Diverse Number Research Articles

Phylogenetic Diversity of Plant and Insect Communities on Islands.

Interactions between plants and insects have long fascinated scientists. While some plants rely on insects for pollination and seed dispersal, insects rely on plants for food or as a habitat. Despite extensive research investigating pair-wise species interactions, few studies have characterized plant and insect communities simultaneously, making it unclear if diverse plant communities are generally associated with diverse insect communities. This work aims to better understand the historical and evolutionary relationships between plant and insect phylogenetic diversity (PD) on islands. We hypothesized that phylogenetically diverse plant communities (i.e., high PD) support diverse insect communities, with the relationship varying with island isolation, area, age, and latitude. Species lists for plants and insects were compiled from the published literature, and plant PD was calculated using ´standardized mean pairwise distance´ (SES.MPD) and ´standardized mean nearest taxon distance´ (SES.MNTD). For insects, PD was estimated using the number of genera, families, and orders. We found that plant diversity in evolutionary recent times (SES.MNTD) is associated with recent insect diversity (number of genera), but no relationship was found between plant and insect diversity across whole phylogenies (plant SES.MPD vs. number of insect families). Distant islands generally support high PD of plants (high SES.MPD and SES.MNTD) and insects (low number of genera). Plant and insect PD was generally high on small islands, except for plant SES.MPD revealing no relationship with island size. Insect PD was somewhat higher on young islands (low number of families), whereas there was no relationship between island age and plant PD. Plant SES.MPD was higher on high latitude islands, yet we did not find significant relationships between the latitude and the metrics of insect PD or plant SES.MNTD. These findings suggest that protecting high plant PD may also help conserve high insect PD, with a focus on small and distant islands as potential hotspots of phylogenetic diversity across multiple taxa.

Survey for Babesia spp. in wildlife in the eastern United States

Babesia is a diverse genus of piroplasms that parasitize the red blood cells of a wide variety of mammals and avian species, including humans. There is a lack of knowledge on the Babesia species of carnivores and mesomammals in the eastern United States and the potential impacts of these species on the health of humans and domestic animals. We surveyed 786 wild mammals in the eastern United States by testing blood, spleen, and heart samples with PCR targeting the 18S rRNA region of apicomplexan parasites. We also performed PCR targeting the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) region of each unique clade identified with 18S rRNA sequencing. We found a high positivity of Babesia spp. infection in raccoons (Procyon lotor), foxes (Vulpes vulpes and Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), and low positivity in Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana). No Babesia infections were detected in coyotes (Canis latrans), black bears (Ursus americanus), groundhogs (Marmota monax), muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus), or mink (Neovison vison). Skunks carried a diverse number of strains including a potential novel species of Babesia related to B. gibsoni, a strain closely related to a B. microti-like species known to cause disease in river otters, as well as a separate B. microti-like strain. Raccoons primarily carried B. microti-like strains, though there was a high diversity of sequences including Babesia lotori, Babesia sensu stricto MA230, and Babesia sp. ‘Coco.’ Foxes exclusively carried B. vulpes. In addition to Babesia spp., a high positivity of Hepatozoon spp. infection was found in mink, while low positivity was found in raccoons and muskrats. Wildlife in the eastern United States carry a diverse range of Babesia species including several novel strains of unknown clinical significance.

Infection Status, Etiological Analysis of Aeromonas Spp. in Foodborne Diarrhea Patients from 2019 to 2023 in Wenzhou.

