Urban ecosystem services: tree diversity and stability of tropospheric ozone removal

Urban forests provide important ecosystem services, such as urban air quality improvement by removing pollutants. While robust evidence exists that plant physiology, abundance, and distribution within cities are basic parameters affecting the magnitude and efficiency of air pollution removal, little is known about effects of plant diversity on the stability of this ecosystem service. Here, by means of a spatial analysis integrating system dynamic modeling and geostatistics, we assessed the effects of tree diversity on the removal of tropospheric ozone (O3) in Rome, Italy, in two years (2003 and 2004) that were very different for climatic conditions and ozone levels. Different tree functional groups showed complementary uptake patterns, related to tree physiology and phenology, maintaining a stable community function across different climatic conditions. Our results, although depending on the city-specific conditions of the studied area, suggest a higher function stability at increasing diversity levels in urban ecosystems. In Rome, such ecosystem services, based on published unitary costs of externalities and of mortality associated with O3, can be prudently valued to roughly US$2 and$3 million/year, respectively

Educational Process Improvement Program for Novice Anesthesia Providers Learning Safe Management of The Anesthesia Workstation

Patient safety is at the cornerstone of the delivery of quality anesthesia. A historically pervasive patient safety threat related to the field of anesthesia has been the anesthesia workstation. Although anesthesia delivery improvements are based on refining physical engineering principles, they are also based on preventing human error. This DNP project uses an educational process improvement design to generate an evidence-based simulation educational activity for novice anesthesia providers to better prepare themselves for the reality of anesthesia workstation malfunction and human error

Checklist of DCN CURATE Steps

A checklist and introduction to the Data Curation Network CURATE Steps for curating research data

HOUSING AND HEALTH

Prikazani su pojedini učinci stanovanja na zdravlje. Posebno su obrađeni biološki, fizikalni i kemijski agensi koji mogu utjecati na pojavu bolesnih stanja u svezi sa stanovanjem. Analizirani su pojedini problemi koji se mogu očekivati u zgradarstvu u svezi sa zdravljem, te je dan kratki prikaz pojedinih bolesti koje se etiološki povezuju sa stanovanjem. Osim toga, opisan je i psihosocijalni aspekt učinka stanovanja. Ističe se da je utjecaj stanovanja na zdravlje multifaktorijalan fenomen koji zahtijeva interdisciplinaran i holistički pristup kako u medicini, tako i u zgradarstvu.SUMMARY: Effects of housing on health have been presented. Biological, physical and chemical agents have been studied which may cause health disorders and conditions related to accommodation. Health problems expected in residential buildings have been analyzed, and a short overview of illnesses etiologically related to housing is given. In addition, the psychosocial aspect of the effects of accommodation has been studied. The emphasis is on the fact that the effect of accommodation on health is a multi-factor phenomenon requiring an interdisciplinary and holistic approach, both in medicine and in residential building construction

HOUSING AND HEALTH

Prikazani su pojedini učinci stanovanja na zdravlje. Posebno su obrađeni biološki, fizikalni i kemijski agensi koji mogu utjecati na pojavu bolesnih stanja u svezi sa stanovanjem. Analizirani su pojedini problemi koji se mogu očekivati u zgradarstvu u svezi sa zdravljem, te je dan kratki prikaz pojedinih bolesti koje se etiološki povezuju sa stanovanjem. Osim toga, opisan je i psihosocijalni aspekt učinka stanovanja. Ističe se da je utjecaj stanovanja na zdravlje multifaktorijalan fenomen koji zahtijeva interdisciplinaran i holistički pristup kako u medicini, tako i u zgradarstvu.SUMMARY: Effects of housing on health have been presented. Biological, physical and chemical agents have been studied which may cause health disorders and conditions related to accommodation. Health problems expected in residential buildings have been analyzed, and a short overview of illnesses etiologically related to housing is given. In addition, the psychosocial aspect of the effects of accommodation has been studied. The emphasis is on the fact that the effect of accommodation on health is a multi-factor phenomenon requiring an interdisciplinary and holistic approach, both in medicine and in residential building construction

How Important Are Data Curation Activities to Researchers? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries

Introduction: Data curation may be an emerging service for academic libraries, but researchers actively “curate” their data in a number of ways—even if terminology may not always align. Building on past user-needs assessments performed via survey and focus groups, the authors sought direct input from researchers on the importance and utilization of specific data curation activities. Methods: Between October 21, 2016, and November 18, 2016, the study team held focus groups with 91 participants at six different academic institutions to determine which data curation activities were most important to researchers, which activities were currently underway for their data, and how satisfied they were with the results. Results: Researchers are actively engaged in a variety of data curation activities, and while they considered most data curation activities to be highly important, a majority of the sample reported dissatisfaction with the current state of data curation at their institution. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate specific gaps and opportunities for academic libraries to focus their data curation services to more effectively meet researcher needs. Conclusion: Research libraries stand to benefit their users by emphasizing, investing in, and/or heavily promoting the highly valued services that may not currently be in use by many researchers

Method of Controlling Steering of a Ground Vehicle

A method of controlling steering of a vehicle through setting wheel angles of a plurality of modular electronic corner assemblies (eModules) is provided. The method includes receiving a driving mode selected from a mode selection menu. A position of a steering input device is determined in a master controller. A velocity of the vehicle is determined, in the master controller, when the determined position of the steering input device is near center. A drive mode request corresponding to the selected driving mode to the plurality of steering controllers is transmitted to the master controller. A required steering angle of each of the plurality of eModules is determined, in the master controller, as a function of the determined position of the steering input device, the determined velocity of the vehicle, and the selected first driving mode. The eModules are set to the respective determined steering angles

Constructing bi-plots for random forest:Tutorial

Current technological developments have allowed for a significant increase and availability of data. Consequently, this has opened enormous opportunities for the machine learning and data science field, translating into the development of new algorithms in a wide range of applications in medical, biomedical, daily-life, and national security areas. Ensemble techniques are among the pillars of the machine learning field, and they can be defined as approaches in which multiple, complex, independent/uncorrelated, predictive models are subsequently combined by either averaging or voting to yield a higher model performance. Random forest (RF), a popular ensemble method, has been successfully applied in various domains due to its ability to build predictive models with high certainty and little necessity of model optimization. RF provides both a predictive model and an estimation of the variable importance. However, the estimation of the variable importance is based on thousands of trees, and therefore, it does not specify which variable is important for which sample group.The present study demonstrates an approach based on the pseudo-sample principle that allows for construction of bi-plots (i.e. spin plots) associated with RF models. The pseudo-sample principle for RF. is explained and demonstrated by using two simulated datasets, and three different types of real data, which include political sciences, food chemistry and the human microbiome data. The pseudo-sample bi plots, associated with RF and its unsupervised version, allow for a versatile visualization of multivariate models, and the variable importance and the relation among them. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</p