Disturbance Patterns Research Articles

On geomagnetic and ionospheric variations after the strong eruption of Shiveluch volcano 2023

Ground-based magnetometers and vertical ionospheric sounding stations were used to record specific variations in the geomagnetic field caused by disturbances in the current systems of the lower ionosphere and the electron density of the upper ionosphere after a strong volcanic eruption in Kamchatka (Russia) on April 10, 2023. Analysis of the measurement results of two series of explosions showed that the impact on the lower ionosphere is carried out through both seismic Rayleigh waves (which are a source of acoustic waves propagating into the ionosphere), and atmospheric internal gravity waves generated by explosions. At distances from the source of up to a thousand kilometers, a repeatability of the pattern of ionospheric disturbances was discovered after each of the six volcanic explosions. At larger distances in the ionosphere, signals from acoustic waves caused by Rayleigh waves are clearly recorded, and isolating signals from atmospheric internal waves is difficult due to the influence of disturbances from other external sources.

Depression and anxiety in multiple sclerosis. Review of a fatal combination.

Depression and anxiety are the most frequent neuropsychiatric symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune-mediated demyelinating neurodegenerative disease. Their prevalence is 25-65% and 20-54%, respectively, often associated with chronic fatigue and cognitive impairment, but usually not correlated with motor and other deficits, suggesting different pathophysiological mechanisms. Both disorders often arise before MS diagnosis, lead to faster disability and impair the quality of life. Risk factors are (young) age, genetic and family history burden. While no specific neuropathological data for depression (and anxiety) in MS are available, modern neuroimaging studies showed bilateral fronto-temporal, subcortical and limbic atrophies, microstructural white matter lesions and disruption of frontoparietal, limbic and neuroendocrine networks. The pathogenesis of both depression and anxiety in MS is related to shared mechanisms including oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation and neuroendocrine mechanisms inducing complex functional and structural brain lesions, but they are also influenced by social and other factors. Unfortunately, MS patients with anxiety, major depression or suicidal thoughts are often underassessed and undertreated. Current treatment, in addition to antidepressant therapy include transcranial magnetic stimulation, cognitive, relaxation, dietary and other healthcare measures that must be individualized. The present state-of- the-art review is based on systematic analysis of PubMed, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library until May 2024, with focus on the prevalence, clinical manifestation, neuroimaging data, immune mechanisms and treatment options. Depression and anxiety in MS, like in many other neuroimmune disorders, are related, among others, to multi-regional patterns of cerebral disturbances and complex pathogenic mechanisms that deserve further elucidation as a basis for early diagnosis and adequate management to improve the quality of life in this disabling disease.

Gastrointestinal disorders in hyperkinetic movement disorders and ataxia

Disorders of the gastrointestinal tract in patients suffering from hypokinetic movement disorders, and in particular Parkinson's disease, have increasingly been the subject of more intensive neuromedical research. So far, few data are available for patients with hyperkinetic movement disorders and ataxias. This review article summarizes the currently available and relevant publications on this topic. The particular focus is on essential tremor, restless legs syndrome, Huntington's disease and the group of hereditary ataxias. Further intensive research will be necessary in the future to collect detailed information also for these disease symptoms about specific disturbance patterns, in order to understand the underlying pathological pathways and to derive specific treatment approaches.

Infants’ early recovery from sleep disturbance is associated with a lower risk of developmental delay in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

To examine whether patterns, such as the timings of onset or recovery from sleep disturbance, are associated with later developmental problems, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Mothers participating in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study with a child aged 3 years were included in the analyses. Children were assessed for short sleep and frequent awakenings at 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year of age. Developmental problems were evaluated at 3 years of age based on ASD diagnosis and developmental delay, using the Japanese translation of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) 3rd edition. Sleep disturbance patterns were classified by onset age, and developmental problem risks were examined based on onset/recovery ages. Among 63,418 mother-infant dyads, 0.4% of infants were later diagnosed with ASD, and 14.4% had abnormal scores on any ASQ domains. The later the onset of short sleep, the lower the risk of abnormal ASQ scores (RR of short sleep onset at 1 year: 1.41; 6 months: 1.52; 1 month: 1.57). The earlier the infants recovered from short sleep persistence, the lower the risk of developmental delay (RR of remittance of sleep problems identified at 1 month by 6 months: 1.07; 1 year: 1.31; not before 1 year: 1.57). Although not all patterns were significant, later short sleep onset and earlier recovery were associated with lower ASD risk. These findings may have significant implications for future interventions in infant development.

