Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biogeographical distribution of microbial communities along the Rajang River–South China Sea continuum

Abstract. The Rajang River is the main drainage system for central Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo and passes through peat domes through which peat-rich material is being fed into the system and eventually into the southern South China Sea. Microbial communities found within peat-rich systems are important biogeochemical cyclers in terms of methane and carbon dioxide sequestration. To address the critical lack of knowledge about microbial communities in tropical (peat-draining) rivers, this study represents the first seasonal assessment targeted at establishing a foundational understanding of the microbial communities of the Rajang River–South China Sea continuum. This was carried out utilising 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing via Illumina MiSeq in size-fractionated samples (0.2 and 3.0 µm GF/C filter membranes) covering different biogeographical features and sources from headwaters to coastal waters. The microbial communities found along the Rajang River exhibited taxa common to rivers (i.e. predominance of β-Proteobacteria) while estuarine and marine regions exhibited taxa that were common to the aforementioned regions as well (i.e. predominance of α− and γ-Proteobacteria). This is in agreement with studies from other rivers which observed similar changes along salinity gradients. In terms of particulate versus free-living bacteria, nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) results showed similarly distributed microbial communities with varying separation between seasons. Distinct patterns were observed based on linear models as a result of the changes in salinity along with variation of other biogeochemical parameters. Alpha diversity indices indicated that microbial communities were higher in diversity upstream compared to the marine and estuarine regions, whereas anthropogenic perturbations led to increased richness but less diversity. Despite the observed changes in bacterial community composition and diversity that occur along the continuum of the Rajang River to the sea, the PICRUSt predictions showed minor variations. The results provide essential context for future studies such as further analyses on the ecosystem response to anthropogenic land-use practices and probable development of biomarkers to improve the monitoring of water quality in this region.
Smoothness of stabilisers in generic characteristic

Let $R$ be a commutative unital ring. Given a finitely-presented affine $R$-group $G$ acting on a finitely-presented $R$-scheme $X$ of finite type, we show that there is a prime $p_0$ so that for any $R$-algebra $k$ which is a field of characteristic $p > p_0$, the centralisers in $G_k$ of all subsets $U \subseteq X(k)$ are smooth. We prove this using the Lefschetz principle together with careful application of Gr\"{o}bner basis techniques.
SOIL TREATMENT BY BENTONITE AND FLY ASH FOR LINERS OF WASTE LANDFILL: A CASE STUDY IN VIETNAM

Currently, a mixture of bentonite and soil is widely used for the bottom liner of landfill; however, the landfill using this mixture for the liner in Vietnam is limited. Therefore, this paper focuses mainly on investigating the physical and mechanical properties of soil samples from Hanoi, Vietnam; then compared their hydraulic conductivity before and after mixing with bentonite and fly ash in order to assess the efficiency of these mixtures for the landfill in Vietnam. From the hydraulic conductivity results, it was found that a mixture that has 15% or greater than15% of soil replaced by fly ash combined with bentonite (with the ratio between fly ash and bentonite is 4:1) can have the value of hydraulic conductivity (less than 1x10-9m/s) satisfies Vietnamese standard for bottom liner. Thus, this mixture can be used for landfill in Vietnam. In addition, several X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests along with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) on Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) were also conducted for better understanding mechanism of reduction in hydraulic conductivity of mixed samples when bentonite combined fly ash added.
From photon paths to pollution plumes: better radiative transfer calculations to monitor NOx emissions with OMI and TROPOMI

Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) play an important role in atmospheric chemistry, therefore affecting air quality and Earth's radiative forcing, which impact public health, ecosystems and climate. Remote sensing from satellites in the ultraviolet and visible (UV-Vis) spectral range results in measurements of tropospheric NO2 column densities with high spatial and temporal resolution that allow, among many applications, to monitor NO2 concentrations and to estimate NOx emissions. NO2 satellite retrievals have improved extensively in the last decade, together with the increased need of having traceable characterization of the uncertainties associated with the NO2 satellite measurements. The spatial resolution of the satellite instruments is improving such that the observed NO2 pollution can now be traced back to emissions from individual cities, power plants, and transportation sectors. However, the uncertainty of satellite NO2 retrievals is still considerable and mainly related to the adequacy of the assumptions made on the state of the atmosphere. In this thesis we have improved the critical assumptions and our understanding in the radiative transfer modelling for NO2 satellite measurements, and we use the new TROPOMI NO2 measurements to quantify daily NOx emissions from a single urban hot spot. The work presented in this thesis contributes to the satellite remote sensing community (1) because of the improvement of the satellite retrieval and the knowledge of its main uncertainty sources (Chapter 2, 3 and 4), and (2) because of the application of TROPOMI NO2 measurements for the first time to infer daily NOx emissions at urban scales (Chapter 5).
The Marginal Edge of Learning Progressions and Modeling: Investigating Diagnostic Inferences from Learning Progressions Assessment

