Significance of telecoupling for exploration of land-use change

Land systems are increasingly influenced by distal connections: the externalities and unintended consequences of social and ecological processes which occur in distant locations, and the feedback mechanisms that lead to new institutional developments and governance arrangements. Economic globalization and urbanization accentuate these novel telecoupling relationships. The prevalence of telecoupling in land systems demands new approaches to research and analysis in land science. This chapter presents a working definition of a telecoupled system, emphasizing the role of governance and institutional change in telecoupled interactions. The social, institutional, and ecological processes and conditions through which telecoupling emerges are described. The analysis of these relationships in land science demands both integrative and diverse epistemological perspectives and methods. Such analyses require a focus on how the motivations and values of social actors relate to telecoupling processes, as well as on the mechanisms that produce unanticipated outcomes and feedback relationships among distal land systems.

Modelling the effects of land use and climate changes on hydrology in the Ursern Valley, Switzerland

While many studies have been conducted in mountainous catchments to examine the impact of climate change on hydrology, the interactions between climate changes and land use components have largely unknown impacts on hydrology in alpine regions. They need to be given special attention in order to devise possible strategies concerning general development in these regions. Thus, the main aim was to examine the impact of land use (i.e. bushland expansion) and climate changes (i.e. increase of temperature) on hydrology by model simulations. For this purpose, the physically based WaSiM-ETH model was applied to the catchment of Ursern Valley in the central Alps (191 km2) over the period of 1983−2005. Modelling results showed that the reduction of the mean monthly discharge during the summer period is due primarily to the retreat of snow discharge in time and secondarily to the reduction in the glacier surface area together with its retreat in time, rather than the increase in the evapotranspiration due to the expansion of the “green alder” on the expense of grassland. The significant decrease in summer discharge during July, August and September shows a change in the regime from b-glacio-nival to nivo-glacial. These changes are confirmed by the modeling results that attest to a temporal shift in snowmelt and glacier discharge towards earlier in the year: March, April and May for snowmelt and May and June for glacier discharge. It is expected that the yearly total discharge due to the land use changes will be reduced by 0.6% in the near future, whereas, it will be reduced by about 5% if climate change is also taken into account. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Anatomy, biology, physiology and basic pathology of the nail organ

The nail is the largest skin appendage. It grows continuously through life in a non-cyclical manner; its growth is not hormone-dependent. The nail of the middle finger of the dominant hand grows fastest with approximately 0.1 mm/day, whereas the big toe nail grows only 0.03-0.05 mm/d. The nails' size and shape vary characteristically from finger to finger and from toe to toe, for which the size and shape of the bone of the terminal phalanx is responsible. The nail apparatus consists of both epithelial and connective tissue components. The matrix epithelium is responsible for the production of the nail plate whereas the nail bed epithelium mediates firm attachment. The hyponychium is a specialized structure sealing the subungual space and allowing the nail plate to physiologically detach from the nail bed. The proximal nail fold covers most of the matrix. Its free end forms the cuticle which seals the nail pocket or cul-de-sac. The dermis of the matrix and nail bed is specialized with a morphogenetic potency. The proximal and lateral nail folds form a frame on three sides giving the nail stability and allowing it to grow out. The nail protects the distal phalanx, is an extremely versatile tool for defense and dexterity and increases the sensitivity of the tip of the finger. Nail apparatus, finger tip, tendons and ligaments of the distal interphalangeal joint form a functional unit and cannot be seen independently. The nail organ has only a certain number of reaction patterns that differ in many respects from hairy and palmoplantar skin.

Deficit actual tool use in schizophrenia is linked to structural alterations in key regions of planning and executing of tool use and connecting fibers

Introduction: Schizophrenia patients frequently suffer from complex motor abnormalities including fine and gross motor disturbances, abnormal involuntary movements, neurological soft signs and parkinsonism. These symptoms occur early in the course of the disease, continue in chronic patients and may deteriorate with antipsychotic medication. Furthermore gesture performance is impaired in patients, including the pantomime of tool use. Whether schizophrenia patients would show difficulties of actual tool use has not yet been investigated. Human tool use is complex and relies on a network of distinct and distant brain areas. We therefore aim to test if schizophrenia patients had difficulties in tool use and to assess associations with structural brain imaging using voxel based morphometry (VBM) and tract based spatial statistics (TBSS). Methode: In total, 44 patients with schizophrenia (DSM-5 criteria; 59% men, mean age 38) underwent structural MR imaging and performed the Tool-Use test. The test examines the use of a scoop and a hammer in three conditions: pantomime (without the tool), demonstration (with the tool) and actual use (with a recipient object). T1-weighted images were processed using SPM8 and DTI-data using FSL TBSS routines. To assess structural alterations of impaired tool use we first compared gray matter (GM) volume in VBM and white matter (WM) integrity in TBSS data of patients with and without difficulties of actual tool use. Next we explored correlations of Tool use scores and VBM and TBSS data. Group comparisons were family wise error corrected for multiple tests. Correlations were uncorrected (p < 0.001) with a minimum cluster threshold of 17 voxels (equivalent to a map-wise false positive rate of alpha < 0.0001 using a Monte Carlo procedure). Results: Tool use was impaired in schizophrenia (43.2% pantomime, 11.6% demonstration, 11.6% use). Impairment was related to reduced GM volume and WM integrity. Whole brain analyses detected an effect in the SMA in group analysis. Correlations of tool use scores and brain structure revealed alterations in brain areas of the dorso-dorsal pathway (superior occipital gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and dorsal premotor area) and the ventro-dorsal pathways (middle occipital gyrus, inferior parietal lobule) the action network, as well as the insula and the left hippocampus. Furthermore, significant correlations within connecting fiber tracts - particularly alterations within the bilateral corona radiata superior and anterior as well as the corpus callosum -were associated with Tool use performance. Conclusions: Tool use performance was impaired in schizophrenia, which was associated with reduced GM volume in the action network. Our results are in line with reports of impaired tool use in patients with brain lesions particularly of the dorso-dorsal and ventro-dorsal stream of the action network. In addition an effect of tool use on WM integrity was shown within fiber tracts connecting regions important for planning and executing tool use. Furthermore, hippocampus is part of a brain system responsible for spatial memory and navigation.The results suggest that structural brain alterations in the common praxis network contribute to impaired tool use in schizophrenia.

