comparable magnitude
Recently Published Documents


TOTAL DOCUMENTS

121
(FIVE YEARS 23)

H-INDEX

24
(FIVE YEARS 4)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra C Walls ◽  
Kaitlin R Sprouse ◽  
Anshu Joshi ◽  
John E Bowen ◽  
Nicholas Franko ◽  
...  

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is currently responsible for most infections worldwide, including among vaccinated individuals. Although these latter infections lead to milder COVID-19 disease relative to unvaccinated subjects, the specificity and durability of antibody responses elicited by Delta breakthrough cases remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that breakthrough infections induce serum binding and neutralizing antibody responses that are markedly more potent, durable and resilient to spike mutations observed in variants than those observed in subjects who were infected only or received only two doses of vaccine. We show that Delta breakthrough cases, subjects who were vaccinated after infection and individuals vaccinated three times (without infection) have serum neutralizing activity of comparable magnitude and breadth, indicating that multiple types of exposure or increased number of exposures to SARS-CoV-2 antigen(s) enhance antibody responses. Neutralization of SARS-CoV, however, was moderate, underscoring the importance of developing vaccines eliciting broad sarbecovirus immunity for pandemic preparedness.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258523
Author(s):  
Jia Hao Tow ◽  
William S. Symes ◽  
Luis Roman Carrasco

Illegal wildlife trade is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. Understanding its economic value is a first step to establishing the magnitude of the problem. We develop a dataset of illegal wildlife trade prices and combine it with seizure data to estimate the economic value of illegal wildlife trade entering the USA. Using 2013 as a reference year, the results reveal that the economic value of illegal wildlife trade entering the USA was, using a conservative scenario where potential outliers were excluded, US$3.2 billion/year (uncertainty range (UR) 5th and 95th percentile of US$0.6–8.2 billion/year) and, without excluding potential outliers, US$4.3 billion/year (UR of US$1.3–9.6 billion/year). Our results for the USA alone are of a comparable magnitude to the lower bound of commonly used global estimates of the economic value of IWT of uncertain origin, suggesting that the global economic value of IWT is currently underestimated and requires an urgent revision.


Microbiome ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Jouffret ◽  
Guylaine Miotello ◽  
Karen Culotta ◽  
Sophie Ayrault ◽  
Olivier Pible ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Soil and sediment microorganisms are highly phylogenetically diverse but are currently largely under-represented in public molecular databases. Their functional characterization by means of metaproteomics is usually performed using metagenomic sequences acquired for the same sample. However, such hugely diverse metagenomic datasets are difficult to assemble; in parallel, theoretical proteomes from isolates available in generic databases are of high quality. Both these factors advocate for the use of theoretical proteomes in metaproteomics interpretation pipelines. Here, we examined a number of database construction strategies with a view to increasing the outputs of metaproteomics studies performed on soil samples. Results The number of peptide-spectrum matches was found to be of comparable magnitude when using public or sample-specific metagenomics-derived databases. However, numbers were significantly increased when a combination of both types of information was used in a two-step cascaded search. Our data also indicate that the functional annotation of the metaproteomics dataset can be maximized by using a combination of both types of databases. Conclusions A two-step strategy combining sample-specific metagenome database and public databases such as the non-redundant NCBI database and a massive soil gene catalog allows maximizing the metaproteomic interpretation both in terms of ratio of assigned spectra and retrieval of function-derived information.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuzhen Yu ◽  
Fumitaka Kagawa ◽  
Shinichiro Seki ◽  
Masashi Kubota ◽  
Jan Masell ◽  
...  

AbstractThermal-current induced electron and spin dynamics in solids –dubbed “caloritronics”– have generated widespread interest in both fundamental physics and spintronics applications. Here, we examine the dynamics of nanometric topological spin textures, skyrmions driven by a temperature gradient ∇T or heat flow, that are evaluated through in-situ real-space observations in an insulating helimagnet Cu2OSeO3. We observe increases of the skyrmion velocity and the Hall angle with increasing ∇T above a critical value of ~ 13 mK/mm, which is two orders of magnitude lower than the ∇T required to drive ferromagnetic domain walls. A comparable magnitude of ∇T is also observed to move the domain walls between a skyrmion domain and the non-topological conical-spin domain from cold to hot regions. Our results demonstrate the efficient manipulation of skyrmions by temperature gradients, a promising step towards energy-efficient “green” spintronics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Teresa Sandri ◽  
Elena Azzolini ◽  
Valter Torri ◽  
Sara Carloni ◽  
Chiara Pozzi ◽  
...  

