A Tale of Two Sylamores: Understanding Relationships Among Land Use, Nutrients, and Aquatic Communities Across a Subsidy-Stress Gradient

Agricultural land use is known to degrade aquatic systems with high inputs of nutrients, sediments, and pesticides. Increased nutrients can lead to increased algal growth and thus possible hypoxic conditions in slow moving water, while increased sediment loads have been shown to obstruct light and reduce substrate stability. These conditions negatively impact primary producers, macroinvertebrates, and fish. However, small-scale changes in land use can subsidize an aquatic ecosystem instead, where an increase in nutrients allows nutrient-limited biota to flourish, and minor increases in sedimentation may help support populations of collector-filterers. The stimulation in performance caused by small disturbances is part of the subsidy-stress gradient, where increasing perturbation subsidizes an ecosystem until a certain threshold is reached, at which a decline in performance and increased variability starts to occur. The North and South Sylamore watersheds in north Arkansas provide a useful template to investigate the subsidy-stress gradient in relation to land use. North Sylamore flows through the Ozark National Forest and has a heavily forested catchment, while South Sylamore flows through mostly private land, some of which is pasture (23%). Physicochemical, macroinvertebrate, and fish data were collected from multiple sites within each watershed to determine if South Sylamore is exhibiting a response to pasture/agriculture characteristic of a subsidy-stress gradient. Sites within South Sylamore had significantly higher nitrate levels, larger macroinvertebrate populations dominated by collector-filterers, and greater abundance of algivorous fish, suggesting South Sylamore may be subsidized by the surrounding pastoral lands. However, South Sylamore also had a significantly lower proportional abundance of sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa and more unique tolerant fish taxa, suggesting South Sylamore is experiencing stress as well. Habitat quality of South Sylamore could be improved by restoration of trees within the riparian zone. Monitoring aquatic systems for subsidy-stress responses can inform restoration/management decisions and guide intervention prior to watersheds and aquatic communities becoming overly stressed

Resolving the Emission Regions of the Crab Pulsar's Giant Pulses II. Evidence for Relativistic Motion

The Crab Pulsar is the prime example of an emitter of giant pulses. These short, very bright pulses are thought to originate near the light cylinder, at $\sim\!1600{\rm\;km}$ from the pulsar. The pulsar's location inside the Crab Nebula offers an unusual opportunity to resolve the emission regions, using the nebula, which scatters radio waves, as a lens. We attempt to do this using a sample of 61998 giant pulses found in coherently combined European VLBI network observations at $18{\rm\;cm}$. These were taken at times of relatively strong scattering and hence good effective resolution, and from correlations between pulse spectra, we show that the giant pulse emission regions are indeed resolved. We infer apparent diameters of $\sim\!2000$ and $\sim\!2400{\rm\;km}$ for the main and interpulse components, respectively, and show that with these sizes the correlation amplitudes and decorrelation timescales and bandwidths can be understood quantitatively, both in our observations and in previous ones. Using pulse-spectra statistics and correlations between polarizations, we also show that the nebula resolves the nanoshots that comprise individual giant pulses. The implied diameters of $\sim\!1100{\rm\;km}$ far exceed light travel-time estimates, suggesting the emitting plasma is moving relativistically, with $\gamma\simeq10^{4}$, as inferred previously from drifting bands during the scattering tail of a giant pulse. If so, the emission happens over a region extended along the line of sight by $\sim\!10^{7}{\rm\;km}$. We conclude that relativistic motion likely is important for producing giant pulses, and may be similarly for other sources of short, bright radio emission, such as fast radio bursts.Comment: 29 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Genome-wide SNP identification, linkage map construction and QTL mapping for seed mineral concentrations and contents in pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Linkage map. This file contains the details of the linkage map. (XLSX 38 kb

