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Controversy over the plate tectonic affinity and evolution of the Saxon granulites in a two- or multi-plate setting during inter- or intracontinental collision makes the Saxon Granulite Massif a key area for the understanding of the Palaeozoic Variscan orogeny. The massif is a large dome structure in which tectonic slivers of metapelite and metaophiolite units occur along a shear zone separating a diapir-like body of high-Pgranulite below from low-Pmetasedimentary rocks above. Each of the upper structural units records a different metamorphic evolution until its assembly with the exhuming granulite body. New age and petrologic data suggest that the metaophiolites developed from early Cambrian protoliths during high-Pamphibolite facies metamorphism in the mid- to late-Devonian and thermal overprinting by the exhuming hot granulite body in the early Carboniferous. A correlation of new Ar-Ar biotite ages with publishedP-T-tdata for the granulites implies that exhumation and cooling of the granulite body occurred at average rates of similar to 8 mm/year and similar to 80 degrees C/Ma, with a drop in exhumation rate from similar to 20 to similar to 2.5 mm/year and a slight rise in cooling rate between early and late stages of exhumation. A time lag ofc. 2 Ma between cooling through the closure temperatures for argon diffusion in hornblende and biotite indicates a cooling rate of 90 degrees C/Ma when all units had assembled into the massif. A two-plate model of the Variscan orogeny in which the above evolution is related to a short-lived intra-Gondwana subduction zone conflicts with the oceanic affinity of the metaophiolites and the timescale ofc. 50 Ma for the metamorphism. Alternative models focusing on the internal Variscan belt assume distinctly different material paths through the lower or upper crust for strikingly similar granulite massifs. An earlier proposed model of bilateral subduction below the internal Variscan belt may solve this problem.
Research synthesis on simple yet general hypotheses and ideas is challenging in scientific disciplines studying highly context-dependent systems such as medical, social, and biological sciences. This study shows that machine learning, equation-free statistical modeling of artificial intelligence, is a promising synthesis tool for discovering novel patterns and the source of controversy in a general hypothesis. We apply a decision tree algorithm, assuming that evidence from various contexts can be adequately integrated in a hierarchically nested structure. As a case study, we analyzed 163 articles that studied a prominent hypothesis in invasion biology, the enemy release hypothesis. We explored if any of the nine attributes that classify each study can differentiate conclusions as classification problem. Results corroborated that machine learning can be useful for research synthesis, as the algorithm could detect patterns that had been already focused in previous narrative reviews. Compared with the previous synthesis study that assessed the same evidence collection based on experts' judgement, the algorithm has newly proposed that the studies focusing on Asian regions mostly supported the hypothesis, suggesting that more detailed investigations in these regions can enhance our understanding of the hypothesis. We suggest that machine learning algorithms can be a promising synthesis tool especially where studies (a) reformulate a general hypothesis from different perspectives, (b) use different methods or variables, or (c) report insufficient information for conducting meta-analyses.
Permafrost is warming in the northern high latitudes, inducing highly dynamic thaw-related permafrost disturbances across the terrestrial Arctic. Monitoring and tracking of permafrost disturbances is important as they impact surrounding landscapes, ecosystems and infrastructure. Remote sensing provides the means to detect, map, and quantify these changes homogeneously across large regions and time scales. Existing Landsat-based algorithms assess different types of disturbances with similar spatiotemporal requirements. However, Landsat-based analyses are restricted in northern high latitudes due to the long repeat interval and frequent clouds, in particular at Arctic coastal sites. We therefore propose to combine Landsat and Sentinel-2 data for enhanced data coverage and present a combined annual mosaic workflow, expanding currently available algorithms, such as LandTrendr, to achieve more reliable time series analysis. We exemplary test the workflow for twelve sites across the northern high latitudes in Siberia. We assessed the number of images and cloud-free pixels, the spatial mosaic coverage and the mosaic quality with spectral comparisons. The number of available images increased steadily from 1999 to 2019 but especially from 2016 onward with the addition of Sentinel-2 images. Consequently, we have an increased number of cloud-free pixels even under challenging environmental conditions, which then serve as the input to the mosaicking process. In a comparison of annual mosaics, the Landsat+Sentinel-2 mosaics always fully covered the study areas (99.9–100 %), while Landsat-only mosaics contained data-gaps in the same years, only reaching coverage percentages of 27.2 %, 58.1 %, and 69.7 % for Sobo Sise, East Taymyr, and Kurungnakh in 2017, respectively. The spectral comparison of Landsat image, Sentinel-2 image, and Landsat+Sentinel-2 mosaic showed high correlation between the input images and mosaic bands (e.g., for Kurungnakh 0.91–0.97 between Landsat and Landsat+Sentinel-2 mosaic and 0.92–0.98 between Sentinel-2 and Landsat+Sentinel-2 mosaic) across all twelve study sites, testifying good quality mosaic results. Our results show that especially the results for northern, coastal areas was substantially improved with the Landsat+Sentinel-2 mosaics. By combining Landsat and Sentinel-2 data we accomplished to create reliably high spatial resolution input mosaics for time series analyses. Our approach allows to apply a high temporal continuous time series analysis to northern high latitude permafrost regions for the first time, overcoming substantial data gaps, and assess permafrost disturbance dynamics on an annual scale across large regions with algorithms such as LandTrendr by deriving the location, timing and progression of permafrost thaw disturbances
This study is the first to use kinematic data to assess lingual carryover coarticulation in children. We investigated whether the developmental decrease previously attested in anticipatory coarticulation, as well as the relation between coarticulatory degree and the consonantal context, also characterize carryover coarticulation. Sixty-two children and 13 adults, all native speakers of German, were recruited according to five age cohorts: three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds, seven-year-olds, and adults. Tongue movements during the production of ə.CV.Cə utterances (C = /b, d, g/, V = /i, y, e, a, o, u/) were recorded with ultrasound. We measured vowel-induced horizontal displacement of the tongue dorsum within the last syllable and compared the resulting coarticulatory patterns between age cohorts and consonantal contexts. Results indicate that the degree of vocalic carryover coarticulation decreases with age. Vocalic prominence within an utterance as well as its change across childhood depended on the postvocalic consonant’s articulatory demands for the tongue dorsum (i.e., its coarticulatory resistance): Low resistant /b/ and /g/ allowed for more vocalic perseveration and a continuous decrease, while the highly resistant /d/ displayed lower coarticulation degrees and discontinuous effects. These findings parallel those in anticipation suggesting a similar organization of anticipatory and carryover coarticulation. Implications for theories of speech production are discussed.
Recent climatic changes have the potential to severely alter river runoff, particularly in snow-dominated river basins. Effects of changing snow covers superimpose with changes in precipitation and anthropogenic modifications of the watershed and river network. In the attempt to identify and disentangle long-term effects of different mechanisms, we employ a set of analytical tools to extract long-term changes in river runoff at high resolution. We combine quantile sampling with moving average trend statistics and empirical mode decomposition and apply these tools to discharge data recorded along rivers with nival, pluvial and mixed flow regimes as well as temperature and precipitation data covering the time frame 1869-2016. With a focus on central Europe, we analyse the long-term impact of snow cover and precipitation changes along with their interaction with reservoir constructions.
Our results show that runoff seasonality of snow-dominated rivers decreases. Runoff increases in winter and spring, while discharge decreases in summer and at the beginning of autumn. We attribute this redistribution of annual flow mainly to reservoir constructions in the Alpine ridge. During the course of the last century, large fractions of the Alpine rivers were dammed to produce hydropower. In recent decades, runoff changes induced by reservoir constructions seem to overlap with changes in snow cover. We suggest that Alpine signals propagate downstream and affect runoff far outside the Alpine area in river segments with mixed flow regimes. Furthermore, our results hint at more (intense) rain-fall in recent decades. Detected increases in high discharge can be traced back to corresponding changes in precipitation.
