275 research outputs found
Strong paleoclimatic legacies in current plant functional diversity patterns across Europe
Numerous studies indicate that environmental changes during the late Quaternary have elicited longâterm disequilibria between species diversity and environment. Despite its importance for ecosystem functioning, the importance of historical environmental conditions as determinants of FD (functional diversity) remains largely unstudied. We quantified the geographic distributions of plant FD (richness and dispersion) across Europe using distribution and functional trait information for 2702 plant species. We then compared the importance of historical and contemporary factors to determine the relevance of past conditions as predictors of current plant FD in Europe. For this, we compared the strength of the relationships between FD with temperature and precipitation stability since the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum), accessibility to LGM refugia, and contemporary environmental conditions (climate, productivity, soil, topography, and land use). Functional richness and dispersion exhibited geographic patterns with strong associations to the environmental history of the region. The effect size of accessibility to LGM refugia and climate stability since the LGM was comparable to that of the contemporary predictors. Both functional richness and dispersion increased with temperature stability since the LGM and accessibility to LGM refugia. Functional richness' geographic pattern was primarily associated with accessibility to LGM refugia growing degreeâdays, land use heterogeneity, diversity of soil types, and absolute minimum winter temperature. Functional dispersion's geographic pattern was primarily associated with accessibility to LGM refugia growing degreeâdays and absolute minimum winter temperature. The high explained variance and model support of historical predictors are consistent with the idea that longâterm variability in environmental conditions supplements contemporary factors in shaping FD patterns at continental scales. Given the importance of FD for ecosystem functioning, future climate change may elicit not just shortâterm shifts in ecosystem functioning, but also longâterm functional disequilibria
Patterns of modern pollen and plant richness across northern Europe
Sedimentary pollen offers excellent opportunities to reconstruct vegetation changes over past millennia. Number of different pollen taxa or pollen richness is used to characterise past plant richness. To improve the interpretation of sedimentary pollen richness, it is essential to understand the relationship between pollen and plant richness in contemporary landscapes. This study presents a regional-scale comparison of pollen and plant richness from northern Europe and evaluates the importance of environmental variables on pollen and plant richness. We use a pollen dataset of 511 lake-surface pollen samples ranging through temperate, boreal and tundra biomes. To characterise plant diversity, we use a dataset formulated from the two largest plant atlases available in Europe. We compare pollen and plant richness estimates in different groups of taxa (wind-pollinated vs. non-wind-pollinated, trees and shrubs vs. herbs and grasses) and test their relationships with climate and landscape variables. Pollen richness is significantly positively correlated with plant richness (r = 0.53). The pollen plant richness correlation improves (r = 0.63) when high pollen producers are downweighted prior to estimating richness minimising the influence of pollen production on the pollen richness estimate. This suggests that methods accommodating pollen-production differences in richness estimates deserve further attention and should become more widely used in Quaternary pollen diversity studies. The highest correlations are found between pollen and plant richness of trees and shrubs (r = 0.83) and of wind-pollinated taxa (r = 0.75) suggesting that these are the best measures of broad-scale plant richness over several thousands of square kilometres. Mean annual temperature is the strongest predictor of both pollen and plant richness. Landscape openness is positively associated with pollen richness but not with plant richness. Pollen richness values from extremely open and/or cold areas where pollen production is low should be interpreted with caution because low local pollen production increases the proportion of extra-regional pollen. Synthesis. Our results confirm that pollen data can provide insights into past plant richness changes in northern Europe, and with careful consideration of pollen-production differences and spatial scale represented, pollen data make it possible to investigate vegetation diversity trends over long time-scales and under changing climatic and habitat conditions.Peer reviewe
Chirp mitigation of plasma-accelerated beams using a modulated plasma density
Plasma-based accelerators offer the possibility to drive future compact light
sources and high-energy physics applications. Achieving good beam quality,
especially a small beam energy spread, is still one of the major challenges.
For stable transport, the beam is located in the focusing region of the
wakefield which covers only the slope of the accelerating field. This, however,
imprints a longitudinal energy correlation (chirp) along the bunch. Here, we
propose an alternating focusing scheme in the plasma to mitigate the
development of this chirp and thus maintain a small energy spread
Bayesian optimization of laser-plasma accelerators assisted by reduced physical models
Particle-in-cell simulations are among the most essential tools for the
modeling and optimization of laser-plasma accelerators, since they reproduce
the physics from first principles. However, the high computational cost
associated with them can severely limit the scope of parameter and design
optimization studies. Here, we show that a multitask Bayesian optimization
algorithm can be used to mitigate the need for such high-fidelity simulations
by incorporating information from inexpensive evaluations of reduced physical
models. In a proof-of-principle study, where a high-fidelity optimization with
FBPIC is assisted by reduced-model simulations with Wake-T, the algorithm
demonstrates an order-of-magnitude speedup. This opens a path for the
cost-effective optimization of laser-plasma accelerators in large parameter
spaces, an important step towards fulfilling the high beam quality requirements
of future applications
Population Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Dobutamine in Neonates on the First Days of Life
Aims:
To describe the pharmacokinetics (PK) and concentrationârelated effects of dobutamine in critically ill neonates in the first days of life, using nonlinear mixed effects modelling.
