Differential photosynthetic adaptation between size-classes of Spruce and Fir juveniles help to explain the co-existence of the two species.

Background/Question/Methods 
_Abies sachalinensis_ (Sakhalin Fir) and _Picea glehnii_ (Glehn’s Spruce) are major components of the sub-boreal forests of Hokkaido, Japan. Similar Spruce-Fir forests can be found in many other places in the northern hemisphere and will probably be impacted by global warming. Therefore, detailed knowledge of these species’ physiology and life-history strategies at different growth stages is important to understand present communities and to support reliable prediction of possible consequences of global climate change. 
Accordingly, the objective of this study was to establish relations between community dynamics, life-history strategies and photosynthetic adaptation of these species, on different developmental stages. 
The study is taking place on a sub-boreal forest plot in north Japan (N 44º 19’, E 142º 15’). Twenty shade-growing individuals of both species were divided into two height classes: seedlings, if height < 50cm; and saplings, if height > 100cm. The canopy coverage over each individual was assessed by analyzing hemispherical photography and average light incidence. Leaf pigments are being analyzed by chromatography. Light response curves and chlorophyll fluorescence are being measured seasonally, except in winter. Results are analyzed through General Linear Models. The study period was from spring 2009 to summer 2010. 
Results/Conclusions 
Results show an inversion of the photosynthetic adaptation between seedlings and saplings, and also between species. _Picea_ seedlings and _Abies_ saplings have greater total chlorophyll content and higher photosynthetic rates than _Picea_ saplings and _Abies_ seedlings. As a consequence, the superior competitor between similar sized individuals of both species appears to change between size-classes, with _Abies_ presenting higher photosynthetic rates at the sapling class and _Picea_ at the seedling class. Nevertheless, no significant growth has been observed in any of the groups until now. Results also disagree with some of the previously reported photosynthetic characteristics of these species, with _Picea_ seedlings displaying more traits usually associated with shade adaptation than _Abies_ seedlings.
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Countries’ governance and competitiveness: business environment mediating effect

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze how institutional governance and business environment affect countries’ competitiveness and their relative importance.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors analyze how institutional governance and business environment affect countries’ competitiveness, their relative importance and what are the implications for Brazil. The authors have collected data from 131 countries related to the institutional governance, business environment and competitiveness of these countries. For the analysis of the mentioned influences, the technique of partial least squares structural equations modeling is used.Findings – Results indicate that the main role in countries’ competitiveness is played by the quality of institutional governance. The quality of the business environment reinforces the positive effect of the quality of institutional governance on countries’ competitiveness (mediation effect). Brazil has poor governance quality indicators when compared to high-middle income countries, especially regarding government effectiveness, political stability and control of corruption.Research limitations/implications – The study provides a better understanding of the relative importance of governance quality and business environment quality for countries’ competitiveness. One limitation of this study is that the research was restricted to data related to the year 2019.Practical implications – For strategists and decision-makers, understanding these effects on countries’ competitiveness and their relative importance is fundamental to understanding what makes their companies internationally competitive.Social implications – The presence and appreciation of institutional governance quality need to be cultivated in society.Originality/value – Instead of using the original diamond model, which presents circular relationships, the authors have used the business environment construct, composed of elements of the diamond model to test the relationships between the quality of institutional governance, competitiveness and the business environment

A Magic Deeper Still : Sacramental Poetics in William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti, and C.S. Lewis

A sacramental poetics requires a particular mode of being-in-the-world. Religiously-minded poets, from Dante and Milton to Donne and Herbert, have long considered how the individual becomes attuned with creation and God’s will. But what happens when modernity and secularization challenge long-held assumptions about the universe and how humankind fits into it? A reevaluation is then needed. My thesis begins with an examination of how William Wordsworth, who sort of falls into modernity, seeks to reoccupy the functions of religion in an increasingly secularized landscape. One consequence of the European Enlightenment is the disentangling and distancing that occurs in regards to what cannot be empirically proven or trusted, such as religion and spirituality. Thus, Wordsworth’s poetic strategy for reoccupying religion’s functions asks that individuals become entangled—with the environment, with other people, and with the Divine. I argue that Wordsworth employs a sacramental poetics that embraces the unknowable as a means of invoking a religious phenomenological experience. Further, at the heart of this phenomenological experience is this sense of connectedness that binds everything together. Beginning with the Romantics, a sacramental poetics objectifies the unknowable qualities within ourselves and the world in order to awake a sense of purpose and meaning. The subsequent chapters on Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” and C.S. Lewis’s novel Till We Have Faces confirm that a sacramental poetics depends upon not only our ability to perceive the world as capable of producing a sense of fullness but also our ability to feel this sensation with our bodies and other affective aspects of our being, thereby maximizing our sense of purpose and connectedness. A sacramental poetics preserves certain characteristics of religion, such as liturgy and ritual, to emphasize that we are embodied creatures, feeling our way in the world. As will become clear, there is something efficacious in this pursuit

