Additional file 3: Figure S1. of Comparative analysis of Corynebacterium glutamicum genomes: a new perspective for the industrial production of amino acids

Genome-wide alignment of selected C. glutamicum strains in an all-versus-all manner to ATCC 13032: MB001 (A), ATCC 15168 (B), R (C), B253 (D), SCgG1 (E), and ATCC 21831 (F). Matches in the forward strand are in red and those in the reverse strand are in blue. (PDF 394 kb

Additional file 1: Table S1. of Comparative analysis of Corynebacterium glutamicum genomes: a new perspective for the industrial production of amino acids

Strains sequenced in this study. (PDF 37 kb

Forest dynamics in the U.S. indicate disproportionate attrition in western forests, rural areas and public lands

<div><p>Forests are experiencing significant changes; studying geographic patterns in forests is critical in understanding the impact of forest dynamics to biodiversity, soil erosion, water chemistry and climate. Few studies have examined forest geographic pattern changes other than fragmentation; however, other spatial processes of forest dynamics are of equal importance. Here, we study forest attrition, the complete removal of forest patches, that can result in complete habitat loss, severe decline of population sizes and species richness, and shifts of local and regional environmental conditions. We aim to develop a simple yet insightful proximity-based spatial indicator capturing forest attrition that is independent of spatial scale and boundaries with worldwide application potential. Using this proximity indicator, we evaluate forest attrition across ecoregions, land ownership and urbanization stratifications across continental United States of America. Nationally, the total forest cover loss was approximately 90,400 km², roughly the size of the state of Maine, constituting a decline of 2.96%. Examining the spatial arrangement of this change the average FAD was 3674m in 1992 and increased by 514m or 14.0% in 2001. Simulations of forest cover loss indicate only a 10m FAD increase suggesting that the observed FAD increase was more than an order of magnitude higher than expected. Furthermore, forest attrition is considerably higher in the western United States, in rural areas and in public lands. Our mathematical model (R² = 0.93) supports estimation of attrition for a given forest cover. The FAD metric quantifies forest attrition across spatial scales and geographic boundaries and assesses unambiguously changes over time. The metric is applicable to any landscape and offers a new complementary insight on forest landscape patterns from local to global scales, improving future exploration of drivers and repercussions of forest cover changes and supporting more informative management of forest carbon, changing climate and species biodiversity.</p></div

Illustration of applicability of the forest attrition distance metrics used as an attrition indicator.

<p>Case a shows the initial forest state followed by seven forest change examples (b-h). Forested area is depicted in green pixels. Red squares with dotted lines indicate forest loss. Values of our forest attrition distance along with four other commonly used metrics for these seven cases are provided in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0171383#pone.0171383.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p

Deviation of observed from expected FAD values (%).

<p>Yellow labels depict percentage forest cover in 2001. High deviation values concentrate in Pacific Northwest ecoregions and the Southwest coast suggesting more severe clustering of forest losses and attrition around those regions.</p

Scatterplot of forest cover percentage and forest attrition distance normalized per forest cover.

<p>Data generated from observations and statistical simulations from 84 level III ecoregions in 2001. The accurate (R² of 0.93) nonlinear relationship suggests accelerated attrition as percentage forest cover decreases and allows prediction of attrition increases given certain forest cover changes.</p

Forest cover change (FCC) and forest attrition distance change (FADC) in level III ecoregions.

<p>While the southeastern U.S. is experiencing high forest loss, the highest forest attrition is concentrated in other parts of the country.</p

FAD_Norm dynamics in landscape strata over six ecoregions. FADC_Norm values are depicted in bars.

<p>Percentage of land cover strata is shown in parentheses next to the name. Percentage of forest cover in ecoregions is shown in parentheses in the legend. Forest attrition is considerably higher in western ecoregions and federal and state lands while lower in urban and suburban regions.</p

Forest attrition visualized in four ecoregions.

<p>Forest losses during the 1990s are depicted as red pixels, forest present in 2000 is shown as green pixels and non-forest is shown as gray pixels. Forest attrition is considerably higher in western ecoregions than in eastern ecoregions as forest losses occurred more frequently in gap regions.</p

Intrinsic Conductivity in Sodium–Air Battery Discharge Phases: Sodium Superoxide vs Sodium Peroxide

The primary discharge product in sodium–air batteries has been reported in some experiments to be sodium peroxide, Na₂O₂, while in others sodium superoxide, NaO₂, is observed. Importantly, cells that discharge to NaO₂ exhibit low charging overpotentials, while those that discharge to Na₂O₂ do not. These differences could arise from a higher conductivity within the superoxide; however, this explanation remains speculative given that charge transport in superoxides is relatively unexplored. Here, density functional and quasi-particle GW methods are used to comparatively assess the conductivities of Na–O₂ discharge phases by calculating the concentrations and mobilities of intrinsic charge carriers in Na₂O₂ and NaO₂. Both compounds are predicted to be electrical insulators, with bandgaps in excess of 5 eV. In the case of sodium peroxide, the transport properties are similar to those reported previously for lithium peroxide, suggesting low bulk conductivity. Transport in the superoxide has some features in common with the peroxide but also differs in important ways. Similar to Na₂O₂, NaO₂ is predicted to be a poor electrical conductor, wherein transport is limited by sluggish charge hopping between O₂ dimers. Different from Na₂O₂, in NaO₂ this transport is mediated by a combination of electron and hole polarons. An additional distinguishing feature of the superoxide is its ionic conductivity, which is 10 orders of magnitude larger than the electronic component. The ionic component is comprised primarily of p-type contributions from (surprisingly mobile) oxygen dimer vacancies, and from n-type contributions from negative sodium vacancies. In the context of sodium–air batteries, the low electronic conductivity afforded by NaO₂ suggests that enhanced bulk transport within this phase is unlikely to account for the low overpotentials associated with its decomposition. Rather, the enhanced efficiency of NaO₂-based cells should be attributed to other factors, such as a reduced tendency for electrolyte decomposition