Modeling tools simulate the functioning of ecosystems and their interactions with human activities, helping decision makers understand how interventions impact ecosystems and evaluate management ...strategies. This leads to informed decisions that balance human development and environmental protection. Among these models, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) stands out for its ability to simulate multiple biophysical processes that can be linked to the provision of ecosystem services (ES). Although SWAT has been successfully applied for the evaluation of ES, the development of complementary approaches that translate the results of SWAT into monetary terms is still in its early stages. To narrow this gap, this review article aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the literature on the relationship between SWAT model results and economic analysis. Specifically, the review summarizes the research conducted on the use of SWAT model results to estimate economic values, including the different methodologies used and the types of economic values estimated. The review will also discuss the limitations and challenges of these approaches, provide a critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the research in this area, and provide recommendations to strengthen SWAT application for the economic evaluation of management strategies.
We present two determinations of the strong coupling αs. The first one is from the static energy at three-loop accuracy, and may be considered an update of earlier determinations by some of us. The ...new analysis includes new lattice data at smaller lattice spacings, and reaches distances as short as 0.0237 fm. We present a comprehensive and detailed estimate of the error sources that contribute to the uncertainty of the final result, αs(MZ)=0.11660−0.00056+0.00110. The second determination is based on lattice data for the singlet free energy at finite temperature up to distances as small as 0.0081 fm, from which we obtain αs(MZ)=0.11638−0.00087+0.00095.
This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Ceratonia siliqua L. (Carob) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are ...presented within the standard framework of the International Biological Flora: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history and conservation.
Ceratonia siliqua is a lowland evergreen shrub or tree, native around the Mediterranean basin and widely cultivated in areas with a warm temperate and subtropical climate, with more than 100 named cultivars. Carob grows on a wide range of soils including nutrient‐poor and strongly calcareous, dry soils.
Carob is dioecious or rarely hermaphrodite although females dominate in cultivation due to their fruit. Pollination is primarily by insects and the relatively large seeds are spread mainly by ingestion of fruits by mammals. Seed dormancy is imposed by a hard seed coat and seeds germinate readily after natural or artificial scarification.
Drought tolerance is very high, acting as a drought avoiding water spender. Carob is also very tolerant of saline conditions and tolerant of fire and can act to restrict wildfire spread by generating fuel discontinuity. It shows high post‐fire regrowth. Old individuals house a diversity of associated fauna and are comparatively unaffected by serious pests and diseases.
Carob has a long cultural history around the Mediterranean as a food source for humans and domesticated animals, in herbal and modern medicine and, more recently, for the carob bean gum used in a variety of domestic products and foods. Commercial production of fruits has declined over past decades but the low cultural care needed in growing orchards, potential new markets for fruit and seeds, and growing use of the tree to prevent soil erosion and sequester carbon gives carob a brighter future.
Resumen
En este artículo se presenta información relativa en todos los aspectos relacionados con la biología de la leguminosa arbórea Ceratonia siliqua L. (Algarrobo o Garrofer) y que son relevantes para un mayor conocimiento de sus características y comportamiento ecológico. Los aspectos principales se desarrollan dentro del marco estándar de la International Biological Flora: distribución, hábitat, comunidades, respuesta a factores bióticos, respuestas al medioambiente, estructura, fisiología, flora, caracteres de la semilla, herbivoría, enfermedades, historia y conservación asociada.
Ceratonia siliqua es un árbol o arbusto de hoja perenne propio de zonas de baja altitud y nativo de la cuenca Mediterránea. Con más de 100 variedades, está ampliamente cultivado en áreas de clima templado y subtropical, al ser sensible a heladas. La especie crece en un amplio rango de suelos incluyendo los pobres en nutrientes, arenosos, pedregosos, de escaso valor agrícola, o con un alto contenido en caliza activa.
El algarrobo es una especie dioica, raramente hermafrodita. No obstante, los árboles de sexo femenino dominan en el ámbito agronómico debido a su mayor producción y calidad de sus frutos. La polinización es realizada principalmente por insectos y algo por el viento. Las semillas son dispersadas generalmente por mamíferos. La latencia de la semilla está condicionada por la presencia de una cubierta dura y la germinación se origina de forma efectiva tras una escarificación natural o artificial de la misma.