What is new in the pathology of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors?

The diagnostics of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNEN) have changed in recent years especially concerning the World Health Organization (WHO) classification, TNM staging and grading. Furthermore, some new prognostic and predictive immunohistochemical markers have been introduced. Most progress, however, has been made in the molecular pathogenesis of these neoplasms. Using next generation sequencing techniques, the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, hypoxia and epigenetic changes were identified as key players in tumorigenesis. In this article the most important developments of morphological as well as immunohistochemical diagnostics together with the molecular background of PanNEN are summarized.

Transgenerational effects of land use on offspring performance and growth in Trifolium repens

entral European grasslands vary widely in productivity and in mowing and grazing regimes. The resulting differences in competition and heterogeneity among grasslands might have direct effects on plants, but might also affect the growth and morphology of their offspring through maternal effects or adaptive evolution. To test for such transgenerational effects, we grew plants of the clonal herb Trifolium repens from seeds collected in 58 grassland sites differing in productivity and mowing and grazing intensities in different treatments: without competition, with homogeneous competition, and with heterogeneous competition. In the competition-free treatment, T. repens from more productive, less frequently mown, and less intensively grazed sites produced more vegetative offspring, but this was not the case in the other treatments. When grown among or in close proximity to competitors, T. repens plants did not show preferential growth towards open spaces (i.e., no horizontal foraging), but did show strong vertical foraging by petiole elongation. In the homogeneous competition treatment, petiole length increased with the productivity of the parental site, but this was not the case in the heterogeneous competition treatment. Moreover, petiole length increased with mowing frequency and grazing intensity of the parental site in all but the homogeneous competition treatment. In summary, although the expression of differences between plants from sites with different productivities and land-use intensities depended on the experimental treatment, our findings imply that there are transgenerational effects of land use on the morphology and performance of T. repens.

Enriching plant diversity in grasslands by large-scale experimental sward disturbance and seed addition along gradients of land-use intensity

Aims The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is among the most active areas of ecological research. Furthermore, enhancing the diversity of degraded ecosystems is a major goal in applied restoration ecology. In grasslands, many species may be locally absent due to dispersal or microsite limitation and may therefore profit from mechanical disturbance of the resident vegetation. We established a seed addition and disturbance experiment across several grassland sites of different land use to test whether plant diversity can be increased in these grasslands. Additionally, the experiment will allow us testing the consequences of increased plant diversity for ecosystem processes and for the diversity of other taxa in real-world ecosystems. Here we present details of the experimental design and report results from the first vegetation survey one year after disturbance and seed addition. Moreover, we tested whether the effects of seed addition and disturbance varied among grassland depending on their land use or pre-disturbance plant diversity. Methods A full-factorial experiment was installed in 73 grasslands in three regions across Germany. Grasslands were under regular agricultural use, but varied in the type and the intensity of management, thereby representing the range of management typical for large parts of Central Europe. The disturbance treatment consisted of disturbing the top 10 cm of the sward using a rotavator or rotary harrow. Seed addition consisted of sowing a high-diversity seed mixture of regional plant species. These species were all regionally present, but often locally absent, depending on the resident vegetation composition and richness of each grassland. Important findings One year after sward disturbance it had significantly increased cover of bare soil, seedling species richness and numbers of seedlings. Seed addition had increased plant species richness, but only in combination with sward disturbance. The increase in species richness, when both seed addition and disturbance was applied, was higher at high land-use intensity and low resident diversity. Thus, we show that at least the early recruitment of many species is possible also at high land-use intensity, indicating the potential to restore and enhance biodiversity of species-poor agricultural grasslands. Our newly established experiment provides a unique platform for broad-scale research on the land-use dependence of future trajectories of vegetation diversity and composition and their effects on ecosystem functioning.

