Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2013
Abstract
Rot fungi are a major problem in the construction sector, and method to study under which moisture and temperature coefficients they grow are therefore of significant interest. Measurements of heat production rate have been made on wood samples with the brown rot fungus Postia placenta at different moisture contents (MCs). The results clearly show the heat production rate (ameasure of respiration rate and fungal activity) is moisture-dependent. For most cases, less heat was produced when the MC was decreased, and more heat was produced when the MC was increased. It was also found that when the MC increased after a dry period, the increase in activity was significantly delayed. However, if the moisture state was then kept constant at a high level, the activity slowly increased, showing that the fungi need time to recover back to the original activity level after drying. Isothermal calorimetry is a measurement technique well suited for the study of the activity of wood-decaying fungi as a function of temperature and moisture content.
Authors
Nona S.R. Agawin Antonio Tovar-Sánchez Katrin Knoth Carlos M. Duarte Susana AgustiAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
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Authors
Lars Qviller Nina Risnes Olsen Kim Magnus Bærum Erling Meisingset Leif Egil Loe Bjørnar Ytrehus Hildegunn Viljugrein Atle MysterudAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Celine Rebours Oddvar OttesenAbstract
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Authors
Alina Danielewska Elena Paoletti Nicholas Clarke Janusz Olejnik Marek Urbaniak Marcin Baran Pawel Siedlecki Karin Hansen Lars Lundin Wim de Vries Teis Nørgaard Mikkelsen Sophie Dillen Richard FischerAbstract
Aim of study: The main aim of the work was to summarize availability, quality and comparability of on-going European Research and Monitoring Networks (ERMN), based on the results of a COST FP0903 Action questionnaire carried out in September 2010 and May 2012. Area of study: The COST Action FP0903 involves 29 European countries and 4 non-COST institutions from USA, Morocco and Tunisia. In this study, the total of 22 replies to the questionnaire from 18 countries were included. Materials and methods: Based on the feedback from the Action FP0903 countries, the most popular European Networks were identified. Thereafter, the access to the network database, available quality assurance/quality control procedures and publication were described. Finally, the so-called “Supersites” concept, defined as a “highly instrumented research infrastructure, for both research and monitoring of soil-plant-atmosphere interactions” was discussed. Main results: The result of the survey indicate that the vast majority of the Action FP0903 countries participate in the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forest (ICP Forest). The multi-disciplinary International Cooperative Programme on Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Ecosystems (ICPIM) is the second most widespread forest programme. Research highlights: To fully understand biochemical cycles in forest ecosystems, long-term monitoring is needed. Hence, a network of “Supersites”, is proposed. The application of the above infrastructure can be an effective way to attain a better integration of research and monitoring networks at forest sites in Europe. Key words: supersites; European Research Monitoring Networks; harmonization; forest.
Authors
May Sæthre F. Assogba Komlan Nina Svendsen Børge Holen I. GodonouAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Daniel Flø Sigmund HågvarAbstract
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Authors
Lampros LamprinakisAbstract
Changes in the institutional and market environments can present new challenges for organizations. The ability to properly and adequately change and adapt to these new conditions can be crucial for organizations’ competitiveness and their long-term survival. The article offers a qualitative case study analysis on the transformation process of the biggest Finnish dairy organization, Valio, in the light of the country’s accession to the EU. The analysis is based on thirteen personal in-depth semi-structured interviews with management employees, executives, past directors and industry insiders. The examination covers several aspects of the organization’s efforts to adapt with a particular focus on processes, strategies, and transition stages, and thus provides invaluable insight that allows the better understanding of a successful transformation.
Abstract
Modelling stem taper and volume is crucial in many forest management and planning systems. Taper models are used for diameter prediction at any location along the stem of a sample tree. Furthermore, taper models are flexible means to provide information on the stem volume and assortment structure of a forest stand or other management units. Usually, taper functions are mean functions of multiple linear or nonlinear regression models with diameter at breast height and tree height as predictor variables. In large-scale inventories, an upper diameter is often considered as an additional predictor variable to improve the reliability of taper and volume predictions. Most studies on stem taper focus on accurately modelling the mean function; the error structure of the regression model is neglected or treated as secondary. We present a semi-parametric linear mixed model where the population mean diameter at an arbitrary stem location is a smooth function of relative height. Observed tree-individual diameter deviations from the population mean are assumed to be realizations of a smooth Gaussian process with the covariance depending on the sampled diameter locations. In addition to the smooth random deviation from the population average, we consider independent zero mean residual errors in order to describe the deviations of the observed diameter measurements from the tree-individual smooth stem taper. The smooth model components are approximated by cubic spline functions with a B-spline basis and a small number of knots. The B-spline coefficients of the population mean function are treated as fixed effects, whereas coefficients of the smooth tree-individual deviation are modelled as random effects with zero mean and a symmetric positive definite covariance matrix. The taper of a tree is predicted using an arbitrary number of diameter and corresponding height measurements at arbitrary positions along the stem to calibrate the tree-individual random deviation from the population mean estimated by the fixed effects. This allows a flexible application of the method in practice. Volume predictions are calculated as the integral over cross-sectional areas estimated from the calibrated taper curve. Approximate estimators for the mean squared errors of volume estimates are provided. If the tree height is estimated or measured with error, we use the “law of total expectation and variance” to derive approximate diameter and volume predictions with associated confidence and prediction intervals. All methods presented in this study are implemented in the R-package TapeR.