Determining Biogeochemical Assemblages on the Stony River, Grant County, WV, using Fuzzy C-Means and k-Nearest Neighbors Clustering

Periphyton assemblages were assessed on the Stony River, a high-gradient stream in the Potomac drainage of Grant County, WV. Periphyton samples were collected from nine sites along the mainstem and in two tributaries. Chlorophyll-a, dry weight, taxonomic identifications, and bioaccumulated metals concentrations data were compiled. These data were related to water quality parameters measured at each site during the study. Fuzzy C-means and k-nearest neighbor clustering on the combined, normalized dataset produced similar results. Clustering separated species occurring in each tributary from each other and those dominating the mainstem. Nearly every bioaccumulated metal was associated with one of these tributary clusters; phosphorus and silicon were exceptions with silicon being associated with diatoms. The remaining clusters formed a continuum of community composition along the mainstem different from the spatial arrangement of sites. Additionally, taxa occurring in small quantity force clusters to form near the center of the data-space, confounding results

Minimizing Bias in Biomass Allometry: Model Selection and Log‐Transformation of Data

Nonlinear regression is increasingly used to develop allometric equations for forest biomass estimation (i.e., as opposed to the traditional approach of log‐transformation followed by linear regression). Most statistical software packages, however, assume additive errors by default, violating a key assumption of allometric theory and possibly producing spurious models. Here, we show that such models may bias stand‐level biomass estimates by up to 100 percent in young forests, and we present an alternative nonlinear fitting approach that conforms with allometric theory

Rapid evolution of the env gene leader sequence in cats naturally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)

Analysing the evolution of FIV on the intra-host level is important, in order to address whether the diversity and composition of viral quasispecies affects disease progression.<p></p> We examined the intra-host diversity and the evolutionary rates of the entire env and structural fragments of the env sequences obtained from sequential blood samples in 43 naturally infected domestic cats that displayed different clinical outcomes. We observed in the majority of cats that FIV env showed very low levels of intra-host diversity. We estimated that env evolved at the rate of 1.16 x 10-3 substitutions per site per year and demonstrated that recombinant sequences evolved faster than non-recombinant sequences. It was evident that the V3-V5 fragment of FIV env displayed higher evolutionary rates in healthy cats than in those with terminal illness. Our study provided the first evidence that the leader sequence of env, rather than the V3-V5 sequence, had the highest intra-host diversity and the highest evolutionary rate of all env fragments, consistent with this region being under a strong selective pressure for genetic variation.<p></p> Overall, FIV env displayed relatively low intra-host diversity and evolved slowly in naturally infected cats. The maximal evolutionary rate was observed in the leader sequence of env. Although genetic stability is not necessarily a prerequisite for clinical stability, the higher genetic stability of FIV compared to HIV might explain why many naturally infected cats do not progress to AIDS rapidly.<p></p&gt

Dynamic Security of Virtualized Systems: An Analysis of Time-based Impact

Virtualization technologies pose time-sensitive security challenges that need to be addressed from a dynamic security perspective. Adopting a dynamic security approach can help organizations manage the security risks inherent in virutalized environments. This paper conceptually examines current thought on best practices in information security systems which explains the dynamic nature of virtualized systems and paves the way for an information security model into which virtualization can be incorporated. We suggest that a proper analysis of timebased impact of security threats would help mitigate virtualization security risks, allowing IT security professionals and users to efficiently coordinate security objectives with the larger goals of the organization

Blood-based bioenergetic profiling is related to differences in brain morphology in African Americans with Type 2 diabetes.

Blood-based bioenergetic profiling has promising applications as a minimally invasive biomarker of systemic bioenergetic capacity. In the present study, we examined peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) mitochondrial function and brain morphology in a cohort of African Americans with long-standing Type 2 diabetes. Key parameters of PBMC respiration were correlated with white matter, gray matter, and total intracranial volumes. Our analyses indicate that these relationships are primarily driven by the relationship of systemic bioenergetic capacity with total intracranial volume, suggesting that systemic differences in mitochondrial function may play a role in overall brain morphology

“Sleeping Beauty” Unleashed: Harmonizing a Consolidated European Security and Defense Union. ZEI Discussion Paper C 248/2018

The under-researched Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) of European defense integration often gets the short end of the stick in EU debate chambers perhaps due to the high levels of discretion, sensitivity and trust that it entails. This undertaking assesses the manifold blockages over time that have inhibited the EU from expanding its CSDP framework into a fully harmonized and operational European Security and Defense Union (ESDU). In doing so, a triangle of European defense integration with a political apex and an economic base and legal base is modeled to help explicate the long road to an integrated defense union. These economic and legal bases, however, are thwarted by the political apex of the triangle in this assessment which sets out to strike a balance between argumentation and objectivity to posit overpowering politics as the paramount blockage to harmonizing a consolidated ESDU, one that enables the EU to capably and willfully defend itself from pressing external security threats outside of traditional security framework dependencies. With the timely and suspenseful activation of permanent structured cooperation (PESCO) via a decision by the Council in December 2017, this assessment tells the seesaw story of European defense integration from its inception, and asserts that an ESDU can indeed be achieved without undermining the existing US-NATO security umbrella upon which Europe has depended for more than half a century

The anatomy of exhumed river-channel belts: Bedform to belt‐scale river kinematics of the Ruby Ranch Member, Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, USA

Many published interpretations of ancient fluvial systems have relied on observations of extensive outcrops of thick successions. This paper, in contrast, demonstrates that a regional understanding of palaeoriver kinematics, depositional setting and sedimentation rates can be interpreted from local sedimentological measurements of bedform and barform strata. Dune and bar strata, channel planform geometry and bed topography are measured within exhumed fluvial strata exposed as ridges in the Ruby Ranch Member of the Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, USA. The ridges are composed of lithified stacked channel belts, representing at least five or six re‐occupations of a single‐strand channel. Lateral sections reveal well‐preserved barforms constructed of subaqueous dune cross‐sets. The topography of palaeobarforms is preserved along the top surface of the outcrops. Comparisons of the channel‐belt centreline to local palaeotransport directions indicate that channel planform geometry was preserved through the re‐occupations, rather than being obscured by lateral migration. Rapid avulsions preserved the state of the active channel bed and its individual bars at the time of abandonment. Inferred minimum sedimentation durations for the preserved elements, inferred from cross‐set thickness distributions and assumed bedform migration rates, vary within a belt from one to ten days. Using only these local sedimentological measurements, the depositional setting is interpreted as a fluvial megafan, given the similarity in river kinematics. This paper provides a systematic methodology for the future synthesis of vertical and planview data, including the drone‐equipped 2020 Mars Rover mission, to exhumed fluvial and deltaic strata