A new phenotype of patients with post-COVID-19 condition is characterised by a pattern of complex ventilatory dysfunction, neuromuscular disturbance and fatigue symptoms.

Patients with post-COVID-19 condition frequently suffer from chronic dyspnoea. The causes and mechanism for dyspnoea in these patients without evidence of structural lung disease are unclear. Patients treated for COVID-19 at Charité University Hospital in Berlin received pulmonary function testing including respiratory muscle strength tests and completed health-related quality-of-life questionnaires during follow-up. Patients with post-COVID-19 condition during outpatient follow-up with fatigue and exertional intolerance (PCF) were compared to patients with post-COVID-19 condition with evidence of chronic pulmonary sequelae (post-COVID-19 restriction (PCR)) as well as to patients without post-COVID-19 condition (NCF). A total of 170 patients presented for follow-up. 36 participants met criteria for PCF, 28 for PCR and 24 for NCF. PCF patients reported dyspnoea in 63.8%. % predicted value of respiratory muscle strength (median (IQR)) was reduced in PCF (55.8 (41.5-75.9)) compared to NCF and PCR (70.6 (66.3-88.9) and 76.8 (63.6-102.2), respectively; p=0.011). A pattern of reduced forced vital capacity (FVC), but normal total lung capacity (TLC), termed complex ventilatory dysfunction defined as TLC - FVC >10% predicted was observed and occurred more frequently in PCF (88.9%) compared to NCF and PCR (29.1% and 25.0%, respectively; p<0.001). Dyspnoea in PCF is characterised by reduced respiratory muscle strength and complex ventilatory dysfunction indicating neuromuscular disturbance as a distinct phenotype among patients with post-COVID-19 condition. These observations could be a starting point for developing personalised rehabilitation concepts.

Social sharing and expressive suppression in major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder: An experience sampling study

AbstractMajor depressive disorder (MDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are characterized by disturbed patterns of emotional and interpersonal functioning, which might imply altered use of emotion regulation in interpersonal contexts. In the current study, we examined how individuals with MDD and/or BPD differ from healthy controls in (1) their overall daily life use of expressive suppression and social sharing and (2) their tendency to adjust the use of these strategies to the emotional context (i.e., preceding negative and positive affect). Thirty‐four individuals with MDD, 20 individuals with BPD, 19 individuals with comorbid MDD and BPD, and 40 healthy controls participated in a week of experience sampling during which they reported their use of expressive suppression, social sharing, and experienced negative and positive affect. The results indicated that all clinical groups reported more expressive suppression and social sharing in their daily lives than healthy controls. Group differences remained when controlling for differences in mean experienced affect, except for increased suppression for MDD and increased sharing for BPD and comorbid MDD and BPD, which seemed related to these participants' overall higher levels of negative affect. Additionally, associations between within‐person fluctuations in negative or positive affect and subsequent strategy use were equally strong for clinical and control participants, indicating that clinical groups did not differentially adjust the use of suppression and sharing to the emotional context. In conclusion, individuals with MDD and/or BPD showed increased use of suppression and sharing in daily life, which might contribute to, or follow from their emotional and interpersonal difficulties.

Biodiversity monitoring for the jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest in south-west Western Australia: An extension to ten-year findings of Forestcheck

