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[Application Effect of Four Standard Enveloped Macrophytes on Eliminating Cadmium from Toxified Sediment].
In this preregistered study, we investigated whether the statistical power of a study is higher when researchers are asked to make a formal power analysis before collecting data. We compared the sample size descriptions from two sources (i) a sample of pre-registrations created according to the guidelines for the Center for Open Science Preregistration Challenge (PCRs) and a sample of institutional review board (IRB) proposals from Tilburg School of Behavior and Social Sciences, which both include a recommendation to do a formal power analysis, and (ii) a sample of pre-registrations created according to the guidelines for Open Science Framework Standard Pre-Data Collection Registrations (SPRs) in which no guidance on sample size planning is given. We found that PCRs and IRBs (72%) more often included sample size decisions based on power analyses than the SPRs (45%). However, this did not result in larger planned sample sizes. The determined sample size of the PCRs and IRB proposals (Md = 90.50) was not higher than the determined sample size of the SPRs (Md = 126.00; W = 3389.5, p = 0.936). Typically, power analyses in the registrations were conducted with G*power, assuming a medium effect size, α = .05 and a power of .80. Only 20% of the power analyses contained enough information to fully reproduce the results and only 62% of these power analyses pertained to the main hypothesis test in the pre-registration. Therefore, we see ample room for improvements in the quality of the registrations and we offer several recommendations to do so.The pollution of the natural environment, especially the world's oceans, with conventional plastic is of major concern. Biodegradable plastics are an emerging market bringing along potential chances and risks. The fate of these materials in the environment and their possible effects on organisms and ecosystems has rarely been studied systematically and is not well understood. For the marine environment, reliable field test methods and standards for assessing and certifying biodegradation to bridge laboratory respirometric data are lacking. In this work we present newly developed field tests to assess the performance of (biodegradable) plastics under natural marine conditions. These methods were successfully applied and validated in three coastal habitats (eulittoral, benthic and pelagic) and two climate zones (Mediterranean Sea and tropical Southeast Asia). Additionally, a stand-alone mesocosm test system which integrated all three habitats in one technical system at 400-L scale independent from running seawater is presented as a methodological bridge. Films of polyhydroxyalkanoate copolymer (PHA) and low density polyethylene (LD-PE) were used to validate the tests. While LD-PE remained intact, PHA disintegrated to a varying degree depending on the habitat and the climate zone. Together with the existing laboratory standard test methods, the field and mesocosm test systems presented in this work provide a 3-tier testing scheme for the reliable assessment of the biodegradation of (biodegradable) plastic in the marine environment. This toolset of tests can be adapted to other aquatic ecosystems.Zingiber montanum (Z. montanum) and Zingiber zerumbet (Z. zerumbet) are important medicinal and ornamental herbs in the genus Zingiber and family Zingiberaceae. Chloroplast-derived markers are useful for species identification and phylogenetic studies, but further development is warranted for these two Zingiber species. In this study, we report the complete chloroplast genomes of Z. montanum and Z. zerumbet, which had lengths of 164,464 bp and 163,589 bp, respectively. These genomes had typical quadripartite structures with a large single copy (LSC, 87,856-89,161 bp), a small single copy (SSC, 15,803-15,642 bp), and a pair of inverted repeats (IRa and IRb, 29,393-30,449 bp). We identified 111 unique genes in each chloroplast genome, including 79 protein-coding genes, 28 tRNAs and 4 rRNA genes. We analyzed the molecular structures, gene information, amino acid frequencies, codon usage patterns, RNA editing sites, simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and long repeats from the two chloroplast genomes. selleck chemicals A comparison of Web-based information systems designed to increase access to species occurrence data for use in research and natural resource decision-making have become more prevalent over the past few decades. The effectiveness of these systems depends on their usability and extent of use by their intended audiences. We conducted an online survey of academics and government professionals in the United States to compare their species occurrence data needs and their perceptions and use of web-based species occurrence information systems. Our results indicate that although views and perceptions held by academics and government professionals about the importance, usefulness, and ease of use of these information systems tend to be similar, there were differences in their use of species occurrence data and web-based species occurrence information systems. The baseline information obtained in this study will help inform future directions for improvements in species occurrence information systems.To examine changes in U.S. medical school basic science faculty over the last 20 years (1998-2018), we undertook an observational study utilizing data from the American Association of Medical Colleges Faculty Roster. link2 Rank (Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor), sex (Female), and race/ethnicity (Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic, Latino, Spanish Origin, or Multiple Race-Hispanic, and White) were analyzed; this reflected a population of 14,047 (1998) to 18,601 (2018) faculty. Summary percent of faculty in various gender, race/ethnicity origin categories were analyzed across years of the study using regression models. We found that females (24.47% to 35.32%) were underrepresented at all timepoints and a minority of faculty identified as Black or African American (1.57% to 1.99%), Hispanic, Latino, Spanish Origin, or Multiple Race-Hispanic (3.03% to 4.44%), or Asian (10.90% to 20.41%). The largest population at all time points was White Male Professors (30.53% to 20.85%), f 0.0001) while females demonstrated an increase (p less then 0.0001).