Es una especie tolerante a la sequía, exhibiendo una gran eficiencia en el ahorro dentro del flujo hídrico a escala fisiológica. El algarrobo es además tolerante a condiciones algo elevadas de salinidad y, también, al fuego, por lo que es utilizado como cultivo cortafuegos para mitigar el efecto de los incendios forestales. Además, los viejos ejemplares albergan altas tasas de diversidad en lo referente a fauna asociada y sufren normalmente una escasa incidencia de plagas y enfermedades.
En el Mediterráneo, el algarrobo presenta una dilatada historia cultural y etnobotánica asociada como fuente de alimento para humanos y animales domésticos. Más recientemente, un derivado de la semilla del fruto del algarrobo, la goma de garrofín o LBG, tiene una gran variedad de aplicaciones alimentarias y de otras utilidades en otros sectores, como el farmacéutico y la cosmética. Si bien las aplicaciones de otros subproductos comerciales, como la pulpa, ha sufrido un declive comercial en las últimas décadas. La investigación de nuevas técnicas de cultivo, sus escasas necesidades culturales dentro de un contexto de agricultura a “tiempo parcial”, y un creciente uso de la pulpa y de la goma de garrofín, dentro una perspectiva múltiple relativa a la prevención contra la erosión y de secuestro efectivo de carbono en sistemas agroforestales brindan al algarrobo un futuro muy esperanzador.
الملخص
يحتوي هذا البحث على جميع المعلومات الأساسية والهامة حول نبات (الخروب) والتي تم نشرُها حول العالم حتى هذا التاريخ، وبالأخص المعلومات التي تتضمن فهم خصائصه الطبيعية وسلوكه البيئي. وقد تم تقسيم المعلومات حول هذا النبات في هذا البحث كالتالي: التوزيع والموئل والمجتمعات والاستجابات للعوامل الحيوية والاستجابة البيولوجية للعوامل البيئية والتركيب المورفولوجي وعلم وظائف الأعضاء وعلم الإثمار وخصائص الأزهار والبذور وعلاقته بالحيوانات العاشبة والأمراض والتاريخ وكيفية حمايته والحفاظ عليه. وهذا هو التقسيم المتبع في الإطار القياسي للنباتات البيولوجية الدولية في هذه الدورية.
يعتبر الخروب من الأشجار دائمة الخضرة التي تنتشر في الأراضي المنخفضة، موطنه الأصلي حول حوض البحر الأبيض المتوسط ويزرع على نطاق واسع في المناطق ذات المناخ الدافئ المعتدل وشبه الاستوائي مع أكثر من مئة نوع نباتي اخر من النباتات المزروعة. ينمو الخروب في مجموعة واسعة من التُرب بما في ذلك التربة الجافة الفقيرة بالمغذيات وشديدة الكلسية.
الخروب من الاشجار ثنائية المسكن ونادراً ما تكون خنثى، وبكل تأكيد تتم في العادة زراعة الاشجار المؤنثة أكثر من المذكرة فيه وذلك بسبب ثمارها. تتم عملية التلقيح في أشجار الخروب وبشكل رئيسي بواسطة الحشرات، كما تنتشر البذور فيه، والتي تعتبر كبيرة نسبياً، بشكل رئيسي عن طريق تناول الحيوانات قرون الخروب. تتميز بذوره بوجود طبقة خارجية صلبة تفرض عليها السكون الطبيعي، ولا تتم عملية كسر الكمون فيها إلا بعد عملية الخدش الطبيعي أو الاصطناعي للطبقة الخارجية الصلبة منها.
تتميز أشجار الخروب بمقدرتها العالية على تجنُب درجات الجفاف المختلفة، كما تتميز أيضاً بمقدرتها على تحمل الظروف المالحة، بالإضافة إلى مقدرتها على تحمل الحرائق، وهذا مما يساعدها كثيراً في الحد من انتشار حرائق الغابات وذلك عن طريق وجودها كحاجر يعمل على تقطيع موجة النيران. إضافةً إلى تميز أشجار الخروب بقدرتها على النمو السريع بعد حرائق الغابات. تعتبر الأشجار الكبيرة من الخروب موطناً ممتازاً لمجموعة كبيرة ومتنوعة من الحيوانات التي لا تتأثر نسبياً بالآفات والأمراض الخطيرة الموجودة حول وفي هذه الأشجار.
