Search results for " Index"

Normal weight obesity and physical fitness in Chinese university students: an overlooked association

2018

Background: The primary aim of this study was to examine the associations of normal weight obesity (NWO) with physical fitness in Chinese university students. As a secondary aim, we assessed whether possible differences in physical fitness between students classified as NWO and normal weight non-obese (NWNO) were mediated by skeletal muscles mass. Methods: A total of 383 students (205 males and 178 females, aged 18–24 years) from two universities volunteered to participate in this study. Body height and weight were measured by standard procedures and body composition was assessed by bio-impedance analysis (InBody 720). NWO was defined by a BMI of 18.5–23.9 kg/m2 and a body fat percentage of…

Study on the financial performance of companies operating in the pharmaceutical industry in romania

2016

Abstract The study aims at determining the financial performance of companies in the pharmaceutical industry between 2009 and 2014 by means of the indicator of the financial return rate, using multiple linear regressions as research method. By analysing the evolution of the share of companies in the pharmaceutical industry based on the trend of the financial rate of return, we can estimate that the number of entities that resort to supporting the financial activities from loans and liabilities is growing in the period under analysis. This is due mainly to the liquidity crisis faced by entities, as a result of the high recovery duration of debts. Also, using the multiple linear regression we…

Increasing human environmental footprint does not lead to biotic homogenization of forest bird communities in northern USA

2023

Studies have shown negative impacts of increased human pressures on biodiversity at local (alpha-diversity) and regional (gamma-diversity) scales. However, the diversity between local sites (beta-diversity) has received less attention. This is an important shortcoming since beta- diversity acts as a linkage between the local and regional scales. Decreased beta- diversity means that local sites lose their distinctiveness, becoming more similar to each other. This process is known as biotic homogenization. However, the mechanisms causing biotic homogenization have not been fully studied nor its impacts on different facets of biodiversity. We examined if land- use change due to human actions c…

Emotional modulation of the attentional blink and the relation to interpersonal reactivity

2013

The extent of the attentional blink effect on detection rates in rapid serial visual presentations is modulated by the emotionality of the stimuli. Emotionally salient stimuli are detected more often, even if presented in the attentional blink period, and elicit an enlarged P3 response, which has been interpreted as enhanced consolidation. This effect correlates with individual differences in trait affectivity such as anxiety or dysphoria. Here, we ask if it is also related to the capacity to detect emotions in others, i.e., to interpersonal social traits. We therefore presented emotional and neutral images depicting social scenes as targets in an attentional blink design and measured detec…

2015

Large volcanic eruptions are major geohazards, so identifying their frequency in the geologic record is critical for making predictions and hazard assessments. Following the discovery of a thick (18 cm) tephra layer in marine sediments from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1396 between Montserrat and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea, we document here how high-precision Pb isotopes, trace elements, and grain morphological analyses of the tephra can be used, together with volcanological models, to identify a large (Volcanic Explosivity Index ?6) Plinian eruption from Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, at ca. 2.36 Ma. This previously unrecognized eruption is believed to be the largest docum…

2021

Abstract The spaceborne detection of volcanic ash clouds at infrared wavelengths helps to avoid regions with enhanced volcanic ash concentrations that pose a threat to aviation. Current volcanic ash data retrievals require detailed information on microphysical properties and the refractive index of volcanic ash, which are highly variable. Uncertainties in the latter currently limit the quality of volcanic ash nowcasts. Here, we introduce a novel method to calculate the complex refractive indices of volcanic ashes at wavelengths from 5 to 15 μm from measurements of their individual components based on generic petrological ash compositions. Thereby the refractive indices for volcanic glasses …

2016

Recent gas flux measurements have shown that Strombolian explosions are often followed by periods of elevated flux, or “gas codas,” with durations of order a minute. Here we present UV camera data from 200 events recorded at Stromboli volcano to constrain the nature of these codas for the first time, providing estimates for combined explosion plus coda SO2 masses of ≈18–225 kg. Numerical simulations of gas slug ascent show that substantial proportions of the initial gas mass can be distributed into a train of “daughter bubbles” released from the base of the slug, which we suggest, generate the codas, on bursting at the surface. This process could also cause transitioning of slugs into cap b…

Temporal analysis of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) parameters to detect changes in the Iberian lan…

2011

In past decades, the Iberian Peninsula has been shown to have suffered vegetation changes such as desertification and reforestation. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) parameters, estimated from data acquired by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite series, are particularly adapted to assess these changes. This work presents an application of the yearly land-cover dynamics (YLCD) methodology to analyse the behaviour of the vegetation, which consists of a combined multitemporal study of the NDVI and LST parameters on a yearly basis. Throughout the 1…

Pampa Biome Environmental Particularities Regarding to Energy Balance

2020

Ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET) has been quantified around the world by different methodologies to understand the energy balance, especially to control the evolution of climate change. It is known that the vegetation of the pampa biome is natural grasslands, it has a large variety of species (flora and fauna), however is it different in the environmental aspects related to the energy balance when compared to the grassland cultivated? In this study the objective was to analyze the environmental differences of the Pampa Biome related to the energy balance in comparison with the pastures cultivated in Barrax, Spain. In the first one the minimum daily ET is 0.99 mm/day, while in the second is…

Changes in vegetation spring dates in the second half of the twentieth century

2011

This study aims at estimating trends in spring phenology from vegetation index and air temperature at 2 m height. To this end, we have developed a methodology to infer spring phenological dates from Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies GIMMS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index NDVI time-series, which are then extrapolated to the period 1948–2006 with the help of Reanalysis data, using its 2 m height air temperature parameter. First, yearly NDVI is fitted to a double-logistic function for the whole extent of the GIMMS database 1981–2003. This fitting procedure allows us to describe, on a yearly basis, the NDVI evolution for each pixel through the estimation of six parameters whic…