Global biodiversity is under high and rising anthropogenic pressure. Yet, how the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional facets of biodiversity are affected by different threats over time is unclear. This is particularly true for the two main drivers of the current biodiversity crisis: habitat destruction and overexploitation. We provide the first long-term assessment of multifaceted biodiversity changes caused by these threats for any tropical region. Focussing on larger mammals in South America's 1.1 million km(2) Gran Chaco region, we assessed changes in multiple biodiversity facets between 1985 and 2015, determined which threats drive those changes, and identified remaining key areas for all biodiversity facets. Using habitat and threat maps, we found, first, that between 1985 and 2015 taxonomic (TD), phylogenetic (PD) and functional (FD) diversity all declined drastically across over half of the area assessed. FD declined about 50% faster than TD and PD, and these declines were mainly driven by species loss, rather than species turnover. Second, habitat destruction, hunting, and both threats together contributed similar to 57%, similar to 37%, and similar to 6% to overall facet declines, respectively. However, hunting pressure increased where TD and PD declined most strongly, whereas habitat destruction disproportionally contributed to FD declines. Third, just 23% of the Chaco would have to be protected to safeguard the top 17% of all three facets. Our findings uncover a widespread impoverishment of mammal species richness, evolutionary history, and ecological functions across broad areas of the Chaco due to increasing habitat destruction and hunting. Moreover, our results pinpoint key areas that should be preserved and managed to maintain all facets of mammalian diversity across the Chaco. More generally, our work highlights how long-term changes in biodiversity facets can be assessed and attributed to specific threats, to better understand human impacts on biodiversity and to guide conservation planning to mitigate them.
Deep waters represent the largest biome on Earth and the largest ecosystem of Costa Rica. Fungi play a fundamental role in global biogeochemical cycling in marine sediments, yet, they remain little explored. We studied fungal diversity and community composition in several marine sediments from 16 locations sampled along a bathymetric gradient (from a depth of 380 to 3,474 m) in two transects of about 1,500 km length in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) of Costa Rica. Sequence analysis of the V7-V8 region of the 18S rRNA gene obtained from sediment cores revealed the presence of 787 fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs). On average, we detected a richness of 75 fungal ASVs per sample. Ascomycota represented the most abundant phylum with Saccharomycetes constituting the dominant class. Three ASVs accounted for ca. 63% of all fungal sequences: the yeast Metschnikowia (49.4%), Rhizophydium (6.9%), and Cladosporium (6.7%). We distinguished a cluster composed mainly by yeasts, and a second cluster by filamentous fungi, but we were unable to detect a strong effect of depth and the overlying water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and pH on the composition of fungal communities. We highlight the need to understand further the ecological role of fungi in deep-sea ecosystems.
The southern Central Andes (SCA) (between 27 degrees S and 40 degrees S) is bordered to the west by the convergent margin between the continental South American Plate and the oceanic Nazca Plate. The subduction angle along this margin is variable, as is the deformation of the upper plate. Between 33 degrees S and 35 degrees S, the subduction angle of the Nazca plate increases from sub-horizontal (< 5 degrees) in the north to relatively steep (similar to 30 degrees) in the south. The SCA contain inherited lithological and structural heterogeneities within the crust that have been reactivated and overprinted since the onset of subduction and associated Cenozoic deformation within the Andean orogen. The distribution of the deformation within the SCA has often been attributed to the variations in the subduction angle and the reactivation of these inherited heterogeneities. However, the possible influence that the thickness and composition of the continental crust have had on both short-term and long-term deformation of the SCA is yet to be thoroughly investigated. For our investigations, we have derived density distributions and thicknesses for various layers that make up the lithosphere and evaluated their relationships with tectonic events that occurred over the history of the Andean orogeny and, in particular, investigated the short- and long-term nature of the present-day deformation processes. We established a 3D model of lithosphere beneath the orogen and its foreland (29 degrees S-39 degrees S) that is consistent with currently available geological and geophysical data, including the gravity data. The modelled crustal configuration and density distribution reveal spatial relationships with different tectonic domains: the crystalline crust in the orogen (the magmatic arc and the main orogenic wedge) is thicker (similar to 55 km) and less dense (similar to 2900 kg/m(3)) than in the forearc (similar to 35 km, similar to 2975 kg/m(3)) and foreland (similar to 30 km, similar to 3000 kg/m(3)). Crustal thickening in the orogen probably occurred as a result of stacking of low-density domains, while density and thickness variations beneath the forearc and foreland most likely reflect differences in the tectonic evolution of each area following crustal accretion. No clear spatial relationship exists between the density distribution within the lithosphere and previously proposed boundaries of crustal terranes accreted during the early Paleozoic. Areas with ongoing deformation show a spatial correlation with those areas that have the highest topographic gradients and where there are abrupt changes in the average crustal-density contrast. This suggests that the short-term deformation within the interior of the Andean orogen and its foreland is fundamentally influenced by the crustal composition and the relative thickness of different crustal layers. A thicker, denser, and potentially stronger lithosphere beneath the northern part of the SCA foreland is interpreted to have favoured a strong coupling between the Nazca and South American plates, facilitating the development of a sub-horizontal slab.
One of the most important social cognitive skills in humans is the ability to “put oneself in someone else’s shoes,” that is, to take another person’s perspective. In socially situated communication, perspective taking enables the listener to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of what is said (sentence meaning) and what is meant (speaker’s meaning) by the speaker. To successfully decode the speaker’s meaning, the listener has to take into account which information he/she and the speaker share in their common ground (CG). We here further investigated competing accounts about when and how CG information affects language comprehension by means of reaction time (RT) measures, accuracy data, event-related potentials (ERPs), and eye-tracking. Early integration accounts would predict that CG information is considered immediately and would hence not expect to find costs of CG integration. Late integration accounts would predict a rather late and effortful integration of CG information during the parsing process that might be reflected in integration or updating costs. Other accounts predict the simultaneous integration of privileged ground (PG) and CG perspectives. We used a computerized version of the referential communication game with object triplets of different sizes presented visually in CG or PG. In critical trials (i.e., conflict trials), CG information had to be integrated while privileged information had to be suppressed. Listeners mastered the integration of CG (response accuracy 99.8%). Yet, slower RTs, and enhanced late positivities in the ERPs showed that CG integration had its costs. Moreover, eye-tracking data indicated an early anticipation of referents in CG but an inability to suppress looks to the privileged competitor, resulting in later and longer looks to targets in those trials, in which CG information had to be considered. Our data therefore support accounts that foresee an early anticipation of referents to be in CG but a rather late and effortful integration if conflicting information has to be processed. We show that both perspectives, PG and CG, contribute to socially situated language processing and discuss the data with reference to theoretical accounts and recent findings on the use of CG information for reference resolution.
The demand for peer-to-peer ridesharing services increased over the last years rapidly. To cost-efficiently dispatch orders and communicate accurate pick-up times is challenging as the current location of each available driver is not exactly known since observed locations can be outdated for several seconds. The developed trajectory visualization tool enables transportation network companies to analyze dispatch processes and determine the causes of unexpected delays. As dispatching algorithms are based on the accuracy of arrival time predictions, we account for factors like noise, sample rate, technical and economic limitations as well as the duration of the entire process as they have an impact on the accuracy of spatio-temporal data. To improve dispatching strategies, we propose a prediction approach that provides a probability distribution for a driver’s future locations based on patterns observed in past trajectories. We demonstrate the capabilities of our prediction results to ( i) avoid critical delays, (ii) to estimate waiting times with higher confidence, and (iii) to enable risk considerations in dispatching strategies.
