scholarly journals Characteristics of Lowland Tropical Peatlands: Formation, Classification, and Decomposition

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Ratnayake
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Organic Soils ◽  
Greenhouse Gasses ◽  
Fundamental Factor ◽  
Tropical Lowland ◽  
Tropical Peatlands ◽  
And Function ◽  
Specific Definition

Tropical peatlands occur mostly in coastal lowlands, and it can be considered as larger sinkers of carbon and important ecosystem services for water resources, bio-resources and biodiversity. This article summarised characteristics, formation and classification of tropical lowland peatlands. Tropical peatlands cover about 11% of the global peatland resource (441,025 km2 in area) and the estimation value can be changed with including all histosols and shallow organic soils. Tropical coastal peatlands were predominantly developed during the middle to late Holocene (between 3,500 to 6,000 years BP) under the wet conditions generated after the stabilisation and regression of middle Holocene sea-level highstands. Hydrology is a fundamental factor to the formation and function of tropical peatlands. There is no specific definition for the peatlands based on available references. The available definitions can be broadly divided into authoritative and scientific definitions. The authoritative definitions depend on specific uses and applications, while scientific definitions depend on field observations and experimental design/analytical methods. Tropical peatlands store abundant organic matter. However, the recent anthropogenic activities enhance the emission of stored carbon as greenhouse gasses such as CH4 and CO2.

Modeling Affordances and Functioning for Personalized Robotic Assistance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Umbrico ◽  
Gabriella Cortellessa ◽  
Andrea Orlandini ◽  
Amedeo Cesta
Keyword(s):  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
International Classification Of Functioning ◽  
Knowledge Representation And Reasoning ◽  
Health State ◽  
Knowledge Reasoning ◽  
Cognitive Assistance ◽  
Ontological Model ◽  
And Function

A key aspect of robotic assistants is their ability to contextualize their behavior according to different needs of assistive scenarios. This work presents an ontology-based knowledge representation and reasoning approach supporting the synthesis of personalized behavior of robotic assistants. It introduces an ontological model of health state and functioning of persons based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Moreover, it borrows the concepts of affordance and function from the literature of robotics and manufacturing and adapts them to robotic (physical and cognitive) assistance domain. Knowledge reasoning mechanisms are developed on top of the resulting ontological model to reason about stimulation capabilities of a robot and health state of a person in order to identify action opportunities and achieve personalized assistance. Experimental tests assess the performance of the proposed approach and its capability of dealing with different profiles and stimuli.

scholarly journals Greenhouse gases, global warming and glacier ice melt in Nepal

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Krishna B. Karki
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Nitrous Oxide ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Greenhouse Effect ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Mineral Fertilizer ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
Greenhouse Gasses ◽  
Glacier Ice

Concentration of greenhouse gases has been found increasing over the past centuries. Carbon dioxide (9-26% greenhouse effect), methane (4-9%), and nitrous oxide (3-6%) are the three principal greenhouse gasses though chloroflourocarbon and halon are also included as greenhouse gasses but are in very small greenhouse effect. These gasses are produced both from natural process and anthropogenic activities .Increase of these greenhouse gasses from nature in the atmosphere is mainly from the decomposition of organic matter, nitrification and denitrification of nitrogen including respiration by the plants. Anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide is from burning of fossil fuel whereas for methane livestock and paddy cultivation. Agricultural activities mainly use of mineral fertilizer is responsible for nitrous oxide emission. Increase of these gasses in atmosphere increases temperature that further accelerates evaporation of moisture from the earth’s surface. Increase in water vapor in the atmosphere will further aggravate temperature rise. This increase in atmospheric temperature has direct effect in the melting of glacier ice in Nepalese Himalaya. Melting of ice and increases water volume in the glacier fed rivers and glacier lakes. Rise in water volume beyond its capacity the glacial lakes bursts releasing millions of cubit meters of water and takes million of lives and properties downstream. If this continues there will be no more ice left in the Himalaya and in the long run all the rivers of Nepal will go dry and country will face serious water shortage for drinking, irrigation and other purposes. The Journal of AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT Vol. 8, 2007, pp. 1-7

scholarly journals Drainage of organic soils and GHG emissions: Validation with country data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Conchedda ◽  
Francesco N. Tubiello
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Organic Soils ◽  
Past Century ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Tropical Peatlands ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2 ◽  
Reported Data

