Nieuwe maat voor bodemvochtregime ook geschikt onder toekomstig klimaat

Huidige maten voor zuurstofstress in het wortelmilieu van planten, zoals de gemiddelde voorjaarsgrondwaterstand en het percentage luchtgevulde poriën, zijn niet geschikt voor klimaatprojecties. Dat komt doordat ze correlatief en indirect zijn en geen rekening houden met veranderingen in temperatuur en neerslagpatronen. In natte omstandigheden is de respiratiestress wel een geschikte maat. Met een nieuw model is die nu voor alle locaties in Nederland te berekenen. In de nieuwe maat komen zowel de effecten op de vegetatie van extreme neerslag tot uitdrukking als die van hoge temperaturen. Zuurstofstress door een hevige regenbui op een warme zomerdag zal onder het toekomstige klimaat veel vaker voorkomen. De door het nieuwe model berekende hoge respiratiestress van een dergelijke gebeurtenis zal leiden tot natuurlijke vegetaties van nattere bodems dan de huidige, niet klimaatbestendige maten voorzie

Vochtindicatie van grasvegetaties in relatie tot de vochttoestand van de bodem

Om effecten van het waterbeheer op de vegetatie te kunnen voorspellen is inzicht in de relatie tussen de vegetatie en de waterhuishouding van de standplaats noodzakelijk. Het onderzoek richt zich op de relatie tussen vochthuishouding en soortensamenstelling in vochtige tot droge omstandigheden. Verschillende gangbare maten voor de vochtindicatie worden gerelateerd aan verschillende berekende maten voor de vochttoestand van de bodem

Bayesian classification of vegetation types with Gaussian mixture density fitting to indicator values.

Question: Is it possible to mathematically classify relevés into vegetation types on the basis of their average indicator values, including the uncertainty of the classification? Location: The Netherlands. Method: A large relevé database was used to develop a method for predicting vegetation types based on indicator values. First, each relevé was classified into a phytosociological association on the basis of its species composition. Additionally, mean indicator values for moisture, nutrients and acidity were computed for each relevé. Thus, the position of each classified relevé was obtained in a three-dimensional space of indicator values. Fitting the data to so called Gaussian Mixture Models yielded densities of associations as a function of indicator values. Finally, these density functions were used to predict the Bayesian occurrence probabilities of associations for known indicator values. Validation of predictions was performed by using a randomly chosen half of the database for the calibration of densities and the other half for the validation of predicted associations. Results and Conclusions: With indicator values, most relevés were classified correctly into vegetation types at the association level. This was shown using confusion matrices that relate (1) the number of relevés classified into associations based on species composition to (2) those based on indicator values. Misclassified relevés belonged to ecologically similar associations. The method seems very suitable for predictive vegetation models

The need of data harmonization to derive robust empirical relationships between soil conditions and vegetation.

Question: Is it possible to improve the general applicability and significance of empirical relationships between abiotic conditions and vegetation by harmonization of temporal data? Location: The Netherlands. Methods: Three datasets of vegetation, recorded after periods with different meteorological conditions, were used to analyze relationships between soil moisture regime (expressed by the mean spring groundwater level - MSLt calculated for different periods) and vegetation (expressed by the mean indicator value for moisture regime Fm). For each releve, measured groundwater levels were interpolated and extrapolated to daily values for the period 1970-2000 by means of an impulse-response model. Sigmoid regression lines between MSLt and Fm were determined for each of the three datasets and for the combined dataset. Results: A measurement period of three years resulted in significantly different relationships between Fm and MSLt for the three datasets (F-test,/? <0.05>. The three regression lines only coincided for the mean spring groundwater level computed over the period 1970-2000 (AfSLclimate) and thus provided a general applicable relationship. Precipitation surplus prior to vegetation recordings strongly affected the relationships. Conclusions: Harmonization of time series data (1) eliminates biased measurements, (2) results in generally applicable relationships between abiotic and vegetation characteristics and (3) increases the goodness of fit of these relationships. The presented harmonization procedure can be used to optimize many relationships between soil and vegetation characteristics. © IAVS; Opulus Press Uppsala

Amygdala responses to emotional faces in twins discordant or concordant for the risk for anxiety and depression.

Background: Functional brain imaging studies have shown deviant amygdala responses to emotional stimuli in subjects suffering from anxiety and depressive disorder, but both hyperactivity and hypoactivity compared to healthy controls have been reported. To account for these discrepant findings, we hypothesize that genetic and environmental risk factors differently impact on amygdala functioning. Methods: To test this hypothesis, we assessed amygdala responses to an emotional faces paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging in monozygotic twin pairs discordant for the risk of anxiety and depression (n = 10 pairs) and in monozygotic twin pairs concordant for high (n = 7 pairs) or low (n = 15 pairs) risk for anxiety and depression. Results: Main effects (all faces vs. baseline) revealed robust bilateral amygdala activity across groups. In discordant twins, increased amygdala responses were found for negatively valenced stimuli (angry/anxious faces) in high-risk twins compared to their low-risk co-twins. In contrast, concordant high-risk pairs revealed blunted amygdala reactivity to both positive and negative faces compared with concordant low-risk pairs. Post-hoc analyses showed that these findings were independent of 5-HTTLPR genotype. Conclusions: Our findings indicate amygdala hyperactivity in subjects who are at high risk for anxiety and depression through environmental factors and amygdala hypoactivity in those at risk mainly through genetic factors. We suggest that this result reflects a difference in baseline amygdala activation in these groups. Future imaging studies on anxiety and depression should aim to avoid admixture of subjects who are at genetic risk with those at risk due to environmental factors. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Demonstration of cooling by the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment

The use of accelerated beams of electrons, protons or ions has furthered the development of nearly every scientific discipline. However, high-energy muon beams of equivalent quality have not yet been delivered. Muon beams can be created through the decay of pions produced by the interaction of a proton beam with a target. Such ‘tertiary’ beams have much lower brightness than those created by accelerating electrons, protons or ions. High-brightness muon beams comparable to those produced by state-of-the-art electron, proton and ion accelerators could facilitate the study of lepton–antilepton collisions at extremely high energies and provide well characterized neutrino beams1,2,3,4,5,6. Such muon beams could be realized using ionization cooling, which has been proposed to increase muon-beam brightness7,8. Here we report the realization of ionization cooling, which was confirmed by the observation of an increased number of low-amplitude muons after passage of the muon beam through an absorber, as well as an increase in the corresponding phase-space density. The simulated performance of the ionization cooling system is consistent with the measured data, validating designs of the ionization cooling channel in which the cooling process is repeated to produce a substantial cooling effect9,10,11. The results presented here are an important step towards achieving the muon-beam quality required to search for phenomena at energy scales beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider at a facility of equivalent or reduced footprint6

Genome-wide Association Study of Smoking Initiation and Current Smoking

For the identification of genes associated with smoking initiation and current smoking, genome-wide association analyses were carried out in 3497 subjects. Significant genes that replicated in three independent samples (n = 405, 5810, and 1648) were visualized into a biologically meaningful network showing cellular location and direct interaction of their proteins. Several interesting groups of proteins stood out, including glutamate receptors (e.g., GRIN2B, GRIN2A, GRIK2, GRM8), proteins involved in tyrosine kinase receptor signaling (e.g., NTRK2, GRB14), transporters (e.g., SLC1A2, SLC9A9) and cell-adhesion molecules (e.g., CDH23). We conclude that a network-based genome-wide association approach can identify genes influencing smoking behavior

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele