Reproductive ecology of interior least tern and piping plover in relation to Platte River hydrology and sandbar dynamics

Historical and contemporary use of large, economically important rivers by threatened and/or endangered species in the United States is a subject of great interest to a wide range of stakeholders. In a recent study of the Platte River in Nebraska, Farnsworth et al. (2017) (hereinafter referred to as “the authors” or “Farnsworth et al.”) used distributions of nest initiation dates taken mostly from human-created, off-channel habitats and a model of emergent sandbar habitat to evaluate the hypothesis that least terns (Sternula antillarum) and piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) are physiologically adapted to initiate nests concurrent with the cessation of spring river flow rises. The authors conclude that (1) these species are not now, nor were they in the past, physiologically adapted to the hydrology of the Platte River, (2) habitats in the Platte River did not, and cannot support reproductive levels sufficient to maintain species subpopulations, (3) the gap in local elevation between peak river stage and typical sandbar height, in combination with the timing of the average spring flood, creates a physical environment which limits opportunities for successful nesting and precludes persistence by either species, and (4) the presence of off-channel habitats, including human-created sand and gravel mines, natural lakes, and a playa wetland, allowed the species to expand into the Platte River basin

The NextGen Model Atmosphere grid: II. Spherically symmetric model atmospheres for giant stars with effective temperatures between 3000 and 6800~K

We present the extension of our NextGen model atmosphere grid to the regime of giant stars. The input physics of the models presented here is nearly identical to the NextGen dwarf atmosphere models, however spherical geometry is used self-consistently in the model calculations (including the radiative transfer). We re-visit the discussion of the effects of spherical geometry on the structure of the atmospheres and the emitted spectra and discuss the results of NLTE calculations for a few selected models.Comment: ApJ, in press (November 1999), 13 pages, also available at http://dilbert.physast.uga.edu/~yeti/PAPERS and at ftp://calvin.physast.uga.edu/pub/preprints/NG-giants.ps.g

Reporting the news: how Breitbart derives legitimacy from recontextualised news

The alternative right-wing news website Breitbart has been a subject of increased academic scrutiny following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President in 2016. Due to its prominence during the campaign, where it became the most significant news website within the conservative media sphere. Breitbart remains highly influential within the conservative media sphere, particularly as a result of its attacks on mainstream media actors and organisations, which remain a prominent feature of its coverage and represent an ongoing form of metajournalistic discourse in the struggle to define the boundaries of journalism. This paper seeks to examine how Breitbart builds journalistic authority and legitimacy amongst their readership as a result of attacks on liberal and conservative journalists alike, emotionally appealing to normative, ‘common-sense’ understandings of journalism. In particular, Breitbart frequently use recontextualised news as a method of attacking oppositional journalism whilst simultaneously bolstering their own journalistic credentials. We argue that in a media ecology in which emotional content is prioritised in order to commodify the anger of citizens, practices of recontextualisation will continue to play an important role in the battle over the boundaries of acceptable journalistic practice

Operational database for storing and extracting data

This deliverable lays out the work as done as part of MACSUR CropM on data, with the  focus on improving data management and have shared data curation for future use. The  issue was tackled with help from the MACSUR central hub coordination in the form of Jason  Jargenson from University of Reading. The data management as proposed and  implemented in this deliverable is very much a bottom up process, in which partners in a  meeting in Spring 2013 in Aarhus investigated the best way forward for data management  across activities in CropM.As a follow up to this, the work was mainly divided in three  parts:  1. The  Open  Data  Journal  for  Agricultural  Research,  mainly  focused  on  long  term  data  archival  and  citation  of  data  sets,  as  input  and  outputs  to  the  modelling  work,  as  part  of  MACSUR,  lead  by  Wageningen  UR  2. The  Geonetwork  data  catalog  hosted  at  Aarhus  Universitet,  that  allows  for  operational  access  and  storage  of  data  sets  as  part  of  the  ongoing  work,  also  for  restricted  access  of  the  consortium,  and  as  a  first  step  to  visualization,  lead  by  Aarhus  Universitet.  3. The  work  on  rating  data  sets,  that  provides  a  tool  for  improving  data  set  access  in  an  early  phase  for  connecting  them  to  models,  lead  by  Reading  University.  At the end of the deliverable some next steps are giving for data activities in the context  of AgMIP and beyond

