Some comparative studies of the fauna in soils developed under natural forest, pine and bluegum

[From Introduction] It has been said that, "If a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation." The truth of this assertion is apparent in many parts of the world today. In South Africa, fires and demands in the past for timber have led to extensive depletion of the Natural Forests. In many cases, natural revegetation has been slow to develop and deterioration of the soil has resulted. The desire to replace the tree cover and at the same time to meet an increasing internal demand for timber, has led to widespread planting of Pine and Bluegum. It is probable that more trees have now been planted than were destroyed in the past. The silviculturist however, who develops a pure stand on land which previously supported the mixed stand, should anticipate a change in soil properties as a natural accompaniment of such an undertaking. The nature of this change is the primum mobile of the present comparative study. The forest soils studied were taken in the Cape Province in the following areas:- Grahamstown; Amatola Mountains, District Alice; Witte-els-Bosch, District Humansdorp, during the course of a year. The physical and chemical properties, and the faunal composition of the soil samples were examined in relation to the different tree covers. Because of the necessity of taking large numbers of samples and thorough examination of these to arrive at a definite conclusion, the work is necessarily incomplete. It is felt however that the results obtained justify a further study of this aspect of soil biology

Fitting the Professional to the Job: Idealism and Realism

This article examines a number of factors related to job satisfaction among financial aid professionals. How well the job matches the individual\u27s expectations of employment, regardless of intrinsic or extrinsic job orientation, accounts for the greater proportion of explained job satisfaction. The implications of these findings for management of financial aid offices are discussed. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Southwestern Sociological Association

Modelling the value of external networks for knowledge realisation, innovation, organisational development and efficiency in SMEs

<p>Source publication: Hassall, C., Watts, P.C., Sherratt, T.N., Thompson, D.J. (2015) Live fast, die old: no evidence of reproductive senescence or costs of mating in a damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera), Jounal of Animal Ecology.</p> <p>These R scripts contain the backbone of the code used in the analysis for the paper. The data are presented in a simplified form elsewhere on Figshare, and so the code cannot be run directly. However, linking the methods in the paper with the code here and the data on Figshare will enable the reader to replicate the analysis. There are four groups of analysis, as outlined in the published paper:</p> <p>1) The first deals with a simplified "cohort" analysis, where capture histories are pooled for animals of particular ages. We then calculate the numbers mating or not mating on each day and use a binomial mixed effects model to investigate age-related patterns. The data for this analysis are available ready for analysis in R from Figshare.<br>2) A simple analysis using RMark to look for an effect of breeding stratum on survival, resighting, and transition probability. This can be seen below. As with 1), some data processing is required to obtain the chdata format required by RMark. Details can be found on the RMark website: http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/rmark/.<br>3) An extension of 2) demonstrating the best fit of time, age, and stratum in each of the models.<br>4) An extention of 3) adding climate (as time-varying covariates) and mites (as individual covariates) to the models.</p> <p> </p> <p>Associated data are also available (see link in manuscript).</p

Information Flow and Staff Contact: A Quick Evaluation of Financial Aid

The authors examine the relationship between financial aid staff and students and attempt to analyze how the experience at one institution might provide some insight. The problem is viewed from the client perspective based upon day to day contact with various services provided to students by the financial aid office

Trial Protocol: Communicating DNA-based risk assessments for Crohn's disease: a randomised controlled trial assessing impact upon stopping smoking.

BACKGROUND: Estimates of the risk of developing Crohn's disease (CD) can be made using DNA testing for mutations in the NOD2 (CARD15) gene, family history, and smoking status. Smoking doubles the risk of CD, a risk that is reduced by stopping. CD therefore serves as a timely and novel paradigm within which to assess the utility of predictive genetic testing to motivate behaviour change to reduce the risk of disease. The aim of the study is to describe the impact upon stopping smoking of communicating a risk of developing CD that incorporates DNA analysis. We will test the following main hypothesis:Smokers who are first degree relatives (FDRs) of CD probands are more likely to make smoking cessation attempts following communication of risk estimates of developing CD that incorporate DNA analysis, compared with an equivalent communication that does not incorporate DNA analysis. METHODS/DESIGN: A parallel groups randomised controlled trial in which smokers who are FDRs of probands with CD are randomly allocated in families to undergo one of two types of assessment of risk for developing CD based on either: i. DNA analysis, family history of CD and smoking status, or ii. Family history of CD and smoking status. The primary outcome is stopping smoking for 24 hours or longer in the six months following provision of risk information. The secondary outcomes are seven-day smoking abstinence at one week and six month follow-ups. Randomisation of 470 smoking FDRs of CD probands, with 400 followed up (85%), provides 80% power to detect a difference in the primary outcome of 14% between randomised arms, at the 5% significance level. DISCUSSION: This trial provides one of the strongest tests to date of the impact of communicating DNA-based risk assessment on risk-reducing behaviour change. Specific issues regarding the choice of trial design are discussed.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

The initial mass function in the extended ultraviolet disc of M83

Using Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC data we present the photometry and spatial distribution of resolved stellar populations of four fields within the extended ultraviolet disc (XUV disc) of M83. These observations show a clumpy distribution of main-sequence stars and a mostly smooth distribution of red giant branch stars. We constrain the upper end of the initial mass function (IMF) in the outer disc using the detected population of main-sequence stars and an assumed constant star formation rate (SFR) over the last 300 Myr. By comparing the observed main-sequence luminosity function to simulations, we determine the best-fitting IMF to have a power-law slope α = −2.35 ± 0.3 and an upper mass limit M_u = 25⁺¹⁷₋₃M⊙⁠. This IMF is consistent with the observed H α emission, which we use to provide additional constraints on the IMF. We explore the influence of deviations from the constant SFR assumption, finding that our IMF conclusions are robust against all but strong recent variations in SFR, but these are excluded by causality arguments. These results, along with our similar studies of other nearby galaxies, indicate that some XUV discs are deficient in high-mass stars compared to a Kroupa IMF. There are over one hundred galaxies within 5 Mpc, many already observed with HST, thus allowing a more comprehensive investigation of the IMF, and how it varies, using the techniques developed here

Enhancement of sorghum grain yield and nutrition: A role for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi regardless of soil phosphorus availability

Societal Impact Statement Sorghum is an important cereal crop that provides calories and nutrients for much of the world's population, and it is often grown with low fertiliser input. Optimising the yield, nutritive content and bioavailability of sorghum grain with minimal input is of importance for human nutrition, and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have previously shown potential to assist in this. Across sorghum genetic diversity, AM fungi improved the yield, nutrition and zinc and iron bioavailability of grain in a low phosphorus soil. Thus, food production systems that effectively manage AM fungi may improve consumer outcomes. Summary Sorghum is a C4 cereal crop that is an important source of calories and nutrition across the world, predominantly cultivated and consumed in low- and middle-income countries. Sorghum can be highly colonised by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, and the plant-fungal association can lead to improvements in biomass and nutrient uptake. High-throughput phenotyping allows us to non-destructively interrogate the ‘hidden’ effects of AM fungi on sorghum growth and phenology. Eight genetically diverse sorghum genotypes were grown in a soil amended with 2 or 20 mg P kg−1 and inoculated with an AM fungal culture of Rhizophagus irregularis. High-throughput phenotyping uncovered the ‘hidden’ effects of AM fungi on growth and phenology, while grain biomass, nutrition, Zn and Fe bioavailability and root AM colonisation was determined after destructive harvest. Sorghum plants colonised by AM fungi generally performed better than non-AM control plants, with greater yield, harvest indices, and grain P, Zn and Fe contents. During the early growth stages, AM colonisation led to temporary growth depressions. There were also AM fungal and P fertilisation effects on sorghum time-of-flowering. The sorghum genotype with the highest AM colonisation could barely produce grain when non-inoculated. The two genotypes that failed to mature had very low AM colonisation. Generally, the genetically diverse sorghum genotypes were highly responsive to AM colonisation and produced more grain of greater nutritive quality when colonised, without adverse consequences for micronutrient bioavailability

The chemerin knockout rat reveals chemerin dependence in female, but not male, experimental hypertension

Measures of the adipokine chemerin are elevated in multiple cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, but little mechanistic work has been done to implicate chemerin as being causative in such diseases. The chemerin knockout (KO) rat was created to test the hypothesis that removal of chemerin would reduce pressure in the normal and hypertensive state. Western analyses confirmed loss of chemerin in the plasma and tissues of the KO vs. wild‐type (WT) rats. Chemerin concentration in plasma and tissues was lower in WT females than in WT males, as determined by Western analysis. Conscious male and female KO rats had modest differences in baseline measures vs. the WT that included systolic, diastolic, mean arterial and pulse pressures, and heart rate, all measured telemetrically. The mineralocorticoid deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) and salt water, combined with uninephrectomy as a hypertensive stimulus, elevated mean and systolic blood pressures of the male KO higher than the male WT. By contrast, all pressures in the female KO were lower than their WT throughout DOCA‐salt treatment. These results revealed an unexpected sex difference in chemerin expression and the ability of chemerin to modify blood pressure in response to a hypertensive challenge.—Watts, S. W., Darios, E. S., Mullick, A. E., Garver, H., Saunders, T. L., Hughes, E. D., Filipiak, W. E., Zeidler, M. G., McMullen, N., Sinal, C. J., Kumar, R. K., Ferland, D. J., Fink, G. D. The chemerin knockout rat reveals chemerin dependence in female, but not male, experimental hypertension. FASEB J. 32, 6596–6614 (2018). www.fasebj.orgPeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154357/1/fsb2fj201800479.pd