Effects of outplanting time on growth, shedding and quality of Saccharina latissima (Phaeophyceae) in its northern distribution range

AbstractTo reach the goal of large-scale seaweed cultivation in Norway and the rest of Europe, new knowledge about the commercially important kelp speciesSaccharina latissimais needed. Efforts to maximise biomass by outplanting the seaweed in different seasons can affect seaweed quality. Here, we investigate the effects of outplanting time (February, April, and May) when cultivatingS. latissimain the northern range of the species’ distribution. We studied the quantity and quality of the seaweed biomass produced in the autumn following outplanting. Effects on quantity were evaluated as seaweed frond area, relative daily growth rate (DGR) and relative daily shedding rate (DSR). Quality was evaluated by tissue content of carbon and nitrogen compounds and number of fouling epizoans. Cultivation was successful when seedlings were outplanted in both February and April, but not in May. An earlier outplanting, in February, gave a prolonged time for grow-out at sea prior to the main recruitment event of epizoans that occurred in September, thereby earlier outplanting resulted in larger frond areas. The frond area reached in September was doubled when seedlings were outplanted in February compared to April, whereas a later outplanting in April gave a higher DGR and DSR, higher carbon content, and lower amount of fouling epizoans. The outplanting season did not affect tissue nitrate concentration or internally stored nitrate. These results show that outplanting time is an important factor to consider especially for biomass yield, but also for seaweed quality, including epibiosis of the seaweed biomass.

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Growth and biofouling in kelp aquaculture (Saccharina latissima): the effect of location and wave exposure

Journal of Applied Phycology ◽

10.1007/s10811-020-02201-5 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 3199-3209 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Wouter Visch ◽

Göran M. Nylund ◽

Henrik Pavia

Keyword(s):

Geographic Location ◽

Wave Exposure ◽

Saccharina Latissima ◽

Exposure Level ◽

Swedish West Coast ◽

Seaweed Aquaculture ◽

Seaweed Biomass ◽

Food Applications ◽

Exposure Levels

Abstract Seaweed aquaculture is receiving increasing attention for food and non-food applications in Europe, where it is still an emerging industry. The cultivation of seaweeds in the sea is attractive as it does not compete with agricultural crops for land and freshwater, whilst generating high yearly biomass yield. The selection of suitable cultivation sites in coastal waters is essential for the sustainable establishment and further development of seaweed aquaculture in Europe. Here, we investigate the effects of wave exposure and geographic location on growth and biofouling of kelp (Saccharina latissima), using a transplantation experiment along the Swedish west coast. Biofouling of kelp decreased with increased wave exposure, from 10 and 6% coverage at sheltered and moderately exposed locations, respectively, to 3% at exposed locations. Growth, measured as blade surface area, generally increased with decreased wave exposure, with approximately 40% less growth at exposed locations compared to sheltered or moderately exposed location. We identified that there is large spatial variation in growth and fouling of the seaweed biomass at the selected farm sites, with significant differences from the km-scale to the m-scale. In addition, exposure level affected the tissue composition, with a high carbon, but low nitrogen and water content at exposed locations compared to moderate and sheltered sites. Isotope signatures (i.e. δ13C and δ15N) also differed between exposure levels. Together, these results indicate that wave exposure is an important factor to consider in site selection for both yield as well as quality of the seaweed biomass for future kelp farms.

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Production Potential and Quality of Chenopodium quinoa Willd. Seed Cultivated in Different Seeding Seasons

Journal of Agricultural Science ◽

10.5539/jas.v11n1p251 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 251

Author(s):

D. B. Rodrigues ◽

L. V. M. Tunes ◽

F. A. Villela ◽

G. I. Gadotti ◽

C. J. Costa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Chenopodium Quinoa ◽

Accelerated Aging ◽

Dry Mass ◽

Fresh Mass ◽

Main Stem ◽

Different Seasons ◽

Large Scale Cultivation ◽

June July

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is an annual plant belonging to subfamily Chenopodiaceae containing such granite importance, being considered a pseudocereal. For the quinoa to gain widespread attention, to the point of achieving large scale cultivation in Brazil it is necessary for the studies to advance specially in regards to quality of produced seeds. The main aim of this work was to evaluate potential of quinoa seed’s production cultivated in different seasons, as well as quality of seeds produced on primary and secondary stalks of quinoa plants from BRS Piabiru, produced in the South of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil. The evaluated seeding seasons were October, November and December, June, July and August of the years 2015/2016, after the plants were taken to evaluation regarding agronomical characters (fresh mass of ramification glomeruli, main glomeruli, fresh mass of stem from the main, fresh mass of stem ramification, fresh mass of leaves, dry mass of stem ramification, stem from the main, glomeruli from the main, stem ramification, of leaves, diameter of stem and panicle lenght) and quality of seeds (germination, test of cold, accelerated aging, and seed’s emergency). Quality of the seed is assured when it’s produced after months of July, August and November, given that quality of seeds from main stem is superior.

