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Seed dormancy is considered to be an adaptive strategy in seasonal and/or unpredictable environments because it prevents germination during climatically favorable periods that are too short for seedling establishment. Tropical dry forests are seasonal environments where seed dormancy may play an important role in plant resilience and resistance to changing precipitation patterns. We studied the ge
Premise of the Study: Turnover in biotic communities across heterogeneous landscapes is expected to lead to variation in interactions among plants, their mutualists, and their antagonists. Across a fragmented landscape in northern Costa Rica, populations of the euphorb vine Dalechampia scandens vary widely in mating systems and associated blossom traits. Previous work suggested that populations ar
In the event of a community turnover, population decline, or complete disappearance of pollinators, animal-pollinated plants may respond by adapting to novel pollinators or by changing their mating system. The ability of populations to adapt is determined by their ability to respond to novel selection pressures, i.e. their evolvability. In the short term, evolvability is determined by standing gen
In polyandrous species, fathers benefit from attracting greater maternal investment toward their offspring at the expense of the offspring of other males, while mothers should usually allocate resources equally among offspring. This conflict can lead to an evolutionary arms race between the sexes, manifested through antagonistic genes whose expression in offspring depends upon the parent of origin
Predicting the structure and dynamics of communities is difficult. Approaches linking functional traits to niche boundaries, species co-occurrence and demography are promising, but have so far had limited success. We hypothesized that predictability in community ecology could be improved by incorporating more accurate measures of fine-scale environmental heterogeneity and the context-dependent fun
Metal-halide perovskites have been shown to be remarkable and promising optoelectronic materials. However, despite ongoing research from multiple perspectives, some fundamental questions regarding their optoelectronic properties remain controversial. One reason is the high-variance of data collected from, often unstable, polycrystalline thin films. Here we use ordered arrays of stable, single-crys
In the face of climate change, populations have two survival options − they can remain in situ and tolerate the new climatic conditions (“stay”), or they can move to track their climatic niches (“go”). For sessile and small-stature organisms like alpine plants, staying requires broad climatic tolerances, realized niche shifts due to changing biotic interactions, acclimation through plasticity, or
PurposeThis paper estimates tax evasion and its impact on progressivity, redistribution and the measurement of inequality, using microdata from the Spanish income tax for 2001-04.MethodologyThe approach follows Feldman and Slemrod (2007) by exploiting the relation of charitable donations with the composition of income, but introduces two methodological innovations which could be useful for further
Clinical evaluation of intracardiac shunts in children is not straightforward. Echocardiography can only diagnose the presence of a shunt but does not estimate the shunt ratio. This can be a critical factor that influences treatment options. In this single-center, prospective, observational, method-comparison study, we validate the ability of a novel monitoring device COstatus to estimate the intr
Increasing impacts from disasters and climate hazards have prompted international efforts to promote the development of national disaster risk reduction and resilience (DRRR) strategies intended to reduce mortality and other losses. The development of such strategies is the subject of target E of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030). Furthermore, an increasing understanding
Most crime scene DNA evidence is retrieved using cotton swabs. Since the late 90’s, the double-swab technique has been favoured by many practitioners throughout the world. However, the superiority of double-swabbing over applying single wet swabs has not been broadly verified. Here we set out to evaluate the need for the second dry swab for various surfaces, aiming at mimicking the range of surfac
This work aims to investigate the breakup dynamics of the gas-liquid interface during bubble formation in a microchannel flow-focusing device. An interface tracking method is developed to capture the profiles of the gaseous thread evolution. The results show that the pinch-off period can be further divided into a liquid squeezing stage and a free pinch-off stage in both the radial and axial direct
Recent speleological surveys of meltwater drainage systems in cold and polythermal glaciers have documented dynamic englacial and in some cases subglacial conduits formed by the ‘cut-and- closure’ mechanism. Investigations of the spatial distribution of such conduits often require a combination of different methods. Here, we studied the englacial drainage system in the cold gla- cier Longyearbreen
Citizen science is a powerful tool for connecting members of the public with research and for obtaining large amounts of data. However, it is far less commonly implemented in developing countries than in developed countries. We conducted a large-scale citizen-science program monitoring honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses in Argentina to examine how a national consortium composed of local coor
A circular economy maximizes the value of material resources and minimizes greenhouse gas emissions, resource use, waste and pollution. We will posit that circularity needs to be understood as a property of a system (e.g., the mobility system of a city), rather than a property of an individual product or service (e.g., a car or a car-sharing service). Hence, there is a need for more knowledge on h
Recent studies suggest that oncogenic processes (from precancerous lesions to metastatic cancers) are widespread in wild animal species, but their importance for ecosystem functioning is still underestimated by evolutionary biologists and animal ecologists. Similar to what has been observed in humans, environmental modifications that often place wild organisms into an evolutionary trap and/or expo
This work aims to investigate the breakup dynamics of the low-density gas and liquid interface during bubble formation in a microchannel flow-focusing device. A high-contrast interface tracking method is developed. After the neck motion analysis in radial and axial directions, the time domain criterion between the liquid squeezing stage and the free pinch-off stage is proved to be two orders of ma
Diets enriched in sucrose severely impair metabolic regulation and are associated with obesity, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance. In the current study, we investigated the effect of 4 weeks high-sucrose diet (HSD) feeding in C57BL6/J mice, with specific focus on adipocyte function. Mice fed HSD had slightly increased adipose tissue mass but displayed similar hepatic triglycerides, glucos
This paper presents a modelling study aimed at minimizing the environmental foot print of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) for wastewater treatment. Specifically, an integrated model for MBR was employed in view of the management optimization of an MBR biological nutrient removal (BNR) pilot plant in terms of operational costs and direct greenhouse gases emissions. The influence of the operational para