Sediment Transit Time and Floodplain Storage Dynamics in Alluvial Rivers Revealed by Meteoric 10Be
(2020)
Quantifying the time scales of sediment transport and storage through river systems is fundamental for understanding weathering processes, biogeochemical cycling, and improving watershed management, but measuring sediment transit time is challenging. Here we provide the first systematic test of measuring cosmogenic meteoric Beryllium-10 (10Bem) in the sediment load of a large alluvial river to quantify sediment transit times. We take advantage of a natural experiment in the Rio Bermejo, a lowland alluvial river traversing the east Andean foreland basin in northern Argentina. This river has no tributaries along its trunk channel for nearly 1,300 km downstream from the mountain front. We sampled suspended sediment depth profiles along the channel and measured the concentrations of 10Bem in the chemically extracted grain coatings. We calculated depth-integrated 10Bem concentrations using sediment flux data and found that 10Bem concentrations increase 230% from upstream to downstream, indicating a mean total sediment transit time of 8.4 ± 2.2 kyr. Bulk sediment budget-based estimates of channel belt and fan storage times suggest that the 10Bem tracer records mixing of old and young sediment reservoirs. On a reach scale, 10Bem transit times are shorter where the channel is braided and superelevated above the floodplain, and longer where the channel is incised and meandering, suggesting that transit time is controlled by channel morphodynamics. This is the first systematic application of 10Bem as a sediment transit time tracer and highlights the method's potential for inferring sediment routing and storage dynamics in large river systems.
Plants located adjacent to agricultural fields are important for maintaining biodiversity in semi-natural landscapes. To avoid undesired impacts on these plants due to herbicide application on the arable fields, regulatory risk assessments are conducted prior to registration to ensure proposed uses of plant protection products do not present an unacceptable risk. The current risk assessment approach for these non-target terrestrial plants (NTTPs) examines impacts at the individual-level as a surrogate approach for protecting the plant community due to the inherent difficulties of directly assessing population or community level impacts. However, modelling approaches are suitable higher tier tools to upscale individual-level effects to community level. IBC-grass is a sophisticated plant community model, which has already been applied in several studies. However, as it is a console application software, it was not deemed sufficiently user-friendly for risk managers and assessors to be conveniently operated without prior expertise in ecological models. Here, we present a user-friendly and open source graphical user interface (GUI) for the application of IBC-grass in regulatory herbicide risk assessment. It facilitates the use of the plant community model for predicting long-term impacts of herbicide applications on NTTP communities. The GUI offers two options to integrate herbicide impacts: (1) dose responses based on current standard experiments (acc. to testing guidelines) and (2) based on specific effect intensities. Both options represent suitable higher tier options for future risk assessments of NTTPs as well as for research on the ecological relevance of effects.
Identifying the entirety of gene regulatory interactions in a biological system offers the possibility to determine the key molecular factors that affect important traits on the level of cells, tissues, and whole organisms. Despite the development of experimental approaches and technologies for identification of direct binding of transcription factors (TFs) to promoter regions of downstream target genes, computational approaches that utilize large compendia of transcriptomics data are still the predominant methods used to predict direct downstream targets of TFs, and thus reconstruct genome-wide gene-regulatory networks (GRNs). These approaches can broadly be categorized into unsupervised and supervised, based on whether data about known, experimentally verified gene-regulatory interactions are used in the process of reconstructing the underlying GRN. Here, we first describe the generic steps of supervised approaches for GRN reconstruction, since they have been recently shown to result in improved accuracy of the resulting networks? We also illustrate how they can be used with data from model organisms to obtain more accurate prediction of gene regulatory interactions.
The Maillard reaction generates protein modifications which can accumulate during hyperglycemia or aging and may have inflammatory consequences. The proteasome is one of the major intracellular systems involved in the proteolytic degradation of modified proteins but its role in the degradation of glycated proteins is scarcely studied. In this study, chemical and structural changes of glycated myoglobin were analyzed and its degradation by 20S proteasome was studied. Myoglobin was incubated with physiological (5-10 mM), moderate (50-100 mM) and severe levels (300 mM) of glucose or methylglyoxal (MGO, 50 mM). Glycation increased myoglobin's fluorescence and surface hydrophobicity. Severe glycation generated crosslinked proteins as shown by gel electrophoresis. The concentration of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) N-epsilon-carboxymethyl lysine (CML), N-epsilon-carboxyethyl lysine (CEL), methylglyoxal-derived hydroimidazolone-1 (MG-H1), pentosidine and pyrraline was analyzed after enzymatic hydrolysis followed by UPLC-MS/MS. Higher concentrations of glucose increased all analyzed AGEs and incubation with MGO led to a pronounced increase of CEL and MG-H1. The binding of the heme group to apo-myoglobin was decreased with increasing glycation indicating the loss of tertiary protein structure. Proteasomal degradation of modified myoglobin compared to native myoglobin depends on the degree of glycation: physiological conditions decreased proteasomal degradation whereas moderate glycation increased degradation. Severe glycation again decreased proteolytic cleavage which might be due to crosslinking of protein monomers. The activity of the proteasomal subunit beta 5 is influenced by the presence of glycated myoglobin. In conclusion, the role of the proteasome in the degradation of glycated proteins is highly dependent on the level of glycation and consequent protein unfolding.
This meta-analysis aimed to assess the effects of plyometric jump training (PJT) on volleyball players’ vertical jump height (VJH), comparing changes with those observed in a matched control group. A literature search in the databases of PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and SCOPUS was conducted. Only randomized-controlled trials and studies that included a pre-to-post intervention assessment of VJH were included. They involved only healthy volleyball players with no restrictions on age or sex. Data were independently extracted from the included studies by two authors. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale was used to assess the risk of bias, and methodological quality, of eligible studies included in the review. From 7,081 records, 14 studies were meta-analysed. A moderate Cohen’s d effect size (ES = 0.82, p <0.001) was observed for VJH, with moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 34.4%, p = 0.09) and no publication bias (Egger’s test, p = 0.59). Analyses of moderator variables revealed no significant differences for PJT program duration (≤8 vs. >8 weeks, ES = 0.79 vs. 0.87, respectively), frequency (≤2 vs. >2 sessions/week, ES = 0.83 vs. 0.78, respectively), total number of sessions (≤16 vs. >16 sessions, ES = 0.73 vs. 0.92, respectively), sex (female vs. male, ES = 1.3 vs. 0.5, respectively), age (≥19 vs. <19 years of age, ES = 0.89 vs. 0.70, respectively), and volume (>2,000 vs. <2,000 jumps, ES = 0.76 vs. 0.79, respectively). In conclusion, PJT appears to be effective in inducing improvements in volleyball players’ VJH. Improvements in VJH may be achieved by both male and female volleyball players, in different age groups, with programs of relatively low volume and frequency. Though PJT seems to be safe for volleyball players, it is recommended that an individualized approach, according to player position, is adopted with some players (e.g. libero) less prepared to sustain PJT loads.
The existence of an intermediate transition between the glass and the Curie/melting temperatures in Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and some of its co- and ter-polymers has been reported by several authors. In spite (or because?) of various different explanations in the literature, the origins of the transition are still not clear. Here, we try to understand the extra transition in more detail and study it with thermal and dielectric methods on PVDF, on its co-polymers with trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) and tetrafluoroethylene (P(VDF-TFE)), and on its ter-polymer with trifluoroethylene and chlorofluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE-CFE). Based on interpretations from the literature and our experimental studies, we propose the new hypothesis that the intermediate transition should have several interrelated origins. Especially since the relevant range is not far above room temperature, better understanding and control of their properties may also have practical implications for the use of the respective polymer materials in devices.
