Economic theory suggests that liberalization of trade between countries with differing levels of environmental protection could lead pollution-intensive industry to concentrate in the nations where regulations are lax. This effect, often referred to as the “pollution haven” hypothesis, is much discussed in theory, but finds only ambiguous support in empirical research to date. Methodologies use...

An alternative approach to the Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM) with dissipation at a finite enviromental temperature is presented in terms of a new master equation under Born-Markovian approximations. An analytic solution of the dissipation JCM is obtained. A variety of physical quantities of interest are calculated analytically. Dynamical properties of the atom and the field are investigated in so...

A key feature in the recent widespread epidemic of the mosquito-borne alphavirus chikungunya virus (CHIKV) was the important role of Aedes albopictus, formerly regarded as a secondary vector, compared to the presumed primary vector Aedes aegypti. Ae. albopictus, a container-inhabiting mosquito, is an invasive species that occurs over a wide geographic range spanning tropical and temperate latit...

Abiotic and biotic factors determine success or failure of individual organisms, populations and species. The early life stages are often the most vulnerable to heavy mortality due to environmental conditions. The deer ked (Lipoptena cervi Linnaeus, 1758) is an invasive insect ectoparasite of cervids that spends an important period of the life cycle outside host as immobile pupa. During winter,...

OBJECTIVE The present study aimed at assessing the association between environmental temperature and the relative humidity of the air with frequency of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. METHODS A prospective and retrospective, descriptive, ecological study was held at a teaching maternity in Recife, Brazil. Data from all 26.125 pregnant women admitted between 2000 and 2006 were analysed an...

Anthropogenic climate change is now well established as a global issue of scienti!c and political importance. One of the principal impacts of the gradual change associated with anthropogenic climate warming comes from a shi" in, or an exaggeration of, pre-existing natural variability. For example, if the average distribution of precipitation shi"s to higher or lower values, this can mean that t...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To examine and identify relationships between the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and environmental temperature in Canterbury, New Zealand. DESIGN A retrospective epidemiological study combining details of regional hourly temperature and reported SIDS cases. SETTING Canterbury, New Zealand, between 1968 and 1989 inclusively. PARTICIPANTS All infants reported as dying f...

We report on the use of a radiation pressure induced restoring force, the optical spring effect, to optically dilute the mechanical damping of a 1 g suspended mirror, which is then cooled by active feedback (cold damping). Optical dilution relaxes the limit on cooling imposed by mechanical losses, allowing the oscillator mode to reach a minimum temperature of 6.9 mK, a factor of approximately 4...

The majority of biological rates are known to exhibit temperature dependence. Here I reveal a direct link between temperature and ecologically relevant rates such as swimming speeds in Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryotes as well as fluid-pumping and filtration rates in many metazoans, and show that this relationship is driven by movement rates of cilia and flagella. I develop models of the temper...

An analysis of the influence of body weight on the energetics of endotherms has been proposed by McNab (1970). It was based on the observations that (1) when body temperature is constant heat production equals heat loss, and (2) heat loss may be described as the product of thermal conductance and the temperature differential between the body and the environment: M = C(Tb—Ta). This expression wi...