Long-term research and monitoring programs can provide important insights into biodiversity patterns to inform sustainable management of multi-use forest ecosystems. This study investigated biodiversity patterns in two forest ecosystems in the southwest region of Australia, as part of a long-term monitoring program, Forestcheck, established to track changes and trends in forest biodiversity associated with management activities. We assessed the effects of forest ecosystem, silvicultural treatment types (gap release and shelterwood/selective harvesting) and time since fire, on taxonomic richness and assemblage patterns across six taxonomic groups (terrestrial vertebrates, birds, macro-invertebrates, vascular plants, macro-fungi and cryptogams). Further, temporal comparisons in taxonomic richness and assemblage were completed for vascular plants and terrestrial vertebrates using data collected in a second round of monitoring. There was a low-level effect of harvesting and prescribed burning disturbance on combined community assemblage, but forest ecosystem had a greater influence on biodiversity patterns. Plant assemblages changed significantly according to ecosystem, silvicultural treatment type and monitoring round when two rounds of monitoring data were considered. These findings support previous assessments of Forestcheck sites, in that the strongest determinant of biodiversity patterns was forest ecosystem, and the greatest effects of disturbance were on assemblage patterns. These results provide some insight into post disturbance patterns and may assist with decision-making in relation to silviculture and prescribed burning regimes, and post-silviculture management, to provide increased opportunity for restoration of diversity.

Increasing disturbance frequency undermines coral reef recovery

AbstractClimate‐driven alterations to disturbance regimes are increasingly disrupting patterns of recovery in many biomes. Here, we examine the impact of disturbance and subsequent level of recovery in live hard coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) across the last three decades. We demonstrate that a preexisting pattern of infrequent disturbances of limited spatial extent has changed to larger and more frequent disturbances, dominated by marine heatwaves and severe tropical cyclones. We detected an increase in the impact (measured as coral loss) across 265 individual disturbance impacts on 131 reefs in a 36‐year dataset (1985–2022). Additionally, the number of survey reefs impacted by disturbance has increased each decade from 6% in the 1980s to 44% in the 2010s, as has the frequency of mass coral bleaching across the GBR, which has increased between 19% and 28% per year, and cyclones (3%–5% per year), resulting in less time for recovery. Of the 265 disturbance impacts we recorded, complete recovery to the highest levels of coral cover recorded earlier in this study (the “historical benchmark”) occurred only 62 (23%) times. Of the 23% of disturbance impacts that resulted in complete recovery to historical benchmarks, 34/62 recovered to their benchmark in 2021 or 2022. Complete recovery was more likely when the historical benchmark was &lt;25% live hard coral cover. The lack of recovery was attributed to recovery time windows becoming shorter due to increases in the frequency of cyclones and of thermal stress events that result in mass coral bleaching episodes. These results confirm that climate change is contributing to ecosystem‐wide changes in the ability of coral reefs to recover.

Fine-tuning coexistence: Wildlife's short-term responses to dynamic human disturbance patterns

Anthropogenic disturbance elicits adaptive responses in wildlife, generally aimed at risk-avoidance, ultimately imposing constraints on their spatial and temporal niches. Previous studies have largely focused on long-term adaptive responses to stable human pressure, but rapid adjustments in wildlife’s diel and habitat use patterns in response to fine-scale variations in human presence have so far been overlooked. In this study we estimate short-term spatio-temporal deviations in local habitat use and diel activity of medium and large mammal species in response to rapid variations in human disturbance. We employed a year-long camera-trapping within a small private reserve, and recorded spatio-temporal information on all sources of anthropogenic disturbance in the area. By controlling for the average habitat use and diel activity, we explored fine-scale spatiotemporal adjustments in seven mammal species. We found evidence of spatial and/or temporal avoidance across all species, except wild boar, with variations in magnitude and direction coherent with species traits and expected levels of human-tolerance. Most species exhibited temporal avoidance of human activities, with porcupine and roe deer eliciting particularly strong responses. Notably, foxes concurrently displayed temporal avoidance and spatial attraction, likely driven by the presence of anthropogenic trophic resources. Our study underscores the role of behavioral plasticity in enabling wildlife to adjust daily habitat use and activity patterns to varying levels of human pressure across space and time. Understanding these nuanced behavioral strategies can help to promote wildlife-human coexistence and mitigating the adverse impacts of human presence on wildlife fitness.

Landscape configuration and storm characteristics drive spatial patterns of wind disturbance in boreal forest landscapes

ContextWind is an important disturbance in circumboreal forests, and its frequency and severity may change with climate change, highlighting the need to understand the drivers of wind disturbance. Currently, how landscape configuration drives wind disturbance is poorly understood.ObjectivesWe investigated whether and how landscape configuration is related to the extent and spatial pattern of wind disturbance, and how these relationships vary between windstorms and thunderstorms.MethodsWe used salvage logging data after 16 storms that occurred in Finland between 2011 and 2021. We placed a total of 301 landscapes, each encompassing an area of 8024 ha, within the storm tracks and used regression models to test how wind disturbance extent, disturbance patch size, number of disturbance patches, and disturbance patch clustering were related to landscape configuration and storm characteristics.ResultsIncreasing mean gap size and edge density, including permanent openings (e.g., lakes) and recent harvest gaps, increased disturbance extent, disturbance patch size, and number of disturbance patches. Conversely, increasing mean harvest gap size decreased disturbance patch clustering. Increasing wind speed had the largest contribution to increasing disturbance extent and number of disturbance patches, and decreasing disturbance patch clustering, with the magnitude of the effect varying between windstorms and thunderstorms.ConclusionsThe extent and spatial pattern of wind disturbances varied with landscape configuration and storm characteristics. Disturbance patches were larger in landscapes with large canopy gaps, resulting in a greater disturbance extent, exacerbated by increasing wind speed and thunderstorm development.

Naturally and Anthropogenically Induced Lingulodinium polyedra Dinoflagellate Red Tides in the Galician Rias (NW Iberian Peninsula).

Despite the fact that the first red tide reported on the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula was due to Lingulodinium polyedra, knowledge about their frequency and, particularly, about the environmental conditions contributing to bloom initiation is still scarce. For this reason, L. polyedra bloom episodes were observed and studied in three Galician rias during the summer season based on the 1993-2008 record database period; additionally, samples were collected in summer 2008. Proliferations of L. polyedra occurred in the rias of Ares and Barqueiro in June and August, respectively, while in the Ria of Coruña, they persisted from the end of June to early September. Red tides developed when the surface temperature reached 17 °C, with "seasonal thermal window" conditions, and when salinities were ≥30, i.e., an "optimal salinity window"; when these parameters were lower than these thresholds, cyst germination decreased. A cyst transport mechanism from sediments to the surface must also exist; this mechanism was found to be natural (tidal currents) in the ria of Barqueiro or anthropogenic (dredging) in the rias of Ares and Coruña. Surface temperatures during summer were usually favorable for cyst germination (85 to 100%) during the 1993-2008 period; however, water temperatures below 10 m depth only rarely reached the 17 °C threshold (2 to 18%). During this 16-year period, dredging activities could explain 71% (Coruña) and 44% (Ares) of the recorded bloom events. When a bloom episode developed in early summer, favorable conditions did not lead to a new red tide, probably due to the lag period required by cysts for germination. Moreover, blooms did not develop when high densities of diatoms (>1,000,000 cells·L-1) remained in the water column as a result of summer upwelling pulses occurring in specific years. The temperature-sediment disturbance pattern found in this study provides a useful tool for the prevention of eventual risks resulting from red tides of this dinoflagellate.

Ecological and climatic transferability of airborne lidar-driven aboveground biomass models in Piñon-Juniper woodlands

ABSTRACT Piñon-juniper (PJ) woodlands are an expansive and dynamic dryland ecosystem in the US that encompass a wide range of spatial, temporal, and ecological diversity. The dynamism of PJ woodland extent and abundance over space and time is attributable to variability in species compositions, stand structures, climatic conditions, and disturbance patterns. PJ aboveground biomass (AGB) quantification is important for understanding its role in the global carbon cycle, for tracking climate change impacts, and for informing forest management practices. Quantifying AGB in PJ woodlands is challenging due to complex vegetation structure. Although airborne laser scanning (ALS) has proven effective in estimating PJ AGB in local scale studies, these efforts only capture a fraction of the overall PJ range leaving open an important question as to whether a broad-scale, ecosystem-wide effort to map PJ woodland AGB could be successful. This research seeks to determine whether AGB predictive models built in ecologically distinct portions of PJ’s range can be accurately applied to prediction of AGB in other portions of the range. Using a large database of 497 field plots compiled from eight sources and a random forest modeling framework, transferability between predictive models was evaluated by grouping field reference plots into two clustering categories based on PJ characteristics: one category generated with environmental variables (climate and topography) and the other using species compositions. For both clustering categories, models trained on one cluster were used to predict AGB in every other cluster within that category. Relatively distinct clusters, such as those characterized by notably higher temperatures and precipitation totals or dominated by a unique species, had high transferability when models were trained on the distinct cluster and applied to other clusters, but low transferability when other clusters were tested on the distinct cluster. High training transferability for distinct clusters is likely due to the inability of random forests to extrapolate beyond the range of training data, while the high testing transferability is likely due to ecological reasons. Therefore, it is important to capture the distinct environments and species compositions within the range of PJ woodlands when training a range-wide model to map PJ AGB. With the eventual goal of a range-wide PJ AGB map, we developed a preliminary range-wide model of PJ woodland AGB using our entire field reference dataset. The bootstrapped accuracy assessment of the range wide model (median R2 = 0.52; median rRMSE = 0.49) suggests promise for future comprehensive PJ AGB maps. However, high AGB values in the range-wide model were under-predicted, suggesting that gathering additional field plots in high AGB PJ woodlands has the potential to enhance the accuracy of the predictive model across the range of PJ AGB.