The infection status and etiological analysis of Aeromonas spp. from foodborne diarrhea patients in Wenzhou were carried out to provide the etiological basis for healthy diet and clinical treatment. Aeromonas isolates (n = 41) collected from foodborne diarrhea patients were identified using the automatic bacteriologic analyzer and mass spectrometer. Species identification, multilocus sequence typing, prediction of virulence genes, and antimicrobial resistance genes were analyzed by the data of whole genome sequencing. The antibiotic resistance of these isolates was determined using miniaturization of the broth dilution susceptibility test. A total of 1829 stool samples of diarrhea patients were collected, and the detection rate of Aeromonas spp. was 2.24% (41/1829). Moreover, Aeromonas spp. are more easily detected in warmer months (from June to August), which were identified as follows: A. veronii (53.66%, 22/41), A. caviae (21.95%, 9/41), A. hydrophila (9.76%, 4/41), A. dhakensis (4.88%, 2/41), A. rivipollensis (4.88%, 2/41), A. enteropelogenes (2.44%, 1/41), and A. media (2.44%, 1/41). All strains can be divided into 38 sequence types, 31 of which were novel, suggesting that Aeromonas spp. had high genetic diversity, multiple clones, and various sources in diarrhea patients. High number of genetic diversity and resistance were found in the Aeromonas isolates. In addition, the category distribution of the virulence genes was significantly different among the seven species of Aeromonas. Aeromonas spp. had different degrees of resistance to antibiotics, and tetracycline was the most serious, with a resistance rate of 27%. What's more, for some antimicrobial classes in silico antimicrobial resistance gene detection was highly correlated with phenotypic antimicrobial resistance patterns with an overall sensitivity of 93.3% and a specificity of 66.7%. The findings from this research highlighted the importance for development of prevention and control strategies to reduce the risk of foodborne diarrhea caused by Aeromonas spp.

Shifting official development assistance during COVID-19: earmarking, donor concentration and loans

ContextIn contrast to bilateral aid, aid disbursed from multilateral institutions increased significantly at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, at a time when a coherent and effective multilateral response...

Enhancing Bulb Turbine Performance Assessing Air Injection for Vibration Mitigation and Hydrofoil Cavitation

Small hydro technology is playing a crucial role in advancing sustainable, clean energy policies as part of the global hydro development strategy. Its contribution to social and economic development is becoming more prominent, particularly in ensuring electricity access for rural communities and supporting industrial expansion. The main causes of bulb turbine failures under high operating conditions are frequently attributed to variations in pressure in the draft tubes, which are aggravated when a spinning vortex rope is formed under load operation. Different fluid injection techniques, namely compressed air and water jet injection, address these issues and reduce the negative results of cavitation. The investigation covers the flow visualization on the suction side of a single hydrofoil utilizing a cavitation tunnel and a bulb turbine. This study assesses the effectiveness of compressed air injection in reducing vibration generated by cavitation in bulb turbines. Positive results of the experimental studies suggest a decrease in noise and vibration by air injection that prevents oscillations of the vortex rope. This research also considers how the hydrofoil design of bulb runner blades influences flow characteristics. Hence, it provides knowledge on cavitation structures in diverse cavitation numbers. Different studies that compare the original and modified hydrofoil designs reveal remarkable improvements that may be due to changes in the key parameters of the hydrofoil, such as later cavitation initiation and reduced intensity. To obtain the optimal output of a bulb turbine by considering air injection for vibration reduction and hydrofoil design changes to limit the negative effect of cavitation, the Reynolds number and cavitation number are to be defined. This multidisciplinary approach possesses enormous potential to increase the reliability and efficiency of bulb turbines in challenging operating conditions.

Not Just 9-1-1: The Expanded Work Environment of United States Emergency Medical Service Clinicians.

Recently, there have been annual increases in emergency medical service (EMS) demand with concurrent clinician shortages. Understanding the diverse number of EMS clinicians available for emergent roles is vital for planning and resource management. Our study aims to understand the roles and environments of US EMS clinicians. This cross-sectional study analyzed nationally certified civilian US EMS clinicians recertifying from October 2021 to April 2022, ages 18-85, with at least one EMS job. Respondents answered questions regarding their primary and secondary EMS roles, including emergent response (with/without 9-1-1), medical transport (non-emergent), clinical services, mobile integrated health (MIH), or none of the above. Next, respondents were asked about the number of jobs needed to make ends meet. All responses were combined with self-reported National Registry profile data (e.g., age, sex). Descriptive statistics were performed. The study included 33,335 EMS clinicians (response rate: 34.0%). The primary role reported was emergent response with 25,086 (75.3%), including ground ambulance and non-ambulance response. Clinical service roles were reported by 2,427 (7.3%), including settings such as the emergency department and outpatient clinics. Medical transport roles accounted for 2,346 (7.0%), including ground interfacility and critical ground care. Educators and administrators made up 1,453 (4.4%). Overall, roles varied by sex, and 48.8% of respondents reported needing more than one job to make ends meet. Our evaluation highlights various US EMS clinician roles. These findings suggest the need for continued focus and attention on EMS roles, compensation structures, and sex distributions to ensure a resilient, diverse, and adequately supported EMS workforce.

