Parallel shifts in ecology and natural selection in an island lizard

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Natural selection is a potent evolutionary force that shapes phenotypic variation to match ecological conditions. However, we know little about the year-to-year consistency of selection, or how inter-annual variation in ecology shapes adaptive landscapes and ultimately adaptive radiations. Here we combine remote sensing data, field experiments, and a four-year study of natural selection to show that changes in vegetation structure associated with a severe drought altered both habitat use and natural selection in the brown anole, <it>Anolis sagrei</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In natural populations, lizards increased their use of vegetation in wet years and this was correlated with selection on limb length but not body size. By contrast, a die-back of vegetation caused by drought was followed by reduced arboreality, selection on body size, and relaxed selection on limb length. With the return of the rains and recovery of vegetation, selection reverted back to pre-drought pattern of selection acting on limb length but not body size. To test for the impact of vegetation loss on natural selection during the drought, we experimentally removed vegetation on a separate study island in a naturally wet year. The experiment revealed similar inter-annual changes in selection on body size but not limb length.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results illustrate the dynamic nature of ecology driving natural selection on <it>Anolis </it>morphology and emphasize the importance of inter-annual environmental variation in shaping adaptive variation. In addition, results illustrate the utility of using remote sensing data to examine ecology's role in driving natural selection.</p

Influence of Fatigue and Anticipation on Knee Kinematics and Kinetics during a Jump-cut Maneuver

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are common among athletes, particularly females. This research aims to reconcile the anticipated and unanticipated movement pattern of jumping and cutting with fatigue for both genders. The research will compare lower extremity biomechanics of a jump-cut after a sports specific fatigue protocol, intending to examine movement patterns which may predispose the subject to ACL injury. METHODS: Twenty healthy subjects were studied (24.9±3.3yrs), including 10 females. A 3D electromagnetic system measured knee kinematics and kinetics during jump-cut tasks. The jump-cut task included anticipated (A) and unanticipated (UA) trials to both directions. For the UA trials, the subject was unaware of the cutting direction until initiation of the task. The fatigue protocol consisted of jumping, sprinting, step-ups, and agility. Subjects completed the jump-cut task again in a fatigued state. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze peak and mean angles, moments and ground reaction forces (GRF), with post-hoc Tukey tests for significant findings between factors (gender, pre/post-fatigue, A/UA). RESULTS: Significant main effects were found for gender and IR/ER and ADD/ABD peak and/or mean angles, and ADD/ABD moments; pre and post-fatigue and IR/ER, EXT/FLEX, and ADD/ABD peak and/or mean angles, and ADD/ABD moments; A/UA conditions and IR/ER and ADD/ABD peak and/or mean angles. Significant interactions existed for gender and A/UA for EXT moment and for pre/post-fatigue and A/UA for EXT moment, IR moment and IR/ER angles. CONCLUSION: Subjects demonstrated significant changes in knee kinematics and kinetics. Fatigue and A/UA states influenced knee movement patterns in variable ways, which may indicate an attempt to safely land and cut. Additionally, females demonstrated biomechanics that may increase their risk for ACL injury relative to males. Gender, fatigue, and A/UA conditions had an impact on one another and should be considered when designing sports training programs to reduce risky movement patterns

Development of advanced diagnostics for characterization of burning droplets in microgravity

