Metsasõbra meelespea

Hea lugeja! Hoiad käes Eestimaa Looduse Fondis koostatud raamatut meie metsade loodusest. Raamatu eesmärk on pakkuda taustateadmisi inimestele, kes teevad või plaanivad metsas raietöid. Olgu see langetustraktori roolis istuv metsatööline, mootorsaage käes hoidev talumetsamajandaja või hoopis enamiku ajast kontorilaua taga istuv erametsa omanik. Raamat annab ülevaate erinevatest liikidest, aitab neid ära tunda ja otsustada, kuidas metsa raiuda nii, et see metsaelanikele kõige sobivam oleks. Raamatu eessõna on kirjutanud metsaökoloogia professor Kalev Jõgiste, kes annab metsas toimetavale inimesele laiema, lausa globaalse vaate selle kohta, millise väärtusega on loodusliku mitmekesisuse säilitamine igal metsalapil. Raamatu sisupeatükkide kirjutamise juures püüdsime välja tuua kõige olulisema ja praktilisema teadmise, selleks on meil abiks olnud liigieksperdid ja loodusteadlased nii ülikoolidest kui ka keskkonnaorganisatsioonidest. Peatükkide lõpus ja raamatu kokkuvõttes on antud soovitusi metsas raietööde tegemiseks. Loodame, et raamat aitab kaasa metsaliikide hingeelu paremale mõistmisele ja sellele, et mõistmise kaudu paraneksid ka liikide eluvõimalused Eesti metsas. Eestimaa Looduse Fond on huvitatud raamatu kasutajate tagasisidest ja koostööst metsamajandajatega metsaliikide kaitseks. Ootame teie mõtteid ja ettepanekuid e-posti aadressil [email protected]. Suurt lugemishuvi soovides Indrek Sell, Eestimaa Looduse Fondi metsaekspert; Silvia Lotman, Eestimaa Looduse Fondi juhatuse esimees.Eessõna. Meid ümbritsev loodus ja ökoloogiline teadmine selle kohta on omandanud keskse koha inimese eksistentsiaalsetes küsimustes. Inimtegevuse mõju loodusele on sageli üsna hävitav, inimese elamisruum ja vajadus metsasaaduste järele suruvad looduslikku maailma tahaplaanile. Globaliseerumine on omandanud sellise ulatuse, et suur osa inimtegevusest muutub tulevikus standardiseerituks. See haarab ka materjalivajadust – arenenud tehnoloogiad kasutavad loodusvarasid viisil, mis aina kaugendab inimest otsesest kokkupuutest loodusega. Isegi raietöid tegev metsatööline vaatab ümbritsevale maailmale konditsioneeritud harvesterikabiinist. Virtuaalne maailm lubab suure osa looduse infost talletada ja kasutatav teadmine piirdub vaid sellega, mida meil vaja on. Paraku käib standardsete tehnoloogiatega kaasas ka vajadus süsteeme lihtsustada, et hoida tehnoloogiad lihtsad ja odavad. Kas aga see lihtne ja odav alati tagab meie eksistentsi? Energiavajadus on käivitanud protsessi, kus kogu meie kasutatav energia ei lähe oma vanasse kohta tagasi, vaid otsib uue koha, viies senitoiminud süsteemid tasakaalust välja. Kindlasti asub loodus ise tasakaalu otsima, kuidas see aga mõjutab inimest ja mis juhtub siis, kui uus tasakaalupunkt on meie jaoks midagi hoopis erinevat senituntud loodusest? Metsade häiringuid on vaadeldud kui ahelreaktsioone: inimese vallandatud tegurid käivitavad uut tüüpi häiringurežiimid, mis omakorda suurendavad süsiniku paiskumist atmosfääri (tulekahjud, tormid). Mida me saaksime teha, et selle pendli liikumist aeglustada ja toimida nii, et see tasakaalust väga palju välja ei langeks? Peame otsima neid loodusliku dünaamika elemente, mis leevendavad meie otsest ja ka kaudset mõju ökosüsteemile. Kaasaja sertifi tseeritud metsamajanduses on eriliselt rõhutatud säilikelementide olulisust taastuvale metsaökosüsteemile. Säilikpuud ja lamapuit pakuvad elupaika tuhandetele liikidele, juhul kui toimub drastiline muutus ökosüsteemis. Ja isegi siis, kui muutus on suure ulatuse ja pikaajalise mõjuga, on võimalik looduslikul vastusmehhanismil oma tarkust rakendada. Raamatus on kirjeldatud palju haruldasi liike, mida mitmekesisuse tagamiseks on vaja kaitsta. Just mitmekesisust on meil vaja, et astuda vastu sageli raskesti ennustatavale tulevikule. Sellele aitab kaasa ka looduslähedane metsamajandus, mis säilitab loodusele lähedasi muutuste vastusmehhanisme. Kalev Jõgiste, metsaökoloogia professorRaamat on valminud projekti „ELFi ja teiste keskkonnaühenduste metsanduspoliitikaalase eestkostesuutlikkuse tõstmine“ raames, projekti rahastas Euroopa Majanduspiirkonna 2009–2014 toetuste Vabaühenduste Fond Avatud Eesti Fondi vahendusel

