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Cavities made by birds are an important microhabitat for many taxa in forests. Long-term dynamics of cavity patterns and the effect of forest management on cavities are, however, largely unknown. We studied cavity production, measured as nest cavity production rates (CPR = no. of new cavities/km2/year), of woodpeckers and tits in forests with different management intensity in southern Finland, based on a data from 37 years. Forests were divided into managed, seminatural and natural stands. The data covered 56 forest stands with the total area of 1690 ha. Stands were inventoried annually for new cavities. The total numbers of woodpecker and tit cavities were 2238 and 329, respectively. There were large differences in CPRs between forest stands with different management intensity. For woodpeckers, the CPR was highest in natural forests (5.7) and lowest in managed forests (1.5). For the tit species, the respective numbers were 0.9 and 0.3. The CPRs of different cavity-making bird species and cavity tree characteristics (e.g. tree condition and species) were consistent, suggesting that different cavity-makers benefit from similar forest and tree characteristics. The results also suggest that forests managed with currently prevailing methods limit the production of cavities. To promote cavities, the results from this and other studies suggest that managed forests should include more features of natural forests, such as more diverse tree species and within-stand structural variability distribution (tree-level heterogeneity), larger amount of decayed wood, more retention trees and snags and longer rotation periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Immediately after the fire, soil CO 2 effluxes increased compared to pre-fire conditions. • Through the post-fire growing season, fire had negative impact on soil CO 2 fluxes. • Unburned areas were sinks of CH 4 through the entire measurement period. • Shortly after the fire, the burned areas turned from CH 4 sink to source. • Shortly after the fire, there was a marked increase in post-fire soil C and N. Although forest fires are one of the main natural disturbance types in boreal forests, there is limited information regarding surface fires (dominant in Northern Europe), and how surface fires of different severities could affect post-fire soil greenhouse gas emissions. The results of our study show that fire severity, time since fire and post-fire changes in soil temperature were the main factors driving soil carbon dioxide (CO 2) flux (forest floor ecosystem respiration) from burned boreal forest soils. Approximately two hours after the fire, soil CO 2 emissions from burned areas were significantly higher compared to pre-fire conditions, and areas with high-severity fires had significantly higher soil CO 2 emissions compared to those with low-severity fires. Later (days, months) after the fire, the unburned control areas always had higher soil CO 2 emission values compared to burned areas. In the case of methane (CH 4), time since fire and post-fire changes in soil temperatures were the main factors driving soil CH 4 fluxes. Unburned study areas were sinks of CH 4 through the entire measurement period, while immediately after the fire, the burned areas turned from CH 4 sink to CH 4 source. For nitrous oxide (N 2 O) measurements, time since fire was the only factor that significantly affected soil N 2 O fluxes. Shortly after the fire, N 2 O emissions increased significantly from both low- and high-intensity study plots. Two days after the fire, post-fire soil C and N content decreased in the O-horizon and increased within the first 5 cm of the soil mineral layer, and the trend was visible both in low- and high-severity fire plots. Samples collected four months after the fire, showed similar total soil C and N content as there was before the fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fracture and deformation behaviour of a thermoplastic in the nanosectioning process is investigated by using an ultramicrotome instrumented with force transducers. For sections with thickness values in the order of 10–100 nm, the specific work of surface formation of polymethyl methacrylate is found to be 6.3 J m −2 , which is considerably smaller to macroscopic fracture toughness, but relatively close to the theoretical specific surface energy of 1.5 J m −2 of breaking the covalent bonds. Periodic transverse features, spaced a few hundred nanometres on the sectioned surfaces, are observed by atomic force microscopy for sections above a critical thickness. It reveals that a transition of the deformation mode occurs at a certain thickness, which is in concert with sectioning experiments for other materials showing adiabatic shear bands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining forest fire history is commonly based on fire scar dating with dendrochronological methods. We used an experimental setup to investigate the impacts of low-intensity prescribed fire on fire scar formation 8 years after fire in 12 young managed Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) stands. Five stands were between 30 and 35 years old and seven were 45 years old at the time of burning. A total of 217 fire scars were recorded in 142 trees. The number of separate scars per tree originating from a single fire ranged from 1 to 6, with 67% of the trees having just one scar. The proportion of fire-scarred trees out of all trees per plot ranged from 0% to 30%, averaging 16.5% in young stands and 2.8% in older stands. Four of the 12 burned plots did not have any trees with fire scars, and these were all in the older age group. This means that in the older stands, in only three of seven plots (43%) did the fire leave scars from which fire can potentially be detected and dated afterwards. Our results suggest that fire scar dating in Scots pine dominated forests may underestimate fire frequency, area, and the importance of historically common low-intensity surface fires in dendrochronological reconstructions of past fire histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Mucins are of great interest owing to their involvement in physiological and pathological processes in the airways. A method that allows accurate quantification