Plane Trees Research Articles

Foliar iron sulphate-organic acids sprays improve the performance of oriental plane tree in calcareous soil better than soil treatments

Oriental plane tree (Platanus orientalis) is among the much-used elements of urban decoration in Iran. Many thousands-of-years-old plane trees are still viable in different cities. In recent years, because of the changes in management practices of urban areas, like widespread use of asphalt for streets pavement and use of concrete in water canals together with the polluted water and air, the growing condition is worsened causing a widespread occurrence of chlorosis symptoms. In this study, we assessed the effect of foliar sprays (3000ppm or 6000ppm humic acid, 4 or 8mM of malic acid, citric acid or l-glutamine and a control blank treatment) in comparison to soil treatments (a localized placement method in which a mixture of sulfur, FeSO4 and decomposed manure is placed under the topsoil and a standard sequestrene Fe 138 application), for improving the performance of plane trees. All the sprays contained 0.7% FeSO4 as Iron source. The leaf area, leaf SPAD value, leaf thickness and trichome presence on leaves, the color of the newly emerged leaf and the current season shoot growth were recorded. The concentration of key leaf elements were also determined. Glutamine treated plants showed elevated acquisition of boron, manganese, zinc and copper. In all treatments, the leaf chlorophyll index (SPAD) significantly increased compared to the control treatment. Glutamine, citric acid, and sequestrene treatments were superior in improving the color of the young leaves. Treatments containing glutamine and citric acid had more trichomes on the leaf surface compared to the control and the leaf necrosis index was reduced by all applied treatments. Sequential Equations Modeling (SEM) is used to examine the path of noted responses to applied treatments.

Modular Catalan numbers

The Catalan number Cn enumerates parenthesizations of x0∗⋯∗xn where ∗ is a binary operation. We introduce the modular Catalan number Ck,n to count equivalence classes of parenthesizations of x0∗⋯∗xn when ∗ satisfies a k-associative law generalizing the usual associativity. This leads to a study of restricted families of Catalan objects enumerated by Ck,n with emphasis on binary trees, plane trees, and Dyck paths, each avoiding certain patterns. We give closed formulas for Ck,n with two different proofs. For each n≥0 we compute the largest size of k-associative equivalence classes and show that the number of classes with this size is a Catalan number.

Numbers, distribution and nest site characteristics of Jackdaw Corvus monedula in Slovenia and its conservation status

Abstract In 2008, a coordinated census of Jackdaw Corvus monedula was carried out to assess breeding population, distribution and nest site selection in Slovenia. Data collection continued for unsurveyed areas in the 2009-2011 period, including information on former colonies and threats. A total of 663-794 Jackdaw pairs were recorded at 86 sites, while total Slovene breeding population was estimated to be in the range of 700-900 pairs. Over one third of pairs were recorded in Central Slovenia, notably the largest city Ljubljana (20.8%), followed by almost a quarter in the Podravje region. Most colonies numbered between 2 and 5 pairs, the largest occupying the Bežigrad district of Ljubljana (82-87 pairs). Large-scale density in geographically more or less uniform areas ranged from 3.65 pairs/10 km2 in the Sava plain to 0.15 pairs/10 km2 in mostly mountainous area in northern Slovenia. The majority of Jackdaws selected buildings for nesting (82.2% of pairs), while nesting in trees occurred less frequently (14.7%) and was almost entirely confined to the two easternmost regions of Slovenia. Nesting in cliffs was recorded at just two sites in Slovene Istria (3.1%). Average colony size differed significantly in relation to nest site type, with colonies in rock walls being on average the largest (median = 9.5 pairs), followed by colonies on buildings (6) and those in trees the smallest (3). Among pairs nesting on buildings, multi-storey residential buildings predominated (34.2%). A substantial percentage of population nested also on churches and tower blocks (14.4% and 13.5%, respectively). The highest percentage of pairs utilised holes in roofs (26.9%), followed by eaves (18.0%) and chimney pots (14.7%). Tree-nesting pairs occupied mostly small woods situated in open agricultural landscape. The most commonly used tree species was Beech Fagus sylvatica (53.1% of pairs) which hosted 14 of the total 16 forest colonies. For Jackdaws nesting in urban parks and avenues, plane trees Platanus sp. were the most important (30.6% of pairs). Their population stronghold was in lowlands, with 88.1% of pairs recorded at elevations under 400 m and the highest living colony in Slovenia at 578 m a.s.l. Jackdaws occurred on at least 54 specific sites in the past but became extinct there or declined severely by the time of this study. A minimum of 217-254 pairs were estimated lost at these sites, constituting a decline of 24% in c. 10-20 years. According to the IUCN criteria, Jackdaw would qualify as Vulnerable (VU) on the Red List of Slovenia. The commonest known cause of extinction/decline is renovation of buildings, a threat that is projected to escalate in the near future.

