Coexistence via Resource Partitioning Fails to Generate an Increase in Community Function

Classic ecological theory suggests that resource partitioning facilitates the coexistence of species by reducing inter-specific competition. A byproduct of this process is an increase in overall community function, because a greater spectrum of resources can be used. In contrast, coexistence facilitated by neutral mechanisms is not expected to increase function. We studied coexistence in laboratory microcosms of the bactivorous ciliates Paramecium aurelia and Colpidium striatum to understand the relationship between function and coexistence mechanism. We quantified population and community-level function (biomass and oxygen consumption), competitive interactions, and resource partitioning. The two ciliates partitioned their bacterial resource along a size axis, with the larger ciliate consuming larger bacteria than the smaller ciliate. Despite this, there was no gain in function at the community level for either biomass or oxygen consumption, and competitive effects were symmetrical within and between species. Because other potential coexistence mechanisms can be ruled out, it is likely that inter-specific interference competition diminished the expected gain in function generated by resource partitioning, leading to a system that appeared competitively neutral even when structured by niche partitioning. We also analyzed several previous studies where two species of protists coexisted and found that the two-species communities showed a broad range of biomass levels relative to the single-species states

Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi

We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson. Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B- --> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Creatine Monohydrate and Conjugated Linoleic Acid Improve Strength and Body Composition Following Resistance Exercise in Older Adults

Aging is associated with lower muscle mass and an increase in body fat. We examined whether creatine monohydrate (CrM) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) could enhance strength gains and improve body composition (i.e., increase fat-free mass (FFM); decrease body fat) following resistance exercise training in older adults (>65 y). Men (N = 19) and women (N = 20) completed six months of resistance exercise training with CrM (5g/d)+CLA (6g/d) or placebo with randomized, double blind, allocation. Outcomes included: strength and muscular endurance, functional tasks, body composition (DEXA scan), blood tests (lipids, liver function, CK, glucose, systemic inflammation markers (IL-6, C-reactive protein)), urinary markers of compliance (creatine/creatinine), oxidative stress (8-OH-2dG, 8-isoP) and bone resorption (Ν-telopeptides). Exercise training improved all measurements of functional capacity (P<0.05) and strength (P<0.001), with greater improvement for the CrM+CLA group in most measurements of muscular endurance, isokinetic knee extension strength, FFM, and lower fat mass (P<0.05). Plasma creatinine (P<0.05), but not creatinine clearance, increased for CrM+CLA, with no changes in serum CK activity or liver function tests. Together, this data confirms that supervised resistance exercise training is safe and effective for increasing strength in older adults and that a combination of CrM and CLA can enhance some of the beneficial effects of training over a six-month period. Trial Registration. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0047390

Measurement of branching fractions and resonance contributions for B-0 ->(D)over-bar(0)K(+)pi(-) and search for B-0 ->(DK+)-K-0 pi(-) decays

Using 226x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-> B (B) over bar events collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e(+)e(-) storage ring at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, we measure the branching fraction for B-0->(D) over bar (0)K(+)pi(-), excluding B-0-> D*-K+, to be B(B-0->(0)K(+)pi(-))=(88 +/- 15 +/- 9)x10(-6). We observe B-0->(D) over bar K-0(*)(892)(0) and B-0-> D-2(*)(2460)K--(+) contributions. The ratio of branching fractions B(B-0-> D*-K+)/B(B-0-> D(*-)pi(+))=(7.76 +/- 0.34 +/- 0.29)% is measured separately. The branching fraction for the suppressed mode B-0-> D(0)K(+)pi(-) is B(B-0-> D(0)K(+)pi(-))< 19x10(-6) at the 90% confidence level

Search for strange-pentaquark production in e(+)e(-) annihilation at root s=10.58 GeV

We search for strange-pentaquark states that have been previously reported by other experiments-the Theta(1540)(+), Xi(5)(1860)(--), and Xi(5)(1860)(0)-in 123 fb(-1) of data recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e(+)e(-) storage ring. We find no evidence for these states and set 95% confidence level upper limits on the number of Theta(1540)(+) and Xi(5)(1860)(--) pentaquarks produced per e(+)e(-) annihilation into q (q) over bar and per Upsilon(4S) decay. For q (q) over bar events the Theta(1540)(+) [Xi(5)(1860)(--)] limit is about 8 [4] times lower than the rates measured for ordinary baryons of similar mass

Search for radiative penguin decays B+->rho(+)gamma, B-0 ->rho(0)gamma, and B-0 ->omega gamma

A search for the decays B-->rho(770)gamma and B-0-->omega(782)gamma is performed on a sample of 211x10(6) Y(4S)-->B (B) over bar events collected by the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) storage ring. No evidence for the decays is seen. We set the following limits on the individual branching fractions: B(B+-->rho(+)gamma)rho(0)gamma)omegagamma)(rho/omega)gamma]<1.2x10(-6), from which we determine a constraint on the ratio of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements |V-td|/|V-ts|

Heterogeneity Aware Random Forest for Drug Sensitivity Prediction

Abstract Samples collected in pharmacogenomics databases typically belong to various cancer types. For designing a drug sensitivity predictive model from such a database, a natural question arises whether a model trained on diverse inter-tumor heterogeneous samples will perform similar to a predictive model that takes into consideration the heterogeneity of the samples in model training and prediction. We explore this hypothesis and observe that ensemble model predictions obtained when cancer type is known out-perform predictions when that information is withheld even when the samples sizes for the former is considerably lower than the combined sample size. To incorporate the heterogeneity idea in the commonly used ensemble based predictive model of Random Forests, we propose Heterogeneity Aware Random Forests (HARF) that assigns weights to the trees based on the category of the sample. We treat heterogeneity as a latent class allocation problem and present a covariate free class allocation approach based on the distribution of leaf nodes of the model ensemble. Applications on CCLE and GDSC databases show that HARF outperforms traditional Random Forest when the average drug responses of cancer types are different