Vegetation structure derived from airborne laser scanning to assess species distribution and habitat suitability: The way forward

Ecosystem structure, especially vertical vegetation structure, is one of the six essential biodiversity variable classes and is an important aspect of habitat heterogeneity, affecting species distributions and diversity by providing shelter, foraging, and nesting sites. Point clouds from airborne laser scanning (ALS) can be used to derive such detailed information on vegetation structure. However, public agencies usually only provide digital elevation models, which do not provide information on vertical vegetation structure. Calculating vertical structure variables from ALS point clouds requires extensive data processing and remote sensing skills that most ecologists do not have. However, such information on vegetation structure is extremely valuable for many analyses of habitat use and species distribution. We here propose 10 variables that should be easily accessible to researchers and stakeholders through national data portals. In addition, we argue for a consistent selection of variables and their systematic testing, which would allow for continuous improvement of such a list to keep it up-to-date with the latest evidence. This initiative is particularly needed not only to advance ecological and biodiversity research by providing valuable open datasets but also to guide potential users in the face of increasing availability of global vegetation structure products

Revealing the Appetite of the Marine Aquarium Fish Trade: The Volume and Biodiversity of Fish Imported into the United States

The aquarium trade and other wildlife consumers are at a crossroads forced by threats from global climate change and other anthropogenic stressors that have weakened coastal ecosystems. While the wildlife trade may put additional stress on coral reefs, it brings income into impoverished parts of the world and may stimulate interest in marine conservation. To better understand the influence of the trade, we must first be able to quantify coral reef fauna moving through it. Herein, we discuss the lack of a data system for monitoring the wildlife aquarium trade and analyze problems that arise when trying to monitor the trade using a system not specifically designed for this purpose. To do this, we examined an entire year of import records of marine tropical fish entering the United States in detail, and discuss the relationship between trade volume, biodiversity and introduction of non-native marine fishes. Our analyses showed that biodiversity levels are higher than previous estimates. Additionally, more than half of government importation forms have numerical or other reporting discrepancies resulting in the overestimation of trade volumes by 27%. While some commonly imported species have been introduced into the coastal waters of the USA (as expected), we also found that some uncommon species in the trade have also been introduced. This is the first study of aquarium trade imports to compare commercial invoices to government forms and provides a means to, routinely and in real time, examine the biodiversity of the trade in coral reef wildlife species

Perception of aperiodicity in pathological voice

Although jitter, shimmer, and noise acoustically characterize all voice signals, their perceptual importance in naturally produced pathological voices has not been established psychoacoustically. To determine the role of these attributes in the perception of vocal quality, listeners were asked to adjust levels of jitter, shimmer, and the noise-to-signal ratio in a speech synthesizer, so that synthetic voices matched naturally produced tokens. Results showed that, although listeners agreed well in their judgments of the noise-to-signal ratio, they did not agree with one another in their chosen settings for jitter and shimmer. Noise-dependent differences in listeners' ability to detect changes in amounts of jitter and shimmer implicate both listener insensitivity and inability to isolate jitter and shimmer as separate dimensions in the overall pattern of aperiodicity in a voice as causes of this poor agreement. These results suggest that jitter and shimmer are not useful as independent indices of perceived vocal quality, apart from their acoustic contributions to the overall pattern of spectrally shaped noise in a voice. (c) 2005 Acoustical Society of America

Acute kidney injury in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated acute kidney injury (ICPi-AKI) has emerged as an important toxicity among patients with cancer. Methods: We collected data on 429 patients with ICPi-AKI and 429 control patients who received ICPis contemporaneously but who did not develop ICPi-AKI from 30 sites in 10 countries. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of ICPi-AKI and its recovery. A multivariable Cox model was used to estimate the effect of ICPi rechallenge versus no rechallenge on survival following ICPi-AKI. Results: ICPi-AKI occurred at a median of 16 weeks (IQR 8-32) following ICPi initiation. Lower baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate, proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use, and extrarenal immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were each associated with a higher risk of ICPi-AKI. Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis was the most common lesion on kidney biopsy (125/151 biopsied patients [82.7%]). Renal recovery occurred in 276 patients (64.3%) at a median of 7 weeks (IQR 3-10) following ICPi-AKI. Treatment with corticosteroids within 14 days following ICPi-AKI diagnosis was associated with higher odds of renal recovery (adjusted OR 2.64; 95% CI 1.58 to 4.41). Among patients treated with corticosteroids, early initiation of corticosteroids (within 3 days of ICPi-AKI) was associated with a higher odds of renal recovery compared with later initiation (more than 3 days following ICPi-AKI) (adjusted OR 2.09; 95% CI 1.16 to 3.79). Of 121 patients rechallenged, 20 (16.5%) developed recurrent ICPi-AKI. There was no difference in survival among patients rechallenged versus those not rechallenged following ICPi-AKI. Conclusions: Patients who developed ICPi-AKI were more likely to have impaired renal function at baseline, use a PPI, and have extrarenal irAEs. Two-thirds of patients had renal recovery following ICPi-AKI. Treatment with corticosteroids was associated with improved renal recovery

