its counterespionage actions and disruptions against national counterintelligence priorities resulted from FBI outreach activities, and 98 percent of DOJ counterespionage cases were favorably resolved. Notable case successes include the June 2015 guilty plea of Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, who pleaded guilty to attempted espionage to providing schematics of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to Egypt; the February 26, 2015 guilty plea of Ali Mohammadi, who conspired to export one Series 446 Rate Integrating Gyroscope, a component of the TOW missile, from the United States to Iran; and the arrest of Yu Long, who is charged with attempting to travel to China with sensitive proprietary documents.
In furtherance of the White House's strategy to increase the protection of trade secrets, The Company Man, a compelling true story video based upon an actual FBI investigation involving the targeting of a U.S. company's trade secrets by China, has been shown at 1,300 events to over 60,000 individuals, leading to a 53 percent increase in the number of economic espionage cases since the its release. Although the surge in economic espionage continues to strain resources and the proliferation of new technology tools and the wide array of intelligence collection platforms require access to, and time for, advanced training, the Department continues to develop aggressive "trip wire" programs to proactively identify espionage activities before sensitive information is disclosed or compromised; hold threat working groups with other agencies and field offices, the private sector, and academia to make the counterintelligence threat clearer to potential targets and to share information regarding prevention of, and responses to, intrusions; and increase outreach to cleared defense contractors and other corporate entities to further efforts to identify and prosecute theft of sensitive commodities and technology.
Prevent Terrorism and Promote the Nation's Security Consistent with the Rule of Law
Prevent, disrupt, and defeat terrorist operations before they occur
Prevent, disrupt, and defeat terrorist operations before they occur by integrating intelligence and law enforcement efforts to achieve a coordinated response to terrorist threats
Combating terrorism is DOJ's top priority. The Attorney General, acting primarily through the FBI, has principal investigative responsibility for all criminal acts of terrorism (18 U.S.C. § 2332b(f)). A key tenet of this objective is to ensure that intelligence and law enforcement agencies are able to use all available tools to investigate vigorously and prevent acts of terrorism in a manner consistent with law.
FY 14-15 Priority Goal: National Security
National Security: Protect Americans from terrorism and other threats to National Security, including cyber security threats.
By September 30, 2015, the Department of Justice will: Disrupt 175 terrorist threats and groups and disrupt and dismantle 600 cyber threat actors.
Terrorism is the most significant national security threat that the country faces. Accordingly, the Department's number one priority is, and will continue to be, protecting the security of this Nation's citizens. The Administration has recognized that terrorism cannot be defeated by military means alone. The Department of Justice serves at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, providing a broad spectrum of tools, resources, and skills to combat terrorists. Specifically, the Department's agents, analysts, and prosecutors will continue to use every available resource and appropriate tool to detect, deter, and disrupt terrorist plots, investigate and prosecute terrorists, and aid in developing rule of law programs in post-conflict countries to help prevent terrorism abroad. The Department will aggressively pursue emerging threats around the world and at home, enhance the ability to gather and analyze actionable intelligence, and engage in outreach efforts to all communities in order to prevent terrorism before it occurs.
Cyber activities, likewise, constitute a growing threat to our national security. As an initial matter, an increasing number of sophisticated state and non-state actors have both the desire and the capability to steal sensitive data, trade secrets, and intellectual property for military and competitive advantage. In addition, cyber-enabled terrorism poses a viable threat to national security. Although the United States has not yet encountered terrorist organizations using the Internet to launch a full-scale cyber-attack, the Department believes that it is a question of when, not if, they will attempt to do so. The cyber threat demands ready and fluid means of sharing information and coordinating actions and responses. In order to successfully investigate and disrupt cyber threats, the Department must be creative and forward-looking in its approach, considering what kinds of tools, investigations, and outreach can be launched now to lay the groundwork for future cyber protective efforts.
Prosecute those involved in terrorist acts
Vigorously investigating and prosecuting terrorism offenses is a critical tool in the effort to incapacitate terrorists, gather valuable intelligence, and deter future acts of terrorism. Since September 11, 2001, DOJ's counterterrorism successes include achieving numerous criminal convictions of high-profile terrorists, defeating would-be terrorists, and protecting the Nation through prevention efforts. The investigation, disruption, and prosecution of terrorism will continue to be the top priority for the Department.
Combat cyber-based threats and attacks
Combat cyber-based threats and attacks, through the use of all available tools, strong private-public partnerships, and the investigation and prosecution of cyber threat actors
A range of cyber activities can diminish our security and siphon off valuable economic assets. A growing number of sophisticated state and non-state actors have both the desire and the capability to steal sensitive data, trade secrets, and intellectual property for military and competitive advantage. The other major national security threat in cyberspace is cyber-enabled terrorism. The Department believes that it is a question of when, not if, there will be attempts to do so.
The cyber threat demands ready and fluid means of sharing information and coordinating actions. To successfully investigate and disrupt cyber threats, the Department must be creative and forward-looking in its approach, considering what kinds of tools, investigations, and outreach can be launched now to lay the groundwork for future cyber efforts. As an example, the Department has partnered with nations worldwide in the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation, which will enhance its operational and investigative cyber capabilities through international cooperation and innovative technical solutions and systems. Collaboration with the private sector is also crucial to prevent breaches and protect confidential and proprietary information.
FY 14-15: National Security

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Stub Hub
Ex-Jets linebacker David Harris says he accepted Patriots offer "pretty much on the spot"
Joe Robbins | Getty Images
The New York Jets are in full revamp mode, as they are making cuts left and right to rebuild what seems like their entire roster.
Linebacker David Harris was one of those who was released.
Although Harris claimed it was "kind of disappointing" that he was let go from the Jets because he wanted to finish his career there, it didn't take the 33-year-old veteran very long to switch allegiances.
After just one visit to his division rivals' home field, the deal was done.
Speaking at his 11th annual football camp in Grand Rapids, MI this weekend, Harris admitted that when he was approached by the Patriots, he "pretty much accepted on the spot" that he wanted to play in New England.
"Great organization. They're the gold standard of the NFL. Why wouldn't you want to be a part of that?"
Harris has been a consistent player for the Jets as he missed only one game over the past eight seasons. In his 10-year career with New York, Harris totaled 1,087 tackles, 35 sacks, 31 passes defended and six interceptions. Last year, he led the team with 62 solo tackles.
The veteran's first shot against his old team will be on Oct. 15 at MetLife Stadium.
Follow Megan on Twitter: @carnahanmegan
Megan Carnahan 7/17/2017 10:38:00 AM Tweet Edit
« Prev Post Next Post »
Follow @patriotsLifeTweets by @PatriotsLife
Copyright © 2015 Patriots Life | Patriots Fan Site, Blog, T-shirts | Privacy Policy | Trentinternational - the best academic resource for students. | Writing tips for students from teachers and expert writers. | Disclaimer


Instead of having his long-standing case go to court, Bobby Shmurda recently took a plea deal for a seven-year prison sentence, with charges of 4th-degree murder conspiracy and 2nd-degree criminal weapons possession.
The Brooklyn rapper revealed to Complex that he did it for his fellow GS9 crew member Rowdy Rebel.
"I did it for Rowdy. They offered me five and offered Rowdy 12. They said the only way they'll give him seven is if I took seven, too. So, you know, I had to take one for the dawgs," he said.
In 2014, the two stars, along with other members of the GS9 crew, were charged with conspiracy, gun, and drug violations. Despite having time served, Bobby believes he would've had a better chance fighting the case out on bail.
"If we made bail I would've beat the case. We look guilty in these orange jumpsuits. If you put Al Sharpton in an orange jumpsuit and accuse him of having a gun, he's going to be found guilty. They just look at our skin color, and look at where we're from. I didn't get caught with anything on me and the cops lied, saying they seen me with a gun in my hand," he explained.
Check out the rest of Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel's interview here.


One dreamy coastal night many months back, we set sail on the third Sea to Seed adventure. The inspiration for this journey was a desire to use art as a platform to help promote the work of those who we respect so deeply: the farmers. Upon those fruitful explorations, the vision of Sea to Seed was born. We gathered all of our favourite musicians on a sailboat to cross the Salish Sea. Along the way we organized community gatherings on the beautiful farms nestled on the islands we visited, sharing in feasts and dancing the night away.
2017's Sea to Seed saw Over Grow The System join forces with Guayaki to nurture the seed that has now grown into Come To Life Music. It is no surprise that many of the artists we gathered for the tour, including Rising Appalachia, Dustin Thomas, Peia, and The Tailor, are now part of the Come To Life family.


London Speech Therapy was founded in early 2009 and provides both clinic based; home based and school based Speech & Language Therapy service to families and schools within the M25. We love our jobs!
Holistic and caring private mental health clinic, with doctors, psychologists, educational psychologists to give adults and children autism and asperger's assessments and educational assessment's.
Lester Aldridge is a full-service law firm dedicated to providing legal advice to individuals and businesses. We have a particular specialism in supporting the needs of vulnerable adults and children and their families.
Therapy Network is a leading paediatric speech and language therapy service working collaboratively with 50 schools across London, Birmingham, Manchester & Liverpool.


Overview: The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is a working dog with high energy. They prefer room to run and do better in homes with a large yard.
Coat: Its coat is medium-short, straight, dense and harsh.
Character: The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle dog is an energetic and free spirit.
Temperament: The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle dog does well with children, when socialized from a puppy. They may not do well with other animals.
Care: The short, dense coat needs little care. An occasional bath and brushing is all that is needed.
Training: The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle dog is clever and interested in training sessions. They are hard workers and are eager to please.
Activity: Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle dogs like a lot of room to run and enjoy playing.


text:
Ashleigh Ross (* 7. Oktober 1999 in Sydney, Australien, auch bekannt als Ashi Ross) ist eine australische Schauspielerin, Tänzerin und Model.

