Near streambed flow shapes microbial guilds within and across trophic levels in fluvial biofilms

Flow is an important physical driver of biofilm communities. Here, we tested the effects of the near bed flows in two mountainous stream reaches on the structure of biofilm microbial guilds (autotrophs, heterotrophic bacteria, and heterotrophic protists) within and across trophic levels. Near bed flow velocity and turbulent kinetic energy were important physical drivers for structuring the communities within and across guilds of the multitrophic fluvial biofilms. The effects of flow were nested in a seasonal and spatial (across-streams) context. Changes in physicochemical factors (temperature, light, dissolved carbon, and nutrients) along the reaches were alike in both streams suggesting that environmental boundary conditions at larger temporal scales were responsible for the seasonal differences of biofilm communities, whereas locally microbial diversity was shaped by near bed flow. Typically, the abundance of autotrophs increased with flow, indicating that biofilms shifted toward increasing autotrophy with increasing shear forces. Filamentous autotrophs seemed to provide protected habitats from the shear forces for smaller sized bacteria. Heterotrophic protist abundance decreased with flow leading to decreasing grazer to prey ratio. Bacteria thus benefitted from a reduction in grazing pressure at faster flowing, more turbulent sites. Our results suggest that near bed flow can impact the magnitude and direction of matter fluxes through the microbial food web and possibly affect ecosystem functioning of fluvial biofilms

Phase ordering and shape deformation of two-phase membranes

Within a coupled-field Ginzburg-Landau model we study analytically phase separation and accompanying shape deformation on a two-phase elastic membrane in simple geometries such as cylinders, spheres and tori. Using an exact periodic domain wall solution we solve for the shape and phase ordering field, and estimate the degree of deformation of the membrane. The results are pertinent to a preferential phase separation in regions of differing curvature on a variety of vesicles.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR

Biochemistry Instructors’ Views toward Developing and Assessing Visual Literacy in Their Courses

Biochemistry instructors are inundated with various representations from which to choose to depict biochemical phenomena. Because of the immense amount of visual know-how needed to be an expert biochemist in the 21st century, there have been calls for instructors to develop biochemistry students’ visual literacy. However, visual literacy has multiple aspects, and determining which area to develop can be quite daunting. Therefore, the goals of this study were to determine what visual literacy skills biochemistry instructors deem to be most important and how instructors develop and assess visual literacy skills in their biochemistry courses. In order to address these goals, a needs assessment was administered to a national sample of biochemistry faculty at four-year colleges and universities. Based on the results of the survey, a cluster analysis was conducted to group instructors into categories based on how they intended to develop visual literacy in their courses. A misalignment was found between the visual literacy skills that were most important and how instructors developed visual literacy. In addition, the majority of instructors assumed these skills on assessments rather than explicitly testing them. Implications focus on the need for better measures to assess visual literacy skills directly

Reply to: New Meta- and Mega-analyses of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Schizophrenia: Do They Really Increase Our Knowledge About the Nature of the Disease Process?

This work was supported by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Grant No. U54EB020403 (to the ENIGMA consortium)

Methodik

Die vegetationskundliche und strukturelle Zuordnung der Lebensraumtypen erfolgt nach der vorrangig von Braun-Blanquet entwickelten Vegetationsklassifizierung, einer hierarchischen Gliederung der Vegetationstypen (Syntaxonomie), die die Ebenen der Assoziation, des Verbandes, der Ordnung und der Klasse umfasst. Hierbei ist die Assoziation die grundlegende Einheit, in der die Pflanzengesellschaften zusammengefasst werden, die sich durch gleiche charakteristische Arten(gruppen)kombinationen auszeichnen. Der Verband vereinigt ähnliche Assoziationen. Das sind bereits umfassendere, jedoch standörtlich noch recht einheitliche Vegetationseinheiten. In Ordnungen werden ähnliche Verbände zusammengefasst. Die Klasse vereinigt ähnliche Ordnungen

Development of a new pan-European testate amoeba transfer function for reconstructing peatland palaeohydrology

