Lonicera henryi Hemsl

Abstract.: Weber E. 2005. Lonicera henryi Hemsl. - a potential exotic forest weed in Switzerland. Bot. Helv. 115: 77-81. Lonicera henryi is an introduced climbing woody perennial that has become naturalized in scattered localities in Switzerland. Growth-related traits of this vine were measured at one forest site near Zurich to assess its invasion potential. Current-year shoots were 47-150cm long, indicating fast growth. There were 128-366 shoots or stems and 0-96 rooted nodes per m−2 of forest floor, indicating considerable competition for other species. Species richness was significantly lower in plots covered by L. henryi mats compared to adjacent control plots. The results suggest that L. henryi has a considerable ability to cover forest floors with a carpet of intertwining stems, and to climb rapidly on shrubs and trees. Further spread of this vine may impede forest tree establishment and crowd out native specie

Invasive alien plants in China: diversity and ecological insights

China's current invasive alien plant species were analyzed with regard to their floristic status, biological attributes and invasion status elsewhere. Most of the 270 species identified were annuals, followed by perennial herbs. Woody perennials made only about 10% of the species. The invasives were comprised of 59 families, the largest being Asteraceae, Poaceae, and Brassicaceae. The genera with most invasive species were Amaranthus, Ipomoea, and Solanum. Most of the species originated from the New World, notably from South America. About one-third of the species were serious invaders of natural habitats in countries other than China. The proportion of invasive alien plants in province floras ranged from 0.5 to 3.8%, absolute numbers from nine to 117 species per province. Density of invasive species was correlated positively with native species density at provincial scale. The results demonstrate that in China invasive plants are present throughout the country, with a particularly high species richness in the Southeast. The ecological diversity of invasive plants suggests wide ranging impacts which need to be assesse

The d(10) route to dye-sensitized solar cells: step-wise assembly of zinc(II) photosensitizers on TiO2 surfaces

Dye-sensitized solar cells have been assembled using a sequential approach: a TiO2 surface was functionalized with an anchoring ligand, followed by metallation with Zn(OAc)(2) or ZnCl2, and subsequent capping with a chromophore functionalized 2,2`:6`,2 ``-terpyridine; the DSCs exhibit surprisingly good efficiencies confirming the effectiveness of the new strategy for zinc-based DSC fabrication

Wind intensity affects fine root morphological traits with consequences for plant-soil feedback effects

Wind influences the development, architecture and morphology of plant roots and may modify subsequent interactions between plants and soil (plant-soil feedbacks-PSFs). However, information on wind effects on fine root morphology is scarce and the extent to which wind changes plant-soil interactions remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the effects of two wind intensity levels by manipulating surrounding vegetation height in a grassland PSF field experiment. We grew four common plant species (two grasses and two non-leguminous forbs) with soil biota either previously conditioned by these or other species and tested the effect of wind on root:shoot ratio, fine root morphological traits as well as the outcome for PSFs. Wind intensity did not affect biomass allocation (i.e. root:shoot ratio) in any species. However, fine-root morphology of all species changed under high wind intensity. High wind intensity increased specific root length and surface area and decreased root tissue density, especially in the two grasses. Similarly, the direction of PSFs changed under high wind intensity in all four species, but differences in biomass production on the different soils between high and low wind intensity were marginal and most pronounced when comparing grasses with forbs. Because soils did not differ in plant-available nor total nutrient content, the results suggest that wind-induced changes in root morphology have the potential to influence plant-soil interactions. Linking wind-induced changes in fine-root morphology to effects on PSF improves our understanding of plant-soil interactions under changing environmental conditions

Schlüssel zur Einteilung von Neophyten in der Schweiz in die Schwarze Liste oder die Watch-Liste

No Abstrac

Validations of an alpha version of the E3 Forensic Speech Science System (E3FS3) core software tools

