LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF UNGULATES ON PERFORMANCE, ABUNDANCE, AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TWO MONTANE HERBS

Abstract. Herbivores highly reduce the performance of many plant species. However, little empirical information exists on the real effect that these organisms have on plant populations. With a long-term (seven-year) ungulate exclusion experiment in two areas of southeastern Spain, I demonstrated that these organisms can affect not only individual performance, but also the population dynamics and spatial structure of two short-lived monocarpic herbs, Erysimum mediohispanicum and E. baeticum. There was between-year and among-microhabitat variability in damage, with plants growing under shrubs being less damaged than those growing in open sites. Ungulates consumed flowers and fruits, severely decreasing plant reproductive output. The postdispersal seed predation rate increased after ungulates were excluded, presumably as a consequence of the relaxation of competition between seed predators and ungulates. The effect of ungulates on Erysimum early establishment was nonsignificant, although Ͼ50% of Erysimum seedlings died due to ungulate trampling. The exclusion experiment also revealed that, as a consequence of their impact on seed production, ungulates affected the population dynamics of their host plants; their removal produced a significant increase in the abundance of the two studied plant species. Furthermore, habitat distribution of plants was also influenced by the activity of ungulates. In control plots, most Erysimum individuals grew under the canopy of co-occurring shrubs. In contrast, a dramatic spatial redistribution of plants occurred in ungulate-excluded plots, where they started to colonize open sites. Consequently, the spatial structure of the plants excluded from ungulates significantly differed from that in control plots and became statistically similar to the structure expected according to the cover of every microhabitat. Finally, this experiment revealed that, for plants inhabiting heterogeneous landscapes, abundance and spatial structure are tightly related. Thus, I found that abundance increased in ungulate-excluded plots due not to a general and homogeneous increase, but to a significant increase in those microhabitats inaccessible to ungulates in control plots. These findings suggest that herbivory effects on plants are intricate, affecting not only their performance or population dynamics, but also their habitat distribution and niche structure

Network types and their application in natural variation studies in plants

We are in the age of data-driven biology. Not even a decade after the invention of high-throughput sequencing technologies, there are methods that accurately monitor DNA polymorphisms, transcription profiles, methylation states, transcription factor binding sites, chromatin compactness, nucleosome positions, dynamic histone marks, and so on. We are starting to generate comparable amounts of protein or metabolite data. A key issue is how are we going to make sense of all this information. Network analysis is the most promising method to integrate, query and display large amounts of data for human interpretation. This review shortly summarizes the basic types of networks, their properties and limitations. In addition, I introduce the application of networks to the study of the molecular mechanisms behind natural phenotypic variation

Capturing the complexity of COVID-19 research: Trend analysis in the first two years of the pandemic using a bayesian probabilistic model and machine learning tools

Regarding Susana Mendes, this work was funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the project MARE (UIDB/04292/2020 and UIDP/04292/2020) and the project LA/P/0069/2020 granted to the Associate Laboratory ARNET.Publications about COVID-19 have occurred practically since the first outbreak. Therefore, studying the evolution of the scientific publications on COVID-19 can provide us with information on current research trends and can help researchers and policymakers to form a structured view of the existing evidence base of COVID-19 and provide new research directions. This growth rate was so impressive that the need for updated information and research tools become essential to mitigate the spread of the virus. Therefore, traditional bibliographic research procedures, such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses, become time-consuming and limited in focus. This study aims to study the scientific literature on COVID-19 that has been published since its inception and to map the evolution of research in the time range between February 2020 and January 2022. The search was carried out in PubMed extracting topics using text mining and latent Dirichlet allocation modeling and a trend analysis was performed to analyze the temporal variations in research for each topic. We also study the distribution of these topics between countries and journals. 126,334 peerreviewed articles and 16 research topics were identified. The countries with the highest number of scientific publications were the United States of America, China, Italy, United Kingdom, and India, respectively. Regarding the distribution of the number of publications by journal, we found that of the 7040 sources Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, PLoS ONE, and Sci. Rep., were the ones that led the publications on COVID-19. We discovered a growing tendency for eight topics (Prevention, Telemedicine, Vaccine immunity, Machine learning, Academic parameters, Risk factors and morbidity and mortality, Information synthesis methods, and Mental health), a falling trend for five of them (Epidemiology, COVID-19 pathology complications, Diagnostic test, Etiopathogenesis, and Political and health factors), and the rest varied throughout time with no discernible patterns (Therapeutics, Pharmacological and therapeutic target, and Repercussion health services).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Security governance and networks: New theoretical perspectives in transatlantic security

