scholarly journals Genetic variation in a tropical tree species influences the associated epiphytic plant and invertebrate communities in a complex forest ecosystem

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1569) ◽  
pp. 1329-1336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon E. Zytynska ◽  
Michael F. Fay ◽  
David Penney ◽  
Richard F. Preziosi
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Invertebrate Communities ◽  
Single Tree ◽  
Epiphytic Plant ◽  
The Impact

Genetic differences among tree species, their hybrids and within tree species are known to influence associated ecological communities and ecosystem processes in areas of limited species diversity. The extent to which this same phenomenon occurs based on genetic variation within a single tree species, in a diverse complex ecosystem such as a tropical forest, is unknown. The level of biodiversity and complexity of the ecosystem may reduce the impact of a single tree species on associated communities. We assessed the influence of within-species genetic variation in the tree Brosimum alicastrum (Moraceae) on associated epiphytic and invertebrate communities in a neotropical rainforest. We found a significant positive association between genetic distance of trees and community difference of the epiphytic plants growing on the tree, the invertebrates living among the leaf litter around the base of the tree, and the invertebrates found on the tree trunk. This means that the more genetically similar trees are host to more similar epiphyte and invertebrate communities. Our work has implications for whole ecosystem conservation management, since maintaining sufficient genetic diversity at the primary producer level will enhance species diversity of other plants and animals.

scholarly journals Motivating Information Technology Professionals: The case of New Zealand

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoaib Ahmed ◽  
Nazim Taskin ◽  
David J. Pauleen ◽  
Jane Parker
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Turnover Intention ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
It Professionals ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
The Impact

IT professionals play a critical role in organizations. Research indicates that they may be unique in their attitudes toward motivation and job satisfaction. In New Zealand, a shortage of skilled professionals may contribute to or impact on motivation. Using a modified model of Herzberg’s two-factor theory by Smerek and Peterson (2007), this research seeks to answer the question: what motivates New Zealand IT professionals? In response, an online questionnaire was distributed to a population of New Zealand IT professionals and the data analysed using Partial Least Squares to understand the relationship between the various dimensions of job satisfaction, the impact of personal and job characteristics, and turnover intention. The findings show that the New Zealand IT professional is primarily motivated by the nature of his or her work, followed by perceptions of responsibility, and how supervisors encourage an environment for such. Satisfaction with salary is a predictor to a lesser degree. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, professional growth opportunities, career advancement, and recognition do not have a statistically-significant positive association with motivation. We conclude that, to motivate their IT workforce, organizations should: 1) focus on the nature of the jobs that IT professionals undertake; 2) train supervisors to provide an empowering environment; 3) offer competitive salaries to retain top talent; 4) not hesitate to employ IT professionals born outside New Zealand; and 5) take account of the singularities of the New Zealand labour market in seeking to attract, recruit and retain IT professionals. Implications for policy, practice and theory are discussed.

Impact of Corporate Citizenship on Organizational Citizenship Behaviour of Managers: A Study from Selected Indian Banks

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 294-311
Author(s):  
Neena R. Jain ◽  
Irfan A. Rizvi
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Citizenship ◽  
Demographic Variable ◽  
Corporate Citizenship ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Indian Banks ◽  
The Impact

The primary aim of this research article is to explore the relationship between corporate citizenship (CC) and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), specific to selected banks in India. The article has used multi-cross-sectional descriptive empirical data collected from a sample of 430 managers from selected banks in the public and private sectors. The instruments used are a scale developed by Maignan and Ferrell (2000) for CC and a scale developed by Lee and Allen (2002) for OCB. The results show a significant positive association between CC and OCB. Findings also reveal that the ethical and discretionary dimensions of CC are significant predictors of employee OCB. The article draws upon the data to see the impact of demographics on CC and OCB. The demographic variable of age in the organizations is found to have an impact on the employee perception of CC and also OCB demonstrated by them. The results highlight the need for strengthening CC practices in the organization and the role of managers in communicating strongly the citizenship practices adopted by the organization to foster positive work attitudes.

