Amphibian Species Contribute Similarly to Taxonomic, but not Functional and Phylogenetic Diversity: Inferences from Amphibian Biodiversity on Emei Mountain

Understanding the relationships between species, communities, and biodiversity are important challenges in conservation ecology. Current biodiversity conservation activities usually focus on species that are rare, endemic, distinctive, or at risk of extinction. However, empirical studies of whether such species contribute more to aspects of biodiversity than common species are still relatively rare. The aim of the present study was to assess the contribution of individual amphibian species to different facets of biodiversity, and to test whether species of conservation interest contribute more to taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity than do species without special conservation status. To answer these questions, 19 000 simulated random communities with a gradient of species richness were created by shuffling the regional pool of species inhabiting Emei Mountain. Differences of diversity values were then computed before and after removing individual species in these random communities. Our results indicated that although individual species contributed similarly to taxonomic diversity, their contribution to functional and phylogenetic diversity was more idiosyncratic. This was primarily driven by the diverse functional attributes of species and the differences in phylogenetic relationships among species. Additionally, species of conservation interest did not show a significantly higher contribution to any facet of biodiversity. Our results support the claims that the usefulness of metrics based only on species richness is limited. Instead, assemblages that include species with functional and phylogenetic diversity should be protected to maintain biodiversity

Carb­oxy­methyl ursolate monohydrate

In the title compound, C28H50O5·H2O, all of the six-membered rings of the penta­cyclic triterpene skeleton adopt chair conformations. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Facile synthesis of CdS nanocrystals using thioglycolic acid as a sulfur source and stabilizer in aqueous solution

A novel method has been developed for the synthesis of CdS nanocrystals (NCs) using thioglycolic acid (TGA) as a sulfur source and stabilizer with the presence of hydrogen peroxide in an aqueous medium. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results indicate that the product was of zinc-blend crystal structure in a sphere-like shape. The room-temperature luminescence spectra revealed that the emission peak of CdS NCs prepared in relatively short refluxing times (10-120 min) could be tuned from 518 nm to 610 nm, and the photoluminescence quantum yield of the as-prepared CdS NCs could reach as high as 12.6%. In addition, the mechanism of the CdS nanocrystals formation was preliminarily discussed.KEY WORDS: Chemical synthesis, CdS, Nanostructures, Optical properties, Photoluminescence spectroscopy Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2011, 25(3), 393-398

A New Species of the Asian Toad Genus Megophrys sensu lato(Amphibia: Anura: Megophryidae) from Guizhou Province, China

We describe a new species of the genus Megophrys sensu lato from Guizhou Province, China. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA sequences all strongly supported the new species as an independent lineage in Megophrys (Panophrys) clade. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following morphological characteristics: (1) small body size with SVL < 38.8 mm in male and SVL < 42.3 mm in female; (2) vomerine teeth absent; (3) tongue not notched behind; (4) a small horn-like tubercle at the edge of each upper eyelid; (5) tympanum distinctly visible, rounded; (6) two metacarpal tubercles in hand; (7) relative finger lengths: II < I < V < III; (8) toes with rudimentary webbing at bases; (9) heels overlapping when thighs are positioned at right angles to the body; (10) tibiotarsal articulation reaching the level between tympanum to eye when leg stretched forward; (11) an internal single subgular vocal sac in male; (12) in breeding male, the nuptial pads with black nuptial spines on the dorsal bases of the first and second fingers

A New Species of Genus Microhyla (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) from Zhejiang Province, China

We described a new species, Microhyla beilunensis sp. nov., from Zhejiang Province of China. Phylogenetic analyses based on the mitochondrial 12S, 16S and CO1 gene sequences suggested that the new taxon was distinctly separated from its congeners and closed to M. mixtura and M. okinavensis. Morphologically, the new species could be identified from its congeners except M. mixtura by several characters: (1) rudimentary webs on toe base; (2) absence of disks and dorsal median longitudinal grooves on finger tips; (3) presence of disks and dorsal median longitudinal grooves on toe tips. As well, the new species could be identified from topotype M. mixtura by the combination of characters: (1) apart from the stripes, bar-shaped and oval-shaped patterns, the rounded spots present on the dorsum of body and legs; (2) the outer metacarpal tubercles prominently larger than the inner one; (3) of males, the ratios of HW, IND, UEW and LAW to SVL of the new species were significantly larger than those of M. mixtura (P < 0.01), and the ratios of SL, IOD, LAHL, HLL, TL, TFL and FL to SVL of the new species were significantly less than those of M. mixtura (P < 0.05)