AbstractLombardy is the Italian region most affected by COVID-19. We tested the presence of plasma anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in 3985 employees across 7 healthcare facilities in areas of Lombardy with different exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Subjects filled a questionnaire to self-report on COVID-19 symptoms, comorbidities, smoking, regular or remote working, and the exposure to COVID-infected individuals. We show that the number of individuals exposed to the virus depended on the geographical location of the facility, ranging between 3 and 43%, consistent with the spatial variation of COVID-19 incidence in Lombardy, and correlated with family interactions. We observed a higher prevalence of females than males positive for IgG, however the level of antibodies was similar, suggesting a comparable magnitude of the anti-spike antibody response. IgG positivity among smokers was lower (7.4% vs 13.5%) although without difference in IgG plasma levels. We observed 11.9% of IgG positive asymptomatic individuals and another 23.1% with one or two symptoms. Interestingly, among the IgG positive population, 81.2% of subjects with anosmia/dysgeusia and fever were SARS-CoV-2 infected, indicating that these symptoms are strongly associated to COVID-19. In conclusion, the frequency of IgG positivity and SARS-CoV-2 infection is dependent on the geographical exposure to the virus and primarily to family rather than hospital exposure.


Author(s):  
Stefano Recchia ◽  
Jonathan Chu

Abstract Recent scholarship has fruitfully investigated the effect of international organization (IO) approval on public support for military intervention. Following Jentleson and Britton [Bruce W. Jentleson and Rebecca L. Britton, “Still Pretty Prudent: Post-Cold War American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 42, no. 4 (1998): 395–417], scholars argue that IO approval does not increase already high public support for “foreign policy restraint” (FPR) operations intended to coerce “aggressively threatening” opponents, including terrorists. We challenge this argument, focusing on public support for contributing to military coalitions. The public may wonder whether leaders are sincere when they frame a coalition military operation as having FPR objectives; this may lead the public to put a premium on multilateral validation. We also question the common argument that UN Security Council approval necessarily has a greater positive effect on public support for intervention than approval from regional IOs. Approval from broad-based regional IOs, such as the African Union (AU), may be just as consequential. Data from survey experiments that we conducted in three countries confirm our principal hypotheses: (1) IO approval consistently increases public support for contributing to military coalitions even in counterterrorism cases and (2) the UN and AU approval effects are of comparable magnitude. These findings expand our theoretical understanding of the conditions under which IO approval can increase public support for military intervention.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Holmes ◽  
Jan Zika ◽  
Stephen Griffies ◽  
Andrew Hogg ◽  
Andrew Kiss ◽  
...  

<p>Numerical mixing, the physically spurious diffusion of tracers due to the numerical discretization of advection, is known to contribute to biases in ocean circulation models. However, quantifying numerical mixing is non-trivial, with most studies utilizing specifically targeted experiments in idealized settings. Here, we present a precise method based on water-mass transformation for quantifying numerical mixing, including its spatial structure, that can be applied to any conserved variable in global general circulation ocean models. The method is applied to a suite of global MOM5 ocean-sea ice model simulations with differing grid spacings and sub-grid scale parameterizations. In all configurations numerical mixing drives across-isotherm heat transport of comparable magnitude to that associated with explicitly-parameterized mixing. Numerical mixing is prominent at warm temperatures in the tropical thermocline, where it is sensitive to the vertical diffusivity and resolution. At colder temperatures, numerical mixing is sensitive to the presence of explicit neutral diffusion, suggesting that much of the numerical mixing in these regions acts as a proxy for neutral diffusion when it is explicitly absent. Comparison of equivalent (with respect to vertical resolution and explicit mixing parameters) 1/4-degree and 1/10-degree horizontal resolution configurations shows only a modest enhancement in numerical mixing at the eddy-permitting 1/4-degree resolution. Our results provide a detailed view of numerical mixing in ocean models and pave the way for future improvements in numerical methods.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Bertola ◽  
Alberto Viglione ◽  
Sergiy Vorogushyn ◽  
David Lun ◽  
Bruno Merz ◽  
...  

<p>Changes in European floods during past decades have been analysed and detected by several studies. These studies typically focused on the mean flood behaviour, without distinguishing small and large floods. In this work, we investigate the causes of the detected flood trends across Europe over five decades (1960-2010), as a function of the return period. We adopt a regional non-stationary flood frequency approach to attribute observed flood changes to potential drivers, used as covariates of the parameters of the regional probability distribution of floods. The elasticities of floods with respect to the drivers and the regional contributions of the drivers to changes in flood quantiles associated with small and large return periods (i.e. 2-year and 100-year floods, respectively) are estimated by Bayesian inference, with prior information on the elasticity parameters obtained from expert knowledge and the literature. The data-based attribution approach is applied to annual maximum flood discharge seires from 2370 hydrometric stations in Europe. Extreme precipitation, antecedent soil moisture and snowmelt are the potential drivers considered. Results show that extreme precipitation mainly contributes to positive flood changes in North-western Europe. Both antecedent soil moisture and extreme precipitation contribute to negative flood changes in Southern Europe, with relative contributions varying with the return period. Antecedent soil moisture contributes the most to changes in small floods (i.e. T=2-10 years), while the two drivers contribute with comparable magnitude to changes in more extreme events. In eastern Europe, snowmelt clearly drives negative changes in both small and large floods.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Scott ◽  
Julia Vallejo ◽  
Arup Sarkar ◽  
Lucy Smythe ◽  
Emma Regincós Martí ◽  
...  

