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The Scarborough Hospital

Hospital / health systemToronto, Ontario, Canada

Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from The Scarborough Hospital (Canada). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.

Total works
11.0K
Citations
583.4K
h-index
257
i10-index
9.7K
Also known as
The Scarborough Hospital

Top-cited papers from The Scarborough Hospital

Principal component analysis
Hervé Abdi, Lynne J. Williams
2010· Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Statistics10.3Kdoi:10.1002/wics.101

Abstract Principal component analysis (PCA) is a multivariate technique that analyzes a data table in which observations are described by several inter‐correlated quantitative dependent variables. Its goal is to extract the important information from the table, to represent it as a set of new orthogonal variables called principal components, and to display the pattern of similarity of the observations and of the variables as points in maps. The quality of the PCA model can be evaluated using cross‐validation techniques such as the bootstrap and the jackknife. PCA can be generalized as correspondence analysis (CA) in order to handle qualitative variables and as multiple factor analysis (MFA) in order to handle heterogeneous sets of variables. Mathematically, PCA depends upon the eigen‐decomposition of positive semi‐definite matrices and upon the singular value decomposition (SVD) of rectangular matrices. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This article is categorized under: Statistical and Graphical Methods of Data Analysis > Multivariate Analysis Statistical and Graphical Methods of Data Analysis > Dimension Reduction

Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: An integrative review.
Colin M. MacLeod
1991· Psychological Bulletin5.5Kdoi:10.1037/0033-2909.109.2.163

The literature on interference in the Stroop Color-Word Task, covering over 50 years and some 400 studies, is organized and reviewed. In so doing, a set of 18 reliable empirical findings is isolated that must be captured by any successful theory of the Stroop effect. Existing theoretical positions are summarized and evaluated in view of this critical evidence and the 2 major candidate theories—rel-ative speed of processing and automaticity of reading—are found to be wanting. It is concluded that recent theories placing the explanatory weight on parallel processing of the irrelevant and the relevant dimensions are likely to be more successful than are earlier theories attempting to locate a single bottleneck in attention. In 1935, J. R. Stroop published his landmark article on atten-tion and interference, an article more influential now than it was then. Why has the Stroop task continued to fascinate us? Perhaps the task is seen as tapping into the primitive operations of cognition, offering clues to the fundamental process of atten-tion. Perhaps the robustness of the phenomenon provides a special challenge to decipher. Together these are powerful at-

A Compilation of New and Published Major and Trace Element Data for NIST SRM 610 and NIST SRM 612 Glass Reference Materials
Nicholas J.G. Pearce, William T. Perkins, John A. Westgate, Michael P. Gorton +3 more
1997· Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research2.7Kdoi:10.1111/j.1751-908x.1997.tb00538.x

Microanalytical trace element techniques (such as ion probe or laser ablation ICP‐MS) are hampered by a lack of well characterized, homogeneous standards. Two silicate glass reference materials produced by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NIST SRM 610 and NIST SRM 612, have been shown to be homogeneous and are spiked with up to sixty one trace elements at nominal concentrations of 500 μg g‐1 and 50 μg g‐1 respectively. These samples (supplied as 3 mm wafers) are equivalent to NIST SRM 611 and NIST SRM 613 respectively (which are supplied as 1 mm wafers) and are becoming more widely used as potential microanalytical reference materials. NIST however, only certifies up to eight elements in these glasses. Here we have compiled concentration data from approximately sixty published works for both glasses, and have produced new analyses from our laboratories. Compilations are presented for the matrix composition of these glasses and for fifty eight trace elements. The trace element data includes all available new and published data, and summaries present the overall average and standard deviation, the range, median, geometric mean and a preferred average (which excludes all data outside ± one standard deviation of the overall average). For the elements which have been certified, there is a good agreement between the compiled averages and the NIST data. This compilation is designed to provide useful new working values for these reference materials.