The end of the Cold War has not only witnessed the rise of new transnational threats such as terrorism, crime, proliferation and civil war; it has also seen the growing role of non-state actors in the provision of security in Europe and North America. Two concepts in particular have been used to describe these transformations: security governance and networks. However, the differences and potential theoretical utility of these two concepts for the study of contemporary security have so far been under-examined. This article seeks to address this gap. It proposes that security governance can help to explain the transformation of Cold War security structures, whereas network analysis is particularly useful for understanding the relations and interactions between public and private actors in the making and implementation of national and international security policies

In vitro inhibition of the replication of haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) and African swine fever virus (ASFV) by extracts from marine microalgae. Antiviral Res

Abstract We have screened for in vitro inhibition of viral replication with extracts from the following marine microalgae: Porphyridium cruentum, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Tetraselmis suecica, Chlorella autotrophica, Dunaliella tertiolecta, Dunaliella bardawil, Isochrysis galbana, Isochrysis galbana 6ar Tiso, Ellipsoidon sp. and Tetraselmis tetrathele. We have used as viral models two enveloped viruses of significant economic importance, the viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) of salmonid fish and the African swine fever virus (ASFV). The aqueous extracts from P. cruentum, C. autotrophica and Ellipsoidon sp., produced a significant inhibition of the in vitro replication of both viruses in a dose-dependent manner. That this inhibition could be due to sulfated polysaccharides was suggested because the same pattern of viral inhibition was obtained by using exocellular extracts from microalgae enriched in these compounds and/or dextran sulfate of high molecular weight. However, the inhibition of viral replication did not correlate with the percentage of sulfatation of the exocellular polysaccharides. Extracts from marine microalgae may have prophylactic utility against fish and mammalian viral diseases

Extended investigation of superdeformed bands in 151,152^{151,152}Tb nuclei

A detailed study of known and new SD bands in Tb isotopes has been performed with the use of the EUROBALL IV -ray array. The high-statistics data set has allowed for the extension of known SD bands at low and high spins by new -ray transitions. These transitions, as it turns out, correspond to the rotational frequencies where the principal superdeformed gaps (Z=66,N=86) close giving rise to up- or down-bending mechanisms. This enables to attribute the underlying theoretical configurations with much higher confidence as compared to the previous identifications. Five new SD bands have been discovered, three of them assigned to the 152Tb and the two others to the 151Tb nuclei. Nuclear mean-field calculations have been used to interpret the structure of known SD bands as well as of the new ones in terms of nucleonic configurations

Breakfast habits and factors influencing food choices at breakfast in relation to socio-demographic and family factors among European adolescents. The HELENA Study §

A B S T R A C T Breakfast consumption has been shown to be an important indicator of a healthy lifestyle. Little is known however about factors influencing breakfast consumption and food choices at breakfast in adolescents. The aim of the present study was therefore to describe breakfast habits, and factors influencing food choices at breakfast within the framework of the EU-funded HELENA Study, in 3528 adolescents from ten European cities. Additionally, socio-demographic differences in breakfast habits and in influencing factors were investigated. Half of the adolescents (and fewer girls than boys) indicated being regular breakfast consumers. Girls with mothers with a high level of education, boys from 'traditional' families and boys who perceived low family affluence were positively associated with breakfast consumption. Boys whose parents gave encouragement and girls whose peers ate healthily were more likely to be regular breakfast consumers. 'Hunger', 'taste', 'health concerns' and 'parents or guardian' were the most important influences on the adolescents' food choices at breakfast. Adolescents from southern Europe and girls reported to be more influenced by personal and socio-environmental factors. Sociodemographic differences, in particular regional and gender differences, need to be considered in discussions surrounding the development of nutritional intervention programs intended for adolescents.

10681_2006_9321_Author.pdf

Abstract Sixty-six spring and winter common 11 wheat genotypes from Central Asian breeding 12 programs were evaluated for grain concentrations 13 of iron (Fe