Leben und Karriere
Ross wurde am 7. Oktober 1999 in Sydney geboren. In ihrer Kindheit lernte sie Tanzen, begeisterte sie sich aber auch für das Modeln und Schauspielern. Die Zeitschrift Parents veröffentlichte ein Foto der Fünfjährigen. Als sie neun Jahre alt war, wurde sie als May in der ABC-Miniserie My Place besetzt. Mit zehn Jahren trat sie in Spireted auf. Außerdem bekam sie eine Rolle in Dance Academy. Unter anderem spielte sie in den Theaterstücken Mary Poppins und  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang die Hauptrolle. Seit 2020 spielt sie in der Serie The Gamers 2037.

Filmografie (Auswahl)
 2018: Back of the Net
 2019: Ritual (Kurzfilm)
 seit 2020: The Gamers 2037
 2022: The Red Shoes: Next Step

Auszeichnungen

Gewonnen
 2011: "BroadwayWorld Australia Awards" in der Kategorie "Best Younger Actress" (under 25) für Mary Poppins

Nominiert
 2017: "Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards" in der Kategorie "Favourite #Famous"

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Filmschauspieler
Model
Tänzer
Australier
Geboren 1999
Frau

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
The Terms & conditions were last updated on 17. marts 2021
8. Termination of use
We may, in our sole discretion, at any time modify or discontinue access to, temporarily or permanently, the website or any Service thereon. You agree that we will not be liable to you or any third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance of your access to, or use of, the website or any content that you may have shared on the website. You will not be entitled to any compensation or other payment, even if certain features, settings, and/or any Content you have contributed or have come to rely on, are permanently lost. You must not circumvent or bypass, or attempt to circumvent or bypass, any access restriction measures on our website.
9. Warranties and liability
Except to the extent any additional contract expressly states otherwise, our maximum liability to you for all damages arising out of or related to the website or any products and services marketed or sold through the website, regardless of the form of legal action that imposes liability (whether in contract, equity, negligence, intended conduct, tort or otherwise) will be limited to the total price that you paid to us to purchase such products or services or use the website. Such limit will apply in the aggregate to all of your claims, actions and causes of action of every kind and nature.
Access to the website from territories or countries where the Content or purchase of the products or Services sold on the website is illegal is prohibited. You may not use this website in violation of export laws and regulations of Denmark.
Except for obligations to pay money hereunder, no delay, failure or omission by either party to carry out or observe any of its obligations hereunder will be deemed to be a breach of these Terms and conditions if and for as long as such delay, failure or omission arises from any cause beyond the reasonable control of that party.
These Terms and Conditions will be interpreted and construed exclusively in Danish. All notices and correspondence will be written exclusively in that language.
These Terms and Conditions, together with our privacy statement and cookie policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Graaes Grafik in relation to your use of this website.
We may update these Terms and Conditions from time to time. It is your obligation to periodically check these Terms and Conditions for changes or updates. The date provided at the beginning of these Terms and Conditions is the latest revision date. Changes to these Terms and Conditions will become effective upon such changes being posted to this website. Your continued use of this website following the posting of changes or updates will be considered notice of your acceptance to abide by and be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of Denmark. Any disputes relating to these Terms and Conditions shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Denmark. If any part or provision of these Terms and Conditions is found by a court or other authority to be invalid and/or unenforceable under applicable law, such part or provision will be modified, deleted and/or enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to give effect to the intent of these Terms and Conditions. The other provisions will not be affected.
This website is owned and operated by Graaes Grafik.
You may contact us regarding these Terms and Conditions by writing or emailing us at the following address: kd.kifargseaarg@ofni
22. Download
You can also download our Terms and Conditions as a PDF.


text:
Keith Preston: Two Mideast refugees held in states on terror charges Reply
by Keith Preston • Fourth Generation Warfare, Law/Justice, Police State/Civil Liberties, Uncategorized
Press TV. Listen here: http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/01/08/444980/US-arrests-Mideast-refugees-/
US arrests two Middle Eastern refugees on terror charges. (file photo)
The United States has arrested two refugees from the Middle East on terrorism charges.
The two men who came to the US as refugees more than three years ago were arrested on federal charges in California and Texas, officials said on Thursday.
The detainees, arrested in Sacramento and Houston, were not involved in a single plot, but they may have been in contact with each other, Reuters cited a source familiar with the two cases as saying.
Both men are Palestinians who were born in Iraq.
The man arrested in Houston, Omar Faraj Saeed Al-Hardan, entered the United States as a refugee in November 2009, according to a court document.
In Sacramento, the US Department of Justice said Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, came to the United States in 2012 as a refugee from Syria.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a Tea Party Republican, cited the arrest in Houston as a reason why Texas has been seeking to block Syrian refugees from resettling there.
"This is exactly what we have repeatedly told the Obama administration could happen and why we do not want refugees coming to Texas. There are serious questions about who these people really are, as evidenced by today's events," Patrick said in a statement.
Now director and chief editor of the Attackthesystem.com tells Press TV that despite the fact that terrorism is a real and serious issue, one needs to approach such announced cases with skepticism as the charges brought against them are mostly vague.
Republican leaders have been calling on President Barack Obama, a Democrat, to move with caution in allowing refugees from Syria to resettle in the United States.
Al-Hardan was charged with providing material support to the ISIL militant group and for making false statements about ties to the group when seeking US naturalization, according to an indictment in federal court in Houston unsealed on Thursday.
In California, Al-Jayab was arrested on Thursday on a federal charge of making a false statement involving international terrorism, the US Department of Justice said.
The US attorney for Sacramento, Benjamin Wagner, said in a statement there were no indications Al-Jayab had planned any attacks in the United States.
In a criminal complaint, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Al-Jayab lied about traveling back to Syria and about posting on social media his support for what the government said were terrorist groups.
Ford Foundation Funded "Anarchist" Comes to the Rescue of the Feds
William Blum on Donald Trump and the Media


text:
Art center in Rockland hires new executive director
Timothy Peterson, currently executive director of the Northfield Arts Guild in Minnesota, will join the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in January.
Tim Peterson has been hired as the new executive director at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland. Courtesy of CMCA
The Center for Maine Contemporary Art has hired a curator and arts administrator from the Midwest as its next executive director and chief curator. Timothy Peterson, who currently serves as executive director of the multi-disciplinary Northfield Arts Guild in Minnesota, will succeed CMCA's longtime director, Suzette McAvoy, who will retire at year's end.
Peterson, 55, begins in Rockland in mid-January.
He has extensive experience presenting contemporary art. Prior to working for the Northfield Arts Guild, Peterson was chief curator at the museum at the Savannah College of Art and Design and founding executive of Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis, a large-scale alternative art space where he curated more than 130 exhibitions in 15 years. Among the artists he has worked with are Njideka Akunyili Crosby, a Nigerian-born visual artist who later won a MacArthur "genius" grant, and Kehinde Wiley, a New York painter who painted Barack Obama's formal portrait.
He also has worked as an assistant curator at the Lannan Foundation in Los Angeles and as a curatorial assistant at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He's been a guest curator at the Provincetown International Film Festival and adjunct instructor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
In a phone interview, Peterson said he has built his career on creating opportunities for young and emerging artists, with an emphasis on gender equity and inclusion. "The alternative space that I founded in Minneapolis was a little smaller than CMCA, and it gave us a great opportunity to do what we wanted to do," he said. "At the time, Minneapolis was not offering local artists opportunities, so when I started, there was this backlog of artists who have since gone on to major museums and big careers. All that I did was play a part in that path by giving them opportunities at a key moment in their career."
Peterson earned a master's in art history from Williams College and a bachelor's in studio art and art criticism from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Martha Jones of South Thomaston, who chairs the CMCA board, said 44 people applied for the job and Peterson emerged as the top choice because of his management experience, his history of boosting the careers of artists and his ability to raise money. They were also attracted to his perspective on contemporary art and the fresh impressions that he will bring to contemporary art in Maine.
She described him as a risk-taker. "It would have been easy enough to bring somebody in with expert knowledge of Maine art and Maine artists, but would they be giving it a fresh perspective? In the end, we went for the fresh perspective, as well as his enthusiasm and his ability to come in and hit the ground running," Jones said. "He has no fear of meeting new people. He is very engaging and outgoing. He is a high-energy, charming guy with a good sense of humor."
CMCA did not disclose his salary.
Peterson will begin working during the final quarter of CMCA's fiscal year, which begins April 1. That means he will be part of the budget and planning process as CMCA works its way through the pandemic, Jones said. The arts center operates with an annual budget of about $700,000.
Peterson described the CMCA job as an attractive combination of curatorial and administrative duties. At his current job at the nonprofit Northfield Arts Guild, he stewards a mission that includes theater and music in addition to the visual arts. He is eager to return his focus exclusively to the visual arts.
"I am happy to get back into the heart of the contemporary art field. CMCA is a tremendous fit on every level," he said. "The building is stunning, and it fires up my imagination for engaging the community."
In a statement, McAvoy said she "could not be more pleased with Tim's selection as the next leader of CMCA. His extensive curatorial and leadership experience, knowledge of contemporary art, and passion for working with living artists are exactly right for CMCA. I am excited to introduce him to the Maine art community and to be handing the reins of CMCA over to someone as qualified as Tim."
In an interview, Jones said the board was grateful for McAvoy's "singing endorsement," and board members view Peterson as someone with the personality, charisma and vision to succeed a popular leader like McAvoy. "It will be wonderful to have him lead us into the next chapter and continue Suzette's exemplary legacy," Jones said.
Country artist Cam confronts hard truths on 'The Otherside'
U.S. vetted stars' politics to showcase Trump virus response
Multiple departments respond to fire in Cornville
Kennebec Valley Council of Governments receives $670,000 from federal government
High school hockey overview: Central Maine teams face new challenges in face of pandemic
High school skiing overview: With few exceptions, sport has maintained some sense of normalcy during the pandemic
District attorney to review police files in Waterville shooting case


PayPal founder Peter Thiel has invested nearly $500,000 in a vegan pet food startup called Wild Earth aimed at disrupting traditional pet food companies.
The Berkeley, California-based biotech company said on Monday it has successfully completed its seed round of fundraising with an investment by Thiel and his venture capital firm, Founders Fund. To date, the company has raised more than $5 million.
Wild Earth's goal is to develop protein food products for both cats and dogs using fungi and lab-grown meat from mouse cells.


his brother, DREW in the front.
the fine young men they have become.
This is my handsome Brooks when he graduated from high school two years ago.
he is good at every single thing he wants to do.
A recent picture of our Brooks with his granddad.
for a grandchild burns in a heart."
"You have always had a heart of gold...a love for your family...a pure joy for all of us."
You will ALWAYS be MEMAW'S BABY.
and hope your 20th birthday is full of love and fun.
BJ you made me want to be his Aunt. Written like a proud Memaw. Happy Birthday to Brooks.
Happy Birthday to Brooks. He is a handsome young man.
Happy birthday to Brook. Grandkids are so special and I can feel the love you have for yours. We don't get to see ours often enough, but both have grown up to be awesome men and we are so proud of them. Would love to try to make your freezer jam ... it looks delicious.
Happy birthday to Brooks! Hope this day marks the beginning of a wonderful new year of life!


Facebook.com/NipseyHussle; Facebook.com/JayZEarlier this week, Nipsey Hussle became $10,000 richer after Jay-Z purchased 100 copies of his new Crenshaw mixtape, at $100 each.
The Los Angeles rapper, who initially released the project as a free download and then gave fans the option to buy a $100 physical copy, explained to MTV News that he's "humbled" by the rap mogul's unexpected gesture.
In addition to Hov's contribution, Nipsey sold 1,000 physical copies within 24 hours, which adds up to an impressive $100,000 in sales.
Fans can still download Crenshaw, which includes guest spots from Rick Ross and Slim Thug, or fork over a Benjamin for the physical copy via IAmProud2Pay.com.


Michele de Lucchi, The Missing Ring.
An insight on 1980 exhibition which started the international debate on post-modern.
Among archive documents, pictures, project drawings and direct testimonies,a physical and hystorical path, which allows to end up dentro la Strada Novissima): a collective experience orchestrated byPaolo Portoghesi /em> on the occasion of the First international architectural exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which opened to the public on 27th July 1980 and was entitled La Presenza del Passato (The Presence of the Past).
The Strada Novissima was motivated by the desire to propose a reflection on the urban street through a 70-meter path, ten façades of full scale houses per side, designed by just as many architects including Frank O. Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Hans Hollein, Franco Purini, Arata Isozaki, Robert Venturi, Ricardo Bofill, GRAU.
On the occasion of the big exhibition La Strada, we propose an insight on this crucial moment of the architectural history of the Nineties, when the street became the concrete image of a different way to conceive architecture, definitively overcoming the dogmas of the Modern Movement.


text:
Nous, noesis and noeta: the transcendent apriorist tradition in epistemology
Burgess, Mark Robert (2002) Nous, noesis and noeta: the transcendent apriorist tradition in epistemology. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
There is perhaps no epistemological theory more universally rejected, by modern philosophers and commentators, than transcendent apriorism. In fact, the notion that the pure human intellect, purged of sensory contamination, can somehow transcend the limits of all possible experience is now disdainfully regarded as an obsolete Platonic fantasy. In the latter half of the eighteenth century Immanuel Kant had vilified those who defended such extreme versions of rationalism as, "dogmatic champions of supersensible reason". Regrettably, during more than two centuries of philosophical inquiry, this derogatory attitude has hardened into an obstructive prejudice. It is certain that the process has done much to impede, truly objective modern research into transcendent apriorism's basic epistemology. In fact, even foundational issues relating to the definition and categorization of the theory have been neglected, or only superficially considered. As a result, numerous misleading "straw man" versions of the doctrine have been promulgated, by the Logical Positivists and others, and then very enthusiastically denigrated. The consequent defective analysis and the prejudice that engendered it have seriously distorted modern appraisals of the theory's epistemological legitimacy. Similarly, contemporary studies of transcendent apriorism's philosophical history have been infected with damaging errors. This contamination is particularly transparent in the flawed theory of K. Ajdukiewicz that "radical apriorism" had adherents "almost entirely among ancient thinkers".
The aim of this thesis is to provide a new and comprehensive analysis of transcendent apriorism that remedies such prevalent misconceptions. The principle objective will be to remove the encrusting layers of prejudice, error and confusion that blight conventional epistemological and historical treatments of the subject. Ultimately, this procedure will function to disclose the doctrine's essential nature, its origins and the true course of its historical development. In the light of this analysis, we will be in a better position to determine whether extant arguments claiming to refute or undermine transcendent apriorism are legitimate or erroneous.
College of Arts > School of Humanities > Philosophy