Cross-lagged relations between delayed actions and the wandering mind

The present study investigated the longitudinal relationship between procrastination and mind wandering. A total of 196 Chinese adults participated in the study across three time points, spaced four months apart. Findings based on a cross-lagged panel model suggested that procrastination predicted mind wandering over time, but not the vice versa, thereby indicating the unidimensionality of effects from procrastination to mind wandering. Procrastination may be attributed to self-regulatory failure, resulting in off-task activities such as mind wandering. However, mind wandering does not necessarily lead to dilatory behaviors. The present findings provide insight to practitioners regarding the predictive effects of procrastination on mind wandering

Advanced Imaging for Quantitative Evaluation of Aphanomyces Root Rot Resistance in Lentil

Aphanomyces root rot (ARR) is a soil-borne disease that results in severe yield losses in lentil. The development of resistant cultivars is one of the key strategies to control this pathogen. However, the evaluation of disease severity is limited to visual scores that can be subjective. This study utilized image-based phenotyping approaches to evaluate Aphanomyces euteiches resistance in lentil genotypes in greenhouse (351 genotypes from lentil single plant/LSP derived collection and 191 genotypes from recombinant inbred lines/RIL using digital Red-Green-Blue/RGB and hyperspectral imaging) and field (173 RIL genotypes using unmanned aerial system-based multispectral imaging) conditions. Moderate to strong correlations were observed between RGB, multispectral, and hyperspectral derived features extracted from lentil shoots/roots and visual scores. In general, root features extracted from RGB imaging were found to be strongly associated with disease severity. With only three root traits, elastic net regression model was able to predict disease severity across and within multiple datasets (R2 = 0.45–0.73 and RMSE = 0.66–1.00). The selected features could represent visual disease scores. Moreover, we developed twelve normalized difference spectral indices (NDSIs) that were significantly correlated with disease scores: two NDSIs for lentil shoot section – computed from wavelengths of 1170, 1160, 1270, and 1280 nm (0.12 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.24, P < 0.05) and ten NDSIs for lentil root sections – computed from wavelengths in the range of 630–670, 700–840, and 1320–1530 nm (0.10 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.50, P < 0.05). Root-derived NDSIs were more accurate in predicting disease scores with an R2 of 0.54 (RMSE = 0.86), especially when the model was trained and tested on LSP accessions, compared to R2 of 0.25 (RMSE = 1.64) when LSP and RIL genotypes were used as train and test datasets, respectively. Importantly, NDSIs – computed from wavelengths of 700, 710, 730, and 790 nm – had strong positive correlations with disease scores (0.35 ≤r ≤ 0.50, P < 0.0001), which was confirmed in field phenotyping with similar correlations using vegetation index with red edge wavelength (normalized difference red edge, 0.36 ≤ |r| ≤ 0.57, P < 0.0001). The adopted image-based phenotyping approaches can help plant breeders to objectively quantify ARR resistance and reduce the subjectivity in selecting potential genotypes

Engineering Education Research: Reviewing Journal Manuscripts Fairly, Constructively, Effectively

Peer review is the mechanism for quality control in academic journals. When a manuscript is submitted to a journal, the editors invite other researchers – peers – to review it anonymously. The reviews should serve to support the journal editors in making decisions, and to support the authors in improving the manuscripts before publication. Therefore, reviews need to be fair and constructive. As reviewing can also take considerable effort, it is useful for the reviewer to consider how to do it effectively. Given the important role of peer review in a field, and the considerable effort it takes, it is valuable to jointly consider all these aspects of reviewing in a dialogue with reviewers, authors and editors. This paper presents the outcomes of such a dialogue with 49 participants in the field of engineering education research

40Hz Auditory Stimulation and Naturalistic Soundscapes for the Treatment and Management of Alzheimer’s Disease poster shared at the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium, April 2023

