Distribution Atlas Research Articles

Distribution Atlas of COVID-19 Pneumonia on Computed Tomography: A Deep Learning Based Description.

ObjectivesTo construct a distribution atlas of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia on computed tomography (CT) and further explore the difference in distribution by location and disease severity through a retrospective study of 484 cases in Jiangsu, China.MethodsAll patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from January 10 to February 18 in Jiangsu Province, China, were enrolled in our study. The patients were further divided into asymptomatic/mild, moderate, and severe/critically ill groups. A deep learning algorithm was applied to the anatomic pulmonary segmentation and pneumonia lesion extraction. The frequency of opacity on CT was calculated, and a color-coded distribution atlas was built. A further comparison was made between the upper and lower lungs, between bilateral lungs, and between various severity groups. Additional lesion-based radiomics analysis was performed to ascertain the features associated with the disease severity.ResultsA total of 484 laboratory-confirmed patients with 945 repeated CT scans were included. Pulmonary opacity was mainly distributed in the subpleural and peripheral areas. The distances from the opacity to the nearest parietal/visceral pleura were shortest in the asymptomatic/mild group. More diffused lesions were found in the severe/critically ill group. The frequency of opacity increased with increased severity and peaked at about 3–4 or 7–8 o’clock direction in the upper lungs, as opposed to the 5 or 6 o’clock direction in the lower lungs. Lesions with greater energy, more circle-like, and greater surface area were more likely found in severe/critically ill cases than the others.ConclusionThis study constructed a detailed distribution atlas of COVID-19 pneumonia and compared specific patterns in different parts of the lungs at various severities. The radiomics features most associated with the severity were also found. These results may be valuable in determining the COVID-19 sub-phenotype.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43657-021-00011-4.

Addressing bumblebee faunistic and ecology using Citizen Science – reviewing a two years’ experience

Addressing bumblebee faunistic and ecology using Citizen Science – reviewing a two years’ experience

Structure of Asclepias syriaca L. population against phytocenotic and habitat conditions in Widuchowa (West Pomerania)

Abstract Asclepias syriaca L. is on the invasive species list in Poland. Its sites are scattered, with the exception of cultivation sites; they are also not well identified in the country and that is why they have not been presented in the ATPOL (Distribution Atlas of Vascular Plants in Poland) yet. In this study, spatial structure of A. syriaca population against phytocenotic and soil conditions in Widuchowa (West Pomerania)were examined. Number of specimens, their density per 1 m2, and mean crowding were determined. In addition, the population spatial structure type was identified through observations and by calculation of the dispersion coefficient. On the basis of the conducted research, it was found that the investigated population comprised 1 500 specimens and occupied the area of 38 m2. It exhibited regular spatial distribution type (dispersion coefficient<1) and was characterized by high value of mean shoot density, which amounted to 29 spec./1 m2 (max. 35 spec./1 m2). On the basis of the conducted chemical analysis of the soil from the A. syriaca habitat, the substrate was classified as alkaline soil (pH=7.3-7.6), of low total nitrogen (0.07-0.15%), as well as low total carbon content (0.8-1.45%).

Distribution Atlas of Proliferating Bone Marrow in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Measured by FLT-PET/CT Imaging, With Potential Applicability in Radiation Therapy Planning

