Effects of Fire, Grazing and Agriculture on Carbon Stocks and Biodiversity in the Ruaha-Katavi Landscape

The wildlife corridor between Ruaha and Katavi National Parks is under threat from cultivation and increased fire frequencies. This study evaluated the impacts of protection, fire, and habitat conversion on carbon stocks and biodiversity in the Ruaha-Katavi Landscape. Soil carbon, above-ground woody carbon stocks, herbaceous biomass and insect species richness were determined from 87 plots across a variety of land uses. There were significant differences in carbon stocks among different soil, and land use types (p < 0.001). Sandy soils featured significantly higher woody carbon (p < 0.001) than heavy clay soils. Conversion of woodlands to croplands significantly reduced aboveground woody carbon (p < 0.001) from an average of 72.4 Mg/ha for woodlands compared to 30.9 Mg/ha for croplands. Furthermore, croplands had significantly lower woody carbon than grazed woodland remnants in Open Areas (p = 0.005). Herbaceous plants and Orthoptera species richness did not vary significantly with land use (p > 0.05). Lepidoptera species richness significantly correlated with tree species richness. This study provides some key preliminary information that may justify feasible interventions to slow down conversion of woodlands into croplands to achieve climate-related benefits mainly reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering carbon in wood and soils

Transcriptional profiling of the epigenetic regulator Smchd1

Available online 31 December 2015Smchd1 is an epigenetic repressor with important functions in healthy cellular processes and disease. To elucidate its role in transcriptional regulation, we performed two independent genome-wide RNA-sequencing studies comparing wild-type and Smchd1 null samples in neural stem cells and lymphoma cell lines. Using an R-based analysis pipeline that accommodates observational and sample-specific weights in the linear modeling, we identify key genes dysregulated by Smchd1 deletion such as clustered protocadherins in the neural stem cells and imprinted genes in both experiments. Here we provide a detailed description of this analysis, from quality control to read mapping and differential expression analysis. These data sets are publicly available from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (accession numbers GSE64099 and GSE65747).Ruijie Liu, Kelan Chen, Natasha Jansz, Marnie E. Blewitt, Matthew E. Ritchi

Fluence and polarisation dependence of GaAs based Lateral Photo-Dember terahertz emitters

We characterise THz output of lateral photo-Dember (LPD) emitters based on semi-insulating (SI), unannealed and annealed low temperature grown (LTG) GaAs. Saturation of THz pulse power with optical fluence is observed, with unannealed LTG GaAs showing highest saturation fluence at 1.1 ± 0.1 mJ cm-2. SI-GaAs LPD emitters show a flip in signal polarity with optical fluence that is attributed to THz emission from the metal-semiconductor contact. Variation in optical polarisation affects THz pulse power that is attributed to a local optical excitation near the metal contact

Induced currents, frozen charges and the quantum Hall effect breakdown

Puzzling results obtained from torque magnetometry in the quantum Hall effect (QHE) regime are presented, and a theory is proposed for their explanation. Magnetic moment saturation, which is usually attributed to the QHE breakdown, is shown to be related to the charge redistribution across the sample.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium "Nanostructures: Physics and Technology", St.Petersburg, Russia, June 23-28, 2003, expanded version with one figure adde

Updated tests of scaling and universality for the spin-spin correlations in the 2D and 3D spin-S Ising models using high-temperature expansions

We have extended, from order 12 through order 25, the high-temperature series expansions (in zero magnetic field) for the spin-spin correlations of the spin-S Ising models on the square, simple-cubic and body-centered-cubic lattices. On the basis of this large set of data, we confirm accurately the validity of the scaling and universality hypotheses by resuming several tests which involve the correlation function, its moments and the exponential or the second-moment correlation-lengths.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Landscape variation in defense traits along gradients of multiple resources in a tropical savanna plant

Environmental Biolog

Tourism destination competitiveness: second thoughts on the world economic forum reports

