Hemerobie der Wälder im Biosphärenpark Wienerwald

Das Konzept der Hemerobie gilt als Maß zur Beschreibung des Kultureinflusses. Die MAB-Studie „Hemerobie österreichischer Waldökosysteme“ lieferte 1998 erstmals fundierte Kenntnisse über den Zustand der Wälder. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde dieses Konzept erneut aufgegriffen und eine Hemerobiestudie im niederösterreichischen Teil des Biosphärenparks Wienerwald auf Flächen der Österreichischen Bundesforste durchgeführt. Um die Vergleichbarkeit zu gewährleisten basiert die gesamte Methodik von der Felderhebung bis zur Hemerobiebewertung auf der MAB-Hemerobiestudie. Somit umfasst die Felderhebung die Aufnahme von Vegetationsdaten, bestandesstrukturelle Kriterien, Hemerobiekriterien und Standortsdaten. Bei der nachfolgenden Auswertung wird ein standardisiertes Bewertungsverfahren, welches die einzelnen Hemerobiekriterien gewichtet und durch verschiedene Verknüpfungsmethoden zu einem Gesamthemerobiewert aggregiert, angewendet. Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit sind eine vegetationsökologische Auswertung, eine Hemerobiebewertung und ein Vergleich zur MAB-Hemerobiesudie 1998 im Untersuchungsgebiet. Weiters soll eine ausführliche Diskussion einen Beitrag für künftige Monitoringstudien liefern

Assessment of forest wilderness in Kalkalpen National Park. eco.mont (Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research)|eco.mont Vol. 7 No. 2 7 2|

In order to illustrate the state and development of forest wilderness in Kalkalpen National Park and thus also the effectiveness of national parks, we analysed various inventory data to assess the four different aspects of wilderness: naturalness, undisturbedness, undevelopedness and scale. Naturalness is proven by an analysis of hemeroby. The average hemeroby value of the park’s forest is 7.2 on a scale form 1 (artificial) to 9 (natural). High density of the white-backed woodpecker population (up to 2.9 territories per 100 ha) and the occurrence of endangered relic beetles confirm high naturalness. Undisturbedness is proven by an increase in hemeroby development (+0.19) and by the forest age from a historical viewpoint (> 50% of the forest area is older than 160 years). An evaluation of forest road density measures the quality of undevelopedness. The park’s 16 800 ha of forest constitute an area large and sufficient enough for ensuring functioning natural processes. Adding all these factors together, a rather high state of forest wilderness can be ascertained, which confirms the effectiveness of the national park management

Geohazards Monitoring and Assessment Using Multi-Source Earth Observation Techniques

Geological disasters are responsible for the loss of human lives and for significant economic and financial damage every year. Considering that these disasters may occur anywhere—both in remote and/or in highly populated areas—and anytime, continuously monitoring areas known to be more prone to geohazards can help to determine preventive or alert actions to safeguard human life, property and businesses. Remote sensing technology—especially satellite-based—can be of help due to its high spatial and temporal coverage. Indeed, data acquired from the most recent satellite missions is considered suitable for a detailed reconstruction of past events but also to continuously monitor sensitive areas on the lookout for potential geohazards. This work aims to apply different techniques and methods for extensive exploitation and analysis of remote sensing data, with special emphasis given to landslide hazard, risk management and disaster prevention. Multi-temporal SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) interferometry, SAR tomography, high-resolution image matching and data modelling are used to map out landslides and other geohazards and to also monitor possible hazardous geological activity, addressing different study areas: (i) surface deformation of mountain slopes and glaciers; (ii) land surface displacement; and (iii) subsidence, landslides and ground fissure. Results from both the processing and analysis of a dataset of earth observation (EO) multi-source data support the conclusion that geohazards can be identified, studied and monitored in an effective way using new techniques applied to multi-source EO data. As future work, the aim is threefold: extend this study to sensitive areas located in different countries; monitor structures that have strategic, cultural and/or economical relevance; and resort to artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to be able to analyse the huge amount of data generated by satellite missions and extract useful information in due course

Biobanking across Europe post-GDPR : a deliberately fragmented landscape

This chapter seeks to provide insight into the ways in which Member States leveraged the regulatory discretion afforded to them by the GDPR. Specifically, it reviews the biobank regulatory environment; whether and how derogations under Article 89(2) GDPR are enabled; the legal basis for scientific research and the role of consent in biobanking post-GDPR; the balance between individual rights and public interest in national law; and finally, the GDPR’s impact and future possibilities for biobanking. In exercising self-determination, Member States can, to a certain extent, align data protection requirements with their values and aspirations. Such alignment, though, could jeopardize collaborative research. In light of the need to bridge divergent legal and ethical requirements at a national and supranational level, the role of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) might prove to be essential

