Urban and Periurban Forest Habitat Suitability: Current Fitness and Future Trends Under Climate Change Scenario

Habitat suitability models have been largely discussed and debated in the last two decades (Austin, 2007). Their application on conservation issues and assessment of climate change impacts on rural landscapes are largely documented in literature. Here we propose to asses the actual and future suitability of European dominant trees and forest types covering urban and periurban forests. Habitat suitability Classification Tree models were computed for the 20 most common European tree species and for Forest types (c.f. forest categories defined according to EEA technical report n9/2006). Models are built at the European extent to integrate the whole species range and estimate correctly each biota¿s ecological niche. Habitat suitability distribution output maps of 1km resolution where plotted in Urban and Periurban Forested areas to asses actual fitness of species to their environment. 10 European capitals including Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Rome and Vienna where taken into account. Finally, IPCC SRES A1B future scenario was applied to the suitability model and we tested trends of vegetation suitability shift for the next century. Results shows how European urban forests are partially unfitted to actual suitability and a general trend of suitability changes in the next century. Those trends could force our urban forest management scheme and practices to adapt to a pressure of landscape changes at local levelJRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Association and diffusion of Li+ in carboxymethylcellulose solutions with application to environmentally friendly Li-ion batteries: a combined Molecular Dynamics and NMR study

Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) has been proposed as a polymeric binder for the electrodes in environmentally friendly Li-ion batteries. Its physical properties and interaction with Li+ ions in water are interesting from the point of view of electrode preparationprocessability in water is one of the main reasons for its environmental friendlinessbut also for its possible application in aqueous Li-ion batteries. We combine MD simulations and variable-time PFGSE-NMR spectroscopy to investigate Li+ transport in CMC-based solutions. Both simulation and experiment show that, at concentrations such that Li-CMC has a gel like consistency, the Li+ diffusion coefficient is still very close to that in water. These ions interact preferentially with CMC’s carboxylate groups, giving rise to a rich variety of coordination patterns. However, the diffusion of Li+ in these systems is essentially unrestricted, with a fast, nanosecond-scale exchange of the ions between CMC and the aqueous environment

Torsion Test vs. Other Methods to Obtain the Shear Strength of Elastic-Plastic Adhesives

Nowadays adhesive joints are more and more used; therefore, a precise and reliable shear strength measurement of these joints is necessary to design and predict a final components’ performance. This work aimed to assess the shear strength value of adhesively joined ceramics (SiC, Si3N4) and steel in the case of an elasto‐plastic (ductile) joining material (Loctite EA 9321 AERO) by an experimental campaign and associated analytical modelling. The joined samples were tested using a single lap offset test in compression (SLO), an asymmetrical 4‐point bending test (A4PB, ASTM C1469), and by torsion on fully joined hourglass shaped samples (THG). A simple model based on the elastic‐plastic response in shear was proposed to fit the torque‐rotation curve measured in the torsion tests. The results showed that, with the adopted test methods and conditions, and by using the model, consistent values of shear strength could be obtained by torsion tests

Improving models of urban greenspace: from vegetation surface cover to volumetric survey, using waveform laser scanning

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.1 Urban greenspace has a major impact on human health and quality of life, and thus the way in which such green infrastructure is constructed, managed and maintained is of critical importance. A range of studies have demonstrated the relationship between the areal coverage and distribution of vegetation and the provision of multiple urban ecosystem services. It is not known how sensitive findings are to the spatial resolution of the underlying data relative to the grain size of urban land cover heterogeneity. Moreover, little is known about the three-dimensional (3D) structure of urban vegetation and delivery of services, and addressing such questions is limited by the availability of data describing canopy structure from the tree tops to the ground. 2 Waveform airborne laser scanning (lidar) offers a new way of capturing 3D data describing vegetation structure. We generated voxels (volumetric pixels) from waveform lidar (1.5 m resolution), differentiated vegetation layers using height as a determinant, and computed statistics on surface cover, volume and volume density per stratum. We then used a range of widely available remote sensing products with varying spatial resolution (1m to 100m) to map the same greenspace, and compared results to those from the waveform lidar survey. 3 We focused on data from three urban zones in the UK with distinct patterns of vegetation cover. We found -3%, +7.5% and +26.1% differences in green surface cover compared with, respectively, town planning maps (< 10 m resolution), national land cover maps (25 m) and European land cover maps (100 m). There were differences of -59.1%, +12.4% and -2.4% in tree cover compared with global (30 m resolution), European (25 m) and national (1 m) estimates. Waveform lidar captured sub-canopy structure and detected empty spaces in the understorey which contributed a 16% bias in the total green volume derived from non-waveform lidar observations. 4 We conclude that waveform lidar has a key role to play in estimating important quantitative metrics of urban green infrastructure, which is important because urban greenspace is highly fragmented and shows high levels of spatial and volumetric heterogeneity

