Inconsistent detection of extinction debts using different methods

© 2020 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos The extinction debt, delayed species extinctions following landscape degradation, is a widely discussed concept. But a consensus about the prevalence of extinctions debts is hindered by a multiplicity of methods and a lack of comparisons among habitats. We applied three contrasting species–area relationship methods to test for plant community extinction debts in three habitats which had different degradation histories over the last century: calcareous grassland, heathland and woodland. These methods differ in their data requirements, with the first two using information on past and current habitat area alongside current species richness, whilst the last method also requires data on past species richness. The most data-intensive, and hence arguably most reliable method, identified extinction debts across all habitats for specialist species, whilst the other methods did not. All methods detected an extinction debt in calcareous grassland, which had undergone the most severe degradation. We conclude that some methods failed to detect an extinction debt, particularly in habitats that have undergone moderate degradation. Data on past species numbers are required for the most reliable method; as such data are rare, extinction debts may be under-reported

Percolation model for structural phase transitions in Li1−x_{1-x}Hx_xIO3_3 mixed crystals

A percolation model is proposed to explain the structural phase transitions found in Li$_{1-x}$H$_x$IO$_3$ mixed crystals as a function of the concentration parameter $x$. The percolation thresholds are obtained from Monte Carlo simulations on the specific lattices occupied by lithium atoms and hydrogen bonds. The theoretical results strongly suggest that percolating lithium vacancies and hydrogen bonds are indeed responsible for the solid solution observed in the experimental range $0.22 < x < 0.36$.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

The rise, fall and resurrection of chemical‐induced resistance agents

Since the discovery that the plant immune system could be augmented for improved deployment against biotic stressors through the exogenous application of chemicals that lead to induced resistance (IR), many such IR‐eliciting agents have been identified. Initially it was hoped that these chemical IR agents would be a benign alternative to traditional chemical biocides. However, owing to low efficacy and/or a realization that their benefits sometimes come at the cost of growth and yield penalties, chemical IR agents fell out of favour and were seldom used as crop protection products. Despite the lack of interest in agricultural use, researchers have continued to explore the efficacy and mechanisms of chemical IR. Moreover, as we move away from the approach of ‘zero tolerance’ toward plant pests and pathogens toward integrated pest management, chemical IR agents could have a place in the plant protection product list. In this review, we chart the rise and fall of chemical IR agents, and then explore a variety of strategies used to improve their efficacy and remediate their negative adverse effects

HI in the Outskirts of Nearby Galaxies

The HI in disk galaxies frequently extends beyond the optical image, and can trace the dark matter there. I briefly highlight the history of high spatial resolution HI imaging, the contribution it made to the dark matter problem, and the current tension between several dynamical methods to break the disk-halo degeneracy. I then turn to the flaring problem, which could in principle probe the shape of the dark halo. Instead, however, a lot of attention is now devoted to understanding the role of gas accretion via galactic fountains. The current $\rm \Lambda$ cold dark matter theory has problems on galactic scales, such as the core-cusp problem, which can be addressed with HI observations of dwarf galaxies. For a similar range in rotation velocities, galaxies of type Sd have thin disks, while those of type Im are much thicker. After a few comments on modified Newtonian dynamics and on irregular galaxies, I close with statistics on the HI extent of galaxies.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures, invited review, book chapter in "Outskirts of Galaxies", Eds. J. H. Knapen, J. C. Lee and A. Gil de Paz, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springer, in pres

Persistence of Ebola virus RNA in some body fluids of Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors – the Nigerian experience

Introduction: Ebola virus (EBOV) has been shown to persist in some body fluids of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) survivors with implication for future transmission particularly in Nigeria where EVD was experienced for the first time in 2014. Thus, this paper was aimed at providing information on the duration of persistence of EBOV in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Ten consenting EVD survivors were enrolled. Baseline specimens; urine and semen (males), urine and high vaginal swab (HVS) (females) were obtained within one month after discharge from the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) and subsequently every fortnight. Samples were analyzed using quantitative Real-Star Filovirus Screen RT-PCR kit 1.0 at the National Reference Laboratory in Lagos.Results: Ten EVD survivors comprising 4 (40%) males and 6 (60%) females with age ranges of 28 to &gt;33 years (mean age: 33.0 ± 6.9 years) were evaluated. EBOV RNA was not detected in the urine of all the participants and HVS from the females. However, EBOV RNA was detected in the semen of all 4 (100%) male participants at baseline, and at 2 months after discharge from the ETC. Two men were still positive for EBOV RNA 4 months after discharge from the ETC despite persistent negative vireamia. Conclusions: Our data confirm that a negative viremia in the convalescent period is not predictive of the absence of the virus in semen. Despite an early clearance of the virus from the urine and HVS, there was persistence of EBOV RNA in semen of male survivors 4 months after recovery

Measurement of the leptonic decay widths of the phi-meson with the KLOE detector

The phi-meson leptonic widths, Gee and Gmm, are obtained, respectively, from the e+e- forward-backward asymmetry and the muon cross section around the phi-mass energy. We find Gee=1.32&#8853;0.05&#8853;0.03 kev and sqrt(GeeGmm)= 1.320&#8853;0.018&#8853;0.017 kev. These results, compatible with Gee=Gmm, provide a precise test of lepton universality. Combining the two results gives G_lept=1.320&#8853;0.023 kev.Comment: 10 pages and 8 figures to be submitted to Phys.Lett.

Moderators of the effect of psychosocial interventions on fatigue in women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer:Individual patient data meta-analyses

Objective Psychosocial interventions can reduce cancer-related fatigue effectively. However, it is still unclear if intervention effects differ across subgroups of patients. These meta-analyses aimed at evaluating moderator effects of (a) sociodemographic characteristics, (b) clinical characteristics, (c) baseline levels of fatigue and other symptoms, and (d) intervention-related characteristics on the effect of psychosocial interventions on cancer-related fatigue in patients with non-metastatic breast and prostate cancer. Methods Data were retrieved from the Predicting OptimaL cAncer RehabIlitation and Supportive care (POLARIS) consortium. Potential moderators were studied with meta-analyses of pooled individual patient data from 14 randomized controlled trials through linear mixed-effects models with interaction tests. The analyses were conducted separately in patients with breast (n = 1091) and prostate cancer (n = 1008). Results Statistically significant, small overall effects of psychosocial interventions on fatigue were found (breast cancer: beta = -0.19 [95% confidence interval (95%CI) = -0.30; -0.08]; prostate cancer: beta = -0.11 [95%CI = -0.21; -0.00]). In both patient groups, intervention effects did not differ significantly by sociodemographic or clinical characteristics, nor by baseline levels of fatigue or pain. For intervention-related moderators (only tested among women with breast cancer), statistically significant larger effects were found for cognitive behavioral therapy as intervention strategy (beta = -0.27 [95%CI = -0.40; -0.15]), fatigue-specific interventions (beta = -0.48 [95%CI = -0.79; -0.18]), and interventions that only targeted patients with clinically relevant fatigue (beta = -0.85 [95%CI = -1.40; -0.30]). Conclusions Our findings did not provide evidence that any selected demographic or clinical characteristic, or baseline levels of fatigue or pain, moderated effects of psychosocial interventions on fatigue. A specific focus on decreasing fatigue seems beneficial for patients with breast cancer with clinically relevant fatigue

Honey bee visitation to sunflower: effects on pollination and plant genotype

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an allogamic plant, which needs insects on flowering, especially the honeybees for seed production. Collecting nectar and pollen by honeybees in agricultural crops is essential to apiculture, as well as a better understanding of plant biology. The foraging behavior of Africanized Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera, Apidae) and its efficiency of pollination on seed yield of sunflower genotypes (open pollination and restricted pollination) were evaluated. There were peaks of visits by A. mellifera for nectar collection on the 2nd and 3rd flowering days between 7h00 and 8h30. The average density of A. mellifera during increased visitation ranged from 2.27 to 2.94 bees per capitulum. Nectar collecting bees were more frequent (2.28 bees per capitulum) than pollen collecting (0.40 bees per capitulum). On the 3rd flowering day, Helio 360 and Aguará hybrids had higher (p &#8804; 0.05) number of bee visits per flower head than the other genotypes. Seed yield was 43 % higher (p &#8804; 0.05) from sunflower plants that were visited by pollinator-insects compared with plants restricted to pollinators

Meta-analysis of type 2 Diabetes in African Americans Consortium

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 × 10(-94)<P<5 × 10(-8), odds ratio (OR)  = 1.09 to 1.36). Fine-mapping revealed that 88 of 158 previously identified T2D or glucose homeostasis loci demonstrated nominal to highly significant association (2.2 × 10(-23) < locus-wide P<0.05). These novel and previously identified loci yielded a sibling relative risk of 1.19, explaining 17.5% of the phenotypic variance of T2D on the liability scale in African Americans. Overall, this study identified two novel susceptibility loci for T2D in African Americans. A substantial number of previously reported loci are transferable to African Americans after accounting for linkage disequilibrium, enabling fine mapping of causal variants in trans-ethnic meta-analysis studies.Peer reviewe