Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences.

Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large scale, the prevalence of different study designs and the magnitude of bias in their estimates.

Regeneration of Salicaceae riparian forests in the Northern Hemisphere: A new framework and management tool.

Human activities on floodplains have severely disrupted the regeneration of foundation riparian shrub and tree species of the Salicaceae family (Populus and Salix spp.) throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Restoration ecologists initially tackled this problem from a terrestrial perspective that emphasized planting.

Vegetation response to invasive Tamarix control in southwestern U.S. rivers: a collaborative study including 416 sites.

Most studies assessing vegetation response following control of invasive Tamarix trees along southwestern U.S. rivers have been small in scale (e.

Long-term shifts in the phenology of rare and endemic Rocky Mountain plants.

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Premise Of The Study: Mountainous regions support high plant productivity, diversity, and endemism, yet are highly vulnerable to climate change. Historical records and model predictions show increasing temperatures across high elevation regions including the Southern Rocky Mountains, which can have a strong influence on the performance and distribution of montane plant species. Rare plant species can be particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their limited abundance and distribution.

Restoration of riparian vegetation: A global review of implementation and evaluation approaches in the international, peer-reviewed literature.

We examined how restoration of riparian vegetation has been implemented and evaluated in the scientific literature during the past 25 years. A total of 169 papers were read systematically to extract information about the following: 1) restoration strategies applied, 2) scale of monitoring and use of reference sites, 3) metrics used for evaluation, and 4) drivers of success. Hydro-geomorphic approaches (e.

A global sensitivity tool for cardiac cell modeling: Application to ionic current balance and hypertrophic signaling.

Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of death in the developed countries. Identifying key cellular processes involved in generation of the electrical signal and in regulation of signal transduction pathways is essential for unraveling the underlying mechanisms of heart rhythm behavior. Computational cardiac models provide important insights into cardiovascular function and disease.

The role of the Na+/Ca2+ exchangers in Ca2+ dynamics in ventricular myocytes.

The role of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) as the main pathway for Ca2+ extrusion from ventricular myocytes is well established. However, both the role of the Ca2+ entry mode of NCX in regulating local Ca2+ dynamics and the role of the Ca2+ exit mode during the majority of the physiological action potential (AP) are subjects of controversy. The functional significance of NCXs location in T-tubules and potential co-localization with ryanodine receptors was examined using a local Ca2+ control model of low computational cost.

Seasonal changes in CRF-I and urotensin I transcript levels in masu salmon: correlation with cortisol secretion during spawning.

Pacific salmon employ a semelparous reproductive strategy where sexual maturation is followed by rapid senescence and death. Cortisol overproduction has been implicated as the central physiologic event responsible for the post-spawning demise of these fish. Cortisol homeostasis is regulated through the action of hormones of the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis.

Functional significance of Na+/Ca2+ exchangers co-localization with ryanodine receptors.

Co-localization of Na+/Ca2+ exchangers (NCX) with ryanodine receptors (RyRs) is debated. We incorporate local NCX current in a biophysically detailed model of L-type Ca2+ channels (LCCs) and RyRs and study the effect of NCX on the regulation of Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release and the shape of the action potential. In canine ventricular cells, under pathological conditions, e.

Resistance, capacitance, and electrode kinetic effects in Fourier-transformed large-amplitude sinusoidal voltammetry: emergence of powerful and intuitively obvious tools for recognition of patterns of behavior.

Large-amplitude sinusoidal ac voltammetric techniques, when analyzed in the frequency domain using the Fourier transform-inverse Fourier transform sequence, produce the expected dc and fundamental harmonic ac responses in addition to very substantial second, third, and higher ac harmonics that arise from the presence of significant nonlinearity. A full numerical simulation of the process, Red right arrow over left arrow Ox + e(-), incorporates terms for the uncompensated resistance (R(u)), capacitance of the double layer (C(dl)), and slow electron transfer kinetics (in particular, the reversible potential (E degrees ), rate constant (k(0)), and charge transfer coefficient (alpha) from the Butler-Volmer model). Identification of intuitively obvious patterns of behavior (with characteristically different sensitivity regimes) in dc, fundamental, and higher harmonic terms enables simple protocols to be developed to estimate R(u), C(dl), E degrees , k(0), and alpha.

The effect of mean and variance in resource supply on survival of annuals from Mediterranean and desert environments.

Resource availability is often characterized by mean annual amounts, while ignoring the spatial variation within habitats and the temporal variation within a year. Yet, temporal and spatial variation may be especially important for identifying the source of stress in low productivity environments such as deserts where resources are often pulsed and resource renewal events are separated by long periods of low resource availability. Therefore, the degree of stress will be determined in part by the length of time between recharge events.

Seedling competition between native Populus deltoides (Salicaceae) and exotic Tamarix ramosissima (Tamaricaceae) across water regimes and substrate types.

Populus deltoides subsp. wislizinii (Salicaceae), a cottonwood native to the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico, must potentially compete against exotic Tamarix ramosissima (Tamaricaceae) during establishment after flooding. We investigated competitive interactions between seedlings of Tamarix and Populus in two substrates representing field textures and declining (i.

Competition between Native Populus deltoides and Invasive Tamarix ramosissima and the Implications for Reestablishing Flooding Disturbance.

Changes in historical disturbance regimes have been shown to facilitate non-native plant invasions, but reinstatement of disturbance can be successful only if native colonizers are able to outcompete colonizing invasives. Reintroduction of flooding in the southwestern United States is being promoted as a means of reestablishing Populus deltoides subsp. wislizenii, but flooding can also promote establishment of an introduced, invasive species, Tamarix ramosissima.