Temperature-driven homogenization of an ant community over 60 years in a montane ecosystem.

Identifying the mechanisms underlying the changes in the distribution of species is critical to accurately predict how species have responded and will respond to climate change. Here, we take advantage of a late-1950s study on ant assemblages in a canyon near Boulder, Colorado, USA, to understand how and why species distributions have changed over a 60-year period. Community composition changed over 60 years with increasing compositional similarity among ant assemblages.

Increasing the power and spectral efficiencies of an OFDM-based VLC system through multi-objective optimization.

The nonlinearity induced by light-emitting diodes in visible light communication (VLC) systems presents a challenge to the parametrization of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). The goal of the multi-objective optimization problem presented in this study is to maximize the transmitted power (superimposed LED bias-current and signal amplification) for both conventional and constant envelope (CE) OFDM while also maximizing spectral efficiency. The bit error rate (BER) metric is used to evaluate the optimization using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II.

Higher Trait Levels of Guilt may Protect Against Gambling, Whereas Higher State Levels Lead to Riskier Behaviour.

Research on the role of affect in problem gambling remains scarce to date, although it has been proposed that trait-levels of negative self-conscious emotions (SCEs) could be potential risk factors. We report two studies investigating the relationship between negative SCEs, gambling, and risky behavior. In the first study, we investigated shame, guilt and self-disgust in a group of problem-gamblers and control non-gamblers.

The Economics of Optimal Foraging by the Red Imported Fire Ant.

For social organisms, foraging is often a complicated behavior where tasks are divided among numerous individuals. Here, we ask how one species, the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta Buren) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), collectively manages this behavior. We tested the Diminishing Returns Hypothesis, which posits that for social insects 1) foraging investment levels increase until diminishing gains result in a decelerating slope of return and 2) the level of investment is a function of the size of the collective group.

When is indicated viscosupplementation in hip osteoarthritis?

Background and aim The incidence of hip osteoarthritis (OA) is increasing in parallel with the aging of the population. The aim of this study is to report the efficacy of an ultrasound-guided intra-articular (IA) hip injection of a single dose of high-weight hyaluronic acid (HA) (2500 kDa) at a follow-up of 12 months. Materials and Methods 226 patients older than 40 years of age affected by painful hip OA (Kellgren-Lawrence stage 1-2-3) were treated from January 2012 to December 2015 with viscosupplementation.