Potential of Wood Harvesting Residues and Residual Stand Damage due to Timber Harvesting: A Case Study at PT Austral Byna in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

The practice of timber harvesting in natural forests which has been conducted up to now still leaves wood harvesting residue and residual stand damage. Most condition of wood harvesting residue is still good and can be utilized. The objective of this research was to determine the potency of wood harvesting residue and residual stand damage on timber harvesting in natural forests. The data on wood utilization, wood harvesting residue, and residual damage were collected from three sample plots. The sample plots were arranged in a systematic and purposive manner, and the data were processed with tabulation and average analysis. Research results showed that the average volume of wood being utilized was 9.212 m3 tree−1. The average volume of wood harvesting residues was 2.310 m3 tree−1, and the total average volume of wood harvesting residues which were good, defected, and broken was 2.121 m3 (80.952%), with an average volume for good wood harvesting residue condition of 1.038 m3 (34.808%). Proportions of wood harvesting residues were 2.154 m3 (94.444%) consisting of buttress as large as 0.102 m3 (5.159%), stumps as large as 0.375 m3 tree−1 (23.597%), butt as large as 0.855 m3 (35.930%), and end part as large as 0.821 m3 (29.758%). The average number of trees with a diameter of 20 cm which were damaged due to felling and skidding was 5 trees ha−1 (5.40%) and 6 trees ha−1 (6.58%), respectively.

Foil tape—a simple, versatile tool for turtle shell repair

The repair of shell fractures in turtles is often delayed due to the time, labor and resources involved in many current shell repair methods, resulting in increased stress, handling and recovery time for the patient. This article introduces a new repair technique using aluminium foil tape combined with cyanoacrylate glue, which allows quick, simple and long-lasting closure of fresh shell injuries. Strips of malleable but inelastic foil tape are cut to size and positioned across the fracture at critical junctures, then glued in place on either side of the wound and burnished down to conform to surface irregularities and insure consistent adhesion. This technique is non-invasive, requires no curing time and can be customized for a wide range of turtle sizes and injuries, either as a stand-alone method or a preliminary stabilization tool. In the author’s experience, it has proven to be consistently effective at reducing fractures and staying in place until removal, when it is easily peeled off with no residual damage. The speed, ease and endurance of the foil tape method may encourage more widespread repair of fresh shell fractures and, in so doing, optimize recovery time and results for chelonian patients.

Maximum permissible inelastic deformations of hybrid rectangular plates during intense explosions

Для гибридных прямоугольных слоистых пластин из произвольных наборов изотропных конструкционных материалов с симметричной структурой расположения слоев относительно отчетной (нейтральной) поверхности получены аналитические формулы оценок допустимой остаточной повреждаемости при воздействии интенсивных нагрузок взрывного типа. Закрепления контура предусматривают любую комбинацию из жестких или шарнирных условий отдельных сторон прямоугольного контура. В основе рассмотренной модели использованы традиционные кинематические гипотезы Кирхгофа, деформационная теория А.А. Ильюшина, принцип слабейшего звена для используемых материалов и деформационный критерий предразрушения для всех используемых фазовых материалов. Использован наиболее распространенный в практике закон изменения во времени давления на фронте взрывной волны. For hybrid rectangular layered plates from arbitrary sets of isotropic structural materials with a symmetric structure of the arrangement of layers relative to the reporting (neutral) surface, analytical formulas for assessing the permissible residual damage under the action of intense explosive loads are obtained. Contour anchors provide for any combination of rigid or hinge conditions of individual sides of a rectangular contour. The considered model is based on the traditional kinematic hypotheses of Kirchhoff, the deformation theory A.A. Ilyushin, the principle of the weakest link for the materials used and the deformation criterion for pre-fracture for all used phase materials. The most widespread law of time variation of pressure at the front of a blast wave is used.

Dissecting pathways to thrombocytopenia in a mouse model of visceral leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis is an important yet neglected parasitic disease caused by infection with Leishmania donovani or L infantum. Disease manifestations include fever, weight loss, hepatosplenomegaly, immune dysregulation, and extensive hematological complications. Thrombocytopenia is a dominant hematological feature seen in both humans and experimental models, but the mechanisms behind this infection-driven thrombocytopenia remain poorly understood. Using a murine model of experimental visceral leishmaniasis (EVL), we demonstrated a progressive decrease in platelets from day 14 after infection, culminating in severe thrombocytopenia by day 28. Plasma thrombopoietin (TPO) levels were reduced in infected mice, at least in part because of the alterations in the liver microenvironment associated with granulomatous inflammation. Bone marrow (BM) megakaryocyte cytoplasmic maturation was significantly reduced. In addition to a production deficit, we identified significant increases in platelet clearance. L donovani–infected splenectomized mice were protected from thrombocytopenia compared with sham operated infected mice and had a greater response to exogenous TPO. Furthermore, infection led to higher levels of platelet opsonization and desialylation, both associated with platelet clearance in spleen and liver, respectively. Critically, these changes could be reversed rapidly by drug treatment to reduce parasite load or by administration of TPO agonists. In summary, our findings demonstrate that the mechanisms underpinning thrombocytopenia in EVL are multifactorial and reversible, with no obvious residual damage to the BM microenvironment.