Assessment of conservation status of Ferula huber‐morathii: association with population genetic structure and regional climate

Ferula huber‐morathii is an endemic and medicinally important plant. This species is distributed in eight Turkish localities, including three newly identified ones. Its extent of occurrence and area of occupancy is determined to be 3963 km2 and 32 km2 respectively. All localities are characterized by East Mediterranean and sub‐Mediterranean precipitation regimes; however, temperatures increase excessively and precipitation decreases during the flowering period of the species. The population sizes are quite small, and the number of reproducing individuals in some populations is below ten. Analyses of ISSR markers showed the percentage of polymorphic loci to be 94% at the species level and 56% at the population level. The level of genetic differentiation (measured by GST) was 0.37 and the estimated level of gene flow among populations (NM) was 0.84. The percentage of variance occurring within and among populations, determined by AMOVA, was 75% and 25%, respectively. STRUCTURE analysis revealed two genetic clusters of individuals with a geographic structure, similar to that found in UPGMA and an ordination analysis. Some populations turned out to have both low numbers of individuals and low genetic diversity. Since many of the populations are subject to anthropogenic disturbance, the species should remain in the EN category. At the same time, it is suggested that a new in‐situ conservation area should be created around nearby dams, situated in the same climate area as the currently known populations.

Equity and justice in medical education: mapping a longitudinal curriculum across 4 years

BackgroundIn 2024 in the United States there is an attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within education. Politics notwithstanding, medical school curricula that are current and structured to train the next generation of physicians to adhere to our profession’s highest values of fairness, humanity, and scientific excellence are of utmost importance to health care quality and innovation worldwide. Whereas the number of anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ARDEI) curricular innovations have increased, there is a dearth of published longitudinal health equity curriculum models. In this article, we describe our school’s curricular mapping process toward the longitudinal integration of ARDEI learning objectives across 4 years and ultimately creation of an ARDEI medical education program objective (MEPO) domain.MethodsMedical students and curricular faculty leaders developed 10 anti-racism learning objectives to create an ARDEI MEPO domain encompassing three ARDEI learning objectives.ResultsA pilot survey indicates that medical students who have experienced this curriculum are aware of the longitudinal nature of the ARDEI curriculum and endorse its effectiveness.ConclusionsA longitudinal health equity and justice curriculum with well-defined anti-racist objectives that is (a) based within a supportive learning environment, (b) bolstered by trusted, structured avenues for student feedback and (c) amended with iterative revisions is a promising model to ensure that medical students are equipped to effectively address health inequities and deliver the highest quality of care for all patients.

Population genetic diversity of Culex tritaeniorhynchus in Jining City of Shandong Province based on the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase I gene