Proliferating bone marrow is exquisitely sensitive to ionizing radiation. Knowledge of its distribution could improve radiation therapy planning to minimize unnecessary marrow exposure and avoid consequential prolonged myelosuppression. [18F]-Fluoro-3-deoxy-3-L-fluorothymidine (FLT)-positron emission tomography (PET) is a novel imagingmodality that provides detailed quantitative images of proliferating tissues, including bone marrow. We used FLT-PET imaging in cancer patients to produce an atlas of marrow distribution with potential clinical utility. The FLT-PET and fused CT scans of eligible patients with non-small cell lung cancer (no distant metastases, no prior cytotoxic exposure, no hematologic disorders) were reviewed. The proportions of skeletal FLT activity in 10 predefined bony regions were determined and compared according to age, sex, and recent smoking status. Fifty-one patients were studied: 67% male; median age 68 (range, 31-87) years; 8% never smokers; 70% no smoking in the preceding 3months. Significant differences in marrow distribution occurred between sex and age groups. No effect was detected from smoking in the preceding 3months. Using the mean percentages of FLT uptake per body region, we created an atlas of the distribution of functional bone marrow in 4 subgroups defined by sex and age. This atlas has potential utility for estimating the distribution of active marrow in adult cancer patients to guide radiation therapy planning. However, because of interindividual variation it should be used with caution when radiation therapy risks ablating large proportions of active marrow; in such cases, individual FLT-PET scans may be required.

Climatic Risk and Distribution Atlas of European Bumblebees

Bumble bees represent one of the most important groups of pollinators. In addition to their ecological and economic relevance , they are also a highly charismatic group which can help to increase the interest of people in realizing, enjoying and conserving natural systems. However, like most animals, bum-ble bees are sensitive to climate. In this atlas, maps depicting potential risks of climate change for bumble bees are shown together with informative summary statistics, ecological background information and a picture of each European species. Thanks to the EU FP7 project STEP, the authors gathered over one million bumblebee records from all over Europe. Based on these data, they modelled the current climatic niche for almost all European species (56 species) and projected future climatically suitable conditions using three climate change scenarios for the years 2050 and 2100. While under a moderate change scenario only 3 species are projected to be at the verge of extinction by 2100, 14 species are at high risk under an intermediate change scenario. Under a most severe change scenario as many as 25 species are projected to lose almost all of their climatically suitable area, while a total of 53 species (77% of the 69 European species) would lose the main part of their suitable area. Climatic risks for bumblebees can be extremely high, depending on the future development of human society, and the corresponding effects on the climate. Strong mitigation strategies are needed to preserve this important species group and to ensure the sustainable provision of pollination services, to which they considerably contribute. On the front cover: Bombus hyperboreus, an Arctic bumblebee species that is threatened by global warming

CLIMBER: Climatic niche characteristics of the butterflies in Europe

Detailed information on species’ ecological niche characteristics that can be related to declines and extinctions is indispensable for a better understanding of the relationship between the occurrence and performance of wild species and their environment and, moreover, for an improved assessment of the impacts of global change. Knowledge on species characteristics such as habitat requirements is already available in the ecological literature for butterflies, but information about their climatic requirements is still lacking. Here we present a unique dataset on the climatic niche characteristics of 397 European butterflies representing 91% of the European species (see Appendix). These characteristics were obtained by combining detailed information on butterfly distributions in Europe (which also led to the ‘Distribution Atlas of Butterflies in Europe’) and the corresponding climatic conditions. The presented dataset comprises information for the position and breadth of the following climatic niche characteristics: mean annual temperature, range in annual temperature, growing degree days, annual precipitation sum, range in annual precipitation and soil water content. The climatic niche position is indicated by the median and mean value for each climate variable across a species’ range, accompanied by the 95% confidence interval for the mean and the number of grid cells used for calculations. Climatic niche breadth is indicated by the standard deviation and the minimum and maximum values for each climatic variable across a species’ range. Database compilation was based on high quality standards and the data are ready to use for a broad range of applications.It is already evident that the information provided in this dataset is of great relevance for basic and applied ecology. Based on the species temperature index (STI, i.e. the mean temperature value per species), the community temperature index (CTI, i.e. the average STI value across the species in a community) was recently adopted as an indicator of climate change impact on biodiversity by the pan-European framework supporting the Convention on Biological Diversity (Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators 2010) and has already been used in several scientific publications. The application potential of this database ranges from theoretical aspects such as assessments of past niche evolution or analyses of trait interdependencies to the very applied aspects of measuring, monitoring and projecting historical, ongoing and potential future responses to climate change using butterflies as an indicator.

