Decades of research suggest that species richness depends on spatial characteristics of habitat patches, especially their size and isolation. In contrast, the habitat amount hypothesis predicts that: 1) species richness in plots of fixed size (species density) is more strongly and positively related to the amount of habitat around the plot than to patch size or isolation; 2) habitat amount better predicts species density than patch size and isolation combined, 3) there is no effect...

The prodromal phase of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) includes (i) mild cognitive impairment (MCI), (ii) delirium, and (iii) psychiatric-onset presentations. The purpose of our review is to determine whether there is sufficient information yet available to justify development of diagnostic criteria for each of these. Our goal is to achieve evidence-based recommendations for the recognition of DLB at a pre-dementia, symptomatic stage. We propose operationalized diagnostic criteria for probable and possible mild cognitive impairment...

Objective To report safety, pharmacokinetics, exon 53 skipping, and dystrophin expression in golodirsen-treated patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) amenable to exon 53 skipping. Methods Part 1 was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12-week dose titration of once-weekly golodirsen; Part 2 is an ongoing, open-label evaluation. Safety and pharmacokinetics were primary and secondary objectives of Part 1. Primary biological outcome measures of part 2 were blinded exon skipping and dystrophin protein production on muscle biopsies (baseline,...

Naturally occurring autopolyploid species such as the autotetraploid potato Solanum tuberosum face a variety of challenges during meiosis. These include proper pairing, recombination and correct segregation of multiple homologous chromosomes, which can form complex multivalent configurations at metaphase I, and in turn alter allelic segregation ratios through double reduction. Here, we present a reference map of meiotic stages in diploid and tetraploid S. tuberosum using fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) to differentiate individual meiotic chromosomes...

Prioritising the management of invasive alien species (IAS) is of global importance and within Europe integral to the EU IAS regulation. To prioritise management effectively the risks posed by IAS need to be assessed, but so too does the feasibility of their management. While risk of IAS to the EU has been assessed, the feasibility of management has not. We assessed the feasibility of eradicating 60 new (not yet established) and 35 emerging (established with...

This Matlab code can be used for generating a steady state slug hydrodynamic profile for an inclined pipe transporting the multiphase liquid-gas flow, based on a slug unit cell concept.

Whether, and to what extent animals experience emotions is crucial for understanding their decisions and behaviour, and underpins a range of scientific fields, including animal behaviour, neuroscience, evolutionary biology and animal welfare science. However, research has predominantly focussed on alleviating negative emotions in animals, with the expression of positive emotions left largely unexplored. Therefore, little is known about positive emotions in animals and how their expression is mediated. We used tail handling to induce negative...

The dataset collates the relative concentration of nearly 300 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes found in soil locations across Scotland. Soils were obtained from the National Soils Inventory of Scotland (NSIS2), from which the total community DNA were extracted and provided to assess AMR gene content. Sampling of the NSIS2 was conducted between 2007-2010 at 183 soil locations representing intersections of a 20km grid across all of Scotland. For each sample, nearly 300 AMR genes were...

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a powerful method to study the occurrence, movement and behavior of echolocating odontocetes (toothed whales) in the wild. However, in areas occupied by more than one species, echolocation clicks need to be classified into species. The present study investigated whether the echolocation clicks produced by small, at-risk, resident sympatric populations of Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) in Menai Bay, Zanzibar, East Africa, could...

1. In agricultural landscapes, arthropods provide essential ecosystem services such as biological pest control and pollination. Intensified crop management practices and homogenization of landscapes have led to declines among such organisms. Semi-natural habitats, associated with high numbers of these organisms, are increasingly lost from agricultural landscapes but diversification by increasing crop diversity has been proposed as a way to reverse observed arthropod declines and thus restore ecosystem services. However, whether or not an increase in...

Background: Diet quality in older people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is associated with better health and lung function. Social factors, such as social support, social networks and participation in activities, have been linked with diet quality in older age. A social network tool – GENIE (Generating Engagement in Network Involvement) – was implemented in a COPD community care context. The study aimed to assess the feasibility of the GENIE intervention to promote diet...

The intensity of pastoral management in areas of High Nature Value farming is declining in some regions of Europe but increasing in others. This affects open habitats of conservation concern, such as the British uplands, where bird species that benefit from low-intensity grazing may be most sensitive to such polarisation. While experimental manipulations of livestock grazing intensities have improved our understanding of upland breeding bird responses in the short-term, none have examined the longer-term impacts...

Using normalization of CD4 counts as the main evaluation parameter of complete immune restoration for HIV-1 patients under antiretroviral therapy (ART) might be not enough. A comprehensive evaluation system more accurately reflecting immune restoration are urgently needed. Totally, 91,805 HIV-1 patients from 17 tertiary hospitals in China during 2005–2018 were included in this study. Immune restoration and mortality were assessed. Patients initiated ART with baseline CD4 counts <50, 50–199, 200–349, 350–499, and ≥500 cells/μL, and...

Using normalization of CD4 counts as the main evaluation parameter of complete immune restoration for HIV-1 patients under antiretroviral therapy (ART) might be not enough. A comprehensive evaluation system more accurately reflecting immune restoration are urgently needed. Totally, 91,805 HIV-1 patients from 17 tertiary hospitals in China during 2005–2018 were included in this study. Immune restoration and mortality were assessed. Patients initiated ART with baseline CD4 counts <50, 50–199, 200–349, 350–499, and ≥500 cells/μL, and...

Trust can transform conflicting interests into cooperation. But how can individuals know when to trust others? Here, I develop the theory that reputation building may signal cooperative intent, or ‘trustworthiness’. I model a simple representation of this theory in which individuals (1) optionally invest in a reputation by performing costly helpful behaviour (‘signalling’); (2) optionally use others’ reputations when choosing a partner; and (3) optionally cooperate with that partner. In evolutionary simulations, high levels of...

High‐latitude areas are experiencing rapid change: we therefore need a better understanding of the processes controlling soil erosion in these environments. We used a spatiotemporal approach to investigate soil erosion in Svalbarðstunga, Iceland (66° N, 15° W), a degraded rangeland. We used three complementary datasets: 1) high‐resolution UAV imagery collected from 12 sites (total area ~0.75 km2); 2) historical imagery of the same sites; and 3) a simple, spatially‐explicit cellular automata model. Sites were located...

Engineering improved Rubisco poses a crucial strategy for enhancing photosynthesis but is challenged by the alternate locations of the plastome rbcL gene and nuclear RbcS genes. Here we develop a RNAi-RbcS Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) master-line, tobRrΔS, amenable to rbcL-rbcS co-engineering by chloroplast transformation. Four tobacco genotypes coding alternative rbcS genes and adjoining 5ˈ-intergenic sequences revealed Rubisco production was highest in the lines incorporating a rbcS gene whose codon use and 5ˈUTR matched rbcL. These lines...