Global warming will affect the maximum potential abundance of boreal plant species

Forecasting the impact of future global warming on biodiversity requires understanding how temperature limits the distribution of species. Here we rely on Liebig's Law of Minimum to estimate the effect of temperature on the maximum potential abundance that a species can attain at a certain location. We develop 95%‐quantile regressions to model the influence of effective temperature sum on the maximum potential abundance of 25 common understory plant species of Finland, along 868 nationwide plots sampled in 1985. Fifteen of these species showed a significant response to temperature sum that was consistent in temperature‐only models and in all‐predictors models, which also included cumulative precipitation, soil texture, soil fertility, tree species and stand maturity as predictors. For species with significant and consistent responses to temperature, we forecasted potential shifts in abundance for the period 2041–2070 under the IPCC A1B emission scenario using temperature‐only models. We predict major potential changes in abundance and average northward distribution shifts of 6–8 km yr−1. Our results emphasize inter‐specific differences in the impact of global warming on the understory layer of boreal forests. Species in all functional groups from dwarf shrubs, herbs and grasses to bryophytes and lichens showed significant responses to temperature, while temperature did not limit the abundance of 10 species. We discuss the interest of modelling the ‘maximum potential abundance’ to deal with the uncertainty in the predictions of realized abundances associated to the effect of environmental factors not accounted for and to dispersal limitations of species, among others. We believe this concept has a promising and unexplored potential to forecast the impact of specific drivers of global change under future scenarios.202

Suomen suometsät 1951–1994

MetsävaratTässä julkaisussa esitetään valtakunnan metsien kahdeksanteen inventointiin (VMI8, 1986–1994) perustuvat tiedot maamme suometsistä, soiden pinta-aloista ja niiden muutoksista VMI3:sta (1951–53) lähtien sekä analysoidaan muutosten syitä. Artikkelissa kuvataan suometsiin liittyviä VMI:n mittauksia, yleispiirteet tulosten laskennasta ja keskivirheen arviointimenetelmä. VMI8:n otantamenetelmää, maastomittauksia ja tulosten laskentaa on kuvattu aikaisemmin Etelä-Suomen julkaisuissa (Salminen 1993, Salminen ja Salminen 1998) sekä Pohjois-Suomen ja koko maan julkaisussa (Tomppo ym. 2001a). Tarkastelujaksolla soiden ala on pienentynyt 9,7 milj. ha:sta 8,9 milj. ha:iin, kun ojitetut ohutturpeiset suot ovat VMI:n luokituksen mukaan muuttuneet kivennäismaiksi tai siirtyneet muuhun maankäyttöluokkaan. VMI8:n mukaan ojitettuja soita on 4,6 milj. ha ja ojitettuja kivennäismaita 1,1 milj. ha. Ojitettujen soiden ala ei enää nouse, joten ojitusala jää 1950- ja 1960-lukujen metsäohjelmien suurimpia arvioita pienemmäksi. §§ Suometsätalouden vaikutukset soiden puuvarannon ja puuston kasvun lisäykseen ovat kuitenkin vähintään metsäohjelmien arvioiden suuruisia. 1950-luvun alussa puuvaranto oli kasvullisilla ja huonokasvuisilla metsä-maan soilla 252 milj. m3. VMI8:n mukaan puuvaranto on metsä- ja kitumaan soilla 377 milj. m3. Puuston vuotuinen kasvu on noussut 9,9 milj. m3:stä 17,4 milj. m3 :iin. VMI3:ssa soiksi luokiteltujen maiden puu-varannoksi arvioitiin VMI8:ssa 430 milj. m3 ja vuotuiseksi kasvuksi 20,1 milj. m3. Sekä puuvarannon että puuston vuotuisen kasvun suhteelliset lisäykset ovat 1950-luvun alun jälkeen olleet soilla selvästi suuremmat kuin kivennäismailla. Ojituksen lisäksi tähän vaikuttavat puustojen erilaiset lähtötilanteet, nykyisten ikärakenteiden erot sekä se, että soilla hakkuut ovat olleet vähäisempiä kuin kivennäismailla. §§ VMI8:ssa arvioitiin seuraavalla kymmenvuotiskaudella metsämaan soilla olevan erilaisia hakkuutarpeita 2,35 milj. ha, joista taimikonhoitoja ja ensiharvennuksissa on 1,38 milj. ha. Suometsien hakkuiden painopiste on siis vielä jonkin aikaa nuorissa metsissä. Kunnostusojituksen tarpeessa olevia soita on VMI8:n mukaan runsaat 1,5 milj. ha. Kymmenessä vuodessa toteutettuna se vastaa suurempaa vuotuista kunnostusojitustarvetta kuin kansallisessa metsäohjelmassa on esitetty. Puuntuotantoon soveltumattomia soita on ojitettu 450 000 ha, kun taas puuntuotantoon soveltuvaa ojittamatonta suota on 840 000 ha. Ojittamattomia soita on yhteensä 4.3 milj. ha

Association of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) components with mortality

Background Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) is a practical method to describe and quantify the presence and severity of organ system dysfunctions and failures. Some proposals suggest that SOFA could be employed as an endpoint in trials. To justify this, all SOFA component scores should reflect organ dysfunctions of comparable severity. We aimed to investigate whether the associations of different SOFA components with in-hospital mortality are comparable. Methods We performed a study based on nationwide register data on adult patients admitted to 26 Finnish intensive care units (ICUs) during 2012-2015. We determined the SOFA score as the maximum score in the first 24 hours after ICU admission. We defined organ failure (OF) as an organ-specific SOFA score of three or higher. We evaluated the association of different SOFA component scores with mortality. Results Our study population comprised 63,756 ICU patients. Overall hospital mortality was 10.7%. In-hospital mortality was 22.5% for patients with respiratory failure, 34.8% for those with coagulation failure, 40.1% for those with hepatic failure, 14.9% for those with cardiovascular failure, 26.9% for those with neurologic failure and 34.6% for the patients with renal failure. Among patients with comparable total SOFA scores, the risk of death was lower in patients with cardiovascular OF compared with patients with other OFs. Conclusions All SOFA components are associated with mortality, but their weights are not comparable. High scores of other organ systems mean a higher risk of death than high cardiovascular scores. The scoring of cardiovascular dysfunction needs to be updated.Peer reviewe

