Florix, an index to assess plant species in floodplains for nature conservation – Developed and tested along the river Danube

Natural floodplains are ecosystems with a diverse mosaic of habitats and site conditions, but also highly threatened due to anthropogenic pressures. Plant species occur in all habitat types and can indicate their value for nature conservation. To improve sustainable management of rivers and floodplains, several indices such as the River Ecosystem Service Index (RESI) have been developed. However, there are so far no assessment schemes for the entire range of floodplain plants. The common assessment approaches like biological integrity, achievement rates or threatened species (Red list), applying to other species groups or other ecosystems, are not appropriate in floodplains. Legal obligations and the need to restore floodplains clearly call for an index assessing the ecological value in a reference area which can be combined with a 5-scale assessment in accordance to established assessments like RESI or the Water Framework Directive. Five typical characteristics describing vascular plants’ adaptation to floodplain habitats were identified. These can be derived from published data sets available for all species in Germany. We checked these indicators for multicollinearity and selected three of them: species number, hydrodynamic indicators, nature conservation indicators. Species number highly correlate with habitat indicators and geographic occurrence. For the selected three indicators we determined thresholds to group habitats and their indicator rate to five classes (very low to very high value for nature conservation). These thresholds are valid for the river Danube and for the habitat types scrutinized in this study. The Florix approach was sensitive in data sets testing active against former floodplains and protected against unprotected areas: For the entire reference region ‘Danube floodplain’, Florix values were higher in the active floodplain and in the protected areas. Only the habitat type ‘water bodies’ showed better scores for habitats in the former floodplain, for ‘softwood forests’ the status of being part of a protected area had no effect. Florix results were validated in two case studies differing in land use intensity. The region with dominant agricultural use showed significantly lower values than that with a higher portion of forests and grasslands. Florix can be used for a floristic conservation status assessment at single habitat level or for the entity of a study region in comparison to a reference region. It allows to identify main pressures and to complement a habitat-type based evaluation. To achieve higher comparability, we should strive for a generalized monitoring in Europe like it is common in aquatic ecosystem monitoring

Comparison of high speed PIV experiments, unsteady pressure measurements and DES computations of a transonic Ariane 5 base-flow using POD

During the ascent phase of a launcher, base buffeting may occur for transonic conditions which may result in large side loads on the nozzle. This effect is well known and has been subject of extensive studies in literature. The present work is conducted in the framework of the ESA TRP “Launcher Base Flows and Shock Interactions Regions Improved Load Characterisation”, where high speed PIV measurements and unsteady pressure measurements performed in the DNW-HST on a 1:60 scale Ariane 5 are compared to detached eddy simulations for the same configuration and flow conditions. The main goal of the investigation is to identify how well the computations are capable of predicting the salient features of the transonic buffeting phenomenon.

nofdp IDSS ? A planning software for assessing and communicating effectiveness of flood damage prevention measures

The INTERREG IIIB NWE project nofdp promotes a nature-oriented approach towards flood damage prevention. It addresses a combination of both technical and non-technical measures to reduce the risk of flood damage and to improve nature at the same time. The acronym IDSS stands for Information and Decision Support System. The IDSS is designed to assist water managers in developing flood risk management strategies, which keep track with a balanced view on the often conflicting issues of spatial planning, water management and ecological develop-ment. The IDSS will be applied in the preliminary phase of planning and strategy development. It is designed to support an interactive and iterative planning procedure that stimulates and later incorporates the stakeholder?s feedback. The IDSS can be applied to small and medium scale river basins. The overall objective is to develop software that is modularly structured, open source and free of charge for the user. In that way, it is a strong foundation for further development and enhancement by the later user community. A focus is set on the effect assessment and evaluation of physical measures and policy changes in flood plain management. The IDSS user is able to position different types of measures of nature development and flood damage prevention within a GIS environment. A flood routing model enables rough estimations of the effects on water levels. If more accurate or a different sort of calculation is needed new software technology like the Open Modelling Interface & Environment (OpenMI ) enables coupling the IDSS to external simulation models, which are also equipped with the OpenMI interface. This interface enables to use the synergies of already existing and well validated modelling software. A free version of the Sobek hydraulic model (1-D instationary, licence limited to the calculation of 500 knots) will be delivered together with the IDSS. Sobek will independently be launched by the IDSS. Calculated time series are returned to the IDSS via the Published Interface. Taking good decisions needs a broad knowledge base. Therefore several multidisciplinary modules like ?Conflict Detection?, ?Vegetation Suitability?, ?Water Storage Suitability? and the ?ISAR Application ? are included in the IDSS. Their main purpose is to provide spatial information about restriction areas and areas where placing of measures of flood damage prevention and nature development is recommended. Prior to the evaluation procedure an automated value assessment assists the users in allocating values to the selected evaluation criteria. Planning is considered as an interactive process including debate, feedback and improved planning proposals. Therefore, three methods of evaluation and several communicational functionalities are implemented into the IDSS. At present many Decision Support Systems for catchment management are developed, but in most cases they are not transferable to other catchments. This contribution presents a planning software that is transferable to other catchments. The modular structure provides the flexibility to enhance the system according to one?s individual needs. Existing and therefore validated models can be incorporated into the iterative decision process making use of OpenMI and other interfaces. Structuring and integrating unsorted feedback and information from experts and the public into the planning procedure is possible. The intended purpose of the IDSS is to arrive at better informed decision through interaction with relevant data and information. The IDSS architecture is a first step to a flexible decision support system which is open source, free of charge for the user and applicable for every catchment

Smart power IC macromodeling for DPI analysis

This paper deals with the susceptibility to radio frequency interference of smart power integrated circuits. A method to perform simulations aimed at evaluating the performance of subcircuits included in a more complex IC in the presence of EMI is presented. Referring to this, the behaviour of a current sensor included into a high-side power switch during DPI test is investigated. The results of simulation analyses and DPI tests are presented

Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Therapeutic Use and in Bioengineering Applications

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small lipid bilayer-delimited particles that are naturally released from cells into body fluids, and therefore can travel and convey regulatory functions in the distal parts of the body. EVs can transmit paracrine signaling by carrying over cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, interleukins (ILs), transcription factors, and nucleic acids such as DNA, mRNAs, microRNAs, piRNAs, lncRNAs, sn/snoRNAs, mtRNAs and circRNAs; these EVs travel to predecided destinations to perform their functions. While mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to improve healing and facilitate treatments of various diseases, the allogenic use of these cells is often accompanied by serious adverse effects after transplantation. MSC-produced EVs are less immunogenic and can serve as an alternative to cellular therapies by transmitting signaling or delivering biomaterials to diseased areas of the body. This review article is focused on understanding the properties of EVs derived from different types of MSCs and MSC–EV-based therapeutic options. The potential of modern technologies such as 3D bioprinting to advance EV-based therapies is also discussed