Impairment of Gradual Muscle Adjustment during Wrist Circumduction in Parkinson's Disease

Purposeful movements are attained by gradually adjusted activity of opposite muscles, or synergists. This requires a motor system that adequately modulates initiation and inhibition of movement and selectively activates the appropriate muscles. In patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) initiation and inhibition of movements are impaired which may manifest itself in e.g. difficulty to start and stop walking. At single-joint level, impaired movement initiation is further accompanied by insufficient inhibition of antagonist muscle activity. As the motor symptoms in PD primarily result from cerebral dysfunction, quantitative investigation of gradually adjusted muscle activity during execution of purposeful movement is a first step to gain more insight in the link between impaired modulation of initiation and inhibition at the levels of (i) cerebrally coded task performance and (ii) final execution by the musculoskeletal system. To that end, the present study investigated changes in gradual adjustment of muscle synergists using a manipulandum that enabled standardized smooth movement by continuous wrist circumduction. Differences between PD patients (N = 15, off-medication) and healthy subjects (N = 16) concerning the relation between muscle activity and movement performance in these groups were assessed using kinematic and electromyographic (EMG) recordings. The variability in the extent to which a particular muscle was active during wrist circumduction – defined as muscle activity differentiation - was quantified by EMG. We demonstrated that more differentiated muscle activity indeed correlated positively with improved movement performance, i.e. higher movement speed and increased smoothness of movement. Additionally, patients employed a less differentiated muscle activity pattern than healthy subjects. These specific changes during wrist circumduction imply that patients have a decreased ability to gradually adjust muscles causing a decline in movement performance. We propose that less differentiated muscle use in PD patients reflects impaired control of modulated initiation and inhibition due to decreased ability to selectively and jointly activate muscles

Status of the BELLE II Pixel Detector

The Belle II experiment at the super KEK B-factory (SuperKEKB) in Tsukuba, Japan, has been collecting $e^+e^−$ collision data since March 2019. Operating at a record-breaking luminosity of up to $4.7×10^{34} cm^{−2}s^{−1}$, data corresponding to $424 fb^{−1}$ has since been recorded. The Belle II VerteX Detector (VXD) is central to the Belle II detector and its physics program and plays a crucial role in reconstructing precise primary and decay vertices. It consists of the outer 4-layer Silicon Vertex Detector (SVD) using double sided silicon strips and the inner two-layer PiXel Detector (PXD) based on the Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor (DePFET) technology. The PXD DePFET structure combines signal generation and amplification within pixels with a minimum pitch of $(50×55) μm^2$. A high gain and a high signal-to-noise ratio allow thinning the pixels to $75 μm$ while retaining a high pixel hit efficiency of about $99$. As a consequence, also the material budget of the full detector is kept low at $≈0.21$$\frac{X}{X_0}$ per layer in the acceptance region. This also includes contributions from the control, Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC), and data processing Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) as well as from cooling and support structures. This article will present the experience gained from four years of operating PXD; the first full scale detector employing the DePFET technology in High Energy Physics. Overall, the PXD has met the expectations. Operating in the intense SuperKEKB environment poses many challenges that will also be discussed. The current PXD system remains incomplete with only 20 out of 40 modules having been installed. A full replacement has been constructed and is currently in its final testing stage before it will be installed into Belle II during the ongoing long shutdown that will last throughout 2023

