Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: 3 earthquakes to occur within two hours of one another in 2007. Because this event was confirmed to be a doublet at the time, Wils and her colleagues collected four cores from the lake and found a turbidite that could reveal what doublets look like in the sedimentary record. The boat used by the researchers to conduct coring on Lake Singkarak. Credit: How turbidites record the past The submerged slides of water and sediment that create turbidites, like the one Wils found in Lake Singkarak, are often triggered by an earthquake during a process called slope failure. As the motion subsides, denser and coarser grains sink from the current first, leaving finer grains and clay to alight atop the mass. The muddy material deposited between turbidites serves as a record of the amount of time between successive quakes. Turbidites are formed by underwater avalanches at the edge of continental shelves or deep lakes with steep slopes from the shelf along the shoreline. The material that settles at the bottom of the shelf tends to consist of sand and similar coarse material, grading upwards into siltstone which is formed by the fine grained mud that settles more. Credit: Oggmus (CC BY-SA 4. 0), via But when an earthquake doublet disturbs a lake, it does not result in separate turbidites. Instead, a single turbidite is made from multiple “pulses” to the coarse-grained lakebed. Because of the time-lag between the individual currents triggered by each earthquake, a distinct pattern forms: instead of settling into the normally graded “coarse-to-fine” deposit, the sediments are shaped into “coarse-fine-coarse-fine-clay” striations, like a hastily assembled layer cake. Finding evidence of multiple pulses closely offset in time that originated from the same area (as verified by flow direction indicators in the turbidites) are key for matching a particular turbidite to an earthquake doublet. Resolving grainy vision and her team began to analyze the turbidite from Lake Singkarak, they encountered an apparent paradox: they needed to examine the positions of the sedimentary grains at high resolution but moving the grains out of the core to do so would irreparably disturb their orientation. and some of her colleagues from Indonesia retrieve one of the sediment cores used to study the earthquake doublet.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: For the tests, we set the storage system efficiency to 75% and limit the depth of discharge (DoD) to 80%. If, during the test, the state of charge (SoC) of the storage system reaches 100%, the subsequent excess energy will be rejected as long as the SoC remains at 100%. To limit this event, as long as the SoC remains above 20%, the stored energy will be discharged whenever the instantaneous wind farm output power drops below 50% of PMAX2 months. This contributes to keep the storage SoC below 100% as often as possible, allowing more excess energy to be stored and redirected through the grid. Table 3 gives the percentage of energy effectively sent through the transmission line in respect with2 months, as a function of the storage system capacity. These elements added with a cost analysis of power transmission lines, enable calculations to investigate the profitability of such a power curtailment scheme. The plots of Figure 11 show the evolution of the storage system SoC and its temporal derivative (storage’s charge and discharge power) during a test conducted with a capacity of storage equals 1. 33 MWh, which represents 5% of Eexcess2 months. These results demonstrate the benefit of this approach. With a relatively limited storage capacity, it is possible to exploit 99. 92% of the energy produced by the wind farm while limiting the transmission line capacity at 55% of the maximum wind power observed during the two-months test period. Storage system capacityEnergy sent through the transmission line(%Eexcess2 months)MWh(%2 months)GWh0% (no storage)098,81%2,23531%0,26999,40%2,24865%1,3499,92%2,260310%2,6899,98%2,2617Table 3. Percentage of energy sent through the transmission line as a function of the storage system capacityThe ideal storage system characteristics could be deduced from this analysis. For the presented case, the adequate storage system should have a rated power of2,5 MW, a rated energy of 1,5 MWhand efficiency around 75%. Advertisement 9. Dynamic energy storage management for wind electricity injection into electrical gridsIn the application presented above, the power variations induced by the wind’s fluctuations are not anticipated for. We propose here to consider the potential benefit of wind energy production forecast to improve the reliability of wind-originated electricity.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: However, the value of this work is held back by unclear methods and data presentation. Strengths: Analysis of microbiomes from two distinct anatomical locations and across three distinct patient groups is a substantial undertaking. How these microbiomes influence and are influenced by COVID-19 disease progression is an important question. In particular, the putative biomarker identified here could be of clinical value with additional research. Weaknesses: The methods and statistics used for several figures and comparisons are unclear or used in non-standard ways. For instance: the description of the Bray-Curtis test for Figure 1 is inaccurate and conflicts between the text and figure legend; the method used to compare the relative abundance of genera in Figure 2 is not clear; and it is not stated how the "total amount" of detected bacteria is inferred from the data presented in Figures 2C and 2D. The description of results for Figure 1 is overstated or unclear for both the alpha diversity among disease groups and the overlap for nasal samples. The most abundant phyla from nasal samples cumulatively account for less than 1% of abundance and it is unclear why this would be expected or how it compares to other work. Relatedly, the potential biological relevance of the very small proportional changes among phyla in the nasal samples is also not clear. There is no real discussion of how the identified biomarkers might work in practice. While some microbes are detected in one condition but not others, it is unclear whether these organisms are expected to already exist below the detection threshold and then increase in abundance along with disease severity, or if they are picked up from the environment. For instance, would the presence of these 'severe' - associated microbes in patients with mild or moderate disease justify additional treatment to prevent disease progression? The authors use the term "nasopharyngeal-faecal axis", but there is no substantial discussion of how these two microbiomes interact to influence disease progression, or how they are jointly affected to yield useful biomarkers. With one exception, correlation values between nasal and fecal microbes range from negligible to modest. It is unclear, then, how much parallel influence disease has on these microbiomes. Response eLife assessment We appreciate the assessment carried out by the editorial team at eLife. Therefore, we plan to review the methods section in order to make the statistical analysis more comprehensible for each of the displayed figures.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: Credit: “The problem is that these lakes are mostly made of fine grains, and to see what’s going on you have to basically use a microscope without destroying the original alignment of grains,” says Wils. turned to high-resolution X-ray computed tomography — a CT scan, similar to what you might get for a complex bone fracture, except for rocks and sediment — as a means of keeping the sample intact while viewing it with astounding clarity. “The grains you can distinguish with certainty at this resolution are about 100 micrometers, or even less in size,” says Wils. “You can really look into detail at each individual grain that’s in this deposit. ” Because sedimentary grains tend to align in the same direction in a flow, Wils could use information about paleomagnetism and grain size to match the original slope failure to the location of the faults surrounding the lake. The last step was to confirm what she saw with the known timing of the individual earthquakes. “In this case, because the events happened in 2007, they know exactly what happened and it’s a very nice proof-of-concept,” says Belle Philibosian, a research geologist at the U. S. who was not involved in this study. “You can actually distinguish events on the order of hours, which is just phenomenal. ” New tools for old problems Paleoseismic researchers often rely on one of two classical techniques to date prehistoric earthquakes. Some measure landscape features, like small streams or gullies, that can exhibit a similarly sized offset if they were both shifted by the same earthquake. Others dig trenches into the earth and examine the walls for patterns of sedimentary disruption caused by earthquakes across different time scales. But ordinarily, these techniques cannot distinguish between events spaced hours — or even a decade — apart, says Philibosian. X-raying turbidites provides another tool to tackle this problem from multiple angles. “The real power of the turbidites is giving you that very fine time resolution,” says Philibosian. “We could go back and look at turbidite records of pre-historical earthquakes where we don’t know the sequence of events, and then combine that with paleoseismic trenching or other types of studies to build a picture of what happened.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: Figure 11. Time evolution of the storage system SoC and power during the test. Figure 12. Iso-percentages of the conditional cumulative distribution function of the wind farm output power as a function of wind velocity. The power threshold levels are expressed as percentage of the curtailed transmission line capacity which, here, equals 55% PMAX2 months. Efficient forecasting scheme that includes some information on the likelihood of the forecast and based on a better knowledge of the wind variations characteristics along with their influence on power output variation is of key importance for the optimal integration of wind energy in power system. In [20], the author has developed a short-term wind energy prediction scheme that uses artificial neural networks and adaptive learning procedures based on Bayesian approach and Gaussian approximation. We propose to illustrate how such a prediction tool combined with an energy storage facility could help to smooth the wind power variation and improve the consistency of wind electricity injected into utility network. Energy storage technologies could be valuable to the development of wind and PV electricity generation. The main objectives of an energy storage management scheme for the sake of wind or photovoltaic electricity productions are:To guarantee energy on-demand application for stand-alone renewable generation To inform, in advance, about the dispersion of the incoming production. To guarantee the power level of the injected electricity by limiting the variability of the production with the help of energy storage systems. To guarantee optimized and safe exploitation of the energy storage system. We seek, in this section, to illustrate the advantage of using energy or power prediction to develop an energy storage management scheme aimed at reducing the uncertainty on the incoming wind power that will be injected into the grid while maintaining a reasonable storage capacity. Advertisement 10. The energy prediction schemeThe proposed method is based on the very short-term prediction scheme of the wind energy outlined in Figure 13. At any given time t, a neural network (referred hereafter as the predictor) gives an estimation of future wind energy valuesEWindt+τ, with τthe horizon of prediction. The energy function EWindt gives the energy produced by a group of wind turbine during the 30 minutes period preceding time t. The input of the predictor is made of ninp recent samples of wind power values,PWindt-Tshort_mem,⋯,PWindt. These ninp components of the input are chosen from the values measured during the time interval preceding t; t-Tshort_mem, t.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: Public reviews Reviewer 1 We would like to express our gratitude to Reviewer 1 for providing a thorough summary of our work and highlighting its strengths. With regards to the weaknesses, we are committed to improve the manuscript by performing the necessary changes. First, we will specify the exact p-value in all cases. Regarding the discussion section, we acknowledge the feedback regarding its potential confusion. In line with the reviewer's suggestion, we will reduce the literature review and highlight our findings. Finally, for the preprint we did not include cofounders such as HIV infection and ethnicity as our study population did not exhibit viral infections and comprised only Hispanic individuals. We will make a more thorough description of the population of study and address these characteristics explicitly in both the methods section and the initial part of the results. Reviewer 2 We appreciate and thank reviewer 2 for the commentaries. Although it is true that several papers have described the role of microbiome in COVID-19 severity, we firmly believe that our current work stands out. There is not much information related to this association in mediterranean countries, especially in the south of Spain. In addition, most of the studies only describe microbiota composition in stool or nasopharyngeal samples separately, without investigating any potential relationships between them as we do. (1) We agree with the reviewer idea of a limited sample size. We faced the challenge of collecting the samples during the peak of COVID-19 pandemia. Thus, doctors and nurses were overwhelmed and not always available for carrying out patient recruitment following the inclusion criteria. Despite these constraints, we ensured that all included samples met our specified inclusion criteria and were from subjects with confirmed symptomatology. In addition, our main goal was to identify whether severity of the disease could be assessed through microbiota composition. Therefore we did not include a healthy group. Despite not having a large N, our results should be reproducible as they are supported by statistical analysis. (2) We thank reviewer commentary, and since our original sentence may have lacked clarity, we intend to modify it to ensure it conveys the intended meaning more effectively. Nonetheless, we remain confident in the significance of our findings. Not only have we found correlation between microbiota and COVID severity, but we have also described how specific bacteria from each condition is associated with key biochemical parameters of clinical COVID infection. (3) We appreciate the feedback provided by the reviewer.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: ” Double trouble Because this is the first time researchers have detected distinctive imprints left by an earthquake doublet, scientists can now better characterize the seismic hazard of a particular place prone to such dual events – even if it has not experienced extensive seismic activity since detailed records became available. Knowing that a second earthquake is likely to strike on the heels of the first is also essential for public safety and government planning. “If we see these duplex events are a regular pattern, we can start educating people, saying ‘okay, if you feel an earthquake, be prepared for a second one,’” says Wils. “Because when people start going back to their home and collecting things after an earthquake, that’s actually more dangerous. There might be a second shock just a few hours later. ” Cnudde, V. , & Boone, M. N. (2013). High-resolution X-ray computed tomography in geosciences: A review of the current technology and applications. Earth-Science Reviews, 123, 1-17. Libretexts. (2020, June 3). Turbidites. Geosciences LibreTexts. 17, 2021, from Wald, L. , & Scharer, K. (n. d. ). Introduction to paleoseismology. Introduction to Paleoseismology. 17, 2021, from Wils, K. , Daryono, M. R. , Praet, N. , Santoso, A. B. , Dianto, A. , Schmidt, S. , … & De Batist, M. (2021). The sediments of in reveal their earthquake, volcanic and rainfall history. Sedimentary Geology, 416, 105863. Wils, K. , Deprez, M. , Kissel, C. , Vervoort, M. , Van Daele, M. , Daryono, M. R. , … & De Batist, M. (2021). Earthquake doublet revealed by multiple pulses in lacustrine seismo-turbidites. Geology, 49(11), 1301-1306. Latest posts by Temblor (see all) Why do the largest continental earthquakes nucleate on branch faults?

