Mountain soils under a changing climate and land-use

Mountain ecosystems are currently experiencing the strongest climatic warming and the largest changes in land-use during the last millennia. The impacts of these changes on soils and their roles in the cycling of carbon and nutrients are, however, largely unknown. Here, we define mountain soils as soils from mountainous areas with cool summers and cold winters and thus, soils from ecosystems that are influenced by snow and ice and where biogeochemical processes are limited by temperature. Because climatic conditions, soil properties, plant species and productivity vary at a small scale in mountains, they provide a unique natural but a seldom used laboratory to study soil processes. In this special issue, we compile different studies on soils from European mountains, reaching from the functioning of mountain soils along natural climatic gradients to responses of greenhouse gas fluxes from mountain soils to experimental warming, soil frost and changes in precipitatio

Radion Stabilization by Stringy Effects in General Relativity

We consider the effects of a gas of closed strings (treated quantum mechanically) on a background where one dimension is compactified on a circle. After we address the effects of a time dependent background on aspects of the string spectrum that concern us, we derive the energy-momentum tensor for a string gas and investigate the resulting space-time dynamics. We show that a variety of trajectories are possible for the radius of the compactified dimension, depending on the nature of the string gas, including a demonstration within the context of General Relativity (i.e. without a dilaton) of a solution where the radius of the extra dimension oscillates about the self-dual radius, without invoking matter that violates the various energy conditions. In particular, we find that in the case where the string gas is in thermal equilibrium, the radius of the compactified dimension dynamically stabilizes at the self-dual radius, after which a period of usual Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology of the three uncompactified dimensions can set in. We show that our radion stabilization mechanism requires a stringy realization of inflation as scalar field driven inflation invalidates our mechanism. We also show that our stabilization mechanism is consistent with observational bounds.Comment: New section on the phenomonological implications of and bound on the model has been adde

A Realistic Pattern of Lepton Mixing and Masses from S4 and CP

We present a supersymmetric model with the flavour symmetry S4 x Z3 and a CP symmetry which are broken to a Z3 subgroup of the flavour symmetry in the charged lepton sector and to Z2 x CP (x Z3) in the neutrino one at leading order. This model implements an approach, capable of predicting lepton mixing angles and Dirac as well as Majorana phases in terms of one free parameter. This parameter, directly related to the size of the reactor mixing angle theta_{13}, can be naturally of the correct order in our model. Atmospheric mixing is maximal, while sin^2 theta_{12} is larger than 1/3. All three phases are predicted: the Dirac phase is maximal, whereas the two Majorana phases are trivial. The neutrino mass matrix contains only three real parameters at leading order and neutrino masses effectively only depend on two of them. As a consequence, they have to be normally ordered and the absolute neutrino mass scale and the sum of the neutrino masses are predicted. The vacuum of the flavons can be correctly aligned. We study subleading corrections to the leading order results and show that they are small.Comment: 1+23 pages, 3 tables, no figures; v2: matches version published in The European Physical Journal C (including changed title

Community next steps for making globally unique identifiers work for biocollections data

Biodiversity data is being digitized and made available online at a rapidly increasing rate but current practices typically do not preserve linkages between these data, which impedes interoperation, provenance tracking, and assembly of larger datasets. For data associated with biocollections, the biodiversity community has long recognized that an essential part of establishing and preserving linkages is to apply globally unique identifiers at the point when data are generated in the field and to persist these identifiers downstream, but this is seldom implemented in practice. There has neither been coalescence towards one single identifier solution (as in some other domains), nor even a set of recommended best practices and standards to support multiple identifier schemes sharing consistent responses. In order to further progress towards a broader community consensus, a group of biocollections and informatics experts assembled in Stockholm in October 2014 to discuss community next steps to overcome current roadblocks. The workshop participants divided into four groups focusing on: identifier practice in current field biocollections; identifier application for legacy biocollections; identifiers as applied to biodiversity data records as they are published and made available in semantically marked-up publications; and cross-cutting identifier solutions that bridge across these domains. The main outcome was consensus on key issues, including recognition of differences between legacy and new biocollections processes, the need for identifier metadata profiles that can report information on identifier persistence missions, and the unambiguous indication of the type of object associated with the identifier. Current identifier characteristics are also summarized, and an overview of available schemes and practices is provided

