Cushion Plant Revegetation and Recovery After Recreational Trampling on a Colorado Fourteener

MS Environmental Biolog

Revegetation using cushion plants after recreational trampling on a Colorado fourteener

Are cushion plants strong candidates for alpine trail revegetation? The authors present their findings

Spectroscopic Ellipsometry on Thin Films of TiO2: Comparing Cauchy and Cody-Loretnz Models in CompleteEASE

Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is used to characterize amorphous and crystalline thin films of TiO2. Amorphous precursor films of TiO2 are deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on fused silica and silicon substrates. Annealing the amorphous precursor films induces them to crystallize into either pure or mixed phases of the three crystal polymorphs of TiO2: rutile, brookite, and anatase. Previous research in our group has shown that TiO2 crystal polymorph formation post-annealing, in both pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) and radio frequency magnetron sputtered deposition, is dependent on the thickness of the deposited film, among other deposition parameters. A set of thin film samples has been made at varying sputtered deposition parameters. SE was employed to estimate the thickness and optical constants of the TiO2 films. The samples were measured on the wavelength range of 200 – 1000 nm (ultraviolet to near-infrared) with a Woollam M-2000X spectroscopic ellipsometer. The modeling software CompleteEASE was used for data acquisition, and to fit the measured ᴪ & ∆ spectra with two different optical dispersion models. A Cauchy function models the films as transparent on the restricted wavelength range of 400 – 1000 nm. A Cody-Lorentz oscillator function models the dispersion of the films from 200 – 1000 nm, yielding an estimate of the bandgap energy. Results of fitting model parameters from the two different CompleteEASE models were compared to each other

Waterbird Population Dynamics in the Middle Mahakam Wetlands of East Kalimantan over 23 years

Between 1988 and 2011, a total of 57 species of waterbirds, as well as twelve raptor and six kingfisher species regularly utilizing wetlands, were recorded in the Middle Mahakam Wetlands of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Waterbirds included 27 shorebird species from five families, twelve herons (Ardeidae), six rails and crakes (Rallidae), four terns (Sternidae), three ducks (Anatidae) and two storks (Ciconiidae). Based on IUCN (2013) criteria, six listed species are threatened: one (White-shouldered Ibis) is Critically Endangered, another (Storm's Stork) is Endangered and four (Chinese Egret, Lesser Adjutant, Wallace's Hawk-Eagle, Blue-banded Kingfisher) are Vulnerable. The Middle Mahakam Wetlands are one of Borneo’s most important wetland areas. They are part of a highly dynamic landscape that has historically changed its appearance many times. Today, the birds of these unique wetlands are endangered by a plethora of threats comprising large scale land conversion, fire, hunting and live capture of waterbirds, illegal logging and pollution. Despite the considerable efforts of local NGOs to address some of these issues, conservation measures are still limited and insufficient to protect this natural asset

Collaborative study to evaluate a candidate World Health Organization international standard for chikungunya virus for nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based assays

Collaborative Study Group - Portugal:Maria João Alves, Líbia Zé-Zé (National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Center for Vectors and Infectious Diseases Research)This report describes the World Health Organization (WHO) project to develop an international standard (IS) for Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) RNA for use with nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based assays. An international collaborative study was conducted to determine the potency of the candidate standard using a range of NAT-based assays for CHIKV, and to evaluate the suitability of the candidate for the calibration of secondary reference materials and the standardization of CHIKV viral load measurements. The candidate standard consisted of a heat inactivated CHIKV strain of the East/South/Central African genotype (ESCA), also known as the Indian Ocean Lineage, isolated from a patient returning from India to the United States in 20061 , diluted in human negative plasma. The lyophilized candidate preparation (Sample 1), the corresponding liquid-frozen bulk material (Sample 2) and three different clinical samples (Sample 3, Sample 4 and Sample 5) were included in the collaborative study. Twenty-five laboratories representing 14 countries participated in the study to evaluate the material using their routine CHIKV NAT assays. Twenty-four laboratories returned 31 data sets from 17 commercial assays and 14 in-house methods. Of these 31 methods, 11 were quantitative and 20 were qualitative. The results of the study indicate the suitability of the candidate material of the CHIKV strain of ESCA genotype (Sample 1) as the proposed 1st WHO IS for CHIKV. It is therefore proposed that the candidate material (PEI code 11785/16) is established as the 1st WHO IS for CHIKV RNA for NAT-based assays with an assigned potency of 2,500,000 International Units (IU)/mL when reconstituted in 0.5 mL of nuclease-free water. On-going studies for real-time and accelerated stability of the proposed IS indicate that the preparation is stable and suitable for long-term use under the proposed storage conditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A multi-species asymmetric simple exclusion process and its relation to traffic flow

