Creating a Regional MODIS Satellite-Driven Net Primary Production Dataset for European Forests

Net primary production (NPP) is an important ecological metric for studying forest ecosystems and their carbon sequestration, for assessing the potential supply of food or timber and quantifying the impacts of climate change on ecosystems. The global MODIS NPP dataset using the MOD17 algorithm provides valuable information for monitoring NPP at 1-km resolution. Since coarse-resolution global climate data are used, the global dataset may contain uncertainties for Europe. We used a 1-km daily gridded European climate data set with the MOD17 algorithm to create the regional NPP dataset MODIS EURO. For evaluation of this new dataset, we compare MODIS EURO with terrestrial driven NPP from analyzing and harmonizing forest inventory data (NFI) from 196,434 plots in 12 European countries as well as the global MODIS NPP dataset for the years 2000 to 2012. Comparing these three NPP datasets, we found that the global MODIS NPP dataset differs from NFI NPP by 26%, while MODIS EURO only differs by 7%. MODIS EURO also agrees with NFI NPP across scales (from continental, regional to country) and gradients (elevation, location, tree age, dominant species, etc.). The agreement is particularly good for elevation, dominant species or tree height. This suggests that using improved climate data allows the MOD17 algorithm to provide realistic NPP estimates for Europe. Local discrepancies between MODIS EURO and NFI NPP can be related to differences in stand density due to forest management and the national carbon estimation methods. With this study, we provide a consistent, temporally continuous and spatially explicit productivity dataset for the years 2000 to 2012 on a 1-km resolution, which can be used to assess climate change impacts on ecosystems or the potential biomass supply of the European forests for an increasing bio-based economy. MODIS EURO data are made freely available at ftp://palantir.boku.ac.at/Public/MODIS_EURO.Peer reviewe

Model transformation from UML state machines to input/output symbolic transition systems

Zsfassung in dt. SpracheTesten ist sehr wichtig im Software Engineering Prozess.Automatische Testfallgenerierung ist ein aktuelles Forschungsgebiet. Es gibt sehr gute Tools, die Testfälle ausgehend von Input/Output Symbolic Transition Systems (IOSTS), ein auf State/Transition basierendes Modell, erzeugen können. Diese Repräsentation wird in der Industrie jedoch nicht zur Systemspezifikation verwendet. UML ist der de facto Standard in diesem Gebiet.Diese Diplomarbeit schließt die Lücke zwischen der Systemspezifikation anhand von UML 2 und den Möglichkeiten der automatisierten Testfallgenerierung basierend auf IOSTS. Eine Modelltransformation von UML 2 zu IOSTS wird präsentiert. Tools, die die Fähigkeit besitzen anhand von IOSTS Spezifikationen Testfälle zu generieren, können diese dann nutzen. Der Symbolic Test Generator (STG), welcher auch im Rahmen dieser Diplomarbeit vorgestellt wird, ist eines dieser Tools.Der automatisierte Testfallgenerierungsprozess basiert auf Conformance Testing. Dies bedeutet eine System Spezifikation anhand einer Conformance Relation mit einer Implementierung zu testen. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird sowohl die sioco (symbolic input output conformance), als auch die ioco (input output conformance) Conformance Relation vorgestellt, da die sioco Relation auf ioco basiert. Des Weiteren werden sowohl IOSTS, als auch der Testfallgenerierungsprozess genau erläutert und definiert. UML ist sehr allgemein, es existieren sehr viele Diagramme und Elemente mit denen Systeme spezifiziert werden können.Deshalb benutzt der Transformationsalgorithmus der in dieser Arbeit vorgestellt wird nur eine Teilmenge von UML. Diese Teilmenge wird im Rahmen der Diplomarbeit genau spezifiziert.Der Hauptteil dieser Arbeit ist der Transformationsalgorithmus. Es wird sehr detailliert erklärt, wie die UML Elemente auf die IOSTS Elemente abgebildet werden. Eine Pseudocode Implementierung des Algorithmus wird auch präsentiert. Da die Transformation nicht vom Tool, das die generierten IOSTS benützt, abhängen soll, wird ein allgemeines IOSTS Metamodell eingeführt. Die eigentliche Transformation ist aufgeteilt in eine Modell zu Modell Transformation, um ein IOSTS Modell zu generieren, welches dem allgemeinen Metamodell entspricht und in eine Modell zu Text Transformation, um die spezifische textuelle Repräsentation zu erstellen mit der ein beliebiges Tool umgehen kann.Ein praktischen Beispiel, das Conference Protocol, veranschaulicht die Transformation. Dieses Beispiel zeigt den gesamten Transformationsprozess ausgehend von einer UML Spezifikation. Das Ergebnis ist eine IOSTS Spezifikation welche das STG Tool lesen kann.Dieses Tool wird verwendet da es mit IOSTS umgehen kann.Abschließend werden einige Ideen präsentiert, welche die Transformation in zukünftigen Arbeiten verbessern können.Testing is a very important part in software engineering. A lot of research is done in the field of automated test case generation.There are proper tools that are able to generate test cases from Input/Output Symbolic Transition Systems (IOSTS), a state/transition based model. This representation is however not used in industry for system specification purposes. UML has become the de facto standard in this area.This thesis fills the gap between system specification with UML 2 and automated test case generation based on IOSTS. It presents a model transformation from UML 2 to Input/Output Symbolic Transition Systems.The generated IOSTS may then be used by tools that are capable of automated test case generation based on IOSTS like the Symbolic Test Generator (STG) that is also used in this thesis.The test case generation process is based on conformance testing.Conformance testing means testing a system specification against an implementation according to a conformance relation. In the context of this thesis, the sioco (symbolic input output conformance) conformance relation is discussed, as well as the ioco (input output conformance) conformance relation, the sioco relation is based on. A detailed description of IOSTS is also part of this thesis as well as an explanation of the test case generation process. UML is very general, there exist a lot of diagrams and elements for system specification purposes. The subset of UML that is used by the transformation is also described in this thesis.The main part of this work is the transformation algorithm. There is a detailed description how elements of UML are mapped to elements of IOSTS. A pseudocode implementation of the algorithm is also part of this thesis. The transformation should not rely on the tool that uses the IOSTS, so a general IOSTS meta model is introduced. The transformation is split in two parts, a model to model transformation to generate an IOSTS model that conforms to the IOSTS meta model defined in this thesis and a model to text transformation to generate a specific textual representation an arbitrary tool can handle (like the STG tool).The transformation is illustrated by a practical example. The Conference Protocol is used for this purpose. The example shows the whole transformation, starting with an UML specification. The result is an IOSTS system specification in the STG language. The STG tool is chosen since it is able to handle Input/Output Symbolic Transition Systems.Last, some ideas about how the transformation may be improved in some future work are introduced.9