Colonial Diffractions in Illiberal Times: Forecasts on the Future

This article identifies two radical shifts in how colonialism is politically positioned and temporally framed, shifts that alter what invocations of colonialism look like, what distinguishes the attention they garner, and thus what they are implicitly or explicitly called upon to do. For one, invocations of colonialism are now oriented less to “residual” damage than to deepening racial inequalities on which (il)liberal politics increasingly thrive. Two, they are rendered not only as violating histories of the present but as premonitions in a dark diagnostics, as foreboding forecasts—histories of the global future across broader zones of disrepair, disregard, and degraded care.

Climate change adaptation cost and residual damage to global crop production

Adaptation will be essential in many sectors, including agriculture, as a certain level of warming is anticipated even after substantial climate mitigation. However, global adaptation costs and adaptation limits in agriculture are understudied. Here, we estimate the global adaptation cost and residual damage (climate change impacts after adaptation) for maize, rice, wheat and soybean using a global gridded crop model and empirical production cost models. Producers require additional expenditures under climate change to produce the same crop yields that would be achieved without climate change, and this difference is defined as the adaptation cost. On a decadal mean basis, the undiscounted global cost of climate change (adaptation cost plus residual damage) for the crops are projected to increase with warming from 63 US$ billion (B) at 1.5°C to $80 B at 2°C and to $128 B at 3°C per year. The adaptation cost gradually increases in absolute terms, but the share decreases from 84% of the cost of climate change ($53 B) at 1.5°C to 76% ($61 B) at 2°C and to 61% ($8 B) at 3°C. The residual damage increases from 16% ($10 B) at 1.5°C to 24% ($19 B) at 2°C and to 39% ($50 B) at 3°C. Once maintaining yields becomes difficult due to the biological limits of crops or decreased profitability, producers can no longer bear adaptation costs, and residual damages increase. Our estimates offer a basis to identify the gap between global adaptation needs and the funds available for adaptation.

Potential Use of Cellular Stromal Vascular Fraction In Post-COVID-19 Pulmonary Injury and Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome

A coronavirus (nCoV-2) has caused a worldwide pandemic, beginning in Wuhan, China. Patient’s acquiring viral infection (COVID-19) which is often featured by elevation of temperature (>100.3 F°), cough, severe fatigue, and a variety of symptoms mimicking the flu and pneumonias. This gradually may extend to a progressive and serious respiratory failure with associated ARDS-like status and severe pneumonias with residual scarring of the interstitial areas of the lung alveoli, resulting in acute life-threatening, and permanent compromised gas exchange. Those that survive with controlled ventilation (low tidal volumes), medical induced coma, and prone positioning, are often left with reduction in pulmonary function abilities. This paper reviews some pertinent knowledge and advances in understanding of the pulmonary injuries and long-term damage of the COVID-19 patients, and reports a study to ameliorate such damage with use of cSVF for those who successfully recover. There now exists technology to perform sophisticated analytics (Functional Respiratory Imaging, FRI) developed by Fluidda (Belgium, EU) which provides great detail and information, including the ability to help triage the infected patients early to help assist in prediction of ventilation and ICU needs. In addition, author’s experience with use in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Fibrotic Lung Diseases, the ability to evaluate effectiveness of use of cellular Stromal Vascular Fraction (cSVF) following intravascular deployment of isolated and concentrated cSVF. The hypothesis is that reduction of the widespread pulmonary inflammatory and immune responses which destroy much of the gas exchange abilities in the acute and residual damage which appears to create a long-term problem in the surviving patient population. Fluidda imaging analytics, coupled with standard pulmonary function studies, are effective at predictive studies which may prove of great help in anticipating which patient group is at most risk in the earlier infections to require ICU and potential ventilation needs. Use of Stromal Vascular Fraction Cells (cSVF) are known to help mitigate damage from severe inflammatory disorders, provide immunomodulation, and promote repair and regenerative effects. The ease of access, simple ability to obtain significant numbers of viable cell elements, and the deployment via intravascular route has proven safe and efficacious in other forms of lung disease, including fibrotic lung disorders. This paper reviews many of the current issues facing the severely infected Post-COVID-19 patient’s lung compromise, and a therapeutic option which clearly shows promise to reverse some residual damage of the lung and gas exchange functions.