Environmental heterogeneity determines the response patterns of microbially mediated N-reduction processes to sulfamethoxazole in river sediments

The nitrogen pollution of rivers as a global environmental problem has received great attentions in recent years. The occurrence of emerging pollutants in high-altitude rivers will inevitably affect the dissimilatory nitrate reduction processes. In this study, sediment slurry experiments combined with 15N tracer techniques were conducted to investigate the influence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (alone and in combination) on denitrification and the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process and the resulting N2O release in the sediments of the Yarlung Zangbo River. The results showed that the denitrification rates were inhibited by sulfamethoxazole (SMX) treatments (1–100 μg L−1) and the anammox rates decreased as the SMX concentrations increased, which may be due to the inhibitory effect of this antibiotic on nitrate reducing microbes. 2-Ethylhexyl-4-methoxycinnamate (EHMC) impacted nitrogen transformation mainly though the inhibition of the anammox processes. SMX and EHMC showed a superposition effect on the denitrification processes. The expression levels of the denitrifying functional genes nirS and nosZ were decreased and N2O release was stimulated due to the presence of SMX and/or EHMC in the sediments. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report the effects of EHMC and its mixtures on the dissimilatory nitrate reduction processes and N2O releases in river sediments. Our results indicated that the widespread occurrence of emerging pollutants in high-altitude rivers may disturb the nitrogen transformation processes and increase the pressure of global warming.

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Stimulus Ratio Effects on Speech Discrimination by Children and Adults

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.3403.671 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 671-678 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Joan E. Sussman

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Task ◽

Response Pattern ◽

Response Patterns ◽

Speech Discrimination ◽

Adult Group ◽

Discrimination Accuracy ◽

Formant Frequency ◽

Response Strategies ◽

Place Of Articulation ◽

Adults And Children

This investigation examined the response strategies and discrimination accuracy of adults and children aged 5–10 as the ratio of same to different trials was varied across three conditions of a “change/no-change” discrimination task. The conditions varied as follows: (a) a ratio of one-third same to two-thirds different trials (33% same), (b) an equal ratio of same to different trials (50% same), and (c) a ratio of two-thirds same to one-third different trials (67% same). Stimuli were synthetic consonant-vowel syllables that changed along a place of articulation dimension by formant frequency transition. Results showed that all subjects changed their response strategies depending on the ratio of same-to-different trials. The most lax response pattern was observed for the 50% same condition, and the most conservative pattern was observed for the 67% same condition. Adult response patterns were most conservative across condition. Differences in discrimination accuracy as measured by P(C) were found, with the largest difference in the 5- to 6-year-old group and the smallest change in the adult group. These findings suggest that children’s response strategies, like those of adults, can be manipulated by changing the ratio of same-to-different trials. Furthermore, interpretation of sensitivity measures must be referenced to task variables such as the ratio of same-to-different trials.

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Author response for "Diabetes alters immune response patterns to acute melioidosis in humans"

10.1002/eji.201848037/v2/response1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Barbara Kronsteiner ◽

Panjaporn Chaichana ◽

Manutsanun Sumonwiriya ◽

Kemajitra Jenjaroen ◽

Fazle Rabbi Chowdhury ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Immune Response ◽

Author Response ◽

Response Patterns

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Item Bias Analysis of the Young Schema-Questionnaire for Psychopathology, Gender, and Educational Level

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000044 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 65-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Marleen M. Rijkeboer ◽

Huub van den Bergh ◽

Jan van den Bout

Keyword(s):

Educational Level ◽

Cross Validation ◽

Item Bias ◽

Response Patterns ◽

Dutch Population ◽

Bias Analysis ◽

Young Schema Questionnaire ◽

Item Functioning ◽

Item Level ◽

Schema Questionnaire

This study examines the construct validity of the Young Schema-Questionnaire at the item level in a Dutch population. Possible bias of items in relation to the presence or absence of psychopathology, gender, and educational level was analyzed, using a cross-validation design. None of the items of the YSQ exhibited differential item functioning (DIF) for gender, and only one item showed DIF for educational level. Furthermore, item bias analysis did not identify DIF for the presence or absence of psychopathology in as much as 195 of the 205 items comprising the YSQ. Ten items, however, spread over the questionnaire, were found to yield relatively inconsistent response patterns for patients and nonclinical participants.

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D-test: A New Test for Analyzing Scale Invariance Using Symbolic Dynamics and Symbolic Entropy

Methodology ◽

10.1027/1614-2241/a000026 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 88-95 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jose A. Martínez ◽

Manuel Ruiz Marín

Keyword(s):

Symbolic Dynamics ◽

Scale Invariance ◽

Rating Scales ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Marketing Research ◽

Response Patterns ◽

Measurement Scales ◽

Improve Measurement ◽

Entropy Measures ◽

The Difference

The aim of this study is to improve measurement in marketing research by constructing a new, simple, nonparametric, consistent, and powerful test to study scale invariance. The test is called D-test. D-test is constructed using symbolic dynamics and symbolic entropy as a measure of the difference between the response patterns which comes from two measurement scales. We also give a standard asymptotic distribution of our statistic. Given that the test is based on entropy measures, it avoids smoothed nonparametric estimation. We applied D-test to a real marketing research to study if scale invariance holds when measuring service quality in a sports service. We considered a free-scale as a reference scale and then we compared it with three widely used rating scales: Likert-type scale from 1 to 5 and from 1 to 7, and semantic-differential scale from −3 to +3. Scale invariance holds for the two latter scales. This test overcomes the shortcomings of other procedures for analyzing scale invariance; and it provides researchers a tool to decide the appropriate rating scale to study specific marketing problems, and how the results of prior studies can be questioned.

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