Climatic water availability is the main limiting factor of biotic attributes across large-scale elevational gradients in tropical forests

AbstractObjectiveResponding to large-scale public health emergencies relies heavily on planning and collaboration between law enforcement and public health officials. This study examines the current level of information sharing and integration between these domains by measuring the inclusion of public health in the law enforcement functions of fusion centers.MethodsSurvey of all fusion centers, with a 29.9% response rate.ResultsOnly one of the 23 responding fusion centers had true public health inclusion, a decrease from research conducted in 2007. Information sharing is primarily limited to information flowing out of the fusion center, with little public health information coming in. Most of the collaboration is done on a personal, informal, ad-hoc basis. There remains a large misunderstanding of roles, capabilities, and regulations by all parties (fusion centers and public health). The majority of the parties appear to be willing to work together, but there but there is no forward momentum to make these desires a reality. Funding and staffing issues seem to be the limiting factor for integration.ConclusionThese problems need to be urgently addressed to increase public health preparedness and enable a decisive and beneficial response to public health emergencies involving a homeland security response.

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Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1504869112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 112 (43) ◽

pp. 13267-13271 ◽

Cited By ~ 88

Author(s):

Geertje M. F. van der Heijden ◽

Jennifer S. Powers ◽

Stefan A. Schnitzer

Keyword(s):

Tropical Forests ◽

Large Scale ◽

Net Primary Production ◽

Carbon Dynamics ◽

Carbon Accumulation ◽

Carbon Uptake ◽

Woody Vines ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Agent Of Change ◽

The Impact

Tropical forests store vast quantities of carbon, account for one-third of the carbon fixed by photosynthesis, and are a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Recent evidence suggests that competition between lianas (woody vines) and trees may reduce forest-wide carbon uptake; however, estimates of the impact of lianas on carbon dynamics of tropical forests are crucially lacking. Here we used a large-scale liana removal experiment and found that, at 3 y after liana removal, lianas reduced net above-ground carbon uptake (growth and recruitment minus mortality) by ∼76% per year, mostly by reducing tree growth. The loss of carbon uptake due to liana-induced mortality was four times greater in the control plots in which lianas were present, but high variation among plots prevented a significant difference among the treatments. Lianas altered how aboveground carbon was stored. In forests where lianas were present, the partitioning of forest aboveground net primary production was dominated by leaves (53.2%, compared with 39.2% in liana-free forests) at the expense of woody stems (from 28.9%, compared with 43.9%), resulting in a more rapid return of fixed carbon to the atmosphere. After 3 y of experimental liana removal, our results clearly demonstrate large differences in carbon cycling between forests with and without lianas. Combined with the recently reported increases in liana abundance, these results indicate that lianas are an important and increasing agent of change in the carbon dynamics of tropical forests.

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Towards A Multi-FPGA Infrared Simulator

The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation Applications Methodology Technology ◽

10.1177/154851290700400404 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 343-355 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Vinay Sriram ◽

David Kearney

Keyword(s):

Homeland Security ◽

Reconfigurable Computing ◽

High Speed ◽

High Performance ◽

Large Scale ◽

Computation Time ◽

Ccd Camera ◽

Hardware Acceleration ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Scene Simulation

High speed infrared (IR) scene simulation is used extensively in defense and homeland security to test sensitivity of IR cameras and accuracy of IR threat detection and tracking algorithms used commonly in IR missile approach warning systems (MAWS). A typical MAWS requires an input scene rate of over 100 scenes/second. Infrared scene simulations typically take 32 minutes to simulate a single IR scene that accounts for effects of atmospheric turbulence, refraction, optical blurring and charge-coupled device (CCD) camera electronic noise on a Pentium 4 (2.8GHz) dual core processor [7]. Thus, in IR scene simulation, the processing power of modern computers is a limiting factor. In this paper we report our research to accelerate IR scene simulation using high performance reconfigurable computing. We constructed a multi Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware acceleration platform and accelerated a key computationally intensive IR algorithm over the hardware acceleration platform. We were successful in reducing the computation time of IR scene simulation by over 36%. This research acts as a unique case study for accelerating large scale defense simulations using a high performance multi-FPGA reconfigurable computer.