text:
RESEARCH ARTICLE| 01 October 2009
Effects of temperature and dietary sterol availability on growth and cholesterol allocation of the aquatic keystone species Daphnia
Erik Sperfeld,
Erik Sperfeld *
Department of Theoretical Aquatic Ecology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, D 14469 Potsdam,Germany
*Author for correspondence(eriksperfeld@googlemail.com)
Alexander Wacker
Accepted: 30 Jun 2009
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.031401
Erik Sperfeld, Alexander Wacker; Effects of temperature and dietary sterol availability on growth and cholesterol allocation of the aquatic keystone species Daphnia. J Exp Biol 1 October 2009; 212 (19): 3051–3059. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.031401
Enhanced water temperatures promote the occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms, which may be detrimental to aquatic herbivores. Especially, the often-dominant crustaceans could be negatively affected because cyanobacteria are deficient in phytosterols, which are required by the crustaceans to form the membrane component cholesterol, which in turn plays a role in thermal adaptation. Here, we determined the influence of temperature on growth,reproduction and the allocation of dietary sterol into somatic tissues and eggs of the keystone species Daphnia magna raised along a dietary cholesterol gradient. Mass-specific growth rates of D. magnaincreased with the increasing availability of dietary cholesterol up to an incipient limiting level, which increased with increasing temperature. This indicates a higher demand for cholesterol for growth at higher temperatures and may explain the consistently smaller clutch sizes of reproducing females at the highest temperature. The cholesterol content of the individuals increased with increasing dietary cholesterol; this increase was enhanced at higher temperatures, indicating a higher demand for cholesterol for tissues and probably specifically for membranes. Surprisingly, the daphnids showed different allocation strategies with regard to temperature and dietary sterol availability. The cholesterol content of eggs was enhanced at higher temperature, which suggested that females allocate more cholesterol to their offspring, presumably to ensure sufficient egg development. When dietary cholesterol was limiting, however, females did not allocate more cholesterol to their eggs. Our data suggest that during cyanobacterial blooms, a potential dietary sterol limitation of Daphnia can be intensified at higher water temperatures, which can occur with global warming.
allocation strategy, cholesterol, growth, reproduction, temperature adaptation, zooplankton
Cholesterol is the predominant sterol in animals(Goad, 1981) and an indispensable structural component of their plasma membranes. In biological cell membranes, cholesterol, along with specific fatty acids, regulates the function of membrane-bound proteins and plays a role in thermal adaptation(Crockett, 1998; Hochachka and Somero, 2002). Furthermore, cholesterol serves as a precursor for multiple steroid hormones,e.g. ecdysteroids in arthropods, which are involved in the moulting process(Goad, 1981; Grieneisen, 1994; Martin-Creuzburg et al.,2007). Arthropods lack the ability to synthesize cholesterol and other sterols de novo and therefore have to acquire these essential compounds from their diet (Svoboda and Thompson, 1985; Martin-Creuzburg and Von Elert,2009). Unlike carnivorous arthropods, herbivorous arthropods lack cholesterol in their diet and have to metabolize dietary phytosterols to form cholesterol to meet their requirements for growth and reproduction(Svoboda and Thompson, 1985; Martin-Creuzburg and Von Elert,2004).
In the pelagic environment of aquatic ecosystems, there is a seasonal succession of suspended algal and cyanobacterial species(Sommer et al., 1986; Sommer, 1989); these species can vary greatly in their elemental and biochemical composition (e.g. Ahlgren et al., 1997; Kreeger et al., 1997; Wacker and Von Elert, 2001; Wacker and Von Elert, 2004). Thus, one can assume that the amount and composition of dietary phytosterols in the pelagic environment vary over time. For example, cyanobacteria usually lack sterols (Volkman, 2003; Volkman, 2005; Summons et al., 2006);therefore, during cyanobacterial blooms, the lack of dietary sterols might limit growth, reproduction and development of aquatic herbivorous arthropods,which mainly consist of suspension-feeding crustaceans. Indeed, laboratory experiments have shown that the availability of dietary sterols (cholesterol,phytosterols) has serious consequences for various life history traits of the aquatic herbivorous arthropod Daphnia(Von Elert et al., 2003; Martin-Creuzburg et al., 2005; Martin-Creuzburg et al.,2009). This keystone species often provides an important link for the transfer of carbon from primary producers to higher trophic levels(Sterner and Hessen, 1994; Gaedke and Straile, 1998).
The effect of sterol limitation observed in controlled laboratory experiments, however, might differ from the effect in the natural environment because of prevailing environmental conditions and other factors that influence the growth and reproduction of Daphnia. For instance,temperature strongly influences the metabolic rate of these ectothermic species (Dawidowicz and Loose,1992), and Daphnia grows and reproduces faster at higher temperature (Giebelhausen and Lampert,2001; Rinke and Petzoldt,2003). In contrast to this promoting effect of temperature on the metabolic activity, increasing temperature could also hamper the growth or development of Daphnia owing to changed physiological demands for cholesterol. Cholesterol plays an important role in the adaptation to temperature because of its membrane-stabilizing effects(Robertson and Hazel, 1997). These effects may be greater at higher temperatures, where a higher loss of the membrane's static order occurs(Robertson and Hazel, 1995). Thus, with increasing temperature, more cholesterol may be required to maintain suitable membrane properties, and this temperature-dependent cholesterol effect on membrane functionality may lead to different sterol requirements for Daphnia between different temperatures. The sterol requirements of Daphnia and other species might not only be affected by rapid changes in water temperature but also by slow changes, such as those that occur during global warming. Such long-term trends of increasing water temperature have been predicted for shallow lakes because of the very tight coupling between air and water temperatures(Mooij et al., 2008). Enhanced sterol requirements with increasing temperature may influence both ecosystem processes and community structures because the outcome of species competitions could differ at different temperatures. Additionally, increasing temperature favours the growth of cyanobacteria(Jöhnk et al., 2008) and enhances the possibility of harmful cyanobacterial blooms, which threaten many aquatic ecosystems (Paerl and Huisman,2008). The promoting effect of increasing temperature on the occurrence of cyanobacteria may intensify the sterol limitation of zooplankton and therefore has a positive indirect effect on these bacteria, leading to a faster development of potentially harmful blooms.
From an evolutionary point of view, an individual should allocate a higher fraction of a growth-limiting resource to its offspring to increase the chances of offspring survival or to improve the offspring's initial growth. Considering its own survival, an individual should increase its fitness by a higher allocation of limiting resources to a reduced number of offspring(Stearns, 1992). This has been demonstrated for Daphnia in terms of food quantity(Guisande and Gliwicz, 1992),but little is known about its allocation strategy in terms of food quality(Becker and Boersma, 2005; Wacker and Martin-Creuzburg,2007). Based on the arguments presented above, we would expect a temperature-dependent allocation strategy for essential membrane-bound lipids such as cholesterol.
Here, we assessed the effects of temperature and dietary sterol availability, as well as their potential interplay, on the performance and allocation strategies of Daphnia magna. To examine how sterol limitation of D. magna is affected by temperature, we determined the growth and reproduction response of the animals to increased dietary cholesterol at different temperatures. To assess potentially different cholesterol demands at different temperatures, we determined the amounts of cholesterol in the tissue of individuals. The temperature-dependent cholesterol content of D. magna was measured separately for eggs and somatic tissues to investigate potential allocation strategies (i.e. whether a temperature adaptation exists and whether the cholesterol content in the eggs is adjusted to the temperature-dependent demand of the offspring).
Cultivation of organisms
The stock culture of a clone of Daphnia magna Straus(Lampert, 1991) was maintained in filtered lake water (0.2 μm pore-sized membrane filter) with saturating concentrations of the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus (SAG 276-3a,culture collection Göttingen, Germany) at 20°C. For growth experiments, the edible, non-toxic and sterol-free cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus (SAG 89.79) was used(Lampert, 1977; Lampert, 1981; Martin-Creuzburg et al.,2008). S. obliquus and S. elongatus were cultured semi-continuously (dilution rate: 0.4 day–1 and 0.2 day–1, respectively) in aerated 2-liter flasks containing modified WC medium with vitamins(Guillard, 1975) at 20°C and an illumination of 120 μmol m–2 s–1and 40 μmol m–2 s–1, respectively, with a 16 h:8 h light:dark cycle.
Preparation of food
Cholesterol-containing liposomes used as food supplements were prepared according to a previously successfully tested method(Martin-Creuzburg et al.,2008). The liposome stock solution was prepared from 3 mg 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylglycerol (POPG) and 7 mg 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (POPC; Lipoid, Ludwigshafen, Germany)dissolved in an aliquot of ethanol. 3.33 mg of cholesterol (Sigma, Steinheim,Germany) was added from a cholesterol solution in ethanol. The mixture was dried using a rotary evaporator and dissolved in 10 ml buffer (20 mmoll–1 NaPi, 150 mmoll–1 NaCl,pH 7.0). Afterwards, the liposome suspension was sonicated in an ultrasonic bath for 30 s, and excess free cholesterol was removed by washing the liposomes in fresh buffer using an ultra-speed centrifuge (15,000 g, 360 min, 4°C). Liposome suspensions were stored at–20°C until preparation of experimental food treatments.
During experiments, carbon concentrations of cyanobacterial food suspensions (2 mg C l–1) were estimated from photometric light extinction (800 nm) using previously determined carbon-extinction equations. Aliquots of S. elongatus were filtered onto precombusted glass fibre filters (Whatman GF/F, 25 mm) and dried for later analysis of particulate organic carbon using a carbon analyser (HighTOC+N, Elementar,Hanau, Germany). The cholesterol content of liposomes added to food suspensions was determined from subsamples during the experiment; 1 μl of the liposome suspension contained 0.35±0.06 μg cholesterol (mean± s.d., N=9) and the mean diameter of liposomes was 2.3±1.0 μm (N=15,322; determined using a CASY particle counter, Schärfesystem, Germany). To determine the dietary cholesterol level, the amount of cholesterol added by liposomes to food suspensions was related to the measured carbon concentrations of S. elongatus. Direct measurement of the cholesterol content of experimental food suspensions was not necessary because liposomes are very stable during 24 h of usage (E.S. and A.W., unpublished).
Fourth-clutch juveniles of D. magna, hatched within 12 h in filtered lake water containing S. elongatus as food, were used for the experiments. To examine temperature dependencies, the experiments were run at 15, 20 and 25°C in vessels with 300 ml filtered lake water and 2 mg Cl–1 of S. elongatus. To test for cholesterol limitation of Daphnia growth, we generated a gradient of dietary cholesterol level by adding different amounts of cholesterol-containing liposomes to sterol-free S. elongatus. To obtain a narrow cholesterol gradient in the diet, we applied 19 cholesterol concentrations (ranging from 0 to 53 μg cholesterol per mg dietary carbon) per temperature without replication. Throughout the experiments, daphnids were transferred daily into vessels with renewed food suspensions.
The experiments were terminated a few hours after the majority of females provided with high dietary cholesterol levels had released their first clutch into the brood pouch. This was dependent on the temperature and occurred after 8.5, 6 and 5 days at 15, 20 and 25°C, respectively. The eggs of the first clutch were separated from the somatic tissue of a female by gently blowing them out of the brood pouch with a drawn-out glass Pasteur pipette. Subsamples of both the body of females (soma) and eggs were used for the determination of dry mass or for the analysis of cholesterol content. For determination of dry mass, 2–9 bodies or 4–24 eggs were dried in pre-weighed aluminium boats for 48 h at 50°C and weighed on an electronic balance (±1μg; CP2P, Sartorius, Goettingen, Germany). The juvenile mass-specific growth rates (g) were determined as the increase in total dry mass from the beginning (DM0) to the end of an experiment(DMt) using the equation g=(lnDMt–lnDM0)/t,where t is the duration of the experiments in days.
