The oceans cover approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface and contain more than 97% of the planet’s water, representing over 100 times more liveable volume than the terrestrial habitat. Approximately fifty percent of the species on the planet occupy this ocean biome, much of which remains unexplored. The health and sustainability of the oceans are threatened by a combination of pressures associated with climate change and the ever-increasing demands we place on them for food, recreation, trade, energy and minerals. The biggest threat, however, is the pace of change to the oceans, e.g., ocean acidification, which is unprecedented in human history. Consequently, there has never been a greater need for the rapid and widespread dissemination of the outcomes of research aimed at improving our understanding of how the oceans work and solutions to their sustainable use. It is our hope that this new online, open-access Journal of Marine Science and Engineering will go some way to fulfilling this need. [...]

The oceans cover approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface and contain more than 97% of the planet’s water, representing over 100 times more liveable volume than the terrestrial habitat. Approximately fifty percent of the species on the planet occupy this ocean biome, much of which remains unexplored. The health and sustainability of the oceans are threatened by a combination of pressures associated with climate change and the ever-increasing demands we place on them for food, recreation, trade, energy and minerals. The biggest threat, however, is the pace of change to the oceans, e.g., ocean acidification, which is unprecedented in human history. Consequently, there has never been a greater need for the rapid and widespread dissemination of the outcomes of research aimed at improving our understanding of how the oceans work and solutions to their sustainable use. It is our hope that this new online, open-access Journal of Marine Science and Engineering will go some way to fulfilling this need. [...]

There has been a remarkable rise and fall in the frequency of coal science related journal publications from US entities. There has been a passing of the mantle from the US to China as the leading nation for English-language coal journal articles. An ISI Web of Knowledge (using the Web of Science database) evaluation of journal articles with “coal” in the title (in English-language journals) for the periods 1970–2010 and 2000–2010 was used as an approach to evaluate the historically active and currently active research centers in coal science. This approach underestimates the contributions but provides a basis for unbiased comparisons. Contributions were broken down by research institutions and by countries of contributing authors using analysis tools within ISI Web of Knowledge webpage. The United States has 30% of the publications between 1970 and 2010, with Japan contributing 7.8% and the People’s Republic of China 7.5%. England, Australia, India, Canada, Poland, Spain, Germany, and France contributed between 5% and 2% each. However, China has been the leading country for coal title publications since 2006. The peak publication year for the US was the early 1980s. A decline in US funding opportunities in basic research resulted in multiple once-active coal research centers to focus their efforts elsewhere. This paper focuses on the academic contributions to coal research in the United States and identifies centers that are still active and their focus areas. The leading academic institutions publication records were evaluated using Wordle to visually determine research focus areas through word frequency analysis of the journal article titles. The Wordle analysis and scanning of article titles determined areas of specialty for the various universities and other institutions. Active authors (for the period of analyses) were also determined using this approach. Among the US academic entities, the leading institutions (by quantity of journal articles) were The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Kentucky, West Virginia, Southern Illinois at Carbondale, University of Illinois, MIT, Utah, Brigham Young, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Wyoming, Auburn, Carnegie Mellon, North Dakota, Iowa, California at Berkeley, Tennessee, Texas, Purdue, Texas A&M, Missouri, Georgia, and Western Kentucky. Of these, about half are still “active” in “coal science” as defined as 15 coal science publications (by this search approach) between 2000 and 2010, where the focus is science and engineering research on coal, but does not include coal-related areas such a post-combustion pollution control or the various catalytic interaction of coal-derived synthesis gas.

