ALBERT

Description: Establishing the source(s) of sedimentary material is critical to many geological applications, but is complicated by the ability of some minerals to be recycled. To test the relative utility of current proxies for determining a unique provenance, new samples have been collected from the Namurian Millstone Grit Group of Yorkshire, England. Two K-feldspar 206 Pb/ 204 Pb isotope populations between 12.5 and 15.5 and c. 18.4 are consistent with Archaean–Proterozoic basement and Caledonian granites, respectively. Zircon U–Pb age populations at c. 2700, 2000 – 1000 and 430 Ma reflect a mixture of Archaean basement, overlying Proterozoic sediments and intrusive Caledonian granites, and Hf values in zircons of all ages indicate crystallization from reworked crust. Garnet major element compositions are relatively rich in Fe and low in Ca, indicative of derivation from a granulitic or charnockitic source. Rutile Cr/Nb ratios indicate that source rocks were dominantly metapelitic, and Zr-in-rutile thermometry records two populations representing lower ( c. 650°C) and higher ( c. 800°C) metamorphic grade material. Combining these results with published monazite and muscovite data suggests overall derivation from the Greenland Caledonides, with additional contributions from NE Scotland and western Norway, highlighting the power of multi-proxy provenance work, especially in tectonically and geologically complicated regions. Supplementary material : Sample details, full analytical methods, data tables and references for compilation figures in the text are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3515457 .

Description: There is considerable concern over declines in insect pollinator communities and potential impacts on the pollination of crops and wildflowers. Among the multiple pressures facing pollinators, decreasing floral resources due to habitat loss and degradation has been suggested as a key contributing factor. However, a lack of quantitative data has hampered testing for historical changes in floral resources. Here we show that overall floral rewards can be estimated at a national scale by combining vegetation surveys and direct nectar measurements. We find evidence for substantial losses in nectar resources in England and Wales between the 1930s and 1970s; however, total nectar provision in Great Britain as a whole had stabilized by 1978, and increased from 1998 to 2007. These findings concur with trends in pollinator diversity, which declined in the mid-twentieth century but stabilized more recently. The diversity of nectar sources declined from 1978 to 1990 and thereafter in some habitats, with four plant species accounting for over 50% of national nectar provision in 2007. Calcareous grassland, broadleaved woodland and neutral grassland are the habitats that produce the greatest amount of nectar per unit area from the most diverse sources, whereas arable land is the poorest with respect to amount of nectar per unit area and diversity of nectar sources. Although agri-environment schemes add resources to arable landscapes, their national contribution is low. Owing to their large area, improved grasslands could add substantially to national nectar provision if they were managed to increase floral resource provision. This national-scale assessment of floral resource provision affords new insights into the links between plant and pollinator declines, and offers considerable opportunities for conservation.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756436/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756436/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Baude, Mathilde -- Kunin, William E -- Boatman, Nigel D -- Conyers, Simon -- Davies, Nancy -- Gillespie, Mark A K -- Morton, R Daniel -- Smart, Simon M -- Memmott, Jane -- Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2016 Feb 4;530(7588):85-8. doi: 10.1038/nature16532.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK. ; Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UJ, UK. ; School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. ; Fera Science Ltd., Sand Hutton, York YO41 1LZ, UK. ; NERC Center for Ecology &Hydrology, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4AP, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26842058" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Acorn worms, also known as enteropneust (literally, 'gut-breathing') hemichordates, are marine invertebrates that share features with echinoderms and chordates. Together, these three phyla comprise the deuterostomes. Here we report the draft genome sequences of two acorn worms, Saccoglossus kowalevskii and Ptychodera flava. By comparing them with diverse bilaterian genomes, we identify shared traits that were probably inherited from the last common deuterostome ancestor, and then explore evolutionary trajectories leading from this ancestor to hemichordates, echinoderms and chordates. The hemichordate genomes exhibit extensive conserved synteny with amphioxus and other bilaterians, and deeply conserved non-coding sequences that are candidates for conserved gene-regulatory elements. Notably, hemichordates possess a deuterostome-specific genomic cluster of four ordered transcription factor genes, the expression of which is associated with the development of pharyngeal 'gill' slits, the foremost morphological innovation of early deuterostomes, and is probably central to their filter-feeding lifestyle. Comparative analysis reveals numerous deuterostome-specific gene novelties, including genes found in deuterostomes and marine microbes, but not other animals. The putative functions of these genes can be linked to physiological, metabolic and developmental specializations of the filter-feeding ancestor.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4729200/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4729200/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Simakov, Oleg -- Kawashima, Takeshi -- Marletaz, Ferdinand -- Jenkins, Jerry -- Koyanagi, Ryo -- Mitros, Therese -- Hisata, Kanako -- Bredeson, Jessen -- Shoguchi, Eiichi -- Gyoja, Fuki -- Yue, Jia-Xing -- Chen, Yi-Chih -- Freeman, Robert M Jr -- Sasaki, Akane -- Hikosaka-Katayama, Tomoe -- Sato, Atsuko -- Fujie, Manabu -- Baughman, Kenneth W -- Levine, Judith -- Gonzalez, Paul -- Cameron, Christopher -- Fritzenwanker, Jens H -- Pani, Ariel M -- Goto, Hiroki -- Kanda, Miyuki -- Arakaki, Nana -- Yamasaki, Shinichi -- Qu, Jiaxin -- Cree, Andrew -- Ding, Yan -- Dinh, Huyen H -- Dugan, Shannon -- Holder, Michael -- Jhangiani, Shalini N -- Kovar, Christie L -- Lee, Sandra L -- Lewis, Lora R -- Morton, Donna -- Nazareth, Lynne V -- Okwuonu, Geoffrey -- Santibanez, Jireh -- Chen, Rui -- Richards, Stephen -- Muzny, Donna M -- Gillis, Andrew -- Peshkin, Leonid -- Wu, Michael -- Humphreys, Tom -- Su, Yi-Hsien -- Putnam, Nicholas H -- Schmutz, Jeremy -- Fujiyama, Asao -- Yu, Jr-Kai -- Tagawa, Kunifumi -- Worley, Kim C -- Gibbs, Richard A -- Kirschner, Marc W -- Lowe, Christopher J -- Satoh, Noriyuki -- Rokhsar, Daniel S -- Gerhart, John -- HD37277/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- HD42724/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- R01 HD037277/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- R01 HD073104/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- R01HD073104/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- T32 HD055164/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2015 Nov 26;527(7579):459-65. doi: 10.1038/nature16150. Epub 2015 Nov 18.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Molecular Genetics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan. ; Department of Molecular Evolution, Centre for Organismal Studies, University of Heidelberg, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany. ; Marine Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan. ; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. ; HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology, Huntsville, Alabama 35806, USA. ; DNA Sequencing Section, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan. ; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley California 94720-3200, USA. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA. ; Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan. ; Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Marine Biological Laboratory, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Onomichi, Hiroshima 722-0073, Japan. ; Natural Science Center for Basic Research and Development, Gene Science Division, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8527, Japan. ; Marine Biological Association of the UK, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB, UK. ; Department of Biology, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, California 93950, USA. ; Department de sciences biologiques, University of Montreal, Quebec H3C 3J7, Canada. ; University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. ; Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, MS BCM226, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. ; Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. ; Institute for Biogenesis Research, University of Hawaii, Hawaii 96822, USA. ; National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-8540, Japan. ; US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California 94598, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26580012" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: An Implantable Micro-Caged Device for Direct Local Delivery of Agents An Implantable Micro-Caged Device for Direct Local Delivery of Agents, Published online: 15 December 2017; doi:10.1038/s41598-017-17912-y An Implantable Micro-Caged Device for Direct Local Delivery of Agents

