THE EFFECT OF DEER BROWSE ON ACHYRANTHES JAPONICA

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OFNicholas Seaton, for the Master of Science degree in Plant Biology, presented on December 4, 2019 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: THE EFFECT OF DEER BROWSE ON ACHYRANTHES JAPONICAMAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. David GibsonPlants respond in many ways to damage. These responses vary between sites depending on the severity and duration of the incident. One common form of damage in the forest understory is herbivory or browse. White tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have been observed to change the dominant species of forests by selectively browsing palatable species in the understory. These changes in species dominance can lead to unwanted consequences, sometimes resulting in a proliferation of weedy or invasive plants or a reduction in performance and competitive abilities based on morphological traits. Understanding the changes that occur to undesirable species after deer browse can help land managers in their prioritization of sites for land management and understand the driving forces behind a species’ success or failure. Using deer exclosure plots, this study looks at the effects of white-tailed deer on Achyranthes japonica, an herbaceous invasive species in the Ohio River floodplain of Illinois and surrounding states. White tailed deer have been observed to browse A. japonica throughout the invaders range, but little is known about the plant’s response. Deer browse data were collected in the summer of 2018 from May to August. Estimated deer densities among six study sites ranged from 8 to 22 deer per km2. Plants that were browsed during the growing season were morphologically different to those that were not browsed. Browsed plants were 11.5 ± 0.1 cm shorter (F1,218=11.658; p\u3c0.001) on average and produced 0.33 ± 0.09 fewer nodes (F1,216= 4.045; p\u3c0.05). Browsed plants also produced 2.7 ± 0.32 fewer flowering spikes and were similar in length to those of un-browsed plants. These morphological differences showed significant variation between sites. Floristic Quality Indices of the herbaceous plant communities (Ȳ =3.5) ranged from 3.2 to 3.9 among study sites. This study shows that site conditions can impact the response of A. japonica growth as it continues to invade across its current introduced range and that the species is adaptive and grows along-side other similar weedy species such as Microstegium vimineum and Parthenocissus quinquefolia. This study also indicated that deer browse has little to no impact on the growth of Achyranthes japonica.Keywords: Achyranthes japonica, Odocoileus virginianus, herbivory, browse, deer density, site qualit

Physical Conditions in the Narrow-Line Region of Markarian 3. I. Observational Results

We use Hubble Space Telescope/Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS) longslit low-resolution spectroscopy from 1150A to 10,300A to study the physical conditions in the narrow-line region (NLR) of the Seyfert 2 galaxy Markarian 3. We find from the HeII 1640/4686 line ratio and the Balmer decrement that the extinction within Markarian 3 along the line-of-sight to the NLR is best characterized by a Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) type extinction curve. We observe an extinction gradient increasing from west to east along the STIS slit in both line and continuum emission. We infer from this gradient that the host galaxy disk is tilted towards the observer in the east: the line-of-sight to the eastern emission-line cone intersects more dust in the plane of the galaxy than that to the western cone. We model the observed continuum as a combination of reddened host galaxy light from an old stellar population, reddened H+ and He++ recombination continua, and less reddened scattered light from the central engine with spectral index alpha=1 (L(nu) proportional to nu^(-alpha)). The host galaxy to scattered-light ratio is estimated to be 3:1 at 8125 A in 0.1 X 1.8 square-arcsecond aperture. We estimate that the amount of intrinsic non-ionizing UV continuum scattered into our line-of-sight is 0.04%. This is consistent with our estimate of the scattering fraction for broad CIV 1548,1551 emission.Comment: 57 pages, 21 Figures; LaTeX; accepted for publication in Ap

Far Ultraviolet Imagery of the Edge-On Spiral Galaxy NGC 4631

Far ultraviolet FUV imagery of the edge-on, Sc/SBd galaxy, NGC 4631 reveals very strong FUV emission, resulting from active star formation, uniformly distributed along the galactic mid- plane. Multi-band imagery, HI and HII position-velocity curves and extinction considerations all imply that the emission is from the outer edges of the visible galaxy. The overall FUV morphology of this edge-on disk system is remarkably similar to those of the so-called "chain galaxies" evident at high redshift, thus suggesting a similar interpretation for at least some of those distant objects. FUV, U, B and V magnitudes, measured for 48 star forming regions, along with corresponding H-alpha and H-beta measurements are used to construct diagnostic color-color diagrams. Although there are significant exceptions, most of the star forming regions are less massive and older than 30 Doradus. Comparison with the expectations from two star formation models yields ages of 2.7 to 10 Myr for the instantaneous burst (IB) model and star formation cut-off ages of 0 to 9 Myr for the continuous star formation (CSF) model. Interpreted in terms of the IB model the photometry implies a total created mass in the 48 star forming regions of 25 million solar-masses. When viewed as resulting from constant star formation the photometry implies a star formation rate of 0.33 solar-masses/yr. These results are compared to those derived from FIR and radio observations. Corrections for FUV emission reprocessed by interstellar grains are estimated.Comment: 29 pages including 6 encapsulated Postscript figures; accepted for publication in ApJ; changed table forma

Mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) in sheep. I. A new male framework linkage map and QTL for growth rate and body weight

