Mammal species composition and habitat associations in a commercial forest and mixed-plantation landscape

Commercial forest plantations of fast-growing species have been established globally to meet increasing demands for timber, pulpwood, and other wood products. Industrial plantations may contribute to tropical forest conservation by reducing exploitation of primary and secondary natural forests. Whether such plantations can support critical elements of biodiversity, including provision of habitat and movement corridors for species of conservation concern, is an important question in Southeast Asia. Our objectives were to investigate relationships between habitat gradients and community attributes of medium-sized to large mammals in a mixed plantation mosaic in Bengkoka Peninsula, Sabah, East Malaysia. Data on mammals were collected using 59 remote camera stations deployed for a minimum of 21 days (24-hour sampling occasions) in three major land-use types: natural forest, Acacia plantations, and non-Acacia plantations (oil palm, rubber, young Eucalyptus pellita). We used sample-based rarefaction to evaluate variation in species richness with land use. We used generalized linear models and ordination analyses to evaluate whether variation in mammal detections and species composition was associated with habitat gradients. We recorded >22 mammal species over 1572 sampling occasions. Natural forest area was positively associated with mammal species richness and detections of threatened mammals. Overall detections of mammals increased with decreasing elevation, but decreased within, and close to, Acacia plantations. Detections of threatened mammals increased with greater proportions of natural forest and Acacia and increasing proximity to roads. Sample-based rarefaction indicated that species richness of mammals in Acacia and natural forest was considerably higher than observed. Both natural forest and Acacia plantations shared similar values for species richness and diversity, but non-Acacia plantations scored lower in both metrics. Mammal species composition differed among different types of land use. Smaller generalists used non-Acacia plantation forests. A variety of other mammals including some threatened species used natural forest, Acacia, or a combination of the two. Acacia plantations possess attributes supporting a diversity of mammal species, including those we defined as threatened based on IUCN criteria. However, this is likely a function of the habitat mosaic with natural forest in the study area and the mangrove forests on the fringes of the peninsula serving as refuges of mammal diversity. Retention and restoration of natural and mangrove forests may therefore enhance the conservation potential of industrial Acacia plantations. Additionally, controlled road access in conjunction with anti-poaching operations and strengthening public awareness are essential to reduce the threat of overexploitation

Real-world experience with ultrasound renal denervation utilizing home blood pressure monitoring:the Global Paradise System registry study design

Background: Hypertension is a major public health issue due to its association with cardiovascular disease risk. Despite the availability of effective antihypertensive drugs, rates of blood pressure (BP) control remain suboptimal. Renal denervation (RDN) has emerged as an effective non-pharmacological, device-based treatment option for patients with hypertension. The multicenter, single-arm, observational Global Paradise™ System (GPS) registry has been designed to examine the long-term safety and effectiveness of ultrasound RDN (uRDN) with the Paradise System in a large population of patients with hypertension. Methods: The study aims to enroll up to 3000 patients undergoing uRDN in routine clinical practice. Patients will be recruited over a 4-year period and followed for 5 years (at 3, 6, and 12 months after the uRDN procedure and annually thereafter). Standardized home BP measurements will be taken every 3 months with automatic upload to the cloud. Office and ambulatory BP and adverse events will be collected as per routine clinical practice. Quality-of-Life questionnaires will be used to capture patient-reported outcomes. Conclusions: This observational registry will provide real-world information on the safety and effectiveness of uRDN in a large population of patients treated during routine clinical practice, and also allow for a better understanding of responses in prespecified subgroups. The focus on home BP in this registry is expected to improve completeness of long-term follow-up and provide unique insights into BP over time. Graphical abstract: Global Paradise System registry study design. ABP, ambulatory blood pressure; BP, blood pressure; FU, follow-up; M, month; OBP, office blood pressure. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].</p

Rochechouart 2017-Drilling Campaign: First Results

No abstract available

Hidden secrets of deformation: Impact-induced compaction within a CV chondrite

The CV3 Allende is one of the most extensively studied meteorites in worldwide collections. It is currently classified as S1—essentially unshocked—using the classification scheme of Stöffler et al. (1991), however recent modelling suggests the low porosity observed in Allende indicates the body should have undergone compaction-related deformation. In this study, we detail previously undetected evidence of impact through use of Electron Backscatter Diffraction mapping to identify deformation microstructures in chondrules, AOAs and matrix grains. Our results demonstrate that forsterite-rich chondrules commonly preserve crystal-plastic microstructures (particularly at their margins); that low-angle boundaries in deformed matrix grains of olivine have a preferred orientation; and that disparities in deformation occur between chondrules, surrounding and non-adjacent matrix grains. We find heterogeneous compaction effects present throughout the matrix, consistent with a highly porous initial material. Given the spatial distribution of these crystal-plastic deformation microstructures, we suggest that this is evidence that Allende has undergone impact-induced compaction from an initially heterogeneous and porous parent body. We suggest that current shock classifications (Stöffler et al., 1991) relying upon data from chondrule interiors do not constrain the complete shock history of a sample

Mushy Zone Morphology During Directional Solidification of Pb-5.8 Wt Pct Sb Alloy

The Pb-5.8 wt pet Sb alloy was directionally solidified with a positive thermal gradient of 140 K cm(-1) at a growth speed ranging from 0.8 to 30 mu m s(-1), and then it was quenched to retain the mushy zone morphology. The morphology of the mushy zone along its entire length has been characterized by using a serial sectioning and three-dimensional image reconstruction technique. Variation in the cellular/dendritic shape factor, hydraulic radius of the interdendritic region, and fraction solid along the mushy zone length has been studied. A comparison with predictions from theoretical models indicates that convection remarkably reduces the primary dendrite spacing while its influence on the dendrite tip radius is not as significant

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Spatially resolving the environmental quenching of star formation in GAMA galaxies

We use data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral Field Spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to investigate the spatially-resolved signatures of the environmental quenching of star formation in galaxies. Using dust-corrected measurements of the distribution of Hα emission we measure the radial profiles of star formation in a sample of 201 star-forming galaxies covering three orders of magnitude in stellar mass (M∗M∗; 108.1-1010.95 M⊙) and in 5th nearest neighbour local environment density (Σ5; 10−1.3- 102.1 Mpc−2). We show that star formation rate gradients in galaxies are steeper in dense (log10(Σ5/Mpc2) > 0.5) environments by 0.58 ± 0.29 dex re−1 in galaxies with stellar masses in the range 1010 1.0). These lines of evidence strongly suggest that with increasing local environment density the star formation in galaxies is suppressed, and that this starts in their outskirts such that quenching occurs in an outside-in fashion in dense environments and is not instantaneous

Some Consequences of Thermosolutal Convection: The Grain Structure of Castings

The essential principles of thermosolutal convection are outlined, and how convection provides a transport mechanism between the mushy region of a casting and the open bulk liquid is illustrated. The convective flow patterns which develop assist in heat exchange and macroscopic solute segregation during solidification; they also provide a mechanism for the transport of dendritic fragments from the mushy region into the bulk liquid. Surviving fragments become nuclei for equiaxed grains and so lead to blocking of the parental columnar, dendritic growth front from which they originated. The physical steps in such a sequence are considered and some experimental data are provided to support the argument

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters