Resistance against barley leaf rust (Puccinia hordei) in West-European spring barley germplasm

The level and type of resistance against leaf rust (Puccinia hordei) was determined in modern spring barley germplasm. In field trials all over Europe most accessions were in some locations and years significantly less infected than the moderately resistant reference ‘Grit’. Differentiating P. hordei isolates indicated that most accessions carried hypersensitivity (Rph) genes. A virulence survey indicated that among the known resistance genes, only Rph7 is still fully effective in Europe. Some accessions carried undetermined hypersensitivity resistance gene(s) that were effective to all isolates tested. The level of non-hypersensitivity or partial resistance was assessed from the latency period of the fungus and the percentage of early aborted infection units not associated with plant cell necrosis. These parameters indicated that several accessions had a level of partial resistance higher than that of the highly partially resistant ‘Vada’. We concluded that barley breeders have achieved very high levels of partial resistance against P. hordei in spring barley germplasm

Seasonal Variations in Atmospheric Composition as Measured in Gale Crater, Mars

All MSL data used in this manuscript (REMS and SAM) are freely available on NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) Geosciences Node, from within 6 months after receipt on Earth (http://pds‐geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/msl/). The mixing ratios developed and presented in this paper are available at a publicly available archive (dataverse.org: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/CVUOWW) as cited within the manuscript. The successful operation of the Curiosity rover and the SAM instrument on Mars is due to the hard work and dedication of hundreds of scientists, engineers, and managers over more than a decade. Essential contributions to the successful operation of SAM on Mars and the acquisition of SAM data were provided by the SAM development, operations, and test bed teams. The authors gratefully thank the SAM and MSL teams that have contributed in numerous ways to obtain the data that enabled this scientific work. We also thank NASA for the support of the development of SAM, SAM data analysis, and the continued support of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The contribution of F. Lefèvre was supported by the Programme National de Planétologie (PNP). R. Navarro‐Gonzalez acknowledges support from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (PAPIIT IN111619). LPI is operated by USRA under a cooperative agreement with the Science Mission Directorate of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We thank members of the SAM and larger MSL team for insightful discussions and support. In particular, we thank R. Becker and R. O. Pepin for careful review of data analysis and interpretation. We thank M. D. Smith for discussion of CRISM CO measurements. We thank A. Brunner, M. Johnson, and M. Lefavor for their development of customized data analysis tools used here and in other SAM publications.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over 250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2 in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor correction

The Origin of the Virgo Stellar Substructure

We present three-dimensional space velocities of stars selected to be consistent with membership in the Virgo stellar substructure. Candidates were selected from SA 103, a single 40x40 arcmin field from our proper motion (PM) survey in Kapteyn's Selected Areas (SAs), based on the PMs, SDSS photometry, and follow-up spectroscopy of 215 stars. The signature of the Virgo substructure is clear in the SDSS color-magnitude diagram (CMD) centered on SA 103, and 16 stars are identified that have high Galactocentric-frame radial velocities (V_GSR > 50 km/s) and lie near the CMD locus of Virgo. The implied distance to the Virgo substructure from the candidates is 14+/-3 kpc. We derive mean kinematics from these 16 stars, finding a radial velocity V_GSR = 153+/-22 km/s and proper motions (mu_alpha*cos(delta), mu_delta) = (-5.24, -0.91)+/-(0.43, 0.46) mas/yr. From the mean kinematics of these members, we determine that the Virgo progenitor was on an eccentric (e ~ 0.8) orbit that recently passed near the Galactic center (pericentric distance R_p ~ 6 kpc). This destructive orbit is consistent with the idea that the substructure(s) in Virgo originated in the tidal disruption of a Milky Way satellite. N-body simulations suggest that the entire cloud-like Virgo substructure (encompassing the "Virgo Overdensity" and the "Virgo Stellar Stream") is likely the tidal debris remnant from a recently-disrupted massive (~10^9 M_sun) dwarf galaxy. The model also suggests that some other known stellar overdensities in the Milky Way halo (e.g., the Pisces Overdensity and debris near NGC 2419 and SEGUE 1) are explained by the disruption of the Virgo progenitor.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; preprint format, 41 pages, 17 figures (some with degraded resolution). Full-resolution version (in emulateapj format) available at http://homepages.rpi.edu/~carlij/virgo_paper/carlin_etal2012_virgo.pd

The global spread of misinformation on spiders

Non peer reviewe

An international effort towards developing standards for best practices in analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical genome sequencing results in the CLARITY Challenge

There is tremendous potential for genome sequencing to improve clinical diagnosis and care once it becomes routinely accessible, but this will require formalizing research methods into clinical best practices in the areas of sequence data generation, analysis, interpretation and reporting. The CLARITY Challenge was designed to spur convergence in methods for diagnosing genetic disease starting from clinical case history and genome sequencing data. DNA samples were obtained from three families with heritable genetic disorders and genomic sequence data were donated by sequencing platform vendors. The challenge was to analyze and interpret these data with the goals of identifying disease-causing variants and reporting the findings in a clinically useful format. Participating contestant groups were solicited broadly, and an independent panel of judges evaluated their performance. RESULTS: A total of 30 international groups were engaged. The entries reveal a general convergence of practices on most elements of the analysis and interpretation process. However, even given this commonality of approach, only two groups identified the consensus candidate variants in all disease cases, demonstrating a need for consistent fine-tuning of the generally accepted methods. There was greater diversity of the final clinical report content and in the patient consenting process, demonstrating that these areas require additional exploration and standardization. CONCLUSIONS: The CLARITY Challenge provides a comprehensive assessment of current practices for using genome sequencing to diagnose and report genetic diseases. There is remarkable convergence in bioinformatic techniques, but medical interpretation and reporting are areas that require further development by many groups

