Above and belowground community strategies respond to different global change drivers

Environmental changes alter the diversity and structure of communities. By shifting the range of species traits that will be successful under new conditions, environmental drivers can also dramatically impact ecosystem functioning and resilience. Above and belowground communities jointly regulate whole-ecosystem processes and responses to change, yet they are frequently studied separately. To determine whether these communities respond similarly to environmental changes, we measured taxonomic and trait-based responses of plant and soil microbial communities to four years of experimental warming and nitrogen deposition in a temperate grassland. Plant diversity responded strongly to N addition, whereas soil microbial communities responded primarily to warming, likely via an associated decrease in soil moisture. These above and belowground changes were associated with selection for more resource-conservative plant and microbe growth strategies, which reduced community functional diversity. Functional characteristics of plant and soil microbial communities were weakly correlated (P = 0.07) under control conditions, but not when above or belowground communities were altered by either global change driver. These results highlight the potential for global change drivers operating simultaneously to have asynchronous impacts on above and belowground components of ecosystems. Assessment of a single ecosystem component may therefore greatly underestimate the whole-system impact of global environmental changes

Double π0\pi^0 Photoproduction off the Proton at Threshold

The reaction $\gamma p \to \pi^0 \pi^0 p$ has been measured using the TAPS BaF$_2$ calorimeter at the tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron accelerator. Chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) predicts that close to threshold this channel is significantly enhanced compared to double pion final states with charged pions. In contrast to other reaction channels, the lower order tree terms are strongly suppressed in 2$\pi^0$ photoproduction. The consequence is the dominance of pion loops in the 2$\pi^0$ channel close to threshold - a result that opens new prospects for the test of ChPT and in particular its inherent loop terms. The present measurement is the first which is sensitive enough for a conclusive comparison with the ChPT calculation and is in agreement with its prediction. The data also show good agreement with a calculation in the unitary chiral approach.Comment: Submitted to PL

The evolution of Runx genes II. The C-terminal Groucho recruitment motif is present in both eumetazoans and homoscleromorphs but absent in a haplosclerid demosponge

Background. The Runt DNA binding domain (Runx) defines a metazoan family of sequence-specific transcription factors with essential roles in animal ontogeny and stem cell based development. Depending on cis-regulatory context, Runx proteins mediate either transcriptional activation or repression. In many contexts Runx-mediated repression is carried out by Groucho/TLE, recruited to the transcriptional complex via a C-terminal WRPY sequence motif that is found encoded in all heretofore known Runx genes. Findings. Full-length Runx genes were identified in the recently sequenced genomes of phylogenetically diverse metazoans, including placozoans and sponges, the most basally branching members of that clade. No sequences with significant similarity to the Runt domain were found in the genome of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis, confirming that Runx is a metazoan apomorphy. A contig assembled from genomic sequences of the haplosclerid demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica was used to construct a model of the single Runx gene from that species, AmqRunx, the veracity of which was confirmed by expressed sequences. The encoded sequence of the Runx protein OscRunx from the homoscleromorph sponge Oscarella carmella was also obtained from assembled ESTs. Remarkably, a syntenic linkage between Runx and Supt3h, previously reported in vertebrates, is conserved in A. queenslandica. Whereas OscRunx encodes a C-terminal Groucho-recruitment motif, AmqRunx does not, although a Groucho homologue is found in the A. queenslandica genome. Conclusion. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that sponges are paraphyletic, and suggest that Runx-WRPY mediated recruitment of Groucho to cis-regulatory sequences originated in the ancestors of eumetazoans following their divergence from demosponges

Evaluation of the impact of a pharmaceutical care service offered to rheumatoid arthritis patients within an ambulatory setting