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Energy Production Benefits by Wind and Wave Energies for the Autonomous System of Crete

Energies ◽

10.3390/en11102741 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 2741 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

George Lavidas ◽

Vengatesan Venugopal

Keyword(s):

Wind Turbine ◽

Wave Energy ◽

Energy Production ◽

Large Scale ◽

Capital Expenditure ◽

Temporal Correlation ◽

Clean Energy ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Visual Impacts

At autonomous electricity grids Renewable Energy (RE) contributes significantly to energy production. Offshore resources benefit from higher energy density, smaller visual impacts, and higher availability levels. Offshore locations at the West of Crete obtain wind availability ≈80%, combining this with the installation potential for large scale modern wind turbines (rated power) then expected annual benefits are immense. Temporal variability of production is a limiting factor for wider adaptation of large offshore farms. To this end multi-generation with wave energy can alleviate issues of non-generation for wind. Spatio-temporal correlation of wind and wave energy production exhibit that wind and wave hybrid stations can contribute significant amounts of clean energy, while at the same time reducing spatial constrains and public acceptance issues. Offshore technologies can be combined as co-located or not, altering contribution profiles of wave energy to non-operating wind turbine production. In this study a co-located option contributes up to 626 h per annum, while a non co-located solution is found to complement over 4000 h of a non-operative wind turbine. Findings indicate the opportunities associated not only in terms of capital expenditure reduction, but also in the ever important issue of renewable variability and grid stability.

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Influência da vernalização de semente na produção, crescimento e desenvolvimento de plantas de lisianthus

Semina Ciências Agrárias ◽

10.5433/1679-0359.2018v39n6p2325 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (6) ◽

pp. 2325 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria Yumbla-Orbes ◽

José Geraldo Barbosa ◽

Wagner Campos Otoni ◽

Marcel Santos Montezano ◽

José Antônio Saraiva Grossi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Scale Production ◽

Cut Flower ◽

Cut Flowers ◽

Flower Production ◽

Commercial Scale ◽

Large Scale Production ◽

And Control

Flowering induction and control is a limiting factor when commercially producing cut flowers of lisianthus and seed exposure to low temperatures, a physiological event called vernalization, induces the differentiation of vegetative buds to reproductive buds, contributing to a flowering that is uniform and has quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of seed vernalization in three cultivars of lisianthus (Excalibur, Echo and Mariachi) for 12, 24, 36 and 48 days at temperatures of 5, 10 and 15°C, in the production and quality of buds, making this technology feasible to large-scale production. During cultivation it was observed that the lower the temperature and higher the vernalization period, the lower the cycle and the greater the number of plants induced to flowering for all three cultivars, and those are important features in the context of flower production in a commercial scale. The seeds subjected to vernalization originated plants that produce flower stems within the standards required by the market, showing that vernalization was efficient to induce flowering without affecting the quality of the buds. To produce lisianthus as a cut flower of quality, it is recommended seed vernalization of Mariachi and Echo cultivars for 24 days at 5°C and Excalibur for 36 days at 5°C.

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Soil Water Balance and Vegetation Dynamics in a Semi-arid Mediterranean Ecosystem

Proceedings ◽

10.3390/proceedings2019030076 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 76

Author(s):

Ioannis N. Daliakopoulos ◽

Ioanna Panagea ◽

Luca Brocca ◽

Erik van den Elsen

Keyword(s):

Water Balance ◽

Soil Water ◽

Water Availability ◽

Vegetation Dynamics ◽

Soil Water Balance ◽

Mediterranean Ecosystem ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Arid Conditions ◽

Water Balance Models ◽

Semi Arid

Under arid conditions, where water availability is the limiting factor for plant survival, water balance models can be used to explain vegetation dynamics. [...]

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On the Shoulders of Giants: Continuing the Legacy of Large-Scale Ecosystem Manipulation Experiments in Puerto Rico

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10030210 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 210 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Tana Wood ◽

Grizelle González ◽

Whendee Silver ◽

Sasha Reed ◽

Molly Cavaleri

Keyword(s):

Puerto Rico ◽

Tropical Forests ◽

Large Scale ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Luquillo Experimental Forest ◽

Hurricane Disturbance ◽

Wide Range ◽

History Of ◽

Forest Function

There is a long history of experimental research in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. These experiments have addressed questions about biotic thresholds, assessed why communities vary along natural gradients, and have explored forest responses to a range of both anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic disturbances. Combined, these studies cover many of the major disturbances that affect tropical forests around the world and span a wide range of topics, including the effects of forest thinning, ionizing radiation, hurricane disturbance, nitrogen deposition, drought, and global warming. These invaluable studies have greatly enhanced our understanding of tropical forest function under different disturbance regimes and informed the development of management strategies. Here we summarize the major field experiments that have occurred within the Luquillo Experimental Forest. Taken together, results from the major experiments conducted in the Luquillo Experimental Forest demonstrate a high resilience of Puerto Rico’s tropical forests to a variety of stressors.

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QTL Mapping and Prediction of Haploid Male Fertility Traits in Maize (Zea mays L.)