To understand the genetic basis of the adaptation of Culex tritaeniorhynchus to different environmental ecology in Jining City, Shandong Province, so as to provide insights into understanding of the population structure or isolation pattern of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus in the city. Seven sampling sites were selected from urban, suburban and rural areas of Jining City, Shandong Province from June to August 2023, and mosquitoes were collected using mosquito-trapping lamps. All collected adult mosquitoes were identified morphologically. Genomic DNA was extracted from a single female Cx. tritaeniorhynchus mosquito, and the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase I (COI) gene was amplified using a PCR assay, sequenced and subjected to molecular identification. The number of haplotypes, haplotype diversity (Hd), nucleotide diversity (Pi), and average number of nucleotide differences (K) of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus DNA sequences were estimated among different sampling sites using the software DnaSP 6, and a neutrality test was performed. The fixation index (FST), and gene flow (number of migrants, Nm) of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus populations were calculated using the software Arlequin 3.5.2, and subjected to analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). In addition, a haplotype network diagrams and a phylogenetic tree of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus populations were created using the software PopART and MEGA 11, respectively. A total of 420 sequences were successfully amplified from the COI gene of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus samples collected from 7 sampling sites in Jining City, and a gene fragment sequence with a length of 603 bp was obtained, with 55 variable sites and 46 haplotypes and without insertion or deletion mutations. Of the 46 haplotypes, H01 was the dominant shared haplotype, and the haplotype frequency increased gradually from urban areas (34.00%) to rural areas (47.00%). The mean Hd, Pi and K values of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus COI genes were 0.814, 0.024 and 14.129, 0.489, 0.016 and 7.941 and 0.641, 0.016 and 10.393 in suburban, urban, and rural areas, respectively, with the highest population diversity of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus in suburban areas and the lowest in urban areas. Paired FST analysis among different types of sampling sites showed that the mean FST value was 0.029 between urban and suburban areas, indicating more frequent inter-population communication. AMOVA revealed that the percentage of intra-population variation (95.74%) was higher than that of inter-population variation (4.26%). Neutrality tests showed deviation from neutrality in Cx. tritaeniorhynchus populations collected from Nanyang Township (Tajima's D = 2.793, Fu's Fs = 6.429, both P values < 0.05). In addition, the mismatch distribution curves of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus COI gene appeared bimodal or multimodal patterns in Jining City, indicating a relatively stable overall population size. The mitochondrial COI gene may be used as a molecular marker to investigate the population genetic diversity of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus. The population genetic diversity of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus is higher in the suburban areas of Jining City than in rural and urban areas, and there are frequent genetic exchanges between Cx. tritaeniorhynchus populations from urban and suburban areas.

Barn Owl (Tyto alba)† Habitat Suitability, Nest Box Occupancy, and Management Implications Based on Kentucky Surveys 2010–2022

ABSTRACT Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are a species of conservation interest, but management of nesting populations can require significant effort. To focus management activities, we conducted analyses of statewide survey data collected for Barn Owl nests (n = 515) and roosts (n = 145) in Kentucky, USA, from 2010–2022. Nest and roost sites included natural (e.g., trees, rock shelters) and human-made (e.g., barns, attics, hunting blinds, silos, etc.) structures and nest boxes (n = 270) installed on various substrates. Using data related to land cover, agricultural features, and other habitat-related variables, we examined factors influencing Barn Owl site occupancy by creating habitat suitability models. Additionally, we assessed changes in nest box occupancy over time and the factors that influenced nest box occupancy. The Shannon habitat diversity index and number of buildings within 75 m were the most important variables for habitat suitability throughout the study area, though the proportion of hay/pasture/grassland within 625 m and distance to an area intensively managed for Barn Owls were important regionally. Barn Owl nest box occupancy increased over the course of our study, likely due to management efforts. Owls were more likely to occupy nest boxes if they were installed on tall feed silos, retired utility poles, or barns. Moreover, nest boxes installed at sites where we observed owl pairs (prior to installation) were more likely to become occupied and used sooner than nest boxes installed opportunistically. Future management should focus on installing nest boxes for known pairs, on unused feed silos, on retired utility poles on reclaimed surface mines, and near areas intensively managed for the species.

Perinatal Reduction of Genetically Aberrant Neurons from Human Cerebral Cortex.

Since human neurons are postmitotic and long-lived, the regulation of their genomic content is crucial. Normal neuronal function is uniquely dependent on gene dosage, with diverse genome copy number alterations (CNA) associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions 1-3 . In this study, we evaluated the landscape of CNA arising in normal human brains, focusing on prenatal and perinatal ages. We surveyed ∼5,897 CNA in >1,200 single neurons from human postmortem brain of individuals without a neurological diagnosis, ranging in age from gestational week (GW) 14 to 90 years old. Using Tn5-based single-cell whole-genome amplification (scWGA) and informatic advances to validate CNAs in single neurons, we determined that a striking proportion of neurons (up to 45%) in human prenatal cortex showed aberrant genomes, characterized by large-scale CNAs in multiple chromosomes, which reduces significantly during the perinatal period (p<0.1). Furthermore, we identified micronuclei in the developing cortex, reflecting genetic instability reminiscent of that described in early embryonic development 4-6 . The scale of CNA appeared to alter the trajectory of neuronal elimination, as subchromosomal CNAs were more slowly eliminated, over the course of a lifetime. CNAs were depleted for dosage-sensitive genes and genes involved in neurodevelopmental disorders (p<.05), and thus represent genomic quality control mechanisms that eliminate selectively those neurons with CNA involving critical genes. Perinatal elimination of defective neuronal genomes may in turn reflect a developmental landmark essential for normal cognitive function.