Description: Article Theory predicts that graphene nanoribbons with width less than 2 nm exhibit bandgaps comparable to silicon, but the fabrication is challenging. Vo et al. report a bottom–up approach to synthesize bulk quantities of these materials with a bandgap of ~1.3 eV, potentially useful for electronic devices. Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/ncomms4189 Authors: Timothy H. Vo, Mikhail Shekhirev, Donna A. Kunkel, Martha D. Morton, Eric Berglund, Lingmei Kong, Peter M. Wilson, Peter A. Dowben, Axel Enders, Alexander Sinitskii

Description: Establishing the source(s) of sedimentary material is critical to many geological applications, but is complicated by the ability of some minerals to be recycled. To test the relative utility of current proxies for determining a unique provenance, new samples have been collected from the Namurian Millstone Grit Group of Yorkshire, England. Two K-feldspar 206 Pb/ 204 Pb isotope populations between 12.5 and 15.5 and c. 18.4 are consistent with Archaean–Proterozoic basement and Caledonian granites, respectively. Zircon U–Pb age populations at c. 2700, 2000 – 1000 and 430 Ma reflect a mixture of Archaean basement, overlying Proterozoic sediments and intrusive Caledonian granites, and Hf values in zircons of all ages indicate crystallization from reworked crust. Garnet major element compositions are relatively rich in Fe and low in Ca, indicative of derivation from a granulitic or charnockitic source. Rutile Cr/Nb ratios indicate that source rocks were dominantly metapelitic, and Zr-in-rutile thermometry records two populations representing lower ( c. 650°C) and higher ( c. 800°C) metamorphic grade material. Combining these results with published monazite and muscovite data suggests overall derivation from the Greenland Caledonides, with additional contributions from NE Scotland and western Norway, highlighting the power of multi-proxy provenance work, especially in tectonically and geologically complicated regions. Supplementary material : Sample details, full analytical methods, data tables and references for compilation figures in the text are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3515457 .