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, associated with memory loss, behaviour changes and physical impacts (Whitewell, 2018). It is the most common form of dementia. Reliable treatments to slow its progression are in high demand and 40Hz sensory stimulation may offer a solution. Humans with AD and mouse models of the disease exhibit lower gamma oscillations which are important for multiple areas of cognition (McDermott et al., 2018). Studies show that auditory and visual 40Hz stimulation elicit greater gamma oscillations in mice with AD pathology and alleviates symptoms (Martoerall et al., 2019; Olsen, 2021;Traikapi & Konstantinou, 2021). In humans, pilot studies have shown 40Hz sound stimulation to improve cognitive deficits (Figure 1) in mild to moderate AD patients (Clements-Cortes et al., 2016). Studies indicate that greater volumes elicit greater gamma oscillations compared to lower (Schadow et al., 2007). Figure 1: Change in SLUMS Scores (from Clements-Cortes et al., 2016). SLUMS = St. Louis University Mental Status Test, measuring cognitive deficits Immersive soundscapes such as forest and beach sounds present calming and therapeutic effects in and out of care homes (Cheng & Sabran, 2022; Houben et al., 2019; Voisin et al., 2021). Combining soundscapes and 40Hz sound stimulation may be beneficial to AD management as studies show sounds and music can help patients remember long- term memories and balance the sound stimulation. Literature Gap There is limited research on the effects of stimulation volume and on including 40Hz sound in combination with soundscapes and how this can be effective in the treatment and management of AD. Early investigation and optimisation of different stimulation protocols on gamma oscillations and on participant perceptions can be carried out in healthy older adults, prior to their administration to people with AD

Metabolic disorders and the risk of head and neck cancer: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction Head and neck cancer squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer internationally. Established risk factors include smoking, alcohol and presence of human papillomavirus (HPV). The incidence rate of new disease continues to rise, despite falls in alcohol consumption and a reduction in smoking, the rising rates are unlikely to be solely attributed to HPV status alone. Obesity and its associated conditions such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) are implicated in the risk and progression of a variety of cancers, but there is paucity of evidence regarding its role in HNSCC. Methods and analysis A systematic review of cohort studies, reporting a risk of incident HNSCC, will be included. A systematic search strategy has been developed, multiple databases will be searched from January 1966 to November 2021, including Cochrane Library, OVID SP versions of Medline and EMBASE. The primary outcome will be incident HNSCC based on exposures of T2D, obesity, dyslipidaemia and hypertension as defined by the WHO. A combined risk effect across studies will be calculated using meta-analysis, although depending on the heterogeneity in study design, exposure and outcome reporting this may not be possible. Ethics and dissemination No ethical approval is required for this systematic review. The review will be published in a relevant peer-review journal and findings will be presented at scientific meetings in both poster and oral presentation form. PROSPERO registration number details This study has been registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) with study registration number CRD42021250520. This protocol has been developed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols guidance statement

Attachment as an organizer of behavior: implications for substance abuse problems and willingness to seek treatment

BACKGROUND: Attachment theory allows specific predictions about the role of attachment representations in organizing behavior. Insecure attachment is hypothesized to predict maladaptive emotional regulation whereas secure attachment is hypothesized to predict adaptive emotional regulation. In this paper, we test specific hypotheses about the role of attachment representations in substance abuse/dependence and treatment participation. Based on theory, we expect divergence between levels of maladaptive functioning and adaptive methods of regulating negative emotions. METHODS: Participants for this study consist of a sample of adoptees participating in an ongoing longitudinal adoption study (n = 208). The Semi-Structured Assessment of the Genetics of Alcohol-II [41] was used to determine lifetime substance abuse/dependence and treatment participation. Attachment representations were derived by the Adult Attachment Interview [AAI; [16]]. We constructed a prior contrasts reflecting theoretical predictions for the association between attachment representations, substance abuse/dependence and treatment participation. RESULTS: Logistic regression was used to test our hypotheses. As predicted, individuals classified as dismissing, preoccupied or earned-secure reported the highest rates of substance abuse/dependence. Individuals classified as dismissing reported significantly lower rates of treatment participation despite their high rates of substance abuse/dependence. As expected, the continuous-secure group reported lowest rates of both substance abuse/dependence and treatment participation. CONCLUSION: The findings from this study identify attachment representations as an influential factor in understanding the divergence between problematic substance use and treatment utilization. The findings further imply that treatment may need to take attachment representations into account to promote successful recovery