Dendriform–Tree Setting for Fliess Operators

This paper provides a dendriform-tree setting for Fliess operators with matrix-valued inputs. This class of analytic nonlinear input-output systems is convenient, for example, in quantum control. In particular, a description of such Fliess operators is provided using planar binary trees. Sufficient conditions for convergence of the defining series are also given.

First order limits of sparse graphs: Plane trees and path-width

Nesetřil and Ossona de Mendez introduced the notion of first order convergence as an attempt to unify the notions of convergence for sparse and dense graphs. It is known that there exist first order convergent sequences of graphs with no limit modeling (an analytic representation of the limit). On the positive side, every first order convergent sequence of trees or graphs with no long path (graphs with bounded tree-depth) has a limit modeling. We strengthen these results by showing that every first order convergent sequence of plane trees (trees with embeddings in the plane) and every first order convergent sequence of graphs with bounded path-width has a limit modeling.

Canopy Light Interception Conversion in Upright Fruiting Offshoot (UFO) Sweet Cherry Orchard

<abstract> The sun‘s position varies throughout the day. The changes in time and/or location cause different angles between the sunbeam and tree canopy (sunbeam-canopy angle, θ). Canopy light interception, the fractional interception of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), varies as θ changes, resulting in a different measurement basis of light interception if light interception is measured at different θ. This situation is more noticeable in planar tree architecture, such as upright fruiting offshoot (UFO) architecture. This study aimed to develop a conversion method to provide a common basis for determining canopy light interception at different sun positions for such architectures. In addition to sun azimuth and zenith angles (α and β, respectively), conversion inputs included canopy dimensions, orchard configuration, canopy light interception, and canopy ground occupation porosity (the fraction of non-shaded area). Field data collection was conducted at 18 different times within a time window of ±2.50 h from solar noon (no mutual shadows were cast between adjacent rows) with 0.25 h intervals for eight sample blocks. The conversion method was able to convert canopy light interception with an overall root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.03 and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 7.85%. Based on the overall accuracies when using a different basis and using different measured values in this study, conversion is recommended when θ is greater than 8°. In addition, we recommend conducting conversion with canopy projection from the same side to avoid the influence of asymmetrical canopies.

Assessment of Iron (Fe) Chlorosis in Plane Trees (Plantanus orintalis L.) Grown in Green Space of Isfahan City, I: Leaf Mineral Concentration

Assessment of Iron (Fe) Chlorosis in Plane Trees (Plantanus orintalis L.) Grown in Green Space of Isfahan City, I: Leaf Mineral Concentration

Parking functions and tree inversions revisited

Kreweras proved that the reversed sum enumerator for parking functions of length n is equal to the inversion enumerator for labeled trees on n+1 vertices. Recently, Perkinson, Yang, and Yu gave a bijective proof of this equality that moreover generalizes to graphical parking functions. Using a depth-first search variant of Dhar's burning algorithm they proved that the reversed sum enumerator for G-parking functions equals the κ-number enumerator for spanning trees of G. The κ-number is a kind of generalized tree inversion number originally defined by Gessel. We extend the work of Perkinson–Yang–Yu to what are referred to as “generalized parking functions” in the literature, but which we prefer to call vector parking functions because they depend on a choice of vector x∈Nn. Specifically, we give an expression for the reversed sum enumerator for x-parking functions in terms of inversions in rooted plane trees with respect to certain admissible vertex orders. Along the way we clarify the relationship between graphical and vector parking functions.

URBAN TREE CLASSIFICATION USING FULL-WAVEFORM AIRBORNE LASER SCANNING

Vegetation mapping in urban environments plays an important role in biological research and urban management. Airborne laser scanning provides detailed 3D geodata, which allows to classify single trees into different taxa. Until now, research dealing with tree classification focused on forest environments. This study investigates the object-based classification of urban trees at taxonomic family level, using full-waveform airborne laser scanning data captured in the city centre of Vienna (Austria). The data set is characterised by a variety of taxa, including deciduous trees (beeches, mallows, plane trees and soapberries) and the coniferous pine species. A workflow for tree object classification is presented using geometric and radiometric features. The derived features are related to point density, crown shape and radiometric characteristics. For the derivation of crown features, a prior detection of the crown base is performed. The effects of interfering objects (e.g. fences and cars which are typical in urban areas) on the feature characteristics and the subsequent classification accuracy are investigated. The applicability of the features is evaluated by Random Forest classification and exploratory analysis. The most reliable classification is achieved by using the combination of geometric and radiometric features, resulting in 87.5% overall accuracy. By using radiometric features only, a reliable classification with accuracy of 86.3% can be achieved. The influence of interfering objects on feature characteristics is identified, in particular for the radiometric features. The results indicate the potential of using radiometric features in urban tree classification and show its limitations due to anthropogenic influences at the same time.