‘Mind the Gap’—reforestation needs vs. reforestation capacity in the western United States

Tree establishment following severe or stand-replacing disturbance is critical for achieving U.S. climate change mitigation goals and for maintaining the co-benefits of intact forest ecosystems. In many contexts, natural post-fire tree regeneration is sufficient to maintain forest cover and associated ecosystem services, but increasingly the pattern and scale of disturbance exceeds ecological thresholds and active reforestation may be warranted. Our capacity to plant trees, however, is not keeping pace with reforestation needs. This shortfall is uniquely apparent in the western U.S., where wildfire size and severity have increased in recent decades and long-term divestment in the reforestation supply chain has limited our ability to respond to existing needs. Here we present an analysis of key facets of both the supply and demand side of reforestation in the western U.S. and address six questions: (1) What is the current backlog of potential reforestation needs driven by high-severity wildfire?; (2) How will increasing wildfire activity through the end of the century affect potential reforestation needs?; (3) What is our capacity to meet current and future reforestation needs?; (4) How can we scale the reforestation supply chain to meet current and future demands?; (5) What approaches to reforestation can promote forest resilience to climate change and wildfire?; and (6) Where are opportunities emerging from recent policy initiatives, innovative public-private partnerships, and natural capital markets for scaling reforestation? Between 1984 and 2000, annual tree planting capacity met post-fire needs but cumulatively over the last two decades (2000 to 2021) it has fallen short of fire-driven needs by an estimated 1.5 million ha (ca. 3.8 million ac). We anticipate this gap will increase 2 to 3 fold by 2050. Scaling up reforestation efforts to close this gap will require increased investment across all facets of the reforestation supply chain, public-private partnerships, and novel approaches to reforestation that increase the resilience of western forests to drought and wildfire. We highlight emerging opportunities from recent policy initiatives and conservation finance for expanding reforestation efforts.

Prediction of high latitude nightside Geomagnetic Field Disturbances (GGFDs) during the 9-March-2012 geomagnetic storm using Recurrent Neural Network (RNN)

Geomagnetically Induced currents (GICs) pose a potentially catastrophic threat to the safety and security of large-scale power distribution systems. Using a recurrent neural network, we predict high (≥60°) magnetic latitude (MLAT) and night side (06–18) magnetic local time (MLT) geomagnetic field disturbances (surface dBs/dt and vertical dBz/dt), the trigger of GICs, during a geomagnetic storms occurred on March 09, 2012. We use the high latitude geomagnetic field data from SuperMAG and the solar wind particle and magnetic field data from NASA-OMNIWeb. We divide the high latitude night side of Earth’s globe into multiple sectors and obtain a time series of maximum geomagnetic disturbances observed in each sector. We use the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) network technique sector by sector on both, the solar wind data and the sectored geomagnetic field disturbance (10° geomagnetic latitude, 1-hour MLT) time series obtained from SuperMAG. Each sector prediction is plotted on a polar map to reveal high latitude night side geomagnetic disturbance patterns. This high latitude nigh side model has great potential. With solar wind input at a Lagrangian-1 point, and geomagnetic field data from SuperMAG, it can predict the peak magnetic disturbance at any given sector for couple of hours in advance. Our machine learning techniques provide the best set of solar wind input that gives the best disturbance prediction. This paper presents a prototype of the global geomagnetic disturbance model with low-resolution spatial grids and a subset of potential solar wind input parameters. Once matured, the global magnetic disturbance model will be provided to the public.

