A new concept for estimating the influence of vegetation on throughfall kinetic energy using aerial laser scanning

Soil loss caused by erosion has enormous economic and social impacts. Splash effects of rainfall are an important driver of erosion processes; however, effects of vegetation on splash erosion are still not fully understood. Splash erosion processes under vegetation are investigated by means of throughfall kinetic energy (TKE). Previous studies on TKE utilized a heterogeneous set of plant and canopy parameters to assess vegetation’s influence on erosion by rain splash but remained on individual plant- or plotlevels. In the present study we developed a method for the area-wide estimation of the influence of vegetation on TKE using remote sensing methods. In a literature review we identified key vegetation variables influencing splash erosion and developed a conceptual model to describe the interaction of vegetation and raindrops. Our model considers both amplifying and protecting effect of vegetation layers according to their height above the ground and aggregates them into a new indicator: the Vegetation Splash Factor (VSF). It is based on the proportional contribution of drips per layer, which can be calculated via the vegetation cover profile from airborne LiDAR datasets. In a case study, we calculated the VSF using a LiDAR dataset for La Campana National Park in central Chile. The studied catchment comprises a heterogeneous mosaic of vegetation layer combinations and types and is hence well suited to test the approach.We calculated a VSF map showing the relation between vegetation structure and its expected influence on TKE. Mean VSF was 1.42, indicating amplifying overall effect of vegetation on TKE that was present in 81% of the area. Values below 1 indicating a protective effect were calculated for 19% of the area. For future work, we recommend refining the weighting factor by calibration to local conditions using field-reference data and comparing the VSF with TKE field measurements

Labial soft tissue volume evaluation of different techniques for ridge preservation after tooth extraction: a randomized controlled clinical trial

OBJECTIVE: To volumetrically evaluate soft tissue changes of different ridge preservation techniques compared to spontaneous healing 6 months after tooth extraction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In each of 40 patients, one single-rooted tooth was extracted and four treatment modalities were randomly assigned to the following groups (n = 10 each): A) ß-tricalcium-phosphate-particles with a polylactid coating (ß-TCP), B) demineralized bovine bone mineral with 10% collagen covered with a collagen matrix (DBBM-C/CM), C) DBBM with 10% collagen covered with an autogenous soft tissue punch graft (DBBM-C/PG), D) spontaneous healing (control). Impressions were obtained before extraction and 6 months later, casts were digitized and volumetric changes at the buccal soft tissues were determined. One-way anova was performed and pair-wise Wilcoxon rank sum test with Bonferroni-Holm method was applied for comparison of differences between two groups. RESULTS: After 6 months, horizontal contour changes accounted for -1.7 ± 0.7 mm (A), -1.2 ± 0.5 mm (B), -1.2 ± 0.7 mm (C) and -1.8 ± 0.8 mm (D). None of the group comparisons reached statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Six months after tooth extraction all groups revealed a horizontal volume change in the buccal soft tissue contour. Application of DBBM-C/CM or DBBM-C/PG reduced the amount of volume resorption compared to ß-TCP or spontaneous healing without reaching statistically significant difference

Cosmic Shear from STIS Pure Parallels: Analysis

The measurement of cosmic shear requires deep imaging with high image quality on many lines of sight to sample the statistics of large-scale structure. The expected distortion of galaxy images by cosmic shear on the STIS angular scale is a few percent, therefore the PSF anisotropy has to be understood and controlled to an accuracy better than 1%. In this poster we present the analysis of the PSF of STIS and a preliminary cosmic shear measurement using archival data from the STIS pure parallel program to show that the STIS camera on-board HST is well suited for our project. The data reduction and catalog production are described in an accompanying paper (astro-ph/0102330).Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the STScI 2001 spring symposium "The Dark Universe: Matter, Energy and Gravity" Baltimore April 2-5 2001, acknowledgements adde

Exploring the Microbiome of Healthy and Diseased Peri-Implant Sites Using Illumina Sequencing

