Fish use of artificial dyke structures in the Kanawha River, West Virginia

Artificial structures have been used in the past to potentially increase fish production by providing cover, feeding grounds and spawning areas. In some areas the US Army Corp of Engineers has constructed dykes to provide additional habitat for river fishes and to mitigate against navigable related impacts. This study is designed to test whether such structures really function as viable habitats as evidenced by increased abundances relative to natural reference areas lacking structures. Five sets of structures in the Kanawha River, West Virginia were sampled via boat electrofishing using point-abundance sampling twice monthly from June through October 2002 and 2003. We found a difference in taxa using structures relative to reference area. Cyprinidae (p = 0.5 to 0.1) and Catostomidae (p = 0.1) abundance was not dependent on artificial structure in comparison to natural reference. Artificial structures use was most important among Centrarchidae species, especially juveniles, including black bass and several species of Lepomis (p \u3c 0.001). Further, distribution offish between areas with and without structures appears most affected by short-term river flow in 2003 (p = 0.0008) where artificial structure serve as flow shelters (p = 0.0008) and in 2002 water temperature (p = 0.0007). These patterns suggest structures are viable mitigation measures that target and benefit fish of economic interest

Structure of the Entanglement Entropy of (3+1)D Gapped Phases of Matter

We study the entanglement entropy of gapped phases of matter in three spatial dimensions. We focus in particular on size-independent contributions to the entropy across entanglement surfaces of arbitrary topologies. We show that for low energy fixed-point theories, the constant part of the entanglement entropy across any surface can be reduced to a linear combination of the entropies across a sphere and a torus. We first derive our results using strong sub-additivity inequalities along with assumptions about the entanglement entropy of fixed-point models, and identify the topological contribution by considering the renormalization group flow; in this way we give an explicit definition of topological entanglement entropy $S_{\mathrm{topo}}$ in (3+1)D, which sharpens previous results. We illustrate our results using several concrete examples and independent calculations, and show adding "twist" terms to the Lagrangian can change $S_{\mathrm{topo}}$ in (3+1)D. For the generalized Walker-Wang models, we find that the ground state degeneracy on a 3-torus is given by $\exp(-3S_{\mathrm{topo}}[T^2])$ in terms of the topological entanglement entropy across a 2-torus. We conjecture that a similar relationship holds for Abelian theories in $(d+1)$ dimensional spacetime, with the ground state degeneracy on the $d$-torus given by $\exp(-dS_{\mathrm{topo}}[T^{d-1}])$.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figure

N-P co-limitation of primary production and response of arthropods to N and P in early primary succession on Mount St. Helens Volcano

Background: The effect of low nutrient availability on plant-consumer interactions during early succession is poorly understood. The low productivity and complexity of primary successional communities are expected to limit diversity and abundance of arthropods, but few studies have examined arthropod responses to enhanced nutrient supply in this context. We investigated the effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition on plant productivity and arthropod abundance on 24-yr-old soils at Mount St. Helens volcano. Methodology/Principal Findings:We measured the relative abundance of eight arthropod orders and five families in plots that received N, P, or no nutrients for 3-5 years. We also measured plant % cover, leaf %N, and plant diversity. Vegetation responded rapidly to N addition but showed a lagged response to P that, combined with evidence of increased N fixation, suggested P-limitation to N availability. After 3 yrs of fertilization, orthopterans (primarily Anabrus simplex (Tettigoniidae) and Melanoplus spp (Acrididae)) showed a striking attraction to P addition plots, while no other taxa responded to fertilization. After 5 yrs of fertilization, orthopteran density in the same plots increased 80%-130% with P addition and 40% with N. Using structural equation modeling, we show that in year 3 orthopteran abundance was associated with a P-mediated increase in plant cover (or correlated increases in resource quality), whereas in year 5 orthopteran density was not related to cover, diversity or plant %N, but rather to unmeasured effects of P, such as its influence on other aspects of resource quality. Conclusions/Significance:The marked surprising response to P by orthopterans, combined with a previous observation of P-limitation in lepidopteran herbivores at these sites, suggests that P-mediated effects of food quantity or quality are critical to insect herbivores in this N-P co-limited primary successional system. Our results also support a previous suggestion that the availability of N in these soils is P-limited. © 2010 Bishop et al

Nimodipine vs. Milrinone – Equal or Complementary Use? A Retrospective Analysis

Background: Cerebral vasospasm (CVS) continues to account for high morbidity and mortality in patients surviving the initial aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Nimodipine is the only drug known to reduce delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI), but it is believed not to affect large vessel CVS. Milrinone has emerged as a promising option. Our retrospective study focused on the effectiveness of the intra-arterial application of both drugs in monotherapy and combined therapy. Methods: We searched for patients with aneurysmal SAH, angiographically confirmed CVS, and at least one intra-arterial pharmacological angioplasty. Ten defined vessel sections on angiograms were assessed before and after vasodilator infusion. The improvement in vessel diameters was compared to the frequency of DCI-related cerebral infarction before hospital discharge and functional outcome reported as the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score after 6 months. Results: Between 2014 and 2021, 132 intra-arterial interventions (144 vascular territories, 12 bilaterally) in 30 patients were analyzed for this study. The vasodilating effect of nimodipine was superior to milrinone in all intradural segments. There was no significant intergroup difference concerning outcome in mRS (p = 0.217). Only nimodipine or the combined approach could prevent DCI-related infarction (both 57.1%), not milrinone alone (87.5%). Both drugs induced a doubled vasopressor demand due to blood pressure decrease, but milrinone alone induced tachycardia. Conclusions: The monotherapy with intra-arterial nimodipine was superior to milrinone. Nimodipine and milrinone may be used complementary in an escalation scheme with the administration of nimodipine first, complemented by milrinone in cases of severe CVS. Milrinone monotherapy is not recommended

How open science helps researchers succeed

Open access, open data, open source, and other open scholarship practices are growing in popularity and necessity. However, widespread adoption of these practices has not yet been achieved. One reason is that researchers are uncertain about how sharing their work will affect their careers. We review literature demonstrating that open research is associated with increases in citations, media attention, potential collaborators, job opportunities, and funding opportunities. These findings are evidence that open research practices bring significant benefits to researchers relative to more traditional closed practices