Correlation between Duration of Social Media Use and Sleep Pattern Disorders In Children Aged 10-12 Years at SD Negeri Kepatihan 05 Jember

Social media usage can both positively and negatively affect children's sleep patterns, with potential negative effects on the quality and quantity of sleep. However, until now, more evidence is needed about the phenomenon in a population of school-age children. This study aims to analyze the relationship between the duration of social media use and sleep pattern disturbances in children aged 10-12 years at SD Negeri Kepatihan 05 based on the theory of problematic smartphone use. The research design uses a correlational approach with a cross-sectional approach. The population of children aged 10-12 years at SD Negeri Kepatihan 05 Jember is 250 respondents. The number of samples was 104 using simple random sampling. Data collection on the duration of social media use used an observation sheet while sleep pattern disturbances used a questionnaire sheet. Data analysis used rho sperm with the condition α ≤ 0.05. The results showed that there was a relationship between the duration of social media use and disturbed sleep patterns in children aged 10-12 years. The correlation in this study shows an r-value of 0.230 which identifies the degree of weak relationship, p-value of 0.019. The duration of social media use has been found to have a positive relationship with disturbed sleep patterns. This study concluded that prolonged social media use can disrupt sleep patterns in children, emphasizing the need for parental monitoring in this context.

Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis: from phenomenology to neurobiological mechanisms.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune-mediated disease of the central nervous system characterized by inflammation, demyelination and chronic progressive neurodegeneration. Among its broad and unpredictable range of clinical symptoms, cognitive impairment (CI) is a common and disabling feature greatly affecting the patients' quality of life. Its prevalence is 20% up to 88% with a wide variety depending on the phenotype of MS, with highest frequency and severity in primary progressive MS. Involving different cognitive domains, CI is often associated with depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms, but usually not correlated with motor and other deficits, suggesting different pathophysiological mechanisms. While no specific neuropathological data for CI in MS are available, modern research has provided evidence that it arises from the disease-specific brain alterations. Multimodal neuroimaging, besides structural changes of cortical and deep subcortical gray and white matter, exhibited dysfunction of fronto-parietal, thalamo-hippocampal, default mode and cognition-related networks, disruption of inter-network connections and involvement of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system. This provided a conceptual framework to explain how aberrant pathophysiological processes, including oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, autoimmune reactions and disruption of essential signaling pathways predict/cause specific disorders of cognition. CI in MS is related to multi-regional patterns of cerebral disturbances, although its complex pathogenic mechanisms await further elucidation. This article, based on systematic analysis of PubMed, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library, reviews current epidemiological, clinical, neuroimaging and pathogenetic evidence that could aid early identification of CI in MS and inform about new therapeutic targets and strategies.

Spatially resolved spectroscopic observations of gas emission in dwarf galaxies hosting accreting black hole candidate

ABSTRACT Recent studies on dwarf galaxies reveal that some of them harbour a massive black hole (BH), which is believed to have a similar mass of the supermassive BH ‘seeds’ at early times. The origin and growth of the primitive BHs are still open questions, since these BH seeds are hardly observed at high redshifts. Therefore, MBH of dwarf galaxies can be the perfect candidates to untangle BH ‘seeds’ properties and their influence on their host galaxy evolution, since MBH may preserve their initial conditions due to its quiet merger and accretion histories. We use optical integral field unit observations, obtained with the Gemini GMOS-IFU, to study the gas emission and kinematics in four dwarf galaxies, candidates to host MBH, based on the analysis of their [Fe x] luminosities measured from SDSS spectra. The [Fe x] emission line is not detected in our GMOS in any of the galaxies, prompting speculation that its absence in our recent data may stem from a past tidal disruption event coinciding with the observation period of the SDSS data. All galaxies exhibit extended gas emissions, and the spatially resolved emission-line ratio diagnostic diagrams present values that suggest active galactic nuclei (AGN) photoionization from the [S ii]–BPT diagram. The gas velocity fields of all galaxies are indicative of disturbed rotation patterns, with no detection of gas outflows in any of the sources. Although the [S ii]–BPT diagrams indicate AGN photoionization, further confirmation through multiwavelength observations is required to validate this scenario.

