Publications by authors named "M W Thairu"
Unlabelled: Mediation analysis has emerged as a versatile tool for answering mechanistic questions in microbiome research because it provides a statistical framework for attributing treatment effects to alternative causal pathways. Using a series of linked regressions, this analysis quantifies how complementary data relate to one another and respond to treatments. Despite these advances, existing software's rigid assumptions often result in users viewing mediation analysis as a black box.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMediation analysis has emerged as a versatile tool for answering mechanistic questions in microbiome research because it provides a statistical framework for attributing treatment effects to alternative causal pathways. Using a series of linked regressions, this analysis quantifies how complementary data relate to one another and respond to treatments. Despite these advances, existing software's rigid assumptions often result in users viewing mediation analysis as a black box.
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- The leaf-cutter ant ecosystem, specifically focusing on Atta cephalotes, serves as an effective model for understanding plant biomass breakdown, primarily facilitated by a symbiotic fungus called Leucoagaricus gongylophorus.
- Researchers utilized advanced imaging techniques on thin sections of fungal gardens to study the degradation of lignin, a complex organic polymer, which is crucial in plant structure.
- By mapping metabolites and proteins together, they discovered distinct microhabitats related to lignin breakdown, highlighting the fungi's important role in decomposing plant materials and revealing insights into the metabolic processes involved.
Article Synopsis
- The R-Shiny package MolPad offers an interactive dashboard for analyzing longitudinal molecular co-expression in microbiomics through network overviews and focused cluster analysis.
- It features a user-friendly design, automatically linking to curated online annotations while providing visualizations such as cluster networks, taxonomic bar plots, line plots of data modalities, and pathway tables.
- The package is accessible for beginners in R, demonstrated with a case study on metagenomics in cheese microbiome analysis.
In insect-pollinated plants, the foraging behavior of pollinators affects their pattern of movement. If distinct bee species vary in their foraging behaviors, different models may best describe their movement. In this study, we quantified and compared the fine scale movement of three bee species foraging on patches of Medicago sativa.
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