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants9070836 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

pp. 836

Author(s):

Yanyan Jiao ◽

Jinlong Li ◽

Wei Li ◽

Ming Chen ◽

Mengran Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Male Fertility ◽

Large Scale ◽

Chromosome Doubling ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Phenotypic Variance ◽

Haploid Male ◽

Haploid Population ◽

Trait Locus ◽

Dh Lines ◽

Major Qtl

Chromosome doubling of maize haploids is a bottleneck in the large-scale application of doubled haploid (DH) technology. Spontaneous chromosome doubling (SCD) of haploid has been taken as an important method in the production of DH lines and low haploid male fertility (HMF) is a main limiting factor for the use of SCD. To study its genetic basis, haploids of 119 DH lines derived from a cross between inbred lines Qi319 and Chang7-2 were used to map the quantitative trait locus (QTL) contributing to HMF. Three traits including anther emergence rate (AER), anther emergence score (AES) and pollen production score (PPS) of the haploid population were evaluated at two locations. The heritability of the three traits ranged from 0.70 to 0.81. The QTL contributing to AER, AES and PPS were identified on the chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10. Five major QTL, qAER5-1, qAER5-2, qAES3, qPPS1 and qPPS5, were found and each could explain more than 15% of the phenotypic variance at least in one environment. Two major QTL, qPPS1 and qPPS5, and two minor QTL, qAES2 and qAER3, were repeatedly detected at both locations. To increase the application efficiency of HMF in breeding programs, genomic prediction for the three traits were carried out with ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (rrBLUP) and rrBLUP adding QTL effects (rrBLUP-QTL). The prediction accuracies of rrBLUP-QTL were significantly higher than that by rrBLUP for three traits (p < 0.001), which indirectly indicates these QTL were effective. The prediction accuracies for PPS were 0.604 (rrBLUP) and 0.703 (rrBLUP-QTL) across both locations, which were higher than that of AER and AES. Overall, this study provides important information to understand the genetic architecture of SCD of maize haploids.

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Compression Challenges in Large Scale Partial Differential Equation Solvers

Algorithms ◽

10.3390/a12090197 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 197 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sebastian Götschel ◽

Martin Weiser

Keyword(s):

Data Compression ◽

Large Scale ◽

Memory Hierarchy ◽

Main Memory ◽

Computational Science ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Mass Storage ◽

Partial Differential ◽

Computing Power ◽

Pde Solvers

Solvers for partial differential equations (PDEs) are one of the cornerstones of computational science. For large problems, they involve huge amounts of data that need to be stored and transmitted on all levels of the memory hierarchy. Often, bandwidth is the limiting factor due to the relatively small arithmetic intensity, and increasingly due to the growing disparity between computing power and bandwidth. Consequently, data compression techniques have been investigated and tailored towards the specific requirements of PDE solvers over the recent decades. This paper surveys data compression challenges and discusses examples of corresponding solution approaches for PDE problems, covering all levels of the memory hierarchy from mass storage up to the main memory. We illustrate concepts for particular methods, with examples, and give references to alternatives.

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Enhanced biogas recovery by applying post-digestion in large-scale centralized biogas plants

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2006.511 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 54 (2) ◽

pp. 237-244 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

I. Angelidaki ◽

A. Heinfelt ◽

L. Ellegaard

Keyword(s):

Particulate Matter ◽

Large Scale ◽

Biogas Production ◽

Stable Process ◽

Particulate Material ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Biogas Plants ◽

Temperature Levels ◽

Rate Limiting ◽

Digestion Step

The main objective of this study was to investigate the degradation efficiency of centralized biogas plants and provide guidance for the design of more efficient digester and post-digestion systems. These centralized biogas plants in Denmark digest manure together with organic waste from the food industry to generate biogas, which is used for electricity and thermal energy. A total of 20 such plants are currently active in Denmark, most of which were included in the investigation. From the plants, samples were obtained from various steps of the process. Samples were analysed and the residual biogas potential determined by batch post-digestion at various temperature levels. Results were correlated with plant characteristics and production statistics in order to judge the efficiency of various digestion concepts. A simplified model based on a two-step biogas production process was developed and experimental data were used to determine kinetic constants. Experimental results and analysis combined with model simulations showed that the residual biogas potential in the main digestion step effluent is originating mainly from undegraded particulate matter in the biomass. For thermophilic plants 93% of the residual biogas potential was originating from particulate matter and 88% for the mesophilic biogas plants. This indicates that the residual biogas potential is mainly due to insufficient retention time in the main digestion step for hydrolysis of particulate material and that the hydrolysis step is the methane yield limiting factor, while conversion of soluble material such as VFA is the rate limiting factor critical for achieving a stable process.

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