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Reports of the World Economic Forum elaborate the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) as an overall measure of destination competitiveness for 130 economies worldwide. From a tourism management point of view, a measure such as the TTCI is expected to be instrumental in explaining and predicting the tourism performance of receiving countries. This study explores several ways to transform the TTCI into a formative structural model. Partial least squares path modelling, PLS regression, mixture modelling and non-linear covariance-based structural equation modelling are applied to examine the TTCI's predictive power. The analysis probes possible measures for improvement. The destination countries may be subject to unobserved heterogeneity with regard to how the various constituents of competitiveness act on tourism performance. Interaction phenomena seem to prohibit a simple cause-effect pattern and non-linear relationships show encouraging results

Terahertz emission by diffusion of carriers and metal-mask dipole inhibition of radiation

Terahertz (THz) radiation can be generated by ultrafast photo-excitation of carriers in a semiconductor partly masked by a gold surface. A simulation of the effect taking into account the diffusion of carriers and the electric field shows that the total net current is approximately zero and cannot account for the THz radiation. Finite element modelling and analytic calculations indicate that the THz emission arises because the metal inhibits the radiation from part of the dipole population, thus creating an asymmetry and therefore a net current. Experimental investigations confirm the simulations and show that metal-mask dipole inhibition can be used to create THz emitters.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures; Fixed figure

Setdb1-mediated H3K9 methylation is enriched on the inactive X and plays a role in its epigenetic silencing

Background: The presence of histone 3 lysine 9 (H3K9) methylation on the mouse inactive X chromosome has been controversial over the last 15 years, and the functional role of H3K9 methylation in X chromosome inactivation in any species has remained largely unexplored. Results: Here we report the first genomic analysis of H3K9 di- and tri-methylation on the inactive X: we find they are enriched at the intergenic, gene poor regions of the inactive X, interspersed between H3K27 tri-methylation domains found in the gene dense regions. Although H3K9 methylation is predominantly non-genic, we find that depletion of H3K9 methylation via depletion of H3K9 methyltransferase Set domain bifurcated 1 (Setdb1) during the establishment of X inactivation, results in failure of silencing for around 150 genes on the inactive X. By contrast, we find a very minor role for Setdb1-mediated H3K9 methylation once X inactivation is fully established. In addition to failed gene silencing, we observed a specific failure to silence X-linked long-terminal repeat class repetitive elements. Conclusions: Here we have shown that H3K9 methylation clearly marks the murine inactive X chromosome. The role of this mark is most apparent during the establishment phase of gene silencing, with a more muted effect on maintenance of the silent state. Based on our data, we hypothesise that Setdb1-mediated H3K9 methylation plays a role in epigenetic silencing of the inactive X via silencing of the repeats, which itself facilitates gene silencing through alterations to the conformation of the whole inactive X chromosome.Andrew Keniry, Linden J. Gearing, Natasha Jansz, Joy Liu, Aliaksei Z. Holik, Peter F. Hickey, Sarah A. Kinkel, Darcy L. Moore, Kelsey Breslin, Kelan Chen, Ruijie Liu, Catherine Phillips, Miha Pakusch, Christine Biben, Julie M. Sheridan, Benjamin T. Kile, Catherine Carmichael, Matthew E. Ritchie, Douglas J. Hilton and Marnie E. Blewit

Temperature dependence of the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect studied by induced currents

Copyright © 2004 The American Physical SocietyWe have developed a model of the high-current breakdown of the integer quantum Hall effect, as measured in contactless experiments using a highly-sensitive torsion balance magnetometer. The model predicts that, for empirically “low-mobility” samples (μ<75 m2 V−1 s−1), the critical current for breakdown should decrease with, and have a linear dependence on, temperature. This prediction is verified experimentally with the addition of a low-temperature saturation of the critical current at a temperature that depends on both sample number density and filling factor. It is shown that this saturation is consistent with quasielastic inter-Landau-level scattering when the maximum electric field in the sample reaches a large enough value. In addition we show how this model can be extended to give qualitative agreement with experiments on high-mobility samples