3,486 research outputs found
A Study of African Savanna Vegetation Structure, Patterning, and Change
African savannas cover roughly half of the continent, are home to a great diversity of wildlife, and provide ecosystem services to large populations. Savannas showcase a great diversity in vegetation structure, resulting from variation in climatic, edaphic, topographic, and biological factors. Fires play a large role as savannas are the most frequently burned ecosystems on Earth. To study how savanna vegetation structure shifts with environmental factors, it is necessary to gather site data covering the full gradient of climatic and edaphic conditions. Several earlier studies have used coarse resolution satellite remote sensing data to study variation in woody cover. These woody cover estimates have limited accuracy in drylands where the woody component is relatively small, and the data cannot reveal more detailed information on the vegetation structure. We therefore know little about how other structural components, tree densities, crown sizes, and the spatial pattern of woody plants, vary across environmental gradients. This thesis aimed to examine how woody vegetation structure and change in woody cover vary with environmental conditions. The analyses depended on access to very high spatial resolution (\u3c1 \u3em) satellite imagery from sites spread across African savannas. The high resolution data combined with a crown delineation method enabled me to estimate variation in tree densities, mean crown size and the level of aggregation among woody plants. With overlapping older and newer imagery at most of the sites, I was also able to estimate change in woody cover over a 10-year period. I found that higher woody plant aggregation is associated with drier climates, high rainfall variability, and fine-textured soils. These same factors were also indicative of the areas where highly organized periodic vegetation patterns were found. The study also found that observed increases in woody cover across the rainfall gradient is more a result of increasing crown sizes than variation in tree density. The analysis of woody cover change found a mean increase of 0.25 % per year, indicating an ongoing trend of woody encroachment. I could not attribute this trend to any of the investigated environmental factors and it may result from higher atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, which has been proposed in other studies. The most influential predictor of woody cover change in the analysis was the difference between potential woody cover and initial woody cover, which highlights the role of competition for water and density dependent regulation when studying encroachment rates. The second most important predictor was fire frequency. To better understand and explain the dominant ecosystem processes controlling savanna vegetation structure, I constructed a spatially explicit model that simulates the growth of herbaceous and woody vegetation in a landscape. The model reproduced several of the trends in woody vegetation structure earlier found in the remote sensing analysis. These include how tree densities and crowns sizes respond differently to increases in precipitation along the full rainfall range, and the factors controlling the spatial pattern of trees in a landscape
Programmable Scanner for Laser Bathymetry
This article describes a programmable scanner for laser bathymetry. Present scanners use a fixed pattern scan. A programmable scanner however offers many advantages regarding system performance and utility in that the sounding pattern and spot density can be chosen by the operator and optimized for the specific charting mission
Parallel Unsmoothed Aggregation Algebraic Multigrid Algorithms on GPUs
We design and implement a parallel algebraic multigrid method for isotropic
graph Laplacian problems on multicore Graphical Processing Units (GPUs). The
proposed AMG method is based on the aggregation framework. The setup phase of
the algorithm uses a parallel maximal independent set algorithm in forming
aggregates and the resulting coarse level hierarchy is then used in a K-cycle
iteration solve phase with a -Jacobi smoother. Numerical tests of a
parallel implementation of the method for graphics processors are presented to
demonstrate its effectiveness.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure
Museum Digitisations and Emerging Curatorial Agencies Online
This open access book explores the multiple forms of curatorial agencies that develop when museum collection digitisations, narratives and new research findings circulate online. Focusing on Viking Age objects, it tracks the effects of antagonistic debates on discussion forums and the consequences of search engines, personalisation, and machine learning on American-based online platforms. Furthermore, it considers eco-systemic processes comprising computation, rare-earth minerals, electrical currents and data centres and cables as novel forms of curatorial actions. Thus, it explores curatorial agency as social constructivist, semiotic, algorithmic, and material. This book is of interest to scholars and students in the fields of museum studies, cultural heritage and media studies. It also appeals to museum practitioners concerned with curatorial innovation at the intersection of humanist interpretations and new materialist and more-than-human frameworks
Effectiveness of a minimal resource fracture liaison service