Making co-management work in protected areas with indigenous peoples in Bolivia and Peru

Sustainable and equitable management of biodiversity in protected areas inhabited by indigenous peoples is often a challenge. It requires an intercultural dialogue based on local norms of resource use and indigenous knowledge. Moreover, mechanisms that generate economic incentives must be able to compete with income from illegal activities such as logging, mining, and land trafficking. Finally, efforts are needed to ensure that regulations and policies on conservation and resource extraction do not overlap and contradict each other, as this hampers efforts both to conserve biodiversity and to promote development at the local level.

Optimizing Triage and Hospitalization in Adult General Medical Emergency Patients. The Triage Project

Background: Patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) currently face inacceptable delays in initial treatment, and long, costly hospital stays due to suboptimal initial triage and site-of-care decisions. Accurate ED triage should focus not only on initial treatment priority, but also on prediction of medical risk and nursing needs to improve site-of-care decisions and to simplify early discharge management. Different triage scores have been proposed, such as the Manchester triage system (MTS). Yet, these scores focus only on treatment priority, have suboptimal performance and lack validation in the Swiss health care system. Because the MTS will be introduced into clinical routine at the Kantonsspital Aarau, we propose a large prospective cohort study to optimize initial patient triage. Specifically, the aim of this trial is to derive a three-part triage algorithm to better predict (a) treatment priority; (b) medical risk and thus need for in-hospital treatment; (c) post-acute care needs of patients at the most proximal time point of ED admission. Methods/design: Prospective, observational, multicenter, multi-national cohort study. We will include all consecutive medical patients seeking ED care into this observational registry. There will be no exclusions except for non-adult and non-medical patients. Vital signs will be recorded and left over blood samples will be stored for later batch analysis of blood markers. Upon ED admission, the post-acute care discharge score (PACD) will be recorded. Attending ED physicians will adjudicate triage priority based on all available results at the time of ED discharge to the medical ward. Patients will be reassessed daily during the hospital course for medical stability and readiness for discharge from the nurses and if involved social workers perspective. To assess outcomes, data from electronic medical records will be used and all patients will be contacted 30 days after hospital admission to assess vital and functional status, re-hospitalization, satisfaction with care and quality of life measures. We aim to include between 5000 and 7000 patients over one year of recruitment to derive the three-part triage algorithm. The respective main endpoints were defined as (a) initial triage priority (high vs. low priority) adjudicated by the attending ED physician at ED discharge, (b) adverse 30 day outcome (death or intensive care unit admission) within 30 days following ED admission to assess patients risk and thus need for in-hospital treatment and (c) post acute care needs after hospital discharge, defined as transfer of patients to a post-acute care institution, for early recognition and planning of post-acute care needs. Other outcomes are time to first physician contact, time to initiation of adequate medical therapy, time to social worker involvement, length of hospital stay, reasons fordischarge delays, patient’s satisfaction with care, overall hospital costs and patients care needs after returning home. Discussion: Using a reliable initial triage system for estimating initial treatment priority, need for in-hospital treatment and post-acute care needs is an innovative and persuasive approach for a more targeted and efficient management of medical patients in the ED. The proposed interdisciplinary , multi-national project has unprecedented potential to improve initial triage decisions and optimize resource allocation to the sickest patients from admission to discharge. The algorithms derived in this study will be compared in a later randomized controlled trial against a usual care control group in terms of resource use, length of hospital stay, overall costs and patient’s outcomes in terms of mortality, re-hospitalization, quality of life and satisfaction with care.

Relationships between functional traits and inorganic nitrogen acquisition among eight contrasting European grass species

Backgrounds and Aims Leaf functional traits have been used as a basis to categoize plants across a range of resource-use specialization, from those that conserve available resources to those that exploit them. However, the extent to which the leaf functional traits used to define the resource-use strategies are related to root traits and are good indicators of the ability of the roots to take up nitrogen (N) are poorly known. This is an important question because interspecific differences in N uptake have been proposed as one mechanism by which species coexistence may be determined. This study therefore investigated the relationships between functional traits and N uptake ability for grass species across a range of conservative to exploitative resource-use strategies.Methods Root uptake of NH4+ and NO3-, and leaf and root functional traits were measured for eight grass species sampled at three grassland sites across Europe, in France, Austria and the UK. Species were grown in hydroponics to determine functional traits and kinetic uptake parameters (Imax and Km) under standardized conditions.Key Results Species with high specific leaf area (SLA) and shoot N content, and low leaf and root dry matter content (LDMC and RDMC, respectively), which are traits associated with the exploitative syndrome, had higher uptake and affinity for both N forms. No trade-off was observed in uptake between the two forms of N, and all species expressed a higher preference for NH4+.Conclusions The results support the use of leaf traits, and especially SLA and LDMC, as indicators of the N uptake ability across a broad range of grass species. The difficulties associated with assessing root properties are also highlighted, as root traits were only weakly correlated with leaf traits, and only RDMC and, to a lesser extent, root N content were related to leaf traits.