Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
cological and evolutionary consequences of sexual and clonal eproduction in aquatic plants

Aquatic angiosperms have evolved from a diverse assemblage of terrestrial lineages and exhibit broad variation in morphology, life history, and reproductive systems. This variation reflects evolutionary modifications that have occurred following transitions to aquatic habitats, and adaptation to the wealth of ecological niches that occur in wetland environments. Despite this variation, nearly all perennial aquatic plants share one important feature: propagation through both sexual and clonal reproduction. These contrasting reproductive modes involve the formation of propagules that differ in size, resource status, and genetic identity. Accordingly, the balance between sexual and clonal reproduction has important ecological and evolutionary consequences for dispersal, recruitment, and spatial patterns of genetic diversity within and among populations. Here, we review the diversity of aquatic plant life histories and reproductive modes and consider: (1) their effects on patterns of dispersal across spatial scales ranging from the local population to inter-continental transport; (2) how clonality affects sexual fitness via tradeoffs and mating patterns; (3) the roles of sexual versus clonal reproduction in population establishment and in the subsequent spread of invasive aquatic plants; (4) how the contrasting properties of sexuallyomatic mutation versus clonally-derived propagules in terms of dispersal and competition potentially influence patterns of selection on reproductive mode; (5) the roles of phenotypic plasticity, somatic mutations and epigenetic inheritance in promoting invasion success in widespread clonal aquatic species. We conclude our review by identifying profitable areas for future enquiry in an effort to provide a robust agenda for future research on the ecology and evolution of aquatic plants. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Application and success of two stereolithographic surgical guide systems for implant placement with immediate loading.

PURPOSE Two different stereolithographic surgical guide systems, NobelGuide (Nobel Biocare) and SimPlant (Materialise), were compared clinically, and the survival rates of the planned immediately loaded dental implants with prefabricated provisional restorations were evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients were treated with implants using either the Materialise SimPlant system or the Nobel Biocare system. All implants were planned on cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) or CT-derived images. Mucosa-, bone-, or tooth-supported stereolithographic guides were produced using the two commercial systems. A provisional was placed immediately after implant insertion in all cases. RESULTS Fourteen patients were enrolled. Seventy-five implants were placed (34 with Materialise, 41 with Nobel Biocare) using stereolithographic surgical guides. All but one implant were loaded immediately with prefabricated provisionals. In all cases, implants were in place for a minimum of 12 months. No complications related to associated anatomy occurred. One implant failed, leading to a combined cumulative survival rate of 98.7%. There were no other intraoperative or postoperative complications. Implants placed by bone-supported guides had increased patient symptoms of postoperative swelling and discomfort. All provisionals were successful. CONCLUSIONS Both types of stereolithographic surgical templates were sufficiently accurate in transferring the planned implant positions to the surgical field, allowing the placement of prefabricated provisionals. These technologies are most beneficial in patients in whom the simultaneous placement of multiple implants in combination with complex restorations is planned.
The Relationship between Peer Victimization, Perceived Parental Support, Family Characteristics and Internalizing Symptoms. A Cross-Sectional Study

Background : Bullying and peer victimization are important, yet underestimated public health issues. Methods : Data were obtained in a sample of N=3454 children at the age of 12.6 (+/- 1.3) in Austria. 75% of the participants were not involved in bullying (uninvolved), 16% were victims, 4% bully/victims and 5% bullies. We applied a multivariate regression model relating to gender, established a classification into bullying and victimization, and investigated parental behavior, family characteristics, physical or mental illness of a parent, as well as internalizing symptoms of pupils. Results : Our data analysis demonstrated gender-related effects and the development of internalizing symptoms: Boys showed fewer internalizing symptoms than girls. Pupils with low perceived parental support displayed higher symptomatic scores. The variables of family break-up and parental health led to similar observations. Victims have an approximately 30% higher score on the internalizing scale than bullies and 60% higher scores than uninvolved. The results of the regression model indicated that these predictors explained 25% of the variance. Conclusion : School policies, teachers, parents, the media, school physicians, as well as GPs must recognize early warning signs of bullying and diligently assess risk behaviors. Early social support (by parents and teachers) is discussed as an important protective factor.
Counteracting estimation bias and social influence to improve the wisdom of crowds

