Resolving the closest relatives of Gnetales has been an enigmatic problem in seed plant phylogeny. The problem is known to be difficult because of the extent of divergence between this diverse group of gymnosperms and their closest phylogenetic relatives. Here, we investigate the evolutionary properties of conifer chloroplast DNA sequences. To improve taxon sampling of Cupressophyta (non-Pinace...

The present study investigates the occurrence of wild grasses at Epipalaeolithic and aceramic Neolithic sites in the Near East in order to assess their role in subsistence economies alongside the emergence of cereal cultivation. We use Chogha Golan in the foothills of the central Zagros Mountains (ca. 11.7-9.6 ka cal. BP) as a case study, where the archaeobotanical data suggest the frequent exp...

OBJECTIVES To review studies eliciting patient and healthcare provider preferences for healthcare interventions using discrete choice experiments (DCEs) to (1) review the methodology to evaluate similarities, differences, rigour of designs and whether comparisons are made at the aggregate level or account for individual heterogeneity; and (2) quantify the extent to which they demonstrate concor...

Facilitation is a major force shaping the structure and diversity of plant communities in terrestrial ecosystems. Detecting positive plant-plant interactions relies on the combination of field experimentation and the demonstration of spatial association between neighboring plants. This has often restricted the study of facilitation to particular sites, limiting the development of systematic ass...

Citation: Zhu Z-X, Zhao K-K, Lin Q-W, Qureshi S, Ross Friedman C, Cai G-Y and Wang H-F (2017) Systematic Environmental Impact Assessment for Non-natural Reserve Areas: A Case Study of the Chaishitan Water Conservancy Project on Land Use and Plant Diversity in Yunnan, China. Front. Ecol. Evol. 5:60. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00060 Systematic Environmental Impact Assessment for Non-natural Reserve A...

This paper presents a systematic approach for the design of temperature controller using genetic algorithms (GAs) for thermal power plant subsystems and investigates the robustness of the designed control law. The proposed approach employs GA search for determination of the optimal PI controller parameters for a previously identified nonlinear de-superheater of a 4X 325 MW thermal power plant. ...