Lichens and lichenicolous fungi in the Bolimów Landscape Park

The article presents a distribution atlas of 166 taxa of lichens and 15 species of lichenicolous fungi growing in the Bolimów Landscape Park and its protection zone (Central Poland), collected between 1982-1984 and 1996-2003. Relevant data available in the literature on the subject as well as the data deposited in the Herbarium of Lichens and Lichenicolous Fungi (LOD) arę additionally provided. The ATPOL (ATLICHEN) grid sąuare system was used to examine the distribution of lichens and lichenicolous fungi. The taxa discussed in the article comprise as many as 40 threatened species (acc. to the Red List Categories: CR - 2 species, EN - 6, VU - 18, NT - 13, DD - 1), 34 protected species in Poland, and 5 indicators of old-growth forests. The most noteworthy lichens and lichenicolous fungi (*) are: <em>Absconditella lignicola, Biatora ocelliformis, Protoparmelia hypotremella, Stereum subtomentosum, Trapeliopsis pseudogranulosa, *Phaeopyxis punctum</em> and *<em>Taeniolella beschiana</em>.

A distribution atlas of legally protected ground beetle species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) occurring in the Łódź Province, central Poland

Data on diversity and distribution on ground beetle species protected by Polish law noted in the area of the Łodź Province is summarized based on the literature data and new records. In total, data on twenty taxa are provided including records for Calosoma (3) and Carabus species (17). Among them, occurrence of three species should be confirmed by new faunistic data: Carabus auratus (not noted since 1959), C. marginalis and C. nitens (both with last records from before 1990). The most common species in the region are: Carabus arvensis, C. auronitens, C. cancellatus, C. granulatus, C. nemoralis, C. hortensis, and C. violaceus. Seven species are endangered according to the Polish Red List, including Carabus clathrarus Linnaeus, 1761 (EN category), C. marginalis Fabricius, 1794 and C. nitens Linnaeus, 1758 (VU category), Calosoma sycophanta (Linnaeus, 1758) and Carabus convexus Fabricius, 1775 (NT category), C. intricatus Linnaeus, 1761 (LC category), and C. problematicus (DD category).

Two high-mountain burnet moth species (Lepidoptera, Zygaenidae) react differently to the global change drivers climate and land-use

Uphill shifts of alpine species have been associated with climate warming; however, land-use change can act simultaneously. We surveyed two related alpine burnet moth species in the Pyrenees to determine whether there was an uphill shift in the range of these two species and, if so, whether this was driven by climate and/or land-use changes. In 2008/09 we revisited 28 sites at the lower altitudinal range limits at which the species had been recorded between 1958 and 1986 (data were obtained from museum collections, distribution atlas, researchers’ field notes). We also recorded the recent upper range limits. The arctic-alpine Zygaena exulans showed an uphill shift (148m±SD 87m/decade) at all sites; at four sites the species has even become extinct. Changes in the lower altitudinal range limits were attributed to climate change. For the endemic species Zygaena anthyllidis we only ascertained an uphill shift at one third of the sites investigated (60m±SD 74m/decade); these shifts were due to changes in grazing intensities. As both species colonize very high summits, further uphill shifts of the upper limits are no longer possible. The studied con-generic species are affected by different global change drivers. Our data indicate the considerable role of land-use in conservation and suggest that it can even exceed the impact of climate change. Ongoing climate change is likely to jeopardize the long-term survival of Z. exulans in the Pyrenees; Z. anthyllidis, however, may be preserved by appropriate management in the subalpine belt.

Adaptation of the “Herbarium” Computer Database to Archiving and Analysis of Floristic Data

The aim of the study was to present “Herbarium” computer database. The basic goal of construction of the database was gathering and analysing of archival and contemporary floristic data referring to the area of Central Poland. Registered information considers the stands and characteristic biological and ecological traits of particular taxa. Life forms, indices of ecological requirements, the phytogeographical elements, protection and threat status are among them. The database enables the presentation of geographical distribution of taxa in the area of Central Poland with the cartogram method based on the grid of 2 km2 according to the Distribution Atlas of Vascular Plants in Poland (ATPOL).