<p>Reaction of Ni(OTf)<sub>2</sub> with the bisbidentate quaterpyridine ligand L results in the self-assembly of a tetrahedral, paramagnetic cage [Ni<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>]<sup>8+</sup>. By selectively exchanging the bound triflate from [OTfÌNi<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>](OTf)<sub>7</sub> (<b>1</b>), we have been able to prepare a series of host-guest complexes that feature an encapsulated paramagnetic tetrahalometallate ion inside this paramagnetic host giving [M<sup>II</sup>X<sub>4</sub>ÌNi<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>](OTf)<sub>6</sub>, where M<sup>II</sup>X<sub>4</sub><sup>2− </sup>= MnCl<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>2</b>), CoCl<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>5</b>), CoBr<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>6</b>), NiCl<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>7</b>), CuBr<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>8</b>) or [M<sup>III</sup>X<sub>4</sub>ÌNi<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>](OTf)<sub>7</sub>, where M<sup>III</sup>X<sub>4</sub><sup>−</sup> = FeCl<sub>4</sub><sup>−</sup> (<b>3</b>), FeBr<sub>4</sub><sup>−</sup> (<b>4</b>). Triflate-to-tetrahalometallate exchange occurs in solution and can also be accomplished through single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformations. Host-guest complexes <b>1</b>-<b>8</b> all crystallise as homochiral racemates in monoclinic space groups, wherein the four {NiN<sub>6</sub>} vertex within a single Ni<sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub> unit possess the same Δ or Λ stereochemistry. Magnetic susceptibility and magnetisation data show that the magnetic exchange between metal ions in the host [Ni<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>] complex, and between the host and the MX<sub>4</sub><sup>n-</sup> guest, are of comparable magnitude and antiferromagnetic in nature. Theoretically derived values for the magnetic exchange are in close agreement with experiment, revealing that large spin densities on the electronegative X-atoms of particular {MX<sub>4</sub>}<sup>n−</sup> guest molecules leads to stronger host-guest magnetic exchange interactions. </p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Scott ◽  
Julia Vallejo ◽  
Arup Sarkar ◽  
Lucy Smythe ◽  
Emma Regincós Martí ◽  
...  

<p>Reaction of Ni(OTf)<sub>2</sub> with the bisbidentate quaterpyridine ligand L results in the self-assembly of a tetrahedral, paramagnetic cage [Ni<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>]<sup>8+</sup>. By selectively exchanging the bound triflate from [OTfÌNi<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>](OTf)<sub>7</sub> (<b>1</b>), we have been able to prepare a series of host-guest complexes that feature an encapsulated paramagnetic tetrahalometallate ion inside this paramagnetic host giving [M<sup>II</sup>X<sub>4</sub>ÌNi<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>](OTf)<sub>6</sub>, where M<sup>II</sup>X<sub>4</sub><sup>2− </sup>= MnCl<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>2</b>), CoCl<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>5</b>), CoBr<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>6</b>), NiCl<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>7</b>), CuBr<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> (<b>8</b>) or [M<sup>III</sup>X<sub>4</sub>ÌNi<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub>](OTf)<sub>7</sub>, where M<sup>III</sup>X<sub>4</sub><sup>−</sup> = FeCl<sub>4</sub><sup>−</sup> (<b>3</b>), FeBr<sub>4</sub><sup>−</sup> (<b>4</b>). Triflate-to-tetrahalometallate exchange occurs in solution and can also be accomplished through single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformations. Host-guest complexes <b>1</b>-<b>8</b> all crystallise as homochiral racemates in monoclinic space groups, wherein the four {NiN<sub>6</sub>} vertex within a single Ni<sub>4</sub>L<sub>6</sub> unit possess the same Δ or Λ stereochemistry. Magnetic susceptibility and magnetisation data show that the magnetic exchange between metal ions in the host [Ni<sup>II</sup><sub>4</sub>] complex, and between the host and the MX<sub>4</sub><sup>n-</sup> guest, are of comparable magnitude and antiferromagnetic in nature. Theoretically derived values for the magnetic exchange are in close agreement with experiment, revealing that large spin densities on the electronegative X-atoms of particular {MX<sub>4</sub>}<sup>n−</sup> guest molecules leads to stronger host-guest magnetic exchange interactions. </p>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document