This paper reports on validations of an alpha version of the E3 Forensic Speech Science System (E3FS3) core software tools. This is an open-code human-supervised-automatic forensic-voice-comparison system based on x-vectors extracted using a type of Deep Neural Network (DNN) known as a Residual Network (ResNet). A benchmark validation was conducted using training and test data (forensic_eval_01) that have previously been used to assess the performance of multiple other forensic-voice-comparison systems. Performance equalled that of the best-performing system with previously published results for the forensic_eval_01 test set. The system was then validated using two different populations (male speakers of Australian English and female speakers of Australian English) under conditions reflecting those of a particular case to which it was to be applied. The conditions included three different sets of codecs applied to the questioned-speaker recordings (two mismatched with the set of codecs applied to the known-speaker recordings), and multiple different durations of questioned-speaker recordings. Validations were conducted and reported in accordance with the “Consensus on validation of forensic voice comparison”

In vivo sensitivity estimation and imaging acceleration with rotating RF coil arrays at 7 Tesla

Using a new rotating SENSitivity Encoding (rotating-SENSE) algorithm, we have successfully demonstrated that the rotating radiofrequency coil array (RRFCA) was capable of achieving a significant reduction in scan time and a uniform image reconstruction for a homogeneous phantom at 7 Tesla. However, at 7 Tesla the in vivo sensitivity profiles (B) become distinct at various angular positions. Therefore, sensitivity maps at other angular positions cannot be obtained by numerically rotating the acquired ones. In this work, a novel sensitivity estimation method for the RRFCA was developed and validated with human brain imaging. This method employed a library database and registration techniques to estimate coil sensitivity at an arbitrary angular position. The estimated sensitivity maps were then compared to the acquired sensitivity maps. The results indicate that the proposed method is capable of accurately estimating both magnitude and phase of sensitivity at an arbitrary angular position, which enables us to employ the rotating-SENSE algorithm to accelerate acquisition and reconstruct image. Compared to a stationary coil array with the same number of coil elements, the RRFCA was able to reconstruct images with better quality at a high reduction factor. It is hoped that the proposed rotation-dependent sensitivity estimation algorithm and the acceleration ability of the RRFCA will be particularly useful for ultra high field MRI

Enhanced stability of the square lattice of a classical bilayer Wigner crystal

The stability and melting transition of a single layer and a bilayer crystal consisting of charged particles interacting through a Coulomb or a screened Coulomb potential is studied using the Monte-Carlo technique. A new melting criterion is formulated which we show to be universal for bilayer as well as for single layer crystals in the case of (screened) Coulomb, Lennard--Jones and 1/r^{12} repulsive inter-particle interactions. The melting temperature for the five different lattice structures of the bilayer Wigner crystal is obtained, and a phase diagram is constructed as a function of the interlayer distance. We found the surprising result that the square lattice has a substantial larger melting temperature as compared to the other lattice structures. This is a consequence of the specific topology of the defects which are created with increasing temperature and which have a larger energy as compared to the defects in e.g. a hexagonal lattice.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Imaging performance of a dedicated radiation transparent RF coil on a 1.0 Tesla inline MRI-linac

This work describes the first imaging studies on a 1.0 Tesla inline MRI-Linac using a dedicated transmit/receive RF body coil that has been designed to be completely radio transparent and provide optimum imaging performance over a large patient opening.
 Methods: A series of experiments was performed on the MRI-Linac to investigate the performance and imaging characteristics of a new dedicated volumetric RF coil: (1) numerical electromagnetic simulations were used to measure transmit efficiency in two patient positions; (2) image quality metrics of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), ghosting and uniformity were assessed in a large diameter phantom with no radiation beam; (3) radiation induced effects were investigated in both the raw data (k-space) and image sequences acquired with simultaneous irradiation; (4) radiation dose was measured with and without image acquisition; (5) RF heating was studied using an MR-compatible fluoroptic thermometer and; (6) the in vivo image quality and versatility of the coil was demonstrated in normal healthy subjects for both supine and standing positions.
 Results: Daily phantom measurements demonstrated excellent imaging performance with stable SNR over a period of 3 months (42.6 ± 0.9). Simultaneous irradiation produced no statistical change in image quality (p>0.74) and no interference in raw data for a 20 20 cm radiation field. The coil was found to be efficient over large volumes and negligible RF heating was observed. Volunteer scans acquired in both supine and standing positions provided artefact free images with good anatomical visualisation.
 Conclusions: The first completely radio transparent RF coil for use on a 1.0 Tesla MRI-Linac has been described. There is no impact on either the imaging or dosimetry performance with a simultaneous radiation beam. The open design enables imaging and radiotherapy guidance in a variety of positons.&#13