Analysis of the ecological principles underpinning forest landscape restoration: a case study of wood cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) on the Isle of Wight (UK).

Current woodland restoration programs are increasingly focussing on the creation of habitat networks in order to increase woodland cover and connectivity. However, the basic assumptions underpinning such strategies are largely untested for species associated with woodland habitat. For many woodland invertebrate species, local scale processes are potentially more important than processes operating at the landscape scale in terms of species persistence, especially for those species that show high dependence on woodland habitat conditions and have limited dispersal ability. The applicability of landscape-scale approaches to woodland restoration therefore needed to be evaluated in relation to the ecological characteristics of invertebrates. This thesis examines these issues and provides a quantitative analysis of the factors influencing presence of wood cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) at multiple scales within the landscape. The investigation was conducted in woodland habitats on the Isle of Wight in the south of the United Kingdom. A landscape-scale survey indicated that wood cricket was found predominantly in large woodland fragments situated in close proximity to each other, with ancient woodland characteristics and with a high amount of edge habitat. The current pattern of distribution of wood cricket suggested that most woodland fragments in the agricultural matrix are effectively isolated from each other, indicating the importance of maintaining a high level of connectivity between habitats for this invertebrate species. An investigation within woodlands indicated that locations with permanent low cover of ground vegetation, low canopy closure and high availability of leaf litter were the preferred habitat conditions for wood cricket. Ride and track edges, woodland peripheries and open areas created and maintained by management activities were found to be the main habitat locations for wood cricket. It was further found that wood cricket was mainly present at permanent edges or in close proximity to these locations, indicating the importance of maintaining these habitat features for this species. The mean dispersal rate for dispersing wood cricket obtained from a series of field experiments was found to be similar to that of other ground-dwelling invertebrate species that were strongly associated with woodland. This level of habitat specialism was consistent with the habitat preferences found for wood cricket, and therefore wood cricket can be seen as representative of this particular group of wood land-associated invertebrates. Comparable to wood cricket, the dispersal ability for species of this group was found to be limited. Few individuals of nymph (i. e. juvenile) and adult wood cricket populations were found to disperse. Wood cricket was found able to disperse up to 55 m into non-woodland habitat and mature habitat corridors were found to be used by wood cricket, but not new immature woodland plantings. The results of this investigation indicate that the overall success of woodland conservation for woodland invertebrates lies in adopting a multi-scale and multimanagement strategic approach. The current initiatives focussing on restoration and re-instatement of traditional management activities within existing woodlands were found to be highly beneficial for wood cricket. Corridors were found to facilitate movement if suitable woodland habitat conditions were provided. Creation of woodland habitat networks might therefore be beneficial for wood cricket if given enough time to develop

Analysis of the ecological principles underpinning forest landscape restoration : a case study of wood cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) on the Isle of Wight (UK)

Current woodland restoration programs are increasingly focussing on the creation of habitat networks in order to increase woodland cover and connectivity. However, the basic assumptions underpinning such strategies are largely untested for species associated with woodland habitat. For many woodland invertebrate species, local scale processes are potentially more important than processes operating at the landscape scale in terms of species persistence, especially for those species that show high dependence on woodland habitat conditions and have limited dispersal ability. The applicability of landscape-scale approaches to woodland restoration therefore needed to be evaluated in relation to the ecological characteristics of invertebrates. This thesis examines these issues and provides a quantitative analysis of the factors influencing presence of wood cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) at multiple scales within the landscape. The investigation was conducted in woodland habitats on the Isle of Wight in the south of the United Kingdom. A landscape-scale survey indicated that wood cricket was found predominantly in large woodland fragments situated in close proximity to each other, with ancient woodland characteristics and with a high amount of edge habitat. The current pattern of distribution of wood cricket suggested that most woodland fragments in the agricultural matrix are effectively isolated from each other, indicating the importance of maintaining a high level of connectivity between habitats for this invertebrate species. An investigation within woodlands indicated that locations with permanent low cover of ground vegetation, low canopy closure and high availability of leaf litter were the preferred habitat conditions for wood cricket. Ride and track edges, woodland peripheries and open areas created and maintained by management activities were found to be the main habitat locations for wood cricket. It was further found that wood cricket was mainly present at permanent edges or in close proximity to these locations, indicating the importance of maintaining these habitat features for this species. The mean dispersal rate for dispersing wood cricket obtained from a series of field experiments was found to be similar to that of other ground-dwelling invertebrate species that were strongly associated with woodland. This level of habitat specialism was consistent with the habitat preferences found for wood cricket, and therefore wood cricket can be seen as representative of this particular group of wood land-associated invertebrates. Comparable to wood cricket, the dispersal ability for species of this group was found to be limited. Few individuals of nymph (i. e. juvenile) and adult wood cricket populations were found to disperse. Wood cricket was found able to disperse up to 55 m into non-woodland habitat and mature habitat corridors were found to be used by wood cricket, but not new immature woodland plantings. The results of this investigation indicate that the overall success of woodland conservation for woodland invertebrates lies in adopting a multi-scale and multimanagement strategic approach. The current initiatives focussing on restoration and re-instatement of traditional management activities within existing woodlands were found to be highly beneficial for wood cricket. Corridors were found to facilitate movement if suitable woodland habitat conditions were provided. Creation of woodland habitat networks might therefore be beneficial for wood cricket if given enough time to develop.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Human Impacts on Forest Biodiversity in Protected Walnut-Fruit Forests in Kyrgyzstan

