CR-EST: a resource for crop ESTs

The crop expressed sequence tag database, CR-EST (http://pgrc.ipk-gatersleben.de/cr-est/), is a publicly available online resource providing access to sequence, classification, clustering and annotation data of crop EST projects. CR-EST currently holds more than 200 000 sequences derived from 41 cDNA libraries of four species: barley, wheat, pea and potato. The barley section comprises approximately one-third of all publicly available ESTs. CR-EST deploys an automatic EST preparation pipeline that includes the identification of chimeric clones in order to transparently display the data quality. Sequences are clustered in species-specific projects to currently generate a non-redundant set of ∼22 600 consensus sequences and ∼17 200 singletons, which form the basis of the provided set of unigenes. A web application allows the user to compute BLAST alignments of query sequences against the CR-EST database, query data from Gene Ontology and metabolic pathway annotations and query sequence similarities from stored BLAST results. CR-EST also features interactive JAVA-based tools, allowing the visualization of open reading frames and the explorative analysis of Gene Ontology mappings applied to ESTs

From ecosystems to socio-economic benefits: A systematic review of coastal ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea

Highlights: • We summarized 20 ecosystem services provided by coastal Baltic ecosystems. • Information on how services translate into socio-economic benefits is lacking. • The deep knowledge gap impairs the sustainable management of the benefits. • We propose a framework with four key measures to close this knowledge gap. • Toxins and Nutrients are the most well-document pressures to these services. Abstract: Seagrass meadows, algal forests and mussel beds are widely regarded as foundation species that support communities providing valuable ecosystem services in many coastal regions; however, quantitative evidence of the relationship is scarce. Using the Baltic Sea as a case study, a region of significant socio-economic importance in the northern hemisphere, we systematically synthesized the primary literature and summarized the current knowledge on ecosystem services derived from seagrass, macroalgae, and mussels (see animated video summary of the manuscript: Video abstract). We found 1740 individual ecosystem service records (ESR), 61% of which were related to macroalgae, 26% to mussel beds and 13% to seagrass meadows. The most frequently reported ecosystem services were raw material (533 ESR), habitat provision (262 ESR) and regulation of pollutants (215 ESR). Toxins (356 ESR) and nutrients (302 ESR) were the most well-documented pressures to services provided by coastal ecosystems. Next, we assessed the current state of knowledge as well as knowledge transfer of ecosystem services to policies through natural, social, human and economic dimensions, using a systematic scoring tool, the Eco-GAME matrix. We found good quantitative information about how ecosystems generated the service but almost no knowledge of how they translate into socio-economic benefits (8 out of 657 papers, 1.2%). While we are aware that research on Baltic Sea socio-economic benefits does exist, the link with ecosystems providing the service is mostly missing. To close this knowledge gap, we need a better analytical framework that is capable of directly linking existing quantitative information about ecosystem service generation with human benefit

What should deflationism be when it grows up?

http://philpapers.org/rec/HORWSDI argue that a popular brand of deflationism about truth, disquotationalism, does not adequately account for some central varieties of truth ascription. For example, given Boyle's Law is ''The product of pressure and volume is exactly a constant for an ideal gas'', disquotationalism does not explain why the blind ascription ''Boyle's Law is true'' implies that the product of pressure and volume is exactly a constant for an ideal gas, and given Washington said only ''Birds sing'', disquotationalism does not explain why the existentially quantified ascription ''Something Washington said is true'' implies that birds sing. Thus disquotationalism fails to account for all the facts about truth.This project was supported by a grant from the University of Missouri Research Board