Magnetite containing aerogels were synthesized by freeze-drying olive oil/silicone oil-based Janus emulsion gels containing gelatin and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC). The magnetite nanoparticles dispersed in olive oil are processed into the gel and remain in the macroporous aerogel after removing the oil components. The coexistence of macropores from the Janus droplets and mesopores from freeze-drying of the hydrogels in combination with the magnetic properties offer a special hierarchical pore structure, which is of relevance for smart supercapacitors, biosensors, and spilled oil sorption and separation. The morphology of the final structure was investigated in dependence on initial compositions. More hydrophobic aerogels with magnetic responsiveness were synthesized by bisacrylamide-crosslinking of the hydrogel. The crosslinked aerogels can be successfully used in magnetically responsive clean up experiments of the cationic dye methylene blue.
Increased N400 amplitudes on indefinite articles (a/an) incompatible with expected nouns have been initially taken as strong evidence for probabilistic pre-activation of phonological word forms, and recently been intensely debated because they have been difficult to replicate. Here, these effects are simulated using a neural network model of sentence comprehension that we previously used to simulate a broad range of empirical N400 effects. The model produces the effects when the cue validity of the articles concerning upcoming noun meaning in the learning environment is high, but fails to produce the effects when the cue validity of the articles is low due to adjectives presented between articles and nouns during training. These simulations provide insight into one of the factors potentially contributing to the small size of the effects in empirical studies and generate predictions for cross-linguistic differences in article induced N400 effects based on articles’ cue validity. The model accounts for article induced N400 effects without assuming pre-activation of word forms, and instead simulates these effects as the stimulus-induced change in a probabilistic representation of meaning corresponding to an implicit semantic prediction error.
Rats are a reservoir of human- and livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). However, the composition of the natural S. aureus population in wild and laboratory rats is largely unknown. Here, 144 nasal S. aureus isolates from free-living wild rats, captive wild rats and laboratory rats were genotyped and profiled for antibiotic resistances and human-specific virulence genes. The nasal S. aureus carriage rate was higher among wild rats (23.4%) than laboratory rats (12.3%). Free-living wild rats were primarily colonized with isolates of clonal complex (CC) 49 and CC130 and maintained these strains even in husbandry. Moreover, upon livestock contact, CC398 isolates were acquired. In contrast, laboratory rats were colonized with many different S. aureus lineages—many of which are commonly found in humans. Five captive wild rats were colonized with CC398-MRSA. Moreover, a single CC30-MRSA and two CC130-MRSA were detected in free-living or captive wild rats. Rat-derived S. aureus isolates rarely harbored the phage-carried immune evasion gene cluster or superantigen genes, suggesting long-term adaptation to their host. Taken together, our study revealed a natural S. aureus population in wild rats, as well as a colonization pressure on wild and laboratory rats by exposure to livestock- and human-associated S. aureus, respectively.
Purpose: Psychosocial variables are known risk factors for the development and chronification of low back pain (LBP). Psychosocial stress is one of these risk factors. Therefore, this study aims to identify the most important types of stress predicting LBP. Self-efficacy was included as a potential protective factor related to both, stress and pain.
Participants and Methods: This prospective observational study assessed n = 1071 subjects with low back pain over 2 years. Psychosocial stress was evaluated in a broad manner using instruments assessing perceived stress, stress experiences in work and social contexts, vital exhaustion and life-event stress. Further, self-efficacy and pain (characteristic pain intensity and disability) were assessed. Using least absolute shrinkage selection operator regression, important predictors of characteristic pain intensity and pain-related disability at 1-year and 2-years follow-up were analyzed.
Results: The final sample for the statistic procedure consisted of 588 subjects (age: 39.2 (± 13.4) years; baseline pain intensity: 27.8 (± 18.4); disability: 14.3 (± 17.9)). In the 1-year follow-up, the stress types “tendency to worry”, “social isolation”, “work discontent” as well as vital exhaustion and negative life events were identified as risk factors for both pain intensity and pain-related disability. Within the 2-years follow-up, Lasso models identified the stress types “tendency to worry”, “social isolation”, “social conflicts”, and “perceived long-term stress” as potential risk factors for both pain intensity and disability. Furthermore, “self-efficacy” (“internality”, “self-concept”) and “social externality” play a role in reducing pain-related disability.
Conclusion: Stress experiences in social and work-related contexts were identified as important risk factors for LBP 1 or 2 years in the future, even in subjects with low initial pain levels. Self-efficacy turned out to be a protective factor for pain development, especially in the long-term follow-up. Results suggest a differentiation of stress types in addressing psychosocial factors in research, prevention and therapy approaches.
In this paper, we present the convergence rate analysis of the modified Landweber method under logarithmic source condition for nonlinear ill-posed problems. The regularization parameter is chosen according to the discrepancy principle. The reconstructions of the shape of an unknown domain for an inverse potential problem by using the modified Landweber method are exhibited.
Ammonium salts are a reservoir of nitrogen on a cometary nucleus and possibly on some asteroids
(2020)
The measured nitrogen-to-carbon ratio in comets is lower than for the Sun, a discrepancy which could be alleviated if there is an unknown reservoir of nitrogen in comets. The nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko exhibits an unidentified broad spectral reflectance feature around 3.2 micrometers, which is ubiquitous across its surface. On the basis of laboratory experiments, we attribute this absorption band to ammonium salts mixed with dust on the surface. The depth of the band indicates that semivolatile ammonium salts are a substantial reservoir of nitrogen in the comet, potentially dominating over refractory organic matter and more volatile species. Similar absorption features appear in the spectra of some asteroids, implying a compositional link between asteroids, comets, and the parent interstellar cloud.
The simulation of broad-band (0.1 to 10 + Hz) ground-shaking over deep and spatially extended sedimentary basins at regional scales is challenging. We evaluate the ground-shaking of a potential M 6.5 earthquake in the southern Lower Rhine Embayment, one of the most important areas of earthquake recurrence north of the Alps, close to the city of Cologne in Germany. In a first step, information from geological investigations, seismic experiments and boreholes is combined for deriving a harmonized 3D velocity and attenuation model of the sedimentary layers. Three alternative approaches are then applied and compared to evaluate the impact of the sedimentary cover on ground-motion amplification. The first approach builds on existing response spectra ground-motion models whose amplification factors empirically take into account the influence of the sedimentary layers through a standard parameterization. In the second approach, site-specific 1D amplification functions are computed from the 3D basin model. Using a random vibration theory approach, we adjust the empirical response spectra predicted for soft rock conditions by local site amplification factors: amplifications and associated ground-motions are predicted both in the Fourier and in the response spectra domain. In the third approach, hybrid physics-based ground-motion simulations are used to predict time histories for soft rock conditions which are subsequently modified using the 1D site-specific amplification functions computed in method 2. For large distances and at short periods, the differences between the three approaches become less notable due to the significant attenuation of the sedimentary layers. At intermediate and long periods, generic empirical ground-motion models provide lower levels of amplification from sedimentary soils compared to methods taking into account site-specific 1D amplification functions. In the near-source region, hybrid physics-based ground-motions models illustrate the potentially large variability of ground-motion due to finite source effects.
