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African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) can substantially modify their habitat through their interactions with woody vegetation. Nonetheless, the scale, intensity and characteristics of these relations are not yet fully understood. Consequently, it is unclear how vegetation-megafauna interactions can be disrupted by external factors, such as land management. This study attempted to quantify and characterize structural changes in vegetation caused by elephants, from landscape to tree level scales. We applied multi-scale geospatial tools, including airborne (ALS) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), to address the following questions: (1) How do elephants shape landscape level vegetation structure in conservation areas? (2) Are the impacts of elephants evident on individual tree architecture? Our study area was located at the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in South-eastern Kenya. The occurrence of elephants was estimated using elephant observation records and proximity to elephant tracks. Landscape level structure was assessed using tree density maps calculated based on individually detected treetops from ALS data. Next, TLS measurements of 72 trees were processed using quantitative structural modelling to characterize their architecture. Our results demonstrate a widespread influence of elephants on both landscape and tree level structural characteristics. This influence was strongly mediated by management, as we observed differences in vegetation structure inside and outside conservation areas. Tree density was up to 42% lower (5.84 trees/ha) in conservation areas than in non-conservation areas (10.17 trees/ha). Trees were relatively larger with closer proximity to elephant tracks, while smaller trees were more often observed in areas further away from elephants. At an architectural level, trees closer to elephant tracks had lower ratio between the crown length and the tree height, demonstrating a substantial influence of elephants on the morphological characteristics of trees. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for vegetation fauna interactions when planning conservation areas in African savannahs. Peer reviewed

The Internet of Thing (IoT) network deployments are widely investigated in 4G and 5G systems and will still be key technical systems to drive massive connectivity of 6G systems. In 6G, IoT systems will operate with 6G new technologies such as Integrated Sensing and Communications. The IoT systems of 6G will be a platform to collect information in real world and create new use cases and business models. As the IoT devices and cellular networks are getting smarter, the IoT ecosystem allows us to bridge between human life and digital life and accelerate the transition towards a hyper-connected world. Optimal and scalable IoT network design has been investigated in many research groups but key challenges in this topic still remain. An IoT devices deployment problem is investigated to minimise the transmission and computation cost among network nodes. The IoT devices deployment problem is formulated as Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming problem. After relaxing the constraints and transforming the problem to a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem, the authors propose a new branch and bound (BB) method with a machine learning function and solve the MILP problem as a sub-optimal solution. In the numerical analysis, the authors evaluate both conventional BB method and the proposed BB method with weighting factors and compare the objective function values, the number of explored nodes, and computational time. The performances of the proposed BB method are significantly improved under the given simulation configuration. The author finds the optimal mapping of IoT devices to fusion nodes.

Digital 3D technologies are emerging methods for recording and visualizing forests. Therefore, it is not surprising that these technologies have seen many applications and developments in recent years. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive review of existing 3D technologies within the context of forestry and how they interact with users and stakeholders. We present a summary of the requirements, visualization, and application of virtual forests. This includes an overview of state-of-the-art 3D reconstruction and visualization tools, which have seen a major increase in interest in the past few years, as evidenced by a preliminary analysis on research keywords. Based on the reviewed studies, we present the current trend and emerging questions, as well as challenges in the field of virtual forests. Further, we discuss the identified trends and challenges related to data acquisition, along with existing and potential future interactions between the 3D data and more specific demands from the forestry sector. We conclude that the use of digital 3D data in forestry is on the rise and that such novel methods show great potential and merit further attention. Peer reviewed

Context Intensive land use and exploitation of natural resources are the main direct drivers of biodiversity loss. Transformative changes in land management are called for as conservation and management actions have not been sufficient to support the viability of species populations. It has been proposed that to solve the sufficiency problem one could segregate the landscape into an intensively managed part, and into so-called multiuse-conservation landscapes that aggregate set asides with managed areas for multiple uses. Objectives We describe a scenario analysis where we evaluate the effects and cost-efficiency of transforming the boreal forest from intensively managed production landscapes progressively towards multiuse-conservation landscapes. Methods We simulated Finnish boreal forests under various managements and optimized management to produce six scenarios to reveal the ecological, economic, climate and management regime implications of multiuse-conservation landscapes. Ecological effects explored included habitat availability and metacommunity capacity of dead wood dependent species. Results Increasing the area of set aside and multiuse management increased the habitat availability and metacommunity capacity as well as climate benefits but caused economic losses in terms of timber revenues. Pooling the set asides and multiuse management areas together into the same landscapes reduced the economic losses, had negligible added climate benefits and produced mixed biodiversity effects: pooling decreased habitat availability but increased metacommunity capacity across all landscapes. Conclusions Changing land management and aggregating conservation efforts can be a cost-efficient way to protect biodiversity. Our results suggest biodiversity benefits in landscapes where the set aside and multiuse is aggregated. Careful spatial planning can also alleviate the conflicts between ecological and economic values of land. peerReviewed