URBAN TREE CLASSIFICATION USING FULL-WAVEFORM AIRBORNE LASER SCANNING

Abstract. Vegetation mapping in urban environments plays an important role in biological research and urban management. Airborne laser scanning provides detailed 3D geodata, which allows to classify single trees into different taxa. Until now, research dealing with tree classification focused on forest environments. This study investigates the object-based classification of urban trees at taxonomic family level, using full-waveform airborne laser scanning data captured in the city centre of Vienna (Austria). The data set is characterised by a variety of taxa, including deciduous trees (beeches, mallows, plane trees and soapberries) and the coniferous pine species. A workflow for tree object classification is presented using geometric and radiometric features. The derived features are related to point density, crown shape and radiometric characteristics. For the derivation of crown features, a prior detection of the crown base is performed. The effects of interfering objects (e.g. fences and cars which are typical in urban areas) on the feature characteristics and the subsequent classification accuracy are investigated. The applicability of the features is evaluated by Random Forest classification and exploratory analysis. The most reliable classification is achieved by using the combination of geometric and radiometric features, resulting in 87.5% overall accuracy. By using radiometric features only, a reliable classification with accuracy of 86.3% can be achieved. The influence of interfering objects on feature characteristics is identified, in particular for the radiometric features. The results indicate the potential of using radiometric features in urban tree classification and show its limitations due to anthropogenic influences at the same time.

New channels for popular participation in China: The case of an environmental protection movement in Nanjing

In the last five years China has passed new regulations and formulated new policies to target urban smog. Accordingly, several cities have sought to improve their public transportation systems to reduce the number of motor vehicles on the streets. In 2011 in Nanjing, during the construction of Line No. 3 of the subway system, several long-standing London plane trees in the city’s historical area were targeted for transplantation. This article focuses on the tree-hugging protest which was triggered by this event in 2011–12. While protesters framed their actions as tree protection and heritage conservation, this article is particularly interested in participatory approaches available to protesters, in light of certain recent developments in the environmental regulatory framework in China. Specifically, this article analyses a relatively new and less well-known tool for popular participation known as ‘green assessment’.

Generalized gamma approximation with rates for urns, walks and trees

We study a new class of time inhomogeneous P\'olya-type urn schemes and give optimal rates of convergence for the distribution of the properly scaled number of balls of a given color to nearly the full class of generalized gamma distributions with integer parameters, a class which includes the Rayleigh, half-normal and gamma distributions. Our main tool is Stein's method combined with characterizing the generalized gamma limiting distributions as fixed points of distributional transformations related to the equilibrium distributional transformation from renewal theory. We identify special cases of these urn models in recursive constructions of random walk paths and trees, yielding rates of convergence for local time and height statistics of simple random walk paths, as well as for the size of random subtrees of uniformly random binary and plane trees.

A Beta-splitting model for evolutionary trees.

In this article, we construct a generalization of the Blum–François Beta-splitting model for evolutionary trees, which was itself inspired by Aldous' Beta-splitting model on cladograms. The novelty of our approach allows for asymmetric shares of diversification rates (or diversification ‘potential’) between two sister species in an evolutionarily interpretable manner, as well as the addition of extinction to the model in a natural way. We describe the incremental evolutionary construction of a tree with n leaves by splitting or freezing extant lineages through the generating, organizing and deleting processes. We then give the probability of any (binary rooted) tree under this model with no extinction, at several resolutions: ranked planar trees giving asymmetric roles to the first and second offspring species of a given species and keeping track of the order of the speciation events occurring during the creation of the tree, unranked planar trees, ranked non-planar trees and finally (unranked non-planar) trees. We also describe a continuous-time equivalent of the generating, organizing and deleting processes where tree topology and branch lengths are jointly modelled and provide code in SageMath/Python for these algorithms.

Natural Integrated Carbon Architecture for Rechargeable Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Natural integrated carbon architecture cathodes without any additives, which were derived from the bark of plane trees, have highly loaded sulfur of 3.2–4.2 mg cm–2. The as-obtained carbon slice has an integrated architecture with micropore-to-macrospore distribution and a large surface area of 528 m2 g–1. As a result, the integrated carbon–sulfur cathode exhibited an initial discharge capacity of 1159 mA h g–1 at 0.2 A g–1 for a lithium–sulfur battery. Even after 60 cycles, a high specific capacity of 608 mA h g–1 with a high Coulombic efficiency (>98%) was retained, much better than MWCNTs-based electrodes and macropore-destroyed carbon slices.