The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of state-of-the-art organic solar cells is still limited by significant open-circuit voltage (V-OC) losses, partly due to the excitonic nature of organic materials and partly due to ill-designed architectures. Thus, quantifying different contributions of the V-OC losses is of importance to enable further improvements in the performance of organic solar cells. Herein, the spectroscopic and semiconductor device physics approaches are combined to identify and quantify losses from surface recombination and bulk recombination. Several state-of-the-art systems that demonstrate different V-OC losses in their performance are presented. By evaluating the quasi-Fermi level splitting (QFLS) and the V-OC as a function of the excitation fluence in nonfullerene-based PM6:Y6, PM6:Y11, and fullerene-based PPDT2FBT:PCBM devices with different architectures, the voltage losses due to different recombination processes occurring in the active layers, the transport layers, and at the interfaces are assessed. It is found that surface recombination at interfaces in the studied solar cells is negligible, and thus, suppressing the non-radiative recombination in the active layers is the key factor to enhance the PCE of these devices. This study provides a universal tool to explain and further improve the performance of recently demonstrated high-open-circuit-voltage organic solar cells.
Ausgehend von Andreas Arndt Buch "Die Reformation der Revolution. Friedrich Schleiermacher in seiner Zeit" wird die Bedeutung der von Schleiermacher konzipierten Dialektik für dessen praktisches Wirken erörtert. Mit der Dialektik stieß er eine Revolutionierung von Mathematik und Logik durch die Gebrüder Graßmann an. Mit seinem Engagement im Rahmen der Humboldtschen Bildungsreform hatte er einen wesentlichen Anteil an der inhaltlichen Neugestaltung der Elementar- und Volksschulbildung. Schleiermachers philosophischer Impuls griff dergestalt - in wohl historisch einmaliger Weise - von der Elementarschulbildung auf die Wissenschaft, insbesondere Mathematik, über.
The catalytic activity of metal nanoparticles (NPs) supported on porous supports can be controlled by various factors, such as NPs size, shape, or dispersivity, as well as their interaction with the support or the properties of the support material itself. However, these intrinsic properties are not solely responsible for the catalytic behavior of the overall reaction system, as the local environment and surface coverage of the catalyst with reactants, products, intermediates and other invloved species often play a crucial role in catalytic processes as well. Their contribution can be particularly critical in liquid-phase reactions with gaseous reactants that often suffer from low solubiltiy. One example is (D)-glucose oxidation with molecular oxygen over gold nanoparticles supported on porous carbons. The possibility to promote oxygen delivery in such aqueous phase oxidation reactions via the immobilization of heterogenous catalysts onto the interface of perfluorocarbon emulsion droplets is reported here. Gold-on-carbon catalyst particles can stabilize perfluorocarbon droplets in the aqueous phase and the local concentration of the oxidant in the surroundings of the gold nanoparticles accelerates the rate-limiting step of the reaction. Consequently, the reaction rate of a system with the optimal volume fraction of fluorocarbon is higher than a reference emulsion system without fluorocarbon, and the effect is observed even without additional oxygen supply.
Nanoporous carbon materials (NCMs) provide the "function" of high specific surface area and thus have large interface area for interactions with surrounding species, which is of particular importance in applications related to adsorption processes. The strength and mechanism of adsorption depend on the pore architecture of the NCMs. In addition, chemical functionalization can be used to induce changes of electron density and/or electron density distribution in the pore walls, thus further modifying the interactions between carbons and guest species. Typical approaches for functionalization of nanoporous materials with regular atomic construction like porous silica, metal-organic frameworks, or zeolites, cannot be applied to NCMs due to their less defined local atomic construction and abundant defects. Therefore, synthetic strategies that offer a higher degree of control over the process of functionalization are needed. Synthetic approaches for covalent functionalization of NCMs, that is, for the incorporation of heteroatoms into the carbon backbone, are critically reviewed with a special focus on strategies following the concept "from molecules to materials." Approaches for coordinative functionalization with metallic species, and the functionalization by nanocomposite formation between pristine carbon materials and heteroatom-containing carbons, are introduced as well. Particular focus is given to the influences of these functionalizations in adsorption-related applications.
Sprint and jump performances in highly trained young soccer players of different chronological age
(2020)
Objective
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of two different sprint-training regimes on sprint and jump performances according to age in elite young male soccer players over the course of one soccer season.
Methods
Players were randomly assigned to two training groups. Group 1 performed systematic change-of-direction sprints (CODST, U19 [n = 9], U17 [n = 9], U15 [n = 10]) while group 2 conducted systematic linear sprints (LST, U19 [n = 9], U17 [n = 9], U15 [n = 9]). Training volumes were similar between groups (40 sprints per week x 30 weeks = 1200 sprints per season). Pre and post training, all players performed tests for the assessment of linear and slalom sprint speed (5-m and 10-m), countermovement jump, and maximal aerobic speed performance.
Results
For all physical fitness measures, the baseline-adjusted means data (ANCOVA) across the age groups showed no significant differences between LST and CODST at post (0.061 < p < 0.995; 0.0017 < d < 1.01). The analyses of baseline-adjusted means for all physical fitness measures for U15, U17, and U19 (LST vs. CODST) revealed no significant differences between LST and CODST for U15 (0.213 < p < 0.917; 0.001 < d < 0.087), U17 (0.132 < p < 0.976; 0.001 < d < 0.310), and U19 (0.300 < p < 0.999; 0.001 < d < 0.049) at post.
Conclusions
The results from this study showed that both, LST and CODST induced significant changes in the sprint, lower limbs power, and aerobic performances in young elite soccer players. Since no significant differences were observed between LST and CODST, the observed changes are most likely due to training and/or maturation. Therefore, more research is needed to elucidate whether CODST, LST or a combination of both is beneficial for youth soccer athletes’ performance development.
German orthography systematically marks all nouns (even other nominalized word classes) by capitalizing their first letter. It is often claimed that readers benefit from the uppercase-letter syntactic and semantic information, which makes the processing of sentences easier (e.g., Bock et al., 1985, 1989). In order to test this hypothesis, we asked 54 German readers to read single sentences systematically manipulated by a target word (N). In the experimental condition (EXP), we used semantic priming (in the following example: sick → cold) in order to build up a strong expectation of a noun, which was actually an attribute for the following noun (N+1) (translated to English e.g., “The sick writer had a cold (N) nose (N+1) …”). The sentences in the control condition were built analogously, but word N was purposefully altered (keeping word length and frequency constant) to make its interpretation as a noun extremely unlikely (e.g., “The sick writer had a blue (N) nose (N+1) …”). In both conditions, the sentences were presented either following German standard orthography (Cap) or in lowercase spelling (NoCap). The capitalized nouns in the EXP/Cap condition should then prevent garden-path parsing, as capital letters can be recognized parafoveally. However, in the EXP/NoCap condition, we expected a garden-path effect on word N+1 affecting first-pass fixations and the number of regressions, as the reader realizes that word N is instead an adjective. As the control condition does not include a garden-path, we expected to find (small) effects of the violation of the orthographic rule in the CON/NoCap condition, but no garden-path effect. As a global result, it can be stated that reading sentences in which nouns are not marked by a majuscule slows a native German reader down significantly, but from an absolute point of view, the effect is small. Compared with other manipulations (e.g., transpositions or substitutions), a lowercase letter still represents the correct allograph in the correct position without affecting phonology. Furthermore, most German readers do have experience with other alphabetic writing systems that lack consistent noun capitalization, and in (private) digital communication lowercase nouns are quite common. Although our garden-path sentences did not show the desired effect, we found an indication of grammatical pre-processing enabled by the majuscule in the regularly spelled sentences: In the case of high noun frequency, we post hoc located parafovea-on-fovea effects, i.e., longer fixation durations, on the attributive adjective (word N). These benefits of capitalization could only be detected under specific circumstances. In other cases, we conclude that longer reading durations are mainly the result of disturbance in readers' habituation when the expected capitalization is missing.
