Evaluation of forest inventory processes in a forest under concession in the southwestern Brazilian Amazon / Avaliação de processos de inventário florestal em uma floresta sob concessão na Amazônia brasileira

Forest inventory procedures are of utmost importance to studies of wood volume stocks, and forest structure and diversity, which provide relevant information to public policies, management plans and ecological research. The present work focused on the performance of inventory techniques in the Amazon region to evaluate wood volume stocks with higher levels of accuracy while maintaining sampling intensity fixed. Two sampling processes were assessed: simple random sampling and two-stage cluster sampling. The processes were evaluated through the allocation of sampling units with different dimensions, and the effectiveness of the generated estimators was analyzed as a function of stand density and basal area. Simple random sampling resulted in the smallest errors, reaching 9% when all species were sampled together. The method depicted forest phytosociological parameters with greater sensitivity, whereas two-stage cluster sampling produced the least accurate estimators and presented slower responses to variation in phytosociological parameters. (AU)

O procedimento de inventário florestal é considerado de alta importância no que concerne estudos de estoque madeireiro, estrutura e diversidade florestal, que fornecem informações relevantes para políticas públicas, planos de manejo e pesquisas ecológicas. O presente trabalho buscou avaliar o desempenho de técnicas de inventário na região Amazônica para estimativa de estoques madeireiros com maior nível de acurácia, mantendo a intensidade amostral fixa. Dois processos de amostragem foram avaliados: amostragem aleatória simples e amostragem em dois estágios. Esses processos foram avaliados através de alocação de unidades amostrais com dimensões distintas, e os estimadores gerados foram analisados em função da densidade de árvores e da área basal. A amostragem aleatória simples produziu os menores erros, alcançando 9% quando todas as espécies foram amostradas conjuntamente, e mostrou-se mais eficiente na detecção de variações em parâmetros fitossociológicos. A amostragem em dois estágios produziu os estimadores menos acurados e apresentou respostas mais lentas às variações em parâmetros fitossociológicos.(AU)

Determining the number of preconditioning cycles by calculating the decay rate of strain energy in uniaxial tensile test on soft tissue / 医用生物力学

Objective To investigate a method determining the number of preconditioning cycles in uniaxial tensile test on soft tissues by calculating the decay rate of strain energy. Methods The abdominal skin of healthy New Zealand rabbits was selected as study object, from which strip specimens were obtained in directions parallel to linea alba (0°)and perpendicular to linea alba(90°). Then the uniaxial preconditioning tests with 15% preconditioning strain were performed on these specimens. Load displacement preconditioning data were obtained, and transformed into the stress strain data correspondingly. The preconditioning cycles (n values), at the decay rate of strain energy being 5% and 10%, respectively, were then calculated by MATLAB programme when n values satisfy the inequality η=Wn－Wn－1Wn－1×100%≤5% or≤10%（Wn signifies the strain energy loss in the nth preconditioning cycle）. Results When the decay rate of strain energy was 5%, the number of preconditioning cycles in 0° and 90° direction was 11.11 and 13.67, respectively. When the decay rate of strain energy was 10%, the number of preconditioning cycles in 0° and 90° direction was 6.67 and 7.78, respectively. Conclusions By calculating the decay rate of strain energy, the number of preconditioning cycles in uniaxial tensile on soft tissues can be quantified, which could help provide the research basis for standardization of biomechanical testing on soft tissues.