Search results for " forest"

Piro-piro piccolo, Actitis hypoleucos Linnaeus 1758, che si alimenta in ambiente urbano a Pantelleria

2011

A finite element-based machine learning approach for modeling the mechanical behavior of the breast tissues under compression in real-time

2017

[EN] This work presents a data-driven method to simulate, in real-time, the biomechanical behavior of the breast tissues in some image-guided interventions such as biopsies or radiotherapy dose delivery as well as to speed up multimodal registration algorithms. Ten real breasts were used for this work. Their deformation due to the displacement of two compression plates was simulated off-line using the finite element (FE) method. Three machine learning models were trained with the data from those simulations. Then, they were used to predict in real-time the deformation of the breast tissues during the compression. The models were a decision tree and two tree-based ensemble methods (extremely…

MRI radiomics-based machine-learning classification of bone chondrosarcoma.

2019

Abstract Purpose To evaluate the diagnostic performance of machine learning for discrimination between low-grade and high-grade cartilaginous bone tumors based on radiomic parameters extracted from unenhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods We retrospectively enrolled 58 patients with histologically-proven low-grade/atypical cartilaginous tumor of the appendicular skeleton (n = 26) or higher-grade chondrosarcoma (n = 32, including 16 appendicular and 16 axial lesions). They were randomly divided into training (n = 42) and test (n = 16) groups for model tuning and testing, respectively. All tumors were manually segmented on T1-weighted and T2-weighted images by drawing bidimensiona…

Effects of Particulate Matter on the Incidence of Respiratory Diseases in the Pisan Longitudinal Study

2020

The current study aimed at assessing the effects of exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) on the incidence of respiratory diseases in a sub-sample of participants in the longitudinal analytical epidemiological study in Pisa, Italy. Three hundred and five subjects living at the same address from 1991 to 2011 were included. Individual risk factors recorded during the 1991 survey were considered, and new cases of respiratory diseases were ascertained until 2011. Average PM10 and PM2.5 exposures (&micro

Subgrouping factors influencing migraine intensity in women: A semi-automatic methodology based on machine learning and information geometry

2019

[EN] Background Migraine is a heterogeneous condition with multiple clinical manifestations. Machine learning algorithms permit the identification of population groups, providing analytical advantages over other modeling techniques. Objective The aim of this study was to analyze critical features that permit the differentiation of subgroups of patients with migraine according to the intensity and frequency of attacks by using machine learning algorithms. Methods Sixty-seven women with migraine participated. Clinical features of migraine, related disability (Migraine Disability Assessment Scale), anxiety/depressive levels (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), anxiety state/trait levels (S…

Updated measurements in vineyards improves accuracy of soil erosion rates

2018

All rights reserved. Vineyards have proven to be one of the most degraded agricultural ecosystems due to very high erosion rates, which are typically measured at fine temporal and spatial scales. Long-term soil erosion measures are rare, but this information may be indispensable for a proper understanding of the vineyard soil system, landscape evolution, and crop production. The stock unearthing method (SUM) is a common topographical measurement technique developed to assess long-term erosion rates. The reliance of the SUM has been questioned and should be replaced by an improved measurement technique. In this paper, we demonstrate the added value (improved accurate, low cost, and faster th…

Agricultural management affects the response of soil bacterial community structure and respiration to water-stress

2013

International audience; Soil microorganisms are responsible for organic matter decomposition processes that regulate soil carbon storage and mineralisation to CO2. Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency of drought events, with uncertain consequences for soil microbial communities. In this study we tested the hypothesis that agricultural management used to enhance soil carbon stocks would increase the stability of microbial community structure and activity in response to water-stress. Soil was sampled from a long-term field trial with three soil carbon management systems and was used in a laboratory study of the effect of a dry wet cycle on organic C mineralisation and microbi…

The contribution of the European Society for Soil Conservation (ESSC) to scientific knowledge, education and sustainability

2019

Soil is an integral component of the global environmental system which supports the quality and diversity of terrestrial life on Earth. Therefore, it is vital to consider the processes and impacts of soil degradation on society, especially on the provision of environmental goods and services, including food security and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Scientific societies devoted to soil science play significant roles in reducing soil degradation and promoting soil conservation by advancing scientific knowledge, education and environmental sustainability. The ESSC was founded on 4 November 1988, with the aims to: 1. Support research on soil degradation, soil protection and soil an…

The decline of the cork oak growing in Sicily is accompanied by the loss of the functions proper to agroforestry systems

2021

The cork oak is one of the most important tree species in the Mediterranean basin, where it covers more than 2 million hectares. Among evergreen oaks, Quercus suber stands out for the variety of cultural systems in which it has been successfully employed, including typical agroforestry systems. Accordingly, a wide range of ecosystem services may be associated to cork oak, including the preservation of biodiversity, carbon sequestration and forage production. In the Mediterranean, the cork oak represents a key species for many natural and seminatural landscapes and habitats, as well as playing a prominent role for the economic and social development of local communities. However, there is in…

Corrigendum to “Conservation value of forest plantations for bird communities in western Kenya” [Forest Ecol. Manag. 255 (2008) 3885–3892]

2009

A re-analysis of the bird data revealed a mistake within the database query. Only bird individuals that were heard were integrated in the results leading to lower total richness and number of individuals. In total 115 species and 13,331 individuals were detected of which 41 were forest specialists (43% of all individuals), 40 forest generalists (41%) and 34 forest visitors (16%). The statistical analyses remain very similar. We recorded significant differences in mean bird species richness, number of individuals and relative species richness among the five forest types (Table 1). Multiple pairwise comparisons showed significantly higher numbers of species in natural forest, mixed indigenous…