Thermal stress response is an essential physiological trait that determines occurrence and temporal succession in nature, including response to climate change. We compared temperature-related demography in closely related heat-tolerant and heat-sensitive Brachionus rotifer species. We found significant differences in heat response, with the heat-sensitive species adopting a strategy of long survival and low population growth, while the heat-tolerant followed the opposite strategy. In both species, we examined the genetic basis of physiological variation by comparing gene expression across increasing temperatures. Comparative transcriptomic analyses identified shared and opposing responses to heat. Interestingly, expression of heat shock proteins (hsps) was strikingly different in the two species and mirrored differences in population growth rates, showing that hsp genes are likely a key component of a species’ adaptation to different temperatures. Temperature induction caused opposing patterns of expression in further functional categories including energy, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, and in genes related to ribosomal proteins. In the heat-sensitive species, elevated temperatures caused up-regulation of genes related to meiosis induction and post-translational histone modifications. This work demonstrates the sweeping reorganizations of biological functions that accompany temperature adaptation in these two species and reveals potential molecular mechanisms that might be activated for adaptation to global warming.
We are glad to introduce the Second Journal Club of Volume Five, Second Issue. This edition is focused on relevant studies published in the last few years in the field of resistance training, chosen by our Editorial Board members and their colleagues. We hope to stimulate your curiosity in this field and to share with you the passion for the sport, seen also from the scientific point of view. The Editorial Board members wish you an inspiring lecture.
We present a new set of global and local sea‐level projections at example tide gauge locations under the RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios. Compared to the CMIP5‐based sea‐level projections presented in IPCC AR5, we introduce a number of methodological innovations, including (i) more comprehensive treatment of uncertainties, (ii) direct traceability between global and local projections, and (iii) exploratory extended projections to 2300 based on emulation of individual CMIP5 models. Combining the projections with observed tide gauge records, we explore the contribution to total variance that arises from sea‐level variability, different emissions scenarios, and model uncertainty. For the period out to 2300 we further breakdown the model uncertainty by sea‐level component and consider the dependence on geographic location, time horizon, and emissions scenario. Our analysis highlights the importance of local variability for sea‐level change in the coming decades and the potential value of annual‐to‐decadal predictions of local sea‐level change. Projections to 2300 show a substantial degree of committed sea‐level rise under all emissions scenarios considered and highlight the reduced future risk associated with RCP2.6 and RCP4.5 compared to RCP8.5. Tide gauge locations can show large ( > 50%) departures from the global average, in some cases even reversing the sign of the change. While uncertainty in projections of the future Antarctic ice dynamic response tends to dominate post‐2100, we see substantial differences in the breakdown of model variance as a function of location, time scale, and emissions scenario.
Utilising a reconstructed ancestral mitochondrial genome of a clade to design hybridisation capture baits can provide the opportunity for recovering mitochondrial sequences from all its descendent and even sister lineages. This approach is useful for taxa with no extant close relatives, as is often the case for rare or extinct species, and is a viable approach for the analysis of historical museum specimens. Asiatic linsangs (genus Prionodon) exemplify this situation, being rare Southeast Asian carnivores for which little molecular data is available. Using ancestral capture we recover partial mitochondrial genome sequences for seven banded linsangs (P. linsang) from historical specimens, representing the first intraspecific genetic dataset for this species. We additionally assemble a high quality mitogenome for the banded linsang using shotgun sequencing for time-calibrated phylogenetic analysis. This reveals a deep divergence between the two Asiatic linsang species (P. linsang, P. pardicolor), with an estimated divergence of ~12 million years (Ma). Although our sample size precludes any robust interpretation of the population structure of the banded linsang, we recover two distinct matrilines with an estimated tMRCA of ~1 Ma. Our results can be used as a basis for further investigation of the Asiatic linsangs, and further demonstrate the utility of ancestral capture for studying divergent taxa without close relatives.
Much of contemporary landslide research is concerned with predicting and mapping susceptibility to slope failure. Many studies rely on generalised linear models with environmental predictors that are trained with data collected from within and outside of the margins of mapped landslides. Whether and how the performance of these models depends on sample size, location, or time remains largely untested. We address this question by exploring the sensitivity of a multivariate logistic regression-one of the most widely used susceptibility models-to data sampled from different portions of landslides in two independent inventories (i.e. a historic and a multi-temporal) covering parts of the eastern rim of the Fergana Basin, Kyrgyzstan. We find that considering only areas on lower parts of landslides, and hence most likely their deposits, can improve the model performance by >10% over the reference case that uses the entire landslide areas, especially for landslides of intermediate size. Hence, using landslide toe areas may suffice for this particular model and come in useful where landslide scars are vague or hidden in this part of Central Asia. The model performance marginally varied after progressively updating and adding more landslides data through time. We conclude that landslide susceptibility estimates for the study area remain largely insensitive to changes in data over about a decade. Spatial or temporal stratified sampling contributes only minor variations to model performance. Our findings call for more extensive testing of the concept of dynamic susceptibility and its interpretation in data-driven models, especially within the broader framework of landslide risk assessment under environmental and land-use change.
Abiotic stresses cause oxidative damage in plants. Here, we demonstrate that foliar application of an extract from the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum, SuperFifty (SF), largely prevents paraquat (PQ)-induced oxidative stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. While PQ-stressed plants develop necrotic lesions, plants pre-treated with SF (i.e., primed plants) were unaffected by PQ. Transcriptome analysis revealed induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) marker genes, genes involved in ROS-induced programmed cell death, and autophagy-related genes after PQ treatment. These changes did not occur in PQ-stressed plants primed with SF. In contrast, upregulation of several carbohydrate metabolism genes, growth, and hormone signaling as well as antioxidant-related genes were specific to SF-primed plants. Metabolomic analyses revealed accumulation of the stress-protective metabolite maltose and the tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates fumarate and malate in SF-primed plants. Lipidome analysis indicated that those lipids associated with oxidative stress-induced cell death and chloroplast degradation, such as triacylglycerols (TAGs), declined upon SF priming. Our study demonstrated that SF confers tolerance to PQ-induced oxidative stress in A. thaliana, an effect achieved by modulating a range of processes at the transcriptomic, metabolic, and lipid levels.
Acquiring Syntactic Variability: The Production of Wh-Questions in Children and Adults Speaking Akan
(2020)
This paper investigates the predictions of the Derivational Complexity Hypothesis by studying the acquisition of wh-questions in 4- and 5-year-old Akan-speaking children in an experimental approach using an elicited production and an elicited imitation task. Akan has two types of wh-question structures (wh-in-situ and wh-ex-situ questions), which allows an investigation of children’s acquisition of these two question structures and their preferences for one or the other. Our results show that adults prefer to use wh-ex-situ questions over wh-in-situ questions. The results from the children show that both age groups have the two question structures in their linguistic repertoire. However, they differ in their preferences in usage in the elicited production task: while the 5-year-olds preferred the wh-in-situ structure over the wh-ex-situ structure, the 4-year-olds showed a selective preference for the wh-in-situ structure in who-questions. These findings suggest a developmental change in wh-question preferences in Akan-learning children between 4 and 5 years of age with a so far unobserved u-shaped developmental pattern. In the elicited imitation task, all groups showed a strong tendency to maintain the structure of in-situ and ex-situ questions in repeating grammatical questions. When repairing ungrammatical ex-situ questions, structural changes to grammatical in-situ questions were hardly observed but the insertion of missing morphemes while keeping the ex-situ structure. Together, our findings provide only partial support for the Derivational Complexity Hypothesis.