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: The dynamic scheduling algorithm manages to maintain the injected power within the +/- 5% of PSchedinterval while maintaining the energy reserve strictly above zero as shown by the plot of Figure 17. Notice that the required energy capacity remains relatively low, around 3% (less than500 kWh) of the total energy supplied by the wind farms during the whole duration of the demonstration (about 15 MWhsupplied in9 h). The required charge or discharge power of the storage system is estimated at500 KW. Figure 16. Scheduled and injected electrical power superimposed to the actual wind powerFigure 17. Evolution of the energy reserve of the storage systemThe interest of the proposed method is that he permits to guarantee the power at which energy will be sent to the grid by automatically dispatching the power flows between the wind plants and the energy storage facility. 12. ConclusionEnergy storage technologies are identified as key elements for the development of electricity generation exploiting renewable energy sources. In this 1. 4/32315) and funded by the European Commission. 1. 2008for 3643524355 2. DelilleG. 2007Contribution du stockage à la gestion avancée des systèmes électriques. PhD thesis, Université Lille Nord-de-France. 3. BeaudinM. ZareipourH. SchellenberglabeA. RosehartW. 2010for Electricity GenerationEnergy for Sustainable Development14302314 4. Díaz-GonzálezF. SumperA. Gomis-BellmuntO. Villafáfila-RoblesR. 2012A review of energy storage technologies for wind power applications. Renewable and Reviews 1621542171 5. RahmanF. RehmanS. Abdul-MajeedM. A. 2012for Electricity GenerationRenewable and Reviews16274283 6. IbrahimH. LlincaA. PerronJ. 2008Energy storage systems- Characteristics and comparisons. Renewable and Reviews 1212211250 7. RenaL. TangaY. ShiaJ. DouaJ. ZhoubS. JinbT. 2012Techno-economic evaluation of hybrid energy storage technologies for a solar-wind generation system. Company website, ConnollyD. LundH. MathiesenB. V. PicanE.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: Finally, in response to the reviewer's suggestion, we are going to go through the nasopharyngeal-fecal axis part in the discussion. It is well described that COVID-19 induces a dysbiosis in both microbiomes. Consequently, we understand that the ratio we have described could be an interesting tool for assessing COVID severity development as it considers alterations in both environments. However, we acknowledge that there may be room for improvement in clarifying the significance of this intriguing finding and its implications.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: Andre F. Ribeiro1, Frank Neffke1 & Ricardo Hausmann1 123 Accesses 4 all metrics AbstractWe propose a new method to estimate causal effects from nonexperimental data. Each pair of sample units is first associated with a stochastic ‘treatment’—differences in factors between units—and an effect—a resultant outcome difference. It is then proposed that all pairs can be combined to provide more accurate estimates of causal effects in nonexperimental data, provided a statistical model relating combinatorial properties of treatments to the accuracy and unbiasedness of their effects. The 34. 9910 units per month Download 39. 95 Price excludes VAT (USA) Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Instant access to the full 60. 485. GW. Better late than nothing: some comments on deaton (2009) and heckman and urzua (2009). J Econ Lit. 2010;48(2):399–423. Elsevier. Chap. 61. A. Instruments, randomization, and learning about development. J Econ Lit. 2010;48(2):424–55. DJC. Information theory, inference, and learning algorithms. UK; New York: Press, Cambridge; 2003. MATH 2008. 55. 6065. PMLR, 2019. Toward causal representation learning. Proc IEEE. 2021;109(5):612–34. Curran Associates, Inc. , (2017). Y, Blei DM. The blessings of multiple causes. J Assoc. 2020;114(528):1574–96. RJ. Evaluating the econometric evaluations of training programs with experimental data. Rev. 1986;76(4):604–20. 2009. Book MATH 353. R, Wahba S. Causal effects in nonexperimental studies: Reevaluating the evaluation of training programs. J Assoc. 1999;94:1053. 2006. Book 701. Causal inference from 2k factorial designs by using potential outcomes. (Stat Methodol). 2015;77(4):727–53. 3. the foundations of causal inference. 2010;40(1):75–149. G, Nielsen R. Why propensity scores should not be used for matching. Polit Anal. 2019;27(4):435–54.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: All issues (2020) Renew. Energy Environ. Sustain. , 5 (2020) 6 issuesForthcomingTopical issuesAbout the journal Aims and scopeEditorial boardEthical standardsIndexed inCopyright and license agreement MastheadLeaflet (PDF)Author information Instructions for authors10. 1051/rees/2020001 Published online 03 April 2020 1 Introduction 2 Method 3 Results 4 Discussion 5 4. 0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1 systems with high levels of variable renewable energy generation are now widely considered able to operate effectively and reliably, although doubts remain [1]. Here renewable energy (or RE) is also taken to include energy efficiency measures and some form of storage. However, there is still a degree of uncertainty about the costs of such electricity systems, compared to the cost of using conventional fossil fuel or nuclear generation. On the one hand, many studies found the cost of RE systems favourable. For example, Mathiesen et al. [2] found that 100 percent RE systems for the country of Denmark may be economically beneficial compared to fossil fuel systems, particularly if externalities such as health costs are counted. Elliston et al. [3] found that the cost of a 100% renewable energy system for the national grid in was competitive with fossil fuel based low carbon alternative systems. In the of Western Australia, Lu et al. [4] modelled costs for a 100% RE scenario using pumped hydro, and found that if 2030 capital prices are used, then the cost is similar to a conventional fossil generation scenario if there is a price on carbon of $25 per tonne. Sadiqa et al. [5] found a 100% renewable system for Pakistan using RE gas storage was less costly than a conventional fossil fuel system. Aghahosseini et al. [6] found that a renewable powered grid spanning the Americas would be less costly than conventional generation. Jacobson et al. [7] modelled a world wide 100% RE system containing 139 countries and found the overall cost to be less expensive than using conventional generation. A more recent similar study found the 100% RE system to have similar direct costs to the business as usual case [8]. If climate and health costs were included, the RE system was much cheaper. In contrast, Zappa et al.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: AbstractBackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that displays great variability in clinical phenotype. Many factors have been described to be correlated with its severity but no specific determinants of infection outcome have been identified yet, maybe due the complex pathogenic mechanisms. The microbiota could play a key role in the infection and in the progression and outcome of the disease. Hence, SARS-CoV-2 infection has been associated with nasopharyngeal and gut dysbiosis and higher abundance of opportunistic pathogens. MethodsTo identify new prognostic markers for the disease, a multicenter prospective observational cohort study was carried out in COVID-19 patients that were divided in three cohorts according to their symptomatology: mild (n=24), moderate (n=51) and severe/critical (n=31). Faecal and nasopharyngeal samples were taken and the microbiota was analysed. ResultsMicrobiota composition could be associated with the severity of the symptoms and the linear discriminant analysis identified the genera Mycoplasma and Prevotella as severity biomarkers in nasopharyngeal samples, and Allistipes, Enterococcus and Escherichia in faecal samples. Moreover, M. salivarium was defined as a unique microorganism in COVID-19 patients’ nasopharyngeal microbiota while P. bivia and P. timonensis were defined in faecal microbiota. A connection between faecal and nasopharyngeal microbiota in COVID-19 patients was also identified as a strong positive correlation between P. timonensis (faeces) towards P. dentalis and M. salivarium (nasopharyngeal) was found in critically ill patients. ConclusionsThis ratio could be used as a novel prognostic biomarker for severe COVID-19 patients. IntroductionCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The data reported in November 2023 revealed that almost 700 million people have been infected with the virus [1]. Even though the majority of COVID-19 cases are mild, disease has been also shown to cause long-term effects on human health.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: Due to the sign convention, the estimator sums the effects of variables in \(x_i\) but not in \(x_j\), subtracts the effects of variables in \(x_j\) but not in \(x_i\) and cancels out the effect of variables in both.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: Hence using more than one type of RE, and also increasing the geographic spread of RE power plants, are options to more fully cover the demand if the availability of one RE source is low in one region. However this may mean there will be significant excess in generation availability when demand is low. Denholm et al. [21] investigated the effects of increasing levels of RE on an isolated electric grid, and found that costs would become prohibitive because of increasing levels of curtailment of the RE generators when demand was less than the available supply. Adding a form of energy storage decreased curtailment, although there were diminishing returns as the amount of storage increased. This is consistent with the findings of Elliston et al. [22] for the national grid in Eastern Australia. The cost incremented in a mostly linear fashion as the proportion of RE generation increased, with some cost acceleration above linear increase as the proportion of RE exceeded 80%. Hence most very high or 100% RE studies utilise storage, or a source of energy that can be generated flexibly according to demand, and can compensate for low availability of the variable sources of RE [14]. These include hydroelectricity, pumped hydroelectricity, bio energy, renewable hydrogen or methane conversion, geothermal energy and solar thermal generation and storage. The flexible generation technologies in effect utilise a form of stored energy. Demand side management, which is the controlled withdrawal of non-essential loads, can also be used when demand exceeds supply. Energy efficiency measures have the potential to reduce demand over all time scales. A common feature of most high RE studies is the reliance on existing or expansion of hydro or pumped hydro capacity as one of the sources of flexible generation to achieve cost competitive 100% RE systems. All of the studies chosen by Deason [14] for in-depth analysis had this characteristic. Nine out of twelve of the studies assessed by Cochran et al. [13] also used hydro or pumped hydro. One of the exceptional studies, Kemp and Wexler [23], modelled Britain and relied on bio energy, tidal and wave power rather than significant levels of hydro power. The second exception, Lund and Mathieson [24], used biomass and hydrogen electrolysis for flexible generation. The third exception, Connolly et al. [25], relied heavily on bio energy. Another study, Pleβmann et al.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: Moderate and severe patients showed higher frequencies of the evaluated symptoms: dyspnoea, low oxygen saturation and increased respiratory or heart rates (p < 0. 05). However, no significant differences were observed in the percentage of the gastrointestinal complaints among the three groups of patients (Table 1). When the different comorbidities were considered, only those patients with severe symptoms showed a higher percentage of cardiomyopathy compared to those from mild or moderate symptomatology (p < 0. 05). Additionally, no significant differences were found in the prevalence of the other pathologies among groups. Regarding the counts of lymphocytes and neutrophils did not show meaningful differences between the three groups of patients. However, the plasmatic determinations of platelets, D-dimer, ferritin and C reactive protein correlated with the severity of the symptoms, being the severe group significantly different (p<0. 05) (Table 1). Table 1. Clinical data description of enrolled patients. Normal distributions are represented as mean土 SD while non normal distributions are represented by median and interquartile range. Categorical variables are represented with percentage. Groups with different letters statistically differ (p < 0. 05). Bacterial composition differs between sample type and severity index in SARS-CoV-2 infected patientsNasopharyngeal swabs and faeces were obtained from all the patients included in the study in the first seven days after symptom onset, and used for characterization of the microbiota composition. Microbiome diversity showed alterations that could be associated with the disease severity (Figure 1). Specifically, the α-diversity in the nasopharyngeal microbiota was reduced in the moderate and severe groups, in comparison with the mild group although it was only significant in patients with moderate symptoms (Figure 1A). Conversely, when α-diversity was examined in stool samples, no significant modifications were observed between groups (Figure 1B). On the other hand, ß-diversity analysis revealed statistical differences between groups for both samples, nasopharyngeal swabs and stools (p < 0. 001) (Figure 1C and 1D). Nasopharyngeal microbial populations could be grouped based on the severity of the symptoms and appear like three distinct and separate clusters corresponding to the patients with mild, moderate and severe symptoms (Figure 1C).