Trait-customized sampling of core collections from a winter wheat genebank collection supports association studies.

Subsampling a reduced number of accessions from ex situ genebank collections, known as core collections, is a widely applied method for the investigation of stored genetic diversity and for an exploitation by breeding and research. Optimizing core collections for genome-wide association studies could potentially maximize opportunities to discover relevant and rare variation. In the present study, eight strategies to sample core collections were implemented separately for two traits, namely susceptibility to yellow rust and stem lodging, on about 6,300 accessions of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Each strategy maximized different parameters or emphasized another aspect of the collection; the strategies relied on genomic data, phenotypic data or a combination thereof. The resulting trait-customized core collections of eight different sizes, covering the range between 100 and 800 accession samples, were analyzed based on characteristics such as population stratification, number of duplicate genotypes and genetic diversity. Furthermore, the statistical power for an association study was investigated as a key criterion for comparisons. While sampling extreme phenotypes boosts the power especially for smaller core collections of up to 500 accession samples, maximization of genetic diversity within the core collection minimizes population stratification and avoids the accumulation of less informative duplicate genotypes when increasing the size of a core collection. Advantages and limitations of different strategies to create trait-customized core collections are discussed for different scenarios of the availability of resources and data.

Climate gradient‐driven intraspecific aggregation propensity linked to interpatch modulation in grassland communities

AbstractThe response of vegetation to climate change on a large scale should be studied at the community level rather than the species level. This necessitates a focused exploration of emerging spatial patterns. Here, we surveyed 264 sites in the Inner Mongolia typical steppe, using the “needling” method to investigate 39,600 clumps formed through the coexistence relationships of dominant species. We found that the effects of slow climate change on grassland communities can be categorized into two general trends: (1) a monotone relationship, characterized by changes in the number of dominant species, compositional diversity, and optimal patch area, and (2) a unimodal relationship, reflected in variations in the number of patches and interspecific associations. The two distinct trends, connected by optimal patch area, concurrently support both the habitat amount hypothesis and the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. These findings suggest that climate change indirectly influences the area and amount of vegetation patches by regulating the arrangement of clumps. Moreover, they indicate that it is the distribution, rather than the number, of species that serves as the front line for plant communities adapting to climate change.

DAUP: Enhancing point cloud homogeneity for 3D industrial anomaly detection via density-aware point cloud upsampling

The use of 3D information in industrial anomaly detection tasks has been shown to enhance performance by uncovering unseen abnormal patterns in the RGB modality. Despite the focus on detection pipeline design and multimodal fusion schemes in previous approaches, explorations of dataset characteristics were often overlooked. In contrast to RGB images where pixels form regular grids, point clouds intrinsically lack order and exhibit inhomogeneous densities across regions, thereby adversely affecting the feature extraction process. In this work, we propose a learning-based density-aware point cloud upsampling module (DAUP) to address the inhomogeneous problem. A learning-based neural shape function is developed to generate a local representation of the surface for point upsampling purposes. Utilizing the points generated by the neural shape function, we devise a density-aware resampling mechanism aimed at selecting a diverse number of points from varied regions to facilitate adaptive upsampling within regions of varying densities. DAUP can substantially reducing the misclassification rate for off-the-shelf anomaly detection pipelines. Extensive experiments confirm the effectiveness of our upsampling method on the benchmark dataset MVTec 3D-AD. Notably, our method surpasses previous state-of-the-art methods in terms of image-level AUROC based on the feature bank-based anomaly detection pipeline.