Methods:
Dosing, plasma concentration and haemodynamic monitoring data from a doseâescalation study were analysed with a simultaneous population PK and pharmacodynamic model. Neonates receiving continuous infusion of dobutamine 5â20 ÎŒg kgâ1 minâ1 were included. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and cardiac output of right and left ventricle (RVO, LVO) were measured on echocardiography; heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), peripheral arterial oxygen saturation and cerebral regional oxygen saturation were recorded from patient monitors.
Results:
Twentyâeight neonates with median (range) gestational age of 30.4 (22.7â41.0) weeks and birth weight (BW) of 1618 (465â4380) g were included. PK data were adequately described by 1âcompartmental linear structural model. Dobutamine clearance (CL) was described by allometric scaling on BW with sigmoidal maturation function of postmenstrual age (PMA). The final population PK model parameter mean typical value (standard error) estimates, standardised to median BW of 1618 g, were 41.2 (44.5) L hâ1 for CL and 5.29 (0.821) L for volume of distribution, which shared a common between subject variability of 29% (17.2%). The relationship between dobutamine concentration and RVO/LVEF was described by linear model, between concentration and LVO/HR/MAP/cerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction by sigmoidal Emax model.
Conclusion:
In the postnatal transitional period, PK of dobutamine was described by a 1âcompartmental linear model, CL related to BW and PMA. A concentrationâresponse relationship with haemodynamic variables has been established
The BSUIN project
Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) is an European Union funded project that
extends capabilities of underground laboratories. The aim of the project is to join efforts in making
the underground laboratories in the Baltic Sea Regionâs more accessible for innovation, business
development and science by improving the availability of information about the underground
facilities, service offerings, user experience, safety and marketing.The development of standards
for the characterization of underground laboratories will allow to compared them with each other.
This will help you choose the best places for physical measurements such as neutrino physics or
searching for dark matter. The project concerns laboratories where so far no measurements have
been made, and even undergrounds where there are no organized laboratories yet.The description
of the BSUIN project and the first results of characterization of natural radioactive background in
underground laboratories will be presented Ë The BSUIN Project is funded by Interreg Baltic Sea
funding cooperation [2]
Status Report of the 50 MeV LPA-Based Injector at ATHENA for a Compact Storage Ring
Laser-based plasma accelerators (LPA) have successfully demonstrated their capability to generate high-energy electron beams with intrinsically short bunch lengths and high peak currents at a setup with a small footprint. These properties make them attractive drivers for a broad range of different applications including injectors for rf-driven, ring-based light sources. In close collaboration the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Helmholtz Institute Jena aim to develop a 50 MeV plasma injector and demonstrate the injection into a compact storage ring. This storage ring will be built within the project cSTART at KIT. As part of the ATHENA (Accelerator Technology HElmholtz iNfrAstructure) project, DESY will design, setup and operate a 50 MeV plasma injector prototype for this endeavor. This contribution gives a status update of the 50 MeV LPA-based injector and presents a first layout of the prototype design at DESY in Hamburg
Topological Photonics
Topology is revolutionizing photonics, bringing with it new theoretical
discoveries and a wealth of potential applications. This field was inspired by
the discovery of topological insulators, in which interfacial electrons
transport without dissipation even in the presence of impurities. Similarly,
new optical mirrors of different wave-vector space topologies have been
constructed to support new states of light propagating at their interfaces.
These novel waveguides allow light to flow around large imperfections without
back-reflection. The present review explains the underlying principles and
highlights the major findings in photonic crystals, coupled resonators,
metamaterials and quasicrystals.Comment: progress and review of an emerging field, 12 pages, 6 figures and 1
tabl
Potential use of deodorised water extracts: polyphenol-rich extract of Thymus pannonicus All. as a chemopreventive agent
Deodorised water extracts of aromatic plants are obtained as by-products of essential oil isolation and usually discarded as waste. However, phytochemical composition of these extracts encourages their further utilization as food additives or functional food ingredients. In this study we investigated phytochemical composition, antioxidant and in vivo antiproliferative activity of deodorised water extract of Thymus pannonicus All. (DWE). HPLC analysis revealed rosmarinic acid (RA) (71.11 +/- 1.54 mg/g) as the most abundant constituent of the extract, followed by salvianolic acid H (14.83 +/- 0.79 mg/g, calculated as RA). DWE exhibited pronounced antioxidant activity in vitro, in FRAP and DPPH tests (FRAP value: 7.41 mmol Fe/g and SC50: 3.80 mu g/g, respectively). Using the model of Ehrlich carcinoma cells in mice that were treated with DWE prior, at the time, and after tumour cells implantation, the tumour growth suppression and redox status of malignant cells (i.e., activities of antioxidant enzymes, level of glutathione and intensity of lipid peroxidation) were followed. DWE applied as pretreatment caused disturbance of antioxidant equilibrium as well as apoptosis/necrosis of up to 90% EAC cells. Results obtained in the present study revealed chemopreventive potential and possibility of T. pannonicus DWE usage. High content of RA and other phenolic compounds explains, at least in part, the observed effects
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