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: IntroductionAfter death DNA is degraded by various biotic and abiotic processes, resulting in fragmentation and modification of original sequence information. The very details of the whole process of DNA preservation and the mode of modifications at sequence level are still subject to research (Gilbert et al. 2003, 2007a; Pääbo et al. 2004; Hansen et al. 2006; Stiller et al. 2006). It has emerged however, that cold, dry and/or low oxygen environments are beneficial for DNA survival; for this reason, freshly excavated material is best stored cold or frozen (Burger et al. 1999; Smith et al. 2001; Pruvost et al. 2007). These DNA fragments still contain information which may help us to understand agricultural or vegetation history. Archaeobotanists reconstruct the past by morphological analysis of all types of plant remains. Interpretation of botanical remains through morphological evidence has many advantages: the analysis is comparatively quick, technically simple and extensive reference collections are available to help interpretation. It does, however, also have some limitations. In the cases discussed below, substantial new information may be gained from ancient DNA (aDNA) research. 1. Archaeobotanical reconstructions depend on the level of identification of plant species and on their chance of being preserved in the archaeological record (Jacomet and Kreuz 1999). In the archaeological record, plant remains are preserved charred, waterlogged, desiccated or mineralized, depending on geography or on the context excavated. The chances of a plant species being detected and morphologically identified to a certain taxonomical level are strongly influenced by the type of preservation and by the plant’s morphology. Thus, both have a major impact on any conclusions to be drawn. In cereals, examples of ambiguity in morphological features, even at ploidy level, are the grains of so-called naked wheat common in the Neolithic (Jacomet and Schlichtherle 1984; Maier 1996; Zohary and Hopf 2000) or the “new glume wheat” found so far at Neolithic and sites (Jones et al. 2000; Kohler-Schneider 2003). The latter might be an extinct wheat cultivar or even—as suggested by aDNA—a wheat related to Triticum timopheevii with the G genome (Brown et al. 1998).

