Time Of First Survey Research Articles

Khu hệ chim đảo Trường Sa, quần đảo Trường Sa, Việt Nam

In this study, we carried out two surveys of avifauna in Truong Sa Island, Truong Sa Archipelago, Vietnam. The duration time of first survey from October 21-25, 2020 and the second survey from May 22-27, 2021. The results at the surveys showed that there were 82 bird species belonging to 29 families and 10 orders recorded. Among them, Passeriformes has the most abundant with 35 species (42.7% of the total), Charadriiformes has 18 species with a rate of 22%, Ciconiiformes has 11 species with a rate of 13.4%, Cuculiformes has 5 species with a rate of 6.1%, Accipitriformes has 4 species with a rate of 4.9%, and other orders have from 1 to 3 species with a rate of 10.9% of the total. We also observed the Chestnut cheeked starling - Agropsar philippensis (Forster, 1781) in Truong Sa (Truong Sa Archipelago), this species was first recorded for the Avifauna of Vietnam and need to be added to the bird checklist of Vietnam.

Long-term survival of trees retained for hollow-using fauna in partially harvested forest in Tasmania, Australia

Hollow-using fauna are thought to be particularly vulnerable to timber harvesting, and habitat for these species is often managed by retaining single hollow-bearing trees or patches of hollow-bearing trees within the harvested area. This study examined tree retention, survival and use by arboreal mammals in 27 small clumps of trees (0.04–0.21 ha) retained at ten partial harvest sites and 24 clumps of trees in nearby unharvested sites in Tasmania, Australia. Harvested sites were assessed on three occasions (1999, 2005–06 and 2014) and unharvested sites on two occasions (2005–06 and 2014). Of the retained clumps in harvested areas, 96% contained at least two habitat trees at the time of first survey (one year after harvest) which is the minimum required under the Tasmanian Forest Practices Code. Loss of retained trees in clumps between 2005–06 and 2014 was higher in harvested sites (average of 11.7% of all trees and 1.5% of habitat trees per clump) than unharvested sites (average of 2.8% of all trees and 0.3% of habitat trees per clump), but was comparable to or lower than rates of loss in many other studies. Trees were more likely to fall if they were dead and had little burn damage at the time of last survey. Factors found to influence tree death included the interaction between burn damage and the size of the tree, with the likelihood of a heavily burnt, average sized tree dying being twice that of an unburnt tree. Scratch marks from arboreal mammals were more prevalent in large trees with visible hollows, particularly in the clumps in harvested areas. In conclusion, the Tasmanian Forest Practices Code provisions were generally implemented as required and the evidence suggests the retained clumps of trees survive and are effective to some degree at providing habitat and promoting recolonisation by fauna in partial harvest coupes. However, further work is required to assess the adequacy of the clump provisions, when combined with management for other values in production forests, for maintaining hollow-using fauna throughout their range.

Epidemiological situation and treatment of patients with thalassemia major in Germany: results of the German multicenter β-thalassemia study

At present, about 300 patients in Germany suffer from thalassemia major. In 1990, a multicenter study was introduced to identify all thalassemic patients in Germany as well as to establish a uniform therapy protocol, including follow-up diagnostic procedures. After 6 years of study, the data of 203 patients were analyzed. The majority originate from endemic regions around the Mediterranean Sea. The median age of the patients is 13.8 years (range 1-37.5 years). At present, about 20% of the patients are older than 21 years. Regarding transfusion therapy, a shortening of the average transfusion interval to 3 weeks in most cases occurred. Throughout the entire period, median baseline hemoglobin concentrations of 10.0 g/dl were observed. The evaluation of serum ferritin levels revealed considerable differences, depending on the patients' age. Thalassemic patients in the first decade of life generally presented with good therapeutic results; serum ferritin levels were below 1800 ng/ml in 76/102 patients (75%) upon entry into the study. In contrast, 51/98 patients (52%) older than 10 years had ferritin levels above 2500 ng/ml. More than half of all treated patients presented with siderotic complications such as cardiac disease in 20/157 (13%), liver disease in 32/157 (21%), impaired glucose metabolism in 22/157 (14%), hypogonadism in 39/66 (59%), and hypothyroidism in 38/157 (24%) who were under treatment at the time of first survey. Since the situation concerning siderosis and the lack of compliance proved to be particularly difficult with adolescent patients, further efforts should concentrate on this age-group.

Cotton dust exposure, across-shift drop in FEV1, and five-year change in lung function.

To evaluate chronic loss of lung function in cotton dust-exposed workers, a 5-yr follow-up study was performed in Shanghai, China from 1981 to 1986. Workers at a nearby silk thread manufacturing mill were used as a control population. There were 384 cotton textile workers restudied from an original group of 446, and 403 silk workers restudied from the original 468. The presence of byssinosis among retested cotton workers at the time of first survey was 7.3%. The prevalence of byssinosis was 9.7% at the initial survey among those lost to follow-up. No byssinosis was found among control subjects. The mean annual decline in FEV1 was 39.5 ml among cotton workers and 30.6 ml for silk workers (p < 0.05). The greatest annual decrements were found among smoking cotton workers, but nonsmoking cotton workers also lost lung function at a faster rate than silk nonsmokers (annual loss = 33.3 ml versus 24.4 ml, respectively). Autoregressive modeling revealed that after adjustments for age, sex, height, and smoking, cotton dust exposure was significantly associated with decline in FEV1. Moreover, across-shift drop of 5% or more at the time of first survey was predictive of 5-yr decline in FEV1. Cotton workers who had an acute response (5% or greater drop in FEV1 at the time of first survey) suffered a 57.0 ml/yr FEV1 drop compared with a 35.1-ml drop among cotton workers with less acute response at baseline (p < 0.01). Silk workers with or without 5% across-shift drops had similar annual rates of decline (-33.8 ml and -36.1 ml, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)