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Background: Dead biomass, including woody debris (WD), is an important component of the carbon cycle in tropical forests. Aims: This study analyses WD (>2 cm) and other above-ground fluxes in mature tropical forest plots along an elevational gradient (210-3025 m above sea level) in southern Peru. Methods: This work was based on inventories of fine and coarse WD (FWD and CWD, respectively), above-g

Fiber based frequency-modulated light scattering interferometry (FMLSI) is developed for optical properties studies of liquid phantoms, made of Intralipid (R). By employing optical frequency modulation on a tunable diode laser, the power spectrum of the heterodyne-detected intensity fluctuations through the dynamic turbid medium is a combination of the time-of-flight distribution and the Doppler p

Despite growing interest in animal social networks, surprisingly little is known about whether individuals are consistent in their social network characteristics. Networks are rarely repeatedly sampled; yet an assumption of individual consistency in social behaviour is often made when drawing conclusions about the consequences of social processes and structure. A characterization of such social ph

This study relates the concept of recognition to processes of conflict transformation. The recognition concept has been underdeveloped in recent IR literature, where the main emphasis has been on interstate relations and on recognition as cause of conflict. This article challenges that understanding through the introduction of the concept of thick recognition. Thus an understanding of recognition

Salt ions were found to have an influence on template binding to two model molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), targeted to penicillin G and propranolol, respectively, in water-acetonitrile mixtures. Water was detrimental to rebinding of penicillin G whereas propranolol bound in the entire water-acetonitrile range tested. In 100% aqueous solution, 3-M salt solutions augmented the binding of both

The best way to conceive semiotical spaces that are not identical to single buildings, such as a cityscape, is to define the place in terms of the activities occurring there. This conception originated in the proxemics of E. T. Hall and was later generalized in the spatial semiotics of Manar Hammad. It can be given a more secure grounding in terms of time geography, which is involved with trajecto

A highly thermostable recombinant xylanase from Thermotoga neapolitana was used as a catalyst for single-step synthesis of n-octyl xylobioside and n-octyl xylotrioside from xylan and n-octanol. Effect of xylan concentration, enzyme dose, reaction water content, reaction temperature and initial pH on the yield of these surfactants has been studied. The optimal conditions for n-octyl xylobioside and

Wood is susceptible to decay by rot fungi if it is exposed to high-moisture contents during long periods of time and it is therefore important to limit the duration of such periods. Critical points in outdoor wood structures are, for example, end grain surfaces in joints where water can get trapped after a rain. It is therefore of interest to study both absorption and redistribution of moisture in

Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is uncommon in youth and few cases are treated surgically. Very few outcome studies exist for LDH surgery in this age group. Our aim was to explore differences in gender in pre-operative level of disability and outcome of surgery for LDH in patients aged ≤ 20 years using prospectively collected data. From the national Swedish SweSpine register we identified 180 patient

The paper describes a method for automatic diagnosis of stiction in control valves. The diagnosis is performed using a shape analysis of the wave form of the oscillations that appear in the process output during stick-slip motion. The procedure is automatic in the sense that no process information is assumed except the one that is already available in the controllers. The procedure can be used bot

The aims of this study are first to compare the incidence of force on the first occasion of sexual intercourse reported by participants with disabilities to that of students without disabilities; second to determine whether there are significant differences in mental health, substance abuse, and school performance as reported by participants forced into their sexual debut as opposed to those who w

Pathogens that are maintained by wild birds occasionally jump to human hosts, causing considerable loss of life and disruption to global commerce. Preliminary evidence suggests that climate change and human movements and commerce may have played a role in recent range expansions of avian pathogens. Since the magnitude of climate change in the coming decades is predicted to exceed climatic changes

An algorithm is presented for the fast and accurate solution of the electrostatic equation on multi-component random checkerboards. It relies on a particular choice of integral equation, extended as to separate ill-conditioning due to singular fields in corners from ill-conditioning due to interaction of clusters of well-conducting squares at large distances. Two separate preconditioners take care

The objective of this article was to investigate the existence of horizontal inequality in access to care for six categories of elective surgery in a publicly funded system, when care is rationed through waiting lists. Administrative waiting time data on all elective surgeries (n = 4,634) performed in Östergötland, Sweden, in 2007 were linked to national registers containing variables on socioecon

Ensembles of (J,K)-regular low-density parity-check convolutional (LDPCC) codes are known to be asymptotically good, in the sense that the minimum free distance grows linearly with the constraint length. In this paper, we use a protograph-based analysis of terminated LDPCC codes to obtain an upper bound on the free distance growth rate of ensembles of periodically time-varying LDPCC codes. This bo

Developing a functional blood substitute as an alternative to donated blood for clinical use is believed to relieve present and future blood shortages, and to reduce the risks of infection and blood type mismatching. Hemoglobin vesicle (HbV) encapsulates a purified and concentrated human-derived Hb solution in a phospholipid vesicle (liposome). The in vivo safety and efficacy of HbV as a transfusi

We present ultrafast X-ray diffraction (UXRD) experiments which sensitively probe impulsively excited acoustic phonons propagating in a SrRuO3/SrTiO3 superlattice and further into the substrate. These findings are discussed together with previous UXRD results (Herzog et al. in Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 161906, 2010; Woerner et al. in Appl. Phys. A 96, 83, 2009; v. Korff Schmising in Phys. Rev. B 78, 0

This study addresses the design of self-timed energy-minimum circuits, operating in the sub-VT domain and a generic implementation template using bundled-data circuitry and current sensing completion detection (CSCD). Furthermore, a fully decoupled latch controller was developed, which integrates with the current-sensing circuitry. Different configurations that utilise the proposed latch controlle

The phylogeny of the subfamily Xanthorioideae (Teloschistaceae) is re-analysed based on ITS, LSU and mtSSU sequences, including a new set of specimens representing 31 genera, of which five are proposed as new: Golubkovia, Igneoplaca, Langeottia, Scythioria and Verrucoplaca. Two new species, Ovealmbornia volkmarwirthii from South Africa and Gondwania sejongensis from Antarctica are described, illus