The cholesterol content of D. magna was determined in at least three bodies or 10–50 eggs. The daphnids or eggs were transferred to dichloromethane/methanol (2:1, v:v), sonicated for 3 min and stored under nitrogen at –20°C for later analysis. 5-α-Cholestan (Sigma)was used as an internal standard, and lipids were extracted twice with dichloromethane/methanol (2:1, v:v). The particles were removed by centrifugation (1730 g for 5 min), and the supernatant was evaporated to dryness under nitrogen. The evaporated sample was saponified for 60 min at 70°C with 0.2 moll–1 methanolic KOH and subsequently extracted three times with iso-hexane. The neutral lipids were partitioned into iso-hexane:diethyl ether (9:1, v:v), and this cholesterol-containing fraction was evaporated to dryness under nitrogen and resuspended in 20–50 μl of iso-hexane. Cholesterol was identified and quantified using a gas chromatograph (6890 N, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) with a DB-5 ms capillary column as described previously (Wacker and Martin-Creuzburg, 2007). 1 μl of the sample was injected with the split setting of 5:1 (i.e. one-fifth of the sample gets into the capillary column); cholesterol was identified by comparison of the retention times with authentic cholesterol and quantified using the internal standard(5-α-cholestan).
The amount of cholesterol in D. magna was related to the carbon content of somatic tissues and eggs instead of dry mass to diminish the effect of the carapace, which likely has a low cholesterol content and a relatively high mineral content (Hessen and Rukke,2000). The mean carbon content (± s.d.) of somatic tissues(N=18) was 0.41±0.02 μgμg–1 dry mass and that of the eggs (N=22) was 0.50±0.06μgμg–1 dry mass; the carbon content was determined from random subsamples at each of the temperatures using a carbon analyser (HighTOC+N, Elementar, Hanau, Germany). Thus, somatic tissues contained 18% fewer carbon per dry mass than egg tissue.
We fit linear regression models with segmented relationships(Muggeo, 2003) using the somatic growth rates (g) at the three temperatures, dependent on the dietary cholesterol level (Ch). The incipient limiting level of growth was estimated by determining the break-point between cholesterol-limited growth rates (glim) and maximal growth rates (gmax) for each temperature. A higher break-point(i.e. incipient limiting level) indicates a higher cholesterol demand. Slopes of glim and break-points were compared on the basis of their 95% confidence intervals to assess differences among temperatures.
Life history parameters (growth rate, clutch size, and mass of the individual, their somatic tissue or eggs) and biochemical variables(cholesterol content of the whole individual, their somatic tissue or eggs)were analysed using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with dietary cholesterol level as the covariate and temperature as the factor. To meet assumptions for ANCOVA of the biochemical variables, the dietary cholesterol level was log10-transformed. This transformation also adjusts for the increasing intervals between the dietary cholesterol levels and prevents an overestimation of data at high dietary cholesterol levels.
Changes of life history parameters or biochemical variables relating to temperature were compared with Tukey HSD post hoc tests only if there was no trend for an interaction between dietary cholesterol level and temperature (P>0.2). An interaction indicated different slopes of the response variable along the covariate (dietary cholesterol level) between at least two factor levels (Underwood,2001), thereby disturbing a correct interpretation of the temperature effect in the present study. We conservatively used an interaction of P>0.2 as the break-off criterion mentioned above so that we could be sure that there is no hidden difference between the slopes at different temperatures. Below that value, temperatures were compared pair-wise using individual ANCOVAs to clarify at which temperatures the slopes were different. This resulted in three comparisons per response variable (e.g. cholesterol content of the whole individual, their somatic tissue or eggs). If there was no difference between the slopes of the response variable at two temperatures, the elevations were directly compared.
Growth and fecundity
At all three temperatures, the mass-specific growth of D. magnaincreased with increasing availability of dietary cholesterol up to an incipient limiting level of 7–9 μgmg–1 C(Fig. 1A), which was determined by the break-point of the segmented linear regressions(Table 1). The break-point,i.e. the offset of growth limitation of D. magna by cholesterol,increased with increasing temperature(Table 1). The marginal interaction at cholesterol-limited growth rates (glim)(Table 2) indicated that the effect of temperature may originate from the lower slope of growth rates at 15°C compared with the slopes at 20 and 25°C, which were nearly identical (Table 1). The maximum growth rates strongly increased with increasing temperature(Table 2) (Tukey's HSD:comparisons among all temperatures, P<0.0001). Close to the incipient limiting level, the females produced eggs at all three temperatures,and their fecundity (clutch size) was highly variable and showed no clear response to the dietary cholesterol level(Fig. 1B; Table 2). Only temperature had an effect on clutch size; clutches were smaller at 25°C than at 15 and 20°C, which were of similar size (Tukey's HSD, 25°C vs 15 or 20°C, P<0.003; 15°C vs 20°C, P=0.96).
Carbon-related masses of individuals, somatic tissues and eggs
The carbon-related masses of individuals (somatic tissues + eggs) at maximum growth rates were only affected by temperature(Table 2); animals cultured at 15 and 20°C were heavier than animals cultured at 25°C(Fig. 2A) (Tukey's HSD,25°C vs 15 or 20°C, P<0.0001; 15°C vs 20°C, P=0.31). This was similar but less pronounced for somatic tissues of females (Fig. 2A; Table 2)(Tukey's HSD, 25°C vs 15 or 20°C, P<0.02;15°C vs 20°C, P=0.51). The carbon-related individual egg masses were independent of the dietary cholesterol level and of temperature (Table 2, egg mass)and were about 2.12±0.22 μg carbon (mean ± s.d., N=40). However, there was a trend of decreasing individual egg mass with increasing temperature (Fig. 2B) (regression, F=2.94, t=1.72, d.f.=38, P=0.094).
Cholesterol content of individuals, somatic tissues and eggs
Increasing dietary cholesterol level resulted in increased cholesterol content of the whole individual (somatic tissue + eggs) at all three temperatures (Fig. 3A–C; Table 3). The slope of this relationship was higher at elevated temperatures(Table 3, significant interaction; Table 4), which indicated higher incorporation of cholesterol into tissues of animals grown at higher temperatures with increasing dietary cholesterol. At very low dietary cholesterol levels, the higher cholesterol content of D. magnarelative to the diet indicated an accumulation of cholesterol, whereas at high dietary cholesterol levels, the lower cholesterol content of D. magnarelative to the diet indicated stoichiometric excretion or no assimilation of cholesterol (Fig. 3A–C).
Interestingly, the cholesterol content of eggs was higher than that of somatic tissues (Fig. 3D–F) (mean of all three temperatures ± s.d. in μg cholesterol mg–1 carbon: eggs, 16.55±4.28, N=30; somatic tissue, 12.38±4.24, N=38; t-test, t=4.00, d.f.=66, P=0.0002). This outcome becomes even stronger if dry masses are used in the denominator instead of carbon-related masses (mean of all three temperatures ± s.d. in μg cholesterol mg–1 dry mass: eggs, 8.27±2.14; somatic tissue, 5.08±1.74; t-test, t=6.80, d.f.=66, P<0.0001).
At 15°C, the cholesterol content of the somatic tissue of D. magna did not significantly increase whereas at 20°C it increased with increasing dietary cholesterol level(Fig. 3D,E; Table 4)(Ch×T, F=9.25, d.f.=1,22, P=0.006). Also, at 25°C the cholesterol content of the somatic tissue increased with increasing dietary cholesterol level, similar to that at 20°C(Fig. 3E,F; Table 4)(Ch×T, F=0.02, d.f.=1,21, P=0.88), but was higher than at 20°C at a given dietary cholesterol level (temperature, F=15.67, d.f.=1,21, P=0.0007), which indicated again a higher demand of cholesterol in tissues of animals grown at higher temperatures. The cholesterol content of the eggs was highly variable and increased with increasing dietary cholesterol level at 15 and 20°C and tended to increase at 25°C (Tables 3 and 4). Furthermore, the cholesterol content of eggs at 15 and 20°C did not differ at a given dietary cholesterol level (temperature, F=2.90, d.f.=1,16, P=0.11), and both were significantly lower than the cholesterol content of eggs at 25°C (temperature, F>7.04, d.f.=1,16, P<0.018), which indicated an enhanced allocation of cholesterol into eggs at high temperature. In summary, our data showed a clear trend in an increased incorporation of cholesterol into somatic tissues and egg material of D. magna at elevated temperatures if dietary cholesterol was sufficiently available.
Our results demonstrated that temperature affects the growth limitation of D. magna by dietary sterol as well as the female's mass at first reproduction and the clutch size. The responses of the life history parameters indicated a higher demand for cholesterol at higher temperatures. This was confirmed by increasing amounts of cholesterol found in animals at higher temperatures when sufficient dietary cholesterol was available. Furthermore,we found that the cholesterol content in the eggs was higher than in the somatic tissue of the females, and the cholesterol content of both eggs and somatic tissues increased more or less with increasing temperature and increasing available dietary cholesterol. This enables predictions about the allocation strategy of D. magna for cholesterol in an environment varying in temperature and the availability of this essential nutrient. We will discuss this allocation strategy as well as the effects of temperature,dietary cholesterol availability and their potential interaction on life history parameters of this important species in the food web of pelagic freshwater ecosystems.
Physiological (metabolic) effect of temperature
Generally, the growth of organisms becomes faster with increasing temperature until a physiological optimum is reached. Above the optimal temperature, growth rapidly declines, giving the characteristic skewed curve of reaction norms of growth rates with temperature. The growth rate of Daphnia is the result of all underlying physiological rates that may depend differently on temperature(Angilletta et al., 2004). In our study, temperature was not expected to have a negative effect on the maximum growth rate because the optimal temperature for many clones of D. magna is above 25°C (Mitchell and Lampert, 2000). Accordingly, the maximum growth rate of our clone increased as the temperature increased from 15 to 25°C. Despite faster growth at the higher temperature, the individuals at 25°C were lighter and produced fewer eggs than the individuals at 15 and 20°C. This is in accordance with the `temperature-size rule', which states that a reduction in environmental temperature causes an increase in size at maturity(Atkinson, 1996) and which has been observed in laboratory studies of many ectotherms(Atkinson, 1995). The smaller body of our animals at higher temperature might be responsible for the smaller clutch size because body size and clutch size of Daphnia are correlated at non-limiting food quantities (e.g. Lynch, 1980; Gliwicz and Boavida,1996).
Interactive effect of temperature and cholesterol
We were interested to determine whether the different demands for cholesterol at the different temperatures cause changes in the life history parameters of the important freshwater herbivore Daphnia. Our results demonstrated that D. magna has an enhanced demand for cholesterol with increasing temperature.
The first evidence for the increased demand for cholesterol with increasing temperature is that the incipient limiting level for somatic growth,determined by the break-point of growth responses, increased with increasing temperature (Fig. 1A; Table 1). Therefore, the limitation of growth by cholesterol at higher temperature was offset at higher dietary cholesterol levels or, in other words, the saturation threshold of dietary cholesterol for growth of D. magna increased with increasing temperature. In a recent study examining the effects of temperature on the cholesterol content of several marine copepods, Hassett and Crockett investigated the growth response of one copepod (Eurytemora affinis)to the dietary cholesterol level at two temperatures(Hassett and Crockett, 2009). They also observed a higher saturation threshold at the higher temperature for this species raised at 6 and 25°C. In their experiments, the differences in the two saturation thresholds were more pronounced (4-fold; <0.05 and<0.2 μg cholesterol l–1 at 6 and 25°C,respectively) than in our experiments (1.3-fold for 15 up to 25°C) and may be a result of the larger temperature range in their experiment. Furthermore,our saturation thresholds for the somatic growth rates (break-points,7–9 μg mg–1 C) at all three temperatures were somewhat higher than the thresholds given previously for two Daphniaspecies grown at 20°C [D. galeata, 2 μg mg–1C (Von Elert et al., 2003);both D. galeata and D. magna: 5.4 μg mg–1 C (Martin-Creuzburg et al., 2005)]. The differences in all three studies with Daphnia may be caused by different calculation methods used for the determination of the saturation threshold or, more likely, by different methods used to produce the dietary sterol gradient and therefore by a possible varied availability of sterol for the consumer. The saturation thresholds described for the marine copepod(Hassett and Crockett, 2009)normalized on food quantity (at approximately 500 μgCl–1,<0.1 and <0.4 μg cholesterol mg–1 C at 6 and 25°C, respectively) were far below the saturation thresholds for daphnids. One reason for these differences in the saturation thresholds could be that their stated carbon concentration was overestimated since values of carbon per cell from the literature were used. In particular, small differences in the actual cell size compared with values from the literature could result in large over- or under-estimates of carbon. Thus, the normalized values of saturation thresholds should be handled with caution. Another reason for the differences in saturation thresholds might be that the marine copepods and freshwater daphnids differ in their sterol requirements. This possibility is supported by an observation of Hassett and Crockett that D. magnashowed a significantly higher cholesterol content than all of the examined marine copepods (Hassett and Crockett,2009). Nevertheless, the cholesterol demand of our D. magna (break-points, 0.35–0.45% of dietary dry mass at a carbon-to-dry-mass conversion factor of 0.5) is within the range of sterol requirements determined for many other marine crustaceans [approximately 0.2–1% cholesterol per dry mass of the diet(Kanazawa, 2001)].