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Assessment of quality of life in patients with the effects of transient ischemic stroke

East European Journal of Neurology ◽

10.33444/2411-5797.2016.6(12).37-39 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 37-39

Author(s):

A. Babirad

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Ischemic Stroke ◽

Large Scale ◽

Cerebrovascular Diseases ◽

Control Measures ◽

Sociological Research ◽

Cerebrovascular Events ◽

Sf 36 ◽

Angioplasty And Stenting

Cerebrovascular diseases are a problem of the world today, and according to the forecast, the problem of the near future arises. The main risk factors for the development of ischemic disorders of the cerebral circulation include oblique and aging, arterial hypertension, smoking, diabetes mellitus and heart disease. An effective strategy for the prevention of cerebrovascular events is based on the implementation of large-scale risk control measures, including the use of antiagregant and anticoagulant therapy, invasive interventions such as atheromectomy, angioplasty and stenting. In this connection, the efforts of neurologists, cardiologists, angiosurgery, endocrinologists and other specialists are the basis for achieving an acceptable clinical outcome. A review of the SF-36 method for assessing the quality of life in patients with the effects of transient ischemic stroke is presented. The assessment of quality of life is recognized in world medical practice and research, an indicator that is also used to assess the quality of the health system and in general sociological research.

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Model and Method for Contributor’s Quality Assessment in Community Image Tagging Systems

Information and Control Systems ◽

10.31799/1684-8853-2018-4-45-51 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 45-51

Author(s):

A. V. Ponomarev

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Wide Spectrum ◽

Preference Relation ◽

Pairwise Comparison ◽

Ground Truth ◽

Comparison Method ◽

Characteristic Matrix ◽

Image Tagging ◽

Proposed Model

Introduction: Large-scale human-computer systems involving people of various skills and motivation into the information processing process are currently used in a wide spectrum of applications. An acute problem in such systems is assessing the expected quality of each contributor; for example, in order to penalize incompetent or inaccurate ones and to promote diligent ones.Purpose: To develop a method of assessing the expected contributor’s quality in community tagging systems. This method should only use generally unreliable and incomplete information provided by contributors (with ground truth tags unknown).Results:A mathematical model is proposed for community image tagging (including the model of a contributor), along with a method of assessing the expected contributor’s quality. The method is based on comparing tag sets provided by different contributors for the same images, being a modification of pairwise comparison method with preference relation replaced by a special domination characteristic. Expected contributors’ quality is evaluated as a positive eigenvector of a pairwise domination characteristic matrix. Community tagging simulation has confirmed that the proposed method allows you to adequately estimate the expected quality of community tagging system contributors (provided that the contributors' behavior fits the proposed model).Practical relevance: The obtained results can be used in the development of systems based on coordinated efforts of community (primarily, community tagging systems).

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Translation and Validation of the Thai Version of the Wisconsin Quality of Life Questionnaire (TH WISQoL) for Kidney Stone Patients

Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand ◽

10.35755/jmedassocthai.2020.11.11450 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 103 (11) ◽

pp. 1194-1199

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Internal Consistency ◽

Kidney Stone ◽

Convergent Validity ◽

Large Scale ◽

Short Form ◽

Outcome Measurement ◽

Life Questionnaire ◽

Sf 36

Objective: To develop and validate a Thai version of the Wisconsin Quality of Life (TH WISQoL) Questionnaire. Materials and Methods: The authors developed the TH WISQoL Questionnaire based on a standard multi-step process. Subsequently, the authors recruited patients with kidney stone and requested them to complete the TH WISQoL and a validated Thai version of the 36-Item Short Form Survey (TH SF-36). The authors calculated the internal consistency and interdomain correlation of TH WISQoL and compared the convergent validity between the two instruments. Results: Thirty kidney stone patients completed the TH WISQoL and the TH SF-36. The TH WISQoL showed acceptable internal consistency for all domains (Cronbach’s alpha 0.768 to 0.909). Interdomain correlation was high for most domains (r=0.698 to 0.779), except for the correlation between Vitality and Disease domains, which showed a moderate correlation (r=0.575). For convergent validity, TH WISQoL demonstrated a good overall correlation to TH SF-36, (r=0.796, p<0.05). Conclusion: The TH WISQoL is valid and reliable for evaluating the quality of life of Thai patients with kidney stone. A further large-scale multi-center study is warranted to confirm its applicability in Thailand. Keywords: Quality of life, Kidney stone, Validation, Outcome measurement

