Sensitivity to AMF species is greater in late‐successional than early‐successional native or nonnative grassland plants

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Sensitivity of plant species to individual arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal species is of primary importance to understanding the role of AM fungal diversity and composition in plant ecology. Currently, we do not have a predictive framework for understanding which plant species are sensitive to different AM fungal species. In two greenhouse studies, we tested for differences in plant sensitivity to different AM fungal species and mycorrhizal responsiveness across 17 grassland plant species of North America that varied in successional stage, native status, and plant family by growing plants with different AM fungal treatments including eight single AM fungal isolates, diverse mixtures of AM fungi, and non‐inoculated controls. We found that late successional grassland plant species were highly responsive to AM fungi and exhibited stronger sensitivity in their response to individual AM fungal taxa compared to nonnative or early successional native grassland plant species. We confirmed these results using a meta‐analysis that included 13 experiments, 37 plant species, and 40 fungal isolates (from nine publications and two greenhouse experiments presented herein). Mycorrhizal responsiveness and sensitivity of response (i.e., variation in plant biomass response to different AM fungal taxa) did not differ by the source of fungal inocula (i.e., local or not local) or plant family. Sensitivity of plant response to AM fungal species was consistently correlated with the average mycorrhizal response of that plant species. This study identifies that AM fungal identity is more important to the growth of late successional plant species than early successional or nonnative plant species, thereby predicting that AM fungal composition will be more important to plant community dynamics in late successional communities than in early successional or invaded plant communities

Statistical-mechanical theory of ultrasonic absorption in molecular liquids

We present results of theoretical description of ultrasonic phenomena in molecular liquids. In particular, we are interested in the development of microscopical, i.e., statistical-mechanical framework capable to explain the long living puzzle of the excess ultrasonic absorption in liquids. Typically, ultrasonic wave in a liquid can be generated by applying the periodically alternating external pressure with the angular frequency that corresponds to the ultrasound. If the perturbation introduced by such process is weak - its statistical-mechanical treatment can be done with the use of the linear response theory. We treat the liquid as a system of interacting sites, so that all the response/aftereffect functions as well as the energy dissipation and generalized (wave-vector and frequency dependent) ultrasonic absorption coefficient are obtained in terms of familiar site-site static and time correlation functions such as static structure factors or intermediate scattering functions. To express the site-site intermediate scattering functions we refer to the site-site memory equations in the mode-coupling approximation for the first-order memory kernels, while equilibrium properties such as site-site static structure factors, direct and total correlation functions are deduced from the integral equation theory of molecular liquids known as RISM or one of its generalizations. All the formalism is phrased in a general manner, hence the obtained results are expected to work for arbitrary type of molecular liquid including simple, ionic, polar, and non-polar liquids.Comment: 14 pages, 1 eps-figure, RevTeX4-forma

Low temperature acoustic properties of amorphous silica and the Tunneling Model

Internal friction and speed of sound of a-SiO(2) was measured above 6 mK using a torsional oscillator at 90 kHz, controlling for thermal decoupling, non-linear effects, and clamping losses. Strain amplitudes e(A) = 10^{-8} mark the transition between the linear and non-linear regime. In the linear regime, excellent agreement with the Tunneling Model was observed for both the internal friction and speed of sound, with a cut-off energy of E(min) = 6.6 mK. In the non-linear regime, two different behaviors were observed. Above 10 mK the behavior was typical for non-linear harmonic oscillators, while below 10 mK a different behavior was found. Its origin is not understood.Comment: 1 tex file, 6 figure

Casimir Surface Force on a Dilute Dielectric Ball

The Casimir surface force density F on a dielectric dilute spherical ball of radius a, surrounded by a vacuum, is calculated at zero temperature. We treat (n-1) (n being the refractive index) as a small parameter. The dispersive properties of the material are taken into account by adopting a simple dispersion relation, involving a sharp high frequency cutoff at omega = omega_0. For a nondispersive medium there appears (after regularization) a finite, physical, force F^{nondisp} which is repulsive. By means of a uniform asymptotic expansion of the Riccati-Bessel functions we calculate F^{nondisp} up to the fourth order in 1/nu. For a dispersive medium the main part of the force F^{disp} is also repulsive. The dominant term in F^{disp} is proportional to (n-1)^2{omega_0}^3/a, and will under usual physical conditions outweigh F^{nondisp} by several orders of magnitude.Comment: 24 pages, latex, no figures, some additions to the Acknowledments sectio