The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa necessitates effective approaches to improve provitamin A content of major staple crops. Cassava holds much promise for food security in sub-Saharan Africa, but a negative correlation between beta-carotene, a provitamin A carotenoid, and dry matter content has been reported, which poses a challenge to cassava biofortification by conventional breeding. To identify suitable material for genetic transformation in tissue culture with the overall aim to increase beta-carotene and maintain starch content as well as better understand carotenoid composition, root and leaf tissues from thirteen field-grown cassava landraces were analyzed for agronomic traits, carotenoid, chlorophyll, and starch content. The expression of five genes related to carotenoid biosynthesis were determined in selected landraces. Analysis revealed a weak negative correlation between starch and beta-carotene content, whereas there was a strong positive correlation between root yield and many carotenoids including beta-carotene. Carotenoid synthesis genes were expressed in both white and yellow cassava roots, but phytoene synthase 2 (PSY2), lycopene-epsilon-cyclase (LCY epsilon), and beta-carotenoid hydroxylase (CHY beta) expression were generally higher in yellow roots. This study identified lines with reasonably high content of starch and beta-carotene that could be candidates for biofortification by further breeding or plant biotechnological means.
This study investigates possible impacts of four global warming levels (GWLs: GWL1.5, GWL2.0, GWL2.5, and GWL3.0) on drought characteristics over Niger River basin (NRB) and Volta River basin (VRB). Two drought indices-Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)-were employed in characterizing droughts in 20 multi-model simulation outputs from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX). The performance of the simulation in reproducing basic hydro-climatological features and severe drought characteristics (i.e., magnitude and frequency) in the basins were evaluated. The projected changes in the future drought frequency were quantified and compared under the four GWLs for two climate forcing scenarios (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5). The regional climate model (RCM) ensemble gives a realistic simulation of historical hydro-climatological variables needed to calculate the drought indices. With SPEI, the simulation ensemble projects an increase in the magnitude and frequency of severe droughts over both basins (NRB and VRB) at all GWLs, but the increase, which grows with the GWLs, is higher over NRB than over VRB. More than 75% of the simulations agree on the projected increase at GWL1.5 and all simulations agree on the increase at higher GWLs. With SPI, the projected changes in severe drought is weaker and the magnitude remains the same at all GWLs, suggesting that SPI projection may underestimate impacts of the GWLs on the intensity and severity of future drought. The results of this study have application in mitigating impact of global warming on future drought risk over the regional water systems.
Alcohol intoxication is known to affect many aspects of human behavior and cognition; one of such affected systems is articulation during speech production. Although much research has revealed that alcohol negatively impacts pronunciation in a first language (L1), there is only initial evidence suggesting a potential beneficial effect of inebriation on articulation in a non-native language (L2). The aim of this study was thus to compare the effect of alcohol consumption on pronunciation in an L1 and an L2. Participants who had ingested different amounts of alcohol provided speech samples in their L1 (Dutch) and L2 (English), and native speakers of each language subsequently rated the pronunciation of these samples on their intelligibility (for the L1) and accent nativelikeness (for the L2). These data were analyzed with generalized additive mixed modeling. Participants' blood alcohol concentration indeed negatively affected pronunciation in L1, but it produced no significant effect on the L2 accent ratings. The expected negative impact of alcohol on L1 articulation can be explained by reduction in fine motor control. We present two hypotheses to account for the absence of any effects of intoxication on L2 pronunciation: (1) there may be a reduction in L1 interference on L2 speech due to decreased motor control or (2) alcohol may produce a differential effect on each of the two linguistic subsystems.
Metagenomic sequencing has revolutionised our knowledge of virus diversity, with new virus sequences being reported faster than ever before. However, virus discovery from metagenomic sequencing usually depends on detectable homology: without a sufficiently close relative, so-called ‘dark’ virus sequences remain unrecognisable. An alternative approach is to use virus-identification methods that do not depend on detecting homology, such as virus recognition by host antiviral immunity. For example, virus-derived small RNAs have previously been used to propose ‘dark’ virus sequences associated with the Drosophilidae (Diptera). Here, we combine published Drosophila data with a comprehensive search of transcriptomic sequences and selected meta-transcriptomic datasets to identify a completely new lineage of segmented positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses that we provisionally refer to as the Quenyaviruses. Each of the five segments contains a single open reading frame, with most encoding proteins showing no detectable similarity to characterised viruses, and one sharing a small number of residues with the RNA-dependent RNA polymerases of single- and double-stranded RNA viruses. Using these sequences, we identify close relatives in approximately 20 arthropods, including insects, crustaceans, spiders, and a myriapod. Using a more conserved sequence from the putative polymerase, we further identify relatives in meta-transcriptomic datasets from gut, gill, and lung tissues of vertebrates, reflecting infections of vertebrates or of their associated parasites. Our data illustrate the utility of small RNAs to detect viruses with limited sequence conservation, and provide robust evidence for a new deeply divergent and phylogenetically distinct RNA virus lineage.
Accurately quantifying species' area requirements is a prerequisite for effective area-based conservation. This typically involves collecting tracking data on species of interest and then conducting home-range analyses. Problematically, autocorrelation in tracking data can result in space needs being severely underestimated. Based on the previous work, we hypothesized the magnitude of underestimation varies with body mass, a relationship that could have serious conservation implications. To evaluate this hypothesis for terrestrial mammals, we estimated home-range areas with global positioning system (GPS) locations from 757 individuals across 61 globally distributed mammalian species with body masses ranging from 0.4 to 4000 kg. We then applied block cross-validation to quantify bias in empirical home-range estimates. Area requirements of mammals <10 kg were underestimated by a mean approximately15%, and species weighing approximately100 kg were underestimated by approximately50% on average. Thus, we found area estimation was subject to autocorrelation-induced bias that was worse for large species. Combined with the fact that extinction risk increases as body mass increases, the allometric scaling of bias we observed suggests the most threatened species are also likely to be those with the least accurate home-range estimates. As a correction, we tested whether data thinning or autocorrelation-informed home-range estimation minimized the scaling effect of autocorrelation on area estimates. Data thinning required an approximately93% data loss to achieve statistical independence with 95% confidence and was, therefore, not a viable solution. In contrast, autocorrelation-informed home-range estimation resulted in consistently accurate estimates irrespective of mass. When relating body mass to home range size, we detected that correcting for autocorrelation resulted in a scaling exponent significantly >1, meaning the scaling of the relationship changed substantially at the upper end of the mass spectrum.
Understanding the development of spoken language in young children has become increasingly important for advancing basic theories of language acquisition and for clinical practice. However, such a goal requires refined measurements of speech articulation (e.g., from the tongue), which are difficult to obtain from young children. In recent years though, technological advances have allowed developmental researchers to make significant steps in that direction. For instance, movements of the tongue, an articulator that is essential for spoken language, can now be tracked and recorded in children with ultrasound imaging. This technique has opened novel research avenues in (a)typical language acquisition, enabling researchers to reliably capture what has long remained invisible in the speech of young children. Within this context, we have designed an experimental platform for the recording and the processing of kinematic data: SOLLAR (Sonographic and Optical Linguo-Labial Articulatory Recording system). The method has been tailored for children, but it is suitable for adults. In the present article, we introduce the recording environment developed to record over 100 children and 30 adults within SOLLAR. We then describe SOLLAR’s data processing framework, providing examples of data visualization and a summary of strengths and limitations.