of such proteins in sputum samples may be helpful for research in this field. A liquid chromatographic selected reaction monitoring (SRM) method was developed for the quantification of two mucins, MUC5AC and MUC5B, in induced sputum samples. Sample preparation for the assay included solubilization, reduction, and alkylation prior to tryptic digestion. Solid phase extraction using C18 sorbent was used for sample cleanup prior to the liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) analysis. A cysteine-containing peptide was selected for quantification of MUC5AC protein, whereas a non-cysteine peptide was used for the quantification of MUC5B protein. Stable isotope-labeled synthetic peptides were used as internal standards, and linear calibration curves were constructed in the range of 0.3 to 40pmol/L. Both mucins could be determined with a precision of 6 to 19% and an accuracy of 98 to 114%. The method is transferable to robotics and is suitable to be run in a 96-well format. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study investigated the effects of biotope, substrate and coarse woody debris (CWD) shelter on Populus tremula L. regeneration from seed when restoring mature, managed, spruce-dominated stands on mesic sites. The stands were harvested using partial cuts, leaving 50 m3 ha-1 of standing retention trees and 30 m3 ha-1 of CWD, and burned. A direct seeding experiment was carried out 1 year later. Sowing areas were delimited on burned organic matter and mineral soil substrates, in open areas and in the shelter of CWD, on both paludified and upland biotopes. Seedling establishment was highest on mineral soil on the upland biotope, and intermediate on burned organic substrate on the paludified biotope. No seedlings established on burned organic substrate on the upland biotope. The shelter of CWD was both beneficial and detrimental to seedling emergence and establishment. Seedlings were taller on mineral soil than on burned organic substrate. The results suggest that biotope variation is important and partly explains the patchy existence of P. tremula in forests. Biotope variation should therefore be taken into account when planning forest management and restoration activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

publisher‐imprint‐name Springer volume‐issue‐count 1 issue‐article‐count 0 issue‐toc‐levels 0 issue‐pricelist‐year 2018 issue‐copyright‐holder The Author(s) issue‐copyright‐year 2018 article‐contains‐esm No article‐numbering‐style Unnumbered article‐registration‐date‐year 2018 article‐registration‐date‐month 7 article‐registration‐date‐day 6 article‐toc‐levels 0 toc‐levels 0 volume‐type Regular journal‐product ArchiveJournal numbering‐style Unnumbered article‐grants‐type OpenChoice metadata‐grant OpenAccess abstract‐grant OpenAccess bodypdf‐grant OpenAccess bodyhtml‐grant OpenAccess bibliography‐grant OpenAccess esm‐grant OpenAccess online‐first false pdf‐file‐reference BodyRef/PDF/40169_2018_Article_203.pdf target‐type OnlinePDF issue‐type Regular article‐type OriginalPaper journal‐subject‐primary Medicine & Public Health journal‐subject‐secondary Medicine/Public Health, general journal‐subject‐collection Medicine --> We present the Cancer Moonshot clinical project located at the European center in Lund. Here, tissue and blood samples have been collected and stored in a large‐scale biobank. Multiple clinical centers around the world are participating and tissue and blood samples are sent to the European Cancer Moonshot Lund Center that acts as the clinical hub. Our center has been developed to generate and build large‐scale biostorage archives of patient melanoma samples, which is then combined with a histopathological capability to characterize the patient tumours. Such a large‐scale clinical sample processing initiative has begun with the aim of creating high‐end histopathology indexing with database computational power and including proteogenomic analysis. The biobank at Lund has become an important resource in clinical research worldwide. Following suite, several national health programs are being initiated with the aim of also building large‐scale biobank storages with a wealth of high‐quality patient samples. In our Cancer Moonshot R&D activities, samples in the biobanks and the data derived from these samples are being used to build an understanding of disease presentation and using this information to move towards 'Big Data' proteogenomic and mass spectrometry imaging studies. Additionally, we report here a sample processing workflow that has been adapted to a fully‐automated biobank processing strategy for large‐scale studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recommendations and outlines for standardization in biobanking processes are presented by a research team with long-term experience in clinical studies. These processes have important bearing on the use of samples in developing assays. These measurements are useful to document states of health and disease that are beneficial for academic research, commercial healthcare, drug development industry and government regulating agencies. There is a need for increasing awareness within proteomic and genomic communities regarding the basic concepts of collecting, storing and utilizing clinical samples. Quality control and sample suitability for analysis need to be documented and validated to ensure data integrity and establish contexts for interpretation of results. Standardized methods in proteomics and genomics are required to be practiced throughout the community allowing datasets to be comparable and shared for analysis. For example, sample processing of thousands of clinical samples, performed in 384 high-density sample tube systems in a fully automated workflow, preserves sample content and is presented showing validation criteria. Large studies will be accompanied by biological and molecular information with corresponding clinical records from patients and healthy donors. These developments position biobanks of human patient samples as an increasingly recognized major asset in disease research, future drug development and within patient care. Biological significance: The current manuscript is of major relevance to the proteomic and genomic fields, as it outlines the standardization aspects of biobanking and the requirements that are needed to run future clinical studies that will benefit the patients where OMICS science will play a major role. A global view of the field is given where best practice and conventional acceptances are presented along with ongoing large-scale biobanking projects. The authors represent broadly stakeholders that cover the academic, pharma, biotech and healthcare fields with extensive experience and deliveries. This contribution will be a milestone paper to the proteomic and genomic scientists to present data in the future that will have impact to the life science area. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Standardization and Quality Control in Proteomics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Large fire years in boreal Europe did not increase their occurrence over 20th and 21st centuries. • Fire-prone years are consistently associated with high pressure atmospheric cells. • Climatological fire hazard in spring increased in the western and northern parts of the study area. • There is an association of the fire activity with June SNAO (Summer North Atlantic Oscillation). Fire remains one of the main natural disturbance factors in the European boreal zone and understanding climatic forcing on fire activity is important for projecting effects of climate change on ecosystem services in this region. We analyzed records of annually burned areas in 16 administrative regions of the European boreal zone (countries or administrative units within countries) and fire weather variability to test for their spatio-temporal patterns over the 1901-2017 period. Over the 1992-2017 period, the region exhibited large variability in forest fire activity with the fire cycles varying from ~1600 (St. Petersburg region) to ~37000 years (Finland). The clustering of administrative units in respect to their burned area, suggested the presence of sub-regions with synchronous annual variability in burned areas. Large fire years (LFYs) in each of the clusters were associated with the development of the high pressure cell over or in immediate proximity of the regions in question in July, indicating climatic forcing of LFYs. Contingency analysis indicated that there was no long-term trend in the synchrony of LFYs observed simultaneously in several administrative units. We documented a trend towards higher values of Monthly Drought Code (MDC) for the months of April and May in the western (April) and northern (April and May) sections. The significant positive correlation between biome-wide fire activity index and June SNAO (Summer North Atlantic Oscillation) (r = 0.53) pointed to the importance of large-scale atmospheric circulation, in particular the summer European blocking pattern, in controlling forest fires across EBZ. The forest fire activity of the European boreal zone remains strongly connected to the annual climate variability. Higher frequency of strongly positive SNAO states in the future will likely synchronize years with a large area burned across the European boreal zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secretion of mucins and exudation of plasma are distinct processes of importance to innate immunity and inflammatory disease. Yet, little is known about their relation in human airways. The objective of the present study was to use the human nasal airway to determine mucinous secretion and plasma exudation in response to common challenge agents and mediators. Ten healthy volunteers were subjected to nasal challenge-lavage procedures. Thus, the nasal mucosa was exposed to increasing doses of histamine (40 and 400 μg ml−1), methacholine (12·5 and 25 mg) and capsaicin (30 and 300 ng ml−1). Fucose was selected as a global marker of mucinous secretion and α2-macroglobulin as an index of exudation of bulk plasma. All challenge agents increased the mucosal output of fucose to about the same level ( P<0·01–0·05). Once significant secretion had been induced the subsequently increased dose of the challenge agent, in the case of histamine and methacholine, failed to further increase the response. Only histamine increased the mucosal output of α2-macroglobulin ( P<0·01). We conclude that prompt but potentially rapidly depleted mucinous secretion is common to different kinds of airway challenges, whereas inflammatory histamine-type mediators are required to produce plasma exudation. Along with the acknowledged secretion of mucins, a practically non-depletable, pluripotent mucosal output of plasma emerges as an important component of the innate immunity of human airways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the Cancer Moonshot clinical project located at the European center in Lund. Here, tissue and blood samples have been collected and stored in a large-scale biobank. Multiple clinical centers around the world are participating and tissue and blood samples are sent to the European Cancer Moonshot Lund Center that acts as the clinical hub. Our center has been developed to generate and build large-scale biostorage archives of patient melanoma samples, which is then combined with a histopathological capability to characterize the patient tumours. Such a large-scale clinical sample processing initiative has begun with the aim of creating high-end histopathology indexing with database computational power and including proteogenomic analysis. The biobank at Lund has become an important resource in clinical research worldwide. Following suite, several national health programs are being initiated with the aim of also building large-scale biobank storages with a wealth of high-quality patient samples. In our Cancer Moonshot R&D activities, samples in the biobanks and the data derived from these samples are being used to build an understanding of disease presentation and using this information to move towards ‘Big Data’ proteogenomic and mass spectrometry imaging studies. Additionally, we report here a sample processing workflow that has been adapted to a fully-automated biobank processing strategy for large-scale studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines interleukin (IL) 5-regulated genes and proteins in human eosinophils. Comparison of proteomic and genomic analysis of eosinophils; Gene expression; Role of IL-5 in the biology of eosinophils.