Diagnostic techniques currently used for microgravity research are generally not as advanced as those used in earth based gravity experiments. Diagnostic techniques for measuring the instantaneous radial temperature profile (or temperature gradients) within the burning droplet do not exist. Over the past few years, Aerometrics has been researching and developing a rainbow thermometric technique for measuring the droplet temperatures of burning droplets. This technique has recently been integrated with the phase Doppler interferometric technique to yield a diagnostic instrument that can be used to simultaneously measure the size, velocity, and temperature of burning droplets in complex spray flames. Also, the rainbow thermometric technique has been recently integrated with a point-diffraction interferometric technique for measuring the instantaneous gas phase temperature field surrounding a burning droplet. These research programs, apart from being very successful, have also helped us identify other innovative techniques for the characterization of burning droplets. For example, new techniques have been identified for measuring the instantaneous regression rate of burning droplets. Also, there is the possibility of extracting the instantaneous radial temperature distribution or the temperature gradients within a droplet during transient heating. What is important is that these diagnostic techniques have the potential for making use of inexpensive, light-weight, and rugged devices such as diode lasers and linear CCD arrays. As a result, they can be easily packaged for incorporation into microgravity drop-test and flight-test facilities. Furthermore, with the use of linear CCD arrays, data rates as high as 10-100 kHz can be easily achieved. This data rate is orders of magnitude higher than what is currently achievable. In this research and development program, a compact and rugged diagnostic system will be developed that can be used to measure instantaneous fuel droplet diameter, droplet regression rate, and the droplet internal temperature profiles or gradients at very high data rates in microgravity experiments

A Social Media Strategy for an Academic Department

This essay describes the process one communication studies department used to develop a social media strategy. That process involved identifying the audiences to be reached, establishing goals and objectives, conducting an audit to identify possible message posts, and selecting posts to reach our goals and objectives. The resulting strategy involves posting messages two to three times per week targeted toward specific audiences and reflecting twelve objectives. A calendar was created to guide the posts. Future research will assess the effectiveness of the strategy

Stand up–it’s all about the team? The composition of entrepreneurship teams in entrepreneurship education at a german university

Backs S, Schleef M, Buermann H. Stand up–it’s all about the team? The composition of entrepreneurship teams in entrepreneurship education at a german university. Journal of entrepreneurship education. 2019;22(4).“Team work makes the dream work”–this saying of John C. Maxwell could not be described in a better way especially for creating new business companies. But how does such a team should be structured, especially in the entrepreneurship education in a university context? Is it: “Birds of a feather flock together” or rather “Opposites attract”? Moreover, entrepreneurial traits and the composition of entrepreneurial teams are not investigated as a whole in the academic context so far. To contribute to this research, a first focus is set on entrepreneurship education in general. Therefore, recommended approaches from theory and other studies are compared with the developed concept of an entrepreneurial education program at Bielefeld University that is mostly in accordance with theoretical recommendations. Hence, to identify entrepreneurial traits in the academic context, 43 students took part in a questionnaire within the framework of the “Practice in Entrepreneurship” at Bielefeld University in spring 2018. So, a profile of the personage and motives in entrepreneurship and team behavior were investigated. In addition to the questionnaire, an examination of founding teams in the same “Practice in Entrepreneurship” was conducted. At this juncture, 61 students formed 14 entrepreneurial teams working on a business idea and finally pitching it in front of an expert jury that evaluated and ranked the teams. It was investigated how different attributes like gender, study courses, and age, as well as the team size influence the final ranking. Both the findings concerning the entrepreneurial traits and the results concerning the composition of entrepreneurial teams show much congruence with the existing literature leading to following implications: A successful entrepreneurship education program at a university should consist of theoretically and practically oriented elements involving different external stakeholders. Students taking part in such an entrepreneurship education program show many entrepreneurial traits that should be developed further within this program. The composition of student founding teams should not be predetermined, except for a recommended team size of four to six students

Human Impacts Flatten Rainforest-Savanna Gradient and Reduce Adaptive Diversity in a Rainforest Bird

Ecological gradients have long been recognized as important regions for diversification and speciation. However, little attention has been paid to the evolutionary consequences or conservation implications of human activities that fundamentally change the environmental features of such gradients. Here we show that recent deforestation in West Africa has homogenized the rainforest-savanna gradient, causing a loss of adaptive phenotypic diversity in a common rainforest bird, the little greenbul (Andropadus virens). Previously, this species was shown to exhibit morphological and song divergence along this gradient in Central Africa. Using satellite-based estimates of forest cover, recent morphological data, and historical data from museum specimens collected prior to widespread deforestation, we show that the gradient has become shallower in West Africa and that A. virens populations there have lost morphological variation in traits important to fitness. In contrast, we find no loss of morphological variation in Central Africa where there has been less deforestation and gradients have remained more intact. While rainforest deforestation is a leading cause of species extinction, the potential of deforestation to flatten gradients and inhibit rainforest diversification has not been previously recognized. More deforestation will likely lead to further flattening of the gradient and loss of diversity, and may limit the ability of species to persist under future environmental conditions