تتمتع أشجار الخروب بتاريخ ثقافي طويل في جميع أنحاء منطقة البحر الأبيض المتوسط كمصدر غذائي للإنسان والحيوانات الأليفة، ودورها الكبير في طب الأعشاب والطب الحديث، ومؤخراً، تنامى إستخدام صمغ حبة الخروب في مجموعة متنوعة من المنتجات والأغذية المحلية. بكل حال من الأحوال، أظهرت الأبحاث في العقود الأخيرة إنخفاض في إستهلاك ثمار (قرون) الخروب، إلا أن ظهور أسواق جديدة لثمار وبذور الخروب، والاستعمال المتزايد لهذا النوع من الأشجار لمنع إنجراف التربة وتخفيض نِسب ثاني أكسيد الكربون في الجو، يمنح الخروب مستقبلًا أكثر إشراقًا.
The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) has a long traditional history in Mediterranean cultures providing food for humans and domestic animals. Its remarkable tolerance of drought, salt and fire, with an ability to thrive in poor, dry soils, makes it ideal for a warming Mediterranean climate. Despite this, it has declined in commercial production over recent decades. However, a growing and widespread use of carob bean gum and resurgence of cultural applications, including food and pharmaceuticals, plus its high potential in use as fire breaks, stabilising eroding soils and in carbon capture, gives carob a brighter future.
1. The shores of many lakes have been substantially altered by human developments such as erosion control structures or recreational beaches. Such alterations are likely to increase in the future, ...yet almost nothing is known about their impacts on the littoral macroinvertebrate community. 2. Macroinvertebrates were studied in seven German lowland lakes exhibiting natural shorelines (reference), retaining walls, ripraps and recreational beaches to examine impacts on the eulittoral (0-0·2 m water depth) and infralittoral (0·2-1·2 m water depth) communities associated with the three types of shoreline development. 3. Among sites, eulittoral species richness and abundance of Coleoptera, Gastropoda, Trichoptera, shredders and xylophagous species were lowest on beaches and retaining walls but ripraps did not differ significantly from natural shorelines. Retaining walls and ripraps had no significant impact on the infralittoral macroinvertebrate community. Conversely, beaches had significantly lower infralittoral species richness and abundance of Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera and shredders than natural shorelines. Furthermore, species richness was correlated positively with habitat heterogeneity expressed as number of habitat types. 4. Among lakes, whole-lake littoral macroinvertebrate density increased with increasing proportion of developed shorelines due to increasing abundances of Chironomidae. The remaining macroinvertebrate major groups decreased with increasing proportion of shoreline development. 5. Synthesis and applications. The biological impacts of shoreline development in lowland lakes depend upon the extent to which structural complexity and heterogeneity of littoral habitats are reduced. Hence, we recommend that management programmes focus upon the conservation of littoral habitat complexity and habitat heterogeneity. The biological effects of shoreline development may be assessed efficiently by combining an assessment of the morphological status of lakeshores and information on macroinvertebrate indicator species with a defined response to the loss of their preferred habitats.
Atezolizumab, a humanised monoclonal antibody targeting PD-L1, is approved for locally advanced/metastatic urothelial carcinoma. SAUL evaluated atezolizumab in a broader, pretreated population, ...including patients ineligible for the pivotal IMvigor211 phase 3 trial of atezolizumab.
To determine the safety and efficacy of atezolizumab in an international real-world setting.
Between November 2016 and March 2018 (median follow-up 12.7mo), 1004 patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial or nonurothelial urinary tract carcinoma who experienced progression during or after one to three prior therapies for inoperable, locally advanced, or metastatic disease were enrolled. Patients with renal impairment, treated central nervous system metastases, or stable controlled autoimmune disease were eligible; 10% had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) 2 and 98% were platinum pretreated (Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02928406).