Data fusion of ultrasound and GPR signals for analysis of historic walls

[EN] This paper presents an application of ultrasounds and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for analysis of historic walls. The objectives are to characterize the deformation of a historic wall under different levels of load weights and to obtain an enhanced image of the wall. A new method that fuses data from ultrasound and GPR traces is proposed which is based on order statistics digital filters. Application results are presented for non destructive testing (NDT) of two replicates of historic ashlars' masonry walls: the first one homogeneous and the second one containing controlled defects such as cracks and nooks. The walls are measured separately using ultrasounds and GPR at different load steps. Time and frequency parameters extracted from the signals and different B-Scans for each of the NDT techniques are obtained. After this, a new fused representation is obtained, which results demonstrate the improvement of characterization and defect detection in historic walls using data fusion.This work has been supported by Generalitat Valenciana under grant PROMETEO/2010/040, and Spanish Administration and European Union FEDER Prog. under grant TEC2011-23403 01/01/2012.Salazar Afanador, A.; Gosálbez Castillo, J.; Safont Armero, G.; Vergara Domínguez, L. (2012). Data fusion of ultrasound and GPR signals for analysis of historic walls. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. 42:1-4. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/42/1/012008S144

Prospective of the Application of Ultrasounds in Archaeology

[EN] This paper presents a prospective analysis of non destructive testing (NDT) based on ultrasounds in the field of archaeology applications. Classical applications of ultrasounds techniques are reviewed, including ocean exploration to detect wrecks, imaging of archaeological sites, and cleaning archaeological objects. The potential of prospective applications is discussed from the perspective of signal processing, with emphasis on the area of linear time variant models. Thus, the use of ultrasound NDT is proposed for new ceramic cataloguing and restoration methods.This work has been supported by the Generalitat Valenciana under grant PROMETEO/2010/040, and the Spanish Administration and the FEDER Programme of the European Union under grant TEC2011-23403 01/01/2012.Salazar Afanador, A.; Rodriguez Martinez, A.; Safont Armero, G.; Vergara Domínguez, L. (2012). Prospective of the Application of Ultrasounds in Archaeology. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. 42:1-5. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/42/1/012010S154

Demography and Life Histories of Sympatric Patas Monkeys, Erythrocebus patas, and Vervets, Cercopithecus aethiops, in Laikipia, Kenya

Mortality patterns are thought to be strong selective forces on life history traits, with high adult mortality and low immature mortality favoring early and rapid reproduction. Patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas) have the highest potential rates of population increase for their body size of any haplorhine primate because they reproduce both earlier and more often. We report here 10 yr of comparative demographic data on a population of patas monkeys and a sympatric population of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops), a closely related species differing in aspects of social system, ecology, and life history. The data reveal that 1) adult female patas monkeys have significantly higher mortality than adult female vervets; 2) infant mortality in patas monkeys is relatively low compared to the norm for mammals because it is not significantly different from that of adult female patas monkeys; and 3) infant mortality is significantly higher than adult female mortality in vervets. For both species, much of the mortality could be attributed to predation. An epidemic illness was also a major contributor to the mortality of adult female patas monkeys whereas chronic exposure to pathogens in a cold and damp microenvironment may have contributed to the mortality of infant vervets. Both populations experienced large fluctuations during the study period. Our results support the prediction from demographic models of life history evolution that high adult mortality relative to immature mortality selects for early maturation

The UNITE database for molecular identification and taxonomic communication of fungi and other eukaryotes : sequences, taxa and classifications reconsidered

Acknowledgements We acknowledge Marie Zirk for her work in designing the UNITE logotype and creating the visual abstract for this article. Funding UNITE database development is financed by the Estonian Research Council [PRG1170]; European Union's Horizon 2020 project BGE [101059492]. The PlutoF digital infrastructure is supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 project BiCIKL [101007492]; Estonian Research Infrastructure roadmap project DiSSCo Estonia. Funding for open access charge: UNITE Community. Conflict of interest statement. None declared.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Characterization of a murine model of monocrotaline pyrrole-induced acute lung injury

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>New animal models of chronic pulmonary hypertension in mice are needed. The injection of monocrotaline is an established model of pulmonary hypertension in rats. The aim of this study was to establish a murine model of pulmonary hypertension by injection of the active metabolite, monocrotaline pyrrole.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Survival studies, computed tomographic scanning, histology, bronchoalveolar lavage were performed, and arterial blood gases and hemodynamics were measured in animals which received an intravenous injection of different doses of monocrotaline pyrrole.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Monocrotaline pyrrole induced pulmonary hypertension in Sprague Dawley rats. When injected into mice, monocrotaline pyrrole induced dose-dependant mortality in C57Bl6/N and BALB/c mice (dose range 6–15 mg/kg bodyweight). At a dose of 10 mg/kg bodyweight, mice developed a typical early-phase acute lung injury, characterized by lung edema, neutrophil influx, hypoxemia and reduced lung compliance. In the late phase, monocrotaline pyrrole injection resulted in limited lung fibrosis and no obvious pulmonary hypertension.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Monocrotaline and monocrotaline pyrrole pneumotoxicity substantially differs between the animal species.</p