Peer Evaluations Do Not Improve TA Self-Efficacy Over Self-Reflection

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) receive little to no formal training in pedagogy before entering the classroom. Such deficiencies may contribute to increase anxiety and poor self-efficacy for TAs, potentially hindering opportunities to train future faculty. We tested the effects of a previously established, low investment, method of TA training through making and receiving peer-evaluations on TA self-efficacy compared to performing self-assessments and reflection of teaching experiences in three introductory biology courses at a large, Mid-western university. While peer-evaluations did not affect quantitative measures of self-efficacy, we did observe greater increases in self-efficacy among TAs with more experience. We suggest that future studies on the effects of peer-evaluations may be most effective when conducted by experienced TAs

Nutrient addition shifts plant community composition towards earlier flowering species in some prairie ecoregions in the U.S. Central Plains

e0178440, 15 p.The distribution of flowering across the growing season is governed by each species' evolutionary history and climatic variability. However, global change factors, such as eutrophication and invasion, can alter plant community composition and thus change the distribution of flowering across the growing season. We examined three ecoregions (tall-, mixed, and short-grass prairie) across the U.S. Central Plains to determine how nutrient (nitrogen (N), phosphorus, and potassium (+micronutrient)) addition alters the temporal patterns of plant flowering traits. We calculated total community flowering potential (FP) by distributing peakseason plant cover values across the growing season, allocating each species' cover to only those months in which it typically flowers. We also generated separate FP profiles for exotic and native species and functional group. We compared the ability of the added nutrients to shift the distribution of these FP profiles (total and sub-groups) across the growing season. In all ecoregions, N increased the relative cover of both exotic species and C3 graminoids that flower in May through August. The cover of C4 graminoids decreased with added N, but the response varied by ecoregion and month. However, these functional changes only aggregated to shift the entire community's FP profile in the tall-grass prairie, where the relative cover of plants expected to flower in May and June increased and those that flower in September and October decreased with added N. The relatively low native cover in May and June may leave this ecoregion vulnerable to disturbance induced invasion by exotic species that occupy this temporal niche. There was no change in the FP profile of the mixed and short-grass prairies with N addition as increased abundance of exotic species and C3 graminoids replaced other species that flower at the same time. In these communities a disturbance other than nutrient addition may be required to disrupt phenological patterns

Accuracy of Alcon WaveLight EX500 optical pachymetry during LASIK

To study the accuracy and reliability of optical pachymetry using the Alcon WaveLight FX500 during laser-assisted in situ her atomileusis (LASIK) I K). Materials and methods: This was a retrospective chart review of 90 eyes from 45 patients who had undergone LASIK (mean age 35.2 8.2 years||19 males, 26 females). The WaveLight ES200 lemtosecond laser was programmed to cut LASIK flaps at a desired depth of 120 pm. Optical low-coherence reflectometry (Wave Light KX500) was used to measure central corneal thickness prior to lifting the flap, and the residual stromal bed immediately after excimer ablation. Flap thickness (FT) was calculated using simple subtraction. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to measure central corneal thickness, flap thickness, and residual stromal bed M the postoperative period and the results compared to intraoperative measurements. Results: Mean programmed FS200 FT Was 119 pm. Mean FT using EX500 optical pachymetry was 109 pm. The difference between FS200-programmed and EX500-measured FT was 9 pm (P<0.001). There was also a significant difference between the EX500 and OCT FT (109 p.m vs 119 pm, respectively||P<(1.001). Conclusion: FT values calculated tsing intraoperative FX500 optical pachymetry were significantly lower than programmed FS200 values or OCT measurements

How do nutrients change flowering in prairies?

Farmers today apply more synthetic fertilizers to farm fields than ever before – but not all of these nutrients are used by crops: some fertilizer escapes through the air, soil, or water. Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium flow off farm fields when it rains, billow into the air when fields are plowed, and drift with the wind to other areas. Extra nutrients are also released to the air when people burn fossil fuels. We wanted to find out: what happens when these extra nutrients land on wild prairie ecosystems? How do its wild plants respond? Do they all just grow better? Or could there be any negative side effects? To answer these questions, we systematically added nutrients to experimental patches of prairie. We found that these added nutrients (specifically nitrogen) made early-season plants thrive while reducing the amount of late-season plants, but only in some prairie types. This change could have serious implications for the way prairie ecosystems function

Environmental heterogeneity modulates the effect of plant diversity on the spatial variability of grassland biomass