Operational database for storing and extracting data

This deliverable lays out the work as done as part of MACSUR CropM on data, with the  focus on improving data management and have shared data curation for future use. The  issue was tackled with help from the MACSUR central hub coordination in the form of Jason  Jargenson from University of Reading. The data management as proposed and  implemented in this deliverable is very much a bottom up process, in which partners in a  meeting in Spring 2013 in Aarhus investigated the best way forward for data management  across activities in CropM.As a follow up to this, the work was mainly divided in three  parts:  1. The  Open  Data  Journal  for  Agricultural  Research,  mainly  focused  on  long  term  data  archival  and  citation  of  data  sets,  as  input  and  outputs  to  the  modelling  work,  as  part  of  MACSUR,  lead  by  Wageningen  UR  2. The  Geonetwork  data  catalog  hosted  at  Aarhus  Universitet,  that  allows  for  operational  access  and  storage  of  data  sets  as  part  of  the  ongoing  work,  also  for  restricted  access  of  the  consortium,  and  as  a  first  step  to  visualization,  lead  by  Aarhus  Universitet.  3. The  work  on  rating  data  sets,  that  provides  a  tool  for  improving  data  set  access  in  an  early  phase  for  connecting  them  to  models,  lead  by  Reading  University.  At the end of the deliverable some next steps are giving for data activities in the context  of AgMIP and beyond

Aurora-A kinase is differentially expressed in the nucleus and cytoplasm in normal Müllerian epithelium and benign, borderline and malignant serous ovarian neoplasms

BACKGROUND: Aurora-A kinase is important for cellular proliferation and is implicated in the tumorigenesis of several malignancies, including of the ovary. Information regarding the expression patterns of Aurora-A in normal Müllerian epithelium as well as benign, borderline and malignant epithelial ovarian neoplasms is limited. METHODS: We investigated Aurora-A expression by immunohistochemistry in 15 benign, 19 borderline and 17 malignant ovarian serous tumors, and 16 benign, 8 borderline, and 2 malignant ovarian mucinous tumors. Twelve fimbriae from seven patients served as normal Müllerian epithelium controls. We also examined Aurora-A protein expression by western blot in normal fimbriae and tumor specimens. RESULTS: All normal fimbriae (n = 12) showed nuclear but not cytoplasmic Aurora-A immunoreactivity by immunohistochemistry. Benign ovarian tumors also showed strong nuclear Aurora-A immunoreactivity. Forty-eight percent (13/27) of borderline tumors demonstrated nuclear Aurora-A immunoreactivity, while the remainder (52%, 14/27) lacked Aurora-A staining. Nuclear Aurora-A immunoreactivity was absent in all malignant serous tumors, however, 47% (8/17) demonstrated perinuclear cytoplasmic staining. These results were statistically significant when tumor class (benign/borderline/malignant) was compared to immunoreactivity localization or intensity (Fisher Exact Test, p \u3c 0.01). Western blot analysis confirmed the greater nuclear Aurora-A expression in control Müllerian epithelium compared to borderline and malignant tumors. CONCLUSION: Aurora-A kinase is differentially expressed across normal Müllerian epithelium, benign and borderline serous and mucinous ovarian epithelial neoplasms and malignant serous ovarian tumors., with nuclear expression of unphosphorylated Aurora-A being present in normal and benign neoplastic epithelium, and lost in malignant serous neoplasms. Further studies of the possible biological and clinical implications of the loss of nuclear Aurora-A expression in ovarian tumors, and its role in ovarian carcinogenesis are warranted

Population analysis and the effects of Gaussian basis set quality and quantum mechanical approach: main group through heavy element species

Atomic charge and its distribution across molecules provide important insight into chemical behavior. Though there are many studies on various routes for the determination of atomic charge, there are few studies that examine the broader impact of basis set and quantum method used over many types of population analysis methods across the periodic table. Largely, such a study of population analysis has focused on main-group species. In this work, atomic charges were calculated using several population analysis methods including orbital-based methods (Mulliken, Löwdin, and Natural Population Analysis), volume-based methods (Atoms-in-Molecules (AIM) and Hirshfeld), and potential derived charges (CHELP, CHELPG, and Merz-Kollman). The impact of basis set and quantum mechanical method choices upon population analysis has been considered. The basis sets utilized include Pople (6-21G**, 6-31G**, 6-311G**) and Dunning (cc-pVnZ, aug-cc-pVnZ; n = D, T, Q, 5) basis sets for main group molecules. For the transition metal and heavy element species examined, relativistic forms of the correlation consistent basis sets were used. This is the first time the cc-pVnZ-DK3 and cc-pwCVnZ-DK3 basis sets have been examined with respect to their behavior across all levels of basis sets for atomic charges for an actinide. The quantum methods chosen include two density functional (PBE0 and B3LYP), Hartree-Fock, and second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) approaches