Saproxyic beetle data from two forest areas the Czech Republic in 2007 & 2008

This file contains information on saproxylic beetles that where caught in a lowland forest area along the lower Dyje (Thaya) and Morava (March) rivers in southern Moravia and a montane forest area in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids (Beskydy) in the years 2007 and 2008, respectively. The file contains a species-abundance list of all the species caught in the study, as well as a list with further information (saproxylic status, feeding guild, red list status, indicator species) on the beetle species themselves

Results of Dissimilarity Partitioning showing what portion of the Sorensen Dissimilarity (β_SOR) is accounted for by turnover (β_SIM) and nestedness (β_NES) for comparison of the beetle assemblages of all strata in montane (bold) and lowland (normal) forest.

<p>The dissimilarity was generally higher in the lowland and could mostly be attributed to turnover in both areas.</p

Redundancy Analysis ordination diagram of saproxylic beetle assemblages.

<p>The pooled assemblages from individual traps in the montane (a) and lowland (b) forests acted as samples (depicted), trap height acted as the explanatory variable and site and openness acted as covariables. The samples from the understorey (0.4 m, 1.2 m) are clearly separated from the canopy samples (7 m, 14 m, 21 m) along the 1st axis in both the montane (eigenvalue 1st axis = 0.1533) and the lowland datasets (eigenvalue 1st axis = 0.2162). The samples of the two understorey heights are separated along the 2nd axis in the mountains (eigenvalue 2nd axis = 0.0474) and lowlands (eigenvalue 2nd axis = 0.0505).</p

Fine-Scale Vertical Stratification and Guild Composition of Saproxylic Beetles in Lowland and Montane Forests: Similar Patterns despite Low Faunal Overlap - Fig 6

<p><b>Guild structure of saproxylic beetle assemblages in montane (a) and lowland (b) temperate forests (pie charts), and along a vertical gradient in both forest types (barplots).</b> The overall guild structure includes all recorded species. The barplots depict guild identity of species identified by indicator value analysis as characteristic for the given sampling height.</p

Dissimilarity of saproxylic beetle assemblages along a vertical forest gradient.

<p>(a) In both the lowland and montane forests Sorensen dissimilarity within the understorey (0.4 and 1.2 m heights above ground) and within the canopy (7, 14 and 21 m heights), was always lower than between samples from the two forest vertical strata. (b) The rate of change in assemblage composition decreased with distance from the ground along the vertical gradient. To standardize the Sorensen dissimilarity per 1 m of vertical distance between traps, the values of dissimilarity between assemblages from two trap heights were divided by vertical distance (in m) between them. These values are plotted against the mean height of the compared traps.</p

Experimental and Finite Element Study of a Novel Two-Way Corrugated Steel Deck System for Composite Slabs

This paper investigates the structural performance of a new two-way profiled steel decking system for steel-concrete composite slabs. Several studies have investigated steel decking for steel-concrete composite slabs and focused on utilising the conventional deck as a one-way floor system. The newly developed deck consists of top-hat sections formed by bending corrugated sheets at 90°, which are attached to a corrugated base sheet. The deck is designed for improved composite and two-way action contributed by its unique geometry due to corrugations in the transverse and longitudinal directions. This paper experimentally tested a novel steel decking geometry under construction stage loading. It was in the absence of concrete to establish the deck’s suitability for construction and contribution towards loading capacity and performance for future use as a two-way composite slab. Ultimate load, two-way action, and failure modes were identified. A finite element model was also developed, and parameters assessed that could influence the performance when the deck is potentially used in the composite stage. It was concluded that, while increasing the thickness of the corrugated base sheet significantly affects the load-carrying capacity, the thickness of the top hats has no significant impact. Improved load transfer with two-way behaviour is observed when the bottom flanges of the top hats are continuously connected to the bottom flanges of the adjacent top hats to form a deck. This contrasts with the concept deck, where individual top hats are attached to a corrugated base sheet. In this case, decks with a corrugated base sheet perform 54% better in ultimate load capacity than decks without a corrugated base sheet

Engineering and Design of Polymeric Shells: Inwards Interweaving Polymers as Multilayer Nanofilm, Immobilization Matrix, or Chromatography Resins

Hydrogels with complex internal structures are required for advanced drug delivery systems and tissue engineering or used as inks for 3D printing. However, hydrogels lack the tunability and diversity of polymeric shells and require complicated postsynthesis steps to alter its structure or properties. We report on the first integrated approach to assemble and design polymeric shells to take on various complex structures and functions such as multilayer nanofilms, multidensity immobilization matrix, or multiadhesive chromatography resins via the tuning of four assembly parameters: (a) poly­(allylamine) (PA) concentration, (b) number of poly­(allylamine)/poly­(styrenesulfonic acid) (PA/PSSA) incubations, (c) poly­(allylamine) (PA) to poly­(ethylene glycol) (PEG) grafting ratio, and (d) % H₂O present during assembly. Our approach combines the complex 3D structures of hydrogels with the versatility of self-assembled polymeric layers. Polymeric shells produced from our method have a highly uniform material distribution and well-defined shell boundaries. Shell thickness, density, and adhesive properties are easily tunable. By virtue of such unique material features, we demonstrate that polymeric shells can be designed to expand beyond its conventional function as thin films and serve as immobilization matrix, chromatography resins, or even reaction compartments. This technique could also uncover interesting perspectives in the development of novel multimaterials for 3D printing to synthesize scaffolds at a higher order of complexity

Effect of sampling method and abundance transformation on FD index sensitivity.

<p>Barplot depicting the results of linear mixed effects models, specifically the interaction between abundance transformation and the different abundance measures used in plant ecology (all three abundance measures were used for the same plant dataset in order to make their effects comparable). The effect of down-weighting the dominant species by log-transformation of their abundance was most pronounced in the biomass abundance measure. When log transformed, all three sampling methods have a very similar effect on the sensitivity of indices to missing trait data. Error bars denote the 95% confidence intervals.</p

Effect of trait transformation on FD index sensitivity.

<p>The effect of trait transformation on the improvement in slope (transformed—untransformed trait data)—the bigger the improvement in slope, the more robust the index becomes to missing trait data (y axis). The right panels illustrate the different improvements in trait skewness, depicting examples of trait distribution before and after transformation, which correspond to the x axis of the main figure (matching colours).</p

Effect of sampling scenario and abundance transformation on FD index sensitivity.

<p>Effect of sampling scenario and abundance transformation on FD index sensitivity.</p