In the decade since the first pan-European testate amoeba-based transfer function for peatland palaeohydrological reconstruction was published, a vast amount of additional data collection has been undertaken by the research community. Here, we expand the pan-European dataset from 128 to 1799 samples, spanning 35° of latitude and 55° of longitude. After the development of a new taxonomic scheme to permit compilation of data from a wide range of contributors and the removal of samples with high pH values, we developed ecological transfer functions using a range of model types and a dataset of ∼1300 samples. We rigorously tested the efficacy of these models using both statistical validation and independent test sets with associated instrumental data. Model performance measured by statistical indicators was comparable to other published models. Comparison to test sets showed that taxonomic resolution did not impair model performance and that the new pan-European model can therefore be used as an effective tool for palaeohydrological reconstruction. Our results question the efficacy of relying on statistical validation of transfer functions alone and support a multi-faceted approach to the assessment of new models. We substantiated recent advice that model outputs should be standardised and presented as residual values in order to focus interpretation on secure directional shifts, avoiding potentially inaccurate conclusions relating to specific water-table depths. The extent and diversity of the dataset highlighted that, at the taxonomic resolution applied, a majority of taxa had broad geographic distributions, though some morphotypes appeared to have restricted ranges

No Association between Fish Intake and Depression in over 15,000 Older Adults from Seven Low and Middle Income Countries–The 10/66 Study

Background: Evidence on the association between fish consumption and depression is inconsistent and virtually nonexistent from low-and middle-income countries. Using a standard protocol, we aim to assess the association of fish consumption and late-life depression in seven low-and middle-income countries. Methodology/Findings: We used cross-sectional data from the 10/66 cohort study and applied two diagnostic criteria for late-life depression to assess the association between categories of weekly fish consumption and depression according to ICD-10 and the EURO-D depression symptoms scale scores, adjusting for relevant confounders. All-catchment area surveys were carried out in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, China, and India, and over 15,000 community-dwelling older adults (65+) were sampled. Using Poisson models the adjusted association between categories of fish consumption and ICD-10 depression was positive in India (p for trend = 0.001), inverse in Peru (p = 0.025), and not significant in all other countries. We found a linear inverse association between fish consumption categories and EURO-D scores only in Cuba (p for trend = 0.039) and China (p<0.001); associations were not significant in all other countries. Between-country heterogeneity was marked for both ICD-10 (I-2>61%) and EURO-D criteria (I-2>66%). Conclusions: The associations of fish consumption with depression in large samples of older adults varied markedly across countries and by depression diagnosis and were explained by socio-demographic and lifestyle variables. Experimental studies in these settings are needed to confirm our findings.Multidisciplinary SciencesSCI(E)SSCI0ARTICLE6null

Contrasting styles of (U)HP rock exhumation along the Cenozoic Adria-Europe plate boundary (Western Alps, Calabria, Corsica)

Since the first discovery of ultrahigh pressure (UHP) rocks 30 years ago in the Western Alps, the mechanisms for exhumation of (U)HP terranes worldwide are still debated. In the western Mediterranean, the presently accepted model of synconvergent exhumation (e.g., the channel-flow model) is in conflict with parts of the geologic record. We synthesize regional geologic data and present alternative exhumation mechanisms that consider the role of divergence within subduction zones. These mechanisms, i.e., (i) the motion of the upper plate away from the trench and (ii) the rollback of the lower plate, are discussed in detail with particular reference to the Cenozoic Adria-Europe plate boundary, and along three different transects (Western Alps, Calabria-Sardinia, and Corsica-Northern Apennines). In the Western Alps, (U)HP rocks were exhumed from the greatest depth at the rear of the accretionary wedge during motion of the upper plate away from the trench. Exhumation was extremely fast, and associated with very low geothermal gradients. In Calabria, HP rocks were exhumed from shallower depths and at lower rates during rollback of the Adriatic plate, with repeated exhumation pulses progressively younging toward the foreland. Both mechanisms were active to create boundary divergence along the Corsica-Northern Apennines transect, where European southeastward subduction was progressively replaced along strike by Adriatic northwestward subduction. The tectonic scenario depicted for the Western Alps trench during Eocene exhumation of (U)HP rocks correlates well with present-day eastern Papua New Guinea, which is presented as a modern analog of the Paleogene Adria-Europe plate boundary