Contrasting phylogeographic structures between freshwater lycopods and angiosperms in the British Isles

Aquatic plants face many novel challenges compared to their terrestrial counterparts. The habitat they occupy is typically highly fragmented, with isolated water bodies surrounded by swathes of “dry desert”. This can result in reduced gene flow, inbreeding, and potentially local extinction. The level of gene flow and degree of genetic structure in these species is also likely to be influenced by the mating system they adopt. To test this hypothesis we compare the phylogeographic structure of two freshwater plants in the British Isles, the largely clonal angiosperm Littorella uniflora, and the heterosporous lycopod Isoetes lacustris. We sampled both plants from lakes where they co-occur, and used restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-Seq) to infer their relationships. Genetic structure among lakes is higher in the angiosperm, which we associate with reduced sexual reproduction, and hence lower levels of gene flow between lakes. Furthermore, we found evidence of lineage-specific association to certain lake nutrient types in L. uniflora, which might result from environmental filtering of specific ecotypes. Overall, we conclude that the reproductive system of lycopods, which is less specialized to terrestrial conditions, provides an advantage following the secondary colonization of aquatic habitats by enabling frequent genetic exchanges between populations and potentially facilitating faster adaptation

Solute concentrations in water samples from clearfelled and standing Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) forest ecosystems, Kershope Forest: dataset documentation

This document describes an associated dataset which consists of solute concentrations (Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Sodium, Aluminium, Phosphate, Nitrate, Ammonium, Chlorine, Sulphate), also pH and suspended solids, in waters sampled from clear felled and standing Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) forest ecosystems in Kershope Forest, Cumbria, UK. Water samples were collected from the ecosystem of a Sitka spruce plantation at weekly intervals for six years. The drainage system of the site had been designed to divide the plantation into a series of artificial catchments, three of which were designated experimental plots and clearfelled in the second year of sampling while three others were the control plots which remained unfelled until the end of the study. This work formed part of a programme of field and laboratory work to determine the effects of felling plantation forest on soil processes. Samples were collected by staff from the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) between 1981 and 1987

The demography of free-roaming dog populations and applications to disease and population control

Understanding the demography of domestic dog populations is essential for effective disease control, particularly of canine-mediated rabies. Demographic data are also needed to plan effective population management. However, no study has comprehensively evaluated the contribution of demographic processes (i.e. births, deaths and movement) to variations in dog population size or density, or determined the factors that regulate these processes, including human factors. We report the results of a 3-year cohort study of domestic dogs, which is the first to generate detailed data on the temporal variation of these demographic characteristics. The study was undertaken in two communities in each of Bali, Indonesia and Johannesburg, South Africa, in rabies-endemic areas and where the majority of dogs were free-roaming. None of the four communities had been engaged in any dog population management interventions by local authorities or animal welfare organizations. All identified dogs in the four communities were monitored individually throughout the study. We observed either no population growth or a progressive decline in population size during the study period. There was no clear evidence that population size was regulated through environmental resource constraints. Rather, almost all of the identified dogs were owned and fed regularly by their owners, consistent with population size regulated by human demand. Finally, a substantial fraction of the dogs originated from outside the population, entirely through the translocation of dogs by people, rather than from local births. These findings demonstrate that previously reported growth of dog populations is not a general phenomenon and challenge the widely held view that free-roaming dogs are unowned and form closed populations. Synthesis and applications. These observations have broad implications for disease and population control. The accessibility of dogs for vaccination and evaluation through owners and the movement of dogs (some of them infected) by people will determine the viable options for disease control strategies. The impact of human factors on population dynamics will also influence the feasibility of annual vaccination campaigns to control rabies and population control through culling or sterilization. The complex relationship between dogs and people is critically important in the transmission and control of canine-mediated rabies. For effective management, human factors must be considered in the development of disease and population control programmes

Erosion-Corrosion in Pipe Flows of Particle-Laden Liquids

The transmission of particle-bearing liquids in pipes has motivated continuing research into erosion mechanisms and the distribution of erosion rates over wetted surfaces. This chapter covers these initiatives with particular reference to erosion-corrosion modelling within bends and straight sections of cylindrical pipes manufactured in a variety of materials and transporting a variety of liquids. Erosion-corrosion modelling techniques such as submerged slurry jets and rotating cylinder electrodes have been used to study factors influencing material degradation. Improvements in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), such as the development of a moving deforming mesh (MDM) have improved the accuracy of CFD models in predicting pipe wall erosion rates. Combined discrete phase tracking approaches such as the CFD-DPM-DEM (discrete phase-discrete element model) have helped improve computational efficiency. Wall impact erosion models are calibrated using laboratory scale tests. Validation of CFD models using full-scale test data is rare, meaning their accuracy is still largely unreported. Material testing has helped to identify the resilience of prospective pipeline materials to erosion-corrosion, while modifications to internal geometry and pipe section have shown potential to improve erosion-corrosion resistance

The friction reducing effect of square-shaped surface textures under lubricated line-contacts - an experimental study

Surface texturing has been shown to be an effective modification approach for improving tribological performance. This study examined the friction reduction effect generated by square dimples of different sizes and geometries. Dimples were fabricated on the surface of ASP2023 steel plates using femtosecond laser-assisted surface texturing techniques, and reciprocating sliding line contact tests were carried out on a Plint TE77 tribometer using a smooth 52100 bearing steel roller and textured ASP2023 steel plates. The tribological characterization of the friction properties indicated that the textured samples had significantly lowered the friction coefficient in both boundary (15% improvement) and mixed lubrication regimes (13% improvement). Moreover, the high data sampling rate results indicated that the dimples work as lubricant reservoirs in the boundary lubrication regim