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access
Jens Kattge, Gerhard Bönisch, Sandra Dı́az, Sandra Lavorel +4 more
2019· Global Change Biology2.1Kdoi:10.1111/gcb.14904

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.

Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research∗
Kim England
1994· The Professional Geographer2.0Kdoi:10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00080.x

Feminist and poststructural challenges to objectivist social science demand greater reflection by the researcher with the aim of producing more inclusive methods sensitive to the power relations in fieldwork. Following a discussion of contrasting approaches to these power relations, I present a reflexive examination of a research project on sexual identities. My reflections highlight some of the key ethical questions that face researchers conducting fieldwork, especially with regard to the relationship between the researcher and those being researched. My discussion of these dilemmas reflect the situated and partial nature of our understanding of “others.” I argue that the researcher's positionality and biography directly affect fieldwork and that fieldwork is a dialogical process which is structured by the researcher and the participants.

Pyrosequencing enumerates and contrasts soil microbial diversity
Luiz Fernando Würdig Roesch, Roberta R. Fulthorpe, Alberto Riva, George Casella +4 more
2007· The ISME Journal1.9Kdoi:10.1038/ismej.2007.53

Estimates of the number of species of bacteria per gram of soil vary between 2000 and 8.3 million (Gans et al., 2005; Schloss and Handelsman, 2006). The highest estimate suggests that the number may be so large as to be impractical to test by amplification and sequencing of the highly conserved 16S rRNA gene from soil DNA (Gans et al., 2005). Here we present the use of high throughput DNA pyrosequencing and statistical inference to assess bacterial diversity in four soils across a large transect of the western hemisphere. The number of bacterial 16S rRNA sequences obtained from each site varied from 26,140 to 53,533. The most abundant bacterial groups in all four soils were the Bacteroidetes, Betaproteobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria. Using three estimators of diversity, the maximum number of unique sequences (operational taxonomic units roughly corresponding to the species level) never exceeded 52,000 in these soils at the lowest level of dissimilarity. Furthermore, the bacterial diversity of the forest soil was phylum rich compared to the agricultural soils, which are species rich but phylum poor. The forest site also showed far less diversity of the Archaea with only 0.009% of all sequences from that site being from this group as opposed to 4%-12% of the sequences from the three agricultural sites. This work is the most comprehensive examination to date of bacterial diversity in soil and suggests that agricultural management of soil may significantly influence the diversity of bacteria and archaea.

Biodiversity in the city: key challenges for urban green space management
Myla F. J. Aronson, Christopher A. Lepczyk, Karl L. Evans, Mark A. Goddard +4 more
2017· Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment1.3Kdoi:10.1002/fee.1480

Cities play important roles in the conservation of global biodiversity, particularly through the planning and management of urban green spaces ( UGS ). However, UGS management is subject to a complex assortment of interacting social, cultural, and economic factors, including governance, economics, social networks, multiple stakeholders, individual preferences, and social constraints. To help deliver more effective conservation outcomes in cities, we identify major challenges to managing biodiversity in UGS and important topics warranting further investigation. Biodiversity within UGS must be managed at multiple scales while accounting for various socioeconomic and cultural influences. Although the environmental consequences of management activities to enhance urban biodiversity are now beginning to be addressed, additional research and practical management strategies must be developed to balance human needs and perceptions while maintaining ecological processes.

The Placental Mammal Ancestor and the Post–K-Pg Radiation of Placentals
Maureen A. O’Leary, Jonathan I. Bloch, John J. Flynn, Timothy J. Gaudin +4 more
2013· Science1.2Kdoi:10.1126/science.1229237

To discover interordinal relationships of living and fossil placental mammals and the time of origin of placentals relative to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, we scored 4541 phenomic characters de novo for 86 fossil and living species. Combining these data with molecular sequences, we obtained a phylogenetic tree that, when calibrated with fossils, shows that crown clade Placentalia and placental orders originated after the K-Pg boundary. Many nodes discovered using molecular data are upheld, but phenomic signals overturn molecular signals to show Sundatheria (Dermoptera + Scandentia) as the sister taxon of Primates, a close link between Proboscidea (elephants) and Sirenia (sea cows), and the monophyly of echolocating Chiroptera (bats). Our tree suggests that Placentalia first split into Xenarthra and Epitheria; extinct New World species are the oldest members of Afrotheria.