Abstract. Drainage of large areas with organic soils was conducted over the past century to free land for agriculture. A significant acceleration of such trends was observed in recent decades in South-East Asia, largely driven by drainage of tropical peatlands, an important category of organic soils, for cultivation of oil palm. This work presents methods and main results of a new methodology developed for FAOSTAT, whereby the overlay of dynamic maps of land cover and the use of information on histosols allows the production of a global annual dataset of drained area and emissions over a time series, covering the period 1990–2019. This is an improvement over the existing FAO approach, which had produced only a static map of drained organic soils for the year 2000. Results indicate that drained area and emissions increased by 13 percent globally since 1990, reaching in 2019 24 million ha of drained organic soils, with world total emissions of 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent. Of these totals, the largest contribution was from the drainage of tropical peatlands in South-East Asia, generating nearly half of global emissions. Results were validated against national data reported by countries to the UN Climate Convention and to well established literature. Overall, the validation yielded a good agreement with these sources. FAOSTAT estimates explained about 60 percent of the variability in official country reported data. The predicted emissions were virtually identical – with over 90 percent of explained variability – to official data from Indonesia, currently the top emitting country by drained organic soils. Also, calculated emissions factors for oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia were in the same range and very close to emissions factors derived from detailed field measurements. This validation suggests that the FAO estimates may be a useful and sound reference in support of countries reporting needs. Data are made available as open access via the Zenodo portal (Tubiello and Conchedda, 2020) with DOI https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3942370.

scholarly journals IX. On the structure and development of the liver

1849 ◽  
Vol 139 ◽  
pp. 109-137 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Interesting Paper ◽  
Biliary Ducts ◽  
And Function ◽  
Do So

In venturing to offer a second communication to the Royal Society respecting the structure of the liver, I feel the rather anxious to do so, that I may have an opportunity of correcting an error and supplying a deficiency which existed in my previous paper. In the following observations I purpose to present some account of the structure of the liver examined in the ascending series of animals, and also to describe the several stages of its evolution in the embryo; in this way I trust I may be able to exhibit the characteristic structural features of the organ as it exists in Man and the higher animals, and also to determine the true place which ought to be assigned to it in a classification of the various glandular organs occurring in the same. I am not aware that any detailed account of the structure of the liver has been recently published, except that by M. Natalis Guillot, which however, so far as I comprehend it, does not seem to be one that can be readily accepted; the idea that the minute biliary ducts and lymphatics originate together in a common net-work, is à priori improbable, and entirely opposed to conclusive evidence (as I think), which will be subsequently adduced. A very interesting paper on the structure and function of the liver has also appeared in the 4th volume of the Guy’s Hospital Reports, from the pen of Dr. Williams; to his labours I shall several times have occasion to refer, but it will be seen that I differ from him in several particulars, especially respecting the importance of the basement or limitary membrane.

scholarly journals Cardiomyopathy Classification: Ongoing Debate in the Genomics Era

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles McCartan ◽  
Robert Mason ◽  
S. R. Jayasinghe ◽  
Lyn R. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Molecular Basis ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Muscle Size ◽  
Systemic Diseases ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Traditional Classification ◽  
And Function

Cardiomyopathies represent a group of diseases of the myocardium of the heart and include diseases both primarily of the cardiac muscle and systemic diseases leading to adverse effects on the heart muscle size, shape, and function. Traditionally cardiomyopathies were defined according to phenotypical appearance. Now, as our understanding of the pathophysiology of the different entities classified under each of the different phenotypes improves and our knowledge of the molecular and genetic basis for these entities progresses, the traditional classifications seem oversimplistic and do not reflect current understanding of this myriad of diseases and disease processes. Although our knowledge of the exact basis of many of the disease processes of cardiomyopathies is still in its infancy, it is important to have a classification system that has the ability to incorporate the coming tide of molecular and genetic information. This paper discusses how the traditional classification of cardiomyopathies based on morphology has evolved due to rapid advances in our understanding of the genetic and molecular basis for many of these clinical entities.

STUDIES OF THE PHARYNX

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 881-907
Author(s):  
James F. Bosma
Keyword(s):  
Young Male ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Pathologic Finding ◽  
General Motor ◽  
Cinema Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Neurologic Impairment ◽  
Neurologic Abnormality ◽  
And Function