Atezolizumab 1200mg every 3wk until progression or unacceptable toxicity.
The primary endpoint was safety. Secondary efficacy endpoints included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall response rate (ORR).
The median treatment duration was 2.8mo (range 0–19); 22% remained on treatment and 8% discontinued because of toxicity. Grade ≥3 adverse events occurred in 45% of patients. The most common grade ≥3 treatment-related adverse events were fatigue, asthenia, colitis, and hypertension (each in 1%). Median OS was 8.7mo (95% confidence interval CI 7.8–9.9). The 6-mo OS rate was 60% (95% CI 57–63%), median PFS was 2.2mo (95% CI 2.1–2.4), and the ORR was 13% (95% CI 11–16%; 3% complete responses). Among IMvigor211-like patients (excluding ECOG PS 2 and other IMvigor211 exclusion criteria), median OS was 10.0mo (95% CI 8.8–11.9) and 6-mo OS was 65% (95% CI 61–69%).
SAUL confirms the tolerability of atezolizumab in a real-world pretreated population with urinary tract carcinoma. Efficacy overall and in the IMvigor211-like subgroup is consistent with previous pivotal anti-PD-L1/PD-1 urothelial carcinoma trials. These results support the use of atezolizumab in urinary tract carcinoma, including patients with limited treatment options.
In this international study we investigated the efficacy and safety of atezolizumab treatment for advanced urinary tract cancer in a large population of pretreated patients, including those who would not normally be candidates for clinical trials. Patients tolerated the treatment well, even if they had autoimmune disease, were being treated with corticosteroids, or had disease that had spread to their brain. Life expectancy in this study for patients typical of everyday clinical practice was similar to that seen in trials that enrolled only selected fitter patients.
SAUL confirms the tolerability of atezolizumab in real-world patients with urinary tract carcinoma. Efficacy in the IMvigor211-like subgroup and the broader unselected population was consistent with previous anti-PD-L1/PD-1 pivotal trials, supporting the use of atezolizumab in these patients.
Evofosfamide is a hypoxia-activated prodrug of bromo-isophosphoramide mustard. We aimed to assess the benefit of adding evofosfamide to doxorubicin as first-line therapy for advanced soft-tissue ...sarcomas.
We did this international, open-label, randomised, phase 3, multicentre trial (TH CR-406/SARC021) at 81 academic or community investigational sites in 13 countries. Eligible patients were aged 15 years or older with a diagnosis of an advanced unresectable or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma, of intermediate or high grade, for which no standard curative therapy was available, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0–1, and measurable disease by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive doxorubicin alone (75 mg/m2 via bolus injection administered over 5–20 min or continuous intravenous infusion for 6–96 h on day 1 of every 21-day cycle for up to six cycles) or doxorubicin (given via the same dose procedure) plus evofosfamide (300 mg/m2 intravenously for 30–60 min on days 1 and 8 of every 21-day cycle for up to six cycles). After six cycles of treatment, patients in the single-drug doxorubicin group were followed up expectantly whereas patients with stable or responsive disease in the combination group were allowed to continue with evofosfamide monotherapy until documented disease progression. A web-based central randomisation with block sizes of two and four was stratified by extent of disease, doxorubicin administration method, and previous systemic therapy. Patients and investigators were not masked to treatment assignment. The primary endpoint was overall survival, analysed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety analyses were done in all patients who received any amount of study drug. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01440088.
