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The profitability of hydropower in Costa Rica is affected by soil erosion and sedimentation in dam reservoirs, which are in turn influenced by land use, infiltration and aquifer interactions with surface water. In order to foster the provision and payment of Hydrological Environmental Services (HES), a quantitative assessment of the impact of specific land uses on the functioning of drainage-basins is required. The present paper aims to study the water balance partitioning in a volcanic coffee agroforestry microbasin (1km2, steep slopes) in Costa Rica, as a first step towards evaluating sediment or contaminant loads. The main hydrological processes were monitored during one year, using flume, eddy-covariance flux tower, soil water profiles and piezometers. A new Hydro-SVAT lumped model is proposed, that balances SVAT (Soil Vegetation Atmosphere Transfer) and basin-reservoir routines. The purpose of such a coupling was to achieve a trade-off between the expected performance of ecophysiological and hydrological models, which are often employed separately and at different spatial scales, either the plot or the basin. The calibration of the model to perform streamflow yielded a NS coefficient equal to 0.80, while the validation of the water balance partitioning was consistent with the independent measurements of actual evapotranspiration (R2=0.79, energy balance closed independently), soil water content (R2=0.49) and water table level (R2=0.90). An uncertainty analysis showed that the streamflow modelling was precise for nearly every time step, while a sensitivity analysis revealed which parameters mostly affected model precision, depending on the season. It was observed that 64% of the incident rainfall R flowed out of the basin as streamflow, 25% as evapotranspiration and the remaining 11% was attributed to deep percolation. The model indicated an interception loss equal to 4% of R, a surface runoff of 5% and an infiltration component of 91%. The modelled streamflow was constituted by 63% of baseflow originating from the aquifer, 29% of subsurface non-saturated runoff and 8% of surface runoff. Given the low surface runoff observed under the current physical conditions (andisol) and management practices (no tillage, planted trees, bare soil kept by weeding), this agroforestry system on a volcanic soil demonstrated potential to provide valuable HES, such as a reduced superficial displacement-capacity for fertilizers, pesticides and sediments, as well as a streamflow regulation function provided by the highly efficient mechanisms of aquifer recharge and discharge. The proposed combination of experimentation and modelling across ecophysiological and hydrological approaches proved to be useful to account for the behaviour of a given basin, so that it can be applied to compare HES provision for different regions or management alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Introduction Henoch-Schönlein purpura is a small-vessel systemic vasculitis. Although its exact pathophysiology remains unknown, Henoch-Schönlein purpura has been reported in association with various medical conditions including hypersensitivity. We report the case of a patient with vancomycin-induced Henoch-Schönlein purpura. Case presentation A 42-year-old Caucasian man who had previously undergone a heart transplant was diagnosed as having an intra-abdominal abscess after he underwent a Hartmann procedure. At 15 days after initiation of antibiotic therapy including vancomycin, he developed a purpuric rash of the lower limbs, arthralgia, and macroscopic hematuria. At that time, our patient was already on hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease. Henoch-Schönlein purpura was diagnosed. After a second 15-day course of vancomycin, a second flare of Henoch-Schönlein purpura occurred. Skin biopsies showed leucocytoclastic vasculitis with IgA deposits and eosinophils in the peri-capillary inflammatory infiltrate, suggesting an allergic mechanism. After vancomycin was stopped, we did not observe any further flares. Only five cases of isolated cutaneous vasculitis, one case of lupus-like syndrome and one case of Henoch-Schönlein purpura after vancomycin treatment have been described to date in the literature. Conclusions Clinicians should be aware that systemic vasculitis can be induced by some treatments. Vancomycin is a widely prescribed antibiotic. Occurrence of rare but serious Henoch-Schönlein purpura associated with vancomycin requires its prompt discontinuation.

Several components of predator functional diversity have been hypothesized to influence prey suppression through either niche complementarity or mass ratio effects. Nevertheless, most studies have used a functional group approach when assessing the role of these predators in ecosystem functioning. By adopting a trait-based approach, we evaluated the relative contributions of carabid diversity components in predicting prey suppression. Our results highlight the importance of both taxonomic and functional diversity components of carabids as key drivers of prey suppression. Prey suppression was best predicted by carabid densities, with the dominance of Poecilus cupreus potentially driving the positive effect of community total abundance through the mass ratio effect. Prey suppression increased with increasing the density of large carabids. In addition, carabid eye diameter and antennal length were key functional traits for predicting prey suppression. Furthermore, prey suppression increased with increasing carabid functional richness following the niche complementarity effect. In contrast to functional richness, functional evenness and functional divergence of carabid communities were weakly correlated with prey suppression. By identifying which diversity components of carabid communities contribute the most to increase prey suppression, our results can guide efforts aiming to predict the relationship between diversity of these predators and ecosystem functioning., (© 2023 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)