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Evaluating Qualitative Research

10.1093/oso/9780199330010.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jeasik Cho

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Large Scale ◽

Academic Research ◽

Research Community ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Journal Editors ◽

The Past ◽

Grant Proposals

This book provides the qualitative research community with some insight on how to evaluate the quality of qualitative research. This topic has gained little attention during the past few decades. We, qualitative researchers, read journal articles, serve on masters’ and doctoral committees, and also make decisions on whether conference proposals, manuscripts, or large-scale grant proposals should be accepted or rejected. It is assumed that various perspectives or criteria, depending on various paradigms, theories, or fields of discipline, have been used in assessing the quality of qualitative research. Nonetheless, until now, no textbook has been specifically devoted to exploring theories, practices, and reflections associated with the evaluation of qualitative research. This book constructs a typology of evaluating qualitative research, examines actual information from websites and qualitative journal editors, and reflects on some challenges that are currently encountered by the qualitative research community. Many different kinds of journals’ review guidelines and available assessment tools are collected and analyzed. Consequently, core criteria that stand out among these evaluation tools are presented. Readers are invited to join the author to confidently proclaim: “Fortunately, there are commonly agreed, bold standards for evaluating the goodness of qualitative research in the academic research community. These standards are a part of what is generally called ‘scientific research.’ ”

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A standardized framework for testing the performance of sleep-tracking technology: step-by-step guidelines and open-source code

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsaa170 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Luca Menghini ◽

Nicola Cellini ◽

Aimee Goldstone ◽

Fiona C Baker ◽

Massimiliano de Zambotti

Keyword(s):

Open Source ◽

Validation Studies ◽

Large Scale ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Clinical Settings ◽

Large Scale Data ◽

Fast Pace ◽

Epoch Analysis ◽

Tracking Devices

Abstract Sleep-tracking devices, particularly within the consumer sleep technology (CST) space, are increasingly used in both research and clinical settings, providing new opportunities for large-scale data collection in highly ecological conditions. Due to the fast pace of the CST industry combined with the lack of a standardized framework to evaluate the performance of sleep trackers, their accuracy and reliability in measuring sleep remains largely unknown. Here, we provide a step-by-step analytical framework for evaluating the performance of sleep trackers (including standard actigraphy), as compared with gold-standard polysomnography (PSG) or other reference methods. The analytical guidelines are based on recent recommendations for evaluating and using CST from our group and others (de Zambotti and colleagues; Depner and colleagues), and include raw data organization as well as critical analytical procedures, including discrepancy analysis, Bland–Altman plots, and epoch-by-epoch analysis. Analytical steps are accompanied by open-source R functions (depicted at https://sri-human-sleep.github.io/sleep-trackers-performance/AnalyticalPipeline_v1.0.0.html). In addition, an empirical sample dataset is used to describe and discuss the main outcomes of the proposed pipeline. The guidelines and the accompanying functions are aimed at standardizing the testing of CSTs performance, to not only increase the replicability of validation studies, but also to provide ready-to-use tools to researchers and clinicians. All in all, this work can help to increase the efficiency, interpretation, and quality of validation studies, and to improve the informed adoption of CST in research and clinical settings.

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Hydrochemical Characterisation of High-Fluoride Groundwater and Development of a Conceptual Groundwater Flow Model Using a Combined Hydrogeological and Hydrochemical Approach on an Active Volcano: Mount Meru, Northern Tanzania

Water ◽

10.3390/w13162159 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (16) ◽

pp. 2159

Author(s):

