The impact of conventional and organic farming on soil biodiversity conservation: a case study on termites in the long-term farming systems comparison trials in Kenya

A long-term experiment at two trial sites in Kenya has been on-going since 2007 to assess the effect of organic and conventional farming systems on productivity, profitability and sustainability. During these trials the presence of significant numbers of termites (Isoptera) was observed. Termites are major soil macrofauna and within literature they are either depict as ‘pests’ or as important indicator for environmental sustainability. The extent by which termites may be managed to avoid crop damage, but improve sustainability of farming systems is worthwhile to understand. Therefore, a study on termites was added to the long-term experiments in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to quantify the effect of organic (Org) and conventional (Conv) farming systems at two input levels (low and high) on the abundance, incidence, diversity and foraging activities of termites. The results showed higher termite abundance, incidence, activity and diversity in Org-High compared to Conv-High, Conv-Low and Org-Low. However, the termite presence in each system was also dependent on soil depth, trial site and cropping season. During the experiment, nine different termite genera were identified, that belong to three subfamilies: (i) Macrotermitinae (genera: Allodontotermes, Ancistrotermes, Macrotermes, Microtermes, Odontotermes and Pseudocanthotermes), (ii) Termitinae (Amitermes and Cubitermes) and (iii) Nasutitiermitinae (Trinervitermes). We hypothesize that the presence of termites within the different farming systems might be influenced by the types of input applied, the soil moisture content and the occurrence of natural enemies. Our findings further demonstrate that the organic high input system attracts termites, which are an important, and often beneficial, component of soil fauna. This further increases the potential of such systems in enhancing sustainable agricultural production in Kenya

Long Cycle‐Life Ca Batteries with Poly(anthraquinonylsulfide) Cathodes and Ca−Sn Alloy Anodes

Calcium (Ca) batteries are attractive post-lithium battery technologies, due to their potential to provide high-voltage and high-energy systems in a sustainable manner. We investigated herein 1,5-poly(anthraquinonylsulfide) (PAQS) for Ca-ion storage with calcium tetrakis(hexafluoroisopropyloxy)borate Ca[B(hfip)$_4$]$_2$ [hfip=OCH(CF$_3$)$_2$] electrolytes. It is demonstrated that PAQS could be synthesized in a cost-effective approach and be processed environmentally friendly into the electrodes. The PAQS cathodes could provide 94 mAh g$^{−1}$ capacity at 2.2 V vs. Ca at 0.5C (1C=225 mAh g$^{−1}$). However, cycling of the cells was severely hindered due to the fast degradation of the metal anode. Replacing the Ca metal anode with a calcium-tin (Ca−Sn) alloy anode, the PAQS cathodes exhibited long cycling performance (45 mAh g$^{−1}$ at 0.5C after 1000 cycles) and superior rate capability (52 mAh g$^{−1}$ at 5C). This is mainly ascribed to the flexible structure of PAQS and good compatibility of the alloy anodes with the electrolyte solutions, which allow reversible quinone carbonyl redox chemistry in the Ca battery systems. The promising properties of PAQS indicate that further exploration of the organic cathode materials could be a feasible direction towards green Ca batteries

Completing Linnaeus's inventory of the Swedish insect fauna: Only 5,000 species left?

Despite more than 250 years of taxonomic research, we still have only a vague idea about the true size and composition of the faunas and floras of the planet. Many biodiversity inventories provide limited insight because they focus on a small taxonomic subsample or a tiny geographic area. Here, we report on the size and composition of the Swedish insect fauna, thought to represent roughly half of the diversity of multicellular life in one of the largest European countries. Our results are based on more than a decade of data from the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative and its massive inventory of the country's insect fauna, the Swedish Malaise Trap Project The fauna is considered one of the best known in the world, but the initiative has nevertheless revealed a surprising amount of hidden diversity: more than 3,000 new species (301 new to science) have been documented so far. Here, we use three independent methods to analyze the true size and composition of the fauna at the family or subfamily level: (1) assessments by experts who have been working on the most poorly known groups in the fauna; (2) estimates based on the proportion of new species discovered in the Malaise trap inventory; and (3) extrapolations based on species abundance and incidence data from the inventory. For the last method, we develop a new estimator, the combined non-parametric estimator, which we show is less sensitive to poor coverage of the species pool than other popular estimators. The three methods converge on similar estimates of the size and composition of the fauna, suggesting that it comprises around 33,000 species. Of those, 8,600 (26%) were unknown at the start of the inventory and 5,000 (15%) still await discovery. We analyze the taxonomic and ecological composition of the estimated fauna, and show that most of the new species belong to Hymenoptera and Diptera groups that are decomposers or parasitoids. Thus, current knowledge of the Swedish insect fauna is strongly biased taxonomically and ecologically, and we show that similar but even stronger biases have distorted our understanding of the fauna in the past. We analyze latitudinal gradients in the size and composition of known European insect faunas and show that several of the patterns contradict the Swedish data, presumably due to similar knowledge biases. Addressing these biases is critical in understanding insect biomes and the ecosystem services they provide. Our results emphasize the need to broaden the taxonomic scope of current insect monitoring efforts, a task that is all the more urgent as recent studies indicate a possible worldwide decline in insect faunas

Meeting Report: Aging Research and Drug Discovery

Aging is the single largest risk factor for most chronic diseases, and thus possesses large socioeconomic interest to continuously aging societies. Consequently, the field of aging research is expanding alongside a growing focus from the industry and investors in aging research. This year's 8th Annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery ARDD) meeting was organized as a hybrid meeting from August 30th to September 3rd 2021 with more than 130 attendees participating on-site at the Ceremonial Hall at University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and 1800 engaging online. The conference comprised of presentations from 75 speakers focusing on new research in topics including mechanisms of aging and how these can be modulated as well as the use of AI and new standards of practices within aging research. This year, a longevity workshop was included to build stronger connections with the clinical community

Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain

ience, this issue p. eaap8757 Structured Abstract INTRODUCTION Brain disorders may exhibit shared symptoms and substantial epidemiological comorbidity, inciting debate about their etiologic overlap. However, detailed study of phenotypes with different ages of onset, severity, and presentation poses a considerable challenge. Recently developed heritability methods allow us to accurately measure correlation of genome-wide common variant risk between two phenotypes from pools of different individuals and assess how connected they, or at least their genetic risks, are on the genomic level. We used genome-wide association data for 265,218 patients and 784,643 control participants, as well as 17 phenotypes from a total of 1,191,588 individuals, to quantify the degree of overlap for genetic risk factors of 25 common brain disorders. RATIONALE Over the past century, the classification of brain disorders has evolved to reflect the medical and scientific communities' assessments of the presumed root causes of clinical phenomena such as behavioral change, loss of motor function, or alterations of consciousness. Directly observable phenomena (such as the presence of emboli, protein tangles, or unusual electrical activity patterns) generally define and separate neurological disorders from psychiatric disorders. Understanding the genetic underpinnings and categorical distinctions for brain disorders and related phenotypes may inform the search for their biological mechanisms. RESULTS Common variant risk for psychiatric disorders was shown to correlate significantly, especially among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia. By contrast, neurological disorders appear more distinct from one another and from the psychiatric disorders, except for migraine, which was significantly correlated to ADHD, MDD, and Tourette syndrome. We demonstrate that, in the general population, the personality trait neuroticism is significantly correlated with almost every psychiatric disorder and migraine. We also identify significant genetic sharing between disorders and early life cognitive measures (e.g., years of education and college attainment) in the general population, demonstrating positive correlation with several psychiatric disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bipolar disorder) and negative correlation with several neurological phenotypes (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and ischemic stroke), even though the latter are considered to result from specific processes that occur later in life. Extensive simulations were also performed to inform how statistical power, diagnostic misclassification, and phenotypic heterogeneity influence genetic correlations. CONCLUSION The high degree of genetic correlation among many of the psychiatric disorders adds further evidence that their current clinical boundaries do not reflect distinct underlying pathogenic processes, at least on the genetic level. This suggests a deeply interconnected nature for psychiatric disorders, in contrast to neurological disorders, and underscores the need to refine psychiatric diagnostics. Genetically informed analyses may provide important "scaffolding" to support such restructuring of psychiatric nosology, which likely requires incorporating many levels of information. By contrast, we find limited evidence for widespread common genetic risk sharing among neurological disorders or across neurological and psychiatric disorders. We show that both psychiatric and neurological disorders have robust correlations with cognitive and personality measures. Further study is needed to evaluate whether overlapping genetic contributions to psychiatric pathology may influence treatment choices. Ultimately, such developments may pave the way toward reduced heterogeneity and improved diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders

Gold-katalysierte Cycloisomerisierung von Eninolen zu substituierten Furanen und deren Anwendung in der Totalsynthese des Naturstoffs Auxofuran

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war eine effektive Synthese von substituierten Furanen via Gold-katalysierter Cycloisomerisierung ausgehend von Eninolen zu entwickeln. Dazu wurden die Eninole durch Palladium-katalysierte SONOGASHIRA-Kupplung zwischen einem Vinylhalogenid, welches die für die Cycloisomerisierung erforderliche Hydroxymethyl-Funktion enthielt, und einem terminalen Alkin dargestellt. Dann erfolgten Studien der möglichen Weiterreaktionen der durch die Cycloisomerisierung erhaltenen substituierten Furane. Zum einen konnten hier durch die weitere Umsetzung der Naturstoff Auxofuran und zwei Derivate davon erhalten werden. Der zweite Ringschluss erfolgte hier durch FRIEDEL-CRAFTS-Acylierung, intramolekulare Hydroxyalkylierung oder HOMO-NAZAROV-Cyclisierung. Zum anderen wurde die intramolekulare DIELS-ALDER-Reaktion des Furan-Diens untersucht. Dazu wurden substituierte Furane ohne geminale Methylgruppen verwendet. Die dargestellten alpha,beta-ungesättigten Ester wurden mit Dialkylaluminiumchloriden behandelt. Es zeigte sich allerdings, dass die gebildeten Cycloaddukte direkt mit einer Alkylgruppe aus der LEWIS-Säure unter Öffnung der Etherbrücke reagierten. Auf diesem Weg war es möglich verschiedene Inden- und Naphthalen-Derivate darzustellen. Als anstatt des Esters ein Allenon verwendet wurde, konnte das Cycloaddukt abgefangen werden. Im letzten Projekt dieser Arbeit wurde untersucht, ob es möglich ist, die in der Literatur beschriebene Spirocyclisierung von Silylenolethern auf Silyloxyfurane zu übertragen

Intramolecular Diels-Alder Reactions of Tethered Enoate Substituted Furans Induced by Dialkylaluminum Chloride

Gold­(I)-catalyzed cycloisomerization of enynols <b>11</b> and <b>17</b>, obtained by Sonogashira coupling, led to the tethered enoate-substituted furans <b>14</b> and <b>19</b>. While attempts at thermal and several Lewis acid induced intramolecular Diels–Alder reactions remained fruitless, dialkylaluminum chloride led to the formation of hexahydroindene and octahydronaphthalene derivatives <b>20</b>–<b>23</b>. Their formation can be explained by Lewis acid induced opening of the epoxy bridge with transfer of one alkyl group to the intermediate cycloadduct