Potential Benefits of Cattle Vaccination as a Supplementary Control for Bovine Tuberculosis

This is the final published version of the article. It was originally published in PLOS Computational Biology (Conlan AJK, Brooks Pollock E, McKinley TJ, Mitchell AP, Jones GJ, Vordermeier M, Wood JLN, PLoS Computational Biology 2015, 11(2): e1004038. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004038).\ud \ud ? 2015 Crown Copyright. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the free Open Government Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o?pen-government-licence/open-government-l?icence.htmVaccination for the control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle is not currently used within any international control program, and is illegal within the EU. Candidate vaccines, based upon Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Gu?rin (BCG) all interfere with the action of the tuberculin skin test, which is used to determine if animals, herds and countries are officially bTB-free. New diagnostic tests that Differentiate Infected from Vaccinated Animals (DIVA) offer the potential to introduce vaccination within existing eradication programs. We use within-herd transmission models estimated from historical data from Great Britain (GB) to explore the feasibility of such supplemental use of vaccination. The economic impact of bovine Tuberculosis for farmers is dominated by the costs associated with testing, and associated restrictions on animal movements. Farmers? willingness to adopt vaccination will require vaccination to not only reduce the burden of infection, but also the risk of restrictions being imposed. We find that, under the intensive sequence of testing in GB, it is the specificity of the DIVA test, rather than the sensitivity, that is the greatest barrier to see a herd level benefit of vaccination. The potential negative effects of vaccination could be mitigated through relaxation of testing. However, this could potentially increase the hidden burden of infection within Officially TB Free herds. Using our models, we explore the range of the DIVA test characteristics necessary to see a protective herd level benefit of vaccination. We estimate that a DIVA specificity of at least 99.85% and sensitivity of >40% is required to see a protective benefit of vaccination with no increase in the risk of missed infection. Data from experimentally infected animals suggest that this target specificity could be achieved in vaccinates using a cocktail of three DIVA antigens while maintaining a sensitivity of 73.3% (95%CI: 61.9, 82.9%) relative to post-mortem detection.This study was funded by Defra project SE3127 and uses nationally collected incidence and cattle-movement data sets held by Defra. The funders had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

The Approach to Ergodicity in Monte Carlo Simulations

The approach to the ergodic limit in Monte Carlo simulations is studied using both analytic and numerical methods. With the help of a stochastic model, a metric is defined that enables the examination of a simulation in both the ergodic and non-ergodic regimes. In the non-ergodic regime, the model implies how the simulation is expected to approach ergodic behavior analytically, and the analytically inferred decay law of the metric allows the monitoring of the onset of ergodic behavior. The metric is related to previously defined measures developed for molecular dynamics simulations, and the metric enables the comparison of the relative efficiencies of different Monte Carlo schemes. Applications to Lennard-Jones 13-particle clusters are shown to match the model for Metropolis, J-walking and parallel tempering based approaches. The relative efficiencies of these three Monte Carlo approaches are compared, and the decay law is shown to be useful in determining needed high temperature parameters in parallel tempering and J-walking studies of atomic clusters.Comment: 17 Pages, 7 Figure

Systemic long-term metabolic effects of acute non-severe paediatric burn injury

A growing body of evidence supports the concept of a systemic response to non-severe thermal trauma. This provokes an immunosuppressed state that predisposes paediatric patients to poor recovery and increased risk of secondary morbidity. In this study, to understand the long-term systemic effects of non-severe burns in children, targeted mass spectrometry assays for biogenic amines and tryptophan metabolites were performed on plasma collected from child burn patients at least three years post injury and compared to age and sex matched non-burn (healthy) controls. A panel of 12 metabolites, including urea cycle intermediates, aromatic amino acids and quinolinic acid were present in significantly higher concentrations in children with previous burn injury. Correlation analysis of metabolite levels to previously measured cytokine levels indicated the presence of multiple cytokine-metabolite associations in the burn injury participants that were absent from the healthy controls. These data suggest that there is a sustained immunometabolic imprint of non-severe burn trauma, potentially linked to long-term immune changes that may contribute to the poor long-term health outcomes observed in children after burn injury

An Investigation of sexuality and life satisfaction of institutionalized aged

One concern of this study is sexuality among the aged, since every person, regardless of age, is a sexual being. Society, however, has been slow to recognize this fact and has not accepted sexual activity among the aged. Along with the lack of social sanctioning, elderly persons are very susceptible to the myriad of myths, half-truths, misinformation, and incomplete data which affect their attitudes toward sexuality. Furthermore, older persons are susceptible to negative stereotypes of themselves as sexual beings. However, the effect of actual sexual activity upon overall life satisfaction among the aged has yet to be determined. Because there has been no empirical evidence concerning this, the degree of relationship between sexual activity and life satisfaction remains unknown. Since human beings remain sexual throughout life, and a large proportion of the elderly are institutionalized, this study will focus attention on the relationship between life satisfaction and sexuality among the institutionalized aged. It is important for social workers to explore these concepts, as empirically validated knowledge can be used as guidelines for professional values and practice