Patterns of riparian forest disturbance caused by tree dislodging on a subtropical river during large floods

AbstractRiparian forests contribute to the resilience and biocomplexity of floodplains but may be catastrophically impacted by large floods. Forest disturbances will expose floodplains to stripping and pulses of large wood recruitment to the floodplain and channel. The widespread uprooting of trees follows hydrodynamic loading from floodwaters and the associated moments of these forces about the tree bases. A tree will uproot when the drag moment exceeds the anchorage resistance capacity. Alternatively, trunks will rupture when the tensile stresses caused by bending exceed the tensile strength of the outer trunk fibres. The likelihood and pattern of trees dislodging during floods on a subtropical river was investigated by developing a tree stability model. The modeling framework included development of a drag moment model and testing several potential formulations for anchorage resistance. Model parameters were calibrated to data collected in experiments and from observations in aerial photographs before and after a large flood in 2011. The prediction accuracy for the adopted tree stability model was 78%. Results from design flood simulations suggest that less than a third of the forest will dislodge even during the largest floods conceivable. This remarkable stability moderates the quantity of large wood recruited from riparian forests during extreme floods, which can impact infrastructure such as bridges and culverts downstream. Low rates of wood recruitment from dislodged floodplain trees in extreme floods suggests bank erosion is the dominant source of wood recruitment in these catchments.

NEUROOPHTHALMOLOGIC MANIFESTATIONS AMONG 195 PATIENTS WITH INTRACRANIAL TUMOR AT NATIONAL REFERRAL HOSPITAL

Introduction &amp; Objective: Intracranial tumor might show neuroophthalmological manifestations. Early detection and prompt treatment could alter the visual outcome. Ophthalmologists need to be aware of neuroophthalmological features commonly found among patients with intracranial tumor. This study revealed those signs and symptoms. Methods: Study was done in tertiary referral hospital. Subjects were patients with intracranial tumor attending neuroophthalmology clinic between the specified period. It was a descriptive study using retrospective data of the patient’s initial visit to the clinic. Data was retrieved from the medical record archive and electronic health record. Results : There were 195 patients, 67.7% of them were women, with average age 43.4 years old. Half the patients arrived within 6 months after eye related symptoms occurred and the referring physicians was equal between ophthalmologists and other specialties. The most frequent symptom and sign were blurred vision and optic nerve head abnormality (atrophy, edema). Hemianopia outnumbered other patterns of visual field disturbance, yet bilateral pattern was difficult to be evaluated as most patients had either one or both eyes blind. Conclusion : Intracranial tumor was one of the diseases that could show ophthalmic signs and symptoms. Neuroophthalmological manifestations in those cases was related to the extraocular process and the relevant pathway affected by the tumor.

Ankle-foot orthosis in stroke survivors: status of the issue

This paper presents an analysis of information regarding the peculiarity of ankle joint orthosis in cerebral stroke survivors. Gait research methods used to assess gait changes in patients who had suffered a cerebral stroke were briefly reviewed. The three most common patterns of gait impairment after a stroke, namely, stiff-knee gait, “dropped foot,” and gait with knee joint hyperextension, were described. A brief review of the main functional types of ankle joint orthoses, namely, static and dynamic, considering their strengths and weaknesses, was presented. Changes in temporal, spatial, and kinematic parameters of gait in cerebral stroke survivors using orthoses were reported. Changes in gait parameters when using ankle joint orthoses depending on the initial pattern of gait disturbance were assessed. The effect of orthotics on the angles of flexion in the ankle, knee, and hip joints at various gait phases as well as their effect on the speed, rhythm, and length of the step were described. Data on the effect of ankle orthosis on patient’s ability to maintain balance were also presented. The effects of orthosis on gait biomechanics and balance function in stroke survivors are debatable. Thus, our findings in this study allow us to raise the question regarding the optimal timing of the use of ankle joint orthoses during the recovery period of a stroke. Possible reasons for these ambiguous results were considered. The necessity for further research into the effectiveness of ankle–foot orthoses regarding various pathological gait patterns in stroke survivors is justified.