EOSC-Life Report on the work of the Open Call Projects

This Deliverable 3.3 is a report on the Digital Life Sciences Open Call and two Internal Calls organised by EOSC-Life WP3. The organisation of these Calls followed the successful integration and support of 8 Demonstrator projects&nbsp;which provided the first concrete use cases in the initial phase of EOSC-Life. The three Calls overall supported 11 scientific user projects, selected to facilitate integration of concrete use-cases across Life Sciences domains into the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)&nbsp;framework. Through the Calls, the practical goal was to facilitate co-creation of an open, digital collaborative space for life science research by developing FAIR&nbsp;tools, workflows, resources, infrastructures, and guidelines together with the EOSC-Life RIs experts and communities. We report in this Deliverable the following achievements: Organisation of the EOSC-Life Open and Internal Calls; Integrating and training the EOSC-Life WP3 Open Call&nbsp;and Internal Call&nbsp;project teams in EOSC-Life; Activities for connecting project teams with EOSC-Life and LS-RI communities and dissemination of projects outcomes to broader communities; Work done in the individual projects, their results, and impact of developed resources; Recommendations from the EOSC-Life WP3 project teams and the EOSC-Life community for future Open Calls. </ol

Prospective observational cohort study on grading the severity of postoperative complications in global surgery research

Background The Clavien–Dindo classification is perhaps the most widely used approach for reporting postoperative complications in clinical trials. This system classifies complication severity by the treatment provided. However, it is unclear whether the Clavien–Dindo system can be used internationally in studies across differing healthcare systems in high- (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Methods This was a secondary analysis of the International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), a prospective observational cohort study of elective surgery in adults. Data collection occurred over a 7-day period. Severity of complications was graded using Clavien–Dindo and the simpler ISOS grading (mild, moderate or severe, based on guided investigator judgement). Severity grading was compared using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Data are presented as frequencies and ICC values (with 95 per cent c.i.). The analysis was stratified by income status of the country, comparing HICs with LMICs. Results A total of 44 814 patients were recruited from 474 hospitals in 27 countries (19 HICs and 8 LMICs). Some 7508 patients (16·8 per cent) experienced at least one postoperative complication, equivalent to 11 664 complications in total. Using the ISOS classification, 5504 of 11 664 complications (47·2 per cent) were graded as mild, 4244 (36·4 per cent) as moderate and 1916 (16·4 per cent) as severe. Using Clavien–Dindo, 6781 of 11 664 complications (58·1 per cent) were graded as I or II, 1740 (14·9 per cent) as III, 2408 (20·6 per cent) as IV and 735 (6·3 per cent) as V. Agreement between classification systems was poor overall (ICC 0·41, 95 per cent c.i. 0·20 to 0·55), and in LMICs (ICC 0·23, 0·05 to 0·38) and HICs (ICC 0·46, 0·25 to 0·59). Conclusion Caution is recommended when using a treatment approach to grade complications in global surgery studies, as this may introduce bias unintentionally

The surgical safety checklist and patient outcomes after surgery: a prospective observational cohort study, systematic review and meta-analysis

© 2017 British Journal of Anaesthesia Background: The surgical safety checklist is widely used to improve the quality of perioperative care. However, clinicians continue to debate the clinical effectiveness of this tool. Methods: Prospective analysis of data from the International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), an international observational study of elective in-patient surgery, accompanied by a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature. The exposure was surgical safety checklist use. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and the secondary outcome was postoperative complications. In the ISOS cohort, a multivariable multi-level generalized linear model was used to test associations. To further contextualise these findings, we included the results from the ISOS cohort in a meta-analysis. Results are reported as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: We included 44 814 patients from 497 hospitals in 27 countries in the ISOS analysis. There were 40 245 (89.8%) patients exposed to the checklist, whilst 7508 (16.8%) sustained ≥1 postoperative complications and 207 (0.5%) died before hospital discharge. Checklist exposure was associated with reduced mortality [odds ratio (OR) 0.49 (0.32–0.77); P\u3c0.01], but no difference in complication rates [OR 1.02 (0.88–1.19); P=0.75]. In a systematic review, we screened 3732 records and identified 11 eligible studies of 453 292 patients including the ISOS cohort. Checklist exposure was associated with both reduced postoperative mortality [OR 0.75 (0.62–0.92); P\u3c0.01; I2=87%] and reduced complication rates [OR 0.73 (0.61–0.88); P\u3c0.01; I2=89%). Conclusions: Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine

Critical care admission following elective surgery was not associated with survival benefit:prospective analysis of data from 27 countries

Purpose: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there is a need to define optimal levels of perioperative care. Our aim was to describe the relationship between the provision and use of critical care resources and postoperative mortality. Methods: Planned analysis of data collected during an international 7-day cohort study of adults undergoing elective in-patient surgery. We used risk-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models to evaluate the association between admission to critical care immediately after surgery and in-hospital mortality. We evaluated hospital-level associations between mortality and critical care admission immediately after surgery, critical care admission to treat life-threatening complications, and hospital provision of critical care beds. We evaluated the effect of national income using interaction tests. Results: 44,814 patients from 474 hospitals in 27 countries were available for analysis. Death was more frequent amongst patients admitted directly to critical care after surgery (critical care: 103/4317 patients [2%], standard ward: 99/39,566 patients [0.3%]; adjusted OR 3.01 [2.10–5.21]; p &lt; 0.001). This association may differ with national income (high income countries OR 2.50 vs. low and middle income countries OR 4.68; p = 0.07). At hospital level, there was no association between mortality and critical care admission directly after surgery (p = 0.26), critical care admission to treat complications (p = 0.33), or provision of critical care beds (p = 0.70). Findings of the hospital-level analyses were not affected by national income status. A sensitivity analysis including only high-risk patients yielded similar findings. Conclusions: We did not identify any survival benefit from critical care admission following surgery