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: [26], also simulated global 100% RE electricity relying on solar thermal and renewable power to gas storage rather than hydroelectricity. Use of hydroelectricity or biomass on a large scale may not be feasible in many areas of the world due to topographical or environmental constraints. Even if feasible, these technologies could involve significant installation lead times. The average lead time for hydroelectric projects around the world has been about 8. 6 years [27]. There can also be other barriers. For example, even though extensive pumped hydro capacity in the is already available, Kougias and Szabó [28] found that rising levels of RE did not automatically lead to a rise in utilisation rates, and that this might inhibit the needed investment in new capacity. The authors suggested the use of proactive technological, policy and market measures to encourage utilisation and new investment. However, in the absence of specific policies and planning to enable these large scale and long lead time projects, the use of another storage technology, batteries, is likely to grow. Usually considered for short term storage, battery systems are distributed, scalable from home or car size to utility scale, have short installation times, non dependence on suitable topography or geology, a growing installed base and a cost reduction trajectory. Benson and Magee [16] reported a cost improvement rate of around 3% per year. However, Nykvist and Benson [29] concluded that EV battery costs had improved at a faster rate of around 8%, and Schmidt et al. [30] predicted a faster cost improvement rate of around 7–9% per year between the years 2015 and 2030. Growth in global installed capacity has been about 33% per year [31]. Could a very high RE system be cost competitive using batteries alone as the storage system? This study will examine this question by making cost comparisons of different partial renewable energy scenarios using battery storage for the (SWIS). The SWIS is an electric grid that supplies the South-West region of (SWWA). The present configuration of energy generation systems connected to the SWIS is dominated by conventional fossil fuel power stations. There is also about 460 MW of onshore wind capacity and more than 500 MW of roof top solar PV capacity connected to the SWIS. Much of the conventional generation capacity is aging [32] and would be due for replacement within the next 15–30 years.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: Remarkably, faecal microbial communities of patients with severe symptoms differed significantly from those of mild and moderate ill patients using the unweighted Bray-Curtis metric, which compares samples based on bacterial presence-absence information (Figure 1D). Figure 1. Nasopharyngeal and gut microbiota composition is modified depending on the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. (A) Alpha diversity analysis of nasopharyngeal swab samples microbiota. (B) Alpha diversity analysis of stool samples microbiota. (C) PCoA for Bray-Curtis index of nasopharyngeal swab microbiota. (D) PCoA for Bray-Curtis index of stool samples microbiota. Values are represented as mean ± SD. Significant differences are represented as * = p < 0. 05. Similarly, the characterization of microbiota composition revealed heterogeneity in the microbiota profile associated with severity and disease progression in these patients (Figure Sx). At phylum level, in nasopharyngeal microbiota, the abundance of Bacillota was increased while the abundance of Bacteroidota and Actinobacteroidota was reduced in patients with severe symptomatology (Figure 2A). Conversely, the three groups presented a more homogeneous distribution of faecal microbiota than the nasopharyngeal one, being the most abundant phyla Bacillota and Bacteroidota (Figure 2B). Only the patients that had a worse prognosis showed a decrease of abundance in Bacteroidota (Figure 2B). Figure 2. Microbiota composition of nasopharyngeal and stool samples at phylum level is slightly modified by COVID-19 symptoms severity. In contrast, at genus level, severity increases the total amount of detected bacteria in nasopharyngeal swabs while in stool samples it is reduced. (A) Representation of the most abundant phyla in nasopharyngeal swab samples. (B) Representation of the most abundant phyla in stool samples. (C) Taxa identification of the most abundant genera in nasopharyngeal swab samples. (D) Taxa identification of the most abundant genera in stool samples. At genus level, symptom severity was associated with a higher number of detected genera (Figure 2C-D). Of note, the nasopharyngeal microbiome composition revealed significant differences between groups in genus abundance.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: 2006; Luo et al. 2007; Morrel and Clegg 2007), the value of ancient plant DNA studies is clear. Firstly, they allow the detection in situ and at a precise time of earlier temporal and spatial occurrences of species and their biodiversity, their migration and the routes involved. This is also valuable in respect of preserving lost genetic diversity information (Hodkinson et al. 2007). Secondly, they can provide the confirmation or rejection of models from modern DNA studies. Thirdly, aDNA is our only source of information in cases where wild ancestors or ancient cultivars are extinct. Fourthly, they are independent of recent cultural impact, and finally, aDNA studies enable us to test historical written sources (e. g. Vouillamoz et al. 2006). Potential of plant ancient DNA—studies of plant ancient DNAMost publications on plant aDNA in relation to archaeology focus on cultivated plants (see reviews Brown et al. 1993; Brown and Brown 1994; Jones et al. 1996; Brown 1999; Jones and Brown 2000). A few focus on wild plants, such as forest trees (see reviews Parducci and Petit 2004; Gugerli et al. 2005; Bennett and Parducci 2006). Regrettably, archaeological plant remains have attracted less attention from aDNA researchers than animal or human remains. And, just as in animal and human aDNA research, so far topics have often only been investigated briefly, studies rarely being followed up or satisfactorily completed. In the following section, we give an overview of research that has been carried out on ancient plants, without discussing the reliablity of the individual papers (see “Verification in plant ancient DNA research”). This is because even with all the criteria of authenticity fulfilled (Cooper and Poinar 2000), the authenticity of aDNA can never be fully guaranteed (Gilbert et al. 2005). In general, one can say that the earlier studies in the field used less stringent methods and arguments for authentication of aDNA results, while in the more recent studies, the lessons on contamination prevention and authentication learnt since then have been incorporated. Both aspects (prevention of contamination and authentication of results) must be kept in mind when judging the literature on aDNA. Cultivated plants—cereals and fruitsarchaeological sites cereals are mainly preserved in a charred condition. Grains and chaff predominate, ears are rare.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: Since it is not feasible to replace all the conventional power generation capacity overnight, the SWIS will continue to consist of a combination of conventional and RE generation, with the percentage of RE generation most probably increasing in line with the goal of reducing greenhouse emissions. A reason to model the SWIS is that it does not currently have any significant hydro power capacity. Also the SWIS has no connection with any other grid, and so must be entirely self reliant. The structure of this study is as follows: In the methods section scenarios are developed that push the level of RE used on the SWIS towards 100%, but hydroelectricity, pumped hydro, biomass or solar thermal technology are not used. Instead, differing mixes of wind, solar PV, energy efficiency improvement and distributed battery storage will be simulated, and the cost of energy (COE) for each scenario is estimated. A business as usual (BAU) scenario is also developed where the load demand of the SWIS grid was met with predominantly conventional fossil fuel generation capacity. The external cost of greenhouse emissions is incorporated into the cost model using a price on equivalent carbon emissions, and a simple method to incorporate cost improvement over the building duration of each scenario into the cost model is introduced. The results and discussion sections find that with no cost improvement of the RE technologies, the partial renewable energy scenarios with no carbon price are less costly than the BAU case for up to around 70% RE generation (the break even point). If the carbon price is increased or there is cost improvement, then the break even point is pushed higher. With a carbon price, cost improvement and current Australian installation growth rates, the break even point could reach above 99% RE generation. This result indicates that it is plausible a 100% RE grid using only batteries for storage will be cost effective compared to the fossil fuel BAU case. In the final section, the conclusions reached by this study are summarised. 2 partial renewable energy scenarios for the SWIS grid were considered in this study, each with a different level of renewable technologies used. The installed capacities of each of these technologies are given in Table 1. A business as usual (BAU) scenario was also developed whereby the load demand on the SWIS was met using mainly current conventional fossil fuel generation technologies. It was assumed that the cost of the BAU scenario does not change, although it may go up because of increasing fuel costs.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: The mild group presented significantly higher abundance of Alistipes, Muribaculaceae and Lachnospiraceae (p < 0. 001), the moderate group showed a significant increase in Alcaligenes and Pseudorobacter (p < 0. 001) while the severe group had significantly higher relative abundance of and Veillonella (p < 0. 001) (Figure 2C). However, a reduction in the number of detected genera was observed in stool samples as symptom severity increased (Figure 2D). Concretely, mild patients showed more presence of Barnesiella, Muribaculaceae and different members of the Clostridia class (Clostridia, Coprococcus, Dorea, Lachnospiraceae, Roseburia and Ruminococcus) (p < 0. 001). Although moderate ill patients presented different genera, only Streptococcus was significantly increased in this group (p < 0. 001). Remarkably, Anaerococcus, Dialister, Lachnocostridium or Peptoniphilus were more abundant in patients with severe symptoms (p < 0. 001) (Figure 2D). Differences in bacteria abundance could be used as biomarkers to predict disease severity and outcome in SARS-CoV-2 infectionWe investigated if some specific taxa could contribute to the severity of the symptoms. ASVs were evaluated to determine core taxa along with the specific bacteria of each group of patients and samples (Figure 3A,B). In nasopharyngeal swabs, Venn diagram analysis revealed that the three groups of study shared 51 core taxa. 60 specific bacteria were identified in patients with mild symptoms while 32 were seen in patients with moderate symptoms and 8 in patients with severe symptoms. In stool, 159 core taxa were shared by the three groups of patients, being 27 specific for mild patients symptoms, 33 for moderate patients and 27 for severe patients (For more details see Table S1). Figure 3. Differential analysis expression of microbiota composition from nasopharyngeal and stool samples revealed the presence of specific bacteria related to COVID-19 severity index. (A) Venn diagram showing ASVs distribution in nasopharyngeal swab samples. (B) Venn diagram showing ASVs distribution in stool samples.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: Any study of the history of cereal crops in Europe and the would have to to be based on charred material. One of the economically important traits of wheat is the visco-elastic property of wheat dough, which is influenced by wheat storage proteins. These are highly variable, and certain glutenin alleles, e. g. those situated on the D-genome of wheat, have better bread-making qualities than others (Payne 1987). Hexaploid wheat such as Triticum aestivum is used today for bread-making, whereas tetraploid T. durum is used for making pasta. In the case of morphologically ambiguous wheat grains (Triticum species), genetic identification of wheat genomes by amplification of a genome-specific partial promoter region of the high molecular weight (HMW) glutenin subunit genes has aided in species designation by identification of ploidy level (Allaby et al. 1994; Brown et al. 1998; Schlumbaum et al. 1998; Allaby et al. 1999). Thus, for example, the presence of hexaploid wheat was established at one of the Neolithic lakeshore settlements in Switzerland (Schlumbaum et al. 1998). In certain regions, crop plants may survive through desiccation in deserts or in caves. Investigations of DNA from plant remains from archaeological sites in Egypt have been reported for radish (O’Donoghue et al. 1996), sorghum (Deakin et al. 1998a, b) and papyri (Marota et al. 2002). In the case of maize (Zea mays), its origin, its domestication and impact on diversity, and its subsequent spread over the American continent form one central topic in molecular genetic and archaeobotanical research (Benz 2001; Piperno and Flannery 2001; Doebley 2004). The first attempt to shed light on maize diversity used analysis of transposable elements (Mu) in pre-Columbian maize kernels (Rollo et al. 1994). The manner in which domesticated maize spread into and within was inferred from DNA analyses of allelic diversity in the alcohol dehydrogenase (adh) gene and of microsatellite loci in modern landraces and in desiccated maize cobs excavated in caves (Freitas et al. 2003; Lia et al. 2007).