Observations of rift and rifted margin architecture suggest that significant spatial and temporal structural heterogeneity develops during the multiphase evolution of continental rifting. Inheritance is often invoked to explain this heterogeneity, such as preexisting anisotropies in rock composition, rheology, and deformation. Here, we use high-resolution 3-D thermal-mechanical numerical models of continental extension to demonstrate that rift-parallel heterogeneity may develop solely through fault network evolution during the transition from distributed to localized deformation. In our models, the initial phase of distributed normal faulting is seeded through randomized initial strength perturbations in an otherwise laterally homogeneous lithosphere extending at a constant rate. Continued extension localizes deformation onto lithosphere-scale faults, which are laterally offset by tens of km and discontinuous along-strike. These results demonstrate that rift- and margin-parallel heterogeneity of large-scale fault patterns may in-part be a natural byproduct of fault network coalescence.
Soils in Germany are commonly low in selenium; consequently, a sufficient dietary supply is not always ensured. The extent of such provision adequacy is estimated by the optimal effect range of biomarkers, which often reflects the physiological requirement. Preceding epidemiological studies indicate that low selenium serum concentrations could be related to cardiovascular diseases. Inter alia, risk factors for cardiovascular diseases are physical inactivity, overweight, as well as disadvantageous eating habits. In order to assess whether these risk factors can be modulated, a cardio-protective diet comprising fixed menu plans combined with physical exercise was applied in the German MoKaRi (modulation of cardiovascular risk factors) intervention study. We analyzed serum samples of the MoKaRi cohort (51 participants) for total selenium, GPx activity, and selenoprotein P at different timepoints of the study (0, 10, 20, 40 weeks) to explore the suitability of these selenium-associated markers as indicators of selenium status. Overall, the time-dependent fluctuations in serum selenium concentration suggest a successful change in nutritional and lifestyle behavior. Compared to baseline, a pronounced increase in GPx activity and selenoprotein P was observed, while serum selenium decreased in participants with initially adequate serum selenium content. SELENOP concentration showed a moderate positive monotonic correlation (r = 0.467, p < 0.0001) to total Se concentration, while only a weak linear relationship was observed for GPx activity versus total Se concentration (r = 0.186, p = 0.021). Evidently, other factors apart from the available Se pool must have an impact on the GPx activity, leading to the conclusion that, without having identified these factors, GPx activity should not be used as a status marker for Se
We study populations of globally coupled noisy rotators (oscillators with inertia) allowing a nonequilibrium transition from a desynchronized state to a synchronous one (with the nonvanishing order parameter). The newly developed analytical approaches resulted in solutions describing the synchronous state with constant order parameter for weakly inertial rotators, including the case of zero inertia, when the model is reduced to the Kuramoto model of coupled noise oscillators. These approaches provide also analytical criteria distinguishing supercritical and subcritical transitions to the desynchronized state and indicate the universality of such transitions in rotator ensembles. All the obtained analytical results are confirmed by the numerical ones, both by direct simulations of the large ensembles and by solution of the associated Fokker-Planck equation. We also propose generalizations of the developed approaches for setups where different rotators parameters (natural frequencies, masses, noise intensities, strengths and phase shifts in coupling) are dispersed.
LiCSBAS
(2020)
For the past five years, the 2-satellite Sentinel-1 constellation has provided abundant and useful Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, which have the potential to reveal global ground surface deformation at high spatial and temporal resolutions. However, for most users, fully exploiting the large amount of associated data is challenging, especially over wide areas. To help address this challenge, we have developed LiCSBAS, an open-source SAR interferometry (InSAR) time series analysis package that integrates with the automated Sentinel-1 InSAR processor (LiCSAR). LiCSBAS utilizes freely available LiCSAR products, and users can save processing time and disk space while obtaining the results of InSAR time series analysis. In the LiCSBAS processing scheme, interferograms with many unwrapping errors are automatically identified by loop closure and removed. Reliable time series and velocities are derived with the aid of masking using several noise indices. The easy implementation of atmospheric corrections to reduce noise is achieved with the Generic Atmospheric Correction Online Service for InSAR (GACOS). Using case studies in southern Tohoku and the Echigo Plain, Japan, we demonstrate that LiCSBAS applied to LiCSAR products can detect both large-scale (>100 km) and localized (~km) relative displacements with an accuracy of <1 cm/epoch and ~2 mm/yr. We detect displacements with different temporal characteristics, including linear, periodic, and episodic, in Niigata, Ojiya, and Sanjo City, respectively. LiCSBAS and LiCSAR products facilitate greater exploitation of globally available and abundant SAR datasets and enhance their applications for scientific research and societal benefit.
In June 2019, more than a hundred plant researchers met in Cologne, Germany, for the 6th European Workshop on Plant Chromatin (EWPC). This conference brought together a highly dynamic community of researchers with the common aim to understand how chromatin organization controls gene expression, development, and plant responses to the environment. New evidence showing how epigenetic states are set, perpetuated, and inherited were presented, and novel data related to the three-dimensional organization of chromatin within the nucleus were discussed. At the level of the nucleosome, its composition by different histone variants and their specialized histone deposition complexes were addressed as well as the mechanisms involved in histone post-translational modifications and their role in gene expression. The keynote lecture on plant DNA methylation by Julie Law (SALK Institute) and the tribute session to Lars Hennig, honoring the memory of one of the founders of the EWPC who contributed to promote the plant chromatin and epigenetic field in Europe, added a very special note to this gathering. In this perspective article we summarize some of the most outstanding data and advances on plant chromatin research presented at this workshop.
Monocytes and macrophages are key players in maintaining immune homeostasis. Identifying strategies to manipulate their functions via gene delivery is thus of great interest for immunological research and biomedical applications. We set out to establish conditions for mRNA transfection in hard-to-transfect primary human monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages due to the great potential of gene expression from in vitro transcribed mRNA for modulating cell phenotypes. mRNA doses, nucleotide modifications, and different carriers were systematically explored in order to optimize high mRNA transfer rates while minimizing cell stress and immune activation. We selected three commercially available mRNA transfection reagents including liposome and polymer-based formulations, covering different application spectra. Our results demonstrate that liposomal reagents can particularly combine high gene transfer rates with only moderate immune cell activation. For the latter, use of specific nucleotide modifications proved essential. In addition to improving efficacy of gene transfer, our findings address discrete aspects of innate immune activation using cytokine and surface marker expression, as well as cell viability as key readouts to judge overall transfection efficiency. The impact of this study goes beyond optimizing transfection conditions for immune cells, by providing a framework for assessing new gene carrier systems for monocyte and macrophage, tailored to specific applications.
In classical thermodynamic processes the unavoidable presence of irreversibility, quantified by the entropy production, carries two energetic footprints: the reduction of extractable work from the optimal, reversible case, and the generation of a surplus of heat that is irreversibly dissipated to the environment. Recently it has been shown that in the quantum regime an additional quantum irreversibility occurs that is linked to decoherence into the energy basis. Here we employ quantum trajectories to construct distributions for classical heat and quantum heat exchanges, and show that the heat footprint of quantum irreversibility differs markedly from the classical case. We also quantify how quantum irreversibility reduces the amount of work that can be extracted from a state with coherences. Our results show that decoherence leads to both entropic and energetic footprints which both play an important role in the optimization of controlled quantum operations at low temperature.
In classical thermodynamics irreversibility occurs whenever a non-thermal system is brought into contact with a thermal environment. Using quantum trajectories the authors here establish two energetic footprints of quantum irreversible processes, and find that while quantum irreversibility leads to the occurrence of a quantum heat and a reduction of work production, the two are not linked in the same manner as the classical laws of thermodynamics would dictate.