scholarly journals The Association of Gut Microbiota with Resting Metabolic Rate in Overweight/Obese Women: A Case-Control Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanaz Mehranfar ◽  
Seyed Davar Siadat ◽  
Sara Ahmadi Badi ◽  
Sara Hajishizari ◽  
Mir Saeed Yekaninejad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Expenditure ◽  
Metabolic Rate ◽  
Resting Metabolic Rate ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Gut Microflora ◽  
Obese Women ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Purpose Low Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), as a risk factor for obesity, can be affected by many factors. Indeed, genetic and environmental factors are variables taken into account when predicting RMR, and may contribute to a high inter-individual variance. Besides the well-known causes of obesity, researchers have demonstrated the contribution of gut microflora in obesity and energy expenditure. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to compare the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and the relative abundance of, Prevotellaceae, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, bifidobactrium spp, lactobacillus spp, Akkermansia muciniphila, Bacteroides fragilis, and Escherichia coli in two groups of people with normal and low RMR in overweigh/obese women in Iran. Results The abundance of F. prausnitzii (p>0.001), B. fragilis (P= 0.02), and Firmicutes phylum (P= 0.02) were significantly higher in the controls compared to the cases, and showed significant positive association with RMR, (β = 1.29 ×10−5, P=0.01), (β = 4.13 ×10−6, p= 0.04), and (β = 7.76 ×10−1, p= 0.01), respectively. Regarding Lactobacilus, the results showed a significant positive association with RMR (β = 1.73 ×10−4, p= 0.01). Conclusion Intestinal microbiota may be associated with host metabolism. Therefore, future work should investigate, using clinical trials, the impact of manipulating gut microflora to positively influence energy expenditure.

scholarly journals Impact of the Climate Matters Program on Public Understanding of Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 863-876
Author(s):  
Teresa A. Myers ◽  
Edward W. Maibach ◽  
Bernadette Woods Placky ◽  
Kimberly L. Henry ◽  
Michael D. Slater ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
American People ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Media Market

AbstractClimate Matters is a localized climate change reporting resources program developed to support television (TV) weathercasters across the United States. Developed as a pilot test in one media market in 2010, it launched nationwide in 2013; in the autumn of 2019 more than 797 weathercasters were participating in the program. In this paper we present evidence of the impact of the Climate Matters program on Americans’ science-based understanding of climate change. We analyzed three sets of data in a multilevel model: 20 nationally representative surveys of American adults conducted biannually since 2010 (n = 23 635), data on when and how frequently Climate Matters stories were aired in each U.S. media market, and data describing the demographic, economic, and climatic conditions in each media market. We hypothesized that 1) reporting about climate change by TV weathercasters will increase science-based public understanding of climate change and 2) this effect will be stronger for people who pay more attention to local weather forecasts. Our results partially support the first hypothesis: controlling for market-level factors (population size, temperature, political ideology, and economic prosperity) and individual-level factors (age, education, income, gender, and political ideology), there is a significant positive association between the amount of Climate Matters reporting and some key indicators of science-based understanding (including that climate change is occurring, is primarily human caused, and causes harm). However, there was no evidence for the second hypothesis. These findings suggest that climate reporting by TV weathercasters, as enabled by the Climate Matters program, may be increasing the climate literacy of the American people.