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: However, it can clearly be seen that replacing conventional fossil generation with renewable energy rather than more conventional plants will be the least cost option up to high levels of RE generation, with a cost break even point of around 70% even without a price on carbon. Any policy system that results in a price on carbon will make the break even point higher. Denholm et al. [21] and other studies have suggested that interconnection with another grid, or a form of renewable energy that is capable of being stored for longer time scales, such as biomass, renewable power to gas, or pumped hydro, combined with the use of demand management, might be a more cost effective way to cover the final 5–10% of RE generation capacity to achieve a low emission 100% renewable electricity system. However, the cost of wind power has been falling in the last few years, and the cost of solar and battery storage is also currently falling rapidly. The results of this study show that if costs continue to improve on the same trajectory as currently observed, and installation rates grow even at a moderate rate of 10%, then the break even point with BAU will increase significantly, up to 85% RE with no carbon price. With a carbon price of $24 per tonne, the break even point reaches 96% RE. With a higher carbon price and/or faster cost improvement and installation growth rates, the cost advantage of using a conventional fossil generation system begins to vanish altogether, and a cost effective 100% RE system based on batteries is foreseeable. 5 this study the cost effectiveness of using high levels of distributed renewable energy, and batteries as the only major storage technology, to supply the energy needs of a wide scale electrical grid was investigated. A number of conclusions can be drawn from the findings: It is cost effective to pursue the approach of using battery storage now: Even with no carbon price or cost improvement, the cost was less than using a business as usual fossil fuel approach up to a break even level of 70% RE. With a price on carbon or cost improvement of the RE technologies, the break even level was pushed higher, and could reach above 99%. However the costs of RE technologies play out in the real world, increasing the level of renewable energy generation on the SWIS from the current low levels using batteries will reduce costs as well as reducing greenhouse emissions for many years to come, even without the benefit of hydroelectricity, pumped hydro storage, bio energy or solar thermal storage.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: (C) LEfSe plot of taxonomic biomarkers present in nasopharyngeal swab samples (p value = 0. 01 and LDA value = 4). (D) LEfSe plot of taxonomic biomarkers present in stool samples (p value = 0. 01 and LDA value =4). Besides, the linear discriminant analysis (LEfSe) was performed to identify differential microorganisms for each group of patients (Figure 3C,D). In nasopharyngeal samples, Burkholderia sp. , Paraburkholderia sp. and Massilia sp. were identified in mild patients; Pseudomonas veronii, Stenotrophomonas rhizophila and Azotobacter chroococcum in moderate patients; and Mycoplasma salivarium, Prevotella dentalis, Leptotrichia and Haemophilus parainfluenzae in severe patients. In stool samples, Bacteroides coprocola, Veillonella sp. , Ruminococcus bicirculans and Sutterella stercoricanis were identified as predictors of mild condition; Prevotella stercorea, Bacteroides cellulosilyficus, Streptococcus salivarus, Bacteroides stercoris and Prevotella copri as predictors of moderate symptoms; and Escherichia, Enterococcus durans, Alistipes onderdonkii, Prevotella timonensis and Prevotella bivia as markers of severe condition. To further assess the role of these potential biomarkers in the prediction of COVID-19 severity, a correlation analysis was performed (Figure 4). In summary, biomarkers for mild symptomatology (B. coprocola, R. bicirculans, S. stercoricanis and Veillonella sp. ) presented a negative correlation profile with the different clinical features or biochemical parameters evaluated. In contrast, biomarkers associated with severe symptoms in nasopharyngeal swabs (M. salivarium and Leptotrichia) showed a positive correlation with D dimer and cardiomyopathy, respectively. In addition, the other two biomarkers linked to the highest severity (H. parainfluenzae and P.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: A genetic comparison of modern domesticated plants with their ancestors opens up the possibility of identifying traits which have been selected during domestication. In maize, such genes have been identified and are characterized by reduced diversity in maize landraces and inbred maize in comparison to their wild ancestor teosinte (Wang et al. 1999; Vigouroux et al. 2002; Whitt et al. 2002; Wang et al. 2005). The analysis in ancient maize remains of short fragments within these genes makes it possible to investigate approximately when the alleles common in modern maize were selected, and at which time other alleles which are only known from teosinte were still present in the population. So far, three such selected genes have been studied in maize cobs preserved through desiccation. These genes affect not only plant morphology but also the quantity and quality of starch and proteins in ancient maize and were found to be already selected 4,400 years ago (Jaenicke-Després et al. 2003). Ancient DNA investigations relating to the domestication of rice are summarised in Jones and Brown (2000). Recently first attempts were made to understand the beginnings of horticulture in Europe. The growing of grapes (Vitis vinifera) and production of wine is a good example of the study of regional traditions versus the influence of “foreign” cultures. V. vinifera is propagated vegetatively, probably since ancient times. Surprisingly little genetic homogenization took place despite large cultivar diversity and intensive breeding of new cultivars, since microsatellite variability in modern cultivars is known to be structured geographically and at cultivar level (Sefc et al. 2000; Aradhya et al. 2003; This et al. 2004). This permits speculation about the origin of historically known cultivars (Vouillamoz et al. 2006) and comparison with ancient cultivars. Microsatellite loci have been used to investigate the origins of V. vinifera seeds preserved by waterlogging and charring at several European Celtic, Greek and Roman sites. At all sites there was evidence of wine production. Amplification of as few as two or three microsatellite loci already permitted tentative assignments of the origins of the wine plant in a defined archaeological context (Manen et al. 2003). Another exciting opportunity is the use of geographically distributed genetic markers discovered in modern wild or domestic species.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Energy storage technology is crucial to ensuring that renewable energy can be used when demand is high, even if generation is low. [SEP] Text: Yearly cost improvements in RE technologies can be incorporated into levelised COE estimations. This study developed a simple method to incorporate the continuously improving capital costs of RE technologies over the build duration of the system into the estimation of COE. This approach can be widely adopted, as there is urgency to build these low emission systems now, in order to avoid dangerous climate change, and not wait until some point in the future. It is perhaps more realistic to use this approach rather than estimating projected costs at some point in the future and then calculating the cost of building the entire system based on these costs. These findings are applicable to other regions. The finding of this study have positive implications for other regions in the world with variable renewable energy resources and also having to rely on battery storage, or coming to rely on battery storage by default in the absence of policies designed to enable the implementation of other technologies. A cost effective 100% RE system for these regions seems to be in reach even if there are geographical or policy challenges.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: dentalis) also showed a tendency related to CRP, D dimer and cardiomyopathy (Figure 4A). Interestingly, similar results were found in stool samples. Severe biomarkers revealed a positive correlation towards D dimer and CRP levels, especially P. bivia and P. timonensis. These two bacteria also presented a positive association with ferritin levels, age and respiratory rate, and a negative correlation with lymphocyte count (Figure 4B). Figure 4. Whereas mild biomarkers showed negative correlations towards clinical variables, severe biomarkers presented positive correlations. (A) Correlation plot of nasopharyngeal swab biomarkers and clinical variables. (B) Correlation plot of stool samples biomarkers and clinical variables. RR: respiratory rate; HR: heart rate; GI: gastrointestinal alterations. Identification of a novel microbiome-based COVID-19 prognosis approachConsidering the LEfSe results, we propose a new approach to predict disease severity in patients suffering SARS-CoV-2 infection based on establishing a pattern of nasopharyngeal-gut microbiota. The Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed no important associations between nasopharyngeal and faecal microbiota in mild and moderate groups (Figure 5A,B). However, in patients with severe symptoms the Spearman’s rho coefficient showed a significant positive correlation between P. timonensis towards P. dentalis and M. salivarium (Figure 5C). Consequently, the ratio between the abundance of these bacteria could serve as reliable predictors of severity of COVID-19. The results revealed a significant increase in the ratios P. timonensis M. salivarium and P. timonensis/P. dentalis in patients with severe symptoms compared to those with mild or moderate symptoms (Figure 5D,E). Figure 5. The existence of a relationship between the abundance of nasopharyngeal severe biomarkers and stool severe biomarkers allow the employment of an abundance ratio between them as a new tool for predicting COVID-19 severity. (A) Correlation plot among biomarkers found in nasopharyngeal swab and stool samples in each condition (mild, moderate and severe from left to right) (B) Ratio of the abundance between P. timonensis (stool) and M. salivarium and P.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: This approach has been successfully used to trace the introduction of bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) into the Americas from Asia as early as cal. 8900 b. p. (Erickson et al. 2005) by studying single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in chloroplast trn intergenic spacer regions. Some studies have hinted at the potential for gaining information using aDNA by demonstrating the feasibility of future studies in waterlogged plant remains with a woody exocarp. For example in the region, the beginning of fruit-growing coincided with the Roman occupation (Jacomet and Mermod 2002) and formed the start of an agricultural development that still leaves its mark on the regional agriculture today. At the archaeological sites in this region, fruit-stones of Prunus domestica, P. insititia, P. persica and other species are abundant and preserved mainly by waterlogging. In a first study of morphologically ambiguous Prunus fruit stones which were either wild P. spinosa or cultivated P. insititia, the maternal parent was identified as wild sloe (Pollmann et al. 2005). One advantage of Prunus fruit stones for aDNA studies is that they are large enough for separate analysis of maternal tissues, and for replicated results from the same individual stone. Another example is the successful DNA analysis of waterlogged olive fruit stones (Elbaum et al. 2005), which opens up the possibility for understanding the complex domestication history of this species. Although it is not the focus of this review, useful information can also be gained from herbarium specimens and other desiccated medieval or historical plant materials. Landraces, which are available from seed banks and go back to the early twentieth century, although much younger than archaeological samples, pre-date the industrial revolution and large-scale modern breeding efforts. They thus provide meaningful information on the status quo ante and on plant phylogeny. Very interestingly, they also provide information on the presence and evolution of plant pathogens, which of course have had a major impact on agricultural societies (Rogers and Bendich 1985; Bruns et al. 1990; Rogers 1994; Taylor and Swann 1994; Savolainen et al. 1995; Ristaino et al. 2001; Blatter et al. 2002b; Ristaino 2002).