Aim To compare the microbiome of healthy (H) and diseased (P) peri-implant sites and determine the core peri-implant microbiome. Materials and Methods Submucosal biofilms from 32 H and 35 P sites were analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing (MiSeq, Illumina), QIIME and HOMINGS. Differences between groups were determined using Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA), t-tests and Wilcoxon rank sum test and FDR-adjusted. The peri-implant core microbiome was determined. Results PCoA showed partitioning between H and P at all taxonomic levels. Bacteroidetes, Spirochetes and Synergistetes were higher in P, while Actinobacteria prevailed in H (p\u3c0.05). Porphyromonas and Treponema were more abundant in P and while Rothia and Neisseria were higher in H (p\u3c0.05). The core peri-implant microbiome contained Fusobacterium, Parvimonas and Campylobacter sp. T. denticola and P. gingivalis levels were higher in P, as well as F. alocis, F fastidiosum and T. maltophilum (p\u3c0.05). Conclusion The peri-implantitis microbiome is commensal-depleted and pathogen-enriched, harboring traditional and new pathogens. The core peri-implant microbiome harbors taxa from genera often associated with periodontal inflammation

Principal Component Analysis of Weak Lensing Surveys

We study degeneracies between cosmological parameters and measurement errors from cosmic shear surveys using a principal component analysis of the Fisher matrix. We simulate realistic survey topologies with non-uniform sky coverage, and quantify the effect of survey geometry, depth and noise from intrinsic galaxy ellipticities on the parameter errors. This analysis allows us to optimise the survey geometry. Using the shear two-point correlation functions and the aperture mass dispersion, we study various degeneracy directions in a multi-dimensional parameter space spanned by Omega_m, Omega_Lambda, sigma_8, the shape parameter Gamma, the spectral index n_s, along with parameters that specify the distribution of source galaxies. If only three parameters are to be obtained from weak lensing data, a single principal component is dominant and contains all information about the main parameter degeneracies and their errors. The variance of the dominant principal component of the Fisher matrix shows a minimum for survey strategies which have small cosmic variance and measure the shear correlation up to several degrees [abridged].Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures. A&A in press, matches the version to be publishe

Effect of Aging on Stained Monolithic Resin-Ceramic CAD/CAM Materials: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Surface Roughness

PURPOSE The aim of this in vitro study was to measure the effect of staining and artificial aging on the surface roughness of commercially available resin-ceramic computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) materials both quantitatively and qualitatively and to compare it to feldspathic material. MATERIALS AND METHODS Test specimens (n = 15 per material) were prepared of CAD/CAM ingots from a resin nanoceramic (Lava Ultimate, LVU), a polymer-infiltrated ceramic (Vita Enamic, ENA), and a resin nanoceramic (Cerasmart, CER). In the staining protocol, test specimens were (i) roughened in a standardized manner and (ii) stained with the manufacturer's recommended staining kit by means of photo-polymerization (Bluephase Polywave). The control specimens were prepared out of a feldspathic ceramic (Vita Mark II,VM2) and stained in a ceramic furnace. As negative control of each group, 15 specimens were prepared and polished in a standardized manner. Surface roughness (Ra) was measured after finishing procedures and after simulation of clinical service up to 5 years by means of toothbrushing. After each year of aging, one specimen per group was randomly selected for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Kruskal-Wallis test and paired post-hoc test were applied to detect differences between treatment groups (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS The mean roughness measurements of the stained CAD/CAM materials were 0.14 ± 0.04 μm (ENA), 0.15 ± 0.03 μm (LVU), 0.22 ± 0.03 μm (VM2), and 0.26 ± 0.12 μm (CER). In the polished CAD/CAM materials the measurements were 0.01 ± 0.01 μm (CER), 0.02 ± 0.01 μm (LVU), 0.02 ± 0.00 μm (VM2), and 0.03 ± 0.01μm (ENA). Irrespective of the restoration material, the applied staining protocol resulted in a higher surface roughness compared to the polished specimens (p < 0.001). After 5 years of simulated aging the mean surface roughness in the stained CAD/CAM materials were 0.22 ± 0.03 μm (VM2), 0.24 ± 0.09 μm (ENA), 0.25 ± 0.06 μm (CER), and 0.37 ± 0.09 μm (LVU). Aging had a significant effect on surface roughness in groups ENA and LVU (p < 0.001). SEM analysis showed that the staining layer on resin-ceramic CAD/CAM materials was partially removed over time. CONCLUSIONS The applied staining protocol significantly increased surface roughness of CAD/CAM materials. Instability of the staining layer on resin-ceramic CAD/CAM materials could be anticipated over time as a consequence of toothbrushing, whereas feldspathic ceramic did not suffer from such aging effect