Supporting Spartina: Interdisciplinary Perspective Shows Spartina As A Distinct Solid Genus

In 2014, a DNA-based phylogenetic study confirming the paraphyly of the grass subtribe Sporobolinae proposed the creation of a large monophyletic genus Sporobolus, including (among others) species previously included in the genera Spartina, Calamovilfa, and Sporobolus. Spartina species have contributed substantially (and continue contributing) to our knowledge in multiple disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, biogeography, experimental ecology, biological invasions, environmental management, restoration ecology, history, economics, and sociology. There is no rationale so compelling to subsume the name Spartina as a subgenus that could rival the striking, global iconic history and use of the name Spartina for over 200 yr. We do not agree with the subjective arguments underlying the proposal to change Spartina to Sporobolus. We understand the importance of both the objective phylogenetic insights and of the subjective formalized nomenclature and hope that by opening this debate we will encourage positive feedback that will strengthen taxonomic decisions with an interdisciplinary perspective. We consider that the strongly distinct, monophyletic clade Spartina should simply and efficiently be treated as the genus Spartina

Physical Stress, Not Biotic Interactions, Preclude an Invasive Grass from Establishing in Forb-Dominated Salt Marshes

Biological invasions have become the focus of considerable concern and ecological research, yet the relative importance of abiotic and biotic factors in controlling the invasibility of habitats to exotic species is not well understood. Spartina species are highly invasive plants in coastal wetlands; however, studies on the factors that control the success or failure of Spartina invasions across multiple habitat types are rare and inconclusive.We examined the roles of physical stress and plant interactions in mediating the establishment of the smooth cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, in a variety of coastal habitats in northern China. Field transplant experiments showed that cordgrass can invade mudflats and low estuarine marshes with low salinity and frequent flooding, but cannot survive in salt marshes and high estuarine marshes with hypersaline soils and infrequent flooding. The dominant native plant Suaeda salsa had neither competitive nor facilitative effects on cordgrass. A common garden experiment revealed that cordgrass performed significantly better when flooded every other day than when flooded weekly. These results suggest that physical stress rather than plant interactions limits cordgrass invasions in northern China.We conclude that Spartina invasions are likely to be constrained to tidal flats and low estuarine marshes in the Yellow River Delta. Due to harsh physical conditions, salt marshes and high estuarine marshes are unlikely to be invaded. These findings have implications for understanding Spartina invasions in northern China and on other coasts with similar biotic and abiotic environments

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30

Evidence for the Higgs-boson Yukawa coupling to tau leptons with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for H → τ τ decays are presented, based on the full set of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during 2011 and 2012. The data correspond to integrated luminosities of 4.5 fb−1 and 20.3 fb−1 at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV respectively. All combinations of leptonic (τ → `νν¯ with ` = e, µ) and hadronic (τ → hadrons ν) tau decays are considered. An excess of events over the expected background from other Standard Model processes is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.5 (3.4) standard deviations. This excess provides evidence for the direct coupling of the recently discovered Higgs boson to fermions. The measured signal strength, normalised to the Standard Model expectation, of µ = 1.43 +0.43 −0.37 is consistent with the predicted Yukawa coupling strength in the Standard Model

Measurement of the top pair production cross section in 8 TeV proton-proton collisions using kinematic information in the lepton plus jets final state with ATLAS

A measurement is presented of the $t\bar{t}$ inclusive production cross-section in $pp$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV using data collected by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement was performed in the lepton+jets final state using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. The cross-section was obtained using a likelihood discriminant fit and $b$-jet identification was used to improve the signal-to-background ratio. The inclusive $t\bar{t}$ production cross-section was measured to be $260\pm 1{\textrm{(stat.)}} ^{+22}_{-23} {\textrm{(syst.)}}\pm 8{\textrm{(lumi.)}}\pm 4{\mathrm{(beam)}}$ pb assuming a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV, in good agreement with the theoretical prediction of $253^{+13}_{-15}$ pb. The $t\bar{t}\to (e,\mu)+{\mathrm{jets}}$ production cross-section in the fiducial region determined by the detector acceptance is also reported.Comment: Published version, 19 pages plus author list (35 pages total), 3 figures, 2 tables, all figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/TOPQ-2013-06

The interplay between functioning problems and symptoms in first episode of psychosis: an approach from network analysis