Output: pass


Input: Claim: The majority of renewable energy systems require some form of storage to ensure continuous power availability. [SEP] Text: Demand for electricity, on the other hand, is continuous, although also variable in absolute quantities, with higher demand during the ‘awake’ day (05 h00 to 20 h00) and lower consumption during the ‘asleep’ night (20 h00 to 05 h00). Typical profiles for wind and photovoltaic (PV) solar generation, and the demand for electricity by consumers in South Africa’s national grid (GridSA) for the first week of December 2022, are shown in Figure 1. Solar is highly periodic and, to a large extent, predictable on a 5-day basis, but wind is highly variable and non-periodic, although the summer pattern often reflects strong winds in the late afternoon, which offsets the rapid decline in PV at sunset. Both characteristics of renewable energy generation are clearly visible in Figure 1 and have also been previously reported [1]. Figure 1. Typical summer profiles for wind, PV and grid demand in South Africa. The mismatch between supply and demand creates difficulties for grid management and has driven the development of large-scale energy storage systems, in addition to other approaches such as the increased deployment of gas and hydroelectric turbines. In the longer term, low-carbon storage solutions are essential if all countries are to reach net zero status by 2050. However, these systems are costly, and the cost of energy storage remains a significant barrier to the wider adoption of renewable energy. In this 5. Advertisement 2. Background2. 1 Overview of the electricity gridThere are two striking features of GridSA, which shape the structure of the grid itself, its impact on the environment and its relationship with its customers. The first is the dominant role in all three aspects of electricity supply (generation, transmission and distribution) played by a single entity, namely the state-owned energy utility, Eskom, as shown in Figure 2. Eskom generates about 180 TWh per annum of electricity, supplying 90% of all electricity used in [2]. It operates a fleet of 15 coal-fired power stations, one nuclear reactor, 4 gas/diesel turbines and 7 hydroelectric schemes. Its fleet has a total generation capacity of 45 GW, but presently operates at a capacity utilisation factor of less than 50% [3]. The utility’s transmission system includes about 28,000 km of high-voltage and 325,000 km of lower-voltage lines, and it supplies directly about 6.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: dentalis (nasopharyngeal swab) biomarkers. Groups with different letters statistically differ (p < 0. 05). DiscussionRecent findings have evidenced the prominent role of the microbiome in viral infections, and it can either promote or supress viral them [25, 26]. In fact, different studies have explored the interplay between the host microbiota and SARS-CoV-2 infection [27, 28]. However, few studies have investigated the nasopharyngeal-faecal axis as a potential biomarker of severity in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Hence, the present study provides several nasopharyngeal and gut microbiota-based biomarkers that could help to predict COVID-19 severity. According to the of Health (NIH), COVID-19 severity is classified depending on the associated symptoms [21] that include age, gender, D-dimer levels, dyspnoea and higher SpO2 score, which are predictors of worse disease progression [29]. The current study confirmed that older age as well as a higher percentage of dyspnoea; increased heart and respiratory rates together with lower oxygen saturation were associated with severe symptoms. In fact, ageing is related to immune response decline as well as higher incidence of systemic, chronic and low-grade inflammation called inflammaging. Gender is also considered a risk factor, as a recent meta-analysis has shown that men tended to have higher risk of developing severe symptoms, being hospitalised, admitted to the intensive care units and die [34] for more severe disease. The results in the present study support these previous studies as it is found that men and women are disproportionately affected since males suffered from more severe disease than females, including higher ICU admission rates, dyspnoea, increased heart rate. Sex disparities in symptoms severity has been attributed to higher rates of hazardous behaviours and existence of comorbidities, such as cardiomyopathy, in males than in females. In fact, the incidence of cardiovascular complications in COVID-19 pathology appears to be associated with sex and gender differences, thus contributing to the greater severity and poorer outcomes of the SARS-CoV2-mediated disease in male patients compared to women [35]. This relationship has also been demonstrated in this study since a higher rate of cardiovascular condition is evidenced in male patients as the severity of symptoms increases.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: Vegetation and dietIn archaeobotany, changes in vegetation are studied by investigating pollen from sediment cores—so far only few researchers have made use of this type of plant remains. Coniferous pollen from sediment cores was reported to contain DNA (Suyama et al. 2003; Parducci et al. 2005). Reconstruction of temporal vegetation changes was attempted from faeces (Hofreiter et al. 2003) and the potential of genetic analysis of frozen sediments for the reconstruction of past vegetation over thousands of years in correlation to climate changes was demonstrated (Willerslev et al. 2003). For these types of study vertical migration of DNA must be controlled (Haile et al. 2007)The analysis of aDNA from trees (Liepelt et al. 2006) opens up not only the possibility of investigating the evolution of genetic diversity in tree populations through time (Tani et al. 2003) but also of reconstructing the geographic origin of timber used at a particular site. Thus it proved possible to establish the regional provenance of oaks used in constructions at several European sites (Dumolin-Lapègue et al. 1999; Deguilloux et al. 2003). aDNA analyses of complex plant mixtures, as found for example in faeces (Poinar et al. 1998; Hofreiter et al. 2000; Poinar et al. 2001; Kuch et al. 2002; Hofreiter et al. 2003; Iniguez et al. 2003), demonstrate the potential of aDNA studies and of collaboration between geneticists and morphologists for the reconstruction of diet. Even more information has been gained from faeces by employing both types of investigation. Apart from faeces, gut contents have been used to reconstruct diet genetically (Rollo et al. 2002). Methodological aspects of plant ancient DNAPlant genomesPlants have three genomic compartments: nucleus, mitochondria and chloroplasts, each differing in mutation rates and with complex modes of inheritance. Plants can be diploid, but also polyploid or can have genome duplications. They reproduce sexually and multiply vegetatively. Different species can hybridize. Propagation involves inbreeding or outcrossing, and plant spatial dispersal is mediated through different vectors such as wind, insects, birds or mammals—all of which influences the gene flow.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: The majority of renewable energy systems require some form of storage to ensure continuous power availability. [SEP] Text: 7 million direct customers [4]. Figure 2. Components of the electricity value chain. The second feature is that GridSA is heavily dependent on coal as the main source of energy [5]. For example, as shown in Figure 3 for the first week of December 2022, coal accounted for 80% of the total energy supplied by the utility. Other sources include diesel, PV, concentrated solar power, wind, hydro and nuclear [6]. Renewables account for 13% of the total supply with the remainder being obtained from nuclear (5%) and diesel (2%). Figure 3. Profile of GridSA energy supply (December 2022). Source: Own data and the Eskom data portal [3]. Demand in the grid follows a conventional square wave pattern, with a small evening peak linked to normal residential activities such as cooking, space cooling and water heating. Higher ‘awake’ day use is met with the combined use of non-dispatchable generation sources (wind and solar), diesel turbines and pumped storage. Users of electricity are similar to most industrialised countries with the main consumers being industry (51%), residential sector (20%) and the commercial/service sector (15%) [5]. Total demand is about 205,635 GWh, equivalent to an average power need of 23. 5 GW. Pumped hydro is a key feature of GridSA and is a central to the later discussion in this 2. 73 GW. Excess energy generated during the night and over weekends by the coal-fired power stations is used to pump water from low to high altitudes; the same water is then returned to low-altitude storage dams during the day, as shown in Figure 4. The system has an overall efficiency of only 75% but it allows Eskom to flatten the demand curve and make full use of its available generation capacity during off-peak periods. Figure 4. Load and discharge cycles for GridSA’s pumped storage (December 2022). Source: Own data and the Eskom data portal [3]. The high dependence on coal and pumped storage, which exists due to abundant and cheap coal deposits, and a specific investment programme for new power stations implemented in the 1960s to the 1980s, has become a significant barrier to the decarbonisation of the economy [7]. Africa is a signatory of the 2015 [8], it has made little progress towards the attainment of its nationally determined contributions [9, 10].

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: In this context, there is few and controversial sex-stratified data investigating the role of cardiovascular complications in the prognosis and outcome of COVID-19 disease in men and women. However, it has been reported that women exhibit higher expression and activation of angiotensin type 2 (AT2) receptors, which have been associated with a more robust anti-inflammatory immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection and are also involved in the control of blood pressure and renal function, thereby providing protection for cardiovascular complications in female patients [36]. Remarkably, the extent of cardiac cell mortality is more noticeable in males than in females under various conditions [35], and this could be linked to an augmented protection against cardiovascular complications in female patients. Additionally, women produce high levels of regenerative white blood cells and epoxy-eicosatrienoic acids, which display antihypertensive and anti-inflammatory properties on blood vessels [37]. Consequently, this leads to restricted cardiac remodelling and a more effective restoration of functionality [38]. Regarding some biochemical parameters typically described as biomarkers for COVID-19 severity (D-dimer, ferritin and CRP) [39, 40], the findings obtained in this study found that those groups of patients with moderate or severe symptoms showed significantly increased levels of these plasma parameters, which are consistent with previous reports [41–43]. The association of then microbiota composition with these clinical variables has been widely studied [15] and it is well described that the microbiota can modulate host immunity and physiological functions [47], Consequently, the microbiota could be key in the clinical phenotype of these patients although the specific contribution of the microbiota to the progression of the infection and a poor prognosis is not yet fully understood. This study addresses for the first time the implication of nasopharyngeal and faecal microbiota in the prognosis of COVID-19. Firstly, when the alpha and beta diversity were evaluated, the results revealed only substantial changes in richness and Shannon diversity index in nasopharyngeal microbiome associated with severe symptoms. In this sense, controversial results have been previously reported, and although most of the studies have proposed that SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with lower microbial diversity in nasopharyngeal samples [14, 48, 49], others did not find differences in alpha diversity composition among groups with different symptomatology [50, 51].