Children's Understanding of Representational Change and Its Relation to the Understanding of False Belief and the Appearance-Reality Distinction
Alison Gopnik, Janet Wilde Astington
1988· Child Development1.1Kdoi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1988.tb03192.x

This research concerns the development of children's understanding of representational change and its relation to other cognitive developments. Children were shown deceptive objects, and the true nature of the objects was then revealed. Children were then asked what they thought the object was when they first saw it, testing their understanding of representational change; what another child would think the object was, testing their understanding of false belief; and what the object looked like and really was, testing their understanding of the appearance-reality distinction. Most 3-year-olds answered the representational change question incorrectly. Most 5-year-olds did not make this error. Children's performance on the representational change question was poorer than their performance on the false-belief question. There were correlations between performance on all 3 tasks. Apparently children begin to be able to consider alternative representations of the same object at about age 4.

Many Labs 2: Investigating Variation in Replicability Across Samples and Settings
Richard Klein, Michelangelo Vianello, Fred Hasselman, Byron G. Adams +4 more
2018· Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science1.0Kdoi:10.1177/2515245918810225

We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings, with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance, to examine variation in effect magnitudes across samples and settings. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples that comprised 15,305 participants from 36 countries and territories. Using the conventional criterion of statistical significance ( p < .05), we found that 15 (54%) of the replications provided evidence of a statistically significant effect in the same direction as the original finding. With a strict significance criterion ( p < .0001), 14 (50%) of the replications still provided such evidence, a reflection of the extremely high-powered design. Seven (25%) of the replications yielded effect sizes larger than the original ones, and 21 (75%) yielded effect sizes smaller than the original ones. The median comparable Cohen’s ds were 0.60 for the original findings and 0.15 for the replications. The effect sizes were small (< 0.20) in 16 of the replications (57%), and 9 effects (32%) were in the direction opposite the direction of the original effect. Across settings, the Q statistic indicated significant heterogeneity in 11 (39%) of the replication effects, and most of those were among the findings with the largest overall effect sizes; only 1 effect that was near zero in the aggregate showed significant heterogeneity according to this measure. Only 1 effect had a tau value greater than .20, an indication of moderate heterogeneity. Eight others had tau values near or slightly above .10, an indication of slight heterogeneity. Moderation tests indicated that very little heterogeneity was attributable to the order in which the tasks were performed or whether the tasks were administered in lab versus online. Exploratory comparisons revealed little heterogeneity between Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) cultures and less WEIRD cultures (i.e., cultures with relatively high and low WEIRDness scores, respectively). Cumulatively, variability in the observed effect sizes was attributable more to the effect being studied than to the sample or setting in which it was studied.

Treatment of Ischemic Brain Damage by Perturbing NMDA Receptor- PSD-95 Protein Interactions
Michelle Aarts, Yitao Liu, Lidong Liu, Shintaro Besshoh +4 more
2002· Science993doi:10.1126/science.1072873

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) mediate ischemic brain damage but also mediate essential neuronal excitation. To treat stroke without blocking NMDARs, we transduced neurons with peptides that disrupted the interaction of NMDARs with the postsynaptic density protein PSD-95. This procedure dissociated NMDARs from downstream neurotoxic signaling without blocking synaptic activity or calcium influx. The peptides, when applied either before or 1 hour after an insult, protected cultured neurons from excitotoxicity, reduced focal ischemic brain damage in rats, and improved their neurological function. This approach circumvents the negative consequences associated with blocking NMDARs and may constitute a practical stroke therapy.