Graphs with Framed Vertices

We reduce the topology classification problem of finite graphs with framed vertices to a topology classification problem of plane trees. Bibliography: 1 title.

Scaling limits for a family of unrooted trees

We introduce weights on the unrooted unlabelled plane trees as follows: for each p ≥ 1, let μp be a probability measure on the set of nonnegative integers whose mean is bounded by 1; then the μp-weight of a plane tree t is defined as Π μ_p(degree(v) − 1), where the product is over the set of vertices v of t. We study the random plane tree T_p which has a fixed diameter p and is sampled according to probabilities proportional to these μ_p-weights. We prove that, under the assumption that the sequence of laws μ_p, p ≥ 1, belongs to the domain of attraction of an infinitely divisible law, the scaling limits of (T_p , p ≥ 1) are random compact real trees called the unrooted Levy trees, which have been introduced in Duquesne and Wang (2016+).

Moderate deviations for shortest-path lengths on random segment processes

We consider first-passage percolation on segment processes and provide concentration results concerning moderate deviations of shortest-path lengths from a linear function in the distance of their endpoints. The proofs are based on a martingale technique developed by [H. Kesten, Ann. Appl. Probab. 3 (1993) 296–338.] for an analogous problem on the lattice. Our results are applicable to graph models from stochastic geometry. For example, they imply that the time constant in Poisson−Voronoi and Poisson−Delaunay tessellations is strictly greater than 1. Furthermore, applying the framework of Howard and Newman, our results can be used to study the geometry of geodesics in planar shortest-path trees.

Triangulating stable laminations

We study the asymptotic behavior of random simply generated noncrossing planar trees in the space of compact subsets of the unit disk, equipped with the Hausdorff distance. Their distributional limits are obtained by triangulating at random the faces of stable laminations, which are random compact subsets of the unit disk made of non-intersecting chords coded by stable L\'evy processes. We also study other ways to "fill-in" the faces of stable laminations, which leads us to introduce the iteration of laminations and of trees.

Basidiomicetes endofíticos de madera en Platanus acerifolia (Platanaceae) de Argentina: notas y estudios de cultivo.

Conocer las características de cepas fúngicas locales aumenta nuestra capacidad de poder hacer uso de sus propiedades e implementar, en consecuencia, nuevas y mejores formas de aprovechamiento de los recursos biológicos nativos. Con el fin de contribuir al conocimiento de estos organismos, en este trabajo se presentan descripciones detalladas y estudios de cultivo de 5 especies previamente reportadas como basidiomicetes endofíticos: Coprinopsis cinerea, Granulobasidium vellereum, Inonotus rickii, Phanerochaete chrysosporium y Trichosporon sporotrichoides, aisladas como endofitos de madera de plátanos de sombra (Platanus acerifolia) en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Coprinopsis cinerea es descripta por primera vez en cultivo y se señalan las diferencias que presentan los cultivos de G. vellereum e I. rickii con reportes previos. Los caracteres de cultivo de P. chrysosporium y T. sporotrichoides no presentaron diferencias apreciables con descripciones previas

Effect of fungal endophytes on morphological characteristics, nutrients content and longevity of plane trees (Platanus orientalis L.)

ABSTRACTThe plane tree is one of the most frequently used street trees in urban landscape in Iran and some Mediterranean countries and some age-old ones are found in these countries. Endophytes are microorganisms which associate with healthy plant tissues, persisting without causing diseases symptoms in the host and normally benefitting them through improving plant ability to withstand environmental stresses. In this contribution, the hypothesis of fungal endophytes existence in the plane trees as well as their relationship with morphological characteristics of trees and nutrient elements of leaves were studied in the central part of Iran. The experiment was performed according to an unbalanced completely randomized design. Approximate age and height of plane trees were recorded and then the greenness and visual appearance were evaluated. Healthy shoots and bark pieces were collected and surface sterilized then placed in petri dishes containing PDA. The results showed that endophytes frequency were significantly greater in age-old trees (60.04%) than young ones (39.96%). Endophytes existence had a positive correlation with iron (Fe) and potassium (K) concentrations of the leaves, and trees height and circumference. Also, there was a positive correlation between the presence of fungal endophytes and improved visual appearance of plane trees. The results suggest that fungal endophytes association enhanced nutrient elements assimilation in trees contributing at least partly to elevated survival of age-old plane trees.