The performance of state-of-the-art modelling techniques depends on geographical distribution of species

We explored the effects of prevalence, latitudinal range and clumping (spatial autocorrelation) of species distribution patterns on the predictive accuracy of eight state-of-the-art modelling techniques: Generalized Linear Models (GLMs), Generalized Boosting Method (GBM), Generalized Additive Models (GAMs), Classification Tree Analysis (CTA), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), Mixture Discriminant Analysis (MDA) and Random Forest (RF). One hundred species of Lepidoptera, selected from the Distribution Atlas of European Butterflies, and three climate variables were used to determine the bioclimatic envelope for each butterfly species. The data set consisting of 2620 grid squares 30′ × 60′ in size all over Europe was randomly split into the calibration and the evaluation data sets. The performance of different models was assessed using the area under the curve (AUC) of a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot. Observed differences in modelling accuracy among species were then related to the geographical attributes of the species using GAM. The modelling performance was negatively related to the latitudinal range and prevalence, whereas the effect of spatial autocorrelation on prediction accuracy depended on the modelling technique. These three geographical attributes accounted for 19–61% of the variation in the modelling accuracy. Predictive accuracy of GAM, GLM and MDA was highly influenced by the three geographical attributes, whereas RF, ANN and GBM were moderately, and MARS and CTA only slightly affected. The contrasting effects of geographical distribution of species on predictive performance of different modelling techniques represent one source of uncertainty in species spatial distribution models. This should be taken into account in biogeographical modelling studies and assessments of climate change impacts.

Habitat reduction and patterns of species loss

Abstract This paper uses data of The Distribution Atlas of Polish Butterflies to simulate the effect of four different types of area loss (aggregated, fractal, random, and nested) on species diversity and species–area relationships (SARs). We found that power function and logarithmic SAR models overestimated species loss in the case of aggregated, fractal, and random patterns of area reduction. Instead, the modification of the power function by Plotkin et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97 (2000b) 10850) ( S = S 0 A z e − kA ) with k being a shape-adjusting parameter worked better and gave sufficient predictions of species loss. The net effects of the aggregated, fractal, and random types of area loss on species diversity were very similar with an aggregated pattern of area loss leading to slightly higher rates of species loss than both other processes. We conclude that SARs might be useful tools for biodiversity forecasting if they are constructed in a case-specific manner. The use of standard models instead might be misleading.

Amphibians of France, Belgium and Luxemburg

As a general trend, accounts on regional and local herpetofaunas tend to become more and more colourful and extensive, and the classical borders between fieldguide, distribution atlas and handbook are fading. The book reviewed here is a good example for this trend. Edited by Remi Duguet und Frederic Melki for the “Association pour la Connaissance et l’Etude du Monde Animal et Vegetal” (ACEMAV), it summarizes the state of knowledge on the amphibians of France, Luxembourg and Belgium. Thereby it bridges a very important gap, because no comprehensive account on this region was so far available – despite its “batrachophilic” character, expressed in the yearly import of over 2970 tons of frog limbs to France, 2100 t to Belgium and 34 t to Luxembourg for consumption. These detailed figures (referring to 1999) exemplify the high density of detailed and original data that are woven into the text by the 18 authors who contributed to the book. The first 200 pages are devoted to introduce amphibians and place them into the context of the animal kingdom (chapter 1) and to discuss the basic patterns of their biology (chapter 2), biogeography and ecology (chapter 3) as well as their relationships to human culture and society (chapter 4). These chapters have an ample perspective, illustrating, for instance, representatives of many tropical amphibian families to be able to sort the European taxa into a world-wide context. Many aspects of the biology and behaviour of European amphibian species are documented photographically, and the same is true for many of the regionally typical habitats. All species are allocated to different biogeographic clusters depending on their distribution pattern, and much effort is devoted to discussing the possible geological and climatic explanations of these patterns. Amphibian conservation is another focus, and the many detailed reports of regional conservation measures are especially interesting. Precise instructions are given to carry out successful amphibian conservation measures, and state-of-the-art methods for inventorization, mapping and monitoring of these animals are described. The latter bears relevance because previous efforts of herpetofaunal mapping in France have heavily been criticized by part of the scientific community because of their presumably too uncritical approach.

