TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Investigation of hospital discharge cases and SARS-CoV-2 introduction into Lothian care homes

Background The first epidemic wave of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Scotland resulted in high case numbers and mortality in care homes. In Lothian, over one-third of care homes reported an outbreak, while there was limited testing of hospital patients discharged to care homes. Aim To investigate patients discharged from hospitals as a source of SARS-CoV-2 introduction into care homes during the first epidemic wave. Methods A clinical review was performed for all patients discharges from hospitals to care homes from 1st March 2020 to 31st May 2020. Episodes were ruled out based on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test history, clinical assessment at discharge, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data and an infectious period of 14 days. Clinical samples were processed for WGS, and consensus genomes generated were used for analysis using Cluster Investigation and Virus Epidemiological Tool software. Patient timelines were obtained using electronic hospital records. Findings In total, 787 patients discharged from hospitals to care homes were identified. Of these, 776 (99%) were ruled out for subsequent introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into care homes. However, for 10 episodes, the results were inconclusive as there was low genomic diversity in consensus genomes or no sequencing data were available. Only one discharge episode had a genomic, time and location link to positive cases during hospital admission, leading to 10 positive cases in their care home. Conclusion The majority of patients discharged from hospitals were ruled out for introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into care homes, highlighting the importance of screening all new admissions when faced with a novel emerging virus and no available vaccine

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron is an immune escape variant with an altered cell entry pathway

Vaccines based on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 are a cornerstone of the public health response to COVID-19. The emergence of hypermutated, increasingly transmissible variants of concern (VOCs) threaten this strategy. Omicron (B.1.1.529), the fifth VOC to be described, harbours multiple amino acid mutations in spike, half of which lie within the receptor-binding domain. Here we demonstrate substantial evasion of neutralization by Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants in vitro using sera from individuals vaccinated with ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273. These data were mirrored by a substantial reduction in real-world vaccine effectiveness that was partially restored by booster vaccination. The Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2 did not induce cell syncytia in vitro and favoured a TMPRSS2-independent endosomal entry pathway, these phenotypes mapping to distinct regions of the spike protein. Impaired cell fusion was determined by the receptor-binding domain, while endosomal entry mapped to the S2 domain. Such marked changes in antigenicity and replicative biology may underlie the rapid global spread and altered pathogenicity of the Omicron variant

Finding Common Ground on Health Reform: Regaining Minnesota's Collaborative Tradition

Politics and the polarization of the two political parties threaten Minnesota's historic tradition of collaboration on health policy -- a tradition that has brought together government with private and non-profit medical providers, insurers, and purchasers. How can Minnesota regain its collaborative mojo? Representative Laurie Halverson (DFL )and Representative Tara Mack (R) are launching a discussion to convene a diverse set of stakeholders to rediscover Minnesota's collaborative agenda moving forward. They are joined by Jan Malcolm - a widely respected pioneer of the collaborative approach.Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesot

New Directions in Health Reform

National health reform will be opening the door soon to states to propose dramatic changes. Minnesota can take advantage of this opening to improve the customer experience, encourage quality, squeeze out waste, and strengthen accountability. Join us for a discussion with national experts and state policymakers as they sort through Minnesota's options and examine the plans of others states.Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UM

Bald Eagle Predation on Common Loon Chick

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The Path Forward: Medical Providers, Payers, and Patients

The cost and access to medical providers is a pressing challenge as health reform proceeds. How will consumers respond to the scope of the provider networks offered by insurers? Will consumers recoil against narrow networks, as they did several decades ago when managed care was introduced? Another set of challenges relates to the adequacy of medical care as demand rises. How well are Minnesota physicians and hospitals meeting medical care demand? How should the medical workforce be developed to handle the new and growing demands into the future? Still another challenge relates to provider pricing and the overall costs to the health care system. Join us for discussion of these questions with national and local experts. The conversation will be moderated by Professor Larry Jacobs.Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UM

Onset of the Laramide orogeny and associated magmatism in southern New Mexico based on U-Pb geochronology