Using the matrix product formalism we formulate a natural p-species generalization of the asymmetric simple exclusion process. In this model particles hop with their own specific rate and fast particles can overtake slow ones with a rate equal to their relative speed. We obtain the algebraic structure and study the properties of the representations in detail. The uncorrelated steady state for the open system is obtained and in the ($p \to \infty)$ limit, the dependence of its characteristics on the distribution of velocities is determined. It is shown that when the total arrival rate of particles exceeds a certain value, the density of the slowest particles rises abroptly.Comment: some typos corrected, references adde

When and Where Did They Strand? The Spatio-Temporal Hotspot Patterns of Cetacean Stranding Events in Indonesia

Analyses of the spatial and temporal patterns of 26 years of stranding events (1995–2011 and 2012–2021, n = 568) in Indonesia were conducted to improve the country’s stranding response. The Emerging Hot Spot Analysis was used to obtain the spatial and temporal hotspot patterns. A total of 92.4% events were single stranding, while the remaining were of mass stranding events. More stranding events were recorded between 2012 and 2021 in more dispersed locations compared to the previous period. Within the constraints of our sampling limitations, East Kalimantan and Bali were single stranding hotspots and consecutive hotspots. East Java and Sabu-Raijua in East Nusa Tenggara were mass stranding hotspots. Temporally, Raja Ampat (West Papua) experienced a significant increase in case numbers. The presence of active NGOs, individuals or government agencies in some locations might have inflated the numbers of reported cases compared to areas with less active institutions and/or individuals. However, our results still give a good understanding of the progression of Indonesia’s stranding responses and good guidance of resource allocation for the stranding network. Several locations in Indonesia that need more efforts (e.g., more training workshops on rescue and necropsies) have been identified in this paper. Suggestions to improve data collection (including georeferencing tips) have also been included

Radiofrequente ablatiebehandeling van de oudere patiënte met een mammacarcinoom

Het mammacarcinoom is een belangrijk gezondheidsprobleem in de in omvang toenemende geriatrische populatie. De behandeling van deze fragiele groep patiënten is een uitdaging voor de behandelend arts. Enerzijds geeft onderbehandeling aanleiding tot een hogere incidentie van recidief tumoren alsook tumorgerelateerde mortaliteit. Anderzijds leidt overbehandeling tot iatrogene morbiditeit en mortaliteit. Minimaal invasieve behandelingstechnieken worden in toenemende mate in de literatuur beschreven en bieden nieuwe therapeutische mogelijkheden voor patiënten die niet voor conventionele chirurgie in aanmerking komen. Bij diverse minimaal invasieve tumor ablatie technieken wordt een maligne laesie onder controle van de beeldvormende technieken selectief behandeld met een minimale schade aan het omliggende weefsel en een goede lokale tumorcontrole. De procedure kan plaatsvinden onder lokale anesthesie. Radiofrequente ablatie lijkt een effectieve en veilige methode in de behandeling van oudere, inoperabele patiënten met kleinere (< 3 cm) mamma tumoren