High water availability increases the negative impact of a native hemiparasite on its non-native host

Environmental factors alter the impacts of parasitic plants on their hosts. However, there have been no controlled studies on how water availability modulates stem hemiparasites' effects on hosts. A glasshouse experiment was conducted to investigate the association between the Australian native stem hemiparasite Cassytha pubescens and the introduced host Ulex europaeus under high (HW) and low (LW) water supply. Cassytha pubescens had a significant, negative effect on the total biomass of U. europaeus, which was more severe in HW than LW. Regardless of watering treatment, infection significantly decreased shoot and root biomass, nodule biomass, nodule biomass per unit root biomass, F-v/F-m, and nitrogen concentration of U. europaeus. Host spine sodium concentration significantly increased in response to infection in LW but not HW conditions. Host water potential was significantly higher in HW than in LW, which may have allowed the parasite to maintain higher stomatal conductances in HW. In support of this, the delta C-13 of the parasite was significantly lower in HW than in LW (and significantly higher than the host). C. pubescens also had significantly higher F-v/F-m and 66% higher biomass per unit host in the HW compared with the LW treatment. The data suggest that the enhanced performance of C. pubescens in HW resulted in higher parasite growth rates and thus a larger demand for resources from the host, leading to poorer host performance in HW compared with LW. C. pubescens should more negatively affect U. europaeus growth under wet conditions rather than under dry conditions in the field

Athletes’ Perceptions of Unsupportive Parental Behaviours in Competitive Female Youth Golf

Research exploring athletes and coaches’ perceptions of parent involvement in youth sport has demonstrated the presence of maladaptive parent involvement in youth sport. This research has provided insights into inappropriate parenting practices displayed in the youth sport environment. However, representative of the broader sport parenting literature, data has been primarily gleaned from sports such as tennis and football. In a bid to diversify participant populations, the present study sought to examine female youth golfers’ views of unsupportive parental behaviors within the competitive youth golf environment. Fourteen online synchronous focus groups were conducted with 61 female youth golfers in the specializing (n = 27) and investment (n = 34) stages of development, recruited from seven countries across three continents (Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland). Reflexive thematic analysis revealed three higher-order categories of unsupportive parental behaviors: Emotional Ill-Treatment; Physical Ill-Treatment; and Pressurizing Behavior. Parenting practices consistent with emotional ill-treatment (e.g., verbal ill-treatment) have been previously discussed within the sport parenting literature, however the presence of physical ill-treatment displayed by parents toward child-athletes has not been commonly reported. The present research provides novel insights into athletes’ perceptions of these maladaptive behaviors, and demonstrates that, similar to other youth sports, unsupportive parental behaviors are evident in the youth golf environment. The findings of the current research further reinforce the need for reporting mechanisms for allegations of abuse within youth sport, continued stakeholder education, the development of safeguarding cultures, and also the need to explore parents’ experiences of exhibiting maladaptive involvement. Lay summary: Female youth golfers’ views of unsupportive parental behaviors in the specializing and investment stages of development were explored. Three higher order categories of unsupportive parental behaviors in competitive youth golf were identified: Emotional Ill-Treatment; Physical Ill-Treatment; and Pressurizing Behavior.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Findings highlight the need for applied practitioners to work with sport organizations in developing and implementing holistic safeguarding cultures, to prevent child maltreatment in youth sport. Findings can be utilized by applied practitioners, governing bodies, and sport organizations to inform the content of future educational resources and programs for parents of youth golfers,.</p

Speedy Routing Recovery Protocol for Large Failure Tolerance in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are expected to play an increasingly important role in data collection in hazardous areas. However, the physical fragility of a sensor node makes reliable routing in hazardous areas a challenging problem. Because several sensor nodes in a hazardous area could be damaged simultaneously, the network should be able to recover routing after node failures over large areas. Many routing protocols take single-node failure recovery into account, but it is difficult for these protocols to recover the routing after large-scale failures. In this paper, we propose a routing protocol, referred to as ARF (Adaptive routing protocol for fast Recovery from large-scale Failure), to recover a network quickly after failures over large areas. ARF detects failures by counting the packet losses from parent nodes, and upon failure detection, it decreases the routing interval to notify the neighbor nodes of the failure. Our experimental results indicate that ARF could provide recovery from large-area failures quickly with less packets and energy consumption than previous protocols