Information on energy use and emissions from non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) is scattered. Based on available information from 2010, it can be estimated that the NRMM sector represents about 2% of GHG emissions in Europe. Agriculture machinery covers around 50% and construction machinery around 25% of NRMM total CO2 emissions. The remaining 25% is covered by the various machinery in other categories. This clearly indicates that the highest potential in CO2 reduction is in agriculture and construction machinery. The remainder of the machinery covers machine types, for example mining and cargo handling, where market driven electrification has developed furthest. Currently, NRMM is the only vehicle/machinery category which is not subjected to CO2 emission standard regulations. Only regulations for air pollutant emissions are in place. Therefore, one can anticipate that there will be a growing interest to extend CO2 emission standard regulations also to the NRMM sector. For example, California Air Resources Board (CARB) has started discussions on updating NRMM emission standards and at the same time introducing CO2 standards. However, the wide variety in types of NRMM and their use patters pose challenges in setting possible CO2 emission standards to NRMM based on current engine only type-approval process. Current NRMM engines type approval process will enable only a very limited reduction potential for CO2 emissions. By estimation, a 15% efficiency improvement in engine level could be achievable in the long term. For greater CO2 reduction, new measures are needed to take into an account the unique nature of the NRMM sector. Tank-to-wheel based approach only will not provide the required toolbox for NRMM Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to develop products that achieve emission reductions and fulfil the requirements of the end-users. The necessary approach should be holistic and technology neutral, combining multiple measures and recognizing also upstream energy carrier emissions. Speeding up RDI investments (e.g. more prominent role in EU RDI funding schemes and regulations) on energy efficient NRMMs, renewable and sustainable energy carriers and powertrains for NRMM use would contribute to market driven approach for CO2 reduction. Public procurement is another effective way for establishing market demand for low carbon NRMM solutions. Clean vehicle directive (CVD) could be used as exemplary framework for setting up a “Clean Machinery Directive”. A variety of energy carriers is needed in the NRMM sector due to complex use cases. Thus, investigation of possible methodologies how to include all renewable and sustainable energy carriers in NRMM regulation would be highly important. At the same time, alternative energy sources require new infrastructure that should be investigated. Finally, introduction of on-road HDV’s CO2 regulation-based approach for defining CO2 emissions in machine level would provide a comprehensive measure to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions in machine level.

AbstractForest management in drained forested peatlands can negatively affect water quality due to the increase in exports of organic matter and nutrients. Therefore, new methods to alleviate this impact are needed. In laboratory conditions, biochar has been shown to be a strong sorbent of organic and inorganic nutrients due to its high surface area and ion‐exchange capacity. However, evidence of the adsorption capacity in field conditions is lacking. Here, we studied the water purification performance of two different biochar feedstocks (wood‐ and garden residue‐based) in a 10‐day laboratory experiment where we incubated biochar with runoff water collected from drainage ditches in clear‐cut peatland forests. We measured changes in pH and concentrations of inorganic phosphorus (PO4), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The biochar with the best adsorbent capacity in the laboratory experiment was then tested in field conditions in a replicated catchment‐scale experiment, where both clear‐cutting and ditch cleaning were performed. We determined the nutrient concentration of water at the inlet and outlet of biochar filters placed in outflow ditches of four catchments. We found that under laboratory conditions wood‐based biochar efficiently adsorbed TDN and DOC, however, it released PO4. Furthermore, we found that the biochar filters reduced TDN and DOC concentration in field conditions. However, the percentage decrease in concentration was dependent on the initial concentrations of nutrients in the water and could be considered low. Moreover, we found that the biochar in the filters increased in TN content over the course of the experiment. This suggests that a wood‐based biochar filter has the potential to be a water protection tool for reducing the export of nutrients from catchments with high nutrient concentration. And that the biochar from the ditches could be applied back to the regenerating forest catchment as a potential soil amendment, closing the nutrient cycle.

With the rapid growth in the requirements of the Internet of Things (IoT), the scarcity of spectrum resources is becoming serious. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and spectrum sensing offer the opportunity of addressing spectrum shortage to some extent. In particular, NOMA stably enables multiple users to share the same frequency band, while spectrum sensing dynamically detects the target spectrum utilization. However, due to the characteristics of NOMA, the application of spectrum sensing to the uplink IoT systems makes the process more complex, also brings the challenge of obtaining the target users’ states accurately from interfered multi-user signals. Meanwhile, the combination of NOMA and spectrum sensing does not reach the upper bound of spectrum utilization. Under the context, we are motivated to propose an adaptive NOMA-based spectrum sensing method for uplink IoT networks, which aims to flexibly and precisely identify the target frequency usage. The relationship among the threshold, the false-alarm probability, and the transmission willingness are derived in closed form. We also customize a sensing algorithm of the complete adaptive working mechanism. Numerical results clarify that the proposed method achieves stability under different SNRs and transmission willingness, while improves the system throughput which outperforms the existing technologies by 38.20%.

In our case study of a Finnish bank, we found that the role identity of management accountants is becoming fluid, i.e., it is constantly adjusting to accommodate shifting role expectations and changing context-specific demands. Digitalization and information technology (with such tools as artificial intelligence and robotic process automation) are key drivers of change. Furthermore, banking is also a regulated field with an increasing amount of data to be interpreted. The combination of these rather different trends is challenging for management accountants as they strive to cope with multiple pressures. We explore the role identity of management accountants (called ‘controllers’ in our case), and we find varying and fluid roles, including the roles discussed in the existing accounting literature, including the traditional ‘bean counter’ role and the ‘business partner’ role, as well as new, typically IT-related, specialist roles. We suggest that their fluid role identity enables controllers in our case to cope with continuously evolving tasks, and with changing role expectations. In this context, controllers are increasingly working in agile teams with specialists with diverse educational backgrounds and expertise. peerReviewed