Aggregating multiple non-expert opinions into a collective estimate can improve accuracy across many contexts. However, two sources of error can diminish collective wisdom: individual estimation biases and information sharing between individuals. Here we measure individual biases and social influence rules in multiple experiments involving hundreds of individuals performing a classic numerosity estimation task. We first investigate how existing aggregation methods, such as calculating the arithmetic mean or the median, are influenced by these sources of error. We show that the mean tends to overestimate, and the median underestimate, the true value for a wide range of numerosities. Quantifying estimation bias, and mapping individual bias to collective bias, allows us to develop and validate three new aggregation measures that effectively counter sources of collective estimation error. In addition, we present results from a further experiment that quantifies the social influence rules that individuals employ when incorporating personal estimates with social information. We show that the corrected mean is remarkably robust to social influence, retaining high accuracy in the presence or absence of social influence, across numerosities, and across different methods for averaging social information. Utilizing knowledge of estimation biases and social influence rules may therefore be an inexpensive and general strategy to improve the wisdom of crowds.
QTL analysis for yield related traits using populations derived from an indica-japonica hybrid in rice (Oryza sativaL.)

Introgression has been achieved from a wild species Oryza minuta (2n = 48, BBCC, Acc No.101141) into O. sativa subsp. indica IR71033-121-15. This introgression line was developed at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) through embryo rescue as well as three backcrosses using IR31917-45-3-2 as a recurrent parent. These two IR lines resemble each other but differ in several important agronomic traits, which can be attributable to O. minuta introgressions. Out of 530 STS markers tested for introgression analysis, at least 14 introgressed chromosomal segments from O. minuta were detected throughout 12 chromosomes. Most of the introgressed segments were quite small in size, as they were detected by single markers and flanking markers were negative for introgressions. A population from the cross between japonica cultivar Junambyeo and introgressed indica line IR71033-121-15, consisting of 146 plants, was evaluated for ten agronomic traits. Genotyping of F2 lines and phenotyping from both F2 and F3 were considered for QTL analysis. A total of 11 single-locus QTLs (S-QTLs) were identified for ten traits, i.e. days to heading (DTH), panicle number (PN), spikelet fertility (SF), panicle length (PL), spikelet per panicle (SPP), grain length (GL), grain width (GW), grain length to width ratio (GLW) and grain thickness (GT) in both populations. The O. minuta derived alleles of QTLs, spp6, gl3, glw3, glw5 and gt12, were detected in both populations indicating robust QTLs for these traits. QTLs from O. minuta introgression could be new sources of natural genetic variation for genetic improvement of rice.
Model For Rainfall Excess Patterns on Randomly Heterogeneous Areas

A model is presented that can simulate infiltration from rainstorms on areas exhibiting random variation in saturated hydraulic conductivity KS. Heterogeneity in the capillary drive (or length scale) parameter G can be treated as well. The method is based on a point infiltration model that includes the Green-Ampt or Smith-Parlange infiltration functions. The runoff area is characterized as an ensemble of infiltrating points or flow path strips that provides runoff to a receiving channel. The model is developed by simulation of a large ensemble using Latin hypercube sampling. The infiltration expression is responsive to a changing rainfall rate r and is easily characterized using the basic infiltration parameters KS and G, plus a third parameter based only on the coefficient of variation of KS or G. Areal heterogeneity causes a rainfall-dependent change in the areal effective value for KS, called Ke(r). The infiltration expression contains rainfall rate as a variable, and observed storms with temporal rain.
Complementing Mass Customization Toolkits with User Communities: How Peer Input Improves Customer Self‐Design*

In this article, the authors propose that the canonical customer-toolkit dyad in mass customization (MC) should be complemented with user communities. Many companies in various industries have begun to offer their customers the opportunity to design their own products online. The companies provide web-based MC toolkits which allow customers who prefer individualized products to tailor items such as sneakers, PCs, cars, kitchens, cereals, or skis to their specific preferences. Most existing MC toolkits are based on the underlying concept of an isolated, dyadic interaction process between the individual customer and the MC toolkit. Information from external sources is not provided. As a result, most academic research on MC toolkits has focused on this dyadic perspective. The main premise of this article is that novice MC toolkit users in particular might largely benefit from information given by other customers. The pioneering research conducted by Jeppesen (2005), Jeppesen and Frederiksen (2006), and Jeppesen and Molin (2003) has shown that customers in the computer gaming and digital music instruments industries are willing to support each other for the sake of efficient toolkit use (e.g., how certain toolkit functions work). Expanding on their work, this article provides evidence that peer assistance appears also extremely useful in the two other major phases of the customer's individual self-design process, namely the development of an initial idea and the evaluation of a preliminary design solution. Two controlled experiments were conducted in which 191 subjects used an MC toolkit in order to design their own individual skis. The authors find that during the phase of developing an initial idea, having access to other users' designs as potential starting points stimulates the integration of existing solution chunks into the problem-solving process, which indicates more systematic problem-solving behavior. Peer customer input also turned out to have positive effects on the evaluation of preliminary design solutions. Providing other customers' opinions on interim design solutions stimulated favorable problem-solving behavior, namely the integration of external feedback. The use of these two problem-solving heuristics in turn leads to an improved process outcome, that is, self-designed products which meet the preferences of the customers more effectively (measured in terms of perceived preference fit, purchase intention, and willingness to pay). These findings have important theoretical and managerial implications. (author's abstract)
Profile of ceritinib in the treatment of ALK+ metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer

Lung cancer has become one of the leading causes of death in both men and women in the United States, with approximately 230,000 new cases and 160,000 deaths each year. Approximately 80% of lung cancer patients are diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a subset of epithelial lung cancers that are generally insensitive to chemotherapy. An estimated 3%–7% of NSCLC patients harbor tumors containing anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangement as an oncogenic driver. Subsequent development of the first-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor crizotinib demonstrated substantial initial ALK+-tumor regression, yet ultimately displayed resistance in treated patients. The recently approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor ceritinib has been shown to be an effective antitumor agent against crizotinib-naïve and -resistant ALK+-NSCLC patients. In this review, we will provide an overview of biology and management of ALK+-NSCLC with a special focus on clinical development of ceritinib.
Organizational Identity and Paradox

Previous studies have reported changes in organizational identities as a result of external or internal triggers. In contrast, we highlight how the paradoxical nature of an organizational identity can influence stability and change that identity. Using the example of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, we show how a “stable state of instability” of the organization’s collective identity is constantly being reproduced. We contribute to the literature on organizational identity by first analyzing a case in which identity change is not triggered by a disruptive event. Second, we show how the paradoxical nature of identity triggers attempts to reconcile contradictions of the paradox, culminating in permanent state of gradual changes of organizational identity. Finally, we exemplify how, as a form of partial organization where volunteers take part in the identity formation process, Wikipedia copes with the tensions that ensue from its collective identity.
Robustness encoded across essential and accessory replicons of the ecologically versatile bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti

Bacterial genome evolution is characterized by gains, losses, and rearrangements of functional genetic segments. The extent to which large-scale genomic alterations influence genotype-phenotype relationships has not been investigated in a high-throughput manner. In the symbiotic soil bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, the genome is composed of a chromosome and two large extrachromosomal replicons (pSymA and pSymB, which together constitute 45% of the genome). Massively parallel transposon insertion sequencing (Tn-seq) was employed to evaluate the contributions of chromosomal genes to growth fitness in both the presence and absence of these extrachromosomal replicons. Ten percent of chromosomal genes from diverse functional categories are shown to genetically interact with pSymA and pSymB. These results demonstrate the pervasive robustness provided by the extrachromosomal replicons, which is further supported by constraint-based metabolic modeling. A comprehensive picture of core S. meliloti metabolism was generated through a Tn-seq-guided in silico metabolic network reconstruction, producing a core network encompassing 726 genes. This integrated approach facilitated functional assignments for previously uncharacterized genes, while also revealing that Tn-seq alone missed over a quarter of wild-type metabolism. This work highlights the many functional dependencies and epistatic relationships that may arise between bacterial replicons and across a genome, while also demonstrating how Tn-seq and metabolic modeling can be used together to yield insights not obtainable by either method alone.
Improving language-universal feature extraction with deep maxout and convolutional neural networks

When deployed in automated speech recognition (ASR), deep neural networks (DNNs) can be treated as a complex feature extractor plus a simple linear classifier. Previous work has investigated the utility of multilingual DNNs acting as language-universal feature extractors (LUFEs). In this paper, we explore different strategies to further improve LUFEs. First, we replace the standard sigmoid nonlinearity with the recently proposed maxout units. The resulting maxout LUFEs have the nice property of generating sparse feature representations. Second, the convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture is applied to obtain more invariant feature space. We evaluate the performance of LUFEs on a cross-language ASR task. Each of the proposed techniques results in word error rate reduction compared with the existing DNN-based LUFEs. Combining the two methods together brings additional improvement on the target language.
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Modeling the Monthly Mean Soil-water Balance with a Statistical-dynamical Ecohydrology Model as Coupled to a Two-component Canopy Model