Simple Random Sampling-Based Probe Station Selection for Fault Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Fault detection for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been studied intensively in recent years. Most existing works statically choose the manager nodes as probe stations and probe the network at a fixed frequency. This straightforward solution leads however to several deficiencies. Firstly, by only assigning the fault detection task to the manager node the whole network is out of balance, and this quickly overloads the already heavily burdened manager node, which in turn ultimately shortens the lifetime of the whole network. Secondly, probing with a fixed frequency often generates too much useless network traffic, which results in a waste of the limited network energy. Thirdly, the traditional algorithm for choosing a probing node is too complicated to be used in energy-critical wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we study the distribution characters of the fault nodes in wireless sensor networks, validate the Pareto principle that a small number of clusters contain most of the faults. We then present a Simple Random Sampling-based algorithm to dynamic choose sensor nodes as probe stations. A dynamic adjusting rule for probing frequency is also proposed to reduce the number of useless probing packets. The simulation experiments demonstrate that the algorithm and adjusting rule we present can effectively prolong the lifetime of a wireless sensor network without decreasing the fault detected rate

Specificity determinants for lysine incorporation in staphylococcus aureus peptidoglycan as revealed by the structure of a MurE enzyme ternary complex

Background: MurE controls stereo chemical incorporation of Lysine or diaminopimelate into peptidoglycan stem peptides Results: The structure of S.aureus MurE reveals an unexpected lack of specificity for Lysine within the active site. Conclusion: Incorporation of Lysine is supported by the comparatively high concentration of cytoplasmic lysine, not enzyme specificity. Significance: This study provides new perspectives in targeting Gram-positive peptidoglycan assembly for antimicrobial discovery

The dust properties and physical conditions of the interstellar medium in the LMC massive star forming complex N11

We combine Spitzer and Herschel data of the star-forming region N11 in the Large Magellanic Cloud to produce detailed maps of the dust properties in the complex and study their variations with the ISM conditions. We also compare APEX/LABOCA 870um observations with our model predictions in order to decompose the 870um emission into dust and non-dust (free-free emission and CO(3-2) line) contributions. We find that in N11, the 870um can be fully accounted for by these 3 components. The dust surface density map of N11 is combined with HI and CO observations to study local variations in the gas-to-dust mass ratios. Our analysis leads to values lower than those expected from the LMC low-metallicity as well as to a decrease of the gas-to-dust mass ratio with the dust surface density. We explore potential hypotheses that could explain the low observed gas-to-dust mass ratios (variations in the XCO factor, presence of CO-dark gas or of optically thick HI or variations in the dust abundance in the dense regions). We finally decompose the local SEDs using a Principal Component Analysis (i.e. with no a priori assumption on the dust composition in the complex). Our results lead to a promising decomposition of the local SEDs in various dust components (hot, warm, cold) coherent with that expected for the region. Further analysis on a larger sample of galaxies will follow in order to understand how unique this decomposition is or how it evolves from one environment to another.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Addressing the Supportive Transportation Challenges of Community-Residing Older Adults

The ability to get to where you want to go, when you want to go there is a key factor for aging-in-place in our communities. It is often taken for granted until that ability is compromised. The informal network of family and friends, if it exists, is not likely to be a sustainable transportation alternative for persons with cognitive impairment or for older adults with limitations that may not fit eligibility criteria for senior transportation services, where they exist. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of communities to address the specialized supportive mobility needs of community-residing older adults. A major conclusion to emerge from the research is the connection of mobility to healthcare