A thinning routine for large-scale biogeochemical mechanistic ecosystem models

Biogeochemical mechanistic models (BGC models) are used to model the carbon balance of forest ecosystems. Since European forests are managed intensively, a crucial part of carbon modelling is integrating management and thinning routines in the modelling process. In this study, forest inventory data are used to derive information concerning forest management practice. Based on this, a harvesting model is calibrated for simulating the ‘business as usual’ management that can be used in large-scale BGC models. Our approach is based on data from the Austrian National Forest Inventory. The model comprises two sub-models: (1) a logistic model to assess the probability of an inventory point to be thinned and (2) a non-parametric model based on empirical probability density maps to assess the thinning intensity. Since BGC models operate on the stand level, only stand level parameters are integrated in the model such as standing timber carbon, site quality, cover type, elevation and age. A comparison of the predicted and observed proportion of thinned points and the thinning intensity suggests that the model is able to correctly mimic the management regime derived from the inventory data. No systematic trends in the results are evident. Using this thinning model in combination with a mechanistic model will enable assessment of the overall carbon stored in managed forest ecosystems, especially in large-scale modelling applications

Statin use and peripheral blood progenitor cells mobilization in patients with multiple myeloma.

PURPOSE: Statins have beneficial effects in patients after myocardial infarction and at least part of the benefit results from mobilization of marrow endothelial progenitors to repopulate damaged myocardial tissues. This study examines if statins may have the same effect in mobilizing marrow progenitors to be harvested and subsequently used in high-dose chemotherapy with progenitor cell rescue in multiple myeloma. METHODS: From 2006 to 2012, 86 patients with multiple myeloma were mobilized with the use of G-CSF and were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with other malignancies or mobilized with the use of chemotherapy or with plerixafor were excluded. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 60 years. 72 patients had received one line of chemotherapy and 14 patients two or more lines of chemotherapy. Twenty patients were taking statins at the time of the harvest while 66 patients were not. In the group of patients taking statins the success rate of first leukapheresis (obtaining the target number of 4 × 10(6) CD34+ cells/kg) was 85 % while in the group not taking statins this rate was 63.6 %. Despite the comparatively small number of patients this difference approached statistical significance (χ (2) = 0.07). CONCLUSION: This retrospective analysis of 86 patients shows for the first time a possible benefit of statins for peripheral blood progenitor cells mobilization in patients with multiple myeloma. Larger studies would be required to clarify the issue. If their effectiveness is confirmed, statins could be a safe and cheaper addition to chemotherapy and plerixafor for peripheral hematopoietic stem cell mobilization