The second evidence for the increased demand of D. magna for cholesterol with increasing temperature is the increasing cholesterol content in tissues of animals with increasing temperature. However, a passive accumulation of cholesterol would be possible if one considers that cholesterol is not burned for energy regardless of need(Haines, 2001) in conjunction with the observation that the animals were lighter at higher temperatures,which might be caused by increased respiration rates. Our data illustrate that such a passive accumulation is rather unlikely because when excessive dietary cholesterol was available, the cholesterol content in the animals was lower at lower temperatures than at warmer temperatures. Thus, when sufficient dietary cholesterol was available, D. magna either actively excreted more cholesterol at lower temperatures or reduced the assimilation of cholesterol to maintain a suitable cholesterol concentration in the tissues. This indicates a temperature-dependent homeostatic regulation of the animal in terms of dietary sterols and suggests that animals incorporate more cholesterol in their membranes at higher temperatures to maintain appropriate membrane functions (Crockett,1998).
By contrast, in a study that examined the cholesterol content of five marine copepods raised for 7–10 days at a high (16–25°C) and a low (6°C) temperature, no consistent pattern was observed(Hassett and Crockett, 2009). The cholesterol content of only one copepod species (Calanus finmarchicus) was higher at the higher temperature. No significant changes were observed in the other four species, not even in Eurytemora affinis, in which the saturation threshold for growth increased with increasing temperature. This is in contrast to our results with D. magna, where both body content and the incipient limiting level increased with temperature.
Notably, in all of our results, the temperature-dependent differences were greater between 25 and 20°C than between 20 and 15°C. This could be caused simply by the exponential increase of metabolic rates with temperature(i.e. Q10 value). Alternatively, effects of cholesterol on membrane properties might also cause greater differences at higher temperatures for a number of reasons. Firstly, the membrane-stabilizing effects of cholesterol are greater at higher temperature because the static order of the phospholipid bilayer is highly disordered(Robertson and Hazel, 1995). Secondly, the influence of cholesterol on membrane properties is greater in membranes containing phospholipids with more saturated fatty acids(Crockett, 1998), which is usually the case at higher temperature(Pruitt, 1990). Thus, at higher temperatures, the membrane properties may be regulated to a greater extent by cholesterol whereas at lower temperatures, the major role is probably played by the fatty acid composition (i.e. the unsaturation index) of the phospholipids (Crockett,1998).
Allocation of cholesterol into somatic tissues or eggs
When sufficient dietary cholesterol was available, D. magnaincreased the cholesterol content of its somatic tissue with increasing temperature probably because of the higher demand for cholesterol for the biochemical processes already mentioned. Interestingly, at a given dietary cholesterol level, the cholesterol content in eggs was higher than in somatic tissues, a pattern that has also been observed for a marine copepod species(Hassett and Crockett, 2009). However, adult animals allocate a certain proportion of their mass to the chitinous carapace, which has a relatively high mineral content(Hessen and Rukke, 2000) and probably a low cholesterol content since cholesterol is primarily localized in plasma membranes. The carapace can therefore add a low cholesterol fraction to the mass of the somatic tissue, compared with eggs, and thus the cholesterol content of the membranes could actually remain constant while the mass-specific cholesterol content differs between somatic tissues and eggs. The same issue pertains to the study of Hassett and Crockett(Hassett and Crockett, 2009),who observed higher protein-related cholesterol contents in Calanuseggs than in copepodites because the cuticle is composed of both protein and chitin. We reduced the influence of minerals, which probably vary between adults and eggs, by considering carbon-related cholesterol contents instead of dry-mass-related cholesterol contents. This led to an attenuation of the still significant difference between somatic tissues and eggs. A further reduction in this difference is possible by taking into account the remaining carbon of the carapace. For our data, the proportion of the carapace would have to exceed 28% of the dry mass of the animal's soma to contradict our statistical difference in cholesterol contents of somatic tissue and eggs. Moult masses can be used to estimate the percentage of the carapace to the mass of an animal. Estimates from regressions of dry moult mass to dry body mass at high food levels (Glazier and Calow,1992) for the sizes of females observed in our study (soma,70–140 μg dry mass) resulted in a portion of 10–12%. This is less than the 18% already considered by the conversion of dry mass to carbon-related masses in this study (see also Materials and methods section). Thus, in fact, females allocated more cholesterol into egg material since the animals possibly differed in their cholesterol demand at different life history stages, an issue that needs further examination.
Furthermore, we observed some consensuses between our results and the findings of a previous study examining the allocation of cholesterol in eggs and somatic tissues of D. magna(Wacker and Martin-Creuzburg,2007). In this earlier study, the daphnids were raised on a sterol-rich diet (Nannochloropsis limnetica) and then fed sterol-free food (i.e. only Synechococcus elongatus). Their somatic cholesterol content declined but the cholesterol content of the eggs remained relatively constant at approximately 3.5 μgmg–1 dry mass(approximately 7 μgmg–1 C; for conversion factor, see Materials and methods in the present study). This is in accordance with the results of our current study, in which the lowest cholesterol content of eggs was about 7.1 μgmg–1 C, which suggests a threshold of minimum cholesterol content of eggs. The minimum cholesterol content of somatic tissues (i.e. the potential threshold) was close to that of eggs [7.3μgmg–1 C (present study); approximately 3μgmg–1 dry mass=7.3 μgmg–1 C(Wacker and Martin-Creuzburg,2007); for conversion factor, see Materials and methods], which suggests a threshold of minimum cholesterol content for tissues of reproducing females. Moreover, although the threshold of minimum cholesterol content for an animal's tissue may increase with increasing temperature, higher resolutions are needed at low dietary cholesterol levels.
To maximize the fitness of an individual, it may be advantageous to allocate a larger fraction of cholesterol to offspring expected to hatch both with food of a low dietary cholesterol level and in a warmer environment. For example, Daphnia respond to low food quantity by increasing the allocation per offspring, i.e. by producing larger eggs with more protein,lipid and carbon, compared with eggs produced when high amounts of food are available (Guisande and Gliwicz,1992). In the present study and in a previous study(Wacker and Martin-Creuzburg,2007), eggs of females reared on food with insufficient dietary sterol did not have higher cholesterol contents than eggs of females fed on food with sufficient or high dietary sterol. Thus, D. magna seems to have a different allocation strategy for dietary cholesterol than for carbohydrates, proteins and other lipids. Specifically, with increasing dietary sterol limitation, a female may decrease the allocation of cholesterol to each egg to a minimum amount sufficient to ensure offspring development. Thus, a female can maintain a certain clutch size with decreasing dietary cholesterol until a minimum cholesterol level per egg is reached (according to the potential threshold for eggs described above). Afterwards, the clutch size may decrease with decreasing dietary sterol availability, as shown by a previous experiment (Martin-Creuzburg et al., 2005). Such a strategy would be advantageous if excessive cholesterol in the eggs does not strongly improve the survival of offspring in an environment with little dietary sterols. An argument for the latter hypothesis is the decreasing allocation of cholesterol per offspring with increasing cholesterol limitation found in the present study. This in turn may explain the decreasing growth rates of offspring fed on a sterol-free diet(only S. elongatus) with increasing maternal sterol limitation found in the previous study (Martin-Creuzburg et al., 2005). These differences in offspring growth after 6 days feeding on the sterol-free diet were very small (mass-specific growth rates:0.04–0.1 day–1) and did not reach growth rates sufficient for reproduction (i.e. approximately 0.3 day–1within 6 days at 20°C), so that there were no substantial differences in fitness of offspring regardless of the cholesterol provided by the mothers.
With respect to temperature, our animals showed another allocation response. Daphnia magna increased the cholesterol content of the eggs at 25°C compared with the cholesterol content at lower temperatures and simultaneously reduced the clutch size. Although this would be a valuable allocation strategy, we cannot determine whether the smaller clutch size is an adaptive response to different temperatures or an allometric constraint of the relationship between the mother's body size and the number of offspring. The latter possibility is supported by the finding that females at 25°C were lighter than females at lower temperatures. Nevertheless, our study clearly shows that D. magna is able to adjust the cholesterol content of its eggs relative to the temperature. This suggests that a certain cholesterol level in eggs is required for ontogenetic development of offspring hatching at a prevailing temperature.
The present study shows that for daphnids potentially suffering from sterol limitation in natural lakes or ponds, the limitation can be intensified by global warming because of the elevated temperature of water bodies. Therefore,global warming can increase the negative effect of the nutritional inadequacy of cyanobacteria for Daphnia and may lead, together with detrimental effects of toxicity and poor edibility (e.g. see Tillmanns et al., 2008; Martin-Creuzburg et al.,2008), to a weaker control of cyanobacterial blooms by herbivorous crustaceans. This indication adds to the growing body of indirect effects of how rising temperatures can promote the occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms and thus lead to a poorer water quality of eutrophic lakes in general(Paerl and Huisman, 2008; Jöhnk et al., 2008). In addition, an increased demand for dietary sterols with increasing temperature could have consequences for zooplankton in a broader context. Since the composition of phytosterols is highly variable among algal species(Volkman, 2003), crustaceans can also be limited if the algae present contain a large amount of dietary sterols not suitable for conversion to cholesterol(Martin-Creuzburg and Von Elert,2004). Thus, at elevated temperatures, planktonic crustaceans can suffer from a lack of suitable dietary sterols, which may, in addition to e.g. minerals (Sterner and Elser,2002), fatty acids (Becker and Boersma, 2005) and even more complex ecophysiological links between mixotrophs and consumers (Wacker and Weithoff, 2009), reduce the trophic transfer efficiency of energy from primary production to higher consumers.