Around the world there is growing appreciation of the status of productive land as one of the planet’s most important natural assets. The extent to which land can support primary production is linked to landquality and this is defined by a range of chemical, physical and biological parameters. Sustaining these parameters is essential in the context of feeding a global population that exceeded 12 billion people in 2012. Where the productive status of land is impaired, then this land can be considered degraded. Degradation can result from poor land management, industrial land use, or as a consequence of the discharge of contaminants into soil. Degraded land is often synonymous with mining lands, especially in the developing world where environmental protection is often not a priority. Indonesia is perhaps one country where the conflict between population, economic development and land degradation is very apparent. Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, yet it is the world’s 15th-largest country in terms of land area[1]. Indonesia has some of the world’s most pristine rainforest, yet also has the world’s most populous island (Java)[2]; volcanic activity has endowed Indonesia with fertile soils that have historically supported high levels of agricultural productivity. Indonesia’s economy has been a strong performer throughout the current decade, although poverty is widespread, especially in eastern Indonesia. Economic development and the exploitation of natural resources have seen significant pressure on land throughout the archipelago.Land degradation is today a major concern. In 2012, the International Research Centre for the Management of Degraded and Mining Lands (IRC-MEDMIND) was officially opened during a ceremony at the University of Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia. The Centre is a collaborative effort between The University of Brawijaya, The University of Mataram (Indonesia), Massey University (New Zealand) and the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China). The Centre has a clear objective: to ‘translate research outcomes into practices that will lead to the proper management of degraded and mining lands through working closely with communities, government, industry and NGOs.’ The Centre is working on the subject of artisanal and small-scale mining as a key focus area. Artisanal gold mining on the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Sumbawa is today releasing mercury and cyanide into the environment. The discharge of contaminants and associated land degradation is affecting human health and food safety. To support the Centre’s work, IRC-MEDMIND has created the Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management, and it is my pleasure to write this first editorial for the journal. The first issue is a collection of eight papers presented during the 1st International Conference on Environmental, Socio-economic, and Health Impacts of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining which was held in Malang during February 2012. These eight papers have been authored by leading scientists from South-East Asia and Australasia, and describe new initiatives in the management of degraded and mining lands. On behalf of the Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management I thank you for reading this first journal issue of Volume 1. The editorial board invites you to support this journal and signals its intention to aspire to high standards of scientific and written excellence. As a result of the generous support of the University of Brawijaya, the Journal will have no page charges. The Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management therefore represents a new mechanism to present relevant, high quality and peer reviewed science and commentary to the international community. Christopher Anderson Associate-Editor, Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management Senior Lecturer, Institute of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, New Zealand Adjunct Professor, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Science Adjunct Professor, NBK Institute of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada [1]CIA (2013). “World Factbook.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2147rank.html retrieved 28 October 2013 [2] Calder, J (2007). “Most Populous Islands.” www.worldislandinfo.com/POPULATV2.htm retrieved 28 October 2013.

En la cabecera del artículo figura por error tipográfico publicado en: Journal of Earth Science and Engineering 3 (2013) 393-400. Cita correcta es: Journal of Earth Science and Engineering 6 (2013) 393-400 | IDE-OTALEX es la primera infraestructura de datos espaciales transfronteriza entre las regiones contiguas portuguesas (Alentejo y Centro) y españolas (Extremadura). Se implementó para compartir información geográfica oficial de Alentejo y Extremadura, y ahora también de la región Centro, con todos. Esta es la forma más efectiva de tener un sistema distribuido y flexible que se utilice como observatorio territorial para el desarrollo sostenible y la protección del medio ambiente en estas regiones rurales y poco pobladas. También contribuye a la cohesión territorial, uno de los tres pilares principales de la Política de Cohesión Europea. Se caracteriza por ser un sistema distribuido, descentralizado, modular y colaborativo, basado en estándares OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), ISO (Organización Internacional de Normalización) y tecnología de código abierto, desarrollado para garantizar la interoperabilidad entre los diferentes SIG (Sistema de Información Geográfica) proporcionados por cada socio del proyecto. El geoportal es multilingüe (portugués, español e inglés) e integra un visor de mapas, un catálogo de metadatos y un gazetteer. Consiste en nodos centrales y locales que se comunican a través de WMS (Servicios Web de Mapas), CSW (Servicios Web de Catálogo) y WFS (Servicios Web de Características). Actualmente está implementando SOS (Servicios de Observación de Sensores) y WPS (Procesamiento de Mapas Web). La información geográfica disponible es el resultado de un extenso trabajo de armonización de datos adaptado a la Directiva INSPIRE (D 2007/2/EC, el Parlamento Europeo y el Consejo, 14 de marzo de 2007). Integra cartografía básica, indicadores socioeconómicos, territoriales y ambientales. | IDE-OTALEX is the first crossborder spatial data infrastructure between contiguous Portuguese (Alentejo and Centro) and Spanish (Extremadura) regions. It was implemented to share official geographic information from Alentejo and Extremadura, and now Centro region, with everyone. This is the most effective way to have a distributed and flexible system to be used as a territorial observatory for sustainable development and environment protection in these rural and low populated regions. It also contributes to territorial cohesion, one of the tree main pillars of European Cohesion Policy. It’s characterized for being a distributed, decentralized, modular and collaborative system, based on standards OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and open source technology, developed to guarantee interoperability between the different GIS (Geographic Information System) provided by each project partner. The geoportal is multilingual (Portuguese, Spanish and English) and integrates a Map viewer, Metadata Catalogue and Gazetteer. It consists in central and local nodes which communicate through WMS (Web Map Services), CSW (Catalogue Service Web) and WFS (Web Feature Services). It is now implementing SOS (Sensor Observation Services) and WPS (Web Map Processing). The geographic information available results of an extensive work of data harmonisation adapted to INSPIRE Directive (D 2007/2/EC, the European Parliament and Council, March 14, 2007). It integrates basic cartography, socio-economic, territorial and environmental indicators. | peerReviewed

