Growth and resilience responses of Scots pine to extreme droughts across Europe depend on predrought growth conditions

Global climate change is expected to further raise the frequency and severity of extreme events, such as droughts. The effects of extreme droughts on trees are difficult to disentangle given the inherent complexity of drought events (frequency, severity, duration, and timing during the growing season). Besides, drought effects might be modulated by trees’ phenotypic variability, which is, in turn, affected by long-term local selective pressures and management legacies. Here we investigated the magnitude and the temporal changes of tree-level resilience (i.e., resistance, recovery, and resilience) to extreme droughts. Moreover, we assessed the tree-, site-, and drought-related factors and their interactions driving the tree-level resilience to extreme droughts. We used a tree-ring network of the widely distributed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) along a 2,800 km latitudinal gradient from southern Spain to northern Germany. We found that the resilience to extreme drought decreased in mid-elevation and low productivity sites from 1980–1999 to 2000–2011 likely due to more frequent and severe droughts in the later period. Our study showed that the impact of drought on tree-level resilience was not dependent on its latitudinal location, but rather on the type of sites trees were growing at and on their growth performances (i.e., magnitude and variability of growth) during the predrought period. We found significant interactive effects between drought duration and tree growth prior to drought, suggesting that Scots pine trees with higher magnitude and variability of growth in the long term are more vulnerable to long and severe droughts. Moreover, our results indicate that Scots pine trees that experienced more frequent droughts over the long-term were less resistant to extreme droughts. We, therefore, conclude that the physiological resilience to extreme droughts might be constrained by their growth prior to drought, and that more frequent and longer drought periods may overstrain their potential for acclimation.Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) IJCI-2015-25845, UPO-1263216, UHU-1266324Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades RTI2018- 096884-B-C31, RTI2018-096884-B-C33German Waldklimafond FKZ 28WC-4-077-01Bavarian State Ministry for Food, Agriculture, and Forestry ST32

\u3ci\u3eAnnals of Forest Science\u3c/i\u3e Promotes Multidisciplinary Research on Forests and Wood in a Changing World and Is Now a Full Open Access Journal

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The impact of the social environment on children's mental health in a prosperous city: an analysis with data from the city of Munich

BACKGROUND: Children with a low socioeconomic position are more affected by mental difficulties as compared to children with a higher socioeconomic position. This paper explores whether this socioeconomic pattern persists in the prosperous German city of Munich which features high quality of life and coverage of children mental health specialists that lies well above the national average and is among the highest in Europe. METHODS: 1,265 parents of preschool children participated in a cross-sectional health survey. They were given a self-administered questionnaire (including socioeconomic variables) and the 'Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)', a well-established method to identify mental difficulties among children and adolescents. Prevalence estimates for the 'SDQ-Total Difficulties Score' were calculated, with a special focus on differences by parental (resp. household) socioeconomic position. The association between parental education, household income, single parenthood, nationality, and parental working status on one hand, and their children's mental health on the other, was explored using multivariable logistic regression models. The coverage of mental health specialists per 100,000 children aged 14 or younger in the city of Munich was also calculated. RESULTS: In Munich, the distribution of mental health difficulties among children follows the same socioeconomic pattern as described previously at the national level, but the overall prevalence is about 30% lower. Comparing different indicators of socioeconomic position, low parental education and household income are the strongest independent variables associated with mental difficulties among children (OR = 2.7; CI = 1.6 - 4.4 and OR = 2.8; CI = 1.4 - 5.6, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic differences in the prevalence of childhood mental difficulties are very stable. Even in a city such as Munich, which is characterized by high quality of life, high availability of mental health specialists, and low overall prevalence of these mental difficulties, they are about as pronounced as in Germany as a whole. It can be concluded that the effect of several characteristics of socioeconomic position 'overrules' the effect of a health promoting regional environment

Observation of coupled vortex gyrations by 70-ps-time- and 20-nm-space-resolved full-field magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy

We employed time- and space-resolved full-field magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy to observe vortex-core gyrations in a pair of dipolar-coupled vortex-state Permalloy (Ni80 Fe20) disks. The 70 ps temporal and 20 nm spatial resolution of the microscope enabled us to simultaneously measure vortex gyrations in both disks and to resolve the phases and amplitudes of both vortex-core positions. We observed their correlation for a specific vortex-state configuration. This work provides a robust and direct method of studying vortex gyrations in dipolar-coupled vortex oscillators.open282

Разработка математической модели реактора каталитического крекинга

В результате проведенных исследований была разработана модель реактора каталитического крекинга, в основу которой положены химические закономерности протекания реакций каталитического крекинга на цеолитсодержащем катализаторе и гидродинамический режим работы реактор, а так же разработана модель колонны разделения продуктов каталитического крекинга. Проведенные на разработанной модели реактора расчеты позволили спрогнозировать выход продуктов крекинга в зависимости от состава перерабатываемого сырья и технологического режима работы реактора каталитического крекинга и позволили рекомендовать технологические режимы для увеличения выхода бензиновой фракции в зависимости от состава перерабатываемого сырья.As a result of the research the model of catalytic cracking reactor was developed, which is based on regularities of chemical reactions on catalytic cracking zeolite catalyst and a hydrodynamic mode of the reactor, as well as developed a model of separation column of catalytic cracking products. Calculations are carried on the developed model reactor allow to predict the output of cracking products, depending on the composition of the feedstock and the technological operation mode of the catalytic cracking reactor and allowed to recommend technological modes to increase the yield of gasoline fraction depending on the composition of the feedstock

Desiccation and Mortality Dynamics in Seedlings of Different European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Populations under Extreme Drought Conditions

European beech (Fagus sylvatica L., hereafter beech), one of the major native tree species in Europe, is known to be drought sensitive. Thus, the identification of critical thresholds of drought impact intensity and duration are of high interest for assessing the adaptive potential of European beech to climate change in its native range. In a common garden experiment with one-year-old seedlings originating from central and marginal origins in six European countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Spain), we applied extreme drought stress and observed desiccation and mortality processes among the different populations and related them to plant water status (predawn water potential, ΨPD) and soil hydraulic traits. For the lethal drought assessment, we used a critical threshold of soil water availability that is reached when 50% mortality in seedling populations occurs (LD50SWA). We found significant population differences in LD50SWA (10.5–17.8%), and mortality dynamics that suggest a genetic difference in drought resistance between populations. The LD50SWA values correlate significantly with the mean growing season precipitation at population origins, but not with the geographic margins of beech range. Thus, beech range marginality may be more due to climatic conditions than to geographic range. The outcome of this study suggests the genetic variation has a major influence on the varying adaptive potential of the investigated populations

A Single Peroxisomal Targeting Signal Mediates Matrix Protein Import in Diatoms

Peroxisomes are single membrane bound compartments. They are thought to be present in almost all eukaryotic cells, although the bulk of our knowledge about peroxisomes has been generated from only a handful of model organisms. Peroxisomal matrix proteins are synthesized cytosolically and posttranslationally imported into the peroxisomal matrix. The import is generally thought to be mediated by two different targeting signals. These are respectively recognized by the two import receptor proteins Pex5 and Pex7, which facilitate transport across the peroxisomal membrane. Here, we show the first in vivo localization studies of peroxisomes in a representative organism of the ecologically relevant group of diatoms using fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy. By expression of various homologous and heterologous fusion proteins we demonstrate that targeting of Phaeodactylum tricornutum peroxisomal matrix proteins is mediated only by PTS1 targeting signals, also for proteins that are in other systems imported via a PTS2 mode of action. Additional in silico analyses suggest this surprising finding may also apply to further diatoms. Our data suggest that loss of the PTS2 peroxisomal import signal is not reserved to Caenorhabditis elegans as a single exception, but has also occurred in evolutionary divergent organisms. Obviously, targeting switching from PTS2 to PTS1 across different major eukaryotic groups might have occurred for different reasons. Thus, our findings question the widespread assumption that import of peroxisomal matrix proteins is generally mediated by two different targeting signals. Our results implicate that there apparently must have been an event causing the loss of one targeting signal even in the group of diatoms. Different possibilities are discussed that indicate multiple reasons for the detected targeting switching from PTS2 to PTS1