Between Sept 26, 2011, and Jan 22, 2014, 640 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to a treatment group (317 to doxorubicin plus evofosfamide and 323 to doxorubicin alone), all of whom were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. The overall survival endpoint was not reached (hazard ratio 1·06, 95% CI 0·88–1·29; p=0·527), with a median overall survival of 18·4 months (95% CI 15·6–22·1) with doxorubicin plus evofosfamide versus 19·0 months (16·2–22·4) with doxorubicin alone. The most common grade 3 or worse adverse events in both groups were haematological, including anaemia (150 48% of 313 patients in the doxorubicin plus evofosfamide group vs 65 21% of 308 in the doxorubicin group), neutropenia (47 15% vs 92 30%), febrile neutropenia (57 18% vs 34 11%), leucopenia (22 7% vs 17 6%), decreased neutrophil count (31 10% vs 41 13%), and decreased white blood cell count (39 13% vs 33 11%). Grade 3–4 thrombocytopenia was more common in the combination group (45 14%) than in the doxorubicin alone group (four 1%), as was grade 3–4 stomatitis (26 8% vs seven 2%). Serious adverse events were reported in 145 (46%) of 313 patients in the combination group and 99 (32%) of 308 in the doxorubicin alone group. Five (2%) patients died from treatment-related causes in the combination group (sepsis n=2, septic shock n=1, congestive cardiac failure n=1, and unknown cause n=1) versus one (<1%) patient in the doxorubicin alone group (lactic acidosis n=1).
The addition of evofosfamide to doxorubicin as first-line therapy did not improve overall survival compared with single-drug doxorubicin in patients with locally advanced, unresectable, or metastatic soft-tissue sarcomas and so this combination cannot be recommended in this setting.
Threshold Pharmaceuticals.
1. Shoreline development and the associated loss of littoral habitats represent a pervasive alteration of the ecological integrity of lakes and have been identified as major drivers for the loss of ...littoral biodiversity world-wide. Little is known about the effects of shoreline development on the structure of, and energy transfer in, littoral food webs, even though this information is urgently needed for management and mitigation measures. 2. We measured macroinvertebrate biomass and analysed potential food resources using stable isotopes (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) and mixing models to compare the complexity and the trophic base of littoral food webs between undeveloped and developed shorelines in three North German lowland lakes. 3. The lower diversity of littoral habitats found at developed shorelines was associated with lower diversity of food resources and consumers. Consequently, the number of trophic links in food webs at developed shorelines was up to one order of magnitude lower as compared with undeveloped shorelines. 4. Mixing model analysis showed that consumer biomass at undeveloped shorelines was mainly derived from the particulate organic matter (FPOM) and coarse particulate organic matter of terrestrial origin (CPOM). The contribution of CPOM to consumer biomass was twofold lower at developed shorelines, and consumer biomass was mainly derived from FPOM and suspended particulate organic matter. 5. Synthesis and application. Shoreline development impacts the flow of organic matter within littoral food webs primarily through the reduction in littoral habitat diversity. These effects are exacerbated by clearcutting of the riparian vegetation, which disrupts cross-boundary couplings between the riparian and the littoral zone. Lakeshore conservation should focus on preserving the structural integrity of the littoral zone, while restoration of coarse woody debris, reed and root habitats can be a cost-efficient measure to improve degraded lakeshores. The local effects of shoreline development demonstrated in this study might lead to whole-lake effects, but future studies are needed to derive thresholds at which shoreline development has consequences for the structure and functioning of the entire ecosystem.
A
bstract
We analyze transverse thrust in the framework of Soft Collinear Effective Theory and obtain a factorized expression for the cross section that permits resummation of terms enhanced in the ...dijet limit to arbitrary accuracy. The factorization theorem for this hadron-collider event-shape variable involves collinear emissions at different virtualities and suffers from a collinear anomaly. We compute all its ingredients at the one-loop order, and show that the two-loop input for next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy can be extracted numerically, from existing fixed-order codes.
The design, construction and evaluation of a contactless battery charger for electric vehicles (EVs) based on inductive power transfer (IPT) is presented in this study. The design of such systems ...entails a high degree of complexity because of the large number of design parameters involved and, consequently, trade-offs in selecting the key design parameters have to be established. The design process and selection of the IPT system parameters is detailed in this study, considering the most common specifications of EV chargers and the practical issues of the implementation. Regarding the compensation scheme, which is one of the main issues in the design, series compensation in both the primary and secondary has been adopted because of the advantages identified after a comprehensive analysis. A laboratory prototype has been built and tested, providing extensive results of the system performance in terms of efficiency and power transfer capability, considering load power variations, as well as changes in the air gap between coils. A detailed analysis of the efficiency of each stage in the IPT system and their contribution to the overall efficiency is also provided.
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