Learning Progressions (LPs) are hypothesized pathways describing the development of students’ understanding. Although they show promise for informing decisions about student learning, and helping develop standards and curricula, attempts to validate LPs empirically have been virtually nonexistent. The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: 1) to validate an LP by applying psychometric models and 2) to examine and compare these models and their results in terms of their applicability to that LP. I examine the information produced by Item Response Theory (IRT) models and Diagnostic Classification Models (DCMs) when applied to item responses from an assessment—composed of Ordered Multiple Choice (OMC) items—designed to measure an LP of Force and Motion. I apply the Partial Credit Model (PCM; Embretson & Reise, 2000), Attribute Hierarchy Model (AHM; Gierl, Leighton, & Hunka, 2006), and Generalized Diagnostic Model (GDM; von Davier, 2005) to the assessment data. All three models in this study yield evidence that student item responses do not follow progressions given in the LP. Hence, the hypothesized LP, as well as the OMC items used to measure student understanding of that LP, should be reexamined. In particular, the assessment tasks and associated OMC items exhibit ceiling and floor effects that impair the models’ abilities to associate student responses LP levels.
A framework for deriving drought indicators from GRACE

Abstract. Identifying and quantifying drought in retrospective is a necessity for better understanding drought conditions and the propagation of drought through the hydrological cycle, and eventually for developing forecast systems. Hydrological droughts refer to water deficits in surface and subsurface storage, and since these are difficult to monitor at larger scales, several studies have suggested to exploit total water storage data from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite gravity mission to analyse them. This has led to the development of GRACE-based drought indicators. However, it is unclear how the ubiquitous presence of climate-related or anthropogenic water storage trends, which has been found from GRACE analyses, masks drought signals. Thus, this study aims at a better understanding of how drought signals, in the presence of trends and GRACE-specific spatial noise, propagate through GRACE drought indicators. Synthetic data are constructed and existing indicators are modified to possibly improve drought detection. Our results indicate that while the choice of the indicator should be application dependent, larger differences in robustness can be observed. We found a modified, temporally accumulated version of the Zhao et al. (2017) indicator in particular robust under realistic simulations. We show that trends and accelerations seen in GRACE data tend to mask drought signals in indicators, and that different spatial averaging methods required to suppress the spatially correlated GRACE noise affect the outcome. Finally, we identify and analyse two droughts in South Africa using real GRACE data and the modified indicators.
Monthly variation and interrelationship of physicochemical characteristics of a perennial pond at a biological park in Patna, Bihar, India

The present study was designed to observe the monthly variation and interrelationship among the physicochemical characteristics of the surface water of a perennial pond situated at Biological park also known as Sanjay Gandhi Jaivik Udyan, Patna. The different physicochemical parameters was determined for the period of two years i.e from May, 2016 to April, 2018 to analyse the pond water quality. The maximum value of water temperature, transparency, total solids, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, turbidity, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total alkalinity, chloride, total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, nitrate, inorganic phosphorus, sodium, potassium were found as 32.6 ± 0.24 °C; 24.57 ± 0.18 cm; 1510.66 ± 4.50 mg/l; 1210 ± 0.89 mg/l; 478.33 ± 2.11 mg/l; 37.46 ± 0.22 NTU; 8.54 ± 0.0245; 542 ± 11.57 µ S cm¯1; 8.216 ± 0.01 mg/l; 6.73 ± 0.074; 14.27 ± 0.114 mg/l, 269.36 ± 0.157 mg/l, 63.51 ± 0.13 mg/l, 333.33 ± 2.581 mg/l; 101.2 ± 0.089 mg/l; 19.13 ± 0.068 mg/l; 1.56 ± 0.004 mg/l; 1.43 ± 0.0078 mg/l; 7.726 ± 0.025 mg/l, 4.81 ± 0.215 mg/l respectively during the study period. This study therefore gives insight about the existing health of the pond and will be helpful to take suitable measure by the authorities to maintain the healthy environment and wholesomeness of the pond.
Microzooplankton Community Structure and Grazing Impact along the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Microzooplankton (zooplankton 20 200 pm) are an integral part o f aquatic food webs as they can be significant grazers o f phytoplankton and bacteria, remineralizers o f nutrients, and prey for higher trophic levels. The importance o f microzooplankton in many pelagic ecosystems has been established, yet compared to larger zooplankton, microzooplankton are understudied in the Southern Ocean. I quantified microzooplankton community composition and grazing rates along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) as part o f the Palmer Antarctica Long-Term Ecological Research project (PAL LTER). This region is experiencing rapid warming, causing declines in sea ice and changes in the marine food web. I determined distributions o f major microzooplankton taxa in January 2010 and 2011 within the top 100 m of the water column, along both north-south and coastal-offshore gradients o f the WAP, using microscopy. I found that microzooplankton are potentially adjusting to climate changes along with other trophic levels, as there was generally higher microzooplankton biomass in the south compared to the north. Biomass was higher in surface waters compared to 100 m, and variability in microzooplankton biomass between years and with distance from shore appeared to be influenced by sea ice dynamics. M icrozooplankton biomass was also positively correlated with chlorophyll-# and particulate organic carbon (POC), and biomass o f several microzooplankton taxonomic groups peaked near Marguerite Bay, historically a productivity hot spot. I also calculated phytoplankton and bacterial growth and grazing mortality rates using the dilution method at select stations along the WAP in January 2009 2011 and in the near shore waters near Palmer Station in February March 2011. Microzooplankton exerted higher grazing pressure on bacteria, relative to grazing on phytoplankton. Microzooplankton also exhibited selective grazing on smaller phytoplankton (picoautotrophs and nanophytoplankton), and on the more actively growing bacterial cells, thus shaping phytoplankton and bacterial assemblages and effectively cropping production. There was a significant (albeit weak) positive correlation between temperature and phytoplankton grazing mortality. My research is the first to describe both the microzooplankton structure and grazing impact in the PAL LTER study region. This study contributes valuable information to studies modeling the flow o f carbon through the WAP food web and provides a reference point for studying how future changes will affect microzooplankton community structure and food web dynamics in this region. Lori Michelle Price SCHOOL OF MARINE SCIENCE THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY IN VIRGINIA
A New Approach toward Understanding Damage Mechanisms and Mechanics of Laminated Composites Due to Low-Velocity Impact: Part II—Analysis

An investigation consisting of both analysis and experiments was performed to study impact damage mechanisms and mechanics of laminated composites subjected to low-velocity impact. In order to fundamentally understand the impact damage of laminated composites, a unique test program was developed and performed by using a specially designed line-loading impactor. Experimental findings from the tests were obtained and presented in the first part of this series on the impact study. In this paper, an analysis will be presented for predicting the impact damage resulting from the line-loading impact and for determining essential parameters governing the impact damage. The model consists of a transient dynamic finite element analysis for calculating stresses, strains and deformations of composite plates during impact, and a failure analysis for predicting the threshold of impact damage and initiation of delaminations and micro-cracks. The predictions based on the analysis agreed with the test results reasonably well. Based on the unique approach, the proposed analysis, coupled with the experiment, was able to provide comprehensive information for fundamentally understanding the impact damage mechanisms and mechanics of laminated composites.
Raindrop Size Distributions and Rain Characteristics Observed by a PARSIVEL Disdrometer in Beijing, Northern China

Fourteen-month precipitation measurements from a second-generation PARSIVEL disdrometer deployed in Beijing, northern China, were analyzed to investigate the microphysical structure of raindrop size distribution and its implications on polarimetric radar applications. Rainfall types are classified and analyzed in the domain of median volume diameter D0 and the normalized intercept parameter Nw. The separation line between convective and stratiform rain is almost equivalent to rain rate at 8.6 mm h–1 and radar reflectivity at 36.8 dBZ. Convective rain in Beijing shows distinct seasonal variations in log10Nw–D0 domain. X-band dual-polarization variables are simulated using the T-matrix method to derive radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) estimators, and rainfall products at hourly scale are evaluated for four radar QPE estimators using collocated but independent rain gauge observations. This study also combines the advantages of individual estimators based on the thresholds on polarimetric variables. Results show that the blended QPE estimator has better performance than others. The rainfall microphysical analysis presented in this study is expected to facilitate the development of a high-resolution X-band radar network for urban QPE applications.
Instabilities of Finite‐Amplitude Internal Wave Beams

Beam‐like internal waves are commonly generated by tides in the ocean, but their dissipation processes that cause vertical mixing remain poorly understood. Previous studies examined small‐amplitude beams to find that parametric subharmonic instability (PSI) induces latitude‐dependent wave dissipation. Using a novel approach based on Floquet theory, this study analyzes the stability of finite‐amplitude beams over a wide range of parameters. If beam amplitude is small, PSI is indeed the principal mode under the condition f/σ ≤ 0.5, where f is the Coriolis parameter and σ is the beam frequency, and the growth rate is maximum when equality holds. However, as beam amplitude is increased, instability arises even when f/σ>0.5, but the location of maximum instability shifts toward lower f/σ; thus, the latitudinal dependence of instability is significantly altered. Furthermore, the resulting energy spectrum is strongly Doppler shifted to higher frequencies, which therefore distinguishes this configuration from the common cases of PSI.
Conservation of the Cape vulture in the Cape Province