Movements of marine fish and decapod crustaceans: Process, theory and application

Many marine species have a multi-phase ontogeny, with each phase usually associated with a spatially and temporally discrete set of movements. For many fish and decapod crustaceans that live inshore, a tri-phasic life cycle is widespread, involving: (1) the movement of planktonic eggs and larvae to nursery areas; (2) a range of routine shelter and foraging movements that maintain a home range; and (3) spawning migrations away from the home range to close the life cycle. Additional complexity is found in migrations that are not for the purpose of spawning and movements that result in a relocation of the home range of an individual that cannot be defined as an ontogenetic shift. Tracking and tagging studies confirm that life cycle movements occur across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This dynamic multi-scale complexity presents a significant problem in selecting appropriate scales for studying highly mobile marine animals. We address this problem by first comprehensively reviewing the movement patterns of fish and decapod crustaceans that use inshore areas and present a synthesis of life cycle strategies, together with five categories of movement. We then examine the scale-related limitations of traditional approaches to studies of animal-environment relationships. We demonstrate that studies of marine animals have rarely been undertaken at scales appropriate to the way animals use their environment and argue that future studies must incorporate animal movement into the design of sampling strategies. A major limitation of many studies is that they have focused on: (1) a single scale for animals that respond to their environment at multiple scales or (2) a single habitat type for animals that use multiple habitat types. We develop a hierarchical conceptual framework that deals with the problem of scale and environmental heterogeneity and we offer a new definition of 'habitat' from an organism-based perspective. To demonstrate that the conceptual framework can be applied, we explore the range of tools that are currently available for both measuring animal movement patterns and for mapping and quantifying marine environments at multiple scales. The application of a hierarchical approach, together with the coordinated integration of spatial technologies offers an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to tackle a range of animal-environment questions for highly mobile marine animals. Without scale-explicit information on animal movements many marine conservation and resource management strategies are less likely to achieve their primary objectives

Evaluation of individual and ensemble probabilistic forecasts of COVID-19 mortality in the United States

Short-term probabilistic forecasts of the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States have served as a visible and important communication channel between the scientific modeling community and both the general public and decision-makers. Forecasting models provide specific, quantitative, and evaluable predictions that inform short-term decisions such as healthcare staffing needs, school closures, and allocation of medical supplies. Starting in April 2020, the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub (https://covid19forecasthub.org/) collected, disseminated, and synthesized tens of millions of specific predictions from more than 90 different academic, industry, and independent research groups. A multimodel ensemble forecast that combined predictions from dozens of groups every week provided the most consistently accurate probabilistic forecasts of incident deaths due to COVID-19 at the state and national level from April 2020 through October 2021. The performance of 27 individual models that submitted complete forecasts of COVID-19 deaths consistently throughout this year showed high variability in forecast skill across time, geospatial units, and forecast horizons. Two-thirds of the models evaluated showed better accuracy than a naïve baseline model. Forecast accuracy degraded as models made predictions further into the future, with probabilistic error at a 20-wk horizon three to five times larger than when predicting at a 1-wk horizon. This project underscores the role that collaboration and active coordination between governmental public-health agencies, academic modeling teams, and industry partners can play in developing modern modeling capabilities to support local, state, and federal response to outbreaks

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages