Growth table for Corsican pine in Flanders (Belgium)

1991 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Meuleman

After  its introduction at the start of this century, the Corsican pine has become  an important forest tree in Flanders (Belgium). The total area covered by  Corsican pine is about 11.000 ha. Due to climatological factors it is  virtually absent from the Walloon part of Belgium. Despite the crisis in 1984  - 1986, practical experiences with its vitality and disease resistance are  generally positive. Compared to Scots pine which is native to Belgium, its  productivity and insensitivity for insect pests is large.     To quantify the productivity of Corsican pine, a growth table was  constructed using a method developed by PALM and DAGNELIE. It was based on  data from 321 temporarily and 80 permanent plots distributed over Flanders.  Five yield classes were distinguished according to dominant height at 50  years. For each yield class, a series of tables as a function of treatment  was constructed. Treatments were characterized by the mean annual  circumference increment.     These tables allow to predict the growth of Corsican pines. Such  predictions for the whole range of species are necessary for the development  of a good forestry policy and for timber industries. The tables also provide  information for any given Corsican pine stand that is helpful in practice:  expected productivity, stand density, determination of the felling quantum.      The data show that the productivity of Corsican pine is very high. The very  early culmination of the current annual volume increment and the rather  constant level of the mean annual volume increment after culmination are  interesting new findings. It is also shown that it is possible to work with  long rotation periods. This offers good opportunities for the production of  high quality wood and is also important for the social and ecological role of  the forest.     Productivity is lowest on very dry and sandy soils. A high productivity on  moderately dry sand and loamy sand soils and loamy soils make the Corsican  pine one of the most valuable tree species for the Kempen in Flanders.  Although productivity is very high on well drained sandy loam and loam soils,  plantation of Corsican pine on these locations is not advised.

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 565-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Mahaney ◽  
Jessica Zippin ◽  
Michael W. Milner ◽  
Kandiah Sanmugadas ◽  
R. G. V. Hancock ◽  
...  

Subsamples of termite mound soil used by chimpanzees for geophagy, and topsoil never ingested by them, from the forest floor in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, were analysed to determine the possible stimulus or stimuli for geophagy. The ingested samples have a dominant clay texture equivalent to a claystone, whereas the control samples are predominantly sandy clay loam or sandy loam, which indicates that particle size plays a significant role in soil selection for this behaviour. One potential function of the clays is to bind and adsorb toxins. Although both termite mound and control samples have similar alkaloid-binding capacities, they are in every case very high, with the majority of the samples being above 80%. The clay size material (<2 μm) contains metahalloysite and halloysite, the latter a hydrated aluminosilicate (Al2Si2O4·nH2O), present in the majority of both the termite mound soil and control soil samples.Metahalloysite, one of the principal ingredients found in the pharmaceutical Kaopectate™, is used to treat minor gastric ailments in humans. The soils commonly ingested could also function as antacids, as over half had pH values between 7.2 and 8.6. The mean concentrations of the majority of elements measured were greater in the termite mound soils than in the control soils. The termite mound soils had more filamentous bacteria, whereas the control soils contained greater numbers of unicellular bacteria and fungi.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 3700-3713

The present study was carried out in the Oued Laou watershed belonging to the Moroccan Rif. It aims at the elaboration of mathematical tariffs for cubing Aleppo pine, the morphometric and increments study. The data analyzed for this purpose were collected after a preliminary stratification of the forest based on the plantation age. The study of the region’s climate shows that the western sector of the watershed is part of the temperate humid bioclimate, and the eastern sector belongs to the warm variant subhumid. The analysis of the stand-study structure shows that the distribution of the number of stems as a function of the circumference is a distribution close to normal. Cubic rates have been constructed to estimate the volume of trees. The mean annual volume increment of Aleppo pine varies between 3.10 and 4.83 m3/ha/year from one plot to another; this small fluctuation largely reflects the homogeneity of the study area. Aleppo pine has a wide ecological and spatial plasticity: colonization of all substrates, bioclimates ranging from semi-arid to temperate humid. It’s a species that exhibits uniform behavior despite topographic and edaphic variations.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 439
Author(s):  
Gheorghe-Marian Tudoran ◽  
Avram Cicșa ◽  
Albert Ciceu ◽  
Alexandru-Claudiu Dobre