Compared with those without dementia, older patients with dementia admitted to acute care settings are at higher risk for triad combination of polypharmacy (PP), potentially inappropriate medication (PIM), and drug-drug interaction (DDI), which may consequently result in detrimental health. link3 The aims of this research were to assess risk factors associated with triad combination of PP, PIM and DDI among hospitalized older patients with dementia, and to assess prevalence and characteristics of PP, PIM and DDI in this population.

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 416 older inpatients diagnosed with dementia and referred for specialist geriatric consultation at a tertiary hospital in Brisbane, Australia during 2006-2016 were enrolled. Patients were categorized into two groups according to their exposure to the combination of PP, PIM and DDI 'triad combination' and 'non-triad combination'. Data were collected using the interRAI Acute Care (AC) assessment instrument. Independent risk factors of exposud. Furthermore, comprehensive medication reviews to optimize medication prescribing should be initiated and continually implemented for this vulnerable population.
The exposure to triad combination of PP, PIM and DDI are common among people with dementia as a result of their vulnerable conditions and the greater risks of adverse events from medications use. This study identified the use of cardiac therapy, psycholeptics and psychoanaleptics as predictors of exposure to PP, PIM and DDI. Therefore, use of these medications should be carefully considered and closely monitored. Furthermore, comprehensive medication reviews to optimize medication prescribing should be initiated and continually implemented for this vulnerable population.According to Silvan Tomkins' polarity theory, ideological thought is universally structured by a clash between two opposing worldviews. On the left, a humanistic worldview seeks to uphold the intrinsic value of the person; on the right, a normative worldview holds that human worth is contingent upon conformity to rules. In this article, we situate humanism and normativism within the context of contemporary models of political ideology as a function of motivated social cognition, beliefs about the social world, and personality traits. In four studies conducted in the U.S. and Sweden, normativism was robustly associated with rightist (or conservative) self-placement; conservative issue preferences; resistance to change and acceptance of inequality; right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation; system justification and its underlying epistemic and existential motives to reduce uncertainty and threat; and a lack of openness, emotionality, and honesty-humility. Humanism exhibited the opposite relations to most of these constructs, but it was largely unrelated to epistemic and existential needs. Humanism was strongly associated with preferences for equality, openness to change, and low levels of authoritarianism, social dominance, and general and economic system justification. We conclude that polarity theory possesses considerable potential to explain how conflicts between worldviews shape contemporary politics.Competitive intelligence (CI) has attracted much attention in innovation research, but most of existing literature studies CI in technological innovations in manufacturing industry, with little empirical research in context of service businesses. This paper first analyzes CI of service businesses and then uses covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) on a data of 333 got from the survey in tourism enterprises of east China to test the effect of customer CI, opponent CI, and supplier CI on service innovations in China's service industry. Results show that opponent CI and supplier CI have positive influence on both exploratory and exploitative service innovation. Customer CI has more obvious positive influence on exploratory service innovation than on exploitative service innovation.High levels of heterozygosity present a unique genome assembly challenge and can adversely impact downstream analyses, yet is common in sequencing datasets obtained from non-model organisms. Here we show that by re-assembling a heterozygous dataset with variant parameters and different assembly algorithms, we are able to generate assemblies whose protein annotations are statistically enriched for specific gene ontology categories. While total assembly length was not significantly affected by assembly methodologies tested, the assemblies generated varied widely in fragmentation level and we show local assembly collapse or expansion underlying the enrichment or depletion of specific protein functional groups. We show that these statistically significant deviations in gene ontology groups can occur in seemingly high-quality assemblies, and result from difficult-to-detect local sequence expansion or contractions. Given the unpredictable interplay between assembly algorithm, parameter, and biological sequence data heterozygosity, we highlight the need for better measures of assembly quality than N50 value, including methods for assessing local expansion and collapse.
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