THE INCREASING relative and absolute incidence of bulbar poliomyelitis1-34 has provided a valuable opportunity for the study of neurologic impairment of the pharynx. The varied distribution of impairment within the musculature of the area of the pharynx is appropriate to the typical pathologic finding in this disease of discrete and focal necrosis irregularly distributed in nuclear areas.21 This variety of impairments has been utilized to evaluate the contribution of specific elements of the musculature in this area to its general motor performance. Over the period of the past 7 years, a succession of patients having poliomyelitic disability in the area of the pharynx has been observed clinically, with supplementary cinema studies of the visible pharynx and the external neck27 and fluoroscopic and rapid-sequential roentgenographic studies, in which visualization of the pharynx was facilitated by radiopaque media. A useful classification of poliomyelitic impairments of the pharynx has been derived, with recognition of the compensatory and alternative maneuvers which they invoke. This report is particularly concerned with related impairments of swallow and of speech which results from deficient motor control of the oropharyngeal and the palatopharyngeal orifices. The observations are related to general anatomic, physiologic, and neurologic studies of the pharynx.35 Normal motor function of the lower pharynx and function impaired by poliomyelitis are considered in a succeeding report.36 PATIENT MATERIAL The normal subjects include 9 children, 7 to 13 years of age, and 11 young male adults, in each of which subject an examination of the area of mouth, pharynx, and neck was performed to obviate anatomic and neurologic abnormality.

Geotechnical Classification of Peats and Organic Soils

2009 ◽  
pp. 37-37-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
AO Landva ◽  
EO Korpijaakko ◽  
PE Pheeney
Keyword(s):  
Organic Soils

Functional Assessment of Persons with Motor Limitations

2014 ◽  
pp. 43-74
Author(s):  
Kaliopi Lappas
Keyword(s):  
Functional Assessment ◽  
World Health ◽  
International Classification Of Functioning ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
The World ◽  
Examination Methods ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Function

In this chapter a referral is made to the most known examination methods and tools for evaluating persons with motor limitations. Since there are many methods and tools, standardized or not, describing each of them by the area of evaluation and forming a quick reference guide seem to be helpful. Furthermore referrals are made to some special evaluation forms regarding special conditions, like stoke, which appear to have multiple problems influencing function. Finally, in the last section of this chapter a referral is made to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health scale (ICF), which has been developed the past few years by the World Health Organization (WHO), in an effort to have and apply a universal way of assessing people with disabilities. This scale aims to give to all the health professional and researchers a “common language” when “measuring” disability and function.

Functional Assessment of Persons With Motor Limitations

2019 ◽  
pp. 896-933
Author(s):  
Kaliopi Lappas
Keyword(s):  
Functional Assessment ◽  
World Health ◽  
International Classification Of Functioning ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
The World ◽  
Examination Methods ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Function

In this chapter a referral is made to the most known examination methods and tools for evaluating persons with motor limitations. Since there are many methods and tools, standardized or not, describing each of them by the area of evaluation and forming a quick reference guide seem to be helpful. Furthermore referrals are made to some special evaluation forms regarding special conditions, like stoke, which appear to have multiple problems influencing function. Finally, in the last section of this chapter a referral is made to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health scale (ICF), which has been developed the past few years by the World Health Organization (WHO), in an effort to have and apply a universal way of assessing people with disabilities. This scale aims to give to all the health professional and researchers a “common language” when “measuring” disability and function.

scholarly journals Pollen-inferred regional vegetation patterns and demographic change in Southern Anatolia through the Holocene

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 728-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessie Woodbridge ◽  
C Neil Roberts ◽  
Alessio Palmisano ◽  
Andrew Bevan ◽  
Stephen Shennan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Change ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Population Expansion ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Significant Area ◽  
The Mediterranean

Southern Anatolia is a highly significant area within the Mediterranean, particularly in terms of understanding how agriculture moved into Europe from neighbouring regions. This study uses pollen, palaeoclimate and archaeological evidence to investigate the relationships between demography and vegetation change, and to explore how the development of agriculture varied spatially. Data from 21 fossil pollen records have been transformed into forested, parkland and open vegetation types using cluster analysis. Patterns of change have been explored using non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) and through analysis of indicator groups, such as an Anthropogenic Pollen Index, and Simpson’s Diversity. Settlement data, which indicate population densities, and summed radiocarbon dates for archaeological sites have been used as a proxy for demographic change. The pollen and archaeological records confirm that farming can be detected earlier in Anatolia in comparison with many other parts of the Mediterranean. Dynamics of change in grazing indicators and the OJCV ( Olea, Juglans, Castanea and Vitis) index for cultivated trees appear to match cycles of population expansion and decline. Vegetation and land use change is also influenced by other factors, such as climate change. Investigating the early impacts of anthropogenic activities (e.g. woodcutting, animal herding, the use of fire and agriculture) is key to understanding how societies have modified the environment since the mid–late Holocene, despite the capacity of ecological systems to absorb recurrent disturbances. The results of this study suggest that shifting human population dynamics played an important role in shaping land cover in central and southern Anatolia.

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