George Bennett ◽

Jill Van Reybrouck ◽

Ceven Shemsanga ◽

Mary Kisaka ◽

Ines Tomašek ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Large Scale ◽

Active Volcano ◽

Aquifer System ◽

Groundwater Samples ◽

Northern Tanzania ◽

Different Seasons ◽

High Fluoride ◽

Arusha National Park ◽

The Impact

This study characterises high-fluoride groundwater in the aquifer system on the flanks of Mount Meru, focusing on parts of the flanks that were only partially or not at all covered by previous research. Additionally, we analyse the impact of rainwater recharge on groundwater chemistry by monitoring spring discharges during water sampling. The results show that the main groundwater type in the study area is NaHCO3 alkaline groundwater (average pH = 7.8). High F− values were recorded: in 175 groundwater samples, the concentrations range from 0.15 to 301 mg/L (mean: 21.89 mg/L, median: 9.67 mg/L), with 91% of the samples containing F− values above the WHO health-based guideline for drinking water (1.5 mg/L), whereas 39% of the samples have Na+ concentrations above the WHO taste-based guideline of 200 mg/L. The temporal variability in F− concentrations between different seasons is due to the impact of the local groundwater recharge. We recommend that a detailed ecohydrological study should be carried out for the low-fluoride springs from the high-altitude recharge areas on the eastern and northwestern flanks of Mount Meru inside Arusha National Park. These springs are extracted for drinking purposes. An ecohydrological study is required for the management of these springs and their potential enhanced exploitation to ensure the sustainability of this water extraction practice. Another strategy for obtaining safe drinking water could be to use a large-scale filtering system to remove F− from the groundwater.

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Quinoa for the Brazilian Cerrado: Agronomic Characteristics of Elite Genotypes under Different Water Regimes

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants10081591 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 1591

Author(s):

Patrícia Carvalho da Silva ◽

Walter Quadros Ribeiro Junior ◽

Maria Lucrecia Gerosa Ramos ◽

Sonia Maria Costa Celestino ◽

Alberto do Nascimento Silva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Grain Quality ◽

Winter Season ◽

Field Conditions ◽

Water Restriction ◽

Water Regimes ◽

Agronomic Characteristics ◽

Relative Water ◽

Different Seasons ◽

The Relationship

Quinoa stands out as an excellent crop in the Cerrado region for cultivation in the off-season or irrigated winter season. Here, we tested the effects of different water regimes on the agronomic characteristics, physiology, and grain quality of different elite quinoa genotypes under field conditions. The experiment was conducted under field conditions at Embrapa Cerrados (Planaltina, DF, Brazil). The experimental design was in randomized blocks, in a split-plot scheme, with four replications. The plots were composed of 18 quinoa genotypes and modified BRS Piabiru (the currently used genotype), and the split-plots were divided into 4 different water regimes. The following variables were evaluated: productivity and productivity per unit of applied water (PUAA), plant height, flavonoids, anthocyanins, gas exchange, chlorophyll, leaf proline, and relative water content. Our results showed that water regimes between 309 and 389 mm can be recommended for quinoa in the Cerrado region. CPAC6 and CPAC13 presented the highest yield and PUAA under high and intermediate WRs, and hence were the most suitable for winter growth under irrigation. CPAC17 is most suitable for off-season growth under rainfed conditions, as it presented the highest PUAA under the low WRs (247 and 150). CPAC9 stood out in terms of accumulation of flavonoids and anthocyanins in all WRs. Physiological analyses revealed different responses of the genotypes to water restriction, together with symptoms of stress under lower water regimes. Our study reinforces the importance of detailed analyses of the relationship between productivity, physiology, and water use when choosing genotypes for planting and harvest in different seasons.

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Implementing an Integrated Large-Scale Clinical Information System for ISSSTE’s Hospital Network in Mexico

SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine ◽

10.1007/s42399-020-00713-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 444-453

Author(s):

Arturo Cervantes Trejo ◽

Sophie Domenge Treuille ◽

Isaac Castañeda Alcántara

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Information System ◽

Health Care Services ◽

Large Scale ◽

Clinical Information System ◽

Clinical Information ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Care Services ◽

Cost Reductions

AbstractThe Institute for Security and Social Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) is a large public provider of health care services that serve around 13.2 million Mexican government workers and their families. To attain process efficiencies, cost reductions, and improvement of the quality of diagnostic and imaging services, ISSSTE was set out in 2019 to create a digital filmless medical image and report management system. A large-scale clinical information system (CIS), including radiology information system (RIS), picture archiving and communication system (PACS), and clinical data warehouse (CDW) components, was implemented at ISSSTE’s network of forty secondary- and tertiary-level public hospitals, applying global HL-7 and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standards. In just 5 months, 40 hospitals had their endoscopy, radiology, and pathology services functionally interconnected within a national CIS and RIS/PACS on secure private local area networks (LANs) and a secure national wide area network (WAN). More than 2 million yearly studies and reports are now in digital form in a CDW, securely stored and always available. Benefits include increased productivity, reduced turnaround times, reduced need for duplicate exams, and reduced costs. Functional IT solutions allow ISSSTE hospitals to leave behind the use of radiographic film and printed medical reports with important cost reductions, as well as social and environmental impacts, leading to direct improvement in the quality of health care services rendered.

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