Crop pests and predators exhibit inconsistent responses to surrounding landscape composition

The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on pests are inconclusive. The observed heterogeneity in species responses to noncrop habitat may be biological in origin or could result from variation in how habitat and biocontrol are measured. Here, we use a pest-control database encompassing 132 studies and 6,759 sites worldwide to model natural enemy and pest abundances, predation rates, and crop damage as a function of landscape composition. Our results showed that although landscape composition explained significant variation within studies, pest and enemy abundances, predation rates, crop damage, and yields each exhibited different responses across studies, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing in landscapes with more noncrop habitat but overall showing no consistent trend. Thus, models that used landscape-composition variables to predict pest-control dynamics demonstrated little potential to explain variation across studies, though prediction did improve when comparing studies with similar crop and landscape features. Overall, our work shows that surrounding noncrop habitat does not consistently improve pest management, meaning habitat conservation may bolster production in some systems and depress yields in others. Future efforts to develop tools that inform farmers when habitat conservation truly represents a win–win would benefit from increased understanding of how landscape effects are modulated by local farm management and the biology of pests and their enemies

Global transpiration data from sap flow measurements : the SAPFLUXNET database

Plant transpiration links physiological responses of vegetation to water supply and demand with hydrological, energy, and carbon budgets at the land-atmosphere interface. However, despite being the main land evaporative flux at the global scale, transpiration and its response to environmental drivers are currently not well constrained by observations. Here we introduce the first global compilation of whole-plant transpiration data from sap flow measurements (SAPFLUXNET, https://sapfluxnet.creaf.cat/, last access: 8 June 2021). We harmonized and quality-controlled individual datasets supplied by contributors worldwide in a semi-automatic data workflow implemented in the R programming language. Datasets include sub-daily time series of sap flow and hydrometeorological drivers for one or more growing seasons, as well as metadata on the stand characteristics, plant attributes, and technical details of the measurements. SAPFLUXNET contains 202 globally distributed datasets with sap flow time series for 2714 plants, mostly trees, of 174 species. SAPFLUXNET has a broad bioclimatic coverage, with woodland/shrubland and temperate forest biomes especially well represented (80 % of the datasets). The measurements cover a wide variety of stand structural characteristics and plant sizes. The datasets encompass the period between 1995 and 2018, with 50 % of the datasets being at least 3 years long. Accompanying radiation and vapour pressure deficit data are available for most of the datasets, while on-site soil water content is available for 56 % of the datasets. Many datasets contain data for species that make up 90 % or more of the total stand basal area, allowing the estimation of stand transpiration in diverse ecological settings. SAPFLUXNET adds to existing plant trait datasets, ecosystem flux networks, and remote sensing products to help increase our understanding of plant water use, plant responses to drought, and ecohydrological processes. SAPFLUXNET version 0.1.5 is freely available from the Zenodo repository (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3971689; Poyatos et al., 2020a). The "sapfluxnetr" R package - designed to access, visualize, and process SAPFLUXNET data - is available from CRAN.Peer reviewe

An expert-curated global database of online newspaper articles on spiders and spider bites

Mass media plays an important role in the construction and circulation of risk perception associated with animals. Widely feared groups such as spiders frequently end up in the spotlight of traditional and social media. We compiled an expert-curated global database on the online newspaper coverage of human-spider encounters over the past ten years (2010–2020). This database includes information about the location of each human-spider encounter reported in the news article and a quantitative characterisation of the content—location, presence of photographs of spiders and bites, number and type of errors, consultation of experts, and a subjective assessment of sensationalism. In total, we collected 5348 unique news articles from 81 countries in 40 languages. The database refers to 211 identified and unidentified spider species and 2644 unique human-spider encounters (1121 bites and 147 as deadly bites). To facilitate data reuse, we explain the main caveats that need to be made when analysing this database and discuss research ideas and questions that can be explored with it. </p

The global spread of misinformation on spiders

In the internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may also amplify the spread of misinformation. This problem is gaining global attention, as evidence accumulates that misinformation may interfere with democratic processes and undermine collective responses to environmental and health crises. In an increasingly polluted information ecosystem, understanding the factors underlying the generation and spread of misinformation is becoming a pressing scientific and societal challenge. Here, we studied the global spread of (mis-)information on spiders using a high-resolution global database of online newspaper articles on spider–human interactions, covering stories of spider–human encounters and biting events published from 2010–2020. We found that 47% of articles contained errors and 43% were sensationalist. Moreover, we show that the flow of spider-related news occurs within a highly interconnected global network and provide evidence that sensationalism is a key factor underlying the spread of misinformation. </p