Expression of Trichoderma reesei cellulases CBHI and EGI in Ashbya gossypii

To explore the potential of Ashbya gossypii as a host for the expression of recombinant proteins and to assess whether protein secretion would be more similar to the closely related Saccharomyces cerevisiae or to other filamentous fungi, endoglucanase I (EGI) and cellobiohydrolase I (CBHI) from the fungus Trichoderma reesei were successfully expressed in A. gossypii from plasmids containing the two micron sequences from S. cerevisiae, under the S. cerevisiae PGK1 promoter. The native signal sequences of EGI and CBHI were able to direct the secretion of EGI and CBHI into the culture medium in A. gossypii. Although CBHI activity was not detected using 4- methylumbelliferyl-β-D-lactoside as substrate, the protein was detected by Western blot using monoclonal antibodies. EGI activity was detectable, the specific activity being comparable to that produced by a similar EGI producing S. cerevisiae construct. More EGI was secreted than CBHI, or more active protein was produced. Partial characterization of CBHI and EGI expressed in A. gossypii revealed overglycosylation when compared with the native T. reesei proteins, but the glycosylation was less extensive than on cellulases expressed in S. cerevisiae.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

The Association Between Arterial Oxygen Level and Outcome in Neurocritically Ill Patients is not Affected by Blood Pressure

Background In neurocritically ill patients, one early mechanism behind secondary brain injury is low systemic blood pressure resulting in inadequate cerebral perfusion and consequent hypoxia. Intuitively, higher partial pressures of arterial oxygen (PaO2) could be protective in case of inadequate cerebral circulation related to hemodynamic instability. Study purpose We examined whether the association between PaO2 and mortality is different in patients with low compared to normal and high mean arterial pressure (MAP) in patients after various types of brain injury. Methods We screened the Finnish Intensive Care Consortium database for mechanically ventilated adult (>= 18) brain injury patients treated in several tertiary intensive care units (ICUs) between 2003 and 2013. Admission diagnoses included traumatic brain injury, cardiac arrest, subarachnoid and intracranial hemorrhage, and acute ischemic stroke. The primary exposures of interest were PaO2 (recorded in connection with the lowest measured PaO2/fraction of inspired oxygen ratio) and the lowest MAP, recorded during the first 24 h in the ICU. PaO2 was grouped as follows: hypoxemia ( 18.3 kPa, the highest 10th percentile), and MAP was divided into equally sized tertiles ( 68 mmHg). The primary outcome was 1-year mortality. We tested the association between hyperoxemia, MAP, and mortality with a multivariable logistic regression model, including the PaO2, MAP, and interaction of PaO2*MAP, adjusting for age, admission diagnosis, premorbid physical performance, vasoactive use, intracranial pressure monitoring use, and disease severity. The relationship between predicted 1-year mortality and PaO2 was visualized with locally weighted scatterplot smoothing curves (Loess) for different MAP levels. Results From a total of 8290 patients, 3912 (47%) were dead at 1 year. PaO2 was not an independent predictor of mortality: the odds ratio (OR) for hyperoxemia was 1.16 (95% CI 0.85-1.59) and for hypoxemia 1.24 (95% CI 0.96-1.61) compared to normoxemia. Higher MAP predicted lower mortality: OR for MAP 60-68 mmHg was 0.73 (95% CI 0.64-0.84) and for MAP > 68 mmHg 0.80 (95% CI 0.69-0.92) compared to MAP <60 mmHg. The interaction term PaO2*MAP was nonsignificant. In Loess visualization, the relationship between PaO2 and predicted mortality appeared similar in all MAP tertiles. Conclusions During the first 24 h of ICU treatment in mechanically ventilated brain injured patients, the association between PaO2 and mortality was not different in patients with low compared to normal MAP.Peer reviewe

Hydrogen release from liquid organic hydrogen carriers catalysed by platinum on rutile-anatase structured titania

A liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) is an interesting concept for hydrogen storage. We describe herein a new, active catalyst system for dehydrogenation of perhydrogenated dibenzyl toluene (H18-DBT), which is a promising LOHC candidate. Pt supported on a rutile-anatase form of titania was found to be more active than Pt supported on anatase-only titania, or on alumina, and almost equally active as Pt supported on carbon. Robust and durable metal oxide supports are preferred for catalysing reactions at high temperatures.Peer reviewe

Study of the thermal stress in a Pb-free half-bump solder joint under current stressing

The thermal stress in a Sn3.5Ag1Cu half-bump solder joint under a 3.82×108 A/m2 current stressing was analyzed using a coupled-field simulation. Substantial thermal stress accumulated around the Al-to-solder interface, especially in the Ni+(Ni,Cu)3Sn4 layer, where a maximal stress of 138 MPa was identified. The stress gradient in the Ni layer was about 1.67×1013 Pa/m, resulting in a stress migration force of 1.82×10-16 N, which is comparable to the electromigration force, 2.82×10-16 N. Dissolution of the Ni+(Ni,Cu)3Sn4 layer, void formation with cracks at the anode side, and extrusions at the cathode side were observe

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

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