Wooded biocorridors substantially improve soil properties in low-altitude rural benchlands.

This study examines soil properties in 30- and 60-year-old agricultural biocorridors and provides a comparative overview with neighbouring farmland. Both mixed and undisturbed soil samples were collected from six farmland/biocorridor study areas to assess a wide spectrum of physical, hydrophysical, chemical and biological soil properties. Biocorridor soils were characterised by higher water retention capacities, porosity, aeration and soil carbon stock, the latter increasing with depth.

Spatial lag effect of aridity and nitrogen deposition on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) damage.

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is a widespread tolerant forest tree-species; however, its adaptability to environmental change differs among sites with various buffering capacity. In this study, we compared the spatial effects of aridity index (AI) and nitrogen deposition (ND) on biomass density in natural and man-made pine stands of differing soil fertility using geographically weighted multiple lag regression.

Discrimination between acute and chronic decline of Central European forests using map algebra of the growth condition and forest biomass fuzzy sets: A case study.

Forest decline is either caused by damage or else by vulnerability due to unfavourable growth conditions or due to unnatural silvicultural systems. Here, we assess forest decline in the Czech Republic (Central Europe) using fuzzy functions, fuzzy sets and fuzzy rating of ecosystem properties over a 1×1km grid. The model was divided into fuzzy functions of the abiotic predictors of growth conditions (F including temperature, precipitation, acid deposition, soil data and relative site insolation) and forest biomass receptors (F including remote sensing data, density and volume of aboveground biomass, and surface humus chemical data).

Generalised spinal cord atrophy, Chiari-I malformation, and syringomyelia.

Objectives: To report the simultaneous occurrence of generalised spinal cord atrophy, Chiari-I malformation, and syringomyelia.

Setting: Vienna, Austria.

Case Description: An 83-year old woman presented with predominantly lower limb and distal tetraparesis, diffuse wasting, spasticity of both lower limbs, contractures, and severe kyphoscoliosis.

Spontaneous cerebral haemorrhage without hypertension in non-mosaic 45X Turner's syndrome.

Cerebral haemorrhage without hypertension, arteriosclerosis or clotting defect has not been reported in patients with Turner's syndrome before. In a 51 year old female patient with non-mosaic Turner's syndrome, acute aphasia and right-sided hemiplegia occurred, due to left-sided basal ganglia haemorrhage. The history for hypertension was negative, blood pressure was normal throughout hospitalisation as well as during 24 h monitoring, and all tests for secondary hypertension were negative.