Hydraulic traits of Juniperus communis L. along elevations and European populations

Plant hydraulics play an important role in determining plant distribution and performance, by influencing their growth and productivity. Knowledge of the hydraulic amplitude and plasticity of species is thus a prerequisite for estimating future performance under climate change. We investigated hydraulic safety and efficiency in Juniperus communis L. to estimate its intra-specific hydraulic variability. We analysed plants growing along an elevational transect (700-2000 m a.s.l., Tyrol, Austria) and plants grown in a common garden experiment from seeds collected in various European regions (France, Austria, Ireland, Germany and Sweden). Vulnerability to drought-induced embolism (i.e. hydraulic safety) was assessed via Cavitron and ultrasonic acoustic emission techniques while specific hydraulic conductivity (i.e. hydraulic efficiency) was measured with a flow meter. Hydraulic safety (water potentials inducing 12, 50 and 88% loss of conductivity) and efficiency did not differ significantly neither across elevations nor between European provenancies. Common juniper proved to a be a species with high resistance to drouht stress and showed surprisingly homogenous hydraulic traits, despite sub-species are formed at higher elevation and plant morphology differed widely across provenancies. Due to its overall high hydraulic safety, this species can be considered as less susceptible to the effects of a warmer climate

Juniperus communis populations exhibit low variability in hydraulic safety and efficiency

The performance and distribution of woody species strongly depend on their adjustment to environmental conditions based on genotypic and phenotypic properties. Since more intense and frequent drought events are expected due to climate change, xylem hydraulic traits will play a key role under future conditions, and thus knowledge of hydraulic variability is of key importance. In this study, we aimed to investigate the variability in hydraulic safety and efficiency of the conifer shrub Juniperus communis based on analyses along an elevational transect and a common garden approach. We studied (i) juniper plants growing between 700 and 2000 m a.s.l. Innsbruck, Austria, and (ii) plants grown in the Innsbruck botanical garden (Austria) from seeds collected at different sites across Europe (France, Austria, Ireland, Germany and Sweden). Due to contrasting environmental conditions at different elevation and provenance sites and the wide geographical study area, pronounced variation in xylem hydraulics was expected. Vulnerability to drought-induced embolisms (hydraulic safety) was assessed via Cavitron and ultrasonic acoustic emission technique, and the specific hydraulic conductivity (hydraulic efficiency) via flow measurements. Contrary to our hypothesis, relevant variability in hydraulic safety and efficiency was neither observed across elevations, indicating a low phenotypic variation, nor between provenances, despite expected genotypic differences. Interestingly, the provenance from the most humid and warmest site (Ireland) and the northernmost provenance (Sweden) showed the highest and the lowest embolism resistance, respectively. The hydraulic conductivity was correlated with plant height, which indicates that observed variation in hydraulic traits was mainly related to morphological differences between plants. We encourage future studies to underly anatomical traits and the role of hydraulics for the broad ecological amplitude of J. communis

Disruption prediction with artificial intelligence techniques in tokamak plasmas

In nuclear fusion reactors, plasmas are heated to very high temperatures of more than 100 million kelvin and, in so-called tokamaks, they are confined by magnetic fields in the shape of a torus. Light nuclei, such as deuterium and tritium, undergo a fusion reaction that releases energy, making fusion a promising option for a sustainable and clean energy source. Tokamak plasmas, however, are prone to disruptions as a result of a sudden collapse of the system terminating the fusion reactions. As disruptions lead to an abrupt loss of confinement, they can cause irreversible damage to present-day fusion devices and are expected to have a more devastating effect in future devices. Disruptions expected in the next-generation tokamak, ITER, for example, could cause electromagnetic forces larger than the weight of an Airbus A380. Furthermore, the thermal loads in such an event could exceed the melting threshold of the most resistant state-of-the-art materials by more than an order of magnitude. To prevent disruptions or at least mitigate their detrimental effects, empirical models obtained with artificial intelligence methods, of which an overview is given here, are commonly employed to predict their occurrence—and ideally give enough time to introduce counteracting measures

Difficult tracheal intubation in neonates and infants. NEonate and Children audiT of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe (NECTARINE): a prospective European multicentre observational study

International audienceBackground: Neonates and infants are susceptible to hypoxaemia in the perioperative period. The aim of this study was to analyse interventions related to anaesthesia tracheal intubations in this European cohort and identify their clinical consequences.Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of tracheal intubations of the European multicentre observational trial (NEonate and Children audiT of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe [NECTARINE]) in neonates and small infants with difficult tracheal intubation. The primary endpoint was the incidence of difficult intubation and the related complications. The secondary endpoints were the risk factors for severe hypoxaemia attributed to difficult airway management, and 30 and 90 day outcomes.Results: Tracheal intubation was planned in 4683 procedures. Difficult tracheal intubation, defined as two failed attempts of direct laryngoscopy, occurred in 266 children (271 procedures) with an incidence (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 5.8% (95% CI, 5.1-6.5). Bradycardia occurred in 8% of the cases with difficult intubation, whereas a significant decrease in oxygen saturation (SpO2<90% for 60 s) was reported in 40%. No associated risk factors could be identified among co-morbidities, surgical, or anaesthesia management. Using propensity scoring to adjust for confounders, difficult anaesthesia tracheal intubation did not lead to an increase in 30 and 90 day morbidity or mortality.Conclusions: The results of the present study demonstrate a high incidence of difficult tracheal intubation in children less than 60 weeks post-conceptual age commonly resulting in severe hypoxaemia. Reassuringly, the morbidity and mortality at 30 and 90 days was not increased by the occurrence of a difficult intubation event