The objectives of the study were to evaluate the impact of a newly developed pharmaceutical care services directed to rheumatoid arthritis patients attending an out-patient setting. A total of 88 patients participated in the study and were randomly divided into two equal groups, Group A and Group B. The study was carried out over three phases. In phase 1 (time 0), Group A patients were assessed and offered a pharmaceutical care session. Group B patients were assessed but no pharmaceutical care session was delivered. At phase 2 (4-6 months), group A patients were re-assessed (first assessment post pharmaceutical care plan). Group B patients were re-assessed a second time (second baseline assessment) and a pharmaceutical care session was offered to Group B patients. At phase 3 (time 10-11 months) both groups were re-assessed a third time. The Health Assessment Questionnaire and the Short Form-36 were used as outcome measures during each assessment. There were statistically significant differences (p<0.05) in all the 8 domains of the SF-36 between Phase 1 and 3 for both groups. For the Health Assessment Questionnaire, a statistical improvement in the daily activities was identified after the pharmaceutical care intervention for both groups (Phase 2 for Group A and phase 3 for Group B). The newly developed individualised pharmaceutical care service provided by the pharmacist led to an improved quality of life as measured by the health related quality of life questionnaires.peer-reviewe

Contributors to the November Issue/Notes

Notes by Leo L. Linck, Anthony M. Bernard, Richard F. Swisher, Charles G. Hasson, James H. Neu, William J. Syring, and John H. Verdonk

Contributors to the November Issue/Notes

Notes by Leo L. Linck, Anthony M. Bernard, Richard F. Swisher, Charles G. Hasson, James H. Neu, William J. Syring, and John H. Verdonk

Cost effectiveness of TNF- inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis

Background. TNF- inhibitors have shown to be effective in reducing disease activity and improving the quality of life. Due to the high costs associated with acquisition of this treatment, this study was undertaken to evaluate the ICER of TNF- antagonists (etanercept, adalimumab, and infliximab) in improving the quality of life. Methods.The HAQ and SF-36 were administered at phases 1, 2, and 3, in order to assess the improvement in the QOL. Suppression of disease activity was assessed through the DAS-28. Results. Statistically significant improvements ( < 0.05) were noted for the SF-36 and HAQ after 3 months and for the DAS-28 after 6 months of TNF- inhibitor therapy.The mean ICER per 10% improvement in the HAQ, DAS-28, and SF-6D were C1976.5, C2086.5, and C2316.4, respectively, following 6 months of TNF- intervention. Most favorable ICERs were reported from a patient who had to undergo surgical intervention whilst on DMARD therapy. Conclusion. Significant improvement was observed in patients’ quality of life, after a short timeframe of 6 months. Such data is useful information in the light of convincing policy makers, in terms of providing access to the medications to individual patients on national health service schemes.peer-reviewe

Properties of Low-Lying Heavy-Light Mesons

We present preliminary results for the B meson decay constant and masses of low-lying heavy-light mesons in the static limit. Calculations were performed on the lattice in the quenched approximation using multistate smearing functions generated from a Hamiltonian for a spinless relativistic quark. The 2S--1S and 1P--1S mass splittings are measured. Using the 1P--1S charmonium splitting to set the overall scale, the ground state decay constant, f_B, is 319 +- 11 (stat) MeV.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, UCLA/92/TEP/4

Masses and Decay Constants of Heavy-Light Mesons Using the Multistate Smearing Technique

We present results for f_B and masses of low-lying heavy-light mesons. Calculations were performed in the quenched approximation using multistate smearing functions generated from a spinless relativistic quark model Hamiltonian. Beta values range from 5.7 to 6.3, and light quark masses corresponding to pion masses as low as 300 MeV are computed at each value. We use the 1P--1S charmonium splitting to set the overall scale.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, and 5 tables as a single 193K compressed and uuencoded Postscript file, FERMILAB--CONF--93/376-

Comparing supermarket loyalty card data with traditional diet survey data for understanding how protein is purchased and consumed in older adults for the UK, 2014-16

The project was funded by the Research Councils UK ‘Priming Food Partnerships’ initiative supported by BBSRC, MRC, EPSRC and ESRC. Project reference number – BB/P023886/1. Thank you to the High Street Retailer for supplying the data.Peer reviewedPublisher PD