Lista ragionata di nomi comuni degli anfibi e dei rettili italiani

Common Italian names of the amphibians and reptiles present in the geographic Italy are proposed. We analysed a large set of bibliography in order to assess a list of Italian common names used and we proposed the utilization of a single name, also in view of the forthcoming publication of the distribution atlas of the Italian herpetofauna. The criteria used to assign such names follow in general the current use, the possibility to clearly distinguish similar species, geographic and linguistic parameters.

Immunocytochemical localization of acyl-CoA oxidase in the rat central nervous system.

Peroxisomal beta-oxidation, consisting of four steps catalysed by an acyl-CoA oxidase, a multifunctional protein and a thiolase, is responsible for the shortening of a variety of lipid compounds. The first reaction of this pathway is catalysed by a FAD-containing acyl-CoA oxidase, three isotypes of which have been so far recognised. Among these, straight-chain acyl-CoA oxidase (ACOX) acts on long and very long chain fatty acids, prostaglandins and some xenobiotics. We investigated ACOX localisation by means of a sensitive, tyramide based, immunocytochemical technique, thus obtaining a complete distribution atlas of the enzyme in adult rat CNS. Granular immunoreaction product was found in the cytoplasm of neuronal and glial cells, both in the perikarya and in the cell processes. ACOX immunoreactive neurons were present to variable extent, in either forebrain or hindbrain areas. Specifically, the strongest signal was detected in the pallidum, septum, red nucleus, reticular formation, nuclei of the cranial nerves, and motoneurons of the spinal cord. We then compared the ACOX immunoreactivity pattern with our previous distribution maps of other peroxisomal enzymes in the adult rat brain. While ACOX appeared to colocalise with catalase in the majority of cerebral regions, some differences with respect to d-amino acid oxidase were noted. These observations support the hypothesis of heterogeneous peroxisomal populations in the nervous tissue. The wide distribution of the enzyme in the brain is consistent with the severe and generalised neurological alterations characterising the peroxisomal disorder caused by ACOX deficiency (pseudo-neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy).

A dose distribution atlas of optimized multi-field irradiation plans

A dose distribution atlas of optimized multi-field irradiation plans

Towards a distribution atlas of macrofungi in the Netherlands

Towards a distribution atlas of macrofungi in the Netherlands

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:PROVISIONAL DISTRIBUTION ATLAS OF AMPHIBIANS, REPTILES AND MAMMALS IN IRELAND (2nd edn.) Edited by Eanna Ni Lamhna.LECTURE NOTES ON VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY By Ronald Pearson & John N. BallTHE CAMEL. ITS EVOLUTION, ECOLOGY, BEHAVIOUR, AND RELATIONSHIP TO MAN By H. Gauthier‐Pilters & A. I. DaggSAVE THE DOLPHINS By Horace DobbsNORTH AMERICAN BISON: their classification and evolution By Jerry N. McDonaldBADGERS WITHOUT BIAS. AN OBJECTIVE LOOK AT THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS AND CATTLE By Robert W. HowardSYMPOSIA OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON No. 47: BIOLOGY OF THE HOUSE MOUSE. Edited by R. J. Berry.HANDBOOK OF MARINE MAMMALS, Vols 1 and 2 Edited by S. H. Ridgeway & R. J. Harrison