Search What You Want: Barrier Panelty NAS for Mixed Precision Quantization

Emergent hardwares can support mixed precision CNN models inference that assign different bitwidths for different layers. Learning to find an optimal mixed precision model that can preserve accuracy and satisfy the specific constraints on model size and computation is extremely challenge due to the difficult in training a mixed precision model and the huge space of all possible bit quantizations. In this paper, we propose a novel soft Barrier Penalty based NAS (BP-NAS) for mixed precision quantization, which ensures all the searched models are inside the valid domain defined by the complexity constraint, thus could return an optimal model under the given constraint by conducting search only one time. The proposed soft Barrier Penalty is differentiable and can impose very large losses to those models outside the valid domain while almost no punishment for models inside the valid domain, thus constraining the search only in the feasible domain. In addition, a differentiable Prob-1 regularizer is proposed to ensure learning with NAS is reasonable. A distribution reshaping training strategy is also used to make training more stable. BP-NAS sets new state of the arts on both classification (Cifar-10, ImageNet) and detection (COCO), surpassing all the efficient mixed precision methods designed manually and automatically. Particularly, BP-NAS achieves higher mAP (up to 2.7\% mAP improvement) together with lower bit computation cost compared with the existing best mixed precision model on COCO detection.Comment: ECCV202

Multifunctional photonic integrated circuit for diverse microwave signal generation, transmission and processing

Microwave photonics (MWP) studies the interaction between microwave and optical waves for the generation, transmission and processing of microwave signals (i.e., three key domains), taking advantages of broad bandwidth and low loss offered by modern photonics. Integrated MWP using photonic integrated circuits (PICs) can reach a compact, reliable and green implementation. Most PICs, however, are recently developed to perform one or more functions restricted inside a single domain. In this paper, as highly desired, a multifunctional PIC is proposed to cover the three key domains. The PIC is fabricated on InP platform by monolithically integrating four laser diodes and two modulators. Using the multifunctional PIC, seven fundamental functions across microwave signal generation, transmission and processing are demonstrated experimentally. Outdoor field trials for electromagnetic environment surveillance along an in-service high-speed railway are also performed. The success to such a PIC marks a key step forward for practical and massive MWP implementations.Comment: 17 page

Acute and acute-on-chronic kidney injury of patients with decompensated heart failure: impact on outcomes

BACKGROUND: Acute worsening of renal function, an independent risk factor for adverse outcomes in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), occurs as a consequence of new onset kidney injury (AKI) or acute deterioration of pre-existed chronic kidney disease (CKD) (acute-on-chronic kidney injury, ACKI). However, the possible difference in prognostic implication between AKI and ACKI has not been well established. METHODS: We studied all consecutive patients hospitalized with ADHF from 2003 through 2010 in Nanfang Hospital. We classified patients as with or without pre-existed CKD based on the mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over a six-month period before hospitalization. AKI and ACKI were defined by RIFLE criteria according to the increase of the index serum creatinine. RESULTS: A total of 1,005 patients were enrolled. The incidence of ACKI was higher than that of AKI. The proportion of patients with diuretic resistance was higher among patients with pre-existed CKD than among those without CKD (16.9% vs. 9.9%, P = 0.002). Compared with AKI, ACKI was associated with higher risk for in-hospital mortality, long hospital stay, and failure in renal function recovery. Pre-existed CKD and development of acute worsening of renal function during hospitalization were the independent risk factors for in-hospital death after adjustment by the other risk factors. The RIFLE classification predicted all-cause and cardiac mortality in both AKI and ACKI. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with ACKI were at greatest risk of adverse short-term outcomes in ADHF. Monitoring eGFR and identifying CKD should not be ignored in patients with cardiovascular disease