A guide to phylogenetic metrics for conservation, community ecology and macroecology
Caroline M. Tucker, Marc W. Cadotte, Sílvia B. Carvalho, T. Jonathan Davies +4 more
2016· Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society884doi:10.1111/brv.12252

The use of phylogenies in ecology is increasingly common and has broadened our understanding of biological diversity. Ecological sub-disciplines, particularly conservation, community ecology and macroecology, all recognize the value of evolutionary relationships but the resulting development of phylogenetic approaches has led to a proliferation of phylogenetic diversity metrics. The use of many metrics across the sub-disciplines hampers potential meta-analyses, syntheses, and generalizations of existing results. Further, there is no guide for selecting the appropriate metric for a given question, and different metrics are frequently used to address similar questions. To improve the choice, application, and interpretation of phylo-diversity metrics, we organize existing metrics by expanding on a unifying framework for phylogenetic information. Generally, questions about phylogenetic relationships within or between assemblages tend to ask three types of question: how much; how different; or how regular? We show that these questions reflect three dimensions of a phylogenetic tree: richness, divergence, and regularity. We classify 70 existing phylo-diversity metrics based on their mathematical form within these three dimensions and identify 'anchor' representatives: for α-diversity metrics these are PD (Faith's phylogenetic diversity), MPD (mean pairwise distance), and VPD (variation of pairwise distances). By analysing mathematical formulae and using simulations, we use this framework to identify metrics that mix dimensions, and we provide a guide to choosing and using the most appropriate metrics. We show that metric choice requires connecting the research question with the correct dimension of the framework and that there are logical approaches to selecting and interpreting metrics. The guide outlined herein will help researchers navigate the current jungle of indices.

Formal guidelines: management of acute respiratory distress syndrome
Laurent Papazian, Cécile Aubron, Laurent Brochard, Jean‐Daniel Chiche +4 more
2019· Annals of Intensive Care810doi:10.1186/s13613-019-0540-9

Fifteen recommendations and a therapeutic algorithm regarding the management of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) at the early phase in adults are proposed. The Grade of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology has been followed. Four recommendations (low tidal volume, plateau pressure limitation, no oscillatory ventilation, and prone position) had a high level of proof (GRADE 1 + or 1 -); four (high positive end-expiratory pressure [PEEP] in moderate and severe ARDS, muscle relaxants, recruitment maneuvers, and venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation [ECMO]) a low level of proof (GRADE 2 + or 2 -); seven (surveillance, tidal volume for non ARDS mechanically ventilated patients, tidal volume limitation in the presence of low plateau pressure, PEEP > 5 cmH2O, high PEEP in the absence of deleterious effect, pressure mode allowing spontaneous ventilation after the acute phase, and nitric oxide) corresponded to a level of proof that did not allow use of the GRADE classification and were expert opinions. Lastly, for three aspects of ARDS management (driving pressure, early spontaneous ventilation, and extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal), the experts concluded that no sound recommendation was possible given current knowledge. The recommendations and the therapeutic algorithm were approved by the experts with strong agreement.

Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse
Willem Kuyken, Fiona C Warren, Rod S Taylor, Ben Whalley +4 more
2016· JAMA Psychiatry801doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.0076

IMPORTANCE: Relapse prevention in recurrent depression is a significant public health problem, and antidepressants are the current first-line treatment approach. Identifying an equally efficacious nonpharmacological intervention would be an important development. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a meta-analysis on individual patient data to examine the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) compared with usual care and other active treatments, including antidepressants, in treating those with recurrent depression. DATA SOURCES: English-language studies published or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals identified from EMBASE, PubMed/Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register from the first available year to November 22, 2014. Searches were conducted from November 2010 to November 2014. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized trials of manualized MBCT for relapse prevention in recurrent depression in full or partial remission that compared MBCT with at least 1 non-MBCT treatment, including usual care. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: This was an update to a previous meta-analysis. We screened 2555 new records after removing duplicates. Abstracts were screened for full-text extraction (S.S.) and checked by another researcher (T.D.). There were no disagreements. Of the original 2555 studies, 766 were evaluated against full study inclusion criteria, and we acquired full text for 8. Of these, 4 studies were excluded, and the remaining 4 were combined with the 6 studies identified from the previous meta-analysis, yielding 10 studies for qualitative synthesis. Full patient data were not available for 1 of these studies, resulting in 9 studies with individual patient data, which were included in the quantitative synthesis. RESULTS: Of the 1258 patients included, the mean (SD) age was 47.1 (11.9) years, and 944 (75.0%) were female. A 2-stage random effects approach showed that patients receiving MBCT had a reduced risk of depressive relapse within a 60-week follow-up period compared with those who did not receive MBCT (hazard ratio, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.58-0.82). Furthermore, comparisons with active treatments suggest a reduced risk of depressive relapse within a 60-week follow-up period (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.64-0.97). Using a 1-stage approach, sociodemographic (ie, age, sex, education, and relationship status) and psychiatric (ie, age at onset and number of previous episodes of depression) variables showed no statistically significant interaction with MBCT treatment. However, there was some evidence to suggest that a greater severity of depressive symptoms prior to treatment was associated with a larger effect of MBCT compared with other treatments. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy appears efficacious as a treatment for relapse prevention for those with recurrent depression, particularly those with more pronounced residual symptoms. Recommendations are made concerning how future trials can address remaining uncertainties and improve the rigor of the field.

ALTERNATIVE OXIDASE: From Gene to Function
Greg C. Vanlerberghe, Lee McIntosh
1997· Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology786doi:10.1146/annurev.arplant.48.1.703

Plants, some fungi, and protists contain a cyanide-resistant, alternative mitochondrial respiratory pathway. This pathway branches at the ubiquinone pool and consists of an alternative oxidase encoded by the nuclear gene Aox1. Alternative pathway respiration is only linked to proton translocation at Complex 1 (NADH dehydrogenase). Alternative oxidase expression is influenced by stress stimuli-cold, oxidative stress, pathogen attack-and by factors constricting electron flow through the cytochrome pathway of respiration. Control is exerted at the levels of gene expression and in response to the availability of carbon and reducing potential. Posttranslational control involves reversible covalent modification of the alternative oxidase and activation by specific carbon metabolites. This dynamic system of coarse and fine control may function to balance upstream respiratory carbon metabolism and downstream electron transport when these coupled processes become imbalanced as a result of changes in the supply of, or demand for, carbon, reducing power, and ATP.

Culture, personality, and subjective well-being: Integrating process models of life satisfaction.
Ulrich Schimmack, Phanikiran Radhakrishnan, Shigehiro Oishi, Vivian Dzokoto +1 more
2002· Journal of Personality and Social Psychology709doi:10.1037/0022-3514.82.4.582

The authors examined the interplay of personality and cultural factors in the prediction of the affective (hedonic balance) and the cognitive (life satisfaction) components of subjective well-being (SWB). They predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is mediated by hedonic balance and that the relation between hedonic balance and life satisfaction is moderated by culture. As a consequence, they predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is also moderated by culture. Participants from 2 individualistic cultures (United States, Germany) and 3 collectivistic cultures (Japan, Mexico, Ghana) completed measures of Extraversion, Neuroticism, hedonic balance, and life satisfaction. As predicted, Extraversion and Neuroticism influenced hedonic balance to the same degree in all cultures, and hedonic balance was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. The influence of Extraversion and Neuroticism on life satisfaction was largely mediated by hedonic balance. The results suggest that the influence of personality on the emotional component of SWB is pancultural, whereas the influence of personality on the cognitive component of SWB is moderated by culture.