This study presents the biometric relationships among various increments that is useful in both scientific and practical terms for the silvicultural of silver fir. The increments recorded in the biometric characteristics of trees are a faithful indicator of the effect of silvicultural work measures and of environmental conditions. Knowing these increments, and the relationships among them, can contribute to adaptations in silvicultural work on these stands with the purpose of reducing risks generated by environmental factors. We carried an inventory based on tree increment cores. The sample size was determined based on both radial increment and height increment variability of the trees. The sample trees were selected in proportion to their basal area on diameter categories. Current annual height increment (CAIh) was measured on felled trees from mean tree category. For CAIh we generated models based on the mean tree height. Percentages of the basal area increment and of form-height increment were used to compute the current annual volume increment percentage (PCAIv). For the mean tree, the CAIh estimated through the used models had a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.8749 and for the current annual volume increment (CAIv) the RMSE value was 0.1295. In even-aged stands, the mean current volume increment tree is a hypothetical tree that may have the mean basal area of all the trees and the form-height of the stand. Conclusions: The diameter, height, and volume increments of trees are influenced by structural conditions and natural factors. The structures comprising several generations of fir mixed with beech and other deciduous trees, which have been obtained by the natural regeneration of local provenances, are stable and must become management targets. Stable structures are a condition for the sustainable management of stands.


1988 ◽  
Vol 59 (01) ◽  
pp. 029-033 ◽  
Author(s):  
K G Chamberlain ◽  
D G Penington

SummaryNormal human platelets have been separated according to density on continuous Percoll gradients and the platelet distribution divided into five fractions containing approximately equal numbers of platelets. The mean volumes and protein contents of the platelets in each fraction were found to correlate positively with density while the protein concentration did not differ significantly between the fractions. Four mitochondrial enzymes (monoamine oxidase, glutamate dehydrogenase, cytochrome oxidase and NADP-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase) were assayed and their activities per unit volume were found to increase in a very similar monotonie fashion with platelet density. When MAO and GDH were assayed on the same set of density fractions the correlation between the two activities was very high (r = 0.94–1.00, p <0.001) and a similar close correlation was found between MAO and ICDH. The results support the hypothesis that high density platelets either have a higher concentration of mitochondria or have larger mitochondria than low density platelets.


2004 ◽  
Vol 155 (5) ◽  
pp. 142-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Defila

The record-breaking heatwave of 2003 also had an impact on the vegetation in Switzerland. To examine its influences seven phenological late spring and summer phases were evaluated together with six phases in the autumn from a selection of stations. 30% of the 122 chosen phenological time series in late spring and summer phases set a new record (earliest arrival). The proportion of very early arrivals is very high and the mean deviation from the norm is between 10 and 20 days. The situation was less extreme in autumn, where 20% of the 103 time series chosen set a new record. The majority of the phenological arrivals were found in the class «normal» but the class«very early» is still well represented. The mean precocity lies between five and twenty days. As far as the leaf shedding of the beech is concerned, there was even a slight delay of around six days. The evaluation serves to show that the heatwave of 2003 strongly influenced the phenological events of summer and spring.


Sports ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Atsushi Aoyagi ◽  
Keisuke Ishikura ◽  
Yoshiharu Nabekura

The aim of this study was to examine the exercise intensity during the swimming, cycling, and running legs of nondraft legal, Olympic-distance triathlons in well-trained, age-group triathletes. Seventeen male triathletes completed incremental swimming, cycling, and running tests to exhaustion. Heart rate (HR) and workload corresponding to aerobic and anaerobic thresholds, maximal workloads, and maximal HR (HRmax) in each exercise mode were analyzed. HR and workload were monitored throughout the race. The intensity distributions in three HR zones for each discipline and five workload zones in cycling and running were quantified. The subjects were then assigned to a fast or slow group based on the total race time (range, 2 h 07 min–2 h 41 min). The mean percentages of HRmax in the swimming, cycling, and running legs were 89.8% ± 3.7%, 91.1% ± 4.4%, and 90.7% ± 5.1%, respectively, for all participants. The mean percentage of HRmax and intensity distributions during the swimming and cycling legs were similar between groups. In the running leg, the faster group spent relatively more time above HR at anaerobic threshold (AnT) and between workload at AnT and maximal workload. In conclusion, well-trained male triathletes performed at very high intensity throughout a nondraft legal, Olympic-distance triathlon race, and sustaining higher intensity during running might play a role in the success of these athletes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 440
Author(s):  
Guimin Zhu ◽  
Kathleen Stewart ◽  
Deb Niemeier ◽  
Junchuan Fan

