Metabolic resource overlap impacts competition among phyllosphere bacteria

The phyllosphere is densely colonised by microbial communities, despite sparse and heterogeneously distributed resources. The limitation of resources is expected to drive bacterial competition resulting in exclusion or coexistence based on fitness differences and resource overlap between individual colonisers. We studied the impact of resource competition by determining the effects of different bacterial colonisers on the growth of the model epiphyte Pantoea eucalypti 299R (Pe299R). Resource overlap was predicted based on genome-scale metabolic modelling. By combining results of metabolic modelling and pairwise competitions in the Arabidopsis thaliana phyllosphere and in vitro, we found that ten resources sufficed to explain fitness of Pe299R. An effect of both resource overlap and phylogenetic relationships was found on competition outcomes in vitro as well as in the phyllosphere. However, effects of resource competition were much weaker in the phyllosphere when compared to in vitro experiments. When investigating growth dynamics and reproductive success at the single-cell resolution, resource overlap and phylogenetic relationships are only weakly correlated with epiphytic Pe299R reproductive success, indicating that the leaf’s spatial heterogeneity mitigates resource competition. Although the correlation is weak, the presence of competitors led to the development of Pe299R subpopulations that experienced different life histories and cell divisions. In some in planta competitions, Pe299R benefitted from the presence of epiphytes despite high resource overlap to the competitor strain suggesting other factors having stronger effects than resource competition. This study provides fundamental insights into how bacterial communities are shaped in heterogeneous environments and a framework to predict competition outcomes

Magnetic patterning of Co/Ni layered systems by plasma oxidation

We studied the structural, chemical, and magnetic properties of Ti/Au/Co/Ni layered systems subjected to plasma oxidation. The process results in the formation of NiO at the expense of metallic Ni, as clearly evidenced by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, while not affecting the surface roughness and grain size of the Co/Ni bilayers. Since the decrease of the thickness of the Ni layer and the formation of NiO increase the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, oxidation may be locally applied for magnetic patterning. Using this approach, we created 2D heterostructures characterized by different combinations of magnetic properties in areas modified by plasma oxidation and in the regions protected from oxidation. As plasma oxidation is an easy to use, low cost, and commonly utilized technique in industrial applications, it may constitute an improvement over other magnetic patterning methods

Chromatic Bacteria – A Broad Host-Range Plasmid and Chromosomal Insertion Toolbox for Fluorescent Protein Expression in Bacteria

Differential fluorescent labeling of bacteria has become instrumental for many aspects of microbiological research, such as the study of biofilm formation, bacterial individuality, evolution, and bacterial behavior in complex environments. We designed a variety of plasmids, each bearing one of eight unique, constitutively expressed fluorescent protein genes in conjunction with one of four different antibiotic resistance combinations. The fluorophores mTagBFP2, mTurquoise2, sGFP2, mClover3, sYFP2, mOrange2, mScarlet-I, and mCardinal, encoding for blue, cyan, green, green–yellow, yellow, orange, red, and far-red fluorescent proteins, respectively, were combined with selectable markers conferring tetracycline, gentamicin, kanamycin, and/or chloramphenicol resistance. These constructs were cloned into three different plasmid backbones: a broad host-range plasmid, a Tn5 transposon delivery plasmid, and a Tn7 transposon delivery plasmid. The utility of the plasmids and transposons was tested in bacteria from the phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. We were able to tag representatives from the phylum Proteobacteria at least via our Tn5 transposon delivery system. The present study enables labeling bacteria with a set of plasmids available to the community. One potential application of fluorescently-tagged bacterial species is the study of bacteria–bacteria, bacteria–host, and bacteria–environment interactions

The ParlaMint corpora of parliamentary proceedings

This paper presents the ParlaMint corpora containing transcriptions of the sessions of the 17 European national parliaments with half a billion words. The corpora are uniformly encoded, contain rich meta-data about 11 thousand speakers, and are linguistically annotated following the Universal Dependencies formalism and with named entities. Samples of the corpora and conversion scripts are available from the project’s GitHub repository, and the complete corpora are openly available via the CLARIN.SI repository for download, as well as through the NoSketch Engine and KonText concordancers and the Parlameter interface for on-line exploration and analysis

Konferencja uzgodnieniowa: problemy żywieniowe w polskiej onkologii

Polskie Towarzystwo Onkologiczne i Polskie TowarzystwoOnkologii Klinicznej podjęły inicjatywę wprowadzeniasystematycznych badań i opracowania polskichzaleceń dotyczących odżywiania i leczenia żywieniowegow profilaktyce i leczeniu nowotworów złośliwych

Konferencja Uzgodnieniowa: Problemy żywieniowe w polskiej onkologii

Z inicjatywy Polskiego Towarzystwa Onkologicznego i Polskiego Towarzystwa Onkologii Klinicznej powołano Grupę Roboczą, której zadaniem jest dokonanie oceny obecnego stanu poradnictwa i leczenia żywieniowego w polskiej onkologii, wskazanie kierunków działania i stworzenie podstaw organizacyjnych dla wprowadzenia tematyki żywieniowej do szkolenia onkologów i praktyki leczenia przeciwnowotworowego w Polsce. Podczas pierwszego spotkania Grupy Roboczej dokonano oceny obecnego stanu poradnictwa i leczenia żywieniowego w polskich ośrodkach onkologicznych, a następnie określono zagadnienia wymagające podjęcia działań oraz sposoby ich wdrażania. Niniejszy dokument stanowi podsumowanie ustaleń Grupy Roboczej

Administracja, zarządzanie i handel zagraniczny w warunkach integracji. Materiały konferencyjne - Zarządzanie bezpieczeństwem

Ze wstępu: "Bezpieczeństwo jest w coraz wyższej cenie. Zajmują się nim naukowcy oraz praktycy z różnych dziedzin. W najszerszym wymiarze pojęcie „bezpieczeństwo” sprowadzić można do słów: stan niezagrożenia, spokoju, pewności. Takie ogólne ujęcie problematyki bezpieczeństwa sprawia, że różne podmioty podchodzą wybiórczo do tych bardzo ważnych zarówno dla pojedynczych ludzi, jak i społeczeństwa zagadnień. Inaczej postrzegają i interpretują bezpieczeństwo politycy, prawnicy, ekonomiści, wojskowi, policjanci, lekarze, pedagodzy, a inaczej zwyczajni ludzie. W ich ujęciu bezpieczeństwo to: 1) stan świadomości człowieka, w którym czuje się on wolny od jakichkolwiek zagrożeń, pociągający za sobą poczucie spokoju i komfortu; 2) niczym niezakłócone współistnienie człowieka z innymi ludźmi i środowiskiem przyrodniczym; 3) stan bez lęku i niepokoju o siebie i innych, pewność jutra; 4) brak zagrożenia utraty zdrowia, mienia i życia, komfort psychiczny umożliwiający realizację życiowych marzeń i celów; 5) sytuacja, w której człowiekowi nic nie zagraża, a w nagłych i nieprzewidzianych sytuacjach może liczyć na pomoc i wsparcie innych."(...

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe