Seasonal LAI in slash pine estimated with LANDSAT TM

The leaf area index (LAI, total area of leaves per unit area of ground) of most forest canopies varies throughout the year, yet for logistical reasons it is difficult to estimate anything more detailed than a seasonal maximum LAI. To determine if remotely sensed data can be used to estimate LAI seasonally, field measurements of LAI were compared to normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values derived using LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) data, for 16 fertilized and control slash pine plots on 3 dates. Linear relationships existed between NDVI and LAI with R(sup 2) values of 0.35, 0.75, and 0.86 for February 1988, September 1988, and March, 1989, respectively. This is the first reported study in which NDVI is related to forest LAI recorded during the month of sensor overpass. Predictive relationships based on data from eight of the plots were used to estimate the LAI of the other eight plots with a root-mean-square error of 0.74 LAI, which is 15.6 percent of the mean LAI. This demonstrates the potential use of LANDSAT TM data for studying seasonal dynamics in forest canopies

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

Towards a common C0-C2 mechanism: a critical evaluation of rate constants for syngas combustion kinetics

Since the pioneering studies of Tsang and Hampson [1], and of Baulch and co-workers [2, 3], the knowledge of elementary combustion kinetics has increased, largely due to more accurate theories, advanced computing facilities and progresses in experimental measurements [4]. However, no effort has been devoted to the collection and reinterpretation of this knowledge after the early 2000s. Starting in February 2017, we have collected and interpreted a very large number of direct and indirect rate constant measurements from the literature, as well as every state of the art theo-retical calculation available for 50 elementary reaction steps involved in H2/CO pyrolysis and combustion. A strong need for reconciling rate constant measurements and theory has emerged from this analysis. A significant number of the indirect measurements of rate constants and theoretical determinations seem, in fact, to disagree beyond the expected accuracy of parame-ters in the syngas subset. This is mostly due to the need for reconciliation of data and theory and the reinterpretation of the raw signals of the measurements with more accurate and better constrained models according to a careful iterative procedure. The joint effort of SMARTCAT partners at Politecnico di Milano, NUI Galway, ELTE Buda-pest and Denmark Technical University together with RWTH Aachen University (DE) and Argonne National Laboratory (USA), aims to propose a fundamentally based state of the art mechanism for syngas combustion, to serve as a reference for the entire combustion kinetics community. Due to many different reasons, models for real fuels available in the literature rely on more or less different C0-C2 subsets. These differences often do not have substantial im-pacts on the overall performances as different rates in the core mechanism are often counter-balanced by different rates in the model subset relating to heavier fuels. This leads to very sim-ilar radical distributions and therefore in similar macroscopic behavior. However, the adoption of a fundamentally based common core mechanism will constitute a substantial thrust to in-crease the robustness of higher molecular weight fuel’s kinetics

Accountability and Transparency of Entrepreneurial Journalism: Unresolved ethical issues in crowdfunded journalism projects

Crowdfunding is a new business model in which journalists rely—and depend—on (micro-) payments by a large number of supporters to finance their reporting. In this form of entrepreneurial journalism the roles of publisher, fundraiser and journalist often overlap. This raises questions about conflicts of interest, accountability and transparency. The article presents the results of selected case studies in four different European countries—Germany (Krautreporter), Italy (Occhidellaguerra), the United Kingdom (Contributoria) and the Netherlands (De Correspondent)—as well as one US example (Kickstarter). The study used a two-step methodological approach: first a content analysis of the websites and the Twitter accounts with regard to practices of media accountability, transparency and user participation was undertaken. The aim was to investigate how far ethical challenges in crowdfunded entrepreneurial journalism are accounted for. Second, we present findings from semi-structured interviews with journalists from each crowdfunding. The study provides evidence about the ethical issues in this area, particularly in relation to production transparency and responsiveness. The study also shows that in some cases of crowdfunding (platforms), accountability is outsourced and implemented only through the audience participation

Catholic Healthcare Organizations and the Articulation of Their Identity

Contains fulltext : 69947.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Dose response of the 16p11.2 distal copy number variant on intracranial volume and basal ganglia.

Carriers of large recurrent copy number variants (CNVs) have a higher risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. The 16p11.2 distal CNV predisposes carriers to e.g., autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. We compared subcortical brain volumes of 12 16p11.2 distal deletion and 12 duplication carriers to 6882 non-carriers from the large-scale brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging collaboration, ENIGMA-CNV. After stringent CNV calling procedures, and standardized FreeSurfer image analysis, we found negative dose-response associations with copy number on intracranial volume and on regional caudate, pallidum and putamen volumes (β = -0.71 to -1.37; P < 0.0005). In an independent sample, consistent results were obtained, with significant effects in the pallidum (β = -0.95, P = 0.0042). The two data sets combined showed significant negative dose-response for the accumbens, caudate, pallidum, putamen and ICV (P = 0.0032, 8.9 × 10-6, 1.7 × 10-9, 3.5 × 10-12 and 1.0 × 10-4, respectively). Full scale IQ was lower in both deletion and duplication carriers compared to non-carriers. This is the first brain MRI study of the impact of the 16p11.2 distal CNV, and we demonstrate a specific effect on subcortical brain structures, suggesting a neuropathological pattern underlying the neurodevelopmental syndromes