The statistical-dynamical annual water balance model of Eagleson (1978) is a pioneering work in the analysis of climate, soil and vegetation interactions. This paper describes several enhancements and modifications to the model that improve its physical realism at the expense of its mathematical elegance and analytical tractability. In particular, the analytical solutions for the root zone fluxes are re-derived using separate potential rates of transpira-tion and bare-soil evaporation. Those potential rates, along with the rate of evaporation from canopy interception, are calculated using the two-component Shuttleworth-Wallace (1985) canopy model. In addition, the soil column is divided into two layers, with the upper layer representing the dynamic root zone. The resulting ability to account for changes in root-zone water storage allows for implementation at the monthly timescale. This new version of the Ea-gleson model is coined the Statistical-Dynamical Ecohydrol-ogy Model (SDEM). The ability of the SDEM to capture the seasonal dynamics of the local-scale soil-water balance is demonstrated for two grassland sites in the US Great Plains. Sensitivity of the results to variations in peak green leaf area index (LAI) suggests that the mean peak green LAI is determined by some minimum in root zone soil moisture during the growing season. That minimum appears to be close to the soil matric potential at which the dominant grass species begins to experience water stress and well above the wilting point, thereby suggesting an ecological optimality hypothesis in which the need to avoid water-stress-induced leaf abscission is balanced by the maximization of carbon assimilation (and associated transpiration). Finally, analysis of the sensitivity of model-determined peak green LAI to soil texture shows that the coupled model is able to reproduce the so-called " inverse texture effect " , which consists of the observation that natural vegetation in dry climates tends to be most productive in sandier soils despite their lower water holding capacity. Although the determination of LAI based on complete or near-complete utilization of soil moisture is not a new approach in ecohydrology, this paper demonstrates its use for the first time with a new monthly statistical-dynamical model of the water balance. Accordingly , the SDEM provides a new framework for studying the controls of soil texture and climate on vegetation density and evapotranspiration.
Activation of renal ClC-K chloride channels depends on an intact N terminus of their accessory subunit barttin

ClC-K channels belong to the CLC family of chloride channels and chloride/proton antiporters. They contribute to sodium chloride reabsorption in Henle's loop of the kidney and to potassium secretion into the endolymph by the stria vascularis of the inner ear. Their accessory subunit barttin stabilizes the ClC-K/barttin complex, promotes its insertion into the surface membrane, and turns the pore-forming subunits into a conductive state. Barttin mutations cause Bartter syndrome type IV, a salt-wasting nephropathy with sensorineural deafness. Here, studying ClC-K/barttin channels heterologously expressed in MDCK-II and HEK293T cells with confocal imaging and patch-clamp recordings, we demonstrate that the eight-amino-acids-long barttin N terminus is required for channel trafficking and activation. Deletion of the complete N terminus (Δ2–8 barttin) retained barttin and human hClC-Ka channels in intracellular compartments. Partial N-terminal deletions did not compromise subcellular hClC-Ka trafficking but drastically reduced current amplitudes. Sequence deletions encompassing Thr-6, Phe-7, or Arg-8 in barttin completely failed to activate hClC-Ka. Analyses of protein expression and whole-cell current noise revealed that inactive channels reside in the plasma membrane. Substituting the deleted N terminus with a polyalanine sequence was insufficient for recovering chloride currents, and single amino acid substitutions highlighted that the correct sequence is required for proper function. Fast and slow gate activation curves obtained from rat V166E rClC-K1/barttin channels indicated that mutant barttin fails to constitutively open the slow gate. Increasing expression of barttin over that of ClC-K partially recovered this insufficiency, indicating that N-terminal modifications of barttin alter both binding affinities and gating properties.
Potential and Determinants of Carbon Storage of Freshwater Swamp Forests in the Niger Delta

There has been an increase in carbon assessments across global ecosystems, but some ecosystem types remain woefully understudied-freshwater swamp forests are one such ecosystem. Results of the above ground carbon estimates are derived from 16, one-hectare forest plots divided evenly across four forest sites. Results on carbon storage are compared with results on forest use and ownership from interviews with communities living in the area. Since forest use determined the composition, structure and the capacity of the ecosystem to sequester carbon; its above ground carbon decreased from the undisturbed forest plots to the disturbed (modified) sites across the sites. Forest units under communal ownership demonstrated possibilities of actualizing targeted/ restricted use of tree species, as well as targeted carbon storage capacities. Even though joint ownership and management schemes are likely to regulate the use of the ecosystem, and possibly enhance better carbon sequestration, achieving this still seems elusive due to a long existing land tenure system and generational inheritance of (forest) lands across the region. Carbon sequestration across the region will remain under threat unless suitable awareness on forest management is backed up with alternative sources of livelihood, incentives and compensation to the custodians of the forest resources.