Non-PR | IFPRI3; E.1 Policies, institutions and investments for resilient social systems | ESARO

Dickey-Collas, M., Engelhard, G.H., Rindorf, A., Raab, K., Smout, S., Aarts, G., Deurs, M., Brunel, T., Hoff, A., Lauerburg, R.A.M., Garthe, S., Andersen, K.H., Scott, F., Kooten, T., Beare, D., Peck, M.A. (2013) ICES Journal of Marine Science, 71(1): 128-142 (open access) | The North Sea provides a useful model for considering forage fish (FF) within ecosystem-based management as it has a complex assemblage of FF species. This paper is designed to encourage further debate and dialogue between stakeholders about management objectives. Changing the management of fisheries on FF will have economic consequences for all fleets in the North Sea. The predators that are vulnerable to the depletion of FF are Sandwich terns, great skua and common guillemots, and to a lesser extent, marine mammals. Comparative evaluations of management strategies are required to consider whether maintaining the reserves of prey biomass or a more integral approach of monitoring mortality rates across the trophic system is more robust under the ecosystem approach. In terms of trophic energy transfer, stability, and resilience of the ecosystem, FF should be considered as both a sized-based pool of biomass and as species components of the system by managers and modellers. Policy developers should not consider the knowledge base robust enough to embark on major projects of ecosystem engineering. Management plans appear able to maintain sustainable exploitation in the short term. Changes in the productivity of FF populations are inevitable so management should remain responsive and adaptive

Publicado em "Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine", vol. 7, supp. 1 (2013) | The development of strategies based on the use of scaffolds for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine(TERM) has been hindered by the inability of researchers to present solutions to overcome problems mainly related with the biocompatibility of materials andin vivoperfusion of the 3D structures. It is in this context that scaffold-free methodologies are being presented as increasingly attractive strategies for TERM. Scaffold-free approaches in general rely on the production of<br>extracellular matrix(ECM) by the cells of interest. However, the creation of an ECM robust enough for use in TERM is many times a challenge. Therefore, there is an important need to develop protocols that boost cell’s ability to produce ECM. One way to achieve this is to expose cells to an environment crowded with adequate macromolecules in order to mimic the physiological cellular milieu. Dextran sulphate(DxS) and Ficoll(Fc) have been suggested as compounds capable of increasing ECM deposition. The involved mechanism is closely related to the  increase in enzyme-mediated collagen deposition. In the present work, we hypothesized that the use of DxS or of a combination of Fc of different molecular weights (Fc70/Fc400) as crowders in culture medium could increase the robustness of the ECM produced by humanfibroblasts(hFb) or human adipose-derived Stem Cells(hASCs). 5x10⁴hFb or hASC were seeded on wells of 24 and 48 well plates, and cultured for 24 h in a-MEM supplemented wih10% FBS and 1% antibiotics. After thefirst 24 h, the medium was replaced by fresh medium supplemented with 1% FBS and a)50lg/mL of Ascorbic Acid, b)50lg/mL of Dextran Sulphate, or c)37.5 mg/mL of Fc70+25 mg/mL of Fc400. Cells were cultured for further 2 and 5 days. dsDNA quantification showed that in both conditions b) and c), and independently of the cell type, cell proliferation was significantly reduced. ECM production was<br>evaluated by quantifying the deposited collagen using a semi-quantitative Sirius Red kit (Picrosirius, Chondrex, USA). Collagen quantification, normalized with dsDNA, demonstrated that for both cells types, the presence of either DxS or Fc70/Fc400 resulted in the decrease of ECM deposition. In conclusion, the use of DxS and Fc70/Fc under the conditions herein described failed to increase the ECM production by both hFb and hASCs. | This research has been funded by the EU Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement FP7-KBBE-2010-4266033-SPECIAL and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)-funded project Skingineering (PTDC/SAU-OSM/099422/2008).

Underwater gliders are recent innovative types of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) used in ocean exploration and observation. They adjust their buoyancy to dive and to return to the ocean surface. During the change of altitude, they use the hydrodynamic forces developed by their wings to move forward. Their flights are controlled by changing the position of their centers of gravity and their buoyancy to adjust their trim and heel angles. For better flight control, the understanding of the hydrodynamic behavior and the flight mechanics of the underwater glider is necessary. A 6-DOF motion simulator is coupled with an unsteady potential flow model for this purpose. In some specific cases, the numerical study demonstrates that an inappropriate stabilizer dimension can cause counter-steering behavior. The simulator can be used to improve the automatic flight control. It can also be used for the hydrodynamic design optimization of the devices.