The relationship between psychotic symptoms and global measures of functioning has been widely studied. No previous study has assessed so far the interplay between specific clinical symptoms and particular areas of functioning in first-episode psychosis (FEP) using network analysis methods. A total of 191 patients with FEP (age 24.45 ± 6.28 years, 64.9% male) participating in an observational and longitudinal study (AGES-CM) comprised the study sample. Functioning problems were assessed with the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS), whereas the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to assess symptom severity. Network analysis were conducted with the aim of analysing the patterns of relationships between the different dimensions of functioning and PANSS symptoms and factors at baseline. According to our results, the most important nodes were “conceptual disorganization”, “emotional withdrawal”, “lack of spontaneity and flow of conversation”, “delusions”, “unusual thought content”, “dealing with strangers” and “poor rapport”. Our findings suggest that these symptoms and functioning dimensions should be prioritized in the clinical assessment and management of patients with FEP. These areas may also become targets of future early intervention strategies, so as to improve quality of life in this populationThis work was supported by the Madrid Regional Government (R&D activities in Biomedicine (grant number S2017/BMD-3740 - AGES-CM 2-CM)) and Structural Funds of the European Union. Ana Izquierdo’s work is supported by the PFIS predoctoral program (FI17/00138) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain) and co-funded by the European Union (ERDF/ESF, "A way to make Europe”/ “Investing in your future”) and The Biomedical Research Foundation of La Princesa University Hospital. Angela Ib´a˜nez thanks the support of CIBERSAM and of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI16/00834 and PI19/01295) co-financed by ERDF Funds from the European Commission. Covadonga M. Díaz-Caneja holds a Juan Rod´es Grant from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (JR19/00024). Celso Arango was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Instituto de Salud Carlos III (SAM16PE07CP1, PI16/02012, PI19/ 024), co-financed by ERDF Funds from the European Commission, “A way of making Europe”, CIBERSAM. Madrid Regional Government (B2017/BMD-3740 AGES-CM-2), European Union Structural Funds. European Union Seventh Framework Program under grant agreements FP7-4-HEALTH-2009-2.2.1-2-241909 (Project EU-GEI), FP7- HEALTH- 2013-2.2.1-2-603196 (Project PSYSCAN) and FP7- HEALTH-2013- 2.2.1-2-602478 (Project METSY); and European Union H2020 Program under the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (grant agreement No 115916, Project PRISM, and grant agreement No 777394, Project AIMS-2-TRIALS), Fundaci´on Familia Alonso, Fundaci´on Alicia Koplowitz and Fundaci´on Mutua Madrile˜n

Measurement of the charge asymmetry in dileptonic Decays of top quark pairs in pp collisions at √ s = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the top-antitop (tt) charge asymmetry is presented using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb −1 of LHC pp collisions at a centre- of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector. Events with two charged leptons, at least two jets and large missing transverse momentum are selected. Two observables are studied: A tt/C, based on the reconstructed tt final state. The asymmetries are measured to be A ll/C = 0.024 +/- 0.015 (stat.) +/- 0.009 (syst.) Att/C = 0.021 +/- 0.025 (stat.) +/- 0.017 (syst.) The measured values are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions

Supporting Spartina: Interdisciplinary perspective shows Spartina as a distinct solid genus

In 2014 a DNA-based phylogenetic study confirming the paraphyly of the grass subtribe Sporobolinae proposed the creation of a large monophyletic genus Sporobolus, including (among others) species previously included in the genera Spartina, Calamovilfa, and Sporobolus. Spartina species have contributed substantially (and continue contributing) to our knowledge in multiple disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, biogeography, experimental ecology, environmental management, restoration ecology, history, economics, and sociology. There is no rationale so compelling to subsume the name Spartina as a subgenus that could rival the striking, global iconic history and use of the name Spartina for over 200 years. We do not agree with the arguments underlying the proposal to change Spartina to Sporobolus. We understand the importance of taxonomy and of formalized nomenclature and hope that by opening this debate we will encourage positive feedback that will strengthen taxonomic decisions with an interdisciplinary perspective. We consider the strongly distinct, monophyletic clade Spartina should simply and efficiently be treated as the genus Spartina

Supporting Spartina: Interdisciplinary perspective shows Spartina as a distinct solid genus

In 2014, a DNA-based phylogenetic study confirming the paraphyly of the grass subtribe Sporobolinae proposed the creation of a large monophyletic genus Sporobolus, including (among others) species previously included in the genera Spartina, Calamovilfa, and Sporobolus. Spartina species have contributed substantially (and continue contributing) to our knowledge in multiple disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, biogeography, experimental ecology, biological invasions, environmental management, restoration ecology, history, economics, and sociology. There is no rationale so compelling to subsume the name Spartina as a subgenus that could rival the striking, global iconic history and use of the name Spartina for over 200 yr. We do not agree with the subjective arguments underlying the proposal to change Spartina to Sporobolus. We understand the importance of both the objective phylogenetic insights and of the subjective formalized nomenclature and hope that by opening this debate we will encourage positive feedback that will strengthen taxonomic decisions with an interdisciplinary perspective. We consider that the strongly distinct, monophyletic clade Spartina should simply and efficiently be treated as the genus Spartina