The Consortium for Metabonomic Toxicology (COMET) studies was designed to model metabolic responses to organ- and mechanism-specific toxins to predict acute drug toxicity in rats. A range of clinical chemical parameters were measured in 7-day toxicology studies for 86 toxins eliciting a range of organ- and mechanism-specific effects. Additionally, 21 surgical or physiological stressors were evaluated to identify physiological...

Landslides are destructive natural disasters that cause human and economic losses. Although many studies report the effects of forest age on landslide susceptibility, especially for shallow landslides, no studies have examined the effects at a national scale. We assumed that temporal variations in the annual number of rainfall-triggered landslides in Japan were determined by variations in rainfall and forest age distribution....

Water hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes ) is considered a prospective free-floating aquatic plant potentially used to address current issues on food, energy, and the environment. It can grow quickly and easily in various tropical and subtropical environments as long as it has access to adequate light and water to support photosynthetic growth. Ecosystems are threatened by their invasive growth and remarkable capacity for adaptat...

Leaf litter and its breakdown products represent an important input of organic matter and nutrients to mangrove sediments and adjacent coastal ecosystems. It is commonly assumed that old-grown stands with mature trees contribute more to the permanent sediment organic matter pool than younger stands. However, neither are interspecific differences in leaf decay rates taken into account in this assumption nor is our understanding...