Using the plant trait-based approach to study temperate grassland ecology and restoration

Grasslands are considered to be the most endangered terrestrial ecosystem in the world. In the United Kingdom, substantial losses in unimproved grasslands and the abandonment of traditional grazing has resulted in the decline of ecosystem services, such as pollination. A plant trait-based approach was conducted to study the community ecology and restoration of temperate grasslands, with a focus on the convergence/divergence patterns in response to environmental and management factors, and how these scale to the provision of ecosystem processes and services –biomass production and livestock. The role of seven plant traits, obtained from the TRY-database, was investigated using the botanical data of the National Vegetation Classification, the Park Grass Experiment and the North Wyke Farm Platform. Trait-based analyses were conducted on the latter two to investigate the provision of biomass production and livestock production. A microcosm experiment was conducted to test the effects of agricultural soil legacies and restoration seed mixture on the reassembly of grassland communities, and their associated functional structure and composition. It was found that the seven traits investigated were independent and countered the conceptualisation of ecological axes of specialisation and ecological strategies. The type of fertiliser used to improve grasslands was found to be a significant factor driving the convergence/divergence patterns of temperate grassland communities, together with grazing. Biomass production was found to be best explained by statistical models incorporating climate and environmental factors, community-weighted means and different facets of functional diversity. In essence, environmental and management pressures resembling intensely managed, especially with nitrate-based fertilisers, temperate grasslands and an exploitative community best supported greater amounts of high quality biomass. Livestock production was found to be best explained by the Functional Diversity Hypothesis: higher yields from cattle and sheep were found from diverged grazing pastures. A trade-off between cattle quantity and quality was also highlighted. Agricultural soil legacies were found to greatly hinder the progression towards vegetation and functional restoration targets, producing ruderal communities dominated by weak competitors and opportunistic weedy plant species. The work has important implication for the management and restoration of grassland communities

A morphological and bibliological analysis of the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 2003-2012

This article presents a bibliological and morphological analysis of the research articles in the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring (IJEBCM). The findings highlight the most frequently referenced journals and books and the demographic of the authors. They also determine that the articles are more likely to be about coaching than mentoring, that research is more likely to be grounded in a business context, and that articles are relatively consistent in their form in regards to word count, number of references, and readability, while the number of articles per issue has been increasing over time

Rise of the titans: a dusty, hyper-luminous “870 µm riser” galaxy at z~6

We report the detection of ADFS-27, a dusty, starbursting major merger at a redshift of z=5.655, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ADFS-27 was selected from Herschel/SPIRE and APEX/LABOCA data as an extremely red “870 m riser” (i.e., S250m<S350m<S500m<S870m), demonstrating the utility of this technique to identify some of the highest-redshift dusty galaxies. A scan of the 3mm atmospheric window with ALMA yields detections of CO(J=54) and CO(J=65) emission, and a tentative detection of H2O(211202) emission, which provides an unambiguous redshift measurement. The strength of the CO lines implies a large molecular gas reservoir with a mass of Mgas=2.51011 (CO=0:8) (0:39=r51)M, sufficient to maintain its 2400M yr1 starburst for at least 100 Myr. The 870 m dust continuum emission is resolved into two components, 1.8 and 2.1 kpc in diameter, separated by 9.0 kpc, with comparable dust luminosities, suggesting an ongoing major merger. The infrared luminosity of LIR'2.41013 L implies that this system represents a binary hyper-luminous infrared galaxy, the most distant of its kind presently known. This also implies star formation rate surface densities of SFR=730 and 750M yr1 kpc2, consistent with a binary “maximum starburst”. The discovery of this rare system is consistent with a significantly higher space density than previously thought for the most luminous dusty starbursts within the first billion years of cosmic time, easing tensions regarding the space densities of z6 quasars and massive quiescent galaxies at z&3

A Multisite Preregistered Paradigmatic Test of the Ego-Depletion Effect

We conducted a preregistered multilaboratory project (k = 36; N = 3,531) to assess the size and robustness of ego-depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Each laboratory implemented one of two procedures that was intended to manipulate self-control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self-control. Confirmatory tests found a nonsignificant result (d = 0.06). Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed-prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30, SD = 0.15) found that the data were 4 times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect. Exploratory analyses on the full sample (i.e., ignoring exclusion criteria) found a statistically significant effect (d = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation.</p

A multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex

ABSTRACT We report the generation of a multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex (MOp or M1) as the initial product of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN). This was achieved by coordinated large-scale analyses of single-cell transcriptomes, chromatin accessibility, DNA methylomes, spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomes, morphological and electrophysiological properties, and cellular resolution input-output mapping, integrated through cross-modal computational analysis. Together, our results advance the collective knowledge and understanding of brain cell type organization: First, our study reveals a unified molecular genetic landscape of cortical cell types that congruently integrates their transcriptome, open chromatin and DNA methylation maps. Second, cross-species analysis achieves a unified taxonomy of transcriptomic types and their hierarchical organization that are conserved from mouse to marmoset and human. Third, cross-modal analysis provides compelling evidence for the epigenomic, transcriptomic, and gene regulatory basis of neuronal phenotypes such as their physiological and anatomical properties, demonstrating the biological validity and genomic underpinning of neuron types and subtypes. Fourth, in situ single-cell transcriptomics provides a spatially-resolved cell type atlas of the motor cortex. Fifth, integrated transcriptomic, epigenomic and anatomical analyses reveal the correspondence between neural circuits and transcriptomic cell types. We further present an extensive genetic toolset for targeting and fate mapping glutamatergic projection neuron types toward linking their developmental trajectory to their circuit function. Together, our results establish a unified and mechanistic framework of neuronal cell type organization that integrates multi-layered molecular genetic and spatial information with multi-faceted phenotypic properties

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

The Trouble with "Shoulds": Interpersonal Meaning Violation and Workplace Wellbeing

© 2021 Josh HodgeA person’s sense of meaning can be violated in vivid ways, like dealing with a cancer diagnosis, or in small ways, like being treated contrary to how they feel they should be treated. Interpersonal interactions provide a lot of opportunities for these small meaning violations. This dissertation focuses on interpersonal meaning violations in two research phases: first, a scale development, and second, an application of the interpersonal meaning violation construct to workplace conflict. In the scale development phase I draw on nine separate data collections, involving 1,490 people, in which I develop and validate the scale items, test their psychometric properties, demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity, and establish a nascent nomological net. In the workplace conflict phase I use two experiments and a 10-day experience sampling survey (a total of 1,381 participants spread across the three data collection efforts) to contrast interpersonal meaning violation with a prominent conflict paradigm and demonstrate that interpersonal meaning violation is essential for understanding how conflict affects workplace wellbeing