A late-Holocene vegetation record is presented from the southwest coast of New Caledonia. Lac Saint Louis is a freshwater swamp at 3m a.s.l. adjacent to the River Coulee delta. Pollen analysis, charcoal analysis, radiocarbon dating and stratigraphic analyses have been used to reconstruct the vegetation and sedimentary history of the swamp. The sediment record commences at 6000 BP and reflects r...

BACKGROUND Investigating the responses of autonomic nervous system (ANS) in hypoxia may provide some knowledge about the mechanism of neural control and rhythmic adjustment. The integrated cardiac and respiratory system display complicated dynamics that are affected by intrinsic feedback mechanisms controlling their interaction. To probe how the cardiac and respiratory system adjust their rhyth...

Tsigai and Improved Valachian are the most spread sheep breeds in Slovakia. Both are multi-purpose breeds (Krupová et al., 2009), well adapted to local climate and environment. Tsigai is one of the oldest native breeds in areas from 500 to 800 m above sea level, mostly in the semi-extensive production system (Krupová et al., 2009), while improved Valachian is mostly kept in mountains and foothi...

Blown sand is a serious problem in the district facing the Japan Sea where seasonal wind is very strong in winter. In order to prevent the blown sand, the construction technique using natural vegetations had been developed. The growth of the natural vegetations is encouraged by the improvement of sand ingredients in this method. The effects of the method were investigated by the field survey an...

Juniperus macropoda is the only tree species of a cold desert ecosystem that experiencing high anthropogenic pressure and has poor regeneration status due to harsh environmental conditions. Due limited distribution in this region, have remained largely unexplored terms understanding pattern along elevation soil fertility gradients. Therefore, current research was carried out elevational gradien...

Little is known about the linearity of portable peak flow meters, or about physical gas factors affecting peak expiratory flow (PEF) readings. We therefore tested five portable peak flow meters of three types in an altitude chamber (sea level to 5,500 m) and in a climate chamber at sea level (7-37 degrees C) to determine the influence of the physical conditions of the gas on the reading of the ...

We present new optical turbulence structure parameter measurements, C n, over sea water between La Parguera and Magueyes Island (17.6N 67W) on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. The 600 meter horizontal paths were located approximately 1.5 m and 10 m above sea level. No data of this type has ever been made available in the literature. Based on the data, we show that the C n measurements are ab...

The study examined hearing threshold for Navy special operations personnel (SEALS (Sea-Air-Land): N = 212; divers: N = 165). Hearing threshold values were obtained and age adjusted using Mantel Haenzel Weighted odds ratio (MHOR) to compare with information in the Navy Hearing Conservation Database. For any threshold above 20 dB in the 500 through 3000 Hz range, the SEALS were significantly less...

In the rain forests of Costa Rica, there is an unusual type of tree known as a “walking tree.” It is a strange looking tree. At the base of the tree is a tangle of roots, rising about a meter above the ground. It looks as if someone yanked the tree straight up out of the ground, leaving about a meter of its roots exposed above ground level. According to rain-forest guides, the walking tree actu...