Brazing of Mo to Glidcop Dispersion Strengthened Copper for Accelerating Structures

Alumina dispersion-strengthened copper, Glidcop, is used widely in high-heat-load ultra-high-vacuum components for synchrotron light sources (absorbers), accelerator components (beam intercepting devices), and in nuclear power plants. Glidcop has similar thermal and electrical properties to oxygen free electrical (OFE) copper, but has superior mechanical properties, thus making it a feasible structural material; its yield and ultimate tensile strength are equivalent to those of mild-carbon steel. The purpose of this work has been to develop a brazing technique to join Glidcop to Mo, using a commercial Cu-based alloy. The effects of the excessive diffusion of the braze along the grain boundaries on the interfacial chemistry and joint microstructure, as well as on the mechanical performance of the brazed joints, has been investigated. In order to prevent the diffusion of the braze into the Glidcop alloy, a copper barrier layer has been deposited on Glidcop by means of RF-sputtering

Popular interest in vertebrates does not reflect extinction risk and is associated with bias in conservation investment

<div><p>The interrelationship between public interest in endangered species and the attention they receive from the conservation community is the ‘flywheel’ driving much effort to abate global extinction rates. Yet big international conservation non-governmental organisations have typically focused on the plight of a handful of appealing endangered species, while the public remains largely unaware of the majority. We quantified the existence of bias in popular interest towards species, by analysing global internet search interest in 36,873 vertebrate taxa. Web search interest was higher for mammals and birds at greater risk of extinction, but this was not so for fish, reptiles and amphibians. Our analysis reveals a global bias in popular interest towards vertebrates that is undermining incentives to invest financial capital in thousands of species threatened with extinction. Raising the popular profile of these lesser known endangered and critically endangered species will generate clearer political and financial incentives for their protection.</p></div

Atomistic modelling of entropy driven phase transitions between different crystal modifications in polymers: the case of poly(3-alkylthiophenes)

Polymorphism and related solid-state phase transitions affect the structure and morphology and hence the properties of materials, but they are not-so-well understood. Atomistic computational methods can provide molecular-level insights, but they have rarely proven successful for transitions between polymorphic forms of crystalline polymers. In this work, we report atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of poly(3-alkylthiophenes) (P3ATs), widely used organic semiconductors to explore the experimentally observed, entropy-driven transition from form II to more common form I type polymorphs, or, more precisely, to form I mesophases. The transition is followed continuously, also considering X-ray diffraction evidence, for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and poly(3-butylthiophene) (P3BT), evidencing three main steps: (i) loss of side chain interdigitation, (ii) partial disruption of the original stacking order and (iii) reorganization of polymer chains into new, tighter, main-chain stacks and new layers with characteristic form I periodicities, substantially larger than those in the original form II. The described approach, likely applicable to other important transitions in polymers, provides previously inaccessible insight into the structural organization and disorder features of form I structures of P3ATs, not only in their development from form II structures but also from melts or solutions

Determinants of the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic in Europe: Implications for Real-Time Modelling

Influenza pandemics in the last century were characterized by successive waves and differences in impact and timing between different regions, for reasons not clearly understood. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic showed rapid global spread, but with substantial heterogeneity in timing within each hemisphere. Even within Europe substantial variation was observed, with the UK being unique in experiencing a major first wave of transmission in early summer and all other countries having a single major epidemic in the autumn/winter, with a West to East pattern of spread. Here we show that a microsimulation model, parameterised using data about H1N1pdm collected by the beginning of June 2009, explains the occurrence of two waves in UK and a single wave in the rest of Europe as a consequence of timing of H1N1pdm spread, fluxes of travels from US and Mexico, and timing of school vacations. The model provides a description of pandemic spread through Europe, depending on intra-European mobility patterns and socio-demographic structure of the European populations, which is in broad agreement with observed timing of the pandemic in different countries. Attack rates are predicted to depend on the socio-demographic structure, with age dependent attack rates broadly agreeing with available serological data. Results suggest that the observed heterogeneity can be partly explained by the between country differences in Europe: marked differences in school calendars, mobility patterns and sociodemographic structures. Moreover, higher susceptibility of children to infection played a key role in determining the epidemiology of the 2009 pandemic. Our work shows that it would have been possible to obtain a broad-brush prediction of timing of the European pandemic well before the autumn of 2009, much more difficult to achieve with simpler models or pre-pandemic parameterisation. This supports the use of models accounting for the structure of complex modern societies for giving insight to policy makers