Scottish Government's Draft Budget 2018-19 : [Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee Comataidh Eaconomaidh Dùthchail is Cocheangailteachd]

In this report the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee sets out its findings and recommendations on those aspects of the Scottish Government's Draft Budget 2018-19 which relates to its remit. Chapter 12 of the draft budget contains proposed spending figures for the Rural Economy and Connectivity portfolio. This includes proposed spending plans for agriculture, rural development, food and drink, fisheries grants, forestry, digital connectivity and transport

Connectivity and Equity in the Americas Program Initiative final report 2006-2009

The Connectivity and Equity in the Americas (CEA) program supports research on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a means to foster sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Since the inception of CEA (which builds on the previous work of Pan Americas), the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) has been fully integrated into the new program initiative and constitutes an integral part of the work that the Centre does in ICT4D research in Latin America and the Caribbean. This report covers the activities of both programs which focus on e-economy, e-health, e-education, and e-citizenship

COVID-19 and Mental Illnesses in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated People

We are very grateful for all the support received from the TPP Technical Operations team throughout this work and for generous assistance from the information governance and database teams at the National Health Service (NHS) England and the NHS England Transformation Directorate. We thank the CONVALESCENCE Study Long COVID PPIE group for their input and for sharing their experiences and expertise throughout the duration of the project.Peer reviewe

The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages

Conservation of ecological communities requires deepening our understanding of genetic diversity patterns and drivers at community-wide scales. Here, we use seascape genetic analysis of a diversity metric, allelic richness (AR), for 47 reef species sampled across 13 Hawaiian Islands to empirically demonstrate that large reefs high in coral cover harbour the greatest genetic diversity on average. We found that a species’s life history (e.g. depth range and herbivory) mediates response of genetic diversity to seascape drivers in logical ways. Furthermore, a metric of combined multi-species AR showed strong coupling to species richness and habitat area, quality and stability that few species showed individually. We hypothesize that macro-ecological forces and species interactions, by mediating species turnover and occupancy (and thus a site’s mean effective population size), influence the aggregate genetic diversity of a site, potentially allowing it to behave as an apparent emergent trait that is shaped by the dominant seascape drivers. The results highlight inherent feedbacks between ecology and genetics, raise concern that genetic resilience of entire reef communities is compromised by factors that reduce coral cover or available habitat, including thermal stress, and provide a foundation for new strategies for monitoring and preserving biodiversity of entire reef ecosystems

Incidence of diabetes after SARS-CoV-2 infection in England and the implications of COVID-19 vaccination : a retrospective cohort study of 16 million people

Peer reviewe

Can Orchards Help Connect Mediterranean Ecosystems? Animal Movement Data Alter Conservation Priorities

As natural habitats become fragmented by human activities, animals must increasingly move through human-dominated systems, particularly agricultural landscapes. Mapping areas important for animal movement has therefore become a key part of conservation planning. Models of landscape connectivity are often parameterized using expert opinion and seldom distinguish between the risks and barriers presented by different crop types. Recent research, however, suggests different crop types, such as row crops and orchards, differ in the degree to which they facilitate or impede species movements. Like many mammalian carnivores, bobcats (Lynx rufus) are sensitive to fragmentation and loss of connectivity between habitat patches. We investigated how distinguishing between different agricultural land covers might change conclusions about the relative conservation importance of different land uses in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Bobcats moved relatively quickly in row crops but relatively slowly in orchards, at rates similar to those in natural habitats of woodlands and scrub. We found that parameterizing a connectivity model using empirical data on bobcat movements in agricultural lands and other land covers, instead of parameterizing the model using habitat suitability indices based on expert opinion, altered locations of predicted animal movement routes. These results emphasize that differentiating between types of agriculture can alter conservation planning outcomes

A multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex

ABSTRACT We report the generation of a multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex (MOp or M1) as the initial product of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN). This was achieved by coordinated large-scale analyses of single-cell transcriptomes, chromatin accessibility, DNA methylomes, spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomes, morphological and electrophysiological properties, and cellular resolution input-output mapping, integrated through cross-modal computational analysis. Together, our results advance the collective knowledge and understanding of brain cell type organization: First, our study reveals a unified molecular genetic landscape of cortical cell types that congruently integrates their transcriptome, open chromatin and DNA methylation maps. Second, cross-species analysis achieves a unified taxonomy of transcriptomic types and their hierarchical organization that are conserved from mouse to marmoset and human. Third, cross-modal analysis provides compelling evidence for the epigenomic, transcriptomic, and gene regulatory basis of neuronal phenotypes such as their physiological and anatomical properties, demonstrating the biological validity and genomic underpinning of neuron types and subtypes. Fourth, in situ single-cell transcriptomics provides a spatially-resolved cell type atlas of the motor cortex. Fifth, integrated transcriptomic, epigenomic and anatomical analyses reveal the correspondence between neural circuits and transcriptomic cell types. We further present an extensive genetic toolset for targeting and fate mapping glutamatergic projection neuron types toward linking their developmental trajectory to their circuit function. Together, our results establish a unified and mechanistic framework of neuronal cell type organization that integrates multi-layered molecular genetic and spatial information with multi-faceted phenotypic properties