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: All these plant-specific features have to be taken into account in plant aDNA studies. MethodsIn brief, the procedure for aDNA analysis in plants is as follows: excavation, morphological description, external cleaning if possible, powdering, DNA extraction, amplification of chosen target region within the plant’s genome(s) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis to establish presence of correct product size, cloning and sequencing, and verification. Ideally, samples are taken directly at the excavation, taking care to prevent contamination from the environment (see “Verification in plant ancient DNA research”; Yang and Watt 2005). Detailed morphological documentation is needed as DNA investigations are destructive. Samples should be then stored cold or frozen to slow further DNA degradation (Burger et al. 1999; Poinar 2002; Pruvost et al. 2007). In the case of large, robust plant remains such as fruit stones external decontamination with bleach or UV light can be done before DNA analysis. Plant material is powdered by a Retch mill, mortar and pestle or other destructive methods. If possible, several hundred milligrams should be processed from ten individuals or more, to establish initial DNA preservation, followed ideally by analysis of individual specimens. At present, there are no preferred extraction methods for ancient plant material, nor is there any comprehensive comparison of protocols, such as exists for animals (Rohland and Hofreiter 2007). CTAB/DTAB methods, silica-based methods or DNA extraction kits are employed (Allaby et al. 1997; Schlumbaum et al. 1998; Dumolin-Lapègue et al. 1999; Blatter et al. 2002b; Jaenicke-Després et al. 2003; Manen et al. 2003; Pollmann et al. 2005; Liepelt et al. 2006). These methods for DNA extraction were developed taking into account that plant parts are rich in secondary byproducts, sugars and other potential inhibitors of PCR. Modifications, such as the use of PTB (N-phenacylthiazolium bromide), are suggested in cases where Maillard products are expected (Poinar 2002). However, in animal studies, PTB and other additives have been shown to be neither advantageous nor disadvantageous (Rohland and Hofreiter 2007).

Output: pass


Input: Claim: The majority of renewable energy systems require some form of storage to ensure continuous power availability. [SEP] Text: In the absence of effective demand side management, systems will suffer from the well-known ‘duck curve’ effect, characterised by an oversupply of energy at midday as solar reaches its peak, and a sudden undersupply in the evening as the sun sets and demand accelerates to the evening peak [19, 20]. It is noted that Eskom already applies ToUTs, as listed in the tariff schedule [21]. The off-peak and low-season tariffs are about 50% of the peak values, providing a large incentive for consumers to adjust their energy practices. However, the benefit of lower tariffs can only be realised if consumption is managed through smart metering, connected to an appropriate billing system. Most households and low-energy users do not use such systems, and hence cannot take advantage of the significant discounts presented by the Eskom ToUTs. In summary, ToUTs, supported by smart metering and changes to consumer behaviour, are critical to higher levels of renewable energy generation in Grid SA. The remaining question for this 3. Modelling the energy systemModelling of GridSA was undertaken with spreadsheet models using real-time data downloaded from the Portal [3]. The raw data were first processed to generate profiles for total demand, and energy production per source of supply. Simulations of the required energy storage, and hence the necessary tariff, were then developed for a winter month (June) and a summer month (December). The accuracy of the modelling depends, inevitably, on the quality of the data from the portal. Assessments of the extent of power generation outside GridSA, unrecorded on the data portal, are that this is limited to about 5% of the total energy. In other words, 95% of electricity supply is covered by the data portal. In order to model the required tariff, data from the (RMI4P) were used as the benchmark for the cost of providing energy in the PV shoulder periods (early morning and late evening). The supply crisis, as outlined in Section 2. 3, precipitated the initial conceptualisation of this programme by the government in 2020 [1]. The main objectives of the programme were to establish independent power producers able to provide 2 GW of emergency power on a flexible basis between the hours of 05 h00 and 21 h30, and to be able to respond to needs of the electricity system operator based on an automatic generation control load-following ability [22].

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: Furthermore, in terms of beta diversity, previous studies have reported modifications in the microbiome composition from the respiratory or gastrointestinal tract in COVID-19 patients when compared to healthy subjects [19, 52]. In the present study, in both nasopharyngeal swabs and stools, every group of patients presented distinctly differentiated clusters. As previously reported, COVID-19 disease severity is more dependent on the presence or absence of certain bacteria rather than alterations in bacterial diversity and richness [14, 53]. Supporting this, characterization of bacterial microbiota composition at phyla and genera levels for nasopharyngeal and stool samples indicated a more evident association between changes on them and the severity of the disease. Specifically, in nasopharyngeal swabs, the presence of Bacteroidota and Actinobacteriota has been previously linked to a better prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection, since these bacteria have been proposed to exert beneficial effects by preventing respiratory diseases, including COVID-19 [54–58]. Moreover, in nasopharyngeal samples, the abundance of Bacillota and Pesudomonadota was increased in patients with severe symptomatology, thus supporting previous studies in which higher counts of Bacillota (Staphylococcus sp. and Streptococcus sp. ) and Pesudomonadota (Pseudomonas sp. ) were associated with moderate and severe symptoms of COVID-19 [59]. The evaluation of genera abundance composition showed that Alistipes and Muribaculaceae were highly abundant in mild patients. While these bacteria have been well characterised in gut microbiota, little information regarding their presence in nasopharyngeal microbiota has been provided up to date. Different experimental studies in mice have suggested their role in viral infections. Thus, Muribaculaceae was found in the lung microbiota in SARS-CoV-2 infected mice that were treated with a selective inhibitor of the main protease (Mpro) [60]. In the case of Alistipes, in a study conducted in children infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RVS), these bacteria were more abundant in the nasopharyngeal microbiota of non RVS-infected subjects [61].

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: Dilution of extracts or an increase of the amount of Taq polymerase is often sufficient to overcome PCR inhibition. For genetic analysis, universal or specific plant genome target sequences are chosen, depending on the goal of the project (see “Examples of markers used in ancient DNA studies”). So far, in aDNA studies targets have been amplified in single PCRs, cloned and sequenced. Sequencing after cloning is still the method of choice, to account for modifications due either to polymerase errors or DNA post-mortem damage (Bower et al. 2005; Ho et al. 2007). Mosaic sequences as a result of jumping PCR (Pääbo et al. 1990) between either different genomes of a polyploid (Allaby et al. 1999) or between nuclear genes with multiple copies such as ribosomal DNA, or PCR slippage in the case of microsatellites, have to be identified and eliminated by sequencing cloned PCR products. Multiplex PCR, that is the simultaneous amplification of several target regions, has so far not been realised in plant aDNA. Generally, target regions between 90 and 300 bp (base pair) are amplified. Quantitative real-time PCR may be used to establish the amount of target sequences preserved, but, due to the degradation process, we doubt that real-time PCR is useful, for example, for identification of ploidy levels in archaeological remains. In contrast, pyrosequencing (Ronaghi 2001; Margulies et al. 2005), employed in whole genome sequencing of modern organisms, though still very expensive, could be useful in ancient plant genetics in the future (e. g. for ploidy identification) as it does not rely on PCR amplification. Other methods that are common in modern molecular plant biology, in particular those employed to study populations or genetic diversity such as RAPD or AFLP and related methods, are problematic with archaeological plant remains, because templates are damaged and degraded. This aDNA damage results in absent bands (=allelic dropouts) or in artificial bands, produced by the presence of co-extracted contaminating modern or archaeological plant material or by polyploidy or gene duplication. Nevertheless, some reports have been published (Siles et al. 2000; Suh et al. 2000; Iniguez et al. 2003; Gyulai et al. 2006).