As of March 2021, the State of Florida, U.S.A. had accounted for approximately 6.67% of total COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease) cases in the U.S. The main objective of this research is to analyze mobility patterns during a three month period in summer 2020, when COVID-19 case numbers were very high for three Florida counties, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. To investigate patterns, as well as drivers, related to changes in mobility across the tri-county region, a random forest regression model was built using sociodemographic, travel, and built environment factors, as well as COVID-19 positive case data. Mobility patterns declined in each county when new COVID-19 infections began to rise, beginning in mid-June 2020. While the mean number of bar and restaurant visits was lower overall due to closures, analysis showed that these visits remained a top factor that impacted mobility for all three counties, even with a rise in cases. Our modeling results suggest that there were mobility pattern differences between counties with respect to factors relating, for example, to race and ethnicity (different population groups factored differently in each county), as well as social distancing or travel-related factors (e.g., staying at home behaviors) over the two time periods prior to and after the spike of COVID-19 cases.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2179
Author(s):  
Tae-Young Han ◽  
Jin-Young Cho ◽  
Chang-Keun Jo ◽  
Hyun-Chul Lee

For the resonance treatment of a very high temperature reactors (VHTR) fuel with the double heterogeneity, an extension of the pin-based pointwise energy slowing-down method (PSM) was developed and implemented into DeCART. The proposed method, PSM-double heterogeneity (DH), has an improved spherical unit cell model with an explicit tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) model, a matrix layer, and a moderator for reflecting the moderation effect. The moderator volume was analytically derived using the relation of the Dancoff factor and the mean chord length. In the first step, the pointwise homogenized cross-sections for the compact was obtained after solving the slowing down equation for the spherical unit cell. Then, the shielded cross-section for the homogenized fuel compact was generated using the original PSM. The verification calculations were performed for the fuel pins with various packing fractions, compact sizes, TRISO sizes, and fuel temperatures. Additionally, two fuel block problems with very different sizes were examined and the depletion calculation was carried out for investigating the accuracy of the proposed method. They revealed that the PSM-DH has a good performance in the VHTR problems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinevimbo Shiri ◽  
Angela Loyse ◽  
Lawrence Mwenge ◽  
Tao Chen ◽  
Shabir Lakhi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Mortality from cryptococcal meningitis remains very high in Africa. In the Advancing Cryptococcal Meningitis Treatment for Africa (ACTA) trial, 2 weeks of fluconazole (FLU) plus flucytosine (5FC) was as effective and less costly than 2 weeks of amphotericin-based regimens. However, many African settings treat with FLU monotherapy, and the cost-effectiveness of adding 5FC to FLU is uncertain. Methods The effectiveness and costs of FLU+5FC were taken from ACTA, which included a costing analysis at the Zambian site. The effectiveness of FLU was derived from cohorts of consecutively enrolled patients, managed in respects other than drug therapy, as were participants in ACTA. FLU costs were derived from costs of FLU+5FC in ACTA, by subtracting 5FC drug and monitoring costs. The cost-effectiveness of FLU+5FC vs FLU alone was measured as the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). A probabilistic sensitivity analysis assessed uncertainties and a bivariate deterministic sensitivity analysis examined the impact of varying mortality and 5FC drug costs on the ICER. Results The mean costs per patient were US $847 (95% confidence interval [CI] $776–927) for FLU+5FC, and US $628 (95% CI $557–709) for FLU. The 10-week mortality rate was 35.1% (95% CI 28.9–41.7%) with FLU+5FC and 53.8% (95% CI 43.1–64.1%) with FLU. At the current 5FC price of US $1.30 per 500 mg tablet, the ICER of 5FC+FLU versus FLU alone was US $65 (95% CI $28–208) per life-year saved. Reducing the 5FC cost to between US $0.80 and US $0.40 per 500 mg resulted in an ICER between US $44 and US $28 per life-year saved. Conclusions The addition of 5FC to FLU is cost-effective for cryptococcal meningitis treatment in Africa and, if made available widely, could substantially reduce mortality rates among human immunodeficiency virus–infected persons in Africa.


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