Plant productivity varies due to environmental heterogeneity, and theory suggests that plant diversity can reduce this variation. While there is strong evidence of diversity effects on temporal variability of productivity, whether this mechanism extends to variability across space remains elusive. Here we determine the relationship between plant diversity and spatial variability of productivity in 83 grasslands, and quantify the effect of experimentally increased spatial heterogeneity in environmental conditions on this relationship. We found that communities with higher plant species richness (alpha and gamma diversity) have lower spatial variability of productivity as reduced abundance of some species can be compensated for by increased abundance of other species. In contrast, high species dissimilarity among local communities (beta diversity) is positively associated with spatial variability of productivity, suggesting that changes in species composition can scale up to affect productivity. Experimentally increased spatial environmental heterogeneity weakens the effect of plant alpha and gamma diversity, and reveals that beta diversity can simultaneously decrease and increase spatial variability of productivity. Our findings unveil the generality of the diversity-stability theory across space, and suggest that reduced local diversity and biotic homogenization can affect the spatial reliability of key ecosystem functions.Fil: Daleo, Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Alberti, Juan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Chaneton, Enrique Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Iribarne, Oscar Osvaldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Tognetti, Pedro Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Bakker, Jonathan. University of Washington; Estados UnidosFil: Borer, Elizabeth. University of Minnesota; Estados UnidosFil: Bruschetti, Carlos Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: MacDougall, Andrew S.. University Of Guelph. Department Of Integrative Biology.; CanadáFil: Pascual, Jesus Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Sankaran, Mahesh. University of Leeds; Reino Unido. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; IndiaFil: Seabloom, Eric. University of Minnesota; Estados UnidosFil: Wang, Shaopeng. Peking University; ChinaFil: Bagchi, Sumanta. Indian Institute of Science; IndiaFil: Brudvig, Lars A.. Michigan State University; Estados UnidosFil: Catford, Jane A.. University of Melbourne; Australia. Kings College London (kcl);Fil: Dickman, Chris R.. The University Of Sydney; AustraliaFil: Dickson, Tymothy L.. University of Nebraska; Estados UnidosFil: Donohue, Ian. Trinity College Dublin; Reino UnidoFil: Eisenhauer, Nico. Universitat Leipzig; Alemania. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; AlemaniaFil: Gruner, Daniel S.. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Haider, Sylvia. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; Alemania. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg; Alemania. Leuphana University of Lüneburg; AlemaniaFil: Jentsch, Anke. University of Bayreuth; AlemaniaFil: Knops, Johannes M. H.. Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University; ChinaFil: Lekberg, Ylva. University of Montana; Estados UnidosFil: McCulley, Rebecca L.. University of Kentucky; Estados UnidosFil: Moore, Joslin L.. University of Melbourne; Australia. Monash University; Australia. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research; AustraliaFil: Mortensen, Brent. Benedictine College; Estados UnidosFil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Rocca, Camila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; Argentin

Temporal rarity is a better predictor of local extinction risk than spatial rarity

Spatial rarity is often used to predict extinction risk, but rarity can also occur temporally. Perhaps more relevant in the context of global change is whether a species is core to a community (persistent) or transient (intermittently present), with transient species often susceptible to human activities that reduce niche space. Using 5–12 yr of data on 1,447 plant species from 49 grasslands on five continents, we show that local abundance and species persistence under ambient conditions are both effective predictors of local extinction risk following experimental exclusion of grazers or addition of nutrients; persistence was a more powerful predictor than local abundance. While perturbations increased the risk of exclusion for low persistence and abundance species, transient but abundant species were also highly likely to be excluded from a perturbed plot relative to ambient conditions. Moreover, low persistence and low abundance species that were not excluded from perturbed plots tended to have a modest increase in abundance following perturbance. Last, even core species with high abundances had large decreases in persistence and increased losses in perturbed plots, threatening the long-term stability of these grasslands. Our results demonstrate that expanding the concept of rarity to include temporal dynamics, in addition to local abundance, more effectively predicts extinction risk in response to environmental change than either rarity axis predicts alone.Fil: Wilfahrt, Peter A.. University of Minnesota; Estados UnidosFil: Asmus, Ashley L.. University of Minnesota; Estados UnidosFil: Seabloom, Eric. University of Minnesota; Estados UnidosFil: Henning, Jeremiah A.. University of Minnesota; Estados UnidosFil: Adler, Peter. State University of Utah; Estados UnidosFil: Arnillas, Carlos A.. University of Toronto Scarborough; CanadáFil: Bakker, Jonathan. University of Washington; Estados UnidosFil: Biederman, Lori. University of Iowa; Estados UnidosFil: Brudvig, Lars A.. Michigan State University; Estados UnidosFil: Cadotte, Marc W.. University of Toronto Scarborough; CanadáFil: Daleo, Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Eskelinen, Anu. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; AlemaniaFil: Firn, Jennifer. University of Queensland; AustraliaFil: Harpole, W. Stanley. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; Alemania. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research; Alemania. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg; AlemaniaFil: Hautier, Yann. Utrecht University; Países BajosFil: Kirkman, Kevin P.. University of KwaZulu-Natal; SudáfricaFil: Komatsu, Kimberly J.. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; Estados UnidosFil: Laungani, Ramesh. Doane University; Estados UnidosFil: MacDougall, Andrew. University of Guelph; CanadáFil: McCulley, Rebecca L.. University of Kentucky; Estados UnidosFil: Moore, Joslin L.. Monash University; AustraliaFil: Morgan, John W.. La Trobe University; AustraliaFil: Mortensen, Brent. Benedictine College; Estados UnidosFil: Ochoa Hueso, Raul. Universidad de Cádiz; EspañaFil: Ohlert, Timothy. University of New Mexico; Estados UnidosFil: Power, Sally A.. University of Western Sydney; AustraliaFil: Price, Jodi. Charles Sturt University; AustraliaFil: Risch, Anita C.. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research; SuizaFil: Schuetz, Martin. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research; SuizaFil: Shoemaker, Lauren. University of Wyoming; Estados UnidosFil: Stevens, Carly. Lancaster University; Reino UnidoFil: Strauss, Alexander T.. University of Minnesota; Estados Unidos. University of Georgia; Estados UnidosFil: Tognetti, Pedro Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Virtanen, Risto. University of Oulu; FinlandiaFil: Borer, Elizabeth. University of Minnesota; Estados Unido