The present status of the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) in the Cape Province of South Africa is discussed in the light of findings made during a recent survey of suspected breeding and roosting sites, and as a result of a questionnaire sent to farmers and Divisional Councils. Feeding habits were investigated because the birds are persecuted in some areas in the belief that they attack livestock.
Rothamsted Repository Download

Soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) and nitrogen (SMBN) are important indices of soil bio-fertility. While intensively managed cropping systems can reduce microbial biomass, application of manure is a potential way to rebuilt microbial biomass and improve soil functions. However, the responses of SMBC and SMBN to manure application relative to mineral fertilizers (NPK) in Chinese cropping systems remains unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis based on 103 peer-reviewed publications with 1448 paired observations to identify the degree to which climate types, soil properties and agricultural managements regulate the responses of microbial biomass to manure amendment relative to NPK. The results indicated that manure application increased SMBC, SMBN, SMBC/soil organic carbon (SOC) and SMBN/soil total nitrogen (TN) by 40%, 55%, 16% and 21%, respectively, across all the observations compared to NPK. SMBC/SMBN under manure amendment (6.58 in average) was lower than that in NPK (7.86 in average). Manure-related factors, e.g. manure types, duration of application, manure-C and N input rates, were the strongest regulators of the response of microbial biomass. Soil properties and climates also contributed to considerable degrees of variation in microbial biomass response based on variance partitioning analysis (VPA). Results of the random forest (RF) models showed that manure type, ap- plication rate (manure-C and N input) as well as soil initial properties (SOC, TN and clay contents) were likely the predominant factors controlling the response of microbial biomass to manure application. Our study in- dicates that manure application can be an e ﬀ ective way to restore the loss of microbial biomass due to intensive application of NPK, yet variations in response are determined by speci ﬁ c manure type, application rate, as well as local conditions of climate and inherent soil properties.
in Computer Science and Software Engineering

— The databases on different web are accessible through HTML based search engines. The information or data mined from these web servers mostly in unstructured format. Whenever a web user submitted query, the web database shows various Search Result Records (SRRs). There is no any provision of the semantic labels of data units in search result pages for the user query. Early applications require human efforts to annotate data units manually, which limit their scalability and usability. To reduce the human efforts, the automatic annotator is proposed to remove set of SRRs from result page returned from the web databases in structured format. SRR have various data units each of which describes one aspect of a real world entity. Arrange data units into different groups with each group corresponding to a different concept and the data units within the same group having same meaning. Automatically assign appropriate semantic label to the data units within the group by using a variety of features simultaneously such as their data types, data contents, presentation styles, and adjacency information. A machine learning technique is implemented for data alignment and data annotation. A machine learning technique aligns and annotates the data retrieved from the different Web DataBases (WDB) in response to user queries. The machine learning technique improves the classification accuracy.
Changes in Soil Organic Carbon Stock Under Different Land Use Types in Semiarid Borana Rangelands: Implications for CO2 Emission Mitigation in the Rangelands

Understanding the impact of land use change on soil organic carbon stock following the conversion of a semiarid rangeland into different land use types is essential to devise an appropriate and sustainable rangeland management strategy. However, there is a knowledge gap as to the impact of currently ongoing land use changes on soil organic carbon stock, which is an important rangeland ecosystem service, particularly in the face of climate change. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the effect of land use change on soil organic carbon stock in three land use types, namely, enclosures, communal grazing and cultivated lands in Borana rangeland. The result indicated that there were significant interactions between land use types and depths for soil organic carbon stock (p<0.0001) and bulk density (p=0.0055) with mean losses of 60% and 69% in soil organic carbon stock from the surface layer (0-10 cm) of communal and cultivated lands, respectively, as compared to enclosure land use type. The results indicated that communal grazing and crop cultivation in the Borana rangeland resulted in significantly decreased soil organic carbon stock. Hence, the current trend must be curbed to put back the system on its right track of resilience and sustainability for its long-term benefit and to mitigate the unprecedented increase in CO2. Therefore, the results of this study would be useful for the improvement of land use management in the future.
Stochastic Modelling of Photovoltaic Power Generation and Electricity Prices

We propose a stochastic model for the maximal production of photovoltaic (PV) power on a daily basis based on data from three transmission system operators in Germany. We apply the sun intensity as a seasonal function and model the deseasonalized data by an autoregressive process with skewed normally distributed noise with seasonal variance to explain the stochastic dynamics. It is further demonstrated that the power spot prices are negatively depending on the PV production. As an application of our results, we discuss virtual power plant derivatives and energy quanto options, as well as continuous time stochastic processes for PV and power spot price dynamics.