Using Phylogenetic, Functional and Trait Diversity to Understand Patterns of Plant Community Productivity
Marc W. Cadotte, Jeannine Cavender‐Bares, David Tilman, Todd H. Oakley
2009· PLoS ONE708doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005695

BACKGROUND: Two decades of research showing that increasing plant diversity results in greater community productivity has been predicated on greater functional diversity allowing access to more of the total available resources. Thus, understanding phenotypic attributes that allow species to partition resources is fundamentally important to explaining diversity-productivity relationships. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we use data from a long-term experiment (Cedar Creek, MN) and compare the extent to which productivity is explained by seven types of community metrics of functional variation: 1) species richness, 2) variation in 10 individual traits, 3) functional group richness, 4) a distance-based measure of functional diversity, 5) a hierarchical multivariate clustering method, 6) a nonmetric multidimensional scaling approach, and 7) a phylogenetic diversity measure, summing phylogenetic branch lengths connecting community members together and may be a surrogate for ecological differences. Although most of these diversity measures provided significant explanations of variation in productivity, the presence of a nitrogen fixer and phylogenetic diversity were the two best explanatory variables. Further, a statistical model that included the presence of a nitrogen fixer, seed weight and phylogenetic diversity was a better explanation of community productivity than other models. CONCLUSIONS: Evolutionary relationships among species appear to explain patterns of grassland productivity. Further, these results reveal that functional differences among species involve a complex suite of traits and that perhaps phylogenetic relationships provide a better measure of the diversity among species that contributes to productivity than individual or small groups of traits.

Impact of Food and Predation on the Snowshoe Hare Cycle
Charles J. Krebs, Stan Boutin, Rudy Boonstra, A. R. E. Sinclair +4 more
1995· Science703doi:10.1126/science.269.5227.1112

Snowshoe hare populations in the boreal forests of North America go through 10-year cycles. Supplemental food and mammalian predator abundance were manipulated in a factorial design on 1-square-kilometer areas for 8 years in the Yukon. Two blocks of forest were fertilized to test for nutrient effects. Predator exclosure doubled and food addition tripled hare density during the cyclic peak and decline. Predator exclosure combined with food addition increased density 11-fold. Added nutrients increased plant growth but not hare density. Food and predation together had a more than additive effect, which suggests that a three-trophic-level interaction generates hare cycles.

Experience Sampling Methods: A Discussion of Critical Trends and Considerations for Scholarly Advancement
Allison S. Gabriel, Nathan P. Podsakoff, Daniel J. Beal, Brent A. Scott +3 more
2018· Organizational Research Methods666doi:10.1177/1094428118802626

In the organizational sciences, scholars are increasingly using experience sampling methods (ESM) to answer questions tied to intraindividual, dynamic phenomenon. However, employing this method to answer organizational research questions comes with a number of complex—and often difficult—decisions surrounding: (1) how the implementation of ESM can advance or elucidate prior between-person theorizing at the within-person level of analysis, (2) how scholars should effectively and efficiently assess within-person constructs, and (3) analytic concerns regarding the proper modeling of interdependent assessments and trends while controlling for potentially confounding factors. The current paper addresses these challenges via a panel of seven researchers who are familiar not only with implementing this methodology but also related theoretical and analytic challenges in this domain. The current paper provides timely, actionable insights aimed toward addressing several complex issues that scholars often face when implementing ESM in their research.

Carbonate Precipitation through Microbial Activities in Natural Environment, and Their Potential in Biotechnology: A Review
Tingting Zhu, Maria Dittrich
2016· Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology664doi:10.3389/fbioe.2016.00004

Calcium carbonate represents a large portion of carbon reservoir and is used commercially for a variety of applications. Microbial carbonate precipitation (MCP), a by-product of microbial activities, plays an important metal coprecipitation and cementation role in natural systems. This natural process occurring in various geological settings can be mimicked and used for a number of biotechnology such as metal remediation, carbon sequestration, enhanced oil recovery and construction restoration. In this study, different metabolic activities leading to calcium carbonate precipitation, their native environment, and potential applications and challenges are reviewed.