Acute kidney injury in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated acute kidney injury (ICPi-AKI) has emerged as an important toxicity among patients with cancer. METHODS: We collected data on 429 patients with ICPi-AKI and 429 control patients who received ICPis contemporaneously but who did not develop ICPi-AKI from 30 sites in 10 countries. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of ICPi-AKI and its recovery. A multivariable Cox model was used to estimate the effect of ICPi rechallenge versus no rechallenge on survival following ICPi-AKI. RESULTS: ICPi-AKI occurred at a median of 16 weeks (IQR 8-32) following ICPi initiation. Lower baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate, proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use, and extrarenal immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were each associated with a higher risk of ICPi-AKI. Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis was the most common lesion on kidney biopsy (125/151 biopsied patients [82.7%]). Renal recovery occurred in 276 patients (64.3%) at a median of 7 weeks (IQR 3-10) following ICPi-AKI. Treatment with corticosteroids within 14 days following ICPi-AKI diagnosis was associated with higher odds of renal recovery (adjusted OR 2.64; 95% CI 1.58 to 4.41). Among patients treated with corticosteroids, early initiation of corticosteroids (within 3 days of ICPi-AKI) was associated with a higher odds of renal recovery compared with later initiation (more than 3 days following ICPi-AKI) (adjusted OR 2.09; 95% CI 1.16 to 3.79). Of 121 patients rechallenged, 20 (16.5%) developed recurrent ICPi-AKI. There was no difference in survival among patients rechallenged versus those not rechallenged following ICPi-AKI. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who developed ICPi-AKI were more likely to have impaired renal function at baseline, use a PPI, and have extrarenal irAEs. Two-thirds of patients had renal recovery following ICPi-AKI. Treatment with corticosteroids was associated with improved renal recovery

Dependence of Conditioner Power Input on Mowing Machine Material Feed Rate

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is a Technical Paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 5 (2003): F. Kumhala, M. Kroulik, and V. Prosek. Dependence of Conditioner Power Input on Mowing Machine Material Feed Rate. Vol. V. July 2003

Vliv prestupu tepla na nerovnomerne formy koroze korozivzdornych oceli

Susceptibility of metals to corrosion attack under conditions of heat transfer is in most cases evaluated regarding the surface temperature of the metal only and the influence of the heat flux itself is disregarded. This thesis studies the effect of heat transfer on corrosion of stainless steel in water environments under non-boiling conditions, when the influence of the heat flux and the surface temperature is separated on principle. The theoretical part concerns possible factors affecting processes that influence the corrosion rate of metallic materials under conditions of heat transfer. Effect of heat temperature and heat flux on mass transfer, kinetics of surface reactions and environment composition are discussed here, as well as effects of temperature gradient in the metal and possibility of inhomogeneity formation in the system at present of heat flux. This part does not concern the localized forms of corrosion only, but it deals with the heat transfer influence on corrosion processes in general. All the available sources concerning exparimental studies of heat transfer influence on corrosion are summarized in the annex. Requirements on construction of basic types of experimental devices are considered as well. Corrosion tests were aimed at verifying the influence of heat transfer on initiation and propagation of intergranular and pitting corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless steel under conditions close to real systems or well correlating with these. Three devices in four modifications were constructed. The samples were exposed at surface temperatures from 40 to 105 C and heat fluxes from -60 to 300 kWm-2, while the value of one of these variables was kept constant. With the exception of corrosion cracking, exposure and electrochemical tests were performed. Measurements of the heat transfer influence have revealed that the material resistance depends on the surface temperature as well as on the heat flux. Increasing the surface temperature had a negative effect in all cases and led to increase in susceptibility to the given type of corrosion attack. Effect of heat flux depended on its direction, intensity, corrosion system and surface temperature, and it differed as well in different stages of corrosion attack. The heat flux showed to be positive (suppressing corrosion) in case of propagation of the intergranular corrosion and initiation and repassivation of pitting corrosion. In the initiation stage of localized corrosion, heat flux affects most significantly the passive film resistance, namely in changing its quality (for example thickness), as well as it causes a change of the environment aggressivity (the aggressive ions activities, oxidizing power of the environment, flow velocity). In the propagation stage of localized attack, presence of the temperature gradient in the metal itself has the most significant influence, thanks to which the temperature inside pits or cracks differs from the temperature on the free surface. The mentioned factors are partially connected and their influence takes place at the same time, while they affect the metal resistance often in opposite ways. Higher reliability of operating the heat exchange devices made of stainless steels can be reached, regarding the localized corrosion, above all by decreasing the surface temperature from the medium side that may cause the attack, which can be possibly done by decreasing input as well as output medium temperature and increasing the heat flux by flow intensification. From the corrosion point of view it is suitable to construct the exchangers as parallel-flow ones and to prevent formation of deposits on the heat exchanging surfacesAvailable from STL Prague, CZ / NTK - National Technical LibrarySIGLECZCzech Republi

Kulturgüterschutz durch Korrosionsdatenlogger - ein neuer Weg zur Bewertung der Luftqualität

Viele Restauratoren und Sammlungsexperten sehen heute die Notwendigkeit, die Luftqualität in Sammlungen, Ausstellungen und bei Transporten genauer zu überwachen. Denn neben Temperatur- und Luftfeuchtigkeitsschwankungen können auch Luftschadstoffe unterschiedlicher Art und -Herkunft die Kunstwerke bedrohen. Einen neuen Ansatz zum Schadstoffmonitoring verfolgt das Projekt »Musecorr« mit handlichen, batteriebetriebenen Datenloggern