55-year-old Male with Exertional Dyspnea

Introduction: Dyspnea is a common presenting complaint for many patients in the emergency department.Case Presentation: A 55-year-old man with type I diabetes presented to the emergency department with one month of intermittent palpitations and dyspnea. His lungs were clear to auscultation, and his chest radiograph was normal.Discussion: This case takes the reader through the differential diagnosis and systematic work-up of dyspnea with discussion of the diagnostic study, which ultimately led to this patient’s diagnosis and successful treatment

Systemic effects of tissue plasminogen activator-associated fibrinolysis and its relation to thrombin generation in orthotopic liver transplantation

Orthotopic liver transplantation is frequently associated with hyperfibrinolysis, the origin and clinical relevance of which is largely unknown. In 20 orthotopic liver transplantations, we studied the occurrence and systemic effects of hyperfibrinolysis. Severe fibrinolysis was defined to be present when the euglobulin-clot lysis time and the whole-blood-clot lysis time, as measured by thrombelastography, were shorter than 60 and 90 min, respectively, at some time during the operation. Based on these criteria, 7 patients had minimal fibrinolysis (group I), and 13 patients had severe fibrinolysis (group II). In group II a gradual increase of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) activity was seen during the anhepatic stage, followed by an “explosive” increase immediately after graft reperfusion (P=0.0004, compared with group I), and a reduction of plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI) activity. Plasma degradation products of fibrinogen and fibrin increased parallel to t-PA activity, and levels were significantly higher at 45 min after graft reperfusion in group II compared with group I (P<0.04). Thrombin-antithrombin III complexes showed an identical steady increase in both groups, indicating that increased t-PA activity was not related to thrombin formation. A combination of increased endothelial release and reduced hepatic clearance may have caused the increased t-PA activity. The t-PA—associated destruction of fibrinogen and fibrin after graft reperfusion is consistent with the clinical signs of severe oozing often seen in this period. These observations may have important clinical implications for the treatment of bleeding in patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation. © 1989 by The Williams and Wilkins Co

Actuator disc methods for open propellers: assessments of numerical methods

The paper describes the assessment of two different actuator disc models as applied to the flow around open propellers. The first method is based on a semi-analytical approach returning the solution for the nonlinear differential equation governing the axisymmetric, steady, inviscid and incompressible flow around an actuator disc. Despite its low computational cost, the method does not require simplifying assumptions regarding the shape of the slipstream, e.g. the wake contraction is not disregarded or prescribed in advance. Moreover, the presence of a tangential velocity in the wake as well as the spanwise variation of the load are taken into account. The second one is a commonly used procedure based on CFD techniques in which the effects of the propeller are synthetically described through a set of body forces distributed over the disc surface. Both methods avoid the difficulties and the computational costs associated with the resolution of the propeller blades geometrical details. The comparison is based on an in-depth error analysis of the two procedures which results in a set of reference data with controlled accuracy. An excellent agreement has been documented between the two methods while the computational complexity is obviously very different. Among other things the comparison is also aimed at verifying the accuracy of the semi-analytical approach at each point of the computational domain and at quantifying the effect of the errors embodied in the two methods on the quality of the solution, both in terms of global and local performance parameters. Furthermore, the paper provides a set of reference solutions with controlled accuracy that could be used for the verification of new and existing computational methods. Finally, the computational cost of the semi-analytical model is quantified, thus providing a valuable information to designers who need to select a cost effective and reliable analysis tool