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate if a 2-year intervention with a minimal resource fracture liaison service (FLS) was associated with increased investigation and medical treatment and if treatment was related to reduced re-fracture risk. Methods The FLS started in 2013 using existing secretaries (without an FLS coordinator) at the emergency department and orthopaedic wards to identify risk patients. All patients older than 50 years of age with a fractured hip, vertebra, shoulder, wrist or pelvis were followed during 2013–2014 (n = 2713) and compared with their historic counterparts in 2011–2012 (n = 2616) at the same hospital. Re-fractures were X-ray verified. A time-dependent adjusted (for age, sex, previous fracture, index fracture type, prevalent treatment, comorbidity and secondary osteoporosis) Cox model was used. Results The minimal resource FLS increased the proportion of DXA-investigated patients after fracture from 7.6 to 39.6 % (p < 0.001) and the treatment rate after fracture from 12.6 to 31.8 %, which is well in line with FLS types using the conventional coordinator model. Treated patients had a 51 % lower risk of any re-fracture than untreated patients (HR 0.49, 95 % CI 0.37–0.65 p < 0.001). Conclusions We found that our minimal resource FLS was effective in increasing investigation and treatment, in line with conventional coordinator-based services, and that treated patients had a 51 % reduced risk of new fractures, indicating that also non-coordinator based fracture liaison services can improve secondary prevention of fractures
Disseminating evidence from health technology assessment : the case of tobacco prevention
OBJECTIVES: The aims of the present study were to investigate the awareness among
dentists and dental hygienists of evidence-based reports and guidelines on
tobacco cessation activities and the impact these publications had on clinical
practice.
METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to dental hygienists and dentists
in Stockholm County, Sweden, and the results were compared with a previous
investigation.
RESULTS: Among the respondents, awareness of a popular science
version of a systematic review on smoking and its effect on oral health was
reported by 90 percent of the hygienists and 66 percent of the dentists. The
information was used in clinical work by 34 percent of the dentists and 54
percent of the hygienists. Reported changes in patterns of practice were more
frequent recommendations to use nicotine replacement therapy and a more
widespread use of setting quit dates. Approximately one quarter of the dental
professionals reported that they had increased tobacco cessation consultation
because of the results from the reports.
CONCLUSIONS: Changes in patterns of
practice were observed after dissemination of evidence-based information on
tobacco cessation. Methods that were proven to be effective in the evidence-based
report such as discussing quit dates and recommending nicotine replacement
therapy were more commonly used after the publication of the report. Short,
popular versions of extensive systematic reviews seem to be useful for
implementing evidence-based knowledge and changing clinical practice.NonePublishe
Preconditioners for regularized saddle point problems with an application for heterogeneous Darcy flow problems
Weighted maximal regularity estimates and solvability of non-smooth elliptic systems II
We continue the development, by reduction to a first order system for the
conormal gradient, of \textit{a priori} estimates and solvability for
boundary value problems of Dirichlet, regularity, Neumann type for divergence
form second order, complex, elliptic systems. We work here on the unit ball and
more generally its bi-Lipschitz images, assuming a Carleson condition as
introduced by Dahlberg which measures the discrepancy of the coefficients to
their boundary trace near the boundary. We sharpen our estimates by proving a
general result concerning \textit{a priori} almost everywhere non-tangential
convergence at the boundary. Also, compactness of the boundary yields more
solvability results using Fredholm theory. Comparison between classes of
solutions and uniqueness issues are discussed. As a consequence, we are able to
solve a long standing regularity problem for real equations, which may not be
true on the upper half-space, justifying \textit{a posteriori} a separate work
on bounded domains.Comment: 76 pages, new abstract and few typos corrected. The second author has
changed nam
Museum Digitisations and Emerging Curatorial Agencies Online
This open access book explores the multiple forms of curatorial agencies that develop when museum collection digitisations, narratives and new research findings circulate online. Focusing on Viking Age objects, it tracks the effects of antagonistic debates on discussion forums and the consequences of search engines, personalisation, and machine learning on American-based online platforms. Furthermore, it considers eco-systemic processes comprising computation, rare-earth minerals, electrical currents and data centres and cables as novel forms of curatorial actions. Thus, it explores curatorial agency as social constructivist, semiotic, algorithmic, and material. This book is of interest to scholars and students in the fields of museum studies, cultural heritage and media studies. It also appeals to museum practitioners concerned with curatorial innovation at the intersection of humanist interpretations and new materialist and more-than-human frameworks
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