A male sheep linkage map comprising 191 microsatellites was generated from a single family of 510 Awassi-Merino backcross progeny. Except for ovine chromosomes 1, 2, 10 and 17, all other chromosomes yielded a LOD score difference greater than 3.0 between the best and second-best map order. The map is on average 11% longer than the Sheep Linkage Map v4.7 male-specific map. This map was employed in quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses on body-weight and growth-rate traits between birth and 98 weeks of age. A custom maximum likelihood program was developed to map QTL in half-sib families for non-inbred strains (QTL-MLE) and is freely available on request. The new analysis package offers the advantage of enabling QTL × fixed effect interactions to be included in the model. Fifty-four putative QTL were identified on nine chromosomes. Significant QTL with sex-specific effects (i.e. QTL × sex interaction) in the range of 0.4 to 0.7 SD were found on ovine chromosomes 1, 3, 6, 11, 21, 23, 24 and 26

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Oral versus intravenous antibiotics for bone and joint infection

BACKGROUND The management of complex orthopedic infections usually includes a prolonged course of intravenous antibiotic agents. We investigated whether oral antibiotic therapy is noninferior to intravenous antibiotic therapy for this indication. METHODS We enrolled adults who were being treated for bone or joint infection at 26 U.K. centers. Within 7 days after surgery (or, if the infection was being managed without surgery, within 7 days after the start of antibiotic treatment), participants were randomly assigned to receive either intravenous or oral antibiotics to complete the first 6 weeks of therapy. Follow-on oral antibiotics were permitted in both groups. The primary end point was definitive treatment failure within 1 year after randomization. In the analysis of the risk of the primary end point, the noninferiority margin was 7.5 percentage points. RESULTS Among the 1054 participants (527 in each group), end-point data were available for 1015 (96.3%). Treatment failure occurred in 74 of 506 participants (14.6%) in the intravenous group and 67 of 509 participants (13.2%) in the oral group. Missing end-point data (39 participants, 3.7%) were imputed. The intention-to-treat analysis showed a difference in the risk of definitive treatment failure (oral group vs. intravenous group) of −1.4 percentage points (90% confidence interval [CI], −4.9 to 2.2; 95% CI, −5.6 to 2.9), indicating noninferiority. Complete-case, per-protocol, and sensitivity analyses supported this result. The between-group difference in the incidence of serious adverse events was not significant (146 of 527 participants [27.7%] in the intravenous group and 138 of 527 [26.2%] in the oral group; P=0.58). Catheter complications, analyzed as a secondary end point, were more common in the intravenous group (9.4% vs. 1.0%). CONCLUSIONS Oral antibiotic therapy was noninferior to intravenous antibiotic therapy when used during the first 6 weeks for complex orthopedic infection, as assessed by treatment failure at 1 year. (Funded by the National Institute for Health Research; OVIVA Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN91566927. opens in new tab.

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Co-infections, secondary infections, and antimicrobial use in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 during the first pandemic wave from the ISARIC WHO CCP-UK study: a multicentre, prospective cohort study

Background: Microbiological characterisation of co-infections and secondary infections in patients with COVID-19 is lacking, and antimicrobial use is high. We aimed to describe microbiologically confirmed co-infections and secondary infections, and antimicrobial use, in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods: The International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study is an ongoing, prospective cohort study recruiting inpatients from 260 hospitals in England, Scotland, and Wales, conducted by the ISARIC Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium. Patients with a confirmed or clinician-defined high likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 infection were eligible for inclusion in the ISARIC WHO CCP-UK study. For this specific study, we excluded patients with a recorded negative SARS-CoV-2 test result and those without a recorded outcome at 28 days after admission. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, therapeutic, and outcome data were collected using a prespecified case report form. Organisms considered clinically insignificant were excluded. Findings: We analysed data from 48 902 patients admitted to hospital between Feb 6 and June 8, 2020. The median patient age was 74 years (IQR 59–84) and 20 786 (42·6%) of 48 765 patients were female. Microbiological investigations were recorded for 8649 (17·7%) of 48 902 patients, with clinically significant COVID-19-related respiratory or bloodstream culture results recorded for 1107 patients. 762 (70·6%) of 1080 infections were secondary, occurring more than 2 days after hospital admission. Staphylococcus aureus and Haemophilus influenzae were the most common pathogens causing respiratory co-infections (diagnosed ≤2 days after admission), with Enterobacteriaceae and S aureus most common in secondary respiratory infections. Bloodstream infections were most frequently caused by Escherichia coli and S aureus. Among patients with available data, 13 390 (37·0%) of 36 145 had received antimicrobials in the community for this illness episode before hospital admission and 39 258 (85·2%) of 46 061 patients with inpatient antimicrobial data received one or more antimicrobials at some point during their admission (highest for patients in critical care). We identified frequent use of broad-spectrum agents and use of carbapenems rather than carbapenem-sparing alternatives. Interpretation: In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, microbiologically confirmed bacterial infections are rare, and more likely to be secondary infections. Gram-negative organisms and S aureus are the predominant pathogens. The frequency and nature of antimicrobial use are concerning, but tractable targets for stewardship interventions exist. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, UK Department for International Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EU Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-)emerging Epidemics, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at University of Liverpool, and NIHR HPRU in Respiratory Infections at Imperial College London