The relationship between citations, downloads and alternative metrics in rheumatology publications: a bibliometric study

Rheumatology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnie M Y Chen ◽  
Marwan Bukhari ◽  
Francesca Cockshull ◽  
James Galloway
Keyword(s):  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
H Index ◽  
Binomial Regression ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Alternative Metrics

Abstract Objective Scientific journals and authors are frequently judged on ‘impact’. Commonly used traditional metrics are the Impact Factor and H-index. However, both take several years to formulate and have many limitations. Recently, Altmetric—a metric that measures impact in a non-traditional way—has gained popularity. This project aims to describe the relationships between subject matter, citations, downloads and Altmetric within rheumatology. Methods Data from publications in Rheumatology were used. Articles published from 2010 to 2015 were reviewed. Data were analysed using Stata 14.2 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA). Correlation between citations, downloads and Altmetric were quantified using linear regression, comparing across disease topics. Relationship between downloads and months since publications were described using negative binomial regression, clustering on individual articles. Results A total of 1460 Basic Science and Clinical Science articles were identified, with the number of citations, downloads and Altmetric scores. There were no correlations between disease topic and downloads (R2 = 0.016, P = 0.03), citations (R2 = 0.011, P = 0.29) or Altmetric (R2 = 0.025, P = 0.02). A statistically significant positive association was seen between the number of citations and downloads (R2 = 0.29, P < 0.001). No correlations were seen between Altmetric and downloads (R2 = 0.028, P < 0.001) or citations (R2 = 0.004, P = 0.445). Conclusion Disease area did not correlate with any of the metrics compared. Correlations were apparent with clear links between downloads and citations. Altmetric identified different articles as high impact compared with citation or download metrics. In conclusion: tweeting about your research does not appear to influence citations.

scholarly journals High Recovery of Saplings after Severe Drought in Temperate Deciduous Forests

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirela Beloiu ◽  
Reinhold Stahlmann ◽  
Carl Beierkuhnlein
Keyword(s):  
Drought Stress ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Species Interaction ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Crown Defoliation ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
The Impact

Drought episodes are predicted to increase their intensity and frequency globally, which will have a particular impact on forest vitality, productivity, and species distribution. However, the impact of tree species interaction on forest vulnerability to drought is not yet clear. This study aims to assess how deciduous saplings react to drought and whether tree species diversity can buffer the impact of drought stress on tree saplings. Based on field measurements of crown defoliation and species diversity, vulnerability, drought recovery, and species interaction were analyzed. Fieldwork was carried out in Central Eastern Germany in 2018 during the vegetation season and repeated in 2019. Ten random saplings were measured in each of the 218 plots (15 × 15 m) with 2051 saplings in total out of 41 tree species. We found that 65% of the saplings experienced defoliation during the drought of 2018, of which up to 13% showed complete defoliation. At the species level, Fagus sylvatica L. and Betula pendula Roth. saplings were less affected (<55%), whereas Carpinus betulus L., Sorbus aucuparia L., and Frangula alnus Mill. saplings were the most affected (≥85%). One year later, in 2019, C. betulus and S. aucuparia had a faster recovery rate than F. sylvatica, B. pendula, Quercus spp., and Crataegus spp. (p < 0.001). Furthermore, we showed that forest stands with high sapling species diversity had a reduced vitality under drought stress (p < 0.001), indicating a higher competition for resources. The study provides evidence that F. sylvatica saplings can withstand and survive to persistent drought. Species-specific responses to drought are essential to be considered for implementing adaptive forest management strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change.

The Effect of Empowerment and Self-Determination on Health Outcomes

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 623-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene Garces-Ozanne ◽  
Edna Ikechi Kalu ◽  
Richard Audas
Keyword(s):  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
School Enrollment ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Under Five ◽  
The Impact

There remains a persistent gap in health outcomes between wealthy and poor countries. Basic measures such as life expectancy and infant and under-five mortality remain divergent, with preventable deaths being unacceptably high, despite significant efforts to reduce these disparities. We examine the impact of empowerment, measured by Freedom House’s ratings of country’s political rights and civil liberties, while controlling for per capita gross domestic product, secondary school enrollment, and income inequality, on national health outcomes. Using data from 1970 to 2013 across 149 countries, our results suggest, quite strongly, that higher levels of empowerment have a significant positive association with life expectancy, particularly for females, and lower rates of infant and under-five mortality. Our results point to the need for efforts to stimulate economic growth be accompanied with reforms to increase the levels empowerment through increasing political rights and civil liberties.

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