From an evolutionary point of view, D. magna feeding on diets with insufficient cholesterol levels did not, contrary to expectations, enhance the cholesterol content of eggs, which would have been advantageous for the offspring if they hatched in an environment lacking this essential nutrient. However, we found that females allocate more cholesterol to eggs at higher temperatures, which indicates a higher evolutionary pressure on the development of eggs (up to neonates) than for the growth period after the release from the brood chamber. This suggests that the temperature-mediated sterol limitation has stronger effects on the population level than on the individual level. Consequently, the higher sterol demand with increasing temperature, not only for tissues of mothers but also for the offspring, may lead to a lower number of offspring and thus to decreasing population growth rates.
dietary cholesterol level
mass-specific growth rate
cholesterol-limited growth rates
maximal growth rates
We thank S. Donath, S. Heim, M. Lukas and Y. Jessen for technical assistance. We also thank D. Martin-Creuzburg, N. Martinez and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript, as well as K. A. Brune for improving the English. This study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, WA 2445/3-1).
Ahlgren, G., Goedkoop, W., Markensten, H., Sonesten, L. and Boberg, M. (
). Seasonal variations in food quality for pelagic and benthic invertebrates in Lake Erken – the role of fatty acids.
Freshw. Biol.
Angilletta, M. J., Steury, T. D. and Sears, M. W.(
). Temperature, growth rate, and body size in ectotherms:fitting pieces of a life-history puzzle.
Integr. Comp. Biol.
Atkinson, D. (
). Effects of temperature on the size of aquatic ectotherms: exceptions to the general rule.
J. Therm. Biol.
). Ectotherm life history responses to developmental temperatures. In
Animals and Temperature: Phenotypic and Evolutionary Adaptation
(ed. I. A. Johnston and A. F. Bennett), pp.
-204. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
Becker, C. and Boersma, M. (
). Differential effects of phosphorus and fatty acids on Daphnia magna growth and reproduction.
Limnol. Oceanogr.
Crockett, E. L. (
). Cholesterol function in plasma membranes from ectotherms: membrane-specific roles in adaptation to temperature.
Am. Zool.
Dawidowicz, P. and Loose, C. J. (
). Metabolic costs during predator-induced diel vertical migration of Daphnia.
Gaedke, U. and Straile, D. (
). Daphnids:keystone species for the pelagic food web structure and energy flow: a body size-related analysis linking seasonal changes at the population and ecosystem levels.
Adv. Limnol.
Giebelhausen, B. and Lampert, W. (
). Temperature reaction norms of Daphnia magna: the effect of food concentration.
Glazier, D. S. and Calow, P. (
). Energy allocation rules in Daphnia magna – clonal and age-differences in the effects of food limitation.
Gliwicz, Z. M. and Boavida, M. J. (
). Clutch size and body size at first reproduction in Daphnia pulicariaat different levels of food and predation.
J. Plankton Res.
Goad, L. J. (
). Sterol biosynthesis and metabolism in marine-invertebrates.
Pure Appl. Chem.
Grieneisen, M. L. (
). Recent advances in our knowledge of ecdysteroid biosynthesis in insects and crustaceans.
Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol.
Guillard, R. R. (
). Cultures of phytoplankton for feeding of marine invertebrates. In
Culture of Marine Invertebrate Animals
(ed. W. L. Smith and M. H. Chanley),pp.
-60. New York: Plenum Press.
Guisande, C. and Gliwicz, Z. M. (
). Egg size and clutch size in 2 Daphnia species grown at different food levels.
Haines, T. H. (
). Do sterols reduce proton and sodium leaks through lipid bilayers?
Prog. Lipid Res.
Hassett, R. P. and Crockett, E. L. (
). Habitat temperature is an important determinant of cholesterol contents in copepods.
J. Exp. Biol.
Hessen, D. O. and Rukke, N. A. (
). The costs of moulting in Daphnia: mineral regulation of carbon budgets.
Hochachka, P. W. and Somero, G. N. (
Biochemical Adaptation: Mechanism and Process in Physiological Evolution.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jöhnk, K. D., Huisman, J., Sharples, J., Sommeijer, B.,Visser, P. M. and Stroom, J. M. (
). Summer heatwaves promote blooms of harmful cyanobacteria.
Glob. Chang. Biol.
Kanazawa, A. (
). Sterols in marine invertebrates.
Fish. Sci.
Kreeger, D. A., Goulden, C., Kilham, S., Lynn, S., Datta, S. and Interlandi, S. (
). Seasonal changes in the biochemistry of lake seston.
Lampert, W. (
). Studies on the carbon balance of Daphnia pulex as related to environmental conditions. II. The dependence of carbon assimilation on animal size, temperature, food concentration and diet species.
Arch. Hydrobiol.
Suppl. 48,
). Inhibitory and toxic effects of blue-green algae on Daphnia. Revue der gesamten
). The dynamics of Daphnia in a shallow lake.
Verh. Int. Ver. Limnol.
Lynch, M. (
). The evolution of cladoceran life histories.
Q. Rev. Biol.
Martin-Creuzburg, D. and Von Elert, E. (
). Impact of 10 dietary sterols on growth and reproduction of Daphnia galeata.
J. Chem. Ecol.
). Ecological significance of sterols in aquatic food webs. In
Lipids in Aquatic Ecosystems
(ed. M. T. Arts, M. T. Brett and M. Kainz),pp.
-64. New York: Springer.
Martin-Creuzburg, D., Wacker, A. and Von Elert, E.(
). Life history consequences of sterol availability in the aquatic keystone species Daphnia.
Martin-Creuzburg, D., Westerlund, S. A. and Hoffmann, K. H.(
). Ecdysteroid levels in Daphnia magna during a molt cycle: determination by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).
Gen. Comp. Endocrinol.
Martin-Creuzburg, D., Von Elert, E. and Hoffmann, K. H.(
). Nutritional constraints at the cyanobacteria – Daphnia magna interface: the role of sterols.
Martin-Creuzburg, D., Sperfeld, E. and Wacker, A.(
). Colimitation of a freshwater herbivore by sterols and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Proc. Biol. Sci.
Mitchell, S. E. and Lampert, W. (
). Temperature adaptation in a geographically widespread zooplankter, Daphnia magna.
J. Evol. Biol.
Mooij, W. M., Domis, L. N. D. S. and Hulsmann, S.(
). The impact of climate warming on water temperature,timing of hatching and young-of-the-year growth of fish in shallow lakes in the Netherlands.
J. Sea Res.
Muggeo, V. M. R. (
). Estimating regression models with unknown break-points.
Stat. Med.
Paerl, H. W. and Huisman, J. (
). Climate:blooms like it hot.
Pruitt, N. L. (
). Adaptations to temperature in the cellular membranes of crustacea: membrane structure and metabolism.
-8.
Rinke, K. and Petzoldt, T. (
). Modelling the effects of temperature and food on individual growth and reproduction of Daphnia and their consequences on the population level.
Limnologica
Robertson, J. C. and Hazel, J. R. (
). Cholesterol content of trout plasma-membranes varies with acclimation temperature.
Am. J. Physiol.
-R1119.
). Membrane constraints to physiological function at different temperatures: does cholesterol stabilize membranes at elevated temperatures? In
Global Warming: Implications for Freshwater and Marine Fish (Society for Experimental Biology Seminar Series 61)
(ed. C. M. Woods and D. G. McDonald),pp.
-49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sommer, U. (
Plankton Ecology:Succession in Plankton Communities
. Berlin:Springer-Verlag.
Sommer, U., Gliwicz, Z. M., Lampert, W. and Duncan, A.(
). The PEG-model of seasonal succession of planktonic events in fresh waters.
Stearns, S. C. (
The Evolution of Life Histories.
Sterner, R. W. and Elser, J. J. (
Ecological Stoichiometry
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Sterner, R. W. and Hessen, D. O. (
). Algal nutrient limitation and the nutrition of aquatic herbivores.
Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst.
Summons, R. E., Bradley, A. S., Jahnke, L. L. and Waldbauer, J. R. (
). Steroids, triterpenoids and molecular oxygen.
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci.
Svoboda, J. A. and Thompson, M. J. (
). Steroids. In
Comprehensive Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology
(ed. G. A. Kerkut and L. I. Gilbert), pp.
-175. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Tillmanns, A. R., Wilson, A. E., Frances, R. P. and Sarnelle,O. (
). Meta-analysis of cyanobacterial effects on zooplankton population growth rate: species-specific responses.
Fundam. Appl. Limnol.
Underwood, A. J. (
Experiments in Ecology: Their Logical Design and Interpretation Using Analysis of Variance
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Volkman, J. K. (
). Sterols in microorganisms.
Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol.
). Sterols and other triterpenoids: source specificity and evolution of biosynthetic pathways.
Org. Geochem.
Von Elert, E., Martin-Creuzburg, D. and Le Coz, J. R.(
). Absence of sterols constrains carbon transfer between cyanobacteria and a freshwater herbivore (Daphnia galeata).
Wacker, A. and Martin-Creuzburg, D. (
). Allocation of essential lipids in Daphnia magna during exposure to poor food quality.
Funct. Ecol.
Wacker, A. and Von Elert, E. (
). Polyunsaturated fatty acids: evidence for non-substitutable biochemical resources in Daphnia galeata.
). Food quality controls egg quality of the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha: The role of fatty acids.
Wacker, A. and Weithoff, G. (
). Carbon assimilation mode in mixotrophs and the fatty acid composition of their rotifer consumers.
data&figures
supplementaryinformation
related&metrics
Related & metrics
Mass-specific growth (A) and fecundity (B) of D. magna in response to dietary cholesterol levels at different temperatures. The regression lines in A indicate linear regression models with segmented relationships(Muggeo, 2003)(r2=0.99 at all three temperatures). At low dietary cholesterol levels, females did not produce eggs until the end of experiments.
Mean carbon-related mass of D. magna females with eggs of the first clutch (individual) and with eggs removed (soma) at maximum growth rates(A) and mean carbon-related individual egg mass (B) at different temperatures. Error bars indicate s.d. for the number of observations indicated above them. Identical letters denote non-significant differences among temperature treatments (Tukey's HSD, P<0.05).
Cholesterol content of D. magna in response to dietary cholesterol level for females with eggs of the first clutch (individual; A,B,C), with eggs removed (soma), and the eggs of the first clutch (D,E,F) at three different temperatures. Solid lines indicate simple linear regression models and dashed lines indicate the 1:1 ratio of the dietary cholesterol level and the cholesterol content of D. magna.
Break-points and slopes of the functional response of growth to dietary sterol availability calculated by linear regression models with segmented relationships between mass-specific growth rates of D. magna at different temperatures and dietary cholesterol levels (μg mg–1 C)
Temperature .
Break-point .
Slope .
15°C 6.98 (6.49–7.46)a 0.042 (0.038–0.045)a
20°C 7.62 (6.97–8.27)a 0.053 (0.047–0.059)b
25°C 8.96 (8.33–9.59)b 0.054 (0.049–0.059)b
Slopes refer to the first segments of regressions at low dietary cholesterol levels (cholesterol-limited growth, glim),including the break-point. 95% confidence intervals are given in parentheses,and identical superscript letters indicate estimates that have overlapping confidence levels
Statistical results of ANCOVA for changes in life history parameters of D. magna depending on the covariate dietary cholesterol level(Ch) and the factor temperature (T)
Factor .
d.f. .
Ch 1,13 567.15 <0.0001 *** 1,32 15.01 0.0005 *** 1,34 0.53 0.4698
T 2,13 8.62 0.0041 ** 2,32 1008.30 <0.0001 *** 2,34 9.13 0.0007 ***
Ch×T 2,13 3.02 0.0836 2,32 0.12 0.8850 2,34 0.67 0.5202
Massmax individual
Massmax soma
Mass egg
Factor d.f. F P d.f. F P d.f. F P
Ch 1,32 0.21 0.6479 1,32 2.76 0.1064 1,34 0.02 0.8855
T 2,32 24.53 <0.0001 *** 2,32 9.08 <0.0001 *** 2,34 1.54 0.2282
Life history parameters: g, mass-specific growth rate; clutch size; mass of an individual (somatic tissue + eggs of the first clutch) or its somatic tissue (soma = body of a female without eggs); and egg mass. Analyses of the mass-specific growth rates were separated in a region below(glim) and above (gmax) the incipient limiting level (determined by the break-point of the linear regression model with segmented relationships) of the functional response to dietary cholesterol levels. The carbon-related mass of individuals and their somatic tissues was analyzed at maximum growth rates (gmax)
Statistical results of ANCOVA for changes in the cholesterol content of whole individuals (somatic tissues + eggs of the first clutch), somatic tissues (soma = body of a female without eggs) and eggs of the first clutch,depending on the covariate dietary cholesterol level (Ch,log10-transformed) and the factor temperature (T)
Ch (log10) 1,32 63.14 <0.0001 *** 1,32 18.87 0.0001 *** 1,24 19.63 0.0002 ***
T 2,32 14.09 <0.0001 *** 2,32 17.83 <0.0001 *** 2,24 9.71 0.0008 ***
Ch× T 2,32 3.31 0.0494 * 2,32 3.71 0.0357 * 2,24 1.61 0.2213
The d.f. for the analysis of eggs is lower because D. magna did not produce eggs at low dietary cholesterol levels
Slopes of the cholesterol content of D. magna (μg mg–1 C) as a function of dietary cholesterol level (μg mg–1 C, log10-transformed) for the whole individual (slopeI), the somatic tissue (slopeS) and the eggs of the first clutch (slopeE) at the three tested temperatures,calculated by simple linear regression models
SlopeI .
SlopeS .
SlopeE .
15°C 6.40 (3.52–9.28)a 1.73 (–2.31–5.77)a 7.27 (0.28–14.25)a
20°C 9.10 (5.39–12.82)a,b 11.74 (5.72–17.75)b 13.63 (6.65–20.60)a
25°C 13.90 (7.58–20.22)b 11.02 (1.69–20.35)b 5.70 (–3.86–15.25)a
95% confidence intervals are given in parentheses. A negative lower confidence interval indicates a non-significant slope. Identical letters in superscript indicate slopes that were not significantly different among temperatures after pair-wise comparisons using individual ANCOVAs(P<0.05)
Volume 212, Issue 19


