The integration of crop rotation and tillage practices in the assessment of ecosystem services provision at the regional scale

The provision of ecosystem services at the landscape level can be significantly influenced by land management practices. Within an agriculturally dominated case study area in Saxony, Germany, a more detailed land use classification, which includes differentiated information on agricultural management practices, was utilized within the raster-based planning support tool GISCAME. “Management” refers to typical, regional crop rotations and soil tillage practices.The focus of this research was based on an indicator-based approach to assess ecosystem services and the development of land use change (LUC) and land management change (LMC) scenarios. The EuroMaps Land Cover data set was specifically developed for the case study and included remote sensing information for the general land use classification and terrestrial mapping information. Furthermore, statistical data on detailed regional agricultural land management were included. The raster-based planning support tool GISCAME was then used to simulate scenarios and visualize results. The LUC and LMC scenarios showed that the more detailed land use classification provided better output for the prioritization of planning alternatives. Further it enabled a refined assessment of the provisioning services (i) food and fodder provision, (ii) biomass provision, the regulation services, (iii) soil erosion protection, (iv) drought risk regulation, (v) flood regulation, (vi) returns from land-based production (i.e. the market value of biomass provision), and (vii) ecological integrity. The results of this study support the view that the application of improved management measures, such as conservation tillage, can significantly enhance the provision of ecosystem services (e.g. soil erosion protection and drought risk regulation) at the landscape level. The study also indicates that a combination of strategic LUC, such as afforestation and LMC, might be an effective way to enhance regulating services with acceptable trade-offs regarding provisioning services. Our approach presents a refined foundation for ecosystem services assessment, which is designed to better support regional planning and the provision of information to non-experts in the participatory processes. For transfer into other regions, standardized land use and land management classification will have to be defined.     

Stabilization of immobilized l-arabinose isomerase for the production of d-tagatose from d-galactose

The aim of this work was to develop a stable immobilized enzyme biocatalyst for the isomerization of d -galactose to d -tagatose at high temperature. l -Arabinose isomerase from the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima (TMAI) was produced as a (His)₆-tagged protein, immobilized on a copper–chelate epoxy support and subjected to several postimmobilization treatments aimed at increasing its operational and structural stability. Treatment with glutaraldehyde and ethylenediamine resulted in a more than twofold increase in the operational stability and in all enzyme subunits linked, directly or indirectly, to the support via covalent bonds. A postimmobilization treatment of the immobilized derivatives with mercaptoethanol for the removal of any remaining copper ions, determined a further increase of the operational biocatalytic activity. Immobilized derivatives subjected to both treatments were used for the bioconversion of 18 g/L d -galactose to d -tagatose at 80°C in a packed bed reactor in three repeated cycles and showed a better operational stability compared with the literature data. This study shows that a postimmobilization stabilization treatment with glutaraldehyde and ethylenediamine can stabilize the multi-subunit structure of an enzyme immobilized on a metal-chelate epoxy support with an increase of its operational stability, results that are not easily achievable with the sole immobilization on epoxy or metal chelate-epoxy supports in the case of complex multimeric enzymes with geometric incongruence with the support.     

Functional differentiation between the inner and outer leaves in a mechanical support by a pseudostem of Veratrum album subsp. oxysepalum

The pseudostem of Veratrum album subsp. oxysepalum consists of radical leaves, which have tubular and concentrically aggregated petioles. We examined a hypothesis that the major role of the inner leaves is to raise the leaf blades higher for increased photosynthesis, while that of the outer leaves is to mechanically support the inner leaves at the expense of displaying their leaf blades. The removal of outer leaves resulted in the collapse of the remaining inner leaves, showing outer leaves provide important support for inner leaves. The estimation of mechanical properties for the constituting leaves revealed that inner leaves possess greater mass of leaf blades for their capacity of mechanical support them compared to outer leaves. These results uphold the hypothesis that the primary role of inner leaves is to display leaf blades for photosynthesis, while that for outer leaves is to mechanically support the less stable inner leaves.     

深圳市社区公共卫生服务包运行的支持成本研究

目的 了解深圳市社区公共卫生服务包运行中除人力成本之外最基本的运行成本。方法 通过普查和抽样问卷调查2种方法，收集并计算管理、培训等几大类成本数据。结果 按每万服务人口计，服务包运行的基本支持与保障成本，如管理、培训、租金、折旧和水电维修成本分别为6.25万元、0.15万元、6.19万元、2.73万元和3.96万元。结论 每万服务人口的各类支持成本信息，使得各级财政在基本支持与保障成本的投入标准和方向的确定上具有参考价值。     

Ridge estimation of the VAR(1) model and its time series chain graph from multivariate time‐course omics data

Omics experiments endowed with a time‐course design may enable us to uncover the dynamic interplay among genes of cellular processes. Multivariate techniques (like VAR(1) models describing the temporal and contemporaneous relations among variates) that may facilitate this goal are hampered by the high‐dimensionality of the resulting data. This is resolved by the presented ridge regularized maximum likelihood estimation procedure for the VAR(1) model. Information on the absence of temporal and contemporaneous relations may be incorporated in this procedure. Its computational efficient implemention is discussed. The estimation procedure is accompanied with an LOOCV scheme to determine the associated penalty parameters. Downstream exploitation of the estimated VAR(1) model is outlined: an empirical Bayes procedure to identify the interesting temporal and contemporaneous relationships, impulse response analysis, mutual information analysis, and covariance decomposition into the (graphical) relations among variates. In a simulation study the presented ridge estimation procedure outperformed a sparse competitor in terms of Frobenius loss of the estimates, while their selection properties are on par. The proposed machinery is illustrated in the reconstruction of the p53 signaling pathway during HPV‐induced cellular transformation. The methodology is implemented in the ragt2ridges R‐package available from CRAN.     

病人互助组在构建新型医患关系中的作用

为改变目前医患关系日益紧张的状况，医院需要推动规范服务向主动服务甚至是感动服务转化。为此，以分院急诊科为试点，发挥医院基层党员的能动性，帮助病人成立病人互助组并给与指导。通过近一年的运行，发现这一举措不仅可以节省医务人员的精力，而且让医患信任度大幅增加，客观上减少了医患关系对立的潜在风险，促进了和谐型医患关系的形成。     

Towards a decision support system for stream restoration in the Netherlands: an overview of restoration projects and future needs

Stream restoration is one of the answers to the lowland stream deterioration. For making proper choices in stream restoration; one firstly needs to understand the complex spatial and temporal interactions between physical, chemical and biological components in the stream ecosystem. Several ecological concepts on the four dimensions, scale and hierarchy in a stream ecosystem are integrated into the 5-S-model. This model provides the theoretical backbone of the first outline of a decision support system for stream restoration. Stream restoration is developing fast in the Netherlands. In 1991, 70 projects were counted, in 1993 there were 170, and this number increased in 1998 to 206. Positive signs in this increase in the number of stream restoration projects are the increase in the amount of money, in background studies, in improvement of the selection process of stretches to be tackled, and the broadening of the objectives and measures. Negative signs are amongst others that measures often deal only with stream hydrology and structures in-stream. The catchment takes no part. Furthermore, bottlenecks often relate to finances and agreement between people and/or organisations. Finally, the first steps towards a decision support system for stream restoration are made. The system presented provides only information based on which measures should be taken. `Where and how' these measures need to be taken remains a challenge for the future.