An inventory of Cicadellidae, Aphrophoridae, and Delphacidae (Hemiptera) in the Alvar Grasslands of the Maxton Plains, Michigan

Alvars are rare grassland communities found in the North American Great Lakes Region consisting of thin mineral soil over limestone bedrock and act as refugia for many unique and threatened endemic species. Few studies have catalogued Hemiptera species present in the alvars of the Maxton Plains on Drummond Island, MI. We aimed to add to these species lists, compare species diversity between alvar sites with varying levels of exposed bedrock, and test if an unpaved limestone road running through our sample sites influenced Hemipteran populations. We collected several prairie endemic species of Cicadellidae (Hemiptera), including a new record for the island, Laevicephalus unicoloratus. We found that pavement alvars, those with large portions of exposed bedrock, had higher species diversity on both of our collection dates despite having less overall vegetation when compared to grassland alvars with continuous soil coverage (H’ – Date 1: pavement = 0.649, grassland = 0.471; H’ – Date 2: pavement = 0.982, grassland = 0.855). We observed that distance relative to the unpaved limestone road affected the population densities of our target Hemiptera groups (Cicadellidae, Aphrophoridae, and Delphacidae), likely due to dust arising from dry conditions and road use. Our results, and the results of others, indicate the biological uniqueness of the alvars. Alvars face threats from off-road vehicle use, individual disregard for their conservation, and a changing climate. The continued monitoring, maintenance and protection of remaining alvars is imperative if their existence is to be continued beyond our lifetime

An inventory of Cicadellidae, Aphrophoridae, and Delphacidae (Hemiptera) in the Alvar Grasslands of the Maxton Plains, Michigan

Alvars are rare grassland communities found in the North American Great Lakes Region consisting of thin mineral soil over limestone bedrock and act as refugia for many unique and threatened endemic species. Few studies have catalogued Hemiptera species present in the alvars of the Maxton Plains on Drummond Island, MI. We aimed to add to these species lists, compare species diversity between alvar sites with varying levels of exposed bedrock, and test if an unpaved limestone road running through our sample sites influenced Hemipteran populations. We collected several prairie endemic species of Cicadellidae (Hemiptera), including a new record for the island, Laevicephalus unicoloratus. We found that pavement alvars, those with large portions of exposed bedrock, had higher species diversity on both of our collection dates despite having less overall vegetation when compared to grassland alvars with continuous soil coverage (H’ – Date 1: pavement = 0.649, grassland = 0.471; H’ – Date 2: pavement = 0.982, grassland = 0.855). We observed that distance relative to the unpaved limestone road affected the population densities of our target Hemiptera groups (Cicadellidae, Aphrophoridae, and Delphacidae), likely due to dust arising from dry conditions and road use. Our results, and the results of others, indicate the biological uniqueness of the alvars. Alvars face threats from off-road vehicle use, individual disregard for their conservation, and a changing climate. The continued monitoring, maintenance and protection of remaining alvars is imperative if their existence is to be continued beyond our lifetime

Skeletal levels of bisphosphonate in the setting of chronic kidney disease are independent of remodeling rate and lower with fractionated dosing

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) results in a dramatic increase in skeletal fracture risk. Bisphosphates (BP) are an effective treatment for reducing fracture risk but they are not recommended in advanced CKD. We have recently shown higher acute skeletal accumulation of fluorescently-tagged zoledronate (ZOL) in the setting of CKD but how this accumulation is retained/lost over time is unclear. Furthermore, it is unknown if alternative dosing approaches can modulate accumulation in the setting of CKD. Methods To address these two questions normal (NL) and Cy/+ (CKD) rats were divided into control groups (no dosing), a single dose of a fluorescent-tagged ZOL (FAM-ZOL), a single dose of non-labelled zoledronate (ZOL) or ten weekly doses of FAM-ZOL each at 1/10th the dose of the single dose group. Half of the CKD animals in each group were provided water with 3% calcium in drinking water (CKD + Ca) to suppress PTH and remodeling. At 30 or 35 weeks of age, serum, tibia, ulna, radius, vertebra, femora, and mandible were collected and subjected to assessment methods including biochemistry, dynamic histomorphometry and multi-spectral fluorescence levels (using IVIS SpectrumCT). Results FAM-ZOL did not significantly reduce bone remodeling in either NL or CKD animals while Ca supplementation in CKD produced remodeling levels comparable to NL. At five- and ten-weeks post-dosing, both CKD and CKD + Ca groups had higher levels of FAM-ZOL in most, but not all, skeletal sites compared to NL with no difference between the two CKD groups suggesting that the rate of remodeling did not affect skeletal retention of FAM-ZOL. Fractionating the FAM-ZOL into ten weekly doses led to 20–32% less (p < 0.05) accumulation/retention of compound in the vertebra, radius, and ulna compared to administration as a single dose. Conclusions The rate of bone turnover does not have significant effects on levels of FAM-ZOL accumulation/retention in animals with CKD. A lower dose/more frequent administration paradigm results in lower levels of accumulation/retention over time. These data provide information that could better inform the use of bisphosphonates in the setting of CKD in order to combat the dramatic increase in fracture risk