The Laramide orogeny is a classic yet controversial mountain-building event that resulted, in the southwest United States, in uplifts, sedimentation, and magmatism that can be used to constrain the onset of this event in the region and expand our knowledge of Late Cretaceous to Paleogene tectonism. The McRae Formation marks the onset of deposition in the Laramide Love Ranch Basin, which was located to the northeast of the west-northwest-trending coeval Rio Grande uplift in south-central New Mexico, but its age is not well constrained. A previously published late Maastrichtian age for the McRae Formation was based on the presence of dinosaur bones in the upper of two members of the formation. We obtained new U-Pb dates from one dacite clast and three ash-fall tuffs from the lower Jose Creek Member and from one ash-fall tuff from the lower part of the overlying Hall Lake Member of the McRae Formation. The clast yielded a date of 75.0 ± 1.1 Ma, whereas the ages of the tuffs, in ascending stratigraphic order, are 74.9 ± 0.7 Ma, 74.7 ± 0.6 Ma, 75.2 ± 1.3 Ma, and 73.2 ± 0.7 Ma. These dates indicate that the onset of Laramide deposition in the Love Ranch Basin must have occurred earlier, in late Campanian time, similar to deposition in the Laramide Ringbone Basin in southwestern New Mexico. In addition, U-Pb zircon dates of 75.7 ± 1.3 Ma and 75.0 ± 2.8 Ma were obtained on the Twin Peaks stock and on a dacite sill, respectively, in the Burro Mountains of southwestern New Mexico. These dates are similar to those of other Laramide arc magmatic centers in southern New Mexico, which have a limited range of ages from 75 to 70 Ma, including the Hidalgo Formation in the Little Hatchet Mountains, the Silver City-Pinos Altos region, and the Copper Flat porphyry system. These new and previously published dates indicate that during the onset of Laramide deformation in southwestern and south-central New Mexico, the angle of subduction of the Farallon plate may have been steep enough to allow partial melting of an asthenospheric wedge, resulting in arc magmatism far inboard of the trench

The tapir Tapirus (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) from the late Pliocene (early Blancan) Tonuco Mountain Local Fauna, Camp Rice Formation, Doña Ana County, southern New Mexico

A mandible of a tapir (Tapirus sp.) from the late Pliocene (early Blancan North American land mammal age-NALMA), Tonuco Mountain Local Fauna (LF), Doña Ana County, southern New Mexico, is a significant addition to the small sample of fossil tapirs known from the late Cenozoic of New Mexico. The Tonuco Mountain tapir mandible is not identified to the species level because the diagnostic characters in the genus Tapirus are primarily found in the skull. It is most similar in size and morphological features to the mandible of the late Blancan species Tapirus lundeliusi from Florida. The Tonuco Mountain LF consists of 17 species of vertebrates, including a mud turtle, two tortoises, a duck, and 13 species of mammals. Among mammals in this fauna, the camel Camelops, the peccary Platygonus, and the horse Equus scotti first appeared in North American early Blancan faunas at about 3.6 Ma, whereas the horses Nannippus peninsulatus and Equus simplicidens became extinct in New Mexico in the late Blancan at about 2.6 Ma. The association of these mammals, together with the absence of mammals of South American origin that first appeared in the American Southwest at about 2.7 Ma, restricts the age of the Tonuco Mountain LF to the late early Blancan, between 2.7 and 3.6 Ma. The fossils from the Tonuco Mountain LF are derived from sediments of the axial-fluvial lithofacies of the ancestral Rio Grande, referred to the Camp Rice Formation. The sediments in the lower 30 m of the Camp Rice Formation section containing the Tonuco Mountain LF, including the Tapirus mandible, are normally magnetized and correspond to the lowermost portion of the Gauss Chron (C2An.3n), above the Gilbert/Gauss boundary (younger than 3.58 Ma) and below the base of the Mammoth Subchron (C2An.2r; older than 3.33 Ma). The mammalian biochronology and magnetostratigraphy restrict the age of the Tonuco Mountain LF to between 3.3 and 3.6 Ma (early late Pliocene, late early Blancan). The tapir mandible from the Tonuco Mountain LF is the first record of Tapirus from the early Blancan (2.7-4.9 Ma) of North America. Tapirus had a restricted geographic distribution in the late Pliocene and earliest Pleistocene (late early and late Blancan; ~1.6-3.6 Ma) of temperate North America, occurring primarily in the southern United States from Florida to California, including New Mexico