We used a spatially explicit model of forest dynamics, supported by empirical field data and socioeconomic data, to examine the impacts of human disturbances on a protected forest landscape in Kyrgyzstan. Local use of 27 fruit and nut species was recorded and modeled. Results indicated that in the presence of fuelwood cutting with or without grazing, species of high socioeconomic impor- tance such as Juglans regia, Malus spp., and Armeniaca vulgaris were largely eliminated from the landscape after 50–150 yr. In the absence of disturbance or in the presence of grazing only, decline of these species occurred at a much lower rate, owing to competi- tive interactions between tree species. This suggests that the current intensity of fuelwood harvesting is not sustainable. Conversely, cur- rent grazing intensities were found to have relatively little impact on forest structure and composition, and could potentially play a positive role in supporting regeneration of tree species. These results indicate that both positive and negative impacts on biodiversity can arise from human populations living within a protected area. Potentially, these could be reconciled through the development of participatory approaches to conservation management within this reserve, to ensure the maintenance of its high conservation value while meeting human needs

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

A Java compatible virtual machine for wireless sensor nodes

The Java programming language has potentially significant advantages for wireless sensor nodes but there is currently no feature-rich, open source virtual machine available. In this paper we present Darjeeling, a system comprising offline tools and a memory efficient run-time. The offline post-compiler tool analyzes, links and consolidates Java class files into loadable modules. The runtime implements a modified Java VM that supports multithreading and is designed specifically to operate in constrained execution environments such as wireless sensor network nodes and supports inheritance, threads, garbage collection, and loadable modules. We have demonstrated Java running on AVR128 and MSP430 microcontrollers at speeds of up to 70,000 JVM instructions per second

Darjeeling, a feature-rich VM for the resource poor

The programming and retasking of sensor nodes could benefit greatly from the use of a virtual machine (VM) since byte code is compact, can be loaded on demand, and interpreted on a heterogeneous set of devices. The challenge is to ensure good programming tools and a small footprint for the virtual machine to meet the memory constraints of typical WSN platforms. To this end we propose Darjeeling, a virtual machine modelled after the Java VM and capable of executing a substantial subset of the Java language, but designed specifically to run on 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers with 2 - 10 KB of RAM. The Darjeeling VM uses a 16- rather than a 32-bit architecture, which is more efficient on the targeted platforms. Darjeeling features a novel memory organisation with strict separation of reference from non-reference types which eliminates the need for run-time type inspection in the underlying compacting garbage collector. Darjeeling uses a linked stack model that provides light-weight threads, and supports synchronisation. The VM has been implemented on three different platforms and was evaluated with micro benchmarks and a real-world application. The latter includes a pure Java implementation of the collection tree routing protocol conveniently programmed as a set of cooperating threads, and a reimplementation of an existing environmental monitoring application. The results show that Darjeeling is a viable solution for deploying large-scale heterogeneous sensor networks. Copyright 2009 ACM