Influence of contouring the lithium metal/solid electrolyte interface on the critical current for dendrites

Contouring or structuring of the lithium/ceramic electrolyte interface and therefore increasing its surface area has been considered as a possible strategy to increase the charging current in solid-state batteries without lithium dendrite formation and short-circuit. By coupling together lithium deposition kinetics and the me chanics of lithium creep within calculations of the current distribution at the interface, and leveraging a model for lithium dendrite growth, we show that efforts to avoid dendrites on charging by increasing the interfacial surface area come with significant limitations associated with the topography of rough surfaces. These limitations are sufficiently severe such that it is very unlikely contouring could increase charging currents while avoiding dendrites and short-circuit to the levels required. For example, we show a sinusoidal surface topography can only raise the charging current before dendrites occur by approx. 50% over a flat interface

Influence of contouring the lithium metal/solid electrolyte interface on the critical current for dendrites

Contouring or structuring of the lithium/ceramic electrolyte interface and therefore increasing its surface area has been considered as a possible strategy to increase the charging current in solid-state batteries without lithium dendrite formation and short-circuit. By coupling together lithium deposition kinetics and the me chanics of lithium creep within calculations of the current distribution at the interface, and leveraging a model for lithium dendrite growth, we show that efforts to avoid dendrites on charging by increasing the interfacial surface area come with significant limitations associated with the topography of rough surfaces. These limitations are sufficiently severe such that it is very unlikely contouring could increase charging currents while avoiding dendrites and short-circuit to the levels required. For example, we show a sinusoidal surface topography can only raise the charging current before dendrites occur by approx. 50% over a flat interface

The Stakeholder Challenge: Dealing with Challenging Situations Involving Stakeholders

Project managers are an occupational group who is exposed to high levels of stress caused by various aspects such as resources and communication or working relationships. One particularly challenging area is the interaction with stakeholders, who are often perceived to “be difficult”. With this study, we investigate how project managers cope with challenging situations involving stakeholders in projects. We do this through a qualitative study involving interviews and focus groups to explore the lived experiences of the project managers in specific situations. Our findings suggest that a project manager perspective on stakeholder management is particularly valuable to account for contextual factors such as sources of challenging situations. We propose a project coping model which transfers Lazarus and Folkman’s stress and coping model into the project context and adds the layer of project coping to emphasise the project managers’ perception of accountability and commitment to the project

Seasonal and annual fluxes of nutrients and organic matter from large rivers to the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Estuaries and Coasts 35 (2012): 369-382, doi:10.1007/s12237-011-9386-6.River inputs of nutrients and organic matter impact the biogeochemistry of arctic estuaries and the Arctic Ocean as a whole, yet there is considerable uncertainty about the magnitude of fluvial fluxes at the pan-arctic scale. Samples from the six largest arctic rivers, with a combined watershed area of 11.3 x 106 km2, have revealed strong seasonal variations in constituent concentrations and fluxes within rivers as well as large differences among the rivers. Specifically, we investigate fluxes of dissolved organic carbon, dissolved organic nitrogen, total dissolved phosphorus, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, nitrate, and silica. This is the first time that seasonal and annual constituent fluxes have been determined using consistent sampling and analytical methods at the pan arctic scale, and consequently provide the best available estimates for constituent flux from land to the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas. Given the large inputs of river water to the relatively small Arctic Ocean, and the dramatic impacts that climate change is having in the Arctic, it is particularly urgent that we establish the contemporary river fluxes so that we will be able to detect future changes and evaluate the impact of the changes on the biogeochemistry of the receiving coastal and ocean systems.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through grants OPP-0229302, OPP-0519840, OPP-0732522, and OPP-0732944. Additional support was provided by the U. S. Geological Survey (Yukon River) and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (Mackenzie River)

Linking Symptom Inventories using Semantic Textual Similarity

An extensive library of symptom inventories has been developed over time to measure clinical symptoms, but this variety has led to several long standing issues. Most notably, results drawn from different settings and studies are not comparable, which limits reproducibility. Here, we present an artificial intelligence (AI) approach using semantic textual similarity (STS) to link symptoms and scores across previously incongruous symptom inventories. We tested the ability of four pre-trained STS models to screen thousands of symptom description pairs for related content - a challenging task typically requiring expert panels. Models were tasked to predict symptom severity across four different inventories for 6,607 participants drawn from 16 international data sources. The STS approach achieved 74.8% accuracy across five tasks, outperforming other models tested. This work suggests that incorporating contextual, semantic information can assist expert decision-making processes, yielding gains for both general and disease-specific clinical assessment

Quantifying HIV transmission flow between high-prevalence hotspots and surrounding communities: a population-based study in Rakai, Uganda

Background International and global organisations advocate targeting interventions to areas of high HIV prevalence (ie, hotspots). To better understand the potential benefits of geo-targeted control, we assessed the extent to which HIV hotspots along Lake Victoria sustain transmission in neighbouring populations in south-central Uganda. Methods We did a population-based survey in Rakai, Uganda, using data from the Rakai Community Cohort Study. The study surveyed all individuals aged 15–49 years in four high-prevalence Lake Victoria fishing communities and 36 neighbouring inland communities. Viral RNA was deep sequenced from participants infected with HIV who were antiretroviral therapy-naive during the observation period. Phylogenetic analysis was used to infer partial HIV transmission networks, including direction of transmission. Reconstructed networks were interpreted through data for current residence and migration history. HIV transmission flows within and between high-prevalence and low-prevalence areas were quantified adjusting for incomplete sampling of the population. Findings Between Aug 10, 2011, and Jan 30, 2015, data were collected for the Rakai Community Cohort Study. 25 882 individuals participated, including an estimated 75·7% of the lakeside population and 16·2% of the inland population in the Rakai region of Uganda. 5142 participants were HIV-positive (2703 [13·7%] in inland and 2439 [40·1%] in fishing communities). 3878 (75·4%) people who were HIV-positive did not report antiretroviral therapy use, of whom 2652 (68·4%) had virus deep-sequenced at sufficient quality for phylogenetic analysis. 446 transmission networks were reconstructed, including 293 linked pairs with inferred direction of transmission. Adjusting for incomplete sampling, an estimated 5·7% (95% credibility interval 4·4–7·3) of transmissions occurred within lakeside areas, 89·2% (86·0–91·8) within inland areas, 1·3% (0·6–2·6) from lakeside to inland areas, and 3·7% (2·3–5·8) from inland to lakeside areas. Interpretation Cross-community HIV transmissions between Lake Victoria hotspots and surrounding inland populations are infrequent and when they occur, virus more commonly flows into rather than out of hotspots. This result suggests that targeted interventions to these hotspots will not alone control the epidemic in inland populations, where most transmissions occur. Thus, geographical targeting of high prevalence areas might not be effective for broader epidemic control depending on underlying epidemic dynamics. Funding The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Development, the Division of Intramural Research of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the World Bank, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Johns Hopkins University Center for AIDS Research, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The CMS Phase-1 pixel detector upgrade

The CMS detector at the CERN LHC features a silicon pixel detector as its innermost subdetector. The original CMS pixel detector has been replaced with an upgraded pixel system (CMS Phase-1 pixel detector) in the extended year-end technical stop of the LHC in 2016/2017. The upgraded CMS pixel detector is designed to cope with the higher instantaneous luminosities that have been achieved by the LHC after the upgrades to the accelerator during the first long shutdown in 2013–2014. Compared to the original pixel detector, the upgraded detector has a better tracking performance and lower mass with four barrel layers and three endcap disks on each side to provide hit coverage up to an absolute value of pseudorapidity of 2.5. This paper describes the design and construction of the CMS Phase-1 pixel detector as well as its performance from commissioning to early operation in collision data-taking.Peer reviewe