Seasonal and Inter-annual Variation of Evapotranspiration in Amazonia Based on Precipitation, River Discharge and Gravity Anomaly Data

We analyzed seasonal and spatial variations of evapotranspiration (ET) for five Amazon sub-basins and their response to the 2015/16 El Nino episode using a recently developed water-budget approach. ET varied typically between similar to 7 and 10 cm/month with exception of the Xingu basin for which it varied between 10 and 15 cm/month. Outstanding features of ET seasonality are (i) generally weak seasonality, (ii) two ET peaks for the two very wet catchments Solimoes and Negro, with one occurring during the wet season and one during the drier season, and (iii) a steady increase of ET during the second half of the dry season for the three drier catchments (Madeira, Tapajos, Xingu). Peak ET occurs during the first half of the wet season consistent with leaf flush occurring before the onset of the wet season. With regards to inter-annual variation, we found firstly that for the Solimoes and Madeira catchments the period with large positive wet season anomalies (2012-2015) is associated with negative ET anomalies, and negative SIF (solar induced fluorescence) anomalies. Furthermore, we found negative ET of several cm/months and SIF (up to 50%) anomalies for most of the Amazon basin during the 2015/16 El Nino event suggesting down-regulation of productivity as a main factor of positive carbon flux anomalies during anomalously hot and dry conditions. These results are of interest in view of predicted warmer and more erratic future climate conditions.Peer reviewe

Robust Limits on Lorentz Violation from Gamma-Ray Bursts

We constrain the possibility of a non-trivial refractive index in free space corresponding to an energy-dependent velocity of light: c(E) \simeq c_0 (1 - E/M), where M is a mass scale that might represent effect of quantum-gravitational space-time foam, using the arrival times of sharp features observed in the intensities of radiation with different energies from a large sample of gamma-ray bursters (GRBs) with known redshifts. We use wavelet techniques to identify genuine features, which we confirm in simulations with artificial added noise. Using the weighted averages of the time-lags calculated using correlated features in all the GRB light curves, we find a systematic tendency for more energetic photons to arrive earlier. However, there is a very strong correlation between the parameters characterizing an intrinsic time-lag at the source and a distance-dependent propagation effect. Moreover, the significance of the earlier arrival times is less evident for a subsample of more robust spectral structures. Allowing for intrinsic stochastic time-lags in these features, we establish a statistically robust lower limit: M > 0.9x10^{16} GeV on the scale of violation of Lorentz invariance.Comment: 18 pages, 4 eps figure

How Robust Is the Apparent Break‐Down of Northern High‐Latitude Temperature Control on Spring Carbon Uptake?

Vegetation growth in northern high‐latitudes during springtime is strongly temperature limited, and thus anomalously warm springs are expected to result in an increased drawdown of carbon dioxide (CO2). However, a recent analysis of the relationship between spring temperature anomalies and atmospheric CO2 anomalies at Point Barrow, Alaska, suggests that the link between spring carbon uptake by northern ecosystems and temperature anomalies has been weakening over recent decades due to a diminishing control of temperature on plant productivity. Upon further analysis, covering the 1982‐2015 period, we found no significant change in the relationship between spring vegetation productivity derived from remote sensing data and air temperature. We showed that a reduction in spatial coherence of temperature anomalies, alongside a significant sensitivity to atmospheric transport, is likely responsible for the apparent weakening. Our results, therefore, suggest that spring temperature remains as an important control of northern high‐latitude CO2 uptake