Output: pass


Input: Claim: The majority of renewable energy systems require some form of storage to ensure continuous power availability. [SEP] Text: In other words, further load shifting, other than that already introduced by the Eskom ToUTs, may not be realised with ToUTs; instead, customers will use the available electricity, despite its higher cost. This behaviour reflects supply, and not demand, elasticity. This anticipated response provides a strong basis for the implementation of BESS, despite its additional cost to Grid SA, as long as this cost remains competitive to independent power generation already being accessed by customers on the grid, such as PV and diesel. Indicative values obtained from the RMI4P tender prices suggest that this requirement will indeed be possible. For instance, the price from Mulilo/proposal of Table 1 for emergency power in the shoulder and peak periods is ZAR1,520 per MWh (vs. a diesel-based tariff of ZAR6,000 per MWh). Mulilo/is a particularly relevant model for the issue being explored in this 6. The profiles indicate that solar component was overdesigned to ensure sufficient power for recharging the BESS under both winter and summer conditions. During the latter, there is no need for gas-based generation, but in winter, the lower peak of solar-based generation and the increased likelihood of cloudy skies requires use of gas/diesel on certain days (see 9th June in Figure 6). Figure 6. Energy generation (by source) and supply for Mulilo/Total hydra (summer and winter). The data from Mulilo/Hydra can now be extended to the broader question of whether a PV/BESS configuration could meet the electricity demand of Grid SA, and, if so, at what additional cost. The first assumption in this analysis is to extend the concept of headroom, as previously developed for the national grid in the [24], to GridSA. The concept considers that supply can be separated into two components, namely the base load and the headroom, where the latter is the difference at any one moment in time between total demand and base load, as given in Eq. 1. Supplied=Base Load+HeadrooomE1Base load on GridSA is typically about 22 GW, with remainder being supplied by wind, pumped storage, solar and diesel/gas turbines, all of which are variable or intermittent inputs.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: Overall, these genera could be associated with a protective role against viral infection, and their higher presence in nasopharyngeal samples from mild COVID-19 patients could prevent the progression to severe disease. Interestingly, mild patients have also shown a higher content of Lactobacillus, similarly to that reported previously in asymptomatic COVID-19 patients [62]. Of note, it is well described that the microorganisms forming the protective microbiota are fundamentally represented by Lactobacillus species. Correspondingly, the use of Lactobacillus strains as probiotics for preventing viral infections has been previously explored [63], and hence, its administration in SARS-CoV-2 infection could be considered to avoid complications. The increased presence of other genera, such as Corynebacterium, Acinetobacter, Staphylococcus and Veillonella, positively correlated with the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This correlation is supported by previous studies in which these genera were associated with both disease severity and systemic inflammation [14, 64]. In addition, higher abundance of Enterococcus was observed in severe patients, thus confirming other studies in critically ill patients [65]. In contrast to the findings in the nasopharyngeal microbiota, the analysis at phylum level in stool samples did not reveal notable modifications among patient groups. However, in mild ill patients, different genera from Clostridia class (Clostridia, Coprococcus, Dorea, Lachnospiraceae, Roseburia and Ruminococcus), Barnesiella and Muribaculaceae were identified as highly abundant. While the class Clostridia was associated with a reduced production of proinflammatory cytokines in COVID-19 patients and in those who recovered from the infection [66, 67], Barnesiella prevents colonisation by antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Enterococcus, which is involved in bloodstream infection in critically ill COVID-19 patients [68, 69]. Furthermore, studies performed in mice have shown that Muribaculaceae abundance is reduced in mice coinfected with different respiratory viruses, suggesting that it may play a protective role under viral infection [70]. Therefore, it seems that under SARS-CoV-2 infection, the reduction of Barnesiella, Clostridia and Muribaculaceae members were associated with more severe symptoms.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: In principle, knowledge of DNA sequences in living plants is required for aDNA studies. Such sequence information can be found in public databases such as GenBank/EMBL ( Unfortunately, some plants, especially those of European origin, are clearly underrepresented in these databases. Verification in plant ancient DNA researchMost plants have small seeds. As a consequence, most archaeological plant remains are small. Wood, large stone-fruits or complete cereal ears are exceptions to this rule. This smallness of plant remains has consequences both for the proof of authenticity, as required in aDNA studies, and for work at the individual level. Criteria of authenticity were first published in relation to human remains (Cooper and Poinar 2000; Hummel 2003), and were only later suggested in the context of plant aDNA (Parducci and Petit 2004). They involve several different strategies (such as strict separation of pre- and post-PCR areas, an inverse relationship between amplification success and target length, reproducibility, and preferential amplification of plastid DNA over single copy nuclear DNA, although exceptions to this rule were reported: Banerjee and Brown 2002; Gilbert et al. 2007b) and ultimately acknowledge a sort of “common sense” to ensure the ancient origin of the DNA sequences found (Pääbo et al. 2004; Gilbert et al. 2005). In plant aDNA research, ensuring the authenticity of the sequences and the exclusion of contaminants is comparable to the problem of excluding modern human DNA in human aDNA work, but it can be easier to achieve, for example by using species-specific primers in cases of morphologically identified plant taxa. Contamination of archaeological plant remains can come from different sources. Vast quantities of pollen from modern plants are present in the air. In the soil seeds and roots can come into contact with the ancient specimen. Also during identification using modern reference specimens, contamination with modern DNA can occur and in principle, archaeological plant remains can contaminate each other, for example in storage assemblages. Pollen is even smaller than seeds. Cross-contamination with modern pollen, for example during periods of pollen dispersal of outbreeding species such as Pinus is very possible, both during excavation or later stages of preparation. The problem is less serious with inbreeding species such as wheat. Adequate precautions to avoid pollen contamination during sampling and in the lab should be taken.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: The majority of renewable energy systems require some form of storage to ensure continuous power availability. [SEP] Text: Adopting the value of 22 GW in the model, and assuming a wind energy input of 5 GW, which is 175% of the present capacity on GridSA, it is now possible to calculate the required PV capacity from Eq. 2, the historical data for the summer and winter months and a summer PV efficiency in of 37%. Required PV=max (Headroom−Wind)PVEfficiencyE2For the 2022 data set, which was used as the basis of this study, the summer and winter values for the largest difference between the headroom and the energy derived from wind are calculated to be 4. 4 and 8. 3 GW, respectively, giving a required PV capacity of 17. 8 GW (summer conditions and a 50% overdesign factor). On the basis that the summer demand should be met by wind and solar only, without the use of gas turbines, the BESS power rating and the total energy storage can now be calculated using the following algorithm:Input the PV capacity and calculate the maximum BESS output for the summer conditions. Enter this value in the spreadsheet as the design power capacity for the BESS facility. Calculate the necessary BESS energy rating such that in summer conditions, the gas turbines are not required. This approach leads to the result that the optimal BESS specification is 3. 7 GW/10. 4 GWh. The output of this proposed system is shown in Figure 7. It is noted that 10. 4 GWh is significantly larger than the present BESS facilities; the largest existing BESS is the Facility in California with a capacity of 1. 6 GWh. Multiple facilities giving a total storage capacity of 10. 4 GWh over several sites are, therefore, recommended. Figure 7. Proposed solar/BESS energy generation for grid SA (winter and summer). The cost of such an arrangement, and the level of ToUTs to support the investment, must now be considered. The bid price for the Mulilo/proposal of the RMI4P was ZAR1,520 per MWh. Using the spreadsheet model of Mulilo/Total Hydra, it is calculated that BESS will contribute an average of 23% to the total energy output.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: Everyone’s microbiome composition can be optimized to guarantee complete disease resistance. [SEP] Text: Nonetheless, the detected genera for the severe illness group, Lachnocostridum, Anaerococcus and Peptoniphilus, have been recognised as opportunistic pathogens and could contribute to a poor prognosis through inducing gut inflammation [71]. Regarding these differences, both nasopharyngeal and gut microbiota composition could be used to identify specific bacteria to predict COVID-19 severity. In the present study, unique ASVs for each condition were identified. For nasopharyngeal samples, species belonging to the genus Lactobacillus (L. fermentum or L. reuteri) or Prevotella (P. pallens, P. ori and P. shahii) have been identified. The role of Prevotella sp. in COVID-19 infection has not been clearly elucidated. Published microbiome analysis have revealed that its abundance was higher in mild patients [72], although others have suggested that it could be a biomarker of critical phenotype in COVID-19 patients [73, 74]. In spite of the controversial results, the results obtained in this study would confirm the potential use of this species as a biomarker for mild symptomatology. Interestingly, Anaerococcus prevotii was one of the exclusive species found in stools in mild patients. This species has been linked to lower inflammation in COVID-19 patients [75]. Conversely, Coprobacillus cateniformis was solely found in severe patients, which could be involved in the development of a worse condition in these patients through ACE2 upregulation [18]. Even though these bacteria are unique for each group, LEfSe was performed to obtain specific biomarkers [76]. For mild patients, Burkholderia and Paraburkholderia were identified in nasopharyngeal swabs and B. coprocola and R. bicirculans in stool samples. Although the information regarding the first two species in humans is limited, a few studies have reported their presence in the commensal human microbiota [77, 78]. Contrarily, B. coprocola and R. bicirculans have been found in both healthy and COVID-19 patients [79] although the abundance of R. bicirculans was reduced in infected subjects [80]. In patients with moderate symptoms, P. veronii was detected in nasopharyngeal samples whereas P.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Archaeobotany can reveal the exact causes of ancient civilization collapses. [SEP] Text: The important requirement of reproducibility within the same individual is impossible to fulfil in the case of small seeds. It has been argued that, in these cases, reproducibility can be either the amplification of several targets from one sample and/or the successful analysis of other individuals from the same sample or from samples from the same layer (Allaby et al. 1997; Blatter et al. 2002a; Manen et al. 2003; Pollmann et al. 2005). With larger specimens, independent verification and reproduction of results from the same individual is possible (Liepelt et al. 2006). Other important points for authentication concern appropriate molecular behaviour and phylogenetic sense. These are exigencies that can be fulfilled even with small botanical remains. However, a decision based on phylogenetic sense depends on the taxonomic level, on the current knowledge of molecular diversity at a particular genetic locus, or on known ancestry. Because of the possibility of pre-laboratory contamination, independent lab verification is useful only in certain cases, when novel or unexpected results are obtained, such as the first identification of Neanderthal sequences (Pääbo et al. 2004). Independent verification in a different laboratory and/or plausible authentication arguments have for example recently been presented by Jaenicke-Després et al. (2003), Erickson et al. (2005), Pollmann et al. (2005) and Liepelt et al. (2006). We follow the reasoning of Gilbert et al. (2005) that in every publication on aDNA, sufficient and congruent evidence must be presented to support the authentic origin of the results obtained, so that the reader can evaluate the validity of the results: “…, we advocate that readers, reviewers and authors ask ‘What information is presented here that makes the results and/or conclusions believable? ’ and “Is there any reason to not believe this? ” (Gilbert et al. 2005). PreservationThe predominant archaeological plant remains are seeds, pollen and wood; leaves are rarely found. In particular seeds and pollen, as the plant’s reproductive organs, are intended for long-term DNA preservation and are often protected with a sturdy or lignified exocarp. They are thus an ideal source for DNA. Archaeological plant remains from European sites are often retrieved from sediments by flotation with water.

Output: pass