The consistent monitoring of trees both inside and outside of forests is key to sustainable land management. Current monitoring systems either ignore trees outside forests or are too expensive to be applied consistently across countries on a repeated basis. Here we use the PlanetScope nanosatellite constellation, which delivers global very high-resolution daily imagery, to map both forest and non-forest tree cover for continental Africa using images from a single year. Our prototype map of 2019 (RMSE = 9.57%, bias = -6.9%). demonstrates that a precise assessment of all tree-based ecosystems is possible at continental scale, and reveals that 29% of tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as tree cover in state-of-the-art maps, such as in croplands and grassland. Such accurate mapping of tree cover down to the level of individual trees and consistent among countries has the potential to redefine land use impacts in non-forest landscapes, move beyond the need for forest definitions, and build the basis for natural climate solutions and tree-related studies., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Herbaceous aboveground biomass (HAB) is a key indicator of grassland vegetation and indirect estimation tools, such as remote sensing imagery, increase the potential for covering larger areas in a timely and cost-efficient way. Structure from Motion (SfM) is an image analysis process that can create a variety of 3D spatial models as well as 2D orthomosaics from a set of images. Computed from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and ground camera measurements, the SfM potential to estimate the herbaceous aboveground biomass in Sahelian rangelands was tested in this study. Both UAV and ground camera recordings were used at three different scales: temporal, landscape, and national (across Senegal). All images were processed using PIX4D software (photogrammetry software) and were used to extract vegetation indices and heights. A random forest algorithm was used to estimate the HAB and the average estimation errors were around 150 g m - ² for fresh mass (20% relative error) and 60 g m - ² for dry mass (around 25% error). A comparison between different datasets revealed that the estimates based on camera data were slightly more accurate than those from UAV data. It was also found that combining datasets across scales for the same type of tool (UAV or camera) could be a useful option for monitoring HAB in Sahelian rangelands or in other grassy ecosystems., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The FLOTROP dataset contains numerous plant observations (around 340,000 occurrences) in northern tropical Africa (from the 5 th to 25 th parallel north) in open ecosystems (savannah and steppe). They were collected by multiple collectors between 1920 and 2012 and were managed by Philippe Daget. These observations are probably the most important and unique source of plant distribution over the Sahel area. The data are now available in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Tela Botanica website, and as maps in the African Plant Database. For the overall area involved, this dataset has increased by 40% the data available in the GBIF. For some countries between the 15 th and 21 st parallel north, the FLOTROP dataset has increased available occurrences 10-fold compared to the data existing in the GBIF.

Functional trait databases are powerful tools in ecology, though most of them contain large amounts of missing values. The goal of this study was to test the effect of imputation methods on the evaluation of trait values at species level and on the subsequent calculation of functional diversity indices at community level using functional trait databases. Two simple imputation methods (average and median), two methods based on ecological hypotheses, and one multiple imputation method were tested using a large plant trait database, together with the influence of the percentage of missing data and differences between functional traits. At community level, the complete-case approach and three functional diversity indices calculated from grassland plant communities were included. At the species level, one of the methods based on ecological hypothesis was for all traits more accurate than imputation with average or median values, but the multiple imputation method was superior for most of the traits. The method based on functional proximity between species was the best method for traits with an unbalanced distribution, while the method based on the existence of relationships between traits was the best for traits with a balanced distribution. The ranking of the grassland communities for their functional diversity indices was not robust with the complete-case approach, even for low percentages of missing data. With the imputation methods based on ecological hypotheses, functional diversity indices could be computed with a maximum of 30% of missing data, without affecting the ranking between grassland communities. The multiple imputation method performed well, but not better than single imputation based on ecological hypothesis and adapted to the distribution of the trait values for the functional identity and range of the communities. Ecological studies using functional trait databases have to deal with missing data using imputation methods corresponding to their specific needs and making the most out of the information available in the databases. Within this framework, this study indicates the possibilities and limits of single imputation methods based on ecological hypothesis and concludes that they could be useful when studying the ranking of communities for their functional diversity indices.

Introduction: Tramadol is a weak opioid analgesic used as a step two analgesic, approved in France for the treatment of moderate to severe pain in adult patients. The most common side effects are gastrointestinal and neurologic. Hypoglycaemia is an almost unknown side effect., Case Reports: We report two patients who presented with severe hypoglycaemia related to oral administration of tramadol in non diabetic patients. The underlying mechanisms of hypoglycaemia induced by tramadol are unclear. The only weak opioid analgesic drug reported to cause hypoglycaemia is propoxyphene, which has been widely used in France. The recent withdrawal of dextropropoxyphene in France might increase the prescriptions of tramadol and healthcare professionals should be aware of the risk of hypoglycaemia., Conclusion: The risk of hypoglycaemia should be added to the summary of product characteristics of tramadol., (Copyright © 2011 Société nationale française de médecine interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.)