Climate change mitigation through increased wood use in the European construction sector—towards an integrated modelling framework

Using wood as a building material affects the carbon balance through several mechanisms. This paper describes a modelling approach that integrates a wood product substitution model, a global partial equilibrium model, a regional forest model and a stand-level model. Three different scenarios were compared with a business-as-usual scenario over a 23-year period (2008?C2030). Two scenarios assumed an additional one million apartment flats per year will be built of wood instead of non-wood materials by 2030. These scenarios had little effect on markets and forest management and reduced annual carbon emissions by 0.2?C0.5% of the total 1990 European GHG emissions. However, the scenarios are associated with high specific CO₂ emission reductions per unit of wood used. The third scenario, an extreme assumption that all European countries will consume 1-m³ sawn wood per capita by 2030, had large effects on carbon emission, volumes and trade flows. The price changes of this scenario, however, also affected forest management in ways that greatly deviated from the partial equilibrium model projections. Our results suggest that increased wood construction will have a minor impact on forest management and forest carbon stocks. To analyse larger perturbations on the demand side, a market equilibrium model seems crucial. However, for that analytical system to work properly, the market and forest regional models must be better synchronized than here, in particular regarding assumptions on timber supply behaviour. Also, bioenergy as a commodity in market and forest models needs to be considered to study new market developments; those modules are currently missing.     

Notes on salmonellae isolated from domestic animals in Ibadan,Nigeria

Summary Eight strains of salmonellae isolated from clinical cases in domestic animals in Ibadan, Nigeria are reported. Some of these are reported for the first time either in domestic animals or in the country. The possible danger of resistance to certain antibiotics being developed as a result of such antibiotics being used as food additives, is pointed out.

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Sumario Ocho depas de Salmonellae aisladas de casos clínicos en animales domésticos en Ibadan, Nigeria son reportadas. Algunas de estas son reportadas por primera vez tanto en animales domésticos como en el pais. Se se?ala el posible peligro del desarrollo de resistencia hacia ciertos antibióticos, como resultado de que tales antibióticos estén siendo usados como aditivos de los alimentos.

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Résumé On rapporte ici l’isolement de huit souches deSalmonella à partir de cas cliniques chez des animaux domestiques à Ibadan, Nigéria. Quelques-unes de ces souches sont signalées pour la première fois soit chez les animaux domestiques soit dans le pays. On souligne le danger possible d’une antibio-résistance consécutive à l’emploi d’antibiotiques comme additifs dans les rations alimentaires.

     

Response of White Leghorn and Nigerian cockerels to experimental salmonella infection

Summary Twenty-two Nigerian cockerels and 19 White Leghorn cockerels were each injected intramuscularly with 1·5×10⁹ viable organisms of a relatively avirulent strain ofSalmonella gallinarum (NCTC 10532). The Nigerian cockerels were more resistant to infection as judged by the values of the haemoglobin, haematocrit, red cell count, leucocyte count and antibody titre during the course of infection. The authors suggest that the higher resistance may be due to the earlier growth and higher organ weight of the bursa of Fabricius of the Nigerian breed than of the White Leghorn (Aire,1973).

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Sumario Ventidos pollos Nigerianos y diecinueve White Leghorn fueron inoculados individualmente vía intramuscular, con 1·5 × 10⁹ de una suspensión relativamente avirulenta de una cepa deSalmonella gallinarum (NCTC 10532). Los pollos Nigerianos fueron más resistentes a la infección, teniendo en cuenta los valores de hemaglobina, hematocrito, número de globulos rojos, leucocitos y título de anticuerpos durante el curso de la infección. Los autores sugieren, que la mayor resistencia de la raza Nigeriana, podría estar relacionada con el peso y desarrollo mástemprano de la bolsa de Fabricius.

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Résumé Trente deux coquelets Nigériens et dix neuf coquelets Leghorn blancs ont été infectés, chacun par une injection intramusculaire de 1·5 × 10⁹ germes vivants d'une souche relativement avirulente deSalmonella gallinarum (NCTC 10532). L'examen, tout au long de l'expérience, de l'hémoglobine, des hématocrites, la numération des hématies et des leucocytes et le titrage des anticorps ont montré que les coquelets Nigériens étaient plus résistants. Les auteurs suggèrent que cette résistance supérieure peut être due au développement plus précoce et au poids supérieur de la bourse Fabricius chez le coquelet Nigérien par rapport au coquelet Leghorn blanc (Aire, 1973).