Plant Species\u27 Origin Predicts Dominance and Response to Nutrient Enrichment and Herbivores in Global Grasslands

Exotic species dominate many communities; however the functional significance of species\u27 biogeographic origin remains highly contentious. This debate is fuelled in part by the lack of globally replicated, systematic data assessing the relationship between species provenance, function and response to perturbations. We examined the abundance of native and exotic plant species at 64 grasslands in 13 countries, and at a subset of the sites we experimentally tested native and exotic species responses to two fundamental drivers of invasion, mineral nutrient supplies and vertebrate herbivory. Exotic species are six times more likely to dominate communities than native species. Furthermore, while experimental nutrient addition increases the cover and richness of exotic species, nutrients decrease native diversity and cover. Native and exotic species also differ in their response to vertebrate consumer exclusion. These results suggest that species origin has functional significance, and that eutrophication will lead to increased exotic dominance in grasslands

The role of catalyst acidity and shape selectivity on products from the catalytic fast pyrolysis of beech wood

The catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of biomass represents an efficient integrated process to produce deoxygenated stable liquid fuels and valuable chemical products from lignocellulosic biomass. The zeolite ZSM-5 is a widely studied catalyst for the CFP process. However, its microporous structure may limit the diffusion of high molecular weight pyrolysis intermediates to its active sites. Mesoporous aluminosilicates such as Al-SBA-15 are promising materials with larger pore sizes that can overcome these diffusional limitations. Previous comparisons between mesoporous aluminosilicates and ZSM-5 for the CFP process have neglected the disproportionately high acidity of ZSM-5. In this study, an Al-SBA-15 catalyst has been synthesised with high acidity, comparable to that of a ZSM-5 catalyst with a Si:Al ratio of 15:1. The synthesised Al-SBA-15 catalyst was characterised by N2 physisorption, XRD and propylamine-TPD, and was compared to a ZSM-5 catalyst and a typical industrial equilibrium fluid catalytic cracking catalyst (e-FCC). All three catalysts were used at three different catalyst to biomass (C/B) ratios, to investigate the effect of varying concentrations of acid sites on the product distribution from the catalytic fast pyrolysis of beech wood. Interestingly, despite their dissimilar structural architectures, all three solid acid catalysts displayed similar reaction pathways towards the cracking of high molecular weight products such as levoglucosan and formation of intermediates including phenolics and furans. However, the selectivity towards the final catalytic products was dictated mainly by the structure of the catalysts. Despite their very similar surface area and acidity, the ZSM-5 exhibited high selectivity for the formation of desirable aromatic hydrocarbon products due to its shape-selective micropore structure, while Al-SBA-15 instead shifted the selectivity towards the formation of undesirable coke. The results highlighted the importance of catalyst shape-selectivity in the catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass for the conversion of pyrolysis vapours into desirable products and the suppression of undesirable solid byproduct formation