A Framework to Enhance Flexible Blended Architectural Design Education

In the last few years, there have been lots of challenges facing the world from pandemics and wars that have raised a series of challenges facing architectural education, which create a challenge for both teachers and students and to which extent they can adapt to the post-digital adaptation period, as well as the future of architectural education in general. Architecture and design environments mainly require face-to-face learning and teaching techniques that depend on the interaction between the student and the teacher, where application and practical education take place. Furthermore, studio-designed spaces provide solidarity, positive energy, and motivation for students. Therefore, activating the distance learning process that affect the architectural education strategy and directed institutions and teachers to the necessity of flexibility and adaptation as a part of the structure of architectural education curricula. this study is a humble try to evaluate the role of blended learning experiences incorporating architectural design programmes that were first applied after the last pandemic. It focuses on the importance of flexible architectural education through the overlap between the traditional studio and the virtual studio to achieve a positive experience for students and staff members. This is done by observing a design studio procedure during a blended learning period and with the help of a questionnaire for a diverse number of students and faculty members on the subject of architectural design at one of the Egyptian universities that host the architecture department. It is conducted for the purpose of flexible handling through the integration of distance learning with architectural design education in relation to the era of pandemics, the digital age, and the like in the future. The research contributes to developing a future framework that enhances the flexibility of architectural design education, supports self-education, and turns the architectural design studio into an opportunity for reproduction and renewal.

Contamination of consumer composts by metals, microplastics and other microscopic debris.

Very little information exists on the particle and chemical contamination of consumer (horticultural) composts. In this study, anthropogenic microcellulosics (AMCs), microplastics (MPs) and other microscopic debris, along with anthropogenically impacted metals (Cu, Zn, Pb), have been determined in 12 composts (seven garden composts and five growbags) purchased at outlets in the UK. AMCs and MPs, determined microscopically, were present in all samples at up to about 1100kg-1 dw. AMCs were more abundant and were dominated by fibres constructed of rayon and cotton, while petroleum-based MPs exhibited a greater diversity in shape and polymeric construction (including polyolefins, polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl chloride, resins, paints and rubbers). Other microdebris, present in much smaller concentrations in the composts, consisted of fragments of glass, metal and machined wood and spherical glass beads. Concentrations of the anthropogenically impacted metals, Cu, Pb and Zn, determined directly by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, were heterogeneously distributed and averaged 52.4, 192 and 51.6mgkg-1 dw, respectively. Although concentrations of anthropogenic particles were not related to cost or type of compost, physico-chemical properties or metal concentrations, a significant relationship between Pb content and particle diversity (number of polymers and debris types) was established. This relationship might result from the general contamination of the environment by both Pb and anthropogenic particulates, or the association of the metal with various types of material (e.g. paints, polyvinyl chloride, glass). Despite the ubiquity and diversity of MPs and microdebris in consumer composts, an understanding of their impacts on plant growth, either directly or indirectly (e.g. by interacting with metals), is unknown.

A Fully Edible Transistor Based on a Toothpaste Pigment.

Edible electronics is emerging in recent years motivated by a diverse number of healthcare applications, where sensors can be safely ingested without the need for any medical supervision. However, the current lack of stable and well-performing edible semiconductors needs to be addressed to reach technological maturity and allow the surge of a new generation of edible circuits. In the quest for good-performing edible semiconductors, this study has explored the possibility of considering materials that are not regulated for intentional ingestion, yet are daily swallowed with no adverse reactions, such as pigments contained in toothpaste. This work first elaborates on the basis of inadvertent ingestion data to estimate the quantity of daily ingested Copper(II) Phthalocyanine (CuPc), a whitening pigment and well-known organic semiconductor. Subsequently, CuPc is employed in the first demonstration of fully edible electrolyte-gated transistors operating at low voltage (<1V), displaying good reproducibility and stable performance for over a year. The results indicate that, with the daily ingested quantity of CuPc from toothpaste, more than 104 edible transistors can be realized, thus paving the way to edible circuits, a critical component of future edible electronic systems.