The associations of leg lean mass with foot pain, posture and function in the Framingham foot study

Background: Foot disorders are common in older adults and associated with impaired lower extremity function. Reduced muscle mass may play a role in the etiology of foot disorders and consequent poor function. Methods: We examined the association of leg lean mass with foot pain, posture and function among 1,795 individuals (mean age 67 years) from the population-based Framingham Foot Study (2002–2008). Pain was assessed via questionnaire, and a pressure mat classified foot posture (arch: high, low, referent) during standing and function (pronation, supination, referent) during gait. Leg lean mass was measured by whole body dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Results: In age- and body mass index-adjusted logistic (pain) and multinomial logistic (posture, function) regression models, a 1-standard deviation increase in leg lean mass was associated with lower odds of foot pain (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.68, 0.86) and pronation (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.85), and higher odds of supination (OR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.31). Adjustment for sex attenuated these associations. Higher leg lean mass was associated with lower odds of high arch, even after adjustment for sex (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.60, 0.89). Conclusions: Though not related to foot pain or function, reduced leg lean mass was associated with extreme foot posture in older adults. Loss of muscle mass with aging may thus play a role in the etiology of functional impairment due to foot disorders

Producing a Scale-Invariant Spectrum of Perturbations in a Hagedorn Phase of String Cosmology

We study the generation of cosmological perturbations during the Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology. Using tools of string thermodynamics we provide indications that it may be possible to obtain a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations on scales which are of cosmological interest today. In our cosmological scenario, the early Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology goes over smoothly into the radiation-dominated phase of standard cosmology, without having a period of cosmological inflation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Comparison of five-year survival rates among patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma with and without association with syphilis: a retrospective case-control study

Background: Syphilis is an infectious disease that is at least discussed to be premalignant. This potential, combined with its general pathological impact, raises the question if syphilis increases mortality in oral cancer patients. The aim of the study was to assess if the five-year survival rates among patients suffering from oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with (cohort I) and without association with syphilis (cohort II) differ. Methods: Retrospective clinical data of patients diagnosed with OSCC (International Classification of Diseases [ICD]-10 codes C01-06) within the past 20 years from the access date September 25, 2021 were retrieved from the TriNetX network (TriNetX, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) to gain initial cohort 0. Subjects also diagnosed with syphilis (ICD-10 codes A51-53) were assigned to cohort I. Cohort II was comprised of the remaining individuals of cohort 0 by creating a group with the same number of patients as cohort I, and by matching for age and gender. Subsequently, Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression were performed, and risk, odds and hazard ratios were calculated. Results: Of a total of 73,736 patients in cohort 0, 199 individuals were each assigned to cohort I and II. During the five-year period after tumor diagnosis, 39 and 30 patients in cohort I and II died. The five-year survival probabilities did not significantly differ between the cohorts (I vs. II = 74.19% vs. 75.01%; p = 0.52; Log-Rank test), nor the risk of dying (I vs. II = 19.6% vs. 15.08%; risk difference = 4.52%; p = 0.23). The calculated risk, odds and hazard ratios were 1.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.84; 2.00), 1.37 (95% CI = 0.81; 2.31) and 1.17 (95% CI = 0.73; 1.88), respectively. Conclusions: The obtained results indicate that the survival rate of individuals with OSCC might not be negatively influenced if syphilis is present/associated. However, the results need to be interpreted cautiously due to limitations related to the retrospective approach, especially as data on the tumor staging were not accessible

Statistical Mechanics of Black Holes

We analyze the statistical mechanics of a gas of neutral and charged black holes. The microcanonical ensemble is the only possible approach to this system, and the equilibrium configuration is the one for which most of the energy is carried by a single black hole. Schwarzschild black holes are found to obey the statistical bootstrap condition. In all cases, the microcanonical temperature is identical to the Hawking temperature of the most massive black hole in the gas. U(1) charges in general break the bootstrap property. The problems of black hole decay and of quantum coherence are also addressed.Comment: 21 page

Supersymmetry Breaking and Dilaton Stabilization in String Gas Cosmology

In this Note we study supersymmetry breaking via gaugino condensation in string gas cosmology. We show that the same gaugino condensate which is introduced to stabilize the dilaton breaks supersymmetry. We study the constraints on the scale of supersymmetry breaking which this mechanism leads to.Comment: 11 page