| 1. |
- Allan, Eric, et al.
(författare)
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Interannual variation in land-use intensity enhances grassland multidiversity
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 1091-6490 .- 0027-8424. ; 111:1, s. 308-313
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although temporal heterogeneity is a well-accepted driver of biodiversity, effects of interannual variation in land-use intensity (LUI) have not been addressed yet. Additionally, responses to land use can differ greatly among different organisms; therefore, overall effects of land-use on total local biodiversity are hardly known. To test for effects of LUI (quantified as the combined intensity of fertilization, grazing, and mowing) and interannual variation in LUI (SD in LUI across time), we introduce a unique measure of whole-ecosystem biodiversity, multidiversity. This synthesizes individual diversity measures across up to 49 taxonomic groups of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria from 150 grasslands. Multidiversity declined with increasing LUI among grasslands, particularly for rarer species and aboveground organisms, whereas common species and belowground groups were less sensitive. However, a high level of interannual variation in LUI increased overall multidiversity at low LUI and was even more beneficial for rarer species because it slowed the rate at which the multidiversity of rare species declined with increasing LUI. In more intensively managed grasslands, the diversity of rarer species was, on average, 18% of the maximum diversity across all grasslands when LUI was static over time but increased to 31% of the maximum when LUI changed maximally over time. In addition to decreasing overall LUI, we suggest varying LUI across years as a complementary strategy to promote biodiversity conservation.
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| 2. |
- Gosalawit-Utke, Rapee, et al.
(författare)
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Ca(BH4)(2)-MgF2 Reversible Hydrogen Storage: Reaction Mechanisms and Kinetic Properties
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 115:9, s. 3762-3768
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A composite of Ca(BH4)(2)-MgF2 is proposed as a reversible hydrogen storage system. The dehydrogenation and rehydrogenation reaction mechanisms are investigated by in situ time-resolved synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction (SR-PXD) and Raman spectroscopy. The formation of an intermediate phase (CaF2-xHx) is observed during rehydrogenation. The hydrogen content of 4.3 wt % is obtained within 4 h during the first dehydrogenation at isothermal and isobaric conditions of 330 degrees C and 0.5 bar H-2, respectively. The cycling efficiency is evaluated by three release and uptake cycles together with absorbed hydrogen content in the range 5.1-5.8 wt % after 2.5 h (T = 330 degrees C and p(H-2) = 130 bar). The kinetic properties on the basis of hydrogen absorption are comparable for all cycles. As compared to pure Ca(BH4)(2) and Ca(BH4)(2)-MgH2 composite, Ca(BH4)(2)-MgF2 composite reveals the kinetic destabilization and the reproducibility of hydrogen storage capacities during cycling, respectively.
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| 3. |
- Sawcer, Stephen, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 476:7359, s. 214-219
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.
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