The role of functional strategies in global plant distribution

© 2020 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos Understanding the determinants of species distributions is a central topic in ecology. Competition, stress tolerance and colonization, respectively represented by Grime\u27s competitor (C), stress-tolerator (S) and ruderal (R) schemes, are three important functions that interactively influence plant distributions. In this study, we compiled a dataset of 2645 vascular plant species to explore the roles of the CSR strategies in global plant distribution. We analyzed the associations between the CSR scores and species range size with phylogenetic generalized least square (PGLS) models and phylogenetic path analysis, both of which accounted for the effects of species phylogenetic relatedness, longevity and growth form. The functional strategy-range size associations differed across different distributional ranges and growth forms. Specifically, species global and native range sizes were positively associated with the R score; species naturalized range size was positively associated with the C score; and all range-size measurements were negatively associated with the S score. These patterns were mostly driven by herbs but not shrubs or trees. For species global and native-range distributions, the patterns of shrubs were even opposite to those of herbs. Our work emphasizes the importance of distinguishing the functional strategy-distribution associations between different distributional ranges and growth forms for ecosystem conservation and invasion risk prediction, because of the trade-offs among the CSR strategies

The serum IgG antibody level as a biomarker for clinical outcome in patients with cerebral sparganosis after treatment

IntroductionCerebral sparganosis is a rare parasitic infection of the brain tissue. The remission of MRI change and clinical symptom has been used to evaluate the therapeutic effect. However, there is no study to correlate the serum IgG antibody level of sparganum to the prognosis of disease after treatment. Methods87 patients with cerebral sparganosis were collected from three medical centers. Clinical symptoms and MRI changes were evaluated at 12 months after initial treatment, and serum IgG antibody level of sparganum was evaluated at 2, 6, and 12 months after treatment. The positive cut-off value was based on 2.1 times the optical density (OD) of negative control. The index value was defined as the sample OD divided by the cut-off value.ResultsAmong the 87 patients after treatment, 71 patients had good clinical outcomes, and 16 had poor clinical outcomes. The area under the curve (AUC) showed that the index value measured at 12 months after treatment had the best prediction effect, with a value of 2.014. In the good-outcome group, the index values were less than 2.014 in all 71 patients, and only 8 patients had mildly enhanced residual lesions on MRI. In the poor-outcome group, the index values were more than 2.014 in all 16 patients, and all patients still showed significantly enhanced lesions on MRI. Compared with poor-outcome patients, only 2 patients with good outcomes had disease recurrence after treatment.DiscussionThis study provided evidence that the serum IgG antibody level of sparganum was a promising biomarker to evaluate the prognosis of patients with cerebral sparganosis after treatment

Mobile IPv6 based multiple network interfaces management for ubiquitous communications

There axe various link-layer technologies coexisting in the market that support wireless connections, such as Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and GPRS. These technologies are diverse in terms of bandwidth, coverage area, cost, power consumption, etc. Certain wireless networks are preferred over the others under certain circumstances. It is common that a mobile device is equipped with multiple wireless network interfaces, and connects to different networks at different time and locations in order to achieve ubiquitous communications. It is also possible for the mobile device to connect to multiple wireless networks simultaneously to enjoy aggregate bandwidth. Such kind of communications can be achieved by utilizing network mobility protocols, such as Mobile IP or Mobile IPv6.MASTER OF ENGINEERING (SCE

Ubiquitous access to map images through heterogeneous wireless networks

Online access to map images is one of the most popular Internet multimedia applications. With the rapidly growing popularity and functionalities of wireless devices, such as laptop, PDA and mobile phone, and the significant increase of data transmission rate in wireless network infrastructure, wireless access to map images becomes possible and many systems have been developed

A Novel Inverse Time–Frequency Domain Approach to Identify Random Forces

In order to ensure the reliability and safety of complex engineering structures and allow their redesign and evaluation, the estimation of dynamic loads applied on them is vital. In this paper, a novel time–frequency domain approach is proposed to identify random forces based on the weighted regularization algorithm. Firstly, the Newmark’s algorithm was applied to obtain structural dynamic responses, then a weighed regularization algorithm was used to identify the random forces exerted on the engineering structure. The weighting matrix was used to control the identified error of the random forces. A spatial frame model was built to illustrate the practicality of the proposed approach. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method is more effective than other methods for random forces identification

A Novel Inverse Time–Frequency Domain Approach to Identify Random Forces

In order to ensure the reliability and safety of complex engineering structures and allow their redesign and evaluation, the estimation of dynamic loads applied on them is vital. In this paper, a novel time–frequency domain approach is proposed to identify random forces based on the weighted regularization algorithm. Firstly, the Newmark’s algorithm was applied to obtain structural dynamic responses, then a weighed regularization algorithm was used to identify the random forces exerted on the engineering structure. The weighting matrix was used to control the identified error of the random forces. A spatial frame model was built to illustrate the practicality of the proposed approach. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method is more effective than other methods for random forces identification