Range contraction to a higher elevation: the likely future of the montane vegetation in South Africa and Lesotho

Global climate change is a major challenge for the future with serious potential impacts on biodiversity. Biodiversity in mountains is particularly vulnerable as many montane species are adapted to narrow microhabitats, making them less able to adjust to a climatic change. It is considered important to investigate range changes in the South African Great Escarpment because of the high levels of biodiversity in these mountains, as well as their importance for water provision in South Africa. The current and future ranges of 46 montane plant species in South Africa and Lesotho were therefore modelled using biomod in R, using presence points and predictor variables which included rainfall and temperature worldclim layers. The performance of distribution models produced was evaluated using the Area Under the receiver operating Curve (AUC), True Skill Statistic (TSS), Sensitivity and Specificity. We calculated beta diversity and species richness changes between current and future climates for the group of 46 species, as well as shifts of the predicted presence region boundaries and centroids. We also analysed shifts in minimum, median and maximum elevations. Results show a contraction in species’ ranges towards higher elevation as has been documented from other mountain regions around the world. These results are a cause for concern as a warming climate is decreasing the potential regions of occurrence of montane species in South Africa and Lesotho’s mountainous regions of high biodiversity. This region is under a diverse range of conservation and land use management practises, and our results suggest a coordinated response to climate change is needed

No evidence of the ego-depletion effect across task characteristics and individual differences: A pre-registered study

Ego-depletion, a psychological phenomenon in which participants are less able to engage in self-control after prior exertion of self-control, has become widely popular in the scientific community as well as in the media. However, considerable debate exists among researchers as to the nature of the ego-depletion effect, and growing evidence suggests the effect may not be as strong or robust as the extant literature suggests. We examined the robustness of the ego-depletion effect and aimed to maximize the likelihood of detecting the effect by using one of the most widely used depletion tasks (video-viewing attention control task) and by considering task characteristics and individual differences that potentially moderate the effect. We also sought to make our research plan transparent by pre-registering our hypotheses, procedure, and planned analyses prior to data collection. Contrary to the egodepletion hypothesis, participants in the depletion condition did not perform worse than control participants on the subsequent self-control task, even after considering moderator variables. These findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting ego-depletion is not a reliable phenomenon, though more research is needed that uses large sample sizes, considers moderator variables, and pre-registers prior to data collection

Peculiarities in the behavior of the entropy diameter for molecular liquids as the reflection of molecular rotations and the excluded volume effects

The behavior of the diameter of the coexistence curve in terms of the entropy and the corresponding diameter are investigated. It is shown that the diameter of the coexistence curve in term of the entropy is sensitive to the change in the character of the rotational motion of the molecule in liquid phase which is governed by the short range correlations. The model of the compressible effective volume is proposed to describe the phase coexistence both in terms of the density and the entropy.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, 3 Table

Lower general executive function is primarily associated with trait worry: A latent variable analysis of negative thought/affect measures

This exploratory latent-variable study sought to identify common sources of variance between two multi-faceted important sets of constructs: executive functions (EFs) and negative thoughts/affect. One-hundred ninety-two college students completed nine tasks representing three types of EFs (inhibition, updating, and shifting) and a set of questionnaires assessing four facets of negative thought/affect (anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, worry, and rumination). Results indicated that, although the four negative thought/affect constructs were substantially correlated with one another, trait worry was the construct uniquely associated with EFs. Specifically, worry was associated with general EF abilities underlying all three subtypes of EFs (common EF), but was not associated with specific EF abilities (i.e., shifting-specific and updating-specific). These findings highlight the importance of partitioning common and specific variances in both EFs and negative thought/affect when examining the associations between these two research domains

Radiative Corrections to Double Dalitz Decays: Effects on Invariant Mass Distributions and Angular Correlations

We review the theory of meson decays to two lepton pairs, including the cases of identical as well as non-identical leptons, as well as CP-conserving and CP-violating couplings. A complete lowest-order calculation of QED radiative corrections to these decays is discussed, and comparisons of predicted rates and kinematic distributions between tree-level and one-loop-corrected calculations are presented for both pi-zero and K-zero decays.Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures, added figures and commentar

K^+ -> pi^+pi^0e^+e^-: a novel short-distance probe

We study the decay K^+ -> pi^+ pi^0 e^+ e^-, currently under analysis by the NA62 Collaboration at CERN. In particular, we provide a detailed analysis of the Dalitz plot for the long-distance, gamma^*-mediated, contributions (Bremsstrahlung, direct emission and its interference). We also examine a set of asymmetries to isolate genuine short-distance effects. While we show that charge asymmetries are not required to test short distances, they provide the best environment for its detection. This constitutes by itself a strong motivation for NA62 to study K^- decays in the future. We therefore provide a detailed study of different charge asymmetries and the corresponding estimated signals. Whenever possible, we make contact with the related processes K^+ -> pi^+ pi^0 gamma and K_L -> pi^+ pi^- e^+ e^- and discuss the advantages of K^+ -> pi^+ pi^0 e^+ e^- over them.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure

Longitudinal functional connectivity changes related to dopaminergic decline in Parkinson’s disease

Background: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated that basal ganglia functional connectivity is altered in Parkinson’s disease (PD) as compared to healthy controls. However, such functional connectivity alterations have not been related to the dopaminergic deficits that occurs in PD over time. Objectives: To examine whether functional connectivity impairments are correlated with dopaminergic deficits across basal ganglia subdivisions in patients with PD both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Methods: We assessed resting-state functional connectivity of basal ganglia subdivisions and dopamine transporter density using 11C-PE2I PET in thirty-four PD patients at baseline. Of these, twenty PD patients were rescanned after 19.9 ± 3.8 months. A seed-based approach was used to analyze resting-state fMRI data. 11CPE2I binding potential (BPND) was calculated for each participant. PD patients were assessed for disease severity. Results: At baseline, PD patients with greater dopaminergic deficits, as measured with 11C-PE2I PET, showed larger decreases in posterior putamen functional connectivity with the midbrain and pallidum. Reduced functional connectivity of the posterior putamen with the thalamus, midbrain, supplementary motor area and sensorimotor cortex over time were significantly associated with changes in DAT density over the same period. Furthermore, increased motor disability was associated with lower intraregional functional connectivity of the posterior putamen. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that basal ganglia functional connectivity is related to integrity of dopaminergic system in patients with PD. Application of resting-state fMRI in a large cohort and longitudinal scanning may be a powerful tool for assessing underlying PD pathology and its progression