     

In vitro evaluation of a custom cutting jig and custom plate for canine tibial plateau leveling

OBJECTIVE: To design and manufacture custom titanium bone plates and a custom cutting and drill guide by use of free-form fabrication methods and to compare variables and mechanical properties of 2 canine tibial plateau leveling methods with each other and with historical control values. SAMPLE POPULATION: 10 canine tibial replicas created by rapid prototyping methods. PROCEDURES: Application time, accuracy of correction of the tibial plateau slope (TPS), presence and magnitude of rotational and angular deformation, and replica axial stiffness for 2 chevron wedge osteotomy (CWO) methods were assessed. One involved use of freehand CWO (FHCWO) and screw hole drilling, whereas the other used jig-guided CWO (JGCWO) and screw hole drilling. RESULTS: Replicas used for FHCWO and JGCWO methods had similar stiffness. Although JGCWO and FHCWO did not weaken the replicas, mean axial stiffness of replicas after JGCWO was higher than after FHCWO. The JGCWO method was faster than the FHCWO method. Mean +/- SD TPS after osteotomy was lower for FHCWO (4.4 +/- 1.1 degrees ) than for JGCWO (9.5 +/- 0.4 degrees ), and JGCWO was more accurate (target TPS, 8.9 degrees ). Slight varus was evident after FHCWO but not after JGCWO. Mean postoperative rotation after JGCWO and FHCWO did not differ from the target value or between methods. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The JGCWO method was more accurate and more rapid and resulted in more stability than the FHCWO method. Use of custom drill guides could enhance the speed, accuracy, and stability of corrective osteotomies in dogs.     

Interaction of photoperiod and temperature in the control of growth and dormancy of Prunus species

Growth and dormancy induction of seedlings or micropropagated plants of three Prunus species were studied under controlled environment conditions. All the species tested, P. cerasus L. and P. insititia L. (two cultivars each), and P. avium L. were insensitive to photoperiod at high temperature and maintained continuous growth in both 10 and 24-h photoperiods at 21 °C. At lower temperatures, however, growth was controlled by the interaction of photoperiod and temperature, the species and cultivars varying somewhat in their responses. At 9 °C growth cessation was induced regardless of day-length conditions in the plum rootstocks ‘St. Julien A’ and ‘Weito’ as well as in the sour cherry rootstock ‘Weiroot’, whereas in the sour cherry rootstock ‘Gisela 5’ growth cessation took place in short day (SD) only. At intermediate temperatures (12 and 15 °C) growth cessation occurred in SD only in both sour cherry cultivars. In P. avium seedlings on the other hand, growth cessation in SD was only induced at 9 °C, continuous but reduced growth taking place also in SD at all higher temperatures. Growth rates increased progressively with increasing temperature under long day (LD) conditions in all species, and this was associated with increased internode length in LD compared with SD conditions. Production of new leaves was unaffected by photoperiod at high temperature, but was higher in LD than in SD at lower temperatures. After growth cessation at low temperature the plants developed winter buds and became dormant also in LD conditions. These results demonstrate that, like several species of the Pomoidae subfamily of the Rosaceae, these Prunus species are insensitive to short photoperiods at relatively high temperatures. However, the photoperiodic response of the Prunus species is highly temperature dependent, and the transition temperatures for shifts in the photoperiodic response mode vary among the species.     

Spatial and semantic dimensions of landscape heterogeneity

This paper addresses the challenge of measuring spatial heterogeneity in categorical map data. Spatial heterogeneity is a complex notion that involves both spatial variability and attribute variability, and metrics to capture this are a product of their developers’ simplifying assumptions about both spatial and attribute dimensions. We argue that the predominantly binary treatment of categorical data is frequently an unnecessary oversimplification that can be replaced by ordered measures based on semantic similarity evaluations. We develop a typology of autocorrelation metrics for categorical data that identifies a critical gap: existing measures are limited in their ability to capture variability of both spatial and attribute dimensions simultaneously. We demonstrate an approach to formally characterize the semantic similarity between pairs of categorical data classes as a continuous numeric variable. A series of experiments on synthetic and actual land cover data contrasts the information content provided by metrics representative of all portions of the typology: the recently proposed semantic variogram, the indicator variogram, the contagion index, and the edge contrast index. Experimental results suggest that the typology captures essential qualities of metric information richness. Among our findings is that the commonly used contagion index is directly correlated with Moran’s I for 2-class maps but it fails to distinguish between negatively and positively autocorrelated patterns. We identify the semantic variogram as the only metric that can simultaneously detect both spatial and semantic attribute aspects of categorical autocorrelation. The semantic variogram is also relatively robust to attribute scale changes and therefore less sensitive to class aggregation than the other metrics.     

Enhanced osteoblast differentiation on scaffolds coated with TiO2 compared to SiO2 and CaP coatings

The aim was to compare the protein release from normal human osteoblasts (NHO) cultured on scaffolds with similar morphology but different coatings. Different ceramic coatings; TiO(2), SiO(2) and calcium phosphate (CaP); Ca(9)HPO(4)(PO(4))(5)OH, were applied to porous TiO(2) scaffolds prepared by polymer sponge replication. NHO were cultured on scaffolds in triplicates. The concentration of cytokines and Ca(2+), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in the cell media was quantified. The secretion of osteopontin, osteoprotegerin, vascular endothelial growth factor and interleukin-6 was higher from NHO on TiO(2) compared to SiO(2) and CaP. The secretion from cells on the three scaffolds was, however, either similar or lower than the control cells cultured on plastic. The Ca(2+) concentration was higher in cell media on CaP the first week, and no difference in ALP activity was observed. TiO(2) coating induced a higher secretion of factors indicating enhanced osteoblast differentiation as compared to CaP and SiO(2).