text:
Kontti stores
Youth shelter
Header links in English
About the Red Cross
Open mapSee what we do in Finland and around the world
loading map..
You are here:Ajankohtaista › Uutiset › Humanitarian work requires women
Humanitarian work requires women
19.8.2019 11:01 (Updated 19.8.2019 11:15)
The Somali Red Crescent's midwife Samira Mohamed Ali works at a mobile clinic.
Image: Corrie Butler / IFRC
Humanitarian crises have increased. Women and girls often shoulder a heavy burden in crises. In order for their special needs to be taken into consideration, women's voices must be better heard and their role as active actors in humanitarian work must be acknowledged.
Understanding of the impact of crises, such as conflicts and natural disasters, on both women and men has deepened. However, there is still a long way to go before women are acknowledged as active actors – not just victims – in the context of coping with disasters. Even so, women are often among the first to feel the consequences of crises.
The number of conflicts has been increasing since the start of the decade. In war, men and women face different sets of risks. Men are recruited, imprisoned, killed and they may become victims of involuntary disappearances, whereas women encounter more sexual violence or stay behind to support families.
Women often keep society standing in the midst of or after war. Many women and children end up becoming refugees within their country or outside its borders. It is difficult for women and their children to flee longer distances to safety. During migration, women are at considerable risk of becoming victims of human trafficking or sex slavery. The numbers of child marriages also increase in times of war and disasters.
Sexual violence, especially rape during wars and disasters, is already talked about, but incidents still often go unreported. Only a small number of rape cases are judged in court.
Rape also has a pronounced social dimension. A raped woman may end up being left by her husband or abandoned by her own family. Raped women and their children may be excluded from their community or living area without income, and may even become targets of 'honor killings' or be forced into marriage.
Climate change increases natural disasters
According to one study, the life expectancy of women decreases more than that of men following a disaster. Disasters have the most pronounced negative impact on the survival chances of those who are already the most vulnerable.
Crises often affect the availability of childbirth, maternity and child health services, which can be life-threatening for women. In fact, three out of five maternal deaths occur in countries that are classified as fragile due to a natural disaster or conflict.
Climate change increases extreme weather phenomena and natural disasters and threatens the habitability of certain areas. Climate change is expected to increase conflicts in areas where resources are becoming scarcer and that are affected by large migration movements.
The funding allocated to disaster response efforts has already proven inadequate as the numbers of people requiring aid have increased to record-breaking levels. The humanitarian needs of women will also increase in volume in the future.
Aid work conducted by women reveals invisible problems
It is vitally important for aid work to always involve local women in both the planning of efforts targeting them within communities and as humanitarian workers. This is the only way to reveal problems that would otherwise remain invisible and to effectively allocate aid.
If the aim is to discuss menstrual health, maternity care, sexual and reproductive health or aid the victims of sexual violence, it is nearly impossible to reach those in need of aid without female workers.
For example, in a project conducted in Syria, in certain communities women would not be allowed to receive treatment it there were no women in the treatment team. A Finnish aid worker working in Syria also explains that physiotherapists use their pay to support either their parents or their own families. "This income is especially important for those whose homes have been destroyed in conflicts, forcing them to become internal refugees."
Strengthening and promoting the participation of women's groups makes their voices heard in the promotion of women's rights. One example of this is the Gwai Grandmothers Group, which takes care of approximately 400 orphan children in central Zimbabwe. The group also provides aid in disasters and is currently building a water pipe to an area suffering from drought with Finnish funding, with members themselves participating in the digging.
Finnish humanitarian NGOs Fida International, Finn Church Aid, Save the Children Finland, Plan International Finland, the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission, the Finnish Refugee Council, the Finnish Red Cross and World Vision Finland believe in promoting the participation of women as active actors in humanitarian crises and support their empowerment in crises. These efforts ensure that nobody is forgotten.
Tiina Saarikoski
Tiina Saarikoski is the Finnish Red Cross's head of international disaster aid and writes on behalf of all the NGOs mentioned in the article.
The Finnish Red Cross to send humanitarian aid to Ethiopia
The Finnish Red Cross is donating EUR 100,000 from its Disaster Relief Fund for humanitarian aid in Ethiopia. In addition to the acts of inter-communal violence that escalated in June, the people of Ethiopia suffer from malnutrition and lack of clean water in Kochere and in the Gedeo Zone.
The extent of human suffering in the Syrian War is beyond comprehension
In Syria, millions of people are in need of help due to the violence that has continued for nearly seven years. The International Red Cross is appealing to all the parties in this conflict to protect civilians.
© Finnish Red Cross 2020 | Legal notes | Data protection | Collection licences POL-2015-8798 & ÅLR 2019/7863