Carbon dynamics on agricultural land reverting to woody land in Ontario, Canada.

The 2015 Paris Agreement reinforces the importance of the land sector and its contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. Thus, there is growing interest in improving estimates of the GHG balance in response to land-use changes (LUCs) involving agriculture and forestry, for national-scale reporting, and for carbon (C) offsets. Large agricultural areas in Europe, Russia and North America are reverting to forest, either naturally or through planting, after abandonment of agricultural land, and this trend may have a substantial impact on carbon budgets. We report results of a pilot project in the Mixedwood Plains ecozone of eastern Canada to analyze the change in the C budget on a landscape over 15 years on abandoned cropland where woody vegetation is regenerating. Thirty-six plots (2 km × 2 km) with paired aerial photographs taken circa 1994 and circa 2008 at a scale of 1:10,000 or larger were randomly selected from the 20 km × 20 km National Forest Inventory (NFI) grid. A spatially-explicit version of the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) was used to estimate impacts of LUC on C stocks and fluxes. Polygons identifying areas of LUC within each photo plot were delineated, classified, and evaluated to provide input data for the model. The rate of C accumulation in our study area was found to be relatively constant over the entire simulation period, at 1.07 Mg C/ha/yr. Abandoned agricultural land reverting to woody lands could play an important role in regional and national C sequestration in Canada, but more research is required to quantify the areal extent of this LUC.

Low and high dose measurement by Agfa personal monitoring film and FD-III-B badge dosimeter system.

This paper presents the measurement of the dose equivalent Hp(10) to low (0.005-1) mSv and high (20-1000) mSv doses by exposure at (241)Am and (173)Cs radiation sources of the halide film with FB-III-D dosimeter system. Accuracy of measurements, standard error of the dose mean value (SEM) and some comments about ability to reread of dosimetric films were determined. A good accuracy was obtained over the important dose ranges. In the low dose range, under 0.1 mSv, the SEM values of the (241)Am doses, recorded on the film under plastic filter, are between -21.36% and +47.51%. For 0.1-500 mSv (137)Cs dose range the SEM values are from -9.55% to +7.24%.

Idiopathic cardiac asystole presenting as epileptic seizures.

Cardiac asystole has been associated with partial or generalized seizures (anoxic seizure) but, despite the previous descriptions, is still an underdiagnosed entity. The authors report 2 cases of cardiac asystole mimicking seizure disorder. The apparent cause of seizures in both cases was primary cardiac asystole caused by sinus node dysfunction. Both patients underwent emergent cardiac pacemaker implantation with complete resolution of their seizure/syncopal episodes. The importance of cardiac monitoring in patients who present with seizure-like events is emphasized.