Bird metacommunities of urban parks in the pampean region, Argentina

Metacommunities are the set of local communities that are linked by the dispersion of potentially interacting species. The study of metacommunities is important to elucidate the relationship between processes that occur at different spatial scales. However, bird metacommunities in urban parks have been little studied. The objectives of this study were: 1) to analyze the relative role of species dispersal, environmental selection, and stochastic processes shaping urban bird metacommunities; and 2) to analyze the structure of the metacommunities of birds in urban parks. Bird surveys were made in 51 parks of six cities in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. To obtain the metacommunity structure, three elements were analyzed: coherence, turnover, and boundary clumping. We found that the metacommunity conforms to a clementsian structure, in which groups of species respond in a similar way to environmental gradients. The environmental and connectivity variables explained a greater proportion of the variance than the spatial variable. The composition of species was related to the location of the cities, the distance to the rural area, the distance to the urban center, the number of cars passing near parks, and habitat diversity. Due to the clementsian structure of metacommunities, they probably were structured under a species sorting and mass effect process. The number of cars and habitat diversity in the parks would be acting as environmental filters for bird species, while the distance to rural areas and the distance to the urban center would affect species dispersal to the parks. These findings emphasize the importance of maintaining and improving park connectivity and habitat diversity for bird species, managing them as cities grow.

The effects of the functional and geographical breadth of collaborations on radical innovation performance: the moderating role of firm size

PurposeDue to the constantly increasing competitiveness along with the complexity of knowledge, firms perceive collaboration as a key strategy that preserves firms' radical innovation performance. In this context, this paper aims to examine how firms’ partners’ diversity in open innovation activities influences the development of radical innovations, critical for social development. In particular, this study analyzes how the functional and geographical breadth of the firm’s collaboration portfolio affects its radical innovation performance. Furthermore, it also explores the role of firm size as a moderator in the relationships proposed.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs panel data analysis, using a sample of 4,677 Spanish firms, with data sourced from the PITEC database.FindingsThe results of this study show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the functional and the geographical breadth of collaborations and the firms’ radical innovation performance. Moreover, this study finds partial support for the moderating role of firm size, in the sense that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms vary in their optimal number of diversity of partners.Originality/valueThis research provides a better understanding on how partners’ functional and geographical diversity, along with organizational characteristics such as firm size, affect how firms benefit from collaboration for innovation. This study shows that both SMEs and large firms experience diminishing returns when their collaboration networks become overly diverse in pursuit of radical innovation, due to increased costs. However, in SMEs, the turning point occurs at a later stage, consistent with the idea that small firms need broader functional networks to access complementary and novel resources they usually lack.

Topology-Driven Discovery of Transmembrane Protein S-Palmitoylation.

Protein S-palmitoylation is a reversible lipophilic posttranslational modification regulating a diverse number of signaling pathways. Within transmembrane proteins (TMPs), S-palmitoylation is implicated in conditions from inflammatory disorders to respiratory viral infections. Many small-scale experiments have observed S-palmitoylation at juxtamembrane Cys residues. However, most large-scale S-palmitoyl discovery efforts rely on trypsin-based proteomics within which hydrophobic juxtamembrane regions are likely underrepresented. Machine learning- by virtue of its freedom from experimental constraints - is particularly well suited to address this discovery gap surrounding TMP S-palmitoylation. Utilizing a UniProt-derived feature set, a gradient boosted machine learning tool (TopoPalmTree) was constructed and applied to a holdout dataset of viral S-palmitoylated proteins. Upon application to the mouse TMP proteome, 1591 putative S-palmitoyl sites (i.e. not listed in SwissPalm or UniProt) were identified. Two lung-expressed S-palmitoyl candidates (synaptobrevin Vamp5 and water channel Aquaporin-5) were experimentally assessed. Finally, TopoPalmTree was used for rational design of an S-palmitoyl site on KDEL-Receptor 2. This readily interpretable model aligns the innumerable small-scale experiments